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Barracuda Web Application Firewall

Parameter Optimizers

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Web applications contain a large number of URLs that can include multiple parameters in which parts of parameters are static/same. When Learning is enabled for a web application on the Barracuda Web Application Firewall, URL profiles and parameter profiles are created based on the traffic processed by the Barracuda Web Application Firewall according to a set of matching criteria specified on the WEBSITES > Adaptive Profiling page, in the Adaptive Profiling section. In this scenario, the Barracuda Web Application Firewall creates a parameter profile for each parameter on every occurrence, which may result in populating a large number of profiles with the same parameters.  

For example: Consider Learning was enabled for a particular service, and the Learning Utility creates the following parameters:
param1
param2
...
...
...
param100

Managing a huge number of profiles having the same security requirement can become overly complex to handle. You can handle such issues by properly identifying the pattern within the parameters and coalescing multiple parameter profiles into one. The parameter profiles mentioned in the example above can be coalesced as:

  • Start Token: param

Where:

  • Start Token is configured with the parameter substring that remains constant from the start of the parameter. Anything after the configured Start Token value is considered as a variable.

This will coalesce all parameter profiles into one, i.e., param*.

Using Parameter Optimizers

You can configure parameter optimizers in any of the following two ways:

  1. If you have prior knowledge of the parameter structure, configure parameter optimizers before enabling Learning for the web application.
  2. Enable Learning for the web application and allow the Barracuda Web Application Firewall to create profiles for the web application. This may result in creating multiple URL/parameter profiles with identifiable patterns. Note the created patterns, configure parameter optimizers, and click Merge to coalesce multiple parameter profiles into one.

Steps to Add a Parameter Optimizer

  1. Go to the WEBSITES > Adaptive Profiling page.
  2. In the Parameter Optimizers section, click Add next to the service for which you want to add URL optimizer. The Create Parameter Profile Optimizer page appears.
  3. In the Create Parameter Profile Optimizer page, specify values for Optimizer Name, and Start Token:
  4. Click Save.