1) ASM can enforce WebSocket protocol compliance through checks like validating the handshake process and framing. 2) It can also enforce the payload of WebSocket messages by checking for attack signatures in plain text, validating the structure of JSON payloads, and enforcing length limits on binary payloads. 3) The document outlines various violations that ASM can detect like problems with the handshake, framing, payload type mismatches, and illegal characters. It also discusses related settings like WebSocket URL learning and request logging.

1. BIG-IP v12.1 Application Security Manager
WebSocket
Created by ,
NPIE ASM
lior@f5.com
V1.0 March, 2016
@rotkovitch

2. © F5 Networks, Inc 2
• Intro to WebSocket
• ASM and WebSocket
• WebSocket violations
• WebSocket URL setting
• WebSocket in the request log
• WebSocket Learning and policy building
• Demo flow
Index

3. © F5 Networks, Inc 3
Intro to WebSocket
http://demo.kaazing.com/forex/
http://www.websocket.org/echo.html

4. © F5 Networks, Inc 4
• WebSocket provide simple framing layer on top of HTTP
• Key Benefits :
• Two-way communication
• Connections that are persistent
• Full-duplex.
• Low HTTP and TCP overhead
• WebSocket protocol is RFC 6455
WebSocket intro

5. © F5 Networks, Inc 5
WebSocket intro – Handshake and frames exchange
CLIENT SERVER
GET /chat HTTP/1.1
Host: server.example.com
Upgrade: Websocket
Connection: Upgrade
Sec-WebSocket-Key: dGhlIHNhbXBsZSBub25jZQ==
Origin: http://example.com
Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: chat, superchat
Sec-WebSocket-Version: 13
HTTP/1.1 101 Switching Protocols
Upgrade: Websocket
Connection: Upgrade
Sec-WebSocket-Accept: s3pPLMBiTxaQ9kYGzzhZRbK+xOo=
Sec-WebSocket-Protocol: chat
Websocket frame
Websocket frame
Websocket frame
Websocket close frame
Websocket close frame

6. © F5 Networks, Inc 6
WebSocket Demo
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2
WS filter
http://www.websocket.org/echo.html

7. © F5 Networks, Inc 7
ASM is WebSocket aware
1. Can enforce the WebSocket handshake – RFC checks
2. Can enforce the payload of type :
• Plain text – signatures
• JSON – structure & signatures
• Binary - enforce length of frame size
And:
• Enforce fragmentation
• Allows WS and WSS
Note: must have WebSocket Profile on the Virtual IP
ASM & WebSocket

8. © F5 Networks, Inc 8
Enforcement Threat Prevented Mitigation
1 Handshake protocol correctness Server stack abuse. Enforce the mandatory headers and their well-formedness in request.
2 Cross-origin access Session riding/ CSRF Deny access to all requests coming from origins not in the
configured whitelist.
3 HTTP upgrade flood prevention Exhausting server socket
resources
Limit the RPS per WS/WSS URLs. We will use the same
limits as for all URLs in a VS, HTTP and WS alike.
4 Login enforcement Information leakage Enforce login session also for WS/WSS URLs.
Requires adding protocol (HTTP/S, WS/S) to the protected URLs
5 Attack signature detection XSS, SQL injection, command shell
injection and all other threats
signatures prevent
Look for parameter content attack signatures in each textual WS
message. If found, close the WebSocket with a Close message.
Request log will show the sent message
6 Illegal encoding and meta
characters
Exploit server stack Perform the following checks per textual message: Check UTF-8
encoding (mandated by RFC, no other encoding is allowed). Check for
illegal meta-characters. Check for null character
7 Enforce message masking Cache poisoning Enforce message masking for client textual messages in order to
avoid cache poisoning.
8 Limit message and frame size and
correctness of framing
Buffer overflow Limit message size, frame size and enforce correctness of framing
9 Enforce message structure in JSON
format
Exploit server stack
Buffer overflow
Apply JSON content profile per WS message with all possible
defenses including signatures and metacharacters.
10 Slow send/receive Exhaust server socket resources Limit the time for sending a message and time between messages.

9. © F5 Networks, Inc 9
WebSocket violations – Protocol compliance

10. © F5 Networks, Inc 10
WebSocket violations – Protocol compliance
Security ›› Application Security ›› Policy Building ›› Learning and Blocking Settings

11. © F5 Networks, Inc 11
WebSocket violations – Protocol compliance
• Bad WebSocket handshake request
• Failure in WebSocket framing protocol
• Mask not found in client frame
• Null character found in WebSocket text massage

12. © F5 Networks, Inc 12
WebSocket violations – Protocol compliance
• Bad WebSocket handshake request
• HTTP Version is 1.1
• “Upgrade” header appears once
• "Sec-WebSocket-Key“ has one occurrence and is base 64 encoded
• "Sec-WebSocket-Version“ has once occurrence and value of 13
• Evasion technique

13. © F5 Networks, Inc 13
WebSocket violations – Protocol compliance
• Failure in WebSocket framing protocol
• Continuing frame without start frame.
• Start frame without ending the previous message fragmentation (interleaving
fragmentation is not allowed!)
• Control frame with FIN flag off (i.e. attempt to fragment them).
• Control frame payload size is greater than 125.

14. © F5 Networks, Inc 14
WebSocket violations – Protocol compliance
• Mask not found in client frame
• Each frame should have a bit mask according to the RFC.
• Enforce the continuity of the frames by verifying the bit mask exists
• Client side
• Null character found in WebSocket text massage
• Null character inside message payload of type JSON and Text will be
enforce.
• Indifferent to “check message payload”

15. © F5 Networks, Inc 15
WebSocket URL Entities
Security ›› Application Security ›› Policy
Building ›› Learning and Blocking Settings
Policy Type Learn New WebSocket URL’s
Fundamental Never
Enhance Selective
Comprehensive Add all entities

16. © F5 Networks, Inc 16
1. Binary content found in text only WebSocket
2. Illegal WebSocket binary message length
3. Illegal WebSocket extension
4. Illegal WebSocket frame length
5. Illegal number of frame per message
6. Text content found in binary only WebSocket
WebSocket Violations - Payload

17. © F5 Networks, Inc 17
• Binary content found in text only WebSocket
• The WebScoket payload is defined as text but the
payload contains binary payload.
WebSocket Violations - Payload

18. © F5 Networks, Inc 18
• Illegal WebSocket binary message length
• Binary message size enforce of 10000 bytes (default)
WebSocket Violations - Payload

19. © F5 Networks, Inc 19
• Illegal WebSocket extension
• Protocol extensions: Per-message compression, Interleaved
message fragmentation, etc
• ASM can do the following for WebScoket extension :
o Remove headers – remove the extension header (default)
o Ignore – ignore the extension header (let then pass)
o Block – block request with WebSocket extension
WebSocket Violations - Payload

20. © F5 Networks, Inc 20
• Illegal WebSocket frame length
WebSocket Violations - Payload

21. © F5 Networks, Inc 21
• Illegal number of frames per message
WebSocket Violations - Payload

22. © F5 Networks, Inc 22
• Text content found in binary only WebSocket
WebSocket Violations - Payload

23. © F5 Networks, Inc 23
WebSocket URL configuration

24. © F5 Networks, Inc 24
WebSocket URL configuration

25. © F5 Networks, Inc 25
WebSocket URL configuration

26. © F5 Networks, Inc 26
Reviewing WebSocket message in the request log

27. © F5 Networks, Inc 27
Reviewing WebSocket message in the request log
Security ›› Event Logs ›› Application ›› Requests
1
2
3

28. © F5 Networks, Inc 28
WebSocket - Request log filtering
Security ›› Event Logs ›› Application ›› Requests

29. © F5 Networks, Inc 29
WebSocket - Request log filtering

30. © F5 Networks, Inc 30
WebSocket Handshake

31. © F5 Networks, Inc 31
WebSocket Handshake

32. © F5 Networks, Inc 32
WebSocket - Ping Pong

33. © F5 Networks, Inc 33
WebSocket - Close

34. © F5 Networks, Inc 34
WebSocket Demo

35. © F5 Networks, Inc 35
Leaning page for WebSocket

36. © F5 Networks, Inc 36
WebSocket URL

37. © F5 Networks, Inc 37
Leaning page for WebSocket

38. © F5 Networks, Inc 38
“Sec-WebSocket-Extensions”
WebSocket URL

39. © F5 Networks, Inc 39
WebSocket URL

40. © F5 Networks, Inc 40
Policy builder classification

41. © F5 Networks, Inc 41
JSON facts

42. © F5 Networks, Inc 42
Attack signatures on Web Socket

43. © F5 Networks, Inc 43
Web Sokcet Learning and attack signature

44. © F5 Networks, Inc 44
Override attack signature – false positive

45. © F5 Networks, Inc 45
• ASM support WebSocket protocol
• Enforce protocol compliance
• Enforce payload –
• Plane Text – attack signature , null
• JSON – structure and attack signature
• Binary – length
• New violations and setting for Web Scoket
• Policy builder can learn the URL and classify the WebSocket payload types.
• Request log display the communication between client and server
Summary