PSE-SoftwareFirewall Sample Questions Answers

VM-Series firewalls provide advanced application-level security for web-server instances on AWS. These virtual firewalls leverage Palo Alto Networks’ next-generation firewall capabilities to offer features like application identification, threat prevention, and URL filtering, ensuring comprehensive security for web applications hosted on AWS.

References:

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series on AWS: VM-Series on AWS

AWS Security Best Practices:AWS Security Best Practices

In a CN-Series (Cloud Native) environment, protecting communications between Docker containers is crucial. CN-Series firewalls are designed to provide advanced firewalling capabilities within containerized environments:

Firewalling: The CN-Series firewall provides Layer 7 visibility, allowing for application-layer security policies and protections. It ensures that all inter-container traffic is inspected, filtered, and secured according to the defined security policies. This includes blocking malicious traffic, preventing unauthorized access, and providing micro-segmentation within the Kubernetes clusters.

Independent Upgrade:

The VM-Series plugin can be upgraded independently of the PAN-OS version. This allows for flexibility in maintaining and enhancing the plugin without the need for a complete PAN-OS upgrade.

Tags in a VM-Series firewall environment allow administrators to dynamically adjust security policy rules based on changes within the virtual environment. These tags can be used to label and categorize virtual machines (VMs) or other entities within the environment, and policies can be created to automatically respond to these tags. This facilitates adaptive security measures that align with the current state and requirements of the environment.

References:

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Deployment Guide: Dynamic Address Groups and Tags

User IP mappings:

Panorama can push user-to-IP mapping information to the NSX manager, enabling dynamic security policy enforcement based on user identity.

App-ID is a feature that provides application-based segmentation and helps prevent lateral threat movement within a network. By identifying and controlling applications traversing the network regardless of port, protocol, or encryption (SSL or SSH), App-ID allows granular security policies to be applied, thereby limiting the spread of threats within the network.

References:

Palo Alto Networks App-ID Technology: App-ID

Palo Alto Networks Application and Threat Content: App-ID Overview

Data-plane vCPU Licensing:

The CN-Series firewalls are licensed based on the number of data-plane vCPUs. This licensing model reflects the processing power dedicated to handling traffic and security enforcement within the containerized environment.

NAT (Network Address Translation) protects and hides an internal network in an outbound flow by translating internal private IP addresses to a public IP address. This process masks the internal IP addresses from external networks, providing security and privacy for the internal network. NAT is commonly used in outbound traffic to allow multiple devices on a local network to communicate with external networks while appearing as a single IP address.

References:

Palo Alto Networks NAT Configuration Guide: NAT Configuration

Palo Alto Networks Concepts: NAT

In AWS, VM-Series firewalls support only active-passive high availability (HA) configuration. This means that one firewall is active and processing traffic, while the other remains passive and takes over in the event of a failure. This design consideration ensures continuous availability and reliability of firewall services in the AWS environment.

References:

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Deployment Guide for AWS: VM-Series Deployment Guide

Palo Alto Networks HA Configuration Guide: HA Configuration

For a customer deploying VM-Series firewalls in a private data center and concerned about protecting resources from malware and lateral movement, the following subscriptions are recommended:

Threat Prevention:This subscription provides comprehensive threat detection and prevention capabilities, including IPS, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and vulnerability protection.

WildFire:This advanced threat intelligence service analyzes suspicious files and identifies new malware, providing protection against zero-day exploits and threats.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention: Threat Prevention

Palo Alto Networks WildFire: WildFire

The VM-Series plugin supports integration with multiple public cloud platforms, including:

Amazon Web Services (AWS):The VM-Series firewalls can be deployed in AWS to provide comprehensive security for cloud applications and data, leveraging AWS's native services and integration capabilities.

Azure:The VM-Series firewalls also integrate with Microsoft Azure, offering advanced security features and policies for applications and data hosted in Azure's cloud environment.

References:

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series on AWS: VM-Series on AWS

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series on Azure: VM-Series on Azure

The number of required flex credits for a VM-Series firewall primarily depends on the vCPU allocation. Flex credits are used to license VM-Series firewalls, and the number of credits required is determined by the number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) allocated to the firewall. Higher vCPU allocations provide greater performance capabilities and thus require more flex credits.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Licensing Guide: VM-Series Licensing

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Datasheet: VM-Series Datasheet

For automating the deployment of VM-Series firewalls from NSX Manager, Panorama must be configured to recognize and communicate with both the NSX Manager and vCenter. This ensures that Panorama can manage the firewall policies and orchestration efficiently.

Enabling Threat Prevention on Palo Alto Networks firewalls provides comprehensive protection against inbound threats by inspecting traffic for exploits, malware, and other malicious activities.

Reference: The Threat Prevention service is detailed in the PAN-OS documentation, highlighting its role in securing inbound traffic by leveraging various threat detection and prevention techniques.

Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention Documentation

Palo Alto Networks has deep integrations with:

Cisco ACI:Integration with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) allows for automated security provisioning and enforcement within the Cisco data center environment, leveraging the tight coupling of network and security policies.

VMware NSX-T:Integration with VMware NSX-T enables advanced security features and visibility within VMware's software-defined data center (SDDC) environment, facilitating automated security policies and enforcement across virtualized workloads.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Integration with Cisco ACI: Cisco ACI Integration

Palo Alto Networks Integration with VMware NSX-T: VMware NSX-T Integration

Consistent Security Across the Environment:

CN-Series firewalls are designed to provide security for containerized environments by protecting traffic between pods and other workload types. This ensures that security policies are consistently enforced across all elements of the environment, maintaining a unified security posture.