Configuring Zuplo with AWS WAF + Shield

AWS WAF + Shield run at AWS Cloudfront edge locations. Zuplo can be configured to run as a custom backend behind Cloudfront.

Securing Zuplo from Direct Access#

With any WAF product, you will want to ensure that network traffic cannot bypass your WAF and hit your API Gateway directly. AWS WAF + Shield offer several ways to ensure that your API Gateway is only accessible through the WAF.

The information below is a summary of Amazon's own recommendations for securing your backend - regardless of whether you are using Zuplo, another API Gateway, or AWS origins. You can also reference the AWS documentation directly.

IP Address Restrictions#

Amazon maintains a list of Cloudfront IP addresses (separate from other AWS uses) that you can use to restrict access to your API Gateway. This is a good way to ensure that only Cloudfront can access your API Gateway. However, as Cloudfront is available to any AWS customer, this method is not sufficient to protect unauthorized traffic from hitting your API Gateway.

In Zuplo, you can utilize the IP Address Restriction policy to limit traffic to only the Cloudfront IP addresses. You don't need to provide the address list manually, instead you can utilize the built-in list as shown below.

{
  "name": "allow-cloudfront-only",
  "policyType": "ip-address-restriction-inbound",
  "handler": {
    "export": "IPAddressRestrictionInbound",
    "module": "$import(@zuplo/runtime)",
    "options": {
      "allowedIpAddresses": ["list:aws-cloudfront"]
    }
  }
}

With this policy in place, only Cloudfront traffic will be allowed to hit your Zuplo API Gateway.

Custom Headers#

Another way to ensure that traffic is coming from Cloudfront is to use custom headers. Custom headers can be added to your Cloudfront distribution and then checked by your API Gateway. This provides an additional layer of security on top of IP address restrictions and prevents any unauthorized traffic from hitting your API Gateway - regardless of the source.

In Zuplo, you can utilize the Header Restriction policy to limit traffic to only those requests that include the custom header and secret value.

{
  "name": "allow-cloudfront-custom-header",
  "policyType": "require-header-inbound",
  "handler": {
    "export": "RequireHeaderInboundPolicyOptions",
    "module": "$import(@zuplo/runtime)",
    "options": {
      "headerName": "secure-header",
      "allowedValues": ["$env(MY_SECRET_HEADER_VALUE)"]
    }
  }
}

With this policy in place, only requests that include the custom header with the secret value will be allowed to hit your Zuplo API Gateway.

Identity Based Options#

Unfortunately, AWS WAF + Shield do not offer identity-based options like IAM or network based options for securing your API Gateway. This is true for both AWS and non-AWS API Gateway products. If you require these options, you will need to use a different WAF product in front of your Zuplo API Gateway.