You can monitor application security for Node.js apps running in Docker, Kubernetes, Amazon ECS, and AWS Fargate.
Prerequisites
Enabling threat detection
Get started
Update your Datadog Node.js library package to at least version 5.0.0 (for Node 18+) or 4.0.0 (for Node 16+) or 3.10.0 (for NodeJS 14+), by running one of these commands:
npm install dd-trace@^5
npm install dd-trace@^4
npm install dd-trace@^3.10.0
Use this migration guide to assess any breaking changes if you upgraded your library.
Application Security Management is compatible with Express v4+ and NodeJS v14+. For additional information, see Compatibility.
Where you import and initialize the Node.js library for APM, also enable ASM. This might be either in your code or with environment variables. If you initialized APM in code, add {appsec: true} to your init statement:
// This line must come before importing any instrumented module.
const tracer = require('dd-trace').init({
appsec: true
})
For TypeScript and bundlers that support EcmaScript Module syntax, initialize the tracer in a separate file in order to maintain correct load order.
// server.ts
import './tracer'; // must come before importing any instrumented module.
// tracer.ts
import tracer from 'dd-trace';
tracer.init({
appsec: true
}); // initialized in a different file to avoid hoisting.
export default tracer;
If the default config is sufficient, or all configuration is done through environment variables, you can also use dd-trace/init, which loads and initializes in one step.
Or if you initialize the APM library on the command line using the --require option to Node.js:
node --require dd-trace/init app.js
Then use environment variables to enable ASM:
DD_APPSEC_ENABLED=true node app.js
How you do this varies depending on where your service runs:
Update your configuration container for APM by adding the following argument in your docker run command:
docker run [...] -e DD_APPSEC_ENABLED=true [...]
Add the following environment variable value to your container Dockerfile:
ENV DD_APPSEC_ENABLED=true
Update your configuration yaml file container for APM and add the AppSec env variable:
spec:
template:
spec:
containers:
- name: <CONTAINER_NAME>
image: <CONTAINER_IMAGE>/<TAG>
env:
- name: DD_APPSEC_ENABLED
value: "true"
Update your ECS task definition JSON file, by adding this in the environment section:
"environment": [
...,
{
"name": "DD_APPSEC_ENABLED",
"value": "true"
}
]
Initialize ASM in your code or set DD_APPSEC_ENABLED environment variable to true in your service invocation:
DD_APPSEC_ENABLED=true node app.js
After this configuration is complete, the library collects security data from your application and sends it to the Agent, which sends it to Datadog, where out-of-the-box detection rules flag attacker techniques and potential misconfigurations so you can take steps to remediate.
To see Application Security Management threat detection in action, send known attack patterns to your application. For example, trigger the Security Scanner Detected rule by running a file that contains the following curl script:
for ((i=1;i<=250;i++));
do
# Target existing service’s routes
curl https://your-application-url/existing-route -A dd-test-scanner-log;
# Target non existing service’s routes
curl https://your-application-url/non-existing-route -A dd-test-scanner-log;
done
Note: The dd-test-scanner-log value is supported in the most recent releases.
A few minutes after you enable your application and exercise it, threat information appears in the Application Signals Explorer and vulnerability information appears in the Vulnerability Explorer.
If you need additional assistance, contact Datadog support.
Further Reading
Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:
