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Enable the Distributed Cloud Firewall (DCF) feature to avail the WebGroups. See Distributed Cloud Firewall Overview for more information.
WebGroups are groupings of domains or URLs, inserted into DCF rules, that filter (and provide security to) Internet-bound traffic. WebGroups in DCF are only supported on Spoke Gateways and Public Subnet Filtering (PSF) Gateways. From this tab you can save views, filter intrusion results, and download the results in a CSV file.
To filter HTTP or HTTPS traffic with a URL-based WebGroup, TLS Decryption must be enabled in the rule where the WebGroup is used.Non-TLS or non-HTTP traffic will not match the rule that uses the WebGroup and will be evaluated against later rules.

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Considerations

  • A TLS packet with no SNI header will only match the All-Web default WebGroup. You can create a DCF rule that uses a URL-type WebGroup to capture the packet, but only exact match URLs are supported at this time.
    As an alternative to using a URL-based WebGroup, you can configure an L4 rule without WebGroups to allow the traffic based on IP address, and insert it before the first L7 rule.
  • For non-TLS encrypted HTTP traffic, there is no SNI header. The following values are used instead:
    • Domain-based WebGroups: the value of the HTTP Host Header.
    • URL-based WebGroups: the URL value, as it would be for HTTPS (as long as TLS Decryption is enabled).
  • Non-TLS, non-HTTP traffic will not match any WebGroup.
  • Wildcard support varies by Controller version and WebGroup type:
    • Domain-based WebGroups: Full wildcards (for example, *.example.com) are supported on all supported Controller versions.
    • URL-based WebGroups: Wildcard support is limited. On Controller 7.x and 8.0, the Create Web Group dialog rejects URL entries that contain wildcards (including the *.example.com example shown in the in-product help); use a domain-based WebGroup if you need wildcard matching on these versions. On Controller 8.1 and later, hostname-style wildcards (such as *.example.com) are accepted in URL-based WebGroups, but more complex patterns with wildcards in the URL path (such as https://www.example.com/*/dashboard) may be rejected by the Controller with an [AVXERR-SMARTGROUP-0007] error; use a simpler URL pattern or a domain-based WebGroup in these cases.

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WebGroup Syntax Reference

When you enter domains or URLs into a WebGroup, the entries must follow the syntax described below. Malformed entries cause the Controller to reject the WebGroup.

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Allowed Characters

A domain or URL entry can use only the following characters:
  • Alphanumeric (a-z, A-Z, and 0-9)
  • Dots (.)
  • Dashes (-)
  • Underscores (_)
  • Asterisks (*)
A domain name can start with any of these characters. Any TLS protocol is supported for domain entries, along with HTTP.

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Wildcard Patterns

The asterisk (*) is a wildcard. Where wildcards are supported (see Considerations for the per-type and per-version rules), the following patterns are valid: Consecutive asterisks (for example, **.example.com) are not supported. If the Controller detects malformed wildcard usage, the WebGroup is not created and you must correct the entry before saving.

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URL Examples

The following URL entries are valid for URL-based WebGroups:
  • github.com/AviatrixFieldEng/
  • https://www.example.com/*/dashboard
  • https://downloads.example.com/*.zip
  • https://*.updates.example.com/
Wildcards inside the URL path (for example, /*/dashboard) are not supported on every Controller version. See Considerations for the version-specific behavior and error messages.

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System-Defined WebGroup

When you navigate to Security > Distributed Cloud Firewall > WebGroups, a system-defined WebGroup, ‘All-Web’, has already been created for you (if no other WebGroups exist). This predefined WebGroup cannot be deleted. webgroup default This is an “allow-all” WebGroup that you must select in a Distributed Cloud Firewall rule if you do not want to limit the Internet-bound traffic for that rule, but you still want to log the FQDNs that are being accessed.
Prior to Release 7.1.3006, the default WebGroup was named ‘Any-Web’ and was created by CoPilot. If you still have this WebGroup, you can modify it (if it is being used by Distributed Cloud Firewall rules) or delete it (if it is not used by any Distributed Cloud Firewall rules) so that it is not confused with the default ‘Any-Web’ WebGroup created by Controller.

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SNI Verification

SNI Verification is only present if using Controller 8.0 or later.
You can enable SNI verification for a DCF rule if a WebGroup is also selected in that rule. SNI verification ensures that the Common Name (CN) or Subject Alternative Name (SAN)s of the certificate sent by the origin server contain the SNI field in the request sent by the DCF rule. If this condition is not met, the traffic is dropped. You can change the enforcement level for the certificate in the Distributed Cloud Firewall settings on the Decryption CA Certificate card .