Hello, I am not an F5 expert, but am asking on behalf of a customer. I am trying to find the following: Can ASM be leveraged to inspect application traffic when the application is using a TCP (not HTTP) based access policy? If so, is this out of the box or is there special configuration required? The customer is using Big-IP using F5 for reverse proxy and SSL offload. Any help would (and links) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Marcus

Hello, ASM is a Web application firewall and is dedicated to the protection of web apps. You can use the ASM license to protect smtp and ftp services. If you have a custom TCP app, you have better to go with LTM, irules and IP Intelligence (ip reputation db) You can find info on devcebtral and askf5.f5.com

ASM and TCP based applications

Yann_Desmarest_
Nacreous
May 16, 2016
Hello,

ASM is a Web application firewall and is dedicated to the protection of web apps.

You can use the ASM license to protect smtp and ftp services.

If you have a custom TCP app, you have better to go with LTM, irules and IP Intelligence (ip reputation db)

You can find info on devcebtral and askf5.f5.com
- Marcus_Spitzmil
  Nimbostratus
  May 16, 2016
  Thanks a lot for the quick response. In this case it actually is a web app using websockets, which require a TCP based access policy. I am assuming this does not change your answer? Please confirm, then I'll mark your answer. Thanks! Marcus
- Erik_Novak_2712
  Historic F5 Account
  May 16, 2016
  The upcoming ASM v12.1 supports WebSocket applications. The standard TCP profile must be used on the virtual server, and then you add a WebSocket profile. Automatic configuration of WebSocket URLs is also configurable.
- Yann_Desmarest_
  Nacreous
  May 16, 2016
  Hi, Websocket is currently supported using LTM only. As Erik mentioned, you need to wait for the 12.1.0 to be released
Yann_Desmarest
Cirrus
May 16, 2016
Hello,

ASM is a Web application firewall and is dedicated to the protection of web apps.

You can use the ASM license to protect smtp and ftp services.

If you have a custom TCP app, you have better to go with LTM, irules and IP Intelligence (ip reputation db)

You can find info on devcebtral and askf5.f5.com
- Marcus_Spitzmil
  Nimbostratus
  May 16, 2016
  Thanks a lot for the quick response. In this case it actually is a web app using websockets, which require a TCP based access policy. I am assuming this does not change your answer? Please confirm, then I'll mark your answer. Thanks! Marcus
- Erik_Novak_2712
  Historic F5 Account
  May 16, 2016
  The upcoming ASM v12.1 supports WebSocket applications. The standard TCP profile must be used on the virtual server, and then you add a WebSocket profile. Automatic configuration of WebSocket URLs is also configurable.
- Yann_Desmarest
  Cirrus
  May 16, 2016
  Hi, Websocket is currently supported using LTM only. As Erik mentioned, you need to wait for the 12.1.0 to be released