Cloudflare has announced that they will be offering their Web Application Firewall (WAF) for free to subscribers of the free plan. The WAF will provide access to the WAF user interface with a set of rules that can be used to automatically block known threats.
The free managed ruleset has been tested against the Cloudflare network, allowing free users to activate their firewall and start enjoying the benefits of the firewall right away.
Because the ruleset is a managed ruleset, free users will benefit from updates that will protect their sites from new and widespread security threats.
The free tier of the firewall is specially tuned to protect WordPress sites, as it prevents common WordPress vulnerabilities.
Cloudflare WAF
Cloudflare WAF is an application firewall that monitors incoming web traffic from the Internet to a website and automatically blocks any traffic it identifies as malicious.
A firewall uses a ruleset, which is a set of patterns and signals it looks for to identify malicious traffic and filter it out.
Cloudflare Free Managed Rulesets
Free Cloudflare WAF comes with a managed ruleset designed to block many common exploits.
Managed rule sets consist of preconfigured rules that allow users to deploy firewalls ready to inspect and block malicious web traffic.
The benefit of managed rulesets is that the firewall is ready to deploy with minimal configuration on the part of the user.
Cloudflare describes this free managed ruleset:
“Designed to mitigate a wide-ranging and wide-reaching vulnerability. These rules can be safely deployed on most applications. If you have a Cloudflare Managed Ruleset deployed for your site, you do not need to deploy this Managed Ruleset.”
The free hosting ruleset is updated whenever a broad threat arises that can affect many websites. That’s a huge deal that could greatly mitigate the impact of a brand new hack.
The free version of the ruleset protects against Shellshock server security breaches, blocks Log4J exploits, and protects WordPress sites from common WordPress vulnerabilities.
Access the Cloudflare Firewall UI
Cloudflare offers users a free tier of access to the Firewall User Interface (UI), a dashboard where publishers can manage their firewalls.
The dashboard allows users to make changes to their firewall and monitor the actions taken by the firewall through the Security Overview tab.
Free users can do the following in the dashboard:
“Override all rules to LOG or other actions.
Only override specific rules to LOG or other actions.
Completely disable the ruleset or any specific rule”
Citation
Read the official Cloudflare announcement
WAF for Everyone: Protecting the Web from High Severity Vulnerabilities
