What is a website firewall?

If you own a website, it’s crucial to protect it. Just like personal computers, web servers and the software they run are constantly targeted by hackers and their bots. To safeguard your site from malicious traffic, you need a Website Application Firewall, or WAF. For simplicity, we’ll refer to it as a “website firewall.”

This blog post will go into the details of what a website firewall is, what they do and how they work, and more details about Website Application Firewalls (WAFs).

What is a firewall?

In summary, a website firewall acts as a security filter between your computer or server and the outside world. Malicious hackers often target vulnerable servers, and widely used web applications like WordPress and other popular content management systems present a large attack surface. This is why securing your WordPress site is crucial. A website firewall provides a valuable line of defense against security threats.

Imagine you own a cozy bakery in a bustling neighborhood. Every day, customers come in to enjoy your delicious pastries and freshly brewed coffee. However, not everyone who walks through the door has good intentions. Some people might try to sneak in and steal your secret recipes or tamper with your ingredients. To prevent this, you hire a friendly but vigilant security guard named Sam.

Sam stands at the entrance of your bakery, greeting each customer with a warm smile while keeping an eye out for anyone who looks suspicious. He checks to ensure that only genuine customers enter and quickly turns away anyone who seems like trouble. Thanks to Sam, your bakery stays safe, and you can focus on baking the best pastries in town.

In the digital world, a firewall acts just like Sam. It’s a security filter that stands between your website (the bakery) and the internet (the bustling neighborhood). It monitors incoming traffic, allowing legitimate visitors to enter while blocking harmful hackers and malicious bots. This way, your website remains secure, letting you focus on providing great content and services to your users.

There are various types of firewalls available, so it’s essential to choose the best solution for your needs. In this guide, we’ll explore the different types of firewalls, explain why you need one to protect your WordPress site, and show you how to set one up.

What does a firewall do?

Every time you visit a website, you connect to another computer known as a web server. Like any other computer, web servers are vulnerable to attacks.

Connecting to an unfamiliar or unknown device directly without a layer of protection is risky. An insecure connection may allow hackers to infect a connected device with malware.

Cybercriminals can even launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on a web server that accepts every request it receives. A flood of malicious requests in a short time can overwhelm your server and cause it to crash. However, if you have a firewall that detects bad requests and fake traffic, it will block the harmful requests and only allow legitimate ones.

This is why a firewall is essential. Firewalls act as a barrier between your site and all other devices trying to connect with it. For your web server, your host uses firewalls to filter and protect it from hundreds, thousands, or even millions of daily connections. For your website, adding a software-based firewall to WordPress provides an additional layer of protection that you can control.

Why do I need a firewall?

When a hacker breaches a web server, they can swiftly deface your entire website. They might embed malware to infect your visitors, change WordPress admin passwords to lock you out, or even take your website offline completely.

Without a firewall, your site is vulnerable to DDoS attacks. In such an attack, an attacker sends thousands or millions of fake data packets to overwhelm your server, causing it to crash and bring down your website. In addition to protecting against DDoS attacks, a website firewall will safeguard your site against:

Brute force attacks are hacking attempts where an attacker tries thousands of username and password combinations to break into your WordPress admin and other user accounts. Similar to DDoS attacks, hackers use botnets to carry out brute force attacks. These botnets can test hundreds of different login combinations every minute until they succeed.

An intrusion can be prevented by a website firewall blocking unauthorized users from accessing your website. Once a hacker gains entry to your site, they have the potential to cause significant damage.

Attackers who infiltrate your server typically infect it with malware. This malicious software is designed to steal personal and private information, propagate to other devices, and inflict damage on computers.

What are the different firewalls, and where are they installed?

Firewalls come in various types, each tailored for specific needs. Some are ideal for personal computers, while others specialize in network filtering. Website firewalls serve as the final defense layer following these other types. Firewalls are typically classified based on their deployment location, functionality, and methods of operation.

Each type of firewall is strategically positioned within a network or installed on computing devices. They can be integrated into hardware or packaged as software, such as within applications like WordPress. Different types of firewalls offer varying features and employ diverse filtering techniques to manage various types of traffic.

We will now briefly outline the primary categories, types, and techniques of firewalls to provide a comprehensive understanding. By exploring their distinctions and relationships, we aim to clarify where a website firewall fits within the context of WordPress security.

Hardware and softshell firewalls

Technically, all firewalls are software-based, but some are integrated into hardware devices such as routers and network switches. These hardware firewalls can be either immutable, requiring no updates, or utilize non-volatile memory for software updates.

In contrast, a software firewall operates as an independent application running on a computing device’s hardware. It can function as part of an operating system or as an overlay application, like a personal firewall discussed further below.

Within web servers, a software firewall operates at the operating system level and often collaborates with network hardware firewalls to provide network security. Additionally, it can be integrated into content management systems, such as a WAF for WordPress, positioned atop the technology stack with the operating system and middleware, serving as a web application firewall.

Hardware firewalls offer the same functionality as software firewalls but operate further upstream in your network, positioned before your computing devices and the web servers hosting your site. They are embedded at a much deeper level in your technology stack.

Unbeknownst to many, your internet router contains a hardware firewall. While it may differ from dedicated hardware firewall devices, it provides similar monitoring and security features. You can use it to restrict local network activity to trusted devices during specific hours or to block certain sites and apps. Parental controls or similar software used by schools or workplaces are also built into network hardware and operating systems, functioning as firewalls too.

Firewall updates

Software and hardware firewalls serve as barriers between your devices and the outside world, scrutinizing all connection requests and blocking malicious ones. Software firewalls can be regularly updated to enhance their effectiveness and address new threats. In contrast, updating hardware firewalls can be more challenging.

Network hardware occasionally requires updates to fix bugs and address vulnerabilities, but without a dedicated network support team, this task can be infrequent and complex. This challenge contributes to older network hardware being more susceptible to exploitation by hackers. Depending on your hosting provider to maintain their hardware infrastructure is crucial, reinforcing the importance of investing wisely in security measures.

However, hardware firewalls have limitations. They typically require IT support in serious business networks due to their complexity in updates and ongoing maintenance for security assurance. Many home and small business networks often lack proper configuration, leaving them vulnerable to security breaches.

Performance and user experience

Additionally, hardware firewalls can impact speed and performance by scrutinizing and filtering network traffic, especially when used alongside software firewalls. While combining multiple firewalls can enhance security, complex rules may affect throughput—the speed of data transfers across the network.

Moreover, most hardware firewalls are not designed to impose restrictions on individual users and devices, typically not within their feature set. For large networks, hardware firewalls efficiently protect the entire network, continuing to operate even if the network is compromised. In contrast, setting up software firewalls across a large network is more challenging, and once breached, they are easier for hackers to disable. Hackers find it more difficult to bypass or disable a hardware firewall.

Software firewalls, on the other hand, are designed to be user-friendly for non-technical users. They offer features to block specific applications, manage device users, generate logs, and monitor network activity. While setting up software firewalls across a network is complex, deploying them on multiple devices provides greater control compared to hardware firewall.

Different Techniques used by Different Firewalls

Firewall software is continually advancing, introducing various techniques tailored to different tasks and environments.

Currently, there are nearly a dozen major types of firewalls, each distinguished by the methods they employ for safeguarding users. These include packet-filtering firewalls, circuit-level gateways, application-level gateways (proxy firewalls), stateful multilayer inspection (SMLI) firewalls, next-generation firewalls (NGFW) such as threat-focused NGFWs, network address translation (NAT) firewalls, cloud firewalls, and unified threat management (UTM) firewalls.

In this discussion, we will focus on three categories: traditional firewall technologies representing older, foundational approaches, and the latest advancements in network filtering.

Packet Filtering Firewalls

This type of firewall was among the first to be developed and remains the simplest kind.

Packets are units of data exchanged between a server and a computer. For instance, when you upload a file, send an email, or click on a link, you send a packet to a server. Similarly, when your device loads a webpage, the server sends a packet back to you.

Packet filtering firewalls analyze these packets and block them if they violate predefined rules. They can block packets from specific IP addresses, particular servers, or packets attempting to reach certain server locations.

However, packet-filtering firewalls are relatively easy for hackers to bypass. They lack the ability to enforce advanced rules. If configured to allow access through a certain port, the firewall will permit all traffic through that port, including potentially malicious traffic that modern firewalls would block.

On the plus side, packet filtering firewalls are extremely simple and have minimal impact on performance. They do not save logs, inspect traffic, or perform advanced functions. However, today, these firewalls are not meant to be your primary source of protection.

Stateful firewall

Stateful firewalls were introduced after simple packet filtering firewalls, and their concept was revolutionary at the time. Rather than merely analyzing packets upon arrival and blocking them based on simple rules, stateful firewalls could apply more dynamic blocking rules while monitoring the flow of packets through the network.

While simple packet filtering firewalls rely solely on static predefined rules to block traffic, stateful firewalls detect and block malicious traffic by recognizing user patterns and employing advanced techniques.

The only drawback of a stateful firewall is its higher resource usage compared to its simpler counterpart. Nonetheless, it provides a more reliable security solution.

Next-generation firewall

Finally, we have the next-generation firewall (NGFW). NGFWs are advanced enterprise tools that integrate multiple firewall techniques into one comprehensive solution. They are often cloud-based or part of a Firewall-as-a-Service (FaaS) platform. For example, Cloudflare and Sucuri offer cloud-based Web Application Firewall (WAF) features through their Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms.

NGFWs include various networking features such as application monitoring, intrusion prevention, deep packet inspection, and packet filtering. They can recognize and manage other applications within the network they protect. Increasingly, NGFWs utilize advanced machine learning (ML) to detect illegitimate network traffic. They can also be updated with new threat intelligence data to address emerging attacks promptly.

What type of firewall is best for you?

Unless you’re a network administrator or frequently customize a router or wireless access point at home, you’re unlikely to encounter hardware firewalls. The firewalls you will typically use operate on your computer or website, as they are the most user-friendly and accessible. These include personal firewalls and web application firewalls.

Personal firewalls

Personal firewalls are designed for individual computers. They come pre-installed with operating systems like macOS, Windows, and various Linux distributions, or with third-party antivirus solutions that include customizable firewall features.

Much like server firewalls, personal firewalls allow or block connections from external applications, IPs, and devices based on predefined rules. However, they function differently in their specific applications.

Personal firewalls:

• Protect all computer ports connected to online applications or websites.
• Stop attacks attempting to infiltrate the network.
• Prevent unauthorized access to your devices.
• Analyze all outgoing and incoming traffic for suspicious activity.
• Monitor application activity on your device, refusing connections with unknown or unsafe software.

They are user-friendly and easy to deploy. For instance, Windows 10 and higher automatically run a personal firewall. On macOS, users need to enable the firewall by navigating to System Settings › Network › Firewall in macOS 14.0 or higher.

Most antivirus programs, such as Avast Antivirus, come with a built-in firewall. While you can purchase separate personal firewalls, they often conflict with the default settings of most operating systems and are less necessary now that operating systems include integrated firewalls.

Web application and application firewalls

Web and application firewalls represent the most advanced and dynamic firewall security tools available today. Traditional network firewalls only monitor general network traffic and often struggle or fail to detect traffic from the diverse apps, services, and software used on the network.

Application firewalls are designed to detect and prevent intrusion attempts that exploit vulnerabilities in a network or application. They can be embedded in wireless access points and router hardware or bundled with operating systems or security software tailored for specific operating systems.

Network application firewalls are used to set user limits, such as parental controls like Apple’s Family Sharing system. Many organizations use them to block access to certain websites and applications.

A web application firewall (WAF) operates similarly to other application firewalls but is dedicated to the security of a single web application. A WAF runs within the application it protects, focusing exclusively on safeguarding that specific web app.

Do I Need a Firewall on My Website?

Is a firewall essential for your website? Not strictly, but it significantly enhances your site’s security. A firewall running in front of your website, as part of a cloud firewall or Firewall-as-a-Service platform, offers valuable protection at a low (or no) cost.

Your hosting company likely employs several network firewalls within their hardware and may also recommend or apply a cloud-based firewall like Cloudflare. This approach places a robust security barrier between your WordPress site and potential threats without consuming your hosting resources. However, it’s crucial to secure, harden, and maintain your site properly, as a firewall alone cannot meet all your security needs.

If you are not using reliable Managed WordPress hosting, the responsibility for security falls more heavily on you, and your server performance might not be optimal. In this scenario, a cloud WAF is a practical solution. This is why we recommend purchasing Website Security from The Elite Web Co., for WordPress hosting, as their built-in WAF effectively stops denial-of-service and ICMP attacks.

Not only does Elite’s Website Security include firewall, but it comes with numerous other benefits that can help your website stay safe in the digital age. These include on the premium plan:

• Protects one website.
• Firewall prevents hackers.
• SSL certificate included in firewall.
• Malware scanning.
• Unlimited site cleanups.
• DDoS protection, and Content Delivery Network (CDN) speed boost.
• Prioritized cleanup and repair.
• 200 GB of secure backup.

Conclusion

It’s up to you to ensure your WordPress site remains safe from hackers and malicious attacks. The most effective strategy is to use a combination of a web application firewall and Website Security. Since there’s no guaranteed way to prevent a skilled hacker from breaching your site and causing damage, following these steps is essential.