WAF
A Web Application Firewall monitors, filters, and blocks HTTP traffic between the internet and a web application based on security rules. WAFs protect against common web attacks including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and API abuse by inspecting request content.
A WAF operates at the application layer, examining HTTP request and response content against a set of rules. It can block known attack patterns, rate-limit suspicious clients, enforce API schemas, and detect anomalous traffic patterns. WAFs can be deployed as cloud services like Cloudflare or AWS WAF, as reverse proxies, or as application-level middleware. Modern WAFs use machine learning to identify novel attack patterns beyond signature-based detection.
For AI product teams, WAFs are essential for protecting model serving endpoints from abuse. AI APIs are attractive targets for scraping, prompt injection attacks, and resource exhaustion through expensive queries. A WAF can enforce rate limits per API key, block requests with known prompt injection patterns, and limit payload sizes to prevent abuse of AI processing resources. Growth teams should ensure WAF rules do not inadvertently block legitimate traffic from growth tools, webhooks, or third-party integrations. Monitoring WAF logs provides insight into attack patterns and helps the team proactively harden AI endpoints before they are successfully exploited. The balance between security strictness and legitimate access is an ongoing tuning effort.
Related Terms
Content Delivery Network
A geographically distributed network of proxy servers that caches and delivers content from locations closest to end users. CDNs reduce latency, improve load times, and absorb traffic spikes by serving content from edge nodes rather than a single origin server.
Edge Computing
A distributed computing paradigm that processes data closer to the source of generation rather than in a centralized data center. Edge computing reduces latency, conserves bandwidth, and enables real-time processing for latency-sensitive applications.
Serverless Computing
A cloud execution model where the provider dynamically manages server allocation and scaling. Developers deploy functions or containers without provisioning infrastructure, paying only for actual compute time consumed rather than reserved capacity.
Function as a Service
A serverless computing category where developers deploy individual functions that execute in response to events. FaaS platforms like AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Azure Functions handle all infrastructure management, scaling each function independently.
Platform as a Service
A cloud computing model that provides a complete development and deployment environment without managing underlying infrastructure. PaaS offerings like Heroku, Vercel, and Google App Engine handle servers, storage, networking, and runtime configuration.
Infrastructure as a Service
A cloud computing model that provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. IaaS offerings like AWS EC2, Google Compute Engine, and Azure Virtual Machines give teams full control over servers, storage, and networking without owning physical hardware.