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Manual Chapter : Using Shun with Layer 7 DoS

Applies To:

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BIG-IP ASM

  • 14.1.3, 14.1.2, 14.1.0
Manual Chapter

Using Shun with Layer 7 DoS

Overview: Using Shun with Layer 7 DoS

Layer 7 DoS in Application Security Manager™ (ASM) is set up to automatically add IP addresses to a shun list (also called
auto-blacklisting
). The BIG-IP system stops traffic that is thought to be causing a DoS attack, by adding it to a shun list for a limited time. L7 DoS maintains the shun list and auto-blacklisting works at Layer 7 when you configure an L7 DoS profile and attach it to a virtual server.
Furthermore, by integrating L7 DoS shun with an IP intelligence policy, the auto-blacklisting stops traffic at Layer 3 saving system resources. The auto-blacklisting works at Layer 3 when:
  • You configure an L7 DoS profile and an IP intelligence policy, and then associate both with a virtual server, and
  • You are using mitigations other than device ID or URL in the DoS profile.
The DoS profile you create should include all of the DoS mitigations you want to use for the application. For example, you could enable these protections:
  • Proactive Bot Defense with CAPTCHA challenge
  • Stress-based Detection with Request Blocking and Rate Limiting
  • Heavy URL Protection set to automatic detection
Source IP addresses that are thought to be causing a DoS attack based on the mitigations you configured fall into the category of application denial of service blacklist, for which the IP intelligence policy is configured to drop. Together, and using fewer resources, the DoS profile and IP intelligence policy protect the web application from DoS attacks.

Task Summary

About the DoS shun list

A
shun list
 is a temporary list of IP addresses that have been sending lots of traffic that is failing 90%, or more, of the time. The failures occur as a result of any of the mitigation methods in use in the DoS profile, including CAPTCHA, request blocking, client-side integrity defense, proactive bot defense, and so on. The system creates a shun list of clients that repeatedly fail to respond to DoS JavaScript challenges, undergo high block ratios in rate limiting, or have been repeatedly handled by any of the other DoS mitigations. While these clients are on the shun list, all traffic they send is blocked.
Shun list features are set up using system variables. By default, the shun list is enabled, and clients remain on the list and are blocked for 120 seconds. The default value for the minimum ratio of successful responses to JavaScript challenges is 10% (to keep clients off the shun list). A client being considered for the shun list must be sending a minimum of 10 requests per second. Advanced users can change the default values, if necessary, by adjusting the system variables from the command line.

Shun List system variables

The shun list is automatically managed with predefined conditions and thresholds set using system variables. These system variables are set to reasonable values by default. Do not change these variables unless you are an advanced BIG-IP system user.
Variable
Default Value
What It Specifies
dosl7d.shun_list
enable
Whether to use the shun list to block IP addresses.
dosl7d.min_challenge_success_ratio
10%
The minimum percentage of good transactions per IP address (or else the system adds it to the shun list).
dosl7d.min_challenge_rps
10
The minimum requests per second before the system can apply shun mitigation.
dosl7d.shun_prevention_time
120
The time in seconds (from 1-1000) to keep the IP address on the shun list.
For example, to disable the shun list, on the command line, type:
 (tmos)# modify sys db dosl7d.shun_list value disable

Configuring DoS protection for applications

You can configure Application Security Manager to protect against and mitigate DoS attacks, and increase system security.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Security
    DoS Protection
    Protection Profiles
    .
    The Protection Profiles list screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
    .
    The Create New DoS Profile screen opens.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type the name for the profile, then click
    Finished
    .
  4. In the list of DoS profiles, click the name of the profile you just created, and click the
    Application Security
     tab.
    This is where you set up application-level DoS protection.
  5. In the
    General Settings
    , for
    Application Security
    , click
    Edit
     and select the
    Enabled
     check box.
    General settings that you can configure are displayed.
  6. To configure
    Heavy URL Protection
    , edit the setting for which URLs to include or exclude, or use automatic detection.
    Another task describes heavy URL protection in more detail.
  7. To set up DoS protection based on the country where a request originates, edit the
    Geolocations
     setting, selecting countries to allow or disallow.
    1. Click
      Edit
      .
    2. Move the countries for which you want the system to block traffic during a DoS attack into the
      Geolocation Blacklist
      .
    3. Move the countries that you want the system to allow (unless the requests have other problems) into the
      Geolocation Whitelist
      .
    4. Use the Stress-based or TPS-based Detection settings to select appropriate mitigations by geolocation in the
      How to detect attackers and which mitigation to use
       settings.
    5. When done, click
      Close
      .
  8. If you have written an iRule to specify how the system handles a DoS attack and recovers afterwards, enable the
    Trigger iRule
     setting.
  9. To better protect an applications consisting of one page that dynamically loads new content, enable
    Single Page Application
    .
  10. If your application uses many URLs, in
    URL Patterns
    , you can create logical sets of similar URLs with the varying part of the URL acting like a parameter. Click
    Not Configured
     and type one or more URL patterns, for example,
    /product/*.php
    .
    The system then looks at the URL patterns that combine several URLs into one and can more easily recognize DoS attacks, for example, on URLs that might be less frequently accessed by aggregating the statistics from other similar URLs.
  11. If you want to use performance acceleration, in
    Performance acceleration
    , select the TCP fastL4 profile to use as the fast-path for acceleration.
    The profiles listed are those created in
    Local Traffic
    Profiles
    Protocol
    Fast L4
    .
  12. Click
    Update
     to save the DoS profile.
You have created a DoS profile that provides basic DoS protection including TPS-based detection and heavy URL detection (automatically enabled).
Next, consider configuring additional levels of DoS protection such as stress-based protection, single page applications, and geolocations. Look at the other options available under Application Security and adjust as needed. Also, you need to associate the DoS profile with a virtual server before it protects against DoS attacks.

Using an IP Intelligence policy with L7 DoS

You can create an IP intelligence policy that blocks traffic from IP addresses that are on the shun list because they are in a specific blacklist category. For IP addresses that were blocked originally as a result of DoS Layer 7 protections, this IP intelligence policy causes traffic from those IP addresses to be dropped temporarily.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Security
    Network Firewall
    IP Intelligence
    Policies
    .
    The IP Intelligence Policies screen opens.
  2. Click
    Create
     to create a new IP Intelligence policy.
  3. In the
    Name
     field, type a name for the IP intelligence profile, such as
    ip-intell-l7
    .
  4. Leave the
    Default Action
     list set to
    Drop
    .
  5. For
    Blacklist Matching Policy
    , specify the action for the application DoS category.
    1. For
      Blacklist Category
      , select
      application_denial_of_service
      .
      L7 DoS classifies bad IP addresses in the shun list as
      application_denial_of_service
       by default. Other categories are for use if you purchased an IPI subscription (or IP intelligence database). Refer to information on IP intelligence blocking.
    2. For
      Action
      , select
      Drop
      .
    3. For
      Log Blacklist Category Matches
      , select
      Yes
      .
    4. Click
      Add
      .
  6. Click
    Finished
    .
The IP intelligence policy now connects using the shun list at the IP level to problems discovered originally at the application level. This allows the system to slow down DoS attacks using fewer system resources.
The IP intelligence policy needs to be associated with a virtual server, or you can assign a global IP intelligence policy to all virtual servers.

Associating a DoS profile and IP intelligence policy with a virtual server

Before you can accomplish this task, you must first create a DoS profile in Application Security Manager (ASM) to protect your application. You also need an IP intelligence policy that tells the shun list to temporarily drop traffic from IP addresses that have been sending suspicious traffic.
You can add DoS protection and an IP intelligence policy to a virtual server to provide enhanced protection from DoS attacks, and use the shun list to recognize attackers.
  1. On the Main tab, click
    Local Traffic
    Virtual Servers
    .
    The Virtual Server List screen opens.
  2. Click the virtual server that you want to have DoS protection and use the shun list.
  3. On the menu bar, from the Security menu, choose Policies.
  4. To specify the shun list action for Layer 7 DoS, from the
    IP Intelligence
     list, select
    Enabled
    , and then, from the
    Policy
     list, select the IP intelligence policy (for example,
    ip-intelligence
    ) to associate with the virtual server.
    You can also apply one IP intelligence policy at the global level that applies to all virtual servers on the system (
    Security
    Network Firewall
    IP Intelligence
    ).
  5. To enable denial-of-service protection, from the
    DoS Protection Profile
     list, select
    Enabled
    , and then, from the
    Profile
     list, select the DoS profile to associate with the virtual server.
  6. Click
    Update
     to save the changes.
The application represented by the virtual server now has DoS protection, and uses the shun list. If ASM discovers lots of malicious traffic coming from one IP address, that IP address is added to the shun list. Traffic from that IP address is blocked immediately for two minutes (using the default value). After that, traffic from the IP address is allowed through to ASM and, if necessary, is handled by other DoS mitigations specified in the DoS profile. If problems still exist, the IP address is added back onto the shun list.

Result of using shun list with Layer 7 DoS

Now you have associated both a DoS profile and an IP intelligence policy with the virtual server representing the application. Here's a general idea of what happens next:
  • A client is sending lots of traffic from one IP address to the web application.
  • Layer 7 DoS first inspects the traffic even before it gets to Application Security Manager™.
  • If the client is blocked more than 90% of the time and it is sending at least 10 requests per second, the client IP address is put on the shun list.
  • Traffic from the IP address on the shun list is blocked at the IP level (Layer 3) for two minutes.
  • After that, the IP address is removed from the shun list.
  • Traffic from the IP address is allowed through to L7 DoS where it is inspected according to the protections in the DoS profile.
  • If the traffic is successful more than 10% of the time, it is allowed and handled by L7 DoS. Otherwise, that IP address is added back onto the shun list.
If DoS mitigation is performed by URL or device ID, the IP addresses are not shunned at the IP level, but are shunned at Layer 7.
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