PSE-Strata Questions and Answers

To address threats based on domain generation algorithms (DGAs), the Anti-Spyware profile is used to configure Domain Name Security (DNS) on Palo Alto Networks firewalls. DGAs are algorithms used by malware to generate a large number of domain names for command-and-control servers, making it difficult to block them through traditional means. The Anti-Spyware profile includes features to detect and block connections to these dynamically generated domains in real-time, providing robust protection against this sophisticated attack vector.

The Palo Alto Networks platform approach to security offers several key benefits:

Operational Efficiencies: By automating incident review and response, the platform reduces the need for manual intervention, thereby decreasing the mean time to resolution (MTTR). This streamlines security operations and allows teams to focus on more strategic tasks.

Increased Security: The scalable cloud-delivered security services (CDSS) provided by Palo Alto Networks ensure that security measures can be dynamically scaled to meet the needs of the organization, offering robust protection against evolving threats.

Cost Savings: The platform reduces the overall IT management effort and device requirements, leading to significant cost savings. This is achieved through integrated solutions that minimize the need for multiple disparate security products and simplify management.

To prevent attacks involving malicious files such as .doc and .pdf types, the customer should enable WildFire.

WildFire: This feature analyzes files to detect and prevent zero-day threats by running the files in a virtual environment to observe their behavior. If a file is deemed malicious, WildFire generates signatures and updates the firewall to block such threats in the future. Enabling WildFire provides advanced protection against undetectable sources of malicious files.

To provide access for 5500 mobile users and 10 remote locations (100Mbps each) for one year with Base Support and minimal logging, the following Bill of Materials (BOM) should be selected:

5500x PAN-GPCS-USER-C-BAS-1YR: This covers the license for 5500 mobile users for one year.

1000x PAN-GPCS-NET-B-BAS-1YR: This covers the network license for 10 remote locations.

1x PAN-LGS-1TB-1YR: This provides minimal logging capability.

1x PAN-PRA-25: This includes the Prisma Access license.

1x PAN-SVC-BAS-PRA-25: This includes the Base Support service for Prisma Access.

These components ensure that the customer has the necessary licenses and support to meet their requirements.

WildFire is Palo Alto Networks' advanced threat detection service that provides protections and verdicts for portable executable (PE) and executable and linkable format (ELF) files. It utilizes dynamic and static analysis to detect malicious behavior in files and integrates with existing security tools to provide comprehensive protection. WildFire can detect and prevent threats across multiple file types and platforms, making it suitable for environments that require robust security measures.

For a price-sensitive customer needing to secure a Windows Virtual Server with a maximum throughput of 100Mbps and requiring up to 45,000 sessions, the VM-200 instance is the appropriate choice. The VM-200 is designed to handle up to 100Mbps of throughput and supports a sufficient number of sessions to meet the customer's requirements, making it a cost-effective and suitable option for this use case​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

The Best Practice Assessment (BPA) tool by Palo Alto Networks identifies tasks related to improving device management access. This includes evaluating the current state of management access configurations and providing recommendations to enhance security, such as implementing multi-factor authentication, using secure management interfaces, and restricting access based on roles.

References: Palo Alto Networks Best Practice Assessment tool documentation.

When sizing the Cortex Data Lake for Traps Management Service, two key factors must be considered:

Retention Requirements: It is essential to determine how long the logs and data need to be retained in the Cortex Data Lake. This affects the overall storage capacity required, as longer retention periods will necessitate more storage space​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

The Number of Traps Agents: The total number of Traps agents deployed will directly impact the volume of data being generated and sent to the Cortex Data Lake. More agents mean more data, which in turn requires a larger data lake capacity to handle the increased load​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

DNS Security is a service that prevents users from resolving IP addresses to malicious, grayware, or newly registered domains. By integrating DNS Security into the Palo Alto Networks platform, organizations can block threats at the DNS layer, providing an additional level of protection against domain-based attacks. This service leverages real-time threat intelligence to identify and block malicious domains before they can be used in attacks.

Palo Alto Networks' platform addresses concerns regarding SSL decryption by offering the ability to define a list of websites or URL categories that can be excluded from decryption. This feature allows organizations to comply with privacy and regulatory requirements while still gaining visibility into encrypted traffic where necessary. By creating exceptions for specific websites or URL categories, organizations can strike a balance between security needs and privacy concerns. This method ensures that sensitive data remains confidential while still allowing the firewall to inspect other traffic for threats.

To run Cortex XDR effectively, the following three mandatory components are required:

NGFW with PANOS 8.0.5 or Later: The Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) running PANOS 8.0.5 or later is necessary to provide advanced security features and integration with Cortex XDR.

Cortex Data Lake: This component is essential for storing and analyzing large volumes of data, providing the necessary infrastructure for Cortex XDR to perform threat detection and response.

Traps: Traps (now part of Cortex XDR Endpoint Protection) is essential for endpoint protection, helping to prevent, detect, and respond to threats on endpoints.

These components work together to provide comprehensive threat detection and response capabilities within the Cortex XDR framework.

The Palo Alto Networks Security Operating Platform is designed to prevent various stages of the cyberattack lifecycle. Specifically, it effectively prevents the following four stages:

Breach the Perimeter: By using advanced threat prevention mechanisms, the platform can stop initial attempts to penetrate the network perimeter.

Lateral Movement: Once inside the network, attackers often try to move laterally to access more systems. The platform uses network segmentation and advanced monitoring to detect and prevent such movements.

Exfiltrate Data: Data exfiltration is the process of unauthorized data transfer out of the network. The platform employs data loss prevention (DLP) technologies to detect and block such attempts.

Deliver the Malware: The platform can prevent malware delivery through its threat prevention capabilities, including anti-malware, anti-spyware, and sandboxing technologies.

These steps cover critical phases where the platform can intervene to stop attacks before they cause significant damage.

For the User-ID Agent to perform WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) Authentication on a Windows Server, the following domain permissions are required:

Domain Administrators: This group has the highest level of privileges in the domain and can perform any action within the Active Directory domain.

Distributed COM Users: This group allows members to launch, activate, and use Distributed COM objects on the server.

Event Log Readers: This group provides read access to the event logs, which is crucial for the User-ID Agent to collect security events necessary for user identification​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

In PAN-OS 9, the WF-500 appliance added support for new file types, including ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) and 7-Zip files. This expansion enables broader malware detection capabilities by analyzing additional file formats commonly used in various operating systems and compression utilities​ (LIVEcommunity | Palo Alto Networks)​​ (LIVEcommunity | Palo Alto Networks)​.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) significantly enhances security by requiring multiple forms of verification to access accounts, reducing the risk of abuse from stolen credentials. URL Filtering Profiles block access to malicious or high-risk websites that might be used to harvest credentials or facilitate phishing attacks. SSL decryption rules allow security systems to inspect encrypted traffic, ensuring that malicious content is not being hidden within encrypted sessions, thereby preventing the use of stolen credentials on secure sites. These measures collectively help in reducing the risk of credential theft and misuse.

References:

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines on authentication

Palo Alto Networks' Best Practices for URL Filtering

SSL Decryption in Network Security (SANS Institute)

The Vulnerability Protection profile on Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall includes signatures to protect against a variety of threats, including brute force attacks.

Vulnerability Protection Profile:

This profile contains specific signatures designed to detect and block attempts to exploit vulnerabilities, including those used in brute force attacks.

To configure SSL Forward Proxy, two types of certificates can be used:

Enterprise CA-signed certificates: These certificates are issued by a Certificate Authority (CA) within the organization, ensuring trust within the enterprise environment.

Self-Signed certificates: These are generated and signed by the firewall itself. While easier to deploy, they may not be trusted by external clients unless explicitly added to their trust stores.

Both types of certificates allow the firewall to decrypt and inspect SSL/TLS traffic, ensuring that malicious traffic can be detected and blocked even when encrypted.

References: Palo Alto Networks SSL Decryption documentation.

For detecting actionable events on the network and processing related threat events, the Automated Correlation Engine (ACE) in PAN-OS is highly suitable.

Automated Correlation Engine (ACE):

ACE analyzes firewall logs to detect patterns and sequences of events that may indicate a compromised host.

It automatically processes related threat events, pinpointing areas of risk and providing actionable insights.

DNS sinkholing is a technique used to intercept and redirect malicious traffic to a designated IP address (sinkhole) to identify and prevent further malicious activity. When a compromised host attempts to connect to a known malicious domain, it is instead directed to the sinkhole IP address. This allows security administrators to identify infected hosts by examining traffic logs, where connections to the sinkhole IP address are recorded. DNS sinkholing does not require a separate license, and the relevant signatures are typically included in the Threat Prevention package.

During a security event, the Traps agent (part of Cortex XDR) performs several actions beyond just preventing the activity:

Collects forensic information about the event: The Traps agent gathers detailed information regarding the event, which helps in understanding the nature and source of the threat.

Communicates the status of the endpoint to the ESM (Endpoint Security Manager): This communication ensures that the ESM is aware of the current state of the endpoint, helping in centralized management and response.

Notifies the user about the event: The agent informs the user about the occurrence of a security event, which can help in immediate local response and awareness.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR Documentation

Palo Alto Networks Traps Agent User Guide

Dynamic user groups (DUGs) provide flexibility in managing user access and security policies.

Tagging Users via Panorama or Web UI (Option B):

Administrators can manually add or remove users from DUGs using the graphical interface provided by Panorama or the firewall’s Web UI.

Palo Alto Networks Single Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) architecture is designed to handle traffic efficiently and securely. The key aspect of SP3 is:

Single Pass Processing (C): This means that all traffic is processed in a single pass through the firewall, regardless of the number of security features enabled. There is no additional performance impact for each feature because the firewall processes all security functions (such as threat prevention, URL filtering, and application control) simultaneously in a single pass. This architecture ensures high performance and low latency while maintaining robust security.

References:

Palo Alto Networks, Single Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) Whitepaper.

Palo Alto Networks, Firewall Performance and Architecture Documentation.

To prevent the abuse of stolen credentials, two effective configuration elements are:

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (C): Implementing MFA adds an additional layer of security by requiring users to provide two or more verification factors to gain access to a resource such as an application or online account. This significantly reduces the risk of credential abuse because even if the credentials are stolen, the attacker would still need the second factor to gain access.

URL Filtering Profiles (D): URL Filtering Profiles help prevent access to malicious or inappropriate websites. By restricting access to known phishing and malicious sites, URL filtering can prevent users from inadvertently entering their credentials on fraudulent websites, thereby reducing the chances of credential theft and misuse.

References:

Palo Alto Networks, Multi-Factor Authentication Setup and URL Filtering Profiles documentation.

The SIA (Scan It All) Processing Engine in a Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) is responsible for handling multiple security functions such as file proxy solutions, virus and spyware scanning, vulnerability scanning, and HTTP decoding for URL filtering. This engine ensures comprehensive security coverage by performing deep inspection and analysis of network traffic to detect and mitigate various types of threats, ensuring robust protection for the network.

WildFire, Palo Alto Networks' advanced threat analysis service, has expanded its capabilities to analyze the following new script types:

VBScript: A scripting language commonly used in Windows environments for automation and administrative tasks, which can be exploited for malicious purposes.

JScript: A Microsoft implementation of JavaScript, used in various applications and often targeted by attackers for script-based exploits.

PowerShell Script: A powerful scripting language used for task automation and configuration management in Windows, which has become a common target for advanced attacks due to its capabilities.

By analyzing these script types, WildFire enhances its ability to detect and prevent sophisticated attacks that leverage scripting languages.

References:

Palo Alto Networks WildFire Datasheet

Palo Alto Networks WildFire Administration Guide

Palo Alto Networks' Threat Intelligence Cloud sources malware sample data from various significant inputs:

Next-generation firewalls deployed with WildFire Analysis Security Profiles: These firewalls are equipped with WildFire Analysis Security Profiles, which analyze unknown files and email links to detect zero-day threats and malware. This provides a rich source of real-time threat data.

WF-500 configured as private clouds for privacy concerns: The WF-500 appliance is used by organizations that prefer to maintain privacy and have stringent data control requirements. It serves as a private cloud for malware analysis, adding another layer of data collection.

Third-party data feeds: Partnerships with organizations like ProofPoint and the Cyber Threat Alliance enable Palo Alto Networks to integrate additional threat intelligence feeds. These third-party collaborations expand the breadth and depth of threat data available for analysis and defense​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

Expedition is a tool provided by Palo Alto Networks to help streamline the migration and optimization of security policies. Two key presales selling advantages of using Expedition are:

Streamline & Migrate to Layer7 Policies Using Policy Optimizer: Policy Optimizer helps in converting traditional Layer 3/4 policies into more granular Layer 7 application-based policies. This migration ensures more precise control and better security by focusing on the actual applications rather than just IP addresses and ports.

Reduce Effort to Implement Policies Based on App-ID and User-ID: Expedition facilitates the implementation of security policies based on Palo Alto Networks' App-ID and User-ID technologies. This reduces the complexity and effort required to manage security policies, as policies can be applied based on specific applications and user identities, leading to more effective and efficient security management.

When configuring the NGFW to act as a decryption broker for multiple transparent bridge security chains, the following items are required:

A unique Transparent Bridge Decryption Forwarding Profile to a single Decryption policy rule (B): Each decryption policy rule must be associated with a unique Transparent Bridge Decryption Forwarding Profile. This ensures that decrypted traffic is forwarded appropriately to the specific security chain.

A unique Decryption policy rule is required per security chain (C): You need to create a separate decryption policy rule for each security chain. This allows you to distribute the decrypted traffic among multiple security chains based on policy criteria.

These configurations enable the firewall to effectively manage and distribute the load across multiple security chains, ensuring optimal performance and security​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)

To support MineMeld indicators on PAN-OS External Dynamic Lists (EDLs), you must configure the Prototype setting. The prototype defines the type of node and its configuration in MineMeld, which is essential for generating the correct feed format that the firewall can consume. This allows the EDL to dynamically pull in threat intelligence data from MineMeld and apply it to security policies​ (LIVEcommunity | Palo Alto Networks)​​ (LIVEcommunity | Palo Alto Networks)​.

File Blocking Profiles can help prevent drive-by downloads by blocking certain types of file downloads that are commonly associated with malware. This allows web-browsing traffic to continue but prevents potentially harmful files from being downloaded automatically, thus protecting against malicious software that could be installed without user consent.

References:

Palo Alto Networks' documentation on File Blocking Profiles

OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) guidelines on preventing drive-by downloads

To configure the Decryption Broker, the following two steps are required:

Activate the Decryption Broker license: Ensure that the appropriate license is activated to enable the decryption broker feature.

Enable SSL Forward Proxy decryption: Configure SSL Forward Proxy decryption on the firewall to intercept, decrypt, and inspect SSL/TLS traffic. This setup allows the decrypted traffic to be forwarded to other security devices for further analysis.

These steps are essential to leverage the Decryption Broker functionality, which facilitates deeper inspection and security analysis of encrypted traffic.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Decryption Broker Configuration Guide

Palo Alto Networks SSL Decryption Documentation

The metric health baseline for devices is typically calculated by taking the average performance of a specific metric over a period (such as seven days) and then adding the standard deviation to account for variability. This helps in identifying deviations from normal performance, which can indicate potential issues or anomalies in device behavior.

References:

Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics (NPMD) methodologies

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) standards for performance baselines

The smallest Panorama solution that can be used to manage up to 2500 Palo Alto Networks Next Generation firewalls is the M-200 appliance.

The M-200 is designed for medium-sized organizations and provides the necessary performance and scalability to manage a large number of firewalls efficiently.

The M-600 is a more powerful appliance but is not the smallest option.

The M-100 has been superseded by the M-200 and does not support as many devices.

The Panorama VM-Series can manage a large number of devices but is not typically considered the "smallest" solution due to its virtual nature and varying performance based on the underlying hardware.

Preventing unknown targeted attacks requires advanced techniques that can identify and mitigate threats in real-time.

App-ID with the Zero Trust model (Option B):

App-ID identifies applications traversing the network regardless of port, protocol, or evasive tactic employed, ensuring that only legitimate applications are allowed, following the principles of the Zero Trust model.

For a Fortune 500 customer concerned about sending discovered malware outside of their network, the WildFire Private Cloud is the appropriate solution. The WildFire Private Cloud allows the organization to retain all malware analysis within their own data center, ensuring that sensitive information and discovered threats are not transmitted to external servers. This version of WildFire is designed for organizations with stringent data privacy and security policies, offering the same advanced threat detection and prevention capabilities as the public cloud version, but hosted entirely within the customer's infrastructure.