HTTP headers are used in Real-time Protection policies to match against various fields in the HTTP Request and Response headers. Currently, while configuring a Real-time Protection policy, the list of available attributes are based on the traits of the source web-client (User, OS, Browser) and the destination web-domain (App, Activity, Category).
You can create many combinations of these policy attributes to enforce their security compliance objectives. The HTTP header profile expands the policy framework with an option to specify and evaluate HTTP headers during real-time processing of web traffic. This provides more granular control by making available the option to include HTTP header parameters along with the other existing parameters.
Once an HTTP header profile is created, you can select it from a Real-time Protection policy.
button. The New HTTP Header Profile page opens.
tabs to specify HTTP Header fields that you want to match against. All the header fields are “AND”ed together, and all the values in a single header field are “OR”ed together.Tip
No wildcard or substring support at this time, exact match only.
The following table lists and describes some examples of the fields available in the Request and Response tabs when creating a new HTTP Header profile. For a full list of available fields, see the Netskope UI.
In the Request tab, the default Request fields are Method and Host. Click the Add Request Fields dropdown to add more fields.

In the Response tab, the default Response field is Content-Type. Click the Add Response Fields dropdown to add more fields.

For certain header fields, you can click + Add to add more attributes to the field.

| Field | Attribute Type | Value Example |
|---|---|---|
| Accept-Encoding | String Arbiter (exact match) Case-insensitive | gzip deflate |
| Host | String Arbiter (exact match) Case-insensitive | en.wikipedia.org:8080 en.wikipedia.org |
| Referer | String Arbiter (exact match) Case-insensitive | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page |
| Method | String Arbiter (exact match) Case-insensitive | get post put |
| Content-Encoding | String Arbiter (exact match) Case-insensitive | gzip |
| Content-Type | String Arbiter (exact match) Case-insensitive | application/x-www-form-urlencoded |
| Origin | String | https://www.google.com |
| Upgrade | String Arbiter (exact match) Case-insensitive | Example 1 Upgrade: websocket Example 2 Upgrade: HTTP/2.0, SHTTP/1.3, IRC/6.9, RTA/x11 |
Note
Once the extended HTTP headers feature is enabled and you create new fields, this feature can’t be downgraded. All existing HTTP header profiles that you created prior to upgrading will be migrated and continue to work.
To add a custom header field:


To block WebDAV traffic:



From the HTTP Header list page:



You can add any HTTP Header profile to a Real-time Protection policy. Navigate to the Real-time Protection policies list page.

HTTP Header profiles encapsulate different fields of an HTTP Header. Click in the HTTP Header field to add from the list.
If you do not have any existing profiles, you can create one directly from the policy creation page. Click the gear icon to open the HTTP Header Profiles list page in a separate tab.

See the Real-time Protection Policies topic for additional information creating policies.