Forum Discussion

Altostratus

Jan 17, 2021

Block access to apps by browser. Allow only iPhone or Android accesss

Customer has an application that they want access only through the mobile device app. They have recently found that the application can be accessed through any browser. We have configured the foll...

MVP

Jan 19, 2021

Hi Alfonso,

this iRule should work. However I strongly discourage the use of it. User-Agent Headers can be forged easily. Anyone who knows how to access Developer Tools in a browser can change his User-Agent string to whatever they want.

when HTTP_REQUEST {
    if {([string tolower [HTTP::header "User-Agent"]] contains "iphone") || ([string tolower [HTTP::header "User-Agent"]] contains "android") } {
        return
    } else {
        reject
    }
}

Alfonso_Santia2
Altostratus
Jan 19, 2021
Hello Daniel,

Thanks for your reply. Will try this out but gave caution to customer as well.
What do you suggest how best to go about this requirement - allow only the access through mobile app (iPhone and Android) ?
- Daniel_Wolf
  MVP
  Jan 19, 2021
  Without knowing much about the app and the setup (does the customer have APM maybe?) it is difficult to provide a good answer.
  Maybe client certificate validation, which can be configured in the client-side SSL profile, could be a better solution?
- jaikumar_f5
  MVP
  Jan 20, 2021
  I assume even with APM, its still going to check the user-agent variable & thats going to validate against if it contains "iPhone" or "android" as such. I think WAF would have this advanced detection.
  
  But if the requirement is to allow mobile users alone, then the Irule should work. Anyone who knows to tamper the header, can still get the data.
  
  Is the application internal or external facing ?