Overview

NetScaler ADC is an application delivery and load balancing solution that provides a high-quality user experience for web, traditional, and cloud-native applications regardless of where they are hosted. It comes in a wide variety of form factors and deployment options without locking users into a single configuration or cloud. Pooled capacity licensing enables the movement of capacity among cloud deployments.

As an undisputed leader of service and application delivery, NetScaler ADC is deployed in thousands of networks around the world to optimize, secure, and control the delivery of all enterprise and cloud services. Deployed directly in front of web and database servers, NetScaler ADC combines high-speed load balancing and content switching, HTTP compression, content caching, SSL acceleration, application flow visibility, and a powerful application firewall into an integrated, easy-to-use platform. Meeting SLAs is greatly simplified with end-to-end monitoring that transforms network data into actionable business intelligence. NetScaler ADC allows policies to be defined and managed using a simple declarative policy engine with no programming expertise required.

NetScaler ADC VPX

The NetScaler ADC VPX product is a virtual appliance that can be hosted on a wide variety of virtualization and cloud platforms.

This deployment guide focuses on NetScaler ADC VPX on Amazon Web Services.

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a comprehensive, evolving cloud computing platform provided by Amazon that includes a mixture of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and packaged software as a service (SaaS) offerings. AWS services offer tools such as compute power, database storage, and content delivery services.

AWS offers the following essential services:

• AWS Compute Services

• Migration Services

• Storage

• Database Services

• Management Tools

• Security Services

• Analytics

• Networking

• Messaging

• Developer Tools

• Mobile Services

AWS Terminology

Here is a brief description of key terms used in this document that users must be familiar with:

• Elastic Network Interface (ENI) – A virtual network interface that users can attach to an instance in a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

• Elastic IP (EIP) address – A static, public IPv4 address that users have allocated in Amazon EC2 or Amazon VPC and then attached to an instance. Elastic IP addresses are associated with user accounts, not a specific instance. They are elastic because users can easily allocate, attach, detach, and free them as their needs change.

• Subnet – A segment of the IP address range of a VPC with which EC2 instances can be attached. Users can create subnets to group instances according to security and operational needs.

• Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) – A web service for provisioning a logically isolated section of the AWS cloud where users can launch AWS resources in a virtual network that they define.

Here is a brief description of other terms used in this document that users should be familiar with:

• Amazon Machine Image (AMI) – A machine image, which provides the information required to launch an instance, which is a virtual server in the cloud.

• Elastic Block Store – Provides persistent block storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances in the AWS Cloud.

• Simple Storage Service (S3) – Storage for the Internet. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.

• Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) – A web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale cloud computing easier for developers.

• Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) – Amazon EKS is a managed service that makes it easy for users to run Kubernetes on AWS without needing to stand up or maintain their own Kubernetes control plane. ... Amazon EKS runs Kubernetes control plane instances across multiple Availability Zones to ensure high availability. Amazon EKS is a managed service that makes it easy for users to run Kubernetes on AWS without needing to install and operate their own Kubernetes clusters.

• Application Load Balancing (ALB) – Amazon ALB operates at layer 7 of the OSI stack so it's employed when users want to route or select traffic based on elements of the HTTP or HTTPS connection, whether host-based or path-based. The ALB connection is context-aware and can have direct requests based on any single variable. Applications are load balanced based on their peculiar behavior not solely on server (operating system or virtualization layer) information.

• Elastic Load Balancing (ALB/ELB/NLB) – Amazon ELB Distributes incoming application traffic across multiple EC2 instances, in multiple Availability Zones. This increases the fault tolerance of user applications.

• Network Load Balancing (NLB) – Amazon NLB operates at layer 4 of the OSI stack and below and is not designed to consider anything at the application layer such as content type, cookie data, custom headers, user location, or application behavior. It is context-less, caring only about the network-layer information contained within the packets it is directing. It distributes traffic based on network variables such as IP address and destination ports.

• Instance type – Amazon EC2 provides a wide selection of instance types optimized to fit different use cases. Instance types comprise varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity and give users the flexibility to choose the appropriate mix of resources for their applications.

• Identity and Access Management (IAM) – An AWS identity with permission policies that determine what the identity can and cannot do in AWS. Users can use an IAM role to enable applications running on an EC2 instance to securely access their AWS resources. IAM role is required for deploying VPX instances in a high-availability setup.

• Internet Gateway – Connects a network to the Internet. Users can route traffic for IP addresses outside their VPC to the Internet gateway.

• Key pair – A set of security credentials with which users prove their identity electronically. A key pair consists of a private key and a public key.

• Route table – A set of routing rules that controls the traffic leaving any subnet that is associated with the route table. Users can associate multiple subnets with a single route table, but a subnet can be associated with only one route table at a time.

• Auto Scale Groups – A web service to launch or terminate Amazon EC2 instances automatically based on user-defined policies, schedules, and health checks.

• CloudFormation – A service for writing or changing templates that creates and deletes related AWS resources together as a unit.

• Web Application Firewall (WAF) – WAF is defined as a security solution protecting the web application layer in the OSI network model. A WAF does not depend on the application it is protecting. This document focuses on the exposition and evaluation of the security methods and functions provided specifically by NetScaler WAF.

• Bot – Bot is defined as an autonomous device, program, or piece of software on a network (especially the internet) that can interact with computer systems or users to run commands, reply to messages, or perform routine tasks. A bot is a software program on the internet that performs repetitive tasks. Some bots can be good, while others can have a huge negative impact on a website or application.

Sample NetScaler WAF on AWS Architecture

The preceding image shows a virtual private cloud (VPC) with default parameters that builds a NetScaler WAF environment in the AWS Cloud.

In a production deployment, the following parameters are set up for the NetScaler WAF environment:

• This architecture assumes the use of an AWS CloudFormation Template and an AWS Quick Start Guide, which can be found here: GitHub/AWS-Quickstart/Quickstart-NetScaler-ADC-VPX .

• A VPC that spans two Availability Zones, configured with two public and four private subnets, according to AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS with a /16 Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) block (a network with 65,536 private IP addresses). *

• Two instances of NetScaler WAF (Primary and Secondary), one in each Availability Zone.

• Three security groups, one for each network interface (Management, Client, Server), that acts as virtual firewalls to control the traffic for their associated instances.

• Three subnets, for each instance- one for management, one for client, and one for back-end server.

• An internet gateway attached to the VPC, and a Public Subnets route table which is associated with public subnets so as to allow access to the internet. This gateway is used by the WAF host to send and receive traffic. For more information on Internet Gateways, see: Internet Gateways. *

• 5 Route tables-one public route table associated with client subnets of both primary and secondary WAF. The remaining 4 route tables link to each of the 4 private subnets (management and server-side subnets of primary and secondary WAF). *

• AWS Lambda in WAF takes care of the following:

  • Configuring two WAF in each availability zone of HA mode

  • Creating a sample WAF Profile and thus pushing this configuration with respect to WAF

• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to securely control access to AWS services and resources for your users. By default, the CloudFormation Template (CFT) creates the required IAM role. However, users can provide their own IAM role for NetScaler ADC instances.

• In the public subnets, two managed Network Address Translation (NAT) gateways to allow outbound internet access for resources in public subnets.

Logical Flow of NetScaler WAF on AWS

Logical Flow

The Web Application Firewall can be installed as either a Layer 3 network device or a Layer 2 network bridge between customer servers and customer users, usually behind the customer company’s router or firewall. It must be installed in a location where it can intercept traffic between the web servers that users want to protect and the hub or switch through which users access those web servers. Users then configure the network to send requests to the Web Application Firewall instead of directly to their web servers, and responses to the Web Application Firewall instead of directly to their users. The Web Application Firewall filters that traffic before forwarding it to its final destination, using both its internal rule set and the user additions and modifications. It blocks or renders harmless any activity that it detects as harmful, and then forwards the remaining traffic to the web server. The preceding image provides an overview of the filtering process.

As the diagram shows, when a user requests a URL on a protected website, the Web Application Firewall first examines the request to ensure that it does not match a signature. If the request matches a signature, the Web Application Firewall either displays the error object (a webpage that is located on the Web Application Firewall appliance and which users can configure by using the imports feature) or forwards the request to the designated error URL (the error page).

If a request passes signature inspection, the Web Application Firewall applies the request security checks that have been enabled. The request security checks verify that the request is appropriate for the user website or web service and does not contain material that might pose a threat. For example, security checks examine the request for signs indicating that it might be of an unexpected type, request unexpected content, or contain unexpected and possibly malicious web form data, SQL commands, or scripts. If the request fails a security check, the Web Application Firewall either sanitizes the request and then sends it back to the NetScaler ADC appliance (or NetScaler ADC virtual appliance), or displays the error object. If the request passes the security checks, it is sent back to the NetScaler ADC appliance, which completes any other processing and forwards the request to the protected web server.

When the website or web service sends a response to the user, the Web Application Firewall applies the response security checks that have been enabled. The response security checks examine the response for leaks of sensitive private information, signs of website defacement, or other content that should not be present. If the response fails a security check, the Web Application Firewall either removes the content that should not be present or blocks the response. If the response passes the security checks, it is sent back to the NetScaler ADC appliance, which forwards it to the user.

Cost and Licensing

Users are responsible for the cost of the AWS services used while running AWS deployments. The AWS CloudFormation templates that can be used for this deployment include configuration parameters that users can customize as necessary. Some of those settings, such as instance type, affect the cost of deployment. For cost estimates, users should refer to the pricing pages for each AWS service they are using. Prices are subject to change.

A NetScaler ADC WAF on AWS requires a license. To license NetScaler WAF, users must place the license key in an S3 bucket and specify its location when they launch the deployment.

The following licensing options are available for NetScaler ADC WAF running on AWS. Users can choose an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) based on a single factor such as throughput.

• License model: Pay as You Go (PAYG, for the production licenses) or Bring Your Own License (BYOL, for the Customer Licensed AMI - NetScaler ADC Pooled Capacity). For more information on NetScaler ADC Pooled Capacity, see: NetScaler ADC Pooled Capacity.

  • For BYOL, there are 3 licensing modes:

    • Configure NetScaler ADC Pooled Capacity: Configure NetScaler ADC Pooled Capacity

    • NetScaler ADC VPX Check-in and Check-out Licensing (CICO): NetScaler ADC VPX Check-in and Check-out Licensing

     

     

    Tip:
     
    If users elect CICO Licensing with VPX-200, VPX-1000, VPX-3000, VPX-5000, or VPX-8000 application platform type, they should ensure that they have the same throughput license present in their ADM licensing server.
     
    • NetScaler ADC virtual CPU Licensing: NetScaler ADC virtual CPU Licensing

• Throughput: 200 Mbps or 1 Gbps

• Bundle: Premium

Deployment Options

This deployment guide provides two deployment options:

• The first option is to deploy using a Quick Start Guide format and the following options:

  • Deploy NetScaler WAF into a new VPC (end-to-end deployment). This option builds a new AWS environment consisting of the VPC, subnets, security groups, and other infrastructure components, and then deploys NetScaler WAF into this new VPC.

  • Deploy NetScaler WAF into an existing VPC. This option provisions NetScaler WAF in the user existing AWS infrastructure.

• The second option is to deploy using WAF StyleBooks using NetScaler ADM

Deployment Steps using a Quick Start Guide

Step 1: Sign in to the User AWS Account

• Sign in to the user account at AWS: AWS with an IAM (Identity and Access Management) user role that has the necessary permissions to create an Amazon Account (if necessary) or sign in to an Amazon Account.

• Use the region selector in the navigation bar to choose the AWS Region where users want to deploy High Availability across AWS Availability Zones.

• Ensure that the user AWS account is configured correctly, refer to the Technical Requirements section of this document for more information.

Step 2: Subscribe to the NetScaler WAF AMI

• This deployment requires a subscription to the AMI for NetScaler WAF in the AWS Marketplace.

• Sign in to the user AWS account.

• Open the page for the NetScaler WAF offering by choosing one of the links in the following table.

  • When users launch the Quick Start Guide in to deploy NetScaler WAF in Step 3 below, they use the NetScaler WAF Image parameter to select the bundle and throughput option that matches their AMI subscription. The following list shows the AMI options and corresponding parameter settings. The VPX AMI instance requires a minimum of 2 virtual CPUs and 2 GB of memory.

• AWS Marketplace AMI

  • NetScaler Web Application Firewall (WAF) - 200 Mbps: NetScaler Web App Firewall (WAF) - 200 Mbps

  • NetScaler Web Application Firewall (WAF) - 1000 Mbps: NetScaler Web App Firewall (WAF) - 1000 Mbps

• On the AMI page, choose Continue to Subscribe.

• Review the terms and conditions for software usage, and then choose Accept Terms.

• When the subscription process is complete, exit out of AWS Marketplace without further action. Do not provision the software from AWS Marketplace—users will deploy the AMI with the Quick Start Guide.

Step 3: Launch the Quick Start Guide to Deploy the AMI

• Sign in to the user AWS account, and choose one of the following options to launch the AWS CloudFormation template. For help with choosing an option, see deployment options earlier in this guide.

  • Deploy NetScaler VPX into a new VPC on AWS using one of the AWS CloudFormation Templates located here:

    • Citrix/Citrix-ADC-AWS-CloudFormation/Templates/High-Availability/Across-Availability-Zone

    • Citrix/Citrix-ADC-AWS-CloudFormation/Templates/High-Availability/Same-Availability-Zone

  • Deploy NetScaler WAF into a new or existing VPC on AWS using the AWS Quickstart template located here: AWS-Quickstart/Quickstart-Citrix-ADC- WAF

Also, users should ensure that the domain name option in the DHCP options is configured as explained in the Amazon VPC documentation found here: DHCP Options Sets: DHCP Options Sets. Users are prompted for their VPC settings when they launch the Quick Start Guide.

• Each deployment takes about 15 minutes to complete.

• Check the AWS Region that is displayed in the upper-right corner of the navigation bar, and change it if necessary. This is where the network infrastructure for NetScaler WAF will be built. The template is launched in the US East (Ohio) Region by default.

• On the Select Template page, keep the default setting for the template URL, and then choose Next.

• On the Specify Details page, specify the stack name as per user convenience. Review the parameters for the template. Provide values for the parameters that require input. For all other parameters, review the default settings and customize them as necessary.

• In the following table, parameters are listed by category and described separately for the deployment option:

• Parameters for deploying NetScaler WAF into a new or existing VPC (Deployment Option 1)

• When users finish reviewing and customizing the parameters, they should choose Next.

Parameters for Deploying NetScaler WAF into a new VPC

VPC Network Configuration

For reference information on this deployment refer to the CFT template here: AWS-Quickstart/Quickstart-Citrix-ADC-WAF/Templates.

Bastion host configuration

NetScaler WAF Configuration

Pooled Licensing configuration

• Configure NetScaler ADC Pooled Capacity: Configure NetScaler ADC Pooled Capacity
• NetScaler ADC VPX Check-in and Check-out Licensing (CICO): NetScaler ADC VPX Check-in and Check-out Licensing
• NetScaler ADC virtual CPU Licensing: NetScaler ADC virtual CPU Licensing| |License Bandwidth in Mbps|0 Mbps|Only if the licensing mode is Pooled-Licensing, then this field comes into the picture. It allocates an initial bandwidth of the license in Mbps to be allocated after BYOL ADCs are created. It should be a multiple of 10 Mbps.| |License Edition|Premium|License Edition for Pooled Capacity Licensing Mode is Premium| |Appliance Platform Type|Optional|Choose the required Appliance Platform Type, only if users opt for CICO licensing mode. Users get the options listed: VPX-200, VPX-1000, VPX-3000, VPX-5000, VPX-8000| |License Edition|Premium|License Edition for vCPU based Licensing is Premium.|

AWS Quick Start Guide Configuration

• On the Options page, users can specify a Resource Tag or key-value pair for resources in your stack and set advanced options. For more information on Resource Tags, see: Resource Tag. For more information on setting AWS CloudFormation Stack Options, see: Setting AWS CloudFormation Stack Options. When users are done, they should choose Next.

• On the Review page, review and confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities, select the two check boxes to acknowledge that the template creates IAM resources and that it might require the capability to auto-expand macros.

• Choose Create to deploy the stack.

• Monitor the status of the stack. When the status is CREATE_COMPLETE, the NetScaler WAF instance is ready.

• Use the URLs displayed in the Outputs tab for the stack to view the resources that were created.

Step 4: Test the Deployment

We refer to the instances in this deployment as primary and secondary. Each instance has different IP addresses associated with it. When the Quick Start has been deployed successfully, traffic goes through the primary NetScaler WAF instance configured in Availability Zone 1. During failover conditions, when the primary instance does not respond to client requests, the secondary WAF instance takes over.

The Elastic IP address of the virtual IP address of the primary instance migrates to the secondary instance, which takes over as the new primary instance.

In the failover process, NetScaler WAF does the following:

• NetScaler WAF checks the virtual servers that have IP sets attached to them.

• NetScaler WAF finds the IP address that has an associated public IP address from the two IP addresses that the virtual server is listening on. One that is directly attached to the virtual server, and one that is attached through the IP set.

• NetScaler WAF reassociates the public Elastic IP address to the private IP address that belongs to the new primary virtual IP address.

To validate the deployment, perform the following:

• Connect to the primary instance

For example, with a proxy server, jump host (a Linux/Windows/FW instance running in AWS, or the bastion host), or another device reachable to that VPC or a Direct Connect if dealing with on-prem connectivity.

• Perform a trigger action to force failover and check whether the secondary instance takes over.

Connect to NetScaler WAF HA Pair using Bastion Host

If users are opting for Sandbox deployment (for example, as part of CFT, users opt for configuring a Bastion Host), a Linux bastion host deployed in a public subnet will be configured to access the WAF interfaces.

In the AWS CloudFormation console, which is accessed by signing in here: Sign in, choose the master stack, and on the Outputs tab, find the value of LinuxBastionHostEIP1.

• PrivateManagementPrivateNSIP and PrimaryADCInstanceID key’s value to be used in the later steps to SSH into the ADC.

• Choose Services.

• On the Compute tab, select EC2.

  • Under Resources, choose Running Instances.

  • On the Description tab of the primary WAF instance, note the IPv4 public IP address. Users need that IP address to construct the SSH command.

• To store the key in the user keychain, run the command ssh-add -K [your-key-pair].pem

On Linux, users might need to omit the -K flag.

• Log in to the bastion host using the following command, using the value for LinuxBastionHostEIP1 that users noted in step 1.

ssh -A ubuntu@[LinuxBastionHostEIP1]

• From the bastion host, users can connect to the primary WAF instance by using SSH.

ssh nsroot@[Primary Management Private NSIP]

Password: [Primary ADC Instance ID]

Now users are connected to the primary NetScaler WAF instance. To see the available commands, users can run the help command. To view the current HA configuration, users can run the show HA node command.

NetScaler Application Delivery Management

NetScaler Application Delivery Management Service (NetScaler ADM) provides an easy and scalable solution to manage NetScaler ADC deployments that include NetScaler ADC MPX, NetScaler ADC VPX, NetScaler Gateway, NetScaler Secure Web Gateway, NetScaler ADC SDX, NetScaler ADC CPX, and NetScaler SD-WAN appliances that are deployed on-premises or on the cloud.

Users can use this cloud solution to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot the entire global application delivery infrastructure from a single, unified, and centralized cloud-based console. NetScaler ADM Service provides all the capabilities required to quickly set up, deploy, and manage application delivery in NetScaler ADC deployments and with rich analytics of application health, performance, and security.

NetScaler ADM Service provides the following benefits:

• Agile – Easy to operate, update, and consume. The service model of NetScaler ADM Service is available over the cloud, making it easy to operate, update, and use the features provided by NetScaler ADM Service. The frequency of updates, combined with the automated update feature, quickly enhances user NetScaler ADC deployment.

• Faster time to value – Quicker business goals achievement. Unlike with the traditional on-premises deployment, users can use their NetScaler ADM Service with a few clicks. Users not only save the installation and configuration time, but also avoid wasting time and resources on potential errors.

• Multi-Site Management – Single Pane of Glass for instances across Multi-Site data centers. With the NetScaler ADM Service, users can manage and monitor NetScaler ADCs that are in various types of deployments. Users have one-stop management for NetScaler ADCs deployed on-premises and in the cloud.

• Operational Efficiency – Optimized and automated way to achieve higher operational productivity. With the NetScaler ADM Service, user operational costs are reduced by saving user time, money, and resources on maintaining and upgrading the traditional hardware deployments.

How NetScaler ADM Service Works

NetScaler ADM Service is available as a service on the NetScaler Cloud. After users sign up for NetScaler Cloud and start using the service, install agents in the user network environment or initiate the built-in agent in the instances. Then, add the instances users want to manage to the service.

An agent enables communication between the NetScaler ADM Service and the managed instances in the user data center. The agent collects data from the managed instances in the user network and sends it to the NetScaler ADM Service.

When users add an instance to the NetScaler ADM Service, it implicitly adds itself as a trap destination and collects an inventory of the instance.

The service collects instance details such as:

• Host name

• Software version

• Running and saved configuration

• Certificates

• Entities configured on the instance, and so on.

NetScaler ADM Service periodically polls managed instances to collect information.

The following image illustrates the communication between the service, the agents, and the instances:

Documentation Guide

The NetScaler ADM Service documentation includes information about how to get started with the service, a list of features supported on the service, and configuration specific to this service solution.

Deploying NetScaler ADC VPX Instances on AWS using NetScaler ADM

When customers move their applications to the cloud, the components that are part of their application increase, become more distributed, and need to be dynamically managed.

With NetScaler ADC VPX instances on AWS, users can seamlessly extend their L4-L7 network stack to AWS. With NetScaler ADC VPX, AWS becomes a natural extension of their on-premises IT infrastructure. Customers can use NetScaler ADC VPX on AWS to combine the elasticity and flexibility of the cloud, with the same optimization, security, and control features that support the most demanding websites and applications in the world.

With NetScaler Application Delivery Management (ADM) monitoring their NetScaler ADC instances, users gain visibility into the health, performance, and security of their applications. They can automate the setup, deployment, and management of their application delivery infrastructure across hybrid multi-cloud environments.

Architecture Diagram

The following image provides an overview of how NetScaler ADM connects with AWS to provision NetScaler ADC VPX instances in AWS.

Configuration Tasks

Perform the following tasks on AWS before provisioning NetScaler ADC VPX instances in NetScaler ADM:

• Create subnets

• Create security groups

• Create an IAM role and define a policy

Perform the following tasks on NetScaler ADM to provision the instances on AWS:

• Create site

• Provision NetScaler ADC VPX instance on AWS

To Create Subnets

Create three subnets in a VPC. The three subnets that are required to provision NetScaler ADC VPX instances in a VPC - are management, client, and server. Specify an IPv4 CIDR block from the range that is defined in the VPC for each of the subnets. Specify the availability zone in which the subnet is to reside. Create all the three subnets in the same availability zone. The following image illustrates the three subnets created in the customer region and their connectivity to the client system.

For more information on VPC and subnets, see VPCs and Subnets.

To Create Security Groups

Create a security group to control inbound and outbound traffic in the NetScaler ADC VPX instance. A security group acts as a virtual firewall for a user instance. Create security groups at the instance level, and not at the subnet level. It is possible to assign each instance in a subnet in the user VPC to a different set of security groups. Add rules for each security group to control the inbound traffic that is passing through the client subnet to instances. Users can also add a separate set of rules that control the outbound traffic that passes through the server subnet to the application servers. Although users can use the default security group for their instances, they might want to create their own groups. Create three security groups - one for each subnet. Create rules for both incoming and outgoing traffic that users want to control. Users can add as many rules as they want.

For more information on security groups, see: Security Groups for your VPC.

To Create an IAM Role and Define a Policy

Create an IAM role so that customers can establish a trust relationship between their users and the NetScaler trusted AWS account and create a policy with NetScaler permissions.

1. In AWS, click Services. In the left side navigation pane, select IAM > Roles, and click Create role.

2. Users are connecting their AWS account with the AWS account in NetScaler ADM. So, select Another AWS account to allow NetScaler ADM to perform actions in the AWS account.

Type in the 12-digit NetScaler ADM AWS account ID. The NetScaler ID is 835822366011. Users can also find the NetScaler ID in NetScaler ADM when they create the cloud access profile.

1. Enable Require external ID to connect to a third-party account. Users can increase the security of their roles by requiring an optional external identifier. Type an ID that can be a combination of any characters.

2. Click Permissions.

3. In Attach permissions policies page, click Create policy.

4. Users can create and edit a policy in the visual editor or by using JSON.

The list of permissions from NetScaler is provided in the following box:

{"Version": "2012-10-17","Statement":[    {         "Effect": "Allow",        "Action": [            "ec2:DescribeInstances",            "ec2:DescribeImageAttribute",            "ec2:DescribeInstanceAttribute",            "ec2:DescribeRegions",            "ec2:DescribeDhcpOptions",            "ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups",            "ec2:DescribeHosts",            "ec2:DescribeImages",            "ec2:DescribeVpcs",            "ec2:DescribeSubnets",            "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaces",            "ec2:DescribeAvailabilityZones",            "ec2:DescribeNetworkInterfaceAttribute",            "ec2:DescribeInstanceStatus",            "ec2:DescribeAddresses",            "ec2:DescribeKeyPairs",            "ec2:DescribeTags",            "ec2:DescribeVolumeStatus",            "ec2:DescribeVolumes",            "ec2:DescribeVolumeAttribute",            "ec2:CreateTags",            "ec2:DeleteTags",            "ec2:CreateKeyPair",            "ec2:DeleteKeyPair",            "ec2:ResetInstanceAttribute",            "ec2:RunScheduledInstances",            "ec2:ReportInstanceStatus",            "ec2:StartInstances",            "ec2:RunInstances",            "ec2:StopInstances",            "ec2:UnmonitorInstances",            "ec2:MonitorInstances",            "ec2:RebootInstances",            "ec2:TerminateInstances",            "ec2:ModifyInstanceAttribute",            "ec2:AssignPrivateIpAddresses",            "ec2:UnassignPrivateIpAddresses",            "ec2:CreateNetworkInterface",            "ec2:AttachNetworkInterface",            "ec2:DetachNetworkInterface",            "ec2:DeleteNetworkInterface",            "ec2:ResetNetworkInterfaceAttribute",            "ec2:ModifyNetworkInterfaceAttribute",            "ec2:AssociateAddress",            "ec2:AllocateAddress",            "ec2:ReleaseAddress",            "ec2:DisassociateAddress",            "ec2:GetConsoleOutput"        ],            "Resource": "*"    }]}

1. Copy and paste the list of permissions in the JSON tab and click Review policy.

2. In the Review policy page, type a name for the policy, enter a description, and click Create policy.

To Create a Site in NetScaler ADM

Create a site in NetScaler ADM and add the details of the VPC associated with the AWS role.

1. In NetScaler ADM, navigate to Networks > Sites.

2. Click Add.

3. Select the service type as AWS and enable Use existing VPC as a site.

4. Select the cloud access profile.

5. If the cloud access profile does not exist in the field, click Add to create a profile.

   • In the Create Cloud Access Profile page, type the name of the profile with which users want to access AWS.

   • Type the ARN associated with the role that users have created in AWS.

   • Type the external ID that users provided while creating an Identity and Access Management (IAM) role in AWS. See step 4 in “To create an IAM role and define a policy” task. Ensure that the IAM role name specified in AWS starts with NetScaler-ADM- and it correctly appears in the Role ARN.

The details of the VPC, such as the region, VPC ID, name and CIDR block, associated with your IAM role in AWS are imported in NetScaler ADM.

1. Type a name for the site.

2. Click Create.

To Provision NetScaler ADC VPX on AWS

Use the site that users created earlier to provision the NetScaler ADC VPX instances on AWS. Provide NetScaler ADM service agent details to provision those instances that are bound to that agent.

1. In NetScaler ADM, navigate to Networks > Instances > NetScaler ADC.

2. In the VPX tab, click Provision.

This option displays the Provision NetScaler ADC VPX on Cloud page.

1. Select Amazon Web Services (AWS) and click Next.

2. In Basic Parameters,

   • Select the Type of Instance from the list.

     • Standalone: This option provisions a standalone NetScaler ADC VPX instance on AWS.

     • HA: This option provisions the high availability NetScaler ADC VPX instances on AWS.

     To provision the NetScaler ADC VPX instances in the same zone, select the Single Zone option under Zone Type.

     To provision the NetScaler ADC VPX instances across multiple zones, select the Multi Zone option under Zone type. In the Cloud Parameters tab, make sure to specify the network details for each zone that is created on AWS.

    

   

    

   • Specify the name of the NetScaler ADC VPX instance.

   • In Site, select the site that you created earlier.

   • In Agent, select the agent that is created to manage the NetScaler ADC VPX instance.

   • In Cloud Access Profile, select the cloud access profile created during site creation.

   • In Device Profile, select the profile to provide authentication.

   NetScaler ADM uses the device profile when it requires to log on to the NetScaler ADC VPX instance.

   • Click Next.

3. In Cloud Parameters,

   • Select the NetScaler IAM Role created in AWS. An IAM role is an AWS identity with permission policies that determine what the identity can and cannot do in AWS.

   • In the Product field, select the NetScaler ADC product version that users want to provision.

   • Select the EC2 instance type from the Instance Type list.

   • Select the Version of NetScaler ADC that users want to provision. Select both Major and Minor version of NetScaler ADC.

   • In Security Groups, select the Management, Client, and Server security groups that users created in their virtual network.

   • In IPs in server Subnet per Node, select the number of IP addresses in server subnet per node for the security group.

   • In Subnets, select the Management, Client, and Server subnets for each zone that are created in AWS. Users can also select the region from the Availability Zone list.

   • Click Finish.

The NetScaler ADC VPX instance is now provisioned on AWS.

To View the NetScaler ADC VPX Provisioned in AWS

1. From the AWS home page, navigate to Services and click EC2.

2. On the Resources page, click Running Instances.

3. Users can view the NetScaler ADC VPX provisioned in AWS.

The name of the NetScaler ADC VPX instance is the same name users provided while provisioning the instance in NetScaler ADM.

To View the NetScaler ADC VPX Provisioned in NetScaler ADM

1. In NetScaler ADM, navigate to Networks > Instances > NetScaler ADC.

2. Select NetScaler ADC VPX tab.

3. The NetScaler ADC VPX instance provisioned in AWS is listed here.

NetScaler ADC WAF and OWASP Top 10 – 2017

The Open Web Application Security Project: OWASP released the OWASP Top 10 for 2017 for web application security. This list documents the most common web application vulnerabilities and is a great starting point to evaluate web security. Here we detail how to configure the NetScaler ADC Web Application Firewall (WAF) to mitigate these flaws. WAF is available as an integrated module in the NetScaler ADC (Premium Edition) as well as a complete range of appliances.

The full OWASP Top 10 document is available at OWASP Top Ten.

A1:2017- Injection

Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into running unintended commands or accessing data without proper authorization.

ADC WAF Protections

• SQL Injection prevention feature protects against common injection attacks. Custom injection patterns can be uploaded to protect against any type of injection attack including XPath and LDAP. This is applicable for both HTML and XML payloads.

• The auto update signature feature keeps the injection signatures up to date.

• Field format protection feature allows the administrator to restrict any user parameter to a regular expression. For instance, you can enforce that a zip-code field contains integers only or even 5-digit integers.

• Form field consistency: Validate each submitted user form against the user session form signature to ensure the validity of all form elements.

• Buffer overflow checks ensure that the URL, headers, and cookies are in the right limits blocking any attempts to inject large scripts or code.

A2:2017 – Broken Authentication

Application functions related to authentication and session management are often implemented incorrectly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities temporarily or permanently.

ADC WAF Protections

• NetScaler ADC AAA module performs user authentication and provides Single Sign-On functionality to back end applications. This is integrated into the NetScaler ADC AppExpert policy engine to allow custom policies based on user and group information.

• Using SSL offloading and URL transformation capabilities, the firewall can also help sites to use secure transport layer protocols to prevent stealing of session tokens by network sniffing.

• Cookie Proxying and Cookie Encryption can be employed to completely mitigate cookie stealing.

A3:2017 - Sensitive Data Exposure

Many web applications and APIs do not properly protect sensitive data, such as financial, healthcare, and PII. Attackers may steal or modify such poorly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes. Sensitive data may be compromised without extra protection, such as encryption at rest or in transit, and requires special precautions when exchanged with the browser.

ADC WAF Protections

• Application Firewall protects applications from leaking sensitive data like credit card details.

• Sensitive data can be configured as Safe objects in Safe Commerce protection to avoid exposure.

• Any sensitive data in cookies can be protected by Cookie Proxying and Cookie Encryption.

A4:2017 XML External Entities (XXE)

Many older or poorly configured XML processors evaluate external entity references within XML documents. External entities can be used to disclose internal files using the file URI handler, internal file shares, internal port scanning, remote code execution, and denial of service attacks.

ADC WAF Protections

• In addition to detecting and blocking common application threats that can be adapted for attacking XML-based applications (that is, cross-site scripting, command injection, and so forth).

• ADC Application Firewall includes a rich set of XML-specific security protections. These include schema validation to thoroughly verify SOAP messages and XML payloads, and a powerful XML attachment check to block attachments containing malicious executables or viruses.

• Automatic traffic inspection methods block XPath injection attacks on URLs and forms aimed at gaining access.

• ADC Application Firewall also thwarts various DoS attacks, including external entity references, recursive expansion, excessive nesting, and malicious messages containing either long or a large number of attributes and elements.

A5:2017 Broken Access Control

Restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are often not properly enforced. Attackers can exploit these flaws to access unauthorized functionality and data, such as access other users' accounts, view sensitive files, modify other users’ data, change access rights, and so on.

ADC WAF Protections

• NetScaler ADC AAA feature that supports authentication, authorization, and auditing for all application traffic allows a site administrator to manage access controls with the ADC appliance.

• The Authorization security feature within the NetScaler ADC AAA module of the ADC appliance enables the appliance to verify, which content on a protected server it should allow each user to access.

• Form field consistency: If object references are stored as hidden fields in forms, then using form field consistency you can validate that these fields are not tampered on subsequent requests.

• Cookie Proxying and Cookie consistency: Object references that are stored in cookie values can be validated with these protections.

• Start URL check with URL closure: Allows user access to a predefined allow list of URLs. URL closure builds a list of all URLs seen in valid responses during the user session and automatically allows access to them during that session.

A6:2017 - Security Misconfiguration

Security misconfiguration is the most commonly seen issue. This is commonly a result of insecure default configurations, incomplete or improvised configurations, open cloud storage, misconfigured HTTP headers, and verbose error messages containing sensitive information. Not only must all operating systems, frameworks, libraries, and applications be securely configured, but they must be patched and upgraded in a timely fashion.

ADC WAF Protections

• The PCI-DSS report generated by the Application Firewall, documents the security settings on the Firewall device.

• Reports from the scanning tools are converted to ADC WAF Signatures to handle security misconfigurations.

• ADC WAF supports Cenzic, IBM AppScan (Enterprise and Standard), Qualys, TrendMicro, WhiteHat, and custom vulnerability scan reports.

A7:2017 - Cross Site Scripting (XSS)

XSS flaws occur whenever an application includes untrusted data in a new web page without proper validation or escaping, or updates an existing webpage with user-supplied data using a browser API that can create HTML or JavaScript. Cross-site scripting allows attackers to run scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface websites, or redirect the user to malicious sites.

ADC WAF Protections

• Cross-site scripting protection protects against common XSS attacks. Custom XSS patterns can be uploaded to modify the default list of allowed tags and attributes. The ADC WAF uses an allow list of allowed HTML attributes and tags to detect XSS attacks. This is applicable for both HTML and XML payloads.

• ADC WAF blocks all the attacks listed in the OWASP XSS Filter Evaluation Cheat Sheet.

• Field format check prevents an attacker from sending inappropriate web form data which can be a potential XSS attack.

• Form field consistency.

A8:2017 - Insecure Deserialization

Insecure deserialization often leads to remote code execution. Even if deserialization flaws do not result in remote code execution, they can be used to perform attacks, including replay attacks, injection attacks, and privilege escalation attacks.

ADC WAF Protections

• JSON payload inspection with custom signatures.

• XML security: protects against XML denial of service (xDoS), XML SQL and Xpath injection and cross site scripting, format checks, WS-I basic profile compliance, XML attachments check.

• Field Format checks in addition to Cookie Consistency and Field Consistency can be used.

A9:2017 - Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities

Components, such as libraries, frameworks, and other software modules, run with the same privileges as the application. If a vulnerable component is exploited, such an attack can facilitate serious data loss or server takeover. Applications and APIs using components with known vulnerabilities may undermine application defenses and enable various attacks and impacts.

ADC WAF Protections

• NetScaler recommends having the third-party components up to date.

• Vulnerability scan reports that are converted to ADC Signatures can be used to virtually patch these components.

• Application Firewall templates that are available for these vulnerable components can be used.

• Custom Signatures can be bound with the firewall to protect these components.

A10:2017 - Insufficient Logging & Monitoring

Insufficient logging and monitoring, coupled with missing or ineffective integration with incident response, allows attackers to further attack systems, maintain persistence, pivot to more systems, and tamper, extract, or destroy data. Most breach studies show that the time to detect a breach is over 200 days, typically detected by external parties rather than internal processes or monitoring.

ADC WAF Protections

• When the log action is enabled for security checks or signatures, the resulting log messages provide information about the requests and responses that the application firewall has observed while protecting your websites and applications.

• The application firewall offers the convenience of using the built-in ADC database for identifying the locations corresponding to the IP addresses from which malicious requests are originating.

• Default format (PI) expressions give the flexibility to customize the information included in the logs with the option to add the specific data to capture in the application firewall generated log messages.

• The application firewall supports CEF logs.

Application Security Protection

NetScaler ADM

NetScaler Application Delivery Management Service (NetScaler ADM) provides a scalable solution to manage NetScaler ADC deployments that include NetScaler ADC MPX, NetScaler ADC VPX, NetScaler Gateway, NetScaler Secure Web Gateway, NetScaler ADC SDX, NetScaler ADC CPX, and NetScaler SD-WAN appliances that are deployed on-premises or on the cloud.

NetScaler ADM Application Analytics and Management Features

The following features are key to the ADM role in App Security.

Application Analytics and Management

The Application Analytics and Management feature of NetScaler ADM strengthens the application-centric approach to help users address various application delivery challenges. This approach gives users visibility into the health scores of applications, helps users determine the security risks, and helps users detect anomalies in the application traffic flows and take corrective actions. The most important among these roles for App Security is Application Security Analytics:

• Application security analytics: Application Security Analytics. The App Security Dashboard provides a holistic view of the security status of user applications. For example, it shows key security metrics such as security violations, signature violations, threat indexes. The App Security dashboard also displays attack related information such as SYN attacks, small window attacks, and DNS flood attacks for the discovered NetScaler ADC instances.

StyleBooks

StyleBooks simplify the task of managing complex NetScaler ADC configurations for user applications. A StyleBook is a template that users can use to create and manage NetScaler ADC configurations. Here users are primarily concerned with the StyleBook used to deploy the Web Application Firewall. For more information on StyleBooks, see: StyleBooks.

Analytics

Provides an easy and scalable way to look into the various insights of the NetScaler ADC instances’ data to describe, predict, and improve application performance. Users can use one or more analytics features simultaneously. Most important among these roles for App Security are:

• Security Insight: Security Insight. Provides a single-pane solution to help users assess user application security status and take corrective actions to secure user applications.

• Bot Insight

• For more information on analytics, see Analytics: Analytics.

Other features that are important to ADM functionality are:

Event Management

Events represent occurrences of events or errors on a managed NetScaler ADC instance. For example, when there is a system failure or change in configuration, an event is generated and recorded on NetScaler ADM. Following are the related features that users can configure or view by using NetScaler ADM:

• Creating event rules: Create Event Rules

• View and export syslog messages: View and Export Syslog Messages

For more information on event management, see: Events.

Instance Management

Enables users to manage the NetScaler ADC, NetScaler Gateway, NetScaler Secure Web Gateway, and NetScaler SD-WAN instances. For more information on instance management, see: Adding Instances.

License Management

Allows users to manage NetScaler ADC licenses by configuring NetScaler ADM as a license manager.

• NetScaler ADC pooled capacity: Pooled Capacity. A common license pool from which a user NetScaler ADC instance can check out one instance license and only as much bandwidth as it needs. When the instance no longer requires these resources, it checks them back in to the common pool, making the resources available to other instances that need them.

• NetScaler ADC VPX check-in and check-out licensing: NetScaler ADC VPX Check-in and Check-out Licensing. NetScaler ADM allocates licenses to NetScaler ADC VPX instances on demand. A NetScaler ADC VPX instance can check out the license from the NetScaler ADM when a NetScaler ADC VPX instance is provisioned, or check back in its license to NetScaler ADM when an instance is removed or destroyed.

• For more information on license management, see: Pooled Capacity.

Configuration Management

NetScaler ADM allows users to create configuration jobs that help them perform configuration tasks, such as creating entities, configuring features, replication of configuration changes, system upgrades, and other maintenance activities with ease on multiple instances. Configuration jobs and templates simplify the most repetitive administrative tasks to a single task on NetScaler ADM. For more information on configuration management, see Configuration jobs: Configuration Jobs.

Configuration Audit

Enables users to monitor and identify anomalies in the configurations across user instances.

• Configuration advice: Get Configuration Advice on Network Configuration. Allows users to identify any configuration anomaly.

• Audit template: Create Audit Templates. Allows users to monitor the changes across a specific configuration.

• For more information on configuration audit, see: Configuration Audit.

Signatures provide the following deployment options to help users to optimize the protection of user applications:

• Negative Security Model: With the negative security model, users employ a rich set of preconfigured signature rules to apply the power of pattern matching to detect attacks and protect against application vulnerabilities. Users block only what they don’t want and allow the rest. Users can add their own signature rules, based on the specific security needs of user applications, to design their own customized security solutions.

• Hybrid security Model: In addition to using signatures, users can use positive security checks to create a configuration ideally suited for user applications. Use signatures to block what users don’t want, and use positive security checks to enforce what is allowed.

To protect user applications by using signatures, users must configure one or more profiles to use their signatures object. In a hybrid security configuration, the SQL injection and cross-site scripting patterns, and the SQL transformation rules, in the user signatures object are used not only by the signature rules, but also by the positive security checks configured in the Web Application Firewall profile that is using the signatures object.

The Web Application Firewall examines the traffic to user protected websites and web services to detect traffic that matches a signature. A match is triggered only when every pattern in the rule matches the traffic. When a match occurs, the specified actions for the rule are invoked. Users can display an error page or error object when a request is blocked. Log messages can help users to identify attacks being launched against user applications. If users enable statistics, the Web Application Firewall maintains data about requests that match a Web Application Firewall signature or security check.

If the traffic matches both a signature and a positive security check, the more restrictive of the two actions are enforced. For example, if a request matches a signature rule for which the block action is disabled, but the request also matches an SQL Injection positive security check for which the action is block, the request is blocked. In this case, the signature violation might be logged as [not blocked], although the request is blocked by the SQL injection check.

Customization: If necessary, users can add their own rules to a signatures object. Users can also customize the SQL/XSS patterns. The option to add their own signature rules, based on the specific security needs of user applications, gives users the flexibility to design their own customized security solutions. Users block only what they don’t want and allow the rest. A specific fast-match pattern in a specified location can significantly reduce processing overhead to optimize performance. Users can add, modify, or remove SQL injection and cross-site scripting patterns. Built-in RegEx and expression editors help users configure user patterns and verify their accuracy.

Use Cases

Compared to alternative solutions that require each service to be deployed as a separate virtual appliance, NetScaler ADC on AWS combines L4 load balancing, L7 traffic management, server offload, application acceleration, application security, flexible licensing, and other essential application delivery capabilities in a single VPX instance, conveniently available via the AWS Marketplace. Furthermore, everything is governed by a single policy framework and managed with the same, powerful set of tools used to administer on-premises NetScaler ADC deployments. The net result is that NetScaler ADC on AWS enables several compelling use cases that not only support the immediate needs of today’s enterprises, but also the ongoing evolution from legacy computing infrastructures to enterprise cloud data centers.

NetScaler Web Application Firewall (WAF)

NetScaler Web Application Firewall (WAF) is an enterprise grade solution offering state of the art protections for modern applications. NetScaler WAF mitigates threats against public-facing assets, including websites, web applications, and APIs. NetScaler WAF includes IP reputation-based filtering, Bot mitigation, OWASP Top 10 application threats protections, Layer 7 DDoS protection and more. Also included are options to enforce authentication, strong SSL/TLS ciphers, TLS 1.3, rate limiting and rewrite policies. Using both basic and advanced WAF protections, NetScaler WAF provides comprehensive protection for your applications with unparalleled ease of use. Getting up and running is a matter of minutes. Further, using an automated learning model, called dynamic profiling, NetScaler WAF saves users precious time. By automatically learning how a protected application works, NetScaler WAF adapts to the application even as developers deploy and alter the applications. NetScaler WAF helps with compliance for all major regulatory standards and bodies, including PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and more. With our CloudFormation templates, it has never been easier to get up and running quickly. With auto scaling, users can rest assured that their applications remain protected even as their traffic scales up.

Web Application Firewall Deployment Strategy

The first step to deploying the web application firewall is to evaluate which applications or specific data need maximum security protection, which ones are less vulnerable, and the ones for which security inspection can safely be bypassed. This helps users in coming up with an optimal configuration, and in designing appropriate policies and bind points to segregate the traffic. For example, users might want to configure a policy to bypass security inspection of requests for static web content, such as images, MP3 files, and movies, and configure another policy to apply advanced security checks to requests for dynamic content. Users can use multiple policies and profiles to protect different contents of the same application.

The next step is to baseline the deployment. Start by creating a virtual server and run test traffic through it to get an idea of the rate and amount of traffic flowing through the user system.

Then, deploy the Web Application Firewall. Use NetScaler ADM and the Web Application Firewall StyleBook to configure the Web Application Firewall. See the StyleBook section below in this guide for details.

After the Web Application Firewall is deployed and configured with the Web Application Firewall StyleBook, a useful next step would be to implement the NetScaler ADC WAF and OWASP Top 10.

Finally, three of the Web Application Firewall protections are especially effective against common types of Web attacks, and are therefore more commonly used than any of the others. Thus, they should be implemented in the initial deployment. They are:

• HTML Cross-Site Scripting. Examines requests and responses for scripts that attempt to access or modify content on a different website than the one on which the script is located. When this check finds such a script, it either renders the script harmless before forwarding the request or response to its destination, or it blocks the connection.

• HTML SQL Injection. Examines requests that contain form field data for attempts to inject SQL commands into a SQL database. When this check detects injected SQL code, it either blocks the request or renders the injected SQL code harmless before forwarding the request to the Web server.

•  
  If users enable the HTML Cross-Site Scripting check or the HTML SQL Injection check (or both), and
•  
  User protected websites accept file uploads or contain Web forms that can contain large POST body data.
   

For more information about configuring the Web Application Firewall to handle this case, see Configuring the Application Firewall: Configuring the Web App Firewall.

• Buffer Overflow. Examines requests to detect attempts to cause a buffer overflow on the Web server.

Configuring the Web Application Firewall (WAF)

The following steps assume that the WAF is already enabled and functioning correctly.

NetScaler recommends that users configure WAF using the Web Application Firewall StyleBook. Most users find it the easiest method to configure the Web Application Firewall, and it is designed to prevent mistakes. Both the GUI and the command line interface are intended for experienced users, primarily to modify an existing configuration or use advanced options.

SQL Injection

The Application Firewall HTML SQL Injection check provides special defenses against the injection of unauthorized SQL code that might break user Application security. NetScaler Web Application Firewall examines the request payload for injected SQL code in three locations: 1) POST body, 2) headers, and 3) cookies.

A default set of keywords and special characters provides known keywords and special characters that are commonly used to launch SQL attacks. Users can also add new patterns, and they can edit the default set to customize the SQL check inspection.

There are several parameters that can be configured for SQL injection processing. Users can check for SQL wildcard characters. Users can change the SQL Injection type and select one of the 4 options (SQLKeyword, SQLSplChar, SQLSplCharANDKeyword, SQLSplCharORKeyword) to indicate how to evaluate the SQL keywords and SQL special characters when processing the payload. The SQL Comments Handling parameter gives users an option to specify the type of comments that need to be inspected or exempted during SQL Injection detection.

Users can deploy relaxations to avoid false positives. The learning engine can provide recommendations for configuring relaxation rules.

The following options are available for configuring an optimized SQL Injection protection for the user application:

Block — If users enable block, the block action is triggered only if the input matches the SQL injection type specification. For example, if SQLSplCharANDKeyword is configured as the SQL injection type, a request is not blocked if it contains no key words, even if SQL special characters are detected in the input. Such a request is blocked if the SQL injection type is set to either SQLSplChar, or SQLSplCharORKeyword.

Log — If users enable the log feature, the SQL Injection check generates log messages indicating the actions that it takes. If block is disabled, a separate log message is generated for each input field in which the SQL violation was detected. However, only one message is generated when the request is blocked. Similarly, 1 log message per request is generated for the transform operation, even when SQL special characters are transformed in multiple fields. Users can monitor the logs to determine whether responses to legitimate requests are getting blocked. A large increase in the number of log messages can indicate attempts to launch an attack.

Stats — If enabled, the stats feature gathers statistics about violations and logs. An unexpected surge in the stats counter might indicate that the user application is under attack. If legitimate requests are getting blocked, users might have to revisit the configuration to see if they need to configure new relaxation rules or modify the existing ones.

Learn — If users are not sure which SQL relaxation rules might be ideally suited for their applications, they can use the learn feature to generate recommendations based on the learned data. The Web Application Firewall learning engine monitors the traffic and provides SQL learning recommendations based on the observed values. To get optimal benefit without compromising performance, users might want to enable the learn option for a short time to get a representative sample of the rules, and then deploy the rules and disable learning.

Transform SQL special characters—The Web Application Firewall considers three characters, Single straight quote (‘), Backslash (), and Semicolon (;) as special characters for SQL security check processing. The SQL Transformation feature modifies the SQL Injection code in an HTML request to ensure that the request is rendered harmless. The modified HTML request is then sent to the server. All default transformation rules are specified in the /netscaler/default_custom_settings.xml file.

• The transform operation renders the SQL code inactive by making the following changes to the request:

• Single straight quote (‘) to double straight quote (“).

• Backslash () to double backslash ().

• Semicolon (;) is dropped completely.

These three characters (special strings) are necessary to issue commands to a SQL server. Unless a SQL command is prefaced with a special string, most SQL servers ignore that command. Therefore, the changes that the Web Application Firewall performs when transformation is enabled prevent an attacker from injecting active SQL. After these changes are made, the request can safely be forwarded to the user protected website. When web forms on the user protected website can legitimately contain SQL special strings, but the web forms do not rely on the special strings to operate correctly, users can disable blocking and enable transformation to prevent blocking of legitimate web form data without reducing the protection that the Web Application Firewall provides to the user protected websites.

The transform operation works independently of the SQL Injection Type setting. If transform is enabled and the SQL Injection type is specified as a SQL keyword, SQL special characters are transformed even if the request does not contain any keywords.

Check for SQL Wildcard Characters—Wild card characters can be used to broaden the selections of a SQL (SQL-SELECT) statement. These wild card operators can be used with LIKE and NOT LIKE operators to compare a value to similar values. The percent (%), and underscore (_) characters are frequently used as wild cards. The percent sign is analogous to the asterisk (*) wildcard character used with MS-DOS and to match zero, one, or multiple characters in a field. The underscore is similar to the MS-DOS question mark (?) wildcard character. It matches a single number or character in an expression.

For example, users can use the following query to do a string search to find all customers whose names contain the D character.

SELECT * from customer WHERE name like “%D%”:

The following example combines the operators to find any salary values that have 0 in the second and third place.

SELECT * from customer WHERE salary like ‘_00%’:

Different DBMS vendors have extended the wildcard characters by adding extra operators. The NetScaler Web Application Firewall can protect against attacks that are launched by injecting these wildcard characters. The 5 default Wildcard characters are percent (%), underscore (_), caret (^), opening bracket ([), and closing bracket (]). This protection applies to both HTML and XML profiles.

The default wildcard chars are a list of literals specified in the *Default Signatures:

• <wildchar type=” LITERAL”>%

• <wildchar type=”LITERAL”]>_

• <wildchar type=”LITERAL”>^

• <wildchar type=”LITERAL”>[

• <wildchar type=”LITERAL”>]

Wildcard characters in an attack can be PCRE, like [^A-F]. The Web Application Firewall also supports PCRE wildcards, but the literal wildcard chars shown here are sufficient to block most attacks.

Check Request Containing SQL Injection Type—The Web Application Firewall provides 4 options to implement the desired level of strictness for SQL Injection inspection, based on the individual need of the application. The request is checked against the injection type specification for detecting SQL violations. The 4 SQL injection type options are:

• SQL Special Character and Keyword—Both a SQL keyword and a SQL special character must be present in the input to trigger a SQL violation. This least restrictive setting is also the default setting.

• SQL Special Character—At least one of the special characters must be present in the input to trigger a SQL violation.

• SQL key word—At least one of the specified SQL keywords must be present in the input to trigger a SQL violation. Do not select this option without due consideration. To avoid false positives, make sure that none of the keywords are expected in the inputs.

• SQL Special Character or Keyword—Either the key word or the special character string must be present in the input to trigger the security check violation.

SQL comments handling — By default, the Web Application Firewall checks all SQL comments for injected SQL commands. Many SQL servers ignore anything in a comment, however, even if preceded by an SQL special character. For faster processing, if your SQL server ignores comments, you can configure the Web Application Firewall to skip comments when examining requests for injected SQL. The SQL comments handling options are:

• ANSI — Skip ANSI-format SQL comments, which are normally used by UNIX-based SQL databases. For example:

  • /– (Two Hyphens) - This is a comment that begins with two hyphens and ends with end of line.

  • - Braces (Braces enclose the comment. The { precedes the comment, and the } follows it. Braces can delimit single- or multiple-line comments, but comments cannot be nested)

  • /**/: C style comments (Does not allow nested comments). Please note /*! <comment that begins with a slash followed by an asterisk and an exclamation mark is not a comment > */

  • MySQL Server supports some variants of C-style comments. These enable users to write code that includes MySQL extensions, but is still portable, by using comments of the following form: [/*! MySQL-specific code */]

  • .#: Mysql comments : This is a comment that begins with the # character and ends with an end of the line

• Nested — Skip nested SQL comments, which are normally used by Microsoft SQL Server. For example; – (Two Hyphens), and /**/ (Allows nested comments)

• ANSI/Nested — Skip comments that adhere to both the ANSI and nested SQL comment standards. Comments that match only the ANSI standard, or only the nested standard, are still checked for injected SQL.

• Check all Comments — Check the entire request for injected SQL without skipping anything. This is the default setting.

Check Request headers — Enable this option if, in addition to examining the input in the form fields, users want to examine the request headers for HTML SQL Injection attacks. If users use the GUI, they can enable this parameter in the Advanced Settings -> Profile Settings pane of the Web Application Firewall profile.

InspectQueryContentTypes — Configure this option if users want to examine the request query portion for SQL Injection attacks for the specific content-types. If users use the GUI, they can configure this parameter in the Advanced Settings -> Profile Settings pane of the Application Firewall profile.

Cross-Site Scripting

The HTML Cross-Site Scripting (cross-site scripting) check examines both the headers and the POST bodies of user requests for possible cross-site scripting attacks. If it finds a cross-site script, it either modifies (transforms) the request to render the attack harmless, or blocks the request.

To prevent misuse of the scripts on user protected websites to breach security on user websites, the HTML Cross-Site Scripting check blocks scripts that violate the same origin rule, which states that scripts should not access or modify content on any server but the server on which they are located. Any script that violates the same origin rule is called a cross-site script, and the practice of using scripts to access or modify content on another server is called cross-site scripting. The reason cross-site scripting is a security issue is that a web server that allows cross-site scripting can be attacked with a script that is not on that web server, but on a different web server, such as one owned and controlled by the attacker.

Unfortunately, many companies have a large installed base of JavaScript-enhanced web content that violates the same origin rule. If users enable the HTML Cross-Site Scripting check on such a site, they have to generate the appropriate exceptions so that the check does not block legitimate activity.

The Web Application Firewall offers various action options for implementing HTML Cross-Site Scripting protection. In addition to the Block, Log, Stats and Learn actions, users also have the option to Transform cross-site scripts to render an attack harmless by entity encoding the script tags in the submitted request. Users can configure Check complete URLs for the cross-site scripting parameter to specify if they want to inspect not just the query parameters but the entire URL to detect a cross-site scripting attack. Users can configure the InspectQueryContentTypes parameter to inspect the request query portion for a cross-site scripting attack for the specific content-types.

Users can deploy relaxations to avoid false positives. The Web Application Firewall learning engine can provide recommendations for configuring relaxation rules.

The following options are available for configuring an optimized HTML Cross-Site Scripting protection for the user application:

• Block — If users enable block, the block action is triggered if the cross-site scripting tags are detected in the request.

• Log — If users enable the log feature, the HTML Cross-Site Scripting check generates log messages indicating the actions that it takes. If block is disabled, a separate log message is generated for each header or form field in which the cross-site scripting violation was detected. However, only one message is generated when the request is blocked. Similarly, 1 log message per request is generated for the transform operation, even when cross-site scripting tags are transformed in multiple fields. Users can monitor the logs to determine whether responses to legitimate requests are getting blocked. A large increase in the number of log messages can indicate attempts to launch an attack.

• Stats — If enabled, the stats feature gathers statistics about violations and logs. An unexpected surge in the stats counter might indicate that the user application is under attack. If legitimate requests are getting blocked, users might have to revisit the configuration to see if they must configure new relaxation rules or modify the existing ones.

• Learn — If users are not sure which relaxation rules might be ideally suited for their application, they can use the learn feature to generate HTML Cross-Site Scripting rule recommendations based on the learned data. The Web Application Firewall learning engine monitors the traffic and provides learning recommendations based on the observed values. To get optimal benefit without compromising performance, users might want to enable the learn option for a short time to get a representative sample of the rules, and then deploy the rules and disable learning.

• Transform cross-site scripts — If enabled, the Web Application Firewall makes the following changes to requests that match the HTML Cross-Site Scripting check:

  • Left angle bracket (<) to HTML character entity equivalent (<)

  • Right angle bracket (>) to HTML character entity equivalent (>)

This ensures that browsers do not interpret unsafe html tags, such as <script>, and thereby run malicious code. If users enable both request-header checking and transformation, any special characters found in request headers are also modified as described above. If scripts on the user protected website contain cross-site scripting features, but the user website does not rely upon those scripts to operate correctly, users can safely disable blocking and enable transformation. This configuration ensures that no legitimate web traffic is blocked, while stopping any potential cross-site scripting attacks.

• Check complete URLs for cross-site scripting — If checking of complete URLs is enabled, the Web Application Firewall examines entire URLs for HTML cross-site scripting attacks instead of checking just the query portions of URLs.

• Check Request headers — If Request header checking is enabled, the Web Application Firewall examines the headers of requests for HTML cross-site scripting attacks, instead of just URLs. If users use the GUI, they can enable this parameter in the Settings tab of the Web Application Firewall profile.

• InspectQueryContentTypes — If Request query inspection is configured, the Application Firewall examines the query of requests for cross-site scripting attacks for the specific content-types. If users use the GUI, they can configure this parameter in the Settings tab of the Application Firewall profile.

Buffer Overflow Check

The Buffer Overflow check detects attempts to cause a buffer overflow on the web server. If the Web Application Firewall detects that the URL, cookies, or header are longer than the configured length, it blocks the request because it can cause a buffer overflow.

The Buffer Overflow check prevents attacks against insecure operating-system or web-server software that can crash or behave unpredictably when it receives a data string that is larger than it can handle. Proper programming techniques prevent buffer overflows by checking incoming data and either rejecting or truncating overlong strings. Many programs, however, do not check all incoming data and are therefore vulnerable to buffer overflows. This issue especially affects older versions of web-server software and operating systems, many of which are still in use.

The Buffer Overflow security check allows users to configure the Block, Log, and Stats actions. In addition, users can also configure the following parameters:

• Maximum URL Length. The maximum length the Web Application Firewall allows in a requested URL. Requests with longer URLs are blocked. Possible Values: 0–65535. Default: 1024

• Maximum Cookie Length. The maximum length the Web Application Firewall allows for all cookies in a request. Requests with longer cookies trigger the violations. Possible Values: 0–65535. Default: 4096

• Maximum Header Length. The maximum length the Web Application Firewall allows for HTTP headers. Requests with longer headers are blocked. Possible Values: 0–65535. Default: 4096

• Query string length. Maximum length allowed for a query string in an incoming request. Requests with longer queries are blocked. Possible Values: 0–65535. Default: 1024

• Total request length. Maximum request length allowed for an incoming request. Requests with a longer length are blocked. Possible Values: 0–65535. Default: 24820

Virtual Patching/Signatures

The signatures provide specific, configurable rules to simplify the task of protecting user websites against known attacks. A signature represents a pattern that is a component of a known attack on an operating system, web server, website, XML-based web service, or other resource. A rich set of preconfigured built-in or native rules offers an easy to use security solution, applying the power of pattern matching to detect attacks and protect against application vulnerabilities.

Users can create their own signatures or use signatures in the built-in templates. The Web Application Firewall has two built-in templates:

• Default Signatures: This template contains a preconfigured list of over 1,300 signatures, in addition to a complete list of SQL injection keywords, SQL special strings, SQL transform rules, and SQL wildcard characters. It also contains denied patterns for cross-site scripting, and allowed attributes and tags for cross-site scripting. This is a read-only template. Users can view the contents, but they cannot add, edit, or delete anything in this template. To use it, users must make a copy. In their own copy, users can enable the signature rules that they want to apply to their traffic, and specify the actions to be taken when the signature rules match the traffic.

The signatures are derived from the rules published by SNORT: SNORT, which is an open source intrusion prevention system capable of performing real-time traffic analysis to detect various attacks and probes.

• *Xpath Injection Patterns: This template contains a preconfigured set of literal and PCRE keywords and special strings that are used to detect XPath (XML Path Language) injection attacks.

Blank Signatures: In addition to making a copy of the built-in Default Signatures template, users can use a blank signatures template to create a signature object. The signature object that users create with the blank signatures option does not have any native signature rules, but, just like the *Default template, it has all the SQL/XSS built-in entities.

External-Format Signatures: The Web Application Firewall also supports external format signatures. Users can import the third-party scan report by using the XSLT files that are supported by the NetScaler Web Application Firewall. A set of built-in XSLT files is available for selected scan tools to translate external format files to native format (see the list of built-in XSLT files later in this section).

While signatures help users to reduce the risk of exposed vulnerabilities and protect the user mission critical Web Servers while aiming for efficacy, Signatures do come at a Cost of additional CPU Processing.

It is important to choose the right Signatures for user Application needs. Enable only the signatures that are relevant to the Customer Application/environment.

NetScaler offers signatures in more than 10 different categories across platforms/OS/Technologies.

The signature rules database is substantial, as attack information has built up over the years. So, most of the old rules may not be relevant for all networks as Software Developers may have patched them already or customers are running a more recent version of the OS.

Signatures Updates

NetScaler Web Application Firewall supports both Auto & Manual Update of Signatures. We also suggest enabling Auto-update for signatures to stay up to date.

These signatures files are hosted on the AWS Environment and it is important to allow outbound access to NetScaler IPs from Network Firewalls to fetch the latest signature files. There is no effect of updating signatures to the ADC while processing Real Time Traffic

Application Security Analytics

The Application Security Dashboard provides a holistic view of the security status of user applications. For example, it shows key security metrics such as security violations, signature violations, and threat indexes. Application Security dashboard also displays attack related information such as syn attacks, small window attacks, and DNS flood attacks for the discovered NetScaler ADC instances.

To view the security metrics of a NetScaler ADC instance on the application security dashboard

1. Log on to NetScaler ADM using the administrator credentials.

2. Navigate to Applications > App Security Dashboard, and select the instance IP address from the Devices list.

Users can further drill down on the discrepancies reported on the Application Security Investigator by clicking the bubbles plotted on the graph.

Centralized Learning on ADM

NetScaler Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects user web applications from malicious attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). To prevent data breaches and provide the right security protection, users must monitor their traffic for threats and real-time actionable data on attacks. Sometimes, the attacks reported might be false-positives and those need to be provided as an exception.

The Centralized Learning on NetScaler ADM is a repetitive pattern filter that enables WAF to learn the behavior (the normal activities) of user web applications. Based on monitoring, the engine generates a list of suggested rules or exceptions for each security check applied on the HTTP traffic.

It is much easier to deploy relaxation rules using the Learning engine than to manually deploy it as necessary relaxations.

To deploy the learning feature, users must first configure a Web Application Firewall profile (set of security settings) on the user NetScaler ADC appliance. For more information, see Creating Web Application Firewall profiles: Creating Web App Firewall Profiles.

NetScaler ADM generates a list of exceptions (relaxations) for each security check. As an administrator, users can review the list of exceptions in NetScaler ADM and decide to deploy or skip.

Using the WAF learning feature in NetScaler ADM, users can:

• Configure a learning profile with the following security checks

  • Buffer Overflow

  • HTML Cross-Site Scripting

   

   

  Note:
   
  The cross-site script limitation of location is only FormField.
   
  • HTML SQL Injection
   

   

  Note:
   
  For the HTML SQL Injection check, users must configure 
  set
  -sqlinjectionTransformSpecialChars
  to ON and 
  set -sqlinjectiontype sqlspclcharorkeywords
  in the NetScaler ADC instance.
   

• Check the relaxation rules in NetScaler ADM and decide to take necessary action (deploy or skip)

• Get the notifications through email, slack, and ServiceNow

• Use the dashboard to view relaxation details

To use the WAF learning in NetScaler ADM:

1. Configure the learning profile: Configure the Learning Profile

2. See the relaxation rules: View Relaxation Rules and Idle Rules

3. Use the WAF learning dashboard: View WAF Learning Dashboard

StyleBook

NetScaler Web Application Firewall is a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that protects web applications and sites from both known and unknown attacks, including all application-layer and zero-day threats.

NetScaler ADM now provides a default StyleBook with which users can more conveniently create an application firewall configuration on NetScaler ADC instances.

Deploying Application Firewall Configurations

The following task assists you in deploying a load balancing configuration along with the application firewall and IP reputation policy on NetScaler ADC instances in your business network.

To Create an LB Configuration with Application Firewall Settings

In NetScaler ADM, navigate to Applications > Configurations > StyleBooks. The StyleBooks page displays all the StyleBooks available for customer use in NetScaler

• ADM. Scroll down and find HTTP/SSL Load Balancing StyleBook with application firewall policy and IP reputation policy. Users can also search for the StyleBook by typing the name as lb-appfw. Click Create Configuration.

The StyleBook opens as a user interface page on which users can enter the values for all the parameters defined in this StyleBook.

• Enter values for the following parameters:

  • Load Balanced Application Name. Name of the load balanced configuration with an application firewall to deploy in the user network.

  • Load balanced App Virtual IP address. Virtual IP address at which the NetScaler ADC instance receives client requests.

  • Load Balanced App Virtual Port. The TCP Port to be used by the users in accessing the load balanced application.

  • Load Balanced App Protocol. Select the front-end protocol from the list.

  • Application Server Protocol. Select the protocol of the application server.

• As an option, users can enable and configure the Advanced Load Balancer Settings.

• Optionally, users can also set up an authentication server for authenticating traffic for the load balancing virtual server.

• Click “+” in the server IPs and Ports section to create application servers and the ports that they can be accessed on.

• Users can also create FQDN names for application servers.

• Users can also specify the details of the SSL certificate.

• Users can also create monitors in the target NetScaler ADC instance.

• To configure the application firewall on the virtual server, enable WAF Settings.

Ensure that the application firewall policy rule is true if users want to apply the application firewall settings to all traffic on that VIP. Otherwise, specify the NetScaler ADC policy rule to select a subset of requests to which to apply the application firewall settings. Next, select the type of profile that has to be applied - HTML or XML.

• Optionally, users can configure detailed application firewall profile settings by enabling the application firewall Profile Settings check box.

• Optionally, if users want to configure application firewall signatures, enter the name of the signature object that is created on the NetScaler ADC instance where the virtual server is to be deployed.

• Next, users can also configure any other application firewall profile settings such as, StartURL settings, DenyURL settings and others.

For more information on application firewall and configuration settings, see Application Firewall.

• In the Target Instances section, select the NetScaler ADC instance on which to deploy the load balancing virtual server with the application firewall.

• Users can also enable IP Reputation check to identify the IP address that is sending unwanted requests. Users can use the IP reputation list to preemptively reject requests that are coming from the IP with the bad reputation.

When the configuration is successfully created, the StyleBook creates the required load balancing virtual server, application server, services, service groups, application firewall labels, application firewall policies, and binds them to the load balancing virtual server.

The following figure shows the objects created in each server:

• To see the ConfigPack created on NetScaler ADM, navigate to Applications > Configurations.

Security Insight Analytics

Web and web service applications that are exposed to the Internet have become increasingly vulnerable to attacks. To protect applications from attack, users need visibility into the nature and extent of past, present, and impending threats, real-time actionable data on attacks, and recommendations on countermeasures. Security Insight provides a single-pane solution to help users assess user application security status and take corrective actions to secure user applications.

How Security Insight Works

Security Insight is an intuitive dashboard-based security analytics solution that gives users full visibility into the threat environment associated with user applications. Security insight is included in NetScaler ADM, and it periodically generates reports based on the user Application Firewall and ADC system security configurations. The reports include the following information for each application:

• Threat index. A single-digit rating system that indicates the criticality of attacks on the application, regardless of whether the application is protected by an ADC appliance. The more critical the attacks on an application, the higher the threat index for that application. Values range from 1 through 7.

The threat index is based on attack information. The attack-related information, such as violation type, attack category, location, and client details, gives users insight into the attacks on the application. Violation information is sent to NetScaler ADM only when a violation or attack occurs. Many breaches and vulnerabilities lead to a high threat index value.

• Safety index. A single-digit rating system that indicates how securely users have configured the ADC instances to protect applications from external threats and vulnerabilities. The lower the security risks for an application, the higher the safety index. Values range from 1 through 7.

The safety index considers both the application firewall configuration and the ADC system security configuration. For a high safety index value, both configurations must be strong. For example, if rigorous application firewall checks are in place but ADC system security measures, such as a strong password for the nsroot user, have not been adopted, applications are assigned a low safety index value.

• Actionable Information. Information that users need for lowering the threat index and increasing the safety index, which significantly improves application security. For example, users can review information about violations, existing and missing security configurations for the application firewall and other security features, the rate at which the applications are being attacked, and so on.

Configuring Security Insight

To configure security insight on an ADC instance, first configure an application firewall profile and an application firewall policy, and then bind the application firewall policy globally.

Then, enable the AppFlow feature, configure an AppFlow collector, action, and policy, and bind the policy globally. When users configure the collector, they must specify the IP address of the NetScaler ADM service agent on which they want to monitor the reports.

Configure Security Insight on an ADC Instance

• Run the following commands to configure an application firewall profile and policy, and bind the application firewall policy globally or to the load balancing virtual server.

add appfw profile <name> [-defaults ( basic or advanced )]

set appfw profile <name> [-startURLAction <startURLAction> ...]

add appfw policy <name> <rule> <profileName>

bind appfw global <policyName> <priority>

or,

bind lb vserver <lb vserver> -policyName <policy> -priority <priority>

Sample:

add appfw profile pr_appfw -defaults advancedset appfw profile pr_appfw -startURLaction log stats learnadd appfw policy pr_appfw_pol "HTTP.REQ.HEADER("Host").EXISTS" pr_appfwbind appfw global pr_appfw_pol 1or,bind lb vserver outlook –policyName pr_appfw_pol –priority "20"

• Run the following commands to enable the AppFlow feature, configure an AppFlow collector, action, and policy, and bind the policy globally or to the load balancing virtual server:

add appflow collector <name> -IPAddress <ipaddress>

set appflow param [-SecurityInsightRecordInterval <secs>] [-SecurityInsightTraffic ( ENABLED or DISABLED )]

add appflow action <name> -collectors <string>

add appflow policy <name> <rule> <action>

bind appflow global <policyName> <priority> [<gotoPriorityExpression>] [-type <type>]

or,

bind lb vserver <vserver> -policyName <policy> -priority <priority>

Sample:

add appflow collector col -IPAddress 10.102.63.85set appflow param -SecurityInsightRecordInterval 600 -SecurityInsightTraffic ENABLEDadd appflow action act1 -collectors coladd appflow action af_action_Sap_10.102.63.85 -collectors coladd appflow policy pol1 true act1add appflow policy af_policy_Sap_10.102.63.85 true af_action_Sap_10.102.63.85bind appflow global pol1 1 END -type REQ_DEFAULTor,bind lb vserver Sap –policyName af_action_Sap_10.102.63.85 –priority "20"

Enable Security Insight from NetScaler ADM

1. Navigate to Networks > Instances > NetScaler ADC and select the instance type. For example, VPX.

2. Select the instance and from the Select Action list, select Configure Analytics.

3. On the Configure Analytics on virtual server window:

   • Select the virtual servers that you want to enable security insight and click Enable Analytics.

   The Enable Analytics window is displayed.

   • Select Security Insight

   • Under Advanced Options, select Logstream or IPFIX as the Transport Mode

   • The Expression is true by default

   • Click OK

•  
  If users select virtual servers that are not licensed, then NetScaler ADM first licenses those virtual servers and then enables analytics
•  
  For admin partitions, only Web Insight is supported
   

After users click OK, NetScaler ADM processes to enable analytics on the selected virtual servers.

Thresholds

Users can set and view thresholds on the safety index and threat index of applications in Security Insight.

To set a threshold

• Navigate to System > Analytics Settings > Thresholds, and select Add.

• Select the traffic type as Security in the Traffic Type field, and enter required information in the other appropriate fields such as Name, Duration, and entity.

• In the Rule section, use the Metric, Comparator, and Value fields to set a threshold. For example, “Threat Index” “>” “5”

• Click Create.

To view the threshold breaches

• Navigate to Analytics > Security Insight > Devices, and select the ADC instance.

• In the Application section, users can view the number of threshold breaches that have occurred for each virtual server in the Threshold Breach column.

Security Insight Use Case

The following use cases describe how users can use security insight to assess the threat exposure of applications and improve security measures.

Obtain an Overview of the Threat Environment

In this use case, users have a set of applications that are exposed to attacks, and they have configured NetScaler ADM to monitor the threat environment. Users need to frequently review the threat index, safety index, and the type and severity of any attacks that the applications might have experienced, so that they can focus first on the applications that need the most attention. The security insight dashboard provides a summary of the threats experienced by the user applications over a time period of user choosing, and for a selected ADC device. It displays the list of applications, their threat and safety indexes, and the total number of attacks for the chosen time period.

For example, users might be monitoring Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Lync, SharePoint, and an SAP application, and users might want to review a summary of the threat environment for these applications.

To obtain a summary of the threat environment, log on to NetScaler ADM, and then navigate to Analytics > Security Insight.

Key information is displayed for each application. The default time period is 1 hour.

To view information for a different time period, from the list at the top-left, select a time period.

To view a summary for a different ADC instance, under Devices, click the IP address of the ADC instance. To sort the application list by a given column, click the column header.

Determine the Threat Exposure of an Application

After reviewing a summary of the threat environment on the Security Insight dashboard to identify the applications that have a high threat index and a low safety index, users want to determine their threat exposure before deciding how to secure them. That is, users want to determine the type and severity of the attacks that have degraded their index values. Users can determine the threat exposure of an application by reviewing the application summary.

In this example, Microsoft Outlook has a threat index value of 6, and users want to know what factors are contributing to this high threat index.

To determine the threat exposure of Microsoft Outlook, on the Security Insight dashboard, click Outlook. The application summary includes a map that identifies the geographic location of the server.

Click Threat Index > Security Check Violations and review the violation information that appears.

Click Signature Violations and review the violation information that appears.

Determine Existing and Missing Security Configurations for an Application

After reviewing the threat exposure of an application, users want to determine what application security configurations are in place and what configurations are missing for that application. Users can obtain this information by drilling down into the application’s safety index summary.

The safety index summary gives users information about the effectiveness of the following security configurations:

• Application Firewall Configuration. Shows how many signature and security entities are not configured.

• NetScaler ADM System Security. Shows how many system security settings are not configured.

In the previous use case, users reviewed the threat exposure of Microsoft Outlook, which has a threat index value of 6. Now, users want to know what security configurations are in place for Outlook and what configurations can be added to improve its threat index.

On the Security Insight dashboard, click Outlook, and then click the Safety Index tab. Review the information provided in the Safety Index Summary area.

On the Application Firewall Configuration node, click Outlook_Profile and review the security check and signature violation information in the pie charts.

Review the configuration status of each protection type in the application firewall summary table. To sort the table on a column, click the column header.

Click the NetScaler ADM System Security node and review the system security settings and NetScaler recommendations to improve the application safety index.

Identify Applications That Require Immediate Attention

The applications that need immediate attention are those having a high threat index and a low safety index.

In this example, both Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Lync have a high threat index value of 6, but Lync has the lower of the two safety indexes. Therefore, users might have to focus their attention on Lync before improving the threat environment for Outlook.

Determine the Number of Attacks in a Given Period of Time

Users might want to determine how many attacks occurred on a given application at a given point in time, or they might want to study the attack rate for a specific time period.

On the Security Insight page, click any application and in the Application Summary, click the number of violations. The Total Violations page displays the attacks in a graphical manner for one hour, one day, one week, and one month.

The Application Summary table provides the details about the attacks. Some of them are as follows:

• Attack time

• IP address of the client from which the attack happened

• Severity

• Category of violation

• URL from which the attack originated, and other details.

While users can always view the time of attack in an hourly report as seen in the image, now they can view the attack time range for aggregated reports even for daily or weekly reports. If users select “1 Day” from the time-period list, the Security Insight report displays all attacks that are aggregated and the attack time is displayed in a one-hour range. If users choose “1 Week” or “1 Month,” all attacks are aggregated and the attack time is displayed in a one-day range.

Obtain Detailed Information about Security Breaches

Users might want to view a list of the attacks on an application and gain insights into the type and severity of attacks, actions taken by the ADC instance, resources requested, and the source of the attacks.

For example, users might want to determine how many attacks on Microsoft Lync were blocked, what resources were requested, and the IP addresses of the sources.

On the Security Insight dashboard, click Lync > Total Violations. In the table, click the filter icon in the Action Taken column header, and then select Blocked.

For information about the resources that were requested, review the URL column. For information about the sources of the attacks, review the Client IP column.

View Log Expression Details

NetScaler ADC instances use log expressions configured with the Application Firewall profile to take action for the attacks on an application in the user enterprise. In Security Insight, users can view the values returned for the log expressions used by the ADC instance. These values include, request header, request body and so on. In addition to the log expression values, users can also view the log expression name and the comment for the log expression defined in the Application Firewall profile that the ADC instance used to take action for the attack.

Prerequisites

Ensure that users:

• Configure log expressions in the Application Firewall profile. For more information, see Application Firewall.

• Enable log expression-based Security Insights settings in NetScaler ADM. Do the following:

  • Navigate to Analytics > Settings, and click Enable Features for Analytics.

  • In the Enable Features for Analytics page, select Enable Security Insight under the Log Expression Based Security Insight Setting section and click OK.

For example, users might want to view the values of the log expression returned by the ADC instance for the action it took for an attack on Microsoft Lync in the user enterprise.

On the Security Insight dashboard, navigate to Lync > Total Violations. In the Application Summary table, click the URL to view the complete details of the violation in the Violation Information page including the log expression name, comment, and the values returned by the ADC instance for the action.

Determine the Safety Index before Deploying the Configuration

Security breaches occur after users deploy the security configuration on an ADC instance, but users might want to assess the effectiveness of the security configuration before they deploy it.

For example, users might want to assess the safety index of the configuration for the SAP application on the ADC instance with IP address 10.102.60.27.

On the Security Insight dashboard, under Devices, click the IP address of the ADC instance that users configured. Users can see that both the threat index and the total number of attacks are 0. The threat index is a direct reflection of the number and type of attacks on the application. Zero attacks indicate that the application is not under any threat.

Click Sap > Safety Index > SAP_Profile and assess the safety index information that appears.

In the application firewall summary, users can view the configuration status of different protection settings. If a setting is set to log or if a setting is not configured, the application is assigned a lower safety index.

Security Violations

View Application Security Violation Details

Web applications that are exposed to the internet have become drastically more vulnerable to attacks. NetScaler ADM enables users to visualize actionable violation details to protect applications from attacks. Navigate to Security > Security Violations for a single-pane solution to:

• Access the application security violations based on their categories such as Network, Bot, and WAF

• Take corrective actions to secure the applications

To view the security violations in NetScaler ADM, ensure:

• Users have a premium license for the NetScaler ADC instance (for WAF and BOT violations).

• Users have applied a license on the load balancing or content switching virtual servers (for WAF and BOT). For more information, see Manage Licensing on Virtual Servers.

• Users enable more settings. For more information, see the procedure available at the Setting up section in the NetScaler product documentation: Setting up.

Violation Categories**

NetScaler ADM enables users to view the following violations:

** - Users must configure the account takeover setting in NetScaler ADM. See the prerequisite mentioned in Account Takeover: Account Takeover.

Apart from these violations, users can also view the following Security Insight and Bot Insight violations under the WAF and Bot categories respectively: