Secure Your Website(1)-Quick Installation of "Free WAF" SafeLine

Background

I have multiple websites. However, the servers were not equipped with adequate security configurations. Only Nginx was used to intercept irregular requests, prevent hotlinking, and restrict IP access, with the restriction rules added after being attacked. Since we are not specialized in security, our understanding of attack behaviors is limited. Without automation, it is imperative to use security tools for protection.

Research

After comprehensively comparing various WAF tools, we found that SafeLine's ecosystem is relatively complete, offering both free and commercial versions, and is continuously maintained and updated (which is crucial). (There are many open-source WAFs that have not been updated in recent years.)

Introduction of SafeLine

Installation

Automatic Deploy

Recommended

Use the following command to start the automated installation of SafeLine. (This process requires root privileges)

bash -c "$(curl -fsSLk https://waf.chaitin.com/release/latest/setup.sh)"

After the command is executed, it means the installation is successfully. Please go to Use Web UI directly.



Mannually Deploy

Install Docker

Install the latest version of Docker.

If you already have Docker installed, please skip this step.

curl -sSL "https://get.docker.com/" | bash

Create SafeLine Directory

Create a directory for SafeLine to use, SafeLine will write its configuration and data to this directory. (You need to have at least 5GB of disk space)

mkdir -p "/data/safeline"

Docker Compose Script

Download the latest docker compose script by using the following command.

cd "/data/safeline"

wget "https://waf.chaitin.com/release/latest/compose.yaml"

Write Environment variables

cd "/data/safeline"

touch ".env"

Write the following content in the ".env" file

SAFELINE_DIR=/data/safeline

IMAGE_TAG=latest

MGT_PORT=9443

POSTGRES_PASSWORD={postgres-password}

SUBNET_PREFIX=172.22.222

IMAGE_PREFIX=chaitin

NOTE: Replace the placeholders in the file

• SAFELINE_DIR: 123


• IMAGE_TAG: SafeLine version to be used


• MGT_PORT: Web console port to be used


• POSTGRES_PASSWORD: Postgres db initialization password


• SUBNET_PREFIX: SafeLine internal network communication address prefix


• IMAGE_PREFIX: Mirror repository prefix
  ### Launch SafeLine
  Everything is ready to start the SafeLine service.

This process may take several minutes, so don't worry.

docker compose up -d

Use Web UI

Open the web console page https://:9443/ in the browser, then you will see below.