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14.1-Current Release 13.1
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Enforce HTTP RFC compliance

September 27, 2025
Contributed by: 
C S

NetScaler Web App Firewall inspects the incoming traffic for HTTP RFC compliance and drops any request that has RFC violations by default. However, there are certain scenarios, where the appliance might have to bypass or block a non-RFC compliance request. In such cases, you can configure the appliance to bypass or block such requests at global or profile level.

Block or bypass non-RFC compliant requests at global level

The HTTP module identifies a request as invalid if it is incomplete and such requests cannot be processed by WAF. For example, an incoming HTTP request having a host header missing. To block or bypass such invalid requests, you must configure the malformedReqAction option in the application firewall global settings.

The ‘malformedReqAction’ parameter validates the incoming request for invalid content length, invalid chunked request, no HTTP version, and incomplete header.

Note:

If you disable the block option in the malformedReqAction parameter, the appliance bypasses the entire app firewall processing for all non-RFC compliance requests and forwards the requests to the next module.

To block or bypass invalid non-RFC complaint HTTP requests by using the command line interface

To block or bypass invalid requests, enter the following command:

set appfw settings -malformedreqaction <action>

Example:

set appfw settings –malformedReqAction block

To display malformed request action settings

To display malformed request action settings, enter the following command:

show appfw settings

Output:

DefaultProfile:  APPFW_BYPASS UndefAction:  APPFW_BLOCK SessionTimeout:  900     LearnRateLimit:  400     SessionLifetime:  0 SessionCookieName:  citrix_ns_id ImportSizeLimit:  134217728 SignatureAutoUpdate:  OFF SignatureUrl:"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NSAppFwSignatures/SignaturesMapping.xml" CookiePostEncryptPrefix:  ENC GeoLocationLogging:  OFF CEFLogging:  OFF       EntityDecoding:  OFF     UseConfigurableSecretKey:  OFF SessionLimit:  100000    MalformedReqAction:  block log stats
 Done
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To block or bypass invalid non-RFC complaint HTTP requests by using the NetScaler GUI

  1. Navigate to Security > NetScaler Web App Firewall.
  2. In the NetScaler Web App Firewall page, click Change Engine Settings under Settings.
  3. In the Configure NetScaler Web App Firewall Settings page, select the Log Malformed Request option as Block, Log, or Stats.
  4. Click OK and Close.

Note:

If you unselect the block action or do not select any malformed request action, the appliance bypasses the request without intimating the user.

Block or bypass non-RFC compliant requests at profile level

Other non-RFC compliant requests can be configured to block or bypass at profile level. You must configure the RFC profile either in Block or Bypass mode. By doing this configuration, any invalid traffic that matches the Web App Firewall profile is either bypassed or blocked accordingly. The RFC profile validates the following security checks:

  • Invalid GWT-RPC requests
  • Invalid content type headers
  • Invalid Multipart requests
  • Invalid JSON requests
  • Duplicate cookie name value pair checks

Note:

When you set the RFC profile in “Bypass” mode, you must make sure you disable the transformation option in the HTML Cross-Site Scripting Settings and in the HTML SQL Injection Settings sections. If you enable and set the RFC profile in Bypass mode, the appliance displays a warning message, “Transform cross-site scripts” and “Transform SQL special characters” are both currently ON. Recommend turning it off when used with APPFW_RFC_BYPASS.

Important:

Also, the appliance displays a warning note, “Appfw Security checks enabled might not be applicable to requests which violates RFC checks when this profile is set. Enabling any transformation setting is not recommended as requests might be partially transformed that contains RFC violations.”

To configure an RFC profile in the Web App Firewall profile by using the command line interface

At the command prompt, type the following commands:

set appfw profile <profile_name> -rfcprofile <rfcprofile_name

Example

set appfw profile P1 -rfcprofile APPFW_RFC_BLOCK

Note:

By default, the RFC profile is bound to the Web App Firewall profile in Block mode.

To configure an RFC profile in the Web App Firewall profile by using the GUI

  1. Navigate to Security > NetScaler Web App Firewall > Profiles.
  2. In the Profiles page, select a profile and click Edit.
  3. In the Web App Firewall Profile page, click Profile settings from the Advanced Settings section.
  4. In the HTML Settings section, set the RFC profile in APPFW_RFC_BYPASS mode. The system displays a warning message, “Appfw Security checks enabled might not be applicable to requests which violates RFC checks when this profile is set. Enabling any transformation setting is not recommended as requests might be partially transformed that contains RFC violations”.
Enforce HTTP RFC compliance
September 27, 2025
Contributed by: 
C S
September 27, 2025
Contributed by: 
C S

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