Build NGINX Ingress Controller with NGINX App Protect WAF v5

This document explains how to build a F5 NGINX Ingress Controller image with F5 NGINX App Protect WAF v5 from source code.

Pre-built image alternatives
If you’d rather not build your own NGINX Ingress Controller image, see the pre-built image options at the end of this guide.

Before you start

  • To use NGINX App Protect WAF with NGINX Ingress Controller, you must have NGINX Plus.

Prepare the environment

Get your system ready for building and pushing the NGINX Ingress Controller image with NGINX App Protect WAF v5.

  1. Sign in to your private registry. Replace <my-docker-registry> with the path to your own private registry.

    docker login <my-docker-registry>
    
  2. Pull the WAF Config Manager image:

    docker pull private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-config-mgr:<image-tag>
    
  3. Pull the WAF Enforcer Docker image

    docker pull private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-enforcer:<image-tag>
    
  4. Clone the NGINX Ingress Controller repository:

    git clone https://github.com/nginxinc/kubernetes-ingress.git --branch v3.7.2
    cd kubernetes-ingress
    

Build the image

Follow these steps to build the NGINX Controller Image with NGINX App Protect WAF v5.

  1. Place your NGINX Plus license files (nginx-repo.crt and nginx-repo.key) in the project’s root folder. To verify they’re in place, run:

    ls nginx-repo.*
    

    You should see:

    nginx-repo.crt  nginx-repo.key
    
  2. Build the image. Replace <makefile target> with your chosen build option and <my-docker-registry> with your private registry’s path. Refer to the Makefile targets table below for the list of build options.

    make <makefile target> PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-plus-ingress TARGET=download
    

    For example, to build a Debian-based image with NGINX Plus and NGINX App Protect WAF v5, run:

    make debian-image-nap-v5-plus PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-plus-ingress TARGET=download
    

    What to expect: The image is built and tagged with a version number, which is derived from the VERSION variable in the Makefile. This version number is used for tracking and deployment purposes.

Note:
In the event a patch of NGINX Plus is released, make sure to rebuild your image to get the latest version. If your system is caching the Docker layers and not updating the packages, add DOCKER_BUILD_OPTIONS="--pull --no-cache" to the make command.

Makefile targets

Create Docker image for NGINX Ingress Controller (Alpine with NGINX Plus, NGINX App Protect WAF v5 and FIPS)

Makefile Target Description Compatible Systems
alpine-image-nap-v5-plus-fips Builds a Alpine-based image with NGINX Plus and the NGINX App Protect WAF v5 module with FIPS. Alpine
debian-image-nap-v5-plus Builds a Debian-based image with NGINX Plus and the NGINX App Protect WAF v5 module. Debian
ubi-image-nap-v5-plus Builds a UBI-based image with NGINX Plus and the NGINX App Protect WAF v5 module. OpenShift
ubi-image-nap-dos-v5-plus Builds a UBI-based image with NGINX Plus, NGINX App Protect WAF v5, and NGINX App Protect DoS. OpenShift

See Also:
For the complete list of Makefile targets and customizable variables, see the Build NGINX Ingress Controller guide.

If you intend to use external references in NGINX App Protect WAF policies, you may want to provide a custom CA certificate to authenticate with the hosting server.

To do so, place the *.crt file in the build folder and uncomment the lines following this comment: #Uncomment the lines below if you want to install a custom CA certificate

Warning:
External references are deprecated in NGINX Ingress Controller and will not be supported in future releases.

Push the images to your private registry

Once you’ve successfully pulled the WAF v5 manager and enforcer images and built the NGINX Ingress Controller image with NGINX App Protect WAF v5, the next step is to upload them to your private Docker registry. This makes the image available for deployment to your Kubernetes cluster.

To upload the image, run the following command. If you’re using a custom tag, add TAG=your-tag to the end of the command. Replace <my-docker-registry> with your private registry’s path.

make push PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-plus-ingress

To upload the WAF config manager and enforcer images run the following commands:

docker push <my-docker-registry>/waf-config-mgr:<your-tag>
docker push <my-docker-registry>/waf-enforcer:<your-tag>

To make sure your NGINX Ingress Controller pods reach the Ready state, you’ll need to create custom resource definitions (CRDs) for various components.

Alternatively, you can disable this requirement by setting the -enable-custom-resources command-line argument to false.

There are two ways you can install the custom resource definitions:

  1. Using a URL to apply a single CRD yaml file, which we recommend.
  2. Applying your local copy of the CRD yaml files, which requires you to clone the repository.

The core custom CRDs are the following:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nginxinc/kubernetes-ingress/v3.7.2/deploy/crds.yaml

Note:
If you are installing the CRDs this way, ensure you have first cloned the repository.
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_virtualservers.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_virtualserverroutes.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_transportservers.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_policies.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_globalconfigurations.yaml

Deploy NGINX Ingress Controller

Important:

NGINX Ingress Controller with the AppProtect WAF v5 module works only with policy bundles. You need to modify the Deployment or DaemonSet file to include volumes, volume mounts and two WAF 5 docker images: waf-config-mgr and waf-enforcer.

NGINX Ingress Controller requires the volume mount path to be /etc/app_protect/bundles.

Below are examples of a PersistentVolume and PersistentVolumeClaim that you can reference in your Helm values:

...
volumes:
- name: <volume_name>
persistentVolumeClaim:
    claimName: <claim_name>
...

Add volume mounts to the containers section:

...
volumeMounts:
- name: <volume_mount_name>
    mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
...

Enabling WAF v5

Start by setting controller.appprotect.enable to true in your Helm values. This will the standard App Protect WAF fetatures. Afterwords, set controller.approtect.v5 to true. This ensures that both the waf-enforcer and waf-config-mgr containers are deployed alongside the NGINX Ingress Controller containers. These two additional containers are required when using App Protect WAF v5.

Your Helm values should look something like this:

controller:
  ...
  ## Support for App Protect WAF
  appprotect:
    ## Enable the App Protect WAF module in the Ingress Controller.
    enable: true
    ## Enables App Protect WAF v5.
    v5: true

Configuring volumes

Whether you have created a new PersistentVolume and PersistentVolumeClaim, or you are referencing an existing PersistentVolumeClaim, update the app-protect-bundles volume to reference your PersistentVolumeClaim.

Example helm values:

...
controller:
  ...
  appprotect:
  ...
   volumes:
   - name: app-protect-bundles
     persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: <my_claim_name>
...
Note:

By default, emptyDir mounts are used. Bundles that are added to these kind of volume mounts will NOT persist across pod restarts.

Example default volumes:

...
controller:
  ...
  appprotect:
  ...
   volumes:
   - name: app-protect-bundles
     emptyDir: {}
...

You have two options for deploying NGINX Ingress Controller:

  • Deployment. Choose this method for the flexibility to dynamically change the number of NGINX Ingress Controller replicas.
  • DaemonSet. Choose this method if you want NGINX Ingress Controller to run on all nodes or a subset of nodes.

Set up role-based access control (RBAC)

Admin access required
To complete these steps you need admin access to your cluster. Refer to to your Kubernetes platform’s documentation to set up admin access. For Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), you can refer to their Role-Based Access Control guide.
  1. Create a namespace and a service account:

    kubectl apply -f deployments/common/ns-and-sa.yaml
    
  2. Create a cluster role and binding for the service account:

    kubectl apply -f deployments/rbac/rbac.yaml
    

Volumes and VolumeMounts

Add a volumes section to deployment template spec:

...
volumes:
- name: <volume_name>
persistentVolumeClaim:
    claimName: <claim_name>
...

Add volume mounts to the containers section:

...
volumeMounts:
- name: <volume_mount_name>
    mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
...

WAF Config Manager and WAF Enforcer

Add waf-config-mgr image to the containers section:

...
- name: waf-config-mgr
  image: private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-config-mgr:<version-tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  securityContext:
    allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
    capabilities:
      drop:
        - all
  volumeMounts:
    - name: app-protect-bd-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/bd_config
    - name: app-protect-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/config
    - name: app-protect-bundles
      mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
...

Add waf-enforcer image to the containers section:

...
- name: waf-enforcer
  image: private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-enforcer:<version-tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  env:
    - name: ENFORCER_PORT
      value: "50000"
  volumeMounts:
    - name: app-protect-bd-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/bd_config
...

Update NIC container in deployment or daemonset

Add volumeMounts as below:

...
- image: <my_docker_registery>:<version_tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  name: nginx-plus-ingress
  volumeMounts:
    - name: app-protect-bd-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/bd_config
    - name: app-protect-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/config
    - name: app-protect-bundles
      mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
...

Using a Deployment

For additional context on managing containers using Kubernetes Deployments, refer to the official Kubernetes Deployments documentation.

When you deploy NGINX Ingress Controller as a Deployment, Kubernetes automatically sets up a single NGINX Ingress Controller pod.

  • For NGINX, run:

    kubectl apply -f deployments/deployment/nginx-ingress.yaml
    
  • For NGINX Plus, run:

    kubectl apply -f deployments/deployment/nginx-plus-ingress.yaml
    

    Update the nginx-plus-ingress.yaml file to include your chosen image from the F5 Container registry or your custom container image.

Using a DaemonSet

For additional context on managing containers using Kubernetes DaemonSets, refer to the official Kubernetes DaemonSets documentation.

When you deploy NGINX Ingress Controller as a DaemonSet, Kubernetes creates an Ingress Controller pod on every node in the cluster.

  • For NGINX, run:

    kubectl apply -f deployments/daemon-set/nginx-ingress.yaml
    
  • For NGINX Plus, run:

    kubectl apply -f deployments/daemon-set/nginx-plus-ingress.yaml
    

    Update the nginx-plus-ingress.yaml file to include your chosen image from the F5 Container registry or your custom container image.


Enable NGINX App Protect WAF module

To enable the NGINX App Protect DoS Module:


Confirm NGINX Ingress Controller is running

To confirm the NGINX Ingress Controller pods are operational, run:

kubectl get pods --namespace=nginx-ingress

For more information, see the Configuration guide and the NGINX Ingress Controller with App Protect version 5 example resources on GitHub for VirtualServer resources.


Alternatives to building your own image

If you prefer not to build your own NGINX Ingress Controller image, you can use pre-built images. Here are your options:


NGINX App Protect WAF v5 version

NIC Version App Protect WAFv5 Version Config Manager Enforcer
3.7.2 32_5.144 5.3.0 5.3.0
3.6.2 32_5.48 5.2.0 5.2.0
Note:
F5 recommends to re-compile your NGINX AppProtect WAF Policy Bundles with each release of NGINX Ingress Controller. This will ensure your Policies remain compatible and are compiled with the latest Attack Signatures, Bot Signatures, and Threat Campaigns.

Last modified November 25, 2024