Build NGINX Ingress Controller with NGINX App Protect WAF v5

This document explains how to build a F5 NGINX Ingress Controller image with F5 NGINX App Protect WAF v5 from source code.

Pre-built image alternatives
If you’d rather not build your own NGINX Ingress Controller image, see the pre-built image options at the end of this guide.

Before you start

• To use NGINX App Protect WAF with NGINX Ingress Controller, you must have NGINX Plus.

Prepare the environment

Get your system ready for building and pushing the NGINX Ingress Controller image with NGINX App Protect WAF v5.

1. Sign in to your private registry. Replace <my-docker-registry> with the path to your own private registry.

   docker login <my-docker-registry>
   

2. Pull the WAF Config Manager image:

   docker pull private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-config-mgr:<image-tag>
   

3. Pull the WAF Enforcer Docker image

   docker pull private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-enforcer:<image-tag>
   

4. Clone the NGINX Ingress Controller repository:

   git clone https://github.com/nginxinc/kubernetes-ingress.git --branch v3.7.0
   cd kubernetes-ingress
   

Build the image

Follow these steps to build the NGINX Controller Image with NGINX App Protect WAF v5.

1. Place your NGINX Plus license files (nginx-repo.crt and nginx-repo.key) in the project’s root folder. To verify they’re in place, run:

   ls nginx-repo.*
   

   You should see:

   nginx-repo.crt  nginx-repo.key
   

2. Build the image. Replace <makefile target> with your chosen build option and <my-docker-registry> with your private registry’s path. Refer to the Makefile targets table below for the list of build options.

   make <makefile target> PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-plus-ingress TARGET=download
   

   For example, to build a Debian-based image with NGINX Plus and NGINX App Protect WAF v5, run:

   make debian-image-nap-v5-plus PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-plus-ingress TARGET=download
   

   What to expect: The image is built and tagged with a version number, which is derived from the VERSION variable in the Makefile. This version number is used for tracking and deployment purposes.

Note:
In the event a patch of NGINX Plus is released, make sure to rebuild your image to get the latest version. If your system is caching the Docker layers and not updating the packages, add DOCKER_BUILD_OPTIONS="--pull --no-cache" to the make command.

Makefile targets

Create Docker image for NGINX Ingress Controller (Alpine with NGINX Plus, NGINX App Protect WAF v5 and FIPS)

See Also:
For the complete list of Makefile targets and customizable variables, see the Build NGINX Ingress Controller guide.

If you intend to use external references in NGINX App Protect WAF policies, you may want to provide a custom CA certificate to authenticate with the hosting server.

To do so, place the *.crt file in the build folder and uncomment the lines following this comment: #Uncomment the lines below if you want to install a custom CA certificate

Warning:
External references are deprecated in NGINX Ingress Controller and will not be supported in future releases.

Push the images to your private registry

Once you’ve successfully pulled the WAF v5 manager and enforcer images and built the NGINX Ingress Controller image with NGINX App Protect WAF v5, the next step is to upload them to your private Docker registry. This makes the image available for deployment to your Kubernetes cluster.

To upload the image, run the following command. If you’re using a custom tag, add TAG=your-tag to the end of the command. Replace <my-docker-registry> with your private registry’s path.

make push PREFIX=<my-docker-registry>/nginx-plus-ingress

To upload the WAF config manager and enforcer images run the following commands:

docker push <my-docker-registry>/waf-config-mgr:<your-tag>

docker push <my-docker-registry>/waf-enforcer:<your-tag>

To make sure your NGINX Ingress Controller pods reach the Ready state, you’ll need to create custom resource definitions (CRDs) for various components.

Alternatively, you can disable this requirement by setting the -enable-custom-resources command-line argument to false.

There are two ways you can install the custom resource definitions:

1. Using a URL to apply a single CRD yaml file, which we recommend.
2. Applying your local copy of the CRD yaml files, which requires you to clone the repository.

The core custom CRDs are the following:

• VirtualServer and VirtualServerRoute
• TransportServer
• Policy
• GlobalConfiguration

• Install CRDs from single YAML
• Install CRDs after cloning the repo

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nginxinc/kubernetes-ingress/v3.7.0/deploy/crds.yaml

kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_virtualservers.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_virtualserverroutes.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_transportservers.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_policies.yaml
kubectl apply -f config/crd/bases/k8s.nginx.org_globalconfigurations.yaml

Deploy NGINX Ingress Controller

Important:

NGINX Ingress Controller with the AppProtect WAF v5 module works only with policy bundles. You need to modify the Deployment or DaemonSet file to include volumes, volume mounts and two WAF 5 docker images: waf-config-mgr and waf-enforcer.

NGINX Ingress Controller requires the volume mount path to be /etc/app_protect/bundles.

• With Helm
• With Manifest

...
volumes:
- name: <volume_name>
persistentVolumeClaim:
    claimName: <claim_name>
...

...
volumeMounts:
- name: <volume_mount_name>
    mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
...

controller:
  ...
  ## Support for App Protect WAF
  appprotect:
    ## Enable the App Protect WAF module in the Ingress Controller.
    enable: true
    ## Enables App Protect WAF v5.
    v5: true

...
controller:
  ...
  appprotect:
  ...
   volumes:
   - name: app-protect-bundles
     persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: <my_claim_name>
...

volumes:
  - name: nginx-etc
    emptyDir: {}
  - name: nginx-cache
    emptyDir: {}
  - name: nginx-lib
    emptyDir: {}
  - name: nginx-log
    emptyDir: {}
  - emptyDir: {}
    name: app-protect-bd-config
  - emptyDir: {}
    name: app-protect-config
  - emptyDir: {}
    name: app-protect-bundles

controller:
  ...
  securityContext:
    readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
  ...

controller:
  ...
  appprotect:
    ...
    enforcer:
      securityContext:
        readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
  ...

controller:
  ...
  appprotect:
    ...
    configManager:
      securityContext:
        readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
  ...

...
volumes:
- name: <volume_name>
persistentVolumeClaim:
    claimName: <claim_name>
...

...
volumeMounts:
- name: <volume_mount_name>
    mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
...

...
- name: waf-config-mgr
  image: private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-config-mgr:<version-tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  securityContext:
    allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
    capabilities:
      drop:
        - all
  volumeMounts:
    - name: app-protect-bd-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/bd_config
    - name: app-protect-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/config
    - name: app-protect-bundles
      mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
...

...
- name: waf-enforcer
  image: private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-enforcer:<version-tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  env:
    - name: ENFORCER_PORT
      value: "50000"
  volumeMounts:
    - name: app-protect-bd-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/bd_config
...

...
- image: <my_docker_registery>:<version_tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  name: nginx-plus-ingress
  volumeMounts:
    - name: app-protect-bd-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/bd_config
    - name: app-protect-config
      mountPath: /opt/app_protect/config
    - name: app-protect-bundles
      mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
...

...
- image: <my_docker_registery>:<version_tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  name: nginx-plus-ingress
  ...
  securityContext:
    allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
      capabilities:
        add:
        - NET_BIND_SERVICE
        drop:
        - ALL
      readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
      runAsNonRoot: true
      runAsUser: 101
    readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
  ...
  volumeMounts:
    - mountPath: /etc/nginx
      name: nginx-etc
    - mountPath: /var/cache/nginx
      name: nginx-cache
    - mountPath: /var/lib/nginx
      name: nginx-lib
    - mountPath: /var/log/nginx
      name: nginx-log
    - mountPath: /opt/app_protect/bd_config
      name: app-protect-bd-config
    - mountPath: /opt/app_protect/config
      name: app-protect-config
    - mountPath: /etc/app_protect/bundles
      name: app-protect-bundles
...

...
- name: waf-config-mgr
  image: private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-config-mgr:<version-tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  ...
  securityContext:
    readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
    ...
...

...
- name: waf-enforcer
  image: private-registry.nginx.com/nap/waf-enforcer:<version-tag>
  imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
  ...
  securityContext:
    readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
    ...
...

Confirm NGINX Ingress Controller is running

To confirm the NGINX Ingress Controller pods are operational, run:

kubectl get pods --namespace=nginx-ingress

For more information, see the Configuration guide and the NGINX Ingress Controller with App Protect version 5 example resources on GitHub for VirtualServer resources.

Alternatives to building your own image

If you prefer not to build your own NGINX Ingress Controller image, you can use pre-built images. Here are your options:

• Download the image using your NGINX Ingress Controller subscription certificate and key. View the Get NGINX Ingress Controller from the F5 Registry topic.
• The Get the NGINX Ingress Controller image with JWT topic describes how to use your subscription JWT token to get the image.

NGINX App Protect WAF v5 version

Note:
F5 recommends to re-compile your NGINX AppProtect WAF Policy Bundles with each release of NGINX Ingress Controller. This will ensure your Policies remain compatible and are compiled with the latest Attack Signatures, Bot Signatures, and Threat Campaigns.