Glossary

This glossary defines terms used in F5 NGINX.

General terms

Term Definition
Config Sync Group / Instance Group A group of NGINX systems (or instances) with identical configurations. They may also share the same certificates. However, the instances in a Config Sync Group could belong to different systems and even different clusters. Also known as an Instance Group in NGINX Instance Manager. For more information, see this explanation of Important considerations
Control Plane The control plane is the part of a network architecture that manages and controls the flow or data or traffic (the Data Plane). It is responsible for system-level tasks such as routing and traffic management.
Data Plane The data plane is the part of a network architecture that carries user traffic. It handles tasks like forwarding data packets between devices and managing network communication. In the context of NGINX, the data plane is responsible for tasks such as load balancing, caching, and serving web content.
Instance An instance is an individual system with NGINX installed. You can group the instances of your choice in a Config Sync Group. When you add an instance to NGINX One Console, you need to use a data plane key.
Namespace In F5 Distributed Cloud, a namespace groups a tenant’s configuration objects, similar to administrative domains. Every object in a namespace must have a unique name, and each namespace must be unique to its tenant. This setup ensures isolation, preventing cross-referencing of objects between namespaces. You’ll see the namespace in the NGINX One Console URL as /namespaces/<namespace name>/. To switch an instance between namespaces, you have to deregister an instance from an old namespace, and register it on the new namespace.
NGINX Agent A lightweight software component installed on NGINX instances to enable communication with the NGINX One console. NGINX Agent also enables communication with NGINX Instance Manager.
Staged Configurations Also known as Staged Configs. Allows you to save "work in progress." You can create it from scratch, an Instance, another Staged Config, or a Config Sync Group. It does not have to be a working configuration until you publish it to an instance or a Config Sync Group. You can even manage your Staged Configurations through our API.
Tenant A tenant in F5 Distributed Cloud is an entity that owns a specific set of configuration and infrastructure. It is fundamental for isolation, meaning a tenant cannot access objects or infrastructure of other tenants. Tenants can be either individual or enterprise, with the latter allowing multiple users with role-based access control (RBAC).

Authentication and Authorization terms

Term Definition
Access Token Defined in OAuth2, this (optional) short lifetime token provides access to specific user resources as defined in the scope values in the request to the authorization server (can be a JSON token as well).
ID Token Specific to OIDC, the primary use of the token in JWT format is to provide information about the authentication operation’s outcome.
Identity Provider (IdP) A service that authenticates users and verifies their identity for client applications.
JSON Web Token (JWT) An open standard (RFC 7519) that defines a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. This information can be verified and trusted because it is digitally signed.
Protected Resource A resource that is hosted by the resource server and requires an access token to be accessed.
Refresh Token Coming from OAuth2 specs, the token is usually long-lived and may be used to obtain new access tokens.
Relying Party (RP) A client service required to verify user identity.

Kubernetes and Ingress Controller terms

Term Definition
Ingress Refers to an Ingress Resource, a Kubernetes API object which allows access to Services within a cluster. They are managed by an Ingress Controller. Ingress resources enable the following functionality:
* Load balancing, extended through the use of Services
* Content-based routing, using hosts and paths
* TLS/SSL termination, based on hostnames

For additional information, please read the official Kubernetes Ingress Documentation.
Ingress Controller Ingress Controllers are applications within a Kubernetes cluster that enable Ingress resources to function. They are not automatically deployed with a Kubernetes cluster, and can vary in implementation based on intended use, such as load balancing algorithms for Ingress resources. The design of NGINX Ingress Controller explains the technical details of NGINX Ingress Controller.

F5 WAF for NGINX

This section defines terminology used when describing functionality of F5 WAF for NGINX.

It assumes you are familiar with various layer 7 (L7) hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) concepts such as:

  • Cookies
  • HTTP methods and status codes
  • HTTP headings, requests, responses, and parameters
  • Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
  • Uniform Resource Location (URL)
Term Definition
Alarm If selected, the F5 WAF for NGINX system records requests that trigger the violation in the remote log (depending on the settings of the logging profile).
Attack signature Textual patterns which can be applied to HTTP requests and/or responses by F5 WAF for NGINX to determine if traffic is malicious. For example, the string <script> inside an HTTP request triggers an attack signature violation.
Attack signature set A collection of attack signatures designed for a specific purpose (such as Apache).
Bot signatures Textual patterns which can be applied to an HTTP request’s User Agent or URI by F5 WAF for NGINX to determine if traffic is coming from a browser or a bot (trusted, untrusted or malicious). For example, the string googlebot inside the User-Agent header will be classified as trusted bot, and the string Bichoo Spider will be classified as malicious bot.
Block To prevent a request from reaching a protected web application. If selected (and enforcement mode is set to Blocking), F5 WAF for NGINX blocks requests that trigger the violation.
Blocking response page A blocking response page is displayed to a client when a request from that client has been blocked. Also called blocking page and response page.
Enforcement mode Security policies can be in one of two enforcement modes:
  • Transparent mode In Transparent mode, Blocking is disabled for the security policy. Traffic is not blocked even if a violation is triggered with block flag enabled. You can use this mode when you first put a security policy into effect to make sure that no false positives occur that would stop legitimate traffic.
  • Blocking mode In Blocking mode, Blocking is enabled for the security policy, and you can enable or disable the Block setting for individual violations. Traffic is blocked when a violation occurs if you configure the system to block that type of violation. You can use this mode when you are ready to enforce the security policy. You can change the enforcement mode for a security policy in the security policy JSON file.
Entities The elements of a security policy, such as HTTP methods, as well as file types, URLs, and/or parameters, which have attributes such as byte length. Also refers to elements of a security policy for which enforcement can be turned on or off, such as an attack signature.
False positive An instance when F5 WAF for NGINX treats a legitimate request as a violation.
File types Examples of file types are .php, .asp, .gif, and .txt. They are the extensions for many objects that make up a web application. File Types are one type of entity a F5 WAF for NGINX policy contains.
Illegal request A request which violates a security policy
Legal request A request which has not violated the security policy.
Loosening The process of adapting a security policy to allow specific entities such as File Types, URLs, and Parameters. The term also applies to attack signatures, which can be manually disabled — effectively removing the signature from triggering any violations.
Parameters Parameters consist of "name=value" pairs, such as OrderID=10. The parameters appear in the query string and/or POST data of an HTTP request. Consequently, they are of particular interest to F5 WAF for NGINX because they represent inputs to the web application.
TPS/RPS Transactions per second (TPS)/requests per second (RPS). In F5 WAF for NGINX, these terms are used interchangeably.
Tuning Making manual changes to an existing security policy to reduce false positives and increase the policy’s security level.
URI/URL The Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) specifies the name of a web object in a request. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) specifies the location of an object on the Internet. For example, in the web address, http://www.siterequest.com/index.html, index.html is the URI, and the URL is http://www.siterequest.com/index.html. In F5 WAF for NGINX, the terms URI and URL are used interchangeably.
Violation Violations occur when some aspect of a request or response does not comply with the security policy. You can configure the blocking settings for any violation in a security policy. When a violation occurs, the system can Alarm or Block a request (blocking is only available when the enforcement mode is set to Blocking).

NGINX Alerts

To set up NGINX Alerts through the F5 Distributed Cloud, follow the procedure in Set up security alerts.

You can configure a variety of NGINX alerts in the F5 Distributed Cloud. If you have access to the F5 Distributed Cloud, log in and select the Audit Logs & Alerts tile.

Go to Notifications > Alerts. Select the gear icon and select Alert Name > Active Alerts. You may see one or more of the following alerts in the Audit Logs & Alerts Console.

Alertname Description Alert Level Action
HighCVENGINX A high-severity CVE is impacting an NGINX instance Critical Review the CVE details in the NGINX One Console. Apply updates or change configurations to resolve the vulnerability.
MediumCVENGINX A medium-severity CVE is impacting an NGINX instance Major Review the CVE details in the NGINX One Console. Apply updates or configuration changes as needed.
LowCVENGINX A low-severity CVE is impacting an NGINX instance Minor Review the CVE details in the NGINX One Console. Consider updates or configuration changes to maintain security.
SecurityRecommendationNGINX A security recommendation has been found for an NGINX configuration Critical Review the configuration issue in the NGINX One Console. Follow the recommendations to secure the instance or Config Sync Group.
OptimizationRecommendationNGINX An optimization recommendation has been found for an NGINX configuration Major Review the optimization details in the NGINX One Console. Update the configuration to for the instance or Config Sync Group to enhance performance.
BestPracticeRecommendationNGINX A best practice recommendation has been found for an NGINX configuration Minor Review the best practice recommendation in the NGINX One Console. Update the configuration for the instance or Config Sync Group to align with industry standards.
NGINXOffline An NGINX instance is now offline Major Verify the host is online. Check the NGINX Agent’s status on the instance and ensure it is connected to the NGINX One Console.
NGINXUnavailable An NGINX instance is now unavailable Major Ensure the NGINX Agent and host are active. Verify the NGINX Agent can connect to the NGINX One Console and resolve any network issues.
NewNGINX A new NGINX instance has connected to NGINX One Minor Review the instance details in the NGINX One Console. Confirm availability, CVEs, and recommendations to ensure the instance is operational.
NGINXCertificateExpired A certificate on an NGINX instance or Config Sync Group has expired Critical Get a new certificate from your certificate authority, then update the TLS/SSL certificate in the NGINX One Console.
NGINXCertificateExpiring A certificate on an NGINX instance or Config Sync Group will expire soon Major Renew the certificate through your certificate authority, then update the TLS/SSL certificate in the NGINX One Console.

References

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