NGFW 6.7 Online Help

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Traffic inspection policies
Policies are key elements that contain rules for allowing or blocking network traffic and inspecting the content of traffic.
Access rules
Access rules are lists of matching criteria and actions that define how the engine treats different types of network traffic. They are your main configuration tool for defining which traffic is stopped and which traffic is allowed.
Using Access rules
There are some additional concepts that are useful when working with Access rules.

About this Help
This online Help was created for Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall (Forcepoint NGFW), version 6.7.0.
Introduction to the Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall solution
Before setting up Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall (Forcepoint NGFW), it is useful to know what the different components do and what engine roles are available.
Deployment
Before you can set up the system and start configuring elements, you must consider how the different SMC components should be positioned and deployed.
Setting up
After deploying the SMC components, you are ready to start using the Management Client and carrying out some of the first configuration tasks.
Monitoring
You can use the SMC to monitor system components and third-party devices. You can also view and filter logs, and create Reports from them.
Controlling NGFW Engines
You can command and set options for engines through the Management Client or on the engine command line. You can also stop traffic manually.
SMC configuration
Security Management Center (SMC) configuration allows you to customize how the SMC components work.
NGFW Engine configuration
You can create and modify Firewalls, IPS engines, Layer 2 Firewalls, Master NGFW Engines and Virtual NGFW Engines. You can configure the NGFW Engine properties, activate optional features, and configure advanced NGFW Engine settings.
Routing
Use the Management Client to configure static or dynamic routing, and use a Multi-Link configuration to manage and distribute inbound and outbound connections.
Traffic inspection policies
Policies are key elements that contain rules for allowing or blocking network traffic and inspecting the content of traffic.
- Creating and managing policy elements
  Policy elements are containers for the rules that determine how NGFW Engines, Master NGFW Engines, and Virtual NGFW Engines examine traffic. The policy elements for the engines include Template Policies, Policies, and Sub-Policies.
- Ethernet rules
- Access rules
  Access rules are lists of matching criteria and actions that define how the engine treats different types of network traffic. They are your main configuration tool for defining which traffic is stopped and which traffic is allowed.
  - Getting started with Access rules
    Access rules filter traffic by defining matching criteria and an action that is applied to packets that match all criteria defined in the rule.
  - Overview of Access rules
    Access rules are traffic handling rules in which you define the details of traffic examination and which action to take when matching details are found.
  - Configuring Access rules
    Access rules filter traffic by defining matching criteria and an action that is applied to packets that match all criteria defined in the rule.
  - Using Access rules
    There are some additional concepts that are useful when working with Access rules.
    - Allowing system communications in Access rules
      You must add Access rules for some types of communication between SMC components.
    - Configuring default settings for several Access rules
      The Continue action allows you to set default values for some settings in rules to avoid defining the same settings for several rules individually.
    - Rematching tunneled packets in Access rules
      You can rematch encapsulated traffic against the Access rules.
    - Using Access rules for application routing
      Access rules for application routing match based on the network application that is detected in the traffic.
    - Enforcing safe search features in Access rules
      The safe search feature helps schools and other organizations to limit web searches and filter out potentially offensive content from search results.
    - Using Alias elements in Access rules
      You can use Alias elements to create a single rule that changes in meaning depending on where it is installed.
    - Creating user-specific Access rules
      You can use User and User Group elements as the source or destination of a rule to create user-specific rules.
    - Using Domain Name elements in Firewall Access rules
      You can use Domain Name elements in Access rules to represent a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that might be associated with multiple IP addresses.
    - Using Zone elements for interface matching in Access rules
      Access rules apply to all network interfaces, unless you use Zone elements to match traffic based on which interfaces traffic passes through.
  - Examples of firewall Access rules
    These examples illustrate some common uses for Firewall Access rules and general steps on how each example is configured.
  - Examples of IPS Access rules
    These examples illustrate some common uses for IPS Access rules and general steps on how each example is configured.
- NAT rules
- Inspection Policy elements
  Inspection Policy elements define how the engines look for patterns in traffic allowed through the Access rules and what happens when a certain type of pattern is found.
- Editing policies
  The rules in Firewall, IPS, Layer 2 Firewall, and Layer 2 Interface Policies allow you to control how the engines inspect and filter network traffic, and how NAT (network address translation) is applied on Firewalls, Master NGFW Engines, and Virtual Firewalls.
- Defining IP addresses
  When you define IP addresses as elements, you can use the same definitions in multiple configurations for multiple components.
- Working with Service elements
  Service elements match traffic based on protocol or port and set options for advanced inspection of traffic. Service elements are used in Firewall Policies, IPS Policies, Layer 2 Firewall Policies, and Layer 2 Interface Policies.
- Defining Situation elements
  Situation elements contain the context information that defines the pattern that the NGFW Engine looks for in the inspected traffic. Situation elements also define the patterns that match events in the traffic.
- Using Network Application elements
  Network Application elements collect combinations of identified characteristics and detected events in traffic to dynamically identify traffic related to the use of a particular network application.
- Defining User Response elements
  With the User Response element, you can send customized replies to users, instead of just closing an HTTP or HTTPS connection.
- Quality of Service
  The Quality of Service (QoS) features allow you to manage bandwidth and prioritize connections on the NGFW Engines. QoS features are available on Firewalls, IPS NGFW Engines, Layer 2 Firewalls, Master NGFW Engines, Virtual Firewalls, Virtual IPS NGFW Engines, and Virtual Layer 2 Firewalls.
- File filtering
  Monitoring and restricting what data is sent out is an important part of data loss prevention (DLP). File filtering allows you to restrict the file types that are allowed in and out through the firewall, and to apply malware detection to files.
- Integrating Endpoint Context Agent
  If you have installed Forcepoint Endpoint Context Agent (ECA) clients on the endpoints in your network, you can collect information about endpoint clients, and use the information for access control in the SMC.
- Filtering URLs
  URL filtering allows you to filter URLs based on categories of content or lists of individual URLs.
- Anti-malware scanning
  An anti-malware scanner compares network traffic against an anti-malware database to search for malware. If malware is found, the traffic is stopped or content is stripped out.
- Protocol Agents on NGFW Engines
  Protocol elements of the Protocol Agent type are special modules for some protocols and services that require advanced processing. Protocol Agents can enforce policies on the application layer.
- Sidewinder Proxies
  Sidewinder Proxies are software modules that provide network level proxies, protocol validation, and configurable application level protocol filtering and translation on Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall.
- Setting up TLS inspection
  The TLS inspection feature decrypts TLS connections so that they can be inspected for malicious traffic and then re-encrypts the traffic before sending it to its destination.
- Forward traffic to a proxy service for external inspection
  In addition to inspecting traffic on the NGFW Engine, you can transparently forward traffic to a proxy service in the cloud or on premises. For example, you can forward all HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the Forcepoint Web Security Cloud service.
- Blacklisting IP addresses
  Blacklisting is a way to temporarily block unwanted network traffic either manually or automatically with blacklist requests from an NGFW Engine or Log Server. Firewalls, IPS engines, Layer 2 Firewalls, and Virtual NGFW Engines can use a blacklist for blocking traffic.
Users and authentication
User accounts are stored in internal databases or external directory servers. You can use Forcepoint NGFW in the Firewall/VPN role or external authentication servers to authenticate users.
Virtual private networks
Forcepoint NGFW supports both policy-based and route-based VPN (virtual private network) tunnels between VPN gateways. For full remote access, Forcepoint NGFW supports both IPsec and SSL VPN tunnels for VPN clients.
Maintenance and upgrades
Maintenance includes procedures that you do not typically need to do frequently.
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting helps you resolve common problems in the Forcepoint NGFW and SMC.
Appendices

Using Access rules

There are some additional concepts that are useful when working with Access rules.

Allowing system communications in Access rules
You must add Access rules for some types of communication between SMC components.
Configuring default settings for several Access rules
The Continue action allows you to set default values for some settings in rules to avoid defining the same settings for several rules individually.
Rematching tunneled packets in Access rules
You can rematch encapsulated traffic against the Access rules.
Using Access rules for application routing
Access rules for application routing match based on the network application that is detected in the traffic.
Enforcing safe search features in Access rules
The safe search feature helps schools and other organizations to limit web searches and filter out potentially offensive content from search results.
Using Alias elements in Access rules
You can use Alias elements to create a single rule that changes in meaning depending on where it is installed.
Creating user-specific Access rules
You can use User and User Group elements as the source or destination of a rule to create user-specific rules.
Using Domain Name elements in Firewall Access rules
You can use Domain Name elements in Access rules to represent a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) that might be associated with multiple IP addresses.
Using Zone elements for interface matching in Access rules
Access rules apply to all network interfaces, unless you use Zone elements to match traffic based on which interfaces traffic passes through.

Related concepts

Using policy elements and rules

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Published 4 March 2021