What is Insecure Design?
Insecure design is a broad category representing different weaknesses, expressed as a missing or ineffective control design. These are flaws in the fundamental architecture of the application.
Common Design Flaws:
- Missing or insufficient workflow validation
- Business logic flaws (e.g., confirm order without payment)
- Insecure default configurations
- No threat modeling or secure design patterns
- Trusting client-side data without server validation
Before WAF: Vulnerable
Without proper workflow validation, business logic can be bypassed
Step 1: Bypass Payment Workflow
# Confirm order WITHOUT payment verification
POST /api/insecure-design
{"order_id": "12345"}
# Response shows order confirmed even though payment was never verified!Vulnerability: API confirms orders without checking payment status.
After WAF: Protected
Cloudflare WAF can detect and block suspicious request patterns
Enable Cloudflare Protection:
- Go to Cloudflare Dashboard → Security → WAF
- Create custom rules for workflow enforcement
- Enable "Anomaly Detection" for API abuse
- Configure rate limiting on state-changing endpoints
Result: Suspicious workflow bypass attempts are detected and blocked.
Cloudflare Protection
- ✓Custom Rules: Enforce business logic at the edge
- ✓Rate Limiting: Prevent automated abuse of workflows
- ✓API Shield: Detect anomalous API behavior