> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://waf-doc.inext.checkpoint.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://waf-doc.inext.checkpoint.com/additional-security-engines/api-protection/authentication-enforcement.md).

# Authentication Enforcement

#### Overview

CloudGuard WAF’s Authentication Enforcement ensures that only authorized requests can access your protected web application. It validates incoming requests against the configured authentication type and can detect/block unauthenticated or improperly authenticated traffic.

### **How to set up** Authentication Enforcement

#### **Configuration Options**

<figure><img src="/files/xNpkulADF4EhEAznD5kw" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

* **Authentication Type**\
  Currently, only **JWT (JSON Web Token)** is supported.
* **Existence Verification** \
  Ensures that an authentication token is present.
* **Authentication Expiration**\
  Validates that the token has not expired.

{% hint style="info" %}
A default tolerance period of 5 minutes is applied to the expiration time.
{% endhint %}

* **Signature Verification**\
  Verifies the JWT using the uploaded public key.

{% hint style="info" %}
Signature Verification supports the following **asymmetric algorithms**: RS256, RS512, ES256, ES385, ES512.
{% endhint %}

**Unauthenticated Endpoints**

By default, this protection applies to the entire asset.

* If you want to **exclude specific URIs**, you can define them here.

#### **Response Code for Unauthorized Access**

{% hint style="danger" %}
The default response status code is 403 when a request is blocked, which might cause unexpected behavior, the following section explains how to configure 401 response code to align with authentication best practices.
{% endhint %}

To return a `401 Unauthorized` response for blocked requests follow the steps bellow:

1. create a dedicated [Web User Response](/setup-instructions/setup-web-user-response-pages.md), with the following configurations:
   * Mode: `Response Code Only`&#x20;
   * HTTP Response Code: `401`

<div data-full-width="false"><figure><img src="/files/9G2O6fL33pK9l1YzJjYu" alt="" width="199"><figcaption></figcaption></figure></div>

2. Assign the Web User Response to the practice.

<figure><img src="/files/5nSrXs1V3T5rnL2e2QNj" alt="" width="375"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

3. Enforce Policy.


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