AWS Web Application Firewall vs Monarx

AWS Web Application Firewall

Model: Pay-per-use (rules + requests)

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Monarx

Model: Custom (contact sales)

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AWS Web Application Firewall

• AWS Managed Rules

  Pre-configured rule groups maintained by AWS and AWS Marketplace sellers for common threats.

• Custom Rules

  Build your own rules using conditions like IP addresses, HTTP headers, URI strings, and more.

• Rate-Based Rules

  Automatically block IPs that exceed defined request thresholds.

• Bot Control

  Managed rule group for detecting and managing bot traffic (additional cost).

• Fraud Control

  Account takeover prevention and creation fraud detection for login/signup pages.

• Firewall Manager Integration

  Centrally configure and manage WAF rules across multiple AWS accounts.

Monarx

• Real-time Filesystem Monitoring

  Monitors file system operations at the server level in real-time. Inspects files as they are being written, catching malware regardless of the delivery vector (HTTP, FTP, SSH, plugin updates).

• Pre-write Malware Blocking

  Blocks malware before it is written to disk, not after. This prevents the malware from ever executing, eliminating the window of compromise that exists with scan-and-clean approaches.

• Vector-agnostic Detection

  Detects malware regardless of how it arrives, whether through web exploits, compromised FTP credentials, malicious plugin updates, or supply chain attacks. Traditional WAFs only see HTTP traffic and miss other vectors.

• Shared Hosting Protection

  Protects all websites on a shared hosting server with a single deployment. No per-site configuration required. Particularly valuable for shared hosting environments where hundreds of sites share the same server.

• Malware Analytics Dashboard

  Dashboard showing malware detection events, trends, and affected accounts. Hosting providers can identify compromised accounts and take targeted action.

• Automatic Signature Updates

  Malware signatures are updated automatically as new threats are identified. The Monarx team maintains and updates the signature database without requiring manual intervention from hosting providers.

• Low Performance Overhead

  Designed to run on production hosting servers without noticeable performance impact. Filesystem-level inspection is lightweight compared to full traffic inspection by traditional WAFs.

• API Integration

  API for integrating Monarx data into hosting provider management systems, ticketing workflows, and customer dashboards. Enables automated responses to malware detection events.