How do I protect my AWS instances?

In this example, the VPC is deployed in the 10.0.0.0/16 network with two /24 subnets: 10.0.0.0/24 and 10.0.1.0/24. The VM-Series firewall will be launched in the 10.0.0.0/24 subnet to which the internet gateway is attached. The 10.0.1.0/24 subnet is a private subnet that will host the EC2 instances that need to be secured by the VM-Series firewall; any server on this private subnet uses NAT for a routable IP address (which is an Elastic IP address) to access the internet. Use the Planning Worksheet for the VM-Series in the AWS VPC to plan the design within your VPC; recording the subnet ranges, network interfaces and the associated IP addresses for the EC2 instances, and security groups, will make the setup process easier and more efficient.

The following image depicts the logical flow of traffic to/from the web server to the internet. Traffic to/from the web server is sent to the data interface of the VM-Series firewall that is attached to the private subnet. The firewall applies policy and processes incoming/outgoing traffic from/to the internet gateway of the VPC. The image also shows the security groups to which the data interfaces are attached.

1. Create a new VPC with a public subnet (or select an existing VPC).

   1. Log in to the AWS console and select the

      VPC

      Dashboard.

   2. Verify that you’ve selected the correct geographic area (AWS region). The VPC will be deployed in the currently selected region.

   3. Select

      Start VPC Wizard

      , and select

      VPC with a Single Public Subnet

      .

      In this example, the IP CIDR block for the VPC is 10.0.0.0/16, the VPC name is Cloud DC, the public subnet is 10.0.0.0/24, and the subnet name is Cloud DC Public subnet. You will create a private subnet after creating the VPC.

   4. Click

      Create VPC

      .

2. Create a private subnet.

   Select

   Subnets

   , and click

   Create a Subnet

   . Fill in the information.

   In this example, the

   Name tag

   for the subnet is Web/DB Server Subnet, it is created in the Cloud Datacenter VPC and is assigned a CIDR block of 10.0.1.0/24.

3. Create a new route table for each subnet.

   Although a main route table is automatically created on the VPC, we recommend creating new route tables instead of modifying the default route table.

   To direct outbound traffic from each subnet, you will add routes to the route table associated with each subnet, later in this workflow.

   1. Select .

   2. Add a

      Name

      , for example CloudDC-public-subnet-RT, select the

      VPC

      you created in Step 1, and click

      Yes, Create

      .

   3. Select the route table, click

      Subnet Associations

      and select the public subnet.

   4. Select

      Create Route Table

      .

   5. Add a

      Name

      , for example CloudDC-private-subnet-RT, select the

      VPC

      you created in Step 1, and click

      Yes, Create

      .

   6. Select the route table, click

      Subnet Associations

      and select the private subnet.

4. Create Security Groups to restrict inbound/outbound internet access to the EC2 instances in the VPC.

   By default, AWS disallows communication between interfaces that do not belong to the same security group.

   Select

   Security Groups

   and click the

   Create Security Group

   button. In this example, we create three security groups with the following rules for inbound access:

   • CloudDC-Management that specifies the protocols and source IP addresses that can connect to the management interface of the VM-Series firewall. At a minimum you need SSH, and HTTPS. In this example, we enable SSH, ICMP, HTTP, and HTTPS on the network interfaces that are attached to this security group.

     The management interface (eth 0/0) of the VM-Series firewall will be assigned to CloudDC-management-sg.

   • Public-Server-CloudDC that specifies the source IP addresses that can connect over HTTP, FTP, SSH within the VPC. This group allows traffic from the external network to the firewall.

     The dataplane interface eth2/1 of the VM-Series firewall will be assigned to Public-Server-CloudDC.

   • Private-Server-CloudDC that has very limited access. It only allows other EC2 instances on the same subnet to communicate with each other, and with the VM-Series firewall.

     The dataplane interface eth2/2 of the VM-Series firewall and the application in the private subnet will be attached to this security group.

     The following screenshot shows the security groups for this use case.

5. Deploy the VM-Series firewall.

   Only the primary network interface that will serve as the management interface will be attached and configured for the firewall during the initial launch. The network interfaces required for handling data traffic will be added in Step 6.

6. Create and attach virtual network interface(s), referred to as Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs), to the VM-Series firewall. These ENIs are used for handling data traffic to/from the firewall.

   1. On the EC2 Dashboard, select

      Network Interfaces

      , and click

      Create Network Interface

      .

   2. Enter a descriptive name for the interface.

   3. Select the subnet. Use the subnet ID to make sure that you have selected the correct subnet. You can only attach an ENI to an instance in the same subnet.

   4. Enter the

      Private IP

      address that you want to assign to the interface or select

      Auto-assign

      to automatically assign an IP address within the available IP addresses in the selected subnet.

   5. Select the

      Security group

      to control access to the network interface.

   6. Click

      Yes, Create

      .

      In this example, we create two interfaces with the following configuration:

      • For Eth2/1 (VM-Series-Untrust)

        • Security group: Public-Server-CloudDC

      • For Eth2/2 (VM-Series-Trust)

        • Security group: Private-Server-CloudDC

   7. To attach the ENI to the VM-Series firewall, select the interface you just created, and click

      Attach

      .

   8. Select the

      Instance ID

      of the VM-Series firewall, and click

      Attach

      .

   9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 to attach the other network interface.

7. Create an Elastic IP address and attach it to the firewall dataplane network interface that requires direct internet access.

   In this example, VM-Series_Untrust is assigned an EIP. The EIP associated with the interface is the publicly accessible IP address for the web server in the private subnet.

   1. Select

      Elastic IPs

      and click

      Allocate New Address

      .

   2. Select

      EC2-VPC

      and click

      Yes, Allocate

      .

   3. Select the newly allocated EIP and click

      Associate Address

      .

   4. Select the

      Network Interface

      and the

      Private IP address

      associated with the interface and click

      Yes, Associate

      .

      In this example, the configuration is:

8. Disable Source/Destination check on each network interface attached to the VM-Series firewall. Disabling this attribute allows the interface to handle network traffic that is not destined to its IP address.

   1. Select the network interface in the

      Network Interfaces

      tab.

   2. In the

      Action

      drop-down, select

      Change Source/Dest. Check

      .

   3. Click

      Disabled

      and

      Save

      your changes.

   4. Repeat steps 1-3 for additional network interfaces, firewall-1/2 in this example.

9. In the route table associated with the public subnet (from step 3), add a default route to the internet gateway for the VPC.

   1. From the VPC Dashboard, select

      Route Tables

      and find the route table associated with the public subnet.

   2. Select the route table, select

      Routes

      and click

      Edit

      .

   3. Add a route to forward packets from this subnet to the internet gateway. In this example, 0.0.0.0.0 indicates that all traffic from/to this subnet will use the internet gateway attached to the VPC.

10. In the route table associated with the private subnet, add a default route to send traffic to the VM-Series firewall.

    Adding this route enables the forwarding of traffic from the EC2 instances in this private subnet to the VM-Series firewall.

    1. From the VPC Dashboard, select

       Route Tables

       and find the route table associated with the private subnet.

    2. Select the route table, select

       Routes

       and click

       Edit

       .

    3. Add a route to forward packets from this subnet to the VM-Series firewall network interface that resides on the same subnet. In this example, 0.0.0.0/0 indicates that all traffic from/to this subnet will use eni-abf355f2 (ethernet 1/2, which is CloudDC-VM-Series-Trust) on the VM-Series firewall.

       For each web or database server deployed on an EC2 instance in the private subnet, you must define a default route to the IP address of the VM-Series firewall so that the firewall is the default gateway for the server.

       Perform steps 11 through 16 on the VM-Series firewall.

11. Configure a new administrative password for the firewall.

    An SSH tool such as PuTTY is required to access the CLI on the firewall and change the default administrative password. You cannot access the web interface until you SSH and change the default password.

    1. Use the public IP address you configured on the firewall, to SSH into the Command Line Interface (CLI) of the VM-Series firewall.

    2. Enter the following command to log in to the firewall:

       ssh-i

       admin@

    3. Configure a new password, using the following command and follow the onscreen prompts:

       set mgt-config users admin password

    4. Terminate the SSH session.

12. Access the web interface of the VM-Series firewall.

    Open a web browser and enter the EIP of the management interface. For example: https://54.183.85.163

13. Activate the licenses on the VM-Series firewall. This step is only required for the BYOL license; the usage-based licenses are automatically activated.

14. On the VM-Series firewall, configure the dataplane network interfaces on the firewall as Layer 3 interfaces.

    1. Select .

    2. Click the link for

       ethernet 1/1

       and configure as follows:

       • Select the

         Config

         tab, assign the interface to the default router.

       • On the

         Config

         tab, expand the

         Security Zone

         drop-down and select New Zone. Define a new zone, for example untrust, and then click OK.

       • Select IPv4, select

         DHCP Client

         ; the private IP address that you assigned to the network interface in the AWS management console will be acquired automatically.

       • On the tab, expand the Management Profile drop-down, and select

         New Management Profile

         .

       • Enter a

         Name

         for the profile, such as allow_ping, and select

         Ping

         from the Permitted Services list, then click

         OK

         .

       • To save the interface configuration, click

         OK

         .

    3. Click the link for

       ethernet 1/2

       and configure as follows:

       • Select the

         Config

         tab, assign the interface to the default router.

       • On the

         Config

         tab, expand the

         Security Zone

         drop-down and select

         New Zone

         . Define a new zone, for example trust, and then click

         OK

         .

       • Select

         IPv4

         , select

         DHCP Client

         .

       • On the

         IPv4

         tab, clear the

         Automatically create default route to default gateway provided by server

         check box. For an interface that is attached to the private subnet in the VPC, disabling this option ensures that traffic handled by this interface does not flow directly to the IGW on the VPC.

       • On the , expand the Management Profile drop-down, and select the allow_ping profile you created earlier.

       • Click

         OK

         to save the interface configuration.

    4. Click

       Commit

       to save the changes. Verify that the Link state for the interface is up
       .  If the link state is not up, reboot the firewall.

15. On the VM-Series firewall, create Destination NAT and Source NAT rules to allow inbound/outbound traffic to/from the applications deployed within the VPC.

    1. Select .

    2. Create a Destination NAT rule that steers traffic from the firewall to the web server.

       1. Click

          Add

          , and enter a name for the rule. For example, NAT2WebServer.

       2. In the

          Original Packet

          tab, make the following selections:

          • Source Zone

            : untrust (where the traffic originates)

          • Destination Zone

            : untrust (the zone for the firewall dataplane interface with which the EIP for the web server is associated.)

          • Destination Address

            : 10.0.0.10

          • In the

            Translated Packet

            tab, select the Destination Address Translation check box and set the

            Translated Address

            : to 10.0.1.62, which is the private IP address of the web server.

    3. Create a Source NAT rule to allow outbound traffic from the web server to the internet.

       1. Click

          Add

          , and enter a name for the rule. For example, NAT2External.

       2. In the

          Original Packet

          tab, make the following selections:

          • Source Zone

            : trust (where the traffic originates)

          • Destination Zone

            : untrust (the zone for the firewall dataplane interface with which the EIP for the web server is associated.)

       3. In the

          Translated Packet

          tab, make the following selections in the Source Address Translation section:

          • Translation Type

            : Dynamic IP and Port

          • Address Type

            : Translated Address

          • Translated Address

            : 10.0.0.10 (the firewall dataplane interface in the untrust zone.)

    4. Click

       Commit

       to save the NAT policies.

16. On the VM-Series firewall, create security policies to manage traffic.

    1. Select .

       In this example, we have four rules. A rule that allows management access to the firewall traffic, a rule to allow inbound traffic to the web server, a third rule to allow internet access to the web server, and in the last rule we modify a predefined intrazone-default rule to log all traffic that is denied.

    2. Create a rule to allow management access to the firewall.

       1. Click

          Add

          and enter a

          Name

          for the rule. Verify that the

          Rule Type

          is universal.

       2. In the

          Source

          tab, add untrust as the

          Source Zone

          .

       3. In the

          Destination

          tab, add trust as the

          Destination Zone

          .

       4. In the

          Applications

          tab,

          Add

          ping and ssh.

       5. In the

          Actions

          tab, set the

          Action

          to Allow.

    3. Create a rule to allow inbound traffic to the web server.

       1. Click

          Add

          and enter a

          Name

          for the rule and verify that the

          Rule Type

          is universal.

       2. In the

          Source

          tab, add untrust as the

          Source Zone

          .

       3. In the

          Destination

          tab, add trust as the

          Destination Zone

          .

       4. In the

          Applications

          tab,

          Add

          web-browsing.

       5. In the

          Service/URL Category

          tab, verify that the service is set to application-default.

       6. In the

          Actions

          tab, set the

          Action

          to Allow.

       7. In the Profile Settings section of the

          Actions

          tab, select

          Profiles

          and then attach the default profiles for antivirus, anti-spyware, and vulnerability protection.

    4. Create a rule to allow internet access to the web server.

       1. Click

          Add

          and enter a

          Name

          for the rule and verify that the Rule Type is universal.

       2. In the

          Source

          tab, add trust as the

          Source Zone

          .

       3. In the Source Address section of the

          Source

          tab, add 10.0.1.62, the IP address of the web server.

       4. In the

          Destination

          tab, add untrust as the

          Destination Zone

          .

       5. In the

          Service/URL Category

          tab, verify that the service is set to

          application-default

          .

       6. In the

          Actions

          tab, set the

          Action

          to Allow.

       7. In the Profile Settings section of the

          Actions

          tab, select

          Profiles

          and then attach the default profiles for antivirus, anti-spyware, and vulnerability protection.

    5. Edit the interzone-default rule to log all traffic that is denied. This predefined interzone rule is evaluated when no other rule is explicitly defined to match traffic across different zones.

       1. Select the

          interzone-default

          rule and click

          Override

          .

       2. In the

          Actions

          tab, select

          Log at session end

          .

    6. Review the complete set of security rules defined on the firewall.

    7. Click

       Commit

       to save the policies.

17. Verify that the VM-Series firewall is securing traffic.

    1. Launch a web browser and enter the IP address for the web server.

    2. Log in to the web interface of the VM-Series firewall and verify that you can see the traffic logs for the sessions at .

       • Traffic inbound to the web server (arrives at EC2 instance in the AWS VPC):

       • Traffic outbound from the web server (EC2 instance in the AWS VPC):

       You have successfully deployed the VM-Series firewall as a cloud gateway!

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