Inline ASE configuration using the ase.conf file

API Security Enforcer (ASE) system level configuration entails modifying parameters in the ase.conf file located in the config directory. Some values have default settings which can be modified to support your application requirements.

The following table includes the parameter values and descriptions.

Parameter Description

ASE mode

mode

The mode in which ASE works. Possible values are inline and sideband. The default value is inline.

ASE timezone

timezone

Sets ASE’s timezone. The values can be local or UTC. Default value is UTC. If ASE is deployed in a cluster, configure the same timezone on each cluster node manually.

enable_sideband_keepalive

N/A

enable_sideband_authentication

N/A

ASE ports

http_ws_port

Data port used for http or WebSocket protocol.

The default value is 8000.

https_wss_port

Data port used for https or Secure WebSocket (wss).

The default value is 8443.

management_port

Management port used for command-line interface (CLI) and REST application programming interface (API) management.

The default value is 8010.

ASE administration and audit

admin_log_level

The level of log detail captured. Options include:

Fatal – 1, Error – 2, Warning – 3, Info – 4, Debug – 5

enable_audit

When set to true, ASE logs all actions performed in ASE in the audit log files.

The default value is true.

syslog_server

Syslog server hostname or IPv4 address:port number.

Leave this parameter blank if you do not want to generate for no syslog.

hostname_refresh

Time interval at which hostnames are refreshed. The default value is 60 secs. When ASE attempts to refresh the hostname, the hostname resolution must happen in 5 secs.

auth_method

Authentication method used for administrator access. See Configuring Native and PAM Authentication for more information on the two options:

ase::db (Default - Native authentication)
pam::ldap(Linux-PAM Authentication with script)

enable_ase_health

When true, enables load balancers to perform a health check using the following URL: http(s)://<ASE Name>/ase where <ASE Name> is the ASE domain name

The default value is false.

Do not configure the /ase URL in an API JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file.

enable_1G

When true, enable 1Gbps Ethernet support.

The default value is true.

Only applicable when using a 1G NIC card

http_ws_process

The number of HTTP or WebSocket processes.

The default value is 1 and the maximum value is 6.

When running ASE in a cluster deployment, all nodes must have the same number of processes.

https_wss_process

The number of HTTPS or secure WebSocket processes.

The default value is 1 and the maximum value is 6.

When running ASE in a cluster deployment, all nodes must have the same number of processes.

enable_access_log

When true, log client traffic request and response information. Default value is true. Make sure the value is set to true when ASE connected to PingOne.

flush_log_immediate

When true, log files are immediately written to the file system. When false, log files are written after a time interval. The default value is true.

attack_list_memory

The amount of memory used for maintaining black and whitelists. The default value is 128 MB.

keystore_password

Password for the keystore. For more information on updating the keystore password, see Updating Keystore Password.

enable_hostname_rewrite

When set to true, ASE rewrites the host header in the client request with the Internet Protocol (IP) or host and port number configured in the server section of the API JSON. Make a note of the following points:

server_ssl in API JSON set to false:

In the server section of API JSON, if the configured port is the standard HTTP port (port number 80), then only the IP or hostname in the request header is rewritten.
In the server section of API JSON, if the configured port is any port other than the standard HTTP port (port number 80), then IP or hostname and port number in the request header is rewritten. For example, if the configured port number is 8080 in API JSON for a host example.com, then ASE rewrites the host header in request with example.com:8080.

server_ssl in API JSON set to true:

In the server section of API JSON, if the configured port is the standard HTTPS port (port number 443), then only the IP or hostname in the request header is rewritten.
In the server section of API JSON, if the configured port is any port other than the standard HTTPS port (port number 443), then IP or hostname and port number in the request header is rewritten. For example, if the configured port number is 8443 in API JSON for a host example.com, then ASE rewrites the host header in request with example.com:8443.

ASE cluster

enable_cluster

When true, run the setup in cluster mode.

The default value is false, run the setup in standalone mode.

Security

enable_sslv3

When true, enable Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 3. Default value is false.

server_ca_cert_path

Location of the trusted certificate authority (CA) certificates for SSL/TLS connections from ASE to backend servers.

If the path parameter value is left empty, then ASE does not verify the validity of CA certificates. However, the backend connection is still encrypted.

For RHEL 7.6 CA certificates, the default path is: /etc/pki/tls/certs/.

Multiple certificates can be placed in this directory.

enable_xff

When true, pass XFF header with originating IP address to the backend server.

enable_firewall

When true, activate the following API security features:

API mapping
API pattern enforcement
Connection drop using attack types
Flow control

Default value is true

enable_strict_request_parser

When true, ASE blocks client http requests with invalid headers start.

The default value is true.

Real-time API security

enable_ase_detected_attack

When true, activates the real-time security in ASE. ASE detects and blocks pattern enforcement violations, wrong API keys and clients probing decoy API and later accessing real APIs. The default value is false.

API deception

decoy_alert_interval

The time interval between decoy API email alerts.

The default value is 180 minutes.

Maximum value is 1440 minutes (i.e. 24 hours).

AI-based API Behavioral Security (ABS)

enable_abs

When true (default), send access log files to ABS AI Engine for generating API metrics and detecting attacks using machine learning algorithms. Set it totrue when ASE is connected to PingOne.

enable_abs_attack

When true (default), ASE fetches attack list from ABS AI Engine and blocks access by the clients that are in the attack list.

When false, attack list is not downloaded.

abs_attack_request_minute

Time interval in minutes at which ASE fetches ABS attack list. The default value is 10-minutes.

Google Pub/Sub configuration

enable_google_pubsub

N/A

google_pubsub_topic

N/A

google_pubsub_concurrency

N/A

google_pubsub_qps

N/A

google_pubsub_apikey

N/A

cache_queue_size

N/A

google_pubsub_timeout

N/A

API Publish (ABS)

enable_abs_publish

When true, ASE polls ABS to get list of published APIs and list of non-discovered APIs and decide whether APIs received will be added, deleted or updated. When false, the published list will not be downloaded.

The default value is false.

abs_publish_request_minutes

This value determines how often ASE will get published API list from ABS. The default value is 10 minutes.

Alerts and reports

enable_email

When true, send email notifications. The default value is false. ASE logs the alerts in balancer.log file even when email alerts are disabled. See Email alerts and reports for more information.

email_report

Time interval in days at which ASE sends reports. Minimum value is 1 day and the maximum is 7-days. The default value is 1-day.

smtp_host

Hostname of SMTP server.

smtp_port

Port number of SMTP server.

smtp_ssl

Set to true if you want email communication to be over SSL. Make sure that the SMTP server supports SSL. If you set smtp_ssl to true and the SMTP server does not support SSL, email communication falls back to the non-SSL channel. The default value is true.

Set it to false if email communication is over a non-SSL channel. The email communication will fail if you set the parameter to false, but the SMTP server only supports SSL communication.

smtp_cert_verification

Set to true if you want ASE to verify the SMTP server’s SSL certificate. The default value is true.

If you set it to false, ASE does not verify SMTP server’s SSL certificate; however, the communication is still over SSL.

If you have configured an IP address as smtp_host and set smtp_cert_verification to true, then make sure that the certificate configured on the SMTP server has the following:

X509v3 extensions:
           X509v3 Key Usage:
              Key Encipherment, Data Encipherment
           X509v3 Extended Key Usage:
              TLS Web Server Authentication
           X509v3 Subject Alternative Name:
               IP Address: X.X.X.X

sender_email

Email address for sending email alerts and reports.

sender_password

Password of sender’s email account.

You can leave this field blank if your SMTP server does not require authentication.

receiver_email

Email address to notify about alerts and reports

See email alerts for more information.

ASE server resource utilization

cpu_usage

Percentage threshold value of CPU utilization.

See email alerts for more information.

memory_usage

Percentage threshold value of memory usage.

See email alerts for more information.

filesystem_size

Percentage threshold value of filesystem capacity.

See email alerts for more information.

buffer_size

Customizable payload buffer size to reduce the number of iterations required for reading and writing payloads.

Default value is 16KB. Minimum is 1KB and maximum is 32KB.

A sample ase.conf file is displayed below:

; This is API Security Enforcer's main configuration file. This file is in the standard .ini format.
; It contains ports, firewall, log, ABS flags. The comments start with a semicolon (;).

; Defines running mode for API Security Enforcer (Allowed values are inline or sideband).
mode=inline

; Defines http(s)/websocket(s) ports for API Security Enforcer. Linux user should have the privilege to bind to these ports.
; If you comment out a port, then that protocol is disabled.
http_ws_port=8000
https_wss_port=8443

; REST API
management_port=8010

; For controller.log and balancer.log only
; 1-5 (FATAL, ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG)
admin_log_level=4

; Defines the number of processes for a protocol.
; The maximum number of allowed process for each protocol is 6 (1 master + 5 child). The
; following defines 1 process for both http/ws and https/wss protocol.
http_ws_process=1
https_wss_process=1

; Enable or disable access logs to the filesystem (request/response).
; WARNING! It must be set to true for sending logs to ABS for analytics.
enable_access_log=true
; To write access log immediately to the filesystem, set to true.
flush_log_immediate=true

; Setting this value to true will enable this node to participate in an API Security Enforcer
; cluster. Define cluster configurations in the cluster.conf
enable_cluster=false

; Current API Security Enforcer version has 3 firewall features: API Mapping, API Pattern
; Enforcement, and Attack Types.
enable_firewall=true

; X-Forwarded For
enable_xff=false

; SSLv3
enable_sslv3=false

; enable Nagle's algorithm (if NIC card is 1G).
enable_1G=true

; tcp send buffer size in bytes(kernel)
tcp_send_buffer_size=65535
; tcp receive buffer size in bytes(kernel)
tcp_receive_buffer_size=65535

; buffer size for send and receive in KBs (user)
buffer_size=16KB

; Set this value to true, to allow API Security Enforcer to send logs to ABS. This
; configuration depends on the value of the enable_access_log parameter.
enable_abs=true

; Set this value to true, to allow API Security Enforcer to fetch attack list from ABS.
enable_abs_attack=true

; This value determines how often API Security Enforcer will get attack list from ABS.
abs_attack_request_minutes=10

; Set this value to true, to allow API Security Enforcer to fetch published API list from ABS.
enable_abs_publish=false

; This value determines how often API Security Enforcer will get published API list from ABS.
abs_publish_request_minutes=10

; Set this value to true, to allow API Security Enforcer to block auto detected attacks.
enable_ase_detected_attack=false

; Set this value to true to enable email for both alerts and daily reports.
enable_email=false

; Defines report frequency in days [0=no reports, 1=every day, 2=once in two days and max is 7 ; days]
email_report=1
; Specify your email settings
smtp_host=smtp://<smtp-server>
smtp_port=587
; Set this value to true if smtp host support SSL
smtp_ssl=true
; Set this value to true if SSL certificate verification is required
smtp_cert_verification=false
sender_email=
sender_password=
receiver_email=

; Defines threshold for an email alert. For example, if CPU usage is 70%, you will get an
; alert.
cpu_usage=70
memory_usage=70
filesystem_size=70

; Authentication method. Format is <auth_agent>::<auth_service>
; Valid values for auth_agent are ase and pam
; ase agent only supports db auth_service
; pam agent can support user configured pam services
; For example ase::db, pam::passwd, pam::ldap etc
auth_method=ase::db

; Enable auditing. Valid values are true or false.
enable_audit=true

; Decoy alert interval in minutes. [min=15, default=3*60, max=24*60]
decoy_alert_interval=180

; Interval for a hostname lookup (in seconds). [min=10, default=60, max=86400]
hostname_refresh=60

; Syslog server settings. The valid format is host:port. Host can be an FQDN or an IPv4
; address.
syslog_server=

; Attack List size in MB or GB. [min=64MB, max=1024GB]
; ASE will take 3*(configured memory) internally. Make sure that the system has at least
; 3*(configured memory) available
; If you are running ASE inside a container, configure the container to use 3*(configured
; memory) shared memory.
attack_list_memory=128MB

; Enable or Disable health check module. ASE uses '/ase' url for both http and https. This is
; useful if ASE is deployed behind a load balancer.
enable_ase_health=false

; Location for server's trusted CA certificates. If empty, Server's certificate will not be
; verified.
server_ca_cert_path=

; enable client side authentication. This setting is applicable only in sideband mode. Once enabled
; request will be authenticated using authentication tokens.
enable_sideband_authentication=false

; enable connection keepalive for requests from gateway to ase.
; This setting is applicable only in sideband mode.
; Once enabled ase will add 'Connection: keep-alive' header in response
; Once disabled ase will add 'Connection: close' header in response
enable_sideband_keepalive=false

; keystore password
keystore_password=OBF:AES:sRNp0W7sSi1zrReXeHodKQ:lXcvbBhKZgDTrjQOfOkzR2mpca4bTUcwPAuerMPwvM4

; enable hostname rewrite for inline mode. ASE will rewrite the host header in request
; to the server's hostname
enable_hostname_rewrite=false

; enable strict parsing checks for client requests
; If enabled, ASE will block request with invalid header start
; If disabled, it will allow requests
; default value = true
enable_strict_request_parser=true

; Set the timezone to utc or local. The default timezone is utc.
timezone=utc

; Google Pub Sub Configuation
enable_google_pubsub=false

google_pubsub_topic=/topic/apimetrics

; Number of concurrent connections to Google Pub/Sub
; Minimum: 1, Default: 1000, Maximum: 1024
google_pubsub_concurrency=1000

; Number of messages published per second.
; Minimum: 1, Default: 1000, Maximum: 10000
google_pubsub_qps=1000

; Google service account API key (Optional)
google_pubsub_apikey=

; Maximum number of messages buffered in memory
; If queue is full, messages are written to logs/google_pubsub_failed.log
; Minimum: 1, Default: 300, Maximum: 10000
cache_queue_size=300

; Timeout in seconds to publish a message to Google Pub/Sub.
; Minimum: 10, Default: 30, Maximum: 300
google_pubsub_timeout=30

PingIntelligence

Inline ASE configuration using the ase.conf file