Combining WAF and HSS to Improve Web Page Tampering Protection

Application Scenarios

Web tampering is a type of cyberattack that exploits vulnerabilities in web applications to tamper with web application content or to insert hidden links. Web tampering attacks are often used to spread malicious information, incite unrest, and steal money.

Links to pornographic or otherwise illegal content may be inserted into normal web pages. Tampered web pages can permanently damage the brand image of your organization.

This topic describes how to use the combination of WAF and HSS to protect dynamic and static web pages from being tampered with.

Solution Architecture and Advantages

WAF examines HTTP/HTTPS requests. If an attacker attempts to tamper with web pages using attacks like SQL injection, WAF can identify and block the attacks in a timely manner, so they cannot sneak into or change anything in the OSs of your web servers.

Even if attacks bypass the first layer of protection, HSS WTP provides multi-level defenses. HSS WTP protects files in the web file directories from any unauthorized access. Only your website administrator can update the website content through the privileged process. Apart from that, HSS WTP also backs up web file directories locally and remotely. Once a file is tampered with, it can be quickly restored with backups. For dynamic web pages such as applications on web servers, HSS WTP uses Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP) to monitor application access. It can detect tampering on dynamic data such as databases and prevent attackers from using applications to tamper with web pages in real time.

With HSS and WAF in place, you can stop worrying about web page tampering.

Step 1: Configure a Web Tamper Protection Rule in WAF

1. Log in to the management console.
2. Click in the upper left corner of the management console and select a region or project.
3. Click in the upper left corner of the page and choose Security > Web Application Firewall.
4. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Policies.
5. Click the name of the target policy to go to the protection configuration page.
6. Click the Web Tamper Protection configuration area and toggle it on or off if needed.
   • : enabled.
   • : disabled.

7. In the upper left corner above the Web Tamper Protection rule list, click Add Rule.
8. In the displayed dialog box, specify the parameters by referring to Table 2.
   Figure 1 Adding a web tamper protection rule
   

   Table 2 Rule parameters

   Parameter	Description	Example Value
   Domain Name	Domain name of the website to be protected	www.example.com
   Path	A part of the URL, not including the domain name A URL is used to define the address of a web page. The basic URL format is as follows: Protocol name://Domain name or IP address[:Port]/[Path/.../File name]. For example, if the URL is http://www.example.com/admin, set Path to /admin. NOTE: The path does not support regular expressions. The path cannot contain two or more consecutive slashes. For example, ///admin. If you enter ///admin, WAF converts /// to /.	/admin
   Rule Description	A brief description of the rule. This parameter is optional.	None

9. Click Confirm. You can view the rule in the list of web tamper protection rules.

Step 2: Enable HSS Web Tamper Protection

1. Log in to the management console.
2. Click in the upper left corner of the page, select a region, and choose Security & Compliance > HSS to go to the HSS management console.
3. In the navigation pane, choose Server Protection > Web Tamper Protection. On the Web Tamper Protection page, click Add Server.
   Figure 2 Adding a protected server
   

4. On the Add Server page, click the Available servers tab. Select the target server, select a quota from the drop-down list or retain the default value, and click Add and Enable Protection.
   Figure 3 Selecting a server to enable protection
   

5. View the server status on the Web Tamper Protection page.
   • Choose Server Protection > Web Tamper Protection. If the Protection Status of the server is Protected, WTP has been enabled.
   • Choose Asset Management > Servers & Quota and click the Servers tab. If the protection status of the target server is Enabled and the Edition/Expiration Date of it is Web Tamper Protection, the WTP edition is enabled.

• Before disabling WTP, perform a comprehensive detection on the server, handle known risks, and record operation information to prevent O&M errors and attacks on the server.
• If WTP is disabled, web applications are more likely to be tampered with. Therefore, you need to delete important data on the server, stop important services on the server, and disconnect the server from the external network in a timely manner to avoid unnecessary losses caused by attacks on the server.
• After you or disable WTP, files in the protected directory are no longer protected. You are advised to process files in the protected directory before performing these operations.
• If you find some files missing after disabling WTP, search for them in the local or remote backup path.

• The premium edition will be disabled when you disable WTP.