F5 Hybrid Security Architectures (Part 2 - F5's Distributed Cloud WAF and NGINX App Protect WAF)
Introduction:
For those of you following along with the F5 Hybrid Security Architectures series, welcome back! If this is your first foray into the series and would like some background, have a look at the intro article. This series is using the F5 Hybrid Security Architectures GitHub repo and CI/CD platform to deploy F5 based hybrid security solutions based on DevSecOps principles. This repo is a community supported effort to provide not only a demo and workshop, but also a stepping stone for utilizing these practices in your own F5 deployments. If you find any bugs or have any enhancement requests, open a issue or better yet contribute!
Here in this example solution, we will be using Terraform to deploy an AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) cluster running the Arcadia Finance test web application serviced by F5 NGINX Ingress Controller for Kubernetes and protected by F5 NGINX App Protect WAF and API Protection. We will supplement this with F5 Distributed Cloud Web App and API Protection to provide complimentary security at the edge. Everything will be tied together using GitHub Actions for CI/CD and Terraform Cloud to maintain state.
Distributed Cloud WAF: Available for SaaS-based deployments in a distributed environment that reduces operational overhead with an optional fully managed service.
NIGNX App Protect WAF: A lightweight software security solution that provides high-performance, low-latency, and platform-agnostic deployments for modern, microservices-based applications and containers.
XC WAF + NGINX App Protect WAF Workflow
GitHub Repo:
F5 Hybrid Security Architectures
Prerequisites:
- F5 Distributed Cloud Account (F5 XC)
- Create an F5 XC API certificate
- F5 NGINX Plus with NGINX App Protect WAF license
- AWS Account - Due to the assets being created, free tier will not work.
- Terraform Cloud Account
- GitHub Account
Assets
- xc: F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP
- nap: NGINX Ingress Controller and NGINX App Protect WAF
- infra: AWS Infrastructure (VPC, IGW, etc.)
- eks: AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service
- arcadia: Arcadia Finance test web application
Tools
- Cloud Provider: AWS
- Infrastructure as Code: Terraform
- Infrastructure as Code State: Terraform Cloud
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions
Terraform Cloud
Workspaces: Create a workspace for each asset in the workflow chosen
| Workflow | Workspaces |
| xc-nap | infra, eks, nap, arcadia, xc |
Workspace Sharing: Under the settings for each Workspace, set the Remote state sharing to share with each Workspace created.
Your Terraform Cloud console should resemble the following:
Variable Set: Create a Variable Set with the following values.
IMPORTANT: Ensure sensitive values are appropriately marked.
- AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: Your AWS Access Key ID - Environment Variable
- AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: Your AWS Secret Access Key - Environment Variable
- AWS_SESSION_TOKEN: Your AWS Session Token - Environment Variable
- VOLT_API_P12_FILE: Your F5 XC API certificate. Set this to api.p12 - Environment Variable
- VES_P12_PASSWORD: Set this to the password you supplied when creating your F5 XC API key - Environment Variable
- nginx_jwt: Your NGINX Java Web Token associated with your NGINX license - Terraform Variable
- ssh_key: Your ssh key for access to created compute assets - Terrraform Variable
- admin_src_addr: The source address of your administrative workstation - Terraform Variable
- tf_cloud_organization: Your Terraform Cloud Organization name - Terraform Variable
Your Variable Set should resemble the following:
GitHub
Fork and Clone Repo: F5 Hybrid Security Architectures
Actions Secrets: Create the following GitHub Actions secrets in your forked repo
- P12: The base64 encoded F5 XC API certificate
- TF_API_TOKEN: Your Terraform Cloud API token
- TF_CLOUD_ORGANIZATION: Your Terraform Cloud Organization
- TF_CLOUD_WORKSPACE_workspace: Create for each workspace used in your workflow. EX: TF_CLOUD_WORKSPACE_NAP would be created with the value nap
Your GitHub Actions Secrets should resemble the following:
Terraform Local Variables:
Step 1: Rename infra/terraform.tfvars.examples to infra/terraform.tfvars and add the following data
project_prefix = "Your project identifier"
resource_owner = "You"
aws_region = "Your AWS region" ex: us-west-1
azs = "Your AWS availability zones" ex: ["us-west-1a", "us-west-1b"]
#Set the following feature flags for this use case
nic = false
nap = true
bigip = false
bigip-cis = falseStep 2: Rename xc/terraform.tfvars.examples to xc/terraform.tfvars and add the following data
api_url = "https://<YOUR TENANT>.console.ves.volterra.io/api"
xc_tenant = "Your tenant id available in F5 XC Administration menu"
xc_namespace = "Your XC Namespace"
app_domain = "Your APP FQDN"
##Set the following feature flags for this usecase.
#XC WAF
xc_waf_blocking = true
#XC API Protection and Discovery
xc_api_disc = false
xc_api_pro = false
xc_api_spec = []
#XC Bot Defense
xc_bot_def = false
#XC DDoS
xc_ddos_pro = false
#XC Malicious User Detection
xc_mud = false
#XC AI/ML Settings for MUD, APIP - NOTE: Only set if using AI/ML settings from the shared namespace
xc_app_type = []
xc_multi_lb = falseStep 4: Commit your changes
Deployment Workflow:
Step 1: Check out a branch for the deploy workflow using the following naming convention
- xc-nap deployment branch: deploy-xc-nap
Step 2: Push your deploy branch to the forked repo
Step 3: Back in GitHub, navigate to the Actions tab of your forked repo and monitor your build
Step 4: Once the pipeline completes, verify your assets were deployed to AWS and F5 XC
Step 5: Verify your app is available by navigating to the app domain FQDN you provided in the setup.
Note: The autocert process takes time. It may be 5 to 10 minutes before Let's Encrypt has provided the cert
F5 XC Terraform Outputs:
Destroy Workflow:
Step 1: From your main branch, check out a new branch for the destroy workflow using the following naming convention
- xc-bigip destroy branch: destroy-xc-nap
Step 2: Push your destroy branch to the forked repo
Step 3: Back in GitHub, navigate to the Actions tab of your forked repo and monitor your workflow
Step 4: Once the pipeline completes, verify your assets were destroyed
Conclusion:
In this article we have shown how to utilize the F5 Hybrid Security Architectures GitHub repo and CI/CD pipeline to deploy a tiered security architecture utilizing F5 XC WAF and NGINX App Protect WAF to protect a test web application running in AWS EKS. We also provided ingress into our EKS cluster with the NGINX Ingress Controller. While the code and security policies deployed are generic and not inclusive of all use-cases, they can be used as a steppingstone for deploying F5 based hybrid architectures in your own environments.
Workloads are increasingly deployed across multiple diverse environments and application architectures. Organizations need the ability to protect their essential applications regardless of deployment or architecture circumstances. Equally important is the need to deploy these protections with the same flexibility and speed as the apps they protect. With the F5 WAF portfolio, coupled with DevSecOps principles, organizations can deploy and maintain industry-leading security without sacrificing the time to value of their applications. Not only can Edge and Shift Left principles exist together, but they can also work in harmony to provide a more effective security solution.
Article Series:
F5 Hybrid Security Architectures (Intro - One WAF Engine, Total Flexibility)
F5 Hybrid Security Architectures (Part 1 - F5's Distributed Cloud WAF and BIG-IP Advanced WAF)
F5 Hybrid Security Architectures (Part 2 - F5's Distributed Cloud WAF and NGINX App Protect WAF)
F5 Hybrid Security Architectures (Part 3 - F5 XC API Protection and NGINX Ingress Controller)
F5 Hybrid Security Architectures (Part 4 - F5 XC BOT and DDoS Defense and BIG-IP Advanced WAF)
F5 Hybrid Security Architectures (Part 5 - F5 XC, BIG-IP APM, CIS, and NGINX Ingress Controller)
For further information or to get started: