The need for a Web Application Firewall and why it should be implemented on every website firewall
In the vast, intricate world of the internet, a website without proper security is akin to an open vault in a bank, inviting all forms of cyber looting. But fear not! The Web Application Firewall is one superhero that can put these digital thieves at bay. Welcome to our exploration of this powerful tool that stands as an impenetrable fortress, protecting your website data from relentless cyberattacks.
This article will discuss web application firewalls and their importance.
How do you explain a web application firewall (WAF)?
There is a type of firewall called a web application firewall (WAF) that watches, filters, and blocks HTTP data going to and from a website or web application. A WAF can be in the cloud, on a network, or on a computer. Most of the time, it is put in front of one or more websites or apps through a reverse proxy. The WAF checks every packet and uses a rule base to look at Layer 7 web application logic and block potentially harmful traffic that can help web exploits happen. It can run as a network appliance, a server plugin, or a cloud service.
Businesses often use web application firewalls to keep their web systems safe from zero-day exploits, malware infections, impersonation, and other known and unknown risks and weaknesses.
A WAF can find and fix some of the most dangerous security holes in web applications right away, which is something that standard network firewalls and other intrusion detection systems (IDSes) and intrusion prevention systems (IPSes) might not be able to do. Businesses that sell goods or provide services over the Internet, like those that offer e-commerce, online banking, or other ways for customers or business partners to talk to each other, should use WAFs.
What does a WAF do?
Anything from software to hardware to a service can be a WAF. It looks at HTTP requests and uses a set of rules to figure out what parts of the conversation are safe and what parts are dangerous.
GET and POST requests are the main parts of HTTP talk that a WAF looks at. With a GET request, you can get information from the server. A POST request, on the other hand, lets you send data to the server to change its state.
One of these three ways is what a WAF can do to look at and filter the information in these HTTP requests:
Whitelisting: By default, the WAF blocks all requests and only lets through requests that it knows can be trusted. This gives you a list of IP numbers that are known to be safe. Whitelisting doesn’t use as many resources as blacklisting. One problem with whitelisting is that it might block good traffic by accident. It can be useful and cast a wide net, but it can also be inaccurate.
Blacklisting: Blacklisting uses pre-set codes to stop bad web traffic and keep websites or web apps from being hacked. It’s a list of rules that show which files are harmful. When it comes to public websites and web apps, blacklisting works better because they get a lot of traffic from IP addresses that aren’t known to be malicious or neutral. If you use blacklisting instead of defaulting to trusted IP addresses, it takes more time, resources, and information to filter packets based on specific features.
Hybrid security: There are parts of both blacklisting and whitelisting in a hybrid security approach.
No matter what security model a WAF uses, it looks at HTTP interactions and stops or significantly lowers malicious activity or data before it gets to a server to be processed. Most WAFs need their rules to be updated often so they can deal with new security holes. However, recent developments in machine learning have made it possible for some WAFs to correct themselves.
Web application firewall types
There are now three main types of web application firewalls, which are as follows:
Network-based WAF: Most of the time, these are hardware-based and can lower latency because they are installed directly on-premises through a dedicated appliance, as close to the application as possible. Most of the big network-based WAF vendors let you copy rules and settings to multiple appliances. This enables you to deploy, configure, and control a lot of devices at once. The biggest problem with this kind of WAF is that it’s expensive. You have to pay for it upfront and then keep paying for upkeep over time.
Host-based WAFs: These can be fully built into the code of the programme. A host-based WAF has many perks, such as lower costs and more ways to customise it. However, host-based WAFs can be hard to handle because they need application libraries and resources on the local server to work well. To address these WAFs, you may also need more staff, such as developers, system analysts, and DevOps or DevSecOps.
Cloud-based WAFs: These are a cheap choice for businesses that want a product that is ready to use and doesn’t need much management. Cloud-based WAFs are simple to set up, can be subscribed to, and to move application traffic, they usually only need a simple domain name system (DNS) or proxy change. This approach lets applications be protected across a wide range of hosting locations and uses the same rules to stop application layer attacks, even though it can be hard to trust a third-party provider to filter an organization’s web application traffic. These third parties also have the most up-to-date danger information and can help find and stop the newest application security threats.
A WAF is better than regular firewalls because it lets you see more of the private application data that’s sent using the HTTP application layer.
Why do we need WAF?
Strong defence against known threats and weaknesses
The amount of risk that businesses face from the quickly growing threat landscape depends on how likely the threat is to happen and how bad it could be. Vulnerabilities in the application make the risk even higher. Vulnerabilities give attackers open doors through which to plan strikes or breaches. People who want to harm others often look through websites for these kinds of holes.
The WAF has successfully closed a wide range of known security holes. These include SQL injections, XSS, XXE, malware defacements, bad credentials, and more.
In addition, it can block malicious traffic and only let authorised users view the website. This keeps vulnerabilities from being found and used.
How to Find and Protect Against Bad Bots
Businesses are very vulnerable to bot attacks because bots make up 40% of all internet traffic, and 60% of that traffic is bad bots. In contrast to network firewalls and antivirus software, an advanced and clever Web app firewall can easily spot malicious bot traffic by:
- constantly updated signature pool
- behavior analysis based on global, historical data
- user-agent knowledge,
- continuous traffic profiling and monitoring,
- JavaScript No-Op (challenge-based approach) to force the user to prove they are not bots,
- real-time intelligence
The web app firewall rules can be set up in the following ways to protect the website from bad bots once they have been identified:
- Signature blacklisting means blocking websites based on known harmful signatures.
- Geolocation enforcement means blocking website access in places where shipping or operations don’t happen.
- Setting limits on the length of sessions, the number of visits, and the amount of traffic to end sessions that last too long, making sure that session cookies are not saved, and lowering the risk of bots taking advantage of security holes.
- Putting limits on traffic from certain IP addresses
- Keeping an eye on behaviour to stop brute-force attacks
Using both virtual patching and real intelligence to make security stronger
Web Application Firewalls apply instant virtual patches when unprotected or unfixed flaws are found on the website. This gives developers plenty of time to fix the problems and stops attackers from taking advantage of them.
New, advanced web app firewalls offer more than just virtual patching; they also give you real information. Real information about attack attempts, methods used, and other things can be turned into useful information that can be used to block particular users or IP addresses or make custom rules based on how attacks behave to shut them down.
Custom setup based on application risk
A sophisticated Web App Firewall that lets you change and customise policies is what makes continuous protection possible in a threat world that changes quickly and with websites and apps that are always changing. So, WAF can successfully protect against a wide range of known vulnerabilities and bot attacks, as well as business logic flaws and zero-day threats.
Due to its high level of configurability, WAF makes it possible to meet compliance and regulatory standards like PCI-DSS. With a mix of whitelisting and blacklisting rules, the business can successfully manage who can access the website.
Defence against DDoS attacks
The best web app firewalls protect against DDoS attacks in more than one way. These have a DDoS-resistant network design that is spread out around the world and has built-in redundant resources that can handle sudden traffic spikes and stop Layer 3 and 4 attacks. Layer 7 attacks can’t happen because a controlled, intelligent WAF is always on, available 24 hours a day, and staffed with certified security experts.
Enhanced Website Efficiency
Add a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to your website, and it will run faster without sacrificing security. The website loads more quickly because the content is saved and served from the closest data centre, so it doesn’t have to connect to the web server every time. This means that fewer computing resources are needed to handle user requests.
Conclusion
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is essential for any website seeking maximum security. It defends against SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other new cyber threats. WAF secures a website and develops user trust by protecting their data. Given the rise of cybercrime, disregarding such precautions could hurt internet businesses. Thus, website owners must immediately install a Web Application Firewall and strengthen their security.
