Manual Chapter :
Configuring ASM with Local Traffic Policies
Applies To:
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BIG-IP ASM
- 14.0.0
Configuring ASM with Local Traffic Policies
Overview: Configuring ASM with local traffic policies
Application Security Manager™ applies security policy rules to traffic that is controlled and defined using a local traffic policy. To provide more flexibility in selecting the traffic, you can edit the local traffic policy and add rules to it.
This implementation shows how to create a security policy and edit at the local traffic policy
that is created. The example provided describes how to add rules to the local traffic policy so
that the security policy applies only to administrative traffic beginning with
/admin
. No security policy applies to the other traffic.Many other options are available for configuring local traffic policies with ASM. By following
through the steps in this example, you can see the other options that are available on the
screens, and can adjust the example for your needs.
Task Summary
About application
security and local traffic policies
When you use Application Security Manager (ASM) to create a security policy
attached to a virtual server, the BIG-IP system automatically creates a local traffic policy. The
local traffic policy forms a logical link between the local traffic components and the
application security policy.
By default, the system automatically creates a simple local traffic policy
directs all HTTP traffic coming to the virtual server to the ASM security policy that you
created. ASM examines the traffic to ensure that it meets the requirements of the security
policy. If that is all you need to do, your task is done. If, however, you want more flexibility,
such as applying different security policies depending on the type of traffic or disabling ASM
for certain types of traffic, you can use the local traffic policy to do that.
Local traffic policies can include multiple rules. Each rule consists of a
condition and one or more actions to be performed if the condition holds. So you can create a
local traffic policy that works with ASM and includes multiple rules that do different things
depending on the conditions you set up. In this type of traffic policy, the rules perform these
actions:
- Enable ASM enforcing a specific security policy
- Disable ASM
For example, you may want a local traffic policy directed to a specific URL
to enforce a security policy. As a default rule, all other traffic could disable ASM. You can
also direct people using different aspects of an application (or different applications) to
various security policies. Many other options are available for directing ASM traffic using local
traffic policies.
About application
security and manually adding local traffic policies
If you create a security policy not attached to a virtual server, the system
creates the security policy but does not create a local traffic policy. However, you will need to
have a virtual server and local traffic policy to select the traffic for the security policy to
enforce.
In that case, you can develop the security policy, adding the features that
you want to use. Without a virtual server, the system cannot build the security policy
automatically until you have traffic going through. But you can manually develop the security
policy by adding entities such as file types, URLs, assigning server technologies, and so on.
When you are ready to enforce the security policy and start sending traffic
through the system, create a virtual server with an http profile, and enable the security policy
you created in the virtual server resources. When you save the virtual server, the system
automatically creates a default local traffic policy that enforces the security policy on all
traffic. You can edit the local traffic policy rules if you want more flexibility concerning how
the security policies are implemented.
Creating a simple security policy
Before you can create a security
policy, you must perform the minimal system configuration tasks required according to
the needs of your networking environment.
You can use Application Security Manager to create a robust, yet simple, security policy
that is tailored to protect your web application. This is the easiest way to create a
security policy.
- On the Main tab, click.The Policies List screen opens.
- ClickCreate New Policy.You only see this button when no policy is selected.
- In thePolicy Namefield, type a name for the policy.
- LeavePolicy Type, set toSecurity.
- ForPolicy Template, selectFundamental.
- ForVirtual Server, clickConfigure new virtual serverto specify where to direct application requests.
- ForWhat type of protocol does your application use?, selectHTTP,HTTPS, or both.
- In theVirtual Server Namefield, type a unique name.
- In theHTTP Virtual Server Destinationfield, type the address in IPv4 (10.0.0.1) or IPv6 (2001:ed8:77b5:2:10:10:100:42/64) format, and specify the service port.If you want multiple IP addresses to be directed here, use theNetworksetting.
- In the HTTP Pool Member setting, specify the addresses of the back-end application servers.
- From theLogging Profilelist, select a profile such asLog illegal requeststo determine which events are logged on the system.
- In the upper right corner, clickAdvanced.You can use default values for the Advanced settings but it's a good idea to take a look at them.
- If you selectedFundamentalorComprehensivefor thePolicy Template,Learning Modeis set toAutomaticandEnforcement Modeis set toBlocking.If you need to change these values, set application language to a value other thanAuto detect.
- If you know theApplication Language, select it or useUnicode (utf-8).
- To add specific protections (enforcing additional attack signatures) to the policy, forServer Technologies, select the technologies that apply to the back-end application servers.
- You can configure trusted IP addresses that you want the security policy to consider safe.
- ClickCreate Policyto create the security policy.
ASM creates a
security policy that immediately starts protecting your application. The enforcement
mode of the security policy is set to Blocking. Traffic that is considered to be an
attack such as traffic that is not compliant with HTTP protocol, has malformed payloads,
uses evasion techniques, performs web scraping, contains sensitive information or
illegal values is blocked. Other potential violations are reported but not
blocked.
The system examines the traffic to the web application making suggestions
for more specifically building the security policy. The Policy Builder selectively
learns new entities like file types, parameters, and cookies used in requests to the
application. When ASM processes sufficient traffic, it automatically adds the
entities to the security policy, and enforces them.
The system applies a basic
set of attack signatures to the security policy and puts them in staging (by
default, for 7 days). If you specified server technologies, additional attack
signatures are included. ASM reports common attacks discovered by comparison to the
signatures but does not block these attacks until the staging period is over and
they are enforced. That gives you a chance to be sure that these are actual attacks
and not legitimate requests.
This is a good point at
which send some traffic to test that you can access the application being protected
by the security policy and check that traffic is being processed correctly by the
BIG-IP system. Send the traffic to the virtual server
destination address.
Creating local
traffic policy rules for ASM
Before you can use the local traffic policy with ASM, you need a security policy
associated with a virtual server.
You can add rules to define conditions and perform
specific actions for different types of application traffic in a local traffic policy.
This example creates two rules to implement different security protection for different
traffic.
- On the Main tab, click.
- Click the name of the local traffic policy associated with the security policy.
- To edit the policy, clickCreate Draft.
- In the Draft Policies list, click the name of the draft policy.
- In the Rules area, clickCreateto create a rule that defines when traffic is handled by the security policy.
- In theNamefield, type the nameadmin.
- In the Match all of the following conditions area, click+and specify these conditions:
- For the first condition, selectHTTP URI.
- For the second condition, selectpath.
- For the third condition, selectbegins with.
- For the fourth condition, by the field belowany of, type/adminand clickAdd.
This rule looks for requests with a URI that begins with/admin. - In Do the following when the traffic is matched, click+and specify the actions:
- For the first action, selectEnable.For the second action, selectasm.
- Next tofor policy, select the security policy you created.
- ClickSaveto add the rule to the local traffic policy.The admin rule is added to the list.
- In the Rules area, click the rule calleddefault.Thedefaultrule was added to the local traffic policy when the system created it.The screen displays the General Properties of the rule.
- To change the default action for all other traffic, in the Do the following when the traffic is matched area, edit the action that is shown there.
- For the first action, selectDisable.
- For the second action, selectasm.
- To save the rule, clickSave.
The default rule now disables ASM protection for other traffic. - To save the updated policy, clickSave Draft.The Policy List Page opens.
- Select the check box next to the draft policy you edited, and clickPublish.
You have edited and published the local traffic policy so that administrative traffic
must meet the security policy you assigned to it. But other traffic is not subject to
that security policy.
Implementation results
When you have completed the steps in this implementation, you have configured the Application Security Manager™ (ASM) to enforce security policy rules only on
traffic with a URI beginning with
/admin
. All other traffic bypasses ASM™.This is simply one way to illustrate how you can use a local traffic policy to determine
different conditions and specify multiple actions instead of having all traffic treated the same
way. We encourage you to explore the local traffic policy options and documentation to learn how
to use this flexible feature to best suit your needs.