wafw00f

What it is and what it does

WAFW00F is a command-line tool that probes a web application to determine which WAF (Web Application Firewall) is protecting it. It works by sending both normal and potentially malicious HTTP requests, then analyzing the responses using pattern matching and heuristics to identify the specific WAF product and vendor. The tool maintains signatures for a large number of commercial and open-source WAF solutions, from major vendors like Cloudflare, AWS, and Microsoft to niche security appliances.

The tool is intended for security professionals, penetration testers, and system administrators who need to understand what security layers protect a target application. It has low install friction—only requiring the requests library—and runs on modern Python versions (3.10+). The project has been maintained since 2014 and remains actively developed, with recent releases and a stable codebase.

Use it for:

• Identify which WAF protects a target application during penetration testing or security assessment
• Gather reconnaissance data on security infrastructure before attempting to bypass or test WAF rules
• Verify that a deployed WAF is correctly configured and responding to probes as expected
• Automate WAF detection across multiple targets in a security audit or vulnerability scan workflow
• Research WAF fingerprinting techniques and test detection signatures against known WAF deployments

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Identifies and fingerprints web application firewalls (WAFs) by sending HTTP requests and analyzing responses to detect which WAF solution is protecting a target.

Yes, if you are a security professional, penetration tester, or system administrator who needs to identify WAFs protecting web applications. The tool is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and a permissive license. Install only if you have authorization to probe the target systems—unauthorized WAF detection may violate computer fraud laws.

Install

wafw00f on PyPI

pip install wafw00f

uv add wafw00f

poetry add wafw00f

Installing wafw00f

Before you install

Low friction installation with a single runtime dependency (requests). The project is actively maintained with recent commits and a stable release history since 2014, suggesting reliable ongoing support.

License in practice

BSD-3-Clause is a permissive license that allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, making this safe to use in most contexts.

Quickstart

pip install wafw00f
wafw00f https://example.com

Requires Python 3.10 or later. Target must be reachable over HTTP/HTTPS. Ensure you have authorization to probe the target system.

Verify before relying

• Whether detection accuracy varies significantly across the 200+ WAF signatures listed in the tool
• Performance characteristics when testing against heavily protected targets or with rate limiting
• Legal implications of running WAF detection scans in your jurisdiction or against systems you do not own

Package facts

Evidence: wafw00f-2.4.2-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: waf, firewall, detector, fingerprint

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