A retail company is facing a series of cyberattacks targeting web servers, which results in...

The cyberattacks described target theapplication layer (Layer 7), specifically exploiting vulnerabilities through malformed HTTP headers. AWeb Application Firewall (WAF)is the specialized security solution required to mitigate these threats. Unlike standard firewalls that inspect traffic at the network and transport layers (IPs and Ports), a WAF performs deep inspection of HTTP/HTTPS traffic.

A WAF—such as those integrated into theCisco Secure Firewallor cloud-native WAF services—understands the structure of web requests. It can identify and block sophisticated attacks like SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and the specific "invalid HTTP request headers" mentioned in the scenario. By applying a set of rules (often based on the OWASP Top 10), the WAF filters out malicious requests before they reach the web server.Antivirus software(Option A) andHost-based firewalls(Option D) protect the server's operating system from malware and unauthorized connections but cannot inspect the logic of a web request. ATraditional Firewall(Option B) would simply see the traffic as "allowed" on Port 443 and pass it through. Implementing a WAF is a critical architectural requirement in the Cisco SDSI "Applications" domain to protect customer-facing web services from exploitation.