1. Explain the different types of firewalls. Discuss the policies and rules of any firewalls. What are the benefits derived? Discuss the best practices for the firewall configurations. answer:Firewall Types: Packet-filtering firewalls Circuit-level gateways Stateful inspection firewalls Application-level gateways (a.k.a. proxy firewalls) Next-gen firewalls Firewall Delivery Methods: Software firewalls Hardware firewalls Cloud firewalls To determine which firewall is best for your business’s cybersecurity needs, here are some detailed explanations: Type 1: Packet-Filtering Firewalls Types of firewall architectures Packet-filtering firewalls are the most “basic” and oldest type of firewall. The process of packet filtering involves creating a checkpoint at at traffic router or switch. The firewall performs a simple check fo the data packets coming through the router – inspecting information such as the destination and origination IP address, packet type, port number, and other surface-level details without opening the packet to examine its contents. It then drops the packet if the information doesn’t pass inspection. The good thing about these firewalls is that they are not very resource-intensive. Using fewer resources means they are relatively simply and don’t meaningfully impact system performance. However, they are also relatively easy to bypass compared to firewalls with more robust inspection capabilities. Learn the ins and outs of selecting the right Managed Security Service Provider for your operations. Get the Guide Here >> Type 2: Circuit-Level Gateways Circuit-level gateways are another simple firewall type meant to quickly and easily approve or deny traffic without consuming considerable computing resources. Circuit-level gateways work by verifying the transmission control protocol (TCP) handshake. This TCP handshake check is designed to ensure the requested packet session is legitimate. While extremely resource-efficient, these firewalls do not check the packet itself. So, if a packet had malware but also had the proper TCP handshake, it would easily pass through. Vulnerabilities like this are why circuit-level gateways are not enough to protect your business by themselves. Type 3: Stateful Inspection Firewalls Stateful inspection firewalls combine packet inspection technology and TCP handshake verification to offer more serious protection than either of the two architectures could provide alone. They also can keep a contextual database of vetted connections and draw on historical traffic records to make decisions about the depth of scrutiny each packet warrants. However, these firewalls also put more of a strain on computing resources. This may slow down the transfer of legitimate packets compared to the other solutions. Type 4: Proxy Firewalls (Application-Level Gateways/Cloud Firewalls) Proxy firewalls (aka application-level gateways or cloud firewalls) operate at the application layer to filter incoming traffic between your network and the traffic source. These firewalls are delivered via a cloud-based solution or another proxy device. Rather than letting traffic connect directly, the proxy firewall first establishes a connection to the source of the traffic and inspects the incoming data packet. This check assesses both the packet and TCP handshake protocol, similar to the stateful inspection firewall. Proxy firewalls may also perform deep-layer packet inspections, checking the actual contents of the information packet to verify that it does not contain malware. Once the check is complete and the packet is approved to connect to the destination, the proxy sends it off. This rates an extra layer of separation between the “client” – the system where the packet originated – and the individual devices on your network, creating additional anonymity and network protection. The one drawback to proxy firewalls is that they can create a significant slowdown because of the extra steps in the data packet transfer process. Type 5: Next-Generation Firewalls Many recently-released firewall products are touted as “next-generation” architectures. However, there is no consensus on what makes a firewall genuinely next-gen. Next-generation firewall architectures typically include the same core features as other firewall iterations – deep-packet inspection, TCP handshake checks, and surface-level packet inspection. They can also consist of other technologies, such as intrusion prevention systems (IPSs) that automatically stop application-level attacks and malware attacks against your network. Since there is no one definition of a next-generation firewall, it is essential for you to verify what specific capabilities such firewalls have before investing. Firewall Deployment Architecture 1: Software Firewalls Software firewalls include any type of firewall that is installed on a local device rather than a separate piece of hardware or cloud server. The big benefit of a software firewall is that it is highly useful for providing in-depth security by isolating individual network endpoints from one another. However, maintaining individual software firewalls on different devices can be difficult and time-consuming. Furthermore, not every device on a network may be compatible with a single software firewall, which may mean having to use several different software firewalls to cover every asset. Firewall Deployment Architecture 2: Hardware Firewalls Hardware firewalls use a physical appliance that acts like a traffic router to intercept data packets and traffic requests before they’re connected to the network’s servers. Physical appliance-based firewalls like this excel at perimeter security by ensuring malicious traffic from outside the network is intercepted before the company’s network endpoints are exposed to risk. However, the major weakness of a hardware-based firewall is that it is often easier for insider attacks to bypass them. In addition, the actual capabilities of a hardware firewall may vary depending on the manufacturer – for example, some may have a more limited capacity to handle simultaneous connections than others. Firewall Deployment Architecture 3: Cloud Firewalls Hand shows a data cloud with a protective shield for cloud firewall Cloud firewall – also called firewall-as-a-service or FaaS – refers to any firewall delivery architecture that uses a cloud solution. Many consider cloud firewalls synonymous with proxy firewalls since a cloud server is often used in a firewall setup (although the proxy does not necessarily have to be on the cloud, it frequently is). The primary benefit of having cloud-based firewalls is that they are straightforward to scale with your organization. As your needs grow, you can add additional capacity to the cloud server to filter larger traffic loads. Cloud firewalls, like hardware firewalls, excel at perimeter security. Policy and rule evaluation order Rules in hierarchical firewall policies, global network firewall policies, regional network firewall policies, and VPC firewall rules are implemented as part of the VM packet processing of the Andromeda network virtualization stack. Rules are evaluated for each network interface (NIC) of the VM. The applicability of a rule doesn't depend on the specificity of its protocols and ports configuration. For example, a higher priority allow rule for all protocols takes precedence over a lower priority deny rule specific to TCP port 22. In addition, the applicability of a rule doesn't depend on the specificity of the target parameter. For example, a higher priority allow rule for all VMs (all targets) takes precedence even if a lower priority deny rule exists with a more specific target parameter; for example—a specific service account or tag. Determine policy and rule evaluation order The order in which the firewall policy rules and VPC firewall rules are evaluated is determined by the networkFirewallPolicyEnforcementOrder flag of the VPC network that is attached to the VM's NIC. The networkFirewallPolicyEnforcementOrder flag can have the following two values: BEFORE_CLASSIC_FIREWALL: If you set the flag to BEFORE_CLASSIC_FIREWALL, the global network firewall policy and regional network firewall policy are evaluated before VPC firewall rules in the rule evaluation order. AFTER_CLASSIC_FIREWALL : If you set the flag to AFTER_CLASSIC_FIREWALL, the global network firewall policy and regional network firewall policy are evaluated after VPC firewall rules in the rule evaluation order. AFTER_CLASSIC_FIREWALL is the default value of the networkFirewallPolicyEnforcementOrder flag. To change the rule evaluation order, see Change policy and rule evaluation order. Default policy and rule evaluation order By default, and when the networkFirewallPolicyEnforcementOrder of the VPC network that is attached to the VM's NIC is AFTER_CLASSIC_FIREWALL, Google Cloud evaluates rules applicable to the VM's NIC in the following order: If a hierarchical firewall policy is associated with the organization that contains the VM's project, Google Cloud evaluates all applicable rules in the hierarchical firewall policy. Because rules in hierarchical firewall policies must be unique, the highest priority rule that matches the direction of traffic and Layer 4 characteristics determines how the traffic is processed: The rule can allow the traffic. The evaluation process stops. The rule can deny the traffic. The evaluation process stops. The rule can send the traffic for Layer 7 inspection (apply_security_profile_group) to the firewall endpoint. The decision to allow or drop the packet then depends on the firewall endpoint and the configured security profile. In both the cases, the rule evaluation process stops. The rule can permit processing of rules defined as described in the next steps if either of the following is true: A rule with a goto_next action matches the traffic. No rules match the traffic. In this case, an implied goto_next rule applies. If a hierarchical firewall policy is associated with the most distant (top) folder ancestor of the VM's project, Google Cloud evaluates all applicable rules in the hierarchical firewall policy for that folder. Because rules in hierarchical firewall policies must be unique, the highest priority rule that matches the direction of traffic and Layer 4 characteristics determines how the traffic is processed—allow, deny, apply_security_profile_group, or goto_next—as described in the first step. Google Cloud repeats the actions of the previous step for a hierarchical firewall policy associated with the next folder that is closer to the VM's project in the resource hierarchy. Google Cloud first evaluates rules in hierarchical firewall policies associated with the most distant folder ancestor (closest to the organization), and then evaluates rules in hierarchical firewall policies associated with the next (child) folder closer to the VM's project. If VPC firewall rules exist in the VPC network used by the VM's NIC, Google Cloud evaluates all applicable VPC firewall rules. Unlike rules in firewall policies: VPC firewall rules have no explicit goto_next or apply_security_profile_group action. A VPC firewall rule can only be configured to allow or deny traffic. Two or more VPC firewall rules in a VPC network can share the same priority number. In that situation, deny rules take precedence over allow rules. For additional details about VPC firewall rules priority, see Priority in the VPC firewall rules documentation. If no VPC firewall rule applies to the traffic, Google Cloud continues to the next step—implied goto_next. If a global network firewall policy is associated with the VPC network of the VM's NIC, Google Cloud evaluates all applicable rules in the firewall policy. Because rules in firewall policies must be unique, the highest priority rule that matches the direction of traffic and Layer 4 characteristics determines how the traffic is processed—allow, deny, apply_security_profile_group, or goto_next—as described in the first step. If a regional network firewall policy is associated with the VPC network of the VM's NIC and region of the VM, Google Cloud evaluates all applicable rules in the firewall policy. Because rules in firewall policies must be unique, the highest priority rule that matches the direction of traffic and Layer 4 characteristics determines how the traffic is processed—allow, deny, or goto_next—as described in the first step. As a final step in the evaluation, Google Cloud enforces the implied allow egress and implied deny ingress VPC firewall rules. The following diagram shows the resolution flow for firewall rules. Firewall rule resolution flow. Figure 1. Firewall rule resolution flow (click to enlarge). Change policy and rule evaluation order Google Cloud provides you the option to change the default rule evaluation process by swapping the order of the VPC firewall rules and network firewall policies (both global and regional). When you do this swap, global network firewall policy (step 5) and regional network firewall policy (step 6) are evaluated before VPC firewall rules (step 4) in the rule evaluation order. To change the rule evaluation order, run the following command to set the networkFirewallPolicyEnforcementOrder attribute of the VPC network to BEFORE_CLASSIC_FIREWALL: gcloud compute networks update VPC-NETWORK-NAME \ --network-firewall-policy-enforcement-order BEFORE_CLASSIC_FIREWALL derive a benefit :There can be three types of benefits a customer may seek to satisfy from the purchase of a product are - (i) Functional benefits - These are based on the product attributes that provide the customer with functional utility. They are the benefits that relate to the specific performance of the product or service. They are aimed at satisfying a generic need. (ii) Psychological benefits - These are benefits the customer perceives he/she receives when using the product. They address psychological needs, such as status within a group, risk reduction, sense of independence, and happiness. (iii) Social benefits - These are the perceptual benefits acquired from a product's association with social class, social status, or a specific social group. Highly visible products (e.g., clothing, jewelry, and automobiles) often carry social benefits. best practices for the firewall configurations:When it comes to securing IPS systems, configuring a firewall is one of the most important steps in the process. The firewall acts as the first line of defense against potential threats, and as such, it's crucial to ensure that it's properly configured to provide maximum protection. There are a number of different best practices that can help to ensure that a firewall is properly configured for an IPS system. These practices can vary depending on the specific system being used, as well as the specific needs and requirements of the organization in question. 1. Understand the network topology: Before configuring a firewall, it's important to have a clear understanding of the organization's network topology. This includes understanding the different components that make up the network, such as routers, switches, and servers. This information can help to ensure that the firewall is configured in a way that provides maximum protection. 2. Define a security policy: A security policy is a set of guidelines and rules that dictate how the organization's network should be secured. This policy should be clearly defined and communicated to all employees, and it should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. By defining a security policy, organizations can ensure that their firewall is configured in a way that aligns with their overall security objectives. 3. Use the principle of least privilege: The principle of least privilege is the idea that users should only have access to the resources that they need to perform their job functions. This principle can be applied to firewall configuration by ensuring that only the necessary ports and protocols are open. By limiting access to the network, organizations can reduce the risk of unauthorized access. 4. Regularly review firewall logs: Firewall logs contain information about the traffic that passes through the firewall. By regularly reviewing these logs, organizations can identify potential threats and take steps to mitigate them. For example, if a large number of failed login attempts are detected, the organization may need to implement additional security measures to prevent unauthorized access. 5. Consider using a managed firewall service: Managed firewall services can help to ensure that a firewall is properly configured and maintained. These services typically provide 24/7 monitoring and support, and they can help to identify and mitigate potential threats in real-time. Properly configuring a firewall is an essential step in securing IPS systems. By following these best practices, organizations can help to ensure that their firewall is configured in a way that provides maximum protection against potential threats. 2. Discuss the configuration and rule sets for ModSecurity. Explain briefly the features and functionalities of the Imperva SecureSphere WAF. answer:One reason ModSecurity is popular with web hosts and site owners is because it lets you decide which features are important to you and allows you to enable and disable them at will. At the core, the ModSecurity tool is a WAF that blocks web-based attacks. It blocks many of the common attacks in the wild, and it works even if the site owner is unaware of how a vulnerability can be exploited. Any HTTP-based attack is monitored and blocked based on the site owner’s configurations, but it also provides analysis and review so that a site owner is aware of the attacks targeting the website. What gets blocked and what is allowed on the site is fully configurable through ModSecurity, so administrators can whitelist specific actions if necessary. For administrators unfamiliar with ModSecurity, it works out-of-the-box with few configurations needed so that sites are protected automatically. What is a ModSecurity Rule? what is a modsecurity ruleNot every web server needs the same rules for HTTP requests. You might want to block specific traffic on one application but not another. You might want to control responses sent to external users to add a layer of security to data. Rules can also be set up for monitoring so that administrators will be aware of ongoing attacks targeting their applications. The set of rules really depends on applications running on the server. Rules for ModSecurity can be downloaded and installed to make configuration of web server security easier, but administrators can also create their own rules. These rules will define the way a web server responds to requests. Configuration of ModSecurity rules is critical for protection of web application data, and without them or with a misconfiguration, the web application could be exploited using numerous known vulnerabilities. Since ModSecurity is a WAF, the rules cover most of the OWASP Top 10. The OWASP Top 10 is a list of common vulnerabilities used by penetration test applications, and they also set a foundation for administrators so that they can set up WAFs such as ModSecurity to block common web-based attacks. In the examples listed in this article, Apache .conf files will be added to the /etc/httpd/conf/modsecurity.d/rules/ directory, but you aren’t limited to Apache. ModSecurity also works with NGINX and other web servers. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) cross-site scripting modsecurity rules xssWhen users can send special characters used to manipulate rendered pages, your site could be vulnerable to XSS. XSS covers two types: reflected and persistent. Persistent XSS happens when attackers can store malicious content in the database. The content is then rendered later when other users request pages that query the database and return the malicious content. Reflected XSS occurs when user-generated input is sent to a server, and the response includes the unsanitized input. Usually, reflected XSS happens in a GET request, but it’s possible to perform reflected XSS in a POST request. XSS vulnerabilities can result in a loss of data, session hijacking, and other account takeover attacks. It’s a critical issue that should be addressed throughout the entire application. cPanel has a default set of rules that can be enabled for ModSecurity, but Imunify360 offers enhancements for more advanced detection and remediation of XSS threats. Bad User Agent modsecurity rules bad user agent Bots eat up server resources, and they can be used to find vulnerabilities and sensitive data on your server. After a while, you might notice that bots are causing performance issues on the server. Some bots are benign (e.g., Googlebot for search engine indexing), but others are unnecessary and do nothing but cost money in server resources. When any request is made from a user browser, a user agent is sent to the server to identify the browser being used. This value can be spoofed, so you should not use this value to validate legitimate users. However, bots will send a user agent so that you can identify them. If you don’t want to allow a bot to access content, you can block it with ModSecurity. The ModSecurity tool has a feature that allows you to block specific bots, but user-agents can be spoofed by an attacker to bypass any protection. Good protection should not be based on basic user-agent headers, as many of the attacks used from bots will use spoofed headers to trick monitoring systems into thinking it’s a legitimate user. Monitoring software such as Imunify360 uses more advanced procedures to detect bots with bad or spoofed user agents. SQL Injection (SQLi) SQL Injection (SQLi) modsecurity rulesMost dynamic pages have a backend database that stores data. The queries executed on the database are written in SQL, which is a language for databases with specific syntax. If attackers can run altered SQL on the database, it can be used to steal data, destroy tables, or elevate privileges on the server. Instead of writing your own ModSecurity rule for the many permutations of SQL injection, a better way to block this attack is to enable the rules already created in the tool. Imunify360 protects from SQL injection out-of-the-box, so you do not need to create or install any complex rulesets that define suspicious queries and block them. Session Hijacking session hijacking modsecurity rules When users connect to a website and authenticate, the server identifies the user by a session ID. This session ID is typically stored in a cookie, which means that the cookie contains a token that essentially represents the user on the application. If an attacker can obtain the session cookie, they have access to the user’s token and can perform actions on the web application as the targeted victim user. This means the attacker can change the user’s password, make requests on behalf of the user, and have access to any data available to the user. The HttpOnly cookie setting helps stop this attack, but an additional layer of security using ModSecurity is helpful. After you enable the ModSecurity rules from the previous section, you will also have protection against session hijacking. Sessions should be expired after a specific amount of time, and they should be expired on the server side and not just removed client-side. One common mistake in application development is deleting the cookie client-side on the user’s browser, but the session on the server remains active. Should an attacker steal the session, a user would be unable to access their account. Imperva SecureSphere WAF: Firewall Features: Automated Learning of Applications and User Behavior A Web application firewall must understand application structure, elements and expected user behavior in order to accurately detect attacks. Imperva's patented Dynamic Profiling technology automates this process by profiling all application elements and building a baseline or "white list" of acceptable user behavior. It also automatically incorporates valid application changes into the application profile over time. Dynamic Profiling eliminates the need to manually configure—and update—application URLs, parameters, cookies, and methods. Research-Driven Security Policies Powered by the Imperva Application Defense Center (ADC), an international security research organization, SecureSphere offers the most complete set of application signatures and policies available. The ADC investigates vulnerabilities reported by Bugtraq, CVE®, Snort®, and underground forums and performs primary research to deliver the most up-to-date and comprehensive Web attack protection available. Adaptable Protection from Large Scale, Automated Attacks An add-on service to the SecureSphere Web Application Firewall, ThreatRadar Reputation Services offers powerful protection against automated attacks and botnets. ThreatRadar aggregates near real-time feeds of known attack sources, bots, phishing URLs, and anonymizing services to block malicious traffic before an attack can be attempted. Up-to-date geolocation data enables businesses to restrict access by geographic location. ThreatRadar Community Defense provides crowd-sourced threat intelligence to stop emerging threats by collecting attack data from SecureSphere Web Application Firewalls. DDoS Protection Service SecureSphere Web Application Firewall stops application-layer DDoS attacks, but massive network-based DDoS attacks can still saturate your Internet connection and prevent traffic from ever reaching your site. The best place to combat network DDoS threats is in the cloud – before the attack can clog your network. DDoS Protection Service for SecureSphere is a secure, ultra-high capacity service that safeguards organizations from crippling DDoS attacks. DDoS Protection Service for SecureSphere can be deployed quickly and can scale on demand to mitigate multi-gigabit DDoS attacks. Virtual Patching Through Vulnerability Scanner Integration For immediate patching of application vulnerabilities, SecureSphere can import assessment results from WhiteHat, IBM, Cenzic, NT OBJECTives, Qualys, and others and create custom policies to block known vulnerabilities. Virtual patching reduces the window of exposure and the cost of emergency fix and test cycles. Protection Against Malware-based Fraud ThreatRadar Fraud Prevention, an add-on service to the SecureSphere Web Application Firewall, enables organizations to rapidly provision and manage fraud security without updating web applications. By integrating with leading fraud security vendors, SecureSphere can transparently identify and stop fraudulent transactions. It also provides powerful monitoring and enforcement capabilities, allowing businesses to centrally manage WAF and fraud policies together. HTTP Protocol, Platform, and XML Protection SecureSphere enforces HTTP standards compliance to prevent protocol exploits and evasion techniques. Fine-grained policies allow administrators to enforce strict adherence to RFC standards or allow minor deviations. With over 8,000 signatures, SecureSphere safeguards the entire application infrastructure including applications and web server software. Flexible, automated XML security policies protect web services, SOAP, and Web 2.0 applications. Granular Correlation Policies Reduce False Positives SecureSphere distinguishes attacks from unusual, but legitimate, behavior, by correlating Web requests across security layers and over time. SecureSphere's Correlated Attack Validation capability examines multiple attributes such as HTTP protocol conformance, profile violations, signatures, special characters, and user reputation, to accurately alert on or block attacks with the lowest rate of false positives in the industry. Customizable Reports for Compliance and Forensics SecureSphere's rich graphical reporting capabilities enable customers to easily understand security status and meet regulatory compliance. SecureSphere provides both pre-defined and fully-customizable reports. Reports can be viewed on demand or emailed on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Monitoring for In-Depth Analysis of Attacks Alerts can be easily searched, sorted, and directly linked to corresponding security rules. SecureSphere's monitoring and reporting framework provides instant visibility into security, compliance, and content delivery concerns. A real-time dashboard provides a high-level view of system status and security events. Imperva Incapsula Imperva Incapsula is an easy and affordable service that integrates a PCI-certified Web Application Firewall, DDoS protection, load balancing and failover on top of a global content delivery network. Imperva Incapsula requires no hardware or software installations, and no web application changes, only a simple DNS change, so even business units or other organizations without dedicated security or IT staff can rest assured that their web applications and data are safe. 3. Discuss the features of the Barracuda Web Application Firewall (BWAF). Explain the use-case example of this firewall, including scenarios, challenges, solutions, and benefits. answer: Features: Protection against OWASP & zero-day attacks Protect against all OWASP top 10 attacks, zero-day attacks, data leakage, and DDoS attacks. The layered traffic processing engine and Smart Signatures use fewer attack-detection signatures to detect and block web attacks, including zero-day attacks. Each Smart Signature can detect attacks found in 40 attack-specific signatures, reducing detection time and improving overall detection. Application Learning adds automated Positive Security, with the ability to enforce this security from the URL down to the parameter level. Advanced Bot Protection Barracuda Advanced Bot Protection uses cloud-based machine learning to stop bad bots, easily blocking automated spam, web and price scraping, inventory hoarding, account takeover attacks, and much more API Protection Barracuda Web Application Firewall protects XML and JSON REST APIs against all application attacks, including OWASP Top 10 API threats. API Discovery capabilities make it easy to configure protection and limit the chances for misconfiguration. Server Cloaking Often the first step of a targeted attack is to probe public-facing applications to learn about the underlying servers, databases, and operating systems. Cloaking prevents attack reconnaissance by suppressing server banners, error messages, HTTP headers, return codes, debug information, or backend IP addresses from leaking to a potential attacker. URL Encryption Encrypt URLs before they are sent to clients, and ensure the original URLs or the directory structure are never exposed externally to prying eyes*. End users of the web applications interact and navigate the site using only encrypted URLs, which are decrypted by the WAF. The decryption process immediately identifies URL query or parameter tampering, malicious content injection or blind forceful browsing attacks. *Models 660 and above Geo-IP and IP Reputation Checking Using client source addresses, organizations can control access to web resources. The Barracuda Web Application Firewall can control access based on GeoIP to limit access only to specified regions. It is also integrated with the Barracuda Reputational Database and can identify suspicious IP addresses, bots, TOR networks and other anonymous proxies that are often used by attackers to hide their identity and location. Once an IP address is identified as a risk, administrators have the ability to block, limit, throttle, or issue a CAPTCHA challenge before allowing access. Malware Protection and Anti-Virus Seamless integration with Barracuda Advanced Threat Protection (BATP) to provide security against advanced threats. Simply add BATP to the Barracuda WAF to block advanced zero-hour threats. By analyzing files in a CPU-emulation based sandbox, it can detect, and block malware embedded deep inside files uploaded to websites or web applications. Multi-Protocol Support In addition to HTTP and HTTPS traffic processing, Barracuda Web Application Firewall can also inspect FTP and FTPS traffic and can be configured to allow/deny specific FTP commands. It also provides inspection capabilities for application protocols like XML and JSON and can be configured to proxy HTTP2 as well as HTML5 websockets traffic. Application DDoS Protection Protect against advanced application-layer DDoS (SlowLoris, RUDY and Slow Read) attacks which are different from volumetric DDoS attacks with heuristic fingerprinting and IP reputation to identify real users from botnet. Secure against application DDoS using a variety of risk assessment techniques such as application-centric thresholds, protocol checks, session integrity, active and passive client challenges, historical client reputation block lists, geo-location, and anomalous idle-time detection. Volumetric DDoS Protection Volumetric DDoS attacks are on the rise because the computational resources that are available to attackers make it very easy to launch full scale attacks that can bring an entire network down. Many times, the entry point for these attacks are web sites of organizations that bear the brunt of the load. Barracuda WAF offers a subscription-based DDoS protection cloud service that scrubs traffic before it reaches the intended websites. This allows the cloud service to identify patterns of DDOS attacks in the connections and block them. JSON Security Mobile application and REST APIs today rely on JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) to transfer data. However, this opens a whole new attack surface which is often overlooked and hard to secure by traditional scan-testing or pen-testing approaches. The Barracuda Web Application Firewall secures the entire attack surface of mobile applications and REST APIs, filters malicious inputs in requests with JSON payloads, helps ensure API SLAs to partners, and provides anti-pharming protection from rogue consumers. Interactive web applications using JSON with AJAX are similarly protected. XML Firewall Applications that rely on XML can now be secured with an XML Firewall capability that secures applications against schema and WSDL poisoning, highly-nested elements, recursive parsing, and other XML-based attacks. This secures communications between client and application or between applications from different systems closing an often-overlooked attack vector. Active Threat Intelligence Real-time attacks need real-time responses. Barracuda Active Threat Intelligence collects threat data from a large, worldwide network of sensors and customer traffic. This data is processed using Machine Learning in near real-time and pushed out to connected units immediately, allowing for rapid detection of new threats and attackers. Client-Side Protection Attackers exploit third-party scripts to perform client-side digital skimming attacks, such as Magecart, to steal PII and financial data directly from the browser. These attacks are difficult to detect because these scripts are loaded directly by the browser and attackers are using sophisticated techniques to avoid detection with scanners and similar defensive methods. Barracuda Web Application Firewall offers Client-Side Protection, a feature that automates the CSP and SRI configuration, reducing admin overheads and configuration errors. In addition to these capabilities, the Barracuda Active Threat Intelligence layer provides visualization and reporting for these configurations, providing admins with deeper visibility into the usage of these scripts. Pricing Notes: Please Note: Energize Updates and Instant Replacement Subscriptions need to be maintained for every Barracuda Product. All subscriptions are continuous and must start from the date of activation. Renewals purchases are continuous and start from the date of expiration of your current subscriptions. No exceptions. Benefitis of Energize Updates: Basic Support, which includes email support 24x7 and phone support between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in the US (Pacific Time), Japan, China, Austria and the United Kingdom time zones. Firmware Maintenance which includes new firmware updates with feature enhancements and bug fixes. Security Updates to patch or repair any security vulnerabilities. Optional participation in the Barracuda Early Release Firmware program. Benefits of Instant Replacement: Enhanced Support which provides phone and email support 24x7. Data migration service for Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewalls. Barracuda Networks will assist movement of data and configuration from the old product to the new product if the old data is accessible. Data recovery service for Barracuda Backup Servers. In the event of a disaster and upon request, Barracuda Networks will preload the most recent data and configuration stored by Barracuda Networks to the new product (note this may take additional time). Hard Disk replacement on Barracuda Networks models that have swappable raid drives. Barracuda Networks will ship via standard shipping a hard disk replacement. Customer must return the failed hard disk to Barracuda Networks. use-case example of this firewall, including scenarios, challenges, solutions, and benefits:A firewall is altering or firmware that forestalls unapproved consent to an affiliation. It explores moving ever closer traffic utilizing a ton of rules to perceive and impede hazards. Firewalls are used in both individual and experience settings, and various devices go with one fundamental, including Mac, Windows, and Linux PCs. They are in general saw as a central piece of alliance security. What is a firewall Firewall History The firewall’s existence dates back to 1980. Back then, it was used as a packet filter. As this use case was very fruitful, it still exists today. Since its inception, the firewall has evolved a lot and has gotten better with each version update. Have a look at its version history. Gen 1 Virus Gen 1 was virus-focused and came into being in the late 1980s. This was the era when the internet was in its infancy stage, and stand-alone PCs were at risk. It promoted the development of anti-virus software. Gen 2 Networks Gen 2 Network or Generation 2 was launched in mid-1990 and was preventing internet-based attacks. This was the actual firewall and its advanced version is what we’re using presently. Gen 3 Applications It was the first version of the new millennium and was best known for its unmatched ability to spot hidden security flaws in mission-critical applications. It also paved the path for the development of IPS. Gen 4 Payload This version augmented the offerings of the Gen 3 firewall and was capable of fixing the specific, highly invasive, and hard-to-trace attacks. Such attacks were on the rise during 2009-2010 and the launch of this version fixed tons of hassles for businesses and individuals. Gen 5 Mega The generation 5 Mega version was launched in 2017. The main driving factor for this version's existence and development was the huge-scale attacks happening and targeting the vast amount of data. This version was able to provide diverse threat prevention measures that are globally acceptable and applicable. ‍ What are the advantages of having a firewall? Firewalls are basic considering the way that they have influenced current security procedures are still normally utilized. They as of late arose in the beginning of the web, when affiliations required new security methodologies that could oversee developing intricacy. Firewalls have since changed into the establishment of affiliation security in the customer expert model – the focal planning of present-day selecting. Most gadgets use firewalls – or enduringly related instruments – to study traffic and ease up hazards. Capacities Firewalls are used in both corporate and purchaser settings. Present day affiliations intertwine them into a security information and Event Management (SIEM) framework close by other organization insurance contraptions. They may be presented at an affiliation's association edge to get ready for external risks, or inside the association to make division and guard against insider risks. In any case fast peril insurance, firewalls perform huge logging and survey limits. They track events, which can be used by regulators to recognize plans and further foster guideline sets. Rules should be invigorated regularly to remain mindful of reliably progressing on the web assurance risks. Dealers discover new risks and encourage patches to cover them as fast as time licenses. In a lone home association, a firewall can channel traffic and alert the customer to interferences. They are especially significant for reliably on relationship, as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or connection modem, considering the way that those affiliation types use static IP addresses. They are consistently used nearby to antivirus applications. Individual firewalls, as opposed to corporate ones, are by and large a single thing rather than a grouping of various things. They may be modifying or a device with firewall firmware embedded. Hardware/firmware firewalls are regularly used for setting impediments between in-home contraptions. ‍ How does a firewall work? A firewall develops a limit between an external association and the association it watches. It is installed inline across an association affiliation and evaluates all groups entering and leaving the observed organization. As it evaluates, it uses a lot of pre-planned rules to perceive innocuous and malevolent bundles. The term 'packs' suggests pieces of data that are coordinated for web move. Packs contain the real data, similarly as information about the data, for instance, where it came from. Firewalls can use this pack information to choose if a given bundle follows the standard set. If it doesn't, the package will be expelled from entering the watched network. Rule sets can be established on a couple of things showed by pack data, including: Their source. Their objective. Their substance. These credits may be tended to unmistakably at different levels of the association. As a package goes through the association, it is reformatted a couple of times to tell the show where to send it. Different sorts of firewalls exist to examine packs at different association levels. ‍ Firewall security - What can it do? The very purpose of this cybersecurity aid is to prevent or stop an attack from taking place. It made it happen by filtering every traffic and inspecting it closely. You can use it in reverse to filter the non-allowed traffic. Auditing the network or connection request is easy with this tool. This way, it will help you find out whether it’s safe to allow a connection request. Generally used for infiltration, it can monitor the traffic nature and can block it immediately if something looks suspicious. This is very useful to stop APTs and eavesdropping. You can easily use a firewall to impose parental control on your private Wi-Fi connection. You can create a list of blocked URLs or websites and prevent your kids from accessing them. The same sort of internet restrictions can be imposed in the workplace. It’s observed that employees often engage too much on social media during work hours. Use a firewall and restrict social media usage during office hours. Just like China, like any other nation, can use a firewall to impose nationwide internet censorship. With the help of a firewall, you can restrict a particular social media, websites, and web pages. While China uses its Great Firewall of China all the time, other nations mostly use a firewall in times of emergency or national concern to spread rumors. ‍ Things the Firewall Security can’t achieve While it seems that a firewall is capable of doing tons of things in one go, there are a few things that are beyond the reach of a firewall. You will be disappointed to know that your firewall won’t be of any use if you expect it to: Spot if the connection is legit A firewall can monitor digital components of a network, not human minds or intents. So, if you expect your firewall tool to find out whether the connection request has good intentions or not, you’re expecting too much. It cannot prevent IP spoofing due to the same reason. Manage the connections that are working off the firewall route This tool can only monitor what is passing through it. It can prevent or analyze the packets/traffic that is bypassing it. Sadly, firewall bypassing is possible. Proffer full-fledged anti-virus like Safety A firewall is capable of preventing a request from taking place that seems ill-intended. But, if seemingly acceptable code or connection looks legit because it has concealed itself diligently, it won’t get noticed. The firewall has no procedure to stop the threat from being delivered to your system. Such situations are better handled with anti-virus. Hence, the firewall must be supported by a separate antivirus. ‍ 7 Types of firewalls Stateful examination firewall Stateful assessment firewalls – in any case called dynamic bundle sifting firewalls – screen correspondence groups as time goes on and take a gander at both drawing nearer and dynamic packages. This sort keeps a table that screens each open affiliation. Exactly when new packages appear, it takes a gander at information in the group header to the state table – its overview of real affiliations – and chooses if the bundle is fundamental for a set up affiliation. On the off chance that it is, the group is let through less any extra examination. In case the package doesn't facilitate with a current affiliation, it is evaluated by the standard set for new affiliations. Stateful inspection firewall Yet stateful appraisal firewalls are exceptionally effective, they can be weak against renouncing of-organization (DoS) attacks. DoS attacks work by taking advantage of set up affiliations that this sort generally acknowledges that are secured. Packet separating Exactly when a parcel goes through a bundle separating firewall, its source and target area, show and target port number are checked. The pack is dropped – which implies not shipped off its goal – if it doesn't adjust to the firewall's standard set. For example, if a firewall is orchestrated with a norm to block Telnet access, the firewall will drop packs destined for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port number 23, the port where a Telnet specialist application would tune in. Packet filtering A bundle separating firewall works basically on the association layer of the OSI reference model, but the vehicle layer is used to get the source and target port numbers. It examines each group independently and doesn't understand whether any given parcel is fundamental for a current stream of traffic. Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) This sort is a mix of various types with additional security programming and devices bundled in. Each type has its own characteristics and inadequacies, some guarantee networks at different layers of the OSI model. The benefit of a NGFW is that it merges the characteristics of every sort cover each type's inadequacy. A NGFW is much of the time a pile of progressions under one name rather than a single part. Current association edges have so many entry centers and different sorts of customers that more grounded permission control and security at the host are required. This prerequisite for a multi-layer approach has provoked the advancement of NGFWs. A NGFW arranges three distinct advantages: ordinary firewall capacities, application care and an IPS. Like the colleague of stateful examination with unique firewalls, NGFWs convey additional setting to the firewall's dynamic cycle. Next Generation Firewall NGFWs join the limits of regular endeavor firewalls - including Network Address Translation (NAT), Uniform Resource Locator (URL) impeding and virtual private associations (VPNs) - with nature of organization (QoS) helpfulness and parts not by and large found in unique things. NGFWs support assumption based frameworks organization by including Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Secure Shell (SSH) assessment, and reputation based malware area. NGFWs also use significant pack survey (DPI) to truly check out the substance of packages and prevent malware. Exactly when a NGFW, or any firewall is used identified with various contraptions, it is named bound brought together danger the executives (UTM). NAT firewalls Completely known as Network address interpretation, grants various contraptions with independent association areas to connect with the web using a singular IP address, keeping individual IP addresses stowed away. Therefore, aggressors looking at an association for IP addresses can't get express nuances, giving additional unmistakable assurance from attacks. NAT firewalls resemble go-between firewalls in that they go probably as an arbiter between a get-together of PCs and outside traffic. Proxy firewalls This sort may moreover be insinuated as a mediator based or reverse delegate firewall. They give application layer isolating and can assess the payload of a group to perceive authentic requesting from malicious code concealed as a considerable sales for data. As attacks against web laborers ended up being more ordinary, it became obvious that there was a prerequisite for firewalls to safeguard networks from attacks at the application layer. parcel sifting and stateful assessment firewalls can't do this at the application layer. Since this sort dissects the payload's substance, it gives security plans more granular order over network traffic. For example, it can allow or deny a specific moving toward Telnet request from a particular customer, while various sorts can simply control general moving toward sales from a particular host. Exactly when this sort lives on a mediator laborer – making it a delegate firewall - it makes it harder for an assailant to discover where the association truly is and makes another layer of security. Both the client and the specialist are constrained to lead the gathering through a go-between - the mediator laborer that has an application layer firewall. Each time an external client requests a relationship with an internal specialist or the opposite way around, the client will open a relationship with the delegate in light of everything. If the affiliation request meets the actions in the firewall rule base, the middle person firewall will open a relationship with the referenced laborer. WAF While traditional firewalls help with protecting private associations from malevolent web applications, Web application firewalls help with safeguarding web applications from poisonous customers. A WAF gets web applications by separating and seeing HTTP traffic between a web application and the Internet. It commonly defends web applications from assaults like cross-site scripting (XSS), record joining, and SQL imbuement, among others. By sending a WAF before a web application, a defend is set between the web application and the Internet. While a go-between based firewall gets a client machine's person by using a center individual, a WAF is a kind of chat mediator, protecting the specialist from receptiveness by having clients go through the WAF preceding showing up at the laborer. SMLI firewalls Stateful multi-layer review separate packages at the affiliation, transport, and application layers, separating them against known confided in gatherings. Like NGFW firewalls, SMLI additionally look at the whole bundle and conceivably permit them to pass in the event that they pass each layer freely. These firewalls survey packs to pick the condition of the correspondence (in this way the name) to guarantee all started correspondence is basically occurring with confided in sources. Kinds of firewalls For what reason Do We Need Firewalls? Firewalls, especially Next Generation Firewalls, revolve around hindering malware and application-layer attacks. Close by a fused interference expectation structure (IPS), these Next Generation Firewalls can react quickly and reliably to distinguish and fight attacks across the whole association. Firewalls can circle back to as of late set ways to deal with all the more promptly guarantee your organize and can finish quick assessments to distinguish prominent or questionable development, for instance, malware, and shut it down. By using a firewall for your security system, you're setting up your association with express game plans to allow or deter drawing nearer and dynamic traffic. ‍ What weaknesses are inclined to firewalls? Less advanced firewalls – group filtering for example – are frail against more critical level attacks since they don't use DPI to totally dissect packages. NGFWs were familiar with address that shortcoming. Regardless, NGFWs really face hardships and are feeble against creating risks. Consequently, affiliations should join them with other security parts, like interference revelation structures and interference contravention systems. A couple of examples of present day risks that a firewall may be vulnerable against are: Insider assaults Affiliations can use internal firewalls on top of an edge firewall to piece the mastermind and give inside protection. If an attack is suspected, affiliations can audit delicate using NGFW features. All of the audits should look at benchmark documentation inside the affiliation that formats best practices for using the affiliation's association. A couple of occasions of direct that might exhibit an insider risk join the going with: transmission of sensitive data in plain text. asset access outside of business hours. touchy resource access dissatisfaction by the customer. outsider customers network resource access. DDos assaults A DDoS attack is a dangerous undertaking to disturb common traffic of an assigned organization by overwhelming the target or its enveloping establishment with a flood of traffic. It utilizes distinctive compromised PC structures as wellsprings of attack traffic. Exploited machines can fuse PCs and other orchestrated resources, similar to web of things (IoT) contraptions. A DDoS attack looks like a gridlock holding common traffic back from appearing at its optimal target. The basic concern in assuaging a DDoS attack is isolating among attack and common traffic. Commonly, the traffic in this attack type can arise out of evidently genuine sources, and requires cross-checking and assessing from a couple of safety parts. Malware Malware perils are vacillated, complex, and consistently growing nearby security advancement and the associations it guarantees. As associations become more marvelous and dynamic with the climb of IoT, it ends up being all the more difficult for firewalls to shield them. ‍ Firewall Examples Considering the impact and utility, firewalls have become a mainstream product in cyber security. However, its usage is only fruitful when it’s done ethically. Here are some of the well-known firewall examples from the real world. Great Firewall of China for mass internet censorship China isn’t an internet-friendly country and has multiple censorships imposed on the public while using the internet. To impose these censorships, China has been using firewalls since 1998. What the internet world uses has no or very restricted access in China. Instead, the use of a firewall allowed China to create a fully-monitored intranet. The country’s firewall, Great Firewall of China, is used to permit only government-approved websites or apps. That’s not the end of it. It, as per the government’s preference, can also define the scope of the internet for the citizens of China, e.g., what, how, and for how long one can browse the internet. In short, this tool for the government to impose national surveillance and www censorship on a large scale. An ill-configured firewall on US Federal agency The world went through many ups and downs when the pandemic happened in 2020. Many of us, including the US Federal agency, weren’t prepared for work-from-home lockdown, isolation, and tons of other things that came as a part of the parcel with COVID-19. The US Federal agency became a victim of a security breach in 2020 due to the presence of a misconfigured firewall that allowed a skilled hacker to exploit not one but many vulnerabilities in the remote work model of the agency, which was adopted in a rush. Upon deeper dip, it surfaced that the firewall had multiple outbound ports open to all sorts of traffic. The worst part was that these ports were unprotected and were very poorly managed. With all these weaknesses, it was not tough for any threat actor to exploit this flaw. The unpatched firewall of the US power grid It seems the US's cybersecurity infrastructure is full of loopholes. Because of the presence of an unpatched firewall, the US power grid has to face the wrath of a DDoS attack in 2019. The main reason for this attack was the unpatched firewalls that remained stuck in a reboot situation for more than 10 hours at a stretch. This made implemented firewalls ineffective and created an opportunity for the threat actor. Further investigations revealed that unpatched firewalls existed because updates were not implemented. Even though the attack didn’t have any deeper penetration, it was a matter of concern back then.