GoTestWAF is a tool for API and OWASP attack simulation that supports a wide range of API protocols including REST, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSockets, SOAP, XMLRPC, and others.
It was designed to evaluate web application security solutions, such as API security proxies, Web Application Firewalls, IPS, API gateways, and others.
- How it works
- Requirements
- Quick start with Docker
- Checking evaluation results
- Demos
- Other options to run GoTestWAF
- Configuration options
GoTestWAF generates malicious requests using encoded payloads placed in different parts of HTTP requests: its body, headers, URL parameters, etc. Generated requests are sent to the application security solution URL specified during GoTestWAF launch. The results of the security solution evaluation are recorded in the report file created on your machine.
Default conditions for request generation are defined in the testcases
folder in the YAML files of the following format:
---
payload:
- '"union select -7431.1, name, @aaa from u_base--w-'
- "'or 123.22=123.22"
- "' waitfor delay '00:00:10'--"
- "')) or pg_sleep(5)--"
encoder:
- Base64Flat
- URL
placeholder:
- UrlPath
- UrlParam
- JSUnicode
- Header
...
-
payload
is a malicious attack sample (e.g XSS payload like<script>alert(111)</script>
or something more sophisticated). Since the format of the YAML string is required for payloads, they must be encoded as binary data. -
encoder
is an encoder to be applied to the payload before placing it to the HTTP request. Possible encoders are:- Base64
- Base64Flat
- JSUnicode
- URL
- Plain (to keep the payload string as-is)
- XML Entity
-
placeholder
is a place inside HTTP request where encoded payload should be. Possible placeholders are:- Header
- RequestBody
- JSONRequest
- JSONBody
- HTMLForm
- HTMLMultipartForm
- SOAPBody
- XMLBody
- URLParam
- URLPath
- NonCrudUrlPath
- NonCrudUrlParam
- NonCRUDHeader
- NonCRUDRequestBody
Request generation is a three-step process involving the multiplication of payload amount by encoder and placeholder amounts. Let's say you defined 2 payloads, 3 encoders (Base64, JSUnicode, and URL) and 1 placeholder (URLParameter - HTTP GET parameter). In this case, GoTestWAF will send 2x3x1 = 6 requests in a test case.
During GoTestWAF launch, you can also choose test cases between two embedded: OWASP Top-10, OWASP-API,
or your own (by using the configuration option testCasePath
).
- GoTestwaf supports all the popular operating systems (Linux, Windows, macOS), and can be built natively if Go is installed in the system.
- If running GoTestWAF as the Docker container, please ensure you have installed and configured Docker, and GoTestWAF and evaluated application security solution are connected to the same Docker network.
- For GoTestWAF to be successfully started, please ensure the IP address of the machine running GoTestWAF is whitelisted on the machine running the application security solution.
The steps below walk through downloading and starting GoTestWAF with minimal configuration on Docker.
-
Pull the GoTestWAF image from Docker Hub:
docker pull wallarm/gotestwaf
-
Start the GoTestWAF image:
docker run -v ${PWD}/reports:/app/reports --network="host" \ wallarm/gotestwaf --url=<EVALUATED_SECURITY_SOLUTION_URL>
If required, you can replace
${PWD}/reports
with the path to another folder used to place the evaluation report.If the evaluated security tool is available externally, you can skip the option
--network="host"
. This option enables interaction of Docker containers running on 127.0.0.1.To perform the gRPC tests you must have a working endpoint and use the --grpcPort cli option.
docker run -v ${PWD}/reports:/app/reports \ wallarm/gotestwaf --grpcPort 9000 --url=http://my.grpc.endpoint
-
Find the report file
waf-evaluation-report-<date>.pdf
in thereports
folder that you mapped to/app/reports
inside the container.
You have successfully evaluated your application security solution by using GoTestWAF with minimal configuration. To learn advanced configuration options, please use this link.
Check the evaluation results logged using the STDOUT
and STDERR
services. For example:
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:38.401836 main.go:67: Test cases loading started
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:38.403985 main.go:74: Test cases loading finished
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:38.404007 main.go:87: gRPC pre-check: IN PROGRESS
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:41.404701 main.go:91: gRPC pre-check: connection is not available, reason: sending gRPC request: context deadline exceeded
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:41.404759 main.go:101: Scanned URL: http://172.17.0.1:8080/
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:41.415870 main.go:125: WAF pre-check: OK. Blocking status code: 403
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:41.415969 main.go:140: WebSocket pre-check. URL to check: ws://172.17.0.1:8080/
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:41.426661 main.go:144: WebSocket pre-check: connection is not available, reason: websocket: bad handshake
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:41.427029 main.go:172: Scanning http://172.17.0.1:8080/
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:41.427117 scanner.go:149: Scanning started
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:44.321301 scanner.go:154: Scanning Time: 2.89414802s
GOTESTWAF : 2021/10/07 16:06:44.321342 scanner.go:185: Scanning finished
Negative Tests:
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| TEST SET | TEST CASE | PERCENTAGE, % | BLOCKED | BYPASSED | UNRESOLVED |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| community | community-lfi | 66.67 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| community | community-rce | 14.29 | 6 | 36 | 0 |
| community | community-sqli | 70.83 | 34 | 14 | 0 |
| community | community-xss | 91.78 | 279 | 25 | 0 |
| community | community-xxe | 0.00 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| owasp | crlf | 87.50 | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| owasp | ldap-injection | 12.50 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| owasp | mail-injection | 25.00 | 3 | 9 | 0 |
| owasp | nosql-injection | 0.00 | 0 | 18 | 0 |
| owasp | path-traversal | 25.00 | 16 | 48 | 2 |
| owasp | rce | 22.22 | 4 | 14 | 0 |
| owasp | rce-urlparam | 33.33 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| owasp | shell-injection | 25.00 | 6 | 18 | 0 |
| owasp | sql-injection | 25.00 | 12 | 36 | 0 |
| owasp | ss-include | 25.00 | 5 | 15 | 0 |
| owasp | sst-injection | 15.62 | 5 | 27 | 0 |
| owasp | xml-injection | 0.00 | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| owasp | xss-scripting | 25.00 | 17 | 51 | 0 |
| owasp-api | graphql | 0.00 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| owasp-api | graphql-post | 33.33 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| owasp-api | grpc | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| owasp-api | rest | 100.00 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| owasp-api | soap | 100.00 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| DATE: | WAF NAME: | WAF AVERAGE SCORE: | BLOCKED (RESOLVED): | BYPASSED (RESOLVED): | UNRESOLVED: |
| 2021-10-07 | GENERIC | 34.70% | 405/747 (54.22%) | 342/747 (45.78%) | 4/751 (0.53%) |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
Positive Tests:
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| TEST SET | TEST CASE | PERCENTAGE, % | BLOCKED | BYPASSED | UNRESOLVED |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| false-pos | texts | 17.65 | 14 | 3 | 0 |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| DATE: | WAF NAME: | WAF POSITIVE SCORE: | FALSE POSITIVE (RES): | TRUE POSITIVE (RES): | UNRESOLVED: |
| 2021-10-07 | GENERIC | 17.65% | 14/17 (82.35%) | 3/17 (17.65%) | 0/17 (0.00%) |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
PDF report is ready: reports/waf-evaluation-report-generic-2021-October-07-16-06-44.pdf
The report file waf-evaluation-report-<date>.pdf
is available in the reports
folder of the user directory. You can also specify the directory to save the reports with the reportPath
parameter and the name of the report file with the reportName
parameter. To learn advanced configuration options, please use this link.
You can try GoTestWAF by running the demo environment that deploys NGINX‑based ModSecurity using OWASP Core Rule Set and GoTestWAF evaluating ModSecurity on Docker.
To run the demo environment:
-
Clone this repository and go to the cloned directory:
git clone https://github.com/wallarm/gotestwaf.git cd gotestwaf
-
Start ModSecurity from the Docker image by using the following
make
command:make modsec
Settings for running the ModSecurity Docker container are defined in the rule
modsec
of the cloned Makefile. It runs the ModSecurity Docker container on port 8080 with minimal configuration defined in the cloned file./resources/default.conf.template
and thePARANOIA
value set to 1.If required, you can change these settings by editing the rule
modsec
in the cloned Makefile. Available options for ModSecurity configuration are described on Docker Hub.To stop ModSecurity containers use the following command:
make modsec_down
-
Start GoTestWAF with minimal configuration by using one of the following methods:
Start the Docker image by using the following
docker pull
anddocker run
commands:docker pull wallarm/gotestwaf docker run -v ${PWD}/reports:/app/reports --network="host" \ wallarm/gotestwaf --url=http://127.0.0.1:8080
Build the GoTestWAF Docker image from the Dockerfile and run the image by using the following
make
commands (make sure ModSec is running on port 8080; if not, update the port value in the Makefile):make gotestwaf make scan_local_from_docker
Start GoTestWAF natively with go by using the following
make
command: (make sure ModSec is running on port 8080; if not, update the port value in the Makefile):make scan_local
-
Find the report file
waf-evaluation-report-<date>.pdf
in thereports
folder that you mapped to/app/reports
inside the container.
In addition to running the GoTestWAF Docker image downloaded from Docker Hub, you can run GoTestWAF by using the following options:
-
Clone this repository and build the GoTestWAF Docker image from the Dockerfile, for example:
git clone https://github.com/wallarm/gotestwaf.git cd gotestwaf docker build . --force-rm -t gotestwaf docker run -v ${PWD}/reports:/app/reports --network="host" \ gotestwaf --url=<EVALUATED_SECURITY_SOLUTION_URL>
If the evaluated security tool is available externally, you can skip the option
--network="host"
. This option enables interaction of Docker containers running on 127.0.0.1. -
Clone this repository and run GoTestWAF with
go
, for example:git clone https://github.com/wallarm/gotestwaf.git cd gotestwaf go run ./cmd --url=<EVALUATED_SECURITY_SOLUTION_URL> --verbose
-
Clone this repository and build GoTestWAF as the Go module:
git clone https://github.com/wallarm/gotestwaf.git cd gotestwaf go build -mod vendor -o gotestwaf ./cmd/main.go
Supported GoTestWAF configuration options are described below.
Usage: ./gotestwaf [OPTIONS] --url <url>
Options:
--addHeader string An HTTP header to add to requests
--blockConnReset If true, connection resets will be considered as block
--blockRegex string Regex to detect a blocking page with the same HTTP response status code as a not blocked request
--blockStatusCode int HTTP status code that WAF uses while blocking requests (default 403)
--configPath string Path to the config file (default "config.yaml")
--followCookies If true, use cookies sent by the server. May work only with --maxIdleConns=1
--grpcPort uint16 gRPC port to check
--idleConnTimeout int The maximum amount of time a keep-alive connection will live (default 2)
--ignoreUnresolved If true, unresolved test cases will be considered as bypassed (affect score and results)
--logFormat string Set logging format: text, json (default "text")
--logLevel string Logging level: panic, fatal, error, warn, info, debug, trace (default "info")
--maxIdleConns int The maximum number of keep-alive connections (default 2)
--maxRedirects int The maximum number of handling redirects (default 50)
--nonBlockedAsPassed If true, count requests that weren't blocked as passed. If false, requests that don't satisfy to PassStatusCode/PassRegExp as blocked
--openapiFile string Path to openAPI file
--passRegex string Regex to a detect normal (not blocked) web page with the same HTTP status code as a blocked request
--passStatusCode ints HTTP response status code that WAF uses while passing requests (default [200,404])
--proxy string Proxy URL to use
--quiet If true, disable verbose logging
--randomDelay int Random delay in ms in addition to the delay between requests (default 400)
--renewSession Renew cookies before each test. Should be used with --followCookies flag
--reportFormat string Export report to one of the following formats: none, pdf, html, json (default "pdf")
--reportName string Report file name. Supports `time' package template format (default "waf-evaluation-report-2006-January-02-15-04-05")
--reportPath string A directory to store reports (default "reports")
--sendDelay int Delay in ms between requests (default 400)
--skipWAFBlockCheck If true, WAF detection tests will be skipped
--skipWAFIdentification Skip WAF identification
--testCase string If set then only this test case will be run
--testCasesPath string Path to a folder with test cases (default "testcases")
--testSet string If set then only this test set's cases will be run
--tlsVerify If true, the received TLS certificate will be verified
--url string URL to check
--version Show GoTestWAF version and exit
--wafName string Name of the WAF product (default "generic")
--workers int The number of workers to scan (default 5)
--wsURL string WebSocket URL to check
The listed options can be passed to GoTestWAF as follows:
-
If running the GoTestWAF Docker container, pass the configuration options in the
docker run
command after the Docker image name.For example, to run GoTestWAF with WebSocket check, you can specify the WebSocket URL via the
wsURL
option andverbose
flag to include more information about the checking process:docker run -v ${PWD}/reports:/app/reports --network="host" wallarm/gotestwaf \ --url=http://127.0.0.1:8080/ --wsURL=ws://127.0.0.1:8080/api/ws --verbose
-
If running GoTestWAF with
go run
, pass the configuration options and its values as the parameters for the main script.For example, to run GoTestWAF with WebSocket check, you can specify the WebSocket URL via the
wsURL
option andverbose
flag to include more information about the checking process:go run ./cmd --url=http://127.0.0.1:8080/ --wsURL=ws://127.0.0.1:8080/api/ws --verbose
With the reportName
option you can set your own filename for GoTestWAF reports. This option supports golang's time
package for timestamps. Details can be found there. You can use following placeholders to add timestamp to your report name:
- Year:
2006
,06
- Month:
Jan
,January
- Textual day of the week:
Mon
,Monday
- Numeric day of the month:
2
,_2
,02
- Numeric day of the year:
__2
,002
- Hour:
15
,3
,03
(PM or AM) - Minute:
4
,04
- Second:
5
,05
- AM/PM mark:
PM
- Numeric zones:
Z0700
= Z or ±hhmm,Z07:00
= Z or ±hh:mm,Z07
= Z or ±hh
For example, default reportName
is waf-evaluation-report-2006-January-02-15-04-05
, where 2006
will be replaced with actual year, January
- month, 02
- day, 15
- hour, 04
- minute and 05
- second.
For better scanning, GTW supports sending malicious vectors through valid application requests. Instead of constructing requests that are simple in structure and send them to the URL specified at startup, GoTestWAF creates valid requests based on the application's API description in the OpenAPI 3.0 format.
How it works:
-
GoTestWAF loads an OpenAPI file and constructs request templates. All templates are then divided into groups based on what placeholders they support (e.g., if there is a string parameter in the request path, then such a request will be assigned to a group of requests that support URLPath placeholder)
-
The next malicious vector is selected from the queue for sending. Based on the placeholder specified for it, all query templates are selected into which this vector can be substituted. Next, the vector is substituted into template and the request is sent.
-
Based on the possible responses specified in the OpenAPI file, it is determined whether the request was blocked by WAF or passed to the application. If the status of the response code and its scheme match those described in the OpenAPI file, the request is marked as bypassed. Otherwise, it will be marked as blocked. It is possible that the application only responds with a status code, and this status code matches the response from the WAF. In this case, the request will be marked as unresolved.
Some supported OpenAPI features:
-
numeric and string parameters in headers, paths, query parameters and body of requests;
-
the following content-types are supported for the request body:
application/json
,application/xml
,application/x-www-form-urlencoded
,text/plain
; -
the following modifiers are supported for XML:
name
,wrapped
,attribute
,prefix
,namespace
; -
length limits for strings are supported through the
minLength
andmaxLength
parameters; -
value restrictions for numbers are supported through
minimum
,maximum
,exclusiveMinimum
andexclusiveMaximum
; -
restrictions on the length of arrays through
minItems
andmaxItems
are supported; -
combination of schemes via
oneOf
,anyOf
,allOf
is supported.
Based on the described principle of operation, it is extremely important that the OpenAPI file correctly represents the implemented application API. Therefore, for example, you cannot use default
to describe possible responses to queries.
Example:
./gotestwaf --verbose --url https://example.com/v1 --openapiFile api.yaml