UUSEC WAF

UUSEC WAF is a self‑hosted Web Application Firewall engineered for industrial‑grade protection of web sites and APIs. It blends classic rule‑based filtering with machine‑learning anomaly detection, semantic parsing engines, and host‑level hardening (HIPS) plus runtime application self‑defence (RASP). The product is built as a high‑performance, horizontally scalable microservice that can be deployed behind any CDN or load balancer. From a developer’s standpoint, the core value proposition lies in its programmable interfaces (REST APIs and webhooks), extensible plugin system, and the ability to expose granular telemetry for observability tooling.

Key Features

• AI‑powered 0‑day detection – A lightweight anomaly detector learns normal HTTP traffic patterns and generates dynamic whitelists, enabling automatic mitigation of zero‑day exploits without manual rule updates.
• Semantic parsing – Four deep semantic engines (SQL, XSS, RCE, LFI) de‑code base64, JSON, URL‑encoded payloads and detect obfuscated attacks that bypass traditional regex rules.
• Host & Runtime hardening – Embedded HIPS intercepts kernel‑level attacks (process creation, network binding, privilege escalation) while RASP modules hook into JVM and Zend engines to trace execution context and block runtime vulnerabilities.
• Advanced cache purging – A proprietary cache_cleaner utility supports regex‑based URL path invalidation, outperforming commercial NGINX proxy_cache_purge and simplifying CDN cache management.

Technical Stack

• Language & Runtime – The core engine is written in Go, chosen for its native concurrency model and low memory footprint.
• Data Plane – Traffic is intercepted via a sidecar or reverse‑proxy mode, leveraging Go’s net/http package and custom TLS termination for high throughput.
• Persistence – Configuration, rule sets, and telemetry are stored in a PostgreSQL cluster (or any SQL‑compatible DB), with optional Redis caching for hot data.
• Machine Learning – A lightweight Go‑based anomaly detector uses PCA/Isolation Forest algorithms, while the semantic engines are implemented in Rust for performance and safety.
• Containerization – The project ships with Dockerfiles and Helm charts, making it trivial to run in Kubernetes or any OCI‑compatible runtime.

Deployment & Infrastructure

UUSEC WAF is designed for on‑premises or cloud‑native deployment. A typical architecture places the WAF as a sidecar in front of application pods or as an edge reverse‑proxy behind a CDN. Horizontal scaling is achieved by adding more WAF instances behind a load balancer; the system uses stateless request handling, with shared configuration via a central PostgreSQL cluster. For high‑availability, the application supports active‑passive failover using Kubernetes StatefulSets and can be integrated with service meshes (Istio, Linkerd) for fine‑grained traffic routing.

Integration & Extensibility

• REST API – Exposes CRUD operations for rules, policies, and telemetry.
• Webhooks & SDKs – Developers can hook into real‑time alert streams or push custom telemetry to SIEM solutions.
• Plugin Architecture – A Go plugin system allows third‑party modules to add new detection logic or integrate with external threat feeds.
• Custom Rules – Users can author regular‑expression rules or leverage the semantic engine’s pattern libraries via YAML configuration files.

Developer Experience

The project’s documentation is comprehensive, covering architecture diagrams, API reference, and best‑practice guides. Community support is active through GitHub Discussions, Slack, and a dedicated Discord channel. Configuration is declarative (YAML/JSON), making it easy to version control and audit changes. The open‑source license (MIT) removes vendor lock‑in, allowing developers to modify core logic or embed the WAF into proprietary stacks.

Use Cases

1. Enterprise API Gateways – Protect RESTful services from injection, RCE, and privilege‑escalation attacks while providing fine‑grained telemetry for DevOps.
2. E‑commerce Platforms – Combine cache purging with semantic parsing to defend against SQL injection and XSS while maintaining CDN performance.
3. SaaS Multi‑tenant Apps – Deploy the WAF as a sidecar per tenant, using dynamic rule sets to isolate threats and enforce tenant‑specific policies.
4. Compliance‑Heavy Environments – The HIPS layer satisfies kernel‑level hardening requirements for PCI‑DSS or HIPAA, while RASP covers application‑layer vulnerabilities.

Advantages

• Performance – Go’s concurrency and Rust‑powered engines deliver sub‑millisecond request handling, suitable for high‑traffic sites.
• Zero‑day Resilience – AI‑driven anomaly detection removes the need for manual rule churn, reducing operational overhead.
• Flexibility – The open‑source license and plugin system enable deep customization, from custom threat feeds to bespoke runtime hooks.
• Integrated CDN Acceleration – Regex‑based cache purging reduces latency for dynamic content, outperforming commercial NGINX solutions.

In summary, UUSEC WAF offers developers a modern, programmable security stack that balances high performance with intelligent threat detection. Its open‑source nature, robust API surface, and extensible architecture make it an attractive choice for teams that demand both tight security controls and rapid deployment cycles.