Signals are labels that describe requests. Requests are tagged with signals based on the logic of your active rules. Per our data storage and sampling policy, the type of signals that requests are tagged with help determine which individual request data is stored and available in the web interface. You can find and search for requests that have been tagged with a specific signal on the Requests page.
Limitations and considerations
When working with signals, keep the following things in mind:
- The Essentials platform does not support custom signals.
- Depending on the platform you have purchased, you can monitor signals for a site via the Signals Dashboard page or the Signals page.
Platform Supported page Essentials Signals page Professional Signals Dashboard page Premier Signals Dashboard page
How signals work
When requests are made to your web application, the Signal Sciences agent uses your active rules to identify which requests need to be tagged with a signal and then tags them with the appropriate signal. The system then counts the number of requests that get tagged with a particular signal during one minute periods and makes this data available via timeseries graphs on the Signals Dashboard and Signals pages.
Signal type (e.g., attack, anomaly, custom) determines what individual request data is stored and available in the console. For example, we store data from all requests that are tagged with the SQLI system signal because SQLI is an attack signal. We don’t store individual request data for requests that haven’t been tagged with a signal.
Types of signals
There are two main types of signals:
- Custom: signals that you create at the corp-level and site-level to track request behavior that is particular to your web applications.
- System: signals that we create to track common attacks, anomalies, and behaviors (e.g., requests to your API and account login and registration activity).
Filtering requests by signal
On the Requests page, you can use the tag field to filter requests by a specific signal.
| Signal type | Description |
|---|---|
| System signal | The search syntax is tag: <system-signal>. You will need to replace <system-signal> with the name of the system signal that you want to search for. |
| Corp-level custom signal | The search syntax is tag: corp.<corp-custom-signal>. You will need to replace <corp-custom-signal> with the name of the corp custom signal that you want to search for. The Corp Signals page lists the custom signals that were created at the corp level. |
| Site-level custom signal | The search syntax is tag: site.<site-custom-signal>. You will need to replace <site-custom-signal> with the name of the site custom signal that you want to search for. The Site Signals page lists your custom signals that were created at the site level. |