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PAN-SEC-091MediumPAN-OS

Decryption rule excludes a high-risk URL category from decryption

At a glance

Base severity

Medium

Area

Decryption

Platform

PAN-OS

Evidence level

Fact1.00

Benchmark reference

Reads the export, not the device

ConfigProof reads a configuration export. This control is evaluated against the objects in that file, and it reports what the file says. It does not connect to the device and sees no traffic, so a finding here describes the configuration, not what the firewall is doing right now.

Why it matters

Traffic matched by a no-decrypt rule stays encrypted, so the threat, URL and file inspection attached to the security rules that follow sees only the outer session. For categories whose content is the threat, that is the traffic the inspection was bought for.

How to fix it

Web interface

The steps below are written for the web interface. A finding raised on your own export carries the same steps with your object names filled in.

  1. Remove these categories from the rule's category list, so they fall through to a rule that decrypts.
  2. Where the exclusion is deliberate, record the reason: a category is excluded for legal and privacy reasons as often as by mistake.
  3. Where the rule's only purpose was these categories, delete the rule instead: a no-decrypt rule with an empty category list matches every category.

Command line

PAN-OS CLI, standalone firewall, vsys1

delete vsys vsys1 rulebase decryption rules <rule> category <category>

An example. Values in angle brackets are yours to supply; a finding on your own export fills in the names it read. Nothing here commits. Review the candidate configuration, then commit it yourself.

Read it back

show vsys vsys1 rulebase decryption rules <rule>
Values to fill in2
<rule>
The decryption rule, by name.
<category>
One URL category, as it appears in the profile's lists.
Before you type it2
  • Taking a category out of a no-decrypt rule starts decrypting it. Check the legal and privacy position first.
  • Add the exclusions your applications need before you turn decryption on.

How to confirm the fix

  • Reopen the decryption policy and confirm the categories on this rule.
  • Confirm a session in one of these categories now appears as decrypted.

Limits

  • The categories treated as high risk are a ConfigProof list of PAN-OS categories whose content is the threat rather than the subject matter. An organization that excludes one of them on purpose is making a choice, not a mistake.
  • Whether these categories should be decrypted is a business and legal decision this analysis cannot make.

Compliance references

No benchmark recommendation is mapped to this control in this version.

More in Decryption

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