Rule statements list

This section describes the statements that you can add to a rule and provides some guidelines for calculating web ACL capacity units (WCU) usage for each. For information about WCUs, see AWS WAF Web ACL capacity units (WCU).

This page groups the rule statements by category, provides a high-level description for each, and provides a link to a section with more information for the statement type.

Match statements

Match statements compare the web request or its origin against criteria that you provide. For many statements of this type, AWS WAF compares a specific component of the request for matching content.

Match statements are nestable. You can nest them inside logical rule statements and use them in scope-down statements.

Match Statement	Description	WCUs
Geographic match	Inspects the request's country of origin and applies labels for the country and region of origin.	1
IP set match	Inspects the request against a set of IP addresses and address ranges.	1 for most cases. If you configure the statement to use a header with forwarded IP addresses and specify a position in the header of Any, then the WCUs are 5.
Label match rule statement	Inspects the request for labels that have been added by other rules in the same web ACL.	1
Regex match rule statement	Compares a regex pattern against a specified request component.	3, as a base cost. If you use the request component All query parameters, add 10 WCUs. If you use the request component JSON body, double the base cost WCUs. For each Text transformation that you apply, add 10 WCUs.
Regex pattern set	Compares regex patterns against a specified request component.	25 per pattern set, as a base cost. If you use the request component All query parameters, add 10 WCUs. If you use the request component JSON body, double the base cost WCUs. For each Text transformation that you apply, add 10 WCUs.
Size constraint	Checks size constraints against a specified request component.	1, as a base cost. If you use the request component All query parameters, add 10 WCUs. If you use the request component JSON body, double the base cost WCUs. For each Text transformation that you apply, add 10 WCUs.
SQLi attack	Inspects for malicious SQL code in a specified request component.	20, as a base cost. If you use the request component All query parameters, add 10 WCUs. If you use the request component JSON body, double the base cost WCUs. For each Text transformation that you apply, add 10 WCUs.
String match	Compares a string to a specified request component.	The base cost depends on the type of string match and is between 1 and 10. If you use the request component All query parameters, add 10 WCUs. If you use the request component JSON body, double the base cost WCUs. For each Text transformation that you apply, add 10 WCUs.
XSS scripting attack	Inspects for cross-site scripting attacks in a specified request component.	40, as a base cost. If you use the request component All query parameters, add 10 WCUs. If you use the request component JSON body, double the base cost WCUs. For each Text transformation that you apply, add 10 WCUs.

Logical rules statements

Use logical rules statements to combine other statements or negate their results. Every logical rule statement takes at least one nested statement.

To logically combine or negate rule statement results, you nest the statements under logical rule statements.

Note

The visual editor on the console supports one level of rule statement nesting, which works for many needs. To nest more levels, edit the JSON representation of the rule on the console or use the APIs.

Logical rules statements are nestable. You can nest them inside other logical rule statements and use them in scope-down statements. For information about scope-down statements, see Scope-down statements.

Logical Statement	Description	WCUs
AND logic	Combines nested statements with AND logic.	Based on nested statements
NOT logic	Negates the results of a nested statement.	Based on nested statement
OR logic	Combines nested statements with OR logic.	Based on nested statements

Complex statements

AWS WAF supports rate-based and rule group statements. You can't nest these statement types inside other rule statements. For some of these statements, you can narrow the scope of the requests that they inspect by adding a scope-down statement.

Statement	Description	WCUs
Managed rule group	Runs the rules that are defined in the specified managed rule group. You can narrow the scope of requests that you evaluate with the rule group by adding a scope-down statement. You cannot nest a managed rule group statement inside any other statement type.	Defined by the rule group, plus any additional WCUs for a scope-down statement.
Rule group	Runs the rules that are defined in a rule group that you manage. You cannot nest a rule group statement inside any other statement type.	You define the WCU limit for the rule group when you create it.
Rate-based	Tracks the rate of requests from individual IP addresses and temporarily blocks addresses while they are sending too many requests. You can narrow the scope of requests that you evaluate with a rate-based statement by adding a scope-down statement. You cannot nest a rate-based statement under any rule statement. You can define a rate-based statement inside a rule group that you manage.	2, plus any additional WCUs for a scope-down statement.