GCP Cloud Armor - How to Leverage and add extra layer of security
Tags: gcp, cloudarmor, websecurity, cloud
Published: 2024-06-21 11:59:31


In today's digital world, securing your internet-facing applications is paramount.  Distributing Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, web application vulnerabilities, and malicious bots can significantly disrupt your services and damage your reputation. Google Cloud Armor offers a robust solution to fortify your application's defences. This blog post, aimed at developers, explores how Cloud Armor bolsters your application security on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

**What is Cloud Armor?**

Cloud Armor is a globally-distributed Web Application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS mitigation service offered by GCP. It acts as a security shield, positioned in front of your internet-facing applications, filtering malicious traffic before it reaches your backend servers. Cloud Armor offers a multi-layered defence against various threats, including:

**DDoS Attacks:** Cloud Armor safeguards your applications from volumetric (L3/L4) and Layer 7 DDoS attacks, ensuring service availability during traffic surges.
**Web Application Attacks:** Pre-configured WAF rules based on OWASP Top 10 risks help mitigate common web vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).


**Benefits of Cloud Armor**

**Enhanced Security**: Cloud Armor provides a comprehensive security solution, safeguarding your applications from a broad spectrum of threats.
**Improved Performance**: By filtering malicious traffic at the edge, Cloud Armor reduces the load on your backend servers, enhancing application performance.
**Simplified Management**: Cloud Armor offers a user-friendly interface for managing security policies and monitoring traffic patterns.
**Global Scale**: Cloud Armor's globally distributed network ensures consistent protection across all your GCP regions.

**Implementation with a Reference Diagram**


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/lytqbiklmyiiglmcobd3.jpg)

- Users access your application through the internet.
- Traffic is routed through Cloud Load Balancing, which can be integrated with Cloud Armor.
- Cloud Armor's WAF engine inspects incoming traffic, filtering out malicious requests based on pre-configured rules or custom policies.
- Legitimate traffic is forwarded to your application servers.

Sample Policy


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/gj6m49j3jyqw1ulm2ai3.png)


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/y0n9qqb17k3utmrnszgx.png)



**Pros and Cons of using Cloud Armor**

**Pros:**

- Robust security against DDoS attacks and web application vulnerabilities.
- Improved application performance and availability.
- Simplified security management with a user-friendly interface.
- Scalable protection that adapts to your application's traffic patterns.

**Cons:**

- Additional cost associated with Cloud Armor usage.
- May require configuration adjustments for existing applications.
- Might introduce slight latency due to additional processing at the edge.

**Cost Considerations**

Cloud Armor charges are based on incoming and outgoing request counts. You can leverage GCP's free tier for limited usage. Pay-as-you-go pricing applies for exceeding the free tier limits.  Refer to GCP's pricing documentation for detailed cost information https://cloud.google.com/armor/pricing