🛡️ WAF & ZAPROXY Full Active Scanning in Sandbox Environments for Microservices: Protect Apps & Ensure Compliance

🔎 Why Sandbox + WAF + Automated Vulnerability Scanning Matters

Even with secure coding, hardened apps, dynamic secrets, and network policies, web applications remain exposed to HTTP/HTTPS attacks.

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects your apps by inspecting and filtering HTTP traffic in real-time, while automated vulnerability scanning with ZAPROXY full active scans identifies potential security flaws before production.

Why sandbox environments matter:Full active scans can trigger potentially destructive actions (e.g., data modification or deletion). To safely perform these scans, we leverage Dev2Prod automation to provision ephemeral sandbox environments where microservices can be tested safely without impacting production.

• Terragrunt / Terraform → Provision isolated Kubernetes clusters

• ArgoCD / Kustomize / Helm → Deploy microservices, WAF, and configuration

• Sandbox environment → Safe playground for full active security scans

🧩 Compliance Controls Mapped to WAF + Sandbox Scanning

Framework	Control / Clause	How WAF + ZAPROXY Helps
ISO 27001:2022	A.8.28 Secure coding	Blocks attacks and identifies potential code vulnerabilities
	A.12.6.1 Technical vulnerability management	ZAPROXY scans detect vulnerabilities before production
	A.8.16 Monitoring activities	Logs from WAF & scans provide evidence for audit & incident management
PCI DSS v4.0	6.5.1/6.5.2 Secure coding	Protects against OWASP Top 10 attacks
	6.6 Web application firewall	Requirement: WAF deployment + vulnerability scanning
	10.2 Audit trails	Logs provide forensic evidence of attacks and scan results
HIPAA §164.312(c)(1)	Integrity controls	WAF blocks attacks; ZAPROXY identifies potential ePHI exposure
	§164.308(a)(1)(ii)(D) Evaluation	Scan reports support risk assessment and evaluation
GDPR Art. 32	Security of processing	Prevents unauthorized access or leakage of personal data
	Art. 25 Privacy by design	Active scanning ensures security controls protect user data
NIST SP 800-53 Rev5	SI-10 Input validation	Filters and tests malicious input through scanning and WAF rules
	SC-7 Boundary protection	Controls access to protected services and APIs
	SI-4 Monitoring	Provides logs and alerts for anomaly detection