kickstarter/rack-attack
Rack Attack
This project is a Rack middleware rate limiter and application layer firewall for Ruby web applications. It serves as a security layer to throttle and block HTTP requests based on custom rules, protecting web servers from abusive traffic.
The system provides capabilities for IP blocking and the banning of malicious clients. It implements request safelisting to bypass restrictions for trusted users and uses time-windowed rate limiting to control request frequency.
The middleware covers traffic management and monitoring, including the ability to track request patterns and instrument traffic events in real time. It also allows for the customization of response bodies and headers when requests are blocked or throttled.
Features
- Client Request Quotas - Implements per-client request quotas using unique discriminators to prevent system exhaustion from abusive traffic.
- Rack-Based Middleware Pipelines - Implements a Rack-based middleware pipeline to intercept and filter HTTP requests before they reach the application.
- Key-Value Stores - Uses a key-value store backend to persist request counts and timestamps across multiple server processes.
- Per-Client Request Throttlers - Limits the number of requests a specific user or IP address can make within a sliding time window.
- Automated IP Banning - Automatically blocks clients who repeatedly trigger filters using immediate bans or retry thresholds.
- Client Discriminators - Implements unique client identification by extracting attributes like IP addresses or user IDs to apply targeted limits.
- Malicious Traffic Blocking - Rejects incoming HTTP requests from forbidden IP addresses or users based on predefined security rules.
- IP Blocking Middleware - Implements a security layer that rejects incoming HTTP traffic from forbidden IP addresses or malicious users.
- Rate Limiting & Abuse Prevention - Implements mechanisms to prevent service abuse through application-layer traffic throttling and malicious request detection.
- Request Blocking - Provides the ability to reject requests from forbidden IP addresses or those matching custom security rules.
- Backend Security Middleware - Provides a modular security middleware layer to filter and block abusive traffic before it reaches core logic.
- Web Application Firewalls - Functions as a web application firewall by safelisting, banning, and tracking request patterns to protect servers.
- Predicate-Based Request Filtering - Evaluates incoming requests against predefined predicates to determine whether they should be blocked or allowed.
- Time-Windowed Limits - Calculates request frequency over sliding or fixed time periods to restrict the number of allowed operations.
- Middleware Rate Limiters - Provides a Rack middleware rate limiter for Ruby applications that throttles and blocks requests based on custom rules.
- API Rate Limiting - Controls the frequency of requests to an API using unique identifiers like email addresses or IPs.
- Request Safelisting - Allows trusted users or IP addresses to bypass all blocking and throttling rules.
- Request Pattern Monitoring - Measures requests matching specific attributes to track patterns without affecting processing flow or blocking clients.
- Traffic Event Instrumentation - Logs and graphs abusive activity in real-time by subscribing to internal middleware notifications.
- Rule Match Notifications - Triggers internal events when rules are matched so that external logging or monitoring systems can record activity.
- Request Traffic Monitors - Tracks incoming request volume and patterns in real time to identify abusive activity and security threats.
- Deployment and Automation - Middleware for blocking and throttling malicious requests.
- Ruby Frameworks and Tools - Rack middleware for blocking abusive requests.
- Securitate și confidențialitate - Rack middleware for blocking and throttling requests.
