Web Application Firewall

A web application firewall provides protection to web applications from several application layer vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), cookie poisoning, etc. Attacks to different applications are the important reasons behind the breaches. These are the major paths of the data. An accurate WAF can help you to block the number of vulnerabilities that are meant to permeate the data.

How does a WAF work?
A web application firewall protects your apps by scrutinizing, filtering, and blocking inappropriate HTTP traffic coming to the application, and protects any kind of unauthorized information from parting the application. It can be done by a fixed set of rules that assist to decide what traffic is inappropriate and what is safe.

These are in a software form and delivered as in-service form. Rules can be tailored to fulfill the requirements of your needed web application. Although WAFs are needed to be updated on regular basis to handle new vulnerabilities, machine learning advancement helps some WAFs to be updated automatically.

Ways to deploy a WAF
Deployment of a WAF can be done in multiple ways- all it based on where your apps are deploying, the required service, how you want to handle it, and the level of architectural performance and flexibility you need. Below are some of the options.

WAF Deployment Modes:
• Cloud-based + Completely Managed —if you need the hassle-free, fastest way to go with, it is an ideal option (particularly if you have a limited number of IT resources/ in-house security)
• Cloud-based + Self Managed—achieve all the security protocols portability and flexibility of the cloud while keeping control of traffic management as well as security policy settings
• Cloud-based + Auto-Provisioned—it is one of the easiest ways to begin with a WAF in the cloud
• On-premises Advanced level of WAF —this fulfills the most challenging deployment process which needs flexibility, better performance, and a more advanced level of security concerns.