UpdateWebACL - AWS WAFV2
Request SyntaxRequest ParametersResponse SyntaxResponse ElementsErrorsSee Also

UpdateWebACL

Note

AWS WAF Classic support will end on September 30, 2025.

This is AWS WAF Classic documentation. For more information, see AWS WAF Classic in the developer guide.

For the latest version of AWS WAF , use the AWS WAFV2 API and see the AWS WAF Developer Guide. With the latest version, AWS WAF has a single set of endpoints for regional and global use.

Inserts or deletes ActivatedRule objects in a WebACL. Each Rule identifies web requests that you want to allow, block, or count. When you update a WebACL, you specify the following values:

  • A default action for the WebACL, either ALLOW or BLOCK. AWS WAF performs the default action if a request doesn't match the criteria in any of the Rules in a WebACL.

  • The Rules that you want to add or delete. If you want to replace one Rule with another, you delete the existing Rule and add the new one.

  • For each Rule, whether you want AWS WAF to allow requests, block requests, or count requests that match the conditions in the Rule.

  • The order in which you want AWS WAF to evaluate the Rules in a WebACL. If you add more than one Rule to a WebACL, AWS WAF evaluates each request against the Rules in order based on the value of Priority. (The Rule that has the lowest value for Priority is evaluated first.) When a web request matches all the predicates (such as ByteMatchSets and IPSets) in a Rule, AWS WAF immediately takes the corresponding action, allow or block, and doesn't evaluate the request against the remaining Rules in the WebACL, if any.

To create and configure a WebACL, perform the following steps:

  1. Create and update the predicates that you want to include in Rules. For more information, see CreateByteMatchSet, UpdateByteMatchSet, CreateIPSet, UpdateIPSet, CreateSqlInjectionMatchSet, and UpdateSqlInjectionMatchSet.

  2. Create and update the Rules that you want to include in the WebACL. For more information, see CreateRule and UpdateRule.

  3. Create a WebACL. See CreateWebACL.

  4. Use GetChangeToken to get the change token that you provide in the ChangeToken parameter of an UpdateWebACL request.

  5. Submit an UpdateWebACL request to specify the Rules that you want to include in the WebACL, to specify the default action, and to associate the WebACL with an Amazon CloudFront distribution.

    The ActivatedRule can be a rule group. If you specify a rule group as your ActivatedRule, you can exclude specific rules from that rule group.

    If you already have a rule group associated with a web ACL and want to submit an UpdateWebACL request to exclude certain rules from that rule group, you must first remove the rule group from the web ACL, the re-insert it again, specifying the excluded rules. For details, see ActivatedRule:ExcludedRules.

Be aware that if you try to add a RATE_BASED rule to a web ACL without setting the rule type when first creating the rule, the UpdateWebACL request will fail because the request tries to add a REGULAR rule (the default rule type) with the specified ID, which does not exist.

For more information about how to use the AWS WAF API to allow or block HTTP requests, see the AWS WAF Developer Guide.

Request Syntax

{
   "ChangeToken": "string",
   "DefaultAction": { 
      "Type": "string"
   },
   "Updates": [ 
      { 
         "Action": "string",
         "ActivatedRule": { 
            "Action": { 
               "Type": "string"
            },
            "ExcludedRules": [ 
               { 
                  "RuleId": "string"
               }
            ],
            "OverrideAction": { 
               "Type": "string"
            },
            "Priority": number,
            "RuleId": "string",
            "Type": "string"
         }
      }
   ],
   "WebACLId": "string"
}

Request Parameters

For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see Common Parameters.

The request accepts the following data in JSON format.

ChangeToken

The value returned by the most recent call to GetChangeToken.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 128.

Pattern: .*\S.*

Required: Yes

DefaultAction

Type: WafAction object

Required: No

Updates

An array of updates to make to the WebACL.

An array of WebACLUpdate objects that you want to insert into or delete from a WebACL. For more information, see the applicable data types:

  • WebACLUpdate: Contains Action and ActivatedRule

  • ActivatedRule: Contains Action, OverrideAction, Priority, RuleId, and Type. ActivatedRule|OverrideAction applies only when updating or adding a RuleGroup to a WebACL. In this case, you do not use ActivatedRule|Action. For all other update requests, ActivatedRule|Action is used instead of ActivatedRule|OverrideAction.

  • WafAction: Contains Type

Type: Array of WebACLUpdate objects

Required: No

WebACLId

The WebACLId of the WebACL that you want to update. WebACLId is returned by CreateWebACL and by ListWebACLs.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 128.

Pattern: .*\S.*

Required: Yes

Response Syntax

{
   "ChangeToken": "string"
}

Response Elements

If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response.

The following data is returned in JSON format by the service.

ChangeToken

The ChangeToken that you used to submit the UpdateWebACL request. You can also use this value to query the status of the request. For more information, see GetChangeTokenStatus.

Type: String

Length Constraints: Minimum length of 1. Maximum length of 128.

Pattern: .*\S.*

Errors

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.

WAFInternalErrorException

The operation failed because of a system problem, even though the request was valid. Retry your request.

HTTP Status Code: 500

WAFInvalidAccountException

The operation failed because you tried to create, update, or delete an object by using an invalid account identifier.

HTTP Status Code: 400

WAFInvalidOperationException

The operation failed because there was nothing to do. For example:

  • You tried to remove a Rule from a WebACL, but the Rule isn't in the specified WebACL.

  • You tried to remove an IP address from an IPSet, but the IP address isn't in the specified IPSet.

  • You tried to remove a ByteMatchTuple from a ByteMatchSet, but the ByteMatchTuple isn't in the specified WebACL.

  • You tried to add a Rule to a WebACL, but the Rule already exists in the specified WebACL.

  • You tried to add a ByteMatchTuple to a ByteMatchSet, but the ByteMatchTuple already exists in the specified WebACL.

HTTP Status Code: 400

WAFInvalidParameterException

The operation failed because AWS WAF didn't recognize a parameter in the request. For example:

  • You specified an invalid parameter name.

  • You specified an invalid value.

  • You tried to update an object (ByteMatchSet, IPSet, Rule, or WebACL) using an action other than INSERT or DELETE.

  • You tried to create a WebACL with a DefaultAction Type other than ALLOW, BLOCK, or COUNT.

  • You tried to create a RateBasedRule with a RateKey value other than IP.

  • You tried to update a WebACL with a WafAction Type other than ALLOW, BLOCK, or COUNT.

  • You tried to update a ByteMatchSet with a FieldToMatch Type other than HEADER, METHOD, QUERY_STRING, URI, or BODY.

  • You tried to update a ByteMatchSet with a Field of HEADER but no value for Data.

  • Your request references an ARN that is malformed, or corresponds to a resource with which a web ACL cannot be associated.

HTTP Status Code: 400

WAFLimitsExceededException

The operation exceeds a resource limit, for example, the maximum number of WebACL objects that you can create for an AWS account. For more information, see AWS WAF Classic quotas in the AWS WAF Developer Guide.

HTTP Status Code: 400

WAFNonexistentContainerException

The operation failed because you tried to add an object to or delete an object from another object that doesn't exist. For example:

  • You tried to add a Rule to or delete a Rule from a WebACL that doesn't exist.

  • You tried to add a ByteMatchSet to or delete a ByteMatchSet from a Rule that doesn't exist.

  • You tried to add an IP address to or delete an IP address from an IPSet that doesn't exist.

  • You tried to add a ByteMatchTuple to or delete a ByteMatchTuple from a ByteMatchSet that doesn't exist.

HTTP Status Code: 400

WAFNonexistentItemException

The operation failed because the referenced object doesn't exist.

HTTP Status Code: 400

WAFReferencedItemException

The operation failed because you tried to delete an object that is still in use. For example:

  • You tried to delete a ByteMatchSet that is still referenced by a Rule.

  • You tried to delete a Rule that is still referenced by a WebACL.

HTTP Status Code: 400

WAFStaleDataException

The operation failed because you tried to create, update, or delete an object by using a change token that has already been used.

HTTP Status Code: 400

WAFSubscriptionNotFoundException

The specified subscription does not exist.

HTTP Status Code: 400

See Also

For more information about using this API in one of the language-specific AWS SDKs, see the following: