The web application firewall (WAF) market is a bit confusing at the moment since it is not clear exactly what WAF means. For a typical end-user it is not always easy to figure out what a WAF is supposed to do and, especially, how effective a WAF could be in solving a specific problem. Perhaps most emerging markets are like this. The tools are created out of necessity and because of the market demand. It is probably not possible to provide a very good definition in the early days.
Earlier this year we (the Web Application Security Consortium) invited a large team of security professionals to form a project with an aim to better define the web application firewall market. The Web Application Firewall Evaluation Criteria project was born. I am happy to announce that we have just made our first release. So far we have covered the following categories:
Of course, this is just the beginning. The main purpose of our first release (officially called "Draft 1") is to invite the public to comment. If you care about web application firewalls then please give the draft a look and send us your thoughts. Better still, come and join us.