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WAAS

What is a WAAS?📜

WAAS (Web-Application and API Security, formerly known as CNAF, Cloud Native Application Firewall) is a web application firewall (WAF) designed for HTTP-based web applications deployed directly on hosts, as containers, application embedded or serverless functions. WAFs secure web applications by inspecting and filtering layer 7 traffic to and from the application.

  • https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/prisma/prisma-cloud/prisma-cloud-admin-compute/waas
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsq5KlaBv2Q

Deploy a WAAS in BigBang via the Twistlock Console📜

Configuring a WAAS in BigBang can be done via the Twistlock Console or via the API. WAAS rules can also be imported/exported creating neccesary associated collections and applications.

Values Configuration📜

In order to provide the correct permissions to enforce a WAAS the defenders must be running as privileged. To deploy this way set the below values:

  values:
    console:
      license: "<license>"
    defender:
      selinux: false
      privileged: true

Create Rule via Console UI📜

This guide will walk through creating a WAAS rule and testing it for an example application podinfo.

  • Open https://twistlock.bigbang.dev/#!/defend/waas/container
  • Navigate to Defend > WAAS > Container. WAAS Container
  • Click Add rule and add a name for the new rule. WAAS Container
  • Select the Scope / Click to select collections field, a Scope is a particular collection which defines the targets for the rule. Select Add collection and fill out the fields to match images you want. WAAS Container
  • Ensure your scope/collection is selected by the rule and click Select Collections WAAS Container
  • Save your WAAS rule by clicking the Save button

Add application📜

  • Expand your new rule then click the Add app button to move to create an application, which allows you to define endpoints and API protections. WAAS Container
  • The easiest way to configure an application is to import an OpenAPI definition. The OpenAPI definition for podinfo can be accessed here: https://podinfo.bigbang.dev/swagger.json. WAAS Container
  • After importing the swagger document, you must also then make the following changes to the endpoints:
  • Delete the endpoint with TLS: On
  • Expand the remaining endpoint, set the host to * and provide an App port (in this case 9898), then save your changes WAAS Container
  • To permit only endpoints defined in the OpenAPI definition, click PREVENT for all of the options under the API protection tab WAAS Container
  • Click Save, it may take a few moments to fully save the rule

Verify WAAS is being enforced📜

# Request to endpoint included in OpenAPI works
$ curl -i https://podinfo.bigbang.dev/healthz
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Length: 20
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2022 19:59:10 GMT
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
X-Prisma-Event-Id: 460edea5-c037-42da-7596-abda35519823

{
  "status": "OK"
}

# Request to endpoint not included in OpenAPI returns 403 via Prisma Cloud
$ curl -i https://podinfo.bigbang.dev/foo
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
X-Prisma-Event-Id: f452fd01-4e58-7350-396a-c59dc155ad48
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2022 19:58:45 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

Import a WAAS Rule📜

  • As an alternative to creating a WAAS in the Twistlock Console, A WAAS rule can be imported from a previously exported .json file. An example WAAS rule for the podinfo application is included in podinfo-firewall-waas.json

  • Open https://twistlock.bigbang.dev/#!/defend/waas/container

  • Navigate to Defend > WAAS > Container. WAAS Container
  • Click Import and select podinfo-firewall-waas.json

Known Issues📜

  • WAAS or any functionality that depends on iptables-* being available does not function when running in K3D, similar to issues referenced in k3d.md