Introduction to Web Application Firewall (WAF) ~ Website Security

Introduction to Web Application Firewall (WAF) ~ Website Security

WAF is expanded as Web Application Firewall. WAF is server side application that controls the input and output(filter the HTTP communication). It controls network traffic on any OSI Layer up to Application Layer. The main purpose of WAF is to provide better protection over the top Wep Application vulnerability such as XSS(Cross Site Scripting), SQL Injection,RFI. Daily lot of websites hacked because of these vulnerability. Read Our Security NewsSection to know about the Security Risks in Interent. Standard firewall blocks Non-HTTP attacks(restriction of ports,access..). This WAF blocks HTTP attack.

The Most common Web Application Vulnerabilities:

• SQL Injection(SQLi)
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
• Broken Authentication and Session Management
• Insecure Direct Object References
• Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
• Security Misconfiguration
• Insecure Cryptographic Storage
• Failure to Restrict URL Access
• Insufficient Transport Layer Protection
• Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards

The Wep Application Firewall(WAF) must meat the following features:

• Protection Against Top Vulnerability(XSS,SQLi,..etc)
• Very Few False Positives (i.e., should NEVER disallow an authorized request)
• Strength of Default (Out of the Box) Defenses
• Power and Ease of Learn Mode
• Types of Vulnerabilities it can prevent.
• Detects disclosure and unauthorized content in outbound reply messages, such as credit-card and Social Security numbers.
• Both Positive and Negative Security model support.
• Simplified and Intuitive User Interface.
• Cluster mode support.
• High Performance (milliseconds latency).
• Complete Alerting, Forensics, Reporting capabilities.
• Web Services\XML support.
• Brute Force protection.
• Ability to Active (block and log), Passive (log only) and bypass the web trafic.
• Ability to keep individual users constrained to exactly what they have seen in the current session
• Ability to be configured to prevent ANY specific problem (i.e., Emergency Patches)
• Form Factor: Software vs. Hardware (Hardware generally preferred)

Top 10 Open Source Web Application Firefwall(WAF):

1. ModSecurity (Trustwave SpiderLabs)
2. AQTRONIX WebKnight
3. ESAPI WAF
4. WebCastellum
5. BinarySec
6. Guardian@JUMPERZ.NET
7. OpenWAF
8. Ironbee
9. Profense
10. Smoothwall