Modern web applications and APIs are the backbone of digital businesses, but they are also prime targets for cyber threats such as OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, automated bot attacks, and API-specific exploits. To address these challenges, organizations need a robust security solution that provides comprehensive protection at scale.
Traceable’s Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) is a cloud-native solution that protects web applications, APIs, and microservices from evolving threats. It delivers real-time attack prevention using an integrated security stack, eliminating the complexity of deploying multiple disparate tools.
What is WAAP?
According to Gartner, Cloud Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) platforms provide cloud-delivered security services to safeguard public-facing web applications and APIs. WAAP solutions typically include:
Web Application Firewall (WAF) — This type of firewall prevents the exploitation of web application vulnerabilities by using signatures, heuristics, anomaly detection, and positive security models.
API Protection — Identifies and secures API traffic, enforcing security policies at the API level.
Bot Management — Detects and mitigates malicious automation using behavior-based analysis and machine learning.
DDoS Protection — Mitigates both volumetric and low-and-slow attacks.
WAAP is considered the next evolution of WAF. It offers advanced API security and bot mitigation to address modern security challenges.
What is Traceable WAAP?
Traceable WAAP is a cloud-based security platform that provides comprehensive runtime protection for web applications and APIs. It extends beyond traditional WAFs by incorporating API security, bot defense, DDoS protection, and attack analytics to offer a holistic protection model.
Core Capabilities of Traceable WAAP
Web Application Protection (WAP)
Protects against SQL injection (SQLi), cross-site scripting (XSS), and other web vulnerabilities.
Uses behavioral analysis and machine learning to detect threats.
Provides customizable security rules with monitoring and blocking modes.
API Security & Runtime Protection
Discovers and classifies APIs, ensuring protection against API abuse and unauthorized access.
Prevents API-specific attacks such as broken authentication, sensitive data exposure, and improper asset management.
Monitors API traffic for anomalous behaviors to prevent business logic abuse.
Bot Defense
Detects and blocks malicious bots attempting credential stuffing, web scraping, and account takeovers.
Allows legitimate bot traffic (e.g., search engines) to pass through while blocking malicious automation.
DDoS Protection
Mitigates large-scale traffic floods and application-layer attacks before they impact the application.
Offers rate limiting and anomaly-based detection to filter malicious traffic.
Traceable WAAP Deployment Models
Traceable WAAP offers three deployment options, allowing organizations to select the best approach based on their infrastructure and security requirements:
Deployment Model | Description | How It Works |
|---|---|---|
Out-of-Band | Log-based detection | Customers forward traffic logs from gateways/load balancers for analysis. The detections happen on the Traceable platform, and threats are mitigated with integrations. For more information, see WAF and SIEM/SOAR integrations. |
Inline Agent | Agent-based protection | Integrates Traceable agents with, for example, NGINX, Apigee, or other API gateways. Analyzes and blocks threats in real-time. For more information, see Load balancers and API gateways. |
Edge Deployment | Fully managed cloud-based security | Traffic is routed to the Traceable platform via DNS or CDN configuration for inspection and protection. In this deployment option, no agent needs to be deployed. For more information, see Edge WAAP instrumentation. |
What is Edge Deployment?
Edge Deployment is a fully managed WAAP option from Traceable. It provides agentless protection by processing traffic at the network edge before it reaches customer applications.
How Edge Deployment Works
Customers can route their traffic to Traceable WAAP using one of two methods:
Direct DNS Change
Customers modify their DNS settings to steer traffic to the Traceable platform.
The Traceable service processes and filters traffic before forwarding clean requests to the backend.
CDN Integration
Customers configure their Content Delivery Network (CDN) to set Traceable as the origin.
This ensures all inbound traffic is inspected before reaching applications.
Key Benefits of Edge Deployment
No Agent Installation — No need to manage security agents or modify infrastructure.
Seamless Integration — Works with existing CDNs and DNS configurations.
Fully Managed Security — Traceable continuously enhances its ruleset by adding new detection rules and refining existing rules within predefined security policies.
Scalable & High-Performance — Built on AWS, ensuring low latency and high-availability.
Holistic Protection — WAP, API Security, Bot Mitigation, and DDoS Protection are available on a single platform.
Getting Started with Traceable WAAP
To implement Traceable WAAP Edge Deployment, follow the Edge WAAP instrumentation section, which includes:
DNS & CDN Setup Instructions
Certificates and Health checks