Web Application Access Restriction

1. Prerequisites

• Application, API, route, endpoint, feature, tenant, or function requiring restriction identified
• Access to relevant application, WAF, CDN, API gateway, identity, or configuration controls
• Business-critical access requirements known
• Rollback method available
• Incident ticket or change record created

2. Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Define Restriction Scope

   • Identify the application, API, route, endpoint, tenant, feature, admin function, upload path, export path, or integration to restrict.
   • Record the reason for restriction and required time window.

2. Identify Required Access

   • Determine which users, services, source networks, methods, regions, tenants, or integrations must remain allowed.
   • Identify access that can be blocked, limited, or challenged.

3. Select Restriction Method

   • Choose the least disruptive effective control:
     • Disable route, feature, upload, export, or integration
     • Apply WAF, CDN, or API gateway rule
     • Require authentication or step-up authentication
     • Apply IP, ASN, geo, tenant, user, or service allowlist/denylist
     • Restrict HTTP methods, request size, file types, or high-risk parameters
     • Apply rate limits, bot controls, or request throttling
     • Remove admin interface from public exposure

4. Record Current State

   • Capture current routing, WAF/CDN/API gateway rules, feature flags, access policies, rate limits, and relevant application configuration.
   • Record rollback values before making changes.

5. Apply Restriction

   • Implement the selected restriction.
   • Keep the scope as narrow as possible.
   • Record exact rule, configuration, feature flag, route, or policy changed.

6. Validate Restriction

   • Confirm blocked or restricted access is no longer allowed.
   • Confirm required users, services, tenants, and business-critical flows still work.
   • Check for unintended outage or authentication failures.

7. Monitor for Bypass

   • Review logs for alternate routes, changed payloads, new source IPs, token reuse, method switching, rate-limit evasion, or tenant/object switching.
   • Adjust restriction if bypass attempts continue.

8. Record Restriction Details

   • Document restriction scope, method, timestamp, configuration change, validation result, expected duration, rollback condition, and known business impact.

9. Review Continued Need

   • Reassess whether the restriction is still required.
   • Remove, narrow, or replace temporary controls once durable remediation is complete.

10. Restore Access

    • Remove or reduce the restriction when criteria are met.
    • Validate normal functionality.
    • Record restoration time and final state.

3. Post-Action

• Confirm restriction remains effective and scoped appropriately.
• Record business impact, bypass attempts, and required follow-up changes.
• Preserve before/after configuration where applicable.

Contributor

Jayden Vo GitHub: https://github.com/jayden-vo

Contributed to the Arcana Incident Response Documentation Framework.