Why Web Application Firewalls Play A Key Role In Protecting Your Applications
A web application firewall helps in protecting web applications by monitoring and filtering the HTTP traffic between the internet and the web application. Cross-site forgery, file inclusion, SQL injection, cross-site scripting are some of the attacks that are protected with the help of these web applications. Web application Firewall is a protocol layer 7 defense from the Open Systems Interconnection Model. It is not designed for defending all types of attacks. Holistic defense against several attack vectors is created with the help of these tools and methods.
Web Application Firewall allows you to place a shield between the internet as well as the web application. A proxy server provides protection to the client machine’s identity with the help of an intermediary. However, a web application firewall is kind of a reverse proxy. It protects the server exposure by having clients surfing through the Web Application Firewall before they reach out to the server.
The web application Firewall always operates on a certain set of rules called policies. Most importantly, the policies are helping to protect against all vulnerabilities in the application simply by filtering out malicious traffic. With the help of policy modification, Web application Firewall allows for a faster response to varying attack vectors. for example, in case of a DDoS attack, by modifying the web application Firewall policies, rate limiting can be quickly implemented.
We depend on applications every day. This is the way, your customers as well as partners connect with you. Sadly, the application remains one of the most exploited and exposed one towards the threat vectors. Barracuda WAF ensures protection to your webpages, API applications, mobile from getting compromised. Along with this, it also prevents data breaches. They believe in maintaining the reputation as well as the trust and confidence of the customer.
According to the Baracuda, WAFs help in deploying enterprise-proven security in just minutes. It also offers complete control over building specific policies. Lastly, with the help of a Fully-featured API, dev-ops can automate security controls using familiar tools.
Types Of WAFs
There are three different ways in which a web application firewall can be implemented. Each of them has its own benefits as well as negatives.
Network-Based WAF
Network-based web application Firewall is generally hardware-based. Latency is minimized as they are installed locally. These are kind of expensive options as they require maintenance and storage of physical equipment.
Host-Based WAF
Most of the time, an application firewall can be integrated into the application’s software. Customizability is offered in this. In addition to this, this solution is also less expensive than compared to the network-based web application firewall. Some of the shortcomings for host-based web application firewalls include implementation complexity, consumption of local server resources, and maintenance cost. Along with this, engineering time is required by the components.
Cloud-Based WAF
This type of application Firewall is the easiest to implement, indeed, available at an affordable cost. They have a minimal upfront cost, as users are paying either monthly or annually for these solutions. Cloud-based web application Firewalls are constantly and consistently updated. Most importantly, they help in protecting against the newest threats without any additional cost from the user side. Contrary to this, the user is handing over the responsibility to a third party for handling the cloud-based WAF. Therefore, some features of the cloud-based web application Firewall might be simply unknown to them.
Benefits Of A Web Application Firewall
Challenges While Securing Applications With WAF
Moreover, with numerous benefits of securing your applications with the web application firewall, there also arises several challenges faced during the same. Some of the challenges of faced while securing applications with web application Firewall are:
Source:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/ag-overview
https://aws.amazon.com/waf/?sc_channel=PS&sc_campaign=acquisition_IN&sc_publisher=google&sce!!g!!waf&ef_id=CjwKCAiAnIT9BRAmEiwANaoE1SdMO-y3xsa6nwqAuhO-DVaanHuifPY1CG-4gbULOK70mazFabth4xoC7QgQAvD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!4422!3!159792790718!e!!g!!waf
https://www.barracuda.com/products/webapplicationfirewall
Reference:
https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ddos/glossary/web-application-firewall-waf/
https://www.contrastsecurity.com/security-influencers/top-5-challenges-securing-applications-with-web-application-firewalls