# nbs-system/naxsi

NAXSI is an open-source, high performance, low rules maintenance WAF for NGINX

Repository: https://github.com/nbs-system/naxsi
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/naxsi
Language: C
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: naxsi, nginx, c, waf
Archived: true
Last push: 2023-11-08T09:27:13+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5493, "days_push": 1029, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4811, forks 598 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:00.274724+00:00)

## What it is
NAXSI is a high-performance, low-maintenance web application firewall (WAF) implemented as a third-party NGINX module written in C. Instead of relying on attack signatures, it uses a small set of default-deny pattern rules and requires administrators to whitelist legitimate behavior, optionally via an auto-learning phase.

## Use cases
- protect a website from XSS and SQL injection attacks
- add a WAF to an existing NGINX server
- block suspicious requests by default and whitelist legitimate traffic
- run a web application firewall without maintaining large signature databases
- auto-learn whitelisting rules from a site's traffic

## When to choose
- you already run NGINX and want an integrated, lightweight WAF
- you prefer a deny-by-default model over signature-based filtering
- you want low rules-maintenance overhead

## When to avoid
- you need actively maintained software - this repository is archived; use the wargio/naxsi fork instead
- you need a WAF for servers other than NGINX
- you want out-of-the-box protection without a whitelist tuning/learning phase

## Facets
- artifact type: plugin
- maturity: abandoned
- function: security, middleware, http-server
- domain: security, web-development, backend
- platform: bsd
- tags: waf, nginx-module, xss-protection, sql-injection, drop-by-default, whitelist-learning, linux, nginx, web-server

## Member repositories
- nbs-system/naxsi (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:00.274724+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:18:35.731395+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/nbs-system/naxsi (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:00.274724+00:00, sha da4ffa739ac8)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.