Back to Blogs

Deploy Haltdos Community WAF in Cloud Manager

Haltdos Community Edition is a free, user-friendly web application firewall that helps protect web applications from OWASP Top 10 risks, XSS, SQL injection, and other web-based threats. This guide explains how to deploy Haltdos Community WAF through Cloud Manager Quick Deploy Apps and complete the first access steps after provisioning.

WAF Deployment Cloud Manager OWASP Top 10 XSS SQL Injection
Deploy Haltdos Community WAF in Cloud Manager cheat sheet: use this quick map before reading the detailed sections.
Lesson overview

In This Lesson

Deploy the Haltdos Community WAF as a controlled lab or evaluation rather than an assumed production control. The guide covers prerequisites, deployment, registration, validation, and hardening boundaries.

  1. Deploy Haltdos Community WAF in Cloud Manager: Overview
  2. Before You Start
  3. Deploying the Quick Deploy App
  4. Configuration Options
  5. Getting Started After Deployment
  6. Initial Registration and First Login
  7. Common Deployment Issues
  8. Security Notes Before Production Use
From concept to practice

Quick Learning Map

Keep this three-step view in mind as you work through the detailed lesson.

1

Prepare the environment

Confirm platform support, networking, DNS, certificates, and recovery access.

2

Deploy and register

Use the supported image, complete setup, and protect administrative access.

3

Validate safely

Test routing and policy with a non-production application before wider use.

Fast orientation

Deploy Haltdos Community WAF in Cloud Manager at a Glance

Use this summary before moving into the detailed explanations, examples, commands, and checks.

Core focus

Deploy the Haltdos Community WAF as a controlled lab or evaluation rather than an assumed production control.

Key connection

Prepare the environment → Deploy and register → Validate safely

Practical outcome

The guide covers prerequisites, deployment, registration, validation, and hardening boundaries.

Deploy Haltdos Community WAF in Cloud Manager: Overview

Quick Deploy Apps let you create a Compute Instance with selected software pre-installed and ready for initial configuration. For Haltdos Community WAF, the deployment process provisions the instance, installs the application, and exposes the management interface on HTTPS port 9000.

Estimated deployment time5-10 minutes after provisioning
Supported distributionsUbuntu 22.04 LTS and Debian 11
Recommended planMinimum 2GB Shared CPU Compute Instance
Access URLhttps://[ip-address]:9000/

1. Before You Start

Make sure you have access to Cloud Manager and permission to create Compute Instances, manage firewall rules, and view public IPv4 addresses. You should also decide which region, operating system, and instance plan match your lab or production test requirement.

  • Account access: confirm that your user can create Compute Instances and assign public IP addresses.
  • Network access: allow management access to TCP port 9000 only from trusted source IPs whenever possible.
  • DNS plan: decide whether you will use the instance IPv4 address, rDNS hostname, or a custom DNS record.
  • Test scope: use a lab or staging application first before routing live production traffic through a new WAF.

2. Deploying the Quick Deploy App

Use Cloud Manager to select the Haltdos Community WAF Quick Deploy App and create a Compute Instance with the required software installed.

  1. Log in to Cloud Manager.
  2. Select Quick Deploy Apps from the left navigation menu.
  3. Open the Compute Instance creation page with the marketplace or app tab selected.
  4. Under Select App, choose Haltdos Community WAF.
  5. Complete the instance form, including region, plan, root password or SSH key, and any available app-specific settings.
  6. Review the supported distribution and recommended plan before creating the instance.
  7. Click the create button and wait for provisioning to finish.
Important: after the instance is provisioned and powered on, wait for the software installation to complete. If the instance is powered off or restarted too early, the application installation can fail.

3. Configuration Options

  • Supported distributions: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Debian 11.
  • Recommended plan: a minimum 2GB Shared CPU Compute Instance.
  • Deployment time: Haltdos Community WAF should normally be ready within 5-10 minutes after provisioning completes.
  • Management protocol: access the interface over HTTPS on port 9000.

For better security, restrict inbound management access to known administrator IP addresses and avoid exposing the console broadly to the public internet.

4. Getting Started After Deployment

Once installation is complete, open a browser and navigate to:

https://[ip-address]:9000/

Replace [ip-address] with your Compute Instance IPv4 address or rDNS hostname, such as 192-0-2-1.exampleusercontent.com. If you do not know the address, check the instance networking details in Cloud Manager.

Browser warning expected: Haltdos uses a self-signed TLS/SSL certificate during initial access. Your browser will likely show a security warning. For first-time setup, confirm that you are connecting to the correct instance IP address before accepting the risk.

5. Initial Registration and First Login

The initial registration page should ask for user registration and account details. Complete the required fields and finish the email OTP step to proceed with Haltdos Community WAF configuration.

After registration is complete, you can begin using the Haltdos Community WAF dashboard to review configuration, define protected applications, and start shaping WAF policy for your web traffic.

6. Common Deployment Issues

  • Console does not open: check that the instance is running, installation time has passed, and TCP port 9000 is allowed from your source IP.
  • Certificate warning appears: this is expected with the initial self-signed certificate; verify the IP before continuing.
  • Registration email OTP fails: check outbound connectivity, mail delivery, spam filtering, and whether the configured email address is correct.
  • App installation failed: confirm that the instance was not rebooted during installation and redeploy if the bootstrap process did not finish.

7. Security Notes Before Production Use

  • Replace or properly manage self-signed certificates before exposing services to users.
  • Restrict administration access to trusted IP ranges.
  • Test WAF rules in monitor or staging mode before enforcing strict blocking.
  • Review false positives for login pages, APIs, file uploads, and JSON-heavy applications.
  • Document DNS, load balancer, firewall, and origin-server changes before routing production traffic.

References and Related Tools

Reference note from the supplied material: updated June 2, 2020, and originally published January 23, 2023.