24. A method, performed by a content search system including a parser, a rules database memory device, a normalizer having a decoder and a plurality of transducers, and a search engine, for determining whether an input string matches one or more rules stored in the rules database, comprising: extracting selected portions of the input string, using the parser, to form a filtered input string; forwarding, by the parser, the filtered input string to the normalizer; generating, by the parser, an activation signal for at least one of the plurality of transducers within the normalizer; decoding the filtered input string, by the decoder, to produce an un-encoded filtered input string; activating each transducer of the plurality of transducers for which an activation signal has been generated; removing a field-specific obfuscation from the un-encoded filtered input string using the at least one activated transducer; forwarding the normalized un-encoded filtered input string to the search engine; generating a rule select signal, using the parser, in response to the selected portions of the input string; selecting a set of rules in the rules database memory device in response to the rule select signal; and loading the selected set of rules from the rules database memory device into the search engine; wherein each transducer of the plurality of transducers is configured to be activated or deactivated in response to a signal from the parser.
31. The method of claim 24 , wherein the input string comprises a request message having multiple fields, and the method further comprises: searching the input string for a whitespace to identify a boundary between the fields of the request message.