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F5 APPLICATION READY NETWORK GUIDE: MICROSOFT WINDOWS SERVER 2008
browser and the web application, F5 mitigates
the effects of WAN latency, networking errors,
and packet loss.
One of the strengths of the F5’s Application
Ready Network is the wide variety of materials
that ease the burden of confi guring and
optimizing our devices, freeing valuable IT
resources to work on other projects. As part of
the Application Ready Network for Microsoft
Windows 2008, F5 has confi gured, tested, and
tuned our devices with the major components
of Windows Server 2008 and carefully
documented the procedures in our Deployment
Guide. F5 also provides confi guration Profi les
and Policies to make confi guration incredibly
simple yet powerful and fl exible, with some
policies including prebuilt drop-downs for
components like Microsoft Internet Information
Services and Windows Terminal Services.
And now with our management devices,
the deployment guide confi guration fi les are
available as a template, which can be easily
uploaded and pushed to F5 devices. With the
power of Microsoft PowerShell, the command
line shell and scripting language included
with Windows Server 2008, and F5’s iControl
PowerShell Cmdlets and scripts, developers
have a unique way to control and manage F5
devices in one location
1
.
Application Security
While performance and end-user experience
are vital to a successful deployment of Windows
Server 2008, ensuring application security
can be even more crucial. Because of the
sensitive nature of data stored in applications
and databases, coupled with new compliance
initiatives and government regulations on data
protection, securing your applications is more
important than ever before. F5 security solutions
provide comprehensive protection for Windows
Server 2008, ensuring your data and applications
are secure.
Years ago, merely having network fi rewalls in
front of the LAN was considered an adequate
level of security. Next came intrusion protection/
detection systems, which added another level
of security, albeit one that provided a negative
security model. However, IPS/IDS systems could
only protect against a known list of attacks
and signatures, and soon attacks became more
sophisticated, with zero-day attacks that would
bypass these systems as their signatures were
previously unknown. Recently, hackers are
shifting their focus to applications themselves
with attacks that look harmless to both network
fi rewalls and intrusion protection/detection
systems. More than 50 percent of all new
vulnerabilities being identifi ed on a weekly basis
are attributed to web applications
2
.
.
Devices
relying solely on a known list of signature attacks
cannot defend against targeted attacks involving
a malicious user seeking vulnerabilities unique to
a particular application. F5 detects and mitigates
patternless exploits in real time, adding accurate,
complementary protection to existing fi rewalls
and IDS devices, which do not effi ciently address
HTTP and HTTPS-borne threats.
In addition to analyzing and blocking known
attack signatures, F5 can strip out identifying
operating system and web server information
(such as version strings, signatures, and
fi ngerprinting) from message headers, conceal
any HTTP error messages from users, and
remove application error messages from pages
sent to users while checking to ensure no server
code or private HTML comments leak onto public
web pages.
And attacks do not always come from the
outside of the network; internal users can gain
sensitive information or sabotage applications
with greater ease than external users. Because
F5 devices can offl oad SSL encryption duties,
organizations can encrypt traffi c for entire
transactions, without affecting performance for
the end user. This prevents information from
being sent in clear text over the internal network,
mitigating risks associated with internal users
as well as complying with state and federal
regulations related to privacy.
F5 devices also protect against attacks that use
cookies and other tokens that are transparently
distributed for their entry point. F5 devices can
be easily confi gured to encrypt cookies used
by Windows Server 2008, preventing cookie
tampering and other cookie-based attacks.
This gives organizations superior security for all
stateful applications and a higher level of user
identity trust.
F5 includes extremely granular endpoint security
for remote users connecting to the network
and to Windows Server 2008 servers and
applications. Before a remote user can even
log on to the F5 devices to gain access to the
network, F5 can determine if an antivirus or
personal fi rewall is running on their PC and if
it is up-to-date, or enforce a specifi c operating
system patch level, among a host of other
pre-logon checks. F5 can direct the user to a
remediation page for further instructions or
even turn on antivirus or fi rewalls for the user.
F5 remote access also supports two-factor
authentication from leading vendors for those
organizations that require more than just a user
name and password for access to the network.
And F5’s remote access solution can be easily
integrated with Active Directory, providing
centralized authentication.
When the remote user is fi nished working with
their remote access session, F5 includes a cache
cleanup control that removes cookies, browser
history, auto-complete information, browser
cache, temp fi les, and all ActiveX controls
installed during the remote access session
from the client PC. This makes ensures that no
information is left behind, which is critical for
users connecting from public computers, such
as a kiosk.
Not only does F5 provide comprehensive
application security, but we produce extremely
secure devices. We ensure your Windows
Server 2008 deployment, and the information it
contains, remains completely secure.
Unifi ed Security Enforcement
and Access Control
Another integral piece of a complete security
platform is security enforcement and access
control. The number of employees requiring
access to corporate resources from outside
the network is growing every year. And it’s
not only employees who need access to the
network. With more business-to-business
Benefi ts and F5 Value
1
For more information on iControl and Microsoft PowerShell integration, see http://devcentral.f5.com/Default.aspx?tabid=71
2
SANS@RISK, “The Consensus Security Vulnerability Report”