Handling False Alarms

Prerequisites

There is at least one false alarm event in the event list.

Constraints

• Only attack events blocked or recorded by built-in basic web protection rules and features in anti-crawler protection can be handled as false alarms.
• For events generated based on custom rules (such as a CC attack protection rule, precise protection rule, blacklist rule, whitelist rule, or geolocation access control rule), they cannot be handled as false alarms. To ignore such an event, delete or disable the custom rule hit by the event.
• An attack event can only be handled as a false alarm once.
• After an attack event is handled as a false alarm, the attack event will not be displayed on the Events page. You will no longer receive any alarm notifications about the events of this kind.
• Dedicated WAF instances earlier than June 2022 do not support All protection for Ignore WAF Protection. Only Basic web protection can be selected.

Application Scenarios

Sometimes normal service requests may be blocked by WAF. For example, suppose you deploy a web application on an ECS and then add the public domain name associated with that application to WAF. If you enable basic web protection for that application, WAF may block the access requests that match the basic web protection rules. As a result, the website cannot be accessed through its domain name. However, the website can still be accessed through the IP address. In this case, you can handle the false alarms to allow normal access requests to the application.

Procedure

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.
4. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Events.
5. Click the Search tab. In the website or instance drop-down list, select a website to view corresponding event logs. The query time can be Yesterday, Today, Past 3 days, Past 7 days, Past 30 days, or a time range you configure.
6. In the event list, handle events.
   • If you confirm that an event is a false alarm, locate the row containing the event. In the Operation column, click Handle > Handle as False Alarm and handle the hit rule.
     Figure 1 Handling a false alarm
     
   • Add the source IP address to an address group. Locate the row containing the desired event, in the Operation column, click Handle > Add to Address Group. The source IP address triggering the event will be blocked or allowed based on the policy used for the address group.

     Add to: You can select an existing address group or create an address group.

     Figure 2 Add to Address Group
     
   • Add the source IP address to a blacklist or whitelist rule of the corresponding protected domain name. Locate the row containing the desired event. In the Operation column, click Handle > Add to Blacklist/Whitelist. Then, the source IP address will be blocked or allowed based on the protective action configured in the blacklist or whitelist rule.
     Figure 3 Add to Blacklist/Whitelist
     

     Table 1 Parameter

     Parameter	Description
     Add to	Existing rule New rule
     Rule Name	If you select Existing rule for Add to, select a rule name from the drop-down list. If you select New rule for Add to, customize a blacklist or whitelist rule.
     IP Address/Range/Group	This parameter is mandatory when you select New rule for Add to. You can select IP address/Range or Address Group to add IP addresses a blacklist or whitelist rule.
     Group Name	This parameter is mandatory when you select Address group for IP Address/Range/Group. Select an address group from the drop-down list.
     Protective Action	Block: Select Block if you want to blacklist an IP address or IP address range. Allow: Select Allow if you want to whitelist an IP address or IP address range. Log only: Select Log only if you want to observe an IP address or IP address range.
     Known Attack Source	If you select Block for Protective Action, you can select a blocking type of a known attack source rule. WAF will block requests matching the configured IP address, Cookie, or Params for a length of time configured as part of the rule.
     Rule Description	A brief description of the rule. This parameter is optional.

Verification

A false alarm will be deleted within about a minute after the handling configuration is done. It will no longer be displayed in the attack event details list. You can refresh the browser cache and request the page for which the global protection whitelist rule is configured to check whether the configuration takes effect.

Related Operations

If an event is handled as a false alarm, the rule hit will be added to the global protection whitelist rule list. You can go to the Policies page and then switch to the Global Protection Whitelist page to manage the rule, including querying, disabling, deleting, and modifying the rule. For more details, see Configuring a Global Protection Whitelist Rule to Ignore False Alarms.