Installing dynamic Wallarm module for NGINX from Debian/CentOS repositories¶
These instructions describe the steps to install Wallarm filtering node as a dynamic module for the open source version of NGINX installed from the Debian/CentOS repositories.
Requirements¶
-
Access to the account with the Administrator role in Wallarm Console for the US Cloud or EU Cloud
-
SELinux disabled or configured upon the instructions
-
Executing all commands as a superuser (e.g.
root
) -
For the request processing and postanalytics on different servers: postanalytics installed on the separate server upon the instructions
-
Access to
https://repo.wallarm.com
to download packages. Ensure the access is not blocked by a firewall -
Access to
https://us1.api.wallarm.com
for working with US Wallarm Cloud or tohttps://api.wallarm.com
for working with EU Wallarm Cloud. If access can be configured only via the proxy server, then use the instructions -
Access to GCP storage addresses to download an actual list of IP addresses registered in allowlisted, denylisted, or graylisted countries, regions or data centers
-
Installed text editor vim, nano, or any other. In the instruction, vim is used
Installation options¶
The processing of requests in the Wallarm node is divided into two stages:
-
Primary processing in the NGINX-Wallarm module. The processing is not memory demanding and can be put on frontend servers without changing the server requirements.
-
Statistical analysis of the processed requests in the postanalytics module. Postanalytics is memory demanding, which may require changes in the server configuration or installation of postanalytics on a separate server.
Depending on the system architecture, the NGINX-Wallarm and postanalytics modules can be installed on the same server or on different servers.
Installation commands for both options are described in the further instructions.
Installation¶
1. Add Debian/CentOS repositories¶
sudo apt -y install dirmngr
curl -fsSL https://repo.wallarm.com/wallarm.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sh -c "echo 'deb http://repo.wallarm.com/debian/wallarm-node buster/4.4/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wallarm.list"
sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install dirmngr
curl -fSsL https://repo.wallarm.com/wallarm.gpg | sudo gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring gnupg-ring:/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/wallarm.gpg --import
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/wallarm.gpg
sh -c "echo 'deb http://repo.wallarm.com/debian/wallarm-node bullseye/4.4/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wallarm.list"
sudo apt update
sudo yum install -y epel-release
sudo rpm -i https://repo.wallarm.com/centos/wallarm-node/7/4.4/x86_64/wallarm-node-repo-4.4-0.el7.noarch.rpm
sudo yum install -y epel-release
sudo rpm -i https://repo.wallarm.com/centos/wallarm-node/8/4.4/x86_64/wallarm-node-repo-4.4-0.el8.noarch.rpm
2. Install NGINX with Wallarm packages¶
Request processing and postanalytics on the same server¶
The command installs the following packages:
-
nginx
for NGINX -
libnginx-mod-http-wallarm
ornginx-mod-http-wallarm
for the NGINX-Wallarm module -
wallarm-node
for the postanalytics module, Tarantool database, and additional NGINX-Wallarm packages
sudo apt -y install --no-install-recommends nginx wallarm-node libnginx-mod-http-wallarm
sudo apt -y install --no-install-recommends nginx wallarm-node libnginx-mod-http-wallarm
sudo yum install -y nginx wallarm-node nginx-mod-http-wallarm
sudo yum install -y nginx wallarm-node nginx-mod-http-wallarm
Request processing and postanalytics on different servers¶
To run postanalytics and process the requests on different servers, the following packages are required:
-
wallarm-node-tarantool
on the separate server for the postanalytics module and Tarantool database (installation steps are described in the instructions) -
wallarm-node-nginx
andlibnginx-mod-http-wallarm
/nginx-mod-http-wallarm
for the NGINX-Wallarm module
The commands install packages for NGINX and for the NGINX-Wallarm module:
sudo apt -y install --no-install-recommends nginx wallarm-node-nginx libnginx-mod-http-wallarm
sudo apt -y install --no-install-recommends nginx wallarm-node-nginx libnginx-mod-http-wallarm
sudo yum install -y nginx wallarm-node-nginx nginx-mod-http-wallarm
sudo yum install -y nginx wallarm-node-nginx nginx-mod-http-wallarm
3. Connect the Wallarm module¶
Copy the configuration files for the system setup:
sudo cp /usr/share/doc/libnginx-mod-http-wallarm/examples/*conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/
sudo cp /usr/share/doc/nginx-mod-http-wallarm/examples/*conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/
sudo cp /usr/share/doc/nginx-mod-http-wallarm/examples/*conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/
4. Connect the filtering node to Wallarm Cloud¶
The Wallarm node interacts with the Wallarm Cloud. To connect the filtering node to the Cloud:
-
If the postanalytics module installed separately:
- Copy the node token generated during the separate postanalytics module installation.
- Proceed to the 5th step in the list below. It is recommended to use one token for the node processing initial traffic and for the node performing postanalysis.
-
Make sure that your Wallarm account has the Administrator role enabled in Wallarm Console.
You can check mentioned settings by navigating to the users list in the US Cloud or EU Cloud.
-
Open Wallarm Console → Nodes in the US Cloud or EU Cloud and create the node of the Wallarm node type.
-
Copy the generated token.
-
Run the
register-node
script in a system with the filtering node:sudo /usr/share/wallarm-common/register-node -t <NODE_TOKEN> -H us1.api.wallarm.com
sudo /usr/share/wallarm-common/register-node -t <NODE_TOKEN>
<NODE_TOKEN>
is the copied token value.- You may add
-n <HOST_NAME>
parameter to set a custom name for your node instance. Final instance name will be:HOST_NAME_NodeUUID
.
Using one token for several installations
You can connect several Wallarm nodes to the Cloud using one token regardless of the selected deployment option. This option allows logical grouping of node instances in the Wallarm Console UI:
Below are some examples when you can choose to use one token for several installations:
- You deploy several Wallarm nodes to a development environment, each node is on its own machine owned by a certain developer
- The nodes for initial traffic processing and postanalytics modules are installed on separate servers - it is recommended to connect these modules to the Wallarm Cloud using the same node token
5. Update Wallarm node configuration¶
Main configuration files of NGINX and Wallarm filtering node are located in the directories:
-
/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
with NGINX settings -
/etc/nginx/conf.d/wallarm.conf
with global filtering node settingsThe file is used for settings applied to all domains. To apply different settings to different domain groups, use the file
default.conf
or create new configuration files for each domain group (for example,example.com.conf
andtest.com.conf
). More detailed information about NGINX configuration files is available in the official NGINX documentation. -
/etc/nginx/conf.d/wallarm-status.conf
with Wallarm node monitoring settings. Detailed description is available within the link -
/etc/default/wallarm-tarantool
or/etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool
with the Tarantool database settings
Request filtration mode¶
By default, the filtering node is in the status off
and does not analyze incoming requests. To enable requests analysis, please follow the steps:
-
Open the file
/etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
:sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
-
Add the line
wallarm_mode monitoring;
to thehttps
,server
orlocation
block:
Example of the file /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
server {
# port for which requests are filtered
listen 80;
# domain for which requests are filtered
server_name localhost;
# Filtering node mode
wallarm_mode monitoring;
location / {
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
index index.html index.htm;
}
error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
location = /50x.html {
root /usr/share/nginx/html;
}
}
When operating in the monitoring
mode, the filtering node searches attack signs in requests but does not block detected attacks. We recommend keeping the traffic flowing via the filtering node in the monitoring
mode for several days after the filtering node deployment and only then enable the block
mode. Learn recommendations on the filtering node operation mode setup →
Memory¶
Postanalytics module on the separate server
If you installed the postanalytics module on a separate server, then skip this step as you already have the module configured.
The Wallarm node uses the in-memory storage Tarantool. The recommended memory size for Tarantool is 75% of the total server memory. To allocate memory for Tarantool:
-
Open the Tarantool configuration file in the editing mode:
sudo vim /etc/default/wallarm-tarantool
sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool
sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool
-
Specify memory size in GB in the
SLAB_ALLOC_ARENA
directive. The value can be an integer or a float (a dot.
is a decimal separator).For production environments, the recommended amount of RAM allocated for the postanalytics module is 75% of the total server memory. If testing the Wallarm node or having a small instance size, the lower amount can be enough (e.g. 25% of the total memory).
For example:
SLAB_ALLOC_ARENA=0.5
SLAB_ALLOC_ARENA=24
Detailed recommendations about allocating memory for Tarantool are described in these instructions.
-
To apply changes, restart Tarantool:
sudo systemctl restart wallarm-tarantool
Address of the separate postanalytics server¶
NGINX-Wallarm and postanalytics on the same server
If the NGINX-Wallarm and postanalytics modules are installed on the same server, then skip this step.
Add postanalytics server addresses to the file /etc/nginx/conf.d/wallarm.conf
:
upstream wallarm_tarantool {
server <ip1>:3313 max_fails=0 fail_timeout=0 max_conns=1;
server <ip2>:3313 max_fails=0 fail_timeout=0 max_conns=1;
keepalive 2;
}
# omitted
wallarm_tarantool_upstream wallarm_tarantool;
-
max_conns
value must be specified for each of the upstream Tarantool servers to prevent the creation of excessive connections. -
keepalive
value must not be lower than the number of the Tarantool servers. -
The
# wallarm_tarantool_upstream wallarm_tarantool;
string is commented by default - please delete#
.
Other configurations¶
To update other NGINX and Wallarm node configurations, use the NGINX documentation and the list of available Wallarm node directives.
6. Restart NGINX¶
Providing user with root
permission
If you are running NGINX as a user that does not have root
permission, then add this user to the wallarm
group using the following command:
usermod -aG wallarm <user_name>;
where <user_name>
is the name of the user without root
permission.
sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl restart nginx
7. Test Wallarm node operation¶
-
Send the request with test Path Traversal attack to a protected resource address:
curl http://localhost/etc/passwd
-
Open Wallarm Console → Events section in the US Cloud or EU Cloud and make sure the attack is displayed in the list.
Settings customization¶
The dynamic Wallarm module with default settings is installed for NGINX from the Debian/CentOS repositories. To customize Wallarm node settings, use the available directives.
Common customization options:
-
Using the balancer of the proxy server behind the filtering node
-
Limiting the single request processing time in the directive
wallarm_process_time_limit
-
Limiting the server reply waiting time in the NGINX directive
proxy_read_timeout
-
Limiting the maximum request size in the NGINX directive
client_max_body_size