Application Control – Fortinet FortiGate

Application control

Using the application control Security Profile feature, your FortiGate unit can detect and take action against network traffic depending on the application generating the traffic. Based on FortiGate Intrusion Protection protocol decoders, application control is a user-friendly and powerful way to use Intrusion Protection features to log and manage the behavior of application traffic passing through the FortiGate unit. Application control uses IPS protocol decoders that can analyze network traffic to detect application traffic even if the traffic uses non-standard ports or protocols.

The FortiGate unit can recognize the network traffic generated by a large number of applications. You can create application control sensors that specify the action to take with the traffic of the applications you need to manage and the network on which they are active, and then add application control sensors to the firewall policies that control the network traffic you need to monitor.

Fortinet is constantly increasing the list of applications that application control can detect by adding applications to the FortiGuard Application Control Database. Because intrusion protection protocol decoders are used for application control, the application control database is part of the FortiGuard Intrusion Protection System Database and both of these databases have the same version number.

You can find the version of the application control database that is installed on your unit, by going to the License Information dashboard widget and find IPS Definitions version.

You can go to the FortiGuard Application Control List to see the complete list of applications supported by FortiGuard. This web page lists all of the supported applications. You can select any application name to see details about the application.

If you enable virtual domains (VDOMs) on the Fortinet unit, you need to configure application control separately for each virtual domain.

The following topics are included in this section:

  • Application control concepts
  • Application considerations
  • Application traffic shaping
  • Application control monitor
  • Enable application control
  • Application control examples

Application control concepts

You can control network traffic generally by the source or destination address, or by the port, the quantity or similar attributes of the traffic itself in the security policy. If you want to control the flow of traffic from a specific application, these methods may not be sufficient to precisely define the traffic. To address this problem, the application control feature examines the traffic itself for signatures unique to the application generating it. Application control does not require knowledge of any server addresses or ports. The FortiGate unit includes signatures for over 1000 applications, services, and protocols.

Updated and new application signatures are delivered to your FortiGate unit as part of your

FortiGuard Application Control Service subscription. Fortinet is constantly increasing the

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number of applications that application control can detect by adding applications to the FortiGuard Application Control Database. Because intrusion protection protocol decoders are used for application control, the application control database is part of the FortiGuard Intrusion Protection System Database and both of these databases have the same version number.

To view the version of the application control database installed on your FortiGate unit, go to the License Information dashboard widget and find the IPS Definitions version.

To see the complete list of applications supported by FortiGuard Application Control go to the FortiGuard Application Control List. This web page lists all of the supported applications. You can select any application name to see details about the application.

Application considerations

Some applications behave differently from most others. You should be aware of these differences before using application control to regulate their use.

Automatically allowing basic applications

A common practice is to block applications by category, because the alternative is to list each specific traffic on an individual basis. While listing the applications individually gives a great deal of granularity it does tend to allow for missing some of them. On the other hand, blocking by category has the drawback of blocking some traffic that was not intended to be blocked.

There are a number of basic applications that you may want to be allowed on a default basis. For example, DNS. If you were to block the category Network Services you would end up blocking your web browsing, unless your users are members of a very limited group that do their web browsing by using IP addresses instead of URLs. Without DNS the systems will not be able to resolve URLs into IP addresses.

Using a set of options in the CLI the FortiGate unit can be configured to automatically allow the following types of traffic, regardless of whether or not their category is blocked:

  • DNS
  • ICMP
  • Generic HTTP Web browsing
  • Generic SSL communications

Syntax

config application list edit appcontrol set options allow-dns allow-icmp allow-http allow-ssl

end

As the example indicates, DNS is vitally important to multiple other types of traffic so by default it is set to be allowed, however the other settings must be specifically enabled.

IM applications

The Application Control function for a number of IM application is not in the Web Based Manager, in the CLI of the FortiGate unit. These applications are:

  • AIM
  • ICQ
  • MSN
  • Yahoo

These applications are controlled by either permitting or denying the users from logging in to the service. Individual IM accounts are configured as to whether or not they are permitted and then there is a global policy for how to action unknown users, by the application, and whether to add the user to the black list or the white list.

The configuration details for these settings can be found in the CLI Reference guide under the heading of imp2p.

Skype

Based on the NAT firewall type, Skype takes advantage of several NAT firewall traversal methods, such as STUN (Simple Traversal of UDP through NAT), ICE (Interactive Connectivity Establishment) and TURN (Traversal Using Relay NAT), to make the connection.

The Skype client may try to log in with either UDP or TCP, on different ports, especially well-known service ports, such as HTTP (80) and HTTPS (443), because these ports are normally allowed in firewall settings. A client who has previously logged in successfully could start with the known good approach, then fall back on another approach if the known one fails.

The Skype client could also employ Connection Relay. This means if a reachable host is already connected to the Skype network, other clients can connect through this host. This makes any connected host not only a client but also a relay server.


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Data Leak Prevention – Fortinet FortiGate

Data leak prevention

The FortiGate data leak prevention (DLP) system allows you to prevent sensitive data from leaving your network. When you define sensitive data patterns, data matching these patterns will be blocked, or logged and allowed, when passing through the FortiGate unit. You configure the DLP system by creating individual filters based on file type, file size, a regular expression, an advanced rule, or a compound rule, in a DLP sensor and assign the sensor to a security policy.

Although the primary use of the DLP feature is to stop sensitive data from leaving your network, it can also be used to prevent unwanted data from entering your network and to archive some or all of the content passing through the FortiGate unit.

This section describes how to configure the DLP settings.

The following topics are included:

  • Data leak prevention concepts
  • Enable data leak prevention
  • Fingerprint
  • File filter
  • DLP archiving
  • DLP examples

Data leak prevention concepts

Data leak prevention examines network traffic for data patterns you specify. You define whatever patterns you want the FortiGate unit to look for in network traffic. The DLP feature is broken down into a number of parts.

DLP sensor

A DLP sensor is a package of filters. To use DLP, you must enable it in a security policy and select the DLP sensor to use. The traffic controlled by the security policy will be searched for the patterns defined in the filters contained in the DLP sensor. Matching traffic will be passed or blocked according to how you configured the filters.

DLP filter

Each DLP sensor has one or more filters configured within it. Filters can examine traffic for known files using DLP fingerprints, for files of a particular type or name, for files larger than a specified size, for data matching a specified regular expression, or for traffic matching an advanced rule or compound rule.

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You can configure the action taken when a match is detected. The actions include:

  • None
  • Log Only,
  • Block
  • Quarantine User,
  • Quarantine IP address
  • Quarantine Interface

Log Only is enabled by default.

Fingerprint

Fingerprint scanning allows you to create a library of files for the FortiGate unit to examine. It will create checksum fingerprints so each file can be easily identified. Then, when files appear in network traffic, the FortiGate will generate a checksum fingerprint and compare it to those in the fingerprint database. A match triggers the configured action.

File filter

File filters use file filter lists to examine network traffic for files that match either file names or file types. For example, you can create a file filter list that will find files called secret.* and also all JPEG graphic files. You can create multiple file filter lists and use them in filters in multiple DLP sensors as required.

File size

This filter-type checks for files exceeding a configured size. All files larger than the specified size are subject to the configured action.

Regular expression

The FortiGate unit checks network traffic for the regular expression specified in a regular expression filter. The regular expression library used by Fortinet is a variation of a library called PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions). A number of these filters can be added to a sensor making a sort of ‘dictionary’ subset within the sensor.

Some other, more limited DLP implementations, use a list of words in a text file to define what words are searched for. While the format used here is slightly different than what some people are used to, the resulting effect is similar. Each Regular Expression filter can be thought of as a more versatile word to be searched against. In this dictionary (or sensor), the list of words is not limited to just predefined words. It can include expressions that can accommodate complex variations on those words and even target phrases. Another advantage of the individual filter model of this dictionary over the list is that each word can be assigned its own action, making this implementation much more granular.

Watermark

Watermarking is essentially marking files with a digital pattern to mark the file as being proprietary to a specific company. Fortinet has a utility that will apply a digital watermark to files. The utility adds a small (approx. 100 byte) pattern to the file that is recognised by the DLP Watermark filter. the pattern is invisible to the end user.

When watermarking a file it should be verified that the pattern matches up to a category found on the FortiGate firewall. For example, if you are going to watermark a file with the sensitivity

 

level of “Secret” you should verify that “Secret” is a sensitivity level that has been assigned in the FortiGate unit.

Software Versions

Before planning on using watermarking software it is always best to verify that the software will work with your OS. Currently the utility was only available for the Linux and Windows operating systems.

The Linux version can be found in one of 3 command line executable programs.

  • watermark_linux_amd64
  • watermark_linux_arm
  • watermark_linux_x86

The Windows version is part of the FortiExplorer software.

File types

The Watermark tool does not work with every file type. The following file types are supported by the watermark tool:

  • .txt
  • .pdf
  • .doc
  • .xls
  • .ppt
  • .docx
  • .pptx • .xlsx

Currently the DLP only works with Fortinet’s watermarking software.

Using the FortiExplorer Watermark tool

The FortiExplorer software can be downloaded from the Fortinet Support Site.

  1. Choose whether to “Apply Watermark To:”
  • Select File • Entire Directory
  1. Fill in the fields:
    1. Select File

This Field has a browse icon next to it which will allow the user to browse to and select a single file or directory to apply the water mark to.

  1. Sensitivity Level

This field is a drop down menu that lists the available sensitivity levels that the FortiGate can scan for

  1. Identifier

This is a unique identifier string of characters to identify the company that the document belongs to.

  1. Output Directory

This Field has a browse icon next to it which will allow the user to browse to a directory where the altered file will be placed. If the output directory is the same as the source directory the original file will be overwritten. If the output directory is different than the source directory then the watermarked version of the file will be place there and the unaltered original will be left in the source directory.

  1. Select Apply Watermark to start the process.

You should get output in the window similar to this:

> fortinet-watermark-win.exe -v -f “C:\Users\TestUser\Documents\test document.txt” -i “123456ABC” -l “Private” -o “C:\Users\TestUser\Watermarked Documents”     Creating watermark. Pattern:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=identifier=123456ABC sensitivity=Private=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

–> ‘C:\Users\TestUser\Documents\test document.txt’

Inserted watermark size 231

——————————————————–

1 file(s) processed. (success = 1, failure = 0)

Installation of the watermark utility on Linux

Add the watermark file to a location on the system that is in the $PATH.

To see what the path is use the command echo $PATH

Example results:

/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/ga mes for example you could move or copy the file to the :/bin directory.

Permissions on the watermark file:

Check the existing permissions:

The command in Linux for listing file along with the permissions is: ls -l

Run the check to see if the permission status. The results may be something along these lines:

-rw-r–r– 1 root root 2053868 Jan 10 11:44 watermark

You will see that in this case it has no executable permissions To change the permissions on the watermark file:

It will be assume for this command that the utility is in the bin directory and that you have ownership level access.

chmod o+x /bin/watermark

To verify the change: ls -l wa* -rw-r–r-x 1 root root 2053868 Jan 10 11:44 watermark

You can see how the x for executable has been added to the permissions for the others group.

Syntax of the Watermark utility

The tool is executed in a Linux environment by passing in files or directories of files to insert a watermark.

USAGE:

watermark <options> -f <file name> -i <identifier> -l <sensitivity level> watermark <options> -d <directory> -i <identifier> -l <sensitivity level>

Options:

-h print help

-v verbose information

-I inplace watermarking (don’t copy file)

-o output directory

-e encode <to non-readable>

-a add additional watermark (by default replaces watermarks existing watermarks)

-D delete all watermarks

Using the watermark utility

Now if you are in your home directory and you want to watermark a file in the Documents directory you could plan out the command like this: watermark [because that is the executable to be used]

-v [so that you can get as much feedback as possible]

-I [because you don’t want a new file you just want to watermark the existing one]

-f [because you only want to change the one file not the entire directory] filename.pdf [the name of the file]

-i 123456 [to set the identifier to 123456 – this is a required setting

-l Private [to set the sensitivity level to “Private”]

Now at the command prompt enter all of these components in order:

watermark -v -I -f filename.pdf -i 12345 -l Private Creating watermark.  Pattern:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=identifier=12345 sensitivity=Private=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Watermarking file: ‘filename.pdf’

Inserted watermark size 148


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Web filter – Fortinet FortiGate

Web filter

This section describes FortiGate web filtering for HTTP traffic. The three main parts of the web filtering function, the Web Content Filter, the URL Filter, and the FortiGuard Web Filtering Service interact with each other to provide maximum control over what the Internet user can view as well as protection to your network from many Internet content threats. Web Content Filter blocks web pages containing words or patterns that you specify. URL filtering uses URLs and URL patterns to block or exempt web pages from specific sources. FortiGuard Web Filtering provides many additional categories you can use to filter web traffic.

This section describes the Web Content Filter and URL Filter functions. For information on FortiGuard Web Filtering, see “FortiGuard W eb Filter” on page 133 The following topics are included in this section:

  • Web filter concepts
  • Inspections Modes
  • FortiGuard Web Filtering Service
  • Overriding FortiGuard website categorization
  • SafeSearch
  • YouTube Education Filter
  • Web Site Filter
  • Web content filter
  • Advanced web filter configurations
  • Working with the Interface
  • Web filtering example

Web filter concepts

Web filtering is a means of controlling the content that an Internet user is able to view. With the popularity of web applications, the need to monitor and control web access is becoming a key component of secure content management systems that employ antivirus, web filtering, and messaging security. Important reasons for controlling web content include:

  • lost productivity because employees are accessing the web for non-business reasons
  • network congestion — when valuable bandwidth is used for non-business purposes, legitimate business applications suffer
  • loss or exposure of confidential information through chat sites, non-approved email systems, instant messaging, and peer-to-peer file sharing
  • increased exposure to web-based threats as employees surf non-business-related web sites
  • legal liability when employees access/download inappropriate and offensive material
  • copyright infringement caused by employees downloading and/or distributing copyrighted material.

As the number and severity of threats increase on the World Wide Web, the risk potential increases within a company’s network as well. Casual non-business related web surfing has caused many businesses countless hours of legal litigation as hostile environments have been created by employees who download and view offensive content. Web-based attacks and

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threats are also becoming increasingly sophisticated. Threats and web-based applications that cause additional problems for corporations include:

  • spyware/grayware
  • phishing
  • pharming
  • instant messaging
  • peer-to-peer file sharing
  • streaming media
  • blended network attacks.

Spyware, also known as grayware, is a type of computer program that attaches itself to a user’s operating system. It does this without the user’s consent or knowledge. It usually ends up on a computer because of something the user does such as clicking on a button in a pop-up window. Spyware can track the user’s Internet usage, cause unwanted pop-up windows, and even direct the user to a host web site. For further information, visit the FortiGuard Center.

Some of the most common ways of grayware infection include:

  • downloading shareware, freeware, or other forms of file-sharing services
  • clicking on pop-up advertising
  • visiting legitimate web sites infected with grayware.

Phishing is the term used to describe attacks that use web technology to trick users into revealing personal or financial information. Phishing attacks use web sites and email that claim to be from legitimate financial institutions to trick the viewer into believing that they are legitimate. Although phishing is initiated by spam email, getting the user to access the attacker’s web site is always the next step.

Pharming is a next generation threat that is designed to identify and extract financial, and other key pieces of information for identity theft. Pharming is much more dangerous than phishing because it is designed to be completely hidden from the end user. Unlike phishing attacks that send out spam email requiring the user to click to a fraudulent URL, pharming attacks require no action from the user outside of their regular web surfing activities. Pharming attacks succeed by redirecting users from legitimate web sites to similar fraudulent web sites that have been created to look and feel like the authentic web site.

Instant messaging presents a number of problems. Instant messaging can be used to infect computers with spyware and viruses. Phishing attacks can be made using instant messaging. There is also a danger that employees may use instant messaging to release sensitive information to an outsider.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are used for file sharing. Such files may contain viruses. Peer-to-peer applications take up valuable network resources and may lower employee productivity but also have legal implications with the downloading of copyrighted or sensitive company material.

Streaming media is a method of delivering multimedia, usually in the form of audio or video to Internet users. Viewing streaming media impacts legitimate business by using valuable bandwidth.

Blended network threats are rising and the sophistication of network threats is increasing with each new attack. Attackers learn from each previous successful attack and enhance and update attack code to become more dangerous and fast spreading. Blended attacks use a combination of methods to spread and cause damage. Using virus or network worm techniques combined with known system vulnerabilities, blended threats can quickly spread through email, web sites, and Trojan applications. Examples of blended threats include Nimda, Code Red, Slammer, and Blaster. Blended attacks can be designed to perform different types of attacks, which include disrupting network services, destroying or stealing information, and installing stealthy backdoor applications to grant remote access.

Different ways of controlling access

The methods available for monitoring and controlling Internet access range from manual and educational methods to fully automated systems designed to scan, inspect, rate and control web activity.

Common web access control mechanisms include:

  • establishing and implementing a well-written usage policy in the organization on proper Internet, email, and computer conduct
  • installing monitoring tools that record and report on Internet usage
  • implementing policy-based tools that capture, rate, and block URLs.

The final method is the focus of this topic. The following information shows how the filters interact and how to use them to your advantage.

Order of web filtering

The FortiGate unit applies web filters in a specific order:

  1. URL filter
  2. FortiGuard Web Filter
  3. web content filter
  4. web script filter
  5. antivirus scanning.

If you have blocked a FortiGuard Web Filter category but want certain users to have access to URLs within that pattern, you can use the Override within the FortiGuard Web Filter. This will allow you to specify which users have access to which blocked URLs and how long they have that access. For example, if you want a user to be able to access www.example.com for one hour, you can use the override to set up the exemption. Any user listed in an override must fill out an online authentication form that is presented when they try to access a blocked URL before the FortiGate unit will grant access to it. For more information, see “FortiGuard Web  Filter” on page 133.

Inspections Modes

Proxy

Proxy-based inspection involves buffering the traffic and examining it as a whole before determining an action. The process of having the whole of the data to analyze allow this process to include more points of data to analyze than the flow-based or DNS methods.

The advantage of a proxy-based method is that the inspection can be more thorough than the other methods, resulting in fewer false positive or negative results in the analysis of the data.

Flow-based

The Flow-based inspection method examines the file as it passes through the FortiGate unit without any buffering. As each packet of the traffic arrives it is process and forwarded without waiting for the complete file or web page, etc.

The advantage of the flow-based method is that the user sees a faster response time for HTTP requests and there is less chance of a time-out error due to the server at the other end responding slowly.

The disadvantages of this method are that there is a higher probability of a false positive or negative in the analysis of the data and that a number of points of analysis that can be used in the proxy-based method are not available in the flow-based inspection method. There is also fewer actions available to choose from based on the categorization of the website by FortiGuard services.

DNS

The DNS inspection method uses the same categories as the FortiGuard Service. It is lightweight in terms of resource usage because it doesn’t involve any proxy-based or flow-based inspection.

A DNS request is typically the first part of any new session to a new website. This inspection method takes advantage of that and places the results of the categorization of websites right on the FortiGuard DNS servers. When the FortiGate resolves a URL, in addition to the IP address of the website it also receives a domain rating.

In the same way that the flow-based inspection method had fewer filters and points of analysis than the proxy-based inspection method, DNS has fewer settings still. All of its inspection is based on the IP address, the domain name and the rating provided by the FortiGuard DNS server.

FortiGuard Web Filtering Service

FortiGuard Web Filter is a managed web filtering solution available by subscription from Fortinet. FortiGuard Web Filter enhances the web filtering features supplied with your FortiGate unit by sorting billions of web pages into a wide range of categories users can allow or block. The FortiGate unit accesses the nearest FortiGuard Web Filter Service Point to determine the category of a requested web page, and then applies the security policy configured for that user or interface.

FortiGuard Web Filter includes over 45 million individual ratings of web sites that apply to more than two billion pages. Pages are sorted and rated into several dozen categories administrators can allow or block. Categories may be added or updated as the Internet evolves. To make configuration simpler, you can also choose to allow or block entire groups of categories. Blocked pages are replaced with a message indicating that the page is not accessible according to the Internet usage policy.

FortiGuard Web Filter ratings are performed by a combination of proprietary methods including text analysis, exploitation of the web structure, and human raters. Users can notify the FortiGuard Web Filter Service Points if they feel a web page is not categorized correctly, so that the service can update the categories in a timely fashion.

Before you begin to use the FortiGuard Web Filter options you should verify that you have a valid subscription to the service for your FortiGate firewall.

FortiGuard Web Filter and your FortiGate unit

When FortiGuard Web Filter is enabled in a web filter profile, the setting is applied to all firewall policies that use this profile. When a request for a web page appears in traffic controlled by one of these firewall policies, the URL is sent to the nearest FortiGuard server. The URL category is returned. If the category is blocked, the FortiGate unit provides a replacement message in place of the requested page. If the category is not blocked, the page request is sent to the requested URL as normal.

Figure 12:Webfiltering flowchart


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Custom Application & IPS Signatures

Custom Application & IPS Signatures

Creating a custom IPS signature

The FortiGate predefined signatures cover common attacks. If you use an unusual or specialized application or an uncommon platform, add custom signatures based on the security alerts released by the application and platform vendors.

You can add or edit custom signatures using the web-based manager or the CLI.

To create a custom signature

  1. Go to Security Profiles > Intrusion Protection > IPS Signatues.
  2. Select Create New to add a new custom signature.
  3. Enter a Name for the custom signature.
  4. Enter the Signature. For information about completing this field, see “Custom signature syntax and keywords”.
  5. Select OK.

Custom signature syntax and keywords

All custom signatures follow a particular syntax. Each begins with a header and is followed by one or more keywords. The syntax and keywords are detailed in the next two topics.

Custom signature syntax

A custom signature definition is limited to a maximum length of 512 characters. A definition can be a single line or span multiple lines connected by a backslash (\) at the end of each line.

A custom signature definition begins with a header, followed by a set of keyword/value pairs enclosed by parenthesis [( )]. The keyword and value pairs are separated by a semi colon (;) and consist of a keyword and a value separated by a space. The basic format of a definition is

HEADER (KEYWORD VALUE;)

You can use as many keyword/value pairs as required within the 512 character limit. To configure a custom signature, go to Security Profiles > Intrusion Protection > IPS Signatues, select Create New and enter the data directly into the Signature field, following the guidance in the next topics.

T able 1 shows the valid characters and basic structure. For details about each keyword and its associated values, see “Custom signature keywor ds” on page 76.

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Table 1: Valid syntax for custom signatur e fields

Field Valid Characters Usage
HEADER F-SBID The header for an attack definition signature. Each custom signature must begin with this header.
KEYWORD Each keyword must start with a pair of dashes (–), and consist of a string of 1 to 19 characters.

Normally, keywords are an English word or English words connected by an underscore (_). Keywords are case insensitive.

The keyword is used to identify a parameter. See “Custom signature keywords” on  page 76

for tables of supported keywords.

VALUE Double quotes (“) must be used around the value if it contains a space and/or a semicolon (;).

If the value is NULL, the space between the KEYWORD and VALUE can be omitted.

Values are case sensitive.

Note: If double quotes are used for quoting the value, the double quotes are not considered as part of the value string.

The value is set specifically for a parameter identified by a keyword.

Custom signature keywords

Table 2: Information keywords

Keyword and value Description
–attack_id

<id_int>;

Use this optional value to identify the signature. It cannot be  the same value as any other custom rules. If an attack ID is not specified, the FortiGate automatically assigns an attack ID to the signature. If you are using VDOMs, custom signatures appear only in the VDOM in which you create them. You can use the same attack ID for signatures in different VDOMs.

An attack ID you assign must be between 1000 and 9999.

Example:

–attack_id 1234;

–name <name_str>; Enter the name of the rule. A rule name must be unique. If you are using VDOMs, custom signatures appear only in the VDOM in which you create them. You can use the same rule name for signatures in different VDOMs.

The name you assign must be a string greater than 0 and less than 64 characters in length.

Example:

–name “Buffer_Overflow”;

Table 3: Session keywords

Keyword and value Description
–flow

{from_client[,reversed] |  from_server[,reversed] |  bi_direction };

Specify the traffic direction and state to be inspected. They can be used for all IP traffic.

Example:

–sr c_port 41523; –flow bi_direction;

The signature checks traffic to and fr om port 41523.

If you enable “quarantine attacker”, the optional reversed keyword allows you to change the side of the connection to be quarantined when the signature is detected.

For example, a custom signature written to detect a brute-force log in attack is triggered when “Login Failed” is detected from_server more than 10 times in 5 seconds. If the attacker is quarantined, it is the server that is quarantined in this instance. Adding reversed corrects this problem and quarantines the actual attacker.

Previous FortiOS versions used to_client and to_server values. These are now deprecated, but still function for backwards compatibility.

–service {HTTP |

T ELNET | FTP | DNS |

S MTP | POP3 | IMAP |

S NMP | RADIUS | LDAP |

MSSQL | RPC | SIP |

H 323 | NBSS | DCERPC |

SSH | SSL};

Specify the protocol type to be inspected.

This keyword allows you to specify the traffic type by protocol rather than by port. If the decoder has the capability to identify the protocol on any port, the signature can be used to detect the attack no matter what port the service is running on. Currently, HTTP, SIP, SSL, and SSH protocols can be identified on any port based on the content.

Table 4: UDP header keywords

Keyword and Value Description
–dst_port

[!]{<port_int> |

:<port_int> |  <port_int>: |

<port_int>:<port_int>};

Specify the destination port number.

You can specify a single port or port range:

•      <port_int> is a single port.

•      :<port_int> includes the specified port and all lower numbered ports.

•      <port_int>: includes the specified port and all higher numbered ports.

•      <port_int>:<port_int> includes the two specified ports and all ports in between.

–src_port

[!]{<port_int> |

Specify the source port number.

You can specify a single port or port range:

:<port_int> |  <port_int>: |

<port_int>:<port_int>};

•      <port_int> is a single port.

•      :<port_int> includes the specified port and all lower numbered ports.

•      <port_int>: includes the specified port and all higher numbered ports.

•      <port_int>:<port_int> includes the two specified ports and all ports in between.

Table 5: ICMP keywords

Keyword and Value Usage
–icmp_code <code_int>; Specify the ICMP code to match.
–icmp_id <id_int>; Check for the specified ICMP ID value.
–icmp_seq <seq_int>; Check for the specified ICMP sequence value.
–icmp_type <type_int>; Specify the ICMP type to match.

Table 6: Other keywor ds

Keyword and Value Description
 –data_size {<size_int> |

<<size_int> |  ><size_int> |

<port_int><><port_int>};

Test the packet payload size. With data_size specified, packet reassembly is turned off automatically. So a signature with data_size and only_stream values set is wrong.

•      <size_int> is a particular packet size.

•      <<size_int> is a packet smaller than the specified size.

•      ><size_int> is a packet larger than the specified size.

•      <size_int><><size_int> is a packet within the range between the specified sizes.

–data_at <offset_int>[, relative]; Verify that the payload has data at a specified offset, optionally looking for data relative to the end of the previous content match.
–rate

<matches_int>,<time_int>;

Instead of generating log entries every time the signature is detected, use this keyword to generate a log entry only if the signature is detected a specified number of times within a specified time period.

•      <matches_int> is the number of times a signature must be detected.

•      <time_int> is the length of time in which the signature must be detected, in seconds.

For example, if a custom signature detects a pattern, a log entry will be created every time the signature is detected. If –rate 100,10; is added to the signature, a log entry will be created if the signature is detected 100 times in the previous 10 seconds.

Use this command with –track to further limit log entries to when the specified number of detections occur within a certain time period involving the same source or destination address rather than all addresses.

–rpc_num <app_int>[,

<ver_int> | *][,

<proc_int> | *>];

Check for RPC application, version, and procedure numbers in SUNRPC CALL requests. The * wildcard can be used for version and procedure numbers.

 

Table 6: Other keywords (continued)

Keyword and Value Description
–same_ip; Check that the source and the destination have the same IP addresses.
–track {client | server}[,block_int]; When used with –rate, this keyword narrows the custom signature rate totals to individual addresses.

•      client has the FortiGate unit maintain a separate count of signature matches for each source address.

•      server has the FortiGate unit maintain a separate count of signature matches for each destination address.

•      block_int has the FortiGate unit block connections for the specified number of seconds, from the client or to the server, depending on which is specified.

For example, if –rate 100,10 is added to the signature, a log entry will be created if the signature is detected 100 times in the previous 10 seconds. The FortiGate unit maintains a single total, regardless of source and destination address.

If the same custom signature also includes

–track client; matches are totalled separately for each source address. A log entry is added when the signature is detected 100 times in 10 seconds within traffic from the same source address.

The –track keyword can also be used without –rate. If an integer is specified, the client or server will be blocked for the specified number of seconds every time the signature is detected.


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Fortinet UTM Features

Fortinet UTM Overview

Fortinet offers a very robust UTM (Unified Threat Management) feature set that makes Fortinet based hardware extremely powerful. One of the main things a lot of firewall and router based hardware is missing in this day and age is the ability to see the applications that are traversing the networking and making decisions based on this information. Most firewalls are simple source / destination / port based firewalls. They don’t see that dropbox is being used or that skype is running over the pipe. They just see the computers initiating the traffic, the destinations they are going, and the ports and services being used.

Fortinet UTM Features give users the ability to see the applications that are crossing the network. This enables the administrator to make decisions on whether to allow or deny the traffic based on this new information. FortiGate’s enable administrators to block skype, or allow it only for specific machines. This is an incredible power that gives true granularity to what is about to cross your network. Not only does this enable application based decisions to be made but UTM also opens up the webfiltering, intrusion protection, data loss prevention, and ssl intercept cans of worms. If you really want to know what is going on with your network and where the threats truly are, Fortinet UTM is for you. The following sections will break the UTM down into the various security profiles that the UTM provides and utilizes.

Fortinet UTM Features

Fortinet UTM Features

Security Profiles overview

Ranging from the FortiGate®-30 series for small businesses to the FortiGate-5000 series for large enterprises, service providers and carriers, the FortiGate line combines a number of security features to protect your network from threats. As a whole, these features, when included in a single Fortinet security appliance, are referred to as Security Profiles. The Security Profiles features your FortiGate model includes are:

  • AntiVirus
  • Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)
  • Web filtering
  • E-mail filtering, including protection against spam and grayware
  • Data Leak Prevention (DLP)
  • Application Control
  • ICAP

Firewall policies limit access, and while this and similar features are a vital part of securing your network, they are not covered in this document.

The following topics are included in this section:

  • Traffic inspection
  • Content inspection and filtering
  • Security Profiles components
  • Security Profiles/lists/sensors

Traffic inspection

When the FortiGate unit examines network traffic one packet at a time for IPS signatures, it is performing traffic analysis. This is unlike content analysis where the traffic is buffered until files, email messages, web pages, and other files are assembled and examined as a whole.

DoS policies use traffic analysis by keeping track of the type and quantity of packets, as well as their source and destination addresses.

Application control uses traffic analysis to determine which application generated the packet.

Although traffic inspection doesn’t involve taking packets and assembling files they are carrying, the packets themselves can be split into fragments as they pass from network to network. These fragments are reassembled by the FortiGate unit before examination.

No two networks are the same and few recommendations apply to all networks. This topic offers suggestions on how you can use the FortiGate unit to help secure your network against content threats.

IPS signatures

IPS signatures can detect malicious network traffic. For example, the Code Red worm attacked a vulnerability in the Microsoft IIS web server. Your FortiGate’s IPS system can detect traffic attempting to exploit this vulnerability. IPS may also detect when infected systems communicate with servers to receive instructions.

Page 12

 

IPS recommendations

  • Enable IPS scanning at the network edge for all services.
  • Use FortiClient endpoint IPS scanning for protection against threats that get into your network.
  • Subscribe to FortiGuard IPS Updates and configure your FortiGate unit to receive push updates. This will ensure you receive new IPS signatures as soon as they are available.
  • Your FortiGate unit includes IPS signatures written to protect specific software titles from DoS attacks. Enable the signatures for the software you have installed and set the signature action to Block.
  • You can view these signatures by going to Security Profiles > Intrusion Protection > Predefined and sorting by, or applying a filter to, the Group
  • Because it is critical to guard against attacks on services that you make available to the public, configure IPS signatures to block matching signatures. For example, if you have a web server, configure the action of web server signatures to Block.

Suspicious traffic attributes

Network traffic itself can be used as an attack vector or a means to probe a network before an attack. For example, SYN and FIN flags should never appear together in the same TCP packet. The SYN flag is used to initiate a TCP session while the FIN flag indicates the end of data transmission at the end of a TCP session.

The FortiGate unit has IPS signatures that recognize abnormal and suspicious traffic attributes. The SYN/FIN combination is one of the suspicious flag combinations detected in TCP traffic by the TCP.BAD.FLAGS signature.

The signatures that are created specifically to examine traffic options and settings, begin with the name of the traffic type they are associated with. For example, signatures created to examine TCP traffic have signature names starting with TCP.

Application control

While applications can often be blocked by the ports they use, application control allows convenient management of all supported applications, including those that do not use set ports.

Application control recommendations

  • Some applications behave in an unusual manner in regards to application control. For more information, see “Application considerations” on page 144.
  • By default, application control allows the applications not specified in the application control list. For high security networks, you may want to change this behavior so that only the explicitly allowed applications are permitted.

Content inspection and filtering

When the FortiGate unit buffers the packets containing files, email messages, web pages, and other similar files for reassembly before examining them, it is performing content inspection. Traffic inspection, on the other hand, is accomplished by the FortiGate unit examining individual packets of network traffic as they are received.

No two networks are the same and few recommendations apply to all networks. This topic offers suggestions on how you can use the FortiGate unit to help secure your network against content threats. Be sure to understand the effects of the changes before using the suggestions.

AntiVirus

The FortiGate antivirus scanner can detect viruses and other malicious payloads used to infect machines. The FortiGate unit performs deep content inspection. To prevent attempts to disguise viruses, the antivirus scanner will reassemble fragmented files and uncompress content that has been compressed. Patented Compact Pattern Recognition Language (CPRL) allows further inspection for common patterns, increasing detection rates of virus variations in the future.

AntiVirus recommendations

  • Enable antivirus scanning at the network edge for all services.
  • Use FortiClient endpoint antivirus scanning for protection against threats that get into your network.
  • Subscribe to FortiGuard AntiVirus Updates and configure your FortiGate unit to receive push updates. This will ensure you receive new antivirus signatures as soon as they are available.
  • Enable the Extended Virus Database if your FortiGate unit supports it.
  • Examine antivirus logs periodically. Take particular notice of repeated detections. For example, repeated virus detection in SMTP traffic could indicate a system on your network is infected and is attempting to contact other systems to spread the infection using a mass mailer.
  • The builtin-patterns file filter list contains nearly 20 file patterns. Many of the represented files can be executed or opened with a double-click. If any of these file patterns are not received as a part of your normal traffic, blocking them may help protect your network. This also saves resources since files blocked in this way do not need to be scanned for viruses.
  • To conserve system resources, avoid scanning email messages twice. Scan messages as they enter and leave your network or when clients send and retrieve them, rather than both.

FortiGuard Web Filtering

The web is the most popular part of the Internet and, as a consequence, virtually every computer connected to the Internet is able to communicate using port 80, HTTP. Botnet communications take advantage of this open port and use it to communicate with infected computers. FortiGuard Web Filtering can help stop infections from malware sites and help prevent communication if an infection occurs.

FortiGuard Web Filtering recommendations

  • Enable FortiGuard Web Filtering at the network edge.
  • Install the FortiClient application and use FortiGuard Web Filtering on any systems that bypass your FortiGate unit.
  • Block categories such as Pornography, Malware, Spyware, and Phishing. These categories are more likely to be dangerous.
  • In the email filter profile, enable IP Address Check in FortiGuard Email Filtering. Many IP addresses used in spam messages lead to malicious sites; checking them will protect your users and your network.

Email filter

Spam is a common means by which attacks are delivered. Users often open email attachments they should not, and infect their own machine. The FortiGate email filter can detect harmful spam and mark it, alerting the user to the potential danger.

Email filter recommendations

  • Enable email filtering at the network edge for all types of email traffic.
  • Use FortiClient endpoint scanning for protection against threats that get into your network.
  • Subscribe to the FortiGuard AntiSpam Service.

DLP

Most security features on the FortiGate unit are designed to keep unwanted traffic out of your network while DLP can help you keep sensitive information from leaving your network. For example, credit car d numbers and social security numbers can be detected by DLP sensors.

DLP recommendations

  • Rules related to HTTP posts can be created, but if the requirement is to block all HTTP posts, a better solution is to use application control or the HTTP POST Action option in the web filter profile.
  • While DLP can detect sensitive data, it is more efficient to block unnecessary communication channels than to use DLP to examine it. If you don’t use instant messaging or peer-to-peer communication in your organization, for example, use application control to block them entirely.

Security Profiles components

AntiVirus

Your FortiGate unit stores a virus signature database that can identify more than 15,000 individual viruses. FortiGate models that support additional virus databases are able to identify hundreds of thousands of viruses. With a FortiGuard AntiVirus subscription, the signature databases are updated whenever a new threat is discovered.

AntiVirus also includes file filtering. When you specify files by type or by file name, the FortiGate unit will stop the matching files from reaching your users.

FortiGate units with a hard drive or configured to use a FortiAnalyzer unit can store infected and blocked files for that you can examine later.

Intrusion Protection System (IPS)

The FortiGate Intrusion Protection System (IPS) protects your network against hacking and other attempts to exploit vulnerabilities of your systems. More than 3,000 signatures are able to detect exploits against various operating systems, host types, protocols, and applications. These exploits can be stopped before they reach your internal network.

You can also write custom signatures, tailored to your network.

Web filtering

Web filtering includes a number of features you can use to protect or limit your users’ activity on the web.

FortiGuard Web Filtering is a subscription service that allows you to limit access to web sites. More than 60 million web sites and two billion web pages are rated by category. You can choose to allow or block each of the 77 categories.

URL filtering can block your network users from access to URLs that you specify.

Web content filtering can restrict access to web pages based on words and phrases appearing on the web page itself. You can build lists of words and phrases, each with a score. When a web content list is selected in a web filter profile, you can specify a threshold. If a user attempts to load a web page and the score of the words on the page exceeds the threshold, the web page is blocked.

Email filtering

FortiGuard AntiSpam is a subscription service that includes an IP address black list, a URL black list, and an email checksum database. These resources are updated whenever new spam messages are received, so you do not need to maintain any lists or databases to ensure accurate spam detection.

You can use your own IP address lists and email address lists to allow or deny addresses, based on your own needs and circumstances.

Data Leak Prevention (DLP)

Data leak prevention allows you to define the format of sensitive data. The FortiGate unit can then monitor network traffic and stop sensitive information from leaving your network. Rules for U.S. social security numbers, Canadian social insurance numbers, as well as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express card numbers are included.

Application Control

Although you can block the use of some applications by blocking the ports they use for communications, many applications do not use standard ports to communicate. Application control can detect the network traffic of more than 1000 applications, improving your control over application communication.

ICAP

This module allows for the offloading of certain processes to a separate server so that your FortiGate firewall can optimize its resources and maintain the best level of performance possible.

Security Profiles/lists/sensors

A profile is a group of settings that you can apply to one or more firewall policies. Each Security Profile feature is enabled and configured in a profile, list, or sensor. These are then selected in a security policy and the settings apply to all traffic matching the policy. For example, if you create an antivirus profile that enables antivirus scanning of HTTP traffic, and select the antivirus profile in the security policy that allows your users to access the World Wide Web, all of their web browsing traffic will be scanned for viruses.

Because you can use profiles in more than one security policy, you can configure one profile for the traffic types handled by a set of firewall policies requiring identical protection levels and types, rather than repeatedly configuring those same profile settings for each individual security policy.

For example, while traffic between trusted and untrusted networks might need strict protection, traffic between trusted internal addresses might need moderate protection. To provide the different levels of protection, you might configure two separate sets of profiles: one for traffic between trusted networks, and one for traffic between trusted and untrusted networks.

The Security Profiles include:

  • antivirus profile
  • IPS sensor
  • Web filter profile
  • Email filter profile
  • Data Leak Prevention profile
  • Application Control list
  • VoIP profile

Although they’re called profiles, sensors, and lists, they’re functionally equivalent. Each is used to configure how the feature works.


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Got The FortiManager 5.2 Guide Up!

Managed to get the FortiManager 5.2 Administrators guide on the site. Should help a lot of you that are having some FortiManager issues or need some assistance. Will be working on getting the rest of the documentation relating to fortinet products up before I start loading it with my videos and personal experiences!


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Reports – FortiManager 5.2

Reports

FortiManager units can analyze information collected from the log files of managed log devices. It then presents the information in tabular and graphical reports that provide a quick and detailed analysis of activity on your networks.

To reduce the number of reports needed, reports are independent from devices, and contain layout information in the form of a report template. The devices, and any other required information, can be added as parameters to the report at the time of report generation.

Additional configuration options and short-cuts are available using the right-click menu. Right-click the mouse on different navigation panes on the Web-based Manager page to access these options.

The Reports tab allows you to configure reports using the predefined report templates, configure report schedules, view report history and the report calendar, and configure and view charts, macros, datasets, and output profiles.

If ADOMs are enabled, each ADOM will have its own report settings including chart library, macro library, dataset library, and output profiles.

FortiCarrier, FortiCache, FortiMail and FortiWeb reports are available when ADOMs are enabled. Reports for these devices are configured within their respective default ADOM. These devices also have device specific charts and datasets.

When rebuilding the SQL database, Reports will not be available until after the rebuild is completed. Select the Show Progress link in the message to view the status of the SQL rebuild.

This chapter contains the following sections:

l Reports l Report layouts l Chart library l Macro library l Report calendar l Advanced

Reports

FortiManager includes preconfigured reports and report templates for FortiGate, FortiMail, and FortiWeb log devices. These report templates can be used as is, or you can clone and edit the templates. You can also create new reports and report templates that can be customized to your requirements.

Predefined report templates are identified by a blue report icon and custom report templates are identified by a green report icon. When a schedule has been enabled, the schedule icon will appear to the left of the report template name.

FortiManager includes preconfigured reports and report templates for FortiGate, FortiMail, and FortiWeb log devices. These report templates can be used as is, or you can clone and edit the templates. You can also create new reports and report templates that can be customized to your requirements.

Predefined report templates are identified by a blue report icon and custom report templates are identified by a green report icon. When a schedule has been enabled, the schedule icon will appear to the left of the report template name.


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Event Management – FortiManager 5.2

Event Management

In the Event Management tab you can configure events handlers based on log type and logging filters. You can select to send the event to an email address, SNMP community, or syslog server. Events can be configured per device, for all devices, or for the local FortiManager. You can create event handlers for FortiGate, FortiCarrier, FortiCache, FortiMail, FortiManager, FortiWeb, FortiSandbox devices, and syslog servers. In v5.2.0 or later, Event Management supports local FortiManager event logs.

Events can also be monitored, and the logs associated with a given event can be viewed.

When rebuilding the SQL database, Event Management will not be available until after the rebuild is completed. Select the Show Progress link in the message to view the status of the SQL rebuild.

Events

The events page provides a list of the generated events. Right-clicking on an event in the table gives you the option of viewing event details including the raw log entries associated with that event, adding review notes, and acknowledging the event.

To view events, go to the Event Management tab and select Event Management > All Events. You can also view events by severity and by handler. When ADOMs are enabled, select the ADOM, and then select All Events.

Events page

The following information is displayed:

Events

Count The number of log entries associated with the event. Click the heading to sort events by count.
Event Name The name of the event. Click the heading to sort events by event name.
Severity The severity level of the event. Event severity level is a user configured variable. The severity can be Critical, High, Medium, or Low. Click the heading to sort events by severity.
Event Type The event type. For example, Traffic orEvent. Click the heading to sort events by event type. IPS and Application Control event names are links. Select the link to view additional information.
Additional Info Additional information about the event. Click the heading to sort events by additional information.
Last Occurrence The date and time that the event was created and added to the events page. Click the heading to sort events by last occurrence.
Pagination Adjust the number of logs that are listed per page and browse through the pages.

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