What is Prophaze Web Application Firewall?
Prophaze Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a cloud-native security solution that protects web applications, APIs, microservices, and Kubernetes environments from a wide range of cyber threats. It employs AI-powered detection algorithms and machine learning to identify and block malicious traffic, including threats like DDoS attacks, zero-day exploits, bot attacks, and vulnerabilities listed in the OWASP Top 10
Key features and capabilities of Prophaze WAF:
- Kubernetes Native: Prophaze WAF integrates seamlessly with Kubernetes clusters, supporting major ingress controllers (Nginx, Traefik, Istio) and can be deployed both in-line and as a reverse proxy.
- Comprehensive Threat Protection: It uses both positive (allow-listed) and negative (signature-based) security models to detect and block known and unknown threats, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and fileless attacks.
- API and Microservices Security: Special focus on securing APIs and microservices, with behavioral analytics and adaptive profiling to spot anomalies and abnormal usage patterns.
- Virtual Patching: Automatically applies virtual patches to APIs and web applications to mitigate vulnerabilities before official patches are available.
- Multi-Tenancy and Scalability: Supports multi-tenant environments, making it suitable for managed security providers and businesses with complex infrastructures.
- Real-Time Monitoring and Reporting: Provides live visibility, real-time alerts, and analytics for ongoing attacks and security events.
- Flexible Deployment: Available as a cloud service, on-premises, or hybrid deployment, and supports integration into DevSecOps workflows
Deployment and Integration of Prophaze WAF:
- Prophaze WAF can be installed with zero downtime, either as a replacement for existing ingress controllers or as an additional security layer at the DNS or load balancer level.
- It supports automatic signature updates and allows administrators to customize security policies and attack signatures
Use Cases of Prophaze WAF:
Ensures compliance, application uptime, and protection of sensitive data without impacting user experience
Protects organizations in sectors like healthcare, fintech, education, and manufacturing from data leaks, malware, bot attacks, and more.
Prophaze WAF acts as a modern, adaptive security platform for organizations seeking robust, automated protection for their web-facing assets, especially in cloud-native and Kubernetes-centric environments
How does Prophaze WAF protect against zero-day attacks and bots?
Prophaze Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects against zero-day attacks and bots using a combination of AI-driven detection, behavioral analysis, and adaptive security policies:
Zero-Day Attack Protection
- AI and Machine Learning: Prophaze WAF uses AI-powered behavioral analysis to establish a baseline for normal application behavior. When it detects deviations—such as unusual input patterns or unauthorized access attempts, it triggers alerts or blocks the suspicious traffic. It does not matter that the specific exploit is previously unknown.
- Heuristic Analysis: The WAF identifies anomalies and atypical behaviors that may indicate a zero-day exploit. It does not rely solely on known attack signatures.
- Custom and Adaptive Rules: Security administrators can quickly adapt protections by creating or modifying rules to respond to emerging threats in real time.
- Virtual Patching: Prophaze WAF automatically applies virtual patches to block exploitation of vulnerabilities before official patches are available, reducing exposure to zero-day threats.
- IP Controls and Rate Limiting: The WAF can restrict access by blacklisting or whitelisting IPs and limiting request rates to mitigate the spread or impact of zero-day exploits1.
Bot Protection
- Bot Detection and Management: Prophaze WAF identifies and blocks various types of malicious bots, including DDoS bots, exploit bots, scraping bots, brute force bots, and API abuse bots, by analyzing traffic patterns and behaviors.
- AI-Powered Filtering: The WAF distinguishes between legitimate users and automated bot traffic using AI and machine learning. Further, preventing attacks such as credential stuffing, data scraping, and automated exploitation.
- Anomaly Detection: It monitors for anomalies in response codes, bandwidth usage, and request rates. These are often indicators of bot activity.
Conclusion:
Prophaze comes with multiple variants. These variants target multiple use cases as described above in this blog. Prophaze Hybrid WAF, Cloud WAF, Kubernetes WAF, On-Premises WAF are the products among them. Company also provides free trials for on premises firewall segments.