Final answer:
AWS WAF enhances container security within Amazon ECS by filtering web traffic using customizable security rules, protecting against common web exploits. It is integrated via an Application Load Balancer, providing an additional layer of security and allowing traffic monitoring and real-time visibility into attacks.
Step-by-step explanation:
AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) can be utilized to enhance security for containers within Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) by applying web traffic filters at the application layer. This is done through creating customizable web security rules that can help protect your containerized applications from common web exploits that could affect application availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. AWS WAF can block SQL injection and XSS attacks, as well as define rules that respond to the received HTTP(S) requests based on conditions such as IP addresses, HTTP headers, HTTP body, or URI strings.
To integrate AWS WAF with ECS, you typically place an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in front of the ECS service. The ALB serves as an entry point for incoming traffic, which is then inspected by AWS WAF before being forwarded to the containers. By analyzing and filtering out malicious traffic, AWS WAF provides an additional layer of security to your container deployment. Furthermore, AWS WAF integrates seamlessly with Amazon CloudWatch, which allows you to monitor the traffic passing through the firewall and set alarms based on specified conditions. This enables real-time visibility into attempted attacks and helps to ensure a secure and resilient container environment within AWS ECS.