Configuring Geolocation Access Control Rules to Block or Allow Requests from Specific Locations

Prerequisites

• You have added the website you want to protect to WAF or added a protection policy.
  • For cloud CNAME access mode, see Connecting a Website to WAF (Cloud Mode - CNAME Access).
  • For cloud load balancer access mode, see Connecting Your Website to WAF (Cloud Mode - Load Balancer Access).
  • For dedicated mode, see Connecting Your Website to WAF (Dedicated Mode).
• If you use a dedicated WAF instance, ensure that it has been upgraded to the latest version. For details, see Managing Dedicated WAF Engines.

Constraints

• This function is not supported in the standard edition.
• When you add a website through Cloud Mode - Load balancer and set Frontend Protocol of the listener of your ELB load balancer to TCP, UDP, or QUIC, this type of rule does not take effect.
• One region can be configured in only one geolocation access control rule. For example, if you have blocked requests from Shanghai with a geolocation access control rule, then Shanghai cannot be added to other geolocation access control rules.
• It takes several minutes for a new rule to take effect. After the rule takes effect, protection events triggered by the rule will be displayed on the Events page.

Configuring a Geolocation Access Control Rule

1. Log in to the management console.
2. Click in the upper left corner of the management console and select a region or project.
3. Click in the upper left corner and choose Web Application Firewall under Security & Compliance.
4. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Policies.
5. Click the name of the target policy to go to the protection configuration page.
6. Click the Geolocation Access Control configuration area and toggle it on or off if needed.
   • : enabled.
   • : disabled.

7. In the upper left corner above the Geolocation Access Control list, click Add Rule.
8. In the displayed dialog box, add a geolocation access control rule by referring to Table 1.
   Figure 1 Adding a geolocation access control rule
   

   Table 1 Rule parameters

   Parameter	Description	Example Value
   Rule Name	Rule name you configured	dlfw
   Rule Description	A brief description of the rule. This parameter is optional.	waf
   Geolocation	Geographical scope of the IP address. You can select a region inside China or outside China.	-
   Protective Action	Action WAF will take if the rule is hit. You can select Block, Allow, or Log only.	Block

9. Click Confirm. You can then view the added rule in the list of the geolocation access control rules.
   • To disable a rule, click Disable in the Operation column of the rule. The default Rule Status is Enabled.
   • To modify a rule, click Modify in the row containing the rule.
   • To delete a rule, click Delete in the row containing the rule.

Configuration Example - Allowing Access Requests from IP Addresses in a Specified Region

Assume that domain name www.example.com has been connected to WAF and you want to allow only IP addresses in Shanghai, China to access the domain name. Perform the following steps:

1. Add a geolocation access control rule: Select Shanghai for Geolocation and select Allow for Protective Action.
   Figure 2 Selecting Allow for Protective Action
   

2. Enable geolocation access control.
   Figure 3 Geolocation Access Control configuration area
   

3. Configure a precise protection rule to block all requests.
   Figure 4 Blocking all access requests
   

   For details, see Configuring Custom Precise Protection Rules.

4. Clear the browser cache and access http://www.example.com.

   When an access request from IP addresses outside Shanghai accesses the page, WAF blocks the access request.

   Figure 5 Block page
   

5. Go to the WAF console. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Events. View the event on the Events page. You will see that all requests not from Shanghai have been blocked.

Configuration Example - Blocking Access Requests from IP Addresses in a Specified Region

Assume that domain name www.example.com has been connected to WAF and you want to block all IP addresses from Beijing to access the domain name. The following shows how to configure a rule to this end:

1. Add a geolocation access control rule, select Beijing for Geolocation and Block for Protective Action.
   Figure 6 Blocking access requests from a specific region
   

2. Enable geolocation access control.
   Figure 7 Geolocation Access Control configuration area
   

3. Clear the browser cache and access http://www.example.com.

   When an access request from IP addresses inside Beijing accesses the page, WAF blocks the access request.

   Figure 8 Block page
   

4. Go to the WAF console. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Events. View the event on the Events page.
   Figure 9 Viewing events - blocking access requests from IP addresses in a region
   

Protection Effect

To verify WAF is protecting your website (www.example.com) against a rule:

1. Clear the browser cache and enter the domain name in the address bar to check whether the website is accessible.
   • If the website is inaccessible, connect the website domain name to WAF by referring to Website Settings.
   • If the website is accessible, go to 2.

2. Add a geolocation access control rule by referring to Configuring a Geolocation Access Control Rule.
3. Clear the browser cache and access http://www.example.com. Normally, WAF blocks such requests and returns the block page.
4. Return to the WAF console. In the navigation pane, click Events. On the displayed page, view the event log.