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Web Application Security and WAF

Get the threat intelligence, WAF rules, and attack prevention you need for modern and legacy web application security.

ModSecurity for Web Application Protection

Application attacks can provide a path to valuable enterprise data. In these cases, attackers target websites, customer portals, e-commerce platforms, APIs, and other Internet-facing applications that process or store sensitive data. The cost of application-layer attacks is measured in the hundreds of billions.

ModSecurity, sometimes referred to as modsec, is an open-source web application firewall (WAF) engine that helps protect these applications by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic between a web application and the Internet. ModSecurity can detect and block application-layer attacks such as SQL injection (SQLi), cross-site scripting (XSS), code injection, credential attacks, cookie poisoning, malicious bots, and other web threats.

Enterprises, SaaS and e-commerce providers, hosting companies, MSPs, MSSPs, OEMs, and technology vendors all need to protect web applications, APIs, and customer environments. Advanced, modular WAF rules can strengthen security while reducing the time and expertise required to develop and maintain rules in-house.

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Atomicorp’s WAF and ModSecurity Rules for Web Application Security

ModSecurity provides a powerful foundation for web application security, but deploying the engine and free rules is not the same as operating a turnkey enterprise WAF. Effective protection requires ongoing rule development and updates, configuration, tuning, false-positive management, monitoring, and technical expertise—work that a commercially supported WAF or rules platform can simplify considerably.

Atomicorp has supported ModSecurity and developed ModSecurity rules since the technology’s early days. That experience is built into Atomic ModSecurity Rules and Atomic WAF, providing organizations with continuously maintained web application protection for modern, legacy, and difficult-to-patch applications.

Protections include brute-force attack prevention, scanner blocking, malware protection, proxy abuse prevention, geoblocking, virtual patching, Layer 7 denial-of-service protection, advanced attack blocking, and more.

Browse Atomicorp’s web application security solutions.

Atomic ModSecurity Rules

Basic or free ModSecurity rules can provide a useful starting point, but organizations protecting production applications may need more frequent updates, broader protections, threat intelligence, and professional support.

Atomic ModSecurity Rules provide:

  • Easy installation and automated updates
  • Thousands of advanced ModSecurity rules working for you
  • Daily rule updates
  • Virtual patching for CVEs and vulnerabilities that cannot be immediately patched
  • Protection against brute-force attacks
  • Advanced attack blocking, including SSRF and XXE
  • Layer 7 denial-of-service (DoS) protection
  • Real-time malware protection
  • Geoblocking
  • Threat-intelligence-based blocking designed to reduce false positives
  • Data loss prevention capabilities
  • Defense-in-depth protection against attacks on web applications and services

Atomicorp’s ModSecurity solutions are available in different forms to fit different web application architectures—from commercial rules for organizations managing their own ModSecurity environments to a turnkey Atomic WAF with centralized management. 

Atomic ModSecurity Rules support both ModSecurity v2 for Apache and libmodsecurity (ModSecurity v3).

 

Atomic ModSecurity Rules — Monthly

Try Atomic ModSecurity Rules for $22.50 per server, per month. Volume discounts and bulk licensing options are available.

Try one or more licenses for 14 days. Credit card required; cancel within the trial period.

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Atomic ModSecurity Rules — Yearly

Atomic ModSecurity Rules are also available as an annual subscription for organizations that prefer yearly licensing.

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Downloadable ModSecurity Rules and Integration

Need Atomic ModSecurity Rules for integration into your own product or web application architecture?

Atomic ModSecurity Integrator provides:

  • A downloadable tool suite, including libraries and APIs, for system integrators, developers, VARs, OEMs, web hosting companies, reverse proxy providers, load balancer providers, and other technology companies.
  • A comprehensive WAF rule set that can be incorporated into existing web security products and architectures without developing WAF rules from scratch.
  • Advanced, modular WAF rules that can be adapted to different web application security requirements.
  • Access to Atomicorp’s ModSecurity expertise and continuously developed commercial rules.

Learn more about Atomic ModSecurity Integrator –

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Atomic WAF

Organizations that want a turnkey web application firewall with its own graphical management interface can choose Atomic WAF. It combines Atomic ModSecurity Rules, threat intelligence, virtual patching, reporting, and web application security controls in a WAF software appliance.

Atomic WAF: The Affordable Web Application Firewall Alternative

Atomic WAF provides:

  • An enterprise web application firewall powered by Atomic ModSecurity Rules and global threat intelligence
  • OWASP Top 10 protection and advanced blocking for SQLi, XSS, SSRF, RCE, XXE, and other application-layer attacks
  • Layer 7 DoS detection and mitigation
  • Virtual patching for modern, legacy, unsupported, and end-of-life web applications
  • A graphical user interface (GUI) and management console for security analysis, rule management, and reporting
  • Support for web hosting platforms including cPanel and Plesk
  • Protection for commonly deployed web applications and services such as WordPress and Outlook Web Access
  • Cloudflare integration
  • Data loss prevention capabilities
  • Audit controls, logging, and compliance reporting
  • And additional advanced WAF web application security features

For organizations maintaining applications that can no longer be readily patched or upgraded, Atomic WAF can provide an additional layer of legacy web application security without requiring changes to the underlying application.

Read more about Atomic WAF.

*** All Atomicorp products and services come with 24/7/365 professional support.

 

Stay Current with CVE Research Notes

Keep track of many CVEs, KEVs, and emerging threats with Atomicorp CVE Research Notes, featuring selected testing results, engineering observations, attack-pattern analysis, and WAF rule interactions. 

Visit the Research Notes page for practical findings that can help you better understand individual vulnerabilities and how they interact with web application defenses.

Web Application Security Q&A

What is web application security?

Web application security is the practice of protecting websites, web applications, APIs, and the data they process from attacks, unauthorized access, malware, and other threats. Effective web application protection can combine secure development, vulnerability management, access controls, monitoring, a web application firewall (WAF), and virtual patching as part of a defense-in-depth security strategy.

What is a web application firewall, or WAF?

A web application firewall (WAF) monitors and filters HTTP/HTTPS traffic between web applications and the Internet. A WAF applies security rules to identify and block malicious requests and application-layer attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, code injection, brute-force attacks, and other web threats before they reach the protected application.

How can you protect a legacy web application that cannot be patched?

When a legacy web application cannot be patched or upgraded, virtual patching through a WAF can help block attempts to exploit CVEs and vulnerabilities without changing the application’s underlying code. WAF protection can be combined with application hardening, access controls, segmentation, monitoring, and other compensating security controls to reduce risk while the legacy application remains operational.

Atomic WAF and Atomic ModSecurity Rules provide virtual patching capabilities for organizations that need to protect applications when conventional patching is unavailable or impractical.

Can a WAF protect unsupported or end-of-life applications?

Yes. A WAF can provide an important additional security layer for unsupported and end-of-life web applications by inspecting incoming traffic and blocking malicious requests before they reach vulnerable application components.

This is particularly useful when vendor patches are no longer available, an application depends on legacy software, or upgrading could disrupt critical business operations. A WAF cannot eliminate all of the risks associated with unsupported software, but virtual patching and other WAF controls can provide valuable compensating protection while the application remains in service.

Can ModSecurity protect APIs?

Yes. ModSecurity can inspect HTTP/HTTPS traffic associated with web APIs and apply security rules to identify and block malicious requests. Atomic ModSecurity Rules add advanced, regularly updated protections and threat intelligence to help defend web applications and APIs against injection attacks, malicious payloads, automated attacks, and other application-layer threats.

API security requirements vary by architecture, so ModSecurity and a WAF should complement appropriate authentication, authorization, API configuration, monitoring, and secure development practices.

How can organizations meet PCI DSS 6.4.2 requirements, and how can Atomicorp help?

PCI DSS 6.4.2 requires organizations to deploy an automated technical solution for public-facing web applications that continually detects and prevents web-based attacks. The solution must be positioned in front of public-facing web applications, actively running and up to date, generate audit logs, and either block web-based attacks or generate alerts that are immediately investigated. Requirement 6.4.2 became effective March 31, 2025.

A properly deployed web application firewall (WAF) can help address these technical requirements. Atomic WAF provides web application attack detection and prevention, continuously updated ModSecurity rules, logging, virtual patching, management, and reporting capabilities that can support an organization’s PCI DSS 6.4.2 implementation.

No individual WAF or security product by itself makes an organization PCI DSS compliant. Compliance depends on the organization’s environment, implementation, applicable PCI DSS requirements, operational processes, and validation.


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