What is Azure WAF?
Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a cloud-native solution that protects your web applications from common web exploits and vulnerabilities. It operates at the application layer (Layer 7) and protects your application from threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other malicious attacks. Azure WAF integrates seamlessly with Azure Application Gateway and Azure Front Door, offering a comprehensive and scalable security solution for your web services.
Key Features and Benefits
Comprehensive Threat Protection
Protects against OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, including SQL injection, XSS, and more.
Managed Rule Sets
Leverages up-to-date, managed rule sets from Microsoft and trusted partners to block known threats.
Customizable Rules
Allows you to create your own custom rules based on IP addresses, request headers, request body, and more.
Geo-filtering
Enables you to block or allow traffic from specific geographic regions to prevent malicious access.
Rate Limiting
Configurable rate limiting to protect against brute-force attacks and application overload.
Bot Protection
Identify and block malicious bots while allowing legitimate search engine crawlers.
Scalability and High Availability
Built on Azure's robust infrastructure, ensuring high availability and seamless scalability.
Integration with Azure Services
Works with Azure Application Gateway for on-premises or PaaS applications, and Azure Front Door for global web applications.
How Azure WAF Works
Azure WAF inspects incoming HTTP/HTTPS traffic to your web applications. It analyzes requests for malicious patterns using predefined and custom rules. When a request is identified as malicious, WAF takes action, such as blocking the request, logging it for analysis, or sending an alert.
Deployment Options:
- Azure Application Gateway WAF: Ideal for protecting web applications hosted on-premises or within Azure (PaaS/VMs).
- Azure Front Door WAF: Designed for global, high-availability web applications, providing a secure edge to your applications.
Getting Started
Implementing Azure WAF is straightforward. You can enable WAF policies on an existing or new Application Gateway or Front Door instance. Start by defining your security requirements and configuring the appropriate managed and custom rules.
For detailed instructions and best practices, refer to the official Azure documentation: Azure WAF Documentation