RASP 101: Staying Safe With Runtime Application Self-Protection

RASP 101: Staying Safe With Runtime Application Self-Protection
The dream of RASP is to empower applications to protect themselves. How close do current implementations get to living the dream? Here's what to know.

(image by weyo, via Adobe Stock)



One of the hopeful appsec solutions to emerge in the past decade is runtime application self-protection (RASP). This year RASP earned a spot on NIST's list of critical controls in the latest revision of NIST special publication 800-53. Here's what you need to know about RASP, including what it does, why it matters, and where it falls short.


What Is RASP?


As defined by Gartner, RASP is "a security technology that is built or linked into an application or application runtime environment, and is capable of controlling application execution and detecting and preventing real-time attacks." The concept was first introduced into the cybersecurity lexicon by former Gartner vice president, fellow, and lead appsec analyst, Joseph Feiman – currently chief strategy officer at WhiteHat Security – in a 2012 research note.


Whereas a Web application firewall (WAF) will prevent attackers from reaching vulnerable applications behind the firewall, the idea behind RASP is that it enables applications to protect themselves against attacks in real time.


How Does It Work?


While that is the goal, today's RASP technology doesn't exactly turn applications into martial arts experts who have mastered self-defense.


RASP deploys agents to sit near the application so it has the ability to take control if and when a security event occurs. The technology watches and analyzes the applic ..

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