As businesses increasingly rely on web applications and APIs for their operations, the need for robust protection has never been greater. Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) is emerging as a pivotal defense mechanism for modern web security. WAAP not only safeguards these critical assets, but it also adapts to the dynamic nature of cyber threats, ensuring comprehensive protection.
WAAP combines the functions of a web application firewall (WAF) with additional capabilities focused on Application Programming Interface (API) security. By understanding what a WAAP is and how it enhances security across the expanded attack surface, organizations can create a holistic approach to security.
What is Web Application and API Protection (WAAP)?
Web application and API Protection (WAAP) tools mitigate risks arising from various runtime attacks and help protect public-facing web applications and APIs. WAAP solutions use machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and mitigate new attack patterns, enabling organizations to mitigate risks arising from the following:
- SQL injection and operating system (OS) injection: inserting malicious SQL code into a database to access the information stored there
- Cross-site scripting (XSS): injecting malicious code into a web application so the application executes it
- Cross-site request forgery (XRSF): using external sources to execute commands and perform actions on behalf of authenticated users
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack: flooding web applications and APIs with too many requests for them to respond to
- API-specific vulnerabilities: security weaknesses in the API coding that attackers can exploit
WAAP solutions work at the application layer, Layer 7 of the OSI model. They analyze incoming traffic to understand the difference between malicious content and legitimate traffic patterns.
Why Is WAAP Important?
Web applications and APIs connect to the public internet, giving attackers an opportunity to gain unauthorized access to systems, networks, and data. Traditional security tools use risk mitigation techniques that fail to respond to new attacks targeting web applications and APIs.
Some limitations of these traditional tools include:
- Focus on port-based blocking: Malicious traffic often uses the same ports and protocols as legitimate users.
- Relying on signature-based detections: Rapidly evolving attack methodologies require ML and AI that can keep pace with changes.
- Inability to manage attack surface: Malicious actors use automation to target decentralized and distributed applications and APIs.
- Inability to detect malicious payloads in encrypted traffic: Malicious requests will bypass tools that lack SSL decryption capabilities.
WAAP augments an organization’s web application firewall (WAF) to fill in these gaps.
Challenges for Securing Web Applications and APIs
Securing modern web applications and APIs presents significant challenges due to their increasing complexity and expansive attack surfaces.
API Sprawl
Different departments or teams often create APIs to achieve specific goals, but leave them without the proper oversight and governance. Organizations face challenges identifying, managing, documenting, and securing all APIs, leading to an expanded attack surface that increases cybersecurity risks.
Lack of updated documentation
APIs are fast and easy to deploy, but many organizations lack appropriate documentation. Even more challenging, APIs continually update, meaning documentation can become outdated. Without insight into an API’s version, organizations may have outdated, vulnerable APIs.
Complex Authorization Models
APIs use various authentication models. Organizations struggle since a WAF may not be able to handle more complex models, like:
- OAuth 2.0
- JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
- Custom token-based authentication
Differing formats and protocols
No standard format or protocol exists for API development. Organizations often have a collection of APIs with different security capabilities, including:
- Representational State Transfer (REST): communicates using HTTPS or TLS/SSL for security
- Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP): contains capabilities for encryption, digital signatures, and authentication
- Remote Procedure Call (RPC): treats a remote system like a local one
- GraphQL: provides a query language for APIs
Each type of API protocol comes with its own security needs and requirements.
Difficulty assigning responsibility
Various areas across the organization work with APIs, including:
- Developers: coding and deploying them
- Application security: enforcing secure coding practices
- Security: monitoring for and defending against attacks
- Third-party risk management: reviewing vendor secure software development practices when using vendor-supplied APIs
- Organizations struggle to assign a single team responsible for managing web application and API security, creating governance and oversight risks.
What to Look for in a WAAP Solution?
WAAP combines cloud WAF services, API protection, and DDoS countermeasures to combat a vast array of cyber threats effectively. Organizations should consider the following capabilities when researching a WAAP solution.
Threat intelligence integration
To rapidly identify and counter emerging cyber threats, a WAAP solution should use the latest information so it can respond to emerging threats and adapt its detection, significantly enhancing its security posture. Threat intelligence integration fosters a proactive defense, enabling WAAP to foresee potential vulnerabilities and preemptively secure against potential exploits.
Behavioral analysis
Behavioral analysis within WAAP tracks user and app behavior to detect anomalies that might signal unauthorized access or account takeovers. Advanced analytics can discern and block stealthy bots by examining detailed patterns. By defining a baseline of normal operations, WAAP enhances its ability to identify malicious traffic while differentiating between genuine and illegitimate interactions.
Machine learning and AI-driven detection
Machine learning algorithms enable the WAAP solution to understand normal traffic patterns and identify irregular behaviors that indicate potential risks. AI-driven analytics enable customizable security policies that match business needs, strengthening defenses against emerging threats.
API compliance
WAAP delivers continuous runtime visibility so organizations can assess and remediate risks. By identifying API coding errors, the solution ensures that APIs conform to security and regulatory requirements while mitigating risks like governance issues, data loss, and business disruption.
Bot management
Bot management distinguishes between legitimate and malicious bots using machine learning algorithms, crucially enhancing security by filtering suspicious traffic. Traditional solutions often falter in this aspect, but WAAP efficiently uses behavioral analysis and fingerprint recognition to thwart automated attacks. Continuous adaptation to threats through telemetry and actionable insights ensures WAAP remains effective against malicious bot activities.
Vercara WAAP: Holistic security for dynamic threat mitigation
Vercara’s WAAP solutions deliver comprehensive protection from dynamic threats, blocking a high volume of malicious traffic and requests. Our WAF solution defends critical applications, even ones with complex workflows, against common threats targeting the application layer, including SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF. By employing positive and negative security capabilities, Vercara’s solution enables you to detect zero-day threats and those featuring malformed packets or non-RFC-compliance traffic.
Augmenting the WAF, our unified API security platform discovers and secures APIs across your network, protecting you against malicious bots and fraudulent activity. Our API security solution delivers real-time runtime visibility into, testing for, and monitoring over APIs so you can remediate errors quickly and conform to security and regulatory requirements.
Vercara’s WAAP detects and defends against malicious bots, effectively countering sophisticated bot attacks and business logic abuse.
To learn how Vercara enables your organization, contact us today.
