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Palo Alto NGFW lab 12 of 30

Zone protection and DoS protection

Defend the published intranet server from the internet side: a zone protection profile that blocks port scanners, drops spoofed packets and turns on SYN cookies under flood, and a classified DoS protection policy that limits concurrent sessions per source. Attack it yourself from the Internet node and watch the firewall respond.

Run this lab

It needs Lite: its 4 nodes are set to 5 vCPU and 7,680 MB in total. That fits the free demo too.

In your workspace: Shared, then Palo Alto NGFW PAN-OS 11 guided labs, then 12 - Zone protection and DoS protection

Try it free for 30 minutesRun it on Lite from £3 a day

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Level
Advanced
Time
About 50 minutes
Nodes need
5 vCPU, 7,680 MB
Smallest plan
Lite

The scenario

Since the intranet page was published at http://203.0.113.20:8080 (lab 07), the firewall log shows scans and bursts of connections from the internet. Calder wants the firewall to:

  • spot and block scanners automatically;
  • survive SYN floods;
  • drop packets with forged source addresses;
  • stop any single internet address from holding more than 3 sessions at once to the published server.

You'll play the attacker from the Internet node. It has two tools and several internet source addresses (198.51.100.10, .20, .30):

ToolUsage
port-scan SRC TARGET FIRST LASTTCP connect scan
conn-test SRC TARGET PORT COUNTopens COUNT connections at once and reports how many succeeded

Before you start. Start all the nodes. The firewall takes 6-8 minutes to boot and comes up with this lab's starting configuration already loaded. Wait until the FW1 console shows FW1 login:, then log in as admin / Lab-Access-1. Until the management plane is ready it answers Login incorrect, even with the right password. The Linux hosts are ready within seconds.

What you’ll practise

  • Explain zone protection (zone-wide, before policy) versus DoS protection (rule-based, per destination)
  • Configure reconnaissance protection with block-ip and prove it with a port scan
  • Configure flood protection with SYN cookies and packet-based attack protection
  • Configure a classified DoS protection profile and policy with a concurrent-session limit
  • Verify with threat logs, global counters and live tests

The tasks

  1. Zone protection versus DoS protection
  2. Reconnaissance protection
  3. Flood and packet-based protection
  4. DoS protection with a classified profile
  5. Read the protection state

The Lab Tasks pane has the scenario, these tasks, the checks to run, hints and the full solution.

Topology and devices

The network as it opens in EVE-NG, drawn from the lab’s own canvas, and the image each node runs.

Topology of Zone protection and DoS protection4 nodes and 3 networks, 7 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.FW1Client-PCweb01InternetInsideOutsideDMZeth0ethernet1/3eth0mgmtethernet1/2eth0ethernet1/1
4 nodes and 3 networks, with the interface names each link uses. On a narrow screen, scroll the diagram sideways.
Every link, as text
  • FW1 mgmt to Inside (network)
  • FW1 ethernet1/1 to Outside (network)
  • FW1 ethernet1/2 to Inside (network)
  • FW1 ethernet1/3 to DMZ (network)
  • Client-PC eth0 to Inside (network)
  • web01 eth0 to DMZ (network)
  • Internet eth0 to Outside (network)
Nodes in Zone protection and DoS protection, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
FW1Palo Alto Networks VM-Series (PAN-OS)paloalto-11.2.52 vCPU, 5,632 MB
Client-PCEVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 1,024 MB
web01EVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 512 MB
InternetEVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 512 MB

How to open this lab

  1. Sign in to your workspace at lab.cloudlabbox.com.

  2. In File Manager, open Shared, then the folder Palo Alto NGFW PAN-OS 11 guided labs.

  3. Open 12 - Zone protection and DoS protection and start its nodes, then open Lab Tasks for the scenario and the steps.

The lab is read-only. You can start the nodes and configure the devices, but changes to the topology can’t be saved. To change it, rebuild it in your own folder.

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CloudLabBox is independent of Palo Alto Networks and Cisco. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.