Compare AWS WAF vs. open-appsec

AWS WAF serves as a protective layer for your web applications and APIs, guarding against prevalent web vulnerabilities that could hinder performance, jeopardize security, or lead to resource overconsumption. The service empowers users to manage incoming traffic by allowing the formulation of security protocols that can thwart typical attack vectors like SQL injection and cross-site scripting, in addition to creating custom rules for specific traffic patterns. To facilitate quick implementation, AWS provides Managed Rules for AWS WAF, which consist of pre-set rules curated by AWS or third-party sellers from the AWS Marketplace. These Managed Rules specifically target the OWASP Top 10 security threats and are routinely updated to counter emerging risks. Moreover, AWS WAF comes equipped with a comprehensive API that facilitates the automation of rule creation, deployment, and upkeep. Notably, AWS WAF follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, charging based on the number of active rules and the volume of web requests processed by your application. This flexible pricing structure allows businesses to scale their security solutions according to their unique needs.

open-appsec is an open-source initiative that builds on machine learning to provide pre-emptive web app & API threat protection against OWASP-Top-10 and zero-day attacks. It can be deployed as add-on to Kubernetes Ingress, NGINX, Envoy and API Gateways. The open-appsec engine learns how users normally interact with your web application. It then uses this information to automatically detect requests that fall outside of normal operations, and sends those requests for further analysis to decide whether the request is malicious or not. open-appsec uses two machine learning models: 1. A supervised model that was trained offline based on millions of requests, both malicious and benign. 2. An unsupervised model that is being built in real time in the protected environment. This model uses traffic patterns specific to the environment. open-oppsec simplifies maintenance as there is no threat signature upkeep and exception handling, like common in many WAF solutions.