smallwebwaf/docs/gitea.md

smallwebwaf in front of gitea

These notes record what smallwebwaf does in front of gitea at the default settings. They are observations, not requirements; the requirements are in SPEC.md. script/gitea-requests runs gitea behind the image and sends through it a sample of gitea's ordinary use and the requests named below. It reports each request the Core Rule Set refuses, so that these notes can be checked again when gitea or the Core Rule Set changes version.

What the defaults cover

• SSH access to gitea does not pass through smallwebwaf and is not protected by it.
• A clone is a response. It fits the defaults of 30 minutes and 5 GiB for all but the largest repositories and slowest links.
• A push is a request, and so is every other upload: a git push, an LFS object, a container image layer, a package file or a release attachment. At the defaults, an upload larger than 100 MiB or taking more than 60 seconds is cut off. The client is answered 413 for a body that is too large, before anything reaches gitea when the request announces its size. It is answered 408 for a body it sends too slowly, or 504 if gitea is too slow to take it. The upload fails, and no one is banned for it. A gitea that takes large uploads needs SWWAF_REQUEST_MAX_BYTES, SWWAF_CLIENT_REQUEST_TIMEOUT and SWWAF_UPSTREAM_REQUEST_TIMEOUT raised to fit. The Core Rule Set does not read an upload's body, which streams through without being held in memory.
• Archive download and blame or history pages are what scrapers hammer. The request limits do most of the work there.
• An Actions runner that reaches gitea through smallwebwaf sends requests all day. One older than version 0.4 (April 2026) asks for work every 2 seconds, 43,200 requests a day, and reports a running job's log and state every second. So it passes the day limit of 50,000 after about an hour and a quarter of jobs. It is then banned, the job it is running fails, and each repeat within a day makes the ban longer. Newer runners ask less often, but a busy one, or several on one address, can still pass it. Put the runners' addresses in SWWAF_RATE_LIMIT_EXEMPT_NETS. That takes them out of the request and byte limits, while the error burst, attack detection and bans still apply.

What the Core Rule Set lets through

At the defaults, the Core Rule Set lets gitea's ordinary use through, apart from the refusals in the next section:

• browsing and views of files in a repository, with their history, blame and the file tree;
• diffs, including their hidden lines and large files, and pull request review;
• git's clone, fetch and push over HTTP;
• signing in, including the return to the page a visitor came from, and sign-in with Git Credential Manager, git-credential-oauth or tea;
• the API's calls for a file and its commits;
• pushing and pulling container images and packages;
• Actions runners, and artifacts uploaded with actions/upload-artifact@v4;
• posting issues, pull requests, comments, wiki pages and files saved in the web editor, code included, since no body is read;
• the page gitea shows after a change, with its message naming what was done.

What the Core Rule Set still refuses

Each refusal answers only that request, with 403, and bans no one by itself. It counts toward the error burst, which a person does not reach this way. The request log names the rule in waf_rule_ids, which SWWAF_WAF_DISABLED_RULES can switch off.

A query string that reads as an attack

Most often this is a search. Every query parameter is checked against the Core Rule Set's lists of system files and commands, except the ten named under "Attack detection" in SPEC.md. A release attachment uploaded through the API as docker-compose.yml is refused the same way. Examples:

• a name on those lists, such as package.json, .gitignore or docker-compose.yml;
• text that starts with a command name, or whose first word has one right after a /, such as python3, ssh key or feat/docker-support;
• a shell command with its options or a system path (ls -la, sed -i, /bin/sh), or a command in backticks;
• script code (fetch(, ${VAR}, process.env), HTML (<img src=) or an SQL statement (SELECT * FROM users WHERE);
• a URL naming an IP address or localhost.

A branch, tag or file name that starts with a command name

The Core Rule Set's list of commands (932260) holds names such as docker-, python3, ansible, base64 and whoami. A branch, tag or file name that starts with one is refused. So is one that has such a name right after a /, such as feat/docker-support, fix/docker-build or renovate/docker-build-push-action-6.x. gitea's own pages send the name in a query parameter that 930120, 932160 and 932260 still check:

• refSubUrl, the branch or tag of a directory listing. It is sent when the listing asks for its entries' last commits in a second request, which it does whenever gitea takes more than a second to work them out;
• name, when a branch is deleted or restored on the branches page;
• tag, when a release is started from a tag;
• template, the file of an issue template, when an issue is opened from it;
• rule_name, when a branch protection rule is opened for editing in the repository's settings or has just been saved.

What a visitor sees, for a branch named docker-build:

• A directory listing that makes that second request leaves those last commits out and shows an error.
• The branches page shows an error instead of deleting or restoring the branch.
• A release started from such a tag gets the 403 answer of smallwebwaf in place of its form. So does an issue opened from such a template, and such a rule opened for editing.
• Saving such a rule stores it. gitea then returns to the branch settings page, which gets the 403 answer, so the save looks as if it failed.

A file name in a query parameter that trips the code rules

The Core Rule Set's rules for Java, script, PowerShell and SQL find what they look for in some file names. This holds in the parameters smallwebwaf leaves out of 930120, 932160 and 932260 too (see the changes to the Core Rule Set under "Attack detection" in SPEC.md). Examples:

• runtime in OpenJDK's src/java.base/share/classes/java/lang/Runtime.java (944110);
• a Java class, as in java.lang.String.md (944130);
• document.write.js (941180);
• process.env.d.ts (934100);
• __proto__ (934130);
• the PowerShell command Install-Script, as in install-script.sh (932120);
• a database's name, as in PostgreSQL's information_schema.sql (942140).

For such a file, these requests are refused:

• the API's list of its commits (path);
• the API's call for the contents of files that names it in its query (body);
• the commit graph of that file alone (file);
• the hidden lines of its diff (path), which stay hidden;
• the sign-in page gitea sends a visitor to on the way to a page of the file that needs signing in, such as its edit page (redirect_to). The visitor can still sign in by opening the sign-in page itself.

A path

• A file name ending in ~, or an .xhtml file whose path holds a space.
• A path that holds what the Core Rule Set takes for a Java class (944130), as java.lang.String.md and META-INF/services/org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory do.
• A path that holds what it takes for Node.js code (934100), as process.env.d.ts does.
• A path with a directory named ... (930100, 930110), such as .../notes.txt.

For such a file, the page of the file, its raw file, its history, its blame and its edit page are refused. The directory that holds it lists it, and a clone carries it.

A container image push that reuses a layer

A push can reuse a layer of an image docker has pushed to that gitea before. docker then asks gitea to take the layer from that image, naming it in the query parameter from, which 932260 checks. The request is refused when the image's owner, or its name after the owner, starts with an entry on the list of commands. Examples are owner/python3-app, owner/docker-base, and any image of an owner named ansible or docker-team.

What happens next depends on docker's image store. A docker that keeps its images in containerd's image store fails the push, and fails each new try the same way. A new install of Docker Engine 29 does this. A docker that keeps them in its own older image store uploads the layer instead. The push then succeeds after one refusal for each layer it reuses, and each of those refusals counts toward the error burst.

Artifact uploads from actions/upload-artifact@v3

This action sends the header Content-Range, which the Core Rule Set refuses (920450). The action sends two files at a time, does not retry a 403, and sends no further file once one is refused. So an upload is refused once or twice, however many files it holds, and the step fails. One upload does not ban the runner. More than 30 such refusals from its address within a minute, as when many jobs upload at once, ban it through the error burst. actions/upload-artifact@v4 does not send the header.

What body inspection refuses

With SWWAF_WAF_BODY_LIMIT set, the Core Rule Set reads request bodies too. In front of gitea it then refuses these, until their rule ids, named in the request log, are added to SWWAF_WAF_DISABLED_RULES:

• issue and comment text, wiki pages and files saved in the web editor that hold shell commands or code (932125, 932235, 932250 and others);
• package descriptions that show code;
• PyPI uploads (922130);
• attachments named like debug.log or config.yml (932180).

What script/gitea-requests sends

Of the requests above, the script sends:

• for each file named under "A file name in a query parameter that trips the code rules", the API's list of its commits;
• for Runtime.java alone, the commit graph of that file, the hidden lines of its diff, and the API's call for the contents of files that names it;
• the sign-in page gitea sends a visitor to on the way to the edit page of document.write.js;
• the pages of java.lang.String.md, META-INF/services/org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory, process.env.d.ts and .../notes.txt;
• one container image push that reuses a layer, which it does not try again.

It does not send the raw file, history, blame or edit page of those four files, or the pages of the directories META-INF/services and .... It also sends a short sample of gitea's ordinary use:

• signing in;
• pages of files and commits, and a diff;
• the API;
• a push, and clone and fetch over HTTP;
• two container image pushes.