ADC

How Web App Firewall works

When you install the Web App Firewall, you create an initial security configuration, which consists of a policy, a profile, and a signatures object. The policy is a rule that identifies the traffic to be filtered, and the profile identifies the patterns and types of behavior to allow or block when the traffic is filtered. The simplest patterns, which are called signatures, are not specified within the profile, but in a signatures object that is associated with the profile.

A signature is a string or pattern that matches a known type of attack. The Web App Firewall contains over a thousand signatures in seven categories, each directed at attacks on specific types of web servers and web content. Citrix updates the list with new signatures as new threats are identified. During configuration, you specify the signature categories that are appropriate for the web servers and content that you need to protect. Signatures provide good basic protection with low processing overhead. If your applications have special vulnerabilities or you detect an attack against them for which no signature exists, you can add your own signatures.

The more advanced protections are called security checks. A security check is a more rigorous, algorithmic inspection of a request for specific patterns or types of behavior that might indicate an attack or constitute a threat to your protected web sites and web services. It can, for example, identify a request that attempts to perform a certain type of operation that might breach security, or a response that includes sensitive private information such as a social security number or credit card number. During configuration, you specify the security checks that are appropriate for the web servers and content that you need to protect. The security checks are restrictive. Many of them can block legitimate requests and responses if you do not add the appropriate exceptions (relaxations) when configuring them. Identifying the needed exceptions is not difficult if you use the adaptive learning feature, which observes normal use of your web site and creates recommended exceptions.

The Web App Firewall can be installed as either a Layer 3 network device or a Layer 2 network bridge between your servers and your users, usually behind your company’s router or firewall. It must be installed in a location where it can intercept traffic between the web servers that you want to protect and the hub or switch through which users access those web servers. You then configure the network to send requests to the Web App Firewall instead of directly to your web servers, and responses to the Web App Firewall instead of directly to your users. The Web App Firewall filters that traffic before forwarding it to its final destination, using both its internal rule set and your additions and modifications. It blocks or renders harmless any activity that it detects as harmful, and then forwards the remaining traffic to the web server. The following figure provides an overview of the filtering process.

Note: The figure omits the application of a policy to incoming traffic. It illustrates a security configuration in which the policy is to process all requests. Also, in this configuration, a signatures object has been configured and associated with the profile, and security checks have been configured in the profile.

Figure 1. A Flowchart of Web App Firewall Filtering

Web App Firewall Flowchart

As the figure shows, when a user requests a URL on a protected web site, the Web App Firewall first examines the request to ensure that it does not match a signature. If the request matches a signature, the Web App Firewall either displays the error object (a web page that is located on the Web App Firewall appliance and which you can configure by using the imports feature) or forwards the request to the designated error URL (the error page). Signatures do not require as many resources as do security checks, so detecting and stopping attacks that are detected by a signature before running any of the security checks reduces the load on the server.

If a request passes signature inspection, the Web App Firewall applies the request security checks that have been enabled. The request security checks verify that the request is appropriate for your web site or web service and does not contain material that might pose a threat. For example, security checks examine the request for signs indicating that it might be of an unexpected type, request unexpected content, or contain unexpected and possibly malicious web form data, SQL commands, or scripts. If the request fails a security check, the Web App Firewall either sanitizes the request and then sends it back to the Citrix ADC appliance (or Citrix ADC virtual appliance), or displays the error object. If the request passes the security checks, it is sent back to the Citrix ADC appliance, which completes any other processing and forwards the request to the protected web server.

When the web site or web service sends a response to the user, the Web App Firewall applies the response security checks that have been enabled. The response security checks examine the response for leaks of sensitive private information, signs of web site defacement, or other content that should not be present. If the response fails a security check, the Web App Firewall either removes the content that should not be present or blocks the response. If the response passes the security checks, it is sent back to the Citrix ADC appliance, which forwards it to the user.

Web App Firewall features

The basic Web App Firewall features are policies, profiles, and signatures, which provide a hybrid security model as described in “Known Web Attacks,” “Unknown Web Attacks,” and “How the Web App Firewall Works.” Of special note is the learning feature, which observes traffic to your protected applications and recommends appropriate configuration settings for certain security checks.

The imports feature manages files that you upload to the Web App Firewall. These files are then used by the Web App Firewall in various security checks, or when responding to a connection that matches a security check.

You can use the logs, statistics, and reports features to evaluate the performance of the Web App Firewall and identify possible needs for additional protections.

How Web App Firewall works