Today, web applications are widely used, making them frequent targets of cyberattacks. This research evaluates the performance of SafeLine, an open-source Web Application Firewall (WAF) developed in China, in protecting web applications against common threats. The study focuses on SafeLine’s ability to block attacks, its impact on website response time, and its capacity and resource usage under various CPU and memory configurations. The experimental environment consists of one physical machine running three virtual machines (VMs) for the client, the WAF, and the vulnerable web application (bWAPP), all connected in the same network. The results of this study help identify the optimal hardware specifications and practical limitations of SafeLine for real-world deployment. In addition, the findings show that SafeLine can mitigate common web vulnerabilities, including attacks listed in the OWASP Top 10, such as SQL Injection and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).

Tuul Triyason