Editor’s Note: This is the second post of a two-part series on securing WebLogic.
Part 1 of this post highlighted the inherent conflict between the Site Reliability Engineer’s (SRE) need for operational stability and the security leader’s mandate to eliminate risk in WebLogic environments. The solution isn’t to compromise, but to introduce a new layer of security that resolves this conflict: runtime protection and remediation by virtual patching. This approach fundamentally changes application defense, turning a reactive process into an active defense.
The SRE’s Ultimate Solution: Stability and Resilience
For the SRE team, the primary value of runtime protection is its ability to deliver security without compromising our core objectives. A runtime protection solution, like a RASP (Runtime Application Self-Protection) agent, embeds itself directly into the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that runs the WebLogic application. This is a non-invasive process that requires no source code changes, no recompilation, and most importantly, no application downtime. Instead of a full-scale, disruptive patch deployment, teams can now “virtually patch” a vulnerability with a policy or a security agent update while the app runs.
This means we can:
- Achieve Instant Risk Mitigation: When a new critical CVE is announced, teams can deploy a virtual patch within minutes, neutralizing the vulnerability long before the vendor’s official patch is even available.
- Maintain Uptime and Stability: Critical systems stay online. There are no surprise regressions, no complex testing cycles, and no risk to Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and error budgets.
- Streamline Operations: The process of securing against new threats becomes an automated, continuous process, not a manual, quarterly fire drill.
The Security Leader’s Answer to Audit and Zero-Days
For the security leader, runtime protection and remediation by virtual patching are the missing links in a defense-in-depth strategy. It closes the critical gap that has long existed between vulnerability disclosure and remediation. This approach empowers teams to:
- Eliminate the Vulnerability Window: Teams are no longer defenseless against a zero-day exploit. Applications can defend themselves from within, blocking attacks that would have easily bypassed external security controls like a WAF. This provides an immediate, decisive countermeasure. (32% of vulnerabilities so far in 2025 had exploitation evidence on or before the day of their CVE disclosure, often indicating zero-day exploitation.)
- Provide Unparalleled Compliance Assurance: Teams can now provide definitive proof that applications are protected against critical CVEs, even when a vendor patch is pending. This is invaluable for satisfying compliance audits and demonstrating an active security posture to regulators and the Board of Directors.
- Gain Deep, Actionable Insights: Runtime agents don’t just block; they provide rich, contextual telemetry about the attack. Data shows exactly which part of an application was targeted, what malicious data was used, and how it was neutralized. This intelligence helps security teams move from reactive alerts to strategic threat modeling and root cause analysis.
The combination of WebLogic’s inherent complexity and the speed of modern cyber threats demands a new security paradigm. Runtime protection and remediation by virtual patching provide a powerful, elegant solution that bridges the gap between operational stability and security urgency.
This isn’t about replacing traditional patching, but about augmenting it with a dynamic, self-protecting layer that buys teams needed time and gives them the required security assurance. By embracing this approach, teams can finally achieve a truly resilient WebLogic environment.
Request a demo today of Waratek’s RASP solution today.
