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Functions reference

The Cloudflare Rules language provides functions for manipulating and validating values in an expression:

​​ Transformation functions

The Rules language supports several functions that transform values extracted from HTTP requests. A common use case for transformation functions is the conversion of a string of characters to uppercase or lowercase, since by default, string evaluation is case sensitive.

For example, the lower() function converts all uppercase characters in a string to lowercase.

In the expression below, thelower() function transforms http.host values to lowercase so that they match the target value "www.cloudflare.com":

lower(http.host) == "www.cloudflare.com"

Transformation functions that do not take arrays as an argument type require the [*] index notation. Refer to Arrays for more information.

The Rules language supports these transformation functions:

  • any(Array<Boolean>) Boolean

    • Returns true when the comparison operator in the argument returns true for any of the values in the argument array. Returns false otherwise.

    • Example:

      any(url_decode(http.request.body.form.values[*])[*] contains "an xss attack")
  • all(Array<Boolean>) Boolean

    • Returns true when the comparison operator in the argument returns true for all values in the argument array. Returns false otherwise.

    • Example:

      all(http.request.headers["content-type"][*] == "application/json")

  • concat(String | Integer | bytes | Array elements) String

    • Takes a comma-separated list of values. Concatenates the argument values into a single String.

    • Example:

      concat("String1"," ","String",2) == "String1 String2"

  • ends_with(sourceString, substringString) Boolean

    • Returns true when the source ends with a given substring. Returns false otherwise. The source cannot be a literal value (for example, "foo").

    • Example:
      If http.request.uri.path is "/welcome.html", then ends_with(http.request.uri.path, ".html") will return true.

  • len(String | bytes) Integer

    • Returns the byte length of a String or Bytes field.

    • Example:

      len(http.host)

  • lookup_json_integer(fieldString, keyString | Integer [, keyString | Integer, …]) Integer

    • Returns the integer value associated with the supplied key in field.
      The field must be a string representation of a valid JSON document.
      The key can be an attribute name, a zero-based position number in a JSON array, or a combination of these two options (as extra function parameters), while following the hierarchy of the JSON document to obtain a specific integer value.
      Note: This function only works for plain integers. For example, it will not work for floating numbers with a zero decimal part such as 42.0.

    • Examples:

      A) Given the following JSON object contained in the http.request.body.raw field:
      { "record_id": "aed53a", "version": 2 }
      The following function call will return 2:
      lookup_json_integer(http.request.body.raw, "version") == 2

      B) Given the following nested object:
      { "product": { "id": 356 } }
      The following function call will return 356:
      lookup_json_integer(http.request.body.raw, "product", "id") == 356

      C) Given the following JSON array at the root level:
      ["first_item", -234]
      The following function call will return -234:
      lookup_json_integer(http.request.body.raw, 1) == -234

      D) Given the following array in a JSON object attribute:
      { "network_ids": [123, 456] }
      The following function call will return 123:
      lookup_json_integer(http.request.body.raw, "network_ids", 0) == 123

      E) Given the following root-level array of JSON objects:
      [{ "product_id": 123 }, { "product_id": 456 }]
      The following function call will return 456:
      lookup_json_integer(http.request.body.raw, 1, "product_id") == 456

  • lookup_json_string(fieldString, keyString | Integer [, keyString | Integer, …]) String

    • Returns the string value associated with the supplied key in field.
      The field must be a string representation of a valid JSON document.
      The key can be an attribute name, a zero-based position number in a JSON array, or a combination of these two options (as extra function parameters), while following the hierarchy of the JSON document to obtain a specific value.

    • Examples:

      A) Given the following JSON object contained in the http.request.body.raw field:
      { "company": "cloudflare", "product": "rulesets" }
      The following expression will return true:
      lookup_json_string(http.request.body.raw, "company") == "cloudflare"

      B) Given the following nested object:
      { "network": { "name": "cloudflare" } }
      The following expression will return true:
      lookup_json_string(http.request.body.raw, "network", "name") == "cloudflare"

      C) Given the following JSON array at the root level:
      ["other_company", "cloudflare"]
      The following expression will return true:
      lookup_json_string(http.request.body.raw, 1) == "cloudflare"

      D) Given the following array in a JSON object attribute:
      { "networks": ["other_company", "cloudflare"] }
      The following expression will return true:
      lookup_json_string(http.request.body.raw, "networks", 1) == "cloudflare"

      E) Given the following root-level array of JSON objects:
      [{ "network": "other_company" }, { "network": "cloudflare" }]
      The following expression will return true:
      lookup_json_string(http.request.body.raw, 1, "network") == "cloudflare"

  • lower(String) String

    • Converts a string field to lowercase. Only uppercase ASCII bytes are converted. All other bytes are unaffected.

    • Example:

      lower(http.host) == "www.cloudflare.com"

  • regex_replace(sourceString, regular_expressionString, replacementString) String

    • Replaces a part of a source string matched by a regular expression with a replacement string, returning the result. The replacement string can contain references to regular expression capture groups.

    • Examples:

      Literal match replace:
      regex_replace("/foo/bar", "/bar$", "/baz") == "/foo/baz"

      If there is no match, the input string does not change:
      regex_replace("/x", "^/y$", "/mumble") == "/x"

      Match is case sensitive by default:
      regex_replace("/foo", "^/FOO$", "/x") == "/foo"

      When there are multiple matches, only one replacement occurs (the first one):
      regex_replace("/a/a", "/a", "/b") == "/b/a"

      Escape a $ in the replacement string by prefixing it with another $:
      regex_replace("/b", "^/b$", "/b$$") == "/b$"

      Replace with capture groups:
      regex_replace("/foo/a/path", "^/foo/([^/]*)/(.*)$", "/bar/${2}/${1}") == "/bar/path/a/"

      Create capture groups by putting part of the regular expression in parentheses. Then, reference a capture group using ${<num>} in the replacement string, where <num> is the number of the capture group.

  • remove_bytes(bytes) bytes

    • Returns a new byte array with all the occurrences of the given bytes removed.

    • Example:

      // With http.host = "www.cloudflare.com":
      remove_bytes(http.host, "\x2e\x77") == "cloudflarecom"
  • starts_with(sourceString, substringString) Boolean

    • Returns true when the source starts with a given substring. Returns false otherwise. The source cannot be a literal value (for example, "foo").

    • Example:

      // With http.request.uri.path = "/blog/first-post":
      starts_with(http.request.uri.path, "/blog") == true
  • substring(fieldString | Bytes, startInteger [, endInteger]) String

    • Returns part of the field value (the value of a String or Bytes field) from the start byte index up to (but excluding) the end byte index. The first byte in field has index 0. If you do not provide the optional end index, the function returns the part of the string from start index to the end of the string.

    • The end index must be greater than the start index. The start and end indexes can be negative integer values, which allows you to access characters from the end of the string instead of the beginning.

    • Examples:

      // With http.request.body.raw = "asdfghjk":
      substring(http.request.body.raw, 2, 5) == "dfg"
      substring(http.request.body.raw, 2) == "dfghjk"
      substring(http.request.body.raw, -2) == "jk"
  • to_string(Integer | Boolean | IP address) String

    • Returns the string representation of an Integer, Boolean, or IP address value.

    • Examples:

      to_string(cf.bot_management.score) == "5"
      to_string(ssl) == "true"
  • upper(String) String

    • Converts a string field to uppercase. Only lowercase ASCII bytes are converted. All other bytes are unaffected.

    • Example:

      upper(http.host) == “WWW.CLOUDFLARE.COM”

  • url_decode(sourceString[, optionsString]) String

    • Decodes a URL-formatted string defined in source, as in the following:

      • %20 and + decode to a space character ( ).

      • %E4%BD decodes to ä½.

    • The options parameter is optional. You must provide any options as a single string wrapped in quotes, such as "r" or "ur". The available options are the following:

      • r: Applies recursive decoding. For example, %2520 will be decoded twice (recursively) to a space character ( ).
      • u: Enables Unicode percent decoding. For example, %E2%98%81%EF%B8%8F will be decoded to a cloud emoji (☁️).
    • Examples:

      url_decode("John%20Doe") == "John Doe"
      url_decode("John+Doe") == "John Doe"
      url_decode("%2520") == "%20"
      url_decode("%2520", "r") == " "
      // With the any() function:
      any(url_decode(http.request.body.form.values[*])[*] contains "an xss attack")
  • uuidv4(Bytes) String

    • Generates a random UUIDv4 (Universally Unique Identifier, version 4) based on the given argument (a source of randomness). To obtain an array of random bytes, use the cf.random_seed field.

    • Example:
      uuidv4(cf.random_seed) returns a UUIDv4 similar to 49887398-6bcf-485f-8899-f15dbef4d1d5

​​ Magic Firewall Functions

  • bit_slice(protocol String, offset_start Number, offset_end Number) Number

    • This function looks for matches on a given slice of bits.
    • The offset starts on the given protocol header. For example, to match on the first bit of payload for a UDP packet, you must set offset_start to 64.
    • This is primarily intended for use with ip, udp, and tcp.
    • The slice (offset_endoffset_start) cannot be longer than 32 bits, but multiple calls can be joined together via logical expressions.
    • The bit_slice offset cannot exceed 2,040 bits.

​​ HMAC validation

​​ Overview

You can validate hash-based message authentication code (HMAC) tokens in a rule expression by using the is_timed_hmac_valid_v0() function, which has this signature:

is_timed_hmac_valid_v0(
<String literal as Key>,
<String field as MessageMAC>,
<Integer literal as ttl>,
<Integer as currentTimeStamp>,
<Optional Integer literal as lengthOfSeparator, default: 0>,
<Optional String literal as flags>
) -> <Bool as result>

The is_timed_hmac_valid_v0() function has these parameter definitions:

  • Key String literal

    • Specifies the secret cryptographic key for validating the HMAC.
  • MessageMAC String

    • Contains a concatenation of these HMAC elements: message, separator, timestamp, mac. For a definition and an example, refer to MessageMAC.
  • ttl Integer literal

    • Defines the time-to-live for the HMAC token, expressed in seconds. Determines how long the token is valid, relative to the time it was issued.
  • currentTimeStamp Integer

    • Represents the UNIX timestamp when Cloudflare received the request, expressed in seconds. Pass the http.request.timestamp.sec field as an approximate value to this argument.
  • lengthOfSeparator Integer literal optional

    • Specifies the length of the separator between the timestamp and the message in the MessageMAC. Expressed in bytes, with a default value of 0.
  • flags String literal optional

    • When you set this optional argument to 's', the function expects the value of the Base64-encoded mac in the MessageMAC argument to use the URL-safe character set with no padding.

    • When you do not set the value of flags to 's', you must URL encode the Base64 value for mac in the MessageMAC argument.

​​ Usage

The is_timed_hmac_valid_v0() function uses the supplied Key to generate a message authentication code (MAC) from the message and the timestamp regions of the MessageMAC. When the generated MAC matches the mac region of the MessageMAC and the token has not expired, the HMAC is valid and the function returns true.

For example, the following expression matches requests to downloads.example.com that do not include valid HMAC tokens:

http.host == "downloads.example.com"
and not is_timed_hmac_valid_v0("mysecretkey", http.request.uri, 100000, http.request.timestamp.sec, 8)

For examples of rules that use HMAC validation, refer to Configure token authentication in the WAF documentation.

​​ MessageMAC

A valid MessageMAC satisfies the following regular expression:

(.+)(.*)(\d{10})-(.{43,})

and is composed of these parentheses-delimited expressions:

ExpressionDescriptionExample
(.+)The message to validate./download/cat.jpg
(.*)The separator between message and timestamp, commonly a parameter name.&verify=
(\d{10})The 10-digit UNIX timestamp when the MAC was issued, expressed in seconds.1484063137
(.{43,})

A Base64-encoded version of the mac. When you do not set the value of the urlSafe argument in the HMAC validation function to 's', you must URL-encode the Base64 value for mac.

When the Base64 MAC encoding is URL-safe, the mac value contains 43 bytes. Otherwise, the value will be 44 bytes or more, because of URL encoding.

IaLGSmELTvlhfd0ItdN6PhhHTFhzx
73EX8uy%2FcSDiIU%3D

For details on generating a MessageMAC, refer to HMAC token generation.

​​ HMAC validation examples

​​ MessageMAC in a single field

Consider the case where the MessageMAC is contained entirely within a single field, as in this example URI path:

/download/cat.jpg?verify=1484063787-IaLGSmELTvlhfd0ItdN6PhhHTFhzx73EX8uy%2FcSDiIU%3D

Note how the URI maps to the elements of the MessageMAC:

ElementValue
message/download/cat.jpg
separator?verify= (with length 8)
timestamp1484063787
macIaLGSmELTvlhfd0ItdN6PhhHTFhzx73EX8uy%2FcSDiIU%3D

When the MessageMAC is contained entirely within a single field such as http.request.uri, pass the field name to the MessageMAC argument of the HMAC validation function:

is_timed_hmac_valid_v0(
"mysecretkey",
http.request.uri,
100000,
http.request.timestamp.sec,
8
)

​​ Concatenated MessageMAC argument

To compose a MessageMAC from more than one field, use the concat() function.

This example constructs the value of the MessageMAC argument by concatenating the request URI and two header fields:

is_timed_hmac_valid_v0(
"mysecretkey",
concat(
http.request.uri,
http.request.headers["timestamp"][0],
"-",
http.request.headers["mac"][0]),
100000,
http.request.timestamp.sec,
0
)