What is one reason that application firewalls should be closer to the resource being protected?

Until recently, most of our IT infrastructure was composed of hardware. When we talk about IT security, we refer to system and network security. But with cloud technology, organizations have started using layers of virtualization in combination with their physical infrastructure. These days, web applications are being designed, developed, and deployed entirely in the cloud.

For network security, we have seen the introduction of the firewall, and now the much more advanced next-generation firewall (NGFW). But web application security seems to receive far less attention. This discrimination has made web applications a more liable target for cybercriminals.

According to a report by Verizon, nearly 43% of cybersecurity breaches involve web applications. Since web applications need to be up and running nearly all the time, and are accessible to all types of users, they are far more susceptible to such breaches. This is why organizations are now using WAF, or Web Application Firewalls, to protect themselves and their users.

Most individuals might think that NGFW and WAF are the same since they are both firewalls, but this is not accurate. They may have some form of similarity, but they still have more contrasting dissimilarities.

How do NGFW and WAF work? How do they differ? And most importantly, can they be used in conjunction with one another? Read on to find out!

What is NGFW?​

First, we must take a closer look at what each firewall is and what it is used for.

There's no singular industry definition that can describe what a next-generation firewall is. Think of it as a much more advanced form of your existing traditional firewalls. Next-generation firewalls have all the features that traditional firewalls have, but they offer more robust security against even the most sophisticated network security threats.

Traditional firewalls would offer stateful inspection of incoming and outgoing network traffic inside the network based on state, port, and protocol. Next-Generation Firewalls(NGFWs) build on this capability and further offer features such as application control, IPS, and IDS, and cloud-delivered cyber threat intelligence. They are far more effective against advanced malware and application-layer attacks.

In a constantly changing threat landscape with new, more sophisticated threats emerging every day, Next-Generation Firewalls are the only firewalls that can truly protect your organization from exploitative vulnerabilities.

What is WAF?​

Now, let us take a closer look at Web Application Firewalls.

A Web Application Firewall is a type of firewall specifically meant to protect your web applications. They do so by filtering and monitoring HTTP/HTTPS traffic flow between your web application and the internet. They will then block any malicious HTTP/HTTPS traffic traveling into the web application. They can effectively help protect your web applications from a wide range of application-layer attacks (layer 7) including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and DDoS protection.

Usually, Web Application Firewalls are provided with a set of policies that will help uncover what traffic is malicious and what traffic is safe to pass through. You decide what policies you wish to keep and can customize them to meet the unique needs of your web application.

In simpler terms, the Web Application Firewall(WAF) is an intermediary that will protect your web app server from a potentially malicious user and all types of cyberattacks.

What are the Features of the Next-Generation Firewall and WAF?​

Now that you have a general understanding of what both NGFW and WAF are, we can go on to discuss some of the core features these firewalls carry.

Features of Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW)​

Must-have features of a next-generation firewall are as follows:

• Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDS/IPS): An intrusion detection system, or IDS, detects exploitative vulnerabilities in your network or computer. This network security technology is further strengthened by adding Intrusion Prevention Systems, or IPS, which allow firewalls to block threats after detection. Most Next-Generation Firewalls have integrated IDS and IPS functionality.

• Antivirus and Antimalware: Antivirus and malware protection is a part of Next-Generation Firewalls. The antivirus in NGFW will work to filter through your incoming traffic and block detected viruses. Incoming traffic will also be used to assess incoming traffic for potential malware. Whenever you download or upload a file, it will pass through your NGFW, which will scan for viruses and malware. If detected, the firewall will block it from entering your network.
• Sandboxing: Sandboxing is another brilliant feature NGFW has to offer. It is a type of advanced threat protection that will help detect and filter out malicious programs or code. Your firewall will intercept a downloaded file and send it to the sandbox "virtual machine". The VM acts as a virtual, isolated environment that mimics your operating environment. Here the software is deployed to see how it executes code and to detect any malicious behavior.

• Central Management: With centralized management, you can automatically coordinate updating new rules, adding security intelligence feed data, and new IDS signatures. With new and emerging threats, you always want to keep your policies and rules updated. Instead of manually creating policies for each firewall, centralized management will allow you to push our policies and rules to your firewall devices at the same time.

• Application Awareness: Next-Generation Firewalls can filter network traffic based on applications, not just ports. This provides administrators with far more control over individual applications. For instance, they may block traffic entirely from certain applications, regardless of port or protocol.

• Identity Awareness: Identity awareness in Next-Generation Firewalls allows the firewall to map user and computer identities. They will then either grant or deny access based on user identity. Administrators can therefore enforce access to specific users based on their level of clearance. This will also allow you to identify a user hiding behind an IP address.

• Deep Packet Inspection (DPI): Deep packet inspection (DPI) allows the firewall to thoroughly examine each incoming packet of data and filter out any malicious packets. Deep packet inspection will help protect you against Trojans, viruses, spam, and other network intrusion threats.

• State-full Inspection: Stateful inspection or dynamic packet filtering allows the Next Generation Firewall to monitor the traffic streams on layers (layer 2 to layer 7), allowing for more granular control.

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Monitoring: Secure Sockets Layer monitoring allows the Next Generation Firewall to monitor SSL traffic flows. It will further be able to decrypt encrypted network streaks, providing security against cyber attacks and malware in encrypted network streams.

Features of WAF​

A WAF provides the following features:

• Attack Signature Databases: Web Application Firewalls maintain databases of files containing data sequences that are used to identify an attack on the network. An attack signature is an arrangement of information that helps track predefined classes of attacks on a web application and its components. In this way, attacks that have been seen before can be mitigated effectively before they can cause any damage.

• Application Profiling: Application profiling helps to improve intrusion detection in Web Application Firewalls. Profiling a web application includes describing all the elements and types of exchanges on the application. This allows the firewall to establish legitimate user behavior so it is easier to detect anomalies.

• DDoS Protection: Web Application Firewalls help protect your application against DDoS attacks i.e. distributed denial of service attacks. In a DDoS attack, the cybercriminal will flood your internet server with traffic to prevent users from accessing your site.

• Content Delivery Networks: CDNs or content delivery networks, add a layer of security to your web application. It will rapidly provide end-users with cashed internet content from a network location close to the user. Such networks will protect you against DDoS attacks. If your website is targeted, a CDN will simply send the incoming traffic to other servers, so your site does not experience any downtime.

• Centralized Management: With centralized management, administrators can centrally manage firewall rules and policies. Centralized management will give you more visibility into your web application security, and make it easier to document activity across the application.

• Positive and Negative Security Models: Web Application Firewalls use either a positive or negative security model or a hybrid model composed of both. The positive security model allows the firewall to filter traffic by comparing it to a whitelist. Anything not on the list is blocked. A negative model will use a blacklist that only blocks specific items. So anything not on the list is granted access.

• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): Web Application Firewalls can protect your web application from XSS attacks. In an XSS attack, the attacker will exploit vulnerabilities in your website and use them to inject trusted websites with malicious scripts, WAF will use signature-based filtering to identify and block such requests.

Can NGFW and WAF be Used Together?​

Securing both your network and web applications is not easy. Hackers use sophisticated methods to uncover weaknesses in your network security that they may exploit. Smart organizations take the time needed to build a robust security plan. So should you plan to set up an NGFW or a WAF strategically? Or better yet? Can NGFW and WAF be used together?

They can most certainly be used together. It is recommended that you use both Web Application Firewalls and Next-Generation Firewalls.

Both Next-Generation Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls help filter network traffic at different points. Network firewalls will usually cover traffic on your network, whereas WAFs are more dedicated to traffic towards apps. Combining them both will offer you more broad coverage and strengthen your security against foreign threats.

Can you use NGFW without WAF?​

Yes, you can use NGFW without WAF. NGFW does a rather good job of capturing your network traffic context so they can actively prevent incoming attacks. WAFs are usually deployed into the application later where they prevent web-based attacks, they can't replace firewalls in protecting your network.

Who Needs to Use NGFW and WAF?​

Users and organizations of all types can make use of Next-Generation Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls. Here are some of the most common usage examples of NGFW and WAF:

• Developers: Developers can use Web Application Firewalls to save their own time. This is because Web Application Firewalls perform many functions that lie in the developer's domain. The real benefit they hold is the ability to implement policies and rules centrally instead of developers implementing them over and over in each app manually. Developers can save a significant portion of their time and instead work on their valuable projects.

• IT sector: Firewalls will help protect your computer and data by managing both your network and web application traffic. They will further block any unwanted traffic from getting access to your underlying infrastructure and resources. IT administrators on their own cannot keep track of all malicious threats and activity, they use NGFW and WAF instead.

• Computer Companies: Computer companies that develop computer hardware and software need to use firewalls such as Next-Generation Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls to keep their resources secure from hackers and malicious software. Without them, their networks are open to threats that may further affect their end-users.

• Banks: Banks use firewall technology just like other enterprises would. Over the past three decades, large banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions have started using firewalls to combat external threats as a part of their network perimeter defense. Banks further use NGFW, in particular, to help discover, analyze, and understand cyber threats so they may offer appropriate and efficient responses if needed.

• Accounting Firms: Accounting firms hold specific categories of data, including clients' sensitive information. It is no surprise that cybersecurity concerns grow twice when dealing with cyber security challenges. Using NGFW and WAF will ensure that your sensitive data is protected, not only for the compliance of your firm but for the safety of your clients as well.

• Small Businesses and Startups: Small businesses are more widely targeted by cyber criminals because not all small businesses will have the necessary funds to deploy a robust security plan. To protect your business, and your data from cyber threats, invest in NGFW and WAF.

What are the Advantages of NGFW and WAF?​

Here are some of the major advantages of Next-Generation Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls.

Advantages of NGFW are listed below:

• Multi-Layered Protection: A Next-Generation Firewall uses deep packet filtering to detect malicious traffic passing through (at layers 2 to layer 7). It will then block such malicious traffic from passing through. Even if a threat manages to pass undetected through one layer it will be caught in the next. Such multi-layered protection is more robust.

• Greater Administrative Control: Next-Generation Firewalls offer centralized management capabilities. With centralized management, you also get deeper visibility into your network security and the way traffic is monitored. You'll also be able to automatically update security policies and rules across the network wherever the firewall is deployed.

• Protection Against a Wide Variety of Threats: Next-Generation Firewalls provide robust protection against a wide range of threats, including phishing attacks, malware, trojans, viruses, bots, hacks, intrusions, and encrypted threats. They also protect against modern security threats such as zero-day threats, stealth bots, and advanced malware.

Advantages of WAF are as follows:

• Ensure PCI Compliance: Your web application needs to comply with PCI requirements. PCI compliance means that your systems are secure from threats and customers can trust you with their sensitive credit card or other transactional information. PCI requirements also state that your WAF must be up-to-date and should be able to block cyberattacks effectively.

• Prevent XSS Attacks, DDoS Attacks, and SQL Injections: Web Application Firewalls protect your web applications from many application attacks, such as cookie positioning, SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and DDoS attacks. It does so by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic flowing between a web application and the internet.

• Prevents User Data From Being Compromised: Small and large businesses alike need to capture their lead data and securely handle private customer data. Hackers try to gain access to this sensitive data through targeted attacks. Web Application Firewalls can retaliate against malware, trojans, cross-site scripting, and SQL injections that may result in fraud or data theft.

What are the Disadvantages of NGFW and WAF?​

Here are some of the major disadvantages of Next-Generation Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls:

The disadvantages of NGFW are summarized below:

• It May Be Costly for Businesses: While Next-Generation Firewalls are known to decrease costs in the long run, they still cost you a lot upfront. For large enterprises, this price may seem justified, but small businesses may struggle to deploy NGFWs. You must also consider that you'll have to train your team to work with Next Generation Firewalls as well, which will increase organizational costs. This will also depend on the type of software you purchase. But luckily there are a few NGFW providers like Zenarmor that have a generous free edition along with a free trial. Small businesses that want to ensure that their resources are put to the best use should avail free options like Zenarmor before making a solid commitment to NGFWs.

• Single Point of Failure: One major drawback of Next-Generation Firewalls is that they may prove to be a single point of failure for your entire network security. Most enterprises are reluctant to stay dependent on such a form of security. While compromising the complex web of NGFW is difficult, anyone who manages to get through may take down the entire system.

The disadvantages of WAF are given below:

• Does not Protect Qgainst Zero-day Threats: WAF may work against a range of application layer threats but they perform poorly when they are up against zero-day attacks. A zero-day attack signifies a new, sophisticated type of attack that the firewall may not be aware of. Most open source WAFs are unable to protect your web application against these types of attacks.

• May Result in False Positives and Negatives: You may have already heard of Web Application Firewalls giving off false positives and false negatives. Open source WAFs tend to assess data packets against several predefined patterns. WAFs may mix up these predefined patterns and therefore give false positives when assessing data packets. False positives may occur when the WAF ends up blocking legitimate requests, whereas false negatives may occur when the WAF fails to correctly detect malicious requests.

• Application Performance Issues: WAFs may have issues with performance capabilities since it can be difficult to integrate them into your web server host. Moreover, most WAFs are unable to quickly accommodate new web applications, nor can they adapt to modifications you make to an existing web application. These often lead to performance issues, increased overhead costs, and maintenance.

What is the Difference Between NGFW and WAF?​

There are some differences between Next-Generation Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls. Here are some of the major differences that set them apart.

• Both firewalls differ in their place of operation. Next-Generation Firewalls provide inspection, detection, and prevention against malicious data packets. They tend to operate closer to the organization layer (layers 3 to layers 4 to be exact). On the other hand, Web Application Firewalls are dedicated to protecting web applications. They operate close to the application layer (layer 7).

• Next-Generation Firewalls tend to function as a safeguard against unauthorized network access whereas Web Application Firewalls look for specific application-layer attacks such as DDoS attacks, SQL injections, and XSS attacks.

• Quite simply, the NGFW protects the entirety of your corporate network whereas a WAF will only protect a web application(s).

What are the Similarities Between NGFW and WAF?​

There are also some similarities between both Next-Generation Firewalls and Web Application Firewalls, which often make it difficult to differentiate between the two (unless you're well versed in web security and firewall applications).

• Web Application Firewalls and Next-Generation Firewalls are similar in the sense that they both prevent unauthorized data packets from passing through them, blocking malicious data packets if detected across the firewall.

• Web Application Firewalls and Next-Generation Firewalls both aim to protect underlying user data in some way or form.

• Both Web Application Firewalls and Next-Generation Firewalls can be deployed as hardware, software, or on the cloud as required. This will help ease deployment for businesses that do not want to add on new hardware and new infrastructure.

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