Protecting Web Applications from Common Security Threats
Question
Your company has a web application hosted in AWS that makes use of an Application Load Balancer.
You need to ensure that the web application is protected from web-based attacks such as cross-site scripting etc. Which of the following implementation steps can help protect web applications from common security threats from the outside world?
Answers
Explanations
Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer
A. B. C. D.Answer - B.
The AWS Documentation mentions the following.
AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect your web applications from common web exploits that could affect application availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources.
AWS WAF gives you control over which traffic to allow or block your web applications by defining customizable web security rules.
You can use AWS WAF to create custom rules that block common attack patterns, such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting, and rules designed for your specific application.
Options A and C are incorrect because these are used to allow instances in your private subnet to communicate with the internet.
Option D is incorrect since this is ideal for content distribution and good when you have DDoS attacks, but the WAF should be used for concentrated types of web attacks.
For more information on AWS WAF, please refer to the below link-
https://aws.amazon.com/waf/The correct answer is B. Use the WAF service in front of the web application.
Explanation: The AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from common web exploits that can affect the availability, compromise the security, or consume excessive resources of your web application.
By placing the WAF in front of your web application, it can monitor and filter the traffic coming to your web application, and block any malicious requests. The WAF supports a range of customizable rules to block common attack patterns such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and more.
The other options listed are not appropriate for protecting against web-based attacks: A. Placing a NAT instance or NAT gateway in front of the web application can help with network address translation but will not provide any protection against web-based attacks. D. A CDN service can help with delivering content to users more quickly, but it does not provide any security benefits.
In summary, using the AWS WAF in front of your web application is the best solution for protecting against common web-based attacks.
