What are the four 4 Best Practices for firewall rules configuration including allow access?
Learn the best practices for securing administrative access to your firewalls to prevent successful cyberattacks through an exposed management interface. Show
Protecting your network from cyberattacks begins with a secure firewall deployment. If the network you use to manage your sensitive IT devices—including your Palo Alto Networks next-gen firewalls and Panorama—is not secured properly, you can’t detect and defend against vulnerability exploits that could lead to infiltration and/or the loss of sensitive data. The ultimate goal when securing firewall access is to ensure that even if an attacker gains access to privileged credentials, you can still thwart their ability to get in and do damage. Follow these best practice guidelines to ensure that you secure administrative access to your firewalls and other security devices in a way that prevents successful attacks. Isolate the Management NetworkAll Palo Alto Networks firewalls provide an out-of-band management port (MGT) that you can use to perform the firewall administration functions. Alternatively, you can choose to use the MGT port for initial configuration, and then configure a data port for management access to the firewall. Either way, because the management interface provides access to your security configuration, you must take the following precautions to safeguard access to this interface: Do not enable access to your management interface from the internet or from other untrusted zones inside your enterprise security boundary. This applies whether you use the dedicated management port (MGT) or you configure a data port as your management interface.
Use Service Routes to Access External ServicesBy default, the firewall uses the management (MGT) port to access services that are outside of the management network on potentially untrusted networks, such as DNS servers, NTP servers, and authentication servers, including services that require internet access, such as Palo Alto Networks Services and AutoFocus. Because your management interface—whether on the MGT port or a data port—must be isolated on the management network, you must use service routes () to enable access to these services. When you configure a service route, the firewall instead uses the specified source interface and address to access the services you need. Specify the source IP address/interface for your service route on an interface that does not have management access (HTTPS or SSH) enabled. Restrict Access to the Management Interface
Manage Administrator Access
Create Strong Administrator PasswordsConfigure a strict password policy, including requiring frequent password changes (). You are responsible for assessing the appropriate password requirements for your organization; however, the following characteristics are best practices for creating strong passwords. Passwords should:
One way to create a strong password is to create a long passphrase rather than a complex password. Industry standards recommend creating long, unique passphrases that you will remember easily (using whatever characters you want, including dictionary words) instead of creating convoluted and complex passwords that are easy to forget. Longer passwords with a minimum of 15 characters are believed to compensate for the use of dictionary words. Try to create a passphrase based on long, familiar phrases that only you know or string together at least four words. For more information on how to determine the appropriate password requirements for your organization, we recommend the following resources: Scan All Traffic Destined for the Management InterfaceBecause security policy and decryption policy do not evaluate management plane traffic, you cannot directly scan the MGT port for threats. If you are using the MGT port as your management interface, consider routing traffic destined for the MGT port through a data port or through another firewall so that you can apply these important security checks to your management traffic.
Replace the Certificate for Inbound Management TrafficBy default, the firewall ships with a default certificate that enables HTTPS access to the web interface over the management (MGT) interface or any other interface that supports HTTPS management traffic. To improve the security of inbound management traffic, replace the default certificate with a new certificate issued specifically for your organization. Use certificates signed by your enterprise CA so that users won’t learn to ignore certificate warnings. In addition, in the SSL/TLS profile, set the Min version toTLSv1.2 so you use the strongest protocol and set theMax version toMax so that you continue to use the strongest protocol as stronger versions become available.Keep Content and Software Updates CurrentCurrent content and software updates ensure that you are always protected by the latest security patches and threat updates.
What are the four basic types of firewall rules?Four basic types of firewall protection exist--network level, circuit level, application-level and stateful multilayer. Each type has advantages and disadvantages, ranging from ease of implementation to high initial cost.
What are the best practices for firewalls?7 Firewall Best Practices for Securing Your Network. Block traffic by default and monitor user access.. Establish a firewall configuration change plan.. Optimize the firewall rules of your network.. Update your firewall software regularly.. Conduct regular firewall security audits.. What are the five 5 steps to configure a firewall?How to Configure a Firewall in 5 Steps. Step 1: Secure your firewall. ... . Step 2: Architect your firewall zones and IP addresses. ... . Step 3: Configure access control lists. ... . Step 4: Configure your other firewall services and logging. ... . Step 5: Test your firewall configuration.. What are firewall access rules?Firewall Access Rules control the flow of inbound and outbound Internet traffic from the local network to the public Internet. Both routers and firewalls use access rules to control traffic and verify the source and destination addresses are permitted to send and receive traffic on the local network.
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