Introduction to Imperva RASP
Jazmine Reynolds
Lead Instructional Designer
Hello and welcome to this introduction to RASP from the Imperva Training team!
This blog introduces you to our RASP On Demand training course. It will take a high- level look at all of the “Whats” surrounding RASP - What is it? What does it do? And What does it protect against?
So, what exactly is this rasp thing? Gartner invented the acronym RASP several years ago - it stands for Runtime application self-protection. The core premise is that software is flaky, with security flaws that malicious actors can exploit to their advantage and our loss. They can essentially manipulate our program into performing things we don't want it to do.
When it comes to protecting data, the most common solution is to use encryption to secure the file and when it comes to flaky software, the traditional process to resolve it, is to return to the software development team and have them “fix the code”. That is a laborious process that requires a significant amount of time, effort, and money.
There's another option: Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP).
Alternative security controls include the deployment of technologies such as web application firewalls, which can detect exploit payloads as they attempt to enter applications and neutralize them before they reach the application.
Sometimes web application firewalls aren't appropriate for a specific type of application, due to pace of development, where the application is deployed, or availability of resources required to maintain the WAF and its controls. In these cases, RASP technology is a good option, because it's really a piece of software that is used by those development teams to implement the security controls in the application’s code.
What is Runtime Application Self-Protection (RASP)?
RASP is a solution that protects applications from attacks by using the operating system's own mechanisms to detect and prevent malicious code from running on your system. This can be done through two main mechanisms:
- Dynamic Code Analysis (DCA) - The DCA component will analyze a suspected attack and check if it is valid or not. If it is not valid, then you'll be alerted about this fact immediately via an alert message.
- Runtime Application Protection (RAP) - The RAP component monitors all activity performed by an application at runtime, including opening ports and listening sockets; if there are any suspicious activities detected during the monitoring phase then they will be blocked before the execution takes place within memory space of the vulnerable process itself; this helps prevent attackers from gaining access into sensitive data stored within running programs such as database engines.
With RASP, the software development team can add a baseline of security to their code without knowing what will happen in production, whether the program is placed in their own on-premises data center or someone else's cloud, such as Amazon, Azure, or whatever. As a result, they may check the box that they have more secure code sooner without putting the business at risk or jumping through a slew of additional hoops. Again, the RASP solution is a software plugin that is included in the application’s software package that the development team delivers to a production environment.
How does RASP address security and compliance?
RASP is a new approach to security. It uses a single, unified platform that provides the ability to detect and prevent cyber attacks across the entire ecosystem of your business: from servers to desktops, mobile devices, and cloud services.
RASP allows you to identify vulnerabilities in your network before they become issues. It helps you identify risks so you can avoid them or take action when they do occur. It enables organizations with complex infrastructure scenarios (such as cloud environments) by providing them with visibility into their entire environment at high scale.
Imperva RASP - how it is different from others
Imperva RASP is unique in many ways. First, it is the only RASP solution that is based on a unique technology called LANG-SEC. This technology has been developed by Imperva's security experts and allows for advanced detection of malicious content in real-time. This will be discussed further below.
Second, Imperva RASP has an entire team of security experts dedicated to RASP unlike any other solution out there today.
Third, Imperva RASP offers unparalleled support options including 24/7 live chat support along with email and ticketing systems designed specifically for this purpose so you can get answers quickly when needed without having to wait days or weeks before getting back in touch with someone who may not be familiar with your issue.
Imperva RASP solution - LANG-SEC
The Imperva RASP solution effectively employs a technology known as LANG-SEC sec. language theoretic security. This is unique to our market. The main principle behind LANG-SEC is that data that enters and exits the program should be viewed as code, and so it mustbe well formed and have the appropriate syntax and grammar for the specific context. If it doesn't, for example, if it contains SQL injection, exploits payloads, or cross-site scripting exploit payloads that would lead that data to do unexpected, harmful things,, LANG-SEC says, - this is not allowed.
So, it's a one-of-a-kind technique for evaluating whether or not anything is an attack payload. What makes it truly unique is that it does not require signatures. As a result, no signature updates are available. There is no learning mode; everything is either going to produce a problem or not. THis unique aspect provides a lot of benefits to our end users in terms of ease of maintenance and low cost of ownership because they don't have to maintain an infrastructure to support frequent plugin upgrades. That is avery distinctive from any other RASP solution.
Finally, a key feature of the LANG-SEC is that it can run in parallel with other firewalls or stateful packet inspection (SPI) appliances without impacting performance or adding unnecessary complexity. In addition, you can use multiple instances of this solution to create redundant connections between your various firewalls and/or SPI devices—providing additional security against attacks while still allowing traffic to pass through freely when needed
Conclusion
The Imperva RASP solution provides a powerful, scalable, and high-performance way to protect your applications. Imperva RASP is a cost-effective solution that allows you to protect your applications from a wide range of threats. It’s easy to deploy and use, making it an ideal choice for any organization.
This article is a teaser for the RASP On-Demand training course on Imperva University. To learn more about the course and how you start your journey to becoming a RASP expert, check out page 7 in the course catalogue.
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Imperva RASP Demo | RASP vs Backdoor | Bytesize
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