NGINX App Protect WAF Overview

NGINX App Protect WAF is a web application firewall designed to protect web applications from a variety of threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other common web application attacks.

NGINX App Protect WAF is built on top of the NGINX web server and is deployed as a module within the NGINX Plus application delivery platform. It uses machine learning algorithms and other advanced techniques to detect and block malicious traffic in real-time.

NGINX App Protect WAF provides comprehensive protection for web applications without sacrificing performance. It can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or in a hybrid environment and integrates with popular DevOps tools and platforms such as Kubernetes, AWS, and Azure.

Deployment Modes

NGINX App Protect WAF can be deployed in a variety of ways depending on the specific use case and deployment requirements. Here are some of the most common deployment options:

• As a module within the NGINX Plus application delivery platform: NGINX App Protect WAF can be deployed as a module within the NGINX Plus platform. This provides a unified solution for both load balancing and application security.
• Alongside NGINX Plus Ingress Controller: NGINX App Protect WAF can be deployed in a containerized environment such as Docker or Kubernetes on top of NGINX Plus Ingress Controller. This provides a scalable and flexible solution for cloud-native applications.
• As a service for microservices based deployments: Run NGNIX App Protect WAF inside your microservices-based environment to provide WAF protection to your web applications and APIs

Deployment environments

NGINX App Protect can be deployed in public and private clouds, on virtual machines, as a container on a microservices platforms including NGINX Ingress Controller; anywhere a supported Linux distribution can run.

Lab Overview

This lab serves as an introduction to the NGINX App Protect WAF solution. In this lab, you will:

• Review a fully deployed NGINX Plus instance with NGINX App Protect WAF in place for an existing application
• Test drive NGINX Instance Manager and Security Monitoring modules to manage configurations and security posture
• Identify false positives and perform policy changes to remedy
• Deploy NGINX App Protect WAF on an existing NGINX Plus instance
• Deploy NGINX App Protect WAF in Kubernetes using modern apps methodologies
• Review NGINX App Protect WAF API Security

Each of the modules in this lab are independent and can be performed in any order.

NGINX Acronyms

The following are a few acronyms that you will encounter in this lab.

• NAP - NGINX App Protect WAF
• NIM - NGINX Instance Manager
• SM - NGINX Security Monitoring
• NIC - NGINX Ingress Controller

NGINX App Protect WAF Terminology

Term	Definition
Alarm	If selected, the NGINX App Protect WAF system records requests that trigger the violation in the remote log (depending on the settings of the logging profile).
Attack signature	Textual patterns which can be applied to HTTP requests and/or responses by NGINX App Protect WAF to determine if traffic is malicious. For example, the string <script> inside an HTTP request triggers an attack signature violation.
Attack signature set	A collection of attack signatures designed for a specific purpose (such as Apache).
Bot signatures	Textual patterns which can be applied to an HTTP request’s User Agent or URI by NGINX App Protect WAF to determine if traffic is coming from a browser or a bot (trusted, untrusted or malicious). For example, the string googlebot inside the User-Agent header will be classified as trusted bot, and the string Bichoo Spider will be classified as malicious bot.
Block	To prevent a request from reaching a protected web application. If selected (and enforcement mode is set to Blocking), NGINX App Protect WAF blocks requests that trigger the violation.
Blocking response page	A blocking response page is displayed to a client when a request from that client has been blocked. Also called blocking page and response page.
Enforcement mode	Security policies can be in one of two enforcement modes: Transparent mode In Transparent mode, Blocking is disabled for the security policy. Traffic is not blocked even if a violation is triggered with block flag enabled. You can use this mode when you first put a security policy into effect to make sure that no false positives occur that would stop legitimate traffic. Blocking mode In Blocking mode, Blocking is enabled for the security policy, and you can enable or disable the Block setting for individual violations. Traffic is blocked when a violation occurs if you configure the system to block that type of violation. You can use this mode when you are ready to enforce the security policy. You can change the enforcement mode for a security policy in the security policy JSON file.
Entities	The elements of a security policy, such as HTTP methods, as well as file types, URLs, and/or parameters, which have attributes such as byte length. Also refers to elements of a security policy for which enforcement can be turned on or off, such as an attack signature.
False positive	An instance when NGINX App Protect WAF treats a legitimate request as a violation.
File types	Examples of file types are .php, .asp, .gif, and .txt. They are the extensions for many objects that make up a web application. File Types are one type of entity a NGINX App Protect WAF policy contains.
Illegal request	A request which violates a security policy
Legal request	A request which has not violated the security policy.
Loosening	The process of adapting a security policy to allow specific entities such as File Types, URLs, and Parameters. The term also applies to attack signatures, which can be manually disabled — effectively removing the signature from triggering any violations.
Parameters	Parameters consist of “name=value” pairs, such as OrderID=10. The parameters appear in the query string and/or POST data of an HTTP request. Consequently, they are of particular interest to NGINX App Protect WAF because they represent inputs to the web application.
TPS/RPS	Transactions per second (TPS)/requests per second (RPS). In NGINX App Protect WAF, these terms are used interchangeably.
Tuning	Making manual changes to an existing security policy to reduce false positives and increase the policy’s security level.
URI/URL	The Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) specifies the name of a web object in a request. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) specifies the location of an object on the Internet. For example, in the web address, http://www.siterequest.com/index.html, index.html is the URI, and the URL is http://www.siterequest.com/index.html. In NGINX App Protect WAF, the terms URI and URL are used interchangeably.
Violation	Violations occur when some aspect of a request or response does not comply with the security policy. You can configure the blocking settings for any violation in a security policy. When a violation occurs, the system can Alarm or Block a request (blocking is only available when the enforcement mode is set to Blocking).

Official NGINX Documentation

Feel free to use the official documentation to clarify information or dive deeper in this lab:

• NGINX App Protect WAF Administration Guide
• Using NGINX App Protect WAF with NGINX Management Suite
• NGINX App Protect WAF Configuration Guide
• NGINX App Protect WAF Declarative Policy Schema
• NGINX App Protect WAF Troubleshooting Guide

Lab Inventory

Instance	IP Address	OS	NGINX Services	Apps/Protocols
NGINX Instance Manager	10.1.1.4	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	NIM, SM	SSH
k3s Master Node	10.1.1.5	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	NIC	SSH, k3s
k3s Worker Node 1	10.1.1.6	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	NIC	SSH, k3s, Arcadia Finance
k3s Worker Node 2	10.1.1.7	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	NIC	SSH, k3s, Arcadia Finance
NGINX Plus 1	10.1.1.8	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	Plus + NAP	SSH
NGINX Plus 2	10.1.1.9	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	Plus	SSH
DevOps Tools	10.1.1.10	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS	none	SSH

Accessing the Lab

In this lab, you will access all resources by connecting to a Linux jump host running XRDP. XRDP is an open-source version of the popular Remote Desktop Protocol and is compatible with all popular RDP clients.

When you first connect to the Jump Host via RDP, you will be prompted to click OK to connect to the remote session.

Once connected, you will see the desktop as shown below.

Clicking on the Applications drop-down in the menu bar will bring up a list of applications you will need to finish this lab.

Favorites includes Firefox, Visual Studio Code and Terminal.

SSH Shortcuts open SSH terminal windows to the command prompt of all machines in the lab.

Each section in this lab will begin with the assumption that you are connected via RDP, able to navigate the Applications menu and familiar with the available applications.

Remember these important tips:

• The username lab and password AppWorld2024! will work for every login unless specifically noted.
• Traffic and attack generators are running to help generate statistics, events and attacks.
• To paste text into the lab, right-click your mouse and select Paste as keyboard shortcuts are not consistent between applications.
• The screen resolution for the Remote Desktop connection is selected when connecting to the session. Choose a resolution that works best for you.

Note

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