Installing Wallarm OOB Dynamic Module for Distribution-Provided NGINX¶

These instructions describe the steps to install Wallarm as an OOB dynamic module using Linux packages for distribution-provided NGINX.

NGINX Open Source can be obtained from nginx.org or the default repositories of Debian/CentOS depending on your requirements, NGINX version preferences, and repository management policies. Wallarm provides packages for both nginx.org and distribution‑provided versions. This guide focuses on NGINX from Debian/CentOS repositories.

The Wallarm module is compatible with distribution-provided NGINX on the following operating systems:

• Debian 10.x (buster)

• Debian 11.x (bullseye)

• CentOS 7.x

• AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux or Oracle Linux 8.x

Use cases¶

Among all supported Wallarm deployment options, DEB/RPM packages for distribution-provided NGINX is recommended for Wallarm deployment in these use cases:

• Your infrastructure is based on bare metal or virtual machines without using container-based methods. Typically, these setups are managed with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Ansible or SaltStack.

• Your services are built around distribution-provided NGINX. Wallarm can extend its functionalities using these packages.

Requirements¶

• Access to the account with the Administrator role and two‑factor authentication disabled 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)

• 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 to https://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 the IP addresses of Google Cloud Storage listed within the link. When you allowlist, denylist, or graylist entire countries, regions, or data centers instead of individual IP addresses, the Wallarm node retrieves precise IP addresses related to the entries in the IP lists from the aggregated database hosted on Google Storage

• Installed text editor vim, nano, or any other. In the instruction, vim is used

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 https://repo.wallarm.com/debian/wallarm-node buster/4.6/' | 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 https://repo.wallarm.com/debian/wallarm-node bullseye/4.6/' | 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/7/4.6/x86_64/wallarm-node-repo-4.6-0.el7.noarch.rpm

sudo yum install -y epel-release
sudo rpm -i https://repo.wallarm.com/centos/wallarm-node/8/4.6/x86_64/wallarm-node-repo-4.6-0.el8.noarch.rpm

2. Install NGINX with Wallarm packages¶

The command installs the following packages:

• nginx for NGINX

• libnginx-mod-http-wallarm or nginx-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

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 filtering node interacts with the Wallarm Cloud. You need to connect the node to the Cloud.

When connecting node to the Cloud, you can set the node name, under which it will be displayed in the Wallarm Console UI and put the node into the appropriate node group (used to logically organize nodes in UI).

To connect the node to the Cloud, use a Wallarm token of the appropriate type:

• You may add -n <HOST_NAME> parameter to set a custom name for your node instance. Final instance name will be: HOST_NAME_NodeUUID.

5. Enable Wallarm to analyze the traffic¶

By default, the deployed Wallarm node does not analyze incoming traffic.

Perform the following configuration in the /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf file on the machine with the installed node to configure Wallarm to process the traffic mirror:

1. For the Wallarm node to accept mirrored traffic, set the following configuration in the server NGINX block:

   wallarm_force server_addr $http_x_server_addr;
   wallarm_force server_port $http_x_server_port;
   # Change 222.222.222.22 to the address of the mirroring server
   set_real_ip_from  222.222.222.22;
   real_ip_header    X-Forwarded-For;
   real_ip_recursive on;
   wallarm_force response_status 0;
   wallarm_force response_time 0;
   wallarm_force response_size 0;
   

   • The set_real_ip_from and real_ip_header directives are required to have Wallarm Console display the IP addresses of the attackers.
   • The wallarm_force_response_* directives are required to disable analysis of all requests except for copies received from the mirrored traffic.

2. For the Wallarm node to analyze the mirrored traffic, set the wallarm_mode directive to monitoring:

   server {
       listen 80;
       listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on;
       wallarm_mode monitoring;
   
       ...
   }
   

   Since malicious requests cannot be blocked, the only mode Wallarm accepts is monitoring. For in-line deployment, there are also safe blocking and blocking modes but even if you set the wallarm_mode directive to a value different from monitoring, the node continues to monitor traffic and only record malicious traffic (aside from the mode set to off).

6. Restart NGINX¶

usermod -aG wallarm <user_name>;

sudo systemctl restart nginx

sudo systemctl restart nginx

sudo systemctl restart nginx

7. Configure sending traffic to the Wallarm instance¶

Configure your environment to mirror incoming traffic to an instance with the Wallarm node you are deploying. For configuration details, we recommend to refer to documentation on the solution you are going to use to produce the traffic mirror (web server, proxy server, etc.).

Inside the link, you will find the example configuration for NGINX, Traefik, Envoy.

8. Test Wallarm node operation¶

1. Send the request with test Path Traversal attack to a protected resource address:

   curl http://localhost/etc/passwd
   

2. Open Wallarm Console → Events section in the US Cloud or EU Cloud and make sure the attack is displayed in the list.
   

9. Fine-tune the deployed solution¶

The dynamic Wallarm module with default settings is installed for NGINX stable. The filtering node may require some additional configuration after deployment.

Wallarm settings are defined using the NGINX directives or the Wallarm Console UI. Directives should be set in the following files on the machine with the Wallarm node:

• /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf with NGINX settings

• /etc/nginx/conf.d/wallarm.conf with global filtering node settings

  The 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 and test.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

Below there are a few of the typical settings that you can apply if needed:

• Allocating resources for Wallarm nodes

• Logging Wallarm node variables

• 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

• Configuring dynamic DNS resolution in NGINX