Protecting your web application and API is a top priority if you want to gain your customers' trust, protect their data, and comply with security regulations.
But there is an array of web application firewalls you can choose to safeguard your web resources. Two WAFs come to mind - AWS and Imperva. Which is the best web application firewall between AWS WAF and Imperva WAF regarding security features, pricing, ease of deployment, and management?
This article will compare AWS and Imperva WAF by examining their features. Also, we will introduce open-appsec, a new security tool that is a better solution.
AWS WAF vs. Imperva vs. open-appsec
The table below shows a comparison of AWS WAF, Imperva WAF, and open-appsec features.
Property | Imperva WAF | AWS WAF | open-appsec |
Security | | | |
ML-based. No signature needed | No | No | Yes |
Zero-day protection (Text4Shell, Log4Shell, Spring4Shell, etc.) | No | No | Yes |
API protection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
OWASP TOP 10 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Anti-bot | Yes | Yes (need integration with Amazon CloudFront) | Yes (premium feature) |
Integration | | | |
NGINX, NGINX Ingress, Envoy Add-On | No | No | Yes |
Kubernetes Ingress | No | No | Yes |
Gateway VM for AWS, Azure, and VMWare | Yes | No | Enterprise version |
Management | | | |
Declarative configuration and deployment | Yes | No | Yes |
SaaS Web-based Event Management & Dashboards | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Terraform | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Code and Price | | | |
Free | Yes | No | Yes |
Open-source | No | No | Yes |
Pros and Cons of Imperva WAF
These are the reviews left by people who have used Imperva WAF.
Pros | Cons |
Very scalable and stable WAF for web applications. | Requires manual tuning of signatures to avoid false positives |
Common features of the Imperva WAF are DDoS, malware, and the other malicious threat prevention it provides. | No zero-day pre-emptive protection as it is based on signatures. |
Imperva Web Application Firewall can be on the cloud and also on-premises. | An improvement for Imperva WAF would be to reduce the number of false positives. |
Imperva WAF is a comprehensive web application and API security tool that secures your web resources to receive only the traffic you want.
It provides the best industry web and API protection and comes with PCI-compliant and automated security that uses analytics to detect and mitigate OWASP Top 10 and zero-day vulnerabilities.
Imperva WAF can secure active and legacy web applications, third-party apps, APIs and microservices, cloud, containers, VMs, etc. You can deploy it on-site, in Azure, AWS, and GCP, or as a cloud service to ensure that you stay protected without disrupting your delivery pipeline from modern threats like malicious bots and API attacks. Also, Imperva provides comprehensive protection for applications, microservices, and APIs.
Here are some of Imperva WAF's features:
API security. It provides automated API protection and ensures the endpoints are protected when published. This will shield your application from malicious uses and exploitation.
Advanced bot protection. Imperva WAF deters business logic attacks aimed at your websites, apps, and APIs. You can gain visibility and control over bot traffic and stop online fraud through account takeover.
DDoS protection. You can block traffic aimed at attacking your web resources with Imperva WAF. This security tool makes it easy to secure your on-site or cloud-based resources. So, whether your app or API is hosted on AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Public Cloud, it is protected against DDoS.
Attack analytics. Imperva uses machine learning to give you complete visibility across the application security stack, reveal noise patterns, and detect attacks. This WAF feature will enable you to isolate and prevent attacks.
Front-end protection. It gives you visibility and control over third-party JavaScript code and reduces the risk of supply chain fraud, preventing data bridge and client-side attacks.
Pros and Cons of AWS WAF
These are the reviews of users that have used AWS WAF.
Pros | Cons |
AWS WAF lets you set rules to filter web traffic and block common web exploits like SQL injection and cross-site scripting. | AWS WAF is expensive if you use it for a single application. |
You can use AWS WAF Fraud Control and Account Takeover Prevention to protect against brute-force login attempts and credential-stuffing attacks. | You can configure a limited number of rules with AWS WAF. |
It helps block attacks like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and malicious bots. | No zero-day pre-emptive protection as it is based on signatures. |
AWS WAF can be fully administered via APIs. | Requires manual tuning of signatures to avoid false positives |
AWS WAF is a security service that protects web apps from attacks by filtering, monitoring, and blocking malicious HTTP/S traffic. It defends against common attacks that could otherwise damage your website’s performance and compromise security.
Users can create rules to block specific HTTPS requests, IP addresses, and URI strings, preventing common web exploits like SQL injection or cross-site scripting. After creating new rules, you can deploy them within seconds and track their effectiveness via real-time visibility.
Here are some of AWS WAF's features:
AWS WAF filters web traffic. You can get an extra layer of protection by setting easily deployable rules across several websites. The rules can filter web traffic, like HTTP headers, IP addresses, and URIs, per your conditions. These rules will help you safeguard your web resources from SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and attacks from third parties.
Fraud prevention. AWS WAF allows you to monitor your login page effectively with managed rules that deter hackers from accessing users' accounts. The rules will help to protect against credential stuffing attacks, harmful login activities, and brute-force attacks.
Bot control. With AWS WAF, users can prevent malicious bots that consume resources and create downtime. Also, users can view and control bot traffic with a managed rule group. You can easily block scrapers and crawlers or allow common bots like search engines to access your web application.
Provides metrics for real-time visibility. You can receive real-time metrics with details about geo-location, URLs, IP addresses, user agents, and referrers with AWS WAF. Also, AWS WAF can integrate seamlessly with Amazon CloudWatch for custom alarms when events or attacks occur.
Pros and Cons of open-appsec
Are you looking for a way to block attacks on your web application before they happen? open-appsec uses machine learning to continuously detect and preemptively block threats before they can do any damage. Our code has also been published on GitHub, and the effectiveness of our WAF has been successfully proven in numerous tests by third parties. Try open-appsec in the Playground today.
Pros | Cons |
Offer integration with NGINX, Kubernetes, Envoy, and Docker. | It is a new security initiative. |
open-appsec is free and open-source, with the code available on GitHub for anyone to use. | open-appsec has a small community of users. |
Its machine learning engine continuously provides threat detection to identify and deter attacks before they affect your system. | You can find little information about it on the internet. |
open-appsec is easy to configure and manage. | |
open-appsec is a security tool that uses machine learning to continuously analyze users' HTTPS requests to identify patterns and automatically prevent and deter malicious threats like zero-day vulnerabilities, OWASP Top 10, and malicious bots.
What makes open-appsec unique is that it automatically protects your website and API against vulnerabilities that would cost you a lot if left unchecked. Aside from that, it can be deployed as an add-on to modern environments. Examples of such environments are Google Public Cloud, NGINX server, Kubernetes, Envoy, and Docker.
open-appsec is free and easy to configure and manage, unlike other web application firewalls. This makes it the perfect web and API security tool to protect your web resources without you having to manually tune or adjust the rules to each attack.
It provides Enterprise-grade SaaS management and has several means of administration - web user interface, GraphQL API, or infrastructure-as-code via Terraform.
Also, It uses contextual analysis to determine how users normally interact with your web application. open-appsec then processes the information to detect requests that fall out of normal operations automatically. This significantly simplifies maintenance, reduces web resources' vulnerability, and eliminates the need for rushed patching activities.
Two engines power open-appsec - the supervised and unsupervised model.
The supervised model was trained offline to identify threats, while the unsupervised model analyzes traffic in real-time in your protected environment.
The two engines make it easy for open-appsec to block attacks such as Log4Shell, Text4Shell, and Spring4Shell by default and continuously find attacks without manual turning common in most WAFs.
Using infrastructure-as-code, CRDs, or APIs, open-appsec provides cloud-native CI/CD-friendly deployment and automation. The code is published on GitHub and available for anyone to use due to its open-source nature.
Features of open-appsec
Preemptive. open-appsec preemptively prevents OWASP Top 10 and zero-day exploits using machine learning. It will block Log4Shell, Text4Shell, and Spring4Shell with no signature update required.
Easy configuration. Configuring and deploying open-appsec is easy. It uses cloud-native CI/CD-friendly deployment from installation to update and configuration with declarative infrastructure-as-code or API.
Provides API security. Its ML-based malicious content blocking and OpenAPI schema validation keep your API within safe limits and prevent abuse.
Anti-bot. open-appsec Web Behavioral Anti-Bot identify and stop automated bot attacks before they destroy your system. This will prevent the theft of your customers' data.
Intrusion prevention. You can protect your web resources against over 2,800 Web CVEs with open-appsec and prevent the system's intrusion.
Integration. You can easily integrate open-appsec with the public cloud, NGINX, Envoy, Kubernetes, and Docker.
Open-source. The code is available on GitHub for developers to use.
Improves performance. open-appsec reduces latency without affecting the flow of your website traffic.
Conclusion
So, which is the best web application firewall to protect your website and API? Before we give our verdict, remember that the WAF you choose should be tailored to your business needs.
If you want a web application firewall that safeguards your website and API from known and unknown attacks, you can choose Imperva. Imperva WAF protects against DDoS, malicious bots, common vulnerabilities, and zero-day exploits.
AWS WAF is the right option if you want a security tool to protect your website and API running on the AWS platform. With AWS WAF, you can filter web traffic, block bad requests, and OWASP TOP 10.
If you want a security option that uses machine learning, integrates with the modern environment, protects against zero-day vulnerabilities, OWASP Top 10, and over 2800 CVEs, you can choose open-appsec. open-appsec is easy to configure and manage and preemptively detect and mitigate threats.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which WAFs Compete with Imperva WAF?
Various web application firewalls compete with Imperva WAF. open-appsec, AWS WAF, F5 WAF, Azure WAF, and Cloudflare WAF are some alternatives to Imperva WAF.
Which WAFs Protect Against Zero-Day Attacks?
Few web application firewalls protect against zero-day attacks. open-appsec is a WAF that protects your web application and API from zero-day vulnerabilities, OWASP Top 10, and bot attacks. Other WAFs are Imperva, F5 WAF, etc.
