Keep Your Online Applications Safe With a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Web application firewalls are some of the most recent developments in the field of firewall technology (WAFs). In this blog post, we will define what a web application firewall is, how it functions. We will also cover some of the benefits of using a web application firewall.

Let’s learn more.

What is a a web application firewall?

A web application firewall (WAF) is a firewall that lies between a web client and a web server that examines OSI layer 7 traffic.

• WAF can do deep packet inspection as well as evaluate requests and answers inside Web Service layers.

• WAFs are used in conjunction with other network firewalls and are intended to protect certain web applications.

• They are precise and know how the program should behave. They can identify even the smallest abnormal behavior and terminate it.

• Furthermore, WAFs might offer defense against network-based attacks such as DoS or DDoS.

• WAF acts as a reverse proxy, and a set of rules and regulations are placed in place. Filtering dangerous communications supplies a protective measure for weaknesses.

How does a WAF function?

A web application firewall (WAF) resides between your web request and the web server, and its key responsibility is to prevent the webserver from hacks or denial of service attacks. It examines web requests for known hacking strategies and determines if the request is from a genuine client or a bot. It also tests to see whether an extreme number of requests are being sent by applying rate limiting, which restricts the number of requests off of an IP every second. If WAF determines that this may be a possible attack, it automatically removes harmful traffic while digesting the rest.

Benefits of using a WAF

• The value of a WAF stems from the convenience, agility, and precision with which policy updates may be implemented, allowing for an effective response to different attack vectors.

• In the event of a DDOS attack, rate-limiting may be enforced quickly by changing WAF regulations.

• A web service that receives a large number of requests can use a WAF to balance the traffic load and distribute the requests evenly across available servers. This also guarantees that the internet site does not disclose the IP address of its originating server or servers. This makes it hard for criminals to launch an attack against it. Rather, the attack will be routed to the reverse proxy server, which is properly equipped with the necessary safety technology to protect the primary server from being flooded.

Conclusion

In this blog, you learned that a WAF secures your online applications by filtration, tracking, and prevention of any unwanted web traffic to your app. It also functions as a reverse proxy server and helps prevent DDOS attacks. WAF accomplishes these by following policies that assist in the evaluation of which traffic is hostile and which one is safe.

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