In this 4 day course, students are provided with a functional understanding of how to deploy, tune, and operate F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall to protect their web applications from HTTP-based attacks.

The course includes lecture, hands-on labs, and discussion about different F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall tools for detecting and mitigating threats from multiple attack vectors such web scraping, Layer 7 Denial of Service, brute force, bots, code injection, and zero day exploits.

Course Objectives

Describe the role of the BIG-IP system as a full proxy device in an application delivery network
Provision F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall resources
Define a web application firewall
Describe how F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall protects a web application by securing file types, URLs, and parameters
Deploy F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall using the Rapid Deployment template (and other templates) and define the security checks included in each
Define learn, alarm, and block settings as they pertain to configuring F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall
Define attack signatures and explain why attack signature staging is important
Contrast positive and negative security policy implementation and explain benefits of each
Configure security processing at the parameter level of a web application
Use an application template to protect a commercial web application
Deploy F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall using the Automatic Policy Builder
Tune a policy manually or allow automatic policy building
Integrate third party application vulnerability scanner output into a security policy
Configure login enforcement and session tracking
Configure protection against brute force, web scraping, and Layer 7 denial of service attacks
Implement iRules using specific F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall events and commands
Use Content Profiles to protect JSON and AJAX-based applications
Implement Bot Signatures
Implement Proactive Bot Defense

Describe the role of the BIG-IP system as a full proxy device in an application delivery network
Provision F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall resources
Define a web application firewall
Describe how F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall protects a web application by securing file types, URLs, and parameters
Deploy F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall using the Rapid Deployment template (and other templates) and define the security checks included in each
Define learn, alarm, and block settings as they pertain to configuring F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall
Define attack signatures and explain why attack signature staging is important
Contrast positive and negative security policy implementation and explain benefits of each
Configure security processing at the parameter level of a web application
Use an application template to protect a commercial web application
Deploy F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall using the Automatic Policy Builder
Tune a policy manually or allow automatic policy building
Integrate third party application vulnerability scanner output into a security policy
Configure login enforcement and session tracking
Configure protection against brute force, web scraping, and Layer 7 denial of service attacks
Implement iRules using specific F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall events and commands
Use Content Profiles to protect JSON and AJAX-based applications
Implement Bot Signatures
Implement Proactive Bot Defense

This course is intended for security and network administrators who will be responsible for the installation, deployment, tuning, and day-to-day maintenance of the F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall.

There are no F5-technology-specific prerequisites for this course. However, completing the following before attending would be very helpful for students with limited BIG-IP administration and configuration experience:

Administering BIG-IP instructor-led course
      -or-

F5 Certified BIG-IP Administrator
The following free web-based training courses, although optional, will be very helpful for any student with limited BIG-IP administration and configuration experience. These courses are available at F5 University:

Getting Started with BIG-IP web-based training
Getting Started with BIG-IP Application Security Manager (ASM) web-based training
The following general network technology knowledge and experience are recommended before attending any F5 Global Training Services instructor-led course:

OSI model encapsulation
Routing and switching
Ethernet and ARP
TCP/IP concepts
IP addressing and subnetting
NAT and private IP addressing
Default gateway
Network firewalls
LAN vs. WAN

Course Topics

Resource provisioning for F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall
Traffic processing with BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM)
Web application concepts
Web application vulnerabilities
Security policy deployment
Security policy tuning
Attack signatures
Positive security building
Securing cookies and other headers
Reporting and logging
Policy Diff, merging, and exporting
Advanced parameter handling
Using application templates
Using Automatic Policy Builder
Integrating with web vulnerability scanners
Login enforcement
Brute force mitigation
Session tracking
Web scraping detection and mitigation
Geolocation Enforcement and IP Address Exceptions
Using Parent and Child policies
Layer 7 DoS protection
F5 Advanced Web Application Firewall and iRules
Using Content Profiles for AJAX and JSON applications
Advanced Bot Detection and Defense
Proactive Bot Defense