How to activate WAF?

Activating the Web Application Firewall (WAF) in the Medianova Cloud Panel enhances your website's security by protecting against potential threats. Whether you’re setting up a new Dynamic CDN Resource or configuring an existing one, the process is straightforward. This guide provides step-by-step instructions to activate WAF, customize its settings, and choose between "Monitoring Only" or full protection modes to safeguard your applications effectively.

1. You can access the Medianova cloud panel by logging in with your username and password at cloud.medianova.com.

2. Click on the “CDN → Create CDN Resource” option on the left menu of the panel if you haven’t created a Dynamic CDN Resource yet. Skip Step 2 and proceed to Step 3, if you have a Dynamic CDN Resource already.

Select Dynamic CDN Resource in the “Start building your CDN” area.

Fill in the requested information and click on the “Create CDN Resource” button.

1. Click on the “Security → WAF” option on the left menu of the panel and press on one of the listed resources to configure and activate your WAF service.

1. You need to change the WAF status to “Monitoring Only” or “On”, to proceed with adding custom rules based on your specific requirements. In the “Monitoring Only” mode, our WAF provides real-time monitoring for potential threats, while allowing all traffic to pass through uninterrupted, providing you with valuable insights into your website’s security posture without affecting its functionality.

2. Next, you can define custom rules based on a wide range of parameters. These are;

• Request Method: Represents the different request methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) used in the HTTP protocol. It can properly limit the methods of requests to the web application and increase the security of the application.

• Client IP: Represents the IP address of the user connecting to the web application. This information can improve the web application’s ability to verify the origin of requests and perform security checks.

• Referrer: Represents the URL of the previous page that redirects to the web page. This information can help the web application learn more about the origin of its requests and increase security controls.

• Args: Represents the arguments in the HTTP request. These arguments contain the information required for the Web application to function correctly. However, malicious arguments submitted by malicious users can cause security vulnerabilities in the application.

• Request URI: Represents the destination URL of the HTTP request. This information can help the Web application determine how it handles requests and perform security checks.

• Request Protocol: Represents the HTTP protocol used (HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2 etc.). Using the correct protocol version can ensure that the web application functions correctly and performs security checks.

• User Agent: Represents information of the agent (usually a browser) making the HTTP request. This information can help the Web application determine how it handles requests and perform security checks.

5.1. Fill in a “Rule Name” for your custom rule.

5.2 Click on the “Field” dropdown menu and select the parameter you would like to use.

5.3 Choose the corresponding “Operator” and “Value”.

5.4 Press the “And” button if you would like to create a chain of conditions. Please note that current WAF version supports maksimum 3 chain of conditions.

5.5 Select the action you want your WAF to take, when incoming requests match your chain of conditions.

5.6 When you finish entering the required information for your custom rule, press the “Add Rule” button. You can continue to add rules according to your needs.

5.7 When you are done adding rules, please press the “Submit” button.

1. You can edit or delete a custom rule by clicking on the “Edit” and “Delete” icons. When you click on the “Edit” icon, you will see the following screen. Press the “Submit” button after editing your rule.

2. After activating your WAF in “On” or “Monitoring Only” mode, you can monitor metrics by clicking on “Analytics → WAF” option on the left menu of the panel. Select your WAF resource to display the following metrics;

• Threats: The number of requests made to the WAF rules among the requests made to the website.

• Top 10 Client IPs: User IP addresses from which requests plugged into WAF rules come from.

• Top 50 Request Uri: Addresses where requests stuck in WAF rules are made.

• Top 50 User Agent: Device information from which requests plugged into WAF rules are made.

• Rule: Information on which rule the requests stuck in WAF rules are stuck on.

• Last 300 Activity Log: Detailed information of the last 300 requests stuck in WAF rules.