Securing API Gateway with AWS WAF

When to Use

• When deploying API Gateway endpoints that require protection against common web attacks
• When implementing rate limiting and throttling to prevent API abuse and DDoS attacks
• When building bot detection and mitigation for API endpoints exposed to the internet
• When compliance requires WAF protection for all public-facing API endpoints
• When customizing access controls based on IP reputation, geolocation, or request patterns

Do not use for network-level DDoS protection (use AWS Shield), for application logic vulnerabilities (use SAST/DAST tools), or for internal API security between microservices (use service mesh authentication and authorization).

Prerequisites

• AWS API Gateway (REST or HTTP API) deployed with public endpoints
• IAM permissions for wafv2:* and apigateway:* operations
• CloudWatch and S3 or Kinesis Firehose configured for WAF logging
• Understanding of the API's expected traffic patterns for rate limiting configuration
• IP reputation lists or threat intelligence feeds for custom IP blocking