Web App Security & Performance
On This Page:
Objective
This guide provides instructions on how to secure your web application and enhance its performance using F5® Distributed Cloud Console and F5 Distributed Cloud Mesh.
The steps to secure your web application and enhance its performance are:
The following image shows the topology of the example for the use case provided in this document:
Using the instructions provided in this guide, you can configure F5 Distributed Cloud Services to handle the domain ownership (which includes the creation of needed DNS resource records) of a new subdomain, create an HTTPS Load Balancer with automatic SSL certificate for the VIP, secure the domain with features such as javascript challenge and Distributed Cloud Next Generation Web Application Firewall (NG-WAF), and monitor the security and performance of your new subdomain. This example use case presents securing an application hosted on a public website. The HTTPS Load Balancer creates a Virtual IP (VIP) across your Application Delivery Network (ADN). All the VIPs instantiated on the ADN are automatically enabled with the DDoS protection.
Note: Additional performance and origin access via private tunnels or native K8s/Consul integration can be achieved by installing a Mesh node closest to the origin server. For more information, see the Secure Kubernetes Gateway quick start guide.
Prerequisites
-
F5 Distributed Cloud Console SaaS account.
Note: If you do not have an account, see Create an Account.
-
Amazon Web Services (AWS) account.
Note: This is required to deploy a Distributed Cloud site.
-
F5 Distributed Cloud vesctl utility.
Note: See vesctl for more information.
-
Docker.
Configuration
The use case provided in this guide demonstrates enabling a domain for an application hosted on a public website and secures it using a Distributed Cloud javascript challenge and NG-WAF. The following actions outline the activities in domain setup and securing the web app:
-
The domain for the application is delegated to F5 Distributed Cloud Services for handling the queries towards the subdomain for the application and management of the SSL certificates for the subdomain.
-
A HTTP load balancer is created for the subdomain with automatic certificate management. As part of this step, an origin pool is created with the origin server as the public website. This use case demonstrates securing the
cloud.f5.com
website. -
The load balancer is secured with the javascript challenge and WAF for its ingress traffic.
Step 1: Delegate Domain
The following video shows the domain delegation workflow:
Perform the following steps to delegate your domain to Distributed Cloud Services:
Step 1.1: Log into Console and create domain delegation object.
- Select the
DNS Management
service. - Navigate to
Domain Management
and selectAdd delegated domain
. - Enter your domain name in the
Domain Name
field. Ensure thatManaged by Distributed Cloud
is selected for theDomain Method
field. SelectSave and Exit
.
Note: This creates a delegated domain object with a TXT record value and the status as domain verification pending.
- Verify that the delegated domain object is displayed in the list and copy the value of the
TXT Record
field using the button to the right of the value.
Step 1.2: Add a DNS TXT records in your domain and perform verification.
- Add a TXT record in your domain records with the copied TXT string. This example shows how to add the record in Google domains.
- Go back to Console and select your delegated domain entry. Select
Verify
for your domain.
- After verification, the field
Verification Status
shows successful verification, and the nameservers get displayed on theName Servers
field.
Step 1.3: Add NS records in your domain.
Go back to your domain and add the NS records with the nameservers obtained from Console. This example shows adding to the Google domains.
Step 2: Load Balancer
The HTTP load balancer is created with the domain name for which, the DNS and certificate management is delegated to Distributed Cloud Services. As part of load balancer creation, an origin pool is created with the origin server as the public website.
The following video shows the load balancer creation workflow:
Perform the following steps for creating load balancers to enhance the application performance:
Step 2.1: Obtain the public certificate for the origin server.
This example demonstrates securing the public website cloud.f5.com
. You can obtain the public certificate using more than one method. This example shows how to obtain using Firefox browser.
- Open https://cloud.f5.com website in browser.
- Select the padlock symbol on the URL bar and then select the arrow button next to the
Connection Secure
option.
- Select
More Information
to display the security options.
- Select the
View Certificate
button in the displayed security options.
- Switch to the
Entrust Root Certification Authority - G2
tab and scroll down to theMiscellaneous
section. SelectPEM (Cert)
andOk
in the confirmation box to download the certificate.
Step 2.2: Create a namespace.
- Log into the Console and select the
Administration
service. - Navigate to
Personal Management
and selectMy Namespaces
. SelectAdd namespace
.
- Set a name, optionally add users, and select
Save
. This example createswaap
namespace.
Step 2.3: Create origin pool.
- Select the
Web App & API Protection
service. - Change to your new application namespace and navigate to
Manage
>Load Balancers
>Origin Pools
. - Select
Add Origin Pool
. - Enter a name for your origin pool in the metadata section.
- In the
Origin Servers
section, selectAdd Item
.- Select
Public DNS Name of Origin Server
for theType of Origin Server
field. - Enter the public DNS name of your origin server in the
DNS Name
field. This example configurescloud.f5.com
as the DNS name. - Select
Apply
to save the origin server selection.
- Select
- In the
Origin server Port
section, enter443
for thePort
field. - Scroll down to the
TLS
section, and selectEnable
. - Select
SNI Value
in theSNI Selection
field and enter the SNI. This example setscloud.f5.com
as theSNI Value
. - Select
High
for theTLS Security Level
field. - Select
Use Custom CA List
for theOrigin Server Verification
field. - Select
Base64(binary)
option for theTrusted CAs
field. - Switch to command terminal and encrypt the downloaded public certificate of the website using Base64. Copy the output.
cat author-www-f5-com.pem | base64
- Go back to Console and enter the copied Base64 string in the
Trusted CAs
field.
Note: Configuring the public certificate enables Distributed Cloud Services to establish connection to the origin server.
- Select
Save and Exit
.
Step 2.4: Create HTTP load balancer.
-
Navigate to
Manage
>Load Balancers
>HTTP Load Balancers
. SelectAdd HTTP Load Balancer
. -
Enter a name and your domain in the
Name
andDomains
fields respectively. This will create an A name entry, cloudf5-vip, which will resolve to an IP address that is pointed to a VIP that is hosted on F5 ADN. -
Select
HTPS with Automatic Certificate
in theLoad Balancer Type
field. This will create an SSL certificate for this domain and sign it with a public Certificate Authority (CA).
- Since this use case attempts to provide a proxy to an existing public site, it is required to enable automatic host-rewriting. Therefore, route configuration is required. Scroll down to the
Routes
section and selectConfigure
.
- Select
Add Item
, selectANY
for theHTTP Method
, selectRegex
for thePath Match
field, and enter(.*?)
(all routes) in theRegex
field.
Note: The option
Simple Route
is applied by default for theSelect Type of Route
field.
- Select
Add Item
for theOrigin Pools
section. Select the origin pool created in the previous step for theOrigin Pool
field and selectApply
.
- Select
Apply
at the bottom of theRoutes
configuration form to add the route to the load balancer configuration and return to the load balancer configuration form.
Note: Ensure that the
Automatic Host Rewrite
option is selected by default for theHost Rewrite
field. This ensures that the requests coming to the domain you configured are redirected to the public DNS name of the origin server.
- Select
Apply
to apply this list to the load balancer. - Scroll to the bottom and select
Save and Exit
to complete the load balancer.
The load balancer object gets displayed on the screen. The fields DNS Info
and TLS Info
with values VIRTUAL_HOST_READY
and Certificate Valid
indicate that the virtual host certificate is successfully validated and ready for use. You can verify this by entering the load balancer domain into a browser.
Note: Select
Refresh
on the load balancers display list screen to display the latest status.
Step 3: Secure App
Securing the application includes applying javascript challenge for the requests towards the load balancer domain and configuring a WAF for the load balancer.
Note: Javascript challenge enforces the users to send requests through the browser preventing automated attacks.
The following video shows the workflow of securing the app:
Perform the following enable a javascript challenge and apply a WAF to the load balancer:
Step 3.1: Enable WAF.
- In the
Web App & API Protection
service, select the same namespace as your load balancer. - Navigate to
Manage
>Load Balancers
>HTTP Load Balancers
. - Select
...
>Manage Configuration
for your load balancer to view its configuration. Next selectEdit Configuration
in the upper right corner to edit its configuration. - Scroll down to the
Web Application Firewall
section. - Select
Enable
for theWeb Application Firewall (WAF)
field, and then use theEnable
pull-down menu to select theAdd Item
button.
Step 3.2: Configure App Firewall.
- Enter a name for the firewall.
- Select
Blocking
for theEnforcement Mode
field. - Leave the
Protection Settings
at their defaults and selectContinue
to save the WAF and return to the HTTP Load Balancer form.
Step 3.3: Configure API Discovery, DDoS Detection, and Malicious User Detection.
- In the
API Protection
section, selectEnable
in theAPI Discovery
field. - In the
DoS Protection
section, selectEnable
for theDDoS Detection
field, and thenEnable
for theAuto Mitigation
field.
- Scroll down to the
Common Security Controls
section and selectEnable
for theMalicious User Detection
field.
Note: This quickstart uses default malicious user detection settings. You can customize those settings by creating an app type and applying it to this load balancer with a label (in the metadata section).
- Scroll down and select
Save and Exit
to save these security settings.
Step 4: Performance and Security Monitoring
This step shows how to see the performance and security monitoring available.
Note: Monitoring is based on site traffic, so in order to have meaningful information, either wait for some user traffic or create traffic by visiting the website and interacting with it in a browser.
Step 4.1: View the overall performance.
- In the
Web App & API Protection
service, select the same namespace as your load balancer. - Select
Overview
>Dashboards
>Performance Dashboard
. This provides an overall performance view of the entire namespace, includingHealth
,Active Alerts
,Active Configuration
,Traffic Overview
, andThroughput
graphs. Below these is a list ofLoad Balancers
.
Step 4.2: View the performance dashboard for your load balancer.
- Select the name of the load balancer you want to monitor in load balancers list. This will show the performance dashboard for that specific load balancer.
Step 4.3: View the app's requests.
- Select the
Requests
tab. Each request shown represents a call to our website. - Select a request to get more information specific to that request.
- Select
Forensics
to see theForensics
panel allowing you to filter the requests chart by various metrics, like country and soure ip.
Step 4.4: View the overall security.
- Select
Overview
>Dashboards
>Security Dashboard
. This provides an overall security view of the entire namespace, includingThreat intelligence
,Bot Traffics
,API Classification
,DDoS Attack Activity
,Security Events
,Top Attack Sources
,Top Attacked Paths
,Events by Country
, andActive Configuration
. Below these is a list ofLoad Balancers
.
Step 4.5: View security dashboard for your load balancer.
- Select the name of the load balancer you want to monitor in the load balancers list. This will show the security dashboard for that specific load balancer.
Step 4.6: View the app's blocked requests.
- Select the
Security Analytics
tab to see all security events, shown in a bar chart and below in a table. The chart shows time-based counts for the different types of events. The table shows event summary information across the columns. - The
Actions
column provides options to either block the requesting client and/or add the client to the list of trusted clients (depending on the type of event). - Select
>
at the left side of a row to see the specifics of the request and the violations that were triggered by the attack. - To see only blocked requests, use the
Add Filter
option and selectAction
,In
, SelectBlock
, followed byApply
.
Note: For more information on analzying security, see the security section of the Monitor HTTP Load Balancer document.