Help Center> Web Application Firewall> Best Practices> WAF Cloud Mode Access Configuration> Preparations
Updated on 2024-02-05 GMT+08:00
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Preparations

To enable WAF protection, you need to add domain names of your web services to WAF and route website traffic to WAF. Before you start, get familiar with what you want to protect with WAF.

Website Service Review

Sort out all website services you want to protect with WAF. This helps you learn about status quo and specific data for making right decisions in configuring protection policies.

Table 1 Website services

Item

Description

Website and Service Information

Daily peak traffic of website/web application services, including the bandwidth (in Mbit/s) and QPS

Use it as the basis for selecting the service bandwidth and QPS specifications.

NOTE:

If your website traffic peak exceeds the maximum QPS specifications you are using, WAF will stop checking the traffic and directly forward it to the origin server. There is no protection for your website or applications.

Major user group (for example, major area that the requests originate from)

Determine the attack source and then set geolocation access control rules to block users from these areas.

Whether the service is a C/S architecture

If yes, check whether there is an app client, Windows client, Linux client, code callback, or any other client.

Location where the origin server is deployed

Decide which region to buy.

Operating system (Linux or Windows) and web service middleware (Apache, Nginx, or IIS) of the origin server

Check whether access control is enabled for the origin server. If yes, whitelist WAF back-to-source IP addresses.

Domain protocol

Check whether WAF supports the communication protocol used by your site.

NOTE:
WAF can protect your website only when Client Protocol and Server Protocol are configured based on the real situation of your website.
  • Client Protocol: the protocol used by a client (for example, a browser) to access your website. You can select HTTP or HTTPS.
  • Server Protocol: the protocol used by WAF to forward requests from the client (such as a browser) to the origin server. You can select HTTP or HTTPS.

Service port

Check whether your service ports are within the port range supported by WAF.

  • Standard ports
    • Port 80: default port when the client protocol is set to HTTP
    • Port 443: default port when the client protocol is set to HTTPS
  • Non-standard ports

    Ports other than ports 80 and 443

    NOTE:

    If your website uses a non-standard port, make sure the WAF edition you plan to buy can protect the non-standard port. For details, see Which Non-Standard Ports Does WAF Support?

Whether TLS v1.0 or weak encryption suite is supported

Check whether WAF supports the encryption suite used by your site.

Whether advanced anti-DDoS, CDN, or other proxy services are deployed in front of WAF.

Check whether a proxy is used and whether domain name is resolved to a correct address.

Whether the client supports Server Name Indication (for HTTPS services)

If your domain name supports HTTPS, the client and server must support Server Name Indication (SNI).

Service interaction

Understand the service interaction process and service processing logic to facilitate subsequent configuration of protection policies.

Active users

Determine the severity of an attack event to take a low-risk measure to respond it.

Services and Attacks

Service types and features (such as games, cards, websites, or apps)

Help analyze the attack signatures.

Inbound traffic range and connection status of a single user or a single IP address

Help determine whether a rate limiting policy can be configured per IP address.

User group attribute

For example, individual users, Internet cafe users, or proxy users

Whether your website experienced large-volumetric attacks, the attack type, and maximum peak traffic

Determine whether a DDoS protection service is required and determine the DDoS protection specifications based on the peak attack traffic.

Whether your website experienced CC attacks and the maximum peak QPS in a CC attack

Configure the protection policies based on attack signatures.

Whether the pressure test has been performed

Evaluate the request processing performance of the origin server to determine whether service anomaly occurs due to attacks.

Prerequisites

  • The domain name information, such as the IP address and port for the origin server, has been added to WAF in Cloud - CNAME access mode.
  • An administrator account is available for you to change DNS records for WAF to take effect.
  • The pressure test has been performed.
  • The IP addresses of trusted clients have been whitelisted if your website has trusted clients (such as certain monitoring systems, APIs invoked by internal IP addresses or IP address ranges, and program clients).