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Configuration options for the Envoy‑based Wallarm node

Envoy uses pluggable filters defined in the Envoy configuration file to process incoming requests. These filters describe the actions to be performed on the request. For example, an envoy.http_connection_manager filter is used to proxy HTTP requests. This filter has its own set of HTTP filters that can be applied to the request.

The Wallarm module is designed as an Envoy HTTP filter. The module's general settings are placed in a section dedicated to the wallarm HTTP filter:

listeners:
   - address:
     filter_chains:
     - filters:
       - name: envoy.http_connection_manager
         typed_config:
           http_filters:
           - name: wallarm
             typed_config:
              "@type": type.googleapis.com/wallarm.Wallarm
              <the Wallarm module configuration>
              ...  

Enable request body processing

In order to enable the Wallarm module to process an HTTP request body, the buffer filter must be placed before the filtering node in the Envoy HTTP filter chain. For example:

http_filters:
- name: envoy.buffer
  typed_config:
    "@type": type.googleapis.com/envoy.config.filter.http.buffer.v2.Buffer
    max_request_bytes: <maximum request size (in bytes)>
- name: wallarm
  typed_config:
    "@type": type.googleapis.com/wallarm.Wallarm
    <the Wallarm module configuration>
    ...

If the incoming request size exceeds the value of the max_request_bytes parameter, then this request will be dropped and Envoy will return the 413 response code (“Payload Too Large”).

Request filtering settings

The tsets section of the file contains the parameters related to request filtering settings:

tsets:
- name: ts0
  pdb: /etc/wallarm/proton.db
  custom_ruleset: /etc/wallarm/custom_ruleset
  key: /etc/wallarm/license.key
  ts_request_memory_limit: 0
  enable_libdetection: "on"
  ...
- name: tsN:
  ...

The ts0 ... tsN entries are one or more parameter groups. The groups can have any name (so that they can be referred to later via the ts parameter in the conf section). At least one group should be present in the filtering node configuration (e.g., with the name ts0).

This section has no default values. You need to explicitly specify values in the config file.

Definition level

This section can be defined on the filtering node level only.

Parameter Description Default value
pdb Path to the proton.db file. This file contains the global settings for request filtering, which do not depend on the application structure. /etc/wallarm/proton.db
custom_ruleset Path to the custom ruleset file that contains information about the protected application and the filtering node settings.

Previous name of the parameter

In Wallarm node 3.4 and lower, this parameter is named lom. If you use this name, we recommend to change it when upgrading the node modules. The lom parameter will be deprecated soon. The parameter logic has not changed.

/etc/wallarm/custom_ruleset

(in Wallarm node 3.4 and lower, /etc/wallarm/lom)
key Path to the file with the Wallarm license key. /etc/wallarm/license.key
ts_request_memory_limit Limit for the maximum amount of memory that can be used by one instance of proton.db and custom ruleset. If the memory limit is exceeded while processing some request, the user will get the 500 error. The following suffixes can be used in this parameter:
  • k or K for kilobytes
  • m or M for megabytes
  • g or G for gigabyte
Value of 0 turns the limit off.
0
enable_libdetection Whether to enable additional validation of the SQL Injection attacks with the libdetection library. If the library does not confirm the malicious payload, the request is considered to be legitimate. Using the libdetection library allows reducing the number of false positives among the SQL Injection attacks.

By default, the library libdetection is disabled. To improve the attack detection, we recommend enabling the library by specifying on in the parameter value.

Please note, for libdetection to operate correctly, buffering of a client request body should be enabled by adding the filter envoy.buffer to the Envoy configuration.

When analyzing attacks using the libdetection library, the amount of memory consumed by NGINX and Wallarm processes may increase by about 10%.
off

Postanalytics module settings

The tarantool section of the filtering node contains the parameters related to the postanalytics module:

tarantool:
  server:
  - uri: localhost:3313
    max_packets: 512
    max_packets_mem: 0
    reconnect_interval: 1

The server entry is a parameter group that describes the settings for the Tarantool server.

Definition level

This section can be defined on the filtering node level only.

Parameter Description Default value
uri String with the credentials used to connect to the Tarantool server. The string format is IP address or domain name:port. localhost:3313
max_packets Limit of the number of serialized requests to be sent to Tarantool. To remove the limit, set 0 as the parameter value. 512
max_packets_mem Limit of the total volume (in bytes) of serialized requests to be sent to Tarantool. 0 (the volume is not limited)
reconnect_interval Interval (in seconds) between attempts to reconnect to the Tarantool. A value of 0 means that the filtering node will try to reconnect to the server as quickly as possible if the server renders unavailable (not recommended). 1

Basic settings

The conf section of the Wallarm configuration contains the parameters that influence filtering node's basic operations:

conf:
  ts: ts0
  mode: "monitoring"
  mode_allow_override: "off"
  application: 42
  process_time_limit: 1000
  process_time_limit_block: "attack"
  request_memory_limit: 104857600
  wallarm_status: "off"
  wallarm_status_format: "json"
  parse_response: true
  unpack_response: true
  parse_html_response: true

Definition level

For more flexible protection level, this section can be overridden on the route or virtual host level:

  • On the route level:

    routes:
    - match:
      typed_per_filter_config:
        wallarm:
          "@type": type.googleapis.com/wallarm.WallarmConf
          <the section parameters>
    
  • On the virtual host level:

    virtual_hosts:
    - name: <the name of the virtual host>
      typed_per_filter_config:
        wallarm:
          "@type": type.googleapis.com/wallarm.WallarmConf
          <the section parameters>
    

    The parameters in the conf section overridden on the route level have priority over the parameters in the section defined on the virtual host level which in turn have higher priority than the parameters listed in the section on the filtering node level.

Parameter Description Default value
ts One of the parameter groups that is defined in the tsets section. This parameter group sets the request filtering rules to be used.
If this parameter is omitted from the conf section of the filtering node, then it should be present in the conf section overridden on the route or virtual host level.
-
mode Node mode:
  • block - to block malicious requests.
  • monitoring - to analyze but not block requests.
  • safe_blocking - to block only those malicious requests originated from graylisted IP addresses.
  • monitoring - to analyze but not block requests.
  • off - to disable traffic analyzing and processing.

Detailed description of filtration modes →
block
mode_allow_override Allows overriding the filtering node mode that is set via the mode parameter with the custom ruleset:
  • off - custom ruleset is ignored.
  • strict - custom ruleset can only strengthen the operation mode.
  • on - it is possible to both strengthen and soften the operation mode.
For example, if the mode parameter is set to the monitoring value and the mode_allow_override parameter is set to the strict value, then it will be possible to block some requests (block) but not to fully disable the filtering node (off).
off
application Unique identifier of the protected application to be used in the Wallarm Cloud. The value can be a positive integer except for 0.

More details on setting up applications →

Previous name of the parameter

In Wallarm node 3.4 and lower, this parameter is named instance. If you use this name, we recommend to change it when upgrading the node modules. The instance parameter will be deprecated soon. The parameter logic has not changed.

-1
process_time_limit

The parameter has been deprecated

Starting from the version 3.6, it is recommended to fine-tune the overlimit_res attack detection using the rule Fine-tune the overlimit_res attack detection.
The process_time_limit parameter is temporarily supported but will be removed in future releases.

Limit on the processing time of a single request (in milliseconds). If the request cannot be processed in the defined amount of time, then an error message is recorded to the log file and the request is marked as an overlimit_res attack.
1000
process_time_limit_block

The parameter has been deprecated

Starting from the version 3.6, it is recommended to fine-tune the overlimit_res attack detection using the rule Fine-tune the overlimit_res attack detection.
The process_time_limit_block parameter is temporarily supported but will be removed in future releases.

Action to take when the request processing time exceeds the limit set via the process_time_limit parameter:
  • off - the requests are always ignored.
  • on - the requests are always blocked unless mode: "off".
  • attack - depends on the attack blocking mode set via the mode parameter:
    • off - the requests are not processed.
    • monitoring - the requests are ignored.
    • block - the requests are blocked.
attack
wallarm_status Whether to enable the filtering node statistics service. false
wallarm_status_format Format of the filtering node statistics: json or prometheus. json
disable_acl Allows disabling analysis of requests origins. If disabled (on), the filtering node does not download IP lists from the Wallarm Cloud and skips request source IPs analysis. off
parse_response Whether to analyze the application responses. Response analysis is required for vulnerability detection during passive detection and active threat verification.

Possible values are true (response analysis is enabled) and false (response analysis is disabled).
true
unpack_response Whether to decompress compressed data returned in the application response. Possible values are true (decompression is enabled) and false (decompression is disabled).

This parameter is effective only if parse_response true.
true
parse_html_response Whether to apply the HTML parsers to HTML code received in the application response. Possible values are true (HTML parser is applied) and false (HTML parser is not applied).

This parameter is effective only if parse_response true.
true