Security threats have always been a prominent issue in this digital era. The more data in digital space, the more precautions we need.
There’s a possibility of many security threats existing in a typical enterprise distributed application including DDoS, SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting, etc. When organizations are trying to increase their internal security, hackers are becoming more creative.
Good security program always requires multiple layers of defence. Multiple layers of security allow one system to catch an attack that may be missed by others. In a hosted application environment those layers typically include firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and server security.
A web application firewall or WAF could be the first line of defence among these security layers.
A web application firewall, which is dynamic and heuristic has a promising role in an IT infrastructure.
It is a type of reverse-proxy, protecting the server from exposure by having clients pass through the WAF before reaching the server. The WAF can look for unusual traffic activity and automatically block that traffic, even if the traffic does not match a known “bad” pattern which makes it different from intrusion detection systems.
A WAF operates through a set of rules often called policies. It is also customizable, allowing you to write rules specific to your application.
Some of the WAF policies are listed below:
- Web attack signature policy
- URL protection policy
- HTTP protocol constraint policy
- SQL/XSS injection detection policy
- Bot detection
Even though many companies have implemented a WAF, most of the web application firewall configurations are not secure. It would be more effective if the following points are considered while configuring a web application firewall.
- Coordinate web application firewall configuration and Web Application Update
- Always check for vulnerabilities
- Use a web application firewall with built-in acceleration
- Lockdown the backdoor
- Understanding of web application environment
A web application firewall acts as the first line of defence and it allows you to make sure that an application is safe by putting in a reasonable amount of initial effort. In addition to implementing them, it is also necessary to properly configure them so that it can be an effective defence mechanism in your bid to keep away hackers.
A more detailed version on secure configuration of web application firewall published at
https://beaglesecurity.com/blog/article/secure-web-application-firewall-configuration.html
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