Configure NGINX features with F5 WAF

This document shows example of how to modify your NGINX configuration to enable F5 WAF for NGINX features.

It is intended as a reference for, small self-contained examples of how F5 WAF for NGINX is configured.

Certain features do not work well with NGINX, such as modules requiring subrequest when calling or being called from a scope that contains app_protect_enable on.

Modules requiring the Range header (Such as Slice) are also unsupported in a scope which enables F5 WAF for NGINX.

The examples below show work arounds for the limitations of these features.

For information on configuring NGINX, you should view the NGINX documentation.

Static location

nginx
load_module modules/ngx_http_app_protect_module.so;

http {
    server {
        listen       127.0.0.1:8080;
        server_name  localhost;

        location / {
            app_protect_enable on;
            proxy_pass    http://127.0.0.1:8080/proxy/$request_uri;
        }

        location /proxy {
            default_type text/html;
            return 200 "Hello! I got your URI request - $request_uri\n";
        }
    }
}

Range

nginx
load_module modules/ngx_http_app_protect_module.so;

http {

    server {
        listen       127.0.0.1:8080;
        server_name  localhost;

        location / {
            app_protect_enable on;
            proxy_pass    http://127.0.0.1:8081$request_uri;
        }
    }

    server {
        listen       127.0.0.1:8081;
        server_name  localhost;

        location / {
            proxy_pass http://1.2.3.4$request_uri;
            proxy_force_ranges on;
        }
    }
}

Slice

nginx
load_module modules/ngx_http_app_protect_module.so;

http {
    server {
        listen 127.0.0.1:8080;
        server_name localhost;

        location / {
            app_protect_enable on;
            proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8081$request_uri;
        }
    }

    server {
        listen 127.0.0.1:8081;
        server_name localhost;

        location / {
            proxy_pass http://1.2.3.4$request_uri;
            slice 2;
            proxy_set_header Range $slice_range;
        }
    }
}

Mirror

nginx
load_module modules/ngx_http_app_protect_module.so;

http {
    log_format test $uri;

    server {
        listen       127.0.0.1:8080;
        server_name  localhost;

        location / {
            app_protect_enable on;
            mirror /mirror;
        }

        location /mirror {
            log_subrequest on;
            access_log test$args.log test;
        }
    }
}

njs

nginx
load_module modules/ngx_http_app_protect_module.so;
load_module modules/ngx_http_js_module.so;

http {
    js_include service.js

    server {
        listen       127.0.0.1:8080;
        server_name  localhost;

        location / {
            app_protect_enable on;
            proxy_pass    http://127.0.0.1:8081$request_uri;
        }
    }

    server {
        listen       127.0.0.1:8081;
        server_name  localhost;

        location / {
            js_content foo;
        }
    }
}

Client authorization

nginx
load_module modules/ngx_http_app_protect_module.so;

http {
    server {
        listen       127.0.0.1:8080;
        server_name  localhost;

        location / {
            auth_request /scan;
            proxy_pass http://localhost:8888;
        }
        location /scan {
            proxy_pass http://localhost:8081$request_uri;
       }
    }

    server {
        listen       127.0.0.1:8081;
        server_name  localhost;

        location /scan {
            app_protect_enable on;
            proxy_pass http://localhost:8888;
        }
    }
}