We are excited to announce the release of Wallarm Node 5.0! This major update represents a significant shift in our technology stack, bringing enhanced performance and scalability to your Wallarm deployment.

Key Highlights:

• New Technology Stack: The Wallarm node has been re-engineered from a Ruby-based implementation to Go, resulting in a faster, more scalable, and resource-efficient solution.
• Performance Improvements: The Wallarm Postanalytics module’s performance has been improved:
  • CPU Usage: Reduced from 0.5 CPU cores to just 0.1 CPU cores.
  • Memory Usage: Lowered by 400 MB at a traffic rate of 500 requests per second.

File System Updates:

• Consolidated Logging: Logs from almost all services are now recorded in a single file, wcli-out.log, simplifying log management.
• Updated Diagnostic Script Path: The diagnostic script has been moved to /opt/wallarm/collect-info.sh from its previous location.

Important Notes:

• This release focuses on technical refactoring and does not introduce any changes in functionality. All features supported in the previous version (4.10) are retained in 5.0.

For a detailed overview of all changes and update instructions, please refer to our updated documentation.

• LDAP Authentication: Easily authenticate users with LDAP.
• User Management: Manage user roles and permissions directly through LDAP for use in Wallarm Console.

With this update, you also get the ability to search for events related to specific types of bots in the attack list. You can find more details in our documentation.

A recent supply chain attack has compromised over 100,000 websites through the popular Polyfill JavaScript library. The library is widely used to ensure compatibility with modern JavaScript features in older browsers. Different web applications and Content Management Systems (e.g. Magento), include code that introduces static script imports of JavaScript code sourced from cdn.polyfill.io.

Earlier this year, a Chinese company acquired the Polyfill domain. The attackers used the control of the domain to distribute malicious JavaScript code instead of legitimate libraries. This allows performing arbitrary malicious activity in the context of the victim's browser: redirecting users to phishing sites, stealing sensitive information, or even further propagating malware.

The attack is similar to stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and does not require any actions from the victim other than visiting a web page. Successful attacks have already been recorded on other websites.

The Wallarm platform detects the compromised applications and the corresponding web pages with static imports of JavaScript code from the *polyfill.io domain and other malicious domains involved in this campaign: (kuurza[.]com, googie-anaiytics[.]com, bootcss[.]com, macoms[.]lanewcrbpc[.]com, polyfill[.]io, bootcdn[.]net, staticfile[.]net, unionadjs[.]com, xhsbpza[.]com).

Check the vulnerabilities page in the Wallarm console for the vulnerability “Malicious JavaScript injection via supply chain attack (polyfill.io)” as demonstrated on the figure below. If the vulnerability was found:

1. Consider removing the Polyfill library entirely from the application’s dependencies.

2. Ensure that there are no references to malicious domains in the source code: (kuurza[.]com, googie-anaiytics[.]com, bootcss[.]com, macoms[.]lanewcrbpc[.]com, polyfill[.]io, bootcdn[.]net, staticfile[.]net, unionadjs[.]com, xhsbpza[.]com).

3. If Polyfill functionality is needed, consider using trustworthy alternatives.

4. Investigate potential incidents of attacks on your application users.

If the vulnerability was not found, we still recommend analyzing the source code of all projects, especially those not protected with the Wallarm platform.

An update to our filtering node is live. Node 4.10.7 is designed to support new features, and to address number of performance updates. 

This version of the Wallarm node includes updates for several NGINX versions. Full details are included in our updated documentation. 

Other key changes are:

• API Specification Enforcement no longer requires manual NGINX configuration
• Optimized OpenAPI data type detection by the API Discovery module

We have also updated documentation for our all-in-one installer including detailed information about migration from from DEB/RPM packages to AiO.

We've added a new vulnerability to our platform. We now detect when an API supports GET requests with query parameters that expose sensitive data. This functionality works in concert with our existing sensitive data detection to specifically identify vulnerabilities described by CWE-598.

Key Benefits:

1. Enhanced Vulnerability Monitoring:

• Our advanced algorithms continuously monitor GET requests to identify any instances where sensitive data is inadvertently exposed in URLs.

• Real-time detection and vulnerability alerting to ensure immediate awareness and response to potential sensitive data exposure.

2. Comprehensive URL Analysis:

• We analyze all incoming traffic, focusing on identifying sensitive data within query parameters of requests.

• Pattern matching and sophisticated heuristics are employed to detect common sensitive data such as email addresses, names, passwords and other critical data.

We are thrilled to introduce new enhancements to our API Abuse Prevention capabilities, offering users greater control and precision in managing bot activity.

Users can now assign separate actions and sensitivity levels to specific types of bots. By moving away from the previous one-size-fits-all approach, you gain the flexibility to apply blocking mode against different bot types independently with minimal impact on legitimate traffic. The new Sensitivity levels replace the outdated Tolerance parameter and allow for more precise control of anomaly detection.

Additionally, you can now more effectively manage the scope for behavioral analysis. This includes the option to build behavior profiles across the entire application or within individual domains. This feature is particularly beneficial for users with multiple domains within a single application or without pre-configured applications.

These enhancements enable better identification of automated threats and minimize the risk of false positives, leading to improved security outcomes. API Abuse Prevention is available as part of the Advanced API Security subscription. You can learn more info about Wallarm bot managing capabilities and configuration options in our documentation.

Today we'd like to announce a new version of our filtering node. Node 4.10.6 is designed to support new features, but also includes a number of performance updates. 

The key features include:

• Enhanced OpenAPI data type detection by the API Discovery module
• Improved memory utilisation in long-lived gRPC connections
• Added support for NGINX v1.26.0
• Fixed compatibility issues with the Kong Gateway
• Return proper non-zero exit codes during installation errors, addressing previous issues
• Ability to test regular expressions intended for user-defined attack detectors

Full details are included in our updated documentation. 

 We're excited to introduce our new API specification enforcement feature. This new capability allows users to upload and enforce API specifications with Wallarm.

Negative security models that define what to block with signatures and rules are important, but they operate on the principle of blocking known-bad events. Positive security models do the opposite by defining what’s allowed and blocking everything else. With the addition of API specification enforcement, Wallarm users now have the benefit of both models.
With API specification enforcement, security analysts can upload OpenAPI specifications to detect and block non-compliant API requests. This proactive approach, blocking anything that isn’t explicitly allowed, supports a shift left for API security in production. By connecting developers with production security through defined specifications, it minimizes the risk of costly breaches and downtime.

With the new API specification enforcement feature, Wallarm can detect violations such as:

• Requests sent to endpoints that are not specified in the API specification
• Unknown parameters in requests
• Missing required parameters in requests
• Invalid data types in parameters
• Requesting an endpoint with an incorrect authentication method

Stay secure, mitigate risks, and embrace a proactive security approach with Wallarm End-to-End API Security.

To use API specification enforcement, you must have an Advanced API Security subscription and update your Wallarm node to the latest version (4.10.4 or above). You can find more detailed information about this feature in our documentation.

We’re releasing a major improvement to our Advanced API Security solution: enhanced detection of GraphQL-specific attacks. This new Wallarm capability allows users to configure customized GraphQL security policies, limiting query complexity to prevent undue resource consumption or performance degradation. It also includes measures to limit excessive disclosure of information about the structure of your GraphQL APIs. This update ensures that security teams have complete control over their modern API estate and can swiftly respond to emerging threats.

To use GraphQL security policies, you must update your Wallarm node to the latest version (4.10.4 or above). You can find more detailed information about this feature in our documentation.