Fortinet Application Security Landscape
Introduction
Web Application Security deployment has been critical in recent years as applications have become highly dynamic and critical in every business. As remote users have increased in recent years, more and more applications are deployed. As the business grows, the requirement to dynamically change content, react to real-time events, and deploy systematically is essential. With these dynamic changes to the application, the ability to secure and protect data/network assets are critical, especially when a business is under pressure to deliver. This document gives you a complete perspective of how Fortinet security solutions can secure and protect applications across your enterprise. Fortinet provides a whole gamut of Application Security Solutions, ensuring your applications/data are protected, strengthen business resilience and improve application security posture.
What is Application Security?
Web applications are hackers' favorite targets. Determination and perseverance to access valuable data continue as they are relatively easy to exploit. The fallout from a successful cyber-attack can be catastrophic, leading to significant financial losses, irreparable damage to an organization's brand reputation, and the failure of customer trust. In some cases, a company may only partially recover from a significant security breach. Many new attacks that target applications and end users require additional protection that a firewall or an IPS can't provide.
While signature-based detection, IP reputation, and deep-packet inspection can certainly help prevent certain types of security threats, they are not always sufficient on their own to provide comprehensive protection against advanced or emerging threats.
A complete application security solution typically involves a combination of different security measures, including but not limited to those mentioned above. This may include things like vulnerability scanning and testing, intrusion prevention, network segmentation, web application firewalls, and more.
Additionally, a comprehensive security solution must take into account the specific needs and requirements of the organization or individual it is designed to protect. This includes factors such as the size and complexity of the network, the types of applications and data being used, and the level of risk tolerance and compliance requirements.
Ultimately, a complete application security solution should be tailored to the specific needs of the user and should be designed to provide the highest level of protection against a wide range of threats, including advanced and emerging threats that may not be detected by traditional security measures.
What makes Application Security?
The cybersecurity industry is highly diverse and competitive, with many companies offering specialized products and services to protect against various types of cyber threats. Often, these companies focus on a specific niche or area of expertise within the larger cybersecurity landscape, such as network security, endpoint protection, or cloud security.
In order to provide comprehensive cybersecurity solutions, many companies also partner with other vendors or integrate with third-party technologies. This allows them to offer a more complete suite of services and solutions to their customers, while leveraging the strengths and expertise of other companies in the industry.
Overall, the cybersecurity industry is constantly evolving and growing, as new threats emerge and technologies advance. As a result, there is a high demand for innovative and effective cybersecurity solutions, and companies that can offer unique value propositions and stay ahead of the curve are often able to thrive in this competitive market. However, the nuisance value of multi-vendor security deployment is a bottle neck to a successful solution as feature incompatibility can deter security posture development.
Fortinet Application Security Solution is a suite of security tools and technologies designed to protect applications from a wide range of cyber threats. It is a comprehensive solution that integrates multiple security features such as web application firewall (WAF), intrusion prevention system (IPS), DDoS, anti-virus, anti-malware, and advanced threat protection.
Fortinet's Application Security Solution provides a layered defense system that helps businesses to identify, prevent, and mitigate application-layer attacks. With the help of advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms, it can detect and block sophisticated attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other web-based attacks. It also provides granular control and visibility into application traffic, helping businesses to prevent data loss, and comply with regulatory requirements.
Overall, Fortinet Application Security Solution is designed to provide businesses with a comprehensive security solution to protect their applications from the constantly evolving cyber threats.
Fortinet Application Security Components
FortiGate NGFW-Next-Gen Firewall is essential in securing network applications as cybercriminals are now using more sophisticated methods to carry out attacks, targeting applications and end users. That's why additional layers of protection, such as web application firewalls (WAF), application delivery controllers (ADC), Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack mitigation and other Fortinet security solutions are necessary to mitigate these advanced threats. Fortinet's FortiGate Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) are designed to provide advanced security features to protect against a wide range of threats. These firewalls incorporate a range of security technologies such as intrusion prevention, anti-malware, web filtering, and application control, as well as advanced threat protection through machine learning and sandboxing.
In addition to their NGFW, Fortinet also has a number of Security Labs that provide research and analysis on the latest cyber threats and vulnerabilities. These labs include the FortiGuard Labs, which provides threat intelligence and research on malware and other cyber threats. The FortiGuard Labs team includes over 200 researchers and analysts located around the world, who are constantly monitoring and analyzing the latest cyber threats and vulnerabilities. They use this information to develop threat intelligence feeds, which are used by Fortinet's NGFW and other security products to block known threats. Overall, Fortinet's NGFW and Security Labs work together to provide a comprehensive security solution that can help organizations stay protected against a wide range of cyber threats.
FortiADC-Application Delivery Controller
High-performance application delivery controllers (ADCs) are essential for securing web application traffic. ADCs provide a range of security features such as SSL/TLS offloading, application-layer security, SSL/TLS Deep inspection, optimization and acceleration features, intelligent load balancing, DNS-load balancing/GSLB, and traffic shaping. These features help to manage and optimize web application traffic, ensure high availability, and protect against various types of cyber threats. By centrally managing and securing web application traffic, organizations can enhance their overall security posture, improve network performance, and provide a better user experience.
FortiWeb-Web Application and API Firewall
Web application firewalls (WAFs) are security solutions that protect web applications against various types of attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and cross-site forgery. WAFs analyze incoming HTTP requests and block any suspicious or malicious requests. Apart from providing an additional layer of security for web applications, WAFs can also be used for vulnerability patching by identifying and patching vulnerabilities in web applications. By doing so, WAFs help organizations to meet compliance requirements and prevent data breaches that may result in financial losses or damage to brand reputation.
Other Fortinet Cloud Security Offerings:
FortiDevSec orchestrates and automates continuous application security testing for developers and DevOps directly into the application CI/CD DevOps lifecycle. DevOps can integrate FortiDevSec just by copying a few lines of code into their CI/CD and without requiring any AppSec expertise.
FortiDAST combines advanced crawling technology with FortiGuard Labs’ extensive threat research and knowledge base to test target applications against OWASP Top 10 and other vulnerabilities. Designed for Development, DevOps and Security teams, FortiDAST generates full details on vulnerabilities found — prioritized by threat scores computed from CVSS values — and provides guidance for their effective remediation.
FortiSandBox inspects files, websites, URLs and network traffic for malicious activity, including zero-day threats, and uses sandboxing technology to analyze suspicious files in a secure virtual environment.
FortiClient/EMS is a security management solution that enables scalable and centralized management of multiple endpoints (computers). FortiClient EMS provides efficient and effective administration of endpoints running FortiClient.
FortiDDoS-Distributed Denial of Service
An application protection offering to protect a network or online service from Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. These attacks aim to disrupt an online service by overwhelming it with traffic from multiple sources, rendering it inaccessible to legitimate users. Protection from attacks that target layer 7 application services is crucial in DDoS mitigation. Layer 7 attacks are some of the most challenging types of attacks to detect and mitigate, as they exploit vulnerabilities in the application layer. They can include HTTP floods or requests targeting specific URLs, among others. To defend against these attacks, DDoS mitigation services may use a combination of techniques, including rate limiting, blacklisting or whitelisting IPs, and behavioral analysis. Using behavioral analysis techniques can help identify and block suspicious traffic that may indicate an attack. Another method is to use specialized software, such as a web application firewall, that can detect and block malicious traffic targeted at specific application services on layer 7. Fortinet's Web Application Security solution delivers the security, performance, and integration needed to protect mission-critical web applications from attacks that target known and unknown vulnerabilities.
The Application Security Reference Architecture
Fortinet Security Fabric offers comprehensive security solutions for web applications beyond standalone solutions. Integrating sandbox technology enhances antivirus scanning for advanced threat detection, offering optimal protection against cyber-attacks. When combined with FortiGate, organizations can enjoy simplified deployment, shared threat intelligence, and integration with leading threat scanning service providers, enabling advanced vulnerability patching. Fortigate provides multi-layered security that is vital in safeguarding critical data against cyber threats, giving businesses the confidence to operate securely and mitigate the risks of potential financial losses and reputational damage.
In addition to the core Fortinet Security Fabric components like FortiGate and FortiManager, other complementary products can further enhance and extend the security capabilities. One of these products is FortiAnalyzer, which provides centralized logging, reporting, and analysis of security events across the entire organization. Another is FortiRecon, which helps identify vulnerable devices and applications that may expose the network to potential attacks. FortiSandbox, on the other hand, is designed to provide advanced threat protection by analyzing and identifying new and unknown malware through sandboxing technologies. Together with the core products of Fortinet Security Fabric, these complementary products offer a comprehensive and integrated security solution that can effectively protect organizations from today's constantly evolving cyber threats.
Deployment Options
The decision to deploy an Application Delivery Controller (ADC) versus a Web Application Firewall (WAF) depends on the specific needs and requirements of the organization or individual in question.
An ADC is designed to provide a range of functions related to the delivery and management of applications, such as load balancing, traffic shaping, SSL offloading, DDoS mitigation and caching. ADCs are typically deployed in front of applications to improve their performance, availability, and scalability.
On the other hand, WAF is specifically designed to protect web applications from attacks that target vulnerabilities in the application layer. WAFs can detect and block a variety of attacks, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and file inclusion vulnerabilities. WAFs are typically deployed as part of a comprehensive security strategy to protect against application-level attacks.
Both ADCs and WAFs can play an important role in ensuring the availability, performance, and security of web applications. The decision to deploy one or the other, or both, will depend on a variety of factors, including the specific needs and objectives of the organization, the complexity of the application environment, and the level of security required to protect against potential threats.
Ancillary Protection With DDoS Attacks
DDoS attacks have become increasingly common in the cybersecurity world and can cause significant damage to organizations. FortiDDoS is part of the Cloud Network Security portfolio, and it can help mitigate the impact of DDoS attacks in several ways.
FortiDDoS uses advanced algorithms to detect and mitigate DDoS attacks in real-time. It can identify the source of attack traffic and filter it out, ensuring that legitimate traffic can continue to flow to the network or website. This helps prevent the network or website from being overwhelmed and unavailable to users. FortiDDoS provides granular visibility into network traffic, allowing administrators to monitor and analyze attack traffic in detail. This information can be used to identify attack patterns, track the source of the attack, and improve network security posture. With FortiDDoS can be integrated with other Fortinet products, such as FortiGate firewalls, to provide a comprehensive security solution. This allows organizations to take a multi-layered approach to security and protect against a range of cyber threats, including DDoS attacks.
Overall, FortiDDoS can be an effective tool in protecting against DDoS attacks, but it is important to note that no security solution can provide 100% protection against all cyber threats. Organizations should implement a comprehensive security strategy that includes a range of tools and practices to effectively mitigate cyber risks.
Simplified Deployment:
In a typical application security deployment, an application delivery controller (ADC) is a crucial component for load balancing and SSL-offloading in an application server farm. ADC main purpose is to distribute incoming network traffic or application requests across multiple servers or resources with reverse proxy. The purpose of ADC is to improve the performance, reliability, and availability of applications by distributing the workload evenly among multiple resources.
The FortiADC solution is a feature-rich application delivery controller that offers a range of capabilities, including intelligent load balancing, DDoS protection, and a built-in web application firewall (WAF). By combining these capabilities into a single solution, FortiADC can provide a comprehensive web application security solution that addresses multiple security concerns.
By providing these capabilities in a single solution, FortiADC can simplify the process of deploying and managing web application security, reducing the complexity and cost of managing multiple security solutions. It can also help to improve security posture by providing a holistic view of application traffic and security threats, allowing administrators to detect and respond to security incidents more quickly and effectively.
Intelligent load balancing can be achieved using various methods, such as round-robin, weighted round-robin, least connections, host, full URI, and more. These methods determine how incoming requests are distributed across the available resources based on factors such as server health, network utilization, or user-defined policies.
In addition to improving application performance and availability, load balancing can also help to optimize resource utilization, simplify scalability, and provide fault tolerance by automatically redirecting traffic to healthy servers in the event of a server failure or outage. The combination of a FortiGate NGFW and a FortiADC (Application Delivery Controller) can provide a comprehensive security solution for organizations.
FortiGate NGFW are designed to provide network security by inspecting traffic that enters or exits a network, filtering out malicious traffic, and providing access controls to prevent unauthorized access. The FortiADC, on the other hand, is designed to optimize application performance, improve availability and reliability, and protect against application layer attacks.
When deployed together, the FortiGate and FortiADC can provide a comprehensive security solution that combines network security with application security. The FortiGate can protect against threats such as malware, phishing, and DDoS attacks, while the FortiADC can provide additional security measures at the application layer, such as protecting against SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks.
Overall, the combination of a FortiGate and FortiADC can provide a simple yet effective solution for organizations that need to protect their networks and applications from a range of cyber threats.
Notes: For the upcoming diagrams below, Fortinet highly recommend deploying the solutions in HA or paired solution for network and security stability. The diagram below depicts a simplified Application Security Solution focused on application availability, scalability, acceleration, and optimization.
Diagram 1: FortiGate NGFW with FortiADC Overview
This deployment option is a simplified deployment option that comprises of FortiGate with FortiWeb solution. This deployment option focuses towards Application and API security with some ADC features.
Diagram 2: FortiGate NGFW with FortiWeb Architecture
In some cases, organizations may choose to add the FortiWeb solution to the combination of FortiGate firewall and FortiADC to provide a dedicated solution for web application firewall (WAF). FortiWeb is a specialized WAF solution that provides advanced protection against a range of web-based attacks and the sole purpose is to keep your Apps and APIs secure. The FortiWeb has basic load balancing features as a bonus. By adding FortiWeb to the combination of FortiGate firewall and FortiADC, organizations can provide additional layers of protection for their web-based applications and ensure that they are meeting regulatory requirements for web application security.
The diagram below depicts a combined Application Security Solution with its required components.
Diagram 3: FortiGate NGFW, FortiADC and FortiWeb Architecture
Diagram 4: FortiDDoS (Optional), FortiGate NGFW, FortiADC and FortiWeb Architecture
Finally, the overall view of a Fortinet Application Security Deployment with other ancillary services
Diagram 5: Complete Fortinet Application Security Solution devices other Fortinet solutions.
Component-based Deployment:
Application security is not a one-time task but a cyclical process that requires new security measures to be implemented every time a new application is deployed. Failure to do so can result in significant reputational risk and financial loss to an enterprise, making it crucial to set expectations and implement routine security practices. Fortinet offers several complementary security solutions that protect applications, complementing the core Fortinet Security Fabric components. These solutions are designed to improve and protect data and work seamlessly with the application fabric. Deploying applications can present new challenges to IT teams. Still, with the right security measures, such as those offered by Fortinet, organizations can have the confidence that their applications are secure and protected from cyber-attacks.
DDoS attacks have become increasingly prevalent in recent years, causing significant disruptions to businesses and even resulting in a complete loss of business. In 2022, the average for large-volume DDoS attacks was recorded at 1.45 million RPS and had been increasing recently. These attacks have targeted various sectors, including government, education, financial, and automotive sites. Deploying a FortiGate within the perimeter network is an excellent solution as it provides robust protection against DDoS attacks. However, for large-scale regional attacks, the FortiDDoS solution is a perfect option to mitigate the problem. By deploying advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques, FortiDDoS can detect and mitigate DDoS attacks in real time, thereby preventing devastating consequences for businesses.
Fortinet Guards Security Services
Fortinet's security services are designed to provide comprehensive protection against a wide range of cyber threats, with solutions that can be customized to meet the specific needs of different organizations. With Security Fabric integrations, there are many different cloud solutions that can be deployed based on security requirements. FortiWeb can be configured to join a security fabric through the root or downstream FortiGate. FortiDevSec, FortiDAST, FortiSandbox and FortiClient are other cloud products that offer additional security features within FortiADC and FortiWeb. Below is a visual diagram how applications can be protected based on Fortinet Security solutions.
Here’s a list of Fortinet security services offered based on Fortinet solutions that help organizations protect against a wide range of threats, including malware, viruses, ransomware, and other types of cyberattacks.
