1. A method for executing by an application firewall an application security profile for a type of network traffic, the method comprising: (a) identifying, by an application firewall executing on a device intermediary to a plurality of clients and one or more servers, an application security profile specifying a type of network traffic the firewall profile applies to and one or more application firewall security checks selected from a plurality of application firewall security checks to apply to the type of network traffic; (b) identifying, by the application firewall, a firewall policy that specifies the application security profile from a plurality of application security profiles instead of an action to take as a result of evaluating a rule of the firewall policy; (c) applying, by the application firewall, the firewall policy to a packet received by the device corresponding to the type of network traffic; and (d) processing, by the application firewall responsive to evaluation of the rule of the firewall policy, the one or more application firewall security checks of the application security profile to the packet.