Web applications that transport vital company data have become the preferred target of malevolent users. Hackers exploit the vulnerabilities of applications by manipulating the content of HTTP(S) exchanges. The impact of intrusions such as these can take the form of service interruptions, confidential data theft, highjacking transactions or a loss of brand image…
The network firewalls currently installed at the borders of internal and external networks (including the internet), erect barriers that do not interpret the content of the communication between a web browser and its application. They operate at network layer level, based mainly on the addresses of data exchange transmitting and receiving stations . Their main purpose is to open a portal between a client and a server!
Many modern types of attack, such as “cross site scripting”, “SQL injection”, “code injection” and “parameter tampering”, can enter these portals.
An application firewall has a very precise knowledge of the data that pass through the portal in the firewall.
An application firewall is dedicated to detecting and intercepting attacks on web applications, even where such attacks come from a client workstation authorised to access the applications (the workstation may be infected by a virus that launches unknown attacks to the user). This firewall has access to all http data sent by the client workstation browser to the web servers and can interpret the information and verify the existence of known or unknown attacks.
Deny All products (rWeb, rWeb XML Edition, sProxy, rFTP) protect companies from the main threats to their IT systems: attacks on web applications and web services. They protect against:
• Entry of invalid parameters
• Injection of commands
• SQL injection
• Cross Site Scripting
• VCookie and session violations
• Access control violations
• Buffer Overflow
• Inappropriate error handling
• Directory Traversal/ Forceful Browsing
• Application service denials
• “Unknown” attacks
• Etc...
In addition to enhancing their security, companies that are open to the web have to deal with other strategic issues: the deployment of sophisticated architectures to handle the exponential growth in web traffic and to control management and development costs.
Deny All products were initially designed for major accounts in the banking sector, which are pioneers in the deployment of large-scale critical web applications.
Today they provide a triple guarantee to enterprises: integrated application protection, faster web exchanges and simplified architectures.
Deny All products (rWeb, sProxy, rFTP) operate as a complement to traditional security solutions that are inadequate for application security, such as:
• Firewalls and IDS, which effectively protect the network, but are unable to distinguish at application level between proper exchanges and exchanges of manipulated content
• Encryption of flows and access control, which do not protect against identity theft, abuses of rights and manipulation of the content of already authenticated users
• Application corrections (patches), which are very restrictive in practice and too partial to be effective.
The Deny All product range responds to these limitations, with the ability to improve the application response time and to support substantial increases in volume. Products are available in the form of an appliance or as software.
