topic What expression to use to block/permit an entire website? in General Topics

What expression to use to block/permit an entire website?

jambulo — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 16:46:52 GMT

I'm having trouble figuring out what expression to use(in a Custom URL Category) to match any variation of HTTP requests for an entire website. For example, I want a single expression to be able to match/block/permit the following HTTP requests...

example.com/
example.com/path
abc.example.com/
abc.example.com/path
xyz.abc.example.com/
xyc.abc.example.com/path

So far I've only been able to match all of the above by using 2 expressions in the Custom URL Category...

EXAMPLE.COM/ - This will permit example.com/ and any path after it. Will not permit any subdomains.
*.EXAMPLE.COM/ - Will permit abc.example.com/ and any path after it.

Does anyone know of a way to match an entire website using a single expression?

Re: What expression to use to block/permit an entire website?

Adrian_Jensen — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 21:30:16 GMT

The way PA URL pattern matching works (left start string matching up to separator) it requires a minimum of 2 expressions, one for the root domain and one for any subdomain plus root domain, to properly match a website.

example.com/

*.example.com/

Theoretically, you can use a non-separator terminated expression, but that will match the website as well many other sites and paths, i.e.:

example.com

Matches:

http ://example.com/

http ://subdomain.example.com/

http ://example.com.evil.com/

http ://evil.com/pages/example.com.php

For global blocks this might not be as much of a problem (though you may inadvertently block stuff unintentionally), but it is definitely not a good practice for allowing/categorizing sites.