Over the decades, web applications are constantly facing cyber threats of different types. That is why security has become an important aspect and they have security as their first priority. Fortunately, there are several sources available for improving security for your AWS infrastructure. AWS Shield and WAF(Web Application Firewall) are two important security services offered by Amazon to protect and secure your cloud based applications and resources from significant threats.
In this AWS Shield vs WAF guide we will cover detailed knowledge of AWS Shield and WAF and difference between AWS Shield and WAF on the basis of their features and benefits they provide.
Table of Contents
What is AWS Shield?
AWS Shield is a threat protection service offered by Amazon, that provides managed DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) protection to your web based applications at the network and transport layers (Layer 3 and 4). Shield Standard is provided default at no extra charge when you use AWS cloud services.
It prioritizes protecting AWS cloud based applications and resources from a wide range of DDoS attack vectors and zero-day attack vectors, preventing them from overwhelming the web applications. AWS shield secures web based applications’ performance and their online services from being disrupted.
DDoS Attack: A DDoS attack is an attack in which several malware infected systems attempt to flood a targeted system or server with huge malicious traffic. DDoS attacks are capable of preventing legitimate end users from using the target’s services and can lead to crashes due to disrupting legitimate traffic.
Key Features and Benefits of AWS Shield
AWS Shield facilitates a wide range of features to defend against DDoS attacks. But here we are going to cover some important features of them. The specific features may vary between AWS Shield Standard and AWS Shield Advanced.
Here are some of the key features of AWS Shield:
1. Features of AWS Shield Standard
Default Protection Enabled: AWS Shield Standard provides defaultly enabled protection for all AWS customers at no additional cost for resources placed in the AWS environment. It protects the AWS web applications against the most frequent DDoS attacks.
Layer 3 & 4 Security: AWS Shield provides security against network layer (Layer 3) and Transportation Layer (Layer 4) from various variants of DDOS Attacks such as Syn/Ack flood and UDP reflection attacks.
Non-stop Monitoring: AWS Shield Standard is capable of providing 24/7 monitoring to network traffic for any significant chances to be attacked and automatically mitigates those DDoS attacks.
2. Features of AWS Shield Advanced
AWS Shield Advanced offer all the features included in Shield Standard features and additional features are the following:
Improved DDoS Protection: Amazon Shield Advanced defends against more complicated types of DDoS attacks. It can protect against attacks on the application layer (Layer 7).
Prompt Attack Visibility: AWS Shield Advanced offers real-time and fast visibility into ongoing attacks, enabling users to monitor and understand the nature and scope of the attack as it happens.
Enhanced Threat Detection: Amazon Shield Advanced utlilizes advanced techniques and methodologies to detect and prevent DDoS attack patterns that are more sophisticated and complex.
DDoS Response Team (DRT): Customers who are using AWS Shield Advanced are able to access the AWS DDoS Response Team. DRT is a team of security experts that provides guidance and support during active DDoS attacks.
Global Network Protection: AWS Shield provides AWS’s vast global network infrastructure to protect your applications and resources, reducing the risk of DDoS attacks overwhelming your AWS systems.
What is AWS WAF?
AWS WAF is an Amazon Web Application Firewall Services that allows you to monitor your HTTP(S) requests forwarded to your web application resources. It helps protect your online applications from different web-based threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other application layer attacks.
AWS WAF allows you to control access to your content. Based on specific criteria such as the IP addresses, the service associated with your protected resource, with HTTP 403 status codes, or with a custom response.
Using AWS Firewall you can protect the following resource types:
- Amazon CloudFront distribution
- Amazon API Gateway REST API
- Amazon Cognito user pool
- AWS App Runner service
- Application Load Balancer
- AWS AppSync GraphQL API
- AWS Verified Access instance
Features and benefits of AWS WAF
Here are some of the key features offered by AWS WAF:
Filter Web Traffic
It helps create protocols and rules for filtering your web traffic using IPs, custom URLs, HTTP headers and body, etc.. It gives you an extra layer of protection from various attacks.
Bot control
AWS WAF bot control is the feature that gives you visibility and control over prevalent bot traffic that consumes excess resources, causes downtime, skew metrics, etc. Using AWS WAF blocking these types of bots, scrappers, crawlers, or scanners is easy with just a couple of clicks.
Full featured API
Using this feature users can easily manage AWS WAF via APIs, making it easy and straightforward for companies to create and maintain rules automatically and integrate them into the development stage.
AWS Firewall Manager
AWS WAF offers seamless integration with firewall manager to set up and manage it across several AWS accounts. This automatically audits and informs your team where there is a policy violation to take action.
Web Application Protection
AWS WAF is tailored to safeguard web applications and APIs from compromised traffic and attacks. It lets you filter and control the malicious traffic that can overwhelm your web applications.
Managed Rules
AWS WAF provides a group of managed rules to identify typical threats. You can use these managed rules to protect your web applications without requiring to create custom rules from scratch. Here you can also create custom rules to your application’s requirements. This adaptability enables you to create complex security policies.
Rate Restrictions
AWS WAF supports rate limitations to assist you in avoiding brute force attacks by restricting the number of requests from a single IP address over a given period.
Integration with Other AWS Services
AWS WAF offers seamless integration with other AWS services like Amazon CloudFront (Content Delivery Network), Application Load Balancers, and API Gateway to protect your network.
Logging and Monitoring
AWS WAF provides logging and monitoring options that help you to observe and analyze web traffic, spot anomalies, and respond to potential attacks.
AWS Marketplace
In addition to the built-in rules and capabilities, you can also explore and purchase additional security solutions and rule sets from the AWS Marketplace to enhance your protection.
Difference between WAF Shield and WAF
Here are some of the differences between AWS Shield and WAF, key differences include:
Objective: WAF Shield vs. WAF
AWS Shield is used to defend against various types of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks that overwhelm a web network or web based service with a flood of malware compromised traffic to disrupt its availability and basic functionalities.
On the other hand, AWS WAF is focused to provide protection to web applications from application-layer attacks, such as SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF).
Types of Attacks: WAF Shield vs. WAF
AWS Shield protects your web applications and resources from network layer and transport layer DDoS attacks, making it more network-centric.
AWS WAF is designed to safeguard your web application from vulnerabilities and attacks that target the application layer, making it more application-specific.
Control and Filtering: WAF Shield vs. WAF
AWS WAF allows you to create custom rules that control and filter incoming web traffic based on specific criteria like IP addresses, request headers, query parameters, and more.
Customization features: WAF Shield vs. WAF
AWS WAF offers a higher level of customization compared to AWS shield, allowing you to tailor your security rules to meet the specific requirements of your web based applications.
Integration: WAF Shield vs. WAF
AWS WAF provides better integration with other AWS services like Amazon CloudFront, AWS Application Load Balancers, and AWS API Gateway to protect web applications and content distribution.
Protection level: WAF Shield vs. WAF
AWS Shield Standard automatically includes AWS services and provides essential DDoS protection for resources deployed within the AWS infrastructure. AWS Shield Advanced, offers more advanced protection against extensive and complicated DDoS attacks and access to the AWS DDoS Response Team (DRT) for support during attacks.
How Supportfly Can Help You With AWS Management?
Our AWS Professional Services provide expert guidance and support to help you utilize the full potential of your AWS cloud environment. With our dedicated team of experts you can get numerous benefits and solutions of AWS professional services and boost your business growth. Here is how we can do this:
AWS Professional Services
We have a team of certified AWS experts that is dedicated to providing you with comprehensive AWS solutions, tailored to meet your specific requirements. From building strategies to implementing them, we are here to support you at every step of the process.
EC2 Maintenance Service
EC2 instances are the backbone of your AWS cloud infrastructure, powering your applications and workloads. To ensure their continuous optimal performance, you need reliable EC2 Maintenance Services.
24×7 EC2 Monitoring
Monitoring your EC2 instances is essential for detecting and resolving issues before they appear. Our 24×7 EC2 Monitoring service provides real-time insights into your instances’ health, performance, and resource utilization.
Server Configuration & Setup
Getting your server configuration and setup right is crucial for a successful AWS deployment. Our experts ensure that your AWS environment is optimized for performance, security, and scalability.
AWS Consulting
Our AWS Consulting and management services provide you with the expertise and insights needed to harness the full potential of AWS. Whether you need assistance with architecture design, application migration, or performance optimization.
Conclusion
Both AWS shield and WAF can be used to filter and manage inbound web traffic, while Shield ensures the availability and protection of the infrastructure from large-scale attacks. Together, these services offer a comprehensive solution to enhance the security of your AWS-cloud based applications and services, effectively mitigating various online attacks and vulnerabilities.
