Creating a Cloudflare WAF Rule to Skip Security Checks for NewsCrawler/2.0

Overview

This guide explains how to create a Cloudflare WAF rule that skips security checks for requests from the NewsCrawler/2.0 user agent.

Steps

1. Access Cloudflare WAF Settings

• Log in to your Cloudflare dashboard
• Navigate to Security > WAF in the left sidebar
• Select Custom rules

2. Create a New Skip Rule

• Click Create rule
• Give your rule a descriptive name, e.g., "Skip WAF checks for NewsCrawler/2.0"

3. Configure the Rule Condition

• In the When incoming requests match section, set up the condition:
  • Field: User Agent
  • Operator: equals
  • Value: NewsCrawler/2.0

4. Set the Action

• In the Then section, select Skip from the dropdown
• Choose which security features to skip:
  • Skip all security features (recommended for trusted crawlers)
  • Or select specific features to skip (e.g., Rate Limiting, Bot Management, etc.)

5. Deploy the Rule

• Click Deploy to activate the rule
• The rule will take effect immediately

Verification

To verify the rule is working:

1. Make a request with the NewsCrawler/2.0 user agent
2. Check the request logs in Cloudflare Analytics
3. Confirm that WAF security checks are being skipped for matching requests

Additional Resources

• Cloudflare WAF Custom Rules Documentation
• User Agent Matching in Cloudflare

Notes

• Ensure that NewsCrawler/2.0 is a trusted source before skipping security checks
• Monitor the rule's impact on your security posture
• Consider using more specific conditions if needed (e.g., combining with IP address restrictions)

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