1. What is a Web Application Firewall (WAF)?
WAF software products are widely used to protect web applications and websites from threats or attacks. It effectively defends against cross-site forgery, cross-site scripting (XSS attacks), SQL Injection, DDoS attacks and many other types of attacks. These software solutions provide automated defense and allow for custom administrative control over the rule set, as certain applications may have unique traffic trends, zero-day threats, or web application vulnerabilities, WAFs generally also provide logging capabilities to record and Analyze attacks, events, and normal application behavior.
Fire Umbrella Cloud recommends that all companies with web applications should use WAF products to ensure that all holes in the application itself are filled. Without a WAF, many threats may go undetected and data breaches may occur.
Web application firewall (WAF) software mainly has the following advantages:
Protect against web-based threats
History of Events and Events
Resilient, scalable web application protection
2. Why do you need to use Web Application Firewall (WAF) software?
WA tools offer several benefits and can improve the security of applications deployed online, and web-based threats should be a concern for all businesses. Therefore, all businesses deploying web-based applications should ensure that they are working hard to defend against cyber threats.
The many threats that WAF products can help protect against include:
Cross-site scripting (XSS) . Cross-site scripting (XSS) is an attack that uses a web application to inject malicious script into a website to send malicious code. Malicious scripts can be used to access information such as cookies, session tokens, and other sensitive data collected by web browsers.
Inject flaws . Injection flaws are vulnerabilities that allow an attacker to send code through an application to another system. The most common type is SQL injection. In this case, the attacker finds the key of the web application through the database, executes its code, and can start querying for any information they want.
Malicious file execution . Malicious file execution is done when an attacker is able to enter a malicious file uploaded to a web server or application server, which can execute after upload and completely compromise the application server.
Unsafe direct object reference . Insecure direct object references occur when user input can directly access an application's internal components. These vulnerabilities allow attackers to bypass security protocols and directly access resources, files, and data.
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) . A CSRF attack forces a user to perform actions on a web application to which the user has access, which may force the user to reluctantly submit a request that may damage the web application, or change their credentials to something an attacker can reuse in the future to Get access to the application.
Information leakage . Information disclosure can occur when unauthorized parties gain access to a database or access a URL that is not linked from the site. Attackers may be able to access sensitive files, such as password backups or unpublished documents.
Improper error handling . Error handling refers to pre-programmed measures that allow applications to eliminate unexpected events without exposing sensitive information. Improper error handling can lead to data leakage, vulnerability exposure, application failure, and other problems.
Authentication failed . Authentication failures are caused by improperly functioning credential management. If authentication measures fail, attackers can bypass security measures without valid identification. This could give attackers direct access to entire networks, servers, and applications.
session management . Session management errors occur when an attacker manipulates or captures the tokenized ID presented to an authenticated visitor. Attackers can impersonate regular users or target privileged users to gain access control and hijack applications.
Insecure encrypted storage . Encrypted storage is used to authenticate and secure online communications. An attacker may identify and gain access to unencrypted or less encrypted resources that may contain sensitive information. Proper encryption usually prevents this from happening, but poor key storage, weak algorithms, and flawed key generation Sensitive data may be at risk.
Insecure communication . Insecure communication occurs when messages exchanged between a client and server become visible.
3. Software and services related to Web Application Firewall (WAF) software
There are many security tools that provide similar functionality to web application firewall software, but operate in different capabilities.
Similar technologies used to defend against network-based threats include:
firewall software . Firewalls come in many forms, such as network firewalls are used to restrict access to a local computer network, server firewalls restrict access to physical servers, there are many varieties of firewalls designed to protect against various threats, attacks, and vulnerabilities, but WAF software is specifically designed to protect designed for web applications and the various databases, networks, and servers that communicate with them.
DDoS protection software . A DDoS attack is the bombardment of a website with a flood of malicious traffic, usually in the form of a botnet. DDoS protection tools monitor traffic for anomalies and restrict access if malicious traffic is detected. These tools protect websites from specific types of attacks, but do not protect web applications from many different kinds of attacks.
Application blocking software . Application shielding technologies are used to improve security at the core of applications. Like application firewalls, these tools can help prevent malicious code injection and data breaches, but these tools are often used as an additional layer of application security to prevent threats and Keep applications safe when firewalls are bypassed.
Bot detection and mitigation software . Bot detection and mitigation tools are used to protect against bot-based attacks, similar to DDoS protection tools. But in addition to DDoS protection, bot detection products often add some level of detection for fraudulent transactions and other bot activity. These tools prevent unauthorized network access and activity, such as firewalls, but are limited to detecting bot-based threats.
Website security software . Website security tools often include web application firewalls as well as some other security tools designed to protect websites. They are often used in conjunction with application-level antivirus, secure content delivery network, and DDoS protection tools.