Comment by mrspuratic
Comment by mrspuratic a day ago
AFAICT it's also (though I'm very rusty) in ModSecurity, if XML content processing is enabled then rules like these will trip:
SecRule REQUEST_COOKIES|!REQUEST_COOKIES:/__utm/|REQUEST_COOKIES_NAMES|ARGS_NAMES|ARGS|XML:/* "@pmFromFile lfi-os-files.data"
SecRule REQUEST_COOKIES|!REQUEST_COOKIES:/__utm/|REQUEST_COOKIES_NAMES|ARGS_NAMES|ARGS|XML:/* "@pmFromFile unix-shell.data" ...
where the referenced files contain the usual list of *nix suspects including the offending filename (lfi-os-files.data, "local file inclusion" attacks)The advantage (whack-a-mole notwithstanding) of a WAF is it orders of magnitude easier to tweak WAF rules than upgrade say, Weblogic, or other teetering piles of middleware.
So that's why immediately when I hear "WAF" I read "...and the site will break in weird and exciting ways due to arbitrary, badly developed heuristics outside of your control, every odd day of every even week" - I remember the glory days of shared hosting and mod_security.
Turns out the hunches were right all along.