Four Reasons You Need RASP Security For Web Applications

Brought To You By Rene Mulyandari 

Cybersecurity is more diverse than ever due to the varied nature of attacks enterprises face. Most companies spend significant resources safeguarding their applications but rarely understand the limitations of each solution. For instance, web application firewalls (WAF) are a great choice when protecting applications.

However, these solutions have significant limitations. Runtime Application Self Protection (RASP), is a great solution to these limitations.

Here's how RASP security can protect your applications at all times and help you create a great security posture.

Prevent Zero-Day Attacks

A zero-day flaw is a known flaw in code that does not have a patch as yet. Typically, these flaws come to light once the app is released. Companies face significant risks at this time since a malicious actor could discover the flaw at any moment and exploit it. Developing a patch becomes a race against time since the app is unprotected.

A WAF protects the app considerably, but it does not prevent a zero-day attack. This is because WAFs rely on signatures to identify and prevent attacks. They do not monitor in-app user behavior or identify anomalous patterns.

This is where RASP is so effective. While RASP can track signatures to identify attacks, it isn't solely dependent on them. RASP continuously monitors in-app behavior and quickly shuts down anomalous patterns, protecting the app from exploitation.

Additionally, RASP integrates deeply with the web application layer, giving security teams insights into a wide range of potential weaknesses. This quality is unique to RASP and makes it a great security solution for almost every web application out there.

The insights a team gains from such visibility reduce false positives, a bane of every security team. The result is better app visibility and faster response times in case an attack occurs. Dev teams can also test their patches thoroughly, instead of rushing to release code for fear of an exploit.

Maintain With Ease

RASP does not rely on exclusion lists or traffic rules. It does not rely on learning either. As a result, RASP is very easy to maintain, and SOC teams save on monitoring costs. RASP also has a few other positives going for it. 

For starters, a RASP solution offers an adaptable API. While based on HTML, RASP APIs can adapt to work with different standards and architectures. Its protection even extends to non-web applications like RPC and XML. 

Given the wide usage of the cloud in modern enterprises, any security solution must monitor cloud usage and integrate with it. RASP ticks these boxes and is deployed with the application it protects. Thus, deployment is simple and integrated, running in any location where the app is released.

Aside from the cloud, a staple of modern dev environments is the DevOps pipeline. Rapid release times put a massive strain on security. RASP works with these environments seamlessly, integrating into CI/CD pipelines. The result is faster DevSecOps implementation and agile security support.

Given these qualities, RASP poses few hindrances to CISOs and integrates itself seamlessly with a company's existing security posture. Most importantly, RASP's ability to integrate and reduce false positives reduces costs and boosts net margins.

Gain More Context Into Attacks

RASP solutions offer deep insights into attacks and aid analysis during postmortems. For instance, RASP identifies potential threats and data regarding the app's state, code affected, and potential outcomes. These datasets are invaluable when analyzing threats and developing patches.

RASP's ability to offer context makes it an invaluable part of any SOC operation. Traditional cybersecurity investigations suffer due to a lack of insight into application states. RASP breaches this gap seamlessly.

One of the reasons RASP offers deep context is because of the range of attacks it protects against. Here are some of the attacks RASP protects apps against:

• Clickjacking
• HTTP Response Splitting
• HTTP Method Tampering
• Large Requests
• Malformed Content Types
• Path Traversal
• Unvalidated Redirects
• Software Supply Chain Attacks   

In addition, RASP also protects apps against several types of code injections, where attackers insert malicious code into user input fields. Given these varied protections, RASP naturally monitors numerous application behaviors, giving SOC teams the context they need at all times.

Support Pentesting And Other Validation Methods

Security validation is a critical task in every modern enterprise. Penetration or pentests are a critical part of every cybersecurity program. Most pentests focus on a single or few applications and stress test them for security.

Post-test analysis is the most critical portion of a pentest, and RASP offers several benefits that aid this effort. For starters, RASP offers teams a great degree of context into app behavior and run states, giving security teams a well-rounded picture when diving into root causes.

RASP also assists teams when they reprogram and test different app sections individually. Thanks to this flexibility, pentesting teams find RASP an invaluable aid in designing robust security protocols.

A Must-Have For Modern Enterprise Cybersecurity

RASP  has become a staple of every modern enterprise's application security architecture. Given its adaptability and ability to offer deep application runtime insights, SOC teams stand to benefit immensely by adopting it.

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