What is a Web Application Firewall (WAF) and How it Helps Your Application

One of the most important things to consider if you own a website or are building one is its security level. Cyber attacks are evolving and organizations have faced disastrous consequences for negligent behaviour towards their online security.

In the past, web applications were simple and it was easy to protect them from cyber attacks using traditional network firewalls. However, web applications are now sophisticated and attacks have evolved to match them. Traditional network firewalls are still useful within the scope of their original assignments but can’t detect attacks beyond that scope. This is where Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) come into play.

In this article, you will learn what WAFs are and how they work. You will also understand how they differ from traditional network firewalls.

What is a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

A Web Application Firewall is a security solution designed to protect web applications by monitoring and filtering HTTP/HTTPS traffic on the applications. WAFs are not designed to protect against every attack. They are focused on Layer 7 attacks and their primary purpose is to protect against attacks that specifically target the web application.

WAFs are usually placed between the client (device trying to access the application) and the web application. If an attack passes through the traditional network layer, it must pass through the WAF before getting to the web application.

WAFs can be deployed as network-based devices, host-based software, or cloud-based services, providing flexibility to meet various organizational needs.

Examples of some WAFs include the AWS WAF and the Cloudflare WAF.

How Does a WAF Work

Primarily, WAFs work by monitoring incoming and outgoing web traffic to detect and block malicious activities. They rely on a set of pre-defined security rules called Policies to identify and deal with threats such as Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) or Cross-Site Scripting (XSS). WAFs can seamlessly integrate with application layer protocols, so they can be functional without affecting the normal operations of the web application.

Traditional Network Firewalls vs. Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)

The primary difference between traditional network firewalls and WAFs is their scope of operation.

A WAF is primarily focused on protecting the web application from vulnerabilities, by monitoring HTTP/HTTPS traffic.

On the other hand, a network protocol focuses on preventing unauthorized access to a network. It checks things like IP addresses, ports and protocols to determine if a client should have access to the network which the web app is.

Conclusion

WAFs are very important for web applications that consider security as a web application. It is essential that you protect your application from attacks to gain user’s trust, and WAF provides an avenue for that with minimal stress. WAF also ensures that your app complies with industry standards, such as PCI DSS for handling payment data.

You should do more research to learn about WAFs and how you can apply them to your application.

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