FPMC Config Guide v623 PDF

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.
3
First Published: 2018-03-29
Last Modified: 2019-04-25
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 Getting Started With Firepower 1

Quick Start: Basic Setup 1
Installing and Performing Initial Setup on Physical Appliances 2
Deploying Virtual Appliances 3
Logging In for the First Time 4
Setting Up Basic Policies and Configurations 4
Firepower Devices 6
Firepower Features 7
Appliance and System Management Features 7
High Availability, Clustering, and Stacking Features by Appliance 8
Features for Detecting, Preventing, and Processing Potential Threats 9
Integration with External Tools 10
Firepower Online Help, How To, and Documentation 11
Top-Level Documentation Listing Pages for Firepower Management Center Deployments 11
License Statements in the Documentation 13
Supported Devices Statements in the Documentation 13
Access Statements in the Documentation 14
Firepower System IP Address Conventions 14
Additional Resources 14
PART I Your User Account 15
CHAPTER 2 Logging into the Firepower System 17

Firepower System User Accounts 17
User Interfaces in Firepower Management Center Deployments 19
Web Interface Considerations 21
Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

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Session Timeout 22
Logging Into the Firepower Management Center Web Interface 22
Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000 Series Device 23
Logging Into the Firepower Management Center with CAC Credentials 24
Logging Into a 7000 or 8000 Series Device with CAC Credentials 24
Logging Into the Command Line Interface on Classic Devices 25
Logging Into the Command Line Interface on FTD Devices 26
Viewing Basic System Information in the Web Interface 27
Switching Domains on the Firepower Management Center 28
Logging Out of a Firepower System Web Interface 28
The Context Menu 29
CHAPTER 3 Specifying User Preferences 31

User Preferences Introduction 31
Changing Your Password 31
Changing an Expired Password 32
Specifying Your Home Page 32
Configuring Event View Settings 33
Event View Preferences 33
File Download Preferences 35
Default Time Windows 35
Default Workflows 37
Setting Your Default Time Zone 37
Specifying Your Default Dashboard 38
CHAPTER 4 User Accounts for Management Access 39

About User Accounts 39
Internal and External Users 39
Web Interface, CLI, or Shell Access 40
User Roles 41
Web Interface User Roles 41
CLI User Roles 42
Prerequisites and Requirements for User Accounts 42
Guidelines and Limitations for User Accounts 43

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Add an Internal User Account 43

Add an Internal User at the Web Interface 43
Add an Internal User at the CLI 45
Configure External Authentication 47
About External Authentication 47
External Authentication for the Firepower Management Center and 7000 and 8000 Series 48
External Authentication for the Firepower Threat Defense 48
About LDAP 48
About RADIUS 48
Add an LDAP External Authentication Object 48
Add a RADIUS External Authentication Object 56

Enable External Authentication for Users on the Firepower Management Center 60
Enable External Authentication for Users on Managed Devices 61
Configure Common Access Card Authentication with LDAP 61
Customize User Roles for the Web Interface 63
Create Custom User Roles 63
Deactivate User Roles 65
Enable User Role Escalation 65
Set the Escalation Target Role 66
Configure a Custom User Role for Escalation 66
Escalate Your User Role 67
Configure Cisco Security Manager Single Sign-on 67
Troubleshooting LDAP Authentication Connections 68
History for User Accounts 70
PART II Firepower System Management 71
CHAPTER 5 Licensing the Firepower System 73

About Firepower Licenses 73
License Requirements for Firepower Management Center 73
Evaluation License Caveats 74
Smart vs. Classic Licenses 74
Licensing for Deployments with Firepower Threat Defense Devices (Smart Licensing) 75

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How to License Firepower Threat Defense Devices Managed by Firepower Management Center
75
Smart Software Manager 78

Periodic Communication with the License Authority 79
Service Subscriptions for Firepower Features (Smart Licensing) 79
Smart License Types and Restrictions 80
Base Licenses 81
Firepower Management Center Virtual Licenses 82
Malware Licenses for Firepower Threat Defense Devices 82
Threat Licenses 82
URL Filtering Licenses for Firepower Threat Defense Devices 83
AnyConnect Licenses 83
Licensing for Export-Controlled Functionality 85
Licensing for High-Availability Configurations 86
Licensing for FTD Clusters 86
Create a Smart Account to Hold Your Licenses 86
Smart Licensing with Direct Internet Access 87
Obtain a Product License Registration Token for Smart Licensing 87
Register Smart Licenses 88
Smart Software Satellite Server Overview 89
How to Deploy a Smart Software Satellite Server 89
Assign Licenses to Multiple Managed Devices 91
View Your Smart Licenses and Smart Licenses Status 92
Smart License Status 93
Move or Remove Smart Licenses from Managed Devices 94
Transfer Smart Licenses to a Different Firepower Management Center 94
If Smart License Status is Out of Compliance 95
Deregister a Firepower Management Center from the Cisco Smart Software Manager 95
Synchronize a Firepower Management Center with the Cisco Smart Software Manager 96
Troubleshoot Smart Licensing 96
Licensing for All Other Firepower Devices (Classic Licensing) 97
Product License Registration Portal 97
Service Subscriptions for Firepower Features (Classic Licensing) 97
Classic License Types and Restrictions 98

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Protection Licenses 99
Control Licenses 100
URL Filtering Licenses for Classic Devices 100
Malware Licenses for Classic Devices 101
VPN Licenses 102
Classic Licenses in Device Stacks and High-Availability Pairs 102
View Your Classic Licenses 102
Identify the License Key 103
Generate a Classic License and Add It to the Firepower Management Center 103
How to Convert a Classic License or PAK to a Smart License 105
Assign Licenses to Managed Devices from the Device Management Page 107
Firepower License and Service Subscription Expiration 108
Additional Information about Firepower Licensing 110
Cisco Success Network 111
Cisco Success Network Telemetry Data 111
Enrolled Device Data 111
Software Version Data 112
Managed Device Data 112
Telemetry Example File 113
Changing Cisco Success Network Enrollment 115
End-User License Agreement 116
CHAPTER 6 System Software Updates 117

About Firepower Updates 117
Guidelines and Limitations for Firepower Updates 118
Upgrade Firepower System Software 118
Update the Vulnerability Database (VDB) Manually 119
Update the Geolocation Database (GeoDB) 120
Manually Update the GeoDB (Internet Connection) 121
Manually Update the GeoDB (No Internet Connection) 121
Schedule GeoDB Updates 122
Update Intrusion Rules 122
Update Intrusion Rules One-Time Manually 124
Update Intrusion Rules One-Time Automatically 125

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Configure Recurring Intrusion Rule Updates 126

Guidelines for Importing Local Intrusion Rules 126
Import Local Intrusion Rules 128
Rule Update Log 128
Intrusion Rule Update Log Table 129
Viewing the Intrusion Rule Update Log 129
Fields in an Intrusion Rule Update Log 130
Viewing Details of the Intrusion Rule Update Import Log 131
Maintain Your Air-Gapped Deployment 132
CHAPTER 7 Backup and Restore 133

About Backup and Restore 133
Guidelines and Limitations for Backup and Restore 134
Back up the Firepower Management Center 135
Back up 7000 & 8000 Series Devices Remotely 136
Back up 7000 & 8000 Series Devices Locally 137
Create Backup Profiles 138
Upload a Backup File 139
The Backup Management Page 140
Restore from Backup: FMC and 7000/8000 Series 141
CHAPTER 8 Configuration Import and Export 143

About Configuration Import/Export 143
Configurations that Support Import/Export 143
Special Considerations for Configuration Import/Export 144
Exporting Configurations 145
Importing Configurations 146
Import Conflict Resolution 147
CHAPTER 9 Task Scheduling 149

About Task Scheduling 149
Configuring a Recurring Task 149
Backup Automation 150
Automating Firepower Management Center Backups 151

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Automating 7000 & 8000 Series Device Backups 151

Configuring Certificate Revocation List Downloads 152
Automating Policy Deployment 153
Nmap Scan Automation 154
Scheduling an Nmap Scan 154
Automating Report Generation 156
Specify Report Generation Settings for a Scheduled Report 157
Automating Firepower Recommendations 157
Software Update Automation 159
Automating Software Downloads 159
Automating Software Pushes 160
Automating Software Installs 161
Vulnerability Database Update Automation 162
Automating VDB Update Downloads 162
Automating VDB Update Installs 163
Automating URL Filtering Updates Using a Scheduled Task 164
Scheduled Task Review 165
Task List Details 165
Viewing Scheduled Tasks on the Calendar 166
Editing Scheduled Tasks 167
Deleting Scheduled Tasks 167
CHAPTER 10 FMC Database Purge 169

Purging Data from the FMC Database 169
CHAPTER 11 Firepower Management Center High Availability 171

About Firepower Management Center High Availability 171
System Requirements Firepower Management Center High Availability 172
Hardware Requirements 172

Software Requirements 172
License Requirements 173
Roles v. Status in Firepower Management Center High Availability 173
Prerequisites to Establish Firepower Management Center High Availability 174
Event Processing on Firepower Management Center High Availability Pairs 174

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AMP Cloud Connections and Malware Information 174

URL Filtering and Security Intelligence 174
User Data Processing During Firepower Management Center Failover 175
Configuration Management on Firepower Management Center High Availability Pairs 175
Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) and High Availability Configurations 175
Firepower Management Center High Availability Behavior During a Backup 175
Firepower Management Center High Availability Split-Brain 175
Upgrading Firepower Management Centers in a High Availability Pair 176
Troubleshooting Firepower Management Center High Availability 177
Establishing Firepower Management Center High Availability 177
Viewing Firepower Management Center High Availability Status 179
Configuration Data Synced between Firepower Management Centers during High Availability 180
Using CLI to Resolve Device Registration in Firepower Management Center High Availability 181
Switching Peers in a Firepower Management Center High Availability Pair 181
Pausing Communication Between Paired Firepower Management Centers 182
Restarting Communication Between Paired Firepower Management Centers 183
Changing the IP address of a Firepower Management Center in a High Availability Pair 183
Disabling Firepower Management Center High Availability 184
Replacing Firepower Management Centers in a High Availability Pair 185
Replace a Failed Primary Firepower Management Center (Successful Backup) 185
Replace a Failed Primary Firepower Management Center (Unsuccessful Backup) 187
Replace a Failed Secondary Firepower Management Center (Successful Backup) 188
Replace a Failed Secondary Firepower Management Center (Unsuccessful Backup) 189
CHAPTER 12 Device Management Basics 191

About Device Management 191
About the Firepower Management Center 191
What Can Be Managed by a Firepower Management Center? 192
Beyond Policies and Events 192
NAT Environments 193
The Device Management Page 195
Filtering Managed Devices 196
Remote Management Configuration 196
Add Devices to the Firepower Management Center 197

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Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center 199

Device Configuration Settings 199
General Device Settings 199
Device License Settings 200
Device System Settings 200
Device Health Settings 201
Device Management Settings 201
Advanced Device Settings 201
Viewing Device Information 202
Editing Device Management Settings 203
Editing General Device Settings 204
Enabling and Disabling Device Licenses 204
Editing Advanced Device Settings 205
Configuring Automatic Application Bypass 205
Inspecting Local Router Traffic 206
Configuring Fastpath Rules (8000 Series) 207
Managing System Shut Down 208
The Interfaces Table View 209
Device Group Management 211
Adding Device Groups 212
Editing Device Groups 212
Configuring SNMP for the Firepower 2100 Series 213
Enabling SNMP and Configuring SNMP Properties for Firepower 2100 213
Creating an SNMP Trap for Firepower 2100 214
Creating an SNMP User for Firepower 2100 215
PART III System Monitoring and Troubleshooting 217
CHAPTER 13 Dashboards 219

About Dashboards 219
Firepower System Dashboard Widgets 220
Widget Availability 220
Dashboard Widget Availability by User Role 221
Predefined Dashboard Widgets 222

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The Appliance Information Widget 222

The Appliance Status Widget 223
The Correlation Events Widget 223
The Current Interface Status Widget 223
The Current Sessions Widget 224
The Custom Analysis Widget 224
The Disk Usage Widget 228
The Interface Traffic Widget 229
The Intrusion Events Widget 229
The Network Compliance Widget 230
The Product Licensing Widget 230
The Product Updates Widget 231
The RSS Feed Widget 231
The System Load Widget 231
The System Time Widget 232
The White List Events Widget 232
Managing Dashboards 232
Adding a Dashboard Tab 233
Adding Widgets to a Dashboard 234
Configuring Widget Preferences 235
Creating Custom Dashboards 235
Custom Dashboard Options 235
Customizing the Widget Display 237
Editing Dashboards Options 237
Modifying Dashboard Time Settings 238
Renaming a Dashboard Tab 239
Viewing Dashboards 239
CHAPTER 14 Health Monitoring 241

About Health Monitoring 241
Health Modules 242
Configuring Health Monitoring 248
Health Policies 248
Default Health Policy 248

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Creating Health Policies 249

Applying Health Policies 250
Editing Health Policies 250
Deleting Health Policies 251
The Health Monitor Blacklist 252
Blacklisting Appliances 253
Blacklisting Health Policy Modules 253
Health Monitor Alerts 254
Health Monitor Alert Information 254
Creating Health Monitor Alerts 255
Editing Health Monitor Alerts 256
Deleting Health Monitor Alerts 256
Using the Health Monitor 257
Health Monitor Status Categories 257
Viewing Appliance Health Monitors 259
Running All Modules for an Appliance 260
Running a Specific Health Module 260
Generating Health Module Alert Graphs 261
Health Event Views 261
Viewing Health Events 262
Viewing Health Events by Module and Appliance 262
Viewing the Health Events Table 263
Hardware Alert Details for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices 264
The Health Events Table 266
History for Health Monitoring 267
CHAPTER 15 Monitoring the System 269

System Statistics 269
System Statistics Availability by Appliance 269
The Host Statistics Section 270
The Disk Usage Section 270
The Processes Section 270
Process Status Fields 271
System Daemons 272

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Executables and System Utilities 274

The SFDataCorrelator Process Statistics Section 277
The Intrusion Event Information Section 277
Viewing System Statistics 278
CHAPTER 16 Troubleshooting the System 281

First Steps for Troubleshooting 281
System Messages 281
Message Types 282
Message Management 283
Managing System Messages 284
Viewing Deployment Messages 285
Viewing Health Messages 286
Viewing Task Messages 287
Managing Task Messages 287
Configuring Notification Behavior 288
Health Monitor Reports for Troubleshooting 288
Producing Troubleshooting Files for Specific System Functions 289
Downloading Advanced Troubleshooting Files 290
Advanced Troubleshooting for the Firepower Threat Defense Device 291
Using the FTD CLI from the Web Interface 291
Packet Tracer Overview 292
Use the Packet Tracer 292
Packet Capture Overview 293
Use the Capture Trace 293
Feature-Specific Troubleshooting 294
PART IV Deployment Management 297
CHAPTER 17 Domain Management 299

Introduction to Multitenancy Using Domains 299
Domains Terminology 300
Domain Properties 301
Managing Domains 302

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Creating New Domains 303

Moving Data Between Domains 304
Moving Devices Between Domains 305
CHAPTER 18 Policy Management 307

Policy Deployment 307
Guidelines for Deploying Configuration Changes 308
Restart Warnings for Firepower Threat Defense Devices 309
Deploy Configuration Changes 310
Redeploy Existing Configurations to a Device 312
Snort® Restart Scenarios 313
Inspect Traffic During Policy Apply 313
Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior 314
Configurations that Restart the Snort Process When Deployed or Activated 316
Changes that Immediately Restart the Snort Process 318
Policy Comparison 318
Comparing Policies 319
Policy Reports 320
Generating Current Policy Reports 320
Out-of-Date Policies 321
Performance Considerations for Limited Deployments 322
Discovery Without Intrusion Prevention 322
Intrusion Prevention Without Discovery 323
CHAPTER 19 Rule Management: Common Characteristics 325

Introduction to Rules 325
Rule Condition Types 327
Rule Condition Mechanics 328
Interface Conditions 330
Configuring Interface Conditions 331
Network Conditions 332
Configuring Network Conditions 333
Tunnel Endpoint Conditions 334
Configuring Tunnel Endpoint Conditions 335

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VLAN Conditions 335

Port and ICMP Code Conditions 336
Configuring Port Conditions 337
Encapsulation Conditions 338
Application Conditions (Application Control) 338
Configuring Application Conditions and Filters 340
Application Characteristics 342
Guidelines and Limitations for Application Control 343
Application-Specific Notes and Limitations 344
Troubleshoot Application Control Rules 345
URL Conditions (URL Filtering) 346
User, Realm, and ISE Attribute Conditions (User Control) 346
User Control Prerequisites 347
Configuring User and Realm Conditions 348
Configuring ISE Attribute Conditions 349
Troubleshoot User Control 349
Custom SGT Conditions 351
ISE SGT vs Custom SGT Rule Conditions 351
Autotransition from Custom SGTs to ISE SGTs 351
Configuring Custom SGT Conditions 352
Troubleshooting Custom SGT Conditions 352
Searching for Rules 353
Filtering Rules by Device 353
Identify Rules with Issues 354
Rule and Other Policy Warnings 355
Rule Performance Guidelines 356
Guidelines for Simplifying and Focusing Rules 356
Guidelines for Ordering Rules 357
Rule Preemption 357
Rule Actions and Rule Order 358
Content Restriction Rule Order 359
Application Rule Order 359
SSL Rule Order 359
URL Rule Order 360

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Guidelines for Avoiding Intrusion Policy Proliferation 361

Offload Large Connections (Flows) 361
Flow Offload Limitations 362
CHAPTER 20 Reusable Objects 365

Introduction to Reusable Objects 366
The Object Manager 368
Editing Objects 368
Filtering Objects or Object Groups 369
Sorting Objects 369
Object Groups 370
Grouping Reusable Objects 370
Object Overrides 371
Managing Object Overrides 373
Allowing Object Overrides 373
Adding Object Overrides 374
Editing Object Overrides 374
Network Objects 375
Creating Network Objects 376
Port Objects 377
Creating Port Objects 377
Tunnel Zones 378
Application Filters 378
VLAN Tag Objects 378
Creating VLAN Tag Objects 379
Security Group Tag Objects 379
Creating Security Group Tag Objects 380
URL Objects 380
Creating URL Objects 381
Geolocation Objects 382
Creating Geolocation Objects 382
Interface Objects: Interface Groups and Security Zones 382
Creating Security Zone and Interface Group Objects 383
Time Range Objects 384

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Creating Time Range Objects 384

Variable Sets 385
Variable Sets in Intrusion Policies 387
Variables 387
Predefined Default Variables 388
Network Variables 390
Port Variables 391
Advanced Variables 392
Variable Reset 393
Adding Variables to Sets 393
Nesting Variables 395
Managing Variable Sets 397
Creating Variable Sets 397
Managing Variables 398
Adding Variables 399
Editing Variables 400
Security Intelligence Lists and Feeds 401
Security Intelligence Object Quick Reference 402
Blacklist Now, Whitelist Now, and Global Lists 403
Security Intelligence Lists and Multitenancy 404
Changing the Update Frequency for Security Intelligence Feeds 405
Custom Security Intelligence Feeds 406
Creating Security Intelligence Feeds 406
Manually Updating Security Intelligence Feeds 407
Custom Security Intelligence Lists 407
Uploading New Security Intelligence Lists to the Firepower Management Center 408
Updating Security Intelligence Lists 409
Sinkhole Objects 409
Creating Sinkhole Objects 410
File Lists 410
Source Files for File Lists 411
Adding Individual SHA-256 Values to File Lists 412
Uploading Individual Files to File Lists 413
Uploading Source Files to File Lists 414

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Editing SHA-256 Values in File Lists 414

Downloading Source Files from File Lists 415
Cipher Suite Lists 416
Creating Cipher Suite Lists 416
Distinguished Name Objects 417
Creating Distinguished Name Objects 418
PKI Objects 419
Internal Certificate Authority Objects 420
CA Certificate and Private Key Import 420
Importing a CA Certificate and Private Key 421
Generating a New CA Certificate and Private Key 422
New Signed Certificates 422
Creating an Unsigned CA Certificate and CSR 423
Uploading a Signed Certificate Issued in Response to a CSR 423
CA Certificate and Private Key Downloads 424
Downloading a CA Certificate and Private Key 424
Trusted Certificate Authority Objects 425
Trusted CA Object 425
Adding a Trusted CA Object 426
Certificate Revocation Lists in Trusted CA Objects 426
Adding a Certificate Revocation List to a Trusted CA Object 427
External Certificate Objects 427
Adding External Certificate Objects 428
Internal Certificate Objects 428
Adding Internal Certificate Objects 429
Certificate Enrollment Objects 429
Adding Certificate Enrollment Objects 431
Certificate Enrollment Object SCEP Options 432
Certificate Enrollment Object Certificate Parameters 433
Certificate Enrollment Object Key Options 434
Certificate Enrollment Object Revocation Options 434
SLA Monitor Objects 435
Prefix Lists 436
Configure IPv6 Prefix List 436

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Configure IPv4 Prefix List 437

Route Maps 438
Access List 441
Configure Extended ACL Objects 442
Configure Standard ACL Objects 443
AS Path Objects 444
Community Lists 445
Policy Lists 446
VPN Objects 447
FTD IKE Policies 447
Configure IKEv1 Policy Objects 448
Configure IKEv2 Policy Objects 449
FTD IPsec Proposals 450

Configure IKEv1 IPsec Proposal Objects 451
Configure IKEv2 IPsec Proposal Objects 452
FTD Group Policy Objects 452
Configure Group Policy Objects 453
Group Policy General Options 454
Group Policy AnyConnect Options 456
Group Policy Advanced Options 458
FTD File Objects 458
FTD Certificate Map Objects 459
Address Pools 460
FlexConfig Objects 461
RADIUS Server Groups 462
RADIUS Server Group Options 462
RADIUS Server Options 463
CHAPTER 21 Firepower Threat Defense Certificate-Based Authentication 465

Firepower Threat Defense VPN Certificate Guidelines and Limitations 465
Managing FTD Certificates 466
Installing a Certificate Using Self-Signed Enrollment 467
Installing a Certificate Using SCEP Enrollment 468

Installing a Certificate Using Manual Enrollment 469

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Installing a Certificate Using a PKCS12 File 470

Troubleshooting FTD Certificates 470
PART V Classic Device Configuration Basics 473
CHAPTER 22 Classic Device Management Basics 475

Remote Management Configuration 475
Configuring Remote Management on a Managed Device 476
Editing Remote Management on a Managed Device 476
Changing the Management Port 477
Interface Configuration Settings 478
The Physical Hardware View 478
Interface Icons 478
Using the Physical Hardware View 479
Configuring Sensing Interfaces 480
Configuring HA Link Interfaces 481
Disabling Interfaces 482
Managing Cisco ASA FirePOWER Interfaces 483
MTU Ranges for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices and NGIPSv 484
Synchronizing Security Zone Object Revisions 484
CHAPTER 23 IPS Device Deployments and Configuration 487

Introduction to IPS Device Deployment and Configuration 487
Passive IPS Deployments 487
Passive Interfaces on the Firepower System 487
Configuring Passive Interfaces 488
Inline IPS Deployments 489
Inline Interfaces on the Firepower System 490
Configuring Inline Interfaces 491
Inline Sets on the Firepower System 492
Viewing Inline Sets 493
Adding Inline Sets 494
Advanced Inline Set Options 495
Configuring Advanced Inline Set Options 496

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Deleting Inline Sets 497
PART VI Classic Device High Availability and Scalability 499
CHAPTER 24 7000 and 8000 Series Device High Availability 501

About 7000 and 8000 Series Device High Availability 501
Device High Availability Requirements 502
Device High Availability Failover and Maintenance Mode 502
Configuration Deployment and Upgrade Behavior for High-Availability Pairs 503
Deployment Types and Device High Availability 503
Device High Availability Configuration 505
Establishing Device High Availability 505
Editing Device High Availability 506
Configuring Individual Devices in a High-Availability Pair 507
Configuring Individual Device Stacks in a High-Availability Pair 507
Configuring Interfaces on a Device in a High-Availability Pair 508
Switching the Active Peer in a Device High-Availability Pair 509
Placing a High-Availability Peer into Maintenance Mode 509
Replacing a Device in a Stack in a High-Availability Pair 510
Device High Availability State Sharing 510
Establishing Device High-Availability State Sharing 512
Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics for Troubleshooting 513
Viewing Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics 515
Separating Device High-Availability Pairs 516
CHAPTER 25 8000 Series Device Stacking 517

About Device Stacks 517
Device Stack Configuration 519
Establishing Device Stacks 520
Editing Device Stacks 521
Replacing a Device in a Stack 521
Replacing a Device in a Stack in a High-Availability Pair 522
Configuring Individual Devices in a Stack 523
Configuring Interfaces on a Stacked Device 523

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Separating Stacked Devices 524

Replacing a Device in a Stack 525
PART VII Firepower Threat Defense Getting Started 527
CHAPTER 26 Transparent or Routed Firewall Mode for Firepower Threat Defense 529
About the Firewall Mode 529
About Routed Firewall Mode 529
About Transparent Firewall Mode 530
Using the Transparent Firewall in Your Network 530
Diagnostic Interface 530
Passing Traffic For Routed-Mode Features 531
About Bridge Groups 531
Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) 531
Bridge Groups in Transparent Firewall Mode 531
Bridge Groups in Routed Firewall Mode 532
Allowing Layer 3 Traffic 533
Allowed MAC Addresses 533
BPDU Handling 533
MAC Address vs. Route Lookups 534
Unsupported Features for Bridge Groups in Transparent Mode 535
Unsupported Features for Bridge Groups in Routed Mode 536
Default Settings 537
Guidelines for Firewall Mode 537
Set the Firewall Mode 538
CHAPTER 27 Logical Devices for the Firepower Threat Defense on the Firepower 4100/9300 541
About Firepower Interfaces 541
Chassis Management Interface 541
Interface Types 542
Independent Interface States in the Chassis and in the Application 542
Inline Set Link State Propagation for the Firepower Threat Defense 542
About Logical Devices 542
Standalone and Clustered Logical Devices 543

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Guidelines and Limitations for Logical Devices 543

Guidelines and Limitations for Firepower Interfaces 543
General Guidelines and Limitations 544
Configure Interfaces 544
Enable or Disable an Interface 545
Configure a Physical Interface 545
Add an EtherChannel (Port Channel) 546
Configure Logical Devices 547
Add a Standalone Firepower Threat Defense 547
Add a High Availability Pair 550
Change an Interface on a Firepower Threat Defense Logical Device 551
Connect to the Console of the Application 552
History for Firepower Threat Defense Logical Devices 553
CHAPTER 28 FlexConfig Policies for Firepower Threat Defense 557

FlexConfig Policy Overview 557
Recommended Usage for FlexConfig Policies 557
CLI Commands in FlexConfig Objects 558
Determine the ASA Software Version and Current CLI Configuration 558
Blacklisted CLI Commands 559
Template Scripts 561
FlexConfig Variables 561
How to Process Variables 562
How to See What a Variable Will Return for a Device 565
FlexConfig Policy Object Variables 566
FlexConfig System Variables 567
Predefined FlexConfig Objects 568
Predefined Text Objects 572
Guidelines and Limitations for FlexConfig 576
Customizing Device Configuration with FlexConfig Policies 577
Configure FlexConfig Objects 579
Add a Policy Object Variable to a FlexConfig Object 581
Configure Secret Keys 582
Configure FlexConfig Text Objects 583

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Configure the FlexConfig Policy 585

Set Target Devices for a FlexConfig Policy 586
Preview the FlexConfig Policy 587
Verify the Deployed Configuration 588
Remove Features Configured Using FlexConfig 590
PART VIII Firepower Threat Defense Interfaces and Device Settings 593
CHAPTER 29 Interface Overview for Firepower Threat Defense 595

Management/Diagnostic Interface 595
Management Interface 595
Diagnostic Interface 595
Interface Mode and Types 596
Security Zones and Interface Groups 597
Auto-MDI/MDIX Feature 597
Default Settings for Interfaces 597
Enable the Physical Interface and Configure Ethernet Settings 598
Sync Interface Changes with the Firepower Management Center 599
CHAPTER 30 Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense 601

Configure EtherChannel and Redundant Interfaces 601
About EtherChannels and Redundant Interfaces 601
Redundant Interfaces 601
EtherChannels 602
Guidelines for EtherChannels and Redundant Interfaces 604
Configure a Redundant Interface 606
Configure an EtherChannel 607
Configure VLAN Subinterfaces and 802.1Q Trunking 608
Guidelines and Limitations for VLAN Subinterfaces 609
Maximum Number of VLAN Subinterfaces by Device Model 609
Add a Subinterface 610
Configure Routed and Transparent Mode Interfaces 611
About Routed and Transparent Mode Interfaces 611
Routed Mode Deployment 611

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Transparent Mode Deployment 612

Dual IP Stack (IPv4 and IPv6) 613
Guidelines and Requirements for Routed and Transparent Mode Interfaces 613
Configure Routed Mode Interfaces 614
Configure Bridge Group Interfaces 617
Configure General Bridge Group Member Interface Parameters 617
Configure the Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) 618
Configure a Diagnostic (Management) Interface for Transparent Mode 620
Configure IPv6 Addressing 621
About IPv6 621
Configure a Global IPv6 Address 622
Configure IPv6 Neighbor Discovery 624
Configure Advanced Interface Settings 627
About Advanced Interface Configuration 627
About MAC Addresses 627
About the MTU 628
About the TCP MSS 629
ARP Inspection for Bridge Group Traffic 630
MAC Address Table 630
Default Settings 630
Guidelines for ARP Inspection and the MAC Address Table 631
Configure the MTU 631
Configure the MAC Address 632
Add a Static ARP Entry 633
Add a Static MAC Address and Disable MAC Learning for a Bridge Group 634
Set Security Configuration Parameters 635
History for Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense 637
CHAPTER 31 Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense 639
About Hardware Bypass for Inline Sets 639
Hardware Bypass Triggers 639
Hardware Bypass Switchover 640
Snort Fail Open vs. Hardware Bypass 640
Hardware Bypass Status 640

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Prerequisites for Inline Sets 640

Guidelines for Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces 641
Configure a Passive Interface 642
Configure an Inline Set 643
History for Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense 646
CHAPTER 32 DHCP and DDNS Services for Threat Defense 649

About DHCP and DDNS Services 649
About the DHCPv4 Server 649
DHCP Options 649
About the DHCP Relay Agent 650
About DDNS 650
DDNS Update Configurations 650
UDP Packet Size 651
Guidelines for DHCP and DDNS Services 651
Configure the DHCP Server 652
Configure the DHCP Relay Agent 654
Configure DDNS 655
CHAPTER 33 Quality of Service (QoS) for Firepower Threat Defense 657

Introduction to QoS 657
About QoS Policies 657
Rate Limiting with QoS Policies 658
Creating a QoS Policy 659
Setting Target Devices for a QoS Policy 660
Configuring QoS Rules 660
QoS Rule Components 661
History for QOS 663
PART IX Firepower Threat Defense High Availability and Scalability 665
CHAPTER 34 High Availability for Firepower Threat Defense 667

About Firepower Threat Defense High Availability 667
High Availability System Requirements 667

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Hardware Requirements 667

Software Requirements 668
License Requirements for FTD Devices in a High Availability Pair 668
Failover and Stateful Failover Links 668
Failover Link 668
Stateful Failover Link 669
Avoiding Interrupted Failover and Data Links 670
MAC Addresses and IP Addresses in High Availability 672
Stateful Failover 673
Supported Features 673
Unsupported Features 675
Bridge Group Requirements for High Availability 675
Failover Health Monitoring 676
Unit Health Monitoring 676
Interface Monitoring 676
Failover Triggers and Detection Timing 678
About Active/Standby Failover 678
Primary/Secondary Roles and Active/Standby Status 678
Active Unit Determination at Startup 678
Failover Events 679
Guidelines for High Availability 680
Add a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability Pair 681
Configure Optional High Availability Parameters 683
Configure Standby IP Addresses and Interface Monitoring 683
Edit High Availability Failover Criteria 684
Configure Virtual MAC addresses 684
Manage High Availability 685
Switch the Active Peer in a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability Pair 685
Refresh node status in a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability pair 686
Suspend and Resume High Availability 687
Replace a Unit 688
Replace a Primary Unit 688

Replace a Secondary Unit 688
Separate Units in a High Availability Pair 689

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Unregister a High Availability Pair 690

Monitoring High Availability 691
View Failover History 691
View Stateful Failover Statistics 691
CHAPTER 35 Clustering for the Firepower Threat Defense 693

About Clustering on the Firepower 4100/9300 Chassis 693
Bootstrap Configuration 694
Cluster Members 694
Cluster Control Link 694
Size the Cluster Control Link for Inter-Chassis Clustering 694
Cluster Control Link Redundancy for Inter-Chassis Clustering 695
Cluster Control Link Reliability for Inter-Chassis Clustering 696
Cluster Control Link Network 696
Management Network 696
Management Interface 696
Cluster Interfaces 696
Spanned EtherChannels 697
Connecting to a VSS or vPC 697
Configuration Replication 697
Firepower Threat Defense Features and Clustering 698
Unsupported Features with Clustering 698
Centralized Features for Clustering 698
Dynamic Routing and Clustering 699
NAT and Clustering 699
SIP Inspection and Clustering 700
Syslog and Clustering 700
SNMP and Clustering 700
FTP and Clustering 700
Cisco TrustSec and Clustering 700
VPN and Clustering 701
Licenses for Clustering 701
Requirements and Prerequisites for Clustering 701
Clustering Guidelines and Limitations 702

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Configure Clustering 706

FXOS: Add a Firepower Threat Defense Cluster 706
Create a Firepower Threat Defense Cluster 706
Add More Cluster Members 713
FMC: Add a Cluster 714
FMC: Configure Data and Diagnostic Interfaces 715
FXOS: Remove a Cluster Member 716
FMC: Manage Cluster Members 718
Add or Replace a Cluster Member 718
Delete a Slave Member 719
Deactivate a Member 719
Rejoin the Cluster 720
FMC: Monitoring the Cluster 720
Reference for Clustering 721
Performance Scaling Factor 721
Master Unit Election 721
High Availability Within the Cluster 722
Chassis-Application Monitoring 722
Unit Health Monitoring 722
Interface Monitoring 722
Status After Failure 722
Rejoining the Cluster 723
Data Path Connection State Replication 723
How the Cluster Manages Connections 724
Connection Roles 724
New Connection Ownership 725
Sample Data Flow 725
History for Clustering 726
PART X Firepower Threat Defense Routing 729
CHAPTER 36 Routing Overview for Firepower Threat Defense 731

Path Determination 731
Supported Route Types 732

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Static Versus Dynamic 732

Single-Path Versus Multipath 732
Flat Versus Hierarchical 732
Link-State Versus Distance Vector 733
Supported Internet Protocols for Routing 733
Routing Table 734
How the Routing Table Is Populated 734
Administrative Distances for Routes 734
Backup Dynamic and Floating Static Routes 735
How Forwarding Decisions Are Made 736
Dynamic Routing and High Availability 736
Dynamic Routing in Clustering 736
Routing Table for Management Traffic 737
Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) Routing 738
About Route Maps 738
Permit and Deny Clauses 739
Match and Set Clause Values 739
CHAPTER 37 Static and Default Routes for Firepower Threat Defense 741
About Static and Default Routes 741
Default Route 741
Static Routes 741
Route to null0 Interface to “Black Hole” Unwanted Traffic 742
Route Priorities 742
Transparent Firewall Mode and Bridge Group Routes 742
Static Route Tracking 742
Guidelines for Static and Default Routes 743
Add a Static Route 743
CHAPTER 38 OSPF for Firepower Threat Defense 745

OSPF for Firepower Threat Defense 745
About OSPF 745
OSPF Support for Fast Hello Packets 747
Prerequisites for OSPF Support for Fast Hello Packets 747

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OSPF Hello Interval and Dead Interval 747

OSPF Fast Hello Packets 747
Benefits of OSPF Fast Hello Packets 747
Implementation Differences Between OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 748
Guidelines for OSPF 748
Configure OSPFv2 749
Configure OSPF Areas, Ranges, and Virtual Links 749
Configure OSPF Redistribution 752
Configure OSPF Inter-Area Filtering 753
Configure OSPF Filter Rules 754
Configure OSPF Summary Addresses 755
Configure OSPF Interfaces and Neighbors 756
Configure OSPF Advanced Properties 758
Configure OSPFv3 760
Configure OSPFv3 Areas, Route Summaries, and Virtual Links 760
Configure OSPFv3 Redistribution 762
Configure OSPFv3 Summary Prefixes 764
Configure OSPFv3 Interfaces, Authentication, and Neighbors 764
Configure OSPFv3 Advanced Properties 767
CHAPTER 39 BGP for Firepower Threat Defense 771

About BGP 771
Routing Table Changes 771
When to Use BGP 772
BGP Path Selection 772
BGP Multipath 773
Guidelines for BGP 774
Configure BGP 774
Configure BGP Basic Settings 775
Configure BGP General Settings 777
Configure BGP Neighbor Settings 778
Configure BGP Aggregate Address Settings 781
Configure BGPv4 Filtering Settings 782
Configure BGP Network Settings 783

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Configure BGP Redistribution Settings 783

Configure BGP Route Injection Settings 784
CHAPTER 40 RIP for Firepower Threat Defense 787

About RIP 787
Routing Update Process 787
RIP Routing Metric 788
RIP Stability Features 788
RIP Timers 788
Guidelines for RIP 788
Configure RIP 789
CHAPTER 41 Multicast Routing for Firepower Threat Defense 793

About Multicast Routing 793
IGMP Protocol 793
Stub Multicast Routing 794
PIM Multicast Routing 794
PIM Source Specific Multicast Support 795
Multicast Bidirectional PIM 795
PIM Bootstrap Router (BSR) 796
PIM Bootstrap Router (BSR) Terminology 796
Multicast Group Concept 797
Multicast Addresses 797
Clustering 797
Guidelines for Multicast Routing 797
Configure IGMP Features 797
Enable Multicast Routing 798
Configure IGMP Protocol 799
Configure IGMP Access Groups 800
Configure IGMP Static Groups 801
Configure IGMP Join Groups 801
Configure PIM Features 802
Configure PIM Protocol 802
Configure PIM Neighbor Filters 803

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Configure PIM Bidirectional Neighbor Filters 804

Configure PIM Rendezvous Points 805
Configure PIM Route Trees 806
Configure PIM Request Filters 806
Configure the Firepower Threat Defense Device as a Candidate Bootstrap Router 807
Configure Multicast Routes 808
Configure Multicast Boundary Filters 809
PART XI Firepower Threat Defense VPN 811
CHAPTER 42 VPN Overview for Firepower Threat Defense 813

VPN Types 813
VPN Basics 814
Internet Key Exchange (IKE) 814
IPsec 815
VPN Packet Flow 816
VPN Licensing 816
How Secure Should a VPN Connection Be? 816
Complying with Security Certification Requirements 817
Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use 817
Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use 818
Deciding Which Diffie-Hellman Modulus Group to Use 818
Deciding Which Authentication Method to Use 819
Pre-shared Keys 819
PKI Infrastructure and Digital Certificates 820
VPN Topology Options 821

Point-to-Point VPN Topology 821
Hub and Spoke VPN Topology 822
Full Mesh VPN Topology 823
Implicit Topologies 823
CHAPTER 43 Site-to-Site VPNs for Firepower Threat Defense 825

About Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs 825
Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPN Guidelines and Limitations 826

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Managing Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs 827

Configuring Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs 828
FTD VPN Endpoint Options 829
FTD VPN IKE Options 831
FTD VPN IPsec Options 832
FTD Advanced Site-to-site VPN Deployment Options 834
FTD VPN Advanced IKE Options 834
FTD VPN Advanced IPsec Options 835
FTD Advanced Site-to-site VPN Tunnel Options 835
CHAPTER 44 Remote Access VPNs for Firepower Threat Defense 837

Remote Access VPN Overview 837
Remote Access VPN Features 837
AnyConnect Components 838
Remote Access VPN Authentication 839
Understanding Policy Enforcement of Permissions and Attributes 840
Understanding AAA Server Connectivity 841
Remote Access VPN Guidelines and Limitations 842
Configuring a New Remote Access VPN Connection 844
Prerequisites for Configuring Remote Access VPN 845
Create a New Remote Access VPN Policy 845
Update the Access Control Policy on the Firepower Threat Defense Device 847
(Optional) Configure NAT Exemption 848
Configure DNS 849
Add an AnyConnect Client Profile XML File 849
(Optional) Configure Split Tunneling 850
Verify the Configuration 851
Optional Remote Access VPN Configurations 851
Configure Connection Profile Settings 851
Configure Multiple Connection Profiles 852
Configure IP Addresses for VPN Clients 852
Configure AAA Settings for Remote Access VPN 854
Create or Update Aliases for a Connection Profile 858
Configure Access Interfaces for Remote Access VPN 859

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Configuring Remote Access VPN Advanced Options 861

Cisco AnyConnect Remote Access VPN Client Images 861
Remote Access VPN Address Assignment Policy 863
Configure Certificate to Connection Profile Mapping 864
Configure Group Policies 865
Configure IPsec Settings 866
CHAPTER 45 VPN Monitoring for Firepower Threat Defense 873

VPN Summary Dashboard 873
Viewing the VPN Summary Dashboard 873
VPN Session and User Information 874
Viewing Remote Access VPN Active Sessions 874
Viewing Remote Access VPN User Activity 874
VPN Health Events 875
Viewing VPN Health Events 875
CHAPTER 46 VPN Troubleshooting for Firepower Threat Defense 877

System Messages 877
VPN System Logs 877
Viewing VPN System Logs 878
Debug Commands 878
debug aaa 880
debug crypto 880
debug crypto ca 881
debug crypto ikev1 882
debug crypto ikev2 882
debug crypto ipsec 883
debug ldap 883
debug ssl 884
debug webvpn 884
PART XII Appliance Platform Settings 887
CHAPTER 47 System Configuration 889

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Introduction to System Configuration 889

Navigating the Firepower Management Center System Configuration 890
System Configuration Settings 890
Appliance Information 892
Viewing and Modifying the System Information 893
HTTPS Certificates 894
Default HTTPS Server Certificates 894
Custom HTTPS Server Certificates 895
HTTPS Server Certificate Requirements 895
HTTPS Client Certificates 896
Viewing the Current HTTPS Server Certificate 897
Generating an HTTPS Server Certificate Signing Request 897
Importing HTTPS Server Certificates 898
Requiring Valid HTTPS Client Certificates 899
External Database Access Settings 901
Enabling External Access to the Database 901
Database Event Limits 902
Configuring Database Event Limits 902
Database Event Limits 903
Management Interfaces 904
About Management Interfaces 904
Management Interfaces on the Firepower Management Center 904
Management Interfaces on Managed Devices 905
Management Interface Support 905
Network Routes on Management Interfaces 908
Management and Event Traffic Channel Examples 908
Configure Management Interfaces 909
Configure Firepower Management Center Management Interfaces 910
Configure Classic Device Management Interfaces at the Web Interface 912
Configure Firepower Threat Defense or Classic Device Management Interfaces at the CLI 915
System Shut Down and Restart 920
Shutting Down and Restarting the System 921
Remote Storage Management 922
Configuring Local Storage 922

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Configuring NFS for Remote Storage 922

Configuring SMB for Remote Storage 923
Configuring SSH for Remote Storage 924
Remote Storage Management Advanced Options 925
Change Reconciliation 925
Configuring Change Reconciliation 926
Change Reconciliation Options 926
Policy Change Comments 927
Configuring Comments to Track Policy Changes 927
The Access List 928
Configuring the Access List for Your System 928
Audit Logs 929
Sending Audit Log Messages to the Syslog 929
Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server 931
Audit Log Certificate 932
How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from the FMC 933

Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for the FMC 934
Import an Audit Log Client Certificate into the FMC 935
Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and FMC 936
View the Audit Log Client Certificate on the FMC 937
Dashboard Settings 938

Enabling Custom Analysis Widgets for Dashboards 938
DNS Cache 938

Configuring DNS Cache Properties 938
Email Notifications 939
Configuring a Mail Relay Host and Notification Address 939
Language Selection 940
Specifying a Different Language 940
Login Banners 941
Adding a Custom Login Banner 941
SNMP Polling 942
Configuring SNMP Polling 943
Time and Time Synchronization 944
Synchronize Time Using a Network NTP Server 944

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Synchronize Time Without Access to a Network NTP Server 945

About Changing Time Synchronization Settings 946
View Current System Time, Source, and NTP Server Connection Status 946
NTP Server Status 947
Session Timeouts 948
Configuring Session Timeouts 948
Vulnerability Mapping 949
Mapping Vulnerabilities for Servers 949
Remote Console Access Management 950
Configuring Remote Console Settings on the System 950
Lights-Out Management User Access Configuration 951
Enabling Lights-Out Management User Access 952
Serial Over LAN Connection Configuration 952
Configuring Serial Over LAN with IPMItool 953
Configuring Serial Over LAN with IPMIutil 954
Lights-Out Management Overview 954
Configuring Lights-Out Management with IPMItool 956
Configuring Lights-Out Management with IPMIutil 956
REST API Preferences 956
Enabling REST API Access 956
VMware Tools and Virtual Systems 957
Enabling VMware Tools on the Firepower Management Center for VMware 957
(Optional) Opt Out of Web Analytics Tracking 958
CHAPTER 48 Platform Settings Policies for Managed Devices 959

Introduction to Platform Settings 959
Managing Platform Settings Policies 960
Creating a Platform Settings Policy 960
Setting Target Devices for a Platform Settings Policy 961
CHAPTER 49 Platform Settings for Classic Devices 963

Introduction to Firepower Platform Settings 963
Configuring Firepower Platform Settings 963
The Access List 964

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Configuring the Access List for Your System 965

Audit Logs on Classic Devices 966
Sending Audit Log Messages from Classic Devices to the Syslog 966
Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server from a Classic Device 967
Audit Log Certificate (Classic Devices) 969
How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from NGIPS Devices 969
Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for a Classic Device 970
Import an Audit Log Client Certificate into a Classic Device 971
Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and 7000 and 8000 Series Devices 972
View the Audit Log Client Certificate on a Classic Device 973
External Authentication Settings 974
Enabling External Authentication to Classic Devices 975
Language Selection 976
Specifying a Different Language 976
Login Banners 977
Adding a Custom Login Banner 977
Session Timeouts 978
Configuring Session Timeouts 978
SNMP Polling 979
Configuring SNMP Polling 979
Time and Time Synchronization (Classic Devices) 981
Synchronizing Time on Classic Devices 981
View Current System Time, Source, and NTP Server Connection Status for NGIPS Devices 982
NTP Server Status 983
CHAPTER 50 Platform Settings for Firepower Threat Defense 985

Configure ARP Inspection 985
Configure Banners 987
Configure External Authentication for SSH 987
Configure Fragment Handling 991
Configure HTTP 992
Configure ICMP Access Rules 993
Configure SSL Settings 995
About SSL Settings 996

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Configure Secure Shell 998

Configure SMTP 1000
Configure SNMP for Threat Defense 1000
Add SNMPv3 Users 1001
Add SNMP Hosts 1003
Configure SNMP Traps 1004
Configure Syslog 1006
About Syslog 1006
Severity Levels 1006
Syslog Message Filtering 1007
Syslog Message Classes 1007
Guidelines for Logging 1010
Configure Syslog Logging for FTD Devices 1011
Enable Logging and Configure Basic Settings 1012
Enable Logging Destinations 1013
Send Syslog Messages to an E-mail Address 1014
Create a Custom Event List 1015
Limit the Rate of Syslog Message Generation 1016
Configure Syslog Settings 1017
Configure a Syslog Server 1018
Configure Global Timeouts 1019
Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense 1021
History for Firepower Threat Defense Platform Settings 1022
CHAPTER 51 Security Certifications Compliance 1025

Security Certifications Compliance Modes 1025
Security Certifications Compliance Characteristics 1026
Security Certifications Compliance Recommendations 1027
Appliance Hardening 1028
Protecting Your Network 1029
Enabling Security Certifications Compliance 1030
PART XIII Network Address Translation (NAT) 1033

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CHAPTER 52 NAT Policy Management 1035

Managing NAT Policies 1035
Creating NAT Policies 1036
Configuring NAT Policies 1037
Configuring NAT Policy Targets 1038
Copying NAT Policies 1039
CHAPTER 53 NAT for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices 1041

NAT Policy Configuration 1041
NAT Policies Configuration Guidelines 1042
Rule Organization in a NAT Policy 1042
Organizing NAT Rules 1043
NAT Rule Warnings and Errors 1044
Showing and Hiding NAT Rule Warnings 1044
NAT Policy Rules Options 1044
Creating and Editing NAT Rules 1045
NAT Rule Types 1046
NAT Rule Condition Types 1048
NAT Rule Conditions and Condition Mechanics 1049
NAT Rule Conditions 1049
Adding Conditions to NAT Rules 1049
Literal Conditions in NAT Rules 1051
Objects in NAT Rule Conditions 1051
Zone Conditions in NAT Rules 1051
Adding Zone Conditions to NAT Rules 1052
Source Network Conditions in Dynamic NAT Rules 1053
Adding Network Conditions to a Dynamic NAT Rule 1054
Destination Network Conditions in NAT Rules 1055
Adding Destination Network Conditions to NAT Rules 1056
Port Conditions in NAT Rules 1057
Adding Port Conditions to NAT Rules 1057
CHAPTER 54 Network Address Translation (NAT) for Firepower Threat Defense 1059

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Contents
Why Use NAT? 1059

NAT Basics 1060
NAT Terminology 1060
NAT Types 1060
NAT in Routed and Transparent Mode 1061
NAT in Routed Mode 1061
NAT in Transparent Mode or Within a Bridge Group 1062
Auto NAT and Manual NAT 1063
Auto NAT 1063
Manual NAT 1063
Comparing Auto NAT and Manual NAT 1064
NAT Rule Order 1064
NAT Interfaces 1066
Configuring Routing for NAT 1066
Addresses on the Same Network as the Mapped Interface 1066
Addresses on a Unique Network 1067
The Same Address as the Real Address (Identity NAT) 1067
Guidelines for NAT 1067
Firewall Mode Guidelines for NAT 1068
IPv6 NAT Guidelines 1068
IPv6 NAT Recommendations 1068
NAT Support for Inspected Protocols 1069
Additional Guidelines for NAT 1071
Configure NAT for Threat Defense 1072
Customizing NAT Rules for Multiple Devices 1074
Dynamic NAT 1076
About Dynamic NAT 1076
Dynamic NAT Disadvantages and Advantages 1077
Configure Dynamic Auto NAT 1077
Configure Dynamic Manual NAT 1079
Dynamic PAT 1081
About Dynamic PAT 1081
Dynamic PAT Disadvantages and Advantages 1082
PAT Pool Object Guidelines 1082

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Contents
Configure Dynamic Auto PAT 1083

Configure Dynamic Manual PAT 1085
Static NAT 1088
About Static NAT 1088
Configure Static Auto NAT 1092
Configure Static Manual NAT 1094
Identity NAT 1097
Configure Identity Auto NAT 1098
Configure Identity Manual NAT 1099
NAT Rule Properties for Firepower Threat Defense 1101
Interface Objects NAT Properties 1102
Translation Properties for Auto NAT 1103
Translation Properties for Manual NAT 1104
PAT Pool NAT Properties 1105
Advanced NAT Properties 1106
Translating IPv6 Networks 1107
NAT64/46: Translating IPv6 Addresses to IPv4 1107
NAT64/46 Example: Inside IPv6 Network with Outside IPv4 Internet 1108
NAT66: Translating IPv6 Addresses to Different IPv6 Addresses 1111
NAT66 Example, Static Translation between Networks 1112
NAT66 Example, Simple IPv6 Interface PAT 1114
Monitoring NAT 1116
Examples for NAT 1116
Providing Access to an Inside Web Server (Static Auto NAT) 1116
Dynamic Auto NAT for Inside Hosts and Static NAT for an Outside Web Server 1119
Inside Load Balancer with Multiple Mapped Addresses (Static Auto NAT, One-to-Many) 1122
Single Address for FTP, HTTP, and SMTP (Static Auto NAT-with-Port-Translation) 1125
Different Translation Depending on the Destination (Dynamic Manual PAT) 1130
Different Translation Depending on the Destination Address and Port (Dynamic Manual PAT) 1134
NAT and Site-to-Site VPN 1138
Rewriting DNS Queries and Responses Using NAT 1142
DNS64 Reply Modification 1143
DNS Reply Modification, DNS Server on Outside 1149
DNS Reply Modification, DNS Server on Host Network 1152

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History for FTD NAT 1155
PART XIV 7000 and 8000 Series Advanced Deployment Options 1157
CHAPTER 55 Setting Up Virtual Switches 1159

Virtual Switches 1159
Switched Interface Configuration 1159
Switched Interface Configuration Notes 1160
Configuring Physical Switched Interfaces 1161
Adding Logical Switched Interfaces 1162
Deleting Logical Switched Interfaces 1163
Virtual Switch Configuration 1164
Virtual Switch Configuration Notes 1164
Adding Virtual Switches 1165
Advanced Virtual Switch Settings 1165
Configuring Advanced Virtual Switch Settings 1166
Deleting Virtual Switches 1167
CHAPTER 56 Setting Up Virtual Routers 1169

Virtual Routers 1169
Routed Interfaces 1170
Configuring Physical Routed Interfaces 1171
Adding Logical Routed Interfaces 1173
Deleting Logical Routed Interfaces 1175
Configuring SFRP 1176
Virtual Router Configuration 1177
Adding Virtual Routers 1178
DHCP Relay 1179
Setting Up DHCPv4 Relay 1179
Setting Up DHCPv6 Relay 1180
Static Routes 1181
Viewing the Static Routes Table 1182
Adding Static Routes 1182
Dynamic Routing 1183

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RIP Configuration 1183

Adding Interfaces for RIP Configuration 1183
Configuring Authentication Settings for RIP Configuration 1184
Configuring Advanced Settings for RIP Configuration 1185
Adding Import Filters for RIP Configuration 1186
Adding Export Filters for RIP Configuration 1187
OSPF Configuration 1188
OSPF Routing Areas 1188
OSPF Area Interfaces 1189
Adding OSPF Area Interfaces 1191
Adding OSPF Area Vlinks 1192
Adding Import Filters for OSPF Configuration 1193
Adding Export Filters for OSPF Configuration 1194
Virtual Router Filters 1195
Viewing Virtual Router Filters 1196
Setting Up Virtual Router Filters 1197
Adding Virtual Router Authentication Profiles 1198
Viewing Virtual Router Statistics 1199
Deleting Virtual Routers 1199
CHAPTER 57 Aggregate Interfaces and LACP 1201

About Aggregate Interfaces 1201
LAG Configuration 1202
Aggregate Switched Interfaces 1202
Aggregate Routed Interfaces 1203
Logical Aggregate Interfaces 1203
Load-Balancing Algorithms 1204
Link Selection Policies 1205
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) 1206
LACP 1206
Adding Aggregate Switched Interfaces 1207
Adding Aggregate Routed Interfaces 1209
Adding Logical Aggregate Interfaces 1212
Viewing Aggregate Interface Statistics 1213

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Deleting Aggregate Interfaces 1213
CHAPTER 58 Hybrid Interfaces 1215

About Hybrid Interfaces 1215
Logical Hybrid Interfaces 1215
Adding Logical Hybrid Interfaces 1216
Deleting Logical Hybrid Interfaces 1218
CHAPTER 59 Gateway VPNs 1219

Gateway VPN Basics 1219
IPsec 1219
IKE 1220
VPN Deployments 1220
Point-to-Point VPN Deployments 1220
Star VPN Deployments 1221
Mesh VPN Deployments 1222
VPN Deployment Management 1222
VPN Deployment Options 1223
Point-to-Point VPN Deployment Options 1223
Star VPN Deployment Options 1224
Mesh VPN Deployment Options 1226
Advanced VPN Deployment Options 1227
Managing VPN Deployments 1228
Configuring Point-to-Point VPN Deployments 1229
Configuring Star VPN Deployments 1229
Configuring Mesh VPN Deployments 1230
Configuring Advanced VPN Deployment Settings 1231
Editing VPN Deployments 1232
VPN Deployment Status 1233
Viewing VPN Status 1233
VPN Statistics and Logs 1234
Viewing VPN Statistics and Logs 1235
PART XV Access Control 1237

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CHAPTER 60 Getting Started with Access Control Policies 1239

Introduction to Access Control 1239
Access Control Policy Components 1240
Access Control Policy Default Action 1241
Access Control Policy Inheritance 1243
Managing Access Control Policies 1244
Creating a Basic Access Control Policy 1245
Editing an Access Control Policy 1246
Managing Access Control Policy Inheritance 1248
Choosing a Base Access Control Policy 1249
Inheriting Access Control Policy Settings from the Base Policy 1249
Locking Settings in Descendant Access Control Policies 1250
Requiring an Access Control Policy in a Domain 1250
Setting Target Devices for an Access Control Policy 1251
Access Control Policy Advanced Settings 1252
Associating Other Policies with Access Control 1254
CHAPTER 61 Access Control Rules 1257

Introduction to Access Control Rules 1257
Recommendations for Application Control 1259
Access Control Rule Management 1260
Access Control Rule Components 1261
Access Control Rule Order 1262
Adding an Access Control Rule Category 1263
Creating and Editing Access Control Rules 1264
Enabling and Disabling Access Control Rules 1265
Positioning an Access Control Rule 1266
Access Control Rule Actions 1266
Access Control Rule Monitor Action 1267
Access Control Rule Trust Action 1267
Access Control Rule Blocking Actions 1267
Access Control Rule Interactive Blocking Actions 1268
Access Control Rule Allow Action 1269

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Contents
Access Control Rule Comments 1269

Adding Comments to an Access Control Rule 1270
CHAPTER 62 Access Control Using Intrusion and File Policies 1271

About Deep Inspection 1271
Access Control Traffic Handling 1272
File and Intrusion Inspection Order 1273
Access Control Rule Configuration to Perform Malware Protection 1274
Configuring an Access Control Rule to Perform Malware Protection 1275
Access Control Rule Configuration to Perform Intrusion Prevention 1276
Access Control Rule Configuration and Intrusion Policies 1277
Configuring an Access Control Rule to Perform Intrusion Prevention 1277
CHAPTER 63 URL Filtering 1279

URL Filtering Overview 1279
About URL Filtering with Category and Reputation 1279
Guidelines and Limitations for URL Filtering 1280
Filtering HTTPS Traffic 1282
How to Configure URL Filtering with Category and Reputation 1283
Enable URL Filtering Using Category and Reputation 1283
URL Filtering Options 1284
Configuring URL Conditions 1285
Rules with URL Conditions 1286
URL Rule Order 1287
Manual URL Filtering 1287
Troubleshoot URL Filtering 1288
CHAPTER 64 HTTP Response Pages and Interactive Blocking 1291

About HTTP Response Pages 1291
Limitations to HTTP Response Pages 1291
Choosing HTTP Response Pages 1292
Interactive Blocking with HTTP Response Pages 1293
Configuring Interactive Blocking 1293
Setting the User Bypass Timeout for a Blocked Website 1294

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CHAPTER 65 Security Intelligence Blacklisting 1295

About Security Intelligence 1295
Requirements for Security Intelligence 1296
Guidelines for Security Intelligence 1296
Configure Security Intelligence 1297
Security Intelligence Options 1299
Troubleshooting Security Intelligence 1300
Troubleshooting Memory Use 1300
CHAPTER 66 DNS Policies 1301

DNS Policy Overview 1301
DNS Policy Components 1301
Creating Basic DNS Policies 1303
Editing DNS Policies 1303
Managing DNS Policies 1304
DNS Rules 1305
Creating and Editing DNS Rules 1305
DNS Rule Management 1306
Enabling and Disabling DNS Rules 1306
DNS Rule Order Evaluation 1307
DNS Rule Actions 1307
DNS Rule Conditions 1309
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS and Security Zone 1309
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS and Network 1310
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS and VLAN 1311
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS List, Feed, or Category 1312
DNS Policy Deploy 1312
CHAPTER 67 Prefiltering and Prefilter Policies 1313

About Prefiltering 1313
Prefiltering vs Access Control 1313
Passthrough Tunnels and Access Control 1315
Guidelines and Limitations for Prefiltering 1316

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Configure Prefiltering 1316

About Prefilter Policies 1318
Tunnel vs Prefilter Rules 1318
Tunnel and Prefilter Rule Components 1319
Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering 1321
Using Tunnel Zones 1321
Creating Tunnel Zones 1324
CHAPTER 68 Intelligent Application Bypass 1325

Introduction to IAB 1325
IAB Options 1326
Configuring IAB 1328
IAB Logging and Analysis 1329
CHAPTER 69 Access Control Using Content Restriction 1333

About Content Restriction 1333
Using Access Control Rules to Enforce Content Restriction 1334
Safe Search Options for Access Control Rules 1336
YouTube EDU Options for Access Control Rules 1336
Using a DNS Sinkhole to Enforce Content Restriction 1336
PART XVI Encrypted Traffic Handling 1339
CHAPTER 70 Understanding Traffic Decryption 1341

About Traffic Decryption 1341
TLS/SSL Handshake Processing 1342
ClientHello Message Handling 1343
ServerHello and Server Certificate Message Handling 1345
TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration 1346
TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration Guidelines and Limitations 1347
View the Status of TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration 1348
TLS/SSL Best Practices 1349
The Case for Decryption 1349
When to Decrypt Traffic, When Not to Decrypt 1350

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Decrypt and Resign (Outgoing Traffic) 1351

Known Key Decryption (Incoming Traffic) 1351
Other TLS/SSL Rule Actions 1352
TLS/SSL Rule Examples 1352
Block Unsecure Protocols 1352
TLS/SSL Rule Components 1353
TLS/SSL Rule Order Evaluation 1355
Multi-Rule Example 1355
TLS/SSL Inspection Appliance Deployment Scenarios 1357
Traffic Decryption in a Passive Deployment 1358
Encrypted Traffic Monitoring in a Passive Deployment 1359
Undecrypted Encrypted Traffic in a Passive Deployment 1359
Encrypted Traffic Inspection with a Private Key in a Passive Deployment 1360
Traffic Decryption in an Inline Deployment 1362
Encrypted Traffic Monitoring in an Inline Deployment 1364
Undecrypted Encrypted Traffic in an Inline Deployment 1364
Encrypted Traffic Blocking in an Inline Deployment 1365
Encrypted Traffic Inspection with a Private Key in an Inline Deployment 1366
Encrypted Traffic Inspection with a Re-signed Certificate in an Inline Deployment 1368
History for TLS/SSL 1370
CHAPTER 71 Start Creating SSL Policies 1373

SSL Policies Overview 1373
SSL Policy Default Actions 1374
Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic 1375
Manage SSL Policies 1376
Create Basic SSL Policies 1377
Set Default Handling for Undecryptable Traffic 1378
Editing an SSL Policy 1379
CHAPTER 72 Get Started with TLS/SSL Rules 1381

TLS/SSL Rules Overview 1381
TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations 1381
Guideline for Using TLS/SSL Decryption 1382

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TLS/SSL Rule Unsupported Features 1382

TLS/SSL Do Not Decrypt Guidelines 1382
TLS/SSL Decrypt - Resign Guidelines 1383
TLS/SSL Decrypt - Known Key Guidelines 1384
TLS/SSL Block Guidelines 1385
TLS/SSL Certificate Pinning Guidelines 1385
TLS/SSL Heartbeat Guidelines 1386
TLS/SSL Anonymous Cipher Suite Limitation 1386
TLS/SSL Normalizer Guidelines 1386
Other TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines 1386
Encrypted Traffic Inspection Configuration 1387
Creating and Modifying TLS/SSL Rules 1388
Adding a TLS/SSL Rule to a Rule Category 1389
Positioning a TLS/SSL Rule by Number 1389
TLS/SSL Rule Search 1390
Searching TLS/SSL Rules 1390
Enabling and Disabling TLS/SSL Rules 1391
Moving a TLS/SSL Rule 1391
Adding a New TLS/SSL Rule Category 1392
TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1392
TLS/SSL Rule Condition Types 1393
TLS/SSL Rule Actions 1395
TLS/SSL Rule Monitor Action 1395
TLS/SSL Rule Do Not Decrypt Action 1395
TLS/SSL Rule Blocking Actions 1395
TLS/SSL Rule Decrypt Actions 1396
Configuring TLS/SSL Rule Actions 1396
Configuring a Decrypt - Resign Action 1397
Configuring a Decrypt - Known Key Action 1398
TLS/SSL Rules Management 1398
CHAPTER 73 Decryption Tuning Using TLS/SSL Rules 1399

TLS/SSL Rule Conditions Overview 1399
Network-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1400

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Network Zone TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1400

Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Network Zone 1401
Network or Geolocation TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1402
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Network or Geolocation 1402
VLAN TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1404
Controlling Encrypted VLAN Traffic 1404
Port TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1405
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Port 1406
User-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1407
Controlling Encrypted Traffic Based on User 1407
Reputation-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1407
Selected Applications and Filters in TLS/SSL Rules 1408
Application Filters in TLS/SSL Rules 1408
Available Applications in TLS/SSL Rules 1409
Application-Based TLS/SSL Rule Condition Requirements 1411
Adding an Application Condition to a TLS/SSL Rule 1411
Limitations to Encrypted Application Control 1412
Reputation-Based URL Blocking in Encrypted Traffic 1413
Block Encrypted Traffic Based on URL Reputation 1413
Server Certificate-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1414
Certificate Distinguished Name TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1415
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Certificate Distinguished Name 1416
Certificate TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1417
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Certificate 1418
Certificate Status TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1419
Trusting External Certificate Authorities 1422
Matching Traffic on Certificate Status 1424
Cipher Suite TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1425
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Cipher Suite 1428
Encryption Protocol Version TLS/SSL Rule Conditions 1428
Controlling Traffic by Encryption Protocol Version 1429
CHAPTER 74 Monitor SSL Hardware Acceleration 1431

Informational Counters 1431

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Alert Counters 1432

Error Counters 1432
Fatal Counters 1433
CHAPTER 75 Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Rules 1435

About TLS/SSL Oversubscription 1435
Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Oversubscription 1435
About TLS Heartbeat 1437
Troubleshoot TLS Heartbeat 1438
About TLS/SSL Pinning 1439
Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Pinning 1440
Verify TLS/SSL Cipher Suites 1442
PART XVII Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) and File Control 1445
CHAPTER 76 File Policies and Advanced Malware Protection 1447

About File Policies and Advanced Malware Protection 1447
Malware Protection Methods 1447
Spero Analysis 1448
AMP Cloud Lookup 1448
Local Malware Analysis 1448
Cached Disposition Longevity 1448
Dynamic Analysis 1449
Which Files Are Eligible for Dynamic Analysis? 1449
Block All Files by Type 1450
Comparison of Malware Protection Methods 1450
License Requirements for File and Malware Policies 1452
How to Configure Malware Protection 1452
Plan and Deploy Products and Licenses for Malware Protection 1452
Configure Policies to Detect and Handle Malware 1453
Arrange Ongoing Maintenance and Monitoring of Malware Protection 1454
Cloud Connections for Malware Protection 1455
AMP Cloud Connection Configurations 1456
Requirements and Guidelines for AMP Cloud Connections 1456

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Choose an AMP Cloud 1457

Cisco AMP Private Cloud 1457
Managing Connections to the AMP Cloud (Public or Private) 1459
Change AMP Options 1460

Dynamic Analysis Connections 1461
Requirements for Dynamic Analysis 1461
Viewing the Default Dynamic Analysis Connection 1461
Dynamic Analysis On-Premises Appliance (Cisco Threat Grid) 1462
Enabling Access to Dynamic Analysis Results in the Public Cloud 1463

Maintain Your System: Update File Types Eligible for Dynamic Analysis 1464
Cisco Security Intelligence Clouds 1464
File Policies and File Rules 1465
File Policy and File Rule Guidelines and Limitations 1465
File Rule Configuration Guidelines and Limitations 1465
File Detection Notes and Limitations 1465
File Blocking Notes and Limitations 1466
File Policy General Guidelines and Limitations 1466
File Policies 1467
Managing File Policies 1468
Creating a File Policy 1469
Advanced and Archive File Inspection Options 1469
Editing a File Policy 1472
File Rules 1473
File Rule Components 1474
File Rule Actions 1475
Creating File Rules 1478
Retrospective Disposition Changes 1479
(Optional) Malware Protection with AMP for Endpoints 1480
Comparison of Malware Protection: Firepower vs. AMP for Endpoints 1480
About Integrating Firepower with AMP for Endpoints 1481
Benefits of Integrating Firepower and AMP for Endpoints 1481
AMP for Endpoints and AMP Private Cloud 1482
Integrate Firepower and AMP for Endpoints 1482
History for the File and Malware Chapter 1484

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CHAPTER 77 File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage Tuning 1487
File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage Options 1487
Tuning File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage 1489
PART XVIII TID Intelligence and Threat Analysis 1491
CHAPTER 78 Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) 1493

Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Overview 1493
TID and Security Intelligence 1495
Performance Impact of Threat Intelligence Director 1495
Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) and High Availability Configurations 1496
Requirements for Threat Intelligence Director 1496
Platform, Element, and License Requirements 1496
Source Requirements 1496
Source Content Limitations 1497
How To Set Up Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) 1498
Configure Policies to Support TID 1499
Options for Ingesting Data Sources 1500
Fetch TAXII Feeds to Use as Sources 1500
Fetch Sources from a URL 1502
Upload a Local File to Use as a Source 1503
Configure TLS/SSL Settings for a TID Source 1504
User Roles with TID Access 1506
About Backing Up and Restoring TID Data 1506
Analyze TID Incident and Observation Data 1506
Observation and Incident Generation 1506
View and Manage Incidents 1508
Incident Summary Information 1509
Incident Details 1510
View Events for a TID Observation 1513
TID Observations in Firepower Management Center Events 1514
TID-Firepower Management Center Action Prioritization 1514
Factors That Affect the Action Taken 1517

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View and Change Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Configurations 1517
View TID Status of Elements (Managed Devices) 1517
View and Manage Sources 1518
Source Summary Information 1519
Source Status Details 1520
View and Manage Indicators 1521
Indicator Summary Information 1522
Indicator Details 1523
View and Manage Observables 1524
Observable Summary Information 1524
Filter TID Data in Table Views 1525
Inheritance in TID Configurations 1526
Inheritance of TID Settings from Multiple Parents 1526
About Overriding Inherited TID Settings 1527
Edit TID Actions at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level 1527
About Pausing Publishing 1528
Pause TID and Purge TID Data from Elements 1529
Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level 1530
Modify the Observable Publication Frequency 1531
About Whitelisting TID Observables 1531
Whitelist TID Observables 1532
View a STIX Source File 1532
Troubleshoot Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) 1532
History for Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) 1535
PART XIX Intrusion Detection and Prevention 1537
CHAPTER 79 An Overview of Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies 1539

Network Analysis and Intrusion Policy Basics 1539
How Policies Examine Traffic For Intrusions 1540
Decoding, Normalizing, and Preprocessing: Network Analysis Policies 1541
Access Control Rules: Intrusion Policy Selection 1542
Intrusion Inspection: Intrusion Policies, Rules, and Variable Sets 1542
Intrusion Event Generation 1544

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System-Provided and Custom Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies 1544

System-Provided Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies 1545
Benefits of Custom Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies 1547
Benefits of Custom Network Analysis Policies 1547
Benefits of Custom Intrusion Policies 1548
Limitations of Custom Policies 1549
The Navigation Panel: Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies 1551
Conflicts and Changes: Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies 1552
Exiting a Network Analysis or Intrusion Policy 1553
CHAPTER 80 Layers in Intrusion and Network Analysis Policies 1555

Layer Basics 1555
The Layer Stack 1555
The Base Layer 1556
System-Provided Base Policies 1556
Custom Base Policies 1557
The Effect of Rule Updates on Base Policies 1557
Changing the Base Policy 1558
The Firepower Recommendations Layer 1559
Layer Management 1560
Shared Layers 1561
Managing Layers 1562
Navigating Layers 1563
Intrusion Rules in Layers 1563
Configuring Intrusion Rules in Layers 1565
Removing Rule Settings from Multiple Layers 1565
Accepting Rule Changes from a Custom Base Policy 1567
Preprocessors and Advanced Settings in Layers 1568
Configuring Preprocessors and Advanced Settings in Layers 1568
CHAPTER 81 Getting Started with Intrusion Policies 1571

Intrusion Policy Basics 1571
Managing Intrusion Policies 1572
Custom Intrusion Policy Creation 1573

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Creating a Custom Intrusion Policy 1574

Editing Intrusion Policies 1574
Intrusion Policy Changes 1575
Drop Behavior in an Inline Deployment 1576
Setting Drop Behavior in an Inline Deployment 1576
Drop Behavior in a Dual System Deployment 1577
Intrusion Policy Advanced Settings 1577
Optimizing Performance for Intrusion Detection and Prevention 1578
CHAPTER 82 Tuning Intrusion Policies Using Rules 1579

Intrusion Rule Tuning Basics 1579
Intrusion Rule Types 1579
Viewing Intrusion Rules in an Intrusion Policy 1580
Intrusion Rules Page Columns 1581
Intrusion Rule Details 1582
Viewing Intrusion Rule Details 1583
Setting a Threshold for an Intrusion Rule 1583
Setting Suppression for an Intrusion Rule 1584
Setting a Dynamic Rule State from the Rule Details Page 1585
Setting an SNMP Alert for an Intrusion Rule 1586
Adding a Comment to an Intrusion Rule 1586
Intrusion Rule Filters in an Intrusion Policy 1587
Intrusion Rule Filters Notes 1587
Intrusion Policy Rule Filters Construction Guidelines 1587
Intrusion Rule Configuration Filters 1590
Intrusion Rule Content Filters 1591
Intrusion Rule Categories 1592
Intrusion Rule Filter Components 1592
Intrusion Rule Filter Usage 1593
Setting a Rule Filter in an Intrusion Policy 1593
Intrusion Rule States 1594
Intrusion Rule State Options 1594
Setting Intrusion Rule States 1595
Intrusion Event Notification Filters in an Intrusion Policy 1596

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Intrusion Event Thresholds 1596

Intrusion Event Thresholds Configuration 1596
Adding and Modifying Intrusion Event Thresholds 1598
Viewing and Deleting Intrusion Event Thresholds 1599
Intrusion Policy Suppression Configuration 1600
Intrusion Policy Suppression Types 1600
Suppressing Intrusion Events for a Specific Rule 1601
Viewing and Deleting Suppression Conditions 1602
Dynamic Intrusion Rule States 1603
Dynamic Intrusion Rule State Configuration 1603
Setting a Dynamic Rule State from the Rules Page 1604
Adding Intrusion Rule Comments 1606
CHAPTER 83 Tailoring Intrusion Protection to Your Network Assets 1607

About Firepower Recommended Rules 1607
Default Settings for Firepower Recommendations 1608
Advanced Settings for Firepower Recommendations 1609
Generating and Applying Firepower Recommendations 1610
CHAPTER 84 Sensitive Data Detection 1613

Sensitive Data Detection Basics 1613
Global Sensitive Data Detection Options 1614
Individual Sensitive Data Type Options 1615
System-Provided Sensitive Data Types 1616
Configuring Sensitive Data Detection 1617
Monitored Application Protocols and Sensitive Data 1618
Selecting Application Protocols to Monitor 1619
Special Case: Sensitive Data Detection in FTP Traffic 1620
Custom Sensitive Data Types 1620
Data Patterns in Custom Sensitive Data Types 1621
Configuring Custom Sensitive Data Types 1623
Editing Custom Sensitive Data Types 1624
CHAPTER 85 Globally Limiting Intrusion Event Logging 1627

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Global Rule Thresholding Basics 1627

Global Rule Thresholding Options 1628
Configuring Global Thresholds 1630
Disabling the Global Threshold 1631
CHAPTER 86 The Intrusion Rules Editor 1633

An Introduction to Intrusion Rule Editing 1633
Rule Anatomy 1634
The Intrusion Rule Header 1635
Intrusion Rule Header Action 1635
Intrusion Rule Header Protocol 1636
Intrusion Rule Header Direction 1636
Intrusion Rule Header Source and Destination IP Addresses 1637
Intrusion Rule Header Source and Destination Ports 1639
Intrusion Event Details 1640
Adding a Custom Classification 1644
Defining an Event Priority 1645
Defining an Event Reference 1645
Custom Rule Creation 1646
Writing New Rules 1647
Modifying Existing Rules 1648
Viewing Rule Documentation 1649
Adding Comments to Intrusion Rules 1650
Deleting Custom Rules 1651
Searching for Rules 1652
Search Criteria for Intrusion Rules 1652
Rule Filtering on the Intrusion Rules Editor Page 1653
Filtering Guidelines 1653
Keyword Filtering 1654
Character String Filtering 1655
Combination Keyword and Character String Filtering 1655
Filtering Rules 1656
Keywords and Arguments in Intrusion Rules 1656
The content and protected_content Keywords 1657

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Basic content and protected_content Keyword Arguments 1658

content and protected_content Keyword Search Locations 1659
Overview: HTTP content and protected_content Keyword Arguments 1662
Overview: content Keyword Fast Pattern Matcher 1665
The replace Keyword 1668
The byte_jump Keyword 1669
The byte_test Keyword 1671
The byte_extract Keyword 1673
The byte_math Keyword 1676
Overview: The pcre Keyword 1678
pcre Syntax 1679
pcre Modifier Options 1681
pcre Example Keyword Values 1684
The metadata Keyword 1686
Service Metadata 1687
Metadata Search Guidelines 1692
IP Header Values 1693
ICMP Header Values 1695
TCP Header Values and Stream Size 1696
The stream_reassembly Keyword 1700
SSL Keywords 1700
The appid Keyword 1702
Application Layer Protocol Values 1703
The RPC Keyword 1703
The ASN.1 Keyword 1703
The urilen Keyword 1704
DCE/RPC Keywords 1705
SIP Keywords 1708
GTP Keywords 1710
SCADA Keywords 1722
Modbus Keywords 1722
DNP3 Keywords 1723
Packet Characteristics 1726
Active Response Keywords 1727

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The resp Keyword 1728

The react Keyword 1729
The detection_filter Keyword 1729
The tag Keyword 1731
The flowbits Keyword 1732
flowbits Keyword Options 1732
Guidelines for Using the flowbits Keyword 1733
flowbits Keyword Examples 1734
The http_encode Keyword 1739
http_encode Keyword Syntax 1740
http_encode Keyword example: Using Two http_endcode Keywords to Search for Two Encodings
1740
Overview: The file_type and file_group Keywords 1740

The file_type and file_group Keywords 1741
The file_data Keyword 1742
The pkt_data Keyword 1743
The base64_decode and base64_data Keywords 1743
CHAPTER 87 Intrusion Prevention Performance Tuning 1745

About Intrusion Prevention Performance Tuning 1745
Limiting Pattern Matching for Intrusions 1746
Regular Expression Limits Overrides for Intrusion Rules 1746
Overriding Regular Expression Limits for Intrusion Rules 1747
Per Packet Intrusion Event Generation Limits 1748
Limiting Intrusion Events Generated Per Packet 1749
Packet and Intrusion Rule Latency Threshold Configuration 1749
Latency-Based Performance Settings 1749
Packet Latency Thresholding 1750
Packet Latency Thresholding Notes 1751
Configuring Packet Latency Thresholding 1751
Rule Latency Thresholding 1752
Rule Latency Thresholding Notes 1754
Configuring Rule Latency Thresholding 1754
Intrusion Performance Statistic Logging Configuration 1755

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Configuring Intrusion Performance Statistic Logging 1756
PART XX Advanced Network Analysis and Preprocessing 1757
CHAPTER 88 Advanced Access Control Settings for Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies 1759
About Advanced Access Control Settings for Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies 1759
The Default Intrusion Policy 1759
Setting the Default Intrusion Policy 1760
Advanced Settings for Network Analysis Policies 1761
Setting the Default Network Analysis Policy 1762
Network Analysis Rules 1762
Configuring Network Analysis Rules 1763
Managing Network Analysis Rules 1764
CHAPTER 89 Getting Started with Network Analysis Policies 1765

Network Analysis Policy Basics 1765
Managing Network Analysis Policies 1765
Custom Network Analysis Policy Creation 1766
Creating a Custom Network Analysis Policy 1767
Network Analysis Policy Management 1768
Network Analysis Policy Settings and Cached Changes 1768
Editing Network Analysis Policies 1769
Preprocessor Configuration in a Network Analysis Policy 1770
Preprocessor Traffic Modification in Inline Deployments 1771
Preprocessor Configuration in a Network Analysis Policy Notes 1771
CHAPTER 90 Application Layer Preprocessors 1773

Introduction to Application Layer Preprocessors 1773
The DCE/RPC Preprocessor 1773
Connectionless and Connection-Oriented DCE/RPC Traffic 1774
DCE/RPC Target-Based Policies 1775
RPC over HTTP Transport 1776
DCE/RPC Global Options 1777
DCE/RPC Target-Based Policy Options 1778

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Traffic-Associated DCE/RPC Rules 1782

Configuring the DCE/RPC Preprocessor 1783
The DNS Preprocessor 1784
DNS Preprocessor Options 1786
Configuring the DNS Preprocessor 1787
The FTP/Telnet Decoder 1788
Global FTP and Telnet Options 1788
Telnet Options 1789
Server-Level FTP Options 1789
FTP Command Validation Statements 1792
Client-Level FTP Options 1793
Configuring the FTP/Telnet Decoder 1794
The HTTP Inspect Preprocessor 1795
Global HTTP Normalization Options 1796
Server-Level HTTP Normalization Options 1797
Server-Level HTTP Normalization Encoding Options 1805
Configuring The HTTP Inspect Preprocessor 1808
Additional HTTP Inspect Preprocessor Rules 1809
The Sun RPC Preprocessor 1810
Sun RPC Preprocessor Options 1810
Configuring the Sun RPC Preprocessor 1810
The SIP Preprocessor 1811
SIP Preprocessor Options 1812
Configuring the SIP Preprocessor 1814
Additional SIP Preprocessor Rules 1815
The GTP Preprocessor 1816
GTP Preprocessor Rules 1816
Configuring the GTP Preprocessor 1817
The IMAP Preprocessor 1818
IMAP Preprocessor Options 1818
Configuring the IMAP Preprocessor 1819
Additional IMAP Preprocessor Rules 1820
The POP Preprocessor 1820
POP Preprocessor Options 1821

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Configuring the POP Preprocessor 1822

Additional POP Preprocessor Rules 1823
The SMTP Preprocessor 1823
SMTP Preprocessor Options 1823
Configuring SMTP Decoding 1828
The SSH Preprocessor 1829
SSH Preprocessor Options 1829
Configuring the SSH Preprocessor 1832
The SSL Preprocessor 1833
How SSL Preprocessing Works 1833
SSL Preprocessor Options 1834
Configuring the SSL Preprocessor 1835
SSL Preprocessor Rules 1836
CHAPTER 91 SCADA Preprocessors 1837

Introduction to SCADA Preprocessors 1837
The Modbus Preprocessor 1837
Modbus Preprocessor Ports Option 1838
Configuring the Modbus Preprocessor 1838
Modbus Preprocessor Rules 1839
The DNP3 Preprocessor 1839
DNP3 Preprocessor Options 1840
Configuring the DNP3 Preprocessor 1840
DNP3 Preprocessor Rules 1841
CHAPTER 92 Transport & Network Layer Preprocessors 1843

Introduction to Transport and Network Layer Preprocessors 1843
Advanced Transport/Network Preprocessor Settings 1843
Ignored VLAN Headers 1843
Active Responses in Intrusion Drop Rules 1844
Advanced Transport/Network Preprocessor Options 1845
Configuring Advanced Transport/Network Preprocessor Settings 1846
Checksum Verification 1846
Checksum Verification Options 1846

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Verifying Checksums 1847

The Inline Normalization Preprocessor 1848
Inline Normalization Options 1848
Configuring Inline Normalization 1853
The IP Defragmentation Preprocessor 1854
IP Fragmentation Exploits 1855
Target-Based Defragmentation Policies 1855
IP Defragmentation Options 1855
Configuring IP Defragmentation 1858
The Packet Decoder 1859
Packet Decoder Options 1859
Configuring Packet Decoding 1863
TCP Stream Preprocessing 1864
State-Related TCP Exploits 1864
Target-Based TCP Policies 1864
TCP Stream Reassembly 1865
TCP Stream Preprocessing Options 1866
Configuring TCP Stream Preprocessing 1873
UDP Stream Preprocessing 1874
UDP Stream Preprocessing Options 1875
Configuring UDP Stream Preprocessing 1875
CHAPTER 93 Detecting Specific Threats 1877

Introduction to Specific Threat Detection 1877
Back Orifice Detection 1877
Back Orifice Detection Preprocessor 1877
Detecting Back Orifice 1878
Portscan Detection 1879
Portscan Types, Protocols, and Filtered Sensitivity Levels 1879
Portscan Event Generation 1881
Portscan Event Packet View 1883
Configuring Portscan Detection 1884
Rate-Based Attack Prevention 1886
Rate-Based Attack Prevention Examples 1887

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detection_filter Keyword Example 1887

Dynamic Rule State Thresholding or Suppression Example 1888
Policy-Wide Rate-Based Detection and Thresholding or Suppression Example 1889
Rate-Based Detection with Multiple Filtering Methods Example 1890
Rate-Based Attack Prevention Options and Configuration 1891
Rate-Based Attack Prevention, Detection Filtering, and Thresholding or Suppression 1893
Configuring Rate-Based Attack Prevention 1893
CHAPTER 94 Adaptive Profiles 1897

About Adaptive Profiles 1897
Adaptive Profile Updates 1897
Adaptive Profile Updates and Firepower Recommended Rules 1898
Adaptive Profile Options 1898
Configuring Adaptive Profiles 1899
PART XXI Discovery and Identity 1901
CHAPTER 95 Introduction to Network Discovery and Identity 1903

About Detection of Host, Application, and User Data 1903
Host and Application Detection Fundamentals 1904
Passive Detection of Operating System and Host Data 1904
Active Detection of Operating System and Host Data 1905
Current Identities for Applications and Operating Systems 1905
Current User Identities 1906
Application and Operating System Identity Conflicts 1907
Netflow Data in the Firepower System 1907
Requirements for Using NetFlow Data 1908
Differences between NetFlow and Managed Device Data 1908
About User Identity 1911
Identity Terminology 1911
About User Identity Sources 1912
Identity Deployments 1913
How to Set Up an Identity Policy 1914
The User Activity Database 1916

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The Users Database 1917

Firepower System Host and User Limits 1918
Firepower System Host Limit 1918
Firepower System User Limit 1919
CHAPTER 96 Host Identity Sources 1921

Overview: Host Data Collection 1921
Determining Which Host Operating Systems the System Can Detect 1922
Identifying Host Operating Systems 1922
Custom Fingerprinting 1922
Managing Fingerprints 1923
Activating and Deactivating Fingerprints 1924
Editing an Active Fingerprint 1925
Editing an Inactive Fingerprint 1925
Creating a Custom Fingerprint for Clients 1926
Creating a Custom Fingerprint for Servers 1928
Host Input Data 1931
Requirements for Using Third-Party Data 1931
Third-Party Product Mappings 1932
Mapping Third-Party Products 1932
Mapping Third-Party Product Fixes 1934
Mapping Third-Party Vulnerabilities 1935
Custom Product Mappings 1936
Creating Custom Product Mappings 1936
Editing Custom Product Mapping Lists 1937
Activating and Deactivating Custom Product Mappings 1938
eStreamer Server Streaming 1938
Choosing eStreamer Event Types 1939
Configuring eStreamer Client Communications 1940
Configuring the Host Input Client 1940
Nmap Scanning 1941
Nmap Remediation Options 1942
Nmap Scanning Guidelines 1949
Example: Using Nmap to Resolve Unknown Operating Systems 1950

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Example: Using Nmap to Respond to New Hosts 1952

Managing Nmap Scanning 1953
Adding an Nmap Scan Instance 1953
Editing an Nmap Scan Instance 1955
Adding an Nmap Scan Target 1955
Editing an Nmap Scan Target 1957
Creating an Nmap Remediation 1957
Editing an Nmap Remediation 1959
Running an On-Demand Nmap Scan 1960
Nmap Scan Results 1961
Viewing Nmap Scan Results 1961
Nmap Scan Results Fields 1962
Importing Nmap Scan Results 1963
CHAPTER 97 Application Detection 1965

Overview: Application Detection 1965
Application Detector Fundamentals 1966
Identification of Application Protocols in the Web Interface 1967
Implied Application Protocol Detection from Client Detection 1968
Host Limits and Discovery Event Logging 1969
Special Considerations for Application Detection 1969
Custom Application Detectors 1970
Custom Application Detector and User-Defined Application Fields 1970
Configuring Custom Application Detectors 1973
Creating a User-Defined Application 1974
Specifying Detection Patterns in Basic Detectors 1975
Specifying Detection Criteria in Advanced Detectors 1976
Testing a Custom Application Protocol Detector 1978
Viewing or Downloading Detector Details 1978
Sorting the Detector List 1979
Filtering the Detector List 1979
Filter Groups for the Detector List 1980
Navigating to Other Detector Pages 1981
Activating and Deactivating Detectors 1981

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Editing Custom Application Detectors 1982

Deleting Detectors 1983
CHAPTER 98 Create and Manage Realms 1985

About Realms 1985
Realms and Trusted Domains 1987
Supported Servers for Realms 1987
Supported Server Object Class and Attribute Names 1988
Create a Realm 1989
Realm Fields 1990
Configure a Realm Directory 1993
Download Users and Groups 1994
Manage a Realm 1996
Compare Realms 1996
Troubleshoot Realms and User Downloads 1997
CHAPTER 99 Control Users with ISE/ISE-PIC 2001

The ISE/ISE-PIC Identity Source 2001
ISE/ISE-PIC Guidelines and Limitations 2001
Configure ISE/ISE-PIC for User Control 2003
ISE/ISE-PIC Configuration Fields 2004
Troubleshoot the ISE/ISE-PIC Identity Source 2005
History for ISE/ISE-PIC 2007
CHAPTER 100 Control Users with Captive Portal 2009

The Captive Portal Identity Source 2009
Captive Portal Guidelines and Limitations 2009
How to Configure the Captive Portal for User Control 2011
Configure the Captive Portal Part 1: Create an Identity Policy 2013
Configure the Captive Portal Part 2: Create a TCP Port Access Control Rule 2014
Configure the Captive Portal Part 3: Create a User Access Control Rule 2015
Configure Captive Portal Part 4: Create an SSL Decrypt-Resign Policy 2016
Configure Captive Portal Part 5: Associate Identity and SSL Policies with the Access Control Policy
2017

lxxii
Contents
Captive Portal Fields 2018

Exclude Applications from Captive Portal 2019
Troubleshoot the Captive Portal Identity Source 2020
History for Captive Portal 2021
CHAPTER 101 Control Users with Remote Access VPN 2023

The Remote Access VPN Identity Source 2023
Configure RA VPN for User Control 2024
Troubleshoot the Remote Access VPN Identity Source 2024
History for RA VPN 2025
CHAPTER 102 Control Users with the TS Agent 2027

The Terminal Services (TS) Agent Identity Source 2027
TS Agent Guidelines 2027
Configure the TS Agent for User Control 2028
Troubleshoot the TS Agent Identity Source 2028
History for TS Agent 2029
CHAPTER 103 Control Users with the User Agent 2031

The User Agent Identity Source 2031
User Agent Guidelines 2031
Troubleshoot the User Agent Identity Source 2032
History for the User Agent 2033
CHAPTER 104 Create and Manage Identity Policies 2035

About Identity Policies 2035
Create an Identity Rule 2036
Identity Rule Fields 2037
Create an Identity Policy 2039
Manage an Identity Rule 2040
Manage an Identity Policy 2041
CHAPTER 105 Network Discovery Policies 2043

Overview: Network Discovery Policies 2043

lxxiii
Contents
Network Discovery Customization 2044

Configuring the Network Discovery Policy 2044
Network Discovery Rules 2045
Configuring Network Discovery Rules 2046
Actions and Discovered Assets 2046
Monitored Networks 2047
Port Exclusions 2050
Zones in Network Discovery Rules 2052
The Traffic-Based Detection Identity Source 2052
Configuring Advanced Network Discovery Options 2055
Network Discovery General Settings 2056
Configuring Network Discovery General Settings 2056
Network Discovery Identity Conflict Settings 2057
Configuring Network Discovery Identity Conflict Resolution 2058
Network Discovery Vulnerability Impact Assessment Options 2058
Enabling Network Discovery Vulnerability Impact Assessment 2059
Indications of Compromise 2059
Enabling Indications of Compromise Rules 2060
Adding NetFlow Exporters to a Network Discovery Policy 2061
Network Discovery Data Storage Settings 2061
Configuring Network Discovery Data Storage 2063
Configuring Network Discovery Event Logging 2063
Adding Network Discovery OS and Server Identity Sources 2064
Troubleshooting Your Network Discovery Strategy 2065
PART XXII Correlation and Compliance 2067
CHAPTER 106 Compliance White Lists 2069

Introduction to Compliance White Lists 2069
Compliance White List Target Networks 2070
Compliance White List Host Profiles 2071
Operating System-Specific Host Profiles 2072
Shared Host Profiles 2072

lxxiv
Contents
White List Violation Triggers 2073

Creating a Compliance White List 2074
Setting Target Networks for a Compliance White List 2075
Building White List Host Profiles 2076
White Listing an Application Protocol 2077
White Listing a Client 2078
White Listing a Web Application 2079
White Listing a Protocol 2079
Managing Compliance White Lists 2080
Editing a Compliance White List 2081
Managing Shared Host Profiles 2082
CHAPTER 107 Correlation Policies 2085

Introduction to Correlation Policies and Rules 2085
Configuring Correlation Policies 2086
Adding Responses to Rules and White Lists 2087
Managing Correlation Policies 2088
Configuring Correlation Rules 2089
Syntax for Intrusion Event Trigger Criteria 2090
Syntax for Malware Event Trigger Criteria 2093
Syntax for Discovery Event Trigger Criteria 2094
Syntax for User Activity Event Trigger Criteria 2097
Syntax for Host Input Event Trigger Criteria 2098
Syntax for Connection Event Trigger Criteria 2099
Syntax for Traffic Profile Changes 2102
Syntax for Correlation Host Profile Qualifications 2104
Syntax for User Qualifications 2107
Connection Trackers 2108
Adding a Connection Tracker 2109
Syntax for Connection Trackers 2109
Syntax for Connection Tracker Events 2112
Sample Configuration for Excessive Connections From External Hosts 2112
Sample Configuration for Excessive BitTorrent Data Transfers 2114
Snooze and Inactive Periods 2116

lxxv
Contents
Correlation Rule Building Mechanics 2116

Adding and Linking Conditions in Correlation Rules 2118
Using Multiple Values in Correlation Rule Conditions 2119
Managing Correlation Rules 2119
Configuring Correlation Response Groups 2120
Managing Correlation Response Groups 2121
CHAPTER 108 Traffic Profiling 2123

Introduction to Traffic Profiles 2123
Traffic Profile Conditions 2125
Managing Traffic Profiles 2127
Configuring Traffic Profiles 2128
Adding Traffic Profile Conditions 2129
Adding Host Profile Qualifications to a Traffic Profile 2129
Syntax for Traffic Profile Conditions 2130
Syntax for Host Profile Qualifications in a Traffic Profile 2131
Using Multiple Values in a Traffic Profile Condition 2134
CHAPTER 109 Remediations 2135

Introduction to Remediations 2135
Cisco ISE EPS Remediations 2136
Configuring ISE EPS Remediations 2136
Cisco IOS Null Route Remediations 2138
Configuring Remediations for Cisco IOS Routers 2139
Nmap Scan Remediations 2144
Set Attribute Value Remediations 2144
Configuring Set Attribute Remediations 2144
Managing Remediation Modules 2146
Managing Remediation Instances 2147
Managing Instances for a Single Remediation Module 2147
PART XXIII Reporting and Alerting 2149
CHAPTER 110 Working with Reports 2151

lxxvi
Contents
Introduction to Reports 2151

Risk Reports 2151
Generating, Viewing, and Printing Risk Reports 2151
Standard Reports 2152
About Designing Reports 2153
Report Templates 2153
Report Template Fields 2153
Report Template Creation 2155
Report Template Configuration 2159
Managing Report Templates 2171
About Generating Reports 2173
Generating Reports 2173
Report Generation Options 2175
Distributing Reports by Email at Generation Time 2175
Schedule Future Reports 2176
About Working with Generated Reports 2176
Viewing Reports 2176
Downloading Reports 2177
Storing Reports Remotely 2177
Moving Reports to Remote Storage 2178
Deleting Reports 2179
CHAPTER 111 External Alerting with Alert Responses 2181

Firepower Management Center Alert Responses 2181
Configurations Supporting Alert Responses 2182
Creating an SNMP Alert Response 2182
Creating a Syslog Alert Response 2183
Syslog Alert Facilities 2184
Syslog Severity Levels 2185
Creating an Email Alert Response 2186
Configuring Impact Flag Alerting 2187
Configuring Discovery Event Alerting 2187
Configuring AMP for Networks Alerting 2188

lxxvii
Contents
CHAPTER 112 External Alerting for Intrusion Events 2189

About External Alerting for Intrusion Events 2189
Configuring SNMP Alerting for Intrusion Events 2190
Intrusion SNMP Alert Options 2190
Configuring Syslog Alerting for Intrusion Events 2191
Facilities and Priorities for Intrusion Syslog Alerts 2192
Configuring Email Alerting for Intrusion Events 2193
Intrusion Email Alert Options 2194
PART XXIV Event and Asset Analysis Tools 2197
CHAPTER 113 Using the Context Explorer 2199

About the Context Explorer 2199
Differences Between the Dashboard and the Context Explorer 2200
The Traffic and Intrusion Event Counts Time Graph 2200
The Indications of Compromise Section 2201
The Hosts by Indication Graph 2201
The Indications by Host Graph 2201
The Network Information Section 2201
The Operating Systems Graph 2201
The Traffic by Source IP Graph 2202
The Traffic by Source User Graph 2202
The Connections by Access Control Action Graph 2202
The Traffic by Destination IP Graph 2203
The Traffic by Ingress/Egress Security Zone Graph 2203
The Application Information Section 2203
Focusing the Application Information Section 2204
The Traffic by Risk/Business Relevance and Application Graph 2204
The Intrusion Events by Risk/Business Relevance and Application Graph 2204
The Hosts by Risk/Business Relevance and Application Graph 2205
The Application Details List 2205
The Security Intelligence Section 2205
The Security Intelligence Traffic by Category Graph 2206

lxxviii
Contents
The Security Intelligence Traffic by Source IP Graph 2206

The Security Intelligence Traffic by Destination IP Graph 2206
The Intrusion Information Section 2207
The Intrusion Events by Impact Graph 2207
The Top Attackers Graph 2207
The Top Users Graph 2207
The Intrusion Events by Priority Graph 2207
The Top Targets Graph 2207
The Top Ingress/Egress Security Zones Graph 2208
The Intrusion Event Details List 2208
The Files Information Section 2208
The Top File Types Graph 2208
The Top File Names Graph 2209
The Files by Disposition Graph 2209
The Top Hosts Sending Files Graph 2209
The Top Hosts Receiving Files Graph 2209
The Top Malware Detections Graph 2210
The Geolocation Information Section 2210
The Connections by Initiator/Responder Country Graph 2210
The Intrusion Events by Source/Destination Country Graph 2210
The File Events by Sending/Receiving Country Graph 2211
The URL Information Section 2211
The Traffic by URL Graph 2211
The Traffic by URL Category Graph 2212
The Traffic by URL Reputation Graph 2212
Refreshing the Context Explorer 2212
Setting the Context Explorer Time Range 2213
Minimizing and Maximizing Context Explorer Sections 2213
Drilling Down on Context Explorer Data 2214
Filters in the Context Explorer 2215
Data Type Field Options 2216
Creating a Filter from the Add Filter Window 2218
Creating a Quick Filter from the Context Menu 2219
Saving Filtered Context Explorer Views 2219

lxxix
Contents
Viewing Filter Data 2220

Deleting a Filter 2220
CHAPTER 114 Using the Network Map 2221

The Network Map 2221
The Hosts Network Map 2222
The Network Devices Network Map 2222
The Mobile Devices Network Map 2223
The Indications of Compromise Network Map 2224
The Application Protocols Network Map 2224
The Vulnerabilities Network Map 2225
The Host Attributes Network Map 2226
Viewing Network Maps 2226
Custom Network Topologies 2227
Creating Custom Topologies 2227
Importing Networks from the Network Discovery Policy 2228
Manually Adding Networks to Your Custom Topology 2229
Activating and Deactivating Custom Topologies 2229
Editing Custom Topologies 2230
CHAPTER 115 Incidents 2231

About Incident Handling 2231
Definition of an Incident 2231
Common Incident Handling Processes 2232
Incident Types in the Firepower System 2234
Creating Custom Incident Types 2234
Creating an Incident 2235
Editing an Incident 2236
Generating Incident Reports 2236
CHAPTER 116 Using Lookups 2239

Introduction to Lookups 2239
Performing Whois Lookups 2239
Finding URL Category and Reputation 2240

lxxx
Contents
Finding Geolocation Information for an IP Address 2241
PART XXV Workflows 2243
CHAPTER 117 Workflows 2245

Overview: Workflows 2245
Predefined Workflows 2245
Predefined Intrusion Event Workflows 2246
Predefined Malware Workflows 2247
Predefined File Workflows 2248
Predefined Captured File Workflows 2248
Predefined Connection Data Workflows 2248
Predefined Security Intelligence Workflows 2250
Predefined Host Workflows 2250
Predefined Indications of Compromise Workflows 2251
Predefined Applications Workflows 2251
Predefined Application Details Workflows 2252
Predefined Servers Workflows 2252
Predefined Host Attributes Workflows 2253
The Predefined Discovery Events Workflow 2253
Predefined User Workflows 2253
Predefined Vulnerabilities Workflows 2254
Predefined Third-Party Vulnerabilities Workflows 2254
Predefined Correlation and White List Workflows 2254
Predefined System Workflows 2255
Custom Table Workflows 2255
Using Workflows 2256
Workflow Access by User Role 2258
Workflow Selection 2258
Workflow Pages 2259
Workflow Page Navigation Tools 2261
Workflow Page Traversal Tools 2261
File Trajectory Icons 2261
Host Profile Icons 2262

lxxxi
Contents
Threat Score Icons 2262

User Icons 2262
The Workflow Toolbar 2263
Using Drill-Down Pages 2264
Using Table View Pages 2264
Geolocation 2265
Geolocation Detail Information 2265
Connection Event Graphs 2267
Using Connection Event Graphs 2267
Event Time Constraints 2273
Per-Session Time Window Customization for Events 2274
The Default Time Window for Events 2277
Event View Constraints 2280
Constraining Events 2281
Compound Event View Constraints 2281
Using Compound Event View Constraints 2282
Inter-Workflow Navigation 2282
Bookmarks 2283
Creating Bookmarks 2284
Viewing Bookmarks 2284
CHAPTER 118 Searching for Events 2287

Event Searches 2287
Search Constraints 2287
General Search Constraints 2288
Wildcards and Symbols in Searches 2288
Objects and Application Filters in Searches 2289
Time Constraints in Searches 2289
IP Addresses in Searches 2290
Managed Devices in Searches 2290
Ports in Searches 2291
Event Fields in Searches 2291
Performing a Search 2292
Saving a Search 2293

lxxxii
Contents
Loading a Saved Search 2293

Query Overrides Via the Shell 2294
Shell-Based Query Management Syntax 2294
Stopping Long-Running Queries 2295
CHAPTER 119 Custom Workflows 2297

Introduction to Custom Workflows 2297
Saved Custom Workflows 2297
Custom Workflow Creation 2298
Creating Custom Workflows Based on Non-Connection Data 2300
Creating Custom Connection Data Workflows 2300
Custom Workflow Use and Management 2302
Viewing Custom Workflows Based on Predefined Tables 2302
Viewing Custom Workflows Based on Custom Tables 2302
Editing Custom Workflows 2303
CHAPTER 120 Custom Tables 2305

Introduction to Custom Tables 2305
Predefined Custom Tables 2305
Possible Table Combinations 2306
User-Defined Custom Tables 2310
Creating a Custom Table 2310
Modifying a Custom Table 2311
Deleting a Custom Table 2312
Viewing a Workflow Based on a Custom Table 2312
Searching Custom Tables 2313
PART XXVI Events and Assets 2315
CHAPTER 121 Connection Logging 2317

About Connection Logging 2317
Connections That Are Always Logged 2318
Other Connections You Can Log 2318
How Rules and Policy Actions Affect Logging 2319

lxxxiii
Contents
Logging for Fastpathed Connections 2320
Logging for Monitored Connections 2320

Logging for Trusted Connections 2320
Logging for Blocked Connections 2321
Logging for Allowed Connections 2322
Beginning vs End-of-Connection Logging 2323
Firepower Management Center vs External Logging 2324
Limitations of Connection Logging 2325
When Events Appear in the Event Viewer 2325
Best Practices for Connection Logging 2325
Configure Connection Logging 2328
Logging Connections with Tunnel and Prefilter Rules 2328
Logging Decryptable Connections with SSL Rules 2329
Logging Connections with Security Intelligence 2329
Logging Connections with Access Control Rules 2330
Logging Connections with a Policy Default Action 2331
Limiting Logging of Long URLs 2332
CHAPTER 122 Connection and Security Intelligence Events 2333

About Connection Events 2333
Connection vs. Security Intelligence Events 2333
NetFlow Connections 2334
Connection Summaries (Aggregated Data for Graphs) 2334
Long-Running Connections 2335
Combined Connection Summaries from External Responders 2335
Connection and Security Intelligence Event Fields 2335
About Connection and Security Intelligence Event Fields 2347
Connection Event Reasons 2348
Requirements for Populating Connection Event Fields 2349
Information Available in Connection Event Fields 2351
Using Connection and Security Intelligence Event Tables 2355
Viewing Files and Malware Detected in a Connection 2357
Viewing Intrusion Events Associated with a Connection 2358
Encrypted Connection Certificate Details 2358

lxxxiv
Contents
Viewing the Connection Summary Page 2359
CHAPTER 123 Working with Intrusion Events 2361

About Intrusion Events 2361
Viewing Intrusion Events 2361
About Intrusion Event Fields 2362
Intrusion Event Fields 2363
Intrusion Event Impact Levels 2372
Viewing Connection Data Associated with Intrusion Events 2374
Marking Intrusion Events Reviewed 2375
Viewing Previously Reviewed Intrusion Events 2375
Marking Reviewed Intrusion Events Unreviewed 2376
Preprocessor Events 2376
Preprocessor Generator IDs 2377
Intrusion Event Workflow Pages 2379
Using Intrusion Event Workflows 2380
Intrusion Event Drill-Down Page Constraints 2382
Intrusion Event Table View Constraints 2382
Using the Intrusion Event Packet View 2383
Event Information Fields 2385
Frame Information Fields 2391
Data Link Layer Information Fields 2392
Viewing Network Layer Information 2392
Viewing Transport Layer Information 2395
Viewing Packet Byte Information 2397
The Intrusion Events Clipboard 2398
Generating Clipboard Reports 2398
Deleting Events from the Clipboard 2399
Viewing Intrusion Event Statistics 2399
Host Statistics 2400
Event Overview 2400
Event Statistics 2401
Viewing Intrusion Event Performance Graphs 2401
Intrusion Event Performance Statistics Graph Types 2402

lxxxv
Contents
Viewing Intrusion Event Graphs 2406
CHAPTER 124 File/Malware Events and Network File Trajectory 2409

About File/Malware Events and Network File Trajectory 2409
File and Malware Events 2410
File and Malware Event Types 2410
File Events 2410
Malware Events 2410
Retrospective Malware Events 2411
Malware Events Generated by AMP for Endpoints 2411

Using File and Malware Event Workflows 2413
File and Malware Event Fields 2414
Malware Event Sub-Types 2422
Information Available in File and Malware Event Fields 2423
View Details About Analyzed Files 2425
File Composition Report 2425
View File Details in AMP Private Cloud 2426
Threat Scores and Dynamic Analysis Summary Reports 2426
Viewing Dynamic Analysis Results in the Cisco Threat Grid Public Cloud 2427
Using Captured File Workflows 2427
Captured File Fields 2428
Stored Files Download 2432
Manually Submit Files for Analysis 2433
Network File Trajectory 2434
Recently Detected Malware and Analyzed Trajectories 2434
Network File Trajectory Detailed View 2434
Network File Trajectory Summary Information 2435
Network File Trajectory Map and Related Events List 2436
Using a Network File Trajectory 2437
Work with Event Data in the AMP for Endpoints Console 2439
CHAPTER 125 Using Host Profiles 2441

Host Profiles 2441
Viewing Host Profiles 2443

lxxxvi
Contents
Basic Host Information in the Host Profile 2443

Operating Systems in the Host Profile 2445
Viewing Operating System Identities 2447
Setting the Current Operating System Identity 2447
Operating System Identity Conflicts 2448
Making a Conflicting Operating System Identity Current 2448
Resolving an Operating System Identity Conflict 2449
Servers in the Host Profile 2450
Server Details in the Host Profile 2451
Viewing Server Details 2452
Editing Server Identities 2453
Resolving Server Identity Conflicts 2454
Web Applications in the Host Profile 2454
Deleting Web Applications from the Host Profile 2455
Host Protocols in the Host Profile 2456
Deleting a Protocol From the Host Profile 2456
Indications of Compromise in the Host Profile 2457
VLAN Tags in the Host Profile 2457
User History in the Host Profile 2457
Host Attributes in the Host Profile 2458
Predefined Host Attributes 2458
White List Host Attributes 2458
User-Defined Host Attributes 2459
Creating Text- or URL-Based Host Attributes 2460
Creating Integer-Based Host Attributes 2460
Creating List-Based Host Attributes 2461
Setting Host Attribute Values 2461
White List Violations in the Host Profile 2462
Creating Shared White List Host Profiles 2462
Malware Detections in the Host Profile 2463
Vulnerabilities in the Host Profile 2464
Downloading Patches for Vulnerabilities 2465
Deactivating Vulnerabilities for Individual Hosts 2465
Deactivating Individual Vulnerabilities 2466

lxxxvii
Contents
Scan Results in the Host Profile 2467

Scanning a Host from the Host Profile 2467
CHAPTER 126 Working with Discovery Events 2469

Discovery and Identity Data in Discovery Events 2469
Viewing Discovery Event Statistics 2470
The Statistics Summary Section 2471
The Event Breakdown Section 2472
The Protocol Breakdown Section 2472
The Application Protocol Breakdown Section 2472
The OS Breakdown Section 2472
Viewing Discovery Performance Graphs 2473
Discovery Performance Graph Types 2473
Using Discovery and Identity Workflows 2474
Discovery and Host Input Events 2476
Discovery Event Types 2476
Host Input Event Types 2480
Viewing Discovery and Host Input Events 2482
Discovery Event Fields 2483
Host Data 2484
Viewing Host Data 2484
Host Data Fields 2485
Creating a Traffic Profile for Selected Hosts 2489
Creating a Compliance White List Based on Selected Hosts 2489
Host Attribute Data 2490
Viewing Host Attributes 2490
Host Attribute Data Fields 2491
Setting Host Attributes for Selected Hosts 2491
Indications of Compromise Data 2492
View and Work with Indications of Compromise Data 2492
Indications of Compromise Data Fields 2494
Editing Indication of Compromise Rule States for a Single Host or User 2495
Viewing Source Events for Indication of Compromise Tags 2496
Resolving Indication of Compromise Tags 2496

lxxxviii
Contents
Server Data 2497

Viewing Server Data 2497
Server Data Fields 2498
Application and Application Details Data 2500
Viewing Application Data 2501
Application Data Fields 2501
Viewing Application Detail Data 2503
Application Detail Data Fields 2503
Vulnerability Data 2505
Vulnerability Data Fields 2505
Vulnerability Deactivation 2507
Viewing Vulnerability Data 2508
Viewing Vulnerability Details 2509
Deactivating Multiple Vulnerabilities 2509
Third-Party Vulnerability Data 2510
Viewing Third-Party Vulnerability Data 2510
Third-Party Vulnerability Data Fields 2511
Active Sessions, Users, and User Activity Data 2512
User-Related Fields 2513
Active Sessions Data 2519
User Data 2520
User Activity Data 2523
User Profile and Host History 2525
CHAPTER 127 Correlation and Compliance Events 2529

Viewing Correlation Events 2529
Correlation Event Fields 2530
Using Compliance White List Workflows 2533
Viewing White List Events 2534
White List Event Fields 2534
Viewing White List Violations 2536
White List Violation Fields 2536
Remediation Status Events 2538
Viewing Remediation Status Events 2538

lxxxix
Contents
Remediation Status Table Fields 2539

Using the Remediation Status Events Table 2540
CHAPTER 128 Auditing the System 2541

About System Auditing 2541
About Sending Audit Logs to an External Location 2541
Audit Records 2542
Viewing Audit Records 2542
Audit Log Workflow Fields 2543
The Audit Events Table View 2544
Using the Audit Log to Examine Changes 2544
Suppressing Audit Records 2545
Audit Block Types 2546
Audited Subsystems 2547
The System Log 2549
Viewing the System Log 2549
Syntax for System Log Filters 2549
APPENDIX A Security, Internet Access, and Communication Ports 2551

Security Requirements 2551
Internet Access Requirements 2551
Communication Port Requirements 2553
APPENDIX B Classic Device Command Line Reference 2557

About the Classic Device CLI 2557
Classic Device CLI Modes 2558
Classic Device CLI Access Levels 2558
Classic Device CLI Management Commands 2558
configure password 2558
exit 2559
expert 2559
history 2559
logout 2560
? (question mark) 2560

xc
Contents
Classic Device CLI Show Commands 2561

access-control-config 2561
alarms 2562
arp-tables 2562
audit-log 2562
audit_cert 2563
bypass 2563
high-availability Commands 2564
config 2564
high-availability ha-statistics 2564
cpu 2564
database Commands 2565
processes 2565
slow-query-log 2566
device-settings 2566
disk 2566
disk-manager 2567
dns 2567
fan-status 2568
fastpath-rules 2568
gui 2568
hostname 2569
hosts 2569
hyperthreading 2569
inline-sets 2570
interfaces 2570
ifconfig 2571
lcd 2571
link-aggregation Commands 2571
configuration 2571
statistics 2572
link-state 2572
log-ips-connection 2573
managers 2573

xci
Contents
memory 2573
model 2574
mpls-depth 2574
NAT Commands 2574
active-dynamic 2575
active-static 2575
allocators 2575
config 2575
dynamic-rules 2576
flows 2576
static-rules 2576
netstat 2577
network 2577
network-modules 2577
network-static-routes 2578
ntp 2578
perfstats 2578
portstats 2579
power-supply-status 2579
process-tree 2580
processes 2580
route 2581
routing-table 2581
serial-number 2581
ssl-policy-config 2582
stacking 2582
summary 2583
syslog 2583
time 2583
traffic-statistics 2584
user 2584
users 2585
version 2586
virtual-routers 2586

xcii
Contents
virtual-switches 2587
vmware-tools 2587
VPN Commands 2588
config 2588
config by virtual router 2588
status 2589
status by virtual router 2589
counters 2589
counters by virtual router 2589
Classic Device CLI Configuration Commands 2590
audit_cert Commands 2590
delete 2590
import 2590
bypass 2591
high-availability 2591
gui 2592
lcd 2592
log-ips-connections 2592
manager Commands 2593
add 2593
delete 2594
mpls-depth 2594
network Commands 2594
dns searchdomains 2594
dns servers 2595
hostname 2595
http-proxy 2595
http-proxy-disable 2596
ipv4 delete 2596
ipv4 dhcp 2597
ipv4 manual 2597
ipv6 delete 2597
ipv6 dhcp 2598
ipv6 manual 2598

xciii
Contents
ipv6 router 2598

management-interface disable 2599
management-interface disable-event-channel 2599
management-interface disable-management-channel 2600
management-interface enable 2600
management-interface enable-event-channel 2601
management-interface enable-management-channel 2601
management-interface tcpport 2602
management-port 2602
static-routes ipv4 add 2602
static-routes ipv4 delete 2603
static-routes ipv6 add 2603
static-routes ipv6 delete 2603
password 2604
stacking disable 2604
user Commands 2605
access 2605
add 2605
aging 2606
delete 2606
disable 2606
enable 2606
forcereset 2607
maxfailedlogins 2607
minpasswdlen 2607
password 2608
strengthcheck 2608
unlock 2608
vmware-tools 2609
Classic Device CLI System Commands 2609
access-control Commands 2609
archive 2610
clear-rule-counts 2610
rollback 2610

xciv
Contents
compliance Commands 2610

enable cc 2611
enable ucapl 2611
show 2611
disable-http-user-cert 2612
file Commands 2612
copy 2612
delete 2613
list 2613
secure-copy 2613
generate-troubleshoot 2614
ldapsearch 2615
lockdown-sensor 2615
nat rollback 2616
reboot 2616
restart 2616
support Commands 2617
ssl-client-hello-display 2617
ssl-client-hello-enabled 2617
ssl-client-hello-force-reset 2619
ssl-client-hello-reset 2619
ssl-client-hello-tuning 2620
shutdown 2621

xcv
Contents

xcvi
CHAPTER 1
Getting Started With Firepower
Cisco Firepower is an integrated suite of network security and traffic management products, deployed either
on purpose-built platforms or as a software solution. The system is designed to help you handle network traffic
in a way that complies with your organization’s security policy—your guidelines for protecting your network.
In a typical deployment, multiple traffic-sensing managed devices installed on network segments monitor
traffic for analysis and report to a manager:
• Firepower Management Center
• Firepower Device Manager
• Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM)
Managers provide a centralized management console with graphical user interface that you can use to perform
administrative, management, analysis, and reporting tasks.
This guide focuses on the Firepower Management Center managing appliance. For information about the
Firepower Device Manager or ASA with FirePOWER Services managed via ASDM, see the guides for those
management methods.
• Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Configuration Guide for Firepower Device Manager
• ASA with FirePOWER Services Local Management Configuration Guide
• Quick Start: Basic Setup, on page 1

• Firepower Devices, on page 6
• Firepower Features, on page 7
• Firepower Online Help, How To, and Documentation, on page 11
• Firepower System IP Address Conventions, on page 14
• Additional Resources, on page 14
Quick Start: Basic Setup

The Firepower feature set is powerful and flexible enough to support basic and advanced configurations. Use
the following sections to quickly set up a Firepower Management Center and its managed devices to begin
controlling and analyzing traffic.

1
Installing and Performing Initial Setup on Physical Appliances
Installing and Performing Initial Setup on Physical Appliances

Procedure
Install and perform initial setup on all physical appliances using the documentation for your appliance:
• Cisco Firepower Management Center Getting Started Guide for your hardware model, available
from
http://www.cisco.com/go/firepower-mc-install
• Firepower Threat Defense managed devices

Important Ignore Firepower Device Manager documents on these pages.
• Firepower Threat Defense for the 2100: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for the Firepower 2100
Series Using Firepower Management Center Quick Start Guide
http://www.cisco.com/go/ftd-quick
• Firepower Threat Defense for the 4100: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for Firepower 4100 Quick
Start Guide
• Firepower Threat Defense for the 9300: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for Firepower 9300 Quick
Start Guide
• Firepower Threat Defense for the ASA 5508-X/5516-X: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for the
ASA 5508-X and ASA 5516-X Using Firepower Management Center Quick Start Guide
• Firepower Threat Defense for the ASA 5506-X: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for the ASA 5506-X
Series Using Firepower Management Center Quick Start Guide
• Firepower Threat Defense for the ASA 5500-X: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for the ASA
5512-X, ASA 5515-X, ASA 5525-X, ASA 5545-X, and ASA 5555-X Using Firepower Management
Center Quick Start Guide
• Firepower Threat Defense for the ISA 3000: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for the ISA 3000
Using Firepower Management Center Quick Start Guide
• Classic managed devices

• ASA FirePOWER Services managed device: Cisco ASA FirePOWER Module Quick Start Guide
http://www.cisco.com/go/asafp-quick

2
Deploying Virtual Appliances
• 8000 Series managed device: Cisco Firepower 8000 Series Getting Started Guide
http://www.cisco.com/go/8000series-install
• 7000 Series managed device: Cisco Firepower 7000 Series Getting Started Guide
http://www.cisco.com/go/7000series-install
Deploying Virtual Appliances

Follow these steps if your deployment includes virtual appliances. Use the documentation roadmap to locate
the documents listed below: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/roadmap/
firepower-roadmap.html.
Procedure
Step 1 Determine the supported virtual platforms you will use for the Management Center and devices (these may
not be the same). See the Cisco Firepower Compatibility Guide.
Step 2 Deploy virtual Firepower Management Centers using the documentation for your environment:
• Firepower Management Center Virtual running on VMware: Cisco Firepower Management Center
Virtual for VMware Deployment Quick Start Guide
• Firepower Management Center Virtual running on AWS: Cisco Firepower Management Center Virtual
for AWS Deployment Quick Start Guide
• Firepower Management Center Virtual running on KVM: Cisco Firepower Management Center Virtual
for KVM Deployment Quick Start Guide
Step 3 Deploy virtual devices using the documentation for your appliance:
• NGIPSv running on VMware: Cisco Firepower NGIPSv Quick Start Guide for VMware
• Firepower Threat Defense Virtual running on VMware: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for the ASA
5508-X and ASA 5516-X Using Firepower Management Center Quick Start Guide
• Firepower Threat Defense Virtual running on AWS: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Virtual for AWS
Deployment Quick Start Guide
• Firepower Threat Defense Virtual running on KVM: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Virtual for KVM
• Firepower Threat Defense Virtual running on Azure: Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Virtual for Azure

3
Logging In for the First Time
Logging In for the First Time

Before you begin
• Prepare your appliances as described in Installing and Performing Initial Setup on Physical Appliances,
on page 2 or Deploying Virtual Appliances, on page 3.
Procedure
Step 1 Log in to the Firepower Management Center web interface with admin as the username and Admin123 as
the password. Change the password for this account as described in the Quick Start Guide for your appliance.
Step 2 Set a time zone for this account as described in Setting Your Default Time Zone, on page 37.
Step 3 Add licenses as described in Licensing the Firepower System, on page 73.
Step 4 Register managed devices as described in Add Devices to the Firepower Management Center, on page 197.
Step 5 Configure your managed devices as described in:
• Introduction to IPS Device Deployment and Configuration, on page 487, to configure passive or inline
interfaces on 7000 Series or 8000 Series devices
• Interface Overview for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 595, to configure transparent or routed mode
on Firepower Threat Defense devices
• Interface Overview for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 595, to configure interfaces on Firepower
Threat Defense devices
What to do next
• Begin controlling and analyzing traffic by configuring basic policies as described in Setting Up Basic
Policies and Configurations, on page 4.
Setting Up Basic Policies and Configurations

You must configure and deploy basic policies in order to see data in the dashboard, Context Explorer, and
event tables.
Note This is not a full discussion of policy or feature capabilities. For guidance on other features and more advanced
configurations, see the rest of this guide.
Before you begin

• Log into the web interface, set your time zone, add licenses, register devices, and configure devices as
described in Logging In for the First Time, on page 4.

4
Setting Up Basic Policies and Configurations
Procedure
Step 1 Configure an access control policy as described in Creating a Basic Access Control Policy, on page 1245.
• In most cases, Cisco suggests setting the Balanced Security and Connectivity intrusion policy as your
default action. For more information, see Access Control Policy Default Action, on page 1241 and
System-Provided Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies, on page 1545.
• In most cases, Cisco suggests enabling connection logging to meet the security and compliance needs
of your organization. Consider the traffic on your network when deciding which connections to log so
that you do not clutter your displays or overwhelm your system. For more information, see About
Connection Logging, on page 2317.
Step 2 Apply the system-provided default health policy as described in Applying Health Policies, on page 250.
Step 3 Customize a few of your system configuration settings:
• If you want to allow inbound connections for a service (for example, SNMP or the syslog), modify the
ports in the access list as described in Configuring the Access List for Your System, on page 928.
• Understand and consider editing your database event limits as described in Configuring Database Event
Limits, on page 902.
• If you want to change the display language, edit the language setting as described in Specifying a Different
Language, on page 940.
• If your organization restricts network access using a proxy server and you did not configure proxy settings
during initial configuration, edit your proxy settings as described in Configure Firepower Management
Center Management Interfaces, on page 910.
Step 4 Customize your network discovery policy as described in Configuring the Network Discovery Policy, on page
2044. By default, the network discovery policy analyzes all traffic on your network. In most cases, Cisco suggests
restricting discovery to the addresses in RFC 1918.
Step 5 Consider customizing these other common settings:
• If you do not want to display message center pop-ups, disable notifications as described in Configuring
Notification Behavior, on page 288.
• If you want to customize the default values for system variables, understand their use as described in
Variable Sets, on page 385.
• If you want to update the Geolocation Database, update manually or on a scheduled basis as described
in Update the Geolocation Database (GeoDB), on page 120.
• If you want to create additional locally authenticated user accounts to access the appliance, see Add an
Internal User Account, on page 43.
• If you want to use LDAP or RADIUS external authentication to allow access to the appliance, see
Configure External Authentication, on page 47.
Step 6 Deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.

5
Firepower Devices
What to do next
• Review and consider configuring other features described in Firepower Features, on page 7 and the
rest of this guide.
Firepower Devices
In a typical deployment, multiple traffic-handling devices installed on network segments monitor traffic for
analysis and report to either a physical or virtual Firepower Management Center. The Firepower Management
Center provides a centralized management console with graphical user interface that you can use to perform
administrative, management, analysis, and reporting tasks.
This section describes the Firepower implementations you can install on traffic-handling devices and manage
with the Firepower Management Center.
For details on manager-device compatibility, including the software compatible with specific device models,
virtual hosting environments, operating systems, and so on, see the Cisco Firepower Compatibility Guide,
available on the documentation roadmap: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/roadmap/
Firepower Threat Defense (NGFW)

Lightweight software that provides a unified next-generation firewall (NGFW) and next-generation IPS
(NGIPS) device, on either a physical or virtual platform. In addition to the NGIPS features available on
Firepower software models, NGFW and platform features include Site-to-Site and remote access VPN, robust
routing, NAT, clustering, and other optimizations in application inspection and access control.
Firepower Software (NGIPS)

NGIPS software running on 7000 and 8000 Series Firepower devices, or hosted on VMware.
ASA with FirePOWER Services (NGIPS)

NGIPS software running on an ASA device. The ASA device provides the first-line system policy, then passes
traffic to an ASA FirePOWER module for discovery and access control.
ASA FirePOWER has a software and a command line interface (CLI) unique to the ASA platform. You use
these ASA-specific tools to install the system and to perform other platform-specific administrative tasks.
ASA FirePOWER does not support the following Firepower features:
• Features for Firepower hardware—Use the ASA CLI and ASDM to configure device high availability,
stacking, switching, routing, VPN, NAT, and so on. See the ASA documentation for more information.
• Interface configuration—You cannot use the Firepower Management Center web interface to configure
ASA FirePOWER interfaces. The Firepower Management Center does not display ASA interfaces when
the ASA FirePOWER is deployed in SPAN port mode.
• Process management—You cannot use the Firepower Management Center to shut down, restart, or
otherwise manage ASA FirePOWER processes.

6
Firepower Features
Firepower Features
These tables list some commonly used Firepower features.
Appliance and System Management Features

To locate unfamiliar documents, see: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/roadmap/
If you want to... Configure... As described in...

Manage user accounts for logging in to Firepower authentication About User Accounts, on page
your Firepower appliances 39
Monitor the health of system hardware Health monitoring policy About Health Monitoring, on
and software page 241
Back up data on your appliance Backup and restore Requirements for Backup and
Restore
Upgrade to a new Firepower version System updates Cisco Firepower Management

Center Upgrade Guide
Firepower Release Notes
Baseline your physical appliance Restore to factory defaults The Cisco Firepower
(reimage) Management Center Upgrade
Guide, for a list of links to
instructions on performing fresh
installations.
Update the VDB, intrusion rule updates, Vulnerability Database (VDB) System Software Updates, on
or GeoDB on your appliance updates, intrusion rule updates, page 117
or Geolocation Database
(GeoDB) updates
Apply licenses in order to take advantage Classic licensing or Smart About Firepower Licenses, on
of license-controlled functionality licensing page 73
Ensure continuity of appliance operations Managed device high About 7000 and 8000 Series
availability and/or Firepower Device High Availability, on
Management Center high page 501
availability
About Firepower Threat Defense
High Availability, on page 667
About Firepower Management
Center High Availability, on
page 171
Combine processing resources of Device stacking About Device Stacks, on page

multiple 8000 Series devices 517

7
High Availability, Clustering, and Stacking Features by Appliance

Configure a device to route traffic Routing Virtual Routers, on page 1169
between two or more interfaces
Routing Overview for Firepower
Threat Defense, on page 731
Configure packet switching between two Device switching Virtual Switches, on page 1159
or more networks
Configure Bridge Group
Interfaces, on page 617
Translate private addresses into public Network Address Translation NAT Policy Configuration, on
addresses for internet connections (NAT) page 1041
Network Address Translation
(NAT) for Firepower Threat
Defense, on page 1059
Establish a secure tunnel between Site-to-Site virtual private VPN Overview for Firepower
managed Firepower Threat Defense or network (VPN) Threat Defense, on page 813
7000/8000 Series devices
Establish secure tunnels between remote Remote Access VPN VPN Overview for Firepower
users and managed Firepower Threat Threat Defense, on page 813
Defense devices
Segment user access to managed devices, Multitenancy using domains Introduction to Multitenancy
configurations, and events Using Domains, on page 299
View and manage appliance REST API and REST API REST API Preferences, on page
configuration using a REST API client Explorer 956
Firepower REST API Quick
Start Guide
Troubleshoot issues N/A Troubleshooting the System, on

page 281
High Availability, Clustering, and Stacking Features by Appliance

You can deploy Firepower appliances in high availability, clustered, and stacked configurations, as described
below.
High availability configurations (sometimes called failover) ensure continuity of operations. Clustered and
stacked configurations group multiple devices together as a single logical device, achieving increased throughput
and redundancy.
Appliance High Availability Clustering Stacking
Firepower Management Center yes no no
Firepower Management Center Virtual no no no

8
Features for Detecting, Preventing, and Processing Potential Threats
Appliance High Availability Clustering Stacking
Firepower NGIPS running on: yes no no

Firepower 7010, 7020, 7030, 7050
Firepower 7110, 7115, 7120, 7125, AMP7150
Firepower 8120, 8130, AMP8050, AMP8150
Firepower NGIPS running on: yes no yes

Firepower 8140
Firepower 8250, 8260, 8270, 8290
Firepower 8350, 8360, 8370, 8390, AMP8350
Firepower Threat Defense running on: yes no no

Virtual: VMware
Virtual: KVM
Firepower Threat Defense running on: no no no

Public Cloud: AWS
Public Cloud: Azure

ASA 5500-X series
Firepower Threat Defense running on: yes yes no

Firepower 9300
Firepower Threat Defense running on: yes yes no

Firepower 4100 series


ISA 3000
Related Topics
About 7000 and 8000 Series Device High Availability, on page 501
About Firepower Threat Defense High Availability, on page 667
About Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 171
Features for Detecting, Preventing, and Processing Potential Threats


9
Integration with External Tools

Inspect, log, and take action on network Access control policy, the parent Introduction to Access Control,
traffic of several other policies on page 1239
Blacklist connections to or from IP Security Intelligence within your About Security Intelligence, on
addresses, URLs, and/or domain names access control policy page 1295
Control the websites that users on your URL filtering within your policy URL Filtering, on page 1279
network can access rules
Monitor malicious traffic and intrusions Intrusion policy Intrusion Policy Basics, on page
on your network 1571
Block encrypted traffic without SSL policy SSL Policies Overview, on page
inspection 1373
Inspect encrypted or decrypted traffic
Tailor deep inspection to encapsulated Prefilter policy About Prefiltering, on page 1313
traffic and improve performance with
fastpathing
Rate limit network traffic that is allowed Quality of Service (QoS) policy About QoS Policies, on page 657
or trusted by access control
Allow or block files (including malware) File/malware policy File Policies and Advanced
on your network Malware Protection, on page 1447
Operationalize data from threat Cisco Threat Intelligence Cisco Threat Intelligence
intelligence sources Director (TID) Director (TID) Overview, on
page 1493
Configure passive or active user User awareness, user identity, About User Identity Sources, on
authentication to perform user awareness identity policies page 1912
and user control
About Identity Policies, on page
2035
Collect host, application, and user data Network Discovery policies Overview: Network Discovery
from traffic on your network to perform Policies, on page 2043
user awareness
Perform application detection and control Application detectors Overview: Application

Detection, on page 1965

page 281
Integration with External Tools


10
Firepower Online Help, How To, and Documentation

Automatically launch remediations when Remediations Introduction to Remediations,
conditions on your network violate an on page 2135
associated policy
Firepower System Remediation
API Guide
Stream event data from a Firepower eStreamer integration eStreamer Server Streaming, on
Management Center to a page 1938
custom-developed client application
Firepower System eStreamer
Integration Guide
Query database tables on a Firepower External database access External Database Access
Management Center using a third-party Settings, on page 901
client
Firepower System Database
Access Guide
Augment discovery data by importing Host input Host Input Data, on page 1931
data from third-party sources
Firepower System Host Input
API Guide

page 281
Firepower Online Help, How To, and Documentation

You can reach the online help from the web interface:
• By clicking the context-sensitive help link on each page
• By choosing Help > Online
You can find additional documentation related to the Firepower system using the documentation roadmap:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/roadmap/firepower-roadmap.html.
Top-Level Documentation Listing Pages for Firepower Management Center

Deployments
The following documents may be helpful when configuring Firepower Management Center deployments,
Version 6.0+.
Note Some of the linked documents are not applicable to Firepower Management Center deployments. For example,
some links on Firepower Threat Defense pages are specific to deployments managed by Firepower Device
Manager, and some links on hardware pages are unrelated to Firepower. To avoid confusion, pay careful
attention to document titles. Also, some documents cover multiple products and therefore may appear on
multiple product pages.

11
Top-Level Documentation Listing Pages for Firepower Management Center Deployments
Firepower Management Center

• Firepower Management Center hardware appliances:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/defense-center/tsd-products-support-series-home.html
• Firepower Management Center Virtual appliances:
• http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/defense-center-virtual-appliance/
tsd-products-support-series-home.html
• http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/defense-center/tsd-products-support-series-home.html
Firepower Threat Defense, also called NGFW (Next Generation Firewall) devices
• Firepower Threat Defense software:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/firepower-ngfw/tsd-products-support-series-home.html
• Firepower Threat Defense Virtual:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/firepower-ngfw-virtual/
• Firepower 2100 series:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/firepower-2100-series/
• Firepower 9300:
• ASA 5500-X series:
• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/asa-firepower-services/
• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/asa-5500-series-next-generation-firewalls/
• ISA 3000:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/industrial-security-appliance-isa/
Classic devices, also called NGIPS (Next Generation Intrusion Prevention System) devices
• ASA with FirePOWER Services:
• ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services:

12
License Statements in the Documentation
• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/asa-firepower-services/
• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/asa-5500-series-next-generation-firewalls/

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/firepower-8000-series-appliances/
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/firepower-7000-series-appliances/
• AMP for Networks:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/amp-appliances/tsd-products-support-series-home.html
• NGIPSv (virtual device):
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/ngips-virtual-appliance/
License Statements in the Documentation

The License statement at the beginning of a section indicates which Classic or Smart license you must assign
to a managed device in the Firepower System to enable the feature described in the section.
Because licensed capabilities are often additive, the license statement provides only the highest required
license for each feature.
An “or” statement in a License statement indicates that you must assign a particular license to the managed
device to enable the feature described in the section, but an additional license can add functionality. For
example, within a file policy, some file rule actions require that you assign a Protection license to the device
while others require that you assign a Malware license.
For more information about licenses, see About Firepower Licenses, on page 73.
Related Topics
About Firepower Licenses, on page 73
Supported Devices Statements in the Documentation

The Supported Devices statement at the beginning of a chapter or topic indicates that a feature is supported
only on the specified device series, family, or model. For example, stacking is supported only on 8000 Series
devices.
For more information on platforms supported by this release, see the release notes.

13
Access Statements in the Documentation
Access Statements in the Documentation

The Access statement at the beginning of each procedure in this documentation indicates the predefined user
roles required to perform the procedure. Any of the listed roles can perform the procedure.
Users with custom roles may have permission sets that differ from those of the predefined roles. When a
predefined role is used to indicate access requirements for a procedure, a custom role with similar permissions
also has access. Some users with custom roles may use slightly different menu paths to reach configuration
pages. For example, users who have a custom role with only intrusion policy privileges access the network
analysis policy via the intrusion policy instead of the standard path through the access control policy.
For more information about user roles, see User Roles, on page 41 and Customize User Roles for the Web
Interface, on page 63.
Firepower System IP Address Conventions

You can use IPv4 Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation and the similar IPv6 prefix length notation
to define address blocks in many places in the Firepower System.
When you use CIDR or prefix length notation to specify a block of IP addresses, the Firepower System uses
only the portion of the network IP address specified by the mask or prefix length. For example, if you type
10.1.2.3/8, the Firepower System uses 10.0.0.0/8.
In other words, although Cisco recommends the standard method of using a network IP address on the bit
boundary when using CIDR or prefix length notation, the Firepower System does not require it.
Additional Resources
The Firewalls Community is an exhaustive repository of reference material that complements our extensive
documentation. This includes links to 3D models of our hardware, hardware configuration selector, product
collateral, configuration examples, troubleshooting tech notes, training videos, lab and Cisco Live sessions,
social media channels, Cisco Blogs and all the documentation published by the Technical Publications team.
Some of the individuals posting to community sites or video sharing sites, including the moderators, work
for Cisco Systems. Opinions expressed on those sites and in any corresponding comments are the personal
opinions of the original authors, not of Cisco. The content is provided for informational purposes only and is
not meant to be an endorsement or representation by Cisco or any other party.
Note Some of the videos, technical notes, and reference material in the Firewalls Community points to older versions
of the Firepower Management Center. Your version of the Firepower Management Center and the version
referenced in the videos or technical notes might have differences in the user interface that cause the procedures
not to be identical.

14
PA R T I
Your User Account
• Logging into the Firepower System, on page 17
• Specifying User Preferences, on page 31
• User Accounts for Management Access, on page 39
CHAPTER 2
Logging into the Firepower System
The following topics describe how to log into the Firepower System:
• Firepower System User Accounts, on page 17
• User Interfaces in Firepower Management Center Deployments, on page 19
• Logging Into the Firepower Management Center Web Interface, on page 22
• Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000 Series Device, on page 23
• Logging Into the Firepower Management Center with CAC Credentials, on page 24
• Logging Into a 7000 or 8000 Series Device with CAC Credentials, on page 24
• Logging Into the Command Line Interface on Classic Devices, on page 25
• Logging Into the Command Line Interface on FTD Devices, on page 26
• Viewing Basic System Information in the Web Interface, on page 27
• Switching Domains on the Firepower Management Center, on page 28
• Logging Out of a Firepower System Web Interface, on page 28
• The Context Menu, on page 29
Firepower System User Accounts

You must provide a username and password to obtain local access to the web interface, shell, or CLI on an
appliance. The features you can access on login are controlled by the privileges granted to your user account.
Some appliances can be configured to use external authorization, storing user credentials on an external LDAP
or RADIUS server.
Note Because the system audits user activity based on user accounts, make sure that users log into the system with
the correct account.

17
Your User Account
Firepower System User Accounts
Caution On all devices, users with CLI or shell access can obtain root privileges in the shell, which can present a
security risk. For system security reasons, we strongly recommend:
• If you establish external authentication, make sure that you restrict the list of users with shell access
appropriately.
• When granting CLI access privileges, restrict the list of users with Config level access.
• Do not establish shell users in addition to the pre-defined admin on any Firepower device.
Caution We strongly recommend that you do not access Firepower devices using the shell or CLI expert mode, unless
directed by Cisco TAC.
Different devices support different types of user accounts, each with different capabilities.
Firepower Management Centers

Firepower Management Centers support the following user account types:
• A pre-defined admin account for web interface access, which has the administrator role and can be
managed through the web interface.
• A pre-defined admin account for shell access, which can obtain root privileges.
• Custom user accounts, which admin users and users with the administrator role can create and manage.
Caution For system security reasons, Cisco strongly recommends that you not establish additional shell users on the
Firepower Management Center. If you accept that risk, you can use external authentication to grant any user
shell access to the Firepower Management Center. You cannot enable shell access for internal web interface
users.
7000 & 8000 Series Devices

7000 & 8000 Series devices support the following user account types:
• A pre-defined admin account which can be used for all forms of access to the device.
• Custom user accounts, which admin users and users with the administrator role can create and manage.
The 7000 & 8000 Series supports external authentication for users.
NGIPSv Devices
NGIPSv devices support the following user account types:
• A pre-defined admin account which can be used for all forms of access to the device.
• Custom user accounts, which admin users and users with Config access can create and manage.

18
Your User Account
User Interfaces in Firepower Management Center Deployments
The NGIPSv does not support external authentication for users.
Firepower Threat Defense and Firepower Threat Defense Virtual Devices

Firepower Threat Defense and Firepower Threat Defense Virtual devices support the following user account
types:
• A pre-defined adminaccount which can be used for all forms of access to the device.
• Custom user accounts, which admin users and users with Config access can create and manage.
The Firepower Threat Defense supports external authentication for SSH users.
ASA FirePOWER Devices

The ASA FirePOWER module supports the following user account types:
• A pre-defined admin account.
• Custom user accounts, which admin users and users with Configu access can create and manage.
The ASA FirePOWER module does not support external authentication for users. Accessing ASA devices
via the ASA CLI and ASDM is described in the Cisco ASA Series General Operations CLI Configuration
Guide and the Cisco ASA Series General Operations ASDM Configuration Guide.

Depending on device type, you can access Firepower appliances using a web-based GUI, auxiliary CLI, or
the Linux shell. In a Firepower Management Center deployment, you perform most configuration tasks from
the Firepower Management Center's GUI. Only a few tasks require that you access the device directly.
For information on browser requirements, see the Firepower Release Notes.
Appliance Web-Based GUI Auxiliary CLI Linux Shell
Firepower Management Center • Supported for predefined None • Supported for predefined
admin user and custom admin user and custom
user accounts external user accounts
• Can be used for •
administrative, • Accessible using an SSH,
management, and analysis serial, or keyboard and
tasks monitor connection
• Should be used only for
administration and
troubleshooting directed by
Cisco TAC

19
Your User Account
7000 & 8000 Series devices • Supported for predefined • Supported for predefined • Supported for predefined
admin user and custom admin user and custom admin user and custom
user accounts user accounts user accounts
• Can be used for initial • Accessible using an SSH, • Accessible by CLI users
setup, basic analysis, and serial, or keyboard and with Config access using
configuration tasks only monitor connection the expert command
• Can be used for setup and • Should be used only for
troubleshooting directed by administration and
Cisco TAC troubleshooting directed by
Cisco TAC
Firepower Threat Defense None • Supported for predefined • Supported for predefined
Firepower Threat Defense
user accounts user accounts
Virtual
• Accessible in physical • Accessible by CLI users
devices using an SSH, with Config access using
serial, or keyboard and the expert command
monitor connection.
Accesible in virtual • Should be used only for
devices via SSH or VM administration and
console. troubleshooting directed by
Cisco TAC
• Can be used for setup and
Cisco TAC
NGIPSv None • Supported for predefined • Supported for predefined

user accounts user accounts
• Accessible using an SSH • Accessible by CLI users
connection or VM console with Config access using
the expert command
• Can be used for setup and
troubleshooting directed by • Should be used only for
Cisco TAC administration and
Cisco TAC

20
Your User Account
Web Interface Considerations
ASA FirePOWER module None • Supported for predefined None

admin user and custom
user accounts
• Accessible using an SSH
connection. Also
accessible using keyboard
and monitor connection for
ASA-5585-X (hardware
module), or console port
for ASA 5512-X through
ASA 5555-X and ASA
5506-X through 5516-X
(software modules)
• Can be used for
configuration and
management tasks
Related Topics
Add an Internal User Account, on page 43
Web Interface Considerations

• If your organization uses Common Access Cards (CACs) for authentication, you can use your CAC
credentials to obtain access to the web interface of an appliance.
• The first time you visit the appliance home page during a web session, you can view information about
your last login session for that appliance. You can see the following information about your last login:
• the day of the week, month, date, and year of the login
• the appliance-local time of the login in 24-hour notation
• the host and domain name last used to access the appliance
• The menus and menu options listed at the top of the default home page are based on the privileges for
your user account. However, the links on the default home page include options that span the range of
user account privileges. If you click a link that requires different privileges from those granted to your
account, the system displays a warning message and logs the activity.
• Some processes that take a significant amount of time may cause your web browser to display a message
that a script has become unresponsive. If this occurs, make sure you allow the script to continue until it
finishes.
Related Topics
Specifying Your Home Page, on page 32

21
Your User Account
Session Timeout
Session Timeout
By default, the Firepower System automatically logs you out of a session after 1 hour of inactivity, unless
you are otherwise configured to be exempt from session timeout.
Users with the Administrator role can change the session timeout interval for an appliance via the following
settings:
Appliance Setting
Firepower Management Center System > Configuration > Shell Timeout
7000 & 8000 Series devices Devices > Platform Settings > Shell Timeout
Related Topics
Configuring Session Timeouts, on page 948
Logging Into the Firepower Management Center Web Interface

Smart License Classic License Supported Devices Supported Domains Access
N/A Any FMC Any Any
Users are restricted to a single active session. If you try to log in with a user account that already has an active
session, the system prompts you to terminate the other session or log in as a different user.
Before you begin

• If you do not have access to the web interface, contact your system administrator to modify your account
privileges, or log in as a user with Administrator access and modify the privileges for the account.
• Create user accounts as described in Add an Internal User at the Web Interface, on page 43.
Procedure
Step 1 Direct your browser to https://hostname/, where hostname corresponds to the host name of the Firepower
Management Center.
Step 2 In the Username and Password fields, enter your user name and password. Pay attention to the following
guidelines:
• User names are not case-sensitive.
• In a multidomain deployment, prepend the user name with the domain where your user account was
created. You are not required to prepend any ancestor domains. For example, if your user account was
created in SubdomainB, which has an ancestor DomainA, enter your user name in the following format:
SubdomainB\username
• If your organization uses SecurID® tokens when logging in, append the token to your SecurID PIN and
use that as your password to log in. For example, if your PIN is 1111 and the SecurID token is 222222,

22
Your User Account
Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000 Series Device
enter 1111222222. You must have already generated your SecurID PIN before you can log into the
Firepower System.
Step 3 Click Login.
Related Topics
Session Timeout, on page 22
Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000 Series Device

N/A Any 7000 & 8000 Series N/A Any
Users are restricted to a single active session. If you try to log in with a user account that already has an active
session, the system prompts you to terminate the other session or log in as a different user.
Before you begin

• Complete the initial setup process and create user accounts as described in the Firepower getting started
guide appropriate to the device, and Add an Internal User at the Web Interface, on page 43.
Procedure
Step 1 Direct your browser to https://hostname/, where hostname corresponds to the host name of the managed
device you want to access.
Step 2 In the Username and Password fields, enter your user name and password. Pay attention to the following
guidelines:
• User names are not case-sensitive.
• If your organization uses SecurID® tokens when logging in, append the token to your SecurID PIN and
use that as your password to log in. For example, if your PIN is 1111 and the SecurID token is 222222,
enter 1111222222. You must have already generated your SecurID PIN before you can log into the
Firepower System.
Step 3 Click Login.
Related Topics

23
Your User Account
Logging Into the Firepower Management Center with CAC Credentials
Logging Into the Firepower Management Center with CAC

Credentials
N/A Any FMC Any Any
Users are restricted to a single active session.
Caution Do not remove a CAC during an active browsing session. If you remove or replace a CAC during a session,
your web browser terminates the session and the system logs you out of the web interface.
Before you begin

• Create user accounts as described in the Add an Internal User at the Web Interface, on page 43.
• Configure CAC authentication and authorization as described in Configure Common Access Card
Authentication with LDAP, on page 61.
Procedure
Step 1 Insert a CAC as instructed by your organization.

Step 2 Direct your browser to https://hostname/, where hostname corresponds to the host name of the Firepower
Management Center.
Step 3 If prompted, enter the PIN associated with the CAC you inserted in step 1.
Step 4 If prompted, choose the appropriate certificate from the drop-down list.
Step 5 Click Continue.
Related Topics
Configure Common Access Card Authentication with LDAP, on page 61
Logging Into a 7000 or 8000 Series Device with CAC Credentials

N/A Any 7000 & 8000 Series N/A Any
Users are restricted to a single active session.

24
Your User Account
Logging Into the Command Line Interface on Classic Devices
Caution Do not remove a CAC during an active browsing session. If you remove or replace a CAC during a session,
your web browser terminates the session and the system logs you out of the web interface.
Before you begin

• Create user accounts as described in Add an Internal User at the Web Interface, on page 43.
• Configure CAC authentication and authorization as described in Configure Common Access Card
Authentication with LDAP, on page 61.
Procedure
Step 1 Insert a CAC as instructed by your organization.

Step 2 Direct your browser to https://hostname/, where hostname corresponds to the host name of the appliance
you want to access.
Related Topics
Configure Common Access Card Authentication with LDAP, on page 61
Logging Into the Command Line Interface on Classic Devices

N/A Any 7000 & 8000 Series N/A CLI Basic

Configuration
ASA FirePOWER
NGIPSv
You can log directly into the command line interface on Classic managed devices (7000 & 8000 Series,
NGIPSv, and ASA FirePOWER).
Before you begin

Complete the initial setup process using the default admin user for the initial login.
• For the 7000 & 8000 Series devices, create user accounts at the web interface as described in Add an
Internal User at the Web Interface, on page 43.

25
Your User Account
Logging Into the Command Line Interface on FTD Devices
• For all devices, create additional user accounts that can log into the CLI using the configure user add
command.
Procedure
Step 1 Use SSH to connect to the hostname or IP address of the management interface. Alternatively, you can connect
to the console port.
Step 2 At the login as: command prompt, enter your user name and press Enter.
Step 3 At the Password: prompt, enter your password and press Enter.
If your organization uses SecurID® tokens when logging in, append the token to your SecurID PIN and use
that as your password to log in. For example, if your PIN is 1111 and the SecurID token is 222222, enter
1111222222. You must have already generated your SecurID PIN before you can log into the Firepower
System.
Step 4 At the CLI prompt, use any of the commands allowed by your level of command line access.
Logging Into the Command Line Interface on FTD Devices

Any N/A FTD N/A CLI Basic

Configuration
You can log directly into the command line interface on FTD managed devices.
Before you begin

Complete the initial setup process using the default admin user for the initial login. Create additional user
accounts that can log into the CLI using the configure user add command.
Procedure
Step 1 Connect to the FTD CLI, either from the console port or using SSH.
You can SSH to the management interface of the FTD device. You can also connect to the address on a data
interface if you open the interface for SSH connections. SSH access to data interfaces is disabled by default.
See Configure Secure Shell, on page 998 to allow SSH connections to specific data interfaces.
You can directly connect to the Console port on the device. Use the console cable included with the device
to connect your PC to the console using a terminal emulator set for 9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop
bit, no flow control. See the hardware guide for your device for more information about the console cable.
The initial CLI you access on the Console port differs by device type.
• ASA Series devices—The CLI on the Console port is the regular FTD CLI.

26
Your User Account
Viewing Basic System Information in the Web Interface
• Firepower Series devices—The CLI on the Console port is FXOS. You can get to the FTD CLI using
the connect ftd command. Use the FXOS CLI for chassis-level configuration and troubleshooting only.
Use the FTD CLI for basic configuration, monitoring, and normal system troubleshooting. See the FXOS
documentation for information on FXOS commands.
Step 2 Log in with the admin username and password.

Step 3 At the CLI prompt (>), use any of the commands allowed by your level of command line access.
Step 4 (Optional) Access the diagnostic CLI:
system support diagnostic-cli
Use this CLI for advanced troubleshooting. This CLI includes additional show and other commands, including
the session wlan console command needed to enter the CLI for the wireless access point on an ASA 5506W-X.
This CLI has two sub-modes: user EXEC and privileged EXEC mode. More commands are available in
privileged EXEC mode. To enter privileged EXEC mode, enter the enable command; press enter without
entering a password when prompted.
Example:
> system support diagnostic-cli

firepower> enable
Password:
firepower#
To return to the regular CLI, type Ctrl-a, d.
Viewing Basic System Information in the Web Interface

N/A Any Any Any Any
The About page displays information about your appliance, including the model, serial number, and version
information for various components of the Firepower System. It also includes Cisco copyright information.
Procedure
Step 1 Click Help in the toolbar at the top of the page.

Step 2 Choose About.

27
Your User Account
Switching Domains on the Firepower Management Center
Switching Domains on the Firepower Management Center

Smart License Classic License Supported Device Supported Domains Access
N/A Any FMC Any Any
In a multidomain deployment, user role privileges determine which domains a user can access and which
privileges the user has within each of those domains. You can associate a single user account with multiple
domains and assign different privileges for that user in each domain. For example, you can assign a user
read-only privileges in the Global domain, but Administrator privileges in a descendant domain.
Users associated with multiple domains can switch between domains within the same web interface session.
Under your user name in the toolbar, the system displays a tree of available domains. The tree:
• Displays ancestor domains, but may disable access to them based on the privileges assigned to your user
account.
• Hides any other domain your user account cannot access, including sibling and descendant domains.
When you switch to a domain, the system displays:

• Data that is relevant to that domain only.
• Menu options determined by the user role assigned to you for that domain.
Procedure
From the drop-down list under your user name, choose the domain you want to access.
Logging Out of a Firepower System Web Interface

N/A Any Any Any Any
When you are no longer actively using a Firepower System web interface, Cisco recommends that you log
out, even if you are only stepping away from your web browser for a short period of time. Logging out ends
your web session and ensures that no one can use the interface with your credentials.
Procedure
From the drop-down list under your user name, choose Logout.
Related Topics

28
Your User Account
The Context Menu
The Context Menu

Certain pages in the Firepower System web interface support a right-click (most common) or left-click context
menu that you can use as a shortcut for accessing other features in the Firepower System. The contents of the
context menu depend where you access it—not only the page but also the specific data.
For example:
• IP address hotspots provide information about the host associated with that address, including any
available whois and host profile information.
• SHA-256 hash value hotspots allow you to add a file’s SHA-256 hash value to the clean list or custom
detection list, or view the entire hash value for copying.
On pages or locations that do not support the Firepower System context menu, the normal context menu for
your browser appears.
Policy Editors
Many policy editors contain hotspots over each rule. You can insert new rules and categories; cut, copy,
and paste rules; set the rule state; and edit the rule.
Intrusion Rules Editor
The intrusion rules editor contains hotspots over each intrusion rule. You can edit the rule, set the rule
state, configure thresholding and suppression options, and view rule documentation.
Event Viewer
Event pages (the drill-down pages and table views available under the Analysis menu) contain hotspots
over each event, IP address, URL, DNS query, and certain files’ SHA-256 hash values. While viewing
most event types, you can:
• View related information in the Context Explorer.
• Drill down into event information in a new window.
• View the full text in places where an event field contains text too long to fully display in the event
view, such as a file’s SHA-256 hash value, a vulnerability description, or a URL.
While viewing connection events, you can add items to the default Security Intelligence whitelists and
blacklists:
• An IP address, from an IP address hotspot.
• A URL or domain name, from a URL hotspot.
• A DNS query, from a DNS query hotspot.
While viewing captured files, file events, and malware events, you can:
• Add a file to or remove a file from the clean list or custom detection list.
• Download a copy of the file.
• View nested files inside an archive file.
• Download the parent archive file for a nested file.

29
Your User Account
The Context Menu
• View the file composition.

• Submit the file for local malware and dynamic analysis.
While viewing intrusion events, you can perform similar tasks to those in the intrusion rules editor or an
intrusion policy:
• Edit the triggering rule.
• Set the rule state, including disabling the rule.
• Configure thresholding and suppression options.
• View rule documentation.
Intrusion Event Packet View

Intrusion event packet views contain IP address hotspots. The packet view uses a left-click context menu.
Dashboard
Many dashboard widgets contain hotspots to view related information in the Context Explorer. Dashboard
widgets can also contain IP address and SHA-256 hash value hotspots.
Context Explorer
The Context Explorer contains hotspots over its charts, tables, and graphs. If you want to examine data
from graphs or lists in more detail than the Context Explorer allows, you can drill down to the table views
of the relevant data. You can also view related host, user, application, file, and intrusion rule information.
The Context Explorer uses a left-click context menu, which also contains filtering and other options
unique to the Context Explorer.
Related Topics
Security Intelligence Lists and Feeds, on page 401

30
CHAPTER 3
Specifying User Preferences
The following topics describe how to specify user preferences:
• User Preferences Introduction, on page 31
• Changing Your Password, on page 31
• Changing an Expired Password, on page 32
• Specifying Your Home Page, on page 32
• Configuring Event View Settings, on page 33
• Setting Your Default Time Zone, on page 37
• Specifying Your Default Dashboard, on page 38
User Preferences Introduction

You can configure the preferences that are tied to a single user account, such as the home page, account
password, time zone, dashboard, and event viewing preferences.
Depending on your user role, you can specify certain preferences for your user account, including passwords,
event viewing preferences, time zone settings, and home page preferences.
In a multidomain deployment, user preferences apply to all domains where your account has access. When
specifying home page and dashboard preferences, keep in mind that certain pages and dashboard widgets are
constrained by domain.
Changing Your Password

Any Any Any Any Any
All user accounts are protected with a password. You can change your password at any time, and depending
on the settings for your user account, you may have to change your password periodically.
If password strength checking is enabled, passwords must be at least eight alphanumeric characters of mixed
case and must include at least one numeric character. Passwords cannot be a word that appears in a dictionary
or include consecutive repeating characters.
If you are an LDAP or a RADIUS user, you cannot change your password through the web interface.

31
Your User Account
Changing an Expired Password
Procedure
Step 1 From the drop-down list under your user name, choose User Preferences.
Step 2 Enter your Current Password, and click Change.
Step 3 In the New Password and Confirm fields, enter your new password.
Step 4 Click Change.
Changing an Expired Password

Any Any Any Any Any
Depending on the settings for your user account, your password may expire. Note that the password expiration
time period is set when your account is created and cannot be changed. If your password has expired, the
Password Expiration Warning page appears.
Procedure
On the Password Expiration Warning page, you have two choices:

• Click Change Password to change your password now. If you have zero warning days left, you must
change your password.
Tip If password strength checking is enabled, passwords must be at least eight alphanumeric
characters of mixed case and must include at least one numeric character. Passwords cannot
be a word that appears in a dictionary or include consecutive repeating characters.
• Click Skip to change your password later.
Specifying Your Home Page

Any Any Any Any Any except External

Database user
You can specify a page within the web interface as your home page for the appliance. The default home page
is the Summary Dashboard (Overview > Dashboards), except for user accounts with no dashboard access.
In a multidomain deployment, the home page you choose applies to all domains where your user account has
access. When choosing a home page for an account that frequently accesses multiple domains, keep in mind
that certain pages are constrained to the Global domain.

32
Your User Account
Configuring Event View Settings
Procedure
Step 2 Click Home Page.
Step 3 Choose the page you want to use as your home page from the drop-down list.
The options in the drop-down list are based on the access privileges for your user account. For more information,
see Web Interface User Roles, on page 41.
Step 4 Click Save.
Configuring Event View Settings

Any Any Any Any feature dependent
Use the Event View Settings page to configure characteristics of event views on the Firepower Management
Center. Note that some event view configurations are available only for specific user roles. Users with the
External Database User role can view parts of the event view settings user interface, but changing those settings
has no meaningful result.
Procedure
Step 2 Click Event View Settings.
Step 3 In the Event Preferences section, configure the basic characteristics of event views; see Event View
Preferences, on page 33.
Step 4 In the File Preferences section, configure file download preferences; see File Download Preferences, on page
35.
Step 5 In the Default Time Windows section, configure the default time window or windows; see Default Time
Windows, on page 35.
Step 6 In the Default Workflow sections, configure default workflows; see Default Workflows, on page 37.
Step 7 Click Save.
Event View Preferences

Use the Event Preferences section of the Event View Settings page to configure basic characteristics of event
views in the Firepower System. This section is available for all user roles, although it has little to no significance
for users who cannot view events.
The following fields appear in the Event Preferences section:

33
Your User Account
Event View Preferences
• The Confirm “All” Actions field controls whether the appliance forces you to confirm actions that affect
all events in an event view.
For example, if this setting is enabled and you click Delete All on an event view, you must confirm that
you want to delete all the events that meet the current constraints (including events not displayed on the
current page) before the appliance will delete them from the database.
• The Resolve IP Addresses field allows the appliance, whenever possible, to display host names instead
of IP addresses in event views.
Note that an event view may be slow to display if it contains a large number of IP addresses and you
have enabled this option. Note also that for this setting to take effect, you must use management interfaces
configuration to establish a DNS server in the system settings.
• The Expand Packet View field allows you to configure how the packet view for intrusion events appears.
By default, the appliance displays a collapsed version of the packet view:
• None - collapse all subsections of the Packet Information section of the packet view
• Packet Text - expand only the Packet Text subsection
• Packet Bytes - expand only the Packet Bytes subsection
• All - expand all sections
Regardless of the default setting, you can always manually expand the sections in the packet view to view
detailed information about a captured packet.
• The Rows Per Page field controls how many rows of events per page you want to appear in drill-down
pages and table views.
• The Refresh Interval field sets the refresh interval for event views in minutes. Entering 0 disables the
refresh option. Note that this interval does not apply to dashboards.
• The Statistics Refresh Interval controls the refresh interval for event summary pages such as the Intrusion
Event Statistics and Discovery Statistics pages. Entering 0 disables the refresh option. Note that this
interval does not apply to dashboards.
• The Deactivate Rules field controls which links appear on the packet view of intrusion events generated
by standard text rules:
• All Policies - a single link that deactivates the standard text rule in all the locally defined custom
intrusion policies
• Current Policy - a single link that deactivates the standard text rule in only the currently deployed
intrusion policy. Note that you cannot deactivate rules in the default policies.
• Ask - links for each of these options
To see these links on the packet view, your user account must have either Administrator or Intrusion Admin
access.
Related Topics
Management Interfaces, on page 904

34
Your User Account
File Download Preferences
File Download Preferences

Use the File Preferences section of the Event View Settings page to configure basic characteristics of local
file downloads. This section is only available to users with the Administrator, Security Analyst, or Security
Analyst (Read Only) user roles.
Note that if your appliance does not support downloading captured files, these options are disabled.
The following fields appear in the File Preferences section:
• The Confirm ‘Download File’ Actions check box controls whether a File Download pop-up window
appears each time you download a file, displaying a warning and prompting you to continue or cancel.
Caution Cisco strongly recommends you do not download malware, as it can cause adverse
consequences. Exercise caution when downloading any file, as it may contain
malware. Ensure you have taken any necessary precautions to secure the download
destination before downloading files.
Note that you can disable this option any time you download a file.
• When you download a captured file, the system creates a password-protected .zip archive containing the
file. The Zip File Password field defines the password you want to use to restrict access to the .zip file.
If you leave this field blank, the system creates archive files without passwords.
• The Show Zip File Password check box toggles displaying plain text or obfuscated characters in the
Zip File Password field. When this field is cleared, the Zip File Password displays obfuscated characters.
Default Time Windows

The time window, sometimes called the time range, imposes a time constraint on the events in any event view.
Use the Default Time Windows section of the Event View Settings page to control the default behavior of
the time window.
User role access to this section is as follows:
• Administrators and Maintenance Users can access the full section.
• Security Analysts and Security Analysts (Read Only) can access all options except Audit Log Time
Window.
• Access Admins, Discovery Admins, External Database Users, Intrusion Admins, Network Admins, and
Security Approvers can access only the Events Time Window option.
Note that, regardless of the default time window setting, you can always manually change the time window
for individual event views during your event analysis. Also, keep in mind that time window settings are valid
for only the current session. When you log out and then log back in, time windows are reset to the defaults
you configured on this page.
There are three types of events for which you can set the default time window:
• The Events Time Window sets a single default time window for most events that can be constrained by
time.
• The Audit Log Time Window sets the default time window for the audit log.

35
Your User Account
Default Time Windows
• The Health Monitoring Time Window sets the default time window for health events.
You can only set time windows for event types your user account can access. All user types can set event
time windows. Administrators, Maintenance Users, and Security Analysts can set health monitoring time
windows. Administrators and Maintenance Users can set audit log time windows.
Note that because not all event views can be constrained by time, time window settings have no effect on
event views that display hosts, host attributes, applications, clients, vulnerabilities, user identity, or white list
violations.
You can either use Multiple time windows, one for each of these types of events, or you can use a Single
time window that applies to all events. If you use a single time window, the settings for the three types of
time window disappear and a new Global Time Window setting appears.
There are three types of time window:
• static, which displays all the events generated from a specific start time to a specific end time
• expanding, which displays all the events generated from a specific start time to the present; as time moves
forward, the time window expands and new events are added to the event view
• sliding, which displays all the events generated from a specific start time (for example, one day ago) to
the present; as time moves forward, the time window “slides” so that you see only the events for the
range you configured (in this example, for the last day)
The maximum time range for all time windows is from midnight on January 1, 1970 (UTC) to 3:14:07 AM
on January 19, 2038 (UTC).
The following options appear in the Time Window Settings drop-down list:
• The Show the Last - Sliding option allows you configure a sliding default time window of the length
you specify.
The appliance displays all the events generated from a specific start time (for example, 1 hour ago) to
the present. As you change event views, the time window “slides” so that you always see events from
the last hour.
• The Show the Last - Static/Expanding option allows you to configure either a static or expanding
default time window of the length you specify.
For static time windows, enable the Use End Time check box. The appliance displays all the events
generated from a specific start time (for example, 1 hour ago) to the time when you first viewed the
events. As you change event views, the time window stays fixed so that you see only the events that
occurred during the static time window.
For expanding time windows, disable the Use End Time check box. The appliance displays all the
events generated from a specific start time (for example, 1 hour ago) to the present. As you change event
views, the time window expands to the present time.
• The Current Day - Static/Expanding option allows you to configure either a static or expanding default
time window for the current day. The current day begins at midnight, based on the time zone setting for
your current session.
generated from midnight to the time when you first viewed the events. As you change event views, the
time window stays fixed so that you see only the events that occurred during the static time window.

36
Your User Account
Default Workflows
events generated from midnight to the present. As you change event views, the time window expands to
the present time. Note that if your analysis continues for over 24 hours before you log out, this time
window can be more than 24 hours.
• The Current Week - Static/Expanding option allows you to configure either a static or expanding
default time window for the current week. The current week begins at midnight on the previous Sunday,
based on the time zone setting for your current session.
generated from midnight to the time when you first viewed the events. As you change event views, the
time window stays fixed so that you see only the events that occurred during the static time window.
events generated from midnight Sunday to the present. As you change event views, the time window
expands to the present time. Note that if your analysis continues for over 1 week before you log out, this
time window can be more than 1 week.
Default Workflows
A workflow is a series of pages displaying data that analysts use to evaluate events. For each event type, the
appliance ships with at least one predefined workflow. For example, as a Security Analyst, depending on the
type of analysis you are performing, you can choose among ten different intrusion event workflows, each of
which presents intrusion event data in a different way.
The appliance is configured with a default workflow for each event type. For example, the Events by Priority
and Classification workflow is the default for intrusion events. This means whenever you view intrusion
events (including reviewed intrusion events), the appliance displays the Events by Priority and Classification
workflow.
You can, however, change the default workflow for each event type. The default workflows you are able to
configure depend on your user role. For example, intrusion event analysts cannot set default discovery event
workflows.
Setting Your Default Time Zone

Any Any Any Any Any
Your Firepower Management Center and its managed devices are heavily dependent on accurate time. The
system clock is a system facility that maintains the time of the Firepower System. The system clock is set to
Universal Coordinated Time (UTC), which is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks
and time.
You can change the time zone used to display events from the standard UTC time that the appliance uses.
When you configure a time zone, it applies only to your user account and is in effect until you make further
changes to the time zone.

37
Your User Account
Specifying Your Default Dashboard
Restriction The Time Zone function (in User Preferences) assumes that the default system clock is set to UTC time. DO
NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE THE SYSTEM TIME. Be advised that changing the system time from UTC
is NOT supported, and doing so will require you to reimage the device to recover from an unsupported state.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the Time Zone Preference tab.
Step 3 From the left list box, choose the continent or area that contains the time zone you want to use.
Step 4 From the right list box, choose the zone (city name) that corresponds with the time zone you want to use.
Step 5 Click Save.
Specifying Your Default Dashboard

Any Any Any Any Admin/Maint/Any

Security Analyst
The default dashboard appears when you choose Overview > Dashboards. Unless changed, the default
dashboard for all users is the Summary dashboard.
In a multidomain deployment, the default dashboard you choose applies to all domains where your user
account has access. When choosing a dashboard for an account that frequently accesses multiple domains,
keep in mind that certain dashboard widgets are constrained by domain.
Procedure
Step 2 Click Dashboard Settings.
Step 3 Choose the dashboard you want to use as your default from the drop-down list. If you choose None, when
you select Overview > Dashboards, you can then choose a dashboard to view.
Step 4 Click Save.
Related Topics
Viewing Dashboards, on page 239

38
CHAPTER 4
User Accounts for Management Access
The Firepower Management Center and managed devices include a default admin account for management
access. This chapter discusses how to create custom user accounts for supported models. See Logging into
the Firepower System, on page 17 for detailed information about logging into the Firepower Management
Center or a managed device with a user account.
This chapter also describes Cisco Security Manager (CSM) single sign-on when you manage an ASA with
CSM and the FirePOWER services module with the Firepower Management Center.
• About User Accounts, on page 39
• Prerequisites and Requirements for User Accounts, on page 42
• Guidelines and Limitations for User Accounts, on page 43
• Add an Internal User Account, on page 43
• Configure External Authentication, on page 47
• Customize User Roles for the Web Interface, on page 63
• Configure Cisco Security Manager Single Sign-on, on page 67
• Troubleshooting LDAP Authentication Connections, on page 68
• History for User Accounts, on page 70
About User Accounts

You can add custom user accounts on the Firepower Management Center and on managed devices, either as
internal users or, if supported for your model, as external users on a LDAP or RADIUS server. Each Firepower
Management Center and each managed device maintains separate user accounts. For example, when you add
a user to the Firepower Management Center, that user only has access to the FMC; you cannot then use that
username to log directly into a managed device. You must separately add a user on the managed device.
Internal and External Users

Firepower devices support two types of users:
• Internal user—The device checks a local database for user authentication. For more information about
internal users, see Add an Internal User Account, on page 43.
• External user—If the user is not present in the local database, the system queries an external LDAP or
RADIUS authentication server. For more information about external users, see Configure External
Authentication, on page 47.

39
Your User Account
Web Interface, CLI, or Shell Access
Web Interface, CLI, or Shell Access

When you configure user accounts, you enable web interface access and CLI or shell access separately.
Managed devices include an auxiliary CLI that runs on top of Linux. CLI users can also access the Linux
shell under TAC supervision. The Firepower Management Center does not have a CLI, and only allows direct
shell access. For detailed information about the management UIs, see User Interfaces in Firepower Management
Center Deployments, on page 19.
Caution On all devices, users with CLI or shell access can obtain sudoers privileges in the shell, which can present a
security risk. For system security reasons, we strongly recommend:
• If you establish external authentication, make sure that you restrict the list of users with CLI/shell access
appropriately.
• When granting CLI access privileges, restrict the list of users with Config level access.
• Do not add users directly in the shell; only use the procedures in this chapter.
• Do not access Firepower devices using the shell or CLI expert mode unless directed by Cisco TAC.
Each device type supports different forms of access as detailed here:

• For FTD, ASA FirePOWER, and NGIPSv, CLI access is available for direct management of the device.
• You can create internal users on these devices using the CLI.
• You can establish external users on Firepower Threat Defense devices.
• Users who log into these devices through the management interface access the CLI. Under TAC
supervision users can access the shell using the expert command.
• The Firepower Management Center has a web interface and Linux shell for direct management of the
device.
• The Firepower Management Center supports two different internal admin users: one for the web
interface, and another with shell access. These two admin users are different accounts and do not
share the same password.
• Firepower Management Center internal users added in the web interface other than admin have
web interface access only.
• You can grant shell access to Firepower Management Center external users.
• On the Firepower Management Center when any account with shell access logs in to the management
interface, it directly accesses the Linux shell.
• 7000 and 8000 Series devices have both a web interface and a CLI for direct management of the device.
• 7000 and 8000 Series device internal users have web interface and CLI access.
• You can enable CLI or shell access for 7000 and 8000 Series device external users.
• Users who log into these devices through the management interface access the CLI. Under TAC
supervision, users with Config level access can access the shell using the expert command.

40
Your User Account
User Roles
User Roles
User privileges are based on the assigned user role. For example, you can grant analysts predefined roles such
as Security Analyst and Discovery Admin and reserve the Administrator role for the security administrator
managing the device. You can also create custom user roles with access privileges tailored to your organization’s
needs.
Web Interface User Roles

The 7000 and 8000 Series devices have access to the following user roles: Administrator, Maintenance User,
and Security Analyst.
The Firepower Management Center includes the following predefined user roles:
Access Admin
Provides access to access control policy and associated features in the Policies menu. Access Admins
cannot deploy policies.
Administrator
Administrators have access to everything in the product; their sessions present a higher security risk if
compromised, so you cannot make them exempt from login session timeouts.
You should limit use of the Administrator role for security reasons.
Discovery Admin
Provides access to network discovery, application detection, and correlation features in the Policies
menu. Discovery Admins cannot deploy policies.
External Database User
Provides read-only access to the Firepower System database using an application that supports JDBC
SSL connections. For the third-party application to authenticate to the Firepower System appliance, you
must enable database access in the system settings. On the web interface, External Database Users have
access only to online help-related options in the Help menu. Because this role’s function does not involve
the web interface, access is provided only for ease of support and password changes.
Intrusion Admin
Provides access to all intrusion policy, intrusion rule, and network analysis policy features in the Policies
and Objects menus. Intrusion Admins cannot deploy policies.
Maintenance User
Provides access to monitoring and maintenance features. Maintenance Users have access to
maintenance-related options in the Health and System menus.
Network Admin
Provides access to access control, SSL inspection, DNS policy, and identity policy features in the Policies
menu, as well as device configuration features in the Devices menus. Network Admins can deploy
configuration changes to devices.
Security Analyst
Provides access to security event analysis features, and read-only access to health events, in the Overview,
Analysis, Health, and System menus.

41
Your User Account
CLI User Roles
Security Analyst (Read Only)

Provides read-only access to security event analysis features and health event features in the Overview,
Analysis, Health, and System menus.
Security Approver
Provides limited access to access control and associated policies and network discovery policies in the
Policies menu. Security Approvers can view and deploy these policies, but cannot make policy changes.
Threat Intelligence Director (TID) User
Provides access to Threat Intelligence Director configurations in the Intelligence menu. Threat Intelligence
Director (TID) Users can view and configure TID.
The 7000 and 8000 Series devices have access to 3 of these predefined user roles: Administrator, Maintenance
User, and Security Analyst.
CLI User Roles

User access to commands in the CLI depends on the role you assign.
None
The user cannot log into the device on the command line.
Config
The user can access all commands, including configuration commands. Exercise caution in assigning
this level of access to users.
Basic
The user can access non-configuration commands only.
Note External CLI users always have the Config user role.
Prerequisites and Requirements for User Accounts

Model Support
External user authentication is supported for the following models:
• Firepower Threat Defense
• 7000 and 8000 Series

42
Your User Account
Guidelines and Limitations for User Accounts
Guidelines and Limitations for User Accounts

Defaults
All devices include an admin user as a local user account for all forms of access; you cannot delete the admin
user. The default password is Admin123.
Add an Internal User Account

Each device maintains separate user accounts. The Firepower Management Center and 7000 and 8000 Series
have similar web interfaces. For the Firepower Threat Defense, NGIPSv, and ASA FirePOWER, you must
add internal users at the CLI. You cannot add users at the CLI on the Firepower Management Center and 7000
and 8000 Series.
Add an Internal User at the Web Interface

Any Any FMC Any Administrator

7000 & 8000 Series
This procedure describes how to add custom internal user accounts at the web interface of a Firepower
Management Center or 7000 & 8000 Series device.
The System > Users > Users tab shows both internal users that you added manually and external users that
were added automatically when a user logged in with LDAP or RADIUS authentication. For external users,
you can modify the user role on this screen if you assign a role with higher privileges; you cannot modify the
password settings.
In a multidomain deployment on the Firepower Management Center, users are only visible in the domain in
which they are created. Note that if you add a user in the Global domain, but then assign a user role for a leaf
domain, then that user still shows on the Global Users page where it was added, even though the user "belongs"
to a leaf domain.
If you enable security certifications compliance or Lights-Out Management (LOM) on a device, different
password restrictions apply. For more information on security certifications compliance, see Security
Certifications Compliance, on page 1025.
When you add a user in a leaf domain, that user is not visible from the global domain.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Users.

The Users tab shows by default.
Step 2 Click Create User.

Step 3 Enter a User Name.

43
Your User Account
Add an Internal User at the Web Interface
Step 4 The Use External Authentication Method checkbox is checked for users that were added automatically
when they logged in with LDAP or RADIUS. You do not need to pre-configure external users, so you can
ignore this field. For an external user, you can revert this user to an internal user by unchecking the check
box.
Step 5 Enter values in the Password and Confirm Password fields.
The values must conform to the password options you set for this user.
Step 6 Set the Maximum Number of Failed Logins.

Enter an integer, without spaces, that determines the maximum number of times each user can try to log in
after a failed login attempt before the account is locked. The default setting is 5 tries; use 0 to allow an
unlimited number of failed logins. The admin account is exempt from being locked out after a maximum
number of failed logins unless you enabled security certification compliance.
Step 7 Set the Minimum Password Length.

Enter an integer, without spaces, that determines the minimum required length, in characters, of a user’s
password. The default setting is 8. A value of 0 indicates that no minimum length is required.
Step 8 Set the Days Until Password Expiration.

Enter the number of days after which the user’s password expires. The default setting is 0, which indicates
that the password never expires. If you change from the default, then the Password Lifetime column of the
Users list indicates the days remaining on each user’s password.
Step 9 Set the Days Before Password Expiration Warning.

Enter the number of warning days users have to change their password before their password actually expires.
The default setting is 0 days.
Step 10 Set user Options.

• Force Password Reset on Login—Forces users to change their passwords the next time they log in.
• Check Password Strength—Requires strong passwords. A strong password must be at least eight
alphanumeric characters of mixed case and must include at least 1 numeric character and 1 special
character. It cannot be a word that appears in a dictionary or include consecutive repeating characters.
• Exempt from Browser Session Timeout—Exempts a user’s login sessions from termination due to
inactivity. Users with the Administrator role cannot be made exempt.
Step 11 (7000 or 8000 Series) Assign the appropriate level of Command-Line Interface Access as described in CLI
User Roles, on page 42.
Note Unlike for the 7000 or 8000 Series, you cannot enable shell access for Firepower Management
Center internal users (other than the default admin user); you can, however, enable shell access for
external users.
Step 12 In the User Role Configuration area, assign user role(s). For more information about user roles, see Customize
User Roles for the Web Interface, on page 63.
For external users, if the user role is assigned through group or list membership, you cannot remove the
minimum access rights. You can, however, assign additional rights. If the user role is the default user role
that you set on the device, then you can modify the role in the user account without limitations. When you

44
Your User Account
Add an Internal User at the CLI
modify the user role, the Authentication Method column on the Users tab provides a status of External -
Locally Modified.
The options you see depend on whether the device is in a single domain or multidomain (Firepower Management
Center only) deployment.
• Single domain—Check the user role(s) you want to assign the user.
• Multidomain (Firepower Management Center only)—In a multidomain deployment, you can create user
accounts in any domain in which you have been assigned Administrator access. Users can have different
privileges in each domain. You can assign user roles in both ancestor and descendant domains. For
example, you can assign read-only privileges to a user in the Global domain, but Administrator privileges
in a descendant domain. See the following steps:
1. Click Add Domain.
2. Choose a domain from the Domain drop-down list.
3. Check the user roles you want to assign the user.
4. Click Save.
Step 13 Click Save.

Any Any FTD Any Config

ASA FirePOWER
NGIPSv
Use the CLI to create internal users on the FTD, ASA FirePOWER, and NGIPSv devices. These devices do
not have a web interface, so internal (and external) users can only access the CLI for management.
Procedure
Step 1 Log into the device CLI using an account with Config privileges.
The admin user account has the required privileges, but any account with Config privileges will work. You
can use an SSH session or the Console port.
For certain FTD models, the Console port puts you into the FXOS CLI. Use the connect ftd command to get
to the FTD CLI.
Step 2 Create the user account.

configure user add username {basic | config}
You can define the user with the following privilege levels:

45
Your User Account
• config—Gives the user configuration access. This role gives the user full administrator rights to all
commands.
• basic—Gives the user basic access. This role does not allow the user to enter configuration commands.
Example:
The following example adds a user account named johncrichton with Config access rights. The password is
not shown as you type it.
> configure user add johncrichton config

Enter new password for user johncrichton: newpassword
Confirm new password for user johncrichton: newpassword
> show user
Login UID Auth Access Enabled Reset Exp Warn Str Lock Max
admin 1000 Local Config Enabled No Never N/A Dis No N/A
johncrichton 1001 Local Config Enabled No Never N/A Dis No 5
Note Tell users they can change their own passwords using the configure password command.
Step 3 (Optional) Adjust the characteristics of the account to meet your security requirements.
You can use the following commands to change the default account behavior.
• configure user aging username max_days warn_days
Sets an expiration date for the user's password. Specify the maximum number of days for the password
to be valid followed by the number of days before expiration the user will be warned about the upcoming
expiration. Both values are 1 to 9999, but the warning days must be less than the maximum days. When
you create the account, there is no expiration date for the password.
• configure user forcereset username
Forces the user to change the password on the next login.
• configure user maxfailedlogins username number
Sets the maximum number of consecutive failed logins you will allow before locking the account, from
1 to 9999. Use the configure user unlock command to unlock accounts. The default for new accounts
is 5 consecutive failed logins.
• configure user minpasswdlen username number
Sets a minimum password length, which can be from 1 to 127.
• configure user strengthcheck username {enable | disable}
Enables or disables password strength checking, which requires a user to meet specific password criteria
when changing their password. When a user’s password expires or if the configure user forcereset
command is used, this requirement is automatically enabled the next time the user logs in.
Step 4 Manage user accounts as necessary.

Users can get locked out of their accounts, or you might need to remove accounts or fix other issues. Use the
following commands to manage the user accounts on the system.
• configure user access username {basic | config}
Changes the privileges for a user account.

46
Your User Account
Configure External Authentication
• configure user delete username

Deletes the specified account.
• configure user disable username
Disables the specified account without deleting it. The user cannot log in until you enable the account.
• configure user enable username
Enables the specified account.
• configure user password username
Changes the password for the specified user. Users should normally change their own password using
the configure password command.
• configure user unlock username
Unlocks a user account that was locked due to exceeding the maximum number of consecutive failed
login attempts.
Configure External Authentication

To enable external authentication, you need to add one or more external authentication objects.
About External Authentication

When you enable external authentication for management users, the device verifies the user credentials with
an LDAP or RADIUS server as specified in an external authentication object.
External authentication objects can be used by the Firepower Management Center, 7000 and 8000 Series, and
FTD devices. You can share the same object between all 3 types, or create separate objects.
For the FMC, enable the external authentication objects directly on the System > Users > External
Authentication tab; this setting only affects FMC usage, and it does not need to be enabled on this tab for
managed device usage. For the 7000 and 8000 Series and FTD devices, you must enable the external
authentication object in the platform settings that you deploy to the devices.
Web interface users are defined separately from CLI/shell users in the external authentication object. For
CLI/shell users on RADIUS, you must pre-configure the list of RADIUS usernames in the external
authentication object. For LDAP, you can specify a filter to match CLI users on the LDAP server.
You cannot use an LDAP object for CLI/shell access that is also configured for CAC authentication.
Note Users with CLI/shell access with the Config user role have root privileges in the shell, which can present a
security risk; all external CLI/shell users have Config access. Make sure that you restrict the list of users with
CLI/shell access appropriately. Cisco strongly recommends that you do not establish additional CLI/shell
users on the Firepower Management Center.

47
Your User Account
External Authentication for the Firepower Management Center and 7000 and 8000 Series
External Authentication for the Firepower Management Center and 7000 and 8000 Series
You can configure multiple external authentication objects for web interface access. For example, if you have
5 external authentication objects, users from any of them can be authenticated to access the web interface.
You can use only one external authentication object for CLI or shell access. If you have more than one external
authentication object enabled, then users can authenticate using only the first object in the list. External CLI
users on 7000 or 8000 Series devices always have Config privileges; other user roles are not supported.
External Authentication for the Firepower Threat Defense

For the FTD, you can only activate one external authentication object.
Only a subset of fields in the external authentication object are used for FTD SSH access. If you fill in additional
fields, they are ignored. If you also use this object for other device types, those fields will be used.
External users always have Config privileges; other user roles are not supported.
About LDAP
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) allows you to set up a directory on your network that
organizes objects, such as user credentials, in a centralized location. Multiple applications can then access
those credentials and the information used to describe them. If you ever need to change a user's credentials,
you can change them in one place.
About RADIUS
Remote Authentication Dial In User Service (RADIUS) is an authentication protocol used to authenticate,
authorize, and account for user access to network resources. You can create an authentication object for any
RADIUS server that conforms to RFC 2865.
Firepower devices support the use of SecurID tokens. When you configure authentication by a server using
SecurID, users authenticated against that server append the SecurID token to the end of their SecurID PIN
and use that as their password when they log in. You do not need to configure anything extra on the Firepower
device to support SecurID.
Add an LDAP External Authentication Object

Any Any FTD Any Administrator

7000 and 8000
Series
FMC
Add an LDAP server to support external users for device management.

For the FTD, only a subset of fields are used for CLI access. See Configure External Authentication for SSH,
on page 987 for details about which fields are used.
In a multidomain deployment, external authentication objects are only available in the domain in which they
are created.

48
Your User Account
Before you begin

• You must specify DNS server(s) for domain name lookup on your device. Even if you specify an IP
address and not a hostname for the LDAP server on this procedure, the LDAP server may return a URI
for authentication that can include a hostname. A DNS lookup is required to resolve the hostname. See
Configure Management Interfaces, on page 909 to add DNS servers.
• If you are configuring an LDAP authentication object for use with CAC authentication, do not remove
the CAC inserted in your computer. You must have a CAC inserted at all times after enabling user
certificates.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the External Authentication tab.
Step 3 Click Add External Authentication Object.
Step 4 Set the Authentication Method to LDAP.
Step 5 (Optional) Check the check box for CAC if you plan to use this authentication object for CAC authentication
and authorization.
You must also follow the procedure in Configure Common Access Card Authentication with LDAP, on page
61 to fully configure CAC authentication and authorization. You cannot use this object for CLI/shell users.
Step 6 Enter a Name and optional Description.

Step 7 Choose a Server Type from the drop-down list.
Tip If you click Set Defaults, the device populates the User Name Template, UI Access Attribute,
Shell Access Attribute, Group Member Attribute, and Group Member URL Attribute fields
with default values for the server type.
Step 8 For the Primary Server, enter a Host Name/IP Address.

If you are using a certificate to connect via TLS or SSL, the host name in the certificate must match the host
name used in this field. In addition, IPv6 addresses are not supported for encrypted connections.
Step 9 (Optional) Change the Port from the default.

Step 10 (Optional) Enter the Backup Server parameters.
Step 11 Enter LDAP-Specific Parameters.
a) Enter the Base DN for the LDAP directory you want to access. For example, to authenticate names in the
Security organization at the Example company, enter ou=security,dc=example,dc=com. Alternatively
click Fetch DNs, and choose the appropriate base distinguished name from the drop-down list.
b) (Optional) Enter the Base Filter. For example, if the user objects in a directory tree have a
physicalDeliveryOfficeName attribute and users in the New York office have an attribute value of
NewYork for that attribute, to retrieve only users in the New York office, enter
(physicalDeliveryOfficeName=NewYork).
c) Enter a User Name for a user who has sufficient credentials to browse the LDAP server. For example, if
you are connecting to an OpenLDAP server where user objects have a uid attribute, and the object for
the administrator in the Security division at your example company has a uid value of NetworkAdmin,
you might enter uid=NetworkAdmin,ou=security,dc=example,dc=com.
d) Enter the user password in the Password and the Confirm Password fields.

49
Your User Account
e) (Optional) Click Show Advanced Options to configure the following advanced options.
• Encryption—Click None, TLS, or SSL.
If you change the encryption method after specifying a port, you reset the port to the default value
for that method. For None or TLS, the port resets to the default value of 389. If you choose SSL
encryption, the port resets to 636.
• SSL Certificate Upload Path—For SSL or TLS encryption, you must choose a certificate by clicking
Choose File.
If you previously uploaded a certificate and want to replace it, upload the new certificate and redeploy
the configuration to your devices to copy over the new certificate.
Note TLS encryption requires a certificate on all platforms. For SSL, the FTD also requires a
certificate. For other platforms, SSL does not require a certificate. However, we recommend
that you always upload a certificate for SSL to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
• User Name Template—Provide a template that corresponds with your UI Access Attribute. For
example, to authenticate all users who work in the Security organization of the Example company
by connecting to an OpenLDAP server where the UI access attribute is uid, you might enter
uid=%s,ou=security,dc=example,dc=com in the User Name Template field. For a Microsoft Active
Directory server, you could enter %s@security.example.com.
This field is required for CAC authentication.
• Timeout—Enter the number of seconds before rolling over to the backup connection. The default
is 30.
Step 12 (Optional) Configure Attribute Matching to retrieve users based on an attribute.

• Enter a UI Access Attribute, or click Fetch Attrs to retrieve a list of available attributes. For example,
on a Microsoft Active Directory Server, you may want to use the UI Access Attribute to retrieve users,
because there may not be a uid attribute on Active Directory Server user objects. Instead, you can search
the userPrincipalName attribute by typing userPrincipalName in the UI Access Attribute field.
This field is required for CAC authentication.
• Set the Shell Access Attribute if you want to use a shell access attribute other than the user distinguished
type. For example, on a Microsoft Active Directory Server, use the sAMAccountName shell access attribute
to retrieve shell access users by typing sAMAccountName.
Step 13 (Optional) Configure Group Controlled Access Roles.

If you do not configure a user’s privileges using group-controlled access roles, a user has only the privileges
granted by default in the external authentication policy.
a) (Optional) In the fields that correspond to user roles, enter the distinguished name for the LDAP groups
that contain users who should be assigned to those roles.
Any group you reference must exist on the LDAP server. You can reference static LDAP groups or
dynamic LDAP groups. Static LDAP groups are groups where membership is determined by group object
attributes that point to specific users, and dynamic LDAP groups are groups where membership is
determined by creating an LDAP search that retrieves group users based on user object attributes. Group
access rights for a role only affect users who are members of the group.

50
Your User Account
If you use a dynamic group, the LDAP query is used exactly as it is configured on the LDAP server. For
this reason, the Firepower device limits the number of recursions of a search to 4 to prevent search syntax
errors from causing infinite loops.
Example:
Enter the following in the Administrator field to authenticate names in the information technology
organization at the Example company:
cn=itgroup,ou=groups, dc=example,dc=com
b) Choose a Default User Role for users that do not belong to any of the specified groups.
c) If you use static groups, enter a Group Member Attribute.
Example:
If the member attribute is used to indicate membership in the static group for default Security Analyst
access, enter member.
d) If you use dynamic groups, enter a Group Member URL Attribute.
Example:
If the memberURL attribute contains the LDAP search that retrieves members for the dynamic group you
specified for default Admin access, enter memberURL.
If you change a user's role, you must save/deploy the changed external authentication object and also remove
the user from the Users screen. The user will be re-added automatically the next time they log in.
Step 14 (Optional) Set the Shell Access Filter to allow CLI/shell users.
To prevent LDAP authentication of shell access, leave this field blank. To specify CLI/shell users, choose
one of the following methods:
• To use the same filter you specified when configuring authentication settings, choose Same as Base
Filter.
• To retrieve administrative user entries based on attribute value, enter the attribute name, a comparison
operator, and the attribute value you want to use as a filter, enclosed in parentheses. For example, if all
network administrators have a manager attribute which has an attribute value of shell, you can set a
base filter of (manager=shell).
Note The names must be Linux-valid usernames and be lower-case only, using alphanumeric characters
plus period (.) or hyphen (-). Other special characters such as at sign (@) and slash (/) are not
supported.
Note For the 7000 or 8000 Series and the Firepower Management Center, remove any internal users that
have the same user name as users included in the Shell Access Filter. For the Firepower Management
Center, the only internal shell user is admin, so do not also create an admin external user.
For the FTD, if you previously configured the same username for an internal user, the FTD first
checks the password against the internal user, and if that fails, it checks the LDAP server. Note that
you cannot later add an internal user with the same name as an external user; only pre-existing
internal users are supported.
Step 15 (Optional) Click Test to test connectivity to the LDAP server.

51
Your User Account
The test output lists valid and invalid user names. Valid user names are unique, and can include underscores
(_), periods (.), hyphens (-), and alphanumeric characters. Note that testing the connection to servers with
more than 1000 users only returns 1000 users because of UI page size limitations. If the test fails, see
Troubleshooting LDAP Authentication Connections, on page 68.
Step 16 (Optional) You can also enter Additional Test Parameters to test user credentials for a user who should be
able to authenticate: enter a User Name uid and Password, and then click Test.
If you are connecting to a Microsoft Active Directory Server and supplied a UI access attribute in place of
uid, use the value for that attribute as the user name. You can also specify a fully qualified distinguished name
for the user.
Tip If you mistype the name or password of the test user, the test fails even if the server configuration
is correct. To verify that the server configuration is correct, click Test without entering user
information in the Additional Test Parameters field first. If that succeeds, supply a user name and
password to test with the specific user.
Example:
To test if you can retrieve the JSmith user credentials at the Example company, enter JSmith and the correct
password.
Step 17 Click Save.

Step 18 Enable use of this server:
• Firepower Management Center—Enable External Authentication for Users on the Firepower Management
Center, on page 60
• FTD—Configure External Authentication for SSH, on page 987
• 7000 and 8000 Series—External Authentication Settings, on page 974
Step 19 If you later add or delete users on the LDAP server, you must refresh the user list and redeploy the Platform
Settings for managed devices. This step is not required for the Firepower Management Center.
a) Click the refresh icon ( ) next to each LDAP server.
If the user list changed, you will see a message advising you to deploy configuration changes for your
device.
b) For 7000 and 8000 Series devices, make a small configuration change in the Platform Settings so that the
settings are marked as Out-of-Date. 7000 and 8000 Series Platform Settings are not automatically marked
as Out-of-Date for LDAP shell user list updates.
Note that the Firepower Theat Defense Platform Setttings are automatically marked as Out-of-Date, so
you do not need to perform this workaround.
c) Deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.
Examples
Basic Example

52
Your User Account
The following figures illustrate a basic configuration of an LDAP login authentication object for a
Microsoft Active Directory Server. The LDAP server in this example has an IP address of 10.11.3.4.
The connection uses port 389 for access.
This example shows a connection using a base distinguished name of

OU=security,DC=it,DC=example,DC=com for the security organization in the information technology
domain of the Example company.
However, because this server is a Microsoft Active Directory server, it uses the sAMAccountName
attribute to store user names rather than the uid attribute. Choosing the MS Active Directory server
type and clicking Set Defaults sets the UI Access Attribute to sAMAccountName. As a result, the

53
Your User Account
Firepower System checks the sAMAccountName attribute for each object for matching user names
when a user attempts to log into the Firepower System.
In addition, a Shell Access Attribute of sAMAccountName causes each sAMAccountName attribute to
be checked for all objects in the directory for matches when a user logs into a shell or CLI account
on the appliance.
Note that because no base filter is applied to this server, the Firepower System checks attributes for
all objects in the directory indicated by the base distinguished name. Connections to the server time
out after the default time period (or the timeout period set on the LDAP server).
Advanced Example
This example illustrates an advanced configuration of an LDAP login authentication object for a
Microsoft Active Directory Server. The LDAP server in this example has an IP address of 10.11.3.4.
The connection uses port 636 for access.
This example shows a connection using a base distinguished name of

OU=security,DC=it,DC=example,DC=com for the security organization in the information technology
domain of the Example company. However, note that this server has a base filter of (cn=*smith).
The filter restricts the users retrieved from the server to those with a common name ending in smith.
The connection to the server is encrypted using SSL and a certificate named certificate.pem is
used for the connection. In addition, connections to the server time out after 60 seconds because of
the Timeout setting.

54
Your User Account
Because this server is a Microsoft Active Directory server, it uses the sAMAccountName attribute to
store user names rather than the uid attribute. Note that the configuration includes a UI Access
Attribute of sAMAccountName. As a result, the Firepower System checks the sAMAccountName attribute
for each object for matching user names when a user attempts to log into the Firepower System.
In addition, a Shell Access Attribute of sAMAccountName causes each sAMAccountName attribute to
be checked for all objects in the directory for matches when a user logs into a shell account on the
appliance.
This example also has group settings in place. The Maintenance User role is automatically assigned
to all members of the group with a member group attribute and the base domain name of
CN=SFmaintenance,DC=it,DC=example,DC=com.
The shell access filter is set to be the same as the base filter, so the same users can access the appliance
through the shell or CLI as through the web interface.

55
Your User Account
Add a RADIUS External Authentication Object

Any Any FTD Any Administrator

7000 and 8000
Series
FMC
Add a RADIUS server to support external users for device management.

For the FTD, only a subset of fields are used for CLI access. See Configure External Authentication for SSH,
on page 987 for details about which fields are used.
In a multidomain deployment, external authentication objects are only available in the domain in which they
are created.
Procedure

Step 3 Click Add External Authentication Object.
Step 4 Set the Authentication Method to RADIUS.
Step 5 Enter a Name and optional Description.
Step 6 For the Primary Server, enter a Host Name/IP Address.
Step 7 (Optional) Change the Port from the default.
Step 8 Enter the RADIUS Secret Key.
Step 9 (Optional) Enter the Backup Server parameters.
Step 10 (Optional) Enter RADIUS-Specific Parameters.
a) Enter the Timeout in seconds before retrying the primary server. The default is 30.
b) Enter the Retries before rolling over to the backup server. The default is 3.
c) In the fields that correspond to user roles, enter the name of each user or identifying attribute-value pair
that should be assigned to those roles.
Separate usernames and attribute-value pairs with commas.
Example:
If you know all users who should be Security Analysts have the value Analyst for their User-Category
attribute, you can enter User-Category=Analyst in the Security Analyst field to grant that role to those
users.
Example:
To grant the Administrator role to the users jsmith and jdoe, enter jsmith, jdoe in the Administrator
field.
Example:
To grant the Maintenance User role to all users with a User-Category value of Maintenance, enter
User-Category=Maintenance in the Maintenance User field.

56
Your User Account
d) Select the Default User Role for users that do not belong to any of the specified groups.
If you change a user's role, you must save/deploy the changed external authentication object and also remove
the user from the Users screen. The user will be re-added automatically the next time they log in.
Step 11 (Optional) Define Custom RADIUS Attributes.

If your RADIUS server returns values for attributes not included in the dictionary file in /etc/radiusclient/,
and you plan to use those attributes to set roles for users with those attributes, you need to define those
attributes. You can locate the attributes returned for a user by looking at the user’s profile on your RADIUS
server.
a) Enter an Attribute Name.
When you define an attribute, you provide the name of the attribute, which consists of alphanumeric
characters. Note that words in an attribute name should be separated by dashes rather than spaces.
b) Enter the Attribute ID as an integer.
The attribute ID should be an integer and should not conflict with any existing attribute IDs in the
etc/radiusclient/dictionary file.
c) Choose the Attribute Type from the drop-down list.

You also specify the type of attribute: string, IP address, integer, or date.
d) Click Add to add the custom attribute.
When you create a RADIUS authentication object, a new dictionary file for that object is created on the device
in the /var/sf/userauth directory. Any custom attributes you add are added to the dictionary file.
Example:
If a RADIUS server is used on a network with a Cisco router, you might want to use the
Ascend-Assign-IP-Pool attribute to grant a specific role to all users logging in from a specific IP address
pool. Ascend-Assign-IP-Pool is an integer attribute that defines the address pool where the user is allowed
to log in, with the integer indicating the number of the assigned IP address pool.
To declare that custom attribute, you create a custom attribute with an attribute name of
Ascend-IP-Pool-Definition, an attribute ID of 218, and an attribute type of integer.
You could then enter Ascend-Assign-IP-Pool=2 in the Security Analyst (Read Only) field to grant read-only
security analyst rights to all users with an Ascend-IP-Pool-Definition attribute value of 2.
Step 12 (Optional) In the Shell Access Filter area Administrator Shell Access User List field, enter the user names
that should have shell access, separated by commas.
Make sure that these usernames match usernames on the RADIUS server. The names must be Linux-valid
usernames and be lower-case only, using alphanumeric characters plus period (.) or hyphen (-). Other special
characters such as at sign (@) and slash (/) are not supported.
To prevent RADIUS authentication of shell access for , leave the field blank.
Note For the 7000 or 8000 Series and the Firepower Management Center, remove any internal users that
have the same user name as users included in the shell access filter. For the Firepower Management
Center, the only internal shell user is admin, so do not also create an admin external user.
For the FTD, if you previously configured the same username for an internal user, the FTD first
checks the password against the internal user, and if that fails, it checks the RADIUS server. Note
that you cannot later add an internal user with the same name as an external user; only pre-existing
internal users are supported.

57
Your User Account
Step 13 (Optional) Click Test to test FMC connectivity to the RADIUS server.
This function can only test FMC connectivity to the RADIUS server; there is no test function for managed
device connectivity to the RADIUS server.
Step 14 (Optional) You can also enter Additional Test Parameters to test user credentials for a user who should be
able to authenticate: enter a User Name and Password, and then click Test.
Tip If you mistype the name or password of the test user, the test fails even if the server configuration
is correct. To verify that the server configuration is correct, click Test without entering user
information in the Additional Test Parameters field first. If that succeeds, supply a user name and
password to test with the specific user.
Example:
To test if you can retrieve the JSmith user credentials at the Example company, enter JSmith and the correct
password.
Step 15 Click Save.

Step 16 Enable use of this server:
• Firepower Management Center—Enable External Authentication for Users on the Firepower Management
Center, on page 60
• FTD—Configure External Authentication for SSH, on page 987
Examples
Simple User Role Assignments
The following figure illustrates a sample RADIUS login authentication object for a server running
FreeRADIUS with an IP address of 10.10.10.98. Note that the connection uses port 1812 for access,
and note that connections to the server time out after 30 seconds of disuse, then retry three times
before attempting to connect to a backup authentication server.
This example illustrates important aspects of RADIUS user role configuration:
Users ewharton and gsand are granted web interface Administrative access.
The user cbronte is granted web interface Maintenance User access.
The user jausten is granted web interface Security Analyst access.
The user ewharton can log into the device using a shell account.
The following graphic depicts the role configuration for the example:

58
Your User Account
Roles for Users Matching an Attribute-Value Pair

You can use an attribute-value pair to identify users who should receive a particular user role. If the
attribute you use is a custom attribute, you must define the custom attribute.
The following figure illustrates the role configuration and custom attribute definition in a sample
RADIUS login authentication object for the same FreeRADIUS server as in the previous example.
In this example, however, the MS-RAS-Version custom attribute is returned for one or more of the
users because a Microsoft remote access server is in use. Note the MS-RAS-Version custom attribute
is a string. In this example, all users logging in to RADIUS through a Microsoft v. 5.00 remote access
server should receive the Security Analyst (Read Only) role, so you enter the attribute-value pair of
MS-RAS-Version=MSRASV5.00 in the Security Analyst (Read Only) field.

59
Your User Account
Enable External Authentication for Users on the Firepower Management Center
EnableExternalAuthenticationforUsersontheFirepowerManagementCenter
Any Any FMC Any Admin
When you enable external authentication for management users, the Firepower Management Center verifies
the user credentials with an LDAP or RADIUS server as specified in an External Authentication object.
Before you begin

Add 1 or more external authentication objects according to Add an LDAP External Authentication Object ,
on page 48 and Add a RADIUS External Authentication Object, on page 56.

60
Your User Account
Enable External Authentication for Users on Managed Devices
Procedure

Step 3 Set the default user role for external web interface users.
Users without a role cannot perform any actions. Any user roles defined in the external authentication object
overrides this default user role.
a) Click the Default User Roles value (by default, none selected).
a) In the Default User Role Configuration dialog box, check the role(s) that you want to use.
b) Click Save.
Step 4 Click the slider ( ) next to the each external authentication object that you want to use. If you enable
more than 1 object, then users are compared against servers in the order specified. See the next step to reorder
servers.
If you enable shell authentication, you must enable an external authentication object that includes a Shell
Access Filter. Also, shell access users can only authenticate against the server whose authentication object
is highest in the list.
Step 5 (Optional) Drag and drop servers to change the order in which authentication they are accessed when an
authentication request occurs.
Step 6 Choose Shell Authentication > Enabled if you want to allow shell access for external users.
The first external authentication object name is shown next to the Enabled option to remind you that only
the first object is used for shell access.
Step 7 Click Save and Apply.
Enable External Authentication for Users on Managed Devices

Enable External Authentication in the Platform Settings, and then deploy the settings to the managed devices.
See the following procedures for your managed device type:
• Firepower Threat Defense—Configure External Authentication for SSH, on page 987
Configure Common Access Card Authentication with LDAP


7000 and 8000 Network Admin
Series

61
Your User Account
Configure Common Access Card Authentication with LDAP
If your organization uses Common Access Cards (CACs), you can configure LDAP authentication to
authenticate FMC or 7000 and 8000 Series users logging into the web interface. With CAC authentication,
users have the option to log in directly without providing a separate username and password for the device.
CAC-authenticated users are identified by their electronic data interchange personal identifier (EDIPI) numbers.
After 24 hours of inactivity, the device deletes CAC-authenticated users from the Users tab. The users are
re-added after each subsequent login, but you must reconfigure any manual changes to their user roles.
Before you begin

You must have a valid user certificate present in your browser (in this case, a certificate passed to your browser
via your CAC) to enable user certificates as part of the CAC configuration process. After you configure CAC
authentication and authorization, users on your network must maintain the CAC connection for the duration
of their browsing session. If you remove or replace a CAC during a session, your web browser terminates the
session and the system logs you out of the web interface.
Procedure
Step 1 Insert a CAC as directed by your organization.

Step 2 Direct your browser to https://ipaddress_or_hostname/, where ipaddress or hostname corresponds to your
device.
Step 5 On the Login page, in the Username and Password fields, log in as a user with Administrator privileges.
You cannot yet log in using your CAC credentials.
Step 6 Choose System > Users > External Authentication.
Step 7 Create an LDAP authentication object exclusively for CAC, following the procedure in Add an LDAP External
Authentication Object , on page 48. You must configure the following:
• CAC checkbox.
• LDAP-Specific Parameters > Show Advanced Options > User Name Template.
• Attribute Mapping > UI Access Attribute.
Step 8 Click Save.

Step 9 Enable external authentication and CAC authentication as described in Enabling External Authentication to
Classic Devices, on page 975 or Enable External Authentication for Users on the Firepower Management
Center, on page 60.
Step 10 Choose System > Configuration, and click HTTPS Certificate.
Step 11 Import a HTTPS server certificate, if necessary, following the procedure outlined in Importing HTTPS Server
Certificates, on page 898.
The same certificate authority (CA) must issue the HTTPS server certificate and the user certificates on the
CACs you plan to use.
Step 12 Under HTTPS User Certificate Settings, choose Enable User Certificates. For more information, see
Requiring Valid HTTPS Client Certificates, on page 899 .

62
Your User Account
Customize User Roles for the Web Interface
Step 13 Log into the device according to Logging Into a 7000 or 8000 Series Device with CAC Credentials, on page
24 or Logging Into the Firepower Management Center with CAC Credentials, on page 24.
Customize User Roles for the Web Interface

Each user account must be defined with a user role. This section describes how to manage user roles and how
to configure a custom user role for web interface access. For default user roles, see Web Interface User Roles,
on page 41.
Note CLI/shell user roles are limited to Config and Basic roles. See CLI User Roles, on page 42 for more information.
Create Custom User Roles


7000 & 8000 Series
Custom user roles can have any set of menu-based and system permissions, and may be completely original,
copied from a predefined or another custom user role, or imported from another device.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the User Roles tab.
Step 3 Add a new user role with one of the following methods:
• Click Create User Role.
• Click the copy icon ( ) next to the user role you want to copy.
• Import a custom user role from another device:
1. On the old device, click the export icon ( ) to save the role to your PC.
2. On the new device, choose System > Tools > Import/Export.
3. Click Upload Package, then follow the instructions to import the saved user role to the new device.
Step 4 Enter a Name for the new user role. User role names are case sensitive.
Step 5 (Optional) Add a Description.
Step 6 Choose Menu-Based Permissions for the new role.

63
Your User Account
Create Custom User Roles
When you choose a permission, all of its children are chosen, and the multi-value permissions use the first
value. If you clear a high-level permission, all of its children are cleared also. If you choose a permission but
not its children, it appears in italic text.
Copying a predefined user role to use as the base for your custom role preselects the permissions associated
with that predefined role.
You can apply restrictive searches to a custom user role. These searches constrain the data a user can see in
the tables on the pages available under the Analysis menu. You can configure a restrictive search by first
creating a private saved search and selecting it from the Restrictive Search drop-down menu under the
appropriate menu-based permission.
Step 7 (Optional) Check the External Database Access checkbox to set database access permissions for the new
role.
This option provides read-only access to the database using an application that supports JDBC SSL connections.
For the third-party application to authenticate to the device, you must enable database access in the system
settings.
Step 8 (Optional) To set escalation permissions for the new user role, see Enable User Role Escalation, on page 65.
Step 9 Click Save.
Example
You can create custom user roles for access control-related features to designate whether users can
view and modify access control and associated policies.
The following table lists custom roles that you could create and user permissions granted for each
example. The table lists the privileges required for each custom role. In this example, Policy Approvers
can view (but not modify) access control and intrusion policies. They can also deploy configuration
changes to devices.
Table 1: Example Access Control Custom Roles
Custom Role Permission Example: Access Control Editor Example: Intrusion & Network Example: Policy Approver
Analysis Editor
Access Control yes no yes
Access Control Policy yes no yes
Modify Access Control Policy yes no no
Intrusion Policy no yes yes
Modify Intrusion Policy no yes no
Deploy Configuration to no no yes

Devices

64
Your User Account
Deactivate User Roles
Deactivate User Roles


7000 & 8000 Series
Deactivating a role removes that role and all associated permissions from any user who is assigned that role.
You cannot delete predefined user roles, but you can deactivate them.
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays custom user roles created in the current domain, which
you can edit. It also displays custom user roles created in ancestor domains, which you cannot edit. To view
and edit custom user roles in a lower domain, switch to that domain.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the User Roles tab.
Step 3 Click the slider next to the user role you want to activate or deactivate.
If the controls are dimmed, the configuration belongs to an ancestor domain, or you do not have permission
to modify the configuration.
If you deactivate, then reactivate, a role with Lights-Out Management while a user with that role is logged
in, or restore a user or user role from a backup during that user’s login session, that user must log back into
the web interface to regain access to IPMItool commands.
Enable User Role Escalation

For the Firepower Management Center, you can give custom user roles the permission, with a password, to
temporarily gain the privileges of another, targeted user role in addition to those of the base role. This feature
allows you to easily substitute one user for another during an absence, or to more closely track the use of
advanced user privileges. Default user roles do not support escalation.
For example, a user whose base role has very limited privileges can escalate to the Administrator role to
perform administrative actions. You can configure this feature so that users can use their own passwords, or
so they use the password of another user that you specify. The second option allows you to easily manage
one escalation password for all applicable users.
To configure user role escalation, see the following workflow.
Procedure
Step 1 Set the Escalation Target Role, on page 66. Only one user role at a time can be the escalation target role.
Step 2 Configure a Custom User Role for Escalation, on page 66.

65
Your User Account
Set the Escalation Target Role
Step 3 (For the logged in user) Escalate Your User Role, on page 67.
Set the Escalation Target Role

You can assign any of your user roles, predefined or custom, to act as the system-wide escalation target role.
This is the role to which a custom role can escalate, if it has the ability. Only one user role at a time can be
the escalation target role. Each escalation lasts for the duration of a login session and is recorded in the audit
log.
Procedure

Step 2 Click User Roles.
Step 3 Click Configure Permission Escalation.
Step 4 Choose a user role from the Escalation Target drop-down list.
Step 5 Click OK to save your changes.
Changing the escalation target role is effective immediately. Users in escalated sessions now have the
permissions of the new escalation target.
Configure a Custom User Role for Escalation

Users for whom you want to enable escalation must belong to a custom user role with escalation enabled.
This procedure describes how to enable escaltion for a custom user role.
Consider the needs of your organization when you configure the escalation password for a custom role. If
you want to easily manage many escalating users, you might want to choose another user whose password
serves as the escalation password. If you change that user’s password or deactivate that user, all escalating
users who require that password are affected. This action allows you to manage user role escalation more
efficiently, especially if you choose an externally-authenticated user that you can manage centrally.
Before you begin

Set a target user role according to Set the Escalation Target Role, on page 66.
Procedure
Step 1 Begin configuring your custom user role as described in Create Custom User Roles, on page 63.

66
Your User Account
Escalate Your User Role
Step 2 In the System Permissions area, choose the Set this role to escalate to: check box.
The current escalation target role is listed beside the check box.
Step 3 Choose the password that this role uses to escalate. You have two options:
• Choose Authenticate with the assigned user’s password if you want users with this role to use their
own passwords when they escalate, .
• Choose Authenticate with the specified user’s password and enter that username if you want users
with this role to use the password of another user.
Note When authenticating with another user’s password, you can enter any username, even that of
a deactivated or nonexistent user. Deactivating the user whose password is used for escalation
makes escalation impossible for users with the role that requires it. You can use this feature to
quickly remove escalation powers if necessary.
Step 4 Click Save.
Escalate Your User Role

Any Any FMC Any Any
When a user has an assigned custom user role with permission to escalate, that user can escalate to the target
role’s permissions at any time. Note that escalation has no effect on user preferences.
Procedure
Step 1 From the drop-down list under your user name, choose Escalate Permissions.
If you do not see this option, your administrator did not enable escalation for your user role.
Step 2 Enter the authentication password.

Step 3 Click Escalate. You now have all permissions of the escalation target role in addition to your current role.
Escalation lasts for the remainder of your login session. To return to the privileges of your base role only, you
must log out, then begin a new session.
Configure Cisco Security Manager Single Sign-on

Any Any ASA FirePOWER Any Administrator
Single sign-on enables integration between Cisco Security Manager (CSM) Version 4.7 or higher and the
Firepower Management Center, which allows you to access the Firepower Management Center from CSM

67
Your User Account
Troubleshooting LDAP Authentication Connections
without additional authentication to log in. When managing an ASA with the ASA FirePOWER module, you
may want to modify the policies deployed to the module. You can select the managing Firepower Management
Center in CSM and launch it in a web browser.
Note You cannot log in with single sign-on if your organization uses CACs for authentication.
Before you begin

• In NAT environments, the Firepower Management Center and CSM must reside on the same side of the
NAT boundary.
Procedure
Step 1 From CSM, generate a single sign-on shared encryption key that identifies the connection. See your CSM
documentation for more information.
Step 2 From the Firepower Management Center, choose System > Users.
Step 3 Choose CSM Single Sign-on.
Step 4 Enter the CSM hostname or IP address and the server Port.
Step 5 Enter the Shared key that you generated from CSM.
Step 6 (Optional) Click the Use Proxy For Connection check box if you want to use the Firepower Management
Center’s proxy server to communicate with CSM.
Step 7 Click Submit.
Step 8 Click Confirm Certificate to save the Certificate.

If you create an LDAP authentication object and it either does not succeed in connecting to the server you
select, or does not retrieve the list of users you want, you can tune the settings in the object.
If the connection fails when you test it, try the following suggestions to troubleshoot your configuration:
• Use the messages displayed at the top of the web interface screen and in the test output to determine
which areas of the object are causing the issue.
• Check that the user name and password you used for the object are valid:
• Check that the user has the rights to browse to the directory indicated in your base distinguished
name by connecting to the LDAP server using a third-party LDAP browser.
• Check that the user name is unique to the directory information tree for the LDAP server.
• If you see an LDAP bind error 49 in the test output, the user binding for the user failed. Try
authenticating to the server through a third-party application to see if the binding fails through that
connection as well.

68
Your User Account
• Check that you have correctly identified the server:

• Check that the server IP address or host name is correct.
• Check that you have TCP/IP access from your local appliance to the authentication server where
you want to connect.
• Check that access to the server is not blocked by a firewall and that the port you have configured
in the object is open.
• If you are using a certificate to connect via TLS or SSL, the host name in the certificate must match
the host name used for the server.
• Check that you have not used an IPv6 address for the server connection if you are authenticating
shell access.
• If you used server type defaults, check that you have the correct server type and click Set Defaults
again to reset the default values.
• If you typed in your base distinguished name, click Fetch DNs to retrieve all the available base
distinguished names on the server, and select the name from the list.
• If you are using any filters, access attributes, or advanced settings, check that each is valid and typed
correctly.
• If you are using any filters, access attributes, or advanced settings, try removing each setting and testing
the object without it.
• If you are using a base filter or a shell access filter, make sure that the filter is enclosed in parentheses
and that you are using a valid comparison operator.
• To test a more restricted base filter, try setting it to the base distinguished name for the user to retrieve
just that user.
• If you are using an encrypted connection:
• Check that the name of the LDAP server in the certificate matches the host name that you use to
connect.
• Check that you have not used an IPv6 address with an encrypted server connection.
• If you are using a test user, make sure that the user name and password are typed correctly.
• If you are using a test user, remove the user credentials and test the object.
• Test the query you are using by connecting to the LDAP server and using this syntax:
ldapsearch -x -b 'base_distinguished_name'
-h LDAPserver_ip_address -p port -v -D
'user_distinguished_name' -W 'base_filter'
For example, if you are trying to connect to the security domain on myrtle.example.com using the
domainadmin@myrtle.example.com user and a base filter of (cn=*), you could test the connection using
this statement:
ldapsearch -x -b 'CN=security,DC=myrtle,DC=example,DC=com'
-h myrtle.example.com -p 389 -v -D

69
Your User Account
History for User Accounts
'domainadmin@myrtle.example.com' -W '(cn=*)'
If you can test your connection successfully but authentication does not work after you deploy a platform
settings policy, check that authentication and the object you want to use are both enabled in the platform
settings policy that is applied to the device.
If you connect successfully but want to adjust the list of users retrieved by your connection, you can add or
change a base filter or shell access filter or use a more restrictive or less restrictive base DN.
History for User Accounts

Feature Version Details
External Authentication for FTD SSH 6.2.3 You can now configure external
Access authentication for SSH access to the FTD
using LDAP or RADIUS.
New/Modified screens:
Devices > Platform Settings > External
Authentication
Supported platforms: FTD

70
PA R T II
Firepower System Management
• Licensing the Firepower System, on page 73
• System Software Updates, on page 117
• Backup and Restore, on page 133
• Configuration Import and Export, on page 143
• Task Scheduling, on page 149
• FMC Database Purge, on page 169
• Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 171
• Device Management Basics, on page 191
CHAPTER 5
Licensing the Firepower System
The following topics explain how to license the Firepower System.
• About Firepower Licenses, on page 73
• License Requirements for Firepower Management Center, on page 73
• Evaluation License Caveats, on page 74
• Smart vs. Classic Licenses, on page 74
• Licensing for Deployments with Firepower Threat Defense Devices (Smart Licensing), on page 75
• Licensing for All Other Firepower Devices (Classic Licensing), on page 97
• How to Convert a Classic License or PAK to a Smart License, on page 105
• Assign Licenses to Managed Devices from the Device Management Page, on page 107
• Firepower License and Service Subscription Expiration, on page 108
• Additional Information about Firepower Licensing, on page 110
• Cisco Success Network, on page 111
• End-User License Agreement, on page 116
About Firepower Licenses

Your Firepower products (Firepower Management Center and managed devices) include licenses for basic
operation, but some features require separate licensing or service subscriptions, as described in this chapter.
A "right-to-use" license does not expire, but service subscriptions require periodic renewal.
The type of license your products require (Smart or Classic) depends on the software you use, not on the
hardware it runs on.
License Requirements for Firepower Management Center

Firepower Management Center allows you to assign licenses to managed devices and manage licenses for the
system.
A hardware Firepower Management Center does not require purchase of additional licenses or service
subscriptions in order to manage devices.

73
Evaluation License Caveats
Note Firepower Management Center Virtual does have additional licensing requirements. See Firepower Management
Center Virtual Licenses, on page 82.
A single Firepower Management Center can manage both devices that require Classic licenses and devices
that require Smart Licenses.
Evaluation License Caveats

Not all functionality is available with an evaluation license, functionality under an evaluation license may be
partial, and transition from evaluation licensing to standard licensing may not be seamless.
For example, if you have Firepower Threat Defense devices configured in a cluster, and you switch from an
evaluation license to Smart Licensing, service will be interrupted when you deploy the change.
Review information about evaluation license caveats in information about particular features in this Licensing
chapter and in the chapters related to deploying each feature.
Smart vs. Classic Licenses

While the licenses required for your managed devices are specific to your hardware, the type of licenses you
need (Smart or Classic) depends on the software product that runs on the device:
Software Product License Type
Firepower Management Center (hardware) FMC itself requires no license. It can simultaneously
manage devices with Smart and Classic licenses.
Firepower Management Center Virtual See Firepower Management Center Virtual Licenses,
on page 82.
Firepower Threat Defense Smart

Firepower Threat Defense Virtual
ASA with FirePOWER Services module Classic
Firepower NGIPS (hardware) Classic
Firepower NGIPS Virtual Classic
All other software products, including those that run See licensing information for your software product.
on Firepower hardware

74
Licensing for Deployments with Firepower Threat Defense Devices (Smart Licensing)
Important This documentation refers to devices by the software they run, irrespective of hardware model. For example,
a "Firepower Threat Defense device" is any hardware (or virtual) device that is running Firepower Threat
Defense software.
"NGFW" means different things to different people, so this documentation does not use this term.
Licensing for Deployments with Firepower Threat Defense

Devices (Smart Licensing)
Firepower Threat Defense devices require Smart Licensing.
Cisco Smart Licensing lets you purchase and manage a pool of licenses centrally. Unlike product authorization
key (PAK) licenses, Smart Licenses are not tied to a specific serial number or license key. Smart Licensing
lets you assess your license usage and needs at a glance.
In addition, Smart Licensing does not prevent you from using product features that you have not yet purchased.
You can start using a license immediately, as long as you are registered with the Cisco Smart Software
Manager, and purchase the license later. This allows you to deploy and use a feature, and avoid delays due
to purchase order approval.
How to License Firepower Threat Defense Devices Managed by Firepower

Management Center
Firepower Threat Defense devices use Smart Licensing.
Procedure
Step 1 Verify that your Firepower deployment requires Smart Licenses.

See Smart vs. Classic Licenses, on page 74.
If your Firepower deployment does not use Smart Licenses, do not use the remainder of this topic. Instead,
see Licensing for All Other Firepower Devices (Classic Licensing), on page 97.
If your deployment needs both types of licenses, you can follow this document for devices that require Smart
Licensing, then follow the instructions under Licensing for All Other Firepower Devices (Classic Licensing),
on page 97 for devices that use Classic licensing.
Step 2 If you do not already have a Smart Account, create one.

It is recommended that you have a Smart Account before you purchase licenses.
To create a new Smart Account, see Create a Smart Account to Hold Your Licenses, on page 86.
Note Your account representative may have created a Smart Account on your behalf. If so, make sure
you can access the account in the Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM) at
https://software.cisco.com/#module/SmartLicensing.

75
Step 3 Understand the platform licenses your organization needs:

• Firepower Management Center physical hardware:
This appliance comes with the licensing it needs; you do not need to do anything to activate this.
• Firepower Management Center virtual:
You need additional licenses.
For details, see Firepower Management Center Virtual Licenses, on page 82.
(If your FMCv will also manage devices that use Classic licenses, those devices will also require these
entitlements when you configure Classic licensing.)
• Firepower Threat Defense devices:
Each device automatically includes a license for basic functionality. For details, see Base Licenses, on
page 81.
You do not need to do anything to activate a base license, but many features require separate licensing,
which is discussed below.
Step 4 Understand the types of feature licenses (sometimes called service subscriptions) that your organization needs.
See Smart License Types and Restrictions, on page 80 and subtopics.
Step 5 Determine the number of feature licenses/service subscriptions that your organization needs.
• Generally, each managed device needs to be licensed for each feature you will use.
• For Firepower Management Centers in a high availability pair:
See FMC HA License Requirements, on page 173.
• For Firepower Threat Defense devices in a high availability pair:
Each device (whether active or standby) must be licensed for each feature to be used. No additional
licensing is required.
See License Requirements for FTD Devices in a High Availability Pair, on page 668.
• For clustered Firepower Threat Defense devices (intra- or inter-chassis clustering):
See Licenses for Clustering, on page 701.
(Clustering is available on Firepower 9300 and 4100 devices only.)
Step 6 If you have existing licenses that you need to convert or move:
• To transfer Smart Licenses that are currently registered to another Firepower Management Center:
See Transfer Smart Licenses to a Different Firepower Management Center, on page 94 and Deregister
a Firepower Management Center from the Cisco Smart Software Manager, on page 95.
• To move Smart Licenses that are currently registered to another Firepower Threat Defense device:
See Move or Remove Smart Licenses from Managed Devices, on page 94.
Step 7 If your Firepower system has restricted internet access:

Determine which solution is best for your situation:

76
• If your Firepower Management Center is not connected to the internet, but it can connect to an internal
server that can connect to Cisco's licensing authority, or can receive manual license updates:
Deploy a Smart Software Satellite Server. For information, see Smart Software Satellite Server Overview,
on page 89 and How to Deploy a Smart Software Satellite Server, on page 89.
Step 8 If you have multiple Firepower Management Center appliances and you want to connect to Cisco's licensing
authority through a single proxy:
Deploy a Smart Software Satellite Server. For information, see Smart Software Satellite Server Overview, on
page 89.
Step 9 If you want to enable features that use strong encryption and that are restricted by geographic region:
See Licensing for Export-Controlled Functionality, on page 85.
Step 10 Purchase the licenses you need:

Contact your Cisco sales representative or authorized reseller.
Step 11 Verify that your reseller or Cisco sales representative has added your licenses to your Smart Account.
Look in Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM): https://software.cisco.com/#SmartLicensing-Inventory.
In CSSM, click Inventory, then the Licenses tab. Filter the list as needed. You may need your purchase
confirmation in order to understand the license naming.
If you don't see the licenses you expect to see, make sure you are looking at the correct virtual account. For
assistance with this, see the resource links in CSSM.
If you still don't see your licenses, or the licenses are not correct, contact the person from whom you purchased
the licenses.
Step 12 After your virtual account (Smart Account) holds the licenses you expect, register your Firepower Management
Center to the Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM):
You must configure licensing in the Firepower Management Center using the web interface.
• If your Firepower Management Center connects directly to the CSSM:
See the following topics:
• Obtain a Product License Registration Token for Smart Licensing, on page 87 and
• Register Smart Licenses, on page 88
• If your Firepower Management Center connects to a Smart Software Satellite Server:

See Configure the Connection to a Smart Software Satellite Server, on page 90.
Step 13 Verify that registration was successful:

In the Firepower Management Center web interface, go to System > Licenses > Smart Licenses. Product
Registration should show a green checkmark.
Step 14 If you have not yet done so, add your devices to the Firepower Management Center as managed devices.
See Add Devices to the Firepower Management Center, on page 197
Step 15 Assign licenses to your managed Firepower Threat Defense devices:

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Smart Software Manager
See Assign Licenses to Multiple Managed Devices, on page 91
Step 16 Verify that licenses have successfully been added to your devices.
See View Your Smart Licenses and Smart Licenses Status, on page 92.
Step 17 As applicable, set up licensing for high-availability and clustered deployments:

• For Firepower Management Centers in a high availability pair:
See the prerequisites to Establishing Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 177.
After you configure FMC high-availability pairs, device licenses are automatically transferred from the
active to the standby management center. You do not need to configure anything specific for licensing.
• For Firepower Threat Defense devices in a high availability pair:
Assign the licenses for the features that you want to use to both the active and standby device before you
configure high availability. If the devices are licensed for different features, the licenses on the standby
device will be replaced with the same set of licenses as the active device.
• For clustered Firepower Threat Defense devices:
See Licenses for Clustering, on page 701. Licensing steps are included in FMC: Add a Cluster, on page
714.
What to do next
• (Optional) If your Firepower Management Center needs to manage ASA with FirePOWER Services,
7000 or 8000 Series, or NGIPSv devices, configure licensing for those devices:
See Licensing for All Other Firepower Devices (Classic Licensing), on page 97.
• Understand validity periods and expiration. See Firepower License and Service Subscription Expiration,
on page 108.
Smart Software Manager

When you purchase one or more Smart Licenses for Firepower features, you manage them in the Cisco Smart
Software Manager: http://www.cisco.com/web/ordering/smart-software-manager/index.html. The Smart
Software Manager lets you create a master account for your organization.
By default, your licenses are assigned to the Default Virtual Account under your master account. As the
account administrator, you can create additional virtual accounts; for example, for regions, departments, or
subsidiaries. Multiple virtual accounts help you manage large numbers of licenses and appliances.
You manage licenses and appliances by virtual account. Only that virtual account’s appliances can use the
licenses assigned to the account. If you need additional licenses, you can transfer an unused license from
another virtual account. You can also transfer appliances between virtual accounts.
For each virtual account, you can create a Product Instance Registration Token. Enter this token ID when you
deploy each Firepower Management Center, or when you register an existing FMC. You can create a new
token if an existing token expires. An expired token does not affect a registered FMC that used this token for
registration, but you cannot use an expired token to register a FMC. Also, a registered FMC becomes associated
with a virtual account based on the token you use.

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Periodic Communication with the License Authority
For more information about the Cisco Smart Software Manager, see Cisco Smart Software Manager User
Guide or https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/buy/smart-accounts/software-manager.html or the online help in
CSSM, also available from: https://www.cisco.com/web/fw/softwareworkspace/smartlicensing/
SSMCompiledHelps/.
Periodic Communication with the License Authority

In order to maintain your product license entitlement, your product must communicate periodically with the
Cisco License Authority.
When you use a Product Instance Registration Token to register a Firepower Management Center, the appliance
registers with the Cisco License Authority. The License Authority issues an ID certificate for communication
between the Firepower Management Center and the License Authority. This certificate is valid for one year,
although it will be renewed every six months. If an ID certificate expires (usually in nine months or a year
with no communication), the Firepower Management Center reverts to a deregistered state and licensed
features usage become suspended.
The Firepower Management Center communicates with the License Authority on a periodic basis. If you
make changes in the Smart Software Manager, you can refresh the authorization on the Firepower Management
Center so the changes immediately take effect. You also can wait for the appliance to communicate as scheduled.
Your Firepower Management Center must have either direct Internet access to the License Authority through
the Cisco Smart Software Manager or access through the Smart Software Satellite Server at scheduled time
periods. Normal license communication occurs every 30 days, but with the grace period, your appliance will
operate for up to 90 days without calling home. You must contact the License Authority before 90 days have
passed.
Optionally, you can configure a Smart Software Satellite Server to serve as a proxy for communicating with
the License Authority. For information, see Smart Software Satellite Server Overview, on page 89.
Service Subscriptions for Firepower Features (Smart Licensing)

Some features require a service subscription.
A service subscription enables a specific Firepower feature on a managed device for a set length of time.
Service subscriptions can be purchased in one-, three-, or five-year terms. If a subscription expires, Cisco
notifies you that you must renew the subscription. If a subscription expires for a Firepower Threat Defense
device, you can continue to use the related features.
Table 2: Service Subscriptions and Corresponding Smart Licenses
Subscription You Purchase Smart Licenses You Assign in Firepower System
T Threat
TC Threat + URL Filtering
TM Threat + Malware
TMC Threat + URL Filtering + Malware
URL URL Filtering (can be added to Threat or used without Threat)
AMP Malware (can be added to Threat or used without Threat)

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Smart License Types and Restrictions
Your purchase of a managed device that uses Smart Licenses automatically includes a Base license. This
license is perpetual and enables system updates. All service subscriptions are optional for Firepower Threat
Defense devices.
Smart License Types and Restrictions

This section describes the types of Smart Licenses available in a Firepower System deployment. The Firepower
Management Center requires Smart Licenses to manage Firepower Threat Defense devices.
The following table summarizes Firepower System Smart Licenses.
Table 3: Firepower System Smart Licenses
License You Assign in Subscription You Duration Granted Capabilities

Firepower System Purchase
Base No subscription required Perpetual User and application control

(license is included with
(Base licenses are automatically Switching and routing
device)
assigned with all Firepower
NAT
Threat Defense devices)
For details, see Base Licenses,
on page 81.
Threat •T Term-based Intrusion detection and

prevention
• TC (Threat + URL)
File control
• TMC (Threat +
Malware + URL) Security Intelligence filtering
For details, see Threat Licenses,
on page 82
Malware • TM (Threat + Term-based AMP for Networks

Malware) (network-based Advanced
Malware Protection)
• TMC (Threat +
Malware + URL) Cisco Threat Grid
• AMP File storage

For details, see Malware
Licenses for Firepower Threat
Defense Devices, on page 82
and License Requirements for
File and Malware Policies, on
page 1452.
URL Filtering • TC (Threat + URL) Term-based Category and reputation-based

URL filtering
• TMC (Threat +
Malware + URL) For details, see URL Filtering
Licenses for Firepower Threat
• URL Defense Devices, on page 83.

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Base Licenses
License You Assign in Subscription You Duration Granted Capabilities

Firepower System Purchase
Firepower Management Center No subscription Perpetual The platform license determines

Virtual required. the number of devices the virtual
appliance can manage.
For details, see Firepower
Management Center Virtual
Licenses, on page 82.
Export-Controlled Features No subscription Perpetual Features that are subject to

required. national security, foreign policy,
and anti-terrorism laws and
regulations; see Licensing for
Export-Controlled Functionality,
on page 85.
Remote Access VPN: Based on license type. Term-based or Remote access VPN
perpetual based configuration. Your base license
• AnyConnect Apex
on license type. must allow export-controlled
• AnyConnect Plus functionality to configure
Remote Access VPN. You select
• AnyConnect VPN Only whether you meet export
requirements when you register
the device. Firepower Threat
Defense can use any valid
AnyConnect license. The
available features do not differ
based on license type.
For details, see VPN Licenses,
on page 102.
Base Licenses
A base license is automatically included with every purchase of a Firepower Threat Defense or Firepower
Threat Defense Virtual device.
The Base license allows you to:
• configure your FTD devices to perform switching and routing (including DHCP relay and NAT)
• configure FTD devices as a high availability pair
• configure security modules as a cluster within a Firepower 9300 chassis (intra-chassis clustering)
• configure Firepower 9300 or Firepower 4100 series devices running Firepower Threat Defense as a
cluster (inter-chassis clustering)
• implement user and application control by adding user and application conditions to access control rules
Threat and malware detection and URL filtering features require additional, optional licenses.

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Firepower Management Center Virtual Licenses
Base licenses are automatically added to the Firepower Management Center for every Firepower Threat
Defense device you register.
Firepower Management Center Virtual Licenses

Generally, Firepower Management Center Virtual requires a license entitlement for each device that it will
manage.
If a Firepower Management Center Virtual appliance manages Firepower Threat Defense devices that are
configured in a high availability pair, you still need one entitlement for each device (not one entitlement for
the pair.)
This entitlement appears in Cisco Smart Software Manager as Firepower MCv Device License with different
numbers of entitlements.
Malware Licenses for Firepower Threat Defense Devices

A Malware license for Firepower Threat Defense devices allows you to perform Cisco Advanced Malware
Protection (AMP) with AMP for Networks and Cisco Threat Grid. With this feature, you can use Firepower
Threat Defense devices to detect and block malware in files transmitted over your network. To support this
feature license, you can purchase the Malware (AMP) service subscription as a stand-alone subscription or
in combination with Threat (TM) or Threat and URL Filtering (TMC) subscriptions.
Note Firepower Threat Defense managed devices with Malware licenses enabled periodically attempt to connect
to the AMP cloud even if you have not configured dynamic analysis. Because of this, the device’s Interface
Traffic dashboard widget shows transmitted traffic; this is expected behavior.
You configure AMP for Networks as part of a file policy, which you then associate with one or more access
control rules. File policies can detect your users uploading or downloading files of specific types over specific
application protocols. AMP for Networks allows you to use local malware analysis and file preclassification
to inspect a restricted set of those file types for malware. You can also download and submit specific file types
to the Cisco Threat Grid cloud for dynamic and Spero analysis to determine whether they contain malware.
For these files, you can view the network file trajectory, which details the path the file has taken through your
network. The Malware license also allows you to add specific files to a file list and enable the file list within
a file policy, allowing those files to be automatically allowed or blocked on detection.
If you disable all your Malware licenses, the system stops querying the AMP cloud, and also stops
acknowledging retrospective events sent from the AMP cloud. You cannot re-deploy existing access control
policies if they include AMP for Networks configurations. Note that for a very brief time after a Malware
license is disabled, the system can use existing cached file dispositions. After the time window expires, the
system assigns a disposition of Unavailable to those files.
Note that a Malware license is required only if you deploy AMP for Networks and Cisco Threat Grid. Without
a Malware license, the Firepower Management Center can receive AMP for Endpoints malware events and
indications of compromise (IOC) from the AMP cloud.
See also important information at License Requirements for File and Malware Policies, on page 1452.
Threat Licenses
A Threat license allows you to perform intrusion detection and prevention, file control, and Security Intelligence
filtering:

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URL Filtering Licenses for Firepower Threat Defense Devices
• Intrusion detection and prevention allows you to analyze network traffic for intrusions and exploits and,
optionally, drop offending packets.
• File control allows you to detect and, optionally, block users from uploading (sending) or downloading
(receiving) files of specific types over specific application protocols. AMP for Networks, which requires
a Malware license, allows you to inspect and block a restricted set of those file types based on their
dispositions.
• Security Intelligence filtering allows you to blacklist—deny traffic to and from—specific IP addresses,
URLs, and DNS domain names, before the traffic is subjected to analysis by access control rules. Dynamic
feeds allow you to immediately blacklist connections based on the latest intelligence. Optionally, you
can use a “monitor-only” setting for Security Intelligence filtering.
You can purchase a Threat license as a stand-alone subscription (T) or in combination with URL Filtering
(TC), Malware (TM), or both (TMC).
If you disable Threat on managed devices, the Firepower Management Center stops acknowledging intrusion
and file events from the affected devices. As a consequence, correlation rules that use those events as a trigger
criteria stop firing. Additionally, the Firepower Management Center will not contact the internet for either
Cisco-provided or third-party Security Intelligence information. You cannot re-deploy existing intrusion
policies until you re-enable Threat.
URL Filtering Licenses for Firepower Threat Defense Devices

The URL Filtering license allows you to write access control rules that determine the traffic that can traverse
your network based on URLs requested by monitored hosts, correlated with information about those URLs.
To support this feature license, you can purchase the URL Filtering (URL) service subscription as a stand-alone
subscription or in combination with Threat (TC) or Threat and Malware (TMC) subscriptions.
Tip Without a URL Filtering license, you can specify individual URLs or groups of URLs to allow or block. This
gives you granular, custom control over web traffic, but does not allow you to use URL category and reputation
data to filter network traffic.
Although you can add category and reputation-based URL conditions to access control rules without a URL
Filtering license, the Firepower Management Center will not download URL information. You cannot deploy
the access control policy until you first add a URL Filtering license to the Firepower Management Center,
then enable it on the devices targeted by the policy.
If you disable the URL Filtering license on managed devices, you may lose access to URL filtering. If your
license expires or if you disable it, access control rules with URL conditions immediately stop filtering URLs,
and your Firepower Management Center can no longer download updates to URL data. You cannot re-deploy
existing access control policies if they include rules with category and reputation-based URL conditions.
AnyConnect Licenses
You can use Firepower Threat Defense device to configure remote access VPN using the Cisco AnyConnect
Secure Mobility Client (AnyConnect) and standards-based IPSec/IKEv2.
You cannot deploy the Remote Access VPN configuration to the FTD device if the specified device does not
have the entitlement for a minimum of one of the specified AnyConnect license types. If the registered license
moves out of compliance or entitlements expire, the system displays licensing alerts and health events.

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AnyConnect Licenses
While using Remote Access VPN, your Smart License Account must have the export controlled features
(strong encryption) enabled. The FTD requires stronger encryption (which is higher than DES) for successfully
establishing Remote Access VPN connections with AnyConnect clients. When you register the device, you
must do so with a Smart Software Manager account that is enabled for export-controlled features. For more
information about export-controlled features, see Smart License Types and Restrictions, on page 80.
You cannot deploy Remote Access VPN if the following are true:
• Smart Licensing on the Firepower Management Center is running in evaluation mode.
• Your Smart Account is not configured to use export-controlled features (strong encryption). Note that
you need to reboot FTD devices after applying a base license that has export-controlled functionality.
Capacity Planning
The maximum VPN sessions are governed by platform-specific limits and have no dependency on the license.
There is a maximum limit to the number of concurrent remote access VPN sessions allowed on a device based
on the device model. This limit is designed so that system performance does not degrade to unacceptable
levels. Use these limits for capacity planning.
Device Model Maximum Concurrent Remote Access VPN Sessions
Firepower 2110 1500
Firepower 2120 3500
Firepower 2130 7500
Firepower 2140 10000
For capacity of other hardware models, contact your sales representative.
Note The FTD device denies the VPN connections once the maximum session limit per platform is reached. The
connection is denied with a syslog message. Refer the syslog messages %ASA-4-113029 and %ASA-4-113038
in the syslog messaging guide. For more information, see http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/
syslog-guide/syslogs.html
Controlling Which Ciphers Are Used

To prevent use of ciphers greater than DES, pre-deployment checks are available at the following locations
in the Firepower Management Center:
Devices > Platform Settings > SSL Settings
Devices > VPN > Remote Access > Advanced > IPsec
For more information about SSL settings and IPsec, see Configure SSL Settings , on page 995 and Configure
Remote Access VPN IPsec/IKEv2 Parameters, on page 870.

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Licensing for Export-Controlled Functionality
Licensing for Export-Controlled Functionality
Features that require export-controlled functionality

Certain software features are subject to national security, foreign policy, and anti-terrorism laws and regulations.
These export-controlled features include:
• Security certifications compliance
• Firepower Threat Defense Remote Access VPN
• Site to Site VPN with strong encryption
• SSH platform policy with strong encryption
• SSL policy with strong encryption
• Functionality such as SNMPv3 with strong encryption
How to determine whether export-controlled functionality is currently enabled for your system
To determine whether export-controlled functionality is currently enabled for your system: Go to System >
Licenses > Smart Licenses and see if Export-Controlled Features displays Enabled.
About enabling export-controlled functionality

If Export-Controlled Features shows Disabled and you want to use features that require strong encryption:
• If there is no option to enable export-controlled functionality when you generate a new Product Instance
Registration Token in Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM):
Your Smart Account is not authorized to use this functionality.
• If the option to use export-controlled functionality appears when you generate a new Product Instance
Registration Token in Cisco Smart Software Manager:
• In order to use export-controlled functionality, your Smart Account must be enabled for this
functionality before you license your Firepower Management Center.
• After export-controlled functionality is enabled for your Smart Account in Cisco Smart Software
Manager (CSSM), you must re-register your Firepower Management Center using a new Product
Instance Registration Token.
• When you create the new Product Instance Registration Token, you must select the option “Allow
export-controlled functionality on the products registered with this token.” This option is enabled
by default if this functionality is permitted for your Smart Account.
• After you install a token with export-controlled functionality on your Firepower Management Center
and assign the relevant licenses to managed Firepower Threat Defense devices:
• Reboot each device to make the newly-enabled features available.
• In a high availability deployment, the active and standby devices must be rebooted together to
avoid an Active-Active condition.

85
Licensing for High-Availability Configurations
More Information
For general information about export controls, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/
global-export-trade.html.
Licensing for High-Availability Configurations

See:
• For Firepower Management Center appliances in a high-availability pair:
License Requirements, on page 173
• For Firepower Threat Defense devices in a high-availability pair:
License Requirements for FTD Devices in a High Availability Pair, on page 668
See also the topics for specific license types under the Smart License Types and Restrictions, on page 80
topic.
Licensing for FTD Clusters

In addition to information in this Licensing chapter, see:
• Licenses for Clustering, on page 701
•
• FMC: Add a Cluster, on page 714.
Create a Smart Account to Hold Your Licenses

A Smart Account is required for Smart Licenses and can also hold Classic licenses.
You should set up this account before you purchase Smart Licenses.
Before you begin

Your account representative or reseller may have set up a Smart Account on your behalf. If so, obtain the
necessary information to access the account from that person instead of using this procedure, then verify that
you can access the account.
For general information about Smart Accounts, see http://www.cisco.com/go/smartaccounts.
Procedure
Step 1 Request a Smart Account:

For instructions, see https://community.cisco.com/t5/licensing-enterprise-agreements/
request-a-smart-account-for-customers/ta-p/3636515?attachment-id=150577 .
For additional information, see https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-57261.
Step 2 Wait for an email telling you that your Smart Account is ready to set up. When it arrives, click the link it
contains, as directed.
Step 3 Set up your Smart Account:

86
Smart Licensing with Direct Internet Access
Go here: https://software.cisco.com/software/company/smartaccounts/home?route=module/accountcreation.
For instructions, see https://community.cisco.com/t5/licensing-enterprise-agreements/
complete-smart-account-setup-for-customers/ta-p/3636631?attachment-id=132604.
Step 4 Verify that you can access the account in the Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM).
Go to https://software.cisco.com/#module/SmartLicensing and sign in.
Smart Licensing with Direct Internet Access

For the end-to-end process, see How to License Firepower Threat Defense Devices Managed by Firepower
Management Center , on page 75
Obtain a Product License Registration Token for Smart Licensing
Before you begin

• Create a Smart Account, if you have not already done so: Visit https://software.cisco.com/smartaccounts/
setup#accountcreation-account. For information, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/buy/
smart-accounts.html.
• Ensure that you have purchased the type and number of licenses you require.
• Verify that the licenses you need appear in your Smart Account.
If your licenses do not appear in your Smart Account, ask the person who ordered them (for example,
your Cisco sales representative or authorized reseller) to transfer those licenses to your Smart Account.
• Ideally, check the prerequisites for Register Smart Licenses, on page 88 to ensure that your registration
process goes smoothly.
• Make sure you have your credentials to sign in to the Cisco Smart Software Manager.
Procedure
Step 1 Go to https://software.cisco.com.
Step 2 Click Smart Software Licensing (in the Licensing section.)
Step 3 Sign in to the Cisco Smart Software Manager.
Step 4 Click Inventory.
Step 5 Click General.
Step 6 Click New Token.
Step 7 For Description, enter a name that uniquely and clearly identifies the Firepower Management Center for
which you will use this token.
Step 8 Enter an expiration time within 365 days.
This determines how much time you have to register the token to a Firepower Management Center. (Your
license entitlement term is independent of this setting but may start to count down even if you have not yet
registered your token.)

87
Register Smart Licenses
Step 9 If you see an option to enable export-controlled functionality, and you plan to use features that require strong
encryption, select this option.
Important If you see this option, you must select it now if you plan to use this functionality. You cannot enable
export-controlled functionality later.
If you do not see this option but you expect to, cancel out of this procedure now and contact your
Cisco account representative.
Step 10 Click Create Token.

Step 11 Locate your new token in the list and click Actions, then choose Copy or Download.
Step 12 If necessary, save your token in a safe place until you are ready to enter it into your Firepower Management
Center.
What to do next
Continue with the steps in Register Smart Licenses, on page 88.
Register Smart Licenses

Any N/A Firepower Threat Global only Admin

Defense
Register the Firepower Management Center with the Cisco Smart Software Manager.
Before you begin

• If you are using a Smart Software Satellite Server, do not use this procedure. Instead, see Configure the
Connection to a Smart Software Satellite Server, on page 90.
• Ensure that the Firepower Management Center can reach the Cisco Smart Software Manager (CSSM)
server at tools.cisco.com:443. For details, see the appendix of the Firepower Management Center
Configuration Guide. Managed devices do not need to contact CSSM.
• Make sure the NTP daemon is running on your Firepower Management Center. During registration, a
key exchange occurs between the NTP server and the Cisco Smart Software Manager, so time must be
in sync for proper registration.
If you are deploying FTD on a Firepower 4100/9300 chassis, you must configure NTP on the Firepower
chassis using the same NTP server for the chassis as for the Firepower Management Center.
• Make sure each Firepower Management Center has a unique name that clearly identifies and distinguishes
it from other Firepower Management Center appliances that may be registered to the same virtual account.
This name is critical for managing your Smart License entitlements and ambiguous names will lead to
problems later.
• Generate the necessary product license registration token from the Cisco Smart Software Manager. See
Obtain a Product License Registration Token for Smart Licensing, on page 87, including all prerequisites.
Make sure the token is accessible from the machine from which you will access your Firepower
Management Center.

88
Smart Software Satellite Server Overview
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Licenses > Smart Licenses.

Step 2 In the Firepower Management Center’s web interface, click Register.
Step 3 Paste the token you generated from the into the Product Instance Registration Token field.
Make sure there are no empty spaces or blank lines at the beginning or end of the text.
Step 4 Decide whether to send usage data to Cisco.

Enable Cisco Success Network is enabled by default. You can click sample data to see the kind of data
Cisco collects. To help you make your decision, read the Cisco Success Network information block.
Step 5 Click Apply Changes.
What to do next
• Add your Firepower Threat Defense devices to the Firepower Management Center; see Add Devices to
the Firepower Management Center, on page 197.
• Assign licenses to your Firepower Threat Defense devices; see Assign Licenses to Multiple Managed
Devices, on page 91.
Smart Software Satellite Server Overview

As described in Periodic Communication with the License Authority, on page 79, your system must
communicate regularly with Cisco to maintain your license entitlement. If you have one of the following
situations, you might want to use a Smart Software Satellite Server as a proxy for connections to the License
Authority:
• Your Firepower Management Center is offline or otherwise has limited or no connectivity (in other
words, is deployed in an air-gapped network.)
• Your Firepower Management Center has permanent connectivity, but you want to manage your Smart
Licenses via a single connection from your network.
The Smart Software Satellite Server allows you to schedule synchronization or manually synchronize Smart
License authorization with the Smart Software Manager.
For more information about the Smart Software Satellite Server, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/buy/
smart-accounts/software-manager-satellite.html.
How to Deploy a Smart Software Satellite Server
Procedure
Step 1 Deploy and set up a Smart Software Satellite Server.

See the Smart Software Manager Satellite User Guide, available from https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/buy/
smart-accounts/software-manager-satellite.html.

89
Configure the Connection to a Smart Software Satellite Server
Step 2 Connect the Firepower Management Center to the satellite, obtain a registration token, and register the
management center to the satellite.
See Configure the Connection to a Smart Software Satellite Server, on page 90.
Step 3 Add devices to be managed.

See Add Devices to the Firepower Management Center, on page 197.
Step 4 Assign licenses to managed devices

See Assign Licenses to Multiple Managed Devices, on page 91
Step 5 Synchronize the satellite to the Cisco Smart Software Management Server (CSSM).
See the Smart Software Manager Satellite User Guide you used above.
Step 6 Schedule ongoing synchronization times.
Configure the Connection to a Smart Software Satellite Server

Defense
Before you begin

• Set up a Smart Software Satellite Server. For information, see How to Deploy a Smart Software Satellite
Server, on page 89.
• Make a note of the CN of the TLS/SSL certificate on your Satellite server.
• Verify that your FMC can reach your Smart Software Satellite Server. For example, verify that the FQDN
configured as the satellite server call-home URL can be resolved by your internal DNS server.
• Go to http://www.cisco.com/security/pki/certs/clrca.cer and copy the entire body of the TLS/SSL certificate
(from "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----" to "-----END CERTIFICATE-----") into a place you can access
during configuration.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Integration.

Step 2 Click the Smart Software Satellite tab.
Step 3 Select Connect to Cisco Smart Software Satellite Server.
Step 4 Enter the URL of your Smart Software Satellite Server, using the CN value you collected in the prerequisites
of this procedure, in the following format:
https://FQDN_or_hostname_of_Satellite/Transportgateway/services/DeviceRequestHandler
The FQDN or hostname must match the CN value of the certificate presented by the satellite.

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Assign Licenses to Multiple Managed Devices
Step 5 Add a new SSL Certificate and paste the certificate text that you copied in the prerequisites for this procedure.
Step 6 Click Apply.
Step 7 Select System > Licenses > Smart Licenses and click Register.
Step 8 Create a new token on the Smart Satellite Server.
Step 9 Copy the token.
Step 10 Paste the token into the form on the management center page.
Step 11 Click Apply Changes.
The management center is now registered to the Smart Software Satellite Server.
What to do next
Complete remaining steps in How to Deploy a Smart Software Satellite Server, on page 89.
Assign Licenses to Multiple Managed Devices


Defense
Devices managed by a Firepower Management Center obtain their licenses via the Firepower Management
Center, not directly from the Cisco Smart Software Manager.
Use this procedure to enable Smart Licenses on multiple Firepower Threat Defense devices at once.
Note For an FTD cluster, you apply the licenses to the cluster as a whole; note that each unit in the cluster consumes
a separate license per feature.
Before you begin

• If you have not yet done so, register your devices with the Firepower Management Center. See Add
Devices to the Firepower Management Center, on page 197.
• Prepare licenses for distribution to managed devices: See Register Smart Licenses, on page 88
Procedure

Step 2 Click Edit Licenses.
Step 3 For each type of license you want to add to a device:
a) Click the tab for that type of license.
b) Click a device in the list on the left.
c) Click Add to move that device to the list on the right.

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View Your Smart Licenses and Smart Licenses Status
d) Repeat for each device to receive that type of license.

For now, don't worry about whether you have licenses for all of the devices you want to add.
e) Repeat this subprocedure for each type of license you want to add.
f) Click Apply.
What to do next
• Verify that your licenses are correctly installed. Follow the procedure in View Your Smart Licenses and
Smart Licenses Status, on page 92.
• If export-controlled functionality is newly enabled, reboot each device. If devices are configured in a
high-availability pair, reboot both devices at the same time to avoid an Active-Active condition.
• Deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.
View Your Smart Licenses and Smart Licenses Status


Defense
Use the Smart Licenses page to view the Smart Licenses for a Firepower Management Center and its managed
Firepower Threat Defense devices. For each type of license in your deployment, the page lists the total number
of licenses consumed, whether the license is in compliance or out of compliance, the device type, and the
domain and group where the device is deployed. You can also view the Firepower Management Center's
Smart License Status.
Other than the Smart Licenses page, there are a few other ways you can view licenses:
• The Product Licensing dashboard widget provides an at-a-glance overview of your licenses.
See Adding Widgets to a Dashboard, on page 234 and Dashboard Widget Availability by User Role, on
page 221 and The Product Licensing Widget, on page 230.
• The Device Management page (Devices > Device Management) lists the licenses applied to each of
your managed devices.
• The Smart License Monitor health module communicates license status when used in a health policy.
Procedure

Step 2 In the Smart Licenses table, click the arrow at the left side of each License Type folder to expand that folder.
Step 3 In each folder, verify that each device has a green circle with a check mark in it ( ) in the License Status
column.

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Smart License Status
Note If you see duplicate Firepower Management Center Virtual licenses, each represents one managed
device.
If all devices show a green circle with a check mark ( ), your devices are properly licensed and ready to
use.
If you see any License Status other than a green circle with a check mark ( ), hover over the status icon to
view the message.
What to do next
• If you had any devices that did NOT have a green circle with a check mark ( ), you may need to
purchase more licenses.
Smart License Status

The Smart License Status section of the System > Licenses > Smart Licenses page provides an overview of
license usage on the Firepower Management Center, as described below.
Usage Authorization
Possible status values are:
• — All licenses assigned to managed devices are in compliance and the Firepower Management Center
is communicating successfully with the Cisco licensing authority.
• — Device licenses are in compliance, but the Firepower Management Center is not able to communicate
with the Cisco licensing authority.
• — One or more managed devices is using a license that is out of compliance, or the Firepower
Management Center has not communicated with the Cisco licensing authority in more than 90 days.
Product Registration
Specifies the last date when the Firepower Management Center contacted the License Authority and registered.
Assigned Virtual Account

Specifies the Virtual Account under the Smart Account that you used to generate the Product Instance
Registration Token and register the Firepower Management Center. If this deployment is not associated with
a particular virtual account within your Smart Account, this information is not displayed.
Export-Controlled Features
If this option is enabled, you can deploy restricted features. For details, see Licensing for Export-Controlled
Functionality, on page 85.

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Move or Remove Smart Licenses from Managed Devices
Cisco Success Network

Specifies whether you have enabled Cisco Success Network for the Firepower Management Center. If this
option is enabled, you provide usage information and statistics to Cisco which are essential to provide you
with technical support. This information also allows Cisco to improve the product and make you aware of
unused available features so that you can maximize the value of the product in your network. See Cisco
Success Network, on page 111 for more information.
Move or Remove Smart Licenses from Managed Devices


Defense
Use this procedure to move a license from one Firepower Threat Defense device to another device registered
to the same Firepower Management Center, or to remove a license from a device. If you remove (disable) a
license for a device, you cannot use the features associated with that license on that device.
Important If you need to move a license to a device managed by a different Firepower Management Center, see Transfer
Smart Licenses to a Different Firepower Management Center, on page 94.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Edit Licenses.
Step 3 Click either the Malware, Threat, URL Filtering, AnyConnect Plus, AnyConnect Apex, or AnyConnect
VPN Only tab.
Step 4 Choose the devices you want to license, then click Add, and/or click each device form which you want to
remove a license and click the delete icon ( ).
Step 5 Click Apply.
What to do next
Deploy the changes to the managed devices.
Transfer Smart Licenses to a Different Firepower Management Center

When you register a Smart License to a Firepower Management Center, your virtual account allocates the
license to the FMC. If you need to transfer your Smart Licenses to another Firepower Management Center,
you must deregister the currently licensed FMC. This removes it from your virtual account and frees your
existing licenses, so you can register the licenses to the new FMC. Otherwise, you may receive an
Out-of-Compliance notification because your virtual account does not have enough free licenses.

94
If Smart License Status is Out of Compliance
See Deregister a Firepower Management Center from the Cisco Smart Software Manager, on page 95, then
search for "Transferring a license" in the Cisco Smart Software Management Center online help.
If Smart License Status is Out of Compliance


Defense
If the Usage Authorization status on the Smart Licenses page (System > Licenses > Smart Licenses) shows
Out of Compliance, you must take action.
Procedure
Step 1 Look at the Smart Licenses section at the bottom of the page to determine which licenses are needed.
Step 2 Purchase the required licenses through your usual channels.
Step 3 In Cisco Smart Software Manager (https://software.cisco.com/#SmartLicensing-Inventory), verify that the
licenses appear in your virtual account.
If the expected licenses are not present, see Troubleshoot Smart Licensing, on page 96.
Step 4 In Firepower Management Center, select System > Licenses > Smart Licenses.
Step 5 Click the Re-Authorize button.
Deregister a Firepower Management Center from the Cisco Smart Software

Manager

Defense
Deregister (unregister) your Firepower Management Center from the Cisco Smart Software Manager before
you reinstall (reimage) the appliance, or if you need to release all of the license entitlements back to your
Smart Account for any reason.
Deregistering removes the FMC from your virtual account. All license entitlements associated with the
Firepower Management Center release back to your virtual account. After deregistration, the Firepower
Management Center enters Enforcement mode where no update or changes on licensed features are allowed.
If you need to remove the licenses from a subset of managed Firepower Threat Defense devices, see Assign
Licenses to Multiple Managed Devices, on page 91 or Assign Licenses to Managed Devices from the Device
Management Page, on page 107.

95
Synchronize a Firepower Management Center with the Cisco Smart Software Manager
Procedure

Step 2 Click the deregister icon ( ).
Synchronize a Firepower Management Center with the Cisco Smart Software

Manager

Defense
If you make changes in the Cisco Smart Software Manager, you can refresh the authorization on the Firepower
Management Center so the changes immediately take effect.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the refresh icon ( ).
Troubleshoot Smart Licensing

Expected Licenses Do Not Appear in My Smart Account
If the licenses you expect to see are not in your Smart Account, try the following:
• Make sure they are not in a different Virtual Account. Your organization's license administrator may
need to assist you with this.
• Check with the person who sold you the licenses to be sure that transfer to your account is complete.
Unexpected Out-of-Compliance Notification or Other Error

• If a device is already registered to a different FMC, you need to deregister the original FMC before you
can license the device under a new FMC. See Deregister a Firepower Management Center from the Cisco
Smart Software Manager, on page 95.
• Try synchronizing: Synchronize a Firepower Management Center with the Cisco Smart Software Manager,
on page 96.

96
Licensing for All Other Firepower Devices (Classic Licensing)
Licensing for All Other Firepower Devices (Classic Licensing)

7000 and 8000 Series devices, NGIPSv devices, and ASA FirePOWER modules require Classic licenses.
These devices are frequently referred to in this documentation as Classic devices.
Important If you are running Firepower hardware but not Firepower software, see licensing information for the software
product you are using. This documentation is not applicable.
Classic licenses require a product authorization key (PAK) to activate and are device-specific. Classic licensing
is sometimes also referred to as "traditional licensing."
Product License Registration Portal

When you purchase one or more Classic licenses for Firepower features, you manage them in the Cisco Product
License Registration Portal:
http://www.cisco.com/web/go/license
For more information on using this portal, see:
https://www.cisco.com/web/fw/tools/swift/xui/html/help.html
Service Subscriptions for Firepower Features (Classic Licensing)

Some features require a service subscription.
A service subscription enables a specific Firepower feature on a managed device for a set length of time.
Service subscriptions can be purchased in one-, three-, or five-year terms. If a subscription expires, Cisco
notifies you that you must renew the subscription. If a subscription expires for a Classic device, you might
not be able to use the related features, depending on the feature type.
Table 4: Service Subscriptions and Corresponding Classic Licenses
Subscription You Purchase Classic Licenses You Assign in Firepower System
TA Control + Protection (a.k.a. "Threat & Apps," required for system

updates)
TAC Control + Protection + URL Filtering
TAM Control + Protection + Malware
TAMC Control + Protection + URL Filtering + Malware
URL URL Filtering (add-on where TA is already present)
AMP Malware (add-on where TA is already present)

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Classic License Types and Restrictions
Your purchase of a managed device that uses Classic licenses automatically includes Control and Protection
licenses. These licenses are perpetual, but you must also purchase a TA service subscription to enable system
updates. Service subscriptions for additional features are optional.
Classic License Types and Restrictions

This section describes the types of Classic licenses available in a Firepower System deployment. The licenses
you can enable on a device depend on its model, version, and the other licenses enabled.
Licenses are model-specific for 7000 and 8000 Series devices, NGIPSv devices, and ASA FirePOWER
modules. You cannot enable a license on a managed device unless the license exactly matches the device’s
model. For example, you cannot use a Firepower 8250 Malware license (FP8250-TAM-LIC=) to enable
Malware capabilities on an 8140 device; you must purchase a Firepower 8140 Malware license
(FP8140-TAM-LIC=).
Note For NGIPSv or ASA FirePOWER, the Control license allows you to perform user and application control,
but these devices do not support switching, routing, stacking, or 7000 and 8000 Series device high availability.
There are a few ways you may lose access to licensed features in the Firepower System:
• You can remove Classic licenses from the Firepower Management Center, which affects all of its managed
devices.
• You can disable licensed capabilities on specific managed devices.
Though there are some exceptions, you cannot use the features associated with an expired or deleted license.
The following table summarizes Classic licenses in the Firepower System.
Table 5: Firepower System Classic Licenses
License You Assign Service Subscription Platforms Granted Capabilities Also Expire
in Firepower System You Purchase Requires Capable?
Any TA, TAC, TAM, or 7000 and 8000 Series host, application, and user none depends on
TAMC discovery license
ASA FirePOWER
decrypting and inspecting
NGIPSv
SSL- and TLS-encrypted
traffic
Protection TA (included with 7000 and 8000 Series intrusion detection and none no
device) prevention
ASA FirePOWER
file control
NGIPSv
Security Intelligence
filtering

98
Protection Licenses
License You Assign Service Subscription Platforms Granted Capabilities Also Expire
in Firepower System You Purchase Requires Capable?
Control none (included with 7000 and 8000 Series user and application control Protection no
device)
switching and routing
7000 and 8000 Series device
high availability
7000 and 8000 Series
network address translation
(NAT)
Control none (included with ASA FirePOWER user and application control Protection no
device)
NGIPSv
Malware TAM, TAMC, or 7000 and 8000 Series AMP for Networks Protection yes
AMP (network-based Advanced
ASA FirePOWER
Malware Protection)
NGIPSv
File storage
URL Filtering TAC, TAMC, or 7000 and 8000 Series category and Protection yes
URL reputation-based URL
ASA FirePOWER
filtering
NGIPSv
VPN none (contact Sales 7000 and 8000 Series deploying virtual private Control yes
for more networks
information)
Protection Licenses
A Protection license allows you to perform intrusion detection and prevention, file control, and Security
Intelligence filtering:
• Intrusion detection and prevention allows you to analyze network traffic for intrusions and exploits and,
optionally, drop offending packets.
• File control allows you to detect and, optionally, block users from uploading (sending) or downloading
(receiving) files of specific types over specific application protocols. AMP for Networks, which requires
a Malware license, allows you to inspect and block a restricted set of those file types based on their
dispositions.
• Security Intelligence filtering allows you to blacklist—deny traffic to and from—specific IP addresses,
URLs, and DNS domain names, before the traffic is subjected to analysis by access control rules. Dynamic
feeds allow you to immediately blacklist connections based on the latest intelligence. Optionally, you
can use a “monitor-only” setting for Security Intelligence filtering.
A Protection license (along with a Control license) is automatically included in the purchase of any Classic
managed device. This license is perpetual, but you must also purchase a TA subscription to enable system
updates.

99
Control Licenses
Although you can configure an access control policy to perform Protection-related inspection without a license,
you cannot deploy the policy until you first add a Protection license to the Firepower Management Center,
If you delete your Protection license from the Firepower Management Center or disable Protection on managed
devices, the Firepower Management Center stops acknowledging intrusion and file events from the affected
devices. As a consequence, correlation rules that use those events as a trigger criteria stop firing. Additionally,
the Firepower Management Center will not contact the internet for either Cisco-provided or third-party Security
Intelligence information. You cannot re-deploy existing policies until you re-enable Protection.
Because a Protection license is required for URL Filtering, Malware, and Control licenses, deleting or disabling
a Protection license has the same effect as deleting or disabling your URL Filtering, Malware, or Control
license.
Control Licenses
A Control license allows you to implement user and application control by adding user and application
conditions to access control rules. For 7000 and 8000 Series devices only, this license also allows you to
configure switching and routing (including DHCP relay and NAT) and device high-availability pairs. To
enable a Control license on a managed device, you must also enable a Protection license. A Control license
is automatically included (along with a Protection license) in the purchase of any Classic managed device.
This license is perpetual, but you must also purchase a TA subscription to enable system updates.
If you do not enable a Control license for a Classic managed device, you can add user and application conditions
to rules in an access control policy, but you cannot deploy the policy to the device. If you do not enable a
Control license for 7000 or 8000 Series devices specifically, you also cannot:
• create switched, routed, or hybrid interfaces
• create NAT entries
• configure DHCP relay for virtual routers
• deploy a device configuration that includes switch or routing to the device
• establish high availability between devices
Note Although you can create virtual switches and routers without a Control license, they are not useful without
switched and routed interfaces to populate them.
If you delete a Control license from the Firepower Management Center or disable Control on individual
devices, the affected devices do not stop performing switching or routing, nor do device high-availability
pairs break. You can continue to edit and delete existing configurations, but you cannot deploy those changes
to the affected devices. You cannot add new switched, routed, or hybrid interfaces, nor can you add new NAT
entries, configure DHCP relay, or establish 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability. Finally, you cannot
re-deploy existing access control policies if they include rules with user or application conditions.
URL Filtering Licenses for Classic Devices

URL filtering allows you to write access control rules that determine the traffic that can traverse your network
based on URLs requested by monitored hosts, correlated with information about those URLs. To enable a
URL Filtering license, you must also enable a Protection license. You can purchase a URL Filtering license
for Classic devices as a services subscription combined with Threat & Apps (TAC) or Threat & Apps and

100
Malware Licenses for Classic Devices
Malware (TAMC) subscriptions, or as an add-on subscription (URL) for a system where Threat & Apps (TA)
is already enabled.
Tip Without a URL Filtering license, you can specify individual URLs or groups of URLs to allow or block. This
gives you granular, custom control over web traffic, but does not allow you to use URL category and reputation
data to filter network traffic.
Although you can add category and reputation-based URL conditions to access control rules without a URL
Filtering license, the Firepower Management Center will not download URL information. You cannot deploy
the access control policy until you first add a URL Filtering license to the Firepower Management Center,
You may lose access to URL filtering if you delete the license from the Firepower Management Center or
disable URL Filtering on managed devices. Also, URL Filtering licenses may expire. If your license expires
or if you delete or disable it, access control rules with URL conditions immediately stop filtering URLs, and
your Firepower Management Center can no longer download updates to URL data. You cannot re-deploy
existing access control policies if they include rules with category and reputation-based URL conditions.
Malware Licenses for Classic Devices

A Malware license allows you to perform Cisco Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) with AMP for Networks
and Cisco Threat Grid. You can use managed devices to detect and block malware in files transmitted over
your network. To enable a Malware license, you must also enable Protection. You can purchase a Malware
license as a subscription combined with Threat & Apps (TAM) or Threat & Apps and URL Filtering (TAMC)
subscriptions, or as an add-on subscription (AMP) for a system where Threat & Apps (TA) is already enabled.
Note 7000 and 8000 Series managed devices with Malware licenses enabled attempt to connect periodically to the
AMP cloud even if you have not configured dynamic analysis. Because of this, the device’s Interface Traffic
dashboard widget shows transmitted traffic; this is expected behavior.
You configure AMP for Networks as part of a file policy, which you then associate with one or more access
control rules. File policies can detect your users uploading or downloading files of specific types over specific
application protocols. AMP for Networks allows you to use local malware analysis and file preclassification
to inspect a restricted set of those file types for malware. You can also download and submit specific file types
to the Cisco Threat Grid cloud for dynamic and Spero analysis to determine whether they contain malware.
For these files, you can view the network file trajectory, which details the path the file has taken through your
network. The Malware license also allows you to add specific files to a file list and enable the file list within
a file policy, allowing those files to be automatically allowed or blocked on detection.
Before you can deploy an access control policy that includes AMP for Networks configurations, you must
add a Malware license, then enable it on the devices targeted by the policy. If you later disable the license on
the devices, you cannot re-deploy the existing access control policy to those devices.
If you delete all your Malware licenses or they all expire, the system stops querying the AMP cloud, and also
stops acknowledging retrospective events sent from the AMP cloud. You cannot re-deploy existing access
control policies if they include AMP for Networks configurations. Note that for a very brief time after a
Malware license expires or is deleted, the system can use existing cached file dispositions. After the time
window expires, the system assigns a disposition of Unavailable to those files.

101
VPN Licenses
A Malware license is required only if you deploy AMP for Networks and Cisco Threat Grid. Without a
Malware license, the Firepower Management Center can receive AMP for Endpoints malware events and
indications of compromise (IOC) from the AMP cloud.
See also important information at License Requirements for File and Malware Policies, on page 1452.
VPN Licenses
VPN allows you to establish secure tunnels between endpoints via a public source, such as the Internet or
other network. You can configure the Firepower System to build secure VPN tunnels between the virtual
routers of 7000 and 8000 Series devices. To enable VPN, you must also enable Protection and Control licenses.
To purchase a VPN license, contact Sales.
Without a VPN license, you cannot configure a VPN deployment with your 7000 and 8000 Series devices.
Although you can create deployments, they are not useful without at least one VPN-enabled routed interface
to populate them.
If you delete your VPN license from the Firepower Management Center or disable VPN on individual devices,
the affected devices do not break the current VPN deployments. Although you can edit and delete existing
deployments, you cannot deploy your changes to the affected devices.
Classic Licenses in Device Stacks and High-Availability Pairs

Individual devices must have equivalent licenses before they can be stacked or configured into 7000 or 8000
Series device high-availability pairs. After you stack devices, you can change the licenses for the entire stack.
However, you cannot change the enabled licenses on a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair.
See also About Device Stacks, on page 517 and Device High Availability Requirements, on page 502.
View Your Classic Licenses

N/A Any Classic Global only Admin
Procedure
Do one of the following, depending on your needs:
To View Do This
The Classic licenses that you have added to the Choose System > Licenses > Classic Licenses.
Firepower Management Center and details including
The summary shows the number of licenses you have
their type, status, usage, expiration dates, and the
purchased, followed by the number of licenses that
managed devices to which they are applied.
are in used in parentheses.
The licenses applied to each of your managed devices Choose Devices > Device Management.

102
Identify the License Key
To View Do This
License status in the Health Monitor Use the Classic License Monitor health module in a
health policy. For information, see Health Monitoring,
on page 241, including Health Modules, on page 242
and Creating Health Policies, on page 249.
An overview of your licenses in the Dashboard Add the Product Licensing widget to the dashboard
of your choice. For instructions, see The Product
Licensing Widget, on page 230 and Adding Widgets
to a Dashboard, on page 234 and Dashboard Widget
Availability by User Role, on page 221.
Identify the License Key

The license key uniquely identifies the Firepower Management Center in the Cisco License Registration
Portal. It is composed of a product code (for example, 66) and the MAC address of the management port
(eth0) of the Firepower Management Center; for example, 66:00:00:77:FF:CC:88.
You will use the license key in the Cisco License Registration Portal to obtain the license text required to add
licenses to the Firepower Management Center.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Licenses > Classic Licenses.

Step 2 Click Add New License.
Step 3 Note the value in the License Key field at the top of the Add Feature License dialog.
What to do next
• Add a license to the Firepower Management Center; see Generate a Classic License and Add It to the
Firepower Management Center, on page 103.
This procedure includes the process of generating the actual license text using the license key.
Generate a Classic License and Add It to the Firepower Management Center


103
Generate a Classic License and Add It to the Firepower Management Center
Note If you add licenses after a backup has completed, these licenses will not be removed or overwritten if this
backup is restored. To prevent a conflict on restore, remove those licenses before restoring the backup, noting
where the licenses were used, and add and reconfigure them after restoring the backup. If a conflict occurs,
contact Support.
Tip You can also request licenses on the Licenses tab after you log into the Support Site.
Before you begin

• Make sure you have the product activation key (PAK) from the Software Claim Certificate that Cisco
provided when you purchased the license. If you have a legacy, pre-Cisco license, contact Support.
• Identify the license key for the Firepower Management Center; see Identify the License Key, on page
103.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Licenses > Classic Licenses.

Step 2 Click Add New License.
Step 3 Continue as appropriate:
• If you have already obtained the license text, skip to Step 8.
• If you still need to obtain the license text, go to the next step.
Step 4 Click Get License to open the Cisco License Registration Portal.
Note If you cannot access the Internet using your current computer, switch to a computer that can, and
browse to http://cisco.com/go/license.
Step 5 Generate a license from the PAK in the License Registration Portal. For more information, see
https://www.cisco.com/web/fw/tools/swift/xui/html/help.html.
This step requires the PAK you received during the purchase process, as well as the license key for the
Firepower Management Center.
Step 6 Copy the license text from either the License Registration Portal display, or the email the License Registration
Portal sends you.
Important The licensing text block in the portal or email message may include more than one license. Each
license is bounded by a BEGIN LICENSE line and an END LICENSE line. Make sure that you
copy and paste only one license at a time.
Step 7 Return to the Add Feature License page in the Firepower Management Center’s web interface.
Step 8 Paste the license text into the License field.
Step 9 Click Verify License.
If the license is invalid, make sure that you correctly copied the license text.

104
How to Convert a Classic License or PAK to a Smart License
Step 10 Click Submit License.
What to do next
• Assign the license to a managed device; see Assign Licenses to Managed Devices from the Device
Management Page, on page 107. You must assign licenses to your managed devices before you can use
licensed features on those devices.

You can convert licenses using either the License Registration Portal (LRP) or the Cisco Smart Software
Manager (CSSM), and you can convert an unused Product Authorization Key (PAK) or a Classic license that
has already been assigned to a device.
Important You cannot undo this process. You cannot convert a Smart License to a Classic license, even if the license
was originally a Classic license.
In documentation on Cisco.com, Classic licenses may also be referred to as "traditional" licenses.
Before you begin

• It is easiest to convert a Classic license to a Smart License when it is still an unused PAK that has not
yet been assigned to a product instance.
• Your hardware must be able to run Firepower Threat Defense. See the Cisco Firepower Compatibility
Guide at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/defense-center/
products-device-support-tables-list.html.
• You must have a Smart Account. If you do not have one, create one. See Create a Smart Account to Hold
Your Licenses, on page 86.
• The PAKs or licenses that you want to convert must appear in your Smart Account.
• If you convert using the License Registration Portal instead of the Cisco Smart Software Manager, you
must have your Smart Account credentials in order to initiate the conversion process.
Procedure
Step 1 The conversion process you will follow depends on whether or not the license has been consumed:
• If the PAK that you want to convert has never been used, follow instructions for converting a PAK.
• If the PAK you want to convert has already been assigned to a device, follow instructions for converting
a Classic license.
Make sure your existing classic license is still registered to your device.

105
Step 2 See instructions for your type of conversion (PAK or installed Classic license) in the following documentation:
• To convert PAKs or licenses using the LRP:
• To view a video that steps you through the License Registration Portal part of the conversion process,
click https://salesconnect.cisco.com/#/content-detail/7da52358-0fc1-4d85-8920-14a1b7721780.
• Search for "Convert" in the following document: https://cisco.app.box.com/s/
mds3ab3fctk6pzonq5meukvcpjizt7wu.
There are three conversion procedures. Choose the conversion procedure applicable to your situation.
• Sign in to the License Registration Portal (LRP) at https://tools.cisco.com/SWIFT/LicensingUI/
Home and follow the instructions in the documentation above.
• To convert PAKs or licenses using CSSM:

• Converting Hybrid Licenses to Smart Software Licenses QRG:
https://community.cisco.com/t5/licensing-enterprise-agreements/
converting-hybrid-licenses-to-smart-software-licenses-qrg/ta-p/3628609?attachment-id=134907
• Sign in to CSSM at https://software.cisco.com/#SmartLicensing-LicenseConversion and follow the
instructions for your type of conversion (PAK or installed Classic license) in the documentation
above.
Step 3 Freshly install Firepower Threat Defense on your hardware.

See the instructions for your hardware at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/firepower-ngfw/
products-installation-guides-list.html.
Step 4 If you will use Firepower Device Manager to manage this device as a standalone device:
See information about licensing the device in the Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Configuration Guide for
Firepower Device Manager at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/firepower-ngfw/
products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html.
Skip the rest of this procedure.
Step 5 If you have already deployed Smart Licensing on your Firepower Management Center:
a) Set up Smart Licensing on your new Firepower Threat Defense device.
See Assign Licenses to Multiple Managed Devices, on page 91.
b) Verify that the new Smart License has been successfully applied to the device.
See View Your Smart Licenses and Smart Licenses Status, on page 92.
Step 6 If you have not yet deployed Smart Licensing on your Firepower Management Center:
See How to License Firepower Threat Defense Devices Managed by Firepower Management Center , on page
75. (Skip any steps that do not apply or that you have already completed.)

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Assign Licenses to Managed Devices from the Device Management Page
Assign Licenses to Managed Devices from the Device

Management Page
Any Any Any Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
Although there are some exceptions, you cannot use the features associated with a license if you disable it on
a managed device.
Note For an FTD cluster, you apply the licenses to the cluster as a whole; note that each unit in the cluster consumes
a separate license per feature.
Before you begin

• Add your devices to the Firepower Management Center. See Add Devices to the Firepower Management
Center, on page 197.
• If you will assign Smart Licenses:
• If you need to apply Smart Licenses to many devices at one time, use the Smart Licenses page
instead of following this procedure. See Assign Licenses to Multiple Managed Devices, on page
91
• Prepare Smart Licenses for distribution to managed devices: See Register Smart Licenses, on page
88
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > Device Management.
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to assign or disable a license, click the edit icon ( ).
In a multidomain deployment, if you are not in a leaf domain, the system prompts you to switch.
Step 3 Click the Device tab.
Step 4 Next to the License section, click the edit icon ( ).

Step 5 Check or clear the appropriate check boxes to assign or disable licenses for the device.
Step 6 Click Save.
What to do next
• If you assigned Smart Licenses, verify license status:

107
Firepower License and Service Subscription Expiration
Go to System > Licenses > Smart Licenses, enter the hostname or IP address of the device into the
filter at the top of the Smart Licenses table, and verify that only a green circle with a check mark ( )
appears for each device, for each license type. If you see any other icon, hover over the icon for more
information.
• If you are licensing Firepower Threat Defense devices and you applied a Base license with
export-controlled functionality enabled, reboot each device. For devices configured in a high-availability
pair, reboot both devices at the same time to avoid an Active-Active condition.

• License Expiration vs. Service Subscription Expiration
• Smart Licensing
• Classic Licensing
• Subscription Renewals
License Expiration vs. Service Subscription Expiration

Q. Do Firepower feature licenses expire?
A. Strictly speaking, Firepower feature licenses do not expire. Instead, the service subscriptions that support
those licenses expire. For details about service subscriptions, see "Service Subscriptions for Firepower
Features" in the Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide available from
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/defense-center/
products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html.
Smart Licensing
Q. Can a Product Instance Registration Token expire?
A. A token can expire if it is not used to register a product within the specified validity period. You set the
number of days that the token is valid when you create the token in the Cisco Smart Software Manager.
If the token expires before you use it to register a Firepower Management Center, you must create a new
token.
After you use the token to register a Firepower Management Center, the token expiration date is no longer
relevant. When the token expiration date elapses, there is no impact on the Firepower Management Center
that you used the token to register.
Token expiration dates do not affect subscription expiration dates.
For more information, see the Cisco Smart Software Manager User Guide.
Q. How can I tell if my Smart Licenses/service subscriptions are expired or about to expire?
A. To determine when a service subscription will expire (or when it expired), review your entitlements in
the Cisco Smart Software Manager.
On the Firepower Management Center, you can determine whether a service subscription for a feature
license is currently in compliance by choosing System > Licenses > Smart Licenses. On this page, a
table summarizes the Smart License entitlements associated with this Firepower Management Center

108
via its product registration token. You can determine whether the service subscription for the license is
currently in compliance based on the License Status field.
On Firepower Device Manager, use the Smart License page to view the current license status for the
system: Click Device, then click View Configuration in the Smart License summary.
In addition, the Cisco Smart Software Manager will send you a notification 3 months before a license
expires.
Q. What happens if my Smart License/subscription expires?
A. If a purchased service subscription expires, you can see in Firepower Management Center and in your
Smart Account that your account is out of compliance. Cisco notifies you that you must renew the
subscription; see Subscription Renewals. There is no other impact.
Classic Licensing
Q. How can I tell if my Classic licenses/service subscriptions are expired or about to expire?
A. On the Firepower Management Center, choose System > Licenses > Classic Licenses.
On this page, a table summarizes the Classic licenses you have added to this Firepower Management
Center.
You can determine whether the service subscription for the license is currently in compliance based on
the Status field.
You can determine when the service subscription will expire (or when it expired) by the date in the
Expires field.
You can also obtain this information by reviewing your license information in the Cisco Product License
Registration Portal.
Q. What does this mean: 'IPS Term Subscription is still required for IPS'?
A. This message merely informs you that Protect and Control functionality requires not only a right-to-use
license (which never expires), but also one or more associated service subscriptions, which must be
renewed periodically. If the service subscriptions you want to use are current and will not expire soon,
no action is required. To determine the status of your service subscriptions, see How can I tell if my
Classic licenses/service subscriptions are expired or about to expire?, on page ?.
Q. What happens if my Classic license/subscription expires?
A. If a service subscription supporting a Classic license expires, Cisco notifies you that you must renew the
subscription; see Subscription Renewals.
You might not be able to use the related features, depending on the feature type:
Table 6: Expiration Impact for Classic Licenses/Subscriptions
Classic License Possible Supporting Expiration Impact

Subscriptions
Control TA, TAC, TAM, TAMC You can continue to use existing Firepower
functionality, but you cannot download VDB updates,
including application signature updates.
Protection TA, TAC, TAM, TAMC You can continue to perform intrusion inspection, but
you cannot download intrusion rule updates.

109
Additional Information about Firepower Licensing
Classic License Possible Supporting Expiration Impact

Subscriptions
URL Filtering URL, TAC, TAMC • Access control rules with URL conditions
immediately stop filtering URLs.
• Other policies (such as SSL policies) that filter
traffic based on URL category and reputation
immediately stop doing so.
• The Firepower Management Center can no longer
download updates to URL data.
• You cannot re-deploy existing policies that perform
URL category and reputation filtering.
Malware AMP, TAM, TAMC • For a very brief time, the system can use existing
cached file dispositions. After the time window
expires, the system assigns a disposition of
Unavailable to those files.
• The system stops querying the AMP cloud, and

stops acknowledging retrospective events sent from
the AMP cloud.
• You cannot re-deploy existing access control
policies if they include AMP for Firepower
configurations.
Subscription Renewals
Q. How do I renew an expiring Classic license?
A. To renew an expiring Classic license, simply purchase a new PAK key and follow the same process as
for implementing a new subscription.
Q. Can I renew a Firepower service subscription from the Firepower Management Center?
A. No. To renew a Firepower service subscription (Classic or Smart), purchase a new subscription using
either the Cisco Commerce Workspace or the Cisco Service Contract Center.
Additional Information about Firepower Licensing

For additional information to help resolve common licensing questions, see the following documents:
• The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Firepower Licensing document at:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/licensing/faq/firepower-licence-FAQ.html
• The Cisco Firepower System Feature Licenses document at:
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/roadmap/firepower-licenseroadmap.html

110

Cisco Success Network is a user-enabled cloud service. When you enable Cisco Success Network, a secure
connection is established between the Firepower Management Center and the Cisco cloud to stream usage
information and statistics. Streaming telemetry provides a mechanism to select data of interest from the
Firepower System and to transmit it in a structured format to remote management stations for the following
benefits:
• To inform you of available unused features that can improve the effectiveness of the product in your
network.
• To inform you of additional technical support services and monitoring that might be available for your
product.
• To help Cisco improve our products.
The Firepower Management Center establishes and maintains the secure connection at all times, and allows
you to enroll in the Cisco Success Network. You can turn off this connection at any time by disabling Cisco
Success Network, which disconnects the device from the Cisco Success Network cloud.
Enabling Cisco Success Network

You enable Cisco Success Network when you register the Firepower Management Center with the Cisco
Smart Software Manager. See Register Smart Licenses, on page 88.
You can view your current Cisco Success Network enrollment status on the Licences > Smart Licenses page,
and you can change your enrollment status. See Changing Cisco Success Network Enrollment, on page 115.
Cisco Success Network Telemetry Data

Cisco Success Network allows enrolled Firepower Management Centers to continuously stream real time
configuration and operating state information to the Cisco Success Network cloud. Collected and monitored
data include the following:
• Enrolled device information—This includes the Firepower Management Center device name, model,
serial number, UUID, system uptime, and Smart Licensing information; see Enrolled Device Data, on
page 111.
• Software information—This includes software information about the enrolled Firepower Management
Center, such as version number, rule update version, geolocation database version, and vulnerability
database (VDB) version information; see Software Version Data, on page 112.
• Managed device information—This includes information about all the managed devices associated
with the enrolled Firepower Management Center, including device names, device models, serial numbers,
software versions, and licenses in use per device; see Managed Device Data, on page 112.
Enrolled Device Data

Once you enroll the Firepower Management Center in Cisco Success Network, select telemetry data about
the enrolled Firepower Management Center device is streamed to the Cisco cloud. The following table describes
the collected and monitored data about the enrolled device. This includes feature-specific information about

111
Software Version Data
instrusion policies (both system-provided and custom) and malware detection for enrolled Firepower
Management Centers.
Table 7: Enrolled Device Telemetry Data
Data Point Example Value

Device Name Management Center East
Device UUID 24fd0ccf-1464- 491f-a503- d241317bb327
HA Peer UUID 24fe0ccd-1564- 491h-b802- d321317cc827
Device Model Cisco Firepower Management Center 4000

Cisco Firepower Management Center for VMWare
Serial Number 9AMDESQP6UN
System Uptime 99700000
Product Identifier FMC4000-K9

FS-VMW-SW-K9
Smart License PIID 24fd0ccf-1464- 491f-a503- d241317bb327
Virtual Account Identifier CiscoSVStemp
Software Version Data

Cisco Success Network collects software information that pertains to the enrolled Firepower Management
Center device, including software version, rule update version, geolocation database version, and vulnerability
database version information. The following table describes the collected and monitored software information
about the enrolled device.
Table 8: Software Version Telemetry Data

Firepower Management Center Software Version { type: "SOFTWARE", version: "6.2.3-10517" }
Rule Update Version { type: "SNORT_RULES_DB", version:

"2016-11-29-001-vrt", lastUpdated: 1468606837000
}
Vulnerability Database (VDB) Version { type: "VULNERABILITY_DB", version: "271",

lastUpdated: 1468606837000 }
Geolocation Database Version { type: "GEOLOCATION_DB", version: "850" }
Managed Device Data

Cisco Success Network collects information about all the managed devices associated with an enrolled
Firepower Management Center. The following table describes the collected and monitored information about

112
Telemetry Example File
managed devices. This includes feature-specific policy and licensing information, such as URL filtering,
intrusion prevention, and malware detection for managed devices.
Table 9: Managed Device Telemetry Data

Managed Device Name firepower
Managed Device Version 6.2.3-10616
Managed Device Manager FMC
Managed Device Model Cisco Firepower 2130 NGFW Appliance

Cisco Firepower Threat Defense VMware
Managed Device Serial Number 9AMDESQP6UN
Managed Device PID FPR2130-NGFW-K9

NGFWv
Is URL Filtering License Used for Device? True
AC Rules with URL Filtering Per Device 10
Is Threat License Used for Device? True
Does AC Policy Have Intrusion Rule Attached? True
Number of AC Rules with Intrusion Policies 10
Is Malware License Used for Device? True
Number of AC Rules with Malware Policy 10
Number of AC Rules with Malware Policy That Need 5

Malware License
Is Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Used for Device? True

The following is an example of a Cisco Success Network telemetry file for streaming policy and deployment
information about a Firepower Management Center and its managed devices:
{
"version": "1.0",
"metadata": {
"topic": "fmc.telemetry",
"contentType": "application/json"
},
"payload": {
"recordType": "CST_FMC",
"recordVersion": "6.3.0",
"recordedAt": 1509133291334,
"fmc": {

113
"deviceInfo": {
"deviceModel": "Cisco Firepower Management Center",
"deviceName": "FMC",
"deviceUuid": "c40d793c-bb33-11e7-804d-6f32258941f8",
"serialNumber": "615-10110800010110",
"smartLicenseProductInstanceIdentifier": "0fa56138-5211-442a-846c-97b6431146fd",
"smartLicenseVirtualAccountName": "Firepower Threat Defense",
"systemUptime": 11658000,
"udiProductIdentifier": "FMC4500-K9T"
},
"versions": {
"items": [{
"type": "SOFTWARE",
"version": "6.3.0-10222"
}, {
"lastUpdated": 0,
"type": "SNORT_RULES_DB",
"version": "2018-02-13-001-vrt"
}, {
"lastUpdated": 0,
"type": "VULNERABILITY_DB",
"version": "290"
}, {
"type": "GEOLOCATION_DB",
"version": "None"
}]
}
},
"managedDevices": {
"items": [{
"deviceInfo": {
"deviceManager": "FMC",
"deviceModel": "Cisco Firepower 2130 NGFW Appliance",
"deviceName": "10.2.4.107",
"deviceVersion": "6.3.0-10222",
"serialNumber": "515-10110800100010"
},
"urlFiltering" : {
"urlFilteringLicenseUsed" : True,
"acRulesWithURLFiltering" : 10
}
},
{
"deviceInfo": {
"deviceModel": "Cisco Firepower 2140 NGFW Appliance",
"deviceName": "192.168.0.119",
"serialNumber": "725-10010900101020"
},
"urlFiltering" : {
"urlFilteringLicenseUsed" : True,
}
}, {
"deviceInfo": {
"deviceModel": "Cisco Firepower Threat Defense for VMWare",
"deviceName": "192.168.0.117",
"serialNumber": "None"
},
"urlFiltering" : {
"urlFilteringLicenseUsed" : False,

114
Changing Cisco Success Network Enrollment
}
}]
},
"deploymentData": {
"deployJobInfoList": [{
"jobDeviceList": [{
"deployEndTime": "1523959960957",
"deployStartTime": "1523959863411",
"deployStatus": "SUCCEEDED",
"deviceUuid": "4f14f644-41e0-11e8-9354-cf32315d7095",
"pgTypes": "[PG.FIREWALL.NGFWAccessControlPolicy, PG.FIREWALL.PrefilterPolicy,
PG.PLATFORM.NgfwInlineSetPage]"
}],
"jobId": "8589935776",
"numberOfDevices": 1,
"numberOfFailedDevices": 0,
"numberOfSuccessDevices": 1
},{
"jobDeviceList": [{
"deployEndTime": "1523993913001",
"deployStartTime": "1523993840445",
"deployStatus": "SUCCEEDED",
"deviceUuid": "4f14f644-41e0-11e8-9354-cf32315d7095",
"pgTypes": "[PG.FIREWALL.NGFWAccessControlPolicy, PG.FIREWALL.PrefilterPolicy,
PG.PLATFORM.NgfwInlineSetPage]"
}],
"jobId": "8589936079",
"numberOfDevices": 1,
"numberOfFailedDevices": 0,
"numberOfSuccessDevices": 1
}],
"lastJobId": "8589936079"
}
}
}
Changing Cisco Success Network Enrollment

You enable Cisco Success Network when you register the Firepower Management Center with the Cisco
Smart Software Manager. After that, use the following procedure to view or change enrollment status.
Note Cisco Success Network does not work in evaluation mode.
Procedure
Step 1 Click System, then click Licenses > Smart Licenses.

Step 2 Under Smart License Status, next to Cisco Success Network, click the Enabled/Disabled control for the Cisco
Success Network feature to change the setting as appropriate.
Step 3 Read the information provided by Cisco, choose whether you want to Enable Cisco Success Network, and
click Apply Changes.

115
End-User License Agreement
What to do next
(Optional) See (Optional) Opt Out of Web Analytics Tracking, on page 958.
End-User License Agreement

The Cisco end-user license agreement (EULA) and any applicable supplemental agreement (SEULA) that
governs your use of this product are available from http://www.cisco.com/go/softwareterms.

116
CHAPTER 6
System Software Updates
The following topics explain how to update Firepower deployments:
• About Firepower Updates, on page 117
• Guidelines and Limitations for Firepower Updates, on page 118
• Upgrade Firepower System Software, on page 118
• Update the Vulnerability Database (VDB) Manually, on page 119
• Update the Geolocation Database (GeoDB), on page 120
• Update Intrusion Rules, on page 122
• Maintain Your Air-Gapped Deployment, on page 132
About Firepower Updates

Cisco distributes several types of upgrades and updates for Firepower deployments. Unless otherwise
documented in the release notes or advisory text, updating does not modify configurations. Note that you
cannot uninstall major upgrades, nor can you return to previous versions of the VDB, GeoDB, or SRU.
Table 10: Firepower Upgrades and Updates
Update Type Description Domain

Major upgrade Includes new features and functionality, and may entail large-scale Global only
changes to the product.
Can be freshly installed or restored, but not uninstalled.
For devices where you upgrade the operating system separately, likely
to have a companion operating system upgrade.
May require you to re-accept the Cisco End User License Agreement
(EULA)
Minor upgrade Contains a limited range of fixes. Global only

(patch)
Can be uninstalled, but not freshly installed or restored. You must restore
to a major version, then upgrade to the minor version.
Vulnerability Updates detection of vulnerabilities, operating systems, applications, Global only

Database (VDB) clients, and file types eligible for dynamic analysis.

117
Guidelines and Limitations for Firepower Updates
Update Type Description Domain

Intrusion rules Provides new and updated intrusion rules and preprocessor rules, Cisco-provided:
(SRUs) modified states for existing rules, and modified default intrusion policy Global only
settings.
Local imports:
May also delete rules, provide new rule categories and default variables, Any
and modify default variable values.
Geolocation Updates information on physical locations, connection types, and so on, Global only
database that can be associated with detected routable IP addresses. You must
(GeoDB) install the GeoDB to view geolocation details or perform
geolocation-based access control.
Guidelines and Limitations for Firepower Updates

Before You Update
Before you update any component of your Firepower deployment (including the VDB, GeoDB, or SRU) you
must read the release notes or advisory text that accompanies the update. These provide critical and
release-specific information, including compatibility, prerequisites, new capabilities, behavior changes, and
warnings.
For details on how to prepare for and complete a successful system software upgrade of a Firepower
Management Center deployment, see the Cisco Firepower Management Center Upgrade Guide.
Bandwidth Guidelines
Updates can require large data transfers from the Firepower Management Center to managed devices. Before
you begin, make sure your management network has sufficient bandwidth to successfully perform the transfer.
See the Troubleshooting Tech Note at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/security/
firepower-management-center/212043-Guidelines-for-Downloading-Data-from-the.html.
Upgrade Firepower System Software

Upgrading a Firepower Management Center deployment can be complex process. Careful planning and
preparation can help you avoid missteps. You should consider planning and preparation as much a part of the
upgrade process as actually performing the mechanical steps that invoke the upgrade scripts.
The first step in the process is to assess your deployment and create an upgrade path—a detailed plan for
which appliances you will upgrade, what components you will upgrade, and in what order. Your upgrade path
should:
• Maintain manager-device compatibility.
• Include operating system and hosting environment upgrades where necessary.
• Include other tasks such as backups, package downloads and pushes, readiness checks, bandwidth and
disk space checks, pre- and post-upgrade configuration changes, and so on.
• Identify potential interruptions in traffic flow and inspection.

118
Update the Vulnerability Database (VDB) Manually
For details on how to prepare for and complete a successful upgrade of a Firepower Management Center
deployment, see Cisco Firepower Management Center Upgrade Guide.
Update the Vulnerability Database (VDB) Manually

Any Any Any Global only Admin
The Cisco vulnerability database (VDB) is a database of known vulnerabilities to which hosts may be
susceptible, as well as fingerprints for operating systems, clients, and applications. The system uses the VDB
to help determine whether a particular host increases your risk of compromise.
The Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos) issues periodic updates to the VDB. The
time it takes to update the VDB and its associated mappings on the Firepower Management Center depends
on the number of hosts in your network map. As a rule of thumb, divide the number of hosts by 1000 to
determine the approximate number of minutes to perform the update.
If the Firepower Management Center cannot access the internet, or you want to manually upload the VDB
update to the Firepower Management Center, use this procedure. To automate VDB updates, use task scheduling
(System > Tools > Scheduling). For details, see Vulnerability Database Update Automation, on page 162.
Important If you do not schedule automatic VDB updates, you should regularly check for these updates. Updates occur
no more than once daily and are posted to the appropriate child pages of https://www.cisco.com/go/
firepower-software.
Caution Installing a vulnerability database (VDB) update immediately restarts the Snort process on all managed devices.
Additionally, the first deploy after installing the VDB might cause a Snort restart depending on the VDB
content. In either scenario, the restart interrupts traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during the interruption
or passes without further inspection depends on how the target device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart
Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
Before you begin

• Download the update from https://www.cisco.com/go/firepower-software.
• Consider the update's effect on traffic flow and inspection due to Snort restarts. We recommend performing
updates in a maintenance window.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Updates, then click the Product Updates tab.
Step 2 Choose how you want to upload the VDB update to the Firepower Management Center.
• Download directly from Cisco.com—Click Download Updates. If it can access the Cisco Support &
Download site, the Firepower Management Center downloads the latest VDB. Note that the Firepower

119
Update the Geolocation Database (GeoDB)
Management Center also downloads a package for each patch and hotfix (but not major release) associated
with the version your appliances are currently running.
• Upload manually—Click Upload Update, then Choose File. Browse to the update you downloaded
earlier, and click Upload.
VDB updates appear on the same page as Firepower software upgrade and uninstaller packages.
Step 3 Install the update.
a) Click the Install icon next to the Vulnerability and Fingerprint Database update.
b) Choose the Firepower Management Center.
c) Click Install.
Step 4 (Optional) Monitor update progress in the Message Center.
Do not perform tasks related to mapped vulnerabilities until the update completes. Even if the Message Center
shows no progress for several minutes or indicates that the update has failed, do not restart the update. Instead,
contact Cisco TAC.
After the update completes and Snort restarts, the system uses the new vulnerability information. However,
you must deploy before updated application detectors and operating system fingerprints can take effect.
Step 5 (Optional) Monitor update progress in the Message Center.
Do not perform tasks related to mapped vulnerabilities until the update completes. Even if the Message Center
shows no progress for several minutes or indicates that the update has failed, do not restart the update. Instead,
contact Cisco TAC.
After the update completes and Snort restarts, the system uses the new vulnerability information. However,
you must deploy before updated application detectors and operating system fingerprints can take effect.
Step 6 Verify update success.
Choose Help > About to view the current VDB version.
What to do next
Deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.
Update the Geolocation Database (GeoDB)

The Cisco Geolocation Database (GeoDB) is a database of geographical data (such as country, city, coordinates)
and connection-related data (such as Internet service provider, domain name, connection type) associated with
routable IP addresses. When your system detects GeoDB information that matches a detected IP address, you
can view the geolocation information associated with that IP address. You must install the GeoDB on your
system to view any geolocation details other than country or continent. Cisco issues periodic updates to the
GeoDB.
To update the GeoDB, use the Geolocation Updates page (System > Updates > Geolocation Updates) on
the Firepower Management Center. When you upload GeoDB updates you obtained from Support or from
your appliance, they appear on this page.

120
Manually Update the GeoDB (Internet Connection)
Note Download the update directly from the Support Site, either manually or by clicking Download and install
geolocation update from the Support Site on the Geolocation Updates page. If you transfer an update file
by email, it may become corrupted.
Time needed to update the GeoDB depends on your appliance; the installation usually takes 30 to 40 minutes.
Although a GeoDB update does not interrupt any other system functions (including the ongoing collection of
geolocation information), the update does consume system resources while it completes. Consider this when
planning your updates.
The GeoDB update overrides any previous versions of the GeoDB and is effective immediately. When you
update the GeoDB, the Firepower Management Center automatically updates the related data on its managed
devices. It may take a few minutes for a GeoDB update to take effect throughout your deployment. You do
not need to re-deploy after you update.
Manually Update the GeoDB (Internet Connection)

You can import a new GeoDB update by automatically connecting to the Support Site only if the appliance
has Internet access.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Updates.

Step 2 Click the Geolocation Updates tab.
Step 3 Choose Download and install geolocation update from the Support Site.
Step 4 Click Import.
The system queues a Geolocation Update task, which checks for the latest updates on the Cisco Support Site
(http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/support/index.html).
Step 5 Optionally, monitor the task status; see Viewing Task Messages, on page 287.
Step 6 After the update finishes, return to the Geolocation Updates page or choose Help > About to confirm that
the GeoDB build number matches the update you installed.
Manually Update the GeoDB (No Internet Connection)

If your Firepower Management Center does not have Internet access, you can download the GeoDB update
from the Cisco Support Site to a local machine on your network, then manually upload it to your Firepower
Management Center.

121
Schedule GeoDB Updates
Procedure
Step 1 Manually download the update from the Cisco Support Site
Step 3 Click the Geolocation Updates tab.
Step 4 Choose Upload and install geolocation update.
Step 5 Browse to the update you downloaded, and click Upload.
Step 7 Optionally, monitor the task status; see Viewing Task Messages, on page 287.
Step 8 After the update finishes, return to the Geolocation Updates page or choose Help > About to confirm that
the GeoDB build number matches the update you installed.
Schedule GeoDB Updates

If the Firepower Management Center has internet access, we recommend you schedule weekly GeoDB updates.
Before you begin

Make sure the Firepower Management Center can access the internet.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Updates, then click the Geolocation Updates tab.
Step 2 Under Recurring Geolocation Updates, check Enable Recurring Weekly Updates.
Step 3 Specify the Update Start Time.
Step 4 Click Save.
Update Intrusion Rules

As new vulnerabilities become known, the Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos)
releases intrusion rule updates that you can import onto your Firepower Management Center, and then
implement by deploying the changed configuration to your managed devices. These updates affect intrusion
rules, preprocessor rules, and the policies that use the rules.
Intrusion rule updates are cumulative, and Cisco recommends you always import the latest update. You cannot
import an intrusion rule update that either matches or predates the version of the currently installed rules.
An intrusion rule update may provide the following:

122
Update Intrusion Rules
• New and modified rules and rule states—Rule updates provide new and updated intrusion and
preprocessor rules. For new rules, the rule state may be different in each system-provided intrusion policy.
For example, a new rule may be enabled in the Security over Connectivity intrusion policy and disabled
in the Connectivity over Security intrusion policy. Rule updates may also change the default state of
existing rules, or delete existing rules entirely.
• New rule categories—Rule updates may include new rule categories, which are always added.
• Modified preprocessor and advanced settings—Rule updates may change the advanced settings in
the system-provided intrusion policies and the preprocessor settings in system-provided network analysis
policies. They can also update default values for the advanced preprocessing and performance options
in your access control policies.
• New and modified variables—Rule updates may modify default values for existing default variables,
but do not override your changes. New variables are always added.
In a multidomain deployment, you can import local intrusion rules in any domain, but you can import intrusion
rule updates from Talos in the Global domain only.
Caution The first deploy after importing an intrusion rule update that includes a new or modified shared object rule
restarts the Snort process, which interrupts traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during the interruption or
passes without further inspection depends on how the target device handles traffic. For more information, see
Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314.
Understanding When Intrusion Rule Updates Modify Policies

Intrusion rule updates can affect both system-provided and custom network analysis policies, as well as all
access control policies:
• system provided—Changes to system-provided network analysis and intrusion policies, as well as any
changes to advanced access control settings, automatically take effect when you re-deploy the policies
after the update.
• custom—Because every custom network analysis and intrusion policy uses a system-provided policy as
its base, or as the eventual base in a policy chain, rule updates can affect custom network analysis and
intrusion policies. However, you can prevent rule updates from automatically making those changes.
This allows you to update system-provided base policies manually, on a schedule independent of rule
update imports. Regardless of your choice (implemented on a per-custom-policy basis), updates to
system-provided policies do not override any settings you customized.
Note that importing a rule update discards all cached changes to network analysis and intrusion policies. For
your convenience, the Rule Updates page lists policies with cached changes and the users who made those
changes.
Deploying Intrusion Rule Updates

For changes made by an intrusion rule update to take effect, you must redeploy configurations. When importing
a rule update, you can configure the system to automatically redeploy to affected devices. This approach is
especially useful if you allow the intrusion rule update to modify system-provided base intrusion policies.

123
Update Intrusion Rules One-Time Manually
Recurring Intrusion Rule Updates

You can import rule updates on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, using the Rule Updates page.
If your deployment includes a high availability pair of Firepower Management Centers, import the update on
the primary only. The secondary Firepower Management Center receives the rule update as part of the regular
synchronization process.
Applicable subtasks in the intrusion rule update import occur in the following order: download, install, base
policy update, and configuration deploy. When one subtask completes, the next subtask begins.
At the scheduled time, the system installs the rule update and deploys the changed configuration as you
specified in the previous step. You can log off or use the web interface to perform other tasks before or during
the import. When accessed during an import, the Rule Update Log displays a red status icon ( ), and you
can view messages as they occur in the Rule Update Log detailed view. Depending on the rule update size
and content, several minutes may pass before status messages appear.
Importing Local Intrusion Rules

A local intrusion rule is a custom standard text rule that you import from a local machine as a plain text file
with ASCII or UTF-8 encoding. You can create local rules using the instructions in the Snort users manual,
which is available at http://www.snort.org.
In a multidomain deployment, you can import local intrusion rules in any domain. You can view local intrusion
rules imported in the current domain and ancestor domains.
Update Intrusion Rules One-Time Manually

Import a new intrusion rule update manually if your Firepower Management Center does not have Internet
access.
Procedure
Step 1 Manually download the update from the Cisco Support Site
Step 2 Choose System > Updates, then click the Rule Updates tab.
Step 3 If you want to move all user-defined rules that you have created or imported to the deleted folder, you must
click Delete All Local Rules in the toolbar, then click OK.
Step 4 Choose Rule Update or text rule file to upload and install and click Browse to navigate to and choose the
rule update file.

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Update Intrusion Rules One-Time Automatically
Step 5 If you want to automatically re-deploy policies to your managed devices after the update completes, choose
Reapply all policies after the rule update import completes.
Step 6 Click Import. The system installs the rule update and displays the Rule Update Log detailed view.
Note Contact Support if you receive an error message while installing the rule update.
Update Intrusion Rules One-Time Automatically

To import a new intrusion rule update automatically, your appliance must have Internet access to connect to
the Support Site.
Before you begin

• Ensure the Firepower Management Center has internet access; see Security, Internet Access, and
Communication Ports, on page 2551.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the Rule Updates tab.
Step 3 If you want to move all user-defined rules that you have created or imported to the deleted folder, click Delete
All Local Rules in the toolbar, then click OK.
Step 4 Choose Download new Rule Update from the Support Site.
Step 5 If you want to automatically re-deploy the changed configuration to managed devices after the update completes,
check the Reapply all policies after the rule update import completes check box.
The system installs the rule update and displays the Rule Update Log detailed view.
Caution Contact Support if you receive an error message while installing the rule update.

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Configure Recurring Intrusion Rule Updates
Configure Recurring Intrusion Rule Updates

Procedure

Step 3 If you want to move all user-defined rules that you have created or imported to the deleted folder, click Delete
All Local Rules in the toolbar, then click OK.
Step 4 Check the Enable Recurring Rule Update Imports check box.
Import status messages appear beneath the Recurring Rule Update Imports section heading.
Step 5 In the Import Frequency field, specify:

• The frequency of the update (Daily, Weekly, or Monthly)
• The day of the week or month you want the update to occur
• The time you want the update to start
Step 6 If you want to automatically re-deploy the changed configuration to your managed devices after the update
completes, check the Deploy updated policies to targeted devices after rule update completes check box.
Step 7 Click Save.
Caution Contact Support if you receive an error message while installing the intrusion rule update.
The status message under the Recurring Rule Update Imports section heading changes to indicate that the
rule update has not yet run.
Guidelines for Importing Local Intrusion Rules

Observe the following guidelines when importing a local rule file:
• The rules importer requires that all custom rules are imported in a plain text file encoded in ASCII or
UTF-8.
• The text file name can include alphanumeric characters, spaces, and no special characters other than
underscore (_), period (.), and dash (-).
• The system imports local rules preceded with a single pound character (#), but they are flagged as deleted.

126
Guidelines for Importing Local Intrusion Rules
• The system imports local rules preceded with a single pound character (#), and does not import local
rules preceded with two pound characters (##).
• Rules cannot contain any escape characters.
• In a multidomain deployment, the system assigns a GID of 1 to a rule imported into or created in the
Global domain, and a domain-specific GID between 1000 and 2000 for all other domains.
• You do not have to specify a Generator ID (GID) when importing a local rule. If you do, specify only
GID 1 for a standard text rule.
• When importing a rule for the first time, do not specify a Snort ID (SID) or revision number. This avoids
collisions with SIDs of other rules, including deleted rules. The system will automatically assign the rule
the next available custom rule SID of 1000000 or greater, and a revision number of 1.
If you must import rules with SIDs, a SID can be any unique number 1,000,000 or greater.
In a multidomain deployment, if multiple administrators are importing local rules at the same time, SIDs
within an individual domain might appear to be non-sequential because the system assigned the intervening
numbers in the sequence to another domain.
• When importing an updated version of a local rule you have previously imported, or when reinstating a
local rule you have deleted, you must include the SID assigned by the system and a revision number
greater than the current revision number. You can determine the revision number for a current or deleted
rule by editing the rule.
Note The system automatically increments the revision number when you delete a local
rule; this is a device that allows you to reinstate local rules. All deleted local rules
are moved from the local rule category to the deleted rule category.
• Import local rules on the primary Firepower Management Center in a high availability pair to avoid SID
numbering issues.
• The import fails if a rule contains any of the following: .
• A SID greater than 2147483647.
• A list of source or destination ports that is longer than 64 characters.
• When importing into the Global domain in a multidomain deployment, a GID:SID combination
uses GID 1 and a SID that already exists in another domain; this indicates that the combination
existed before Version 6.2.1. You can reimport the rule using GID 1 and a unique SID.
• Policy validation fails if you enable an imported local rule that uses the deprecated threshold keyword
in combination with the intrusion event thresholding feature in an intrusion policy.
• All imported local rules are automatically saved in the local rule category.
• The system always sets local rules that you import to the disabled rule state. You must manually set the
state of local rules before you can use them in your intrusion policy.

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Import Local Intrusion Rules
Import Local Intrusion Rules

• Make sure your local rule file follows the guidelines described in Guidelines for Importing Local Intrusion
Rules, on page 126.
• Make sure your process for importing local intrusion rules complies with your security policies.
• Consider the import's effect on traffic flow and inspection due to bandwidth constraints and Snort restarts.
We recommend scheduling rule updates during maintenance windows.
Any Any Any Any Admin
Use this procedure to import local intrusion rules. Imported intrusion rules appear in the local rule category
in a disabled state.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Updates, then click the Rule Updates tab.
Step 2 (Optional) Delete existing local rules.
Click Delete All Local Rules, then confirm that you want to move all created and imported intrusion rules
to the deleted folder.
Step 3 Under One-Time Rule Update/Rules Import, choose Rule update or text rule file..., then click Choose
File and browse to your local rule file.
Step 5 Monitor import progress in the Message Center.
To display the Message Center, click the System Status icon on the menu bar. Even if the Message Center
shows no progress for several minutes or indicates that the import has failed, do not restart the import. Instead,
contact Cisco TAC.
What to do next
• Edit intrusion policies and enable the rules you imported.
Rule Update Log

The Firepower Management Center generates a record for each rule update and local rule file that you import.
Each record includes a time stamp, the name of the user who imported the file, and a status icon indicating
whether the import succeeded or failed. You can maintain a list of all rule updates and local rule files that you
import, delete any record from the list, and access detailed records for all imported rules and rule update
components.

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Intrusion Rule Update Log Table
The Rule Update Import Log detailed view lists a detailed record for each object imported in a rule update or
local rule file. You can also create a custom workflow or report from the records listed that includes only the
information that matches your specific needs.
Intrusion Rule Update Log Table

Table 11: Intrusion Rule Update Log Fields
Field Description
Summary The name of the import file. If the import fails, a brief
statement of the reason for the failure appears under
the file name.
Time The time and date that the import started.
User ID The user name of the user that triggered the import.
Status Whether the import:
• succeeded ( )
• failed or is currently in progress ( )
The red status icon indicating an unsuccessful or

incomplete import appears on the Rule Update Log
page during the import and is replaced by the green
icon only when the import has successfully completed.
Tip You can view import details as they appear while an intrusion rule update import is in progress.
Viewing the Intrusion Rule Update Log

In a multidomain deployment, you can view data for the current domain and for any descendant domains.
You cannot view data from higher level or sibling domains.
Procedure

Tip You can also click Import Rules on the intrusion rules editor page (Objects > Intrusion Rules).

Step 3 Click Rule Update Log.

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Fields in an Intrusion Rule Update Log
Step 4 You have two options:

• View details — To view details for each object imported in a rule update or local rule file, click view
icon ( ) next to the file you want to view; see Viewing Details of the Intrusion Rule Update Import
Log, on page 131.
• Delete — To delete an import file record from the import log, including detailed records for all objects
included with the file, click the delete icon ( ) next to the import file name.
Note Deleting the file from the log does not delete any object imported in the import file, but only
deletes the import log records.
Fields in an Intrusion Rule Update Log
Tip You search the entire Rule Update Import Log database even when you initiate a search by clicking Search
on the toolbar from the Rule Update Import Log detailed view with only the records for a single import file
displayed. Make sure you set your time constraints to include all objects you want to include in the search.
Table 12: Rule Update Import Log Detailed View Fields
Field Description
Action An indication that one of the following has occurred for the object type:
• new (for a rule, this is the first time the rule has been stored on this appliance)
• changed (for a rule update component or rule, the rule update component has been modified, or the rule
has a higher revision number and the same GID and SID)
• collision (for a rule update component or rule, import was skipped because its revision conflicts with
an existing component or rule on the appliance)
• deleted (for rules, the rule has been deleted from the rule update)
• enabled (for a rule update edit, a preprocessor, rule, or other feature has been enabled in a default policy
provided with the system)
• disabled (for rules, the rule has been disabled in a default policy provided with the system)
• drop (for rules, the rule has been set to Drop and Generate Events in a default policy provided with the
system)
• error (for a rule update or local rule file, the import failed)
• apply (the Reapply all policies after the rule update import completes option was enabled for the
import)
Default Action The default action defined by the rule update. When the imported object type is rule, the default action is
Pass, Alert, or Drop. For all other imported object types, there is no default action.

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Viewing Details of the Intrusion Rule Update Import Log
Field Description
Details A string unique to the component or rule. For rules, the GID, SID, and previous revision number for a changed
rule, displayed as previously (GID:SID:Rev). This field is blank for a rule that has not changed.
Domain The domain whose intrusion policies can use the updated rule. Intrusion policies in descendant domains can
also use the rule. This field is only present in a multidomain deployment.
GID The generator ID for a rule. For example, 1 (standard text rule, Global domain or legacy GID) or 3 (shared
object rule).
Name The name of the imported object, which for rules corresponds to the rule Message field, and for rule update
components is the component name.
Policy For imported rules, this field displays All. This means that the rule was imported successfully, and can be
enabled in all appropriate default intrusion policies. For other types of imported objects, this field is blank.
Rev The revision number for a rule.
Rule Update The rule update file name.
SID The SID for a rule.
Time The time and date the import began.
Type The type of imported object, which can be one of the following:
• rule update component (an imported component such as a rule pack or policy pack)
• rule (for rules, a new or updated rule; note that in Version 5.0.1 this value replaced the update value,
which is deprecated)
• policy apply (the Reapply all policies after the rule update import completes option was enabled
for the import)
Count The count (1) for each record. The Count field appears in a table view when the table is constrained, and the
Rule Update Log detailed view is constrained by default to rule update records. This field is not searchable.
Viewing Details of the Intrusion Rule Update Import Log

Procedure


131
Maintain Your Air-Gapped Deployment
Step 3 Click Rule Update Log.
Step 4 Click the view icon ( ) next to the file whose detailed records you want to view.
Step 5 You can take any of the following actions:
• Bookmark — To bookmark the current page, click Bookmark This Page.
• Edit Search — To open a search page prepopulated with the current single constraint, choose Edit Search
or Save Search next to Search Constraints.
• Manage bookmarks — To navigate to the bookmark management page, click Report Designer.
• Report — To generate a report based on the data in the current view, click Report Designer.
• Search — To search the entire Rule Update Import Log database for rule update import records, click
Search.
• Sort — To sort and constain records on the current workflow page, see Using Drill-Down Pages, on page
2264 for more information.
• Switch workflows — To temporarily use a different workflow, click (switch workflows).
Maintain Your Air-Gapped Deployment

If your Firepower system is not connected to the internet, essential updates will not occur automatically.
You must manually obtain and install these updates. See the following information:
• Update the Vulnerability Database (VDB) Manually, on page 119
• Update Intrusion Rules One-Time Manually, on page 124
• Manually Update the GeoDB (No Internet Connection), on page 121
• The Firepower Management Center Software Upgrade Guide at
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/upgrade/fpmc-upgrade-guide.html

132
CHAPTER 7
Backup and Restore
• About Backup and Restore, on page 133
• Guidelines and Limitations for Backup and Restore, on page 134
• Back up the Firepower Management Center, on page 135
• Back up 7000 & 8000 Series Devices Remotely, on page 136
• Back up 7000 & 8000 Series Devices Locally, on page 137
• Create Backup Profiles, on page 138
• Upload a Backup File, on page 139
• The Backup Management Page, on page 140
• Restore from Backup: FMC and 7000/8000 Series, on page 141
About Backup and Restore

The ability to recover from a disaster is an essential part of any system maintenance plan. As part of your
disaster recovery plan, we recommend that you perform periodic backups.
You can use the FMC to back up itself and the 7000/8000 series devices it manages. You can also use the
7000/8000 series local GUI to back up an individual device.
Note Especially before you upgrade, we strongly recommend you back up to a remote location and verify transfer
success. When you upgrade an appliance, it purges locally stored backups. For more information, see Remote
Storage Management, on page 922.
The following table summarizes Firepower backup capabilities.

133
Guidelines and Limitations for Backup and Restore
Table 13: Firepower Backup Capabilities
Platform Backed Up Data Save Backup To

Firepower Management Center Any of: FMC
• Configurations or
• Events (does not include Remote storage
captured file data)
• Cisco Threat Intelligence
Director (TID) data; see About
Backing Up and Restoring
TID Data, on page 1506
In a multidomain deployment you

cannot back up only events/TID
data. You must also back up
configurations.
7000/8000 series Configurations If backed up on the FMC GUI, save

to the device and optionally the
FMC, or save to remote storage.
If backed up on the device GUI,
save to the device only.
Firepower Threat Defense Not supported.

NGIPSv If you need to replace once of these devices, you must manually recreate
device-specific configurations.
ASA FirePOWER
However, backing up the FMC does back up policies and other
configurations that you deploy to managed devices, as well as events
already transmitted from the devices to the FMC.
Guidelines and Limitations for Backup and Restore

Note the following guidelines and limitations for backup and restore on the Firepower Management Center
and the 7000 & 8000 Series device:
• The backup file must not be manually modified for the restore and upgrade process to function properly.
You must ensure there is no unauthorized access to the backup file.
• While the system collects backup data, there may be a temporary pause in data correlation, and the system
may prevent you from changing configurations related to the backup.
• You can restore a backup onto a replacement appliance or device only if the two appliances or devices
are the same model and are running the same version of the Firepower System software.
• On Firepower Management Centers, the backup and restore functions are available only in the Global
domain. You can use the export and import functions as substitutes for backup and restore within the
scope of a subdomain.

134
Back up the Firepower Management Center
• The backup files that contain certificates will be marked as failed once they are restored. Users must
therefore re-install certificates on the Firepower Management Center.
• Cisco recommends that you backup your Firepower Management Center if you make any modifications
to Specific or Permanent License Reservation.
• Do not use the backup and restore process to copy configurations between appliances or devices. A
backup file contains information that uniquely identifies an appliance, and cannot be shared.
• After you restore a Firepower Management Center, you must apply the latest intrusion rule update.
• Private keys associated with PKI objects are encrypted with a randomly generated key when stored on
the appliance. If you perform a backup that contains private keys associated with PKI objects, the private
keys are decrypted before being included in the unencrypted backup file. Store the backup file in a secure
location.
• If you restore a backup that contains private keys associated with PKI objects, the system encrypts the
keys with a randomly generated key before storing them on the appliance.
• If you restore a backup that includes a file policy with either a clean list or custom detection list enabled,
the system merges any existing file lists(s) with the file lists(s) being restored.
• If you perform a backup, then delete reviewed intrusion events, then restore using that backup, the system
restores the deleted intrusion events but does not restore their reviewed status. You view those restored
intrusion events under Intrusion Events, not under Reviewed Events.
• If you restore a backup that contains intrusion event data on an appliance that already contains that data,
duplicate events are created. To avoid this, restore intrusion event backups only on appliances without
prior intrusion event data.
Back up the Firepower Management Center

Any Any FMC Global only Admin/Maint
Use this procedure to back up the Firepower Management Center.
Before you begin

Ensure the FMC has enough disk space; backups may fail if the backup process uses more than 90% of
available disk space. If necessary, delete old backup files, transfer old backup files off the appliance, or use
remote storage; see Remote Storage Management, on page 922.
Procedure
Step 1 Select System > Tools > Backup/Restore.

Step 2 Click Firepower Management Backup.
Step 3 Type a Name.
Step 4 Choose what to back up:

135
Back up 7000 & 8000 Series Devices Remotely
• To archive the configuration, select Back Up Configuration. In a multidomain deployment, you cannot
disable this option.
• To archive the entire event database, select Back Up Events.
• To archive TID configurations and the entire TID database, select Back Up Threat Intelligence Director.
Step 5 If you want to be notified when the backup is complete, select the Email check box and type your email
address in the accompanying text box.
To receive email notifications, you must configure a relay host as described in Configuring a Mail Relay Host
and Notification Address, on page 939.
Step 6 To use secure copy (SCP) to copy the backup archive to a different machine, select the Copy when complete
check box, then type the following information in the accompanying text boxes:
• In the Host field, the hostname or IP address of the machine where you want to copy the backup
• In the Path field, the path to the directory where you want to copy the backup
• In the User field, the user name you want to use to log into the remote machine
• In the Password field, the password for that user name. If you prefer to access your remote machine
with an SSH public key instead of a password, you must copy the contents of the SSH Public Key field
to the specified user’s authorized_keys file on that machine.
With this option cleared, the system stores temporary files used during the backup on the remote server;
temporary files are not stored on the remote server when this option is selected. Cisco recommends that you
periodically save backups to a remote location so the appliance can be restored in case of system failure.
Step 7 You have the following options:

• To save the backup file to the appliance, click Start Backup. The backup file is saved in the
/var/sf/backup directory.
• To save this configuration as a backup profile that you can use later, click Save As New.
What to do next
Store the backup file in a secure location if it contains PKI object data, as the private keys are stored unencrypted
within the backup.
Back up 7000 & 8000 Series Devices Remotely

Any Any 7000 & 8000 Series Global only Admin/Maint
Use this procedure to perform a remote device backup with the Firepower Management Center.

136
Back up 7000 & 8000 Series Devices Locally
Before you begin

Ensure you have enough disk space. Backups may fail if the backup process uses more than 90% of available
disk space. If necessary, delete or transfer old backup files, or use remote storage; see Remote Storage
Management, on page 922.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Managed Device Backup.
Step 3 Choose one or more Managed Devices.
Step 4 Specify where you want to save backup files by enabling or disabling Retrieve to Management Center.
• Enabled: Saves device backups to the device, and also copies the file to the FMC.
• Disabled (default): Saves device backups on the device only.
If you configured remote backup storage, backup files are saved remotely and this option has no effect.
Step 5 Click Start Backup.
What to do next
Locate the backup file using the following information:
• The backup file is saved in the /var/sf/backup directory on the device. If you choose to save a copy of
the backup file on the Firepower Management Center, it is saved in the /var/sf/remote-backup directory
on the FMC.
•
Note If the backup contains PKI object data, store the backup in a secure location, as the private keys are stored
unencrypted within the backup.
Back up 7000 & 8000 Series Devices Locally

N/A Any 7000 & 8000 Series N/A Admin/Maint
You must perform this procedure using the 7000 or 8000 Series device's local web interface.
Before you begin

Ensure your appliance has enough disk space; backups may fail if the backup process uses more than 90% of
available disk space. If necessary, delete old backup files, or transfer old backup files off the appliance.

137
Create Backup Profiles
Procedure

Step 2 Click Device Backup.
Step 3 In the Name field, type a name for the backup file.
Step 4 If you want to be notified when the backup is complete, select the Email check box and type your email
address in the accompanying text box.
To receive email notifications, you must configure a relay host as described in Configuring a Mail Relay Host
and Notification Address, on page 939.
Step 5 If you want to use secure copy (SCP) to copy the backup archive to a different machine, select the Copy when
complete check box, then type the following information in the accompanying text boxes:
• In the Host field, the hostname or IP address of the machine where you want to copy the backup.
• In the Path field, the path to the directory where you want to copy the backup.
• In the User field, the user name you want to use to log into the remote machine.
• In the Password field, the password for that user name. If you prefer to access your remote machine
with an SSH public key instead of a password, you must copy the contents of the SSH Public Key field
to the specified user’s authorized_keys file on that machine.
With this option cleared, the system stores temporary files used during the backup on the remote server;
temporary files are not stored on the remote server when this option is selected. Cisco recommends that you
periodically save backups to a remote location so the appliance can be restored in case of system failure.

• To save the backup file to the appliance, click Start Backup. The backup file is saved in the
/var/sf/backup directory.
• To save this configuration as a backup profile that you can use later, click Save As New.
What to do next
Store the backup file in a secure location if it contains PKI object data, as the private keys are stored unencrypted
within the backup.
Create Backup Profiles


7000 & 8000 Series
You must perform this procedure using the device's web user interface or the Firepower Management Center
web interface, as applicable.

138
Upload a Backup File
You can create backup profiles that contain the settings that you want to use for different types of backups.
You can later select one of these profiles when you back up the files on your appliance.
Tip When you create a backup file for a Firepower Management Center using a new file name, the system
automatically creates a backup profile with that name.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the Backup Profiles tab.
Step 3 Click Create Profile.
Step 4 Type a name for the backup profile.
Step 5 Configure the backup profile.
See Back up the Firepower Management Center, on page 135 for information on your options.
Step 6 Click Save As New to save the backup profile.
Upload a Backup File


7000 & 8000 Series
You can upload a backup file from your local host to a Firepower Management Center, 7000 Series device
or a 8000 Series device using the Firepower Management Center web interface or the device's local web
interface respectively.
If your backup file contains PKI objects, on upload the system re-encrypts private keys associated with internal
CA and internal certificate objects with a randomly generated key.
Before you begin

• Download a backup file to your local host using the download function as described in The Backup
• Copy backups larger than 4GB from your local host via SCP to a remote host and retrieve it from there
to your Firepower Management Center, as web browsers do not support uploading files that large. See
Remote Storage Management, on page 922 for more information.

139
The Backup Management Page
Procedure

Step 2 Click Upload Backup.
Step 3 Click Browse, then navigate to and select the backup file you want to upload.
Step 4 Click Upload Backup.
Step 5 Click Backup Management to return to the Backup Management page.
What to do next
Refresh the Backup Management Page to view the detailed file system information after the appliance verifies
the file integrity.
The Backup Management Page

You can access the Backup Management page on the Firepower Management Center web interface at
System > Tools > Backup/Restore > Backup Management.
If your backup file contains PKI objects, on upload the system re-encrypts private keys associated with internal
CA and internal certificate objects with a randomly generated key.
If you use local storage, backup files are saved to /var/sf/backup, which is listed with the amount of disk
space used in the /var partition at the bottom of the Backup Management page. On Firepower Management
Centers, select Remote Storage at the top of the Backup Management page to configure remote storage
options; then, to enable remote storage, select the Enable Remote Storage for Backups check box on the
Backup Management page. If you use remote storage, the protocol, backup system, and backup directory are
listed at the bottom of the page.
The following table describes each column and button on the Backup Management page.
Table 14: Backup Management
Functionality Description
System Information The originating appliance name, type, and version

Note you can only restore a backup to an identical appliance type and
version.
Date Created The date and time that the backup file was created
File Name The full name of the backup file
VDB Version The build of the vulnerability database (VDB) running on the appliance at the
time of backup.
Location The location of the backup file
Size (MB) The size of the backup file, in megabytes

140
Restore from Backup: FMC and 7000/8000 Series
Functionality Description
Events? “Yes” indicates the backup includes event data
View Click the name of the backup file to view a list of the files included in the
compressed backup file.
Restore Click with the backup file selected to restore it on the appliance. If your VDB
version does not match the VDB version in the backup file, this option is disabled.
For more information, see Restore from Backup: FMC and 7000/8000 Series, on
page 141
Download Click with the backup file selected to save it to your local computer.
Delete Click with the backup file selected to delete it.
Move On a Firepower Management Center, when you have a previously created local
backup selected, click to send the backup to the designated remote backup
location.


7000 & 8000 Series
You can restore a Firepower Management Center, 7000 Series device or 8000 Series device from backup files
using the Backup Management page on the Firepower Management Center web interface or the device's
web interface.
Caution This action overwrites all configuration files and, on the managed device, all event data.
Note If you add licenses after a backup has completed, these licenses will not be removed or overwritten if this
backup is restored. To prevent a conflict on restore, remove those licenses before restoring the backup, noting
where the licenses were used, and add and reconfigure them after restoring the backup. If a conflict occurs,
contact Support. If you de-register a Firepower Management Center from Cisco Smart Software Manager
after a backup has completed, and restore this backup, then you must de-register Firepower Management
Center and register the Firepower Management Center again.
Note For more information to de-register a Firepower Management Center, see Deregister a Firepower Management
Center from the Cisco Smart Software Manager, on page 95. To register the Firepower Management Center,
see Register Smart Licenses, on page 88.

141
Before you begin

• Confirm that the VDB version in the backup file matches the current VDB version on your appliance.
See Viewing Dashboards, on page 239 for more information.
• Remove any licenses added to your appliance after a backup has completed before restoring the backup
to avoid a conflict on restore. See About Firepower Licenses, on page 73 for more information.
• Confirm the appliance does not have the same intrusion event data as stored in the backup, because
restoring the backup under such conditions creates duplicate events. See About Intrusion Events, on page
Procedure

Step 2 Click on the backup file to view its contents. Details include file owner, file permissions, file size, and date.
Step 3 Select System > Tools > Backup/Restore to return to the Backup Management page.
Step 4 Select the backup file that you want to restore.
Step 5 Click Restore.
Note If the VDB version in the backup does not match the VDB version currently installed on your
appliance, the Restore button is grayed out.
Step 6 To restore files, select either or both of the following options:

• Restore Configuration Data
Note When you restore the configuration of a managed device from a backup file, any device
configuration changes you made from the device’s managing Firepower Management Center
will also be restored. Restoring a backup file will overwrite changes you made after you created
that backup file.
• Restore Event Data (FMC only)
• Restore Threat Intelligence Director Data (FMC only)
Step 7 Click Restore.

Step 8 (Optional) Wait for the system to reboot automatically.
The system reboots automatically only if the backup contains configuration data.
What to do next
• Import the latest Cisco Rule Update; see Update Intrusion Rules One-Time Manually, on page 124. If
you re-deploy policies as part of the import, you do not need to deploy configuration changes (below).
• Add and reconfigure any licenses you removed from your appliance before restoring the backup.
• Contact Support if your appliance shows a license conflict on restore.

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CHAPTER 8
Configuration Import and Export
The following topics explain how to use the Import/Export feature:
• About Configuration Import/Export, on page 143
• Exporting Configurations, on page 145
• Importing Configurations, on page 146
About Configuration Import/Export

You can use the Import/Export feature to copy configurations between appliances. Import/Export is not a
backup tool, but can simplify the process of adding new appliances to your deployment.
You can export a single configuration, or you can export a set of configurations (of the same type or of different
types) with a single action. When you later import the package onto another appliance, you can choose which
configurations in the package to import.
An exported package contains revision information for that configuration, which determines whether you can
import that configuration onto another appliance. When the appliances are compatible but the package includes
a duplicate configuration, the system offers resolution options.
Note The importing and exporting appliances must be running the same version of the Firepower System. For
access control and its subpolicies (including intrusion policies), the intrusion rule update version must also
match. If the versions do not match, the import fails. You cannot use the Import/Export feature to update
intrusion rules. Instead, download and apply the latest rule update version.
Configurations that Support Import/Export

Import/Export is supported for the following configurations:
• Access control policies and the policies they invoke: prefilter, network analysis, intrusion, SSL, file
• Intrusion policies, independently of access control
• NAT policies (Firepower Threat Defense only)

143
Special Considerations for Configuration Import/Export
• FlexConfig policies. However, the contents of any secret key variables are cleared when you export the
policy. You must manually edit the values of all secret keys after importing a FlexConfig policy that
uses secret keys.
• Platform settings
• Health policies
• Alert responses
• Application detectors (both user-defined and those provided by Cisco Professional Services)
• Dashboards
• Custom tables
• Custom workflows
• Saved searches
• Custom user roles
• Report templates
• Third-party product and vulnerability mappings
Special Considerations for Configuration Import/Export

When you export a configuration, the system also exports other required configurations. For example, exporting
an access control policy also exports any subpolicies it invokes, objects and object groups it uses, ancestor
policies (in a multidomain deployment), and so on. As another example, if you export a platform settings
policy with external authentication enabled, the authentication object is exported as well. There are some
exceptions, however:
• System-provided databases and feeds—The system does not export URL filtering category and reputation
data, Cisco Intelligence Feed data, or the geolocation database (GeoDB). Make sure all the appliances
in your deployment obtain up-to-date information from Cisco.
• Global Security Intelligence lists—The system exports Global Security Intelligence blacklists and
whitelists associated with exported configurations. (In a multidomain deployment, this occurs regardless
of your current domain. The system does not export descendant domain lists.) The import process converts
these blacklists and whitelists to user-created lists, then uses those new lists in the imported configurations.
This ensures that imported lists do not conflict with existing Global blacklists and whitelists. To use
Global lists on the importing Firepower Management Center in your imported configurations, add them
manually.
• Intrusion policy shared layers—The export process breaks intrusion policy shared layers. The previously
shared layer is included in the package, and imported intrusion policies do not contain shared layers.
• Intrusion policy default variable set—The export package includes a default variable set with custom
variables and system-provided variables with user-defined values. The import process updates the default
variable set on the importing Firepower Management Center with the imported values. However, the
import process does not delete custom variables not present in the export package. The import process
also does not revert user-defined values on the importing Firepower Management Center, for values not
set in the export package. Therefore, an imported intrusion policy may behave differently than expected
if the importing Firepower Management Center has differently configured default variables.

144
Exporting Configurations
• Custom user objects—If you have created custom user groups or objects in your Firepower Management
Center and if such a custom user object is a part of any rule in your access control policy, note that the
export file (.sfo) does not carry the user object information and therefore while importing such a policy,
any reference to such custom user objects will be removed and will not be imported to the destination
Firepower Management Center. To avoid detection issues due to the missing user group, add the
customized user objects manually to the new Firepower Management Center and re-configure the access
control policy after import.
When you import objects and object groups:

• Generally, the import process imports objects and groups as new, and you cannot replace existing objects
and groups. However, if network and port objects or groups in an imported configuration match existing
objects or groups, the imported configuration reuses the existing objects/groups, rather than creating new
objects/groups. The system determines a match by comparing the name (minus any autogenerated number)
and content of each network and port object/group.
• If the names of imported objects match existing objects on the importing Firepower Management Center,
the system appends autogenerated numbers to the imported object and group names to make them unique.
• You must map any security zones and interface groups used in the imported configurations to
matching-type zones and groups managed by the importing Firepower Management Center.
• If you export a configuration that uses PKI objects containing private keys, the system decrypts the
private keys before export. On import, the system encrypts the keys with a randomly generated key.
Exporting Configurations
Depending on the number of configurations being exported and the number of objects those configurations
reference, the export process may take several minutes.
Tip
Many list pages in the Firepower System include an export icon ( ) next to list items. Where this icon is
present, you can use it as a quick alternative to the export procedure that follows.
Before you begin

• Confirm that the importing and exporting appliances are running the same version of the Firepower
System. For access control and its subpolicies (including intrusion policies), the intrusion rule update
version must also match.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Tools > Import/Export.

145
Importing Configurations
Click the collapse ( ) and expand ( ) icons to collapse and expand the list of available configurations.
Step 2 Check the configurations you want to export and click Export.
Step 3 Follow your web browser’s prompts to save the exported package to your computer.
Importing Configurations
Depending on the number of configurations being imported and the number of objects those configurations
reference, the import process may take several minutes.
Note If you log out of the system, if you change to a different domain, or if your user session times out after you
click Import, the import process continues in the background until it is complete.
Before you begin

• Confirm that the importing and exporting appliances are running the same version of the Firepower
System. For access control and its subpolicies (including intrusion policies), the intrusion rule update
version must also match.
Procedure
Step 1 On the importing appliance, choose System > Tools > Import/Export.
Step 2 Click Upload Package.
Step 3 Enter the path to the exported package or browse to its location, then click Upload.
Step 4 If there are no version mismatches or other issues, choose the configurations you want to import, then click
Import.
If you do not need to perform any conflict resolution or interface object mapping, the import completes and
a success message appears. Skip the rest of this procedure.
Step 5 If prompted, on the Import Conflict Resolution page, map interface objects used in the imported configurations
to zones and groups with matching interface types managed by the importing Firepower Management Center.
Interface object type (security zone or interface group) and interface type (passive, inline, routed, and so on)
of source and destination objects must match. For information, see Interface Objects: Interface Groups and
Security Zones, on page 382.
If the configurations you are importing reference security zones or interface groups that do not already exist,
you can map them to existing interface objects, or create new ones.

146
Import Conflict Resolution
Step 7 If prompted, on the Import Resolution page, expand each configuration and choose the appropriate option as
described in Import Conflict Resolution, on page 147.
What to do next
• Optionally, view a report summarizing the imported configurations; see Viewing Task Messages, on
page 287.

When you attempt to import a configuration, the system determines whether a configuration of the same name
and type already exists on the appliance. In a multidomain deployment, the system also determines whether
a configuration is a duplicate of a configuration defined in the current domain or any of its ancestor or
descendant domains. (You cannot view configurations in descendant domains, but if a configuration with a
duplicate name exists in a descendant domain, the system notifies you of the conflict.) When an import includes
a duplicate configuration, the system offers resolution options suitable to your deployment from among the
following:
• Keep existing
The system does not import that configuration.
• Replace existing
The system overwrites the current configuration with the configuration selected for import.
• Keep newest
The system imports the selected configuration only if its timestamp is more recent than the timestamp
on the current configuration on the appliance.
• Import as new
The system imports the selected duplicate configuration, appending a system-generated number to the
name to make it unique. (You can change this name before completing the import process.) The original
configuration on the appliance remains unchanged.
The resolution options the system offers depends on whether your deployment uses domains, and whether
the imported configuration is a duplicate of a configuration defined in the current domain, or a configuration
defined in an ancestor or descendant of the current domain. The following table lists when the system does
or does not present a resolution option.
Resolution Option Firepower Management Center Managed Device
Duplicate in current Duplicate in ancestor or

domain descendant domain
Keep existing Yes Yes Yes
Replace existing Yes No Yes
Keep newest Yes No Yes

147
Resolution Option Firepower Management Center Managed Device
Duplicate in current Duplicate in ancestor or

domain descendant domain
Import as new Yes Yes Yes
When you import an access control policy with a file policy that uses clean or custom detection file lists and
a file list presents a duplicate name conflict, the system offers conflict resolution options as described in the
table above, but the action the system performs on the policies and file lists varies as described in the table
below:
Resolution Option System Action
Access control policy and its Existing access control policy and its
associated file policy are associated file policy and file lists remain
imported as new and the file unchanged
lists are merged
Keep existing No Yes
Replace existing Yes No
Import as new Yes No
Keep newest and access Yes No

control policy being imported
is the newest
Keep newest and existing No Yes

access control policy is the
newest
If you modify an imported configuration on an appliance, and later re-import that configuration to the same
appliance, you must choose which version of the configuration to keep.

148
CHAPTER 9
Task Scheduling
The following topics explain how to schedule tasks:
• About Task Scheduling, on page 149
• Configuring a Recurring Task, on page 149
• Scheduled Task Review, on page 165
About Task Scheduling

You can schedule many different types of administrative tasks to run at designated times, either once or on a
recurring basis.
Note Some tasks (such as those involving automated software updates or that require pushing updates to managed
devices) may place a significant load on networks with low bandwidths. You should schedule tasks like these
to run during periods of low network use.
Configuring a Recurring Task

Any Any Task dependent Task dependent Admin/Maint
You set the frequency for a recurring task using the same process for all types of tasks.
Note that the time displayed on most pages on the web interface is the local time, which is determined by
using the time zone you specify in your local configuration. Further, the Firepower Management Center
automatically adjusts its local time display for daylight saving time (DST), where appropriate. However,
recurring tasks that span the transition dates from DST to standard time and back do not adjust for the transition.
That is, if you create a task scheduled for 2:00 AM during standard time, it will run at 3:00 AM during DST.
Similarly, if you create a task scheduled for 2:00 AM during DST, it will run at 1:00 AM during standard
time.

149
Backup Automation
Procedure
Step 1 Select System > Tools > Scheduling.

Step 2 Click Add Task.
Step 3 From the Job Type drop-down list, select the type of task that you want to schedule.
Step 4 Click the Recurring radio button next to the Schedule task to run option.
Step 5 In the Start On field, specify the date when you want to start your recurring task.
Step 6 In the Repeat Every field, specify how often you want the task to recur.
You can either type a number or click the up icon ( ) and the down ( ) icon to specify the interval. For
example, type 2 and click the Days radio button to run the task every two days.
Step 7 In the Run At field, specify the time when you want to start your recurring task.
Step 8 For a task to be run on a weekly or monthly basis, select the days when you want to run the task in the Repeat
On field.
Step 9 Select the remaining options for the type of task you are creating:
• Backup - Schedule backup jobs as described in Automating Firepower Management Center Backups,
on page 151.
• Download CRL - Schedule certificate revocation list downloads as described in Configuring Certificate
Revocation List Downloads, on page 152.
• Deploy Policies - Schedule policy deployment as described in Automating Policy Deployment, on page
153.
• Nmap Scan - Schedule Nmap scans as described in Scheduling an Nmap Scan, on page 154.
• Report - Schedule report generation as described in Automating Report Generation, on page 156
• Firepower Recommended Rules - Schedule automatic update of Firepower recommended rules as
described in Automating Firepower Recommendations, on page 157
• Download Latest Update - Schedule software or VDB update downloads as described in Automating
Software Downloads, on page 159 or Automating VDB Update Downloads, on page 162.
• Install Latest Update - Schedule installation of software or VDB updates on a Firepower Management
Center or managed device as described in Automating Software Installs, on page 161 or Automating VDB
Update Installs, on page 163
• Push Latest Update - Schedule push of software updates to managed devices as described in Automating
Software Pushes, on page 160.
• Update URL Filtering Database - Scheduling automatic update of URL filtering data as described in
Automating URL Filtering Updates Using a Scheduled Task, on page 164
Backup Automation
You can use the scheduler on the Firepower Management Center to automate its own backups.

150
Automating Firepower Management Center Backups
You cannot schedule a device backup from the FMC. However, you can use the FMC to perform on-demand
backups of 7000/8000 series devices. You can also use the 7000/8000 series local GUI to schedule backups
of an individual device. For more information, see Backup and Restore, on page 133.
Related Topics
Requirements for Backup and Restore
Automating Firepower Management Center Backups

Use this procedure to automate backups of the Firepower Management Center.
Before you begin

Create a backup profile. See Create Backup Profiles, on page 138.
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Backup.
Step 4 Specify how you want to schedule the backup, Once or Recurring:
• For one-time tasks, use the drop-down lists to specify the start date and time.
• For recurring tasks, see Configuring a Recurring Task, on page 149 for details.
Step 5 Type a name In the Job Name field.

Step 6 From the Backup Profile list, select the appropriate backup profile.
Step 7 Optionally, type a Comment.
The comment field appears in the Task Details section of the schedule calendar page. Keep comments brief.
Step 8 If you want to email task status messages, type an email address (or multiple email addresses separated by
commas) in the Email Status To: field. You must have a valid email relay server configured to send status
messages.
Step 9 Click Save.
Related Topics
Configuring a Mail Relay Host and Notification Address, on page 939
Automating 7000 & 8000 Series Device Backups

N/A Any 7000 & 8000 Series N/A Admin/Maint

151
Configuring Certificate Revocation List Downloads
Use this procedure to schedule backups of an 7000 or 8000 Series device from the device's local web interface.
Before you begin

Create a backup profile. See Create Backup Profiles, on page 138
Procedure
Step 1 On the device's web interface, select System > Tools > Scheduling.
Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Backup.
Step 4 Specify how you want to schedule the backup, Once or Recurring:

Step 6 From the Backup Profile list, select the appropriate backup profile.
Step 7 Optionally, type a Comment.
The comment field appears in the Task Details section of the schedule calendar page. Keep comments brief.
messages.
Step 9 Click Save.
Related Topics
Configuring Certificate Revocation List Downloads

Any Any Any Device dependent Admin/Maint
You must perform this procedure using the local web interface for the Firepower Management Center or the
7000 or 8000 Series device. In a multidomain deployment, this task is only supported in the Global domain
for the Firepower Management Center.
The system automatically creates the Download CRL task when you enable downloading a certificate revocation
list (CRL) in the local configuration on an appliance where you enable user certificates or audit log certificates
for the appliance. You can use the scheduler to edit the task to set the frequency of the update.

152
Automating Policy Deployment
Before you begin

• Enable and configure user certificates or audit log certificates and set one or more CRL download URLs.
See Requiring Valid HTTPS Client Certificates, on page 899 and Require Secure Connections Between
Audit Log Server and FMC, on page 936 for more information.
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Download CRL.
Step 4 Specify how you want to schedule the CRL download, Once or Recurring:

Step 6 If you want to comment on the task, type a comment in the Comment field.
The comment field appears in the Task Details section of the schedule calendar page; keep comments brief.
commas) in the Email Status To: field. You must have a valid email relay server configured on the Firepower
Management Center to send status messages.
Step 8 Click Save.
Related Topics
Automating Policy Deployment

Any Any Any Any Admin/Maint
After modifying configuration settings in the FMC, you must deploy those changes to the affected devices.
In a multidomain deployment, you can schedule policy deployments only for your current domain.
Caution When you deploy, resource demands may result in a small number of packets dropping without inspection.
Additionally, deploying some configurations restarts the Snort process, which interrupts traffic inspection.
Whether traffic drops during this interruption or passes without further inspection depends on how the target
device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 and Configurations that Restart the
Snort Process When Deployed or Activated, on page 316.

153
Nmap Scan Automation
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Deploy Policies.
Step 4 Specify how you want to schedule the task, Once or Recurring:
Step 5 Type a name in the Job Name field.

Step 6 In the Device field, select a device where you want to deploy policies.
The comment field displays in the Tasks Details section of the schedule calendar page; keep comments brief.
messages.
Step 9 Click Save.
Related Topics
Out-of-Date Policies, on page 321
Nmap Scan Automation

You can schedule regular Nmap scans of targets on your network. Automated scans allow you to refresh
information previously supplied by an Nmap scan. Because the Firepower System cannot update Nmap-supplied
data, you need to rescan periodically to keep that data up to date. You can also schedule scans to automatically
test for unidentified applications or servers on hosts in your network.
Note that a Discovery Administrator can also use an Nmap scan as a remediation. For example, when an
operating system conflict occurs on a host, that conflict may trigger an Nmap scan. Running the scan obtains
updated operating system information for the host, which resolves the conflict.
If you have not used the Nmap scanning capability before, you configure Nmap scanning before defining a
scheduled scan.
Related Topics
Nmap Scanning, on page 1941
Scheduling an Nmap Scan


154
Scheduling an Nmap Scan
After Nmap replaces a host’s operating system, applications, or servers detected by the system with the results
from an Nmap scan, the system no longer updates the information replaced by Nmap for the host.
Nmap-supplied service and operating system data remains static until you run another Nmap scan. If you plan
to scan a host using Nmap, you may want to set up regularly scheduled scans to keep Nmap-supplied operating
systems, applications, or servers up to date. If the host is deleted from the network map and re-added, any
Nmap scan results are discarded and the system resumes monitoring of all operating system and service data
for the host.
In a multidomain deployment:
• You can schedule scans only for your current domain
• The remediation and Nmap targets you select must exist at your current domain or an ancestor domain.
• Choosing to perform an Nmap scan on a non-leaf domain scans the same targets in each descendant of
that domain.
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Nmap Scan.

Step 6 In the Nmap Remediation field, select an Nmap remediation.
Step 7 In the Nmap Target field, select the scan target.
Step 8 In the Domain field, select the domain whose network map you want to augment.
Tip The comment field appears in the Task Details section of the calendar schedule page; keep comments
brief.
messages.
Step 11 Click Save.
Related Topics

155
Automating Report Generation
Automating Report Generation

You can automate reports so that they run at regular intervals.

In a multidomain deployment, you can schedule reports only for your current domain.
Before you begin

• For reports other than risk reports: Create a report template. See Report Templates, on page 2153 for more
information.
• If you want to distribute email reports using the scheduler, configure a mail relay host and specify report
recipients and message information. See Configuring a Mail Relay Host and Notification Address, on
page 939 and (for reports other than risk reports) Distributing Reports by Email at Generation Time, on
page 2175 or (for risk reports) Generating, Viewing, and Printing Risk Reports, on page 2151.
• (Optional) Set or change the file name, output format, time window, or email distribution settings of the
scheduled report. See Specify Report Generation Settings for a Scheduled Report, on page 157.
• If you will choose PDF as the report output format, look at the report template and verify that the number
of results in each section of the template does not exceed the limit for PDFs. For information, see Report
Template Fields, on page 2153.
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Report.

Step 6 In the Report Template field, select a risk report or report template.
The comment field appears in the Tasks Details section of the schedule calendar page; keep comments brief.
messages.
Note Configuring this option does not distribute the reports.

156
Specify Report Generation Settings for a Scheduled Report
Step 9 If you do not want to receive report email attachments when reports have no data (for example, when no
events of a certain type occurred during the report period), select the If report is empty, still attach to email
check box.
Step 10 Click Save.
Specify Report Generation Settings for a Scheduled Report

Any Any Any Any Admin/Any Security

Analyst
To specify or change the file name, output format, time window, or email distribution settings of a scheduled
report:
Procedure
Step 1 Select Overview > Reporting > Report Templates.

Step 2 Click Edit for the report template to change.
Step 3 If you will select PDF output:
a) Look to see whether any of the sections in the report shows a yellow triangle beside the number of results.
b) If you see any yellow triangles, mouse over the triangle to view the maximum number of results allowable
for that section for PDF output.
c) For each section with a yellow triangle, reduce the number of results to a number below the limit.
d) When there are no more yellow triangles, click Save.
Step 4 Click Generate.
Note If you want to change report generation settings without generating the report now, you must click
Generate from the template configuration page. Changes will not be saved if you click Generate
from the template list view unless you generate the report.
Step 5 Modify settings.

Step 6 To save the new settings without generating the report, click Cancel.
To save the new settings and generate the report, click Generate and skip the rest of the steps in this procedure.
Step 7 Click Save.

Step 8 If you see a prompt to save even though you haven't made changes, click OK.
Automating Firepower Recommendations

Threat Protection Any Any Admin/Maint

157
Automating Firepower Recommendations
You can automatically generate rule state recommendations based on network discovery data for your network
using the most recently saved configuration settings in a custom intrusion policy.
Note If the system automatically generates scheduled recommendations for an intrusion policy with unsaved changes,
you must discard your changes in that policy and commit the policy if you want the policy to reflect the
automatically generated recommendations.
When the task runs, the system automatically generates recommended rule states, and modifies the states of
intrusion rules based on the configuration of your policy. Modified rule states take effect the next time you
deploy your intrusion policy.
In a multidomain deployment, you can automate recommendations for intrusion policies at the current domain
level. The system builds a separate network map for each leaf domain. In a multidomain deployment, if you
enable this feature in an intrusion policy in an ancestor domain, the system generates recommendations using
data from all descendant leaf domains. This can enable intrusion rules tailored to assets that may not exist in
all leaf domains, which can affect performance.
Before you begin

• Configure Firepower recommended rules in an intrusion policy as described in Generating and Applying
Firepower Recommendations, on page 1610
• If you want to email task status messages, configure a valid email relay server.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Tools > Scheduling.

Step 3 From the Job Type list, choose Firepower Recommended Rules.
Step 5 Enter a name in the Job Name field.

Step 6 Next to Policies, choose one or more intrusion policies where you want to generate recommendations. Check
the All Policies check box to choose all intrusion policies.
Step 7 (Optional) Enter a comment in the Comment field.
Keep comments brief. Comments appear in the Task Details section of the schedule calendar page.
Step 8 (Optional) To email task status messages, type an email address (or multiple email addresses separated by
commas) in the Email Status To: field.
Step 9 Click Save.
Related Topics
Conflicts and Changes: Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies, on page 1552

158
Software Update Automation
About Firepower Recommended Rules, on page 1607

Software Update Automation

You can automatically download and apply most patches and feature releases to the Firepower System.
The tasks you must schedule to install software updates vary depending on whether you are updating the FMC
or are using a FMC to update managed devices.
Note Cisco strongly recommends that you use your FMCs to update the devices they manage.
• To update the FMC, schedule the software installation using the Install Latest Update task.
• To use a FMC to automate software updates for its managed devices, you must schedule two tasks:
• Push (copy) the update to managed devices using the Push Latest Update task.
• Install the update on managed devices using the Install Latest Update task.
When scheduling updates to managed devices, schedule the push and install tasks to happen in succession;
you must first push the update to the device before you can install it. To automate software updates on
a device group, you must select all the devices within the group. Allow enough time between tasks for
the process to complete; schedule tasks at least 30 minutes apart. If you schedule a task to install an
update and the update has not finished copying from the FMC to the device, the installation task will not
succeed. However, if the scheduled installation task repeats daily, it will install the pushed update when
it runs the next day.
Note You must manually upload and install updates in two situations. First, you cannot schedule major updates to
the Firepower System. Second, you cannot schedule updates for or pushes from FMC that cannot access the
Support Site. If your FMC is not directly connected to the Internet, you should use management interfaces
configuration to set up a proxy to allow it to download updates from the Support Site.
Note that a task scheduled to install an update on a device group will install the pushed update to each device
within the device group simultaneously. Allow enough time for the scheduled task to complete for each device
within the device group.
If you want to have more control over this process, you can use the Once option to download and install
updates during off-peak hours after you learn that an update has been released.
Related Topics
About Firepower Updates, on page 117
Automating Software Downloads

Any Any Any Global only Admin/Maint

159
Automating Software Pushes
You can create a scheduled task that automatically downloads the latest software updates from Cisco. You
can use this task to schedule download of updates you plan to install manually.
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Download Latest Update.

Step 6 Next to Update Items, check the Software check box.
messages.
Step 9 Click Save.
Related Topics
Automating Software Pushes

If you want to automate the installation of software updates on managed devices, you must push the updates
to the devices before installing.
When you create the task to push software updates to managed devices, make sure you allow enough time
between the push task and a scheduled install task for the updates to be copied to the device.
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Push Latest Update.

160
Automating Software Installs

Step 6 From the Device drop-down list, select the device that you want to update.
messages.
Step 9 Click Save.
Related Topics
Automating Software Installs

Make sure you allow enough time between the task that pushes the update to a managed device and the task
that installs the update.
Caution Depending on the update being installed, the appliance may reboot after the software is installed.
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Install Latest Update.

Step 6 From the Device drop-down list, select the appliance (including the Firepower Management Center) where
you want to install the update.
Step 7 Next to Update Items, check the Software check box.

161
Vulnerability Database Update Automation
messages.
Step 10 Click Save.
Related Topics
Vulnerability Database Update Automation

Cisco uses vulnerability database (VDB) updates to expand the list of network assets, traffic, and vulnerabilities
that the Firepower System recognizes. You can use the scheduling feature to update the VDB, thereby ensuring
that you are using the most up-to-date information to evaluate the hosts on your network.
When automating VDB updates, you must automate two separate steps:
• Downloading the VDB update.
• Installing the VDB update.
Allow enough time between tasks for the process to complete. For example, if you schedule a task to install
an update and the update has not fully downloaded, the installation task will not succeed. However, if the
scheduled installation task repeats daily, it will install the downloaded VDB update when the task runs the
next day.
Note:
• You cannot schedule updates for appliances that cannot access the Support Site. If your FMC is not
directly connected to the Internet, you should use management interfaces configuration to set up a proxy
to allow it to download updates from the Support Site.
• If you want to have more control over this process, you can use the Once option to download and install
VDB updates during off-peak hours after you learn that an update has been released.
• In multidomain deployments, you can only schedule VDB updates for the Global domain. The changes
take effect when you redeploy policies.
Related Topics
Automating VDB Update Downloads


162
Automating VDB Update Installs
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Download Latest Update.

Step 6 Next to Update Items, check the Vulnerability Database check box.
The comment field appears in the Task Details section of the calendar schedule page; keep comments brief.
messages.
Step 9 Click Save.
Related Topics
Automating VDB Update Installs

Allow enough time between the task that downloads the VDB update and the task that installs the update.
Procedure

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Install Latest Update.

163
Automating URL Filtering Updates Using a Scheduled Task

Step 6 From the Device drop-down list, select the FMC.
Step 7 Next to Update Items, check the Vulnerability Database check box.
Tip The comment field appears in the View Tasks section of the page, so you should try to keep it
relatively short.
messages.
Step 10 Click Save.
Related Topics
Automating URL Filtering Updates Using a Scheduled Task

URL Filtering URL Filtering Any Global only Admin/Maint
In order to ensure that threat data for URL filtering is current, the system must obtain data updates from the
Cisco Collective Security Intelligence (CSI) cloud.
By default, when you enable URL filtering, automatic updates are enabled. However, if you need to control
when these updates occur, use the procedure described in this topic instead of the default update mechanism.
Although daily updates tend to be small, if it has been more than five days since your last update, new URL
filtering data may take up to 20 minutes to download, depending on your bandwidth. Then, it may take up to
30 minutes to perform the update itself.
Before you begin

• Ensure the Firepower Management Center has internet access; see Security, Internet Access, and
Communication Ports, on page 2551.
• Ensure that URL filtering is enabled. See Enable URL Filtering Using Category and Reputation, on page
• Verify that Enable Automatic Updates is not selected on the Cisco CSI tab under the System >
Integration menu.
Procedure

164
Scheduled Task Review

Step 3 From the Job Type list, select Update URL Filtering Database.
Step 4 Specify how you want to schedule the update, Once or Recurring:

messages.
Step 8 Click Save.
Related Topics
Scheduled Task Review

After adding scheduled tasks, you can view them and evaluate their status. The View Options section of the
page allows you to view scheduled tasks using a calendar and a list of scheduled tasks.
The Calendar view option allows you to view which scheduled tasks occur on which day.
The Task List shows a list of tasks along with their status. The task list appears below the calendar when you
open the calendar. In addition, you can view it by selecting a date or task from the calendar.
You can edit a scheduled task that you previously created. This feature is especially useful if you want to test
a scheduled task once to make sure that the parameters are correct. Later, after the task completes successfully,
you can change it to a recurring task.
There are two types of deletions you can perform from the Schedule View page. You can delete a specific
one-time task that has not yet run or you can delete every instance of a recurring task. If you delete an instance
of a recurring task, all instances of the task are deleted. If you delete a task that is scheduled to run once, only
that task is deleted.
Task List Details

Table 15: Task List Columns
Column Description
Name Displays the name of the scheduled task and the

comment associated with it.
Type Displays the type of scheduled task.

165
Viewing Scheduled Tasks on the Calendar
Column Description
Start Time Displays the scheduled start date and time.
Frequency Displays how often the task is run.
Last Run Time Displays the actual start date and time.
For a recurring task, this applies to the most recent
execution.
Last Run Status Describes the current status for a scheduled task:
• A check mark icon ( ) indicates that the task

ran successfully.
• A question mark icon ( ) indicates that the

task is in an unknown state.
• An exclamation mark icon ( ) indicates that

the task failed.
For a recurring task, this applies to the most recent

execution.
Next Run Time Displays the next execution time for a recurring task.
Displays N/A for a one-time task.
Creator Displays the name of the user that created the

scheduled task.
Edit Edits the scheduled task.
Delete Deletes the scheduled task.
Viewing Scheduled Tasks on the Calendar

In a multidomain deployment, you can view scheduled tasks only for your current domain.
Procedure

Step 2 You can perform the following tasks using the calendar view:
• Click the double left arrow icon ( ) to move back one year.

166
Editing Scheduled Tasks
• Click the single left arrow icon ( ) to move back one month.
• Click the single right arrow icon ( ) to move forward one month.
• Click the double right arrow icon ( ) to move forward one year.
• Click Today to return to the current month and year.
• Click Add Task to schedule a new task.
• Click a date to view all scheduled tasks for the specific date in a task list table below the calendar.
• Click a specific task on a date to view the task in a task list table below the calendar.
Editing Scheduled Tasks

In a multidomain deployment, you can edit scheduled tasks only for your current domain.
Procedure

Step 2 On the calendar, click either the task that you want to edit or the day on which the task appears.
Step 3 In the Task Details table, click the edit icon ( ) next to the task you want to edit.
Step 4 Edit the task.
Step 5 Click Save.
Deleting Scheduled Tasks

In a multidomain deployment, you can delete scheduled tasks only for your current domain.
Procedure

Step 2 In the calendar, click the task you want to delete. For a recurring task, click an instance of the task.

167
Deleting Scheduled Tasks
Step 3 In the Task Details table, click the delete icon ( ), then confirm your choice.

168
CHAPTER 10
FMC Database Purge
The following topic describes how to purge discovery data from the FMC:
• Purging Data from the FMC Database, on page 169
Purging Data from the FMC Database

Smart License Classic License Supported Domains Access
Any Any Global only Admin/Security Analyst
You can use the database purge page to purge discovery, identity, connection, and Security Intelligence data
files from the FMC databases. Note that when you purge a database, the appropriate process is restarted.
Caution Purging a database removes the data you specify from the Firepower Management Center. After the data is
deleted, it cannot be recovered.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Tools > Data Purge.

Step 2 Under Network Discovery, perform any or all of the following:
• Check the Network Discovery Events check box to remove all network discovery events from the
database.
• Check the Hosts check box to remove all hosts and Host Indications of Compromise flags from the
database.
• Check the User Activity check box to remove all user activity events from the database.
• Check the User Identities check box to remove all user login and user history data from the database,
as well as User Indications of Compromise flags.
Step 3 Under Connections, perform any or all of the following:

• Check the Connection Events check box to remove all connection data from the database.

169
Purging Data from the FMC Database
• Check the Connection Summary Events check box to remove all connection summary data from the
database.
• Check the Security Intelligence Events check box to remove all Security Intelligence data from the
database.
Note Checking the Connection Events check box does not remove Security Intelligence events.
Connections with Security Intelligence data will still appear in the Security Intelligence event page
(available under the Analysis > Connections menu). Correspondingly, checking the Security
Intelligence Events check box does not remove connection events with associated Security
Intelligence data.
Step 4 Click Purge Selected Events.

The items are purged and the appropriate processes are restarted.

170
CHAPTER 11
Firepower Management Center High Availability
The following topics describe how to configure Active/Standby high availability of Cisco Firepower
Management Centers:
• About Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 171
• Establishing Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 177
• Viewing Firepower Management Center High Availability Status, on page 179
• Configurations Synced on Firepower Management Center High Availability Pairs, on page 180
• Using CLI to Resolve Device Registration in Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page
181
• Switching Peers in a Firepower Management Center High Availability Pair, on page 181
• Pausing Communication Between Paired Firepower Management Centers, on page 182
• Restarting Communication Between Paired Firepower Management Centers, on page 183
• Changing the IP address of a Firepower Management Center in a High Availability Pair, on page 183
• Disabling Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 184
• Replacing Firepower Management Centers in a High Availability Pair, on page 185
About Firepower Management Center High Availability

To ensure the continuity of operations, the high availability feature allows you to designate redundant Firepower
Management Centers to manage devices. Firepower Management Centers support Active/Standby high
availability where one appliance is the active unit and manages devices. The standby unit does not actively
manage devices. The active unit writes configuration data into a data store and replicates data for both units,
using synchronization where necessary to share some information with the standby unit.
Active/Standby high availability lets you configure a secondary Firepower Management Center to take over
the functionality of a primary Firepower Management Center if the primary fails. When the primary Firepower
Management Center fails, you must promote the secondary Firepower Management Center to become the
active unit.
Event data streams from managed devices to both Firepower Management Centers in the high availability
pair. If one Firepower Management Center fails, you can monitor your network without interruption using
the other Firepower Management Center.
Note that Firepower Management Centers configured as a high availability pair do not need to be on the same
trusted management network, nor do they have to be in the same geographic location.

171
System Requirements Firepower Management Center High Availability
Caution Because the system restricts some functionality to the active Firepower Management Center, if that appliance
fails, you must promote the standby Firepower Management Center to active.
About Remote Access VPN High Availability

If the primary device has Remote Access VPN configuration with an identity certificate enrolled using a
CertEnrollment object, the secondary device must have an identity certificate enrolled using the same
CertEnrollment object. The CertEnrollment object can have different values for the primary and secondary
devices due to device-specific overriddes. The limitation is only to have the same CertEnrollment object
enrolled on the two devices before the high availability formation.
System Requirements Firepower Management Center High Availability

This section describes the hardware, software, and license requirements for Firepower Management Centers
in a high availability configuration.
Hardware Requirements
• The two Firepower Management Centers in a high availability configuration must be the same model.
• The primary Firepower Management Center backup must not be restored to the secondary Firepower
Management Center.
• Bandwidth Requirements: There must be atleast a 5Mbps network bandwidth between two Firepower
Management Centers to setup a high availability configuration between them.
Software Requirements
Access the Appliance Information widget to verify the software version, the intrusion rule update version
and the vulnerability database update. By default, the widget appears on the Status tab of the Detailed
Dashboard and theSummary Dashboard. For more information, see The Appliance Information Widget,
on page 222
• The two Firepower Management Centers in a high availability configuration must have the same major
(first number), minor (second number), and maintenance (third number) software version.
• The two Firepower Management Centers in a high availability configuration must have the same version
of the intrusion rule update installed.
• The two Firepower Management Centers in a high availability configuration must have the same version
of the vulnerability database update installed.
Warning If the software versions, intrusion rule update versions and vulnerability database update versions are not
identical on both Firepower Management Centers, you cannot establish high availability.

172
License Requirements
License Requirements
All Licensing Types

No special license is required for Firepower Management Center appliances in a high availability pair.
A device managed with Firepower Management Center appliances in a high availability configuration requires
the same number of feature licenses and subscriptions as a device managed by a single Firepower Management
Center.
The system automatically replicates all feature licenses from active to standby Firepower Management Center
when the high-availability pair is formed, and updates license changes during ongoing data synchronization,
so the licenses are available on failover.
Smart Licensing
Example: If you want to enable advanced malware protection for two Firepower Threat Defense devices
managed by a Firepower Management Center pair, buy two Malware licenses and two TM subscriptions,
register the active Firepower Management Center with the Cisco Smart Software Manager, then assign the
licenses to the two Firepower Threat Defense devices on the active Firepower Management Center.
Only the active Firepower Management Center is registered with Cisco Smart Software Manager. When
failover occurs, the system communicates with Cisco Smart Software Manager to release the Smart License
entitlements from the originally-active Firepower Management Center and assign them to the newly-active
Classic Licensing
Example: If you want to enable advanced malware protection for two devices managed by a Firepower
Management Center pair, buy two Malware licenses and two TAM subscriptions, add those licenses to the
Firepower Management Center, then assign the licenses to the two devices on the active Firepower Management
Center.
Roles v. Status in Firepower Management Center High Availability

Primary/Secondary Roles
When setting up Firepower Management Centers in a high availability pair, you configure one Firepower
Management Center to be primary and the other as secondary. During configuration, the primary unit's policies
are synchronized to the secondary unit. After this synchronization, the primary Firepower Management Center
becomes the active peer, while the secondary Firepower Management Center becomes the standby peer, and
the two units act as a single appliance for managed device and policy configuration.
Active/Standby Status
The main differences between the two Firepower Management Centers in a high availability pair are related
to which peer is active and which peer is standby. The active Firepower Management Center remains fully
functional, where you can manage devices and policies. On the standby Firepower Management Center,
functionality is hidden; you cannot make any configuration changes.

173
Prerequisites to Establish Firepower Management Center High Availability
Prerequisites to Establish Firepower Management Center High Availability

Before establishing a Firepower Management Center high availability pair:
• Export required policies from the intended secondary Firepower Management Center to the intended
primary Firepower Management Center. For more information, see Exporting Configurations, on page
145.
• Make sure that the intended secondary Firepower Management Center does not have any devices added
to it. Delete devices from the intended secondary Firepower Management Center and register these
devices to the intended primary Firepower Management Center. For more information see Deleting
Devices from the Firepower Management Center, on page 199 and Add Devices to the Firepower
Management Center, on page 197.
• Import the policies into the intended primary Firepower Management Center. For more information, see
Importing Configurations, on page 146.
• On the intended primary Firepower Management Center, verify the imported policies, edit them as needed
and deploy them to the appropriate device. For more information, see Deploy Configuration Changes,
on page 310.
• On the intended primary Firepower Management Center, associate the appropriate licenses to the newly
added devices. For more information see Assign Licenses to Managed Devices from the Device
You can now proceed to establish high availability. For more information, see Establishing Firepower
Management Center High Availability, on page 177.
Event Processing on Firepower Management Center High Availability Pairs

Since both Firepower Management Centers in a high availability pair receive events from managed devices,
the management IP addresses for the appliances are not shared. This means that you do not need to intervene
to ensure continuous processing of events if a Firepower Management Center fails.
AMP Cloud Connections and Malware Information

Although they share file policies and related configurations, Firepower Management Centers in a high
availability pair share neither Cisco AMP cloud connections nor malware dispositions. To ensure continuity
of operations, and to ensure that detected files’ malware dispositions are the same on both Firepower
Management Centers, both primary and secondary Firepower Management Centers must have access to the
AMP cloud.
URL Filtering and Security Intelligence

URL filtering and Security Intelligence configurations and information are synchronized between Firepower
Management Centers in a high availability deployment. However, only the primary Firepower Management
Center downloads URL category and reputation data for updates to Security Intelligence feeds.
If the primary Firepower Management Center fails, not only must you make sure that the secondary Firepower
Management Center can access the internet to update threat intelligence data, but you must also use the web
interface on the secondary Firepower Management Center to promote it to active.

174
User Data Processing During Firepower Management Center Failover
User Data Processing During Firepower Management Center Failover

If the primary Firepower Management Center fails, all logins reported by a User Agent, ISE/ISE-PIC, TS
Agent, or captive portal device cannot be identified during failover downtime, even if the users were previously
seen and downloaded to the Firepower Management Center. The unidentified users are logged as Unknown
users on the Firepower Management Center.
After the downtime, the Unknown users are reidentified and processed according to the rules in your identity
policy.
ConfigurationManagementonFirepowerManagementCenterHighAvailability
Pairs
In a high availability deployment, only the active Firepower Management Center can manage devices and
apply policies. Both Firepower Management Centers remain in a state of continuous synchronization.
If the active Firepower Management Center fails, the high availability pair enters a degraded state until you
manually promote the standby appliance to the active state. Once the promotion is complete, the appliances
leave maintenance mode.
Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) and High Availability Configurations

If you host TID on the active Firepower Management Center in a high availability configuration, the system
does not synchronize TID configurations and TID data to the standby Firepower Management Center. We
recommend performing regular backups of TID data on your active Firepower Management Center so that
you can restore the data after failover.
For details, see About Backing Up and Restoring TID Data, on page 1506.
Firepower Management Center High Availability Behavior During a Backup

When you perform a Backup on a Firepower Management Center high availability pair, the Backup operation
pauses synchronization between the peers. During this operation, you may continue using the active Firepower
Management Center, but not the standby peer.
After Backup is completed, synchronization resumes, which briefly disables processes on the active peer.
During this pause, the High Availability page briefly displays a holding page until all processes resume.
Firepower Management Center High Availability Split-Brain

If the active Firepower Management Center in a high-availability pair goes down (due to power issues,
network/connectivity issues), you can promote the standby Firepower Management Center to an active state.
When the original active peer comes up, both peers can assume they are active. This state is defined as
'split-brain'. When this situation occurs, the system prompts you to choose an active appliance, which demotes
the other appliance to standby.
If the active Firepower Management Center goes down (or disconnects due to a network failure), you may
either break high availability or switch roles. The standby Firepower Management Center enters a degraded
state.

175
Upgrading Firepower Management Centers in a High Availability Pair
Note Whichever appliance you use as the secondary loses all of its device registrations and policy configurations
when you resolve split-brain. For example, you would lose modifications to any policies that existed on the
secondary but not on the primary. If the Firepower Management Center is in a high availability split-brain
scenario where both appliances are active, and you register managed devices and deploy policies before you
resolve split-brain, you must export any policies and unregister any managed devices from the intended standby
Firepower Management Center before re-establishing high availability. You may then register the managed
devices and import the policies to the intended active Firepower Management Center.
Upgrading Firepower Management Centers in a High Availability Pair

Cisco electronically distributes several different types of updates periodically. These include major and minor
upgrades to the system software. You may need to install these updates on Firepower Management Centers
in a high availability setup.
Warning Make sure that there is at least one operational Firepower Management Center during an upgrade.
Before you begin

Read the release notes or advisory text that accompanies the upgrade. The release notes provide important
information, including supported platforms, compatibility, prerequisites, warnings, and specific installation
and uninstallation instructions.
Procedure
Step 1 Access the web interface of the active Firepower Management Center and pause data synchronization; see
Pausing Communication Between Paired Firepower Management Centers, on page 182.
Step 2 Upgrade the standby Firepower Management Center; see Update Software on a Firepower Management
Center.
When the upgrade completes, the standby unit becomes active. When both peers are active, the high availability
pair is in a degraded state (split-brain).
Step 3 Upgrade the other Firepower Management Center.
Step 4 Decide which Firepower Management Center you want to use as the standby. Any additional devices or
policies added to the standby after pausing synchronization are not synced to the active Firepower Management
Center. Unregister only those additional devices and export any configurations you want to preserve.
When you choose a new active Firepower Management Center, the Firepower Management Center you
designate as secondary will lose device registrations and deployed policy configurations, which are not synced.
Step 5 Resolve split-brain by choosing the new active Firepower Management Center which has all the latest required
configurations for policies and devices.

176
Troubleshooting Firepower Management Center High Availability
Troubleshooting Firepower Management Center High Availability

This section lists troubleshooting information for some common Firepower Management Center high availability
operation errors.
Error Description Solution
500 Internal May appear when attempting to access the Wait until the operation completes before
web interface while performing critical using the web interface.
Firepower Management Center high
availability operations, including switching
peer roles or pausing and resuming
synchronization.
System processes May appear when the Firepower 1. Access the Firepower Management
are starting, please Management Center reboots (manually or Center shell and use the
wait while recovering from a power down) manage_hadc.pl command to access
during a high availability or data the Firepower Management Center
Also, the web
synchronization operation. high availability configuration utility.
interface does not
respond. Note Run the utility as a root
user, using sudo.
2. Pause mirroring operations by using

option 5.
Reload the Firepower Management
Center web interface.
3. Use the web interface to resume
synchronization. Choose System >
Integration, then click the High
Availability tab and choose Resume
Synchronization.
Establishing Firepower Management Center High Availability

Smart License Classic License Supported Supported Domains Access
Management
Centers
Any Any MC1000, MC1500, Global Admin

MC2000, MC2500,
MC3500, MC4000,
MC4500
Establishing high availability can take a significant amount of time, even several hours, depending on the
bandwidth between the peers and the number of policies. It also depends on the number of devices registered
to the active Firepower Management Center, which need to be synced to the standby Firepower Management
Center. You can view the High Availability page to check the status of the high availability peers.

177
Establishing Firepower Management Center High Availability
Before you begin

• Confirm that both the Firepower Management Centers adhere to the high availability system requirements.
For more information , see System Requirements Firepower Management Center High Availability , on
page 172.
• Confirm that you completed the prerequisites for establishing high availability. For more information,
see Prerequisites to Establish Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 174.
Procedure
Step 1 Log into the Firepower Management Center that you want to designate as the secondary.
Step 3 Choose High Availability.
Step 4 Under Role for this Firepower Management Center, choose Secondary.
Step 5 Enter the hostname or IP address of the primary Firepower Management Center in the Primary Firepower
Management Center Host text box.
You can leave this empty if the primary Firepower Management Center does not have a routable address. In
this case, use both the Registration Key and the Unique NAT ID fields. You also need to specify the secondary
IP address on the primary unit; you need to specify the IP address of at least one unit.
Step 6 Enter a one-time-use registration key in the Registration Key text box.
The registration key is any user-defined alphanumeric value up to 37 characters in length. This registration
key will be used to register both -the secondary and the primary Firepower Management Centers.
Step 7 If you did not specify the primary IP address, or if you do not plan to specify the secondary IP address on the
primary Firepower Management Center, then in the Unique NAT ID field, enter a unique alphanumeric ID.
See NAT Environments, on page 193 for more information.
Step 8 Click Register.
Step 9 Using an account with Admin access, log into the Firepower Management Center that you want to designate
as the primary.
Step 12 Under Role for this Firepower Management Center, choose Primary.
Step 13 Enter the hostname or IP address of the secondary Firepower Management Center in the Secondary Firepower
Management Center Host text box.
You can leave this empty if the secondary Firepower Management Center does not have a routable address.
In this case, use both the Registration Key and the Unique NAT ID fields. You also need to specify the
primary IP address on the secondary unit; you need to specify the IP address of at least one unit.
Step 14 Enter the same one-time-use registration key in the Registration Key text box you used in step 6.
Step 15 If required, enter the same NAT ID that you used in step 7 in the Unique NAT ID text box.

178
Viewing Firepower Management Center High Availability Status
What to do next
After establishing a Firepower Management Center high availability pair, devices registered to the active
Firepower Management Center are automatically registered to the standby Firepower Management Center.
Note When a registered device has a NAT IP address, automatic device registration fails and the secondary Firepower
Management Center High Availablity page lists the device as local, pending. You can then assign a different
NAT IP address to the device on the standby Firepower Management Center High Availability page. If
automatic registration otherwise fails on the standby Firepower Management Center, but the device appears
to be registered to the active Firepower Management Center, see Using CLI to Resolve Device Registration
in Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 181.
ViewingFirepowerManagementCenterHighAvailabilityStatus
Management
Centers

MC2000, MC2500,
MC3500, MC4000,
MC4500
After you identify your active and standby Firepower Management Centers, you can view information about
the local Firepower Management Center and its peer.
Note In this context, Local Peer refers to the appliance where you are viewing the system status. Remote Peer refers
to the other appliance, regardless of active or standby status.
Procedure
Step 1 Log into one of the Firepower Management Centers that you paired using high availability.
You can view:
Summary Information
• The health status of the high availability pair
• The current synchronization status of the high availability pair
• The IP address of the active peer and the last time it was synchronized
• The IP address of the standby peer and the last time it was synchronized

179
Configurations Synced on Firepower Management Center High Availability Pairs
System Status
• The IP addresses for both peers
• The operating system for both peers
• The software version for both peers
• The appliance model of both peers
Configurations Synced on Firepower Management Center High

Availability Pairs
When you establish high availability between two Firepower Management Centers, the following configuration
data is synced between them:
• License entitlements
• Access control policies
• Intrusion rules
• Malware and file policies
• DNS policies
• Identity policies
• SSL policies
• Prefilter policies
• Network discovery rules
• Application detectors
• Correlation policy rules
• Alerts
• Scanners
• Response groups
• Remediation settings, although you must install custom modules on both Firepower Management Centers.
For more information on remediation settings, see Managing Remediation Modules, on page 2146.

180
Using CLI to Resolve Device Registration in Firepower Management Center High Availability
Using CLI to Resolve Device Registration in Firepower

Management Center High Availability
Management
Centers

MC2000, MC2500,
MC3500, MC4000,
MC4500
If automatic device registration fails on the standby Firepower Management Center, but appears to be registered
to the active Firepower Management Center, complete the following steps:
Procedure
Step 1 Unregister the device from the active Firepower Management Center.
Step 2 Log into the CLI for the affected device.
Step 3 Run the CLI command: configure manager delete.
This command disables and removes the current Firepower Management Center.
Step 4 Run the CLI command: configure manager add.
This command configures the device to initiate a connection to a Firepower Management Center.
Tip Configure remote management on the device, only for the active Firepower Management Center.
When high availability is established, devices are automatically added to be managed by the standby
Step 5 Log into the active Firepower Management Center and register the device.
Switching Peers in a Firepower Management Center High

Availability Pair
Management
Centers

MC2000, MC2500,
MC3500, MC4000,
MC4500

181
Pausing Communication Between Paired Firepower Management Centers
Because the system restricts some functionality to the active Firepower Management Center, if that appliance
fails, you must promote the standby Firepower Management Center to active:
Procedure
Step 4 Choose Switch Peer Roles to change the local role from Active to Standby, or Standby to Active. With the
Primary or Secondary designation unchanged, the roles are switched between the two peers.
Pausing Communication Between Paired Firepower

Management Centers
Management
Centers

MC2000, MC2500,
MC3500, MC4000,
MC4500
If you want to temporarily disable high availability, you can disable the communications channel between
the Firepower Management Centers. If you pause synchronization on the active peer, you can resume
synchronization on either the standby or active peer. However, if you pause synchronization on the standby
peer, you only can resume synchronization on the standby peer.
Procedure
Step 4 Choose Pause Synchronization.

182
Restarting Communication Between Paired Firepower Management Centers
Restarting Communication Between Paired Firepower

Management Centers
Management
Centers

MC2000, MC2500,
MC3500, MC4000,
MC4500
If you temporarily disable high availability, you can restart high availability by enabling the communications
channel between the Firepower Management Centers. If you paused synchronization on the active unit, you
can resume synchronization on either the standby or active unit. However, if you paused synchronization on
the standby unit, you only can resume synchronization on the standby unit.
Procedure
Step 4 Choose Resume Synchronization.
Changing the IP address of a Firepower Management Center in

a High Availability Pair
Management
Centers

MC2000, MC2500,
MC3500, MC4000,
MC4500
Note If you landed on this topic while trying to edit remote management on a 7000 and 8000 Series managed device,
see Editing Remote Management on a Managed Device, on page 476.

183
Disabling Firepower Management Center High Availability
If the IP address for one of the high availability peers changes, high availability enters a degraded state. To
recover high availability, you must manually change the IP address.
Procedure
Step 4 Choose Peer Manager.
Step 5 Choose the edit icon ( ).

Step 6 Enter the display name of the appliance, which is used only within the context of the Firepower System.
Entering a different display name does not change the host name for the appliance.
Step 7 Enter the fully qualified domain name or the name that resolves through the local DNS to a valid IP address
(that is, the host name), or the host IP address.
Step 8 Choose Save.
Disabling Firepower Management Center High Availability

Management
Centers

MC2000, MC2500,
MC3500, MC4000,
MC4500
Procedure
Step 1 Log into one of the Firepower Management Centers in the high availability pair.
Step 4 Choose Break High Availability.
Step 5 Choose one of the following options for handling managed devices:
• To control all managed devices with this Firepower Management Center, choose Manage registered
devices from this console. All devices will be unregistered from the peer.
• To control all managed devices with the other Firepower Management Center, choose Manage registered
devices from peer console. All devices will be unregistered from this Firepower Management Center.

184
Replacing Firepower Management Centers in a High Availability Pair
• To stop managing devices altogether, choose Stop managing registered devices from both consoles.
All devices will be unregistered from both Firepower Management Centers.
Note If you choose to manage the registered devices from the secondary Firepower Management Center,
the devices will be unregistered from the primary Firepower Management Center. The devices are
now registered to be managed by the secondary Firepower Management Center. However the
licenses that were applied to these devices are deregistered on account of the high availability break
operation. You must now proceed to re-register (enable) the licenses on the devices from the
secondary Firepower Management Center. For more information see Move or Remove Smart
Licenses from Managed Devices, on page 94.
Step 6 Click OK.
ReplacingFirepowerManagementCentersinaHighAvailability
Pair
If you need to replace a failed unit in a Firepower Management Center high availability pair, you must follow
one of the procedures listed below. The table lists four possible failure scenarios and their corresponding
replacement procedures.
Failure Status Data Backup Status Replacement Procedure
Primary Firepower Management Data backup successful Replace a Failed Primary Firepower
Center failed Management Center (Successful
Backup), on page 185
Data backup not successful Replace a Failed Primary

(Unsuccessful Backup), on page
187
Secondary Firepower Management Data backup successful Replace a Failed Secondary

Center failed Firepower Management Center
(Successful Backup), on page 188
Data backup not successful Replace a Failed Secondary

(Unsuccessful Backup), on page
189
Replace a Failed Primary Firepower Management Center (Successful Backup)

Two Firepower Management Centers, FMC1 and FMC2, are part of a high availability pair. FMC1 is the
primary and FMC2 is the secondary. This task describes the steps to replace a failed primary Firepower
Management Center, FMC1, when data backup from the primary is successful.

185
Replace a Failed Primary Firepower Management Center (Successful Backup)
Before you begin

Verify that the data backup from the failed primary Firepower Management Center is successful.
Procedure
Step 1 Contact Support to request a replacement for a failed Firepower Management Center - FMC1.
Step 2 When the primary Firepower Management Center - FMC1 fails, access the web interface of the secondary
Firepower Management Center - FMC2 and switch peers. For more information, see Switching Peers in a
Firepower Management Center High Availability Pair, on page 181.
This promotes the secondary Firepower Management Center - FMC2 to active.
You can use FMC2 as the active Firepower Management Center until the primary Firepower Management
Center - FMC1 is replaced.
Warning Do not break Firepower Management Center High Availability from FMC2, since classic and smart
licenses that were synced to FMC2 from FMC1 (before failure ), will be removed from FMC2 and
you will be unable to perform any deploy actions from FMC2.
Step 3 Reimage the replacement Firepower Management Center with the same software version as FMC1.
Step 4 Restore the data backup retrieved from FMC1 to the new Firepower Management Center.
Step 5 Install required Firepower Management Center patches, geolocation database (GeoDB) updates, vulnerability
database (VDB) updates and system software updates to match FMC2.
The new Firepower Management Center and FMC2 will now both be active peers, resulting in a high availability
split-brain.
Step 6 When the Firepower Management Center web interface prompts you to choose an active appliance, select
FMC2 as active.
This syncs the latest configuration from FMC2 to the newFirepower Management Center - FMC1.
Step 7 When the configuration syncs successfully, access the web interface of the secondary Firepower Management
Center - FMC2 and switch roles to make the primaryFirepower Management Center - FMC1 active. For more
information, see Switching Peers in a Firepower Management Center High Availability Pair, on page 181.
Step 8 Apply Classic licenses received with the new Firepower Management Center - FMC1 and delete the old
licenses. For more information, see Generate a Classic License and Add It to the Firepower Management
Smart licenses work seamlessly.
What to do next
High availability has now been re-established and the primary and the secondary Firepower Management
Centers will now work as expected.

186
Replace a Failed Primary Firepower Management Center (Unsuccessful Backup)
Replace a Failed Primary Firepower Management Center (Unsuccessful

Backup)
Two Firepower Management Centers - FMC1 and FMC2 are part of a high availability pair. FMC1 is the
primary and FMC2 is the secondary. This task describes the steps to replace a failed primary Firepower
Management Center -FMC1 when data backup from the primary is unsuccessful.
Procedure
Step 2 When the primary Firepower Management Center - FMC1 fails, access the web interface of the secondary
Firepower Management Center - FMC2 and switch peers. For more information, see Switching Peers in a
Firepower Management Center High Availability Pair, on page 181.
This promotes the secondary Firepower Management Center - FMC2 to active.
You can use FMC2 as the active Firepower Management Center until the primary Firepower Management
Center - FMC1 is replaced.
Warning Do not break Firepower Management Center High Availability from FMC2, since classic and smart
licenses that were synced to FMC2 from FMC1 (before failure ), will be removed from FMC2 and
you will be unable to perform any deploy actions from FMC2.
Step 5 Deregister the Firepower Management Center - FMC2 from the Cisco Smart Software Manager. For more
information, see Deregister a Firepower Management Center from the Cisco Smart Software Manager, on
page 95.
Deregistering a Firepower Management Center from the Cisco Smart Software Manager removes the
Management Center from your virtual account. All license entitlements associated with the Firepower
Management Center release back to your virtual account. After deregistration, the Firepower Management
Center enters Enforcement mode where no update or changes on licensed features are allowed.
Step 6 Access the web interface of the secondary Firepower Management Center - FMC2 and break Firepower
Management Center high availability. For more information, see Disabling Firepower Management Center
High Availability, on page 184. When prompted to select an option for handling managed devices, choose
Manage registered devices from this console.
As a result, classic and smart licenses that were synced to the secondary Firepower Management Center-
FMC2, will be removed and you cannot perform deployment activities from FMC2.
Step 7 Re-establish Firepower Management Center high availability, by setting up the Firepower Management Center
- FMC2 as the primary and Firepower Management Center - FMC1 as the secondary. For more information
, see Establishing Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 177.
Step 8 Apply Classic licenses received with the new Firepower Management Center - FMC1 and delete the old
licenses. For more information, see Generate a Classic License and Add It to the Firepower Management

187
Replace a Failed Secondary Firepower Management Center (Successful Backup)
Step 9 Register a Smart License to the primary Firepower Management Center - FMC2. For more information see
Register Smart Licenses, on page 88.
What to do next
Replace a Failed Secondary Firepower Management Center (Successful

Backup)
primary and FMC2 is the secondary. This task describes the steps to replace a failed secondary Firepower
Management Center -FMC2 when data backup from the secondary is successful.
Before you begin

Verify that the data backup from the failed secondary Firepower Management Center is successful.
Procedure
Step 2 Continue to use the primary Firepower Management Center - FMC1 as the active Firepower Management
Center.
Step 4 Restore the data backup from FMC2 to the new Firepower Management Center.
Step 6 Resume data synchronization (if paused) from the web interface of the new Firepower Management Center
- FMC2, to synchronize the latest configuration from the primary Firepower Management Center - FMC1.
For more information, see Restarting Communication Between Paired Firepower Management Centers, on
page 183.
Classic and Smart Licenses work seamlessly.
What to do next

188
Replace a Failed Secondary Firepower Management Center (Unsuccessful Backup)
Replace a Failed Secondary Firepower Management Center (Unsuccessful

Backup)
primary and FMC2 is the secondary. This task describes the steps to replace a failed secondary Firepower
Management Center -FMC2 when data backup from the secondary is unsuccessful.
Procedure
Step 2 Continue to use the primary Firepower Management Center - FMC1 as the active Firepower Management
Center.
Step 5 Access the web interface of the primary Firepower Management Center - FMC1 and break Firepower
Management Center high availability. For more information, see Disabling Firepower Management Center
High Availability, on page 184. When prompted to select an option for handling managed devices, choose
Manage registered devices from this console.
Step 6 Re-establish Firepower Management Center high availability, by setting up the Firepower Management Center
- FMC1 as the primary and Firepower Management Center - FMC2 as the secondary. For more information
, see Establishing Firepower Management Center High Availability, on page 177.
• When high availability is successfully established, the latest configuration from the primary Firepower
Management Center - FMC1 is synchronized to the secondary Firepower Management Center - FMC2.
• Classic and Smart Licenses work seamlessly.
What to do next

189
Replace a Failed Secondary Firepower Management Center (Unsuccessful Backup)

190
CHAPTER 12
Device Management Basics
The following topics describe how to manage devices in the Firepower System:
• About Device Management, on page 191
• The Device Management Page, on page 195
• Remote Management Configuration, on page 196
• Add Devices to the Firepower Management Center, on page 197
• Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center, on page 199
• Device Configuration Settings, on page 199
• The Interfaces Table View, on page 209
• Device Group Management, on page 211
• Configuring SNMP for the Firepower 2100 Series, on page 213
About Device Management

Use the Firepower Management Center to manage your devices.
About the Firepower Management Center

You can use the Firepower Management Center to manage the full range of devices that are a part of the
Firepower System. When you manage a device, you set up a two-way, SSL-encrypted communication channel
between the Firepower Management Center and the device. The Firepower Management Center uses this
channel to send information to the device about how you want to analyze and manage your network traffic
to the device. As the device evaluates the traffic, it generates events and sends them to the Firepower
Management Center using the same channel.
By using the Firepower Management Center to manage devices, you can:
• configure policies for all your devices from a single location, making it easier to change configurations
• install various types of software updates on devices
• push health policies to your managed devices and monitor their health status from the Firepower
Management Center
The Firepower Management Center aggregates and correlates intrusion events, network discovery information,
and device performance data, allowing you to monitor the information that your devices are reporting in
relation to one another, and to assess the overall activity occurring on your network.

191
What Can Be Managed by a Firepower Management Center?
You can use a Firepower Management Center to manage nearly every aspect of a device’s behavior.
Note Although a Firepower Management Center can manage devices running certain previous releases as specified
in the compatibility matrix available at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/defense-center/
products-device-support-tables-list.html, new features are not available to these previous-release devices.
What Can Be Managed by a Firepower Management Center?

You can use the Firepower Management Center as a central management point in a Firepower System
deployment to manage the following devices:
• 7000 and 8000 Series devices
• ASA FirePOWER modules
• NGIPSv devices
• Firepower Threat Defense and Firepower Threat Defense Virtual
When you manage a device, information is transmitted between the Firepower Management Center and the
device over a secure, SSL-encrypted TCP tunnel.
The following illustration lists what is transmitted between a Firepower Management Center and its managed
devices. Note that the types of events and policies that are sent between the appliances are based on the device
type.
Beyond Policies and Events

In addition to deploying policies to devices and receiving events from them, you can also perform other
device-related tasks on the Firepower Management Center.
Backing Up a Device
You cannot create or restore backup files for NGIPSv devices or ASA FirePOWER modules.
When you perform a backup of a physical managed device from the device itself, you back up the device
configuration only. To back up configuration data and, optionally, unified files, perform a backup of the
device using the managing Firepower Management Center.
To back up event data, perform a backup of the managing Firepower Management Center.

192
NAT Environments
Updating Devices
From time to time, Cisco releases updates to the Firepower System, including:
• intrusion rule updates, which may contain new and updated intrusion rules
• vulnerability database (VDB) updates
• geolocation updates
• software patches and updates
You can use the Firepower Management Center to install an update on the devices it manages.
NAT Environments
Network address translation (NAT) is a method of transmitting and receiving network traffic through a router
that involves reassigning the source or destination IP address. The most common use for NAT is to allow
private networks to communicate with the internet. Static NAT performs a 1:1 translation, which does not
pose a problem for FMC communication with devices, but port address translation (PAT) is more common.
PAT lets you use a single public IP address and unique ports to access the public network; these ports are
dynamically assigned as needed, so you cannot initiate a connection to a device behind a PAT router.
Normally, you need both IP addresses (along with a registration key) for both routing purposes and for
authentication: the FMC specifies the device IP address when you add a device (see Add Devices to the
Firepower Management Center, on page 197), and the device specifies the FMC IP address (see the getting
started guide for your model; or see Management Interfaces, on page 904 to change settings after initial setup).
However, if you only know one of the IP addresses, which is the minimum requirement for routing purposes,
then you must also specify a unique NAT ID on both sides of the connection to establish trust for the initial
communication and to look up the correct registration key. The FMC and device use the registration key and
NAT ID (instead of IP addresses) to authenticate and authorize for initial registration.
For example, you add a device to the FMC, and you do not know the device IP address (for example, the
device is behind a PAT router), so you specify only the NAT ID and the registration key on the FMC; leave
the IP address blank. On the device, you specify the FMC IP address, the same NAT ID, and the same
registration key. The device registers to the FMC's IP address. At this point, the FMC uses the NAT ID instead
of IP address to authenticate the device.
Although the use of a NAT ID is most common for NAT environments, you might choose to use the NAT
ID to simplify adding many devices to the FMC. On the FMC, specify a unique NAT ID for each device you
want to add while leaving the IP address blank, and then on each device, specify both the FMC IP address
and the NAT ID. Note: The NAT ID must be unique per device.
The following example shows three devices behind a PAT IP address. In this case, specify a unique NAT ID
per device on both the FMC and the devices, and specify the FMC IP address on the devices.

193
NAT Environments
Figure 1: NAT ID for Managed Devices Behind PAT
The following example shows the FMC behind a PAT IP address. In this case, specify a unique NAT ID per
device on both the FMC and the devices, and specify the device IP addresses on the FMC.
Figure 2: NAT ID for FMC Behind PAT

194
The Device Management Page
The Device Management Page

The Device Management page provides you with a range of information and options that you can use to
manage your registered devices, 7000 and 8000 Series device high availability pairs, and device groups. The
page displays a list of all the devices currently registered on the Firepower Management Center.
This page also displays the number of corrupt devices being managed by the Firepower Management Center.
You can drill down and identify the name / IP address of the corrupt device.
You can use the View by drop-down list to sort and view the device list by any of the following categories:
group, license, model, or access control policy. In a multidomain deployment, you can also sort and view by
domain, which is the default display category in that deployment. Devices must belong to a leaf domain.
You can also view devices by their health monitoring status and their deployment status.
You can expand and collapse the list of devices in any of the device categories. By default, the device list is
expanded.
See the following table for more information about the device list.
Table 16: Device List Fields
Field Description
Name The display name used for the device in Firepower

Management Center. The status icon to the left of the
name indicates its current health status.
Group The group to which you assigned the managed

devices.
Model The model of the managed devices.
Version The version of the software currently installed on the

managed device.
Licenses The licenses that are enabled on the managed device.
Access Control Policy A link to the currently deployed access control policy.
If the system identifies the access control policy as
out-of-date, it displays a warning icon ( ) next to the
link.
Related Topics
About Health Monitoring, on page 241
Managing Access Control Policies, on page 1244

195
Filtering Managed Devices
Filtering Managed Devices


Admin
When your Firepower Management Center manages a large volume of devices, you can narrow the results
on the Device Management page to make it easier find a particular device.
Procedure

Step 2 In the Search Device field, enter a full or partial device name, host name or IP address to narrow the device
list.
Step 3 To clear the filter, clear the Search Device field.
Remote Management Configuration

Before you can manage a Firepower System device, you must set up a two-way, SSL-encrypted communication
channel between the device and the Firepower Management Center. The appliances use the channel to share
configuration and event information. High availability peers also use the channel, which is by default on port
8305/tcp.
Note This documentation explains how to configure remote management of a 7000 or 8000 Series device using its
local web interface, before you register the device to the FMC. For information on configuring remote
management for other models, see the appropriate quick start guide.
To enable communications between two appliances, you must provide a way for the appliances to recognize
each other. There are three criteria the Firepower System uses when allowing communications:
• the hostname or IP address of the appliance with which you are trying to establish communication.
In NAT environments, even if the other appliance does not have a routable address, you must provide a
hostname or an IP address either when you are configuring remote management, or when you are adding
the managed appliance.
• a self-generated alphanumeric registration key up to 37 characters in length that identifies the connection.
• an optional unique alphanumeric NAT ID that can help the Firepower System establish communications
in a NAT environment.
The NAT ID must be unique among all NAT IDs used to register managed appliances.

196
Add Devices to the Firepower Management Center

Any Any Any Any Admin/Network

Admin
Use this procedure to add a single device to the Firepower Management Center. If you plan to link devices
for redundancy or performance, you must still use this procedure, keeping in mind the following points:
• 8000 Series stacks—Use this procedure to add each device to the Firepower Management Center, then
establish the stack; see Establishing Device Stacks, on page 520.
• 7000 and 8000 Series high availability—Use this procedure to add each device to the Firepower
Management Center, then establish high availability; see Establishing Device High Availability, on page
505. For high availability stacks, first stack the devices, then establish high availability between the stacks.
• FTD high availability—Use this procedure to add each device to the Firepower Management Center,
then establish high availability; see Add a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability Pair, on page 681.
• FTD clusters—Make sure cluster units are in a successfully formed cluster on FXOS, then use this
procedure to add each unit to the Firepower Management Center as a separate managed device. Finally,
cluster the units on the Firepower Management Center. For more information, see FMC: Add a Cluster,
on page 714.
Note If you have established or will establish Firepower Management Center high availability, add devices only to
the active (or intended active) Firepower Management Center. When you establish high availability, devices
registered to the active Firepower Management Center are automatically registered to the standby.
Before you begin

• Set up the device to be managed by the Firepower Management Center. For 7000 and 8000 Series devices,
see Configuring Remote Management on a Managed Device, on page 476. For information on configuring
remote management for other models, see the appropriate quick start guide.
• If you registered a Firepower Management Center and a device using IPv4 and want to convert them to
IPv6, you must delete and reregister the device.
Procedure

Step 2 From the Add drop-down menu, choose Add Device.
Step 3 In the Host field, enter the IP address or the hostname of the device you want to add.
The hostname of the device is the fully qualified domain name or the name that resolves through the local
DNS to a valid IP address. Use a hostname rather than an IP address if your network uses DHCP to assign IP
addresses.

197
In a NAT environment, you may not need to specify the IP address or hostname of the device, if you already
specified the IP address or hostname of the Firepower Management Center when you configured the device
to be managed by the Firepower Management Center. For more information, see NAT Environments, on page
193.
Step 4 In the Display Name field, enter a name for the device as you want it to display in the Firepower Management
Center.
Step 5 In the Registration Key field, enter the same registration key that you used when you configured the device
to be managed by the Firepower Management Center. The registration key is a one-time-use shared secret.
Step 6 In a multidomain deployment, regardless of your current domain, assign the device to a leaf Domain.
If your current domain is a leaf domain, the device is automatically added to the current domain. If your
current domain is not a leaf domain, post-registration, you must switch to the leaf domain to configure the
device.
Step 7 (Optional) Add the device to a device Group.

Step 8 Choose an initial Access Control Policy to deploy to the device upon registration, or create a new policy.
If the device is incompatible with the policy you choose, deploying will fail. This incompatibility could occur
for multiple reasons, including licensing mismatches, model restrictions, passive vs inline issues, and other
misconfigurations. After you resolve the issue that caused the failure, manually deploy configurations to the
device.
Step 9 Choose licenses to apply to the device.

For Classic devices, note that:
• Control, Malware, and URL Filtering licenses require a Protection license.
• VPN licenses require a 7000 or 8000 Series device.
• Control licenses are supported on NGIPSv andASA FirePOWER devices, but do not allow you to
configure 8000 Series fastpath rules, switching, routing, stacking, or device high availability.
Step 10 If you used a NAT ID during device setup, expand the Advanced section and enter the same NAT ID in the
Unique NAT ID field.
Step 11 Check the Transfer Packets check box to allow the device to transfer packets to the Firepower Management
Center.
This option is enabled by default. When events like IPS or Snort are triggered with this option enabled, the
device sends event metadata information and packet data to the Firepower Management Center for inspection.
If you disable it, only event information will be sent to the Firepower Management Center but packet data is
not sent.

It may take up to two minutes for the Firepower Management Center to verify the device’s heartbeat and
establish communication.
Related Topics
Creating a Basic Access Control Policy, on page 1245

198
Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center
Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center


Admin
If you no longer want to manage a device, you can delete it from the Firepower Management Center. Deleting
a device:
• Severs all communication between the Firepower Management Center and the device.
• Removes the device from the Device Management page.
• Returns the device to local time management if the device is configured via the platform settings policy
to receive time from the Firepower Management Center via NTP.
To manage the device later, re-add it to the Firepower Management Center.
Note When a device is deleted and then re-added, the Firepower Management Center web interface prompts you
to re-apply your access control policies. However, there is no option to re-apply the NAT and VPN policies
during registration. Any previously applied NAT or VPN configuration will be removed during registration
and must be re-applied after registration is complete.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device you want to delete, click the delete icon ( ).
Step 3 Confirm that you want to delete the device.
Device Configuration Settings

The Device page of the appliance editor displays detailed device configuration and information. It also allows
you to make changes to some parts of device configuration, such as enabling and disabling licenses, shutting
down and restarting a device, modifying management, and configuring advanced options.
General Device Settings

The General section of the Device tab displays the settings described in the table below.

199
Device License Settings
Table 17: General Section Table Fields
Field Description
Name The display name of the device on the Firepower

Management Center.
Transfer Packets This displays whether or not the managed device sends
packet data with the events to the Firepower
Management Center.
Mode The displays the mode of the management interface

for the device: routed or transparent.
Note The Mode field is displayed only for
Firepower Threat Defense devices.
Compliance Mode This displays the security certifications compliance

for a device. Valid values are CC, UCAPL and None.
Device License Settings

The License section of the Device tab displays the licenses enabled for the device.
Related Topics
Device System Settings

The System section of the Device tab displays a read-only table of system information, as described in the
following table.
Table 18: System Section Table Fields
Field Description
Model The model name and number for the managed device.
Serial The serial number of the chassis of the managed

device.
Time The current system time of the device.
Version The version of the software currently installed on the

managed device.
Policy A link to the platform settings policy currently

deployed to the managed device.
Inventory A link to the inventory details for the associated

device. This field only appears for some platforms,
for example, the Firepower 2100.

200
Device Health Settings
You can also shut down or restart the device.
Device Health Settings

The Health section of the Device tab displays the information described in the table below.
Table 19: Health Section Table Fields
Field Description
Status An icon that represents the current health status of the

device. Clicking the icon displays the Health Monitor
for the appliance.
Policy A link to a read-only version of the health policy

currently deployed at the device.
Blacklist A link to the Health Blacklist page, where you can

enable and disable health blacklist modules.
Related Topics
Viewing Appliance Health Monitors, on page 259
Editing Health Policies, on page 250
Blacklisting Health Policy Modules, on page 253
Device Management Settings

The Management section of the Device tab displays the fields described in the table below.
Table 20: Management Section Table Fields
Field Description
Host The IP address or host name of the device. The host

name is fully qualified domain name or the name that
resolves through the local DNS to a valid IP address
(that is, the host name).
Status An icon indicating the status of the communication

channel between the Firepower Management Center
and the managed device. You can hover over the status
icon to view the last time the Firepower Management
Center contacted the device.
Advanced Device Settings

The Advanced section of the Device tab displays a table of advanced configuration settings, as described
below. You can use the Advanced section to edit any of these settings.

201
Viewing Device Information
Table 21: Advanced Section Table Fields
Field Description Supported Devices
Application Bypass The state of Automatic Application 7000 & 8000 Series, NGIPSv, ASA
Bypass on the device. FirePOWER , Firepower Threat
Defense
Bypass Threshold The Automatic Application Bypass 7000 & 8000 Series, NGIPSv, ASA
threshold, in milliseconds. FirePOWER , Firepower Threat
Defense
Inspect Local Router Traffic Whether the device inspects traffic 7000 & 8000 Series
received on routed interfaces that
is destined for itself, such as ICMP,
DHCP, and OSPF traffic.
Fast-Path Rules The number of 8000 Series fastpath 8000 Series

rules that have been created on the
device.
Viewing Device Information


Admin
In a multidomain deployment, ancestor domains can view information about all devices in descendant domains.
You must be in a leaf domain to edit a device.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device you want to view.
In a multidomain deployment, if you are in an ancestor domain, you can click the view icon ( ) to view a
device from a descendant domain in read-only mode.

Step 4 You can view the following information:
• General — Displays general settings for the device; see General Device Settings, on page 199.
• License — Displays license information for the device; see Device License Settings, on page 200.
• System — Displays system information about the device; see Device System Settings, on page 200.
• Health — Displays information about the current health status of the device; see Device Health Settings,
on page 201.
• Management — Displays information about the communication channel between the Firepower
Management Center and the device; see Device Management Settings, on page 201.

202
Editing Device Management Settings
• Advanced — Displays information about advanced feature configuration; see Advanced Device Settings,
on page 201.
Editing Device Management Settings


Admin
If you edit the hostname or IP address of a device after you added it to the FMC (using the device’s CLI, for
example), you need to use the procedure below to manually update the hostname or IP address on the managing
FMC.
Procedure

Step 2 Next to the device where you want to modify management options, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click the Device tab, and see the Management area.
Tip For stacked devices, you modify management options on an individual device on the Device page
of the appliance editor.
Step 4 Edit the Host IP address or hostname by clicking the edit icon ( ).
In the Management dialog box, modify the name or IP address in the Host field, and click Save.
Step 5 (Optional) Disable remote management.
Click the slider ( ) to enable or disable management of the device. Disabling management blocks the
connection between the Firepower Management Center and the device, but does not delete the device from
the Firepower Management Center. If you no longer want to manage a device, see Deleting Devices from the
Firepower Management Center, on page 199.
What to do next

203
Editing General Device Settings
Editing General Device Settings


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device you want to modify, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click Device.
Step 4 In the General section, click the edit icon ( ).

Step 5 Enter a Name for the managed device.
Tip For stacked devices, you edit the assigned device name for the stack on the Stack page of the
appliance editor. You can edit the assigned device name for an individual device on the Devices
page of the appliance editor.
Step 6 Change the Transfer Packets setting:

• Check the check box to allow packet data to be stored with events on the Firepower Management Center.
• Clear the check box to prevent the managed device from sending packet data with the events.
Step 7 Click Force Deploy to force deployment of current policies and device configuration to the device.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Enabling and Disabling Device Licenses


Admin
You can enable licenses on your device if you have available licenses on your Firepower Management Center.

204
Editing Advanced Device Settings
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to enable or disable licenses, click the edit icon ( ).

Tip For stacked devices, you enable or disable the licenses for the stack on the Stack page of the appliance
editor.
Step 4 In the License section, click the edit icon ( ).

Step 5 Check or clear the check box next to the license you want to enable or disable for the managed device.
Step 6 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Editing Advanced Device Settings

You can configure Application Bypass, Local Router Traffic Inspection, and Fast-Path Rules.
Configuring Automatic Application Bypass

Any Any Any Leaf only Admin

Network Admin
The Automatic Application Bypass (AAB) feature limits the time allowed to process packets through an
interface and allows packets to bypass detection if the time is exceeded. The feature functions with any
deployment; however, it is most valuable in inline deployments.
You balance packet processing delays with your network’s tolerance for packet latency. When a malfunction
within Snort or a device misconfiguration causes traffic processing time to exceed a specified threshold, AAB
causes Snort to restart within ten minutes of the failure, and generates troubleshoot data that can be analyzed
to investigate the cause of the excessive processing time.
Typically, you use Rule Latency Thresholding in the intrusion policy to fast-path packets after the latency
threshold value is exceeded. Rule Latency Thresholding does not shut down the engine or generate troubleshoot
data.
If detection is bypassed, the device generates a health monitoring alert.
By default the AAB is disabled; to enable AAB follow the steps described.

205
Inspecting Local Router Traffic
Caution AAB activates when an excessive amount of time is spent processing a single packet. AAB activation partially
restarts the Snort process, which temporarily interrupts the inspection of a few packets. Whether traffic drops
during this interruption or passes without further inspection depends on how the target device handles traffic.
See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to edit advanced device settings, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click the Device tab (or the Stack tab for stacked devices), then click the edit icon ( ) in the Advanced
section.
Step 4 Check Automatic Application Bypass.
Step 5 Enter a Bypass Threshold from 250 ms to 60,000 ms. The default setting is 3000 milliseconds (ms).
Step 6 Click Save.
What to do next
Inspecting Local Router Traffic

Any Any 7000 & 8000 Series Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
If locally-bound traffic matches a Monitor rule in a Layer 3 deployment, that traffic may bypass inspection.
To ensure inspection of the traffic, enable Inspect Local Router Traffic.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to edit advanced device settings, click the edit icon ( ).
section.
Step 4 Check Inspect Local Router Traffic to inspect exception traffic when a 7000 or 8000 Series device is
deployed as a router.

206
Configuring Fastpath Rules (8000 Series)
Step 5 Click Save.
What to do next
Configuring Fastpath Rules (8000 Series)

Any Any 8000 Series Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
As a form of early traffic handling, 8000 Series fastpath rules can send traffic directly through an 8000 Series
device without further inspection or logging. (In a passive deployment, 8000 Series fastpath rules simply stop
analysis.) Each 8000 Series fastpath rule applies to a specific security zone or inline interface set. Because
8000 Series fastpath rules function at the hardware level, you can use only the following simple, outer-header
criteria to fastpath traffic:
• initiator and responder IP address or address block
• protocol, and for TCP and UDP, initiator and responder port
• VLAN ID
By default, 8000 Series fastpath rules affect connections from specified initiators to specified responders. To
fastpath all connections that meets the rule's criteria, regardless of which host is the initiator and which is the
responder, you can make the rule bidirectional.
Note Although they perform a similar function, 8000 Series fastpath rules are not related to the Fastpath tunnel or
prefilter rules that you configure in prefilter policies.
Note When you specify a port other than Any for TCP or UDP traffic, only the first fragment in matching fragmented
traffic is fastpathed. All other fragments are forwarded for further inspection. This is because the 8000 Series
only fastpaths fragmented traffic when the IP header in each fragment contains all the IP header information
needed to match the fastpath rule, and subsequent fragments do not contain the field that identifies the port.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the 8000 Series device where you want to configure the rule, click the edit icon ( ).

207
Managing System Shut Down
section.
Step 4 Click New IPv4 Rule or New IPv6 Rule.
Step 5 From the Domain drop-down list, choose an inline set or passive security zone.
Step 6 Configure the traffic you want to fastpath. Traffic must meet all the conditions to be fastpathed.
• Initiator and Responder (required)—Enter IP addresses or address blocks for initiators and responders.
• Protocol—Choose a protocol, or choose All.
• Initiator Port and Responder Port—For TCP and UDP traffic, enter initiator and responder ports. Leave
the fields blank or enter Any to match all TCP or UDP traffic. You can enter a comma-separated list of
ports, but you cannot enter port ranges.
• VLAN—Enter a VLAN ID. Leave the field blank or enter Any to match all traffic regardless of VLAN
tag.
Step 7 (Optional) Make the rule Bidirectional.

Step 8 Click Save, then Save again.
What to do next
Managing System Shut Down

Any Any Any except ASA Leaf only Admin/Network

FirePOWER Admin
Note You cannot shut down or restart the ASA FirePOWER with the Firepower System user interface. See the
ASA documentation for more information on how to shut down the respective devices.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device that you want to restart, click the edit icon ( ).

Tip For stacked devices, you shut down or restart an individual device on the Devices page of the
appliance editor.

208
The Interfaces Table View
Step 4 To shut down the device, click the shut down device icon ( ) in the System section.
Step 5 When prompted, confirm that you want to shut down the device.
Step 6 To restart the device, click the restart device icon ( ).

Step 7 When prompted, confirm that you want to restart the device.

The interfaces table view is located below the hardware view and lists all the available interfaces you have
on a device. The table includes an expandable navigation tree you can use to view all configured interfaces.
You can click the arrow icon next to an interface to collapse or expand the interface to hide or view its
subcomponents. The interfaces table view also provides summarized information about each interface, as
described in the following tables.
Classic Devices Interfaces

Note that only 8000 Series devices display the MAC Address and IP Address columns. See the table below
for more information.

209
Table 22: Classic Devices Interfaces Table View Fields
Field Description
Name Each interface type is represented by a unique icon

that indicates its type and link state (if applicable).
You can hover your pointer over the name or the icon
to view the interface type, speed, and duplex mode
(if applicable) in a tooltip. The interface icons are
described in Interface Icons, on page 478.
The icons use a badging convention to indicate the
current link state of the interface, which may be one
of three states:
• error ( )
• fault ( )
• not available ( )
Logical interfaces have the same link state as their

parent physical interface. ASA FirePOWER modules
do not display link state. Note that disabled interfaces
are represented by semi-transparent icons.
Interface names, which appear to the right of the icons,
are auto-generated with the exception of hybrid and
ASA FirePOWER interfaces, which are user-defined.
Note that for ASA FirePOWER interfaces, the system
displays only interfaces that are enabled, named, and
have link.
Physical interfaces display the name of the physical
interface. Logical interfaces display the name of the
physical interface and the assigned VLAN tag.
ASA FirePOWER interfaces display the name of the
security context and the name of the interface if there
are multiple security contexts. If there is only one
security context, the system displays only the name
of the interface.
Security Zone The security zone where the interface is assigned. To

add or edit a security zone, click the edit icon ( ).
Used by The inline set, virtual switch, or virtual router where

the interface is assigned. ASA FirePOWER modules
do not display the Used by column.

210
Device Group Management
Field Description
MAC Address The MAC address displayed for the interface when it
is enabled for switched and routed features.
For NGIPSv devices, the MAC address is displayed
so that you can match the network adapters configured
on your device to the interfaces that appear on the
Interfaces page. ASA FirePOWER modules do not
display MAC addresses.
IP Addresses IP addresses assigned to the interface. Hover your

pointer over an IP address to view whether it is active
or inactive. Inactive IP addresses are grayed out. ASA
FirePOWER modules do not display IP addresses.
FTD Interfaces
Table 23: FTD Interfaces Table View Fields
Field Description
Interface The interface IDs. For the failover link or cluster

control link interface, the interface settings are
view-only.
Logical Name The configured name of the interface.
Type The type of interface: Physical, SubInterface,

EtherChannel, Redundant, or BridgeGroup
(transparent firewall mode only).
Interface Object The security zone or interface group where the
interface is assigned.
MAC Address (Active/Standby) The interface MAC address(es). For High Availability,
this column shows both the active MAC address and
the standby MAC address.
IP Address The IP addresses assigned to the interface. The type

of address assignment shows in parentheses: Static,
DHCP, or PPPoE.
Device Group Management

The Firepower Management Center allows you to group devices so you can easily deploy policies and install
updates on multiple devices. You can expand and collapse the list of devices in the group. The list appears
collapsed by default.
In a multidomain deployment, you can create device groups within a leaf domain only. When you configure
a Firepower Management Center for multitenancy, existing device groups are removed; you can re-add them
at the leaf domain level.

211
Adding Device Groups
Adding Device Groups


Admin
Device groups enable you to easily assign policies and install updates on multiple devices.
If you add the primary device in a stack or a high-availability pair to a group, both devices are added to the
group. If you unstack the devices or break the high-availability pair, both devices remain in that group.
Procedure

Step 2 From the Add drop-down menu, choose Add Group.
Step 3 Enter a Name.
Step 4 Under Available Devices, choose one or more devices to add to the device group. Use Ctrl or Shift while
clicking to choose multiple devices.
Step 5 Click Add to include the devices you chose in the device group.
Step 6 Click OK to add the device group.
Editing Device Groups


Admin
You can change the set of devices that reside in any device group. You must remove an appliance from its
current group before you can add it to a new group.
Moving an appliance to a new group does not change its policy to the policy previously assigned to the group.
You must assign the group's policy to the new device.
If you add the primary device in a stack or a device high-availability pair to a group, both devices are added
to the group. If you unstack the devices or break the high-availability pair, both devices remain in that group.
In a multidomain deployment, you can only edit device groups in the domain where they were created.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device group you want to edit, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Optionally, in the Name field, enter a new name for the group.

212
Configuring SNMP for the Firepower 2100 Series
Step 4 Under Available Devices, choose one or more devices to add to the device group. Use Ctrl or Shift while
clicking to choose multiple devices.
Step 5 Click Add to include the devices you chose in the device group.
Step 6 Optionally, to remove a device from the device group, click the delete icon ( ) next to the device you want
to remove.
Step 7 Click OK to save the changes to the device group.
Configuring SNMP for the Firepower 2100 Series

The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application-layer protocol that provides a message
format for communication between SNMP managers and agents. SNMP provides a standardized framework
and a common language used for the monitoring and management of devices in a network.
The SNMP framework consists of three parts:
• An SNMP manager—The system used to control and monitor the activities of network devices using
SNMP.
• An SNMP agent—The software component within the Firepower 2100 chassis that maintains the data
for the Firepower chassis and reports the data, as needed, to the SNMP manager. The Firepower chassis
includes the agent and a collection of MIBs. To enable the SNMP agent and create the relationship
between the manager and agent, enable and configure SNMP in the Firepower Management Center.
• A managed information base (MIB)—The collection of managed objects on the SNMP agent.
The Firepower 2100 chassis supports SNMPv1, SNMPv2c and SNMPv3. Both SNMPv1 and SNMPv2c use
a community-based form of security.
Enabling SNMP and Configuring SNMP Properties for Firepower 2100
Note This procedure only applies to Firepower 2100 series devices.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the SNMP tab.
Step 3 Complete the following fields:
Name Description
Admin State check box Whether SNMP is enabled or disabled. Enable this service only if your
system includes integration with an SNMP server.

213
Creating an SNMP Trap for Firepower 2100
Name Description
Port field The port on which the Firepower chassis communicates with the SNMP
host. You cannot change the default port.
Community field The default SNMP v1 or v2 community name or SNMP v3 username

the Firepower chassis includes on any trap messages it sends to the
SNMP host.
Enter an alphanumeric string between 1 and 32 characters. Do not use
@ (at sign), \ (backslash), " (double quote), ? (question mark) or an
empty space. The default is public.
Note that if the Community field is already set, the text to the right of
the empty field reads Set: Yes. If the Community field is not yet
populated with a value, the text to the right of the empty field reads Set:
No.
System Admin Name field The contact person responsible for the SNMP implementation.
Enter a string of up to 255 characters, such as an email address or a
name and telephone number.
Location field The location of the host on which the SNMP agent (server) runs.
Enter an alphanumeric string up to 510 characters.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
Create SNMP traps and users.
Creating an SNMP Trap for Firepower 2100
Procedure

Step 3 In the SNMP Traps Configuration area, click Add.
Step 4 In the SNMP Trap Configuration dialog box, complete the following fields:
Name Description
Host Name field The hostname or IP address of the SNMP host to which the Firepower
chassis should send the trap.

214
Creating an SNMP User for Firepower 2100
Name Description
Community field The SNMP v1 or v2 community name or the SNMP v3 username the
Firepower chassis includes when it sends the trap to the SNMP host.
This must be the same as the community or username that is configured
for the SNMP service.
Enter an alphanumeric string between 1 and 32 characters. Do not use
@ (at sign), \ (backslash), " (double quote), ? (question mark) or an
empty space.
Port field The port on which the Firepower chassis communicates with the SNMP
host for the trap.
Enter an integer between 1 and 65535.
Version field The SNMP version and model used for the trap. This can be one of the
following:
• V1
• V2
• V3
Type field If you select V2 or V3 for the version, the type of trap to send. This can
be one of the following:
• Traps
• Informs
Privilege field If you select V3 for the version, the privilege associated with the trap.
This can be one of the following:
• Auth—Authentication but no encryption
• Noauth—No authentication or encryption
• Priv—Authentication and encryption
Step 5 Click OK to close the SNMP Trap Configuration dialog box.

Step 6 Click Save.

215
Procedure

Step 3 In the SNMP Users Configuration area, click Add.
Step 4 In the SNMP User Configuration dialog box, complete the following fields:
Name Description
Username field The username assigned to the SNMP user.
Enter up to 32 letters or numbers. The name must begin with a letter
and you can also specify _ (underscore), . (period), @ (at sign), and -
(hyphen).
Auth Algorithm Type field The authorization type: SHA.
Use AES-128 checkbox If checked, this user uses AES-128 encryption.
Authentication Password field The password for the user.
Confirm field The password again for confirmation purposes.
Encryption Password field The privacy password for the user.
Confirm field The privacy password again for confirmation purposes.
Step 5 Click OK to close the SNMP User Configuration dialog box.

Step 6 Click Save.

216
PA R T III
System Monitoring and Troubleshooting
• Dashboards, on page 219
• Health Monitoring, on page 241
• Monitoring the System, on page 269
• Troubleshooting the System, on page 281
CHAPTER 13
Dashboards
The following topics describe how to use dashboards in the Firepower System:
• About Dashboards, on page 219
• Firepower System Dashboard Widgets, on page 220
• Managing Dashboards, on page 232
About Dashboards
Firepower System dashboards provide you with at-a-glance views of current system status, including data
about the events collected and generated by the system. You can also use dashboards to see information about
the status and overall health of the appliances in your deployment. Keep in mind that the information the
dashboard provides depends on how you license, configure, and deploy the system.
Tip The dashboard is a complex, highly customizable monitoring feature that provides exhaustive data. For a
broad, brief, and colorful picture of your monitored network, use the Context Explorer. Dashboards are
available on the Firepower Management Center and 7000 & 8000 Series devices.
A dashboard uses tabs to display widgets: small, self-contained components that provide insight into different
aspects of the system. For example, the predefined Appliance Information widget tells you the appliance
name, model, and currently running version of the Firepower System software. The system constrains widgets
by the dashboard time range, which you can change to reflect a period as short as the last hour or as long as
the last year.
The system is delivered with several predefined dashboards, which you can use and modify. If your user role
has access to dashboards (Administrator, Maintenance User, Security Analyst, Security Analyst [Read Only],
and custom roles with the Dashboards permission), by default your home page is the predefined Summary
Dashboard. However, you can configure a different default home page, including non-dashboards. You can
also change the default dashboard. Note that if your user role cannot access dashboards, your default home
page is relevant to the role; for example, a Discovery Admin sees the Network Discovery page.
You can also use predefined dashboards as the base for custom dashboards, which you can either share or
restrict as private. Unless you have Administrator access, you cannot view or modify private dashboards
created by other users.

219
Firepower System Dashboard Widgets
Note Some drill-down pages and table views of events include a Dashboard toolbar link that you can click to view
a relevant predefined dashboard. If you delete a predefined dashboard or tab, the associated toolbar links do
not function.
In a multidomain deployment, you cannot view dashboards from ancestor domains; however, you can create
new dashboards that are copies of the higher-level dashboards.
Firepower System Dashboard Widgets

A dashboard has one or more tabs, each of which can display one or more widgets in a three-column layout.
The Firepower System is delivered with many predefined dashboard widgets, each of which provides insight
into a different aspect of the Firepower System. Widgets are grouped into three categories:
• Analysis & Reporting widgets display data about the events collected and generated by the Firepower
System.
• Miscellaneous widgets display neither event data nor operations data. Currently, the only widget in this
category displays an RSS feed.
• Operations widgets display information about the status and overall health of the Firepower System.
The dashboard widgets that you can view depend on:

• the type of appliance you are using
• your user role
• your current domain (in a multidomain deployment)
In addition, each dashboard has a set of preferences that determines its behavior.
You can minimize and maximize widgets, add and remove widgets from tabs, as well as rearrange the widgets
on a tab.
Note For widgets that display event counts over a time range, the total number of events may not reflect the number
of events for which detailed data is available in the tables on pages under the Analysis menu. This occurs
because the system sometimes prunes older event details to manage disk space usage. To minimize the
occurrence of event detail pruning, you can fine-tune event logging to log only those events most important
to your deployment.
Widget Availability
The dashboard widgets that you can view depend on the type of appliance you are using, your user role, and
your current domain (in a multidomain deployment).
In a multidomain deployment, if you do not see a widget that you expect to see, switch to the Global domain.
See Switching Domains on the Firepower Management Center, on page 28.
Note that:

220
Dashboard Widget Availability by User Role
• An invalid widget is one that you cannot view because you are using the wrong type of appliance.
• An unauthorized widget is one that you cannot view because your user account does not have the necessary
privileges.
For example, the Appliance Status widget is available only on the FMC for users with Administrator,
Maintenance User, Security Analyst, or Security Analyst (Read Only) account privileges.
Although you cannot add an unauthorized or invalid widget to a dashboard, an imported dashboard may
contain unauthorized or invalid widgets. For example, such widgets can be present if the imported dashboard:
• Was created by a user with different access privileges, or
• Belongs to an ancestor domain.
Unavailable widgets are disabled and display error messages that indicate why you cannot view them.
Individual widgets also display error messages when those widgets have timed out or are otherwise experiencing
problems.
Note You can delete or minimize unauthorized and invalid widgets, as well as widgets that display no data, keeping
in mind that modifying a widget on a shared dashboard modifies it for all users of the appliance.
Dashboard Widget Availability by User Role

The following table lists the user account privileges required to view each widget. Only user accounts with
Administrator, Maintenance User, Security Analyst, or Security Analyst (Read Only) access can use dashboards.
Users with custom roles may have access to any combination of widgets, or none at all, as their user roles
permit.
Table 24: User Roles and Dashboard Widget Availability
Widget Administrator Maintenance User Security Analyst Security Analyst

(RO)
Appliance yes yes yes yes

Information
Appliance Status yes yes yes no
Correlation Events yes no yes yes
Current Interface yes yes yes yes

Status
Current Sessions yes no no no
Custom Analysis yes no yes yes
Disk Usage yes yes yes yes
Interface Traffic yes yes yes yes

221
Predefined Dashboard Widgets
Widget Administrator Maintenance User Security Analyst Security Analyst

(RO)
Intrusion Events yes no yes yes
Network yes no yes yes

Compliance
Product Licensing yes yes no no
Product Updates yes yes no no
RSS Feed yes yes yes yes
System Load yes yes yes yes
System Time yes yes yes yes
White List Events yes no yes yes
Predefined Dashboard Widgets

The Firepower System is delivered with several predefined widgets that, when used on dashboards, can provide
you with at-a-glance views of current system status. These views include:
• data about the events collected and generated by the system
• information about the status and overall health of the appliances in your deployment
Note The dashboard widgets you can view depend on the type of appliance you are using, your user role, and your
current domain in a multidomain deployment.
The Appliance Information Widget

The Appliance Information widget provides a snapshot of the appliance. It appears by default on the Status
tabs of the Detailed Dashboard and the Summary Dashboard. The widget provides:
• the name, IPv4 address, IPv6 address, and model of the appliance
• the versions of the Firepower System software, operating system, Snort, rule update, rule pack, module
pack, vulnerability database (VDB), and geolocation update installed on the appliances with dashboards,
except for virtual Firepower Management Centers
• for managed appliances, the name and status of the communications link with the managing appliance
You can configure the widget to display more or less information by modifying the widget preferences to
display a simple or an advanced view; the preferences also control how often the widget updates.

222
The Appliance Status Widget
The Appliance Status Widget

The Appliance Status widget indicates the health of the appliance and of any appliances it is managing. Note
that because the Firepower Management Center does not automatically apply a health policy to managed
devices, you must manually apply a health policy to devices or their status appears as Disabled. This widget
appears by default on the Status tabs of the Detailed Dashboard and the Summary Dashboard.
You can configure the widget to display appliance status as a pie chart or in a table by modifying the widget
preferences.
The preferences also control how often the widget updates.
You can click a section on the pie chart or one of the numbers on the appliance status table to go to the Health
Monitor page and view the compiled health status of the appliance and of any appliances it is managing.
The Correlation Events Widget

The Correlation Events widget shows the average number of correlation events per second, by priority, over
the dashboard time range. It appears by default on the Correlation tab of the Detailed Dashboard.
You can configure the widget to display correlation events of different priorities by modifying the widget
preferences, as well as to choose a linear (incremental) or logarithmic (factor of ten) scale.
Check one or more Priorities check boxes to display separate graphs for events of specific priorities, including
events that do not have a priority. Choose Show All to display an additional graph for all correlation events,
regardless of priority. The preferences also control how often the widget updates.
You can click a graph to view correlation events of a specific priority, or click the All graph to view all
correlation events. In either case, the events are constrained by the dashboard time range; accessing correlation
events via the dashboard changes the events (or global) time window for the appliance.
The Current Interface Status Widget

The Current Interface Status widget shows the status of all interfaces on the appliance, enabled or unused. On
a Firepower Management Center, you can display the management (eth0, eth1, and so on) interfaces. On a
managed device, you can choose to show only sensing (s1p1 and so on) interfaces or both management and
sensing interfaces. Interfaces are grouped by type: management, inline, passive, switched, routed, stacked,
and unused.
For each interface, the widget provides:
• the name of the interface
• the link state of the interface
• the link mode (for example, 100Mb full duplex, or 10Mb half duplex) of the interface
• the type of interface, that is, copper or fiber
• the amount of data received (Rx) and transmitted (Tx) by the interface
The color of the ball representing link state indicates the current status, as follows:
• green: link is up and at full speed
• yellow: link is up but not at full speed
• red: link is not up

223
The Current Sessions Widget
• gray: link is administratively disabled

• blue: link state information is not available (for example, ASA)
The widget preferences control how often the widget updates.
The Current Sessions Widget

The Current Sessions widget shows which users are currently logged into the appliance, the IP address
associated with the machine where the session originated, and the last time each user accessed a page on the
appliance (based on the local time for the appliance). The user that represents you, that is, the user currently
viewing the widget, is marked with a user icon ( ) and rendered in bold type. Sessions are pruned from this
widget’s data within one hour of logoff or inactivity. This widget appears by default on the Status tabs of the
Detailed Dashboard and the Summary Dashboard.
On the Current Sessions widget, you can:
• click any user name to manage user accounts on the User Management page.
• click the host icon ( ) or compromised host icon ( ) next to any IP address to view the host profile
for the associated machine.
• click any IP address or access time to view the audit log constrained by that IP address and by the time
that the user associated with that IP address logged on to the web interface.
The widget preferences control how often the widget updates.
The Custom Analysis Widget

The Custom Analysis widget is a highly customizable widget that allows you to display detailed information
on the events collected and generated by the Firepower System.
The widget is delivered with multiple presets that provide quick access to information about your deployment.
The predefined dashboards make extensive use of these presets. You can use these presets or create a custom
configuration. At a minimum, a custom configuration specifies the data you are interested in (table and field),
and an aggregation method for that data. You can also set other display-related preferences, including whether
you want to show events as relative occurences (bar graph) or over time (line graph).
The widget displays the last time it updated, based on local time. The widget updates with a frequency that
depends on the dashboard time range. For example, if you set the dashboard time range to an hour, the widget
updates every five minutes. On the other hand, if you set the dashboard time range to a year, the widget updates
once a week. To determine when the dashboard will update next, hover your pointer over the Last updated
notice in the bottom left corner of the widget.
Note A red-shaded Custom Analysis widget indicates that its use is harming system performance. If the widget
continues to stay red over time, remove the widget. You can also disable all Custom Analysis widgets from
the Dashboard settings in your system configuration (System > Configuration > Dashboard)

224
The Custom Analysis Widget
Displaying Relative Occurrences of Events (Bar Graphs)

For bar graphs in the Custom Analysis widget, the colored bars in the widget background show the relative
number of occurrences of each event. Read the bars from right to left.
The direction icon ( ) indicates and controls the sort order of the display. A downward-pointing icon indicates
descending order; an upward-pointing icon indicates ascending order. To change the sort order, click the icon.
Next to each event, the widget can display one of three icons to indicate any changes from the most recent
results:
• The new event icon ( ) signifies that the event is new to the results.
• The up arrow icon ( ) indicates that the event has moved up in the standings since the last time the
widget updated. A number indicating how many places the event has moved up appears next to the icon.
• The down arrow icon ( ) indicates that the event has moved down in the standings since the last time
the widget updated. A number indicating how many places the event has moved down appears next to
the icon.
Displaying Events Over Time (Line Graphs)

If you want information on events or other collected data over time, you can configure the Custom Analysis
widget to display a line graph, such as one that displays the total number of intrusion events generated in your
deployment over time.
Limitations to the Custom Analysis Widget

A Custom Analysis widget may indicate that you are unauthorized to view the data that is configured to
display. For example, Maintenance Users are not authorized to view discovery events. As another example,
the widget does not display information related to unlicensed features. However, you (and any other users
who share the dashboard) can modify the widget preferences to display data that you can see, or even delete
the widget. If you want to make sure that this does not happen, save the dashboard as private.
When viewing user data, the system displays only authoritative users.
When viewing URL category information, the system does not display uncategorized URLs.
When viewing intrusion events aggregated by Count, the count includes reviewed events for intrusion events;
if you view the count in tables on pages under the Analysis menus, the count will not include reviewed events.
Note In a multidomain deployment, the system builds a separate network map for each leaf domain. As a result, a
leaf domain can contain an IP address that is unique within its network, but identical to an IP address in another
leaf domain. When you view Custom Analysis widgets in an ancestor domain, multiple instances of that
repeated IP address can be displayed. At first glance, they might appear to be duplicate entries. However, if
you drill down to the host profile information for each IP address, the system shows that they belong to
different leaf domains.

225
Custom Analysis Widget Preferences
Example: Custom Configuration

You can configure the Custom Analysis widget to display a list of recent intrusion events by
configuring the widget to display data from the Intrusion Events table. Choosing the Classification
field and aggregating this data by Count tells you how many events of each type were generated.
On the other hand, aggregating by Unique Events tells you how many unique intrusion events of
each type have occurred (for example, how many detections of network trojans, potential violations
of corporate policy, attempted denial-of-service attacks, and so on).
You can further constrain the widget using a saved search, either one of the predefined searches
delivered with your appliance or a custom search that you created. For example, constraining the
first example (intrusion events using the Classification field, aggregated by Count) using the Dropped
Events search tells you how many intrusion events of each type were dropped.
Related Topics
Modifying Dashboard Time Settings, on page 238
Custom Analysis Widget Preferences

The following table describes the preferences you can set in the Custom Analysis widget.
Different preferences appear depending on how you configure the widget. For example, a different set of
preferences appears if you configure the widget to show relative occurrences of events (a bar graph) vs a graph
over time (a line graph). Some preferences, such as Filter, only appear if you choose a specific table from
which to display data.
Table 25: Custom Analysis Widget Preferences
Preference Details
Title If you do not specify a title for the widget, the system uses the
configured event type as the title.
Preset Custom Analysis presets provide quick access to information

about your deployment. The predefined dashboards make
extensive use of these presets. You can use these presets or you
can create a custom configuration.
Table (required) The table of events or assets that contains the data the widget
displays.
Field (required) The specific field of the event type you want to display. To show
data over time (line graphs), choose Time. To show relative
occurrences of events (bar graphs), choose another option.
Aggregate (required) The aggregation method configures how the widget groups the
data it displays. For most event types, the default option is Count.
Filter You can use application filters to constrain data from the
Application Statistics and Intrusion Event Statistics by Application
tables.

226
Viewing Associated Events from the Custom Analysis Widget
Preference Details
Search You can use a saved search to constrain the data that the widget
displays. You do not have to specify a search, although some
presets use predefined searches.
Only you can access searches that you have saved as private. If
you configure the widget on a shared dashboard and constrain its
events using a private search, the widget resets to not using the
search when another user logs in. This affects your view of the
widget as well. If you want to make sure that this does not happen,
save the dashboard as private.
Only fields that constrain connection summaries can constrain
Custom Analysis dashboard widgets based on connection events.
Invalid saved searches are dimmed.
If you constrain a Custom Analysis widget using a saved search,
then edit the search, the widget does not reflect your changes until
the next time it updates.
Show Choose whether you want to display the most (Top) or the least
(Bottom) frequently occurring events.
Results Choose the number of result rows to display.
Show Movers Choose whether you want to display the icons that indicate
changes from the most recent results.
Time Zone Choose the time zone you want to use to display results.
Color You can change the color of the bars in the widget's bar graph.
Related Topics
Configuring Widget Preferences, on page 235
Viewing Associated Events from the Custom Analysis Widget

Analyst/Maint
From a Custom Analysis widget, you can invoke an event view (workflow) that provides detailed information
about the events displayed in the widget. The events appear in the default workflow for that event type,
constrained by the dashboard time range. This also changes the appropriate time window on the Firepower
Management Center, depending on how many time windows you configured and on the event type.
For example:
• If you configure multiple time windows, then access health events from a Custom Analysis widget, the
events appear in the default health events workflow, and the health monitoring time window changes to
the dashboard time range.

227
The Disk Usage Widget
• If you configure a single time window and then access any type of event from the Custom Analysis
widget, the events appear in the default workflow for that event type, and the global time window changes
to the dashboard time range.
Procedure
You have the following choices:
• On any Custom Analysis widget, click the view all icon ( ) in the lower right corner of the widget to
view all associated events, constrained by the widget preferences.
• On a Custom Analysis widget showing relative occurrences of events (bar graph), click any event to
view associated events constrained by the widget preferences, as well as by that event.
The Disk Usage Widget

The Disk Usage widget displays the percentage of space used on the hard drive, based on disk usage category.
It also indicates the percentage of space used on and capacity of each partition of the appliance’s hard drive.
The Disk Usage widget displays the same information for the malware storage pack if installed in the device,
or if the Firepower Management Center manages a device containing a malware storage pack. This widget
appears by default on the Status tabs of the Default Dashboard and the Summary Dashboard.
The By Category stacked bar displays each disk usage category as a proportion of the total available disk
space used. The following table describes the available categories.
Table 26: Disk Usage Categories
Disk Usage Category Description
Events all events logged by the system
Files all files stored by the system
Backups all backup files
Updates all files related to updates, such as rule updates and

system updates
Other system troubleshooting files and other miscellaneous

files
Free free space remaining on the appliance
You can hover your pointer over a disk usage category in the By Category stacked bar to view the percentage
of available disk space used by that category, the actual storage space on the disk, and the total disk space
available for that category. Note that if you have a malware storage pack installed, the total disk space available
for the Files category is the available disk space on the malware storage pack.
You can configure the widget to display only the By Category stacked bar, or you can show the stacked bar
plus the admin (/), /Volume, and /boot partition usage, as well as the /var/storage partition if the malware
storage pack is installed, by modifying the widget preferences.

228
The Interface Traffic Widget
The widget preferences also control how often the widget updates, as well as whether it displays the current
disk usage or collected disk usage statistics over the dashboard time range.
The Interface Traffic Widget

The Interface Traffic widget shows the rate of traffic received (Rx) and transmitted (Tx) on the appliance’s
management interface. For 7000 & 8000 Series devices, the widget also shows information on the sensing
interfaces. The widget does not appear by default on any of the predefined dashboards.
Outbound (transmitted) traffic includes flow control packets. Because of this, passive sensing interfaces on
7000 & 8000 Series devices may show transmitted traffic; this is expected behavior. Devices with Malware
licenses enabled periodically attempt to connect to the AMP cloud even if you have not configured dynamic
analysis. Because of this, these devices show transmitted traffic; this is also expected behavior.
The widget preferences control how often the widget updates. On 7000 & 8000 Series devices, the preferences
also control whether the widget displays the traffic rate for unused interfaces (by default, the widget only
displays the traffic rate for active interfaces).
The Intrusion Events Widget

The Intrusion Events widget shows the intrusion events that occurred over the dashboard time range, organized
by priority. This includes statistics on intrusion events with dropped packets and different impacts. This widget
appears by default on the Intrusion Events tab of the Summary Dashboard.
In the widget preferences, you can choose:
• Event Flags to display separate graphs for events with dropped packets, would have dropped packets,
or specific impacts. Choose All to display an additional graph for all intrusion events, regardless of impact
or rule state.
For explanations of the icons, see Working with Intrusion Events, on page 2361. The arrow (if any) that
appears above the impact level numbers describes the inline result and is defined as follows:
Table 27: Inline Result Field Contents in Workflow and Table Views
This Icon Indicates
A black down arrow The system dropped the packet that triggered the rule
A gray down arrow IPS would have dropped the packet if you enabled the Drop when Inline
intrusion policy option (in an inline deployment), or if a Drop and Generate
rule generated the event while the system was pruning
No icon (blank) The triggered rule was not set to Drop and Generate Events
In a passive deployment, the system does not drop packets, including when an inline interface is in tap
mode, regardless of the rule state or the inline drop behavior of the intrusion policy.
• Show to specify Average Events Per Second (EPS) or Total Events.
• Vertical Scale to specify Linear (incremental) or Logarithmic (factor of ten) scale.
• How often the widget updates.
On the widget, you can:

229
The Network Compliance Widget
• Click a graph corresponding to dropped packets, to would have dropped packets, or to a specific impact
to view intrusion events of that type.
• Click the graph corresponding to dropped events to view dropped events.
• Click the graph corresponding to would have dropped events to view would have dropped events.
• Click the All graph to view all intrusion events.
The resulting event view is constrained by the dashboard time range; accessing intrusion events via the
dashboard changes the events (or global) time window for the appliance. Note that packets in a passive
deployment are not dropped, regardless of intrusion rule state or the inline drop behavior of the intrusion
policy.
The Network Compliance Widget

The Network Compliance widget summarizes your hosts’ compliance with the white lists you configured. By
default, the widget displays a pie chart that shows the number of hosts that are compliant, non-compliant, and
that have not been evaluated, for all compliance white lists in active correlation policies. This widget appears
by default on the Correlation tab of the Detailed Dashboard.
You can configure the widget to display network compliance either for all white lists or for a specific white
list by modifying the widget preferences.
If you choose to display network compliance for all white lists, the widget considers a host to be non-compliant
if it is not compliant with any white list in an active correlation policy.
You can also use the widget preferences to specify which of three different styles you want to use to display
network compliance.
The Network Compliance style (the default) displays a pie chart that shows the number of hosts that are
compliant, non-compliant, and that have not been evaluated. You can click the pie chart to view the host
violation count, which lists the hosts that violate at least one white list.
The Network Compliance over Time (%) style displays a stacked area graph showing the relative proportion
of hosts that are compliant, non-compliant, and that have not yet been evaluated, over the dashboard time
range.
The Network Compliance over Time style displays a line graph that shows the number of hosts that are
compliant, non-compliant, and that have not yet been evaluated, over the dashboard time range.
The preferences control how often the widget updates. You can check the Show Not Evaluated box to hide
events which have not been evaluated.
The Product Licensing Widget

The Product Licensing widget shows the device and feature licenses currently installed on the Firepower
Management Center. It also indicates the number of items licensed and the number of remaining licensed
items allowed. It does not appear by default on any of the predefined dashboards.
The top section of the widget displays all device and feature licenses installed on the Firepower Management
Center, including temporary licenses, while the Expiring Licenses section displays only temporary and expired
licenses.
The bars in the widget background show the percentage of each type of license that is being used; you should
read the bars from right to left. Expired licenses are marked with a strikethrough.

230
The Product Updates Widget
You can configure the widget to display either the features that are currently licensed, or all the features that
you can license, by modifying the widget preferences. The preferences also control how often the widget
updates.
You can click any of the license types to go to the License page of the local configuration and add or delete
feature licenses.
The Product Updates Widget

The Product Updates widget provides you with a summary of the software currently installed on the appliance
as well as information on updates that you have downloaded, but not yet installed. This widget appears by
default on the Status tabs of the Detailed Dashboard and the Summary Dashboard.
Because the widget uses scheduled tasks to determine the latest version, it displays Unknown until you
configure a scheduled task to download, push or install updates.
You can configure the widget to hide the latest versions by modifying the widget preferences. The preferences
also control how often the widget updates.
The widget also provides you with links to pages where you can update the software. You can:
• Manually update an appliance by clicking the current version.
• Create a scheduled task to download an update by clicking the latest version.
The RSS Feed Widget

The RSS Feed widget adds an RSS feed to a dashboard. By default, the widget shows a feed of Cisco security
news. It appears by default on the Status tabs of the Detailed Dashboard and the Summary Dashboard.
You can also configure the widget to display a preconfigured feed of company news, the Snort.org blog, or
the Cisco Threat Research blog, or you can create a custom connection to any other RSS feed by specifying
its URL in the widget preferences.
Feeds update every 24 hours (although you can manually update the feed), and the widget displays the last
time the feed was updated based on the local time of the appliance. Keep in mind that the appliance must have
access to the web site (for the two preconfigured feeds) or to any custom feed you configure.
When you configure the widget, you can also choose how many stories from the feed you want to show in
the widget, as well as whether you want to show descriptions of the stories along with the headlines; keep in
mind that not all RSS feeds use descriptions.
On the RSS Feed widget, you can:
• click one of the stories in the feed to view the story
• click the more link to go to the feed’s web site
• click the update icon ( ) to manually update the feed
The System Load Widget

The System Load widget shows the CPU usage (for each CPU), memory (RAM) usage, and system load (also
called the load average, measured by the number of processes waiting to execute) on the appliance, both
currently and over the dashboard time range. It appears by default on the Status tabs of the Detailed Dashboard
and the Summary Dashboard.

231
The System Time Widget
You can configure the widget to show or hide the load average by modifying the widget preferences. The
preferences also control how often the widget updates.
The System Time Widget

The System Time widget shows the local system time, uptime, and boot time for the appliance. It appears by
default on the Status tabs of the Detailed Dashboard and the Summary Dashboard.
You can configure the widget to hide the boot time by modifying the widget preferences. The preferences
also control how often the widget synchronizes with the appliance’s clock.
The White List Events Widget

The White List Events widget shows the average events per second by priority, over the dashboard time range.
It appears by default on the Correlation tab of the Default Dashboard.
You can configure the widget to display white list events of different priorities by modifying the widget
preferences.
In the widget preferences, you can:
• choose one or more Priorities check boxes to display separate graphs for events of specific priorities,
including events that do not have a priority
• choose Show All to display an additional graph for all white list events, regardless of priority
• choose Vertical Scale to choose Linear (incremental) or Logarithmic (factor of ten) scale
The preferences also control how often the widget updates.

You can click a graph to view white list events of a specific priority, or click the All graph to view all white
list events. In either case, the events are constrained by the dashboard time range; accessing white list events
via the dashboard changes the events (or global) time window for the Firepower Management Center.
Managing Dashboards

Analyst/Maint
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Overview > Dashboards, and then choose the dashboard you want to modify from the menu.
Step 2 Manage your dashboards:
• Create Dashboards — Create a custom dashboard; see Creating Custom Dashboards, on page 235.
• Delete Dashboards — To delete a dashboard, click the delete icon ( ) next to the dashboard you want
to delete. If you delete your default dashboard, you must define a new default or the appliance prompts
you to choose a dashboard every time you attempt to view a dashboard.
• Edit Options — Edit custom dashboard options; see Editing Dashboards Options, on page 237.

232
Adding a Dashboard Tab
• Modify Time Constraints — Modify the time display or pause/unpause the dashboard as described in
Modifying Dashboard Time Settings, on page 238.
Step 3 Manage dashboard tabs:

• Add Tabs — Add a tab to a dashboard; see Adding a Dashboard Tab, on page 233.
• Delete Tabs — To delete a dashboard tab, click the close icon ( ) in the top right corner of the tab, and
confirm by clicking OK . You cannot delete the last tab from a dashboard; each dashboard must have at
least one tab.
• Rename Tabs — Rename a tab in a dashboard; see Renaming a Dashboard Tab, on page 239.
Note You cannot change the order of dashboard tabs.
Step 4 Manage dashboard widgets:

• Add Widgets — Add widgets to a dashboard; see Adding Widgets to a Dashboard, on page 234.
• Configure Preferences — Configure widget preferences; see Configuring Widget Preferences, on page
235.
• Customize Display — Customize the widget display; see Customizing the Widget Display, on page 237.
• View Events — View associated events from the Custom Analysis Widget; see Viewing Associated
Events from the Custom Analysis Widget, on page 227.
Tip Every configuration of the Custom Analysis widget in the Cisco predefined dashboards corresponds
to a system preset for that widget. If you change or delete one of these widgets, you can restore it
by creating a new Custom Analysis widget based on the appropriate preset.
Adding a Dashboard Tab


Analyst/Maint
Procedure
Step 1 View the dashboard you want to modify; see Viewing Dashboards, on page 239.
Step 2 Click the add icon ( ) next to the last existing tab.
Step 3 Enter a name for the tab.
Step 4 Click OK.

233
Adding Widgets to a Dashboard
Adding Widgets to a Dashboard


Analyst/Maint
Each tab can display one or more widgets in a three-column layout. When adding a widget to a dashboard,
you choose the tab to which you want to add the widget. The system automatically adds it to the column with
the fewest widgets. If all columns have an equal number of widgets, the new widget is added to the leftmost
column. You can add a maximum of 15 widgets to a dashboard tab.
Tip After you add widgets, you can move them to any location on the tab. You cannot, however, move widgets
from tab to tab.
The dashboard widgets you can view depend on the type of appliance you are using, your user role, and your
current domain (in a multidomain deployment). Keep in mind that because not all user roles have access to
all dashboard widgets, users with fewer permissions viewing a dashboard created by a user with more
permissions may not be able to use all of the widgets on the dashboard. Although the unauthorized widgets
still appear on the dashboard, they are disabled.
Procedure
Step 1 View the dashboard where you want to add a widget; see Viewing Dashboards, on page 239.
Step 2 Click the tab where you want to add the widget.
Step 3 Click Add Widgets. You can view the widgets in each category by clicking on the category name, or you
can view all widgets by clicking All Categories.
Step 4 Click Add next to the widgets you want to add. The Add Widgets page indicates how many widgets of each
type are on the tab, including the widget you want to add.
Tip To add multiple widgets of the same type (for example, you may want to add multiple RSS Feed
widgets, or multiple Custom Analysis widgets), click Add again.
Step 5 When you are finished adding widgets, click Done to return to the dashboard.
What to do next
• If you added a Custom Analysis widget, configure the widget preferences; see Configuring Widget
Preferences, on page 235.
Related Topics
Widget Availability, on page 220

234
Configuring Widget Preferences
Configuring Widget Preferences


Analyst/Maint
Each widget has a set of preferences that determines its behavior.
Procedure
Step 1 On the title bar of the widget whose preferences you want to change, click the show preferences icon ( ).
Step 2 Make changes as needed.
Step 3 On the widget title bar, click the hide preferences icon ( ) to hide the preferences section.
Creating Custom Dashboards


Analyst/Maint
Tip Instead of creating a new dashboard, you can export a dashboard from another appliance, then import it onto
your appliance. You can then edit the imported dashboard to suit your needs.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Overview > Dashboards > Management.

Step 2 Click Create Dashboard.
Step 3 Modify the custom dashboard options as described in Custom Dashboard Options, on page 235.
Step 4 Click Save.
Custom Dashboard Options

The table below describes options you can use when creating or editing custom dashboards.

235
Custom Dashboard Options
Table 28: Custom Dashboard Options
Option Description
Copy Dashboard When you create a custom dashboard, you can choose to base it
on any existing dashboard, whether user-created or
system-defined. This option makes a copy of the preexisting
dashboard, which you can modify to suit your needs. Optionally,
you can create a blank new dashboard by choosing None. This
option is available only when you create a new dashboard.
In a multidomain deployment, you can copy any non-private
dashboards from ancestor domains.
Name A unique name for the custom dashboard.
Description A brief description of the custom dashboard.
Change Tabs Every Specifies (in minutes) how often the dashboard should cycle
through its tabs. Unless you pause the dashboard or your
dashboard has only one tab, this setting advances your view to
the next tab at the interval you specify. To disable tab cycling,
enter 0 in the Change Tabs Every field.
Refresh Page Every Specifies (in minutes) how often the current dashboard tab should
refresh with new data. This value must be greater than the Change
Tabs Every setting. Unless you pause the dashboard, this setting
will refresh the entire dashboard at the interval you specify. To
disable the periodic page refresh, enter 0 in the Refresh Page
Every field. Determines how often the entire dashboard page
automatically refreshes.
Refreshing the entire dashboard allows you to see any preference
or layout changes that were made to a shared dashboard by another
user, or that you made to a private dashboard on another computer,
since the last time the dashboard refreshed. A frequent refresh
can be useful, for example, in a networks operations center (NOC)
where a dashboard is displayed at all times. If you make changes
to the dashboard at a local computer, the dashboard in the NOC
automatically refreshes at the interval you specify, and no manual
refresh is required. Note that you do not need to refresh the entire
dashboard to see data updates; individual widgets update according
to their preferences.
Note This setting is separate from the update interval
available on many individual widgets; although
refreshing the dashboard page resets the update interval
on individual widgets, widgets will update according
to their individual preferences even if you disable the
Refresh Page Every setting.

236
Customizing the Widget Display
Option Description
Save As Private Determines whether the custom dashboard can be viewed and
modified by all users of the appliance or is associated with your
user account and reserved solely for your own use. Keep in mind
that any user with dashboard access, regardless of role, can modify
shared dashboards. If you want to make sure that only you can
modify a particular dashboard, save it as private.
Customizing the Widget Display


Analyst/Maint
You can minimize and maximize widgets, as well as rearrange the widgets on a tab.
Procedure
Step 1 View a dashboard; see Viewing Dashboards, on page 239.

Step 2 Customize the widget display:
• To rearrange a widget on a tab, click the title bar of the widget you want to move, then drag it to its new
location.
Note You cannot move widgets from tab to tab. If you want a widget to appear on a different tab,
you must delete it from the existing tab and add it to the new tab.
• To minimize or maximize a widget on the dashboard, click the minimize ( ) or maximize icon ( ) in
a widget’s title bar.
• To delete a widget if you no longer want to view it on a tab, click the close icon ( ) in the title bar of
the widget.
Editing Dashboards Options


Analyst/Maint

237
Modifying Dashboard Time Settings
Procedure
Step 1 View the dashboard you want to edit; see Viewing Dashboards, on page 239.
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the dashboard you want to modify.
Step 3 Change the options as described in Custom Dashboard Options, on page 235.
Step 4 Click Save.
Modifying Dashboard Time Settings


Analyst/Maint
You can change the time range to reflect a period as short as the last hour (the default) or as long as the last
year. When you change the time range, the widgets that can be constrained by time automatically update to
reflect the new time range.
Note that not all widgets can be constrained by time. For example, the dashboard time range has no effect on
the Appliance Information widget, which provides information that includes the appliance name, model, and
current version of the Firepower System software.
Keep in mind that for enterprise deployments of the Firepower System, changing the time range to a long
period may not be useful for widgets like the Custom Analysis widget, depending on how often newer events
replace older events.
You can also pause a dashboard, which allows you to examine the data provided by the widgets without the
display changing and interrupting your analysis. Pausing a dashboard has the following effects:
• Individual widgets stop updating, regardless of any Update Every widget preference.
• Dashboard tabs stop cycling, regardless of the Cycle Tabs Every setting in the dashboard properties.
• Dashboard pages stop refreshing, regardless of the Refresh Page Every setting in the dashboard properties.
• Changing the time range has no effect.
When you are finished with your analysis, you can unpause the dashboard. Unpausing the dashboard causes
all appropriate widgets on the page to update to reflect the current time range. In addition, dashboard tabs
resume cycling and the dashboard page resumes refreshing according to the settings you specified in the
dashboard properties.
If you experience connectivity problems or other issues that interrupt the flow of system information to the
dashboard, the dashboard automatically pauses and an error notice appears until the problem is resolved.
Note Your session normally logs you out after 1 hour of inactivity (or another configured interval), regardless of
whether the dashboard is paused. If you plan to passively monitor the dashboard for long periods of time,
consider exempting some users from session timeout, or changing the system timeout settings.

238
Renaming a Dashboard Tab
Procedure
Step 1 View the dashboard where you want to add a widget; see Viewing Dashboards, on page 239.
Step 2 Optionally, to change the dashboard time range, choose a time range from the Show the Last drop-down list.
Step 3 Optionally, pause or unpause the dashboard on the time range control, using the pause ( ) or play icon ( ).
Renaming a Dashboard Tab


Analyst/Maint
Procedure
Step 1 View the dashboard you want to modify; see Viewing Dashboards, on page 239.
Step 2 Click the tab title you want to rename.
Step 3 Type a name for the tab.
Step 4 Click OK.
Viewing Dashboards

Analyst/Maint
By default, the home page for your appliance displays the default dashboard. If you do not have a default
dashboard defined, the home page shows the Dashboard Management page, where you can choose a dashboard
to view.
Procedure
At any time, you can do one of the following:

• To view the default dashboard for your appliance, choose Overview > Dashboards.
• To view a specific dashboard, choose Overview > Dashboards, and choose the dashboard from the
menu.

239
Viewing Dashboards
• To view all available dashboards, choose Overview > Dashboards > Management. You can then choose
the view icon ( ) next to an individual dashboard to view it.

240
CHAPTER 14
Health Monitoring
The following topics describe how to use health monitoring in the Firepower System:
• About Health Monitoring, on page 241
• Health Policies, on page 248
• The Health Monitor Blacklist, on page 252
• Health Monitor Alerts, on page 254
• Using the Health Monitor, on page 257
• Viewing Appliance Health Monitors, on page 259
• Health Event Views, on page 261
• History for Health Monitoring, on page 267
About Health Monitoring

The health monitor on the Firepower Management Center tracks a variety of health indicators to ensure that
the hardware and software in the Firepower System are working correctly. You can use the health monitor to
check the status of critical functionality across your Firepower System deployment.
You can use the health monitor to create a collection of tests, referred to as a health policy, and apply the
health policy to one or more appliances. The tests, referred to as health modules, are scripts that test for criteria
you specify. You can modify a health policy by enabling or disabling tests or by changing test settings, and
you can delete health policies that you no longer need. You can also suppress messages from selected appliances
by blacklisting them.
The tests in a health policy run automatically at the interval you configure. You can also run all tests, or a
specific test, on demand. The health monitor collects health events based on the test conditions configured.

241
Health Modules
Note All Appliances automatically report their hardware status via the Hardware Alarms health module. The
Firepower Management Center also automatically reports status using the modules configured in the default
health policy. Some health modules, such as the Appliance Heartbeat module, run on the Firepower Management
Center and report the status of the Firepower Management Center's managed devices. Some health modules
do not provide managed device status unless you apply a health policy configured with those modules to a
device.
You can use the health monitor to access health status information for the entire system, for a particular
appliance, or, in a multidomain deployment, a particular domain. Pie charts and status tables on the Health
Monitor page provide a visual summary of the status of all appliances on your network, including the Firepower
Management Center. Individual appliance health monitors let you drill down into health details for a specific
appliance.
Fully customizable event views allow you to quickly and easily analyze the health status events gathered by
the health monitor. These event views allow you to search and view event data and to access other information
that may be related to the events you are investigating. For example, if you want to see all the occurrences of
CPU usage with a certain percentage, you can search for the CPU usage module and enter the percentage
value.
You can also configure email, SNMP, or syslog alerting in response to health events. A health alert is an
association between a standard alert and a health status level. For example, if you need to make sure an
appliance never fails due to hardware overload, you can set up an email alert. You can then create a health
alert that triggers that email alert whenever CPU, disk, or memory usage reaches the Warning level you
configure in the health policy applied to that appliance. You can set alerting thresholds to minimize the number
of repeating alerts you receive.
You can also generate troubleshooting files for an appliance if you are asked to do so by Support.
Because health monitoring is an administrative activity, only users with administrator user role privileges can
access system health data.
Health Modules
Health modules, or health tests, test for the criteria you specify in a health policy.
Table 29: Health Modules
Module Appliances Description
AMP for Endpoints FMC The module alerts if the Firepower Management Center cannot connect to the
Status AMP cloud or Cisco AMP Private Cloud after an initial successful connection,
or if the private cloud cannot contact the public AMP cloud. It also alerts if
you deregister an AMP cloud connection using the AMP for Endpoints
management console.

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Health Modules
AMP for Firepower FMC This module alerts if:

Status
• The Firepower Management Center cannot contact the AMP cloud (public
(AMP for Networks or private) or the Cisco Threat Grid public cloud or on-premises appliance,
Status) or the AMP private cloud cannot contact the public AMP cloud.
• The encryption keys used for the connection are invalid.
• A device cannot contact the Cisco Threat Grid cloud or an Cisco Threat
Grid on-premises appliance to submit files for dynamic analysis.
• An excessive number of files are detected in network traffic based on the
file policy configuration.
If your Firepower Management Center loses connectivity to the Internet, the

system may take up to 30 minutes to generate an AMP for Firepower Status
health alert.
Appliance Heartbeat Any This module determines if an appliance heartbeat is being heard from the
appliance and alerts based on the appliance heartbeat status.
Automatic Application 7000 & 8000 Series This module determines if an appliance has been bypassed because it did not
Bypass Status respond within the number of seconds set in the bypass threshold, and alerts
when a bypass occurs.
Backlog Status FMC This module displays an alert if the backlog of event data awaiting transmission
from the device to the FMC has grown continuously for more than 30 minutes.
To reduce the backlog, evaluate your bandwidth and consider logging fewer
events.
Classic License Monitor FMC This module determines if sufficient Classic licenses for Control, Protection,
URL Filtering, Malware, and VPN remain. It also alerts when devices in a
stack have mismatched license sets. It alerts based on a warning level
automatically configured for the module. You cannot change the configuration
of this module.
CPU Usage Any This module checks that the CPU on the appliance is not overloaded and alerts
when CPU usage exceeds the percentages configured for the module.
Card Reset Any This module checks for network cards which have restarted due to hardware
failure and alerts when a reset occurs.
Cluster Status Threat Defense This module monitors the status of device clusters. The module alerts if:
• A new primary unit is elected to a cluster.
• A new secondary unit joins a cluster.
• A primary or secondary unit leaves a cluster.

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Health Modules
Disk Status Any This module examines performance of the hard disk, and malware storage pack
(if installed) on the appliance. This module generates a Warning (yellow) health
alert when the hard disk and RAID controller (if installed) are in danger of
failing, or if an additional hard drive is installed that is not a malware storage
pack. This module generates an Alert (red) health alert when an installed
malware storage pack cannot be detected.
Disk Usage Any This module compares disk usage on the appliance’s hard drive and malware
storage pack to the limits configured for the module and alerts when usage
exceeds the percentages configured for the module. This module also alerts
when the system excessively deletes files in monitored disk usage categories,
or when disk usage excluding those categories reaches excessive levels, based
on module thresholds. Use the Disk Usage health status module to monitor
disk usage for the / and /volume partitions on the appliance and track draining
frequency. Although the disk usage module lists the /boot partition as a
monitored partition, the size of the partition is static so the module does not
alert on the boot partition.
Host Limit FMC This module determines if the number of hosts the Firepower Management
Center can monitor is approaching the limit and alerts based on the warning
level configured for the module. For more information, see Firepower System
Host Limit, on page 1918.
Hardware Alarms 7000 & 8000 Series, This module determines if hardware needs to be replaced on a physical managed
Threat Defense device and alerts based on the hardware status. The module also reports on the
(physical) status of hardware-related daemons and on the status of 7000 and 8000 Series
devices in high-availability deployments.
HA Status FMC This module monitors and alerts on the high availability status of the Firepower
Management Center. If you have not established Firepower Management Center
high availability, the HA Status is Not in HA.
This module does not monitor or alert on the high availability status of managed
devices, regardless of whether they are paired. The HA Status for a managed
device is always Not in HA. Use the device management page Devices >
Device Management to monitor devices in high availability pairs.
Health Monitor Process Any This module monitors the status of the health monitor itself and alerts if the
number of minutes since the last health event received by the Firepower
Management Center exceeds the Warning or Critical limits.
Inline Link Mismatch Any managed device This module monitors the ports associated with inline sets and alerts if the two
Alarms except ASA FirePOWER interfaces of an inline pair negotiate different speeds.

244
Health Modules
Intrusion and File Event Any managed device This module compares the number of intrusion events per second to the limits
Rate configured for this module and alerts if the limits are exceeded. If the Intrusion
and File Event Rate is zero, the intrusion process may be down or the managed
device may not be sending events. Select Analysis > Intrusions > Events to
check if events are being received from the device.
Typically, the event rate for a network segment averages 20 events per second.
For a network segment with this average rate, Events per second (Critical)
should be set to 50 and Events per second (Warning) should be set to 30. To
determine limits for your system, find the Events/Sec value on the Statistics
page for your device (System > Monitoring > Statistics), then calculate the
limits using these formulas:
• Events per second (Critical) = Events/Sec * 2.5
• Events per second (Warning) = Events/Sec * 1.5
The maximum number of events you can set for either limit is 999, and the
Critical limit must be higher than the Warning limit.
Interface Status Any This module determines if the device currently collects traffic and alerts based
on the traffic status of physical interfaces and aggregate interfaces. For physical
interfaces, the information includes interface name, link state, and bandwidth.
For aggregate interfaces, the information includes interface name, number of
active links, and total aggregate bandwidth.
For ASA FirePOWER, interfaces labeled DataPlaneInterfacex, where x is a
numerical value, are internal interfaces (not user-defined) and involve packet
flow within the system.
Link State Propagation Any except NGIPSv, This module determines when a link in a paired inline set fails and triggers the
ASA FirePOWER, link state propagation mode.
Firepower 9300,
If a link state propagates to the pair, the status classification for that module
Firepower 4100 series,
changes to Critical and the state reads:
Module Link State Propagation: ethx_ethy is Triggered
where x and y are the paired interface numbers.
Local Malware Analysis Any This module alerts if a device is configured for local malware analysis and fails
to download local malware analysis engine signature updates from the AMP
cloud.

245
Health Modules
Memory Usage Any This module compares memory usage on the appliance to the limits configured
for the module and alerts when usage exceeds the levels configured for the
module.
For appliances with more than 4GB of memory, the preset alert thresholds are
based on a formula that accounts for proportions of available memory likely
to cause system problems. On >4GB appliances, because the interval between
Warning and Critical thresholds may be very narrow, Cisco recommends that
you manually set the Warning Threshold % value to 50. This will further
ensure that you receive memory alerts for your appliance in time to address
the issue.
Complex access control policies and rules can command significant resources
and negatively affect performance. Some lower-end ASA devices with
FirePOWER Services Software may generate intermittent memory usage
warnings, as the device’s memory allocation is being used to the fullest extent
possible.
Platform Faults Firepower 2100 On Firepower 2100 devices, a fault is a mutable object that is managed by the
Firepower Management Center. Each fault represents a failure in the Firepower
2100 instance or an alarm threshold that has been raised. During the lifecycle
of a fault, it can change from one state or severity to another.
Each fault includes information about the operational state of the affected object
at the time the fault was raised. If the fault is transitional and the failure is
resolved, then the object transitions to a functional state.
For more information, see the Cisco Firepower 2100 FXOS Faults and Error
Messages Guide.
Power Supply Physical FMCs,7000 & This module determines if power supplies on the device require replacement
8000 Series and alerts based on the power supply status.
Note If an 8000 Series managed device experiences a power failure, it
may take up to 20 minutes to generate an alert.
Process Status Any This module determines if processes on the appliance exit or terminate outside
of the process manager. If a process is deliberately exited outside of the process
manager, the module status changes to Warning and the health event message
indicates which process exited, until the module runs again and the process
has restarted. If a process terminates abnormally or crashes outside of the
process manager, the module status changes to Critical and the health event
message indicates the terminated process, until the module runs again and the
process has restarted.
Reconfiguring Detection Any managed device This module alerts if a device reconfiguration has failed.
RRD Server Process FMC This module determines if the round robin data server that stores time series
data is running properly. The module will alert If the RRD server has restarted
since the last time it updated; it will enter Critical or Warning status if the
number of consecutive updates with an RRD server restart reaches the numbers
specified in the module configuration.

246
Health Modules
Security Intelligence FMC and some managed This module alerts if Security Intelligence is in use and:
devices
• The Firepower Management Center cannot update a feed, or feed data is
corrupt or contains no recognizable IP addresses.
• A managed device had a problem receiving updated Security Intelligence
data from the Firepower Management Center.
• A managed device cannot load all of the Security Intelligence data provided
to it by the Firepower Management Center due to memory issues; see
Troubleshooting Memory Use, on page 1300.
Smart License Monitor FMC This module alerts if:

• There is a communication error between the Smart Licensing Agent and
the Smart Software Manager.
• The Product Instance Registration Token has expired.
• The Smart License usage is out of compliance.
• The Smart License authorization or evaluation mode has expired.
Time Series Data Monitor FMC This module tracks the presence of corrupt files in the directory where time
series data (such as correlation event counts) are stored and alerts when files
are flagged as corrupt and removed.
Time Synchronization Any This module tracks the synchronization of a device clock that obtains time
Status using NTP with the clock on the NTP server and alerts if the difference in the
clocks is more than ten seconds.
URL Filtering Monitor FMCs This module alerts if the Firepower Management Center fails to:
• Communicate with, or retrieve a URL threat intelligence data update from,
Cisco Collective Security Intelligence (CSI).
• Push URL threat data to its managed devices.
User Agent Status FMC This module alerts when heartbeats are not detected for any User Agents
Monitor connected to the Firepower Management Center.
VPN Status FMC This module alerts when one or more VPN tunnels between Firepower System
devices are down.
This module tracks:
• VPN for 7000 & 8000 Series devices)
• Site-to-site VPN for Firepower Threat Defense
• Remote access VPN for Firepower Threat Defense

247
Configuring Health Monitoring
Configuring Health Monitoring

Procedure
Step 1 Determine which health modules you want to monitor as discussed in Health Modules, on page 242.
You can set up specific policies for each kind of appliance you have in your Firepower System, enabling only
the appropriate tests for that appliance.
Tip To quickly enable health monitoring without customizing the monitoring behavior, you can apply
the default policy provided for that purpose.
Step 2 Apply a health policy to each appliance where you want to track health status as discussed in Creating Health
Policies, on page 249.
Step 3 (Optional.) Configure health monitor alerts as discussed in Creating Health Monitor Alerts, on page 255.
You can set up email, syslog, or SNMP alerts that trigger when the health status level reaches a particular
severity level for specific health modules.
Health Policies
A health policy contains configured health test criteria for several modules. You can control which health
modules run against each of your appliances and configure the specific limits used in the tests run by each
module.
When you configure a health policy, you decide whether to enable each health module for that policy. You
also select the criteria that control which health status each enabled module reports each time it assesses the
health of a process.
You can create one health policy that can be applied to every appliance in your system, customize each health
policy to the specific appliance where you plan to apply it, or use the default health policy provided for you.
In a multidomain deployment, administrators in ancestor domains can apply health policies to devices in
descendant domains, which descendant domains can use or replace with customized local policies.
Default Health Policy

The health monitor on the Firepower Management Center provides a default health policy to allow you to
quickly implement health monitoring for your appliances. In the default health policy, most of the health
modules available on the running platform are automatically enabled. The default health policy is automatically
applied to the Firepower Management Center. Additionally, the default health policy is applied to a managed
device when you add the device to the Firepower Management Center. You cannot edit the default health
policy, but you can copy it to create custom policies based on its configuration.

248
Creating Health Policies
Creating Health Policies

If you want to customize a health policy to use with your appliances, you can create a new policy. The settings
in the policy initially populate with the settings from the health policy you choose as a basis for the new policy.
You can enable or disable modules within the policy and change the alerting criteria for each module as
needed.
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays policies created in the current domain, which you can edit.
It also displays policies created in ancestor domains, which you cannot edit. To view and edit policies created
in a lower domain, switch to that domain. Administrators in ancestor domains can apply health policies to
devices in descendant domains, which descendant domains can use or replace with customized local policies.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Health > Policy .

Step 2 Click Create Policy.
Step 3 Choose the existing policy that you want to use as the basis for the new policy from the Copy Policy drop-down
list.
Step 4 Enter a name for the policy.
Step 5 Enter a description for the policy.
Step 6 Choose Save to save the policy information.
Step 7 Choose the module you want to use.
Step 8 Choose On for the Enabled option to enable use of the module for health status testing.
Step 9 Where appropriate, set the Critical and Warning criteria.
Step 10 Configure any additional settings for the module. Repeat steps 7-10 for each module.
Step 11 You have three choices:
• To save your changes to this module and return to the Health Policy page, click Save Policy and Exit.
• To return to the Health Policy page without saving any of your settings for this module, click Cancel.
• To temporarily save your changes to this module and switch to another module’s settings to modify,
choose the other module from the list at the left of the page. If you click Save Policy and Exit when you
are done, all changes you made will be saved; if you click Cancel, you discard all changes.
What to do next
• Apply the health policy to each appliance as described in Applying Health Policies, on page 250. This
applies your changes and updates the policy status for all affected policies.

249
Applying Health Policies
Applying Health Policies

When you apply a health policy to an appliance, the health tests for all the modules you enabled in the policy
automatically monitor the health of the processes and hardware on the appliance. Health tests then continue
to run at the intervals you configured in the policy, collecting health data for the appliance and forwarding
that data to the Firepower Management Center.
If you enable a module in a health policy and then apply the policy to an appliance that does not require that
health test, the health monitor reports the status for that health module as disabled.
If you apply a policy with all modules disabled to an appliance, it removes all applied health policies from
the appliance so no health policy is applied.
When you apply a different policy to an appliance that already has a policy applied, expect some latency in
the display of new data based on the newly applied tests.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the apply icon ( ) next to the policy you want to apply.
Tip
The status icon ( ) next to the Health Policy column indicates the current health status for the
appliance.
Step 3 Choose the appliances where you want to apply the health policy.
Step 4 Click Apply to apply the policy to the appliances you chose.
What to do next
• Optionally, monitor the task status; see Viewing Task Messages, on page 287.
Monitoring of the appliance starts as soon as the policy is successfully applied.
Editing Health Policies


250
Deleting Health Policies
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the policy you want to modify.
Step 3 Edit the Policy Name or Policy Description fields as desired.
Step 4 Click the health module you want to modify.
Step 5 Modify settings as described in Health Modules, on page 242.
Step 6 You have three options:
• To save your changes to this module and return to the Health Policy page, click Save Policy and Exit.
• To return to the Health Policy page without saving any of your settings for this module, click Cancel.
• To temporarily save your changes to this module and switch to another module’s settings to modify,
choose the other module from the list at the left of the page. If you click Save Policy and Exit when you
are done, all changes you made will be saved; if you click Cancel, you discard all changes.
What to do next
• Reapply the health policy as described in Applying Health Policies, on page 250. This applies your changes
and updates the policy status for all affected policies.
Deleting Health Policies

You can delete health policies that you no longer need. If you delete a policy that is still applied to an appliance,
the policy settings remain in effect until you apply a different policy. In addition, if you delete a health policy
that is applied to a device, any health monitoring alerts in effect for the device remain active until you disable
the underlying associated alert response.
In a multidomain deployment, you can only delete health policies created in the current domain.
Tip To stop health monitoring for an appliance, create a health policy with all modules disabled and apply it to
the appliance.

251
The Health Monitor Blacklist
Procedure
Step 2 Click the delete icon ( ) next to the policy you want to delete.
A message appears, indicating if the deletion was successful.
The Health Monitor Blacklist

In the course of normal network maintenance, you disable appliances or make them temporarily unavailable.
Because those outages are deliberate, you do not want the health status from those appliances to affect the
summary health status on your Firepower Management Center.
You can use the health monitor blacklist feature to disable health monitoring status reporting on an appliance
or module. For example, if you know that a segment of your network will be unavailable, you can temporarily
disable health monitoring for a managed device on that segment to prevent the health status on the Firepower
Management Center from displaying a warning or critical state because of the lapsed connection to the device.
When you disable health monitoring status, health events are still generated, but they have a disabled status
and do not affect the health status for the health monitor. If you remove the appliance or module from the
blacklist, the events that were generated during the blacklisting continue to show a status of disabled.
To temporarily disable health events from an appliance, go to the blacklist configuration page and add an
appliance to the blacklist. After the setting takes effect, the system no longer includes the blacklisted appliance
when calculating the overall health status. The Health Monitor Appliance Status Summary lists the appliance
as disabled.
At times it may be more practical to just blacklist an individual health monitoring module on an appliance.
For example, when you reach the host limit on a Firepower Management Center, you can blacklist the Host
Limit status messages.
Note that on the main Health Monitor page you can distinguish between appliances that are blacklisted if you
expand to view the list of appliances with a particular status by clicking the arrow in that status row.
A blacklist icon ( ) and a notation are visible after you expand the view for a blacklisted or partially blacklisted
appliance.
Note On a Firepower Management Center, Health Monitor blacklist settings are local configuration settings.
Therefore, if you blacklist a device, then delete it and later re-register it with the Firepower Management
Center, the blacklist settings remain persistent. The newly re-registered device remains blacklisted.
In a multidomain deployment, administrators in ancestor domains can blacklist an appliance or health module
in descendant domains. However, administrators in the descendant domains can override the ancestor
configuration and clear the blacklist for devices in their domain.

252
Blacklisting Appliances
Blacklisting Appliances
You can blacklist appliances individually or by group, model, or associated health policy.
After the blacklist settings take effect, the appliance shows as disabled in the Health Monitor Appliance
Module Summary and Device Management page. Health events for the appliance have a status of disabled.
If you need to set the events and health status for an individual appliance to disabled, you can blacklist the
appliance. After the blacklist settings take effect, the appliance shows as disabled in the Health Monitor
Appliance Module Summary, and health events for the appliance have a status of disabled.
In a multidomain deployment, blacklisting an appliance in an ancestor domain blacklists it for all descendant
domains. Descendant domains can override this inherited configuration and clear the blacklisting. You can
only blacklist the Firepower Management Center at the Global level.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Health > Blacklist.

Step 2 Use the drop-down list on the right to sort the list by appliance group, model, or by policy.
Tip
The status icon next to the Health Policy column ( ) indicates the current health status for the
appliance. The status icon next to the System Policy column ( ) indicates the communication
status between the Firepower Management Center and the device.
Step 3 You have two choices:

• To blacklist all appliances in a group, model, or policy category, check the check box for the category,
then click Blacklist Selected Devices.
• To clear blacklisting from all appliances in a group, model, or policy category, check the check box for
the category, then click Clear Blacklist on Selected Devices.
Blacklisting Health Policy Modules

You can blacklist individual health policy modules on appliances. You may want to do this to prevent events
from the module from changing the status for the appliance to warning or critical.
After the blacklist settings take effect, the appliance shows as Partially Blacklisted or All Modules Blacklisted
on the Blacklist page and in the Appliance Health Monitor Module Status Summary, but only in expanded
views on the main Appliance Status Summary page.

253
Health Monitor Alerts
Tip Make sure that you keep track of individually blacklisted modules so you can reactivate them when you need
them. You may miss necessary warning or critical messages if you accidentally leave a module disabled.
In a multidomain deployment, administrators in ancestor domains can blacklist health modules in descendant
domains. However, administrators in descendant domains can override this ancestor configuration and clear
the blacklisting for policies applied in their domains. You can only blacklist Firepower Management Center
health modules at the Global level.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Health > Blacklist.
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the appliance you want to modify.
Step 3 Check the check boxes next to the health policy modules you want to blacklist. Certain modules are applicable
to specific devices only; for more information, see Health Modules, on page 242.
Step 4 Click Save.
Health Monitor Alerts

You can set up alerts to notify you through email, through SNMP, or through the system log when the status
changes for the modules in a health policy. You can associate an existing alert response with health event
levels to trigger and alert when health events of a particular level occur.
For example, if you are concerned that your appliances may run out of hard disk space, you can automatically
send an email to a system administrator when the remaining disk space reaches the warning level. If the hard
drive continues to fill, you can send a second email when the hard drive reaches the critical level.
In a multidomain deployment, you can view and modify health monitor alerts created in the current domain
only.
Health Monitor Alert Information

The alerts generated by the health monitor contain the following information:
• Severity, which indicates the severity level of the alert.
• Module, which specifies the health module whose test results triggered the alert.
• Description, which includes the health test results that triggered the alert.
The table below describes these severity levels.

254
Creating Health Monitor Alerts
Table 30: Alert Severities
Severity Description
Critical The health test results met the criteria to trigger a Critical alert
status.
Warning The health test results met the criteria to trigger a Warning alert
status.
Normal The health test results met the criteria to trigger a Normal alert
status.
Error The health test did not run.
Recovered The health test results met the criteria to return to a normal alert
status, following a Critical or Warning alert status.
Creating Health Monitor Alerts

When you create a health monitor alert, you create an association between a severity level, a health module,
and an alert response. You can use an existing alert or configure a new one specifically to report on system
health. When the severity level occurs for the selected module, the alert triggers.
If you create or update a threshold in a way that duplicates an existing threshold, you are notified of the
conflict. When duplicate thresholds exist, the health monitor uses the threshold that generates the fewest alerts
and ignores the others. The timeout value for the threshold must be between 5 and 4,294,967,295 minutes.
only.
Before you begin

• Configure an alert response that governs the Firepower Management Center's communication with the
SNMP, syslog, or email server where you send the health alert; see Firepower Management Center Alert
Responses, on page 2181.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Health > Monitor Alerts.

Step 2 Enter a name for the health alert in the Health Alert Name field.
Step 3 From the Severity list, choose the severity level you want to use to trigger the alert.
Step 4 From the Module list, choose the health policy modules for which you want the alert to apply.
Step 5 From the Alert list, choose the alert response that you want to trigger when the specified severity level is
reached.

255
Editing Health Monitor Alerts
Step 6 Optionally, in the Threshold Timeout field, enter the number of minutes that should elapse before each
threshold period ends and the threshold count resets.
Even if the policy run time interval value is less than the threshold timeout value, the interval between two
reported health events from a given module is always greater. For example, if you change the threshold timeout
to 8 minutes and the policy run time interval is 5 minutes, there is a 10-minute interval (5 x 2) between reported
events.
Step 7 Click Save to save the health alert.
Editing Health Monitor Alerts

You can edit existing health monitor alerts to change the severity level, health module, or alert response
associated with the health monitor alert.
only.
Procedure

Step 2 Choose the alert you want to modify from the Active Health Alerts list.
Step 3 Click Load to load the configured settings for the alert you chose.
Step 4 Modify settings as needed.
Step 5 Click Save to save the modified health alert.
A message indicates if the alert configuration was successfully saved.
Deleting Health Monitor Alerts

only.
Procedure

256
Using the Health Monitor
Step 2 Choose the active health alerts you want to delete, then click Delete.
What to do next
• Disable or delete the underlying alert response to ensure that alerting does not continue; see Firepower
Management Center Alert Responses, on page 2181.
Using the Health Monitor


Security Analyst
The health monitor provides the compiled health status for all devices managed by the Firepower Management
Center, plus the Firepower Management Center. The health monitor is composed of:
• The status table — Provides a count of the managed appliances for this Firepower Management Center
by overall health status.
• The pie chart — Indicates the percentage of appliances currently in each health status category.
• The appliance list — Provides details on the health of the managed devices.
In a multidomain deployment, the health monitor in an ancestor domain displays data from all descendant
domains. In the descendant domains, it displays data from the current domain only.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Health > Monitor.

Step 2 Choose the appropriate status in the Status column of the table or the appropriate portion of the pie chart to
the list appliances with that status.
Tip If the arrow in the row for a status level points down, the appliance list for that status shows in the
lower table. If the arrow points right, the appliance list is hidden.
Step 3 You have the following choices:

• View appliance health monitors; see Viewing Appliance Health Monitors, on page 259.
• Create health policies; see Creating Health Policies, on page 249.
• Create health monitor alerts; see Creating Health Monitor Alerts, on page 255.
Health Monitor Status Categories

Available status categories are listed by severity in the table below.

257
Health Monitor Status Categories
Table 31: Health Status Indicator
Status Level Status Icon Status Color in Pie Chart Description
Error Black Indicates that at least one health

monitoring module has failed
on the appliance and has not
been successfully re-run since
the failure occurred. Contact
your technical support
representative to obtain an
update to the health monitoring
module.
Critical Red Indicates that the critical limits

have been exceeded for at least
one health module on the
appliance and the problem has
not been corrected.
Warning Yellow Indicates that warning limits

have been exceeded for at least
one health module on the
appliance and the problem has
not been corrected.
Normal Green Indicates that all health modules

on the appliance are running
within the limits configured in
the health policy applied to the
appliance.
Recovered Green Indicates that all health modules

on the appliance are running
within the limits configured in
the health policy applied to the
appliance, including modules
that were in a Critical or
Warning state.
Disabled Blue Indicates that an appliance is

disabled or blacklisted, that the
appliance does not have a health
policy applied to it, or that the
appliance is currently
unreachable.

258
Viewing Appliance Health Monitors
Viewing Appliance Health Monitors


Security Analyst
The Appliance Health Monitor provides a detailed view of the health status of an appliance.
In a multidomain deployment, you can view the health status of appliances in descendant domains.
Tip Your session normally logs you out after 1 hour of inactivity (or another configured interval). If you plan to
passively monitor health status for long periods of time, consider exempting some users from session timeout,
or changing the system timeout settings. See Add an Internal User at the Web Interface, on page 43 and
Configuring Session Timeouts, on page 948 for more information.
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the appliance list. To show appliances with a particular status, click the arrow in that status row.
Alternatively, in the Appliance Status Summary graph, click the color for the appliance status category you
want to view.
Tip If the arrow in the row for a status level points down, the appliance list for that status shows in the
lower table. If the arrow points right, the appliance list is hidden.
Step 3 In the Appliance column of the appliance list, click the name of the appliance for which you want to view
details.
Tip In the Module Status Summary graph, click the color for an event status category to toggle display
of Alert Details for that status category.
What to do next
• If you want to run all health modules for the appliance, see Running All Modules for an Appliance, on
page 260
• If you want to run a specific health module for an appliance, see Running a Specific Health Module, on
page 260
• If you want to generate health module alert graphs for the appliance, see Generating Health Module Alert
Graphs, on page 261
• If you want to produce troubleshooting files for the appliance, see Downloading Advanced Troubleshooting
Files, on page 290

259
Running All Modules for an Appliance
• If you want to download advanced troubleshooting files for the appliance, see Downloading Advanced
Troubleshooting Files, on page 290
• If you want to execute Firepower Threat Defense CLI commands from the Firepower Management Center
web interface, see Using the FTD CLI from the Web Interface, on page 291
Running All Modules for an Appliance


Security Analyst
Health module tests run automatically at the policy run time interval you configure when you create a health
policy. However, you can also run all health module tests on demand to collect up-to-date health information
for the appliance.
In a multidomain deployment, you can run health module tests for appliances in the current domain and in
any descendant domains.
Procedure
Step 1 View the health monitor for the appliance; see Viewing Appliance Health Monitors, on page 259.
Step 2 Click Run All Modules. The status bar indicates the progress of the tests, then the Health Monitor Appliance
page refreshes.
Note When you manually run health modules, the first refresh that automatically occurs may not reflect
the data from the manually run tests. If the value has not changed for a module that you just ran
manually, wait a few seconds, then refresh the page by clicking the device name. You can also wait
for the page to refresh again automatically.
Running a Specific Health Module


Security Analyst
Health module tests run automatically at the policy run time interval you configure when you create a health
policy. However, you can also run a health module test on demand to collect up-to-date health information
for that module.
In a multidomain deployment, you can run health module tests for appliances in the current domain and in
any descendant domains.

260
Generating Health Module Alert Graphs
Procedure
Step 2 In the Module Status Summary graph, click the color for the health alert status category you want to view.
Step 3 In the Alert Detail row for the alert for which you want to view a list of events, click Run.
The status bar indicates the progress of the test, then the Health Monitor Appliance page refreshes.
Note When you manually run health modules, the first refresh that automatically occurs may not reflect
the data from the manually run tests. If the value has not changed for a module that you just manually
ran, wait a few seconds, then refresh the page by clicking the device name. You can also wait for
the page to refresh automatically again.
Generating Health Module Alert Graphs


Security Analyst
You can graph the results over a period of time of a particular health test for a specific appliance.
Procedure
Step 2 In the Module Status Summary graph of the Health Monitor Appliance page, click the color for the health
alert status category you want to view.
Step 3 In the Alert Detail row for the alert for which you want to view a list of events, click Graph.
Tip If no events appear, you may need to adjust the time range.
Health Event Views

The Health Event View page allows you to view health events logged by the health monitor on the Firepower
Management Center logs health events. The fully customizable event views allow you to quickly and easily
analyze the health status events gathered by the health monitor. You can search event data to easily access
other information that may be related to the events you are investigating. If you understand what conditions
each health module tests for, you can more effectively configure alerting for health events.
You can perform many of the standard event view functions on the health event view pages.

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Viewing Health Events
Viewing Health Events


Security Analyst
The Table View of Health Events page provides a list of all health events on the specified appliance.
When you access health events from the Health Monitor page on your Firepower Management Center, you
retrieve all health events for all managed appliances.
Tip You can bookmark this view to allow you to return to the page in the health events workflow containing the
Health Events table of events. The bookmarked view retrieves events within the time range you are currently
viewing, but you can then modify the time range to update the table with more recent information if needed.
Procedure
Choose System > Health > Events.

Tip If you are using a custom workflow that does not include the table view of health events, click
(switch workflow). On the Select Workflow page, click Health Events.
Note If no events appear, you may need to adjust the time range.
Viewing Health Events by Module and Appliance


Security Analyst
Procedure
Step 2 In the Module Status Summary graph, click the color for the event status category you want to view.
The Alert Detail list toggles the display to show or hide events.
Step 3 In the Alert Detail row for the alert for which you want to view a list of events, click Events.
The Health Events page appears, containing results for a query with the name of the appliance and the name
of the specified health alert module as constraints. If no events appear, you may need to adjust the time range.

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Viewing the Health Events Table
Step 4 If you want to view all health events for the specified appliance, expand Search Constraints, and click the
Module Name constraint to remove it.
Viewing the Health Events Table


Security Analyst
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Health > Events.

• Bookmark — To bookmark the current page so that you can quickly return to it, click Bookmark This
Page, provide a name for the bookmark, and click Save.
• Change Workflow — To choose another health events workflow, click (switch workflow).
• Delete Events — To delete health events, check the check box next to the events you want to delete, and
click Delete. To delete all the events in the current constrained view, click Delete All, then confirm you
want to delete all the events.
• Generate Reports — Generate a report based on data in the table view — click Report Designer.
• Modify — Modify the time and date range for events listed in the Health table view. Note that events
that were generated outside the appliance's configured time window (whether global or event-specific)
may appear in an event view if you constrain the event view by time. This may occur even if you
configured a sliding time window for the appliance.
• Navigate — Navigate through event view pages.
• Navigate Bookmark — To navigate to the bookmark management page, click View Bookmarks from
any event view.
• Navigate Other — Navigate to other event tables to view associated events.
• Sort — Sort the events that appear, change what columns display in the table of events, or constrain the
events that appear
• View All — To view event details for all events in the view, click View All.
• View Details — To view the details associated with a single health event, click the down arrow link on
the left side of the event.
• View Multiple — To view event details for multiple health events, choose the check box next to the rows
that correspond with the events you want to view details for and then click View.
• View Status — To view all events of a particular status, click the status icon in the Status column for an
event with that status.

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Hardware Alert Details for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices
Note The 8350 hardware platform has six fans, which display as FAN2 through FAN7. This is expected behavior.
If you receive a hardware alert related to FAN1 or fan numbering in general on the 8350 platform, you can
disregard the alert.
Table 32: Conditions Monitored for 7000 and 8000 SeriesDevices
Condition Monitored Causes of Yellow or Red Error Conditions
Device high availability status If 7000 or 8000 Series devices in a high-availability

pair are no longer communicating with each other
(due, for example, to a cabling problem), the
Hardware Alarms module changes to red.
ftwo daemon status If the ftwo daemon goes down, health status for the
Hardware Alarms module changes to red and message
details include a reference to the daemon.
NFE cards detected Indicates the number of NFE cards detected on the
system. If this value does not match the appliance’s
expected NFE count, the Hardware Alarms module
changes to red.
NFE hardware status If one or more NFE cards are not communicating, the
Hardware Alarms module changes to red and the
applicable card appears in the message details.
NFE heartbeat If the system detects no NFE heartbeat, the Hardware

Alarms module changes to red and message details
include a reference to the relevant card(s).
NFE internal link status If the link between the NMSB and NFE card(s) goes
down, the Hardware Alarms module changes to red
and message details include a reference to the relevant
ports.
NFE Message daemon If the NFE Message daemon goes down, health status
for the Hardware Alarms module changes to red and
the message details include a reference to the daemon
(and, if applicable, the NFE card number).

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Condition Monitored Causes of Yellow or Red Error Conditions
NFE temperature If NFE temperature exceeds 97 degrees Celsius, health

status for the Hardware Alarms module changes to
yellow and message details include a reference to the
NFE temperature (and, if applicable, the NFE card
number).
If NFE temperature exceeds 102 degrees Celsius,
health status for the Hardware Alarms module changes
to red and message details include a reference to the
NFE temperature. (and, if applicable, the NFE card
number).
NFE temperature status Indicates the current temperature status of the given
NFE card. The Hardware Alarms module indicates
green for OK, yellow for Warning, and red for Critical
NFE TCAM daemon If the NFE TCAM daemon goes down, health status for
the Hardware Alarms module changes to red and
message details include a reference to the daemon
nfm_ipfragd (host frag) daemon If the nfm_ipfragd daemon goes down, health status
NFE Platform daemon If the NFE Platform daemon goes down, health status
NMSB communications If the Media assembly is not present or not

communicating, health status for the Hardware Alarms
module changes to red and message details include a
reference to the NFE temperature (and, if applicable,
the NFE card number).
psls daemon status If the psls daemon goes down, health status for the
Rulesd (host rules) daemon If the Rulesd daemon goes down, health status for the
Hardware Alarms module changes to yellow and
scmd daemon status If the scmd daemon goes down, health status for the

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The Health Events Table
The Health Events Table

The Health Monitor modules you choose to enable in your health policy run various tests to determine appliance
health status. When the health status meets criteria that you specify, a health event is generated.
The table below describes the fields that can be viewed and searched in the health events table.
Table 33: Health Event Fields
Field Description
Module Name Specify the name of the module which generated the
health events you want to view. For example, to view
events that measure CPU performance, type CPU. The
search should retrieve applicable CPU Usage and CPU
temperature events.
Test Name The name of the health module that generated the
event.
(Search only)
Time The timestamp for the health event.

(Search only)
Description The description of the health module that generated

the event. For example, health events generated when
a process was unable to execute are labeled Unable
to Execute.
Value The value (number of units) of the result obtained by

the health test that generated the event.
For example, if the Firepower Management Center
generates a health event whenever a device it is
monitoring is using 80 percent or more of its CPU
resources, the value could be a number from 80 to
100.
Units The units descriptor for the result. You can use the
asterisk (*) to create wildcard searches.
For example, if the Firepower Management Center
generates a health event when a device it is monitoring
is using 80 percent or more of its CPU resources, the
units descriptor is a percentage sign (%).
Status The status (Critical, Yellow, Green, or Disabled)

reported for the appliance.
Domain For health events reported by managed devices, the

domain of the device that reported the health event.
For health events reported by the Firepower
Management Center, Global. This field is only present
in a multidomain deployment.

266
History for Health Monitoring
Field Description
Device The appliance where the health event was reported.

Health monitoring — Feature introduced before Version 6.0.

New screens: Menu options under System > Health
Supported platforms: Firepower Management Center and managed devices.

267

268
CHAPTER 15
Monitoring the System
The following topics describe how to monitor the Firepower System:
• System Statistics, on page 269
• System Statistics Availability by Appliance, on page 269
• The Host Statistics Section, on page 270
• The Disk Usage Section, on page 270
• The Processes Section, on page 270
• The SFDataCorrelator Process Statistics Section, on page 277
• The Intrusion Event Information Section, on page 277
• Viewing System Statistics, on page 278
System Statistics
The Statistics page in the Firepower System web interface lists the current status of general appliance statistics,
including disk usage and system processes, Data Correlator statistics, and intrusion event information.
You view system statistics on both the Firepower Management Center and 7000 & 8000 Series devices.
System Statistics Availability by Appliance

System statistics are available in the web interface as follows:
Type of Statistics Statistics Page Section FMC 7000 & 8000 Series
Devices
host statistics The Host Statistics Section, on page yes yes

270
system status and disk The Disk Usage Section, on page yes yes
space usage 270
system process status The Processes Section, on page 270 yes yes
Data Correlator The SFDataCorrelator Process yes no

statistics Statistics Section, on page 277

269
The Host Statistics Section
Type of Statistics Statistics Page Section FMC 7000 & 8000 Series
Devices
intrusion event The Intrusion Event Information yes no

statistics Section, on page 277
The Host Statistics Section

The following table describes the host statistics listed on the Statistics page.
Table 34: Host Statistics
Category Description
Time The current time on the system.
Uptime The number of days (if applicable), hours, and minutes

since the system was last started.
Memory Usage The percentage of system memory that is being used.
Load Average The average number of processes in the CPU queue

for the past 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 15 minutes.
Disk Usage The percentage of the disk that is being used. Click
the arrow to view more detailed host statistics.
Processes A summary of the processes running on the system.
The Disk Usage Section

The Disk Usage section of the Statistics page provides a quick synopsis of disk usage, both by category and
by partition status. If you have a malware storage pack installed on a device, you can also check its partition
status. You can monitor this page from time to time to ensure that enough disk space is available for system
processes and the database.
Tip On the Firepower Management Center, you can also use the health monitor to monitor disk usage and alert
on low disk space conditions.
The Processes Section

The Processes section of the Statistics page allows you to see the processes that are currently running on an
appliance. It provides general process information and specific information for each running process. You
can use the Firepower Management Center’s web interface to view the process status for any managed device.

270
Process Status Fields
Note that there are two different types of processes that run on an appliance: daemons and executable files.
Daemons always run, and executable files are run when required.
Process Status Fields

When you expand the Processes section of the Statistics page, you can also view the following:
Cpu(s)
Lists the following CPU usage information:
• user process usage percentage
• system process usage percentage
• nice usage percentage (CPU usage of processes that have a negative nice value, indicating a higher
priority). Nice values indicate the scheduled priority for system processes and can range between -20
(highest priority) and 19 (lowest priority).
• idle usage percentage
Mem
Lists the following memory usage information:
• total number of kilobytes in memory
• total number of used kilobytes in memory
• total number of free kilobytes in memory
• total number of buffered kilobytes in memory
Swap
Lists the following swap usage information:
• total number of kilobytes in swap
• total number of used kilobytes in swap
• total number of free kilobytes in swap
• total number of cached kilobytes in swap
The following table describes each column that appears in the Processes section.
Table 35: Process List Columns
Column Description
Pid The process ID number
Username The name of the user or group running the process
Pri The process priority

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System Daemons
Column Description
Nice The nice value, which is a value that indicates the

scheduling priority of a process. Values range between
-20 (highest priority) and 19 (lowest priority)
Size The memory size used by the process (in kilobytes

unless the value is followed by m, which indicates
megabytes)
Res The amount of resident paging files in memory (in

kilobytes unless the value is followed by m, which
indicates megabytes)
State The process state:

• D — process is in uninterruptible sleep (usually
Input/Output)
• N — process has a positive nice value
• R — process is runnable (on queue to run)
• S — process is in sleep mode
• T — process is being traced or stopped
• W — process is paging
• X — process is dead
• Z — process is defunct
• < — process has a negative nice value
Time The amount of time (in hours:minutes:seconds) that

the process has been running
Cpu The percentage of CPU that the process is using
Command The executable name of the process
Related Topics
System Daemons, on page 272
Executables and System Utilities, on page 274
System Daemons
Daemons continually run on an appliance. They ensure that services are available and spawn processes when
required. The following table lists daemons that you may see on the Process Status page and provides a brief
description of their functionality.

272
System Daemons
Note The table below is not an exhaustive list of all processes that may run on an appliance.
Table 36: System Daemons
Daemon Description
crond Manages the execution of scheduled commands (cron

jobs)
dhclient Manages dynamic host IP addressing
fpcollect Manages the collection of client and server

fingerprints
httpd Manages the HTTP (Apache web server) process
httpsd Manages the HTTPS (Apache web server with SSL)

service, and checks for working SSL and valid
certificate authentication; runs in the background to
provide secure web access to the appliance
keventd Manages Linux kernel event notification messages
klogd Manages the interception and logging of Linux kernel

messages
kswapd Manages Linux kernel swap memory
kupdated Manages the Linux kernel update process, which

performs disk synchronization
mysqld Manages database processes
ntpd Manages the Network Time Protocol (NTP) process
pm Manages all Firepower System processes, starts

required processes, restarts any process that fails
unexpectedly
reportd Manages reports
safe_mysqld Manages safe mode operation of the database; restarts

the database daemon if an error occurs and logs
runtime information to a file
SFDataCorrelator Manages data transmission
sfestreamer (FMC only) Manages connections to third-party client applications

that use the Event Streamer

273
Executables and System Utilities
Daemon Description
sfmgr Provides the RPC service for remotely managing and

configuring an appliance using an sftunnel connection
to the appliance
SFRemediateD (FMC only) Manages remediation responses
sftimeserviced (FMC only) Forwards time synchronization messages to managed

devices
sfmbservice Provides access to the sfmb message broker process

running on a remote appliance, using an sftunnel
connection to the appliance. Currently used only by
health monitoring to send health events and alerts
from a managed device to a Firepower Management
Center.
sftroughd Listens for connections on incoming sockets and then

invokes the correct executable (typically the Cisco
message broker, sfmb) to handle the request
sftunnel Provides the secure communication channel for all

processes requiring communication with a remote
appliance
sshd Manages the Secure Shell (SSH) process; runs in the

background to provide SSH access to the appliance
syslogd Manages the system logging (syslog) process

There are a number of executables on the system that run when executed by other processes or through user
action. The following table describes the executables that you may see on the Process Status page.
Table 37: System Executables and Utilities
Executable Description
awk Utility that executes programs written in the awk

programming language
bash GNU Bourne-Again Shell
cat Utility that reads files and writes content to standard

output
chown Utility that changes user and group file permissions
chsh Utility that changes the default login shell

274
SFDataCorrelator (FMC only) Analyzes binary files created by the system to generate
events, connection data, and network maps
cp Utility that copies files
df Utility that lists the amount of free space on the

appliance
echo Utility that writes content to standard output
egrep Utility that searches files and folders for specified

input; supports extended set of regular expressions
not supported in standard grep
find Utility that recursively searches directories for

specified input
grep Utility that searches files and directories for specified

input
halt Utility that stops the server
httpsdctl Handles secure Apache Web processes
hwclock Utility that allows access to the hardware clock
ifconfig Indicates the network configuration executable.

Ensures that the MAC address stays constant
iptables Handles access restriction based on changes made to

the Access Configuration page.
iptables-restore Handles iptables file restoration
iptables-save Handles saved changes to the iptables
kill Utility that can be used to end a session and process
killall Utility that can be used to end all sessions and

processes
ksh Public domain version of the Korn shell
logger Utility that provides a way to access the syslog

daemon from the command line
md5sum Utility that prints checksums and block counts for

specified files
mv Utility that moves (renames) files
myisamchk Indicates database table checking and repairing

275
mysql Indicates a database process; multiple instances may

appear
openssl Indicates authentication certificate creation
perl Indicates a perl process
ps Utility that writes process information to standard

output
sed Utility used to edit one or more text files
sfheartbeat Identifies a heartbeat broadcast, indicating that the

appliance is active; heartbeat used to maintain contact
between a device and Firepower Management Center
sfmb Indicates a message broker process; handles

communication between Firepower Management
Centers and device.
sh Public domain version of the Korn shell
shutdown Utility that shuts down the appliance
sleep Utility that suspends a process for a specified number

of seconds
smtpclient Mail client that handles email transmission when

email event notification functionality is enabled
snmptrap Forwards SNMP trap data to the SNMP trap server

specified when SNMP notification functionality is
enabled
snort Indicates that Snort is running
ssh Indicates a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the

appliance
sudo Indicates a sudo process, which allows users other

than admin to run executables
top Utility that displays information about the top CPU

processes
touch Utility that can be used to change the access and

modification times of specified files
vim Utility used to edit text files
wc Utility that performs line, word, and byte counts on

specified files

276
The SFDataCorrelator Process Statistics Section
Related Topics
Configuring the Access List for Your System, on page 928
The SFDataCorrelator Process Statistics Section

On a Firepower Management Center, you can view statistics about the Data Correlator and network discovery
processes for the current day. As the managed devices perform data acquisition, decoding, and analysis, the
network discovery process correlates the data with the fingerprint and vulnerability databases, then produces
binary files that are processed by the Data Correlator running on the Firepower Management Center. The Data
Correlator analyzes the information from the binary files, generates events, and creates network maps.
The statistics that appear for network discovery and the Data Correlator are averages for the current day, using
statistics gathered between 12:00 AM and 11:59 PM for each device.
The following table describes the statistics displayed for the Data Correlator process.
Table 38: Data Correlator Process Statistics
Category Description
Events/Sec Number of discovery events that the Data Correlator

receives and processes per second
Connections/Sec Number of connections that the Data Correlator

receives and processes per second
CPU Usage — User (%) Average percentage of CPU time spent on user
processes for the current day
CPU Usage — System (%) Average percentage of CPU time spent on system
processes for the current day
VmSize (KB) Average size of memory allocated to the Data

Correlator for the current day, in kilobytes
VmRSS (KB) Average amount of memory used by the Data

Correlator for the current day, in kilobytes
The Intrusion Event Information Section

On both the Firepower Management Center and managed devices, you can view summary information about
intrusion events on the Statistics page. This information includes the date and time of the last intrusion event,
the total number of events that have occurred in the past hour and the past day, and the total number of events
in the database.

277
Viewing System Statistics
Note The information in the Intrusion Event Information section of the Statistics page is based on intrusion events
stored on the managed device rather than those sent to the Firepower Management Center. No intrusion event
information is listed on this page if the managed device cannot (or is configured not to) store intrusion events
locally.
The following table describes the statistics displayed in the Intrusion Event Information section of the Statistics
page.
Table 39: Intrusion Event Information
Statistic Description
Last Alert Was The date and time that the last event occurred
Total Events Last Hour The total number of events that occurred in the past
hour
Total Events Last Day The total number of events that occurred in the past
twenty-four hours
Total Events in Database The total number of events in the events database

Threat (for intrusion Protection (for

event data) intrusion event data)
On the Firepower Management Center, the web interface displays statistics for that appliance and any devices
it manages. On 7000 and 8000 Series devices, the system displays statistics for that device only.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Monitoring > Statistics.

Step 2 On the Firepower Management Center: Choose a device from the Select Device(s) list, and click Select
Devices.
Step 3 View available statistics; see System Statistics Availability by Appliance, on page 269.
Step 4 In the Disk Usage section, you can:
• Hover your pointer over a disk usage category in the By Category stacked bar to view (in order):
• the percentage of available disk space used by that category
• the actual storage space on the disk

278
• the total disk space available for that category
• Click the down arrow next to By Partition to expand it. If you have a malware storage pack installed,
the /var/storage partition usage is displayed.
Step 5 Optionally, click the arrow next to Processes to view the information described in Process Status Fields, on
page 271.

279

280
CHAPTER 16
Troubleshooting the System
The following topics describe ways to diagnose problems you may encounter with the Firepower System:
• First Steps for Troubleshooting, on page 281
• System Messages, on page 281
• Managing System Messages, on page 284
• Health Monitor Reports for Troubleshooting, on page 288
• Advanced Troubleshooting for the Firepower Threat Defense Device, on page 291
• Feature-Specific Troubleshooting, on page 294
First Steps for Troubleshooting

• Before you make changes to try to fix a problem, generate a troubleshooting file to capture the original
problem. See Health Monitor Reports for Troubleshooting, on page 288 and its subsections.
You may need this troubleshooting file if you need to contact Cisco TAC for support.
• Start your investigation by looking at error and warning messages in the Message Center. See System
Messages, on page 281
• Look for applicable Tech Notes and other troubleshooting resources under the "Troubleshoot and Alerts"
heading on the product documentation page for your product. See Top-Level Documentation Listing
Pages for Firepower Management Center Deployments, on page 11.
System Messages
When you need to track down problems occurring in the Firepower System, the Message Center is the place
to start your investigation. This feature allows you to view the messages that the Firepower System continually
generates about system activities and status.
To open the Message Center, click on the System Status icon, located to the immediate right of the Deploy
button in the main menu. This icon can take one of the following forms, depending on the system status:
• — Indicates one or more errors and any number of warnings are present on the system.
• — Indicates one or more warnings and no errors are present on the system.

281
Message Types
• — Indicates no warnings or errors are present on the system.
If a number is displayed with the icon, it indicates the total current number of error or warning messages.
To close the Message Center, click anywhere outside of it within the Firepower System web interface.
In addition to the Message Center, the web interface displays pop-up notifications in immediate response to
your activities and ongoing system activities. Some pop-up notifications automatically disappear after five
seconds, while others are "sticky," meaning they display until you explicitly dismiss them by clicking their
dismissal icons ( ). Click the Dismiss link at the top of the notifications list to dismiss all notifications at
once.
Tip Hovering your cursor over a non-sticky pop-up notification causes it to be sticky.
The system determines which messages it displays to users in pop-up notifications and the Message Center
based on their licenses, domains, and access roles.
Message Types
The Message Center displays messages reporting system activities and status organized into three different
tabs:
Deployments
This tab displays current status related to configuration deployment for each appliance in your system,
grouped by domain. The Firepower System reports the following deployment status values on this tab.
You can get additional detail about the deployment jobs by clicking Show History.
• Running (spinning ) — The configuration is in the process of deploying.
• Success ( ) — The configuration has successfully been deployed.
• Warning ( ) — Warning deployment statuses contribute to the message count displayed with the
warning System Status icon ( ).
• Failure ( ) — The configuration has failed to deploy; see Out-of-Date Policies, on page 321. Failed
deployments contribute to the message count displayed with the error System Status icon ( ).
Health
This tab displays current health status information for each appliance in your system, grouped by domain.
Health status is generated by health modules as described in About Health Monitoring, on page 241. The
Firepower System reports the following health status values on this tab:
• Warning ( ) — Indicates that warning limits have been exceeded for a health module on an appliance
and the problem has not been corrected. The Health Monitoring page indicates these conditions
with a yellow triangle icon ( ). Warning statuses contribute to the message count displayed with
the warning System Status icon ( ).
• Critical ( ) — Indicates that critical limits have been exceeded for a health module on an appliance
and the problem has not been corrected. The Health Monitoring page indicates these conditions

282
Message Management
with a icon. Critical statuses contribute to the message count displayed with the error System
Status icon ( ).
• Error ( ) — Indicates that a health monitoring module has failed on an appliance and has not been
successfully re-run since the failure occurred. The Health Monitoring page indicates these conditions
with a icon. Error statuses contribute to the message count displayed with the error System
Status icon ( ).
You can click on links in the Health tab to view related detailed information on the Health Monitoring
page. If there are no current health status conditions, the Health tab displays no messages.
Tasks
In the Firepower System, you can perform certain tasks (such as configuration backups or update
installation) that can require some time to complete. This tab displays the status of these long-running
tasks, and can include tasks initiated by you or, if you have appropriate access, other users of the system.
The tab presents messages in reverse chronological order based on the most recent update time for each
message. Some task status messages include links to more detailed information about the task in question.
The Firepower System reports the following task status values on this tab:
• Waiting ( ) — Indicates a task that is waiting to run until another in-progress task is complete.
This message type displays an updating progress bar.
• Running (spinning ) — Indicates a task that is in-progress. This message type displays an updating
progress bar.
• Retrying ( ) — Indicates a task that is automatically retrying. Note that not all tasks are permitted
to try again. This message type displays an updating progress bar.
• Success ( ) — Indicates a task that has completed successfully.
• Failure ( ) — Indicates a task that did not complete successfully. Failed tasks contribute to the
message count displayed with the error System Status icon ( ).
• Stopped or Suspended ( ) — Indicates a task that was interrupted due to a system update. Stopped
tasks cannot be resumed. After normal operations are restored, start the task again.
• Skipped — A process in progress prevented the task from starting. Try again to start the task.
New messages appear in this tab as new tasks are started. As tasks complete (status success, failure, or
stopped), this tab continues to display messages with final status indicated until you remove them. Cisco
recommends you remove messages to reduce clutter in the Tasks tab as well as the message database.
Message Management
From the Message Center you can:
• Configure pop-up notification behavior (choosing whether to display them).
• Display additional task status messages from the system database (if any are available that have not been
removed).
• Remove individual task status messages. (This affects all users who can view the removed messages.)

283
Managing System Messages
• Remove task status messages in bulk. (This affects all users who can view the removed messages.)
Tip Cisco recommends that you periodically remove accumulated task status messages from the Task tab to reduce
clutter in the display as well the database. When the number of messages in the database approaches 100,000,
the system automatically deletes task status messages that you have removed.
Managing System Messages

Any Any Any Any Deployment:

Admin/custom user
role with Deploy
Configuration to
Devices permission
Health:
Admin/custom user
role with Health
permission
Tasks initiated by
others:
Admin/custom user
role with View
Other Users' Tasks
permission
Tasks you have
initiated: Any
Procedure
Step 1 Click on the System Status icon to display the Message Center.
• Click on the Deployments tab to view messages related to configuration deployments. See Viewing
Deployment Messages, on page 285.
• Click on the Health tab to view messages related to the health of your Firepower Management Center
and the devices registered to it. See Viewing Health Messages, on page 286.
• Click on the Tasks tab to view or manage messages related to long-running tasks. See Viewing Task
Messages, on page 287 or Managing Task Messages, on page 287.
• Click on the cog icon ( ) in the upper right corner of the Message Center to configure pop-up notification
behavior. See Configuring Notification Behavior, on page 288.

284
Viewing Deployment Messages
Viewing Deployment Messages

Any Any Any Any Admin/user role

with Deploy
Configuration to
Devices permission
Procedure
Step 2 Click on the Deployments tab.
• Click on total to view all current deployment statuses.
• Click on a status value to view only messages with that deployment status.
• Hover your cursor over the time elapsed indicator for a message (e.g., 1m 5s) to view the elapsed time,
and start and stop times for the deployment.
Step 4 Click Show History to view more detailed information about the deployment jobs.
The Deployment History table lists the deployment jobs in the left column in reverse chronological order.
a) Select a deployment job.
The table in the right column shows each device that was included in the job, and the deployment status
per device.
b) To view responses from the device, and commands sent to the device during deployment, click the
download icon in the Transcript column for the device.
The transcript includes the following sections:
• Snort Apply—If there are any failures or responses from Snort-related policies, messages appear
in this section. Normally, the section is empty.
• CLI Apply—This section covers features that are configured using commands sent to the Lina
process.
• Infrastructure Messages—This section shows the status of different deployment modules.
In the CLI Apply section, the deployment transcript includes commands sent to the device, and any
responses returned from the device. These response can be informative messages or error messages. For
failed deployments, look for messages that indicate errors with the commands. Examining these errors
can be particularly helpful if you are using FlexConfig policies to configure customized features. These
errors can help you correct the script in the FlexConfig object that is trying to configure the commands.
Note There is no distinction made in the transcript between commands sent for managed features and
those generated from FlexConfig policies.

285
Viewing Health Messages
For example, the following sequence shows that Firepower Management Center (FMC) sent commands
to configure GigabitEthernet0/0 with the logical name outside. The device responded that it automatically
set the security level to 0. FTD does not use the security level for anything.
========= CLI APPLY =========
FMC >> interface GigabitEthernet0/0

FMC >> nameif outside
FTDv 192.168.0.152 >> [info] : INFO: Security level for "outside" set to 0 by default.
Related Topics
Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310
Viewing Health Messages

Any Any Any Any Admin/user role

with Health
permission
Procedure
Step 2 Click on the Health tab.
• Click on total to view all current health statuses.
• Click on a status value to view only messages with that status.
• Hover your cursor over the relative time indicator for a message (e.g., 3 day(s) ago) to view the time of
the most recent update for that message.
• To view detailed health status information for a particular message, click on the message.
• To view complete health status on the Health Monitoring page, click on Health Monitor at the bottom
of the tab.
Related Topics

286
Viewing Task Messages
Viewing Task Messages

Any Any Any Any Tasks initiated by

others:
Admin/custom user
role with View
Other Users' Tasks
permission
Tasks you have
initiated: Any
Procedure
Step 2 Click on the Tasks tab.
• Click on total to view all current task statuses.
• Click on a status value to view only messages for tasks with the that status.
Note Messages for stopped tasks appear only in the total list of task status messages. You cannot
filter on stopped tasks.
• Hover your cursor over the relative time indicator for a message (e.g., 3 day(s) ago) to view the time of
the most recent update for that message.
• Click on any link within a message to view more information about the task.
• If more task status messages are available for display, click on Fetch more messages at the bottom of
the message list to retrieve them.
Managing Task Messages

Any Any Any Any Tasks initiated by

others:
Admin/custom user
role with View
Other Users' Tasks
permission
Tasks you have
initiated: Any

287
Configuring Notification Behavior
Procedure
Step 2 Click on the Tasks tab.
• If more task status messages are available for display, click on Fetch more messages at the bottom of
the message list to retrieve them.
• To remove a single message for a completed task (status stopped, success, or failure), click on the remove
icon ( ) next to the message.
• To remove all messages for all tasks that have completed (status stopped, success, or failure), filter the
messages on total and click on Remove all completed tasks.
• To remove all messages for all tasks that have completed successfully, filter the messages on success,
and click on Remove all successful tasks.
• To remove all messages for all tasks that have failed, filter the messages on failure, and click on Remove
all failed tasks.
Configuring Notification Behavior

Any Any Any Any Any
Note This setting affects all pop-up notifications and persists between login sessions.
Procedure
Step 2 Click on the cog icon ( ) in the upper right corner of the Message Center.
Step 3 To enable or disable pop-up notification display, click the Show notifications slider.
Step 4 Click on the cog icon ( ) again to hide the slider.
Step 5 Click on the System Status icon again to close the Message Center.
Health Monitor Reports for Troubleshooting

In some cases, if you have a problem with your appliance, Support may ask you to supply troubleshooting
files to help them diagnose the problem. The system can produce troubleshooting files with information
targeted to specific functional areas, as well as advanced troubleshooting files you retrieve in cooperation

288
Producing Troubleshooting Files for Specific System Functions
with Support. You can select any of the options listed in the table below to customize the contents of a
troubleshooting file for a specific function.
Note that some options overlap in terms of the data they report, but the troubleshooting files will not contain
redundant copies, regardless of what options you select.
Table 40: Selectable Troubleshoot Options
This option... Reports...
Snort Performance and Configuration data and configuration settings related to Snort on the appliance
Hardware Performance and Logs data and logs related to the performance of the appliance hardware
System Configuration, Policy, and Logs configuration settings, data, and logs related to the current system
configuration of the appliance
Detection Configuration, Policy, and Logs configuration settings, data, and logs related to detection on the
appliance
Interface and Network Related Data configuration settings, data, and logs related to inline sets and
network configuration of the appliance
Discovery, Awareness, VDB Data, and Logs configuration settings, data, and logs related to the current
discovery and awareness configuration on the appliance
Upgrade Data and Logs data and logs related to prior upgrades of the appliance
All Database Data all database-related data that is included in a troubleshoot report
All Log Data all logs collected by the appliance database
Network Map Information current network topology data
Producing Troubleshooting Files for Specific System Functions


Security Analyst
You can generate and download customized troubleshooting files that you can send to Support.
In a multidomain deployment, you can generate and download troubleshooting files for devices in descendant
domains.

289
Downloading Advanced Troubleshooting Files
Caution Generating troubleshooting files for lower-memory devices can trigger Automatic Application Bypass (AAB)
when AAB is enabled, At a minimum, triggering AAB restarts the Snort process, temporarily interrupting
traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during this interruption or passes without further inspection depends
on how the target device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
In some such cases, triggering AAB can render the device temporarily inoperable. If inoperability persists,
contact Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC), who can propose a solution appropriate to your deployment.
Susceptible devices include Firepower 7010, 7020, and 7030; ASA 5506-X, 5508-X, 5516-X, 5512-X, 5515-X,
and 5525-X; NGIPSv.
Procedure
Step 2 Click Generate Troubleshooting Files.
Step 3 Choose All Data to generate all possible troubleshooting date, or check individual boxes as described in
Viewing Task Messages, on page 287.
Step 4 Click OK.
Step 5 View task messages in the Message Center; see Viewing Task Messages, on page 287.
Step 6 Find the task that corresponds to the troubleshooting files you generated.
Step 7 After the appliance generated the troubleshooting files and the task status changes to Completed, click Click
to retrieve generated files.
Step 8 Follow your browser's prompts to download the file. (The troubleshooting files are downloaded in a single
.tar.gz file.)
Step 9 Follow the directions from Support to send the troubleshooting files to Cisco.
Downloading Advanced Troubleshooting Files


Security Analyst
In a multidomain deployment, you can generate and download troubleshooting files for devices in descendant
domains. You can download files from the Firepower Management Center only from the Global domain.
Procedure
Step 2 Click Advanced Troubleshooting.
Step 3 On the File Download tab, enter the file name supplied by Support.
Step 4 Click Download.

290
Advanced Troubleshooting for the Firepower Threat Defense Device
Step 5 Follow your browser's prompts to download the file.

Note For managed devices, the system renames the file by prepending the device name to the file name.
Step 6 Follow the directions from Support to send the troubleshooting files to Cisco.
Advanced Troubleshooting for the Firepower Threat Defense

Device
You can use Packet Tracer and Packet Capture features for performing an in-depth troubleshooting analysis
on a Firepower Threat Defense device. Packet-tracer allows a firewall administrator to inject a virtual packet
into the security appliance and track the flow from ingress to egress. Along the way, the packet is evaluated
against flow and route lookups, ACLs, protocol inspection, NAT, and intrusion detection. The power of the
utility comes from the ability to simulate real-world traffic by specifying source and destination addresses
with protocol and port information. Packet capture is available with the trace option, which provides you with
a verdict as to whether the packet is dropped or successful.
For more information about the troubleshooting files, see Downloading Advanced Troubleshooting Files, on
page 290
Using the FTD CLI from the Web Interface

Any Any FTD Any Admin/Maint/Any

Security Analyst
You can execute selected FTD command line interface (CLI) commands from the Firepower Management
Center web interface. These commands are ping, packet-tracer, traceroute, and show (except for the show
subcommands history and banner).
In a multidomain deployment, you can enter FTD CLI commands through the Firepower Management Center
web interface for managed devices in descendant domains.
Note In deployments using Firepower Management Center high availability, this feature is available only in the
active Firepower Management Center.
For more information on the FTD CLI, see the Command Reference for Firepower Threat Defense.
Procedure
Step 3 Click the Threat Defense CLI tab.

291
Packet Tracer Overview
Step 4 From the Command drop-down list, select a command.

Step 5 Optionally, enter command parameters in the Parameters text box.
Step 6 Click Execute to view the command output.
Packet Tracer Overview

Using the packet tracer, you can test your policy configuration by modeling a packet based on source and
destination addressing, and protocol characteristics. The trace does a policy lookup to test access rules, NAT,
routing, access policies and rate liming policies, to check if the packet would be permitted or denied. The
packet flow is simulated based on interfaces, source address, destination address, ports and protocols. By
testing packets this way, you can see the results of your policies and test whether the types of traffic you want
to allow or deny are handled as desired. Besides verifying your configuration, you can use the tracer to debug
unexpected behavior, such as packets being denied when they should be allowed. To simulate the packet fully,
packet tracer traces the data path; slow-path and fast-path modules. Processing is transacted based on per-session
and per-packet basis. Tracing packets and capture with trace logs the tracing data on per packet basis when
the Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) processes packet per-session or per-packet basis.
Use the Packet Tracer

Any n/a Firepower Threat Any Admin/Maint

Defense
Procedure
Step 1 On the Firepower Management Center, choose Devices > Device Management.
Step 2 Select a device.
Step 3 Click the troubleshooting icon.
The Health Monitor page appears.
Step 5 Click the Packet Tracer tab.
Step 6 Select the Packet type for the trace, and specify the protocol characteristics:
• ICMP—Enter the ICMP type, ICMP code (0-255), and optionally, the ICMP identifier.
• TCP/UDP/SCTP—Enter the source and destination port numbers.
• IP—Enter the protocol number, 0-255.
Step 7 Select the ingress Interface for the packet trace.

Step 8 Select the Source type for the packet trace, and enter the source IP address.
Source and destination types include IPv4, IPv6, and fully-qualified domain names (FQDN). You can specify
IPv4 or IPv6 addresses and FQDN, if you use Cisco TrustSec.
Step 9 Select the Source Port for the packet trace.

292
Packet Capture Overview
Step 10 Select the Destination type for the packet trace, and enter the destination IP address.
Step 11 Select the Destination Port for the packet trace.
Step 12 Optionally, if you want to trace a packet where the Security Group Tag (SGT) value is embedded in the Layer
2 CMD header (TrustSec), enter a valid SGT number.
Step 13 If you want packet tracer to enter a parent interface, which is later redirected to a sub-interface, enter a VLAN
ID.
This value is optional for non-sub-interfaces only, since all the interface types can be configured on a
sub-interface.
Step 14 Specify a Destination MAC Address for the packet trace.

If the Firepower Threat Defense device is running in transparent firewall mode, and the ingress interface is
VTEP, Destination MAC Address is required if you enter a value in VLAN ID. Whereas if the interface is
a bridge group member, Destination MAC Address is optional if you enter a VLAN ID value, but required
if you do not enter a VLAN ID value.
In the Firepower Threat Defense is running in routed firewall mode, VLAN ID and Destination MAC Address
are optional if the input interface is a bridge group member.
Step 15 Select the Output Format for the packet logs.

Step 16 Click Start.
Packet Capture Overview

The packet capture feature with trace option allows real packets that are captured on the ingress interface to
be traced through the system. The trace information is displayed at a later stage. These packets are not dropped
on the egress interface, as they are real data-path traffic. Packet capture for Firepower Threat Defense devices
supports troubleshooting and analysis of data packets.
Once the packet is acquired, snort detects the tracing flag that is enabled in the packet. Snort writes tracer
elements, through which the packet traverses. Snort verdict as a result of capturing packets can be one of
DROP/ALLOW/Would DROP.
The file-size option is used when you need to capture packets with the size limit more than 32 MB.
Use the Capture Trace

Any n/a Firepower Threat Any Admin/Maint

Defense
Packet capture data includes information from Snort and preprocessors about verdicts and actions the system
takes while processing a packet. Multiple packet captures are possible at a time. You can configure the system
to modify, delete, clear, and save captures.

293
Feature-Specific Troubleshooting
Note Capturing packet data requires packet copy. This operation may cause delays while processing packets and
may also degrade the packet throughput. Cisco recommends that you use packet filters to capture specific
traffic data.
The saved traffic data can be downloaded in pcap or ASCII file formats.
Procedure
Step 1 On the Firepower Management Center, choose Devices > Device Management.
Step 2 Select a device.
Step 3 Click the troubleshooting icon.
The Health Monitor page appears.
Step 5 Select the Capture w/Trace tab.
Step 6 Click Add Capture.
Step 7 Enter the Name for capturing the trace.
Step 8 Select the Interface for the capturing the trace.
Step 9 Specify Match Criteria details:
a) Select the Protocol.
b) Enter the IP address for the Source Host.
c) Enter the IP address for the Destination Host.
d) (Optional) Check SGT number check box, and enter a Security Group Tag (SGT).
Step 10 Specify Buffer details:
a) (Optional) Enter a maximum Packet Size.
b) (Optional) Enter a minimum Buffer Size.
c) Select either Continuous Capture if you want the traffic captured without interruption, or Stop when
full if you want the capture to stop when the maximum buffer size is reached.
d) Select Trace if you want to capture the details for each packet.
e) (Optional) Check Trace Count check box. Default value is 50. You can enter values in the range of
1-1000.
Step 11 Click Save.
See the following table for feature-specific troubleshooting tips and techniques.
Table 41: Feature-Specific Troubleshooting Topics
Feature Relevant Troubleshooting Information
LDAP external authentication Troubleshooting LDAP Authentication Connections, on page 68

294
Feature Relevant Troubleshooting Information
7000 and 8000 Series device high-availability state sharing Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics for
Troubleshooting, on page 513
User rule conditions Troubleshoot User Control, on page 349
User identity sources Troubleshoot the User Agent Identity Source, on page 2032
Troubleshoot the ISE/ISE-PIC Identity Source, on page 2005
Troubleshoot the TS Agent Identity Source, on page 2028
Troubleshoot the Captive Portal Identity Source, on page 2020
Troubleshoot the Remote Access VPN Identity Source, on page
2024
URL filtering Troubleshoot URL Filtering, on page 1288
Realms and user data downloads Troubleshoot Realms and User Downloads, on page 1997
Network discovery Troubleshooting Your Network Discovery Strategy, on page 2065
Custom Security Group Tag (SGT) rule conditions Troubleshooting Custom SGT Conditions, on page 352
SSL rules Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1435
Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Troubleshoot Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page
1532
Firepower Threat Defense syslog Configure Syslog, on page 1006
Intrusion performance statistics Intrusion Performance Statistic Logging Configuration, on page

1755
7000 and 8000 Series, NGIPSv, and ASA with FirePOWER generate-troubleshoot, on page 2614
Services Command Line Interface (CLI)

295

296
PA R T IV
Deployment Management
• Domain Management, on page 299
• Policy Management, on page 307
• Rule Management: Common Characteristics, on page 325
• Reusable Objects, on page 365
• Firepower Threat Defense Certificate-Based Authentication, on page 465
CHAPTER 17
Domain Management
The following topics describe how to manage multitenancy using domains:
• Introduction to Multitenancy Using Domains, on page 299
• Managing Domains, on page 302
• Creating New Domains, on page 303
• Moving Data Between Domains, on page 304
• Moving Devices Between Domains, on page 305
Introduction to Multitenancy Using Domains

The Firepower System allows you to implement multitenancy using domains. Domains segment user access
to managed devices, configurations, and events. You can create up to 50 subdomains under a top-level Global
domain, in two or three levels.
When you log into the Firepower Management Center, you log into a single domain, called the current domain.
Depending on your user account, you may be able to switch to other domains.
In addition to any restrictions imposed by your user role, your current domain level can also limit your ability
to modify various Firepower System configurations. The system limits most management tasks, like system
software updates, to the Global domain.
The system limits other tasks to leaf domains, which are domains with no subdomains. For example, you must
associate each managed device with a leaf domain, and perform device management tasks from the context
of that leaf domain.
Tip Each task topic in this guide has a Supported Domains value that indicates the domain levels where you can
perform the task.
Each leaf domain builds its own network map, based on the discovery data collected by that leaf domain’s
devices. Events reported by a managed device (connection, intrusion, malware, and so on) are also associated
with the device's leaf domain.

299
Domains Terminology
One Domain Level: Global

If you do not configure multitenancy, all devices, configurations, and events belong to the Global domain,
which in this scenario is also a leaf domain. Except for domain management, the system hides domain-specific
configurations and analysis options until you add subdomains.
Two Domain Levels: Global and Second-Level

In a two-level multidomain deployment, the Global domain has direct descendant domains only. For example,
a managed security service provider (MSSP) can use a single Firepower Management Center to manage
network security for multiple customers:
• Administrators at the MSSP can log into the Global domain to manage all customers’ deployments.
• Administrators for each customer can log into second-level named subdomains to manage only the
devices, configurations, and events applicable to their organizations. These local administrators cannot
view or affect the deployments of other customers of the MSSP.
Three Domain Levels: Global, Second-Level, and Third-Level

In a three-level multidomain deployment, the Global domain has subdomains, at least one of which has its
own subdomain. To extend the previous example, consider a scenario where an MSSP customer—already
restricted to a subdomain—wants to further segment its deployment. This customer wants to separately manage
two classes of device: devices placed on network edges and devices placed internally:
• Administrators for the customer can log into a second-level subdomain to manage the customer’s entire
deployment.
• Administrators for the customer’s edge network can log into a third-level (leaf) domain to manage only
the devices, configurations, and events applicable to devices deployed on the network edge. Similarly,
administrators for the customer’s internal network can log into a different third-level domain to manage
internal devices, configurations, and events. Edge and internal administrators cannot view each other's
deployment.
Domains Terminology
This documentation uses the following terms when describing domains and multidomain deployments:
Global Domain
In a multidomain deployment, the top-level domain. If you do not configure multitenancy, all devices,
configurations, and events belong to the Global domain. Administrators in the Global domain can manage
the entire Firepower System deployment.
Subdomain
A second or third-level domain.
Second-level domain
A child of the Global domain. Second-level domains can be leaf domains, or they can have subdomains.
Third-level domain
A child of a second-level domain. Third-level domains are always leaf domains.

300
Domain Properties
Leaf domain
A domain with no subdomains. Each device must belong to a leaf domain.
Descendant domain
A domain descending from the current domain in the hierarchy.
Child domain
A domain’s direct descendant.
Ancestor domain
A domain from which the current domain descends.
Parent domain
A domain’s direct ancestor.
Sibling domain
A domain with the same parent.
Current domain
The domain you are logged into now. The system displays the name of the current domain before your
user name at the top right of the web interface. Unless your user role is restricted, you can edit
configurations in the current domain.
Domain Properties
To modify a domain's properties, you must have Administrator access in that domain's parent domain.
Name and Description
Each domain must have a unique name within its hierarchy. A description is optional.
Parent Domain
Second- and third-level domains have a parent domain. You cannot change a domain's parent after you
create the domain.
Devices
Only leaf domains may contain devices. In other words, a domain may contain subdomains or devices,
but not both. You cannot save a deployment where a non-leaf domain directly controls a device.
In the domain editor, the web interface displays available and selected devices according to their current
place in your domain hierarchy.
Host Limit
The number of hosts a Firepower Management Center can monitor, and therefore store in network maps,
depends on its model. In a multidomain deployment, leaf domains share the available pool of monitored
hosts, but have separate network maps.
To ensure that each leaf domain can populate its network map, you can set host limits at each subdomain
level. If you set a domain's host limit to 0, the domain shares in the general pool.
Setting the host limit has a different effect at each domain level:

301
Managing Domains
• Leaf — For a leaf domain, a host limit is a simple limit on the number of hosts the leaf domain can
monitor.
• Second Level — For a second-level domain that manages third-level leaf domains, a host limit
represents the total number of hosts that the leaf domains can monitor. The leaf domains share the
pool of available hosts.
• Global — For the Global domain, the host limit is equal to the total number of hosts a Firepower
Management Center can monitor. You cannot change it
The sum of subdomains' host limits can add up to more than their parent domain's host limit. For example,
if the Global domain host limit is 150,000, you can configure multiple subdomains each with a host limit
of 100,000. Any of those domains, but not all, can monitor 100,000 hosts.
The network discovery policy controls what happens when you detect a new host after you reach the
host limit; you can drop the new host, or replace the host that has been inactive for the longest time.
Because each leaf domain has its own network discovery policy, each leaf domain governs its own
behavior when the system discovers a new host.
If you reduce the host limit for a domain and its network map contains more hosts than the new limit,
the system deletes the hosts that have been inactive the longest.
Related Topics
Firepower System Host Limit, on page 1918
Network Discovery Data Storage Settings, on page 2061
Managing Domains
To modify a domain's properties, you must have Administrator access in that domain's parent domain.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Domains.

Step 2 Manage your domains:
• Add — Click Add Domain, or click the Add Subdomain icon next to the parent domain; see Creating
New Domains, on page 303.
• Edit — Click the edit icon ( ) next to the domain you want to modify; see Domain Properties, on page
301.
• Delete — Click the delete icon ( ) next to the empty domain you want to delete, then confirm your
choice. Move devices from domains you want to delete by editing their destination domain.
Step 3 When you are done making changes to the domain structure and all devices are associated with leaf domains,
click Save to implement your changes.
Step 4 If prompted, make additional changes:

302
Creating New Domains
• If you changed a leaf domain to a parent domain, move or delete the old network map; see Moving Data
Between Domains, on page 304.
• If you moved devices between domains and must assign new policies and security zones or interface
groups, see Moving Devices Between Domains, on page 305.
What to do next
• Configure user roles and policies (access control, network discovery, and so on) for any new domains.
Update device properties as needed.
Creating New Domains

Any Any Any Global & Admin

second-level
You can create up to 50 subdomains under a top-level Global domain, in two or three levels.
You must assign all devices to a leaf domain before you can implement the domain configuration. When you
add a subdomain to a leaf domain, the domain stops being a leaf domain and you must reassign its devices.
Procedure
Step 1 In a Global or a second-level domain, choose System > Domains.

Step 2 Click Add Domain, or click the Add Subdomain icon next to the parent domain.
Step 3 Enter a Name and Description.
Step 4 Choose a Parent Domain.
Step 5 On the Devices tab, choose the Available Devices to add to the domain, then click Add to Domain or drag
and drop into the list of Selected Devices.
Step 6 Optionally, click the Advanced tab to limit the number of hosts the new domain may monitor; see Domain
Properties, on page 301.
Step 7 Click Save to return to the domain management page.
The system warns you if any devices are assigned to non-leaf domains. Click Create New Domain to create
a new domain for those devices. Click Keep Unassigned if you plan to move the devices to existing domains.
Step 8 When you are done making changes to the domain structure and all devices are associated with leaf domains,
click Save to implement your changes.
Step 9 If prompted, make additional changes:
• If you changed a leaf domain to a parent domain, move or delete the old network map; see Moving Data
Between Domains, on page 304.

303
Moving Data Between Domains
• If you moved devices between domains and must assign new policies and security zones or interface
groups, see Moving Devices Between Domains, on page 305.
What to do next
• Configure user roles and policies (access control, network discovery, and so on) for any new domains.
Update device properties as needed.
Moving Data Between Domains

Because events and network maps are associated with leaf domains, when you change a leaf domain to a
parent domain, you have two choices:
• Move the network map and associated events to a new leaf domain.
• Delete the network map but retain the events. In this case, the events remain associated with the parent
domain until the system prunes events as needed or as configured. Or, you can delete old events manually.
Before you begin

Implement a domain configuration where a former leaf domain is now a parent domain; see Managing Domains,
on page 302.
Procedure
Step 1 For each former leaf domain that is now a parent domain:
• Choose a new Leaf Domain to inherit the Parent Domain's events and network map.
• Choose None to delete the parent domain's network map, but retain old events.
Step 2 Click Save.
What to do next

304
Moving Devices Between Domains

Any Any Any Global & Admin

second-level
Moving a device between domains can affect the configurations and policies applied to the device. The system
automatically keeps and updates what it can, and deletes what it cannot.
When you assign a remote access VPN policy to a device, you can move the device from one domain to
another, only if the target domain is a descendant of the domain in which remote access VPN is configured.
You can move the device into any child domain without deleting the enrolled certificate on the device.
Specifically:
• If the health policy applied to a moved device is inaccessible in the new domain, you can choose a new
health policy.
• If the access control policy assigned to a moved device is not valid or accessible in the new domain,
choose a new policy. Every device must have an assigned access control policy.
• If the interfaces on the moved device belong to a security zone that is inaccessible in the new domain,
you can choose a new zone.
• Interfaces are removed from:
• Security zones that are inaccessible in the new domain and not used in an access control policy.
• All interface groups.
If devices require a policy update but you do not need to move interfaces between zones, the system displays
a message stating that zone configurations are up to date. For example, if a device's interfaces belong to a
security zone configured in a common ancestor domain, you do not need to update zone configurations when
you move devices from subdomain to subdomain.
Before you begin

• Implement a domain configuration where you moved a device from domain to domain and now must
assign new policies and security zones; see Managing Domains, on page 302.
Procedure
Step 1 In the Move Devices dialog box, under Select Device(s) to Configure, check the device you want to configure.
Check multiple devices to assign the same health and access control policies.
Step 2 Choose an Access Control Policy to apply to the device, or choose New Policy to create a new policy.
Step 3 Choose a Health Policy to apply to the device, or choose None to leave the device without a health policy.
Step 4 If prompted to assign interfaces to new zones, choose a New Security Zone for each listed interface, or choose
None to assign it later.

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Step 5 After you configure all affected devices, click Save to save policy and zone assignments.
Step 6 Click Save to implement the domain configuration.
What to do next
• Update other configurations on the moved device that were affected by the move.

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CHAPTER 18
Policy Management
The following topics describe how to manage various policies on the Firepower Management Center:
• Policy Deployment, on page 307
• Policy Comparison, on page 318
• Policy Reports, on page 320
• Out-of-Date Policies, on page 321
• Performance Considerations for Limited Deployments, on page 322
Policy Deployment
After you configure your deployment, and any time you change that configuration, you must deploy the
changes to affected devices. You can view deployment status in the Message Center.
Deploying updates the following components:
• Device and interface configurations
• Device-related policies: NAT, VPN, QoS, platform settings
• Access control and related policies: DNS, file, identity, intrusion, network analysis, prefilter, SSL
• Network discovery policy
• Intrusion rule updates
• Configurations and objects associated with any of these elements
You can configure the system to deploy automatically by scheduling a deploy task or by setting the system
to deploy when importing intrusion rule updates. Automating policy deployment is especially useful if you
allow intrusion rule updates to modify system-provided base policies for intrusion and network analysis.
Intrusion rule updates can also modify default values for the advanced preprocessing and performance options
in your access control policies.
In a multidomain deployment, you can deploy changes for any domain where your user account belongs:
• Switch to an ancestor domain to deploy changes to all subdomains at the same time.
• Switch to a leaf domain to deploy changes to only that domain.

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Guidelines for Deploying Configuration Changes
Guidelines for Deploying Configuration Changes

Inline vs Passive Deployments
Do not apply inline configurations to devices deployed passively, and vice versa.
Time to Deploy and Memory Limitations

The time it takes to deploy depends on multiple factors, including (but not limited to):
• The configurations you send to the device. For example, if you dramatically increase the number of
Security Intelligence entries you block, deploy can take longer.
• Device model and memory. On lower-memory devices, deploying can take longer. For example, it can
take up to five minutes to deploy to a Firepower 7010, 7020, or 7030 device.
Do not exceed the capability of your devices. If you exceed the maximum number rules or policies supported
by a target device, the system displays a warning. The maximum depends on a number of factors—not only
memory and the number of processors on the device, but also on policy and rule complexity. For information
on optimizing policies and rules, see Rule Performance Guidelines, on page 356.
Interruptions to Traffic Flow and Inspection During Deploy

When you deploy, resource demands may result in a small number of packets dropping without inspection.
For Firepower Threat Defense devices, the Inspect Interruption column in the Deploy dialog warns you
when deploying might interrupt traffic flow or inspection. You can either proceed with, cancel, or delay
deployment; see Restart Warnings for Firepower Threat Defense Devices, on page 309 for more information.
Caution We strongly recommend you deploy in a maintenance window or at a time when interruptions will have the
least impact.
Auto-Enabling Application Detectors

If you are performing application control but disable required detectors, the system automatically enables the
appropriate system-provided detectors upon policy deploy. If none exist, the system enables the most recently
modified user-defined detector for the application.
Asset Rediscovery with Network Discovery Policy Changes

When you deploy changes to a network discovery policy, the system deletes and then rediscovers MAC
address, TTL, and hops information from the network map for the hosts in your monitored networks. Also,
the affected managed devices discard any discovery data that has not yet been sent to the Firepower Management
Center.
Related Topics
Snort® Restart Scenarios, on page 313

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Restart Warnings for Firepower Threat Defense Devices
Restart Warnings for Firepower Threat Defense Devices


Admin/Security
Approver
When you deploy, the Inspect Interruption column in the deploy dialog specifies whether a deployed
configuration restarts the Snort process on a Firepower Threat Defense device. When the traffic inspection
engine referred to as the Snort process restarts, inspection is interrupted until the process resumes. Whether
traffic is interrupted or passes without inspection during the interruption depends on how the device handles
traffic. Note that you can proceed with the deployment, cancel the deployment and modify the configuration,
or delay the deployment until a time when deploying would have the least impact on your network.
When the Inspect Interruption column indicates Yes and you expand the device configuration listing, the
system highlights in red along with a restart icon ( ) any specific configuration type that would restart the
Snort process. When you hover your mouse over these configurations, a message informs you that deploying
the configuration may interrupt traffic.
The following table summarizes how the deploy dialog displays inspection interruption warnings.
Table 42: Inspection Interruption Indicators in the Deploy Dialog
Type Inspect Interruption Description
FTD Yes At least one configuration would interrupt

inspection on the device if deployed, and might
interrupt traffic depending on how the device
handles traffic. You can expand the device
configuration listing for more information.
No Deployed configurations will not interrupt traffic

on the device.
Undetermined The system cannot determine if a deployed

configuration may interrupt traffic on the device,
and displays a device warning icon ( ) next to
the device.
Undetermined status is displayed before the first
deployment after a software upgrade, or in some
cases during a Support call.
The system cannot determine the status due to an

Error
internal error.
Cancel the operation and click Deploy again to
allow the system to redetermine the Inspect
Interruption status. If the problem persists
contact Support.

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Deploy Configuration Changes
Type Inspect Interruption Description
sensor -- The device identified as sensor is not a Firepower

Threat Defense device; the system does not
determine if a deployed configuration may
interrupt traffic on this device.
For information on all configurations that restart the Snort process for all device types, see Configurations
that Restart the Snort Process When Deployed or Activated, on page 316.


Admin/Security
Approver
After you change configurations, deploy to the affected devices. We strongly recommend you deploy in a
maintenance window or at a time when any interruptions to traffic flow and inspection will have the least
impact.
Before you begin

• Review the guidelines described in Guidelines for Deploying Configuration Changes, on page 308.
• Be sure all managed devices use the same revision of the Security Zones object. If you have edited
security zone objects: Do not deploy configuration changes to any device until you edit the zone setting
for interfaces on all devices you want to sync. You must deploy to all managed devices at the same time.
See Synchronizing Security Zone Object Revisions, on page 484.
Procedure
Step 1 On the Firepower Management Center menu bar, click Deploy.

The Deploy Policies dialog lists devices with out-of-date configurations. The Version at the top of the dialog
specifies when you last made configuration changes.
Step 2 Identify and choose the devices where you want to deploy configuration changes.
• Sort—Sort the device list by clicking a column heading.

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See Restart Warnings for Firepower Threat Defense Devices, on page 309 for information on columns
that help you identify configurations that interrupt traffic inspection and might interrupt traffic when
deployed to Firepower Threat Defense devices.
See Configurations that Restart the Snort Process When Deployed or Activated, on page 316 for information
on configurations that interrupt traffic inspection and might interrupt traffic when deployed to all devices.
• Expand—Click the plus icon ( ) to expand a device listing to view the configuration changes to be
deployed. The system marks out-of-date policies with an index ( ) icon.
When the status in the Inspect Interruption column indicates (Yes) that deploying will interrupt
inspection, and perhaps traffic, on a Firepower Threat Defense device, the expanded list highlights in
red the configurations causing the interruption.
• Filter—Filter the device list. Click the arrow in the right corner of any column heading:
• Inspect Interruption column—From the Filters drop-down list check the desired filter options.
You can choose more than one option.
For more information on restart warnings, see Restart Warnings for Firepower Threat Defense
• All other columns—Enter text in the Filters text box, and press Enter.
Check or uncheck Filters to activate or deactivate the filter.

• Modify—Click the cog icon ( ) in the upper-right corner and, from the Columns drop-down list, check
or uncheck columns to display.
• Arrange—Place the mouse on a column heading to drag and drop the column in your preferred order.
Step 3 Click Deploy.

Step 4 If the system identifies errors or warnings in the changes to be deployed, you have the following choices:
• Proceed—Continue deploying without resolving warning conditions.You cannot proceed if the system
identifies errors.
• Cancel—Exit without deploying. Resolve the error and warning conditions, and attempt to deploy the
configuration again.
What to do next
• (Optional) Monitor deployment status; see Viewing Deployment Messages, on page 285.
• If deploy fails, see Guidelines for Deploying Configuration Changes, on page 308.
Related Topics

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Redeploy Existing Configurations to a Device
Redeploy Existing Configurations to a Device


Admin/Security
Approver
You can force-deploy existing (unchanged) configurations to a single managed device. We strongly recommend
you deploy in a maintenance window or at a time when any interruptions to traffic flow and inspection will
have the least impact.
Before you begin

Review the guidelines described in Guidelines for Deploying Configuration Changes, on page 308.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device where you want to force deployment.
Step 4 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the General section heading.
Step 5 Click the Force Deploy arrow ( ).
Step 6 Click Deploy.
The system identifies any errors or warnings with the configurations you are deploying. You can click Proceed
to continue without resolving warning conditions. However, you cannot proceed if the system identifies an
error.
What to do next
• (Optional) Monitor deployment status; see Viewing Deployment Messages, on page 285.
• If deploy fails, see Guidelines for Deploying Configuration Changes, on page 308.
Related Topics

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Snort® Restart Scenarios
Snort® Restart Scenarios

When the traffic inspection engine referred to as the Snort process on a managed device restarts, inspection
is interrupted until the process resumes. Whether traffic drops during this interruption or passes without further
inspection depends on how the target device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page
314 for more information. Additionally, resource demands may result in a small number of packets dropping
without inspection when you deploy, regardless of whether the Snort process restarts.
Any of the scenarios in the following table cause the Snort process to restart.
Table 43: Snort Restart Scenarios
Restart Scenario More Information
Deploying a specific configuration that requires the Configurations that Restart the Snort Process When
Snort process to restart. Deployed or Activated, on page 316
Modifying a configuration that immediately restarts Changes that Immediately Restart the Snort Process,
the Snort process. on page 318
Traffic-activation of the currently deployed Automatic Configuring Automatic Application Bypass, on page
Application Bypass (AAB) configuration. 205
Related Topics
Access Control Policy Advanced Settings, on page 1252
Configurations that Restart the Snort Process When Deployed or Activated, on page 316
Inspect Traffic During Policy Apply

Inspect traffic during policy apply is an advanced access control policy general setting that allows managed
devices to inspect traffic while deploying configuration changes; this is the case unless a configuration that
you deploy requires the Snort process to restart. You can configure this option as follows:
• Enabled — Traffic is inspected during the deployment unless certain configurations require the Snort
process to restart.
When the configurations you deploy do not require a Snort restart, the system initially uses the currently
deployed access control policy to inspect traffic, and switches during deployment to the access control
policy you are deploying.
• Disabled — Traffic is not inspected during the deployment. The Snort process always restarts when you
deploy.
The following graphic illustrates how Snort restarts can occur when you enable or disable Inspect traffic
during policy apply.

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Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior

The following tables explain how different devices handle traffic when the Snort process restarts.
Table 44: FTD and FTD Virtual Restart Traffic Effects
Interface Configuration Restart Traffic Behavior
inline: Snort Fail Open: Down: disabled dropped
inline: Snort Fail Open: Down: enabled passed without inspection

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routed, transparent (including EtherChannel, existing TCP/UDP flows: passed without inspection
redundant, subinterface) when preserve-connection
new TCP/UDP flows and all non-TCP/UDP flows:
is enabled (configure snort preserve-connection
dropped
enable; default)
Note that all FTD 4100/9300 traffic drops when both
Note that an FTD managed by a 6.2.3 FMC must be
preserve-connection and hardware offload (system
running version 6.2.3, 6.2.0.2, or a subsequent 6.2.0.x
support ssl-hw-offload) are enabled.
patch.
Note also that the following traffic drops even when
For more information, see Command Reference for
preserve-connection is enabled:
Firepower Threat Defense.
• when Snort goes down before the system tags
traffic that would have matched a Do not decrypt
SSL rule or default policy action
(tagging occurs after a few handshake packet
exchanges)
• plaintext, passthrough prefilter tunnel traffic that
matches an Analyze rule action or an Analyze
all tunnel traffic default policy action
• decrypted TLS/SSL traffic
• a safe search flow
• a captive portal flow
routed, transparent (including EtherChannel, dropped

redundant, subinterface) when either of the following
occurs:
• the preserve-connection CLI command is
disabled (configure snort preserve-connection
disable)
• the FTD version (6.2.1, 6.2.2, 6.2.2.x, or a
version earlier than 6.2.0.2) does not support
preserve-connection
inline: tap mode egress packet immediately, copy bypasses Snort
passive uninterrupted, not inspected
Table 45: 7000 and 8000 Series, NGIPSv Restart Traffic Effects
inline: Failsafe enabled or disabled passed without inspection

A few packets might drop if Failsafe is disabled and
Snort is busy but not down.

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Configurations that Restart the Snort Process When Deployed or Activated
inline: tap mode egress packet immediately, copy bypasses Snort
passive uninterrupted, not inspected
routed, switched dropped

(7000 and 8000 Series only)
Table 46: ASA FirePOWER Restart Traffic Effects
routed or transparent with fail-open passed without inspection
routed or transparent with fail-close dropped
Note In addition to traffic handling when the Snort process is down while it restarts, traffic can also pass without
inspection or drop when the Snort process is busy, depending on the configuration of the Failsafe option (see
Inline Sets on the Firepower System, on page 492) or the Snort Fail Open Busy option (see Configure an Inline
Set, on page 643). A device supports either the Failsafe option or the Snort Fail Open option, but not both.
Note When the Snort process is busy but not down during configuration deployment, some packets may drop on
routed, switched, or transparent interfaces if the total CPU load exceeds 60 percent.

Deploying any of the following configurations except AAB restarts the Snort process as described. Deploying
AAB does not cause a restart, but excessive packet latency activates the currently deployed AAB configuration,
causing a partial restart of the Snort process.
Access Control Policy Advanced Settings

• Deploy when Inspect Traffic During Policy Apply is disabled.
• Add or remove an SSL policy.
File Policy
Deploy the first or last of any one of the following configurations; note that while otherwise deploying these
file policy configurations does not cause a restart, deploying non-file-policy configurations can cause restarts.
• Take either of the following actions:
• Enable or disable Inspect Archives when the deployed access control policy includes at least one
file policy.

316
• Add the first or remove the last file policy rule when Inspect Archives is enabled (note that at least
one rule is required for Inspect Archives to be meaningful).
• Enable or disable Store files in a Detect Files or Block Files rule.

• Add the first or remove the last active file rule that combines the Malware Cloud Lookup or Block
Malware rule action with an analysis option (Spero Analysis or MSEXE, Dynamic Analysis, or Local
Malware Analysis) or a store files option (Malware, Unknown, Clean, or Custom).
Note that access control rules that deploy these file policy configurations to security zones or tunnel zones
cause a restart only when your configuration meets the following conditions:
• Source or destination security zones in your access control rule must match the security zones associated
with interfaces on the target devices.
• Unless the destination zone in you access control rule is any, a source tunnel zone in the rule must match
a tunnel zone assigned to a tunnel rule in the prefilter policy.
Identity Policy
• When SSL decryption is disabled (that is, when the access control policy does not include an SSL policy),
add the first or remove the last active authentication rule.
An active authentication rule has either an Active Authentication rule action, or a Passive Authentication
rule action with Use active authentication if passive or VPN identity cannot be established selected.
Network Discovery
• Enable or disable non-authoritative, traffic-based user detection over the HTTP, FTP, or MDNS protocols,
using the network discovery policy.
Device Management
• Routing—Add a routed interface pair or virtual router to a 7000 or 8000 Series device.
• VPN—Add or remove a VPN on a 7000 or 8000 Series device.
Caution The system does not warn you that the Snort process restarts when you add or
remove a VPN on a 7000 or 8000 Series device.
• MTU—Change the highest MTU value among all non-management interfaces on a device.
• Classic device high availability—Change a high-availability state sharing option. The system does not
warn you that the Snort process restarts on the primary and secondary devices.
• Automatic Application Bypass (AAB)—The currently deployed AAB configuration activates when a
malfunction of the Snort process or a device misconfiguration causes a single packet to use an excessive
amount of processing time. The result is a partial restart of the Snort process to alleviate extremely high
latency or prevent a complete traffic stall. This partial restart causes a few packets to pass without
inspection, or drop, depending on how the device handles traffic.

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Changes that Immediately Restart the Snort Process
Updates
• System update—Deploy configurations the first time after a software update that includes a new version
of the Snort binary or data acquisition library (DAQ).
• VDB—Deploy configurations the first time after installing a vulnerability database (VDB) .
• Intrusion rule update—Deploying configurations the first time after importing an intrusion rule update
(also known as a Snort Rule Update) that includes a new or modified shared object rule.
Caution Intrusion rule updates are cumulative. Any shared object rule that is added or
modified since your last update causes a restart when you deploy, even if the
current update has no shared object rule changes.
Related Topics
Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310
Changes that Immediately Restart the Snort Process

The following changes immediately restart the Snort process without going through the deploy process. How
the restart affects traffic depends on how the target device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior,
on page 314 for more information.
• Take any of the following actions involving applications or application detectors:
• Activate or deactivate a system or custom application detector.
• Delete an activated custom detector.
• Save and Reactivate an activated custom detector.
• Create a user-defined application.
A message warns you that continuing restarts the Snort process on all managed devices, and allows you
to cancel.
• Create or break a Firepower Threat Defense high availability pair—A message warns you that continuing
to create a high availability pair restarts the Snort process on the primary and secondary devices and
allows you to cancel.
• Install a vulnerability database (VDB) update.
• Restart the Snort process in the 7000 or 8000 Series user interface (System > Configuration >
Process)—The system prompts you for confirmation and allows you to cancel.
Policy Comparison
To review policy changes for compliance with your organization's standards or to optimize system performance,
you can examine the differences between two policies or between a saved policy and the running configuration.
You can compare the following policy types:

318
Comparing Policies
• DNS
• File
• Health
• Identity
• Intrusion
• Network Analysis
• SSL
The comparison view displays both policies in a side-by-side format. Differences between the two policies
are highlighted:
• Blue indicates that the highlighted setting is different in the two policies, and the difference is noted in
red text.
• Green indicates that the highlighted setting appears in one policy but not the other.
Comparing Policies
feature dependent feature dependent Any feature dependent feature dependent
Procedure
Step 1 Access the management page for the policy you want to compare:
• DNS—Policies > Access Control > DNS
• File—Policies > Access Control > Malware & File
• Health—System > Health > Policy
• Identity—Policies > Access Control > Identity
• Intrusion—Policies > Access Control > Intrusion
• Network Analysis—Policies > Access Control, then click Network Analysis Policy or Policies >
Access Control > Intrusion, then click Network Analysis Policy
Note If your custom user role limits access to the first path listed here, use the second path to access
the policy.
• SSL—Policies > Access Control > SSL
Step 2 Click Compare Policies.

Step 3 From the Compare Against drop-down list, choose the type of comparison you want to make:
• To compare two different policies, choose Other Policy.
• To compare two revisions of the same policy, choose Other Revision.
• To compare another policy to the currently active policy, choose Running Configuration.
Step 4 Depending on the comparison type you choose, you have the following choices:

319
Policy Reports
• If you are comparing two different policies, choose the policies you want to compare from the Policy A
and Policy B drop-down lists.
• If you are comparing the running configuration to another policy, choose the second policy from the
Policy B drop-down list.
Step 5 Click OK.

Step 6 Review the comparison results:
• Comparison Viewer—To use the comparison viewer to navigate individually through policy differences,
click Previous or Next above the title bar.
• Comparison Report—To generate a PDF report that lists the differences between the two policies, click
Comparison Report.
Policy Reports
For most policies, you can generate two kinds of reports. A report on a single policy provides details on the
policy's current saved configuration, while a comparison report lists only the differences between two policies.
You can generate a single-policy report for all policy types except health.
Note Intrusion policy reports combine the settings in the base policy with the settings of the policy layers, and make
no distinction between which settings originated in the base policy or policy layer.
Generating Current Policy Reports

feature dependent feature dependent Any feature dependent feature dependent
Procedure
Step 1 Access the management page for the policy for which you want to generate a report:
• Access Control—Policies > Access Control
• DNS—Policies > Access Control > DNS
• File—Policies > Access Control > Malware & File
• Health—System > Health > Policy
• Identity—Policies > Access Control > Identity
• Intrusion—Policies > Access Control > Intrusion
• NAT for 7000 & 8000 Series devices—Devices > NAT
• Network Analysis—Policies > Access Control, then click Network Analysis Policy or Policies >
Access Control > Intrusion, then click Network Analysis Policy

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Out-of-Date Policies
Note If your custom user role limits access to the first path listed here, use the second path to access
the policy.
• SSL—Policies > Access Control > SSL
Step 2 Click the report icon ( ) next to the policy for which you want to generate a report.
Out-of-Date Policies
The Firepower System marks out-of-date policies with red status text that indicates how many of its targeted
devices need a policy update. To clear this status, you must re-deploy the policy to the devices.
Configuration changes that require a policy re-deploy include:
• Modifying an access control policy: any changes to access control rules, the default action, policy targets,
Security Intelligence filtering, advanced options including preprocessing, and so on.
• Modifying any of the policies that the access control policy invokes: the SSL policy, network analysis
policies, intrusion policies, file policies, identity policies, or DNS policies.
• Changing any reusable object or configuration used in an access control policy or policies it invokes:
• network, port, VLAN tag, URL, and geolocation objects
• Security Intelligence lists and feeds
• application filters or detectors
• intrusion policy variable sets
• file lists
• decryption-related objects and security zones
• Updating the system software, intrusion rules, or the vulnerability database (VDB).
Keep in mind that you can change some of these configurations from multiple places in the web interface.
For example, you can modify security zones using the object manager (Objects > Object Management), but
modifying an interface type in a device’s configuration (Devices > Device Management) can also change a
zone and require a policy re-deploy.
Note that the following updates do not require policy re-deploy:
• automatic updates to Security Intelligence feeds and additions to the Security Intelligence global blacklist
or whitelist using the context menu
• automatic updates to URL filtering data
• scheduled geolocation database (GeoDB) updates

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Performance Considerations for Limited Deployments
Performance Considerations for Limited Deployments

Host, application, and user discovery data allow the system to create a complete, up-to-the-minute profile of
your network. The system can also act as an intrusion detection and prevention system (IPS), analyzing
network traffic for intrusions and exploits and, optionally, dropping offending packets.
Combining discovery and IPS gives context to your network activity and allows you to take advantage of
many features, including:
• impact flags and indications of compromise, which can tell you which of your hosts are vulnerable to a
particular exploit, attack, or piece of malware
• adaptive profile updates and Firepower recommendations, which allow you to examine traffic differently
depending on the destination host
• correlation, which allows you to respond to intrusions (and other events) differently depending on the
affected host
However, if your organization is interested in performing only IPS, or only discovery, there are a few
configurations that can optimize the performance of the system.
Discovery Without Intrusion Prevention

The discovery feature allows you to monitor network traffic and determine the number and types of hosts
(including network devices) on your network, as well as the operating systems, active applications, and open
ports on those hosts. You can also configure managed devices to monitor user activity on your network. You
can use discovery data to perform traffic profiling, assess network compliance, and respond to policy violations.
In a basic deployment (discovery and simple, network-based access control only), you can improve a device’s
performance by following a few important guidelines when configuring its access control policy.
Note You must use an access control policy, even if it simply allows all traffic. The network discovery policy can
only examine traffic that the access control policy allows to pass.
First, make sure your access control policy does not require complex processing and uses only simple,
network-based criteria to handle network traffic. You must implement all of the following guidelines;
misconfiguring any one of these options eliminates the performance benefit:
• Do not use the Security Intelligence feature. Remove any populated global whitelist or blacklist from
the policy’s Security Intelligence configuration.
• Do not include access control rules with Monitor or Interactive Block actions. Use only Allow, Trust,
and Block rules. Keep in mind that allowed traffic can be inspected by discovery; trusted and blocked
traffic cannot.
• Do not include access control rules with application, user, URL, ISE attribute, or geolocation-based
network conditions. Use only simple network-based conditions: zone, IP address, VLAN tag, and port.
• Do not include access control rules that perform file, malware, or intrusion inspection. In other words,
do not associate a file policy or intrusion policy with any access control rule.

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Intrusion Prevention Without Discovery
• Make sure that the default intrusion policy for the access control policy is set to No Rules Active.
• Select Network Discovery Only as the policy’s default action. Do not choose a default action for the
policy that performs intrusion inspection.
In conjunction with the access control policy, you can configure and deploy the network discovery policy,
which specifies the network segments, ports, and zones that the system examines for discovery data, as well
as whether hosts, applications, and users are discovered on the segments, ports, and zones.
Related Topics
The Default Intrusion Policy, on page 1759

Disabling discovery if you don't need it (for example, in an IPS-only deployment) can improve performance.
To disable discovery you must implement all of these changes:
• Delete all rules from your network discovery policy.
• Use only simple network-based conditions to perform access control: zone, IP address, VLAN tag, and
port.
Do not perform any kind of, application, user, URL, or geolocation control. Although you can disable
storage of discovery data, the system still must collect and examine it to implement those features.
After you deploy, new discovery halts on target devices. The system gradually deletes information in the
network map according to your timeout preferences. Or, you can purge all discovery data immediately.

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CHAPTER 19
Rule Management: Common Characteristics
The following topics describe how to manage common characteristics of rules in various policies on the
Firepower Management Center:
• Introduction to Rules, on page 325
• Rule Condition Types, on page 327
• Searching for Rules, on page 353
• Filtering Rules by Device, on page 353
• Identify Rules with Issues, on page 354
• Rule and Other Policy Warnings, on page 355
• Rule Performance Guidelines, on page 356
Introduction to Rules
Rules in various policies exert granular control over network traffic. The system evaluates traffic against rules
in the order that you specify, using a first-match algorithm.
Although these rules may include other configurations that are not consistent across policies, they share many
basic characteristics and configuration mechanics, including:
• Conditions—Rule conditions specify the traffic that each rule handles. You can configure each rule with
multiple conditions. Traffic must match all conditions to match the rule.
• Action—A rule's action determines how the system handles matching traffic. Note that even if a rule
does not have an Action list you can choose from, the rule still has an associated action. For example, a
custom network analysis rule uses a network analysis policy as its "action." As another example, QoS
rules do not have an explicit action because all QoS rules do the same thing: rate limit traffic.
• Position—A rule's position dermines its evaluation order. When using a policy to evaluate traffic, the
system matches traffic to rules in the order you specify. Usually, the system handles traffic according to
the first rule where all the rule’s conditions match the traffic. (Monitor rules, which track and log but do
not affect traffic flow, are an exception.) Proper rule order reduces the resources required to process
network traffic, and prevents rule preemption.
• Category—To organize some rule types, you can create custom rule categories in each parent policy.
• Logging—For many rules, logging settings govern whether and how the system logs connections handled
by the rule. Some rules (such as identity and network analysis rules) do not include logging settings
because the rules neither determine the final disposition of connections, nor are they specifically designed

325
Introduction to Rules
to log connections. As another example, QoS rules do not include logging settings; you cannot log a
connection simply because it was rate limited.
• Comments—For some rule types, each time you save changes, you can add comments. For example,
you might summarize the overall configuration for the benefit of other users, or note when you change
a rule and the reason for the change.
Tip A right-click menu in many policy editors provides shortcuts to many rule management options, including
editing, deleting, moving, enabling, and disabling.
Rules with Shared Characteristics

This chapter documents many common aspects of the following rules and configurations. For information on
non-shared configurations, see:
• Access control rules—Access Control Rules, on page 1257
• Tunnel and prefilter rules—Tunnel and Prefilter Rule Components, on page 1319
• SSL rules—Creating and Modifying TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1388
• DNS rules—Creating and Editing DNS Rules, on page 1305
• Identity rules—Create an Identity Rule, on page 2036
• Network analysis rules—Configuring Network Analysis Rules, on page 1763
• QoS rules—Configuring QoS Rules, on page 660
• Intelligent Application Bypass (IAB)—Intelligent Application Bypass, on page 1325
• Application filters—Application Filters, on page 378
Rules without Shared Characteristics

Rules whose configurations are not documented in this chapter include:
• Intrusion rules—Tuning Intrusion Policies Using Rules, on page 1579
• File rules—File Rules, on page 1473
• Correlation rules—Configuring Correlation Rules, on page 2089
• NAT rules (Classic)—NAT for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices, on page 1041
• NAT rules (Firepower Threat Defense)—Network Address Translation (NAT) for Firepower Threat
Defense, on page 1059
• 8000 Series fastpath rules—Configuring Fastpath Rules (8000 Series), on page 207

326
Rule Condition Types
Rule Condition Types

The following table describes the common rule conditions documented in this chapter, and lists the
configurations where they are used.
Condition Controls Traffic By... Supported Rules/Configurations
Interface Conditions, on page 330 Source and destination interfaces, Access control rules
and where supported, tunnel zones
Tunnel rules
Prefilter rules
SSL rules
DNS rules
Identity rules
Network analysis rules
QoS rules
Network Conditions, on page 332 Source and destination IP address, Access control rules
and where supported, geographical
Prefilter rules
location or originating client
SSL rules
DNS rules
Identity rules
QoS rules
Tunnel Endpoint Conditions, on Source and destination tunnel Tunnel rules

page 334 endpoints for plaintext, passthrough
tunnels
VLAN Conditions, on page 335 VLAN tag Access control rules

Tunnel rules
Prefilter rules
SSL rules
DNS rules
Identity rules

327
Rule Condition Mechanics
Condition Controls Traffic By... Supported Rules/Configurations
Port and ICMP Code Conditions, Source and destination ports, Access control rules
on page 336 protocols, and ICMP codes
Prefilter rules
SSL rules
Identity rules
QoS rules
Encapsulation Conditions, on page Encapsulation protocol Tunnel rules

338 (nonencrypted)
Application Conditions Application or application Access control rules

(Application Control), on page 338 characteristic (type, risk, business
SSL rules
relevance, category, and tags)
Identity rules
QoS rules
Application filters
Intelligent Application Bypass
(IAB)
URL Conditions (URL Filtering), URL, and where supported, URL Access control rules
on page 346 characteristic (category and
SSL rules
reputation)
QoS rules
User, Realm, and ISE Attribute Logged-in authoritative user of a Access control rules
Conditions (User Control), on page host, or that user's realm, group, or
SSL rules (no ISE attributes)
346 ISE attributes
QoS rules
Custom SGT Conditions, on page Custom Security Group Tag (SGT) Access control rules
351
QoS rules

Rule conditions specify the traffic that each rule handles. You can configure each rule with multiple conditions,
and traffic must match all conditions to match the rule. The available condition types depend on the rule type.
In rule editors, each condition type has its own tab page. Build conditions by choosing the traffic characteristics
you want to match. In general, choose criteria from one or two lists of available items on the left, then add or
combine those criteria into one or two lists of selected items on the right. For example, in URL conditions in
access control rules, you can combine URL category and reputation criteria to create a single group of websites
to block.
To help you build conditions, you can match traffic using various system-provided and custom configurations,
including realms, ISE attributes, and various types of objects and object groups. Often, you can manually
specify rule criteria.

328
Leave matching criteria empty whenever possible, especially those for security zones, network objects, and
port objects. When you specify multiple criteria, the system must match against every combination of the
contents of the criteria you specify.
Note Failure to set up your access control rules properly can have unexpected results, including traffic being allowed
that should be blocked. In general, application control rules should be lower in your access control list because
it takes longer for those rules to match than rules based on IP address, for example.
Access control rules that use specific conditions (such as networks and IP addresses) should be ordered before
rules that use general conditions (such as applications). If you're familiar with the Open Systems Interconnect
(OSI) model, use similar numbering in concept. Rules with conditions for layers 1, 2, and 3 (physical, data
link, and network) should be ordered first in your access control rules. Conditions for layers 5, 6, and 7 (session,
presentation, and application) should be ordered later in your access control rules. For more information about
the OSI model, see this Wikipedia article.
Source and Destination Criteria

Where a rule involves source and destination criteria (zones, networks, ports), usually you can use either or
both criteria as constraints. If you use both, matching traffic must originate from one of the specified source
zones, networks, or ports and leave through one of the destination zones, networks, or ports.
Items per Condition

You can add up to 50 items to each condition. For rules with source and destination criteria, you can use up
to 50 of each. Traffic that matches any of the selected items matches the condition.
Simple Rule Mechanics

In rule editors, you have the following general choices. For detailed instructions on building conditions, see
the topics for each condition type.
• Choose Item—Click an item or check its check box. Often you can use Ctrl or Shift to choose multiple
items, or right-click to Select All.
• Search—Enter criteria in the search field. The list updates as you type. The system searches item names
and, for objects and object groups, their values. Click reload ( ) or clear ( ) to clear the search.
• Add Predefined Item—After you choose one or more available items, click an Add button or drag and
drop. The system prevents you from adding invalid items: duplicates, invalid combinations, and so on.
• Add Manual Item—Click the field under the Selected items list, enter a valid value, and click Add. When
you add ports, you may also choose a protocol from the drop-down list.
• Create Object—Click the add icon ( ) to create a new, reusable object that you can immediately use
in the condition you are building, then manage in the object manager. When using this method to add
application filters on the fly, you cannot save a filter that includes another user-created filter.
• Delete—Click the delete icon ( ) for an item, or choose one or more items and right-click to Delete
Selected.

329
Interface Conditions
Interface Conditions
Interface rule conditions control traffic by its source and destination interfaces.
Depedending on the rule type and the devices in your deployment, you can use predefined interface objects
called security zones or interface groups to build interface conditions. Interface objects segment your network
to help you manage and classify traffic flow by grouping interfaces across multiple devices; see Interface
Objects: Interface Groups and Security Zones, on page 382.
Tip Constraining rules by interface is one of the best ways to improve system performance. If a rule excludes all
of a device’s interfaces, that rule does not affect that device's performance.
Just as all interfaces in an interface object must be of the same type (all inline, passive, switched, routed, or
ASA FirePOWER), all interface objects used in an interface condition must be of the same type. Because
devices deployed passively do not transmit traffic, in passive deployments you cannot constrain rules by
destination interface.
Tunnel Zones vs Security Zones

In some configurations, you can use tunnel zones instead of security zones to constrain interface conditions.
Tunnel zones allow you to use prefiltering to tailor subsequent traffic handling to certain types of encapsulated
connections.
Note If a configuration supports tunnel zone constraints, a rezoned connection—a connection with an assigned
tunnel zone—does not match security zone constraints. For more information, see Tunnel Zones and
Prefiltering, on page 1321.
Rules with Interface Conditions
Rule Type Supports Security Zones? Supports Tunnel Zones? Supports Interface
Groups?
Access control yes yes no
Tunnel and prefilter yes n/a; you assign tunnel yes

zones in the prefilter
policy
SSL yes no no
DNS (source only) yes no no
Identity yes no no
Network analysis yes no no
QoS (routed only, yes no yes

required)

330
Configuring Interface Conditions
Example: Access Control Using Security Zones

Consider a deployment where you want hosts to have unrestricted access to the internet, but you
nevertheless want to protect them by inspecting incoming traffic for intrusions and malware.
First, create two security zones: Internal and External. Then, assign interface pairs on one or more
devices to those zones, with one interface in each pair in the Internal zone and one in the External
zone. Hosts connected to the network on the Internal side represent your protected assets.
Note You are not required to group all internal (or external) interfaces into a single zone. Choose the
grouping that makes sense for your deployment and security policies.
Then, configure an access control rule with a destination zone condition set to Internal. This simple
rule matches traffic that leaves the device from any interface in the Internal zone. To inspect matching
traffic for intrusions and malware, choose a rule action of Allow, then associate the rule with an
intrusion and a file policy.
Configuring Interface Conditions

Any Any Any Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
Before you begin

• (Access control only) If you want to constrain traffic by tunnel zones instead of security zones, make
sure the associated prefilter policy assigns those zones; see Associating Other Policies with Access
Control, on page 1254.
Procedure
Step 1 In the rule editor, click the tab for interface conditions:
• Interface groups and security zones (tunnel, prefilter, QoS)—Click the Interface Objects tab.
• Security zones (access control, SSL, DNS, identity, network analysis)—Click the Zones tab.
• Tunnel zones (access control)—Click the Zones tab.
Step 2 Find and choose the interfaces you want to add from the Available Interface Objects or Available Zones
list.
(Access control only) To match connections in rezoned tunnels, choose tunnel zones instead of security zones.
You cannot use tunnel and security zones in the same rule. For more information, see Tunnel Zones and
Step 3 Click Add to Source or Add to Destination, or drag and drop.

331
Network Conditions
Step 4 Save or continue editing the rule.
What to do next
• (Access control only) If you rezoned tunnels during prefiltering, configure additional rules if necessary
to ensure complete coverage. Connections in rezoned tunnels do not match rules with security zone
constraints. For more information, see Using Tunnel Zones, on page 1321.
Network Conditions
Network rule conditions control traffic by its source and destination IP address, using inner headers. Tunnel
rules, which use outer headers, have tunnel endpoint conditions instead of network conditions.
You can use predefined objects to build network conditions, or manually specify individual IP addresses or
address blocks.
Note The system builds a separate network map for each leaf domain. In a multidomain deployment, using literal
IP addresses to constrain this configuration can have unexpected results. Using override-enabled objects
allows descendant domain administrators to tailor Global configurations to their local environments.
Geolocation in Network Conditions

Some rules can match traffic using the geographical location of the source or destination. If a rule type supports
geolocation, you can mix network and geolocation criteria. To ensure you are using up-to-date geolocation
data to filter your traffic, Cisco strongly recommends you regularly update the geolocation database (GeoDB).
Original Client in Network Conditions (Filtering Proxied Traffic)

For some rules, you can handle proxied traffic based on the originating client. Use a source network condition
to specify proxy servers, then add an original client constraint to specify original client IP addresses. The
system uses a packet's X-Forwarded-For (XFF), True-Client-IP, or custom-defined HTTP header field to
determine original client IP.
Traffic matches the rule if the proxy's IP address matches the rule's source network constraint, and the original
client's IP address matches the rule's original client constraint. For example, to allow traffic from a specific
original client address, but only if it uses a specific proxy, create three access control rules:
Access Control Rule 1: Blocks non-proxied traffic from a specific IP address (209.165.201.1)
Source Networks: 209.165.201.1
Original Client Networks: none/any
Action: Block

332
Configuring Network Conditions
Access Control Rule 2: Allows proxied traffic from the same IP address, but only if the proxy server for that
traffic is one you choose (209.165.200.225 or 209.165.200.238)
Source Networks: 209.165.200.225 and 209.165.200.238
Original Client Networks: 209.165.201.1
Action: Allow
Access Control Rule 3: Blocks proxied traffic from the same IP address if it uses any other proxy server.
Source Networks: any
Original Client Networks: 209.165.201.1
Action: Block
Rules with Network Conditions
Rule Type Supports Geolocation Constrains? Supports Original Client Constraints?
Access control yes yes
Prefilter no no
SSL yes no
DNS (source networks no no

only)
Identity yes no
Network analysis no no
QoS yes yes
Configuring Network Conditions


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 1 In the rule editor, click the Networks tab.

Step 2 Find and choose the predefined networks you want to add from the Available Networks list.
If the rule supports geolocation, you can mix network and geolocation criteria in the same rule:
• Networks—Click the Networks sub-tab to choose networks.
• Geolocation—Click the Geolocation sub-tab to choose geolocation objects.
Step 3 (Optional) If the rule supports original client constraints, under Source Networks, configure the rule to handle
proxied traffic based on its original client:

333
Tunnel Endpoint Conditions
• Source/Proxy—Click the Source sub-tab to specify proxy servers.

• Original Client—Click the Original Client sub-tab to add a network as an original client constraint. In
proxied connections, the original client's IP address must match one of these networks to match the rule.
Step 4 Click Add to Source, Add to Original Client, or Add to Destination, or drag and drop.
Step 5 Add networks that you want to specify manually. Enter a source, original client, or destination IP address or
address block, then click Add.
Note The system builds a separate network map for each leaf domain. In a multidomain deployment,
using literal IP addresses to constrain this configuration can have unexpected results. Using
override-enabled objects allows descendant domain administrators to tailor Global configurations
to their local environments.
Example: Network Condition in an Access Control Rule

The following graphic shows the network condition for an access control rule that blocks connections
originating from your internal network and attempting to access resources either in North Korea or
on 93.184.216.119 (example.com).
In this example, a network object group called Private Networks (that comprises the IPv4 and IPv6
Private Networks network objects, not shown) represents your internal networks. The example also
manually specifies the example.com IP address, and uses a system-provided North Korea geolocation
object to represent North Korea IP addresses.
What to do next
Tunnel Endpoint Conditions

Tunnel endpoint conditions are specific to tunnel rules. They are similar to the network conditions for other
rule types.
Tunnel endpoint conditions control certain types of plaintext, passthrough tunnels (see Encapsulation Conditions,
on page 338) by their source and destination IP address, using outer encapsulation headers. These are the IP
addresses of the tunnel endpoints—the routed interfaces of the network devices on either side of the tunnel.
Tunnel rules are bidirectional by default, and handle all matching tunnels between any of the source endpoints
and any of the destination endpoints. However, you can configure unidirectional tunnel rules that match
source-to-destination traffic only; see Tunnel and Prefilter Rule Components, on page 1319.
You can use predefined network objects to build tunnel endpoint conditions, or manually specify individual
IP addresses or address blocks.

334
Configuring Tunnel Endpoint Conditions
Configuring Tunnel Endpoint Conditions

Any N/A Firepower Threat Any Admin/Access

Defense Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 1 In the rule editor, click the Tunnel Endpoints tab.

Step 2 Find and choose the predefined networks you want to add from the Available Tunnel Endpoints list.
Because tunnel endpoints are simply the IP addresses of the routed interfaces of the network devices on either
side of the tunnel, you can use network objects to build tunnel endpoint conditions.

Tunnel rules are bidirectional by default so they can handle all traffic between the two endpoints. However,
if you choose to Match tunnels only from source, the tunnel rule matches source-to-destination traffic only.
Step 4 Add endpoints that you want to specify manually. Enter a source or destination IP address or address block,
then click Add.
What to do next
VLAN Conditions
VLAN rule conditions control VLAN-tagged traffic, including QinQ (stacked VLAN) traffic. The system
uses the innermost VLAN tag to filter VLAN traffic, with the exception of the prefilter policy, which uses
the outermost VLAN tag in its rules.

335
Port and ICMP Code Conditions
You can use predefined objects to build VLAN conditions, or manually enter any VLAN tag from 1 to 4094.
Use a hyphen to specify a range of VLAN tags.
You can specify a maximum of 50 VLAN conditions.
VLAN tags to constrain this configuration can have unexpected results. Using override-enabled objects allows
descendant domain administrators to tailor Global configurations to their local environments.
Rules with VLAN Conditions

The folllowing rule types support VLAN conditions:
• Access control
• Tunnel and prefilter (uses outermost VLAN tag)
• SSL
• DNS
• Identity
• Network analysis
Port and ICMP Code Conditions

Port conditions allow you to control traffic by its source and destination ports. Depending on the rule type,
“port” can represent any of the following:
• TCP and UDP—You can control TCP and UDP traffic based on the transport layer protocol. The system
represents this configuration using the protocol number in parentheses, plus an optional associated port
or port range. For example: TCP(6)/22.
• ICMP—You can control ICMP and ICMPv6 (IPv6-ICMP) traffic based on its internet layer protocol
plus an optional type and code. For example: ICMP(1):3:3.
• No port—You can control traffic using other protocols that do not use ports.
Using Source and Destination Port Constraints

If you add both source and destination port constraints, you can only add ports that share a single transport
protocol (TCP or UDP). For example, if you add DNS over TCP as a source port, you can add Yahoo Messenger
Voice Chat (TCP) as a destination port but not Yahoo Messenger Voice Chat (UDP).
If you add only source ports or only destination ports, you can add ports that use different transport protocols.
For example, you can add both DNS over TCP and DNS over UDP as source port conditions in a single access
control rule.

336
Configuring Port Conditions
Matching Non-TCP Traffic with Port Conditions

Although you can configure port conditions to match non-TCP traffic, there are some restrictions:
• Access control rules—For Classic devices, you can match GRE-encapsulated traffic with an access
control rule by using the GRE (47) protocol as a destination port condition. To a GRE-constrained rule,
you can add only network-based conditions: zone, IP address, port, and VLAN tag. Also, the system
uses outer headers to match all traffic in access control policies with GRE-constrained rules. For Firepower
Threat Defense devices, use tunnel rules in the prefilter policy to control GRE-encapsulated traffic.
• SSL rules—SSL rules support TCP port conditions only.
•
Caution Adding the first or removing the last active authentication rule when SSL
decryption is disabled (that is, when the access control policy does not include
an SSL policy) restarts the Snort process when you deploy configuration changes,
temporarily interrupting traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during this
interruption or passes without further inspection depends on how the target device
handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more
information.
Note that an active authentication rule has either an Active Authentication rule
action, or a Passive Authentication rule action with Use active authentication
if passive or VPN identity cannot be established selected.
• IMCP echo—A destination ICMP port with the type set to 0 or a destination ICMPv6 port with the type
set to 129 only matches unsolicited echo replies. ICMP echo replies sent in response to ICMP echo
requests are ignored. For a rule to match on any ICMP echo, use ICMP type 8 or ICMPv6 type 128.
Rules with Port Conditions

The following rules support port conditions:
• Access control
• Prefilter
• SSL (supports TCP traffic only)
• Identity (active authentication supports TCP traffic only)
• QoS
Configuring Port Conditions


Admin/Network
Admin

337
Encapsulation Conditions
Procedure
Step 1 In the rule editor, click the Ports tab.

Step 2 Find and choose the predefined ports you want to add from the Available Ports list.
Step 4 Add any source or destination ports that you want to specify manually:
• Source—Choose a Protocol, enter a single Port from 0 to 65535, and click Add.
• Destination (non-ICMP)—Choose or enter a Protocol. If you do not want to specify a protocol, or if you
choose TCP or UDP, enter a single Port from 0 to 65535. Click Add.
• Destination (ICMP)—Choose ICMP or IPv6-ICMP from the Protocol drop down list, then choose a
Type and related Code in the pop-up window that appears. For more information on ICMP types and
codes, see the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) website.
What to do next
Encapsulation Conditions
Encapsulation conditions are specific to tunnel rules.
These conditions control certain types of plaintext, passthrough tunnels by their encapsulation protocol. You
must choose at least one protocol to match before you can save the rule. You can choose:
• GRE (47)
• IP-in-IP (4)
• IPv6-in-IP (41)
• Teredo (UDP (17)/3455)
Application Conditions (Application Control)

When the system analyzes IP traffic, it can identify and classify the commonly used applications on your
network. This discovery-based application awareness is the basis for application control—the ability to
control application traffic.
System-provided application filters help you perform application control by organizing applications according
to basic characteristics: type, risk, business relevance, category, and tags. You can create reuseable user-defined
filters based on combinations of the system-provided filters, or on custom combinations of applications.
At least one detector must be enabled for each application rule condition in the policy. If no detector is enabled
for an application, the system automatically enables all system-provided detectors for the application; if none
exist, the system enables the most recently modified user-defined detector for the application. For more
information about application detectors, see Application Detector Fundamentals, on page 1966.

338
Application Conditions (Application Control)
You can use both application filters and individually specified applications to ensure complete coverage.
However, understand the following note before you order your access control rules.
As part of application control, you can also use access control rules to enforce content restriction (such as
Safe Search and YouTube EDU).
Benefits of Application Filters

Application filters help you quickly configure application control. For example, you can easily use
system-provided filters to create an access control rule that identifies and blocks all high risk, low business
relevance applications. If a user attempts to use one of those applications, the system blocks the session.
Using application filters simplifies policy creation and administration. It assures you that the system controls
application traffic as expected. Because Cisco frequently updates and adds application detectors via system
and vulnerability database (VDB) updates, you can ensure that the system uses up-to-date detectors to monitor
application traffic. You can also create your own detectors and assign characteristics to the applications they
detect, automatically adding them to existing filters.
Configurations with Application Conditions

The configurations in the following table help you perform application control. The table also shows how you
can constrain application control, depending on the configuration.
Configuration Type, Risk, Tags User-Defined Filters Content Restriction

Relevance,
Category
Access control rules yes yes yes yes
SSL rules yes no; automatically no no

constrained to
encrypted application
traffic by the SSL
Protocol tag
Identity rules (to yes no; automatically no no

exempt applications constrained by the
from active User-Agent
authentication) Exclusion tag
QoS rules yes yes yes no

339
Configuring Application Conditions and Filters
Configuration Type, Risk, Tags User-Defined Filters Content Restriction

Relevance,
Category
User-defined yes yes no; you cannot nest no

application filter in user-defined filters
the object manager
Intelligent yes yes yes no

Application Bypass
(IAB)
Related Topics
Overview: Application Detection, on page 1965

Any Control Any Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
To build an application condition or filter, choose the applications whose traffic you want to control from a
list of available applications. Optionally (and recommended), constrain the available applications using filters.
You can use filters and individually specified applications in the same condition.
Before you begin

• Adaptive profiling must be enabled (its default state) as described in Configuring Adaptive Profiles, on
page 1899 for access control rules to perform application control.
Procedure
Step 1 Invoke the rule or configuration editor:

• Access control, SSL, QoS rule condition—In the rule editor, click the Applications tab.
• Identity rule condition—In the rule editor, click the Realms & Settings tab and enable active
authentication; see Create an Identity Rule, on page 2036.
• Application filter—On the Application Filters page of the object manager, add or edit an application
filter. Provide a unique Name for the filter.
• Intelligent Application Bypass (IAB)—In the access control policy editor, click the Advanced tab, edit
IAB settings, then click Bypassable Applications and Filters.
Step 2 (Optional) For an access control rule, enable content restriction features by clicking the dimmed icons for
Safe Search ( ) or YouTube EDU ( ) and setting related options.
For additional configuration requirements, see Using Access Control Rules to Enforce Content Restriction,
on page 1334.

340
In most cases, enabling content restriction populates the condition's Selected Applications and Filters list
with the appropriate values. The system does not automatically populate the list if applications or filters related
to content restriction are already present in the list when you enable content restriction.
Continue with the procedure to refine your application and filter selections, or skip to saving the rule.
Step 3 Find and choose the applications you want to add from the Available Applications list.
To constrain the applications displayed in Available Applications, choose one or more Application Filters
or search for individual applications.
Tip
Click the information icon ( ) next to an application to display summary information and internet
search links. The unlock icon ( ) marks applications that the system can identify only in decrypted
traffic.
When you choose filters, singly or in combination, the Available Applications list updates to display only the
applications that meet your criteria. You can choose system-provided filters in combination, but not user-defined
filters.
• Multiple filters for the same characteristic (risk, business relevance, and so on)—Application traffic must
match only one of the filters. For example, if you choose both the medium and high-risk filters, the
Available Applications list displays all medium and high-risk applications.
• Filters for different application characteristics—Application traffic must match both filter types. For
example, if you choose both the high-risk and low business relevance filters, the Available Applications
list displays only applications that meet both criteria.
Step 4 Click Add to Rule, or drag and drop.

Tip Before you add more filters and applications, click Clear Filters to clear your current choices.
The web interface lists filters added to a condition above and separately from individually added applications.
Step 5 Save or continue editing the rule or configuration.
Example: Application Condition in an Access Control Rule

The following graphic shows the application condition for an access control rule that blocks a
user-defined application filter for MyCompany, all applications with high risk and low business
relevance, gaming applications, and some individually selected applications.

341
Application Characteristics
What to do next
Application Characteristics
The system characterizes each application that it detects using the criteria described in the following table.
Use these characteristics as application filters.
Table 47: Application Characteristics
Characteristic Description Example
Type Application protocols represent HTTP and SSH are application protocols.
communications between hosts.
Web browsers and email clients are clients.
Clients represent software running on a
MPEG video and Facebook are web
host.
applications.
Web applications represent the content or
requested URL for HTTP traffic.
Risk The likelihood that the application is being Peer-to-peer applications tend to have a
used for purposes that might be against your very high risk.
organization’s security policy.
Business Relevance The likelihood that the application is being Gaming applications tend to have a very
used within the context of your low business relevance.
organization’s business operations, as
opposed to recreationally.
Category A general classification for the application Facebook is in the social networking
that describes its most essential function. category.
Each application belongs to at least one
category.
Tag Additional information about the Video streaming web applications often are
application. Applications can have any tagged high bandwidth and
number of tags, including none. displays ads.

342
Guidelines and Limitations for Application Control
Guidelines and Limitations for Application Control
Ensuring that Adaptive Profiling is Enabled

If adaptive profiling is not enabled (its default state), access control rules cannot perform application control.
Automatically Enabling Application Detectors

If no detector is enabled for an application you want to detect, the system automatically enables all
system-provided detectors for the application. If none exist, the system enables the most recently modified
user-defined detector for the application.
Speed of Application Identification

The system cannot perform application control, including Intelligent Application Bypass (IAB) and rate
limiting, before both of the following occur:
• A monitored connection is established between a client and server
• The system identifies the application in the session
This identification should occur in 3 to 5 packets, or after the server certificate exchange in the SSL handshake
if the traffic is encrypted.
If early traffic matches all other criteria but application identification is incomplete, the system allows the
packet to pass and the connection to be established (or the SSL handshake to complete). After the system
completes its identification, the system applies the appropriate action to the remaining session traffic.
For access control, these passed packets are inspected by the access control policy’s default intrusion policy
(not the default action intrusion policy nor the almost-matched rule’s intrusion policy).
For guidelines about rule ordering for application control, see Recommendations for Application Control, on
page 1259.
URL Rules Before Application and Other Rules

For the most effective URL matching, place rules that include URL conditions before other rules, particularly
if the URL rules are block rules and the other rules meet both of the following criteria:
• They include application conditions.
• The traffic to be inspected is encrypted.
Application Control for Encrypted and Decrypted Traffic

The system can identify and filter encrypted and decrypted traffic:
• Encrypted traffic—The system can detect application traffic encrypted with StartTLS, including SMTPS,
POPS, FTPS, TelnetS, and IMAPS. In addition, it can identify certain encrypted applications based on
the Server Name Indication in the TLS ClientHello message, or the subject distinguished name value
from the server certificate. These applications are tagged SSL Protocol; in an SSL rule, you can
choose only these applications. Applications without this tag can only be detected in unencrypted or
decrypted traffic.
• Decrypted traffic—The system assigns the decrypted traffic tag to applications that the system
can detect in decrypted traffic only, not encrypted or unencrypted.

343
Application-Specific Notes and Limitations
Exempting Applications from Active Authorization

In an identity policy, you can exempt certain applications from active authentication, allowing traffic to
continue to access control. These applications are tagged User-Agent Exclusion. In an identity rule,
you can choose only these applications.
Handling Application Traffic Packets Without Payloads

When performing access control, the system applies the default policy action to packets that do not have a
payload in a connection where an application is identified.
Handling Referred Application Traffic

To handle traffic referred by a web server, such as advertisement traffic, match the referred application rather
than the referring application.
Controlling Application Traffic That Uses Multiple Protocols (Skype, Zoho)

Some applications use multiple protocols. To control their traffic, make sure your access control policy covers
all relevant options. For example:
• Skype—To control Skype traffic, choose the Skype tag from the Application Filters list rather than
selecting individual applications. This ensures that the system can detect and control all Skype traffic
the same way.
• Zoho—To control Zoho mail, choose both Zoho and Zoho mail from the Available Application list.
Search Engines Supported for Content Restriction Features

The system supports Safe Search filtering for specific search engines only. The system assigns the
safesearch supported tag to application traffic from these search engines.
Controlling Evasive Application Traffic

See Application-Specific Notes and Limitations, on page 344.
Related Topics
Special Considerations for Application Detection, on page 1969
Application-Specific Notes and Limitations

• Office 365 Admin Portal:
Limitation: If the access policy has logging enabled at the beginning as well as at the end, the first packet
will be detected as Office 365 and the end of connection will be detected as Office 365 Admin Portal.
This should not affect blocking.
• Skype:
See Guidelines and Limitations for Application Control, on page 343
• Zoho:
See Guidelines and Limitations for Application Control, on page 343

344
Troubleshoot Application Control Rules
• Evasive applications such as Bittorrent, Tor, Psiphon, and Ultrasurf:

For evasive applications, only the highest-confidence scenarios are detected by default. If you need to
take action on this traffic (such as block or implement QoS), it may be necessary to configure more
aggressive detection with better effectiveness. To do this, contact TAC to review your configurations as
these changes may result in false positives.
Troubleshoot Application Control Rules

If your application control rules don't function as you expect, use the guidelines discussed in this section.
We recommend controlling applications' access to the network as follows:
• To allow or block application access from a less secure network to a more secure network: Use Port
(Selected Destination Port) conditions on the access control rule
For example, allow ICMP traffic from the internet (less secure) to an internal network (more secure.)
• To allow or block applications being accessed by user groups: Use Application conditions on the access
control rule
For example, block Facebook from being accessed by members of the Contractors group
The following table provides an example of how to set up your access control rules:
Type of control Action Zones, Users Applications Ports URLs SGT/ISE Inspection,
Networks, Attributes Logging,
VLAN Comments
Tags
Application Your Any Any Do not set Available Any Use only Any
from less secure choice Ports : with
to more secure (Allow in SSH ISE/ISE-PIC.
network when this
Add to
application uses example)
Selected
a port (for
Destination
example, SSH)
Ports

345
URL Conditions (URL Filtering)
VLAN Comments
Tags
Application Your Any Any Do not set Selected Do Use only Any
from less secure choice Destination not with
to more secure (Allow in Ports set ISE/ISE-PIC.
network when this Protocol:
application does example) ICMP
not use a port
Type: Any
(for example,
ICMP)
Application Your Your Choose a Choose the Do not set Do Use only Your
access by a user choice choice user group name of the not with choice
group (Block in (Contractors application set ISE/ISE-PIC.
this group in ( Facebook
example) this in this
example) example)
Related Topics
Guidelines for Ordering Rules, on page 357
URL Conditions (URL Filtering)

Use URL conditions to control the websites that users on your network can access.
For complete information, see URL Filtering, on page 1279.
User, Realm, and ISE Attribute Conditions (User Control)

You can perform user control with the authoritative user identity data collected by the Firepower System.
Identity sources monitor users as they log in and out, or as they authenticate using Microsoft Active Directory
(AD) or LDAP credentials. You can then configure rules that use this collected identity data to handle traffic
based on the logged-in authoritative user associated with a monitored host. A user remains associated with a
host until the user logs off (as reported by an identity source), a realm times out the session, or you delete the
user data from the system's database.
For information on the authoritative user identity sources supported in your version of the Firepower System,
see About User Identity Sources, on page 1912.
You can use the following rule conditions to perform user control:
• User and realm conditions—Match traffic based on the logged-in authoritative user of a host. You can
control traffic based on realms, individual users, or the groups those users belong to.
• ISE attribute conditions—Match traffic based on a user's ISE-assigned Security Group Tag (SGT), Device
Type (also referred to as Endpoint Profile), or Location IP (also referred to as Endpoint Location).
Requires that you configure ISE as an identity source.

346
User Control Prerequisites
Note The ISE-PIC identity source does not provide ISE attribute data.
Note In some rules, custom SGT conditions can match traffic tagged with SGT attributes that were not assigned
by ISE. This is not considered user control, and only works if you are not using ISE as an identity source; see
Custom SGT Conditions, on page 351.
Rules with User Conditions
Rule Type Supports User and Realm Conditions? Supports ISE Attribute Conditions?
SSL yes no
QoS yes yes
Related Topics
The User Agent Identity Source, on page 2031
The ISE/ISE-PIC Identity Source, on page 2001
The Terminal Services (TS) Agent Identity Source, on page 2027
The Captive Portal Identity Source, on page 2009
User Control Prerequisites
Configure Identity Sources/Authentication Methods

Configure identity sources for the types of authentication you want to perform. For more information, see
About User Identity Sources, on page 1912.
If you configure a User Agent, TS Agent, or ISE/ISE-PIC device to monitor a large number of user groups,
or if you have a very large number of users mapped to hosts on your network, the system may drop user
mappings based on groups, due to your Firepower Management Center user limit. As a result, rules with
realm, user, or user group conditions may not match traffic as expected.
Configure Realms
Configure a realm for each AD or LDAP server you want to monitor, including your ISE/ISE-PIC, User
Agent, and TS Agent servers, and perform a user download. For more information, see Create a Realm, on
page 1989.
Note If you are configuring an ISE SGT attribute rule condition, configuring a realm is optional. The ISE SGT
attribute rule condition can be configured in policies with or without an associated identity policy (where
realms are invoked).

347
Configuring User and Realm Conditions
When you configure a realm, you specify the users and user groups whose activity you want to monitor.
Including a user group automatically includes all of that group’s members, including members of any secondary
groups. However, if you want to use the secondary group as a rule criterion, you must explicitly include the
secondary group in the realm configuration.
For each realm, you can enable automatic download of user data to refresh authoritative data for users and
user groups.
Create Identity Policies

Create an identity policy to associate the realm with an authentication method, and associate that policy with
access control. For more information, see Create an Identity Policy, on page 2039.
Policies that perform user control on a device (access control, SSL, QoS) share an identity policy. That identity
policy determines the realms, users, and groups that you can use in rules affecting traffic on those devices.
Before you configure a user condition in a QoS rule, you must make sure the devices targeted by the QoS
policy are using the correct identity policy, as defined in the access control policy deployed to the devices.
Because the QoS policy and access control policy deployed to the same device are not explicitly linked, the
QoS rule editor can allow you to choose invalid realms, users, and groups. These invalid elements are those
from identity policies that exist on the Firepower Management Center, but that are not applied to the
QoS-targeted devices. If you use these elements, the system cannot determine that you made an invalid choice
until deploy-time.
Configuring User and Realm Conditions


Admin/Network Admin
You can constrain a rule by realm, or by users and user groups within that realm.
Before you begin

• Fulfill the user control prerequsities described in User, Realm, and ISE Attribute Conditions (User
Control), on page 346.
Procedure
Step 1 In the rule editor, click the Users tab.

Step 2 (Optional) Find and choose the realm you want to use from the Available Realms.
Step 3 (Optional) Further constrain the rule by choosing users and groups from the Available Users list.
What to do next

348
Configuring ISE Attribute Conditions
Configuring ISE Attribute Conditions


Admin/Network
Admin
Before you begin

• Fulfill the user control prerequisites described in User, Realm, and ISE Attribute Conditions (User
Control), on page 346.
Procedure
Step 1 In the rule editor, click the tab for ISE attribute conditions:
• Access control—Click the SGT/ISE Attributes tab.
• QoS—Click the ISE Attributes tab.
You can use ISE-assigned Security Group Tags (SGTs) to constrain ISE attribute conditions. To use custom
SGTs in access control rules, see Custom SGT Conditions, on page 351.
Step 2 Find and choose the ISE attributes you want to use from the Available Attributes list:
• Security Group Tag (SGT)
• Device Type (also referred to as Endpoint Profile)
• Location IP (also referred to as Endpoint Location)
Step 3 Further constrain the rule by choosing attribute metadata from the Available Metadata list. Or, keep the
default: any.
Step 5 (Optional) Constrain the rule with an IP address in the Add a Location IP Address field, then click Add.
The system builds a separate network map for each leaf domain. In a multidomain deployment, using literal
IP addresses to constrain this configuration can have unexpected results.
What to do next
Troubleshoot User Control

If you notice unexpected user rule behavior, consider tuning your rule, identity source, or realm configurations.
For other related troubleshooting information, see:
• Troubleshoot the User Agent Identity Source, on page 2032

349
Troubleshoot User Control
• Troubleshoot the ISE/ISE-PIC Identity Source, on page 2005

• Troubleshoot the TS Agent Identity Source, on page 2028
• Troubleshoot the Captive Portal Identity Source, on page 2020
• Troubleshoot Realms and User Downloads, on page 1997
Rules targeting realms, users, or user groups are not matching traffic
If you configure a User Agent, TS Agent, or ISE/ISE-PIC device to monitor a large number of user groups,
or if you have a very large number of users mapped to hosts on your network, the system may drop user
records due to your Firepower Management Center user limit. As a result, rules with user conditions may not
match traffic as expected.
Rules targeting user groups or users within user groups are not matching traffic as expected
If you configure a rule with a user group condition, your LDAP or Active Directory server must have user
groups configured. The system cannot perform user group control if the server organizes the users in basic
object hierarchy.
Rules targeting users in secondary groups are not matching traffic as expected
If you configure a rule with a user group condition that includes or excludes users who are members of a
secondary group on your Active Directory server, your server may be limiting the number of users it reports.
By default, Active Directory servers limit the number of users they report from secondary groups. You must
customize this limit so that all of the users in your secondary groups are reported to the Firepower Management
Center and eligible for use in rules with user conditions.
Rules are not matching users when seen for the first time
After the system detects activity from a previously-unseen user, the system retrieves information about them
from the server. Until the system successfully retrieves this information, activity seen by this user is not
handled by matching rules. Instead, the user session is handled by the next rule it matches (or the policy's
default action, if applicable).
For example, this might explain when:
• Users who are members of user groups are not matching rules with user group conditions.
• Users who were reported by a User Agent, TS Agent, or ISE/ISE-PIC device are not matching rules,
when the server used for user data retrieval is an Active Directory server.
Note that this might also cause the system to delay the display of user data in event views and analysis tools.
Rules are not matching all ISE users

This is expected behavior. You can perform user control on ISE users who were authenticated by an Active
Directory domain controller. You cannot perform user control on ISE users who were authenticated by an
LDAP, RADIUS, or RSA domain controller.

350
Custom SGT Conditions
Rules are not matching all ISE/ISE-PIC users

This is expected behavior. You can perform user control on ISE/ISE-PIC users who were authenticated by
an Active Directory domain controller. You cannot perform user control on ISE/ISE-PIC users who were
authenticated by an LDAP, RADIUS, or RSA domain controller.
Custom SGT Conditions

If you do not configure ISE/ISE-PIC as an identity source, you can control traffic using Security Group Tags
(SGTs) that were not assigned by ISE. SGTs specify the privileges of traffic sources within a trusted network.
Custom SGT rule conditions use manually created SGT objects to filter traffic, rather than ISE SGTs obtained
from the system's connection to an ISE server. These manually created SGT objects correspond to the SGT
attributes on the traffic you want to control. Controlling traffic using custom SGTs is not considered user
control.
Rules with Custom SGT Conditions

The following rules support custom SGT conditions:
• Access control
• QoS
ISE SGT vs Custom SGT Rule Conditions

Some rules allow you to control traffic based on assigned SGT. Depending on the rule type and your identity
source configuration, you can use either ISE-assigned SGTs or custom SGTs to match traffic with assigned
SGT attributes.
Note If you use ISE SGTs to match traffic, even if a packet does not have an assigned SGT attribute, the packet
still matches an ISE SGT rule if the SGT associated with the packet's source IP address is known in ISE.
Condition Type Requires SGTs Listed in Rule Editor
ISE SGT ISE identity source SGTs obtained by querying the ISE server, with
automatically updated metadata
Custom SGT No ISE/ISE-PIC identity Static SGT objects you create

source
Related Topics
User, Realm, and ISE Attribute Conditions (User Control), on page 346
Autotransition from Custom SGTs to ISE SGTs

If you create rules that match custom SGTs, then configure ISE/ISE-PIC as an identity source, the system:
• Disables Security Group Tag options in the object manager. Although the system retains existing SGT
objects, you cannot modify them or add new ones.

351
Configuring Custom SGT Conditions
• Retains existing rules with custom SGT conditions. However, these rules do not match traffic. You also
cannot add additional custom SGT criteria to existing rules, or create new rules with custom SGT
conditions.
If you configure ISE, Cisco recommends that you delete or disable existing rules with custom SGT conditions.
Instead, use ISE attribute conditions to match traffic with SGT attributes.
Related Topics
Configure ISE/ISE-PIC for User Control, on page 2003
Configuring Custom SGT Conditions


Admin/Network
Admin
The following procedure describes how to filter traffic tagged with SGT attributes that were not assigned by
ISE. This is not considered user control, and only works if you are not using ISE/ISE-PIC as an identity source;
see ISE SGT vs Custom SGT Rule Conditions, on page 351.
Before you begin

• Disable ISE/ISE-PIC connections. Custom SGT matching does not work if you use ISE/ISE-PIC as an
identity source.
• Configure Security Group Tag objects that correspond with the SGTs you want to match; see Creating
Security Group Tag Objects, on page 380.
Procedure
Step 1 In the rule editor, click the SGT/ISE Attributes tab.

Step 2 Choose Security Group Tag from the Available Attributes list.
Step 3 In the Available Metadata list, find and choose a custom SGT object.
If you choose Any, the rule matches all traffic with an SGT attribute. For example, you might choose this
value if you want an access control rule to block traffic from hosts that are not configured for TrustSec.

What to do next
Troubleshooting Custom SGT Conditions

If you notice unexpected rule behavior, consider tuning your custom SGT object configuration.

352
Searching for Rules
Security Group Tag objects unavailable

Custom SGT objects are only available if you do not configure ISE/ISE-PIC as an identity source. For more
information, see Autotransition from Custom SGTs to ISE SGTs, on page 351.
Searching for Rules


Admin/Network
Admin
In many policies, you can search for and within rules. The system matches your input to rule names and
condition values, including objects and object groups.
You cannot search for values in a Security Intelligence or URL list or feed.
Procedure
Step 1 In the policy editor, click the Rules tab.

Step 2 Click the Search Rules prompt, enter a complete or partial search string, then press Enter.
The column for matching values is highlighted for each matching rule. A status message displays the current
match and the total number of matches.
Step 3 Find the rules you are interested in.
To navigate between matching rules, click the next-match ( ) or previous-match ( ) icon.
What to do next
• Before you begin a new search, click the clear icon ( ) to clear the search and any highlighting.
Filtering Rules by Device

Any Any feature dependent Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
Some policy editors allow you to filter your rule view by affected devices.
The system uses a rule's interface constraints to determine if the rule affects a device. If you constrain a rule
by interface (security zone or interface group condition), the device where that interface is located is affected
by that rule. Rules with no interface constraint apply to any interface, and therefore every device.

353
Identify Rules with Issues
QoS rules are always constrained by interface.
Procedure
Step 1 In the policy editor, click the Rules tab, then click Filter by Device.
A list of targeted devices and device groups appears.
Step 2 Check one or more check boxes to display only the rules that apply to those devices or groups. Or, check All
to reset and display all of the rules.
Tip Hover your pointer over a rule criterion to see its value. If the criterion represents an object with
device-specific overrides, the system displays the override value when you filter the rules list by
only that device. If the criterion represents an object with domain-specific overrides, the system
displays the override value when you filter the rules list by devices in that domain.
Step 3 Click OK.
Related Topics
Creating and Editing Access Control Rules, on page 1264
Configure Prefiltering, on page 1316
Configuring QoS Rules, on page 660
Configure NAT for Threat Defense, on page 1072
Identify Rules with Issues

The system will flag each rule that will prevent deploy (these are marked with a red icon) or that will never
match traffic because another rule above it in the rule order will match instead (these are marked with a yellow
icon).
Important The system does not flag rules that partially match other rules, which may also prevent some subsequent rules
from matching.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Policies > Access Control > Access Control.

Step 2 Click a policy name.
Step 3 Do one or both of the following:
• Look for a Show Warnings button near the top of the window.
If the system has not identified issues, this button will not appear.
If there are issues, click this button to open a list of all rules with issues.
To see all issues, click both tabs (Rule Errors and Rule Warnings).
To locate a rule in the table of rules below, click the rule name in the error or warnings list.

354
Rule and Other Policy Warnings
• Select the Show Rule Conflicts checkbox.

This will indicate each problem rule in the list with an Error (red) or Warning (yellow) icon.
If necessary, scroll down to see all rules in the policy.
Step 4 To view issue details, hover your pointer over the icon.
Step 5 Look for duplications that are not flagged because they are only partial matches and address them.
Step 6 If you make changes, you must click Save or deselect and reselect Show Rule Conflicts to evaluate the
changed rules for conflicts.
What to do next
• Address any issues you see by removing or modifying the problematic rule.
• Examine your SSL and QoS policies for similar errors and warnings and address those issues.
Rule and Other Policy Warnings

Policy and rule editors use icons to mark configurations that could adversely affect traffic analysis and flow.
Depending on the issue, the system may warn you when you deploy or prevent you from deploying entirely.
Tip Hover your pointer over an icon to read the warning, error, or informational text.
Table 48: Policy Error Icons
Icon Description Example
If a rule or configuration has an A rule that performs category and reputation-based

error, you cannot deploy until you URL filtering is valid until you target a device that
error correct the issue, even if you does not have a URL Filtering license. At that point,
disable any affected rules. an error icon appears next to the rule, and you cannot
deploy until you edit or delete the rule, retarget the
policy, or enable the license.
You can deploy a policy that Preempted rules or rules that cannot match traffic due
displays rule or other warnings. to misconfiguration have no effect. This includes
warning However, misconfigurations conditions using empty object groups, application
marked with warnings have no filters that match no applications, excluded LDAP
effect. users, invalid ports, and so on.
If you disable a rule with a However, if a warning icon marks a licensing error
warning, the warning icon or model mismatch, you cannot deploy until you
disappears. It reappears if you correct the issue.
enable the rule without correcting
the underlying issue.

355
Rule Performance Guidelines
Icon Description Example
Information icons convey helpful With application control, the system might skip
information about configurations matching the first few packets of a connection against
information that may affect the flow of traffic. some rules, until the system identifies the application
These issues do not prevent you or web traffic in that connection. This allows
from deploying. connections to be established so that applications and
HTTP requests can be identified.
Related Topics
Guidelines and Limitations for Application Control, on page 343
Guidelines and Limitations for URL Filtering, on page 1280
Rule Performance Guidelines

In the Firepower System, rules in various policies exert granular control over network traffic. Properly
configuring and ordering rules is essential to building an effective deployment. Although every organization
and deployment has a unique policy and rule set, there are a few general guidelines to follow that can optimize
performance while still addressing your needs.
Optimizing performance is especially important if you perform resource-intensive analysis. Complex policies
and rules can command significant resources and negatively affect performance. When you deploy configuration
changes, the system evaluates all rules together and creates an expanded set of criteria that target devices use
to evaluate network traffic. If these criteria exceed the resources (physical memory, processors, and so on) of
a target device, you cannot deploy to that device.
Note Always order rules to suit your organization's needs. Place top-priority rules that must apply to all traffic near
the top of the policy. However, rules with application or URL conditions are more likely to match traffic if
you do not prioritize them. This occurs because the system may skip matching the first few packets of a
connection against some rules until the system identifies the application or web traffic in that connection. This
allows connections to be established so that applications and HTTP requests can be identified.
Related Topics
Guidelines and Limitations for Application Control, on page 343
Guidelines and Limitations for URL Filtering, on page 1280
Guidelines for Simplifying and Focusing Rules

Simplify: Do Not Overconfigure
If one condition is enough to match the traffic you want to handle, do not use two.
Minimize individual rule criteria. Use as few individual elements in rule conditions as possible. For example,
in network conditions use IP address blocks rather than individual IP addresses.
Combining elements into objects does not improve performance. For example, using a network object that
contains 50 individual IP addresses gives you only an organizational—not a performance—benefit over
including those IP addresses in the condition individually.

356
Guidelines for Ordering Rules
For recommendations related to application detection, see Recommendations for Application Control, on page
1259.
Focus: Narrowly Constrain Resource-Intensive Rules, Especially by Interface

As much as possible, use rule conditions to narrowly define the traffic handled by resource-intensive rules.
Focused rules are also important because rules with broad conditions can match many different types of traffic,
and can preempt later, more specific rules. Examples of resource-intensive rules include:
• SSL rules that decrypt traffic—Not only the decryption, but further analaysis of the decrypted traffic,
requires resources. Narrow focus, and where possible, block or choose not to decrypt encrypted traffic.
Certain Firepower Management Center models perform SSL encryption and decryption in hardware,
which improves performance significantly. For more information, see TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration,
on page 1346.
• Access control rules that invoke deep inspection—Intrusion, file, and malware inspection requires
resources, especially if you use multiple custom intrusion policies and variable sets. Make sure you only
invoke deep inspection where required.
For maximum performance benefit, constrain rules by interface. If a rule excludes all of a device’s interfaces,
that rule does not affect that device's performance.
Guidelines for Ordering Rules

Always order rules to suit your organization's needs. In general, you should place top-priority rules that must
apply to all traffic near the top of the policy.
Exceptions are noted in the sections below.
Rule Preemption
Rule preemption occurs when a rule will never match traffic because a rule earlier in the evaluation order
matches the traffic first. A rule's conditions govern whether it preempts other rules. In the following example,
the second rule cannot block Admin traffic because the first rule allows it:
Access Control Rule 1: allow Admin users
Access Control Rule 2: block Admin users
Any type of rule condition can preempt a subsequent rule. The VLAN range in the first SSL rule includes the
VLAN in the second rule, so the first rule preempts the second:
SSL Rule 1: do not decrypt VLAN 22-33
SSL Rule 2: block VLAN 27
In the following example, Rule 1 matches any VLAN because no VLANs are configured, so Rule 1 preempts
Rule 2, which attempts to match VLAN 2:
Access Control Rule 1: allow Source Network 10.4.0.0/16
Access Control Rule 2: allow Source Network 10.4.0.0/16, VLAN 2
A rule also preempts an identical subsequent rule where all configured conditions are the same:
QoS Rule 1: rate limit VLAN 1 URL www.netflix.com

357
Rule Actions and Rule Order
A subsequent rule would not be preempted if any condition is different:

Example: Ordering SSL Rules to Avoid Preemption

Consider a scenario where a trusted CA (Good CA) mistakenly issued a CA certificate to a malicious
entity (Bad CA), but has not yet revoked that certificate. You want to use an SSL policy to block
traffic encrypted with certificates issued by the untrusted CA, but otherwise allow traffic within the
trusted CA’s chain of trust. After you upload the CA certificates and all intermediate CA certificates,
configure an SSL policy with rules in the following order:
SSL Rule 1: Block issuer CN=www.badca.com
SSL Rule 2: Do not decrypt issuer CN=www.goodca.com
If you reverse the rules, you first match all traffic trusted by Good CA, including traffic trusted by
Bad CA. Because no traffic ever matches the subsequent Bad CA rule, malicious traffic may be
allowed instead of blocked.
Rule Actions and Rule Order

A rule's action determines how the system handles matching traffic. Improve performance by placing rules
that do not perform or ensure further traffic handling before the resource-intensive rules that do. Then, the
system can divert traffic that it might otherwise have inspected.
The following examples show how you might order rules in various policies, given a set of rules where none
is more critical and preemption is not an issue.
If your rules include application conditions, also see Recommendations for Application Control, on page 1259.
Optimum Order: SSL Rules

Not only does decryption require resources, but so does further analysis of the decrypted traffic. Place SSL
rules that decrypt traffic last.
Note Certain Firepower Management Center hardware models support encrypting and decrypting SSL traffic in
hardware, which significantly improves performance. For more information, see TLS/SSL Hardware
Acceleration, on page 1346.
1. Monitor—Rules that log matching connections, but take no other action on traffic.
2. Block, Block with reset—Rules that block traffic without further inspection.
3. Do not decrypt—Rules that do not decrypt encrypted traffic, passing the encrypted session to access
control rules. The payloads of these sessions are not subject to deep inspection.
4. Decrypt - Known Key—Rules that decrypt incoming traffic with a known private key.
5. Decrypt - Resign—Rules that decrypt outgoing traffic by re-signing the server certificate.

358
Content Restriction Rule Order
Optimum Order: Access Control Rules

Intrusion, file, and malware inspection requires resources, especially if you use multiple custom intrusion
policies and variable sets. Place access control rules that invoke deep inspection last.
1. Monitor—Rules that log matching connections, but take no other action on traffic.
2. Trust, Block, Block with reset—Rules that handle traffic without further inspection. Note that trusted
traffic is subject to authentication requirements imposed by an identity policy, and to rate limiting.
3. Allow, Interactive Block (no deep inspection)—Rules that do not inspect traffic further, but allow discovery.
Note that allowed traffic is subject to authentication requirements imposed by an identity policy, and to
rate limiting.
4. Allow, Interactive Block (deep inspection)—Rules associated with file or intrusion policies that perform
deep inspection for prohibited files, malware, and exploits.
Content Restriction Rule Order

To avoid rule preemption in both SSL and access control policies, position rules governing YouTube restriction
above rules governing Safe Search restriction.
When you enable Safe Search for an access control rule, the system adds the search engine category to the
Selected Applications and Filters list. This application category includes YouTube. As a result, YouTube
traffic matches to the Safe Search rule unless YouTube EDU is enabled in a rule with a higher evaluation
priority.
A similar rule preemption occurs if you position an SSL rule with the safesearch supported filter higher
in the evaluation order than an SSL rule with specific YouTube application conditions.
Related Topics
About Content Restriction, on page 1333
Application Rule Order

Rules with application conditions are more likely to match traffic if you move them to a lower order in your
list of rules.
For more information and an example, see Recommendations for Application Control, on page 1259.
SSL Rule Order

In general, order your rules with specific conditions (such as IP addresses and networks) before rules with
general conditions (such as applications).
Allow Traffic from Certificate Pinned Sites

Some applications use a technique referred to as TLS/SSL pinning or certificate pinning, which embeds the
fingerprint of the original server certificate in the application itself. As a result, if you configured a TLS/SSL

359
URL Rule Order
rule with a Decrypt - Resign action, when the application receives a resigned certificate from a managed
device, validation fails and the connection is aborted.
To confirm that TLS/SSL pinning is occurring, attempt to log in to a mobile application like Facebook. If a
network connection error is displayed, log in using a web browser. (For example, you cannot log in to a
Facebook mobile application but can log in to Facebook using Safari or Chrome.) You can use Firepower
Management Center connection events as further proof of TLS/SSL pinning
Note TLS/SSL pinning is not limited to mobile applications.
To allow this traffic, configure an SSL rule with the Do Not Decrypt action to match the server certificate
common name or distinguished name. In the SSL policy, order this rule before all Decrypt - Resign rules
that also match the traffic. You can retrieve the pinned certificate from the client's browser after a successful
connection to the website. You can also view the certificate from the logged connection event, regardless of
whether the connection succeeded or failed.
Prioritize ClientHello Modifications

To prioritize ClientHello modifications, place rules that match on conditions that are available in the ClientHello
message before rules that match on ServerHello or server Certificate conditions.
When a managed device processes an SSL handshake, it can modify the ClientHello message to increase the
likelihood of decryption. For example, it may remove compression methods because the Firepower System
cannot decrypt compressed sessions.
The system only modifies ClientHello messages if it can conclusively match them to an SSL rule with a
Decrypt - Resign action. The first time the system detects an encrypted session to a new server, server
Certificate data is not available for ClientHello processing, which can result in an undecrypted first session.
For subsequent connections from the same client, the system can match the ClientHello message conclusively
to rules with server Certificate conditions and process the message to maximize decryption potential.
If you place rules that match on ServerHello or server Certificate conditions (certificate, distinguished names,
certificate status, cipher suites, version) before rules that match on ClientHello conditions (zones, networks,
VLAN tags, ports, users, applications, URL categories), you can preempt ClientHello modification and increase
the number of undecrypted sessions.
Situation Where SSL Policy is Bypassed

The SSL policy is bypassed for any connections that match access control rules with actions of Trust, Block,
or Block with reset if those rules:
• Use security zone, network, geolocation, and port only as the traffic matching criteria.
• Precede other rules that require inspection, such as rules that match connections based on application or
URL, or allow rules that apply intrusion or file inspection.
URL Rule Order


360
Guidelines for Avoiding Intrusion Policy Proliferation
Guidelines for Avoiding Intrusion Policy Proliferation

In an access control policy, you can associate one intrusion policy with each Allow and Interactive Block
rule, as well as with the default action. Every unique pair of intrusion policy and variable set counts as one
policy.
However, there is a maximum number of access control rules or intrusion policies that are supported by a
target device. The maximum depends on a number of factors, including policy complexity, physical memory,
and the number of processors on the device.
If you exceed the maximum supported by your device, you cannot deploy your access control policy and must
reevaluate. You may want to consolidate intrusion policies or variable sets so you can associate a single
intrusion policy-variable set pair with multiple access control rules. On some devices you may find you can
use only a single variable set for all your intrusion policies, or even a single intrusion policy-variable set pair
for the whole device.
Offload Large Connections (Flows)

If you deploy Firepower Threat Defense on the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis in a data center, you can enable
select traffic to be offloaded to hardware, which means it is not processed by the software or CPU of your
Firepower Threat Defense device.
You can identify select traffic to be offloaded to a super fast path, where traffic is switched in the NIC itself.
This is called static flow offload. Offloading can help you improve performance for data-intensive applications
such as large file transfers.
• High Performance Computing (HPC) Research sites, where the Firepower Threat Defense device is
deployed between storage and high compute stations. When one research site backs up using FTP file
transfer or file sync over NFS, the large amount of data traffic affects all connections. Offloading FTP
file transfer and file sync over NFS reduces the impact on other traffic.
• High Frequency Trading (HFT), where the Firepower Threat Defense device is deployed between
workstations and the Exchange, mainly for compliance purposes. Security is usually not a concern, but
latency is a major concern.
The Firepower 4100/9300 chassis can offload connections that meet the following criteria:
• (Static flow offload only.) They are fastpathed by the prefilter policy.
• (Dynamic flow offload only.) Inspected flows that the inspection engine decides no longer need inspection.
These flows include:
• Flows that match an access control policy's Trust rule action.
• Flows that are trusted by the Intelligent Application Bypass (IAB) policy either explicitly or due to
exceeding flow bypass thresholds.
• Flows that match file or intrusion policies that result in trusting the flow.
• IPv4 addresses only.

• TCP, UDP, GRE only.

361
Flow Offload Limitations
Note PPTP GRE connections are not offloaded.
• Standard or 802.1Q tagged Ethernet frames only.

• Switched or routed interfaces only. Not supported on passive, inline, or inline tap interfaces.
Use Static Flow Offload

To identify a flow as being eligible for offload, create a prefilter policy rule that applies the Fastpath action.
Use prefilter rules for TCP/UDP, and tunnel rules for GRE. Incidentally, if you configure access control rules
to apply the Trust action based on security zone, source and destination network and port matching only, and
you disable Security Intelligence, flows matching those rules are also eligible for offloading.
Once a connection is established, if it is eligible to be offloaded, further processing happens in the NIC rather
than in the Firepower Threat Defense software. Offloaded flows continue to receive limited stateful inspection,
such as basic TCP flag and option checking. The system can selectively escalate packets to the firewall system
for further processing if necessary.
Reverse flows for offloaded flows are also offloaded.
Use Dynamic Flow Offload

Dynamic flow offload is enabled by default.
Note If more than one flow that matches dynamic flow offload conditions are queued to be offloaded at the same
time, a collision occurs. In the case of a collision, only the first flow is offloaded. The other flows are processed
normally. The show flow-offload flow commands display collision statistics.
Following is an example of disabling dynamic offload:

> configure flow-offload dynamic whitelist disable
Following is an example of enabling dynamic offload:

> configure flow-offload dynamic whitelist enable

Not all flows can be offloaded. Even after offload, a flow can be removed from being offloaded under certain
conditions. Following are some of the limitations:
Flows that cannot be offloaded
The following types of flows cannot be offloaded.
• Flows that use IPv6 addressing.
• Flows for any protocol other than TCP, UDP, and GRE.
Note PPTP GRE connections cannot be offloaded.

362
• Flows on interfaces configured in passive, inline, or inline tap mode. Routed and switch interfaces
are the only types supported.
• Flows that require inspection by Snort or other inspection engines. In some cases, such as FTP, the
secondary data channel can be offloaded although the control channel cannot be offloaded.
• IPsec and VPN connections.
• Flows for which you decrement the time-to-live (TTL) value.
• Flows that require encryption or decryption.
• Multicast flows.
• AAA-related flows.
• Vpath, VXLAN related flows.
• URL filtering.
• Tracer flows.
• Flows tagged with security groups.
• Reverse flows that are forwarded from a different cluster node, in case of asymmetric flows in a
cluster.
• Centralized flows in a cluster, if the flow owner is not the master.
Conditions for reversing offload

After a flow is offloaded, packets within the flow are returned to the Firepower Threat Defense device
for further processing if they meet the following conditions:
• They include TCP options other than Timestamp.
• They are fragmented.
• They are subject to Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing, and ingress packets move from one
interface to another.

363

364
CHAPTER 20
Reusable Objects
The following topics describe how to manage reusable objects in the Firepower System:
• Introduction to Reusable Objects, on page 366
• The Object Manager, on page 368
• Network Objects, on page 375
• Port Objects, on page 377
• Tunnel Zones, on page 378
• Application Filters, on page 378
• VLAN Tag Objects, on page 378
• Security Group Tag Objects, on page 379
• URL Objects, on page 380
• Geolocation Objects, on page 382
• Interface Objects: Interface Groups and Security Zones, on page 382
• Time Range Objects, on page 384
• Variable Sets, on page 385
• Security Intelligence Lists and Feeds, on page 401
• Sinkhole Objects, on page 409
• File Lists, on page 410
• Cipher Suite Lists, on page 416
• Distinguished Name Objects, on page 417
• PKI Objects, on page 419
• SLA Monitor Objects, on page 435
• Prefix Lists, on page 436
• Route Maps, on page 438
• Access List, on page 441
• AS Path Objects, on page 444
• Community Lists, on page 445
• Policy Lists, on page 446
• VPN Objects, on page 447
• Address Pools, on page 460
• FlexConfig Objects, on page 461
• RADIUS Server Groups, on page 462

365
Introduction to Reusable Objects

For increased flexibility and web interface ease-of-use, the Firepower System uses named objects, which are
reusable configurations that associate a name with a value. When you want to use that value, use the named
object instead. The system supports object use in various places in the web interface, including many policies
and rules, event searches, reports, dashboards, and so on. The system provides many predefined objects that
represent frequently used configurations.
Use the object manager to create and manage objects. Many configurations that use objects also allow you to
create objects on the fly, as needed. You can also use the object manager to:
• Group objects to reference multiple objects with a single configuration; see Object Groups, on page 370.
• Override object values for selected devices or, in a multidomain deployment, selected domains; see
Object Overrides, on page 371.
After you edit an object used in an active policy, you must redeploy the changed configuration for your changes
to take effect. You cannot delete an object that is in use by an active policy.
Note An object is configured on a managed device if, and only if, the object is used in a policy that is assigned to
that device. If you remove an object from all policies assigned to a given device, the object is also removed
from the device configuration on the next deployment, and subsequent changes to the object are not reflected
in the device configuration.
Object Types
The following table lists the objects you can create in the Firepower System, and indicates whether each object
type can be grouped or configured to allow overrides.
Object Type Groupable? Allows Overrides?
Network yes yes
Port yes yes
Interface: no no
• Security Zone
• Interface Group
Tunnel Zone no no
Application Filter no no
VLAN Tag yes yes
Security Group Tag (SGT) no no
URL yes yes

366
Object Type Groupable? Allows Overrides?
Geolocation no no
Time Range no no
Variable Set no no
Security Intelligence: Network, DNS, and URL lists and no no

feeds
Sinkhole no no
File List no no
Cipher Suite List no no
Distinguished Name yes no
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI): yes no

• Internal and Trusted CA
• Internal and External Certs
SLA Monitor no no
Prefix List: IPv4 and IPv6 no yes
Route Map no yes
Access List: Standard and Extended no yes
AS Path no yes
Community List no yes
Policy List no yes
FlexConfig: Text and FlexConfig objects no yes
Objects and Multitenancy

In a multidomain deployment, you can create objects in Global and descendant domains with the exception
of Security Group Tag (SGT) objects, which you can create only in the Global domain. The system displays
objects created in the current domain, which you can edit. It also displays objects created in ancestor domains,
which you cannot edit, with the exception of security zones and interface groups.
Note Because security zones and interface groups are tied to device interfaces, which you configure at the leaf
level, administrators in descendant domains can view and edit zones and groups created in ancestor domains.
Subdomain users can add and delete interfaces from ancestor zones and groups, but cannot delete or rename
the zones/groups.

367
The Object Manager
Object names must be unique within the domain hierarchy. The system may identify a conflict with the name
of an object you cannot view in your current domain.
For objects that support grouping, you can group objects in the current domain with objects inherited from
ancestor domains.
Object overrides allow you to define device-specific or domain-specific values for certain types of object,
including network, port, VLAN tag, and URL. In a multidomain deployment, you can define a default value
for an object in an ancestor domain, but allow administrators in descendant domains to add override values
for that object.
The Object Manager

You can use the object manager to create and manage objects and object groups.
The object manager displays 20 objects or groups per page. If you have more than 20 of any type of object
or group, use the navigation links at the bottom of the page to view additional pages. You can also go to a
specific page or click the refresh icon ( ) to refresh your view.
By default, the page lists objects and groups alphabetically by name. However, you can sort each type of
object or group by any column in the display. You can also filter the objects on the page by name or value.
Editing Objects

Admin/Network
Admin
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays objects created in the current domain, which you can edit.
It also displays objects created in ancestor domains, which in most cases you cannot edit. To view and edit
objects in a descendant domain, switch to that domain.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Objects > Object Management.

Step 2 Choose an object type from the list; see Introduction to Reusable Objects, on page 366.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the object you want to edit.
If a view icon ( ) appears instead, the object belongs to an ancestor domain and has been configured not to
allow overrides, or you do not have permission to modify the object.
Step 4 Modify the object settings as desired.

Step 5 If you are editing a variable set, manage the variables in the set; see Managing Variables, on page 398.
Step 6 For objects that can be configured to allow overrides:
• If you want to allow overrides for this object, check the Allow Overrides check box; see Allowing Object
Overrides, on page 373. You can change this setting only for objects that belong to the current domain.

368
Filtering Objects or Object Groups
• If you want to add override values to this object, expand the Override section and click Add; see Adding
Step 7 Click Save.

Step 8 If you are editing a variable set, and that set is in use by an access control policy, click Yes to confirm that
you want to save your changes.
What to do next
• If an active policy references your object, deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration
Changes, on page 310.
Filtering Objects or Object Groups


Admin/Network
Admin
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays objects created in the current and ancestor domains, which
you can filter.
Procedure

Step 2 Enter your filter criteria in the Filter field.
The page updates as you type to display matching items.
You can use the following metacharacters:
• The asterisk [*] matches zero or more occurrences of a character.
• The caret (^) matches content at the beginning of a string.
• The dollar sign ($) matches content at the end of a string.
Sorting Objects

Admin/Network
Admin

369
Object Groups
Procedure

Step 2 Click a column heading. To sort in the opposite direction, click the heading again.
Object Groups
Grouping objects allows you to reference multiple objects with a single configuration. The system allows you
to use objects and object groups interchangeably in the web interface. For example, anywhere you would use
a port object, you can also use a port object group.
You can group network, port, VLAN tag, URL, and PKI objects. Network object groups can be nested, that
is, you can add a network object group to another network object group up to 10 levels.
Objects and object groups of the same type cannot have the same name. In a multidomain deployment, the
names of object groups must be unique within the domain hierarchy. Note that the system may identify a
conflict with the name of an object group you cannot view in your current domain.
When you edit an object group used in a policy (for example, a network object group used in an access control
policy), you must re-deploy the changed configuration for your changes to take effect.
Deleting a group does not delete the objects in the group, just their association with each other. Additionally,
you cannot delete a group that is in use in an active policy. For example, you cannot delete a VLAN tag group
that you are using in a VLAN condition in a saved access control policy.
Grouping Reusable Objects


Admin/Network
Admin
You can group objects in the current domain with objects inherited from ancestor domains.
Procedure

Step 2 If the object type you want to group is Network, Port, URL, or VLAN Tag:
a) Choose the object type from the list of object types.

370
Object Overrides
b) Choose Add Group from the Add [Object Type] drop-down list.
Step 3 If the object type you want to group is Distinguished Name:
a) Expand the Distinguished Name node.
b) Choose Object Groups.
c) Click Add Distinguished Name Group.
Step 4 If the object type you want to group is PKI:
a) Expand the PKI node.
b) Choose one of the following:
• Internal CA Groups
• Trusted CA Groups
• Internal Cert Groups
• External Cert Groups
c) Click the Add [Object Type] Group button.

Step 5 Enter a unique Name.
Step 6 Choose one or more objects from the list, and click Add.
You can also:
• Use the filter field to search for existing objects to include, which updates as you type to display
matching items. Click the reload icon above the search field or click the clear icon ( ) in the search
field to clear the search string.
• Click the add icon ( ) to create objects on the fly if no existing objects meet your needs.
Step 7 Optionally for Network, Port, URL, and VLAN Tag groups:
• Enter a Description.
• Check the Allow Overrides check box to allow overrides for this object group; see Allowing Object
Overrides, on page 373.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
• If an active policy references your object group, deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration
Object Overrides
An object override allows you to define an alternate value for an object, which the system uses for the devices
you specify.
You can create an object whose definition works for most devices, and then use overrides to specify
modifications to the object for the few devices that need different definitions. You can also create an object

371
Object Overrides
that needs to be overridden for all devices, but its use allows you to create a single policy for all devices.
Object overrides allow you to create a smaller set of shared policies for use across devices without giving up
the ability to alter policies when needed for individual devices.
For example, you might want to deny ICMP traffic to the different departments in your company, each of
which is connected to a different network. You can do this by defining an access control policy with a rule
that includes a network object called Departmental Network. By allowing overrides for this object, you can
then create overrides on each relevant device that specifies the actual network where that device is connected.
In a multidomain deployment, you can define a default value for an object in an ancestor domain and allow
administrators in descendant domains to add override values for that object. For example, a managed security
service provider (MSSP) might use a single Firepower Management Center to manage network security for
multiple customers. Administrators at the MSSP can define an object in the Global domain for use in all
customers' deployments. Administrators for each customer can log into descendant domains to override that
object for their organizations. These local administrators cannot view or affect the override values of other
customers of the MSSP.
You can target an object override to a specific domain. In this case, the system uses the object override value
for all devices in the targeted domain unless you override it at the device level.
From the object manager, you can choose an object that can be overridden and define a list of device-level or
domain-level overrides for that object.
You can use object overrides with the following object types only:
• Network
• Port
• VLAN tag
• URL
• SLA Monitor
• Prefix List
• Route Map
• Access List
• AS Path
• Community List
• Policy List
• PKI Enrollment
If you can override an object, the Override column appears for the object type in the object manager. Possible
values for this column include:
• Green checkmark — indicates that you can create overrides for the object and no overrides have been
added yet
• Red X — indicates that you cannot create overrides for the object
• Number — represents a count of the overrides that have been added to that object (for example, "2"
indicates two overrides have been added)

372
Managing Object Overrides
Managing Object Overrides


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose from the list of object types; see Introduction to Reusable Objects, on page 366.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the object you want to edit.
If a view icon ( ) appears instead, the object belongs to an ancestor domain and has been configured not to
allow overrides, or you do not have permission to modify the object.
Step 4 Manage the object overrides:

• Add—Add object overrides; see Adding Object Overrides, on page 374.
• Allow—Allow object overrides; see Allowing Object Overrides, on page 373.
• Delete—In the object editor, click the delete icon ( ) next to the override you want to remove.
• Edit—Edit object overrides; see Editing Object Overrides, on page 374.
Allowing Object Overrides

Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 1 In the object editor, check the Allow Overrides check box.
Step 2 Click Save.
What to do next
Add object override values; see Adding Object Overrides, on page 374.

373
Adding Object Overrides
Adding Object Overrides

Admin/Network
Admin
Before you begin

Allow object overrides; see Allowing Object Overrides, on page 373.
Procedure
Step 1 In the object editor, expand the Override section.

Step 2 Click Add.
Step 3 On the Targets tab, choose domains or devices in the Available Devices and Domains list and click Add.
Step 4 On the Override tab, enter a Name.
Step 5 Optionally, enter a Description.
Step 6 Enter an override value.
Example:
For a network object, enter a network value.
Step 7 Click Add.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Editing Object Overrides


Admin/Network
Admin
You can modify the description and the value of an existing override, but you cannot modify the existing
target list. Instead, you must add a new override with new targets, which replaces the existing override.
Procedure
Step 1 In the object editor, expand the Override section.

374
Network Objects
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the override you want to modify.
Step 3 Optionally, modify the Description.
Step 4 Modify the override value.
Step 5 Click Save to save the override.
Step 6 Click Save to save the object.
What to do next
Network Objects
A network object represents one or more IP addresses. You can use network objects and groups in various
places in the system’s web interface, including access control policies, network variables, identity rules,
network discovery rules, event searches, reports, and so on.
When you configure an option that requires a network object, the list is automatically filtered to show only
those objects that are valid for the option. For example, some options require host objects, while other options
require subnets.
A network object can be one of the following types:
Host
A single IP address.
IPv4 example:
209.165.200.225
IPv6 example:
2001:DB8::0DB8:800:200C:417A or 2001:DB8:0:0:0DB8:800:200C:417A
Range
A range of IP addresses.
IPv4 example:
209.165.200.225-209.165.200.250
IPv6 example:
2001:db8:0:cd30::1-2001:db8:0:cd30::1000
Network
An address block, also known as a subnet.
IPv4 example:
209.165.200.224/27
IPv6 example:

375
Creating Network Objects
2001:DB8:0:CD30::/60
Group
A group of network objects or other network object groups.
For example:
209.165.200.225
209.165.201.1
209.165.202.129
You can create nested groups by adding one network object group to another network object group. You
can nest up to 10 levels of groups.
Creating Network Objects


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Network from the list of object types.
Step 3 Choose Add Object from the Add Network drop-down menu.
In a multidomain deployment, object names must be unique within the domain hierarchy. The system may
identify a conflict with the name of an object you cannot view in your current domain.

Step 6 In the Network field, select the required option and enter an appropriate value; see Network Objects, on page
375.
Step 7 Manage overrides for the object:
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next

376
Port Objects
Port Objects
Port objects represent different protocols in slightly different ways:
TCP and UDP
A port object represents the transport layer protocol, with the protocol number in parentheses, plus an
optional associated port or port range. For example: TCP(6)/22.
ICMP and ICMPv6 (IPv6-ICMP)
A port object represents the Internet layer protocol plus an optional type and code. For example:
ICMP(1):3:3.
You can restrict an ICMP or IPV6-ICMP port object by type and, if applicable, code. For more information
on ICMP types and codes, see:
• http://www.iana.org/assignments/icmp-parameters/icmp-parameters.xml
• http://www.iana.org/assignments/icmpv6-parameters/icmpv6-parameters.xml
Other
A port object can represent other protocols that do not use ports.
The Firepower System provides default port objects for well-known ports. You cannot modify or delete these
default objects. You can create custom port objects in addition to the default objects.
You can use port objects and groups in various places in the system’s web interface, including access control
policies, identity rules, network discovery rules, port variables, and event searches. For example, if your
organization uses a custom client that uses a specific range of ports and causes the system to generate excessive
and misleading events, you can configure your network discovery policy to exclude monitoring those ports.
When using port objects, observe the following guidelines:
• You cannot add any protocol other than TCP or UDP for source port conditions in access control rules.
Also, you cannot mix transport protocols when setting both source and destination port conditions in a
rule.
• If you add an unsupported protocol to a port object group used in a source port condition, the rule where
it is used does not take affect on the managed device when the configuration is deployed.
• If you create a port object containing both TCP and UDP ports, then add it as a source port condition in
a rule, you cannot add a destination port, and vice versa.
Creating Port Objects


Admin/Network
Admin

377
Tunnel Zones
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Port from the list of object types.
Step 3 Choose Add Object from the Add Port drop-down list.
Step 5 Choose a Protocol.
Step 6 Depending on the protocol you chose, constrain by Port, or choose an ICMP Type and Code.
You can enter ports from 1 to 65535. Use a hyphen to specify a port range. You must constrain the object
by port if you chose to match All protocols, using the Other drop-down list.

Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Tunnel Zones
A tunnel zone represents certain types of plaintext, passthrough tunnels that you explicitly tag for special
analysis. A tunnel zone is not an interface object, even though you can use it as an interface constraint in some
configurations.
For detailed information, see Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering, on page 1321.
Application Filters
System-provided application filters help you perform application control by organizing applications according
to basic characteristics: type, risk, business relevance, category, and tags. In the object manager, you can
create and manage reuseable user-defined application filters based on combinations of the system-provided
filters, or on custom combinations of applications. For detailed information, see Application Conditions
(Application Control), on page 338.
VLAN Tag Objects

Each VLAN tag object you configure represents a VLAN tag or range of tags.

378
Creating VLAN Tag Objects
You can group VLAN tag objects. Groups represent multiple objects; using a range of VLAN tags in a single
object is not considered a group in this sense.
You can use VLAN tag objects and groups in various places in the system’s web interface, including rules
and event searches. For example, you could write an access control rule that applies only to a specific VLAN.
Creating VLAN Tag Objects


Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose VLAN Tag from the list of object types.
Step 3 Choose Add Object from the Add VLAN Tag drop-down list.
Step 5 Enter a Description.
Step 6 Enter a value in the VLAN Tag field. Use a hyphen to specify a range of VLAN tags.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Security Group Tag Objects

A Security Group Tag (SGT) object specifies a single SGT value. You can use SGT objects in rules to control
traffic with SGT attributes that were not assigned by Cisco ISE. You cannot group or override SGT objects.
Related Topics
Autotransition from Custom SGTs to ISE SGTs, on page 351
Custom SGT Conditions, on page 351
ISE SGT vs Custom SGT Rule Conditions, on page 351

379
Creating Security Group Tag Objects
Creating Security Group Tag Objects

Any Control Any Global only Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
Before you begin

• Disable ISE/ISE-PIC connections. You cannot create custom SGT objects if you use ISE/ISE-PIC as an
identity source.
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Security Group Tag from the list of object types.
Step 3 Click Add Security Group Tag.
Step 6 In the Tag field, enter a single SGT.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Autotransition from Custom SGTs to ISE SGTs, on page 351
Custom SGT Conditions, on page 351
ISE SGT vs Custom SGT Rule Conditions, on page 351
URL Objects
Each URL object you configure represents a single URL or IP address. You can use URL objects and groups
in various places in the system’s web interface, including access control policies and event searches. For
example, you could write an access control rule that blocks a specific website.
When creating URL objects, especially if you do not configure SSL inspection to decrypt or block encrypted
traffic, keep the following points in mind:
• If you plan to use a URL object to match HTTPS traffic in an access control rule, create the object using
the subject common name in the public key certificate used to encrypt the traffic. Also, the system

380
Creating URL Objects
disregards subdomains within the subject common name, so do not include subdomain information. For
example, use example.com rather than www.example.com.
• When matching web traffic using access control rules with URL conditions, the system disregards the
encryption protocol (HTTP vs HTTPS). In other words, if you block a website, both HTTP and HTTPS
traffic to that website is blocked, unless you use an application condition to refine the rule. When creating
a URL object, you do not need to specify the protocol when creating an object. For example, use
example.com rather than http://example.com/.
Creating URL Objects


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose URL from the list of object types.
Step 3 Choose Add Object from the Add URL drop-down list.

Step 6 Enter the URL or IP address.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next

381
Geolocation Objects
Geolocation Objects
Each geolocation object you configure represents one or more countries or continents that the system has
identified as the source or destination of traffic on your monitored network. You can use geolocation objects
in various places in the system’s web interface, including access control policies, SSL policies, and event
searches. For example, you could write an access control rule that blocks traffic to or from certain countries.
To ensure that you are using up-to-date information to filter your network traffic, Cisco strongly recommends
that you regularly update your Geolocation Database (GeoDB).
Creating Geolocation Objects


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Geolocation from the list of object types.
Step 3 Click Add Geolocation.
Step 5 Check the check boxes for the countries and continents you want to include in your geolocation object.
Checking a continent chooses all countries within that continent, as well as any countries that GeoDB updates
may add under that continent in the future. Unchecking any country under a continent unchecks the continent.
You can choose any combination of countries and continents.
Step 6 Click Save.
What to do next
Interface Objects: Interface Groups and Security Zones

Interface objects segment your network to help you manage and classify traffic flow. An interface object
simply groups interfaces. These groups may span multiple devices; you can also configure multiple interface
objects on a single device.

382
Creating Security Zone and Interface Group Objects
There are two types of interface objects:

• Security zones—An interface can belong to only one security zone.
• Interface groups—An interface can belong to multiple interface groups (and to one security zone).
You can use interface groups in Firepower Threat Defense NAT policies, prefilter policies, and QoS
policies.
Although tunnel zones are not interface objects, you can use them in place of security zones in certain
configurations; see Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering, on page 1321.
All interfaces in an interface object must be of the same type: all inline, passive, switched, routed, or ASA
FirePOWER. After you create an interface object, you cannot change the type of interfaces it contains.
The Interface Objects page of the object manager lists the security zones and interface groups configured on
your managed devices. The page also displays the type of interfaces in each interface object, and you can
expand each interface object to view which interfaces on which devices belong to each object.
Note Create inline sets before you add security zones for the interfaces in the inline set; otherwise security zones
are removed and you must add them again.
Model-Specific Notes and Warnings

During initial configuration of a 7000 or 8000 Series device, the system creates security zones based on the
detection mode you selected for the device. For example, the system creates a Passive zone in passive
deployments, while in inline deployments the system creates External and Internal zones. When you register
the device to the Firepower Management Center, those security zones are added to the FMC.
If you modify ASA FirePOWER security contexts, switching from single context mode to multi-context mode
or vice versa, the system removes all the device's interfaces from their assigned security zones.
Interface Objects and Multitenancy

In a multidomain deployment, you can create interface objects at any level. An interface object created in an
ancestor domain can contain interfaces that reside on devices in different domains. In this situation, subdomain
users viewing the ancestor interface object configuration in the object manager can see only the interfaces in
their domain.
Unless restricted by role, subdomain users can view and edit interface objects created in ancestor domains.
Subdomain users can add and delete interfaces from these interface objects. They cannot, however, delete or
rename the interface objects. You can neither view nor edit interface objects created in descendant domains.
Creating Security Zone and Interface Group Objects

Any Any Security Zones: Any Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Interface Groups:
Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense

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Time Range Objects
Tip You can create empty interface objects and add interfaces to them later. To add an interface, the interface
must have a name. You can also create security zones (but not interface groups) while configuring interfaces
in Devices > Device Management.
Before you begin

• Understand the usage requirements and restrictions for each type of interface object. See Interface
Objects: Interface Groups and Security Zones, on page 382.
• Carefully determine the interface objects you need. You cannot change an existing security zone to an
interface group or vice-versa; instead you must create a new interface object.
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Interface from the list of object types.
Step 3 Click Add > Security Zone or Add > Interface Group.
Step 5 Choose an Interface Type.
Step 6 From the Device > Interfaces drop-down list, choose a device that contains interfaces you want to add.
When you create or edit a security zone, the Device > Interfaces drop-down list displays the cluster names
for high availability devices. Choose the cluster that contains the interfaces you want to add.
Step 7 Choose one or more interfaces.

Step 8 Click Add to add the interfaces you chose, grouped by device.
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next
Time Range Objects

Use a time range object to apply a policy only during times you specify.
Creating Time Range Objects

If you want a policy to apply only during a specified time range, create a time range object, then specify that
object in the policy.
You can specify time range objects only in VPN Group Policy objects.

384
Variable Sets
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Time Range from the list of object types.
Step 3 Click Add Time Range.
Step 4 Enter values.
Observe the following guidelines:
• If you see a red error box around the object name you have entered, mouse over the Name field to see
naming restrictions.
• All times are in UTC.
• Enter times using a 24-hour clock. For example, enter 1:30 PM as 13:30.
• To specify a single continuous range, such as typical weekend hours (Fridays at 5pm through Mondays
at 8am, including evenings and nights), choose Range Type Range.
• To specify part of multiple days, such as Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm (excluding evenings,
nights, and early mornings every day), choose Range Type Daily Interval.
• To specify multiple noncontiguous times of day or different hours for different days, create multiple
recurring intervals. For example, to apply a policy at all times other than standard working hours, create
a single time range object with the following two recurring intervals:
• A Daily Interval for Monday through Friday from 5pm through 8am, and
• A Range recurring interval for Friday at 5pm through Monday at 8am.
Step 5 Click Save.
What to do next
Specify the time range object in a VPN group policy object using the Access Hours field.
For details, see Configure Group Policy Objects, on page 453 and Group Policy Advanced Options, on page
458.
Variable Sets
Variables represent values commonly used in intrusion rules to identify source and destination IP addresses
and ports. You can also use variables in intrusion policies to represent IP addresses in rule suppressions,
adaptive profile updates, and dynamic rule states.
Tip Preprocessor rules can trigger events regardless of the hosts defined by network variables used in intrusion
rules.

385
Variable Sets
You use variable sets to manage, customize, and group your variables. You can use the default variable set
provided by the system or create your own custom sets. Within any set you can modify predefined default
variables and add and modify user-defined variables.
Most of the shared object rules and standard text rules that the Firepower System provides use predefined
default variables to define networks and port numbers. For example, the majority of the rules use the variable
$HOME_NET to specify the protected network and the variable $EXTERNAL_NET to specify the unprotected (or
outside) network. In addition, specialized rules often use other predefined variables. For example, rules that
detect exploits against web servers use the $HTTP_SERVERS and $HTTP_PORTS variables.
Rules are more effective when variables more accurately reflect your network environment. At a minimum,
you should modify default variables in the default set. By ensuring that a variable such as $HOME_NET correctly
defines your network and $HTTP_SERVERS includes all web servers on your network, processing is optimized
and all relevant systems are monitored for suspicious activity.
To use your variables, you link variable sets to intrusion policies associated with access control rules or with
the default action of an access control policy. By default, the default variable set is linked to all intrusion
policies used by access control policies.
Adding a variable to any set adds it to all sets; that is, each variable set is a collection of all variables currently
configured on your system. Within any variable set, you can add user-defined variables and customize the
value of any variable.
Initially, the Firepower System provides a single, default variable set comprised of predefined default values.
Each variable in the default set is initially set to its default value, which for a predefined variable is the value
set by the Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos) and provided in rule updates.
Although you can leave predefined default variables configured to their default values, Cisco recommends
that you modify a subset of predefined variables.
You could work with variables only in the default set, but in many cases you can benefit most by adding one
or more custom sets, configuring different variable values in different sets, and perhaps even adding new
variables.
When using multiple sets, it is important to remember that the current value of any variable in the default set
determines the default value of the variable in all other sets.
When you select Variable Sets on the Object Manager page, the object manager lists the default variable set
and any custom sets you created.
On a freshly installed system, the default variable set is comprised only of the default variables predefined
by Cisco.
Each variable set includes the default variables provided by the system and all custom variables you have
added from any variable set. Note that you can edit the default set, but you cannot rename or delete the default
set.
In a multidomain deployment, the system generates a default variable set for each subdomain.
Caution Importing an access control or an intrusion policy overwrites existing default variables in the default variable
set with the imported default variables. If your existing default variable set contains a custom variable not
present in the imported default variable set, the unique variable is preserved.
Related Topics
Managing Variables, on page 398

386
Variable Sets in Intrusion Policies
Managing Variable Sets, on page 397
Variable Sets in Intrusion Policies

By default, the Firepower System links the default variable set to all intrusion policies used in an access control
policy. When you deploy an access control policy that uses an intrusion policy, intrusion rules that you have
enabled in the intrusion policy use the variable values in the linked variable set.
When you modify a custom variable set used by an intrusion policy in an access control policy, the system
reflects the status for that policy as out-of-date on the Access Control Policy page. You must re-deploy the
access control policy to implement changes in your variable set. When you modify the default set, the system
reflects the status of all access control policies that use intrusion policies as out-of-date, and you must re-deploy
all access control policies to implement your changes.
Variables
Variables belong to one of the following categories:
Default Variables
Variables provided by the Firepower System. You cannot rename or delete a default variable, and you
cannot change its default value. However, you can create a customized version of a default variable.
Customized Variables
Variables you create. These variables can include:
• customized default variables
When you edit the value for a default variable, the system moves the variable from the Default
Variables area to the Customized Variables area. Because variable values in the default set determine
the default values of variables in custom sets, customizing a default variable in the default set
modifies the default value of the variable in all other sets.
• user-defined variables
You can add and delete your own variables, customize their values within different variable sets,
and reset customized variables to their default values. When you reset a user-defined variable, it
remains in the Customized Variables area.
User-defined variables can be one of the following types:
• network variables specify the IP addresses of hosts in your network traffic.
• port variables specify TCP or UDP ports in network traffic, including the value any for either
type.
For example, if you create custom standard text rules, you might also want to add your own user-defined
variables to more accurately reflect your traffic or as shortcuts to simplify the rule creation process.
Alternatively, if you create a rule that you want to inspect traffic in the “demilitarized zone” (or DMZ)
only, you can create a variable named $DMZ whose value lists the server IP addresses that are exposed.
You can then use the $DMZ variable in any rule written for this zone.

387
Predefined Default Variables
Advanced Variables
Variables provided by the Firepower System under specific conditions. These variables have a very
limited deployment.

By default, the Firepower System provides a single default variable set, which is comprised of predefined
default variables. The Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos) uses rule updates to
provide new and updated intrusion rules and other intrusion policy elements, including default variables.
Because many intrusion rules provided by the system use predefined default variables, you should set
appropriate values for these variables. Depending on how you use variable sets to identify traffic on your
network, you can modify the values for these default variables in any or all variable sets.
Caution Importing an access control or an intrusion policy overwrites existing default variables in the default variable
set with the imported default variables. If your existing default variable set contains a custom variable not
present in the imported default variable set, the unique variable is preserved.
The following table describes the variables provided by the system and indicates which variables you typically
would modify. For assistance determining how to tailor variables to your network, contact Professional
Services or Support.
Table 49: System-Provided Variables
Variable Name Description Modify?
Defines known AOL Instant Messenger Not required.

$AIM_SERVERS
(AIM) servers, and is used in chat-based
rules and rules that look for AIM exploits.
Defines Domain Name Service (DNS) Not required in current rule set.
$DNS_SERVERS
servers. If you create a rule that affects
DNS servers specifically, you can use the
$DNS_SERVERS variable as a destination or
source IP address.
Defines the network that the Firepower Yes, you should adequately define
$EXTERNAL_NET
System views as the unprotected network, $HOME_NET and then exclude $HOME_NET as
and is used in many rules to define the the value for $EXTERNAL_NET.
external network.
Defines non-encrypted ports used in Not required.

$FILE_DATA_PORTS
intrusion rules that detect files in a network
stream.
Defines the ports of FTP servers on your Yes, if your FTP servers use ports other
$FTP_PORTS
network, and is used for FTP server exploit than the default ports (you can view the
rules. default ports in the web interface).

388
Defines the data channel ports where the Not required.

$GTP_PORTS
packet decoder extracts the payload inside
a GTP (General Packet Radio Service
[GPRS] Tunneling Protocol) PDU.
Defines the network that the associated Yes, to include the IP addresses for your
$HOME_NET
intrusion policy monitors, and is used in internal network.
many rules to define the internal network.
Defines the ports of web servers on your Yes, if your web servers use ports other
$HTTP_PORTS
network, and is used for web server exploit than the default ports (you can view the
Defines the web servers on your network. Yes, if you run HTTP servers.
$HTTP_SERVERS
Used in web server exploit rules.
Defines Oracle database server ports on Yes, if you run Oracle servers.
$ORACLE_PORTS
your network, and is used in rules that scan
for attacks on Oracle databases.
Defines the ports you want the system to Not required.

$SHELLCODE_PORTS
scan for shell code exploits, and is used in
rules that detect exploits that use shell code.
Defines the ports of SIP servers on your Not required.

$SIP_PORTS
network, and is used for SIP exploit rules.
Defines SIP servers on your network, and Yes, if you run SIP servers, you should
$SIP_SERVERS
is used in rules that address SIP-targeted adequately define $HOME_NET and then
exploits. include $HOME_NET as the value for
$SIP_SERVERS.
Defines SMTP servers on your network, Yes, if you run SMTP servers.
$SMTP_SERVERS
and is used in rules that address exploits
that target mail servers.
Defines SNMP servers on your network, Yes, if you run SNMP servers.
$SNMP_SERVERS
and is used in rules that scan for attacks on
SNMP servers.
Identifies a legacy advanced variable that No, you can only view or delete this
$SNORT_BPF
appears only when it existed on your system variable. You cannot edit it or recover it
in a Firepower System software release after deleting it.
before Version 5.3.0 that you subsequently
upgraded to Version 5.3.0 or greater.
Defines database servers on your network, Yes, if you run SQL servers.
$SQL_SERVERS
and is used in rules that address
database-targeted exploits.

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Network Variables
Defines the ports of SSH servers on your Yes, if your SSH servers use ports other
$SSH_PORTS
network, and is used for SSH server exploit than the default port (you can view the
Defines SSH servers on your network, and Yes, if you run SSH servers, you should
$SSH_SERVERS
is used in rules that address SSH-targeted adequately define $HOME_NET and then
exploits. include $HOME_NET as the value for
$SSH_SERVERS.
Defines known Telnet servers on your Yes, if you run Telnet servers.
$TELNET_SERVERS
network, and is used in rules that address
Telnet server-targeted exploits.
Provides a general tool that allows you to No, only as instructed in a feature
$USER_CONF
configure one or more features not description or with the guidance of Support.
otherwise available via the web interface.
Conflicting or duplicate $USER_CONF
configurations will halt the system.
Network Variables
Network variables represent IP addresses you can use in intrusion rules that you enable in an intrusion policy
and in intrusion policy rule suppressions, dynamic rule states, and adaptive profile updates. Network variables
differ from network objects and network object groups in that network variables are specific to intrusion
policies and intrusion rules, whereas you can use network objects and groups to represent IP addresses in
various places in the system’s web interface, including access control policies, network variables, intrusion
rules, network discovery rules, event searches, reports, and so on.
You can use network variables in the following configurations to specify the IP addresses of hosts on your
network:
• intrusion rules—Intrusion rule Source IPs and Destination IPs header fields allow you to restrict packet
inspection to the packets originating from or destined to specific IP addresses.
• suppressions—The Network field in source or destination intrusion rule suppressions allows you to
suppress intrusion event notifications when a specific IP address or range of IP addresses triggers an
intrusion rule or preprocessor.
• dynamic rule states—The Network field in source or destination dynamic rule states allows you to detect
when too many matches for an intrusion rule or preprocessor rule occur in a given time period.
• adaptive profile updates—When you enable adaptive profile updates, the adaptive profiles Networks
field identifies hosts where you want to improve reassembly of packet fragments and TCP streams in
passive deployments.
When you use variables in the fields identified in this section, the variable set you link to an intrusion policy
determines the variable values in the network traffic handled by an access control policy that uses the intrusion
policy.
You can add any combination of the following network configurations to a variable:

390
Port Variables
• any combination of network variables, network objects, and network object groups that you select from
the list of available networks
• individual network objects that you add from the New Variable or Edit Variable page, and can then add
to your variable and to other existing and future variables
• literal, single IP addresses or address blocks
You can list multiple literal IP addresses and address blocks by adding each individually. You can list
IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and address blocks alone or in any combination. When specifying IPv6 addresses,
you can use any addressing convention defined in RFC 4291.
The default value for included networks in any variable you add is the word any, which indicates any IPv4
or IPv6 address. The default value for excluded networks is none, which indicates no network. You can also
specify the address :: in a literal value to indicate any IPv6 address in the list of included networks, or no
IPv6 addresses in the list of exclusions.
Adding networks to the excluded list negates the specified addresses and address blocks. That is, you can
match any IP address with the exception of the excluded IP address or address blocks.
For example, excluding the literal address 192.168.1.1 specifies any IP address other than 192.168.1.1, and
excluding 2001:db8:ca2e::fa4c specifies any IP address other than 2001:db8:ca2e::fa4c.
You can exclude any combination of networks using literal or available networks. For example, excluding
the literal values 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.5 includes any IP address other than 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.5.
That is, the system interprets this as “not 192.168.1.1 and not 192.168.1.5,” which matches any IP address
other than those listed between brackets.
Note the following points when adding or editing network variables:
• You cannot logically exclude the value any which, if excluded, would indicate no address. For example,
you cannot add a variable with the value any to the list of excluded networks.
• Network variables identify traffic for the specified intrusion rule and intrusion policy features. Note that
preprocessor rules can trigger events regardless of the hosts defined by network variables used in intrusion
rules.
• Excluded values must resolve to a subset of included values. For example, you cannot include the address
block 192.168.5.0/24 and exclude 192.168.6.0/24.
Port Variables
Port variables represent TCP and UDP ports you can use in the Source Port and Destination Port header
fields in intrusion rules that you enable in an intrusion policy. Port variables differ from port objects and port
object groups in that port variables are specific to intrusion rules. You can create port objects for protocols
other than TCP and UDP, and you can use port objects in various places in the system’s web interface, including
port variables, access control policies, network discovery rules, and event searches.
You can use port variables in the intrusion rule Source Port and Destination Port header fields to restrict
packet inspection to packets originating from or destined to specific TCP or UDP ports.
When you use variables in these fields, the variable set you link to the intrusion policy associated with an
access control rule or policy determines the values for these variables in the network traffic where you deploy
the access control policy.
You can add any combination of the following port configurations to a variable:

391
Advanced Variables
• any combination of port variables and port objects that you select from the list of available ports
Note that the list of available ports does not display port object groups, and you cannot add these to
variables.
• individual port objects that you add from the New Variable or Edit Variable page, and can then add to
your variable and to other existing and future variables
Only TCP and UDP ports, including the value any for either type, are valid variable values. If you use
the new or edit variables page to add a valid port object that is not a valid variable value, the object is
added to the system but is not displayed in the list of available objects. When you use the object manager
to edit a port object that is used in a variable, you can only change its value to a valid variable value.
• single, literal port values and port ranges
You must separate port ranges with a dash (-). Port ranges indicated with a colon (:) are supported for
backward compatibility, but you cannot use a colon in port variables that you create.
You can list multiple literal port values and ranges by adding each individually in any combination.
Note the following points when adding or editing port variables:

• The default value for included ports in any variable you add is the word any, which indicates any port
or port range. The default value for excluded ports is none, which indicates no ports.
Tip To create a variable with the value any, name and save the variable without adding
a specific value.
• You cannot logically exclude the value any which, if excluded, would indicate no ports. For example,
you cannot save a variable set when you add a variable with the value any to the list of excluded ports.
• Adding ports to the excluded list negates the specified ports and port ranges. That is, you can match any
port with the exception of the excluded ports or port ranges.
• Excluded values must resolve to a subset of included values. For example, you cannot include the port
range 10-50 and exclude port 60.
Advanced Variables
Advanced variables allow you to configure features that you cannot otherwise configure via the web interface.
The Firepower System currently provides only only one advanced variable, the USER_CONF variable.
USER_CONF
USER_CONF provides a general tool that allows you to configure one or more features not otherwise available
via the web interface.
Caution Do not use the advanced variable USER_CONF to configure an intrusion policy feature unless you are
instructed to do so in the feature description or by Support. Conflicting or duplicate configurations will halt
the system.

392
Variable Reset
When editing USER_CONF, you can type up to 4096 total characters on a single line; the line wraps
automatically. You can include any number of valid instructions or lines until you reach the 8192 maximum
character length for a variable or a physical limit such as disk space. Use the backslash (\) line continuation
character after any complete argument in a command directive.
Resetting USER_CONF empties it.
Variable Reset
You can reset a variable to its default value on the variable set new or edit variables page. The following table
summarizes the basic principles of resetting variables.
Table 50: Variable Reset Values
Resetting this variable type... In this set type... Resets it to...
default default the rule update value
user-defined default any
default or user-defined custom the current default set value

(modified or unmodified)
Resetting a variable in a custom set simply resets it to the current value for that variable in the default set.
Conversely, resetting or modifying the value of a variable in the default set always updates the default value
of that variable in all custom sets. When the reset icon is grayed out, indicating that you cannot reset the
variable, this means that the variable has no customized value in that set. Unless you have customized the
value for a variable in a custom set, a change to the variable in the default set updates the value used in any
intrusion policy where you have linked the variable set.
Note It is good practice when you modify a variable in the default set to assess how the change affects any intrusion
policy that uses the variable in a linked custom set, especially when you have not customized the variable
value in the custom set.
You can hover your pointer over the reset icon ( ) in a variable set to see the reset value. When the customized
value and the reset value are the same, this indicates one of the following:
• you are in the custom or default set where you added the variable with the value any
• you are in the custom set where you added the variable with an explicit value and elected to use the
configured value as the default value
Adding Variables to Sets

Adding a variable to a variable set adds it to all other sets. When you add a variable from a custom set, you
must choose whether to use the configured value as the customized value in the default set:
• If you do use the configured value (for example, 192.168.0.0/16), the variable is added to the default set
using the configured value as a customized value with a default value of any. Because the current value
in the default set determines the default value in other sets, the initial, default value in other custom sets
is the configured value (which in the example is 192.168.0.0/16).

393
Example: Adding User-Defined Variables to Default Sets
• If you do not use the configured value, the variable is added to the default set using only the default
value any and, consequently, the initial, default value in other custom sets is any.
Example: Adding User-Defined Variables to Default Sets

The following diagram illustrates set interactions when you add the user-defined variable Var1 to the default
set with the value 192.168.1.0/24.
You can customize the value of Var1 in any set. In Custom Set 2 where Var1 has not been customized, its
value is 192.168.1.0/24. In Custom Set 1 the customized value 192.168.2.0/24 of Var1 overrides the default
value. Resetting a user-defined variable in the default set resets its default value to any in all sets.
It is important to note in this example that, if you do not update Var1 in Custom Set 2, further customizing or
resetting Var1 in the default set consequently updates the current, default value of Var1 in Custom Set 2,
thereby affecting any intrusion policy linked to the variable set.
Although not shown in the example, note that interactions between sets are the same for user-defined variables
and default variables except that resetting a default variable in the default set resets it to the value configured
by Cisco in the current rule update.
Example: Adding User-Defined Variables to Custom Sets

The next two examples illustrate variable set interactions when you add a user-defined variable to a custom
set. When you save the new variable, you are prompted whether to use the configured value as the default
value for other sets. In the following example, you elect to use the configured value.
Note that, except for the origin of Var1 from Custom Set 1, this example is identical to the example above
where you added Var1 to the default set. Adding the customized value 192.168.1.0/24 for Var1 to Custom
Set 1 copies the value to the default set as a customized value with a default value of any. Thereafter, Var1
values and interactions are the same as if you had added Var1 to the default set. As with the previous example,
keep in mind that further customizing or resetting Var1 in the default set consequently updates the current,
default value of Var1 in Custom Set 2, thereby affecting any intrusion policy linked to the variable set.
In the next example, you add Var1 with the value 192.168.1.0/24 to Custom Set 1 as in the previous example,
but you elect not to use the configured value of Var1 as the default value in other sets.

394
Nesting Variables
This approach adds Var1 to all sets with a default value of any. After adding Var1, you can customize its
value in any set. An advantage of this approach is that, by not initially customizing Var1 in the default set,
you decrease your risk of customizing the value in the default set and thus inadvertently changing the current
value in a set such as Custom Set 2 where you have not customized Var1.
Nesting Variables
You can nest variables so long as the nesting is not circular. Nested, negated variables are not supported.
Valid Nested Variables

In this example, SMTP_SERVERS, HTTP_SERVERS, and OTHER_SERVERS are valid nested
variables.
Variable Type Included Networks Excluded Networks
SMTP_SERVERS customized default 10.1.1.1 —
HTTP_SERVERS customized default 10.1.1.2 —
OTHER_SERVERS user-defined 10.2.2.0/24 —
HOME_NET customized default 10.1.1.0/24 SMTP_SERVERS

OTHER_SERVERS HTTP_SERVERS
An Invalid Nested Variable

In this example, HOME_NET is an invalid nested variable because the nesting of HOME_NET is
circular; that is, the definition of OTHER_SERVERS includes HOME_NET, so you would be nesting
HOME_NET in itself.
SMTP_SERVERS customized default 10.1.1.1 —
HTTP_SERVERS customized default 10.1.1.2 —
OTHER_SERVERS user-defined 10.2.2.0/24 —

HOME_NET

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Nesting Variables
HOME_NET customized default 10.1.1.0/24 SMTP_SERVERS

OTHER_SERVERS HTTP_SERVERS
An Unsupported Nested, Negated Variable

Because nested, negated variables are not supported, you cannot use the variable NONCORE_NET
as shown in this example to represent IP addresses that are outside of your protected networks.
HOME_NET customized default 10.1.0.0/16 —

10.2.0.0/16
10.3.0.0/16
EXTERNAL_NET customized default — HOME_NET
DMZ_NET user-defined 10.4.0.0/16 —
NOT_DMZ_NET user-defined — DMZ_NET
NONCORE_NET user-defined EXTERNAL_NET —

NOT_DMZ_NET
Alternative to an Unsupported Nested, Negated Variable

As an alternative to the example above, you could represent IP addresses that are outside of your
protected networks by creating the variable NONCORE_NET as shown in this example.
HOME_NET customized default 10.1.0.0/16 —

10.2.0.0/16
10.3.0.0/16
DMZ_NET user-defined 10.4.0.0/16 —
NONCORE_NET user-defined — HOME_NET

DMZ_NET

396
Managing Variable Sets
Managing Variable Sets

Threat Protection Any Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Variable Set from the list of object types.
Step 3 Manage your variable sets:
• Add — If you want to add a custom variable set, click Add Variable Set; see Creating Variable Sets,
on page 397.
• Delete — If you want to delete a custom variable set, click the delete icon ( ) next to the variable set,
then click Yes. You cannot delete the default variable set or variable sets belonging to ancestor domains.
Note Variables created in a variable set you delete are not deleted or otherwise affected in other sets.
• Edit — If you want to edit a variable set, click the edit icon ( ) next to the variable set you want to
modify; see Editing Objects, on page 368.
• Filter — If you want to filter variable sets by name, begin entering a name; as you type, the page refreshes
to display matching names. If you want to clear name filtering, click the clear icon ( ) in the filter field.
• Manage Variables — To manage the variables included in variable sets, see Managing Variables, on
page 398.
Creating Variable Sets


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure


397
Managing Variables
Step 3 Click Add Variable Set.


Step 6 Manage the variables in the set; see Managing Variables, on page 398.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
Managing Variables

Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the variable set you want to edit.
If a view icon ( ) appears instead, the configuration belongs to an ancestor domain, or you do not have
permission to modify the configuration.
Step 4 Manage your variables:

• Display — If you want to display the complete value for a variable, hover your pointer over the value
in the Value column next to the variable.
• Add — If you want to add a variable, click Add; see Adding Variables, on page 399.
• Delete — Click the delete icon ( ) next to the variable. If you have saved the variable set since adding
the variable, click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the variable.
You cannot delete the following:
• default variables

398
Adding Variables
• user-defined variables that are used by intrusion rules or other variables

• variables belonging to ancestor domains
• Edit — Click the edit icon ( ) next to the variable you want to edit; see Editing Variables, on page 400.
• Reset — If you want to reset a modified variable to its default value, click the reset icon ( ) next to a
modified variable. If the reset icon is dimmed, one of the following is true:
• The current value is already the default value.
• The configuration belongs to an ancestor domain.
Tip Hover your pointer over an active reset icon to display the default value.
Step 5 Click Save to save the variable set. If the variable set is in use by an access control policy, click Yes to confirm
that you want to save your changes.
Because the current value in the default set determines the default value in all other sets, modifying or resetting
a variable in the default set changes the current value in other sets where you have not customized the default
value.
What to do next
Adding Variables

Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 1 In the variable set editor, click Add.

Step 2 Enter a unique variable Name.
Step 3 From the Type drop-down list, choose either Network or Port.
Step 4 Specify values for the variable:
• If you want to move items from the list of available networks or ports to the list of included or excluded
items, you can choose one or more items and then drag and drop, or click Include or Exclude.
Tip If addresses or ports in the included and excluded lists for a network or port variable overlap,
excluded addresses or ports take precedence.

399
Editing Variables
• Enter a single literal value, then click Add. For network variables, you can enter a single IP address or
address block. For port variables you can add a single port or port range, separating the upper and lower
values with a hyphen (-). Repeat this step as needed to enter multiple literal values.
• If you want to remove an item from the included or excluded lists, click the delete icon ( ) next to the
item.
Note The list of items to include or exclude can be comprised of any combination of literal strings and
existing variables, objects, and network object groups in the case of network variables.
Step 5 Click Save to save the variable. If you are adding a new variable from a custom set, you have the following
options:
• Click Yes to add the variable using the configured value as the customized value in the default set and,
consequently, the default value in other custom sets.
• Click No to add the variable as the default value of any in the default set and, consequently, in other
custom sets.
Step 6 Click Save to save the variable set. Your changes are saved, and any access control policy the variable set is
linked to displays an out-of-date status.
What to do next
Editing Variables

Admin/Network
Admin
You can edit both custom and default variables.
You cannot change the Name or Type values in an existing variable.
Procedure
Step 1 In the variable set editor, click the edit icon ( ) next to the variable you want to modify.
If a view icon ( ) appears instead, the object belongs to an ancestor domain, or you do not have permission
to modify the object.
Step 2 Modify the variable:

400
Security Intelligence Lists and Feeds
• If you want to move items from the list of available networks or ports to the list of included or excluded
items, you can select one or more items and then drag and drop, or click Include or Exclude.
Tip If addresses or ports in the included and excluded lists for a network or port variable overlap,
excluded addresses or ports take precedence.
• Enter a single literal value, then click Add. For network variables, you can enter a single IP address or
address block. For port variables you can add a single port or port range, separating the upper and lower
values with a hyphen (-). Repeat this step as needed to enter multiple literal values.
• If you want to remove an item from the included or excluded lists, click the delete icon next to the
item.
Note The list of items to include or exclude can be comprised of any combination of literal strings and
existing variables, objects, and network object groups in the case of network variables.
Step 3 Click Save to save the variable.

Step 4 Click Save to save the variable set. If the variable set is in use by an access control policy, click Yes to confirm
that you want to save your changes. Your changes are saved, and any access control policy the variable set
is linked to displays an out-of-date status.
What to do next
Security Intelligence Lists and Feeds

Security Intelligence lists and feeds help you quickly filter traffic by collecting:
• IP address and address blocks—Use in access control policies to blacklist and whitelist as part of Security
Intelligence.
• Domain Names—Use in DNS policies to blacklist and whitelist as part of Security Intelligence.
• URLs—Use in access control policies to blacklist and whitelist as part of Security Intelligence. You can
also use URL lists in access control and QoS rules, whose analysis and traffic handling phases occur
after Security Intelligence.
Lists
A list is a static collection that you manage manually.
By default, access control and DNS policies use Global blacklists and whitelists as part of Security Intelligence.
Whitelist Now and Blacklist Now actions allow you to build and implement these lists; see Blacklist Now,
Whitelist Now, and Global Lists, on page 403.
Custom lists can augment and fine-tune feeds and the Global lists.

401
Security Intelligence Object Quick Reference
Feeds
A feed is a dynamic collection that updates on an interval over HTTP or HTTPS.
The regularly updated Cisco Intelligence Feed allows you to filter network traffic based on the latest threat
intelligence from Talos. You can also use third-party feeds. Or, with a custom internal feed, you could easily
maintain an enterprise-wide blacklist in a large deployment with multiple Firepower Management Center
appliances.
If you want strict control over when the system updates a feed from the Internet, you can disable automatic
updates for that feed. However, automatic updates ensure the most up-to-date, relevant data.
Note The system does not perform peer SSL certificate verification when downloading custom feeds, nor does the
system support the use of certificate bundles or self-signed certificates to verify the remote peer.
List and Feed Formatting

Each list or feed must be a simple text file no larger than 500MB. List files must have the .txt extension.
Include one entry or comment per line: one IP address, one URL, one domain name.
Tip The number of entries you can include is limited by the maximum size of the file. For example, a URL list
with no comments and an average URL length of 100 characters (including Punycode or percent Unicode
representations and newlines) can contain more than 5.24 million entries.
In a DNS list entry, you can specify an asterisk (*) wildcard character for a domain label. All labels match
the wildcard. For example, an entry of www.example.* matches both www.example.com and www.example.co.
If you add comment lines within the source file, they must start with the pound (#) character. If you upload
a source file with comments, the system removes your comments during upload. Source files you download
contain all your entries without your comments.
List and Feed Updates

List and feed updates replace the existing list or feed file with the contents of the new file. Contents of existing
and new files are not merged.
If the system downloads a corrupt feed or a feed with no recognizable entries, the system continues using the
old feed data (unless it is the first download). However, if the system can recognize even one entry in the
feed, it uses the entries it can recognize.
Security Intelligence Object Quick Reference

Object Type Edit Capabilities Requires Redeploy After Edit?
Default (but custom-populated) Add entries using the context menu. No after adding entries.
whitelists and blacklists: Global,
Delete entries using the object Yes after deleting entries.
descendant, and domain-specific
manager.

402
Blacklist Now, Whitelist Now, and Global Lists
Object Type Edit Capabilities Requires Redeploy After Edit?
Custom whitelists and blacklists Upload new and replacement lists Yes
using the object manager.
System-provided Intelligence Feeds Disable or change update frequency No

using the object manager.
Custom feeds Fully modify using the object No

manager.
Sinkhole Fully modify using the object Yes

manager.
Blacklist Now, Whitelist Now, and Global Lists

The Firepower Management Center context menu (see The Context Menu, on page 29) allows you to quickly
blacklist and whitelist with Security Intelligence. For example, if you notice a set of routable IP addresses in
intrusion events associated with exploit attempts, you can immediately blacklist those IP addresses. Although
it may take a few minutes for your changes to propagate, you do not have to redeploy.
Blacklist Now and Whitelist Now context-menu options are available on IP address, URL, and DNS request
hotspots. Blacklisting or whitelisting with the context menu adds the chosen item to the appropriate default
Global list. By default, Access control and DNS policies use these Global lists, which apply to all security
zones. You can opt not to use these lists on a per-policy basis.
Note These options apply to Security Intelligence only. Security Intelligence cannot blacklist traffic that has already
been fastpathed. Similarly, Security Intelligence whitelisting does not automatically trust or fastpath matching
traffic. For more information, see About Security Intelligence, on page 1295.
Context Menu Option Target Item Affected Global Lists
Blacklist Now An IP address Global Blacklist

Whitelist Now Global Whitelist
Blacklist HTTP/S Connections to URL Now A URL Global Blacklist for URL
Whitelist HTTP/S Connections to URL Now Global Whitelist for URL
Blacklist HTTP/S Connections to Domain An entire domain Global Blacklist for URL
Now
Global Whitelist for URL
Whitelist HTTP/S Connections to Domain
Now
Blacklist DNS Requests to Domain Now DNS requests for an entire Global Blacklist for DNS
domain
Whitelist DNS Requests to Domain Now Global Whitelist for DNS

403
Security Intelligence Lists and Multitenancy
In a multidomain deployment, you can choose the Firepower System domains where you want to enforce the
blacklisting or whitelisting by adding items to Domain lists as well as the Global lists; see Security Intelligence
Lists and Multitenancy, on page 404.
Because adding an entry to a Security Intelligence list affects access control, you must have one of:
• Administrator access
• A combination of default roles: Network Admin or Access Admin, plus Security Analyst and Security
Approver
• A custom role with both Modify Access Control Policy and Deploy Configuration to Devices permissions
Security Intelligence Lists and Multitenancy

In a multidomain deployment, the Global domain owns the Global blacklists and whitelists. Only Global
administrators can add to or remove items from the Global lists. So that subdomain users can whitelist and
blacklist networks, domain names, and URLs, multitenancy adds:
• Domain lists—Whitelists or blacklists whose contents apply to a particular subdomain only. The Global
lists are Domain lists for the Global domain.
• Descendant Domain lists—Whitelists or blacklists that aggregate the Domain lists of the current domain’s
descendants.
Domain Lists
In addition to being able to access (but not edit) the Global lists, each subdomain has its own named lists, the
contents of which apply only to that subdomain. For example, a subdomain named Company A owns:
• Domain Blacklist - Company A and Domain Whitelist - Company A
• Domain Blacklist for DNS - Company A, Domain Whitelist for DNS - Company A
• Domain Blacklist for URL - Company A, Domain Whitelist for URL - Company A
Any administrator at or above the current domain can populate these lists. You can use the context menu to
whitelist or blacklist an item in the current and all descendant domains. However, only an administrator in
the associated domain can remove an item from a Domain list.
For example, a Global administrator could choose to blacklist the same IP address in the Global domain and
Company A’s domain, but not blacklist it in Company B’s domain. This action would add the same IP address
to:
• Global Blacklist (where it can be removed only by Global administrators)
• Domain Blacklist - Company A (where it can be removed only by Company A administrators)
IP addresses to constrain this configuration can have unexpected results.
Descendant Domain Lists

A Descendant Domain list is a whitelist or blacklist that aggregates the Domain lists of the current domain’s
descendants. Leaf domains do not have Descendant Domain lists.

404
Changing the Update Frequency for Security Intelligence Feeds
Descendant Domain lists are useful because a higher-level domain administrator can enforce general Security
Intelligence settings, while still allowing subdomain users to blacklist and whitelist items in their own
deployment.
For example, the Global domain has the following Descendant Domain lists:
• Descendant Blacklists - Global, Descendant Whitelists - Global
• Descendant Blacklists for URL - Global, Descendant Whitelists for URL - Global
• Descendant Blacklists for URL - Global, Descendant Whitelists for URL - Global
Note Descendant Domain lists do not appear in the object manager because they are symbolic aggregations, not
hand-populated lists. They appear where you can use them: in access control and DNS policies.
Changing the Update Frequency for Security Intelligence Feeds


Admin/Network
Admin
By default, each feed updates the Management Center every two hours. You cannot delete the system-provided
feeds, but you can change the frequency of (or disable) their updates.
In a multidomain deployment, the system-provided feeds belong to the Global domain and can be modified
only by an administrator in that domain. You can modify the update frequency for custom feeds belonging
to your domain.
Note The Management Center pushes Security Intelligence updates to managed devices every 30 minutes. You
cannot modify this frequency.
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the Security Intelligence node, then choose the feed type whose frequency you want to change.
Step 3 Next to the feed you want to update, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Edit the Update Frequency.

Step 5 Click Save.

405
Custom Security Intelligence Feeds
Custom Security Intelligence Feeds

Custom or third-party Security Intelligence feeds allow you to augment the system-provided Intelligence
Feeds with other regularly-updated reputable whitelists and blacklists on the Internet. You can also set up an
internal feed, which is useful if you want to update multiple Firepower Management Centers in your deployment
using one source list.
Note You cannot whitelist or blacklist address blocks using a /0 netmask in a Security Intelligence feed. If you
want to monitor or block all traffic targeted by a policy, use an access control rule with the Monitor or Block
rule action, respectively, and a default value of any for the Source Networks and Destination Networks.
When you configure a feed, you specify its location using a URL; the URL cannot be Punycode-encoded. By
default, the system downloads the entire feed source on the interval you configure, then automatically updates
its managed devices.
You also can configure the system to use an md5 checksum to determine whether to download an updated
feed. If the checksum has not changed since the last time the system downloaded the feed, the system does
not need to re-download it. You may want to use md5 checksums for internal feeds, especially if they are
large. The md5 checksum must be stored in a simple text file with only the checksum. Comments are not
supported.
Manually updating Security Intelligence feeds updates all feeds, including the Intelligence Feeds.
Creating Security Intelligence Feeds


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the Security Intelligence node, then choose a feed type you want to add.
Step 3 Click the option appropriate to the feed type you chose above:
• Add Network Lists and Feeds (for IP addresses)
• Add DNS Lists and Feeds
• Add URL Lists and Feeds
Step 4 Enter a Name for the feed.

Step 5 Choose Feed from the Type drop-down list.

Step 6 Enter a Feed URL.
Step 7 Optionally, enter an MD5 URL.

406
Manually Updating Security Intelligence Feeds
Step 8 Choose an Update Frequency.

Step 9 Click Save.
Unless you disabled feed updates, the system attempts to download and verify the feed.
Manually Updating Security Intelligence Feeds

Threat (Security Protection (Security Any Any Admin/Access

Intelligence) Intelligence) Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the Security Intelligence node, then choose a feed type.
Step 3 Click Update Feeds, then confirm.
Step 4 Click OK.
After the Firepower Management Center downloads and verifies the feed updates, it communicates any changes
to its managed devices. Your deployment begins filtering traffic using the updated feeds.
Custom Security Intelligence Lists

Security Intelligence lists are simple static lists of IP addresses and address blocks, URLs, or domain names
that you manually upload to the system. Custom lists are useful if you want to augment and fine-tune feeds
or one of the global lists, for a single Firepower Management Center’s managed devices.
For example, if a reputable feed improperly blocks your access to vital resources but is overall useful to your
organization, you can create a custom whitelist that contains only the improperly classified IP addresses, rather
than removing the IP address feed object from the access control policy’s blacklist.
Note You cannot whitelist or blacklist address blocks using a /0 netmask in a Security Intelligence list. If you want
to monitor or block all traffic targeted by a policy, use an access control rule with the Monitor or Block rule
action, respectively, and a default value of any for the Source Networks and Destination Networks.
Regarding list entry formatting, note the following:

• Netmasks for address blocks can be integers from 0 to 32 or 0 to 128, for IPv4 and IPv6, respectively.
• Unicode in domain names must be encoded in Punycode format, and are case insensitive.
• Characters in domain names are case-insensitive.
• Unicode in URLs should be encoded in percent-encoding format.

407
Uploading New Security Intelligence Lists to the Firepower Management Center
• Characters in URL subdirectories are case-sensitive.

• List entries that start with the pound sign (#) are treated as comments.
Regarding matching list entries, note the following:

• The system matches sub-level domains if a higher-level domain exists in a URL or DNS list. For example,
if you add example.com to a DNS list, the system matches both www.example.com and test.example.com.
• The system does not perform DNS lookups (forward or reverse) on DNS or URL list entries. For example,
if you add http://192.168.0.2 to a URL list, and it resolves to http://www.example.com, the system
only matches http://192.168.0.2, not http://www.example.com.
• If you add a URL ending in a forward slash (/) character to a URL list, only exact URLs match that entry.
• If you add a URL that does not end in a forward slash to a URL or DNS list, any URL that shares the
same common prefix matches that entry. For example, if you add www.example.com to a URL list, the
system matches both www.example.com and www.example.com/example.
Uploading New Security Intelligence Lists to the Firepower Management Center


Admin/Network
Admin
To modify a Security Intelligence list, you must make your changes to the source file and upload a new copy.
You cannot modify the file’s contents using the web interface. If you do not have access to the source file,
download a copy from the system.
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the Security Intelligence node, then choose a list type.
Step 3 Click the option appropriate to the list you chose above:
• Add Network Lists and Feeds (for IP addresses)
• Add DNS Lists and Feeds
• Add URL Lists and Feeds

Step 5 From the Type drop-down list, choose List.

Step 6 Click Browse to browse to the list .txt file, then click Upload.
Step 7 Click Save.

408
Updating Security Intelligence Lists
What to do next
Updating Security Intelligence Lists


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the Security Intelligence node, then choose a list type.
Step 3 Next to the list you want to update, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 If you need a copy of the list to edit, click Download, then follow your browser’s prompts to save the list as
a text file.
Step 5 Make changes to the list as necessary.
Step 6 On the Security Intelligence pop-up window, click Browse to browse to the modified list, then click Upload.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
Sinkhole Objects
A sinkhole object represents either a DNS server that gives non-routeable addresses for all domain names
within the sinkhole, or an IP address that does not resolve to a server. You can reference the sinkhole object
within a DNS policy rule to redirect matching traffic to the sinkhole. You must assign the object both an IPv4
address and an IPv6 address.

409
Creating Sinkhole Objects
Creating Sinkhole Objects


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Sinkhole from the list of object types.
Step 3 Click Add Sinkhole.
Step 5 Enter the IPv4 Address and IPv6 Address of your sinkhole.
• If you want to redirect traffic to a sinkhole server, choose Log Connections to Sinkhole.
• If you want to redirect traffic to a non-resolving IP address, choose Block and Log Connections to
Sinkhole.
Step 7 If you want to assign an Indication of Compromise (IoC) type to your sinkhole, choose one from the Type
drop-down.
Step 8 Click Save.
File Lists
If you use AMP for Networks, and the AMP cloud incorrectly identifies a file’s disposition, you can add the
file to a file list to better detect the file in the future. These files are specified using SHA-256 hash values.
Each file list can contain up to 10000 unique SHA-256 values.
There are two predefined categories of file lists:
Clean List
If you add a file to this list, the system treats it as if the AMP cloud assigned a clean disposition.
Custom Detection List
If you add a file to this list, the system treats it as if the AMP cloud assigned a malware disposition.
In a multidomain deployment, a clean list and custom detection list is present for each domain. In lower-level
domains, you can view but not modify ancestor's lists.

410
Source Files for File Lists
Because you manually specify the blocking behavior for the files included in these lists, the system does not
query the AMP cloud for these files’ dispositions. You must configure a rule in the file policy with either a
Malware Cloud Lookup or Block Malware action and a matching file type to calculate a file’s SHA value.
Caution Do not include malware on the clean list. The clean list overrides both the AMP cloud and the custom detection
list.
Source Files for File Lists

You can add multiple SHA-256 values to a file list by uploading a comma-separated value (CSV) source file
containing a list of SHA-256 values and descriptions. The Firepower Management Center validates the contents
and populates the file list with valid SHA-256 values.
The source file must be a simple text file with a .csv file name extension. Any header must start with a pound
sign (#); it is treated as a comment and not uploaded. Each entry should contain a single SHA-256 value
followed by a description and end with either the LF or CR+LF Newline character. The system ignores any
additional information in the entry.
Note the following:
• Deleting a source file from the file list also removes all associated SHA-256 hashes from the file list.
• You cannot upload multiple files to a file list if the successful source file upload results in the file list
containing more than 10000 distinct SHA-256 values.
• The system truncates descriptions exceeding 256 characters to the first 256 characters on upload. If the
description contains commas, you must use an escape character (\,). If no description is included, the
source file name is used instead.
• All non-duplicate SHA-256 values are added to the file list. If a file list contains a SHA-256 value, and
you upload a source file containing that value, the newly uploaded value does not modify the existing
SHA-256 value. When viewing captured files, file events, or malware events related to the SHA-256
value, any threat name or description is derived from the individual SHA-256 value.
• The system does not upload invalid SHA-256 values in a source file.
• If multiple uploaded source files contain an entry for the same SHA-256 value, the system uses the most
recent value.
• If a source file contains multiple entries for the same SHA-256 value, the system uses the last one.
• You cannot directly edit a source file within the object manager. To make changes, you must first modify
your source file directly, delete the copy on the system, then upload the modified source file.
• The number of entries associated with a source file refers to the number of distinct SHA-256 values. If
you delete a source file from a file list, the total number of SHA-256 entries the file list contains decreases
by the number of valid entries in the source file.

411
Adding Individual SHA-256 Values to File Lists
Adding Individual SHA-256 Values to File Lists

Malware Malware Firepower Any Admin/Network

Admin/Access
Admin
You can submit a file’s SHA-256 value to add it to a file list. You cannot add duplicate SHA-256 values.
Before you begin

• Right-click a file or malware event from the event view, choose Show Full Text in the context menu,
and copy the full SHA-256 value for pasting into the file list.
Procedure

Step 2 Choose File List from the list of object types.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the clean list or custom detection list where you want to add a file.
Step 4 Choose Enter SHA Value from the Add by drop-down list.
Step 5 Enter a description of the source file in the Description field.
Step 6 Enter or paste the file’s entire value in the SHA-256 field. The system does not support matching partial
values.
Step 7 Click Add.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Note After configuration changes are deployed, the system no longer queries the AMP cloud for files on the list.

412
Uploading Individual Files to File Lists
Uploading Individual Files to File Lists

Malware Malware Any Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
If you have a copy of the file you want to add to a file list, you can upload the file to the Firepower Management
Center for analysis; the system calculates the file’s SHA-256 value and adds the file to the list. The system
does not enforce a limit on the size of files for SHA-256 calculation.
Procedure

Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the clean list or custom detection list where you want to add a file.
Step 4 From the Add by drop-down list, choose Calculate SHA.

Step 5 Optionally, enter a description of the file in the Description field. If you do not enter a description, the file
name is used for the description on upload.
Step 6 Click Browse, and choose a file to upload.
Step 7 Click Calculate and Add SHA.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Note After you deploy configuration changes, the system no longer queries the AMP cloud for files on the list.

413
Uploading Source Files to File Lists
Uploading Source Files to File Lists


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Click File List.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the file list where you want to add values from a source file.
Step 4 In the Add by drop-down list, choose List of SHAs.

Step 5 Optionally, enter a description of the source file in the Description field. If you do not enter a description,
the system uses the file name.
Step 6 Click Browse to browse to the source file, then click Upload and Add List.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
Note After you deploy the policies, the system no longer queries the AMP cloud for files on the list.
Editing SHA-256 Values in File Lists


Admin/Network
Admin

414
Downloading Source Files from File Lists
You can edit or delete individual SHA-256 values on a file list. Note that you cannot directly edit a source
file within the object manager. To make changes, you must first modify your source file directly, delete the
copy on the system, then upload the modified source file.
Procedure

Step 2 Click File List.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the clean list or custom detection list where you want to modify a file.
Step 4 You can:
• Click the edit icon ( ) next to the SHA-256 value you want to change, and modify the SHA-256 or
Description values as desired.
• Click the delete icon ( ) next to the SHA-256 value you want to delete.
Step 5 Click Save to update the file entry in the list.

Step 6 Click Save to save the file list.
What to do next
Note After configuration changes are deployed, the system no longer queries the AMP cloud for files on the list.
Downloading Source Files from File Lists


Admin/Network
Admin

415
Cipher Suite Lists
Procedure

Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the clean list or custom detection list where you want to download a source
file.
Step 4 Next to the source file you want to download, click the view icon ( ).
Step 5 Click Download SHA List and follow the prompts to save the source file.
Step 6 Click Close.
Cipher Suite Lists

A cipher suite list is an object comprised of several cipher suites. Each predefined cipher suite value represents
a cipher suite used to negotiate an SSL- or TLS-encrypted session. You can use cipher suites and cipher suite
lists in SSL rules to control encrypted traffic based on whether the client and server negotiated the SSL session
using that cipher suite. If you add a cipher suite list to an SSL rule, SSL sessions negotiated with any of the
cipher suites in the list match the rule.
Note Although you can use cipher suites in the web interface in the same places as cipher suite lists, you cannot
add, modify, or delete cipher suites.
Creating Cipher Suite Lists

Any Any Any except NGIPSv Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Cipher Suite List from the list of object types.
Step 3 Click Add Cipher Suites.

416
Distinguished Name Objects
Step 5 Choose one or more cipher suites from the Available Ciphers list.
Step 6 Click Add.
Step 7 Optionally, click the delete icon ( ) next to any cipher suites in the Selected Ciphers list that you want to
remove.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Distinguished Name Objects

Each distinguished name object represents the distinguished name listed for a public key certificate’s subject
or issuer. You can use distinguished name objects and groups in SSL rules to control encrypted traffic based
on whether the client and server negotiated the SSL session using a server certificate with the distinguished
name as subject or issuer.
Your distinguished name object can contain the common name attribute (CN). If you add a common name
without “CN=” then the system prepends “CN=” before saving the object.
You can also add a distinguished name with one of each attribute listed in the following table, separated by
commas.
Table 51: Distinguished Name Attributes
Attribute Description Allowed Values
C Country Code two alphabetic characters
CN Common Name up to 64 alphanumeric, backslash

(/), hyphen (-), quotation ("), or
asterisk (*) characters, or spaces
O Organization up to 64 alphanumeric, backslash

OU Organizational Unit up to 64 alphanumeric, backslash

You can define one or more asterisks (*) as wild cards in an attribute. In a common name attribute, you can
define one or more asterisks per domain name label. Wild cards match only within that label, though you can
define multiple labels with wild cards. See the following table for examples.

417
Creating Distinguished Name Objects
Table 52: Common Name Attribute Wild Card Examples
Attribute Matches Does Not Match
CN=”*ample.com” example.com mail.example.com

example.text.com
ampleexam.com
CN=”exam*.com” example.com mail.example.com

example.text.com
ampleexam.com
CN=”*xamp*.com” example.com mail.example.com

example.text.com
ampleexam.com
CN=”*.example.com” mail.example.com example.com

example.text.com
ampleexam.com
CN=”*.com” example.com mail.example.com

ampleexam.com example.text.com
CN=”*.*.com” mail.example.com example.com

example.text.com ampleexam.com
Creating Distinguished Name Objects


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the Distinguished Name node, and choose Individual Objects.
Step 3 Click Add Distinguished Name.
Step 5 In the DN field, enter a value for the distinguished name or common name. You have the following options:

418
PKI Objects
• If you add a distinguished name, you can include one of each attribute listed in Distinguished Name
Objects, on page 417 separated by commas.
• If you add a common name, you can include multiple labels and wild cards.
Step 6 Click Save.
What to do next
PKI Objects
PKI Objects for SSL Application
PKI objects represent the public key certificates and paired private keys required to support your deployment.
Internal and trusted CA objects consist of certificate authority (CA) certificates; internal CA objects also
contain the private key paired with the certificate. Internal and external certificate objects consist of server
certificates; internal certificate objects also contain the private key paired with the certificate.
If you use trusted certificate authority objects and internal certificate objects to configure a connection to
ISE/ISE-PIC, you can use ISE/ISE-PIC as an identity source.
If you use internal certificate objects to configure captive portal, the system can authenticate the identity of
your captive portal device when connecting to users' web browsers.
If you use trusted certificate authority objects to configure realms, you can configure secure connections to
LDAP or AD servers.
If you use PKI objects in SSL rules, you can match traffic encrypted with:
• the certificate in an external certificate object
• a certificate either signed by the CA in a trusted CA object, or within the CA’s chain of trust
If you use PKI objects in SSL rules, you can decrypt:

• outgoing traffic by re-signing the server certificate with an internal CA object
• incoming traffic using the known private key in an internal certificate object
You can manually input certificate and key information, upload a file containing that information, or in some
cases, generate a new CA certificate and private key.
When you view a list of PKI objects in the object manager, the system displays the certificate’s Subject
distinguished name as the object value. Hover your pointer over the value to view the full certificate Subject
distinguished name. To view other certificate details, edit the PKI object.

419
Internal Certificate Authority Objects
Note The Firepower Management Center and managed devices encrypt all private keys stored in internal CA objects
and internal certificate objects with a randomly generated key before saving them. If you upload private keys
that are password protected, the appliance decrypts the key using the user-supplied password, then reencrypts
it with the randomly generated key before saving it.
PKI Objects for Certificate Enrollment

A certificate enrollment object contains the Certification Authority (CA) server information and enrollment
parameters that are required for creating Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs) and obtaining Identity Certificates
from the specified CA. These activities occur in your Private Key Infrastructure (PKI).
The certificate enrollment object may also includes certificate revocation information. For more information
on PKI, digital certificates, and certificate enrollment see PKI Infrastructure and Digital Certificates , on page
820.
Internal Certificate Authority Objects

Each internal certificate authority (CA) object you configure represents the CA public key certificate of a CA
your organization controls. The object consists of the object name, CA certificate, and paired private key.
You can use internal CA objects and groups in SSL rules to decrypt outgoing encrypted traffic by re-signing
the server certificate with the internal CA.
Note If you reference an internal CA object in a Decrypt - Resign SSL rule and the rule matches an encrypted
session, the user’s browser may warn that the certificate is not trusted while negotiating the SSL handshake.
To avoid this, add the internal CA object certificate to either the client or domain list of trusted root certificates.
You can create an internal CA object in the following ways:

• import an existing RSA-based or elliptic curve-based CA certificate and private key
• generate a new self-signed RSA-based CA certificate and private key
• generate an unsigned RSA-based CA certificate and private key. You must submit a certificate signing
request (CSR) to another CA to sign the certificate before using the internal CA object.
After you create an internal CA object containing a signed certificate, you can download the CA certificate
and private key. The system encrypts downloaded certificates and private keys with a user-provided password.
Whether system-generated or user-created, you can modify the internal CA object name, but cannot modify
other object properties.
You cannot delete an internal CA object that is in use. Additionally, after you edit an internal CA object used
in an SSL policy, the associated access control policy goes out-of-date. You must re-deploy the access control
policy for your changes to take effect.
CA Certificate and Private Key Import

You can configure an internal CA object by importing an X.509 v3 CA certificate and private key. You can
upload files encoded in one of the following supported formats:

420
Importing a CA Certificate and Private Key
• Distinguished Encoding Rules (DER)

• Privacy-enhanced Electronic Mail (PEM)
If the private key file is password-protected, you can supply the decryption password. If the certificate and
key are encoded in the PEM format, you can also copy and paste the information.
You can upload only files that contain proper certificate or key information, and that are paired with each
other. The system validates the pair before saving the object.
Note If you configure a rule with the Decrypt - Resign action, the rule matches traffic based on the referenced
internal CA certificate’s encryption algorithm type, in addition to any configured rule conditions. You must
upload an elliptic curve-based CA certificate to decrypt outgoing traffic encrypted with an elliptic curve-based
algorithm, for example.
Importing a CA Certificate and Private Key


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the PKI node, and choose Internal CAs.
Step 3 Click Import CA.
Step 5 Above the Certificate Data field, click Browse to upload a DER or PEM-encoded X.509 v3 CA certificate
file.
Step 6 Above the Key field, click Browse to upload a DER or PEM-encoded paired private key file.
Step 7 If the uploaded file is password-protected, check the Encrypted, and the password is: check box, and enter
the password.
Step 8 Click Save.

421
Generating a New CA Certificate and Private Key
What to do next
Generating a New CA Certificate and Private Key


Admin/Network
Admin
You can configure an internal CA object by providing identification information to generate a self-signed
RSA-based CA certificate and private key.
The generated CA certificate is valid for ten years. The Valid From date is a week before generation.
Procedure

Step 3 Click Generate CA.
Step 5 Enter the identification attributes.

Step 6 Click Generate self-signed CA.
New Signed Certificates

You can configure an internal CA object by obtaining a signed certificate from a CA. This involves two steps:
• Provide identification information to configure the internal CA object. This generates an unsigned
certificate and paired private key, and creates a certificate signing request (CSR) to a CA you specify.
• After the CA issues the signed certificate, upload it to the internal CA object, replacing the unsigned
certificate.
You can only reference an internal CA object in an SSL rule if it contains a signed certificate.

422
Creating an Unsigned CA Certificate and CSR
Creating an Unsigned CA Certificate and CSR


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 3 Click Generate CA.
Step 5 Enter the identification attributes.

Step 6 Click Generate CSR.
Step 7 Copy the CSR to submit to a CA.
Step 8 Click OK.
What to do next
• You must upload a signed certificate issued by a CA as described in Uploading a Signed Certificate
Issued in Response to a CSR, on page 423
Uploading a Signed Certificate Issued in Response to a CSR


Admin/Network
Admin
Once uploaded, the signed certificate can be referenced in SSL rules.
Procedure


423
CA Certificate and Private Key Downloads
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the CA object containing the unsigned certificate awaiting the CSR.
Step 4 Click Install Certificate.
Step 5 Click Browse to upload a DER or PEM-encoded X.509 v3 CA certificate file.
Step 6 If the uploaded file is password protected, check the Encrypted, and the password is: check box, and enter
the password.
Step 7 Click Save to upload a signed certificate to the CA object.
What to do next
CA Certificate and Private Key Downloads

You can back up or transfer a CA certificate and paired private key by downloading a file containing the
certificate and key information from an internal CA object.
Caution Always store downloaded key information in a secure location.
The system encrypts the private key stored in an internal CA object with a randomly generated key before
saving it to disk. If you download a certificate and private key from an internal CA object, the system first
decrypts the information before creating a file containing the certificate and private key information. You
must then provide a password the system uses to encrypt the downloaded file.
Caution Private keys downloaded as part of a system backup are decrypted, then stored in the unencrypted backup
file.
Downloading a CA Certificate and Private Key


Admin/Network
Admin
You can download CA certificates for both the current domain and ancestor domains.
Procedure

424
Trusted Certificate Authority Objects

Step 3 Next to the internal CA object whose certificate and private key you want to download, click the edit icon
( ).
In a multidomain deployment, click the view icon ( ) to download the certificate and private key for an
object in an ancestor domain.
Step 4 Click Download.

Step 5 Enter an encryption password in the Password and Confirm Password fields.
Step 6 Click OK.
Trusted Certificate Authority Objects

Each trusted certificate authority (CA) object you configure represents a CA public key certificate belonging
to a trusted CA. The object consists of the object name and CA public key certificate. You can use external
CA objects and groups in:
• your SSL policy to control traffic encrypted with a certificate signed either by the trusted CA, or any CA
within the chain of trust.
• your realm configurations to establish secure connections to LDAP or AD servers.
• your ISE/ISE-PIC connection. Select trusted certificate authority objects for the pxGrid Server CA and
MNT Server CA fields.
After you create the trusted CA object, you can modify the name and add certificate revocation lists (CRL),
but cannot modify other object properties. There is no limit on the number of CRLs you can add to an object.
If you want to modify a CRL you have uploaded to an object, you must delete the object and recreate it.
Note Adding a CRL to an object has no effect when the object is used in your ISE/ISE-PIC integration configuration.
You cannot delete a trusted CA object that is in use. Additionally, after you edit a trusted CA object that is in
use, the associated access control policy goes out-of-date. You must re-deploy the access control policy for
your changes to take effect.
Trusted CA Object
You can configure an external CA object by uploading an X.509 v3 CA certificate. You can upload a file
encoded in one of the following supported formats:
If the file is password-protected, you must supply the decryption password. If the certificate is encoded in the
PEM format, you can also copy and paste the information.
You can upload a CA certificate only if the file contains proper certificate information; the system validates
the certificate before saving the object.

425
Adding a Trusted CA Object
Adding a Trusted CA Object


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the PKI node, and choose Trusted CAs.
Step 3 Click Add Trusted CAs.
Step 5 Click Browse to upload a DER or PEM-encoded X.509 v3 CA certificate file.

Step 6 If the file is password-protected, check the Encrypted, and the password is: check box, and enter the
password.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
Certificate Revocation Lists in Trusted CA Objects

You can upload CRLs to a trusted CA object. If you reference that trusted CA object in an SSL policy, you
can control encrypted traffic based on whether the CA that issued the session encryption certificate subsequently
revoked the certificate. You can upload files encoded in one of the following supported formats:
After you add the CRL, you can view the list of revoked certificates. If you want to modify a CRL you have
uploaded to an object, you must delete the object and recreate it.
You can upload only files that contain a proper CRL. There is no limit to the number of CRLs you can add
to a trusted CA object. However, you must save the object each time you upload a CRL, before adding another
CRL.

426
Adding a Certificate Revocation List to a Trusted CA Object
Adding a Certificate Revocation List to a Trusted CA Object


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the PKI node, and choose Trusted CAs.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to a trusted CA object.
Step 4 Click Add CRL to upload a DER or PEM-encoded CRL file.

Step 5 Click OK.
What to do next
External Certificate Objects

Each external certificate object you configure represents a server public key certificate that does not belong
to your organization. The object consists of the object name and certificate. You can use external certificate
objects and groups in SSL rules to control traffic encrypted with the server certificate. For example, you can
upload a self-signed server certificate that you trust, but cannot verify with a trusted CA certificate.
You can configure an external certificate object by uploading an X.509 v3 server certificate. You can upload
a file in one of the following supported formats:

427
Adding External Certificate Objects
You can upload only files that contains proper server certificate information; the system validates the file
before saving the object. If the certificate is encoded in the PEM format, you can also copy and paste the
information.
Adding External Certificate Objects


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the PKI node, and choose External Certs.
Step 3 Click Add External Cert.
Step 5 Above the Certificate Data field, click Browse to upload a DER or PEM-encoded X.509 v3 server certificate
file.
Step 6 Click Save.
What to do next
Internal Certificate Objects

Each internal certificate object you configure represents a server public key certificate belonging to your
organization. The object consists of the object name, public key certificate, and paired private key. You can
use internal certificate objects and groups in:
• your SSL rules to decrypt traffic incoming to one of your organization’s servers using the known private
key.
• your ISE/ISE-PIC connection. Select an internal certificate object for the MC Server Certificate field.
• your captive portal configuration to authenticate the identity of your captive portal device when connecting
to users' web browsers. Select an internal certificate object for the Server Certificate field.
You can configure an internal certificate object by uploading an X.509 v3 RSA-based or elliptic curve-based
server certificate and paired private key. You can upload a file in one of the following supported formats:

428
Adding Internal Certificate Objects
If the file is password-protected, you must supply the decryption password. If the certificate and key are
encoded in the PEM format, you can also copy and paste the information.
You can upload only files that contain proper certificate or key information, and that are paired with each
other. The system validates the pair before saving the object.
After you create the internal certificate object, you can modify the name, but cannot modify other object
properties.
You cannot delete an internal certificate object that is in use. Additionally, after you edit an internal certificate
object that is in use, the associated access control policy goes out-of-date. You must re-deploy the access
control policy for your changes to take effect.
Adding Internal Certificate Objects


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Expand the PKI node, and choose Internal Certs.
Step 3 Click Add Internal Cert.
Step 5 Above the Certificate Data field, click Browse to upload a DER or PEM-encoded X.509 v3 server certificate
file.
Step 6 Above the Key field, or click Browse to upload a DER or PEM-encoded paired private key file.
Step 7 If the uploaded private key file is password-protected, check the Encrypted, and the password is: check
box, and enter the password.
Step 8 Click Save.
Certificate Enrollment Objects

Trustpoints let you manage and track CAs and certificates. A trustpoint is a representation of a CA or identity
pair. A trustpoint includes the identity of the CA, CA-specific configuration parameters, and an association
with one, enrolled identity certificate.
A certificate enrollment object contains the Certification Authority (CA) server information and enrollment
parameters that are required for creating Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs) and obtaining Identity Certificates
from the specified CA. These activities occur in your Private Key Infrastructure (PKI).

429
Certificate Enrollment Objects
The certificate enrollment object may also includes certificate revocation information. For more information
on PKI, digital certificates, and certificate enrollment see PKI Infrastructure and Digital Certificates , on page
820.
How to Use Certificate Enrollment Objects

Certificate Enrollment Objects are used to enroll your managed devices into your PKI infrastructure, and
create trustpoints (CA objects) on devices that support VPN connections by doing the following:
1. Define parameters for CA authentication and enrollment in a Certificate Enrollment Object. Specify shared
parameters and use the override facility to specify unique object setting for different devices.
2. Associate and install this object on each managed device that requires the identity certificate. On the
device, it becomes a trustpoint.
When a certificate enrollment object is associated with and then installed on a device, the process of
certificate enrollment starts immediately. The process is automatic for self-signed, SCEP, and PKCS12
file enrollment types, meaning it does not require any additional administrator action. Manual certificate
enrollment requires extra administrator action.
3. Specify the created trustpoint in your VPN configuration.
Managing Certificate Enrollment Objects

To manage certificate enrollment objects, go to Objects > Object Management, then from the navigation
pane choose PKI > Cert Enrollment. The following information is shown:
• Existing certificate enrollment objects are listed in the Name column.
Use the search field (the magnifying glass) to filter the list.
• The enrollment type of each object is shown in the Type column. The following enrollment methods
can be used:
• Self Signed—The managed device generates its own self signed root certificate.
• SCEP—(Default) Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol is used by the device to obtain an identity
certificate from the CA.
• Manual—The process of enrolling is carried out manually by the administrator.
• PKCS12 File—Import a PKCS12 file on a Firepower Threat Defense managed device that supports
VPN connectivity. A PKCS#12, or PFX or P12 file holds the server certificate, any intermediate
certificates, and the private key in one encrypted file. Enter the Passphrase value for decryption.
• The Override column indicates whether the object allows overrides (a green check mark) or not (a red
X). If a number is displayed, it is the number of overrides in place.
Use the Override option to customize the object settings for each device that is part of the VPN
configuration. Overriding makes each device's trustpoint details unique. Typically the Common Name
or Subject is overridden for each device in the VPN configuration.
See Object Overrides, on page 371 for details and procedures on overriding objects of any type.
• Edit a previously created certificate enrollment object by clicking on the edit icon (a pencil). Editing
can only be done if the enrollment object is not associated with any managed devices. Refer to the adding
instructions for editing a certificate enrollment object. Failed enrollment objects can be edited.

430
Adding Certificate Enrollment Objects
• Delete a previously created certificate enrollment object by clicking on the delete icon (a trash can). You
cannot delete a certificate enrollment object if it is associated with any managed device.
Press (+) Add Cert Enrollment to open the Add Cert Enrollment dialog and configure a Certificate
Enrollment Object, see Adding Certificate Enrollment Objects, on page 431. Then install the certificate on
each managed, headend device.
Related Topics
Installing a Certificate Using Self-Signed Enrollment , on page 467
Installing a Certificate Using SCEP Enrollment, on page 468
Installing a Certificate Using Manual Enrollment, on page 469
Installing a Certificate Using a PKCS12 File, on page 470
Adding Certificate Enrollment Objects

Any N/A FTD Any Admin/Network

Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Open the Add Cert Enrollment dialog:

• Directly from Object Management: In the Objects > Object Management screen, choose PKI > Cert
Enrollment from the navigation pane, and press Add Cert Enrollment.
• While configuring a managed device: In the Devices > Certificatesscreen, choose Add > Add New
Certificate and click (+) for the Certificate Enrollment field.
Step 2 Enter the Name, and optionally, a Description of this enrollment object.
When enrollment is complete, this name is the name of the trustpoint on the managed devices with which it
is associated.
Step 3 Open the CA Information tab and choose the Enrollment Type.
• Self-Signed Certificate—The managed device, acting as a CA, generates its own self-signed root
certificate. No other information is needed in this pane.
Note When enrolling a self-signed certificate you must specify the Common Name (CN) in the
certificate parameters.
• SCEP—(Default) Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol. Specify the SCEP information. See Certificate
Enrollment Object SCEP Options, on page 432.
• Manual—Paste an obtained CA certificate in the CA Certificate field. You can obtain a CA certificate
by copying it from another device.
• PKCS12 File—Import a PKCS12 file on a FTD managed device that supports VPN connectivity. A
PKCS#12, or PFX, file holds a server certificate, intermediate certificates, and a private key in one
encrypted file. Enter the Passphrase value for decryption.
Step 4 (Optional) Open the Certificate Parameters tab and specify the certificate contents. See Certificate Enrollment
Object Certificate Parameters, on page 433.

431
Certificate Enrollment Object SCEP Options
This information is placed in the certificate and is readable by any party who receives the certificate from the
router.
Step 5 (Optional) Open the Key tab and specify the Key information. See Certificate Enrollment Object Key Options,
on page 434.
Step 6 (Optional) Click the Revocation tab, and specify the revocation options: See Certificate Enrollment Object
Revocation Options, on page 434.
Step 7 Allow Overrides of this object if desired. See Object Overrides, on page 371 for a full description of object
overrides.
What to do next
Associate and install the enrollment object on a device to create a trustpoint on that device.
Related Topics
Certificate Enrollment Object SCEP Options
Firepower Management Center Navigation Path

Objects > Object Management, then from the navigation pane choose PKI > PKI Enrollment. Press (+)
Add PKI Enrollment to open the Add PKI Enrollment dialog, and select the CA Information tab.
Fields
Enrollment Type—set to SCEP.
Enrollment URL—The URL of the CA server to which devices should attempt to enroll.
Use an HTTP URL in the form of http://CA_name:port, where CA_name is the host DNS name or
IP address of the CA server. The port number is mandatory.
Note If the SCEP Server is referred with hostname/FQDN, configure DNS Server using FlexConfig object.
If the CA cgi-bin script location at the CA is not the default (/cgi-bin/pkiclient.exe), you must also include
the nonstandard script location in the URL, in the form of http://CA_name:port/script_location, where
script_location is the full path to the CA scripts.
Challenge Password / Confirm Password—The password used by the CA server to validate the identity of
the device. You can obtain the password by contacting the CA server directly or by entering the following
address in a web browser: http://URLHostName/certsrv/mscep/mscep.dll. The password is
good for 60 minutes from the time you obtain it from the CA server. Therefore, it is important that you deploy
the password as soon as possible after you create it.
Retry Period—The interval between certificate request attempts, in minutes. Value can be 1 to 60 minutes.
The default is 1 minute.

432
Certificate Enrollment Object Certificate Parameters
Retry Count—The number of retries that should be made if no certificate is issued upon the first request.
Value can be 1 to 100. The default is 10.
CA Certificate Source—Specify how the CA certificate will be obtained.
• Retrieve Using SCEP (Default, and only supported option)—Retrieve the certificate from the CA server
using the Simple Certificate Enrollment Process (SCEP). Using SCEP requires a connection between
your device and the CA server. Ensure there is a route from your device to the CA server before beginning
the enrollment process.
Fingerprint—When retrieving the CA certificate using SCEP, you may enter the fingerprint for the CA
server. Using the fingerprint to verify the authenticity of the CA server’s certificate helps prevent an
unauthorized party from substituting a fake certificate in place of the real one. Enter the Fingerprint for the
CA server in hexadecimal format. If the value you enter does not match the fingerprint on the certificate, the
certificate is rejected. Obtain the CA’s fingerprint by contacting the server directly, or by entering the following
address in a web browser: http://<URLHostName>/certsrv/mscep/mscep.dll.
Certificate Enrollment Object Certificate Parameters

Specify additional information in certificate requests sent to the CA server. This information is placed in the
certificate and can be viewed by any party who receives the certificate from the router.

Add PKI Enrollment to open the Add PKI Enrollment dialog, and select the Certificate Parameters tab.
Fields
Enter all information using the standard LDAP X.500 format.
• Include FQDN—Whether to include the device’s fully qualified domain name (FQDN) in the certificate
request. Choices are:
• Use Device Hostname as FQDN
• Don't use FQDN in certificate
• Custom FQDN—Select this and then specify it in the Custom FQDN field that displays.
• Include Device's IP Address—The interface whose IP address is included in the certificate request.
• Common Name (CN)—The X.500 common name to include in the certificate.
Note When enrolling a self-signed certificate you must specify the Common Name
(CN) in the certificate parameters.
• Organization Unit (OU)—The name of the organization unit (for example, a department name) to
include in the certificate.
• Organization (O)—The organization or company name to include in the certificate.
• Locality (L)—The locality to include in the certificate.

433
Certificate Enrollment Object Key Options
• State (ST)—The state or province to include in the certificate.

• County Code (C)—The country to include in the certificate. These codes conform to ISO 3166 country
abbreviations, for example "US" for the United States of America.
• Email (E)—The email address to include in the certificate.
• Include Device's Serial Number—Whether to include the serial number of the device in the certificate.
The CA uses the serial number to either authenticate certificates or to later associate a certificate with a
particular device. If you are in doubt, include the serial number, as it is useful for debugging purposes.
Certificate Enrollment Object Key Options

Add PKI Enrollment to open the Add PKI Enrollment dialog, and select the Key tab.
Fields
• Key Type—RSA (default, and only supported option) or ECDSA.
• Key Name—If the key pair you want to associate with the certificate already exists, this field specifies
the name of that key pair.If the key pair does not exist, this field specifies the name to assign to the key
pair that will be generated during enrollment. If you do not specify an RSA key pair, the fully qualified
domain name (FQDN) key pair is used instead.
• Key Size—If the key pair does not exist, defines the desired key size (modulus), in bits. The recommended
size is 1024. The larger the modulus size, the more secure the key. However, keys with larger modulus
sizes take longer to generate (a minute or more when larger than 512 bits) and longer to process when
exchanged.
• Advanced Settings— Select Ignore IPsec Key Usage if you do not want to validate values in the key
usage and extended key usage extensions of IPsec remote client certificates. You can suppress key usage
checking on IPsec client certificates. By default this option is not enabled.
Certificate Enrollment Object Revocation Options

Specify whether to check the revocation status of a certificate by choosing and configuring the method.
Revocation checking is off by default, neither method (CRL or OCSP) is checked.

Add PKI Enrollment to open the Add PKI Enrollment dialog, and select the Revocation tab.
Fields
• Enable Certificate Revocation Lists—Check to enable CRL checking.
• Use CRL distribution point from the certificate—Check to obtain the revocation lists ditribution
URL from the certificate.

434
SLA Monitor Objects
• Use static URL configured—Check this to add a static, pre-defined distribution URL for revocation
lists. Then add the URLs.
CRL Server URLs—The URL of the LDAP server from which the CRL can be downloaded. This
URL must start with ldap://, and include a port number in the URL.
• Enable Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)—Check to enable OCSP checking.

OCSP Server URL—The URL of the OCSP server checking for revocation if you require OCSP checks.
This URL must start with http://.
• Consider the certificate valid if revocation information can not be reached—Checked by default.
Uncheck if you do not want to allow this.
SLA Monitor Objects

Each Internet Protocol Service Level Agreement (SLA) monitor defines a connectivity policy to a monitored
address and tracks the availability of a route to the address. The route is periodically checked for availability
by sending ICMP echo requests and waiting for the response. If the requests time out, the route is removed
from the routing table and replaced with a backup route. SLA monitoring jobs start immediately after
deployment and continue to run unless you remove the SLA monitor from the device configuration (that is,
they do not age out). The Internet Protocol Service Level Agreement (SLA) Monitor Object is used in the
Route Tracking field of an IPv4 Static Route Policy. IPv6 routes do not have the option to use SLA monitor
via route tracking.

Any N/A FTD Any Admin
Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose SLA Monitor from the table of contents.
Step 2 Click Add SLA Monitor.
Step 3 Enter a name for the object in the Name field.
Step 4 (Optional) Enter a description for the object in the Description field.
Step 5 Enter the frequency of ICMP echo request transmissions, in seconds, in the Frequency field. Valid values
range from 1 to 604800 seconds (7 days). The default is 60 seconds.
Note The frequency cannot be less than the timeout value; you must convert frequency to milliseconds
to compare the values.
Step 6 Enter the ID number of the SLA operation in the SLA Monitor ID field. Values range from 1 to 2147483647.
You can create a maximum of 2000 SLA operations on a device. Each ID number must be unique to the policy
and the device configuration.
Step 7 Enter the amount of time that must pass after an ICMP echo request before a rising threshold is declared, in
milliseconds, in the Threshold field. Valid values range from 0 to 2147483647 milliseconds. The default is
5000 milliseconds. The threshold value is used only to indicate events that exceed the defined value. You can

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Prefix Lists
use these events to evaluate the proper timeout value. It is not a direct indicator of the reachability of the
monitored address.
Note The threshold value should not exceed the timeout value.
Step 8 Enter the amount of time that the SLA operation waits for a response to the ICMP echo requests, in milliseconds,
in the Timeout field. Values range from 0 to 604800000 milliseconds (7 days). The default is 5000 milliseconds.
If a response is not received from the monitored address within the amount of time defined in this field, the
static route is removed from the routing table and replaced by the backup route.
Note The timeout value cannot exceed the frequency value (adjust the frequency value to milliseconds
to compare the numbers).
Step 9 Enter the size of the ICMP request packet payload, in bytes, in the Data Size field. Values range from 0 to
16384 bytes. The default is 28 bytes, which creates a total ICMP packet of 64 bytes. Do not set this value
higher than the maximum allowed by the protocol or the Path Maximum Transmission Unit (PMTU). For
purposes of reachability, you might need to increase the default data size to detect PMTU changes between
the source and the target. A low PMTU can affect session performance and, if detected, might indicate that
the secondary path should be used.
Step 10 Enter a value for type of service (ToS) defined in the IP header of the ICMP request packet in the ToS field.
Values range from 0 to 255. The default is 0. This field contains information such as delay, precedence,
reliability, and so on. It can be used by other devices on the network for policy routing and features such as
committed access rate.
Step 11 Enter the number of packets that are sent in the Number of Packets field. Values range from 1 to 100. The
default is 1 packet.
Note Increase the default number of packets if you are concerned that packet loss might falsely cause the
Firepower Threat Defense device to believe that the monitored address cannot be reached.
Step 12 Enter the IP address that is being monitored for availability by the SLA operation, in the Monitored Address
field.
Step 13 The Available Zones list displays both zones and interface groups. In the Zones/Interfaces list, add the zones
or interface groups that contain the interfaces through which the device communicates with the management
station. To specify a single interface, you need to create a zone or the interface groups for the interface; see
Creating Security Zone and Interface Group Objects, on page 383. The host will be configured on a device
only if the device includes the selected interfaces or zones.
Step 14 Click Save.
Prefix Lists
You can create prefix list objects for IPv4 and IPv6 to use when you are configuring route maps, policy maps,
OSPF Filtering, or BGP Neighbor Filtering.
Configure IPv6 Prefix List

Use the Configure IPv6 Prefix list page to create, copy and edit prefix list objects. You can create prefix list
objects to use when you are configuring route maps, policy maps, OSPF Filtering, or BGP Neighbor Filtering.

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Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose Prefix Lists > IPv6 Prefix List from the table of contents.
Step 2 Click Add Prefix List.
Step 3 Enter a name for the prefix list object in the Name field on the New Prefix List Object window.
Step 4 Click Add on theNew Prefix List Object window.
Step 5 Select the appropriate action, Allow or Block from the Action drop-down list, to indicate the redistribution
access.
Step 6 Enter a unique number that indicates the position a new prefix list entry will have in the list of prefix list
entries already configured for this object, in the Sequence No. field. If left blank, the sequence number will
default to five more than the largest sequence number currently in use.
Step 7 Specify the IPv6 address in the IP address/mask length format in the IP address field. The mask length must
be a valid value between 1-128.
Step 8 Enter the minimum prefix length in the Minimum Prefix Length field. The value must be greater than the
mask length and less than or equal to the Maximum Prefix Length, if specified.
Step 9 Enter the maximum prefix length in the Maximum Prefix Length field. The value must be greater than or
equal to the Minimum Prefix Length, if present, or greater than the mask length if the Minimum Prefix Length
is not specified.
Step 10 Click Add.
Step 11 If you want to allow overrides for this object, check the Allow Overrides check box; see Allowing Object
Step 12 Click Save.

Use the Configure IPv4 Prefix list page to create, copy and edit prefix list objects. You can create prefix list
objects to use when you are configuring route maps, policy maps, OSPF Filtering, or BGP Neighbor Filtering.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose Prefix Lists > IPv4 Prefix List from the table of contents.

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Route Maps
Step 2 Click Add Prefix List.

Step 3 Enter a name for the prefix list object in the Name field on the New Prefix List Object window.
Step 4 Click Add.
Step 5 Select the appropriate action, Allow or Block from the Action drop-down list, to indicate the redistribution
access.
Step 6 Enter a unique number that indicates the position a new prefix list entry will have in the list of prefix list
entries already configured for this object, in the Sequence No. field. If left blank, the sequence number will
default to five more than the largest sequence number currently in use.
Step 7 Specify the IPv4 address in the IP address/mask length format in the IP address field. The mask length must
be a valid value between 1- 32.
Step 8 Enter the minimum prefix length in the Minimum Prefix Length field. The value must be greater than the
mask length and less than or equal to the Maximum Prefix Length, if specified.
Step 9 Enter the maximum prefix length in the Maximum Prefix Length field. The value must be greater than or
equal to the Minimum Prefix Length, if present, or greater than the mask length if the Minimum Prefix Length
is not specified.
Step 10 Click Add.
Step 12 Click Save.
Route Maps
Route maps are used when redistributing routes into any routing process. They are also used when generating
a default route into a routing process. A route map defines which of the routes from the specified routing
protocol are allowed to be redistributed into the target routing process. Configure a route map, to create a new
route map entry for a Route Map object or to edit an existing one.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Before you begin

A Route Map may use one or mores of these objects; it is not mandatory to add all these objects. Create and
use any of these objects as required, to configure your route map.
• Add ACLs.
• Add Prefix Lists.
• Add AS Path.
• Add Community Lists.
• Add Policy Lists.

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Route Maps
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose Route Map from the table of contents.
Step 2 Click Add Route Map.
Step 3 Click Add on theNew Route Map Object window.
Step 4 In the Sequence No. field, enter a number, between 0 and 65535, that indicates the position a new route map
entry will have in the list of route maps entries already configured for this route map object.
Note We recommend that you number clauses in intervals of at least 10 to reserve numbering space in
case you need to insert clauses in the future.
Step 5 Select the appropriate action, Allow or Block from the Redistribution drop-down list, to indicate the
redistribution access.
Step 6 Click the Match Clauses tab to match (routes/traffic) based on the following criteria, which you select in the
table of contents:
• Security Zones — Match traffic based on the (ingress/egress) interfaces. You can select zones and add
them, or type in interface names and add them.
• IPv4 — Match IPv4 (routes/traffic) based on the following criteria; select the tab to define the criteria.
1. Click the Address tab to match routes based on the route address. For IPv4 addresses, choose whether
to use an Access list or Prefix list for matching from the drop-down list and then enter or select the
ACL objects or Prefix list objects you want to use for matching.
2. Click the Next Hop tab to match routes based on the next hop address of a route. For IPv4 addresses,
choose whether to use an access list or Prefix list for matching from the drop-down list and then
enter or select the ACL objects or Prefix list objects you want to use for matching.
3. Click the Route Source tab to match routes based on the advertising source address of the route. For
IPv4 addresses, choose whether to use an access list or Prefix list for matching from the drop-down
list and then enter or select the ACL objects or Prefix list objects you want to use for matching.
• IPv6 — Match IPv6 (routes/traffic) based on the route address, next-hop address or advertising source
address of route.
• BGP — Match BGP (routes/traffic) based on the following criteria; select the tab to define the criteria.
1. Click the AS Path tab to enable matching the BGP autonomous system path access list with the
specified path access list. If you specify more than one path access list, then the route can match
either path access list.
2. Click the Community List tab to enable matching the BGP community with the specified community.
If you specify more than one community, then the route can match either community. Any route that
does not match at least one Match community will not be advertised for outbound route maps.
3. Click the Policy List tab to configure a route map to evaluate and process a BGP policy. When
multiple policy lists perform matching within a route map entry, all policy lists match on the incoming
attribute only.
• Others — Match routes or traffic based on the following criteria.

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Route Maps
1. Enter the metric values to use for matching in the Metric Route Value field, to enable matching the
metric of a route. You can enter multiple values separated by commas. This setting allows you to
match any routes that have a specified metric. The metric values can range from 0 to 4294967295.
2. Enter the tag values to use for matching in the Tag Values field. You can enter multiple values
separated by commas. This setting allows you to match any routes that have a specified security
group tag. The tag values can range from 0 to 4294967295.
3. Check the appropriate Route Type option to enable matching of the route type. Valid route types
are External1, External2, Internal, Local, NSSA-External1, and NSSA-External2. You can choose
more than one route type from the list.
Step 7 Click the Set Clauses tab to set routes/traffic based on the following criteria, which you select in the table of
contents:
• Metric Values — Set either Bandwidth, all of the values or none of the values.
1. Enter a metric value or bandwidth in Kbits per second in the Bandwidth field. Valid values are an
integer value in the range from 0 to 4294967295.
2. Select to specify the type of metric for the destination routing protocol, from the Metric Type
drop-down list. Valid values are : internal, type-1, or type-2.
3. Enter the EIGRP route delay in tens of microseconds in the Delay field. Valid values range from
1to 4294967295.
4. Enter the likelihood of successful packet transmission for EIGRP in the Reliability field. Valid values
range from 0 to 255. The value 255 means 100 percent reliability; 0 means no reliability.
5. Enter the effective EIGRP bandwidth of a route in the Effective field. Valid values range from 1 to
255. The value 255 means 100 percent loading.
6. Enter the minimum MTU size of a route for EIGRP, in bytes in the MTU field. Valid values range
from 1 to 4294967295.
• BGP Clauses — Set BGP routes based on the following criteria; select the tab to define the criteria.
1. Click the AS Path tab to modify an autonomous system path for BGP routes.
1. Enter an AS path number in the Prepend AS Path field to prepend an arbitrary autonomous
system path string to BGP routes. Usually the local AS number is prepended multiple times,
increasing the autonomous system path length. If you specify more than one AS path number
then the route can prepend either AS number.
2. Enter an AS path number in the Prepend Last AS to AS Path field to prepend the AS path with
the last AS number. Enter a value for the AS number from 1 to 10.
3. Check the Convert route tag into AS path check box to convert the tag of a route into an
autonomous system path.
2. Click the Community List tab to set the community attributes.

1. Click the None radio button, to remove the community attribute from the prefixes that pass the
route map.
2. Click the Specific Community radio button, to enter a community number, if applicable. Valid
values are from 1 to 4294967295.

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Access List
3. Check the Add to existing communities check box, to add the community to the already existing
communities.
4. Select the Internet, No-Advertise, or No-Export check-boxes to use one of the well-known
communities.
3. Click the Others tab to set additional attributes.

1. Check the Set Automatic Tag check-box to automatically compute the tag value.
2. Enter a preference value for the autonomous system path in the Set Local Preference field. Enter
a value between 0 and 4294967295.
3. Enter a BGP weight for the routing table in the Set Weight field. Enter a value between 0 and
65535.
4. Select to specify the BGP origin code. Valid values are Local IGP Local IGP and Incomplete.
5. In the IPv4 Settings section, specify a next hop IPv4 address of the next hop to which packets
are output. It need not be an adjacent router. If you specify more than one IPv4 address then the
packets can output at either IP address.
Select to specify an IPv4 prefix list in the Prefix List drop-down list.
6. In the IPv6 Settings section, specify a next hop IPv6 address of the next hop to which packets
are output. It need not be an adjacent router. If you specify more than one IPv6 address then the
packets can output at either IP address.
Select to specify an IPv6 prefix in the Prefix List drop-down list.
Step 8 Click Add.

Step 10 Click Save.
Access List
Access Admin
Network Admin
An access list object, also known as an access control list (ACL), selects the traffic to which a service will
apply. You use these objects when configuring particular features, such as route maps. Traffic identified as
allowed by the ACL is provided the service, whereas “blocked” traffic is excluded from the service. Excluding
traffic from a service does not necessarily mean that it is dropped altogether.
You can configure the following types of ACL:

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Configure Extended ACL Objects
• Extended—Identifies traffic based on source and destination address and ports. Supports IPv4 and IPv6
addresses, which you can mix in a given rule.
• Standard—Identifies traffic based on destination address only. Supports IPv4 only.
An ACL is composed of one or more access control entry (ACE), or rule. The order of ACEs is important.
When the ACL is evaluated to determine if a packet matches an “allowed” ACE, the packet is tested against
each ACE in the order in which the entries are listed. After a match is found, no more ACEs are checked. For
example, if you want to “allow” 10.100.10.1, but “block” the rest of 10.100.10.0/24, the allow entry must
come before the block entry. In general, place more specific rules at the top of an ACL.
Packets that do not match an “allow” entry are considered to be blocked.
The following topics explain how to configure ACL objects.
Configure Extended ACL Objects

Use extended ACL objects when you want to match traffic based on source and destination addresses, protocol
and port, or if the traffic is IPv6.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose Access Control Lists > Extended from the table of
contents.
Step 2 Do one of the following:
• Click Add Extended ACL to create a new object.
• Click the edit icon ( ) to edit an existing object.
Step 3 In the Extended ACL Object dialog box, enter a name for the object (no spaces allowed), and configure the
access control entries:
a) Do one of the following:
• Click Add to create a new entry.
• Click the edit icon ( ) to edit an existing entry.
The right-click menu also includes options to cut, copy, and paste entries, or to delete them.
b) Select the Action, whether to Allow (match) or Block (not match) the traffic criteria.
Note The Logging, Log Level, and Log Interval options are used for access rules only (ACLs
attached to interfaces or applied globally). Because ACL objects are not used for access rules,
leave these values at their defaults.
c) Configure the source and destination addresses on the Network tab using any of the following techniques:
• Select the desired network objects or groups from the Available list and click Add to Source or Add
to Destination. You can create new objects by clicking the + button above the list. You can mix
IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

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Configure Standard ACL Objects
• Type an address in the edit box below the source or destination list and click Add. You can specify
a single host address (such as 10.100.10.5 or 2001:DB8::0DB8:800:200C:417A), or a subnet (in
10.100.10.0/24 or 10.100.10.0 255.255.255.0 format, or for IPv6, 2001:DB8:0:CD30::/60).
d) Click the Port tab and configure the service using any of the following techniques.
• Select the desired port objects or groups from the Available list and click Add to Source or Add to
Destination. You can create new objects by clicking the + button above the list. The object can
specify TCP/UDP ports, ICMP/ICMPv6 message types, or other protocols (including “any”). However,
the source port, which you typically would leave empty, accepts TCP/UDP only.
• Type or select a port or protocol in the edit box below the source or destination list and click Add.
Note To get an entry that applies to all IP traffic, select a destination port object that specifies “all”
protocols.
e) Click Add to add the entry to the object.

f) If necessary, click and drag the entry to move it up or down in the rule order to the desired location.
Repeat the process to create or edit additional entries in the object.
Step 5 Click Save.
Configure Standard ACL Objects

Use standard ACL objects when you want to match traffic based on destination IPv4 address only. Otherwise,
use extended ACLs.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose Access Control Lists > Standard from the table of
contents.
• Click Add Standard ACL to create a new object.
Step 3 In the Standard ACL Object dialog box, enter a name for the object (no spaces allowed), and configure the
access control entries:
a) Do one of the following:
• Click Add to create a new entry.
• Click the edit icon ( ) to edit an existing entry.
The right-click menu also includes options to cut, copy, and paste entries, or to delete them.

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AS Path Objects
b) For each access control entry, configure the following properties:

• Action—Whether to Allow (match) or Block (not match) the traffic criteria.
• Network—Add the IPv4 network objects or groups that identify the destination of the traffic.
c) Click Add to add the entry to the object.

d) If necessary, click and drag the entry to move it up or down in the rule order to the desired location.
Repeat the process to create or edit additional entries in the object.
Step 5 Click Save.
AS Path Objects
An AS Path is a mandatory attribute to set up BGP. It is a sequence of AS numbers through which a network
can be accessed. An AS-PATH is a sequence of intermediate AS numbers between source and destination
routers that form a directed route for packets to travel. Neighboring autonomous systems (ASes ) use BGP to
exchange and update messages about how to reach different AS prefixes. After each router makes a new local
decision on the best route to a destination, it will send that route, or path information, along with the
accompanying distance metrics and path attributes, to each of its peers. As this information travels through
the network, each router along the path prepends its unique AS number to a list of ASes in the BGP message.
This list is the route's AS-PATH. An AS-PATH along with an AS prefix, provides a specific handle for a
one-way transit route through the network. Use the Configure AS Path page to create, copy and edit autonomous
system (AS) path policy objects. You can create AS path objects to use when you are configuring route maps,
policy maps, or BGP Neighbor Filtering. An AS path filter allows you to filter the routing update message
by using regular expressions.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose AS Path from the table of contents.
Step 2 Click Add AS Path.
Step 3 Enter a name for the AS Path object in the Name field. Valid values are between 1 and 500.
Step 4 Click Add on the New AS Path Object window.
a) Select the Allow or Block options from the Action drop-down list to indicate redistribution access.
b) Specify the regular expression that defines the AS path filter in the Regular Expression field.
c) Click Add.

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Community Lists
Step 6 Click Save.
Community Lists
A Community is an optional transitive BGP attribute. A community is a group of destinations that share some
common attribute. It is used for route tagging. The BGP community attribute is a numerical value that can be
assigned to a specific prefix and advertised to other neighbors. Communities can be used to mark a set of
prefixes that share a common attribute. Upstream providers can use these markers to apply a common routing
policy such as filtering or assigning a specific local preference or modifying other attributes. Use the Configure
Community Lists page to create, copy and edit community list policy objects. You can create community list
objects to use when you are configuring route maps or policy maps. You can use community lists to create
groups of communities to use in a match clause of a route map. The community list is an ordered list of
matching statements. Destinations are matched against the rules until a match is found.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose Community List from the table of contents.
Step 2 Click Add Community List.
Step 3 In the Name field, specify a name for the community list object.
Step 4 Click Add on the New Community List Object window.
Step 5 Select the Standard radio button to indicate the community rule type.
Standard community lists are used to specify well-known communities and community numbers.
Note You cannot have entries using Standard and entries using Expanded community rule types in the
same Community List object.
b) In the Communities field, specify a community number. Valid values can be from 1 to 4294967295 or
from 0:1 to 65534:65535.
c) Select the appropriate Route Type.
• Internet — Select to specify the Internet well-known community. Routes with this community are
advertised to all peers (internal and external).
• No Advertise — Select to specify the no-advertise well-known community. Routes with this
community are not advertised to any peer (internal or external).
• No Export — Select to specify the no-export well-known community. Routes with this community
are advertised to only peers in the same autonomous system or to only other sub-autonomous systems
within a confederation. These routes are not advertised to external peers.

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Policy Lists
Step 6 Select the Expanded radio button to indicate the community rule type.
Expanded community lists are used to filter communities using a regular expression. Regular expressions are
used to specify patterns to match COMMUNITIES attributes.
b) Specify the regular expression in the Expressions field.
Step 7 Click Add.
Step 9 Click Save.
Policy Lists
Use the Configure Policy List page to create, copy, and edit policy list policy objects. You can create policy
list objects to use when you are configuring route maps. When a policy list is referenced within a route map,
all of the match statements within the policy list are evaluated and processed. Two or more policy lists can
be configured with a route map. A policy list can also coexist with any other preexisting match and set
statements that are configured within the same route map but outside of the policy list. When multiple policy
lists perform matching within a route map entry, all policy lists match on the incoming attribute only.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management and choose Policy List from the table of contents.
Step 2 Click Add Policy List.
Step 3 Enter a name for the policy list object in the Name field. Object names are not case-sensitive.
Step 4 Select whether to allow or block access for matching conditions from the Action drop-down list.
Step 5 Click the Interface tab to distribute routes that have their next hop out of one of the interfaces specified.
In the Zones/Interfaces list, add the zones that contain the interfaces through which the device communicates
with the management station. For interfaces not in a zone, you can type the interface name into the field below
the Selected Zone/Interface list and click Add. The host will be configured on a device only if the device
includes the selected interfaces or zones.
Step 6 Click the Address tab to redistribute any routes that have a destination address that is permitted by a standard
access list or prefix list.
Choose whether to use an Access List or Prefix List for matching and then enter or select the Standard Access
List Objects or Prefix list objects you want to use for matching.
Step 7 Click the Next Hop tab to redistribute any routes that have a next hop router address passed by one of the
access lists or prefix lists specified.

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VPN Objects
Step 8 Click the Route Source tab to redistribute routes that have been advertised by routers and access servers at
the address specified by the access lists or prefix list.
Step 9 Click the AS Path tab to match a BGP autonomous system path. If you specify more than one AS path, then
the route can match either AS path.
Step 10 Click the Community Rule tab to enable matching the BGP community with the specified community. If
you specify more than one community, then the route can match either community. To enable matching the
BGP community exactly with the specified community, check the Match the specified community exactly
check box.
Step 11 Click the Metric & tag tab to match the metric and security group tag of a route.
a) Enter the metric values to use for matching in the Metric field. You can enter multiple values separated
by commas. This setting allows you to match any routes that have a specified metric. The metric values
can range from 0 to 4294967295.
b) Enter the tag values to use for matching in the Tag field. You can enter multiple values separated by
commas. This setting allows you to match any routes that have a specified security group tag. The tag
values can range from 0 to 4294967295.
Step 13 Click Save.
VPN Objects
FTD IKE Policies
Internet Key Exchange (IKE) is a key management protocol that is used to authenticate IPsec peers, negotiate
and distribute IPsec encryption keys, and automatically establish IPsec security associations (SAs). The IKE
negotiation comprises two phases. Phase 1 negotiates a security association between two IKE peers, which
enables the peers to communicate securely in Phase 2. During Phase 2 negotiation, IKE establishes SAs for
other applications, such as IPsec. Both phases use proposals when they negotiate a connection. An IKE
proposal is a set of algorithms that two peers use to secure the negotiation between them. IKE negotiation
begins by each peer agreeing on a common (shared) IKE policy. This policy states which security parameters
are used to protect subsequent IKE negotiations.
For IKEv1, IKE proposals contain a single set of algorithms and a modulus group. You can create multiple,
prioritized policies to ensure that at least one policy matches a remote peer’s policy. Unlike IKEv1, in an
IKEv2 proposal, you can select multiple algorithms and modulus groups in one policy. Since peers choose
during the Phase 1 negotiation, this makes it possible to create a single IKE proposal, but consider multiple,
different proposals to give higher priority to your most desired options. For IKEv2, the policy object does not
specify authentication, other policies must define the authentication requirements.
An IKE policy is required when you configure a site-to-site IPsec VPN. For more information, see Firepower
Threat Defense VPN, on page 811.

447
Configure IKEv1 Policy Objects

Export-Compliance N/A FTD Leaf only Admin
Use the IKEv1 Policy page to create, delete, or edit an IKEv1 policy object. These policy objects contain the
parameters required for IKEv1 policies.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Objects > Object Management and then VPN > IKEv1 Policy from the table of contents.
Previously configured policies are listed including system defined defaults. Depending on your level of access,
you may Edit ( ), View ( ), or Delete ( ) a proposal.
Step 2 (Optional) Choose Add IKEv1 Policy to create a new policy object.
Step 3 Enter a Name for this policy. A maximum of 128 characters is allowed.
Step 4 (Optional) Enter a Description for this proposal. A maximum of 1,024 characters is allowed.
Step 5 Enter the Priority value of the IKE policy.
The priority value determines the order of the IKE policy compared by the two negotiating peers when
attempting to find a common security association (SA). If the remote IPsec peer does not support the parameters
selected in your first priority policy, it tries to use the parameters defined in the next lowest priority. Valid
values range from 1 to 65,535. The lower the number, the higher the priority. If you leave this field blank,
Management Center assigns the lowest unassigned value starting with 1, then 5, then continuing in increments
of 5.
Step 6 Choose the Encryption method.

When deciding which encryption and Hash Algorithms to use for the IKEv1 policy, your choice is limited to
algorithms supported by the peer devices. For an extranet device in the VPN topology, you must choose the
algorithm that matches both peers. For IKEv1, select one of the options. For a full explanation of the options,
see Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use, on page 817.
Step 7 Choose the Hash Algorithm that creates a Message Digest, which is used to ensure message integrity.
When deciding which encryption and Hash Algorithms to use for the IKEv1 proposal, your choice is limited
to algorithms supported by the managed devices. For an extranet device in the VPN topology, you must choose
the algorithm that matches both peers. For a full explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Hash
Algorithms to Use, on page 818.
Step 8 Set the DH GroupDiffie-Hellman Group.

The Diffie-Hellman group to use for encryption. A larger modulus provides higher security but requires more
processing time. The two peers must have a matching modulus group. Select the group that you want to allow
in the VPN.For a full explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Diffie-Hellman Modulus Group to Use,
on page 818.
Step 9 Set the Lifetimeof the security association (SA), in seconds. You can specify a value from 120 to 2,147,483,647
seconds. The default is 86400.

448
When the lifetime is exceeded, the SA expires and must be renegotiated between the two peers. Generally,
the shorter the lifetime (up to a point), the more secure your IKE negotiations. However, with longer lifetimes,
future IPsec security associations can be set up more quickly than with shorter lifetimes.
Step 10 Set the Authentication Method to use between the two peers.
• Preshared Key—Preshared keys allow for a secret key to be shared between two peers and to be used
by IKE during the authentication phase. If one of the participating peers is not configured with the same
preshared key, the IKE SA cannot be established.
• Certificate—When you use Certificates as the authentication method for VPN connections, peers obtain
digital certificates from a CA server in your PKI infrastructure, and trade them to authenticate each other.
Note In a VPN topology that supports IKEv1, the Authentication Method specified in the chosen IKEv1
Policy object becomes the default in the IKEv1 Authentication Type setting. These values must
match, otherwise, your configuration will error.
Step 11 Click Save

The new IKEv1 policy is added to the list.

Use the IKEv2 policy dialog box to create, delete, and edit an IKEv2 policy object. These policy objects
contain the parameters required for IKEv2 policies.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Objects > Object Management and then VPN > IKEv2 Policy from the table of contents.
Previously configured policies are listed including system defined defaults. Depending on your level of access,
you may Edit ( ), View ( ), or Delete ( ) a policy.
Step 2 Choose Add IKEv2 Policy to create a new policy.

Step 3 Enter a Name for this policy.
The name of the policy object. A maximum of 128 characters is allowed.
Step 4 Enter a Description for this policy.

A description of the policy object. A maximum of 1024 characters is allowed.
Step 5 Enter the Priority.

The priority value of the IKE proposal. The priority value determines the order of the IKE proposals compared
by the two negotiating peers when attempting to find a common security association (SA). If the remote IPsec
peer does not support the parameters selected in your first priority policy, it tries to use the parameters defined
in the next lowest priority policy. Valid values range from 1 to 65535. The lower the number, the higher the

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FTD IPsec Proposals
priority. If you leave this field blank, Management Center assigns the lowest unassigned value starting with
1, then 5, then continuing in increments of 5.
Step 6 Set the Lifetimeof the security association (SA), in seconds. You can specify a value from 120 to 2,147,483,647
seconds. The default is 86400.
When the lifetime is exceeded, the SA expires and must be renegotiated between the two peers. Generally,
the shorter the lifetime (up to a point), the more secure your IKE negotiations. However, with longer lifetimes,
future IPsec security associations can be set up more quickly than with shorter lifetimes.
Step 7 Choose the Integrity Algorithms portion of the Hash Algorithm used in the IKE policy. The Hash Algorithm
creates a Message Digest, which is used to ensure message integrity.
the algorithm that matches both peers. Select all the algorithms that you want to allow in the VPN.For a full
explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use, on page 818.
Step 8 Choose the Encryption Algorithm used to establish the Phase 1 SA for protecting Phase 2 negotiations.
the algorithm that matches both peers. Select all the algorithms that you want to allow in the VPN. For a full
explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use, on page 817.
Step 9 Choose the PRF Algorithm.

The pseudorandom function (PRF) portion of the Hash Algorithm used in the IKE policy. In IKEv1, the
Integrity and PRF algorithms are not separated, but in IKEv2, you can specify different algorithms for these
elements. Select all of the algorithms that you want to allow in the VPN. For a full explanation of the options,
see Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use, on page 818.
Step 10 Select and Add a DH Group.

The Diffie-Hellman group used for encryption. A larger modulus provides higher security but requires more
processing time. The two peers must have a matching modulus group. Select the groups that you want to allow
in the VPN. For a full explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Diffie-Hellman Modulus Group to
Use, on page 818.
Step 11 Click Save

If a valid combination of choices has been selected the new IKEv2 policy is added to the list. If not, errors
are displayed and you must make changes accordingly to successfully save this policy.
FTD IPsec Proposals

IPsec Proposals (or Transform Sets) are used when configuring VPN topologies. During the IPsec security
association negotiation with ISAKMP, the peers agree to use a particular proposal to protect a particular data
flow. The proposal must be the same for both peers.
There are separate IPsec proposal objects based on the IKE version, IKEv1, or IKEv2:
• When you create an IKEv1 IPsec Proposal (Transform Set) object, you select the mode in which IPsec
operates, and define the required encryption and authentication types. You can select single options for

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Configure IKEv1 IPsec Proposal Objects
the algorithms. If you want to support multiple combinations in a VPN, create multiple IKEv1 IPsec
Proposal objects.
• When you create an IKEv2 IPsec Proposal object, you can select all of the encryption and Hash Algorithms
allowed in a VPN. During IKEv2 negotiations, the peers select the most appropriate options that each
support.
The Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP) is used for both IKEv1 and IKEv2 IPsec Proposals. It provides
authentication, encryption, and antireplay services. ESP is IP protocol type 50.
Note We recommend using both encryption and authentication on IPsec tunnels.

Procedure
Step 1 Choose Objects > Object Management and then VPN > IPsec IKev1 Proposal from the table of contents.
Previously configured Proposals are listed including system defined defaults. Depending on your level of
access, you may Edit ( ), View ( ), or Delete ( ) a Proposal.
Step 2 Choose Add IPsec IKEv1 Proposal to create a new Proposal.

Step 3 Enter a Name for this Proposal
Step 4 Enter a Description for this Proposal.

Step 5 Choose the ESP Encryption method. The Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP) encryption algorithm for
this Proposal.
For IKEv1, select one of the options. When deciding which encryption and Hash Algorithms to use for the
IPsec proposal, your choice is limited to algorithms supported by the devices in the VPN. For a full explanation
of the options, see Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use, on page 817.
Step 6 Select an option for ESP Hash.

For a full explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use, on page 818.
Step 7 Click Save

The new Proposal is added to the list.

451

Procedure
Step 1 Choose Objects > Object Management and then VPN > IKEv2 IPsec Proposal from the table of contents.
Previously configured Proposals are listed including system defined defaults. Depending on your level of
access, you may Edit ( ), View ( ), or Delete ( ) a Proposal.
Step 2 Choose Add IKEv2 IPsec Proposal to create a new Proposal.

Step 3 Enter a Name for this Proposal
Step 4 Enter a Description for this Proposal.

Step 5 Choose the ESP Hash method, the hash or integrity algorithm to use in the Proposal for authentication.
For IKEv2, select all the options you want to support for ESP Hash. For a full explanation of the options,
see Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use, on page 818.
Step 6 Choose the ESP Encryption method. The Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP) encryption algorithm for
this Proposal.
For IKEv2, click Select to open a dialog box where you can select all of the options you want to support.
When deciding which encryption and Hash Algorithms to use for the IPsec proposal, your choice is limited
to algorithms supported by the devices in the VPN. For a full explanation of the options, see Deciding Which
Encryption Algorithm to Use, on page 817.
Step 7 Click Save

The new Proposal is added to the list.
FTD Group Policy Objects

A group policy is a set of attribute and value pairs, stored in a group policy object, that define the remote
access VPN experience. For example, in the group policy object, you configure general attributes such as
addresses, protocols, and connection settings.
The group policy applied to a user is determined when the VPN tunnel is being established. The RADIUS
authorization server assigns the group policy, or it is obtained from the current connection profile.

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Configure Group Policy Objects
Note There is no group policy attribute inheritance on the FTD. A group policy object is used, in its entirety, for a
user. The group policy object identified by the AAA server upon login is used, or, if that is not specified, the
default group policy configured for the VPN connection is used. The provided default group policy can be
set to your default values, but will only be used if it is assigned to a connection profile and no other group
policy has been identified for the user.
Related Topics
Configure Group Policy Objects, on page 453
Configure Group Policy Objects

One of these N/A FTD Any Admin

AnyConnect
licenses associated
with your Smart
License account
with
Export-Controlled
Features enabled:
• AnyConnect
VPN Only
• AnyConnect
Plus
• AnyConnect
Apex
See FTD Group Policy Objects, on page 452.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Objects > Object Management > VPN > Group Policy.
Previously configured policies are listed including the system default. Depending on your level of access, you
may edit, view, or delete a group policy.
Step 2 Click Add Group Policy or choose a current policy to edit.

Step 3 Enter a Name and optionally a Description for this policy.
The name can be up to 64 characters, spaces are allowed. The description can be up to 1,024 characters.
Step 4 Specify the General parameters for this Group Policy as described in Group Policy General Options, on page
454.
Step 5 Specify the AnyConnect parameters for this Group Policy as described in Group Policy AnyConnect Options,
on page 456.

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Group Policy General Options
Step 6 Specify the Advanced parameters for this Group Policy as described in Group Policy Advanced Options, on
page 458.
Step 7 Click Save.
The new Group Policy is added to the list.
What to do next
Add the group policy object to a remote access VPN connection profile.
Navigation Path
Objects > Object Management > VPN > Group Policy, click Click Add Group Policy or choose a current
policy to edit., then select the General tab.
VPN Protocols Fields

Specify the types of Remote Access VPN tunnels that can be used when applying this group policy. SSL or
IPsec IKEv2.
IP Address Pools
Specifies the IPv4 address assignment that is applied based on address pools that are specific to user-groups
in Remote Access VPN. For Remote Access VPN, you can assign IP address from specific address pools for
identified user groups using RADIUS/ISE for authorization. You can seamlessly perform policy enforcement
for user or user groups in systems which are not identity-aware, by configuring particular Group Policy as
RADIUS Authorization attribute (GroupPolicy/Class), for a particular user group. For example, you have to
select a specific address pool for contractors and policy enforcement using those addresses to allow restricted
access to internal network.
The order of preference that Firepower Threat Defense device assigns the IPv4 Address Pools to the clients:
1. RADIUS attribute for IPv4Address Pool
2. RADIUS attribute for Group Policy
3. Address Pool in Group Policy mapped to a Connection Profile
4. IPv4Address Pool in Connection Profile
Some limitations around using IP address pools in Group Policy:

• IPv6 address pool is not supported.
• Maximum of six IPv4 address pools can be configured in a Group Policy.
• Deployment failures are seen when address pools in use are modified. You must logoff all the users
before making any changes to the address pools.
• When address pools are renamed or overlapping address pools are configured, deployment could fail.
You must deploy the changes by removing the old address pool and later deploying the changed address
pool.

454
Some troubleshooting commands :

• show ip local pool <address-pool-name>
• show vpn-sessiondb detail anyconnect
• vpn-sessiondb loggoff all noconfirm
Banner Fields
Specifies the banner text to present to users at login. The length can be up to 491 characters. There is no default
value. The IPsec VPN client supports full HTML for the banner, however, the AnyConnect client supports
only partial HTML. To ensure that the banner displays properly to remote users, use the /n tag for IPsec clients,
and the <BR> tag for SSL clients.
DNS/WINS Fields
Domain Naming System (DNS) and Windows Internet Naming System (WINS) servers. Used for AnyConnect
client name resolution.
• Primary DNS Server and Secondary DNS Server—Choose or create a Network Object which defines
the IPv4 or IPv6 addresses of the DNS servers you want this group to use.
• Primary WINS Server and Secondary WINS Server—Choose or create a Network Object containing
the IP addresses of the WINS servers you want this group to use.
• DHCP Network Scope—Choose or create a Network Object containing the IPv4 address of the DHCP
Network for this group. This setting does not support IPv6, address ranges, or subnet specifications. If
not set properly, deployment of the VPN policy fails.
• Default Domain—Name of the default domain. Specify a top-level domain, for example, example.com.
Split Tunneling Fields

Split tunneling directs some network traffic through the VPN tunnel (encrypted) and the remaining network
traffic outside the VPN tunnel (unencrypted or “in the clear”).
• IPv4 Split Tunneling / IPv6 Split Tunneling—By default, split tunneling is not enabled. For both IPv4
and IPv6 it is set to Allow all traffic over tunnel. Left as is, all traffic from the endpoint goes over the
VPN connection.
To configure split tunneling, choose the Tunnel networks specified below or Exclude networks specified
below policy. Then configure an access control list for that policy.
• Split Tunnel Network List Type—Choose the type of Access List you are using. Then choose or create
a Standard Access List or Extended Access List. See Access List, on page 441 for details.
• DNS Request Split Tunneling—Also known as Split DNS. Configure the DNS behaviour expected in
your environment.
By default, split DNS is not enabled and set to Send DNS request as per split tunnel policy. Choosing
Always send DNS request over tunnel forces all DNS requests to be sent over the tunnel to the private
network.
To configure split DNS, choose Send only specified domains over tunnel, and enter the list of domain
names in the Domain List field. These requests are resolved through the split tunnel to the private

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Group Policy AnyConnect Options
network. All other names are resolved using the public DNS server. Enter up to ten entries in the list of
domains, separated by commas. The entire string can be no longer than 255 characters.
Related Topics
These specifications apply to the operation of the AnyConnect VPN client.
Navigation
Objects > Object Management > VPN > Group Policy. Click Add Group Policy or choose a current policy
to edit. Then select the AnyConnect tab.
Profile Fields
Profile—Choose or create a file object containing an AnyConnect Client Profile. See FTD File Objects, on
page 458 for object creation details.
An AnyConnect Client Profile is a group of configuration parameters stored in an XML file. The AnyConnect
software client uses it to configure the connection entries that appear in the client's user interface. These
parameters (XML tags) also configure settings to enable more AnyConnect features.
Use the GUI-based AnyConnect Profile Editor, an independent configuration tool, to create an AnyConnect
Client Profile. See the AnyConnect Profile Editor chapter in the appropriate release of the Cisco AnyConnect
Secure Mobility Client Administrator Guide for details.
SSL Settings Fields

• SSL Compression—Whether to enable data compression, and if so, the method of data compression to
use, Deflate, or LZS. SSL Compression is Disabled by default.
Data compression speeds up transmission rates, but also increases the memory requirement and CPU
usage for each user session. Therefore, decreasing the overall throughput of the security appliance.
• DTLS Compression—Whether to compress Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) connections
for this group using LZS or not. DTLS Compression is Disabled by default.
• MTU Size—The maximum transmission unit (MTU) size for SSL VPN connections established by the
Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client. Default is 1406 Bytes, valid range is 576 to 1462 Bytes.
• Ignore DF Bit—Whether to ignore the Don't Fragment (DF) bit in packets that need fragmentation.
Allows the forced fragmentation of packets that have the DF bit set, allowing them to pass through
the tunnel.
Connection Settings Fields

• Enable Keepalive Messages between AnyConnect Client and VPN gateway. And its Interval
setting.—Whether to exchange keepalive messages between peers to demonstrate that they are available
to send and receive data in the tunnel. Default is enabled. Keepalive messages transmit at set intervals.
If enabled, enter the time interval (in seconds) that the remote client waits between sending IKE keepalive
packets. The default interval is 20 seconds, the valid range is 15 to 600 seconds.

456
• Enable Dead Peer Detection on .... And their Interval settings.—Dead Peer Detection (DPD) ensures
that the VPN secure gateway or the VPN client quickly detects when the peer is no longer responding,
and the connection has failed. Default is enabled for both the gateway and the client. DPD messages
transmit at set intervals. If enabled, enter the time interval (in seconds) that the remote client waits between
sending DPD messages. The default interval is 30 seconds, the valid range is 5 to 3600 seconds.
• Enable Client Bypass Protocol—Allows you to configure how the secure gateway manages IPv4 traffic
(when it is expecting only IPv6 traffic), or how it manages IPv6 traffic (when it is expecting only IPv4
traffic).
When the AnyConnect client makes a VPN connection to the headend, the headend assigns it an IPv4,
IPv6, or both an IPv4 and IPv6 address. If the headend assigns the AnyConnect connection only an IPv4
address or only an IPv6 address, you can configure the Client Bypass Protocol to drop network traffic
for which the headend did not assign an IP address (default, disabled, not checked), or allow that traffic
to bypass the headend and be sent from the client unencrypted or “in the clear” (enabled, checked).
For example, assume that the secure gateway assigns only an IPv4 address to an AnyConnect connection
and the endpoint is dual-stacked. When the endpoint attempts to reach an IPv6 address, if Client Bypass
Protocol is disabled, the IPv6 traffic is dropped; however, if Client Bypass Protocol is enabled, the IPv6
traffic is sent from the client in the clear.
• SSL rekey—Enables the client to rekey the connection, renegotiating the crypto keys and initialization
vectors, increasing the security of the connection. This is disabled by default. When enabled, the
renegotiation can be done at a specified interval and rekey the existing tunnel or create a new tunnel by
setting the following fields:
• Method—Available when SSL rekey is enabled. Create a New Tunnel (default), or renegotiate,
the Existing Tunnel's specifications.
• Interval—Available when SSL rekey is enabled. Set to a default of 4 minutes with a range of
4-10080 minutes (1 week).
• Client Firewall Rules—Use the Client Firewall Rules to configure firewall settings for the VPN client's
platform. Rules are based on criteria such as source address, destination address, and protocol. Extended
Access Control List building block objects are used to define the traffic filter criteria. Choose or create
an Extended ACL for this group policy. Define a Private Network Rule to control data flowing to the
private network, a Public Network Rule to control data flowing "in the clear", outside of the established
VPN tunnel, or both.
Note Ensure that the ACL contains only TCP/UDP/ICMP/IP ports and source network
as any, any-ipv4 or any-ipv6.
Only VPN clients running Microsoft Windows can use these firewall settings.
Related Topics

457
Group Policy Advanced Options
Group Policy Advanced Options
Navigation Path
Objects > Object Management > VPN > Group Policy, click Click Add Group Policy or choose a current
policy to edit., then select the Advanced tab.
Traffic Filter Fields

• Access List Filter—Filters consist of rules that determine whether to allow or block tunneled data packets
coming through the VPN connection. Rules are based on criteria such as source address, destination
address, and protocol. Extended Access Control List building block objects are used to define the traffic
filter criteria. Choose or create a new Extended ACL for this group policy.
• Restrict VPN to VLAN—Also called “VLAN mapping,” this parameter specifies the egress VLAN
interface for sessions to which this group policy applies. The ASA forwards all traffic from this group
to the selected VLAN.
Use this attribute to assign a VLAN to the group policy to simplify access control. Assigning a value to
this attribute is an alternative to using ACLs to filter traffic on a session. In addition to the default value
(Unrestricted), the drop-down list shows only the VLANs that are configured in this ASA. Allowed
values range from 1 to 4094.
Session Settings Fields

• Access Hours—Choose or create a time range object. This object specifies the range of time this group
policy is available to be applied to a remote access user. See Time Range Objects, on page 384 for details.
• Simultaneous Logins Per User—Specifies the maximum number of simultaneous logins allowed for
a user. The default value is 3. The minimum value is 0, which disables login and prevents user access.
Allowing several simultaneous connections may compromise security and affect performance.
• Maximum Connection Time / Alert Interval—Specifies the maximum user connection time in minutes.
At the end of this time, the system stops the connection. The minimum is 1 minute). The Alert interval
specifies the interval of time before maximum connection time is reached to display a message to the
user.
• Idle Timeout / Alert Interval—Specifies this user’s idle timeout period in minutes. If there is no
communication activity on the user connection in this period, the system stops the connection. The
minimum time is 1 minute. The default is 30 minutes. The Alert interval specifies the interval of time
before idle time is reached to display a message to the user.
Related Topics
FTD File Objects

Use the Add and Edit File Object dialog boxes to create, and edit file objects. File objects represent files used
in configurations, typically for remote access VPN policies. They can contain AnyConnect Client Profile and
AnyConnect Client Image files.
When you create a file object, the Firepower Management Center makes a copy of the file in its repository.
These files are backed up whenever you create a backup of the database, and they are restored if you restore

458
FTD Certificate Map Objects
the database. When copying a file to the Firepower Management Center platform to be used in a file object,
do not copy the file directly to the file repository.
When you delete a file object, the associated file is not deleted from the file repository, only the object is
deleted.
When you deploy configurations that specify a file object, the associated file is download to the device in the
appropriate directory.
Navigation Path
Objects > Object Management > VPN > AnyConnect File.
Fields
• Name and Description—Enter the name, up to 128 characters, and an optional description to identify
this file object.
• File Name and File Type—The name and full path of the file, and its type. Click Browse to select the
file, and choose the corresponding type.
Only the AnyConnect Client Image and AnyConnect Client Profile types are valid, and they must be
located on the Firepower Management Center platform to include them in a file object.
Related Topics
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Image, on page 861
Group Policy AnyConnect Options, on page 456
FTD Certificate Map Objects

Certificate Map objects are a named set of certificate matching rules. These objects are used to provide an
association between a received certificate and a Remote Access VPN connection profile. Connection Profiles
and Certificate Map objects are both part of a remote access VPN policy. If a received certificate matches the
rules contained in the certificate map, the connection is "mapped", or associated with the specified connection
profile. The rules are in priority order, they are matched in the order they are shown in the UI. The matching
ends when the first rule within the Certificate Map object results in a match.
Navigation
Objects > Object Management > VPN > Certificate Map
Fields
• Name—Identify this object so it can be referred to from other configurations, such as Remote Access
VPN.
• Mapping Criteria—Specify the contents of the certificate to evaluate. If the certificate satisifies these
rules, the user will be mapped to the connection profile containing this object.
• Component—Select the component of the client certificate to use for the matching rule.
• Field—Select the field for the matching rule according to the Subject or the Issuer of the client
certificate.

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Address Pools
If the Field is set to Alternative Subject or Extended Key Usage the Component will be frozen as
Whole Field
• Operator—Select the operator for the matching rule as follows:
• Equals—The certificate component must match the entered value. If they do not match exactly,
the connection is denied.
• Contains—The certificate component must contain the entered value. If the component does
not contain the value, the connection is denied.
• Does Not Equal—The certificate component cannot equal the entered value. For example, for
a selected certificate component of Country, and an entered value of US, if the client county
value equals US, then the connection is denied.
• Does Not Contain—The certificate component cannot contain the entered value. For example,
for a selected certificate component of Country, and an entered value of US, if the client county
value contains US, the connection is denied.
• Value—The value of the matching rule. The value entered is associated with the selected component
and operator.
Related Topics
Configure Certificate Maps, on page 864
Address Pools
You can configure IP address pools for both IPv4 and IPv6 that can be used for the Diagnostic interface with
clustering, or for VPN remote access profiles.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management > Address Pools > IPv4 Pools.
Step 2 Click Add IPv4 Pools, and configure the following fields:
• Name—Enter the name of the address pool. It can be up to 64 characters
• Description—Add an optional description for this pool.
• IP Address—Enter a range of addresses available in the pool. Use dotted decimal notation and a dash
between the beginning and the end address, for example: 10.10.147.100-10.10.147.177.
• Mask—Identifies the subnet on which this IP address pool resides.

460
FlexConfig Objects
• Allow Overrides—Check this check box to enable object overrides. Click the expand arrow to show
the Overrides table. You can add a new override by clicking Add. See Object Overrides, on page 371
Step 3 Click Save.

Step 4 Click Add IPv6 Pools, and configure the following fields:
• Name—Enter the name of the address pool. It can be up to 64 characters
• Description—Add an optional description for this pool.
• IPv6 Address—Enter the first IP address available in the configured pool and the prefix length in bits.
For example: 2001:DB8::1/64.
• Number of Addresses—Identifies the number of IPv6 addresses, starting at the Starting IP Address,
that are in the pool.
• Allow Overrides—Check this check box to enable overrides. Click the expand arrow to show the
Overrides table. You can add a new override by clicking Add. See Object Overrides, on page 371 for
more information.
Step 5 Click Save.
FlexConfig Objects
Use FlexConfig policy objects in FlexConfig policies to provide customized configuration of features on FTD
devices that you cannot otherwise configure using Firepower Management Center. For more information on
FlexConfig policies, see FlexConfig Policy Overview, on page 557.
You can configure the following types of objects for FlexConfig.
Text Objects
Text objects define free-form text strings that you use as variables in a FlexConfig object. These objects
can have single values or be a list of multiple values.
There are several predefined text objects that are used in the predefined FlexConfig objects. If you use
the associated FlexConfig object, you simply need to edit the contents of the text object to customize
how the FlexConfig object configures a given device. When editing a predefined object, it is in general
a better option to create device overrides for each device you are configuring, rather than directly change
the default values of these objects. This helps avoid unintended consequences if another user wants to
use the same FlexConfig object for a different set of devices.
For information on configuring text objects, see Configure FlexConfig Text Objects, on page 583.
FlexConfig Objects
FlexConfig Objects include device configuration commands, variables, and scripting language instructions.
During configuration deployment, these instructions are processed to create a sequence of configuration
commands with customized parameters to configure specific features on the target devices.
These instructions are either configured before (prepended) the system configures features defined in
regular Firepower Management Center policies and settings, or after (appended). Any FlexConfig that
depends on Firepower Management Center-configured objects (for example, a network object) must be

461
RADIUS Server Groups
appended to the configuration deployment, or the needed objects would not be configured before the
FlexConfig needed to refer to the objects.
For more information on configuring FlexConfig objects, see Configure FlexConfig Objects, on page
579.
RADIUS Server Groups

RADIUS Server Group objects contain one or more references to RADIUS servers. These servers are used
to authenticate users logging in through Remote Access VPN connections.
Before you begin
Note You cannot override RADIUS Server Group Objects.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Objects > Object Management > RADIUS Server Group.
All currently configured RADIUS Server Group objects will be listed. Use the filter to narrow down the list.
Step 2 Choose and edit a listed RADIUS Server Group object, or add a new one.
See RADIUS Server Options, on page 463 and RADIUS Server Group Options, on page 462 to configure this
object.
Step 3 Click Save
RADIUS Server Group Options

Navigation Path
Objects > Object Management > RADIUS Server Group. Choose and edit a configured RADIUS Server
Group object or add a new one.
Fields
• Name and Description—Enter a name and optionally, a description to identify this RADIUS Server
Group object.
• Group Accounting Mode—The method for sending accounting messages to the RADIUS servers in
the group. Choose Single, accounting messages are sent to a single server in the group, this is the default.
Or, Simultaneous, accounting messages are sent to all servers in the group simultaneously.
• Retry Interval—The interval between attempts to contact the RADIUS servers. Values range from 1 to
10 seconds.

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RADIUS Server Options
• Realms(Optional)—Specify or select the AD or LDAP realm this RADIUS server group is associated
with. This realm is then selected in identity policies to access the associated RADIUS server group when
determining the VPN authentication identity source for a traffic flow. This realm effectively provides a
bridge from the identity policy to this Radius server group. If no realm is associated with this RADIUS
server group, the RADIUS server group cannot be reached to determine the VPN authentication identity
source for a traffic flow in an identity policy.
• Enable authorize only—If this RADIUS server group is not being used for authentication, but is being
used for authorization or accounting, check this field to enable authorize-only mode for the RADIUS
server group.
Authorize only mode eliminates the need of including the RADIUS server password in the Access-Request.
Thus, the password, configured for the individual RADIUS servers, is ignored.
• Enable interim account update and Interval—Enables the generation of RADIUS
interim-accounting-update messages in order to inform the RADIUS server of newly assigned IP addresses.
Set the length, in hours, of the interval between periodic accounting updates in the Interval field. The
valid range is 1 to 120 and the default value is 24.
Related Topics
RADIUS Server Groups, on page 462

Navigation Path
Objects > Object Management > RADIUS Server Group. Choose and edit a listed RADIUS Server Group
object or add a new one. Then, in the RADIUS Server Group dialog, choose and edit a listed RADIUS Server
or add a new one.
Fields
• Name and Description—Enter a name, up to 128 characters, and optionally, a description to identify
this RADIUS Server object.
• IP Address/Hostname—The network object that identifies the hostname or IP address of the RADIUS
server to which authentication requests will be sent. You may only select one, to add additional servers,
add additional RADIUS Server to the RADIUS Server Group list.
• Authentication Port—The port on which RADIUS authentication and authorization are performed. The
default is 1812.
• Key and Confirm Key— The shared secret that is used to encrypt data between the managed device
(client) and the RADIUS server.
The key is a case-sensitive, alphanumeric string of up to 127 characters. Special characters are permitted.
The key you define in this field must match the key on the RADIUS server. Enter the key again in the
Confirm field.
• Accounting Port—The port on which RADIUS accounting is performed. The default is 1813.
Related Topics
RADIUS Server Groups, on page 462

463
RADIUS Server Group Options, on page 462

464
CHAPTER 21
Firepower Threat Defense Certificate-Based
Authentication
• Firepower Threat Defense VPN Certificate Guidelines and Limitations, on page 465
• Managing FTD Certificates, on page 466
• Installing a Certificate Using Self-Signed Enrollment , on page 467
• Installing a Certificate Using SCEP Enrollment, on page 468
• Installing a Certificate Using Manual Enrollment, on page 469
• Installing a Certificate Using a PKCS12 File, on page 470
• Troubleshooting FTD Certificates, on page 470
Firepower Threat Defense VPN Certificate Guidelines and

Limitations
• When a certificate enrollment objectPKI enrollment object is associated with and then installed on a
device, the process of certificate enrollment starts immediately. The process is automatic for self-signed
and SCEP enrollment types, meaning it does not require any additional administrator action. Manual
certificate enrollment requires extra administrator action.
• When enrollment is complete, a trustpoint exists on the device with the same name as the certificate
enrollment object. Use this trustpoint in the configuration of your VPN Authentication Method.
• The FTD devices support, and have verified certificate enrollment using: Microsoft CA Service, and CA
Services provided on Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances and Cisco IOS Router.
• The FTD devices cannot be configured as a CA.
Guidlelines for Certificate Management Across Domains and Devices

• Certificate enrollment can be done in a child or parent domain.
• When enrollment is done from the parent domain, the certificate enrollment object also needs to be in
that domain. If the trustpoint on the device is overridden in the child domain, the overridden value will
be deployed on the device.
• When certificate enrollment is done on a device in a leaf domain, the enrollment will be visible to the
parent domain or another child domain. Also, adding additional certificates is possible.

465
Managing FTD Certificates
• When a leaf domain is deleted, certificate enrollments on contained devices will be automatically removed.
• Once a device has certificates enrolled in one domain, it will be allowed to be enrolled in any other
domain. The certificates can be added in the the other domain.
• When you move a device from one domain to another, the certificates also get moved accordingly. You
will receive an alert to delete the enrollments on these devices.
Managing FTD Certificates


Admin/Security
Approver
See PKI Infrastructure and Digital Certificates , on page 820 for an introduction to Digital Certificates.
See Certificate Enrollment Objects, on page 429 for a description of the objects used to enroll and obtain
certificates on managed devices.
Procedure
Step 1 Go to Devices > Certificates.

On this screen:
• Devices that already have trustpoints associated with them will be listed under the Name column. Expand
the device to see the list of associated trustpoints.
The type of enrollment used for this trustpoint is displayed under the Enrollment Type column.
Certificates that are enrolled in a specific domain are displayed under the Domain column.
• The Status column provides the status of the CA Certificate and Identity Certificate. The certificate
contents, when Available, can be viewed by clicking the magnifying glass.
If the enrollment fails, click the icon to view the failure message.
• Refresh (circling arrows) a certificate on a managed device. Refreshing a certificate would synchronize
the Firepower Threat Defense device certificate status to the Firepower Management Center.
• Using the re-enroll icon, enroll the identity certificate.
During the course of any policy deployment, if the certificate enrollment process fails, enroll the identity
certificate again using the re-enroll option.
• Delete (trash can) a configured certificate.
Step 2 Choose (+) Add to associate and install an enrollment object on a device.
When a certificate enrollment object is associated with and then installed on a device, the process of certificate
enrollment starts immediately. The process is automatic for self-signed and SCEP enrollment types, meaning

466
Installing a Certificate Using Self-Signed Enrollment
it does not require any additional administrator action. Manual certificate enrollment requires extra administrator
action.
Note The certificate enrollment on a device does not block the user interface and the enrollment process
gets executed in the background, enabling the user to perform certificate enrollment on other devices
in parallel. The progress of these parallel operations can be monitored on the same user interface.
The respective icons display the certificate enrollment status.
Related Topics
Installing a Certificate Using Self-Signed Enrollment


Admin
Procedure
Step 1 On the Devices > Certificatesscreen, choose Add to open the Add New Certificate dialog.
Step 2 Choose a device from the Device drop-down list.
Step 3 Associate a certificate enrollment object with this device in one of the following ways:
• Choose a Certificate Enrollment Object of the type Self-Signed from the drop-down list.
• Click (+), to add a new Certificate Enrollment Object, see Adding Certificate Enrollment Objects, on
page 431.
Step 4 Press Add to start the Self Signed, automatic, enrollment process.
For self signed enrollment type trustpoints, the CA Certificate status will always be displayed an an icon,
since the managed device is acting as its own CA and does not need a CA certificate to generate its own
Identity Certificate.
The Identity Certificate will go from InProgress to Available as the device creates its own self signed identity
certificate.
Step 5 Click the magnifying glass to view the self-signed Identity Certificate created for this device.

467
Installing a Certificate Using SCEP Enrollment
What to do next
When enrollment is complete, a trustpoint exists on the device with the same name as the certificate enrollment
object. Use this trustpoint in the configuration of your Site to Site and Remote Access VPN Authentication
Method
Installing a Certificate Using SCEP Enrollment


Admin
Before you begin
Note Using SCEP enrollment establishes a direct connection between the managed device and the CA server. So
be sure your device is connected to the CA server before beginning the enrollment process.
Procedure
Step 1 On the Devices > Certificates screen, choose Add to open the Add New Certificate dialog.
• Choose a Certificate Enrollment Object of the type SCEP from the drop-down list.
• Click (+) icon, to add a new Certificate Enrollment Object, see Adding Certificate Enrollment Objects,
on page 431.
Step 4 Press Add, to start the automatic enrollment process.

For SCEP enrollment type trustpoints, the CA Certificate status will transition from InProgress to Available
as the CA Certificate is obtained from the CA server and installed on the device.
The Identity Certificate will go from InProgress to Available as the device obtains its identity
certificate using SCEP from the specified CA. Sometimes, a manual refresh might be required to obtain the
identity certificate.
Step 5 Click the magnifying glass to view the Identity Certificate created and installed on this device.
What to do next
Method

468
Installing a Certificate Using Manual Enrollment
Installing a Certificate Using Manual Enrollment


Admin
Procedure
Step 1 On the Devices > Certificates screen, choose Add to open the Add New Certificate dialog.
• Choose a Certificate Enrollment Object of the type Manual from the drop-down list.
on page 431.
Step 4 Press Add to start the enrollment process.

Step 5
Step 6 Execute the appropriate activity with your PKI CA Server to obtain an identity certificate.
a) Click the Identity Certificate warning icon to view and copy the CSR.
b) Execute the appropriate activity with your PKI CA Server to obtain an identity certificate using this CSR.
This activity is completely independent of the Firepower Management Center or the managed device.
When complete, you will have an Identity Certificate for the managed device. You can place it in a file.
c) To finish the manual process, install the obtained identity certificate onto the managed device.
Return to the Firepower Management Center dialog and select Browse Identity Certificate to choose
the identity certificate file.
Step 7 Select Import to import the Identity Certificate.

The Identity Certificate status will be Available when the import complete.
Step 8 Click the magnifying glass to view the Identity Certificate for this device.
What to do next
Method

469
Installing a Certificate Using a PKCS12 File
Installing a Certificate Using a PKCS12 File


Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Go to Devices > Certificates screen, choose Add to open the Add New Certificate dialog.
Step 2 Choose a pre-configured managed device from the Device drop down list.
• Choose a Certificate Enrollment Object of the PKCS type from the drop-down list.
on page 431.
Step 4 Press Add.

The CA Certificate and Identity Certificate status will go from In Progress to Available as it installs
the PKCS12 file on the device.
Note When you upload the PKCS12 file for the first time, the file is stored in Firepower Management
Center as part of the CertEnrollment object. For any failed enrollments due to a wrong passphrase
or failed deployment, retry enrolling the PKCS12 certificate without uploading the file again. A
PKCS12 file size should not be larger than 24K.
Step 5 Once Available, click the magnifying glass to view the Identity Certificate for this device.
What to do next
The certificate (trustpoint) on the managed device is named the same as the PKCS#12 file. Use this certificate
in your VPN authentication configuration.
Troubleshooting FTD Certificates


Admin/Security
Approver
See Firepower Threat Defense VPN Certificate Guidelines and Limitations, on page 465 to determine if
variations in your certificate enrollment environment may be causing a problem. Then consider the following:
• Ensure there is a route to the CA Server from the device.

470
If the CA Server's host name is given in the Enrollment Object, use Flex Config to configure DNS
appropriately to reach the server. Alternatively, use the IP Address of the CA Server.
• If you are using a Microsoft 2012 CA Server, the default IPsec Template is not accepted by the managed
device and must be changed.
To configure a working template, follow these steps as you use MS CA documentation as a reference.
1. Duplicate the IPsec (Offline Request) template.
2. In the Extensions Tab > Application policies, select IP security end system, instead of the IP security
IKE intermediate.
3. Set the permissions and the template name.
4. Add the new template and change the registry settings to reflect the new template name.

471

472
PA R T V
Classic Device Configuration Basics
• Classic Device Management Basics, on page 475
• IPS Device Deployments and Configuration, on page 487
CHAPTER 22
Classic Device Management Basics
The following topics describe how to manage Classic devices (7000 and 8000 Series devices, ASA with
FirePOWER Services, and NGIPSv) in the Firepower System:
• Remote Management Configuration, on page 475
• Interface Configuration Settings, on page 478
Remote Management Configuration

Before you can manage a Firepower System device, you must set up a two-way, SSL-encrypted communication
channel between the device and the Firepower Management Center. The appliances use the channel to share
configuration and event information. High availability peers also use the channel, which is by default on port
8305/tcp.
Note This documentation explains how to configure remote management of a 7000 or 8000 Series device using its
local web interface, before you register the device to the FMC. For information on configuring remote
management for other models, see the appropriate quick start guide.
To enable communications between two appliances, you must provide a way for the appliances to recognize
each other. There are three criteria the Firepower System uses when allowing communications:
• the hostname or IP address of the appliance with which you are trying to establish communication.
In NAT environments, even if the other appliance does not have a routable address, you must provide a
hostname or an IP address either when you are configuring remote management, or when you are adding
the managed appliance.
• a self-generated alphanumeric registration key up to 37 characters in length that identifies the connection.
• an optional unique alphanumeric NAT ID that can help the Firepower System establish communications
in a NAT environment.
The NAT ID must be unique among all NAT IDs used to register managed appliances.

475
Configuring Remote Management on a Managed Device
Configuring Remote Management on a Managed Device

Any Any 7000 & 8000 Series N/A Admin/Network

Admin
Procedure
Step 1 On the web interface for the device you want to manage, choose System > Integration > Remote Management.
Step 2 Click the Remote Management tab, if it is not already displaying.
Step 3 Click Add Manager.
Step 4 In the Management Host field, enter one of the following for the Firepower Management Center that you
want to use to manage this appliance:
• The IP address
• The fully qualified domain name or the name that resolves through the local DNS to a valid IP address
(that is, the host name)
Caution Use a host name rather than an IP address if your network uses DHCP to assign IP addresses.
In a NAT environment, you do not need to specify an IP address or host name here if you plan to specify it
when you add the managed appliance. In this case, the Firepower System uses the NAT ID you will provide
later to identify the remote manager on the managed appliance’s web interface.
Step 5 In the Registration Key field, enter the registration key that you want to use to set up communications between
appliances.
Step 6 For NAT environments, in the Unique NAT ID field, enter a unique alphanumeric NAT ID that you want
to use to set up communications between appliances.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
• Wait until the appliances confirm that they can communicate with each other and the Pending Registration
status appears.
• Add this device to the Firepower Management Center; see Add Devices to the Firepower Management
Editing Remote Management on a Managed Device

Any Any 7000 & 8000 Series N/A Admin/Network

Admin
When editing a remote manager, note that:

476
Changing the Management Port
• The Host field specifies the fully qualified domain name or the name that resolves through the local DNS
to a valid IP address (that is, the host name).
• The Name field specifies the display name of the managing appliance, which is used only within the
context of the Firepower System. Entering a different display name does not change the host name for
the managing device.
Procedure
Step 1 On the web interface for the device, choose System > Integration.
Step 2 Click the Remote Management tab, if it is not already displaying.
Step 3 You can:
• Disable remote management — Click the slider next to the manager to enable or disable it. Disabling
management blocks the connection between the Firepower Management Center and the device, but does
not delete the device from the Firepower Management Center. If you no longer want to manage a device,
see Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center, on page 199.
• Edit manager information — Click the edit icon ( ) next to the manager you want to modify, modify
the Name and Host fields, and click Save.
Changing the Management Port

Any Any 7000 & 8000 Series Global only Admin/Network

Admin
FMC
Appliances communicate using a two-way, SSL-encrypted communication channel, which by default is on

port 8305.
Although Cisco strongly recommends that you keep the default setting, you can choose a different port if the
management port conflicts with other communications on your network. Usually, changes to the management
port are made during installation of the Firepower System.
Caution If you change the management port, you must change it for all appliances in your deployment that need to
communicate with each other.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Configuration.

Step 2 Click Management Interfaces.

477
Interface Configuration Settings
Step 3 In the Shared Settings section, enter the port number that you want to use in the Remote Management Port
field.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
• Repeat this procedure for every appliance in your deployment that must communicate with this appliance.
Interface Configuration Settings

The Interfaces page of the appliance editor displays detailed interface configuration information. The page is
composed of the physical hardware view and the interfaces table view, which allow you to drill down to
configuration details. You can add and edit interfaces from this page.
The Physical Hardware View

The top of the Interfaces page provides a graphical representation of the physical hardware view of a 7000 or
8000 Series device.
Use the physical hardware view to:
• view a network module’s type, part number, and serial number
• select an interface in the interfaces table view
• open an interface editor
• view the name of the interface, the type of interface, whether the interface has link, the interface’s speed
setting, and whether the interface is currently in bypass mode
• view the details about an error or warning
Interface Icons
Table 53: Interface Icon Types and Descriptions
Icon Interface Type For more information, see...
Physical — an unconfigured Configuring Physical Switched

physical interface. Interfaces, on page 1161 or
Configuring Physical Routed
Passive — a sensing interface Configuring Passive Interfaces, on

configured to analyze traffic in a page 488
passive deployment.

478
Using the Physical Hardware View
Icon Interface Type For more information, see...
Inline — a sensing interface Configuring Inline Interfaces, on

configured to handle traffic in an page 491
inline deployment.
Switched — an interface Switched Interface Configuration,

configured to switch traffic in a on page 1159
Layer 2 deployment.
Routed — an interface configured Routed Interfaces, on page 1170

to route traffic in a Layer 3
deployment.
Aggregate — multiple physical About Aggregate Interfaces, on

interfaces configured as a single page 1201
logical link.
Aggregate Switched — multiple Adding Aggregate Switched

physical interfaces configured as a Interfaces, on page 1207
single logical link in a Layer 2
deployment.
Aggregate Routed — multiple Adding Aggregate Routed

physical interfaces configured as a Interfaces, on page 1209
single logical link in a Layer 3
deployment.
Hybrid — a logical interface Logical Hybrid Interfaces, on page

configured to bridge traffic between 1215
a virtual router and a virtual switch.
ASA FirePOWER — an interface Managing Cisco ASA FirePOWER

configured on an ASA device with Interfaces, on page 483
the ASA FirePOWER module
installed.
Using the Physical Hardware View

Any Any 7000 & 8000 Series Any Admin/Network

Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device you want to manage.

479
Configuring Sensing Interfaces
Step 3 Use the graphical interface to:

• Choose — If you want to choose an interface, click the interface icon. The system highlights the related
entry in the interface table.
• Edit — If you want to open an interface editor, double-click the interface icon.
• View error or warning information — If you want to view the details about an error or warning, hover
your cursor over the affected port on the network module.
• View interface information — If you want to view the name of the interface, the type of interface, whether
the interface has link, the interface’s speed setting, and whether the interface is currently in bypass mode,
hover your cursor over the interface.
• View network module information — If you want to view a network module’s type, part number, and
serial number, hover your cursor over the dark circle in the lower left corner of the network module.
Configuring Sensing Interfaces

Any Any Classic Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
You can configure the sensing interfaces of a managed device, according to your Firepower System deployment,
from the Interfaces page of the appliance editor. Note that you can only configure a total of 1024 interfaces
on a managed device.
Note The Firepower Management Center does not display ASA interfaces when the ASA FirePOWER is deployed
in SPAN port mode.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to configure an interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the interface you want to configure.
Step 4 Use the interface editor to configure the sensing interface:
• HA Link — If you want an interface configured on each member of a high-availability pair of devices
to act as a redundant communications channel between the devices; also called a high availability link
interface, click HA Link and proceed as described in Configuring HA Link Interfaces, on page 481.
• Inline — If you want an interface configured to handle traffic in an inline deployment, click Inline and
proceed as described in Configuring Inline Interfaces, on page 491.
• Passive — If you want an interface configured to analyze traffic in a passive deployment, click Passive
and proceed as described in Configuring Passive Interfaces, on page 488.

480
Configuring HA Link Interfaces
• Routed — If you want an interface configured to route traffic in a Layer 3 deployment, click Routed
and proceed as described in Routed Interfaces, on page 1170.
• Switched — If you want an interface configured to switch traffic in a Layer 2 deployment, click Switched
and proceed as described in Switched Interface Configuration, on page 1159.
Step 5 Click Save to complete your configuration.
What to do next
Configuring HA Link Interfaces

N/A Any 7000 & 8000 Series Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
After you establish a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair, you should configure a physical
interface as a high availability (HA) link interface. This link acts as a redundant communications channel for
sharing health information between the paired devices. When you configure an HA link interface on one
device, you automatically configure an interface on the second device. You must configure both HA links on
the same broadcast domain.
Dynamic NAT relies on dynamically allocating IP addresses and ports to map to other IP addresses and ports.
Without an HA link, these mappings are lost in a failover, causing all translated connections to fail as they
are routed through the now-active device in the high-availability pair.
Similarly, 7000 or 8000 Series devices with high-availability state sharing, dynamic NAT, or VPN require
an HA link interface.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the peer where you want to configure the HA link interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Next to the interface you want to configure as a HA link interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Click HA Link.
Step 5 Check the Enabled check box.
Note If you clear the check box, the system administratively takes down the interface, disabling it.
Step 6 From the Mode drop-down list, choose an option to designate the link mode, or choose Autonegotiation to
specify that the interface is configured to autonegotiate speed and duplex settings.

481
Disabling Interfaces
Step 7 From the MDI/MDIX drop-down list, choose an option to designate whether the interface is configured for
MDI (medium dependent interface), MDIX (medium dependent interface crossover), or Auto-MDIX.
Note Normally, MDI/MDIX is set to Auto-MDIX, which automatically handles switching between MDI
and MDIX to attain link.
Step 8 Enter a maximum transmission unit (MTU) in the MTU field.

The range of MTU values can vary depending on the model of the managed device and the interface type.
See MTU Ranges for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices and NGIPSv, on page 484 for more information.
Caution Changing the highest MTU value among all non-management interfaces on the device restarts the
Snort process when you deploy configuration changes, temporarily interrupting traffic inspection.
Inspection is interrupted on all non-management interfaces, not just the interface you modified.
Whether this interruption drops traffic or passes it without further inspection depends on the model
of the managed device and the interface type. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for
more information.
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
MTU Ranges for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices and NGIPSv, on page 484
Disabling Interfaces

Admin
NGIPSv
You can disable an interface by setting the interface type to None. Disabled interfaces appear grayed out in
the interface list.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to disable the interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Next to the interface you want to disable, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Click None.

482
Managing Cisco ASA FirePOWER Interfaces
Step 5 Click Save.
What to do next
Managing Cisco ASA FirePOWER Interfaces

Threat Protection ASA FirePOWER Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
When editing an ASA FirePOWER interface, you can configure only the interface’s security zone from the
You fully configure ASA FirePOWER interfaces using the ASA-specific software and CLI. If you edit an
ASA FirePOWER and switch from multiple context mode to single context mode (or visa versa), the ASA
FirePOWER renames all of its interfaces. You must reconfigure all Firepower System security zones, correlation
rules, and related configurations to use the updated ASA FirePOWER interface names. For more information
about ASA FirePOWER interface configuration, see the ASA documentation.
Note You cannot change the type of ASA FirePOWER interface, nor can you disable the interface from the Firepower
Management Center.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to edit the interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click the Interfaces tab if it is not already displaying.
Step 4 Next to the interface you want to edit, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 5 Choose an existing security zone from the Security Zone drop-down list, or choose New to add a new security
zone.
Step 6 Click Save to configure the security zone.
What to do next

483
MTU Ranges for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices and NGIPSv
MTU Ranges for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices and NGIPSv
Changing the highest MTU value among all non-management interfaces on the device restarts the Snort
process when you deploy configuration changes, temporarily interrupting traffic inspection. Inspection is
interrupted on all non-management interfaces, not just the interface you modified. Whether this interruption
drops traffic or passes it without further inspection depends on the model of the managed device and the
interface type. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
Note The system trims 18 bytes from the configured MTU value. Do not set the IPv4 MTU lower than 594 or the
IPv6 MTU lower than 1298.
Classic Device Model MTU Range
7000 & 8000 Series 576-9234 (management interface)

576-10172 (inline sets, passive interface)
576-9922 (all others)
NGIPSv 576-9018 (all interfaces, inline sets)
Related Topics
About the MTU, on page 628
Synchronizing Security Zone Object Revisions


Admin
NGIPSv
When you update a security zone object, the system saves a new revision of the object. As a result, if you
have managed devices in the same security zone that have different revisions of the security zone object
configured in the interfaces, you may log what appear to be duplicate connections.
If you notice duplicate connection reporting, you can update all managed devices to use the same revision of
the object.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to update the security zone selection, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 For each interface logging duplicate connection events, change the Security Zone to another zone, click Save,
then change it back to the desired zone, and click Save again.

484
Step 4 Repeat steps 2 through 3 for each device logging duplicate events. You must edit all devices before you
continue.
What to do next
Caution Do not deploy configuration changes to any device until you edit the zone setting for interfaces on all devices
you want to sync. You must deploy to all managed devices at the same time.

485

486
CHAPTER 23
IPS Device Deployments and Configuration
The following topics describe how to configure your device in an IPS deployment:
• Introduction to IPS Device Deployment and Configuration, on page 487
• Passive IPS Deployments, on page 487
• Inline IPS Deployments, on page 489
Introduction to IPS Device Deployment and Configuration

You can configure your device in either a passive or inline IPS deployment. In a passive deployment, you
deploy the system out of band from the flow of network traffic. In an inline deployment, you configure the
system transparently on a network segment by binding two ports together.
Passive IPS Deployments

In a passive IPS deployment, the Firepower System monitors traffic flowing across a network using a switch
SPAN or mirror port. The SPAN or mirror port allows for traffic to be copied from other ports on the switch.
This provides the system visibility within the network without being in the flow of network traffic. When
configured in a passive deployment, the system cannot take certain actions such as blocking or shaping traffic.
Passive interfaces receive all traffic unconditionally, and no traffic received on these interfaces is retransmitted.
Note Outbound traffic includes flow control packets. Because of this, passive interfaces on your appliances may
show outbound traffic and, depending on your configuration, generate events; this is expected behavior.
Passive Interfaces on the Firepower System

You can configure one or more physical ports on a managed device as passive interfaces.
When you enable a passive interface to monitor traffic, you designate mode and MDI/MDIX settings, which
are available only for copper interfaces. Interfaces on 8000 Series appliances do not support half-duplex
options.
When you disable a passive interface, users can no longer access it for security purposes.

487
Configuring Passive Interfaces
Caution Changing the highest MTU value among all non-management interfaces on the device restarts the Snort
Related Topics
Configuring Passive Interfaces

Threat Protection feature dependent Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device where you want to configure the passive interface.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the interface you want to configure as a passive interface.
Step 4 Click Passive.
Step 5 If you want to associate the passive interface with a security zone, do one of the following:
• Choose an existing security zone from the Security Zone drop-down list.
• Choose New to add a new security zone; see Creating Security Zone and Interface Group Objects, on
page 383.

If you clear the check box, the interface becomes disabled so that users cannot access it for security purposes.
Step 7 7000 & 8000 Series only: From the Mode drop-down list, designate the link mode, or choose Autonegotiation
to specify that the interface is configured to automatically negotiate speed and duplex settings.
Mode settings are available only for copper interfaces.
Interfaces on 8000 Series appliances do not support half-duplex options.
Step 8 7000 & 8000 Series only: From the MDI/MDIX drop-down list, designate whether the interface is configured
for MDI (medium dependent interface), MDIX (medium dependent interface crossover), or Auto-MDIX.
MDI/MDIX settings are available only for copper interfaces.

488
Inline IPS Deployments
By default, MDI/MDIX is set to Auto-MDIX, which automatically handles switching between MDI and
MDIX to attain link.

more information.
Step 10 Click Save.
What to do next
Inline IPS Deployments

In an inline IPS deployment, you configure the Firepower System transparently on a network segment by
binding two ports together. This allows the system to be installed in any network environment without the
configuration of adjacent network devices. Inline interfaces receive all traffic unconditionally, but all traffic
received on these interfaces is retransmitted out of an inline set unless explicitly dropped.
Note For the system to affect traffic, you must deploy relevant configurations to managed devices using routed,
switched, or transparent interfaces, or inline interface pairs.
You can configure the interfaces on your managed device to route traffic between a host on your network and
external hosts through different inline interface pairs, depending on whether the device traffic is inbound or
outbound. This is an asynchronous routing configuration. If you deploy asynchronous routing but you include
only one interface pair in an inline set, the device might not correctly analyze your network traffic because it
might see only half of the traffic.
Adding multiple inline interface pairs to the same inline interface set allows the system to identify the inbound
and outbound traffic as part of the same traffic flow. For passive interfaces only, you can also achieve this by
including the interface pairs in the same security zone.
When the system generates a connection event from traffic passing through an asynchronous routing
configuration, the event may identify an ingress and egress interface from the same inline interface pair. The
configuration in the following diagram, for example, would generate a connection event identifying eth3 as
the ingress interface and eth2 as the egress interface. This is expected behavior in this configuration.

489
Inline Interfaces on the Firepower System
Note If you assign multiple interface pairs to a single inline interface set but you experience issues with duplicate
traffic, reconfigure to help the system uniquely identify packets. For example, you could reassign your interface
pairs to separate inline sets or modify your security zones.
For devices with inline sets, a software bridge is automatically set up to transport packets after the device
restarts. If the device is restarting, there is no software bridge running anywhere. If you enable bypass mode
on the inline set, it goes into hardware bypass while the device is restarting. In that case, you may lose a few
seconds of packets as the system goes down and comes back up, due to renegotiation of link with the device.
However, the system will pass traffic while Snort is restarting.
Related Topics
Inline Interfaces on the Firepower System

You can configure one or more physical ports on a managed device as inline interfaces. You must assign a
pair of inline interfaces to an inline set before they can handle traffic in an inline deployment.
Note:

490
Configuring Inline Interfaces
• The system warns you if you set the interfaces in an inline pair to different speeds or if the interfaces
negotiate to different speeds.
• If you configure an interface as an inline interface, the adjacent port on its NetMod automatically becomes
an inline interface as well to complete the pair.
• To configure inline interfaces on an NGIPSv device, you must create the inline pair using adjacent
interfaces.
Configuring Inline Interfaces


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device where you want to configure the interface.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the interface you want to configure.
Step 4 Click Inline.
Step 5 If you want to associate the inline interface with a security zone, do one of the following:
page 383.
Step 6 Choose an existing inline set from the Inline Set drop-down list, or choose New to add a new inline set.
Note If you add a new inline set, you must configure it after you set up the inline interface; see Adding
Inline Sets, on page 494.

Step 8 7000 & 8000 Series only: From the Mode drop-down list, designate the link mode, or choose Autonegotiation
to specify that the interface is configured to automatically negotiate speed and duplex settings.
Step 9 7000 & 8000 Series only: From the MDI/MDIX drop-down list, designate whether the interface is configured
for MDI (medium dependent interface), MDIX (medium dependent interface crossover), or Auto-MDIX.

491
Inline Sets on the Firepower System
Step 10 Click Save.
What to do next
Inline Sets on the Firepower System

Before you can use inline interfaces in an inline deployment, you must configure inline sets and assign inline
interface pairs to them. An inline set is a grouping of one or more inline interface pairs on a device; an inline
interface pair can belong to only one inline set at a time.
The Inline Sets tab of the Device Management page displays a list of all inline sets you have configured on
a device.
You can add inline sets from the Inline Sets tab of the Device Management page or you can add inline sets
as you configure inline interfaces.
You can assign only inline interface pairs to an inline set. If you want to create an inline set before you
configure the inline interfaces on your managed devices, you can create an empty inline set and add interfaces
to it later. You can use alphanumeric characters and spaces when you type a name for an inline set.
Note Create inline sets before you add security zones for the interfaces in the inline set; otherwise security zones
are removed and you must add them again.
Name
The name of the inline set.
Interfaces
A list of all inline interface pairs assigned to the inline set. A pair is not available when you disable either
interface in the pair from the Interfaces tab.
MTU
The maximum transmission unit for the inline set. The range of MTU values can vary depending on the model
of the managed device and the interface type.

492
Viewing Inline Sets
Failsafe
Behavior of the interface on a 7000 or 8000 Series or NGIPSv device when the Snort process is busy or down.
• Enabled—New and existing flows pass without inspection when the Snort process is busy or down.
• Disabled—New and existing flows drop when the Snort process is busy and pass without inspection
when the Snort process is down.
The Snort process can be busy when traffic buffers are full, indicating that there is more traffic than the
managed device can handle, or because of other software issues.
The Snort process goes down when you deploy a configuration that requires it to restart. See Configurations
that Restart the Snort Process When Deployed or Activated, on page 316 for more information.
Note When traffic passes without inspection, features that rely on the Snort process do not function. These include
application control and deep inspection. The system performs only basic access control using simple, easily
determined transport and network layer characteristics.
Bypass Mode
Firepower 7000 or 8000 Series only: The configured bypass mode of the inline set. This setting determines
how the relays in the inline interfaces respond when an interface fails. The bypass mode allows traffic to
continue to pass through the interfaces. The non-bypass mode blocks traffic.
Caution In bypass mode, you may lose a few packets when you reboot the appliance. You cannot configure bypass
mode for inline sets on 7000 or 8000 Series devices in a high-availability pair, inline sets on an NGIPSv
device, for non-bypass NetMods on 8000 Series devices, or for SFP modules on Firepower 7115 or 7125
devices.
Related Topics
Viewing Inline Sets

Threat Protection Any Any Admin/Network

Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device where you want to view the inline sets.

493
Adding Inline Sets
Step 3 Click the Inline Sets tab.
Adding Inline Sets


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device where you want to add the inline set.

Step 4 Click Add Inline Set.
Step 6 Next to Interfaces, choose one or more inline interface pairs, then click the add selected icon ( ). To add
all interface pairs to the inline set, click the add all icon ( ).
Tip To remove inline interfaces from the inline set, choose one or more inline interface pairs and click
the remove selected icon ( ). To remove all interface pairs from the inline set, click the remove
all icon ( ). Disabling either interface in a pair from the Interfaces tab also removes the pair.

more information.
Step 8 If you want to specify that traffic is allowed to bypass detection and continue through the device when the
Snort process is busy or down, choose Failsafe. See Inline Sets on the Firepower System, on page 492 for
more information.
Enabling Failsafe on a device with inline sets greatly decreases the risk of dropped packets if the internal
traffic buffers are full, but your device may still drop packets in certain conditions. In the worst case, the
device may experience a temporary network outage.
Step 9 7000 and 8000 Series only: Specify the bypass mode:

494
Advanced Inline Set Options
• Click Bypass to allow traffic to continue to pass through the interfaces.

• Click Non-Bypass to block traffic.
Note You cannot configure bypass mode for inline sets on 7000 or 8000 Series devices in high-availability
pairs, inline sets on an NGIPSv device, for non-bypass NetMods on 8000 Series devices, or for SFP
modules on Firepower 7115 or 7125 devices.
Step 10 Optionally, configure advanced settings; see Advanced Inline Set Options, on page 495.
Step 11 Click OK.
What to do next
Related Topics
Advanced Inline Set Options

There are a number of advanced options you may consider as you configure inline sets.
Tap Mode
Tap mode is available on 7000 and 8000 Series devices when you create an inline or inline with fail-open
interface set.
With tap mode, the device is deployed inline, but instead of the packet flow passing through the device, a
copy of each packet is sent to the device and the network traffic flow is undisturbed. Because you are working
with copies of packets rather than the packets themselves, rules that you set to drop and rules that use the
replace keyword do not affect the packet stream. However, rules of these types do generate intrusion events
when they are triggered, and the table view of intrusion events indicates that the triggering packets would
have dropped in an inline deployment.
There are benefits to using tap mode with devices that are deployed inline. For example, you can set up the
cabling between the device and the network as if the device were inline and analyze the kinds of intrusion
events the device generates. Based on the results, you can modify your intrusion policy and add the drop rules
that best protect your network without impacting its efficiency. When you are ready to deploy the device
inline, you can disable tap mode and begin dropping suspicious traffic without having to reconfigure the
cabling between the device and the network.
Note that you cannot enable this option and strict TCP enforcement on the same inline set.
Propagate Link State
Note Link state propagation is not supported on virtual devices.

495
Configuring Advanced Inline Set Options
Link state propagation is a feature for inline sets configured in bypass mode and non-bypass mode so both
pairs of an inline set track state. Link state propagation is available for both copper and fiber configurable
bypass interfaces.
Link state propagation automatically brings down the second interface in the inline interface pair when one
of the interfaces in an inline set goes down. When the downed interface comes back up, the second interface
automatically comes back up, also. In other words, if the link state of one interface changes, the appliance
senses the change and updates the link state of the other interface to match it. Note that appliances require up
to 4 seconds to propagate link state changes.
Link state propagation is especially useful in resilient network environments where routers are configured to
reroute traffic automatically around network devices that are in a failure state.
Note that only 7000 and 8000 Series devices support link state propagation.
You cannot disable link state propagation for inline sets configured on 7000 and 8000 Series devices in
high-availability pairs.
Transparent Inline Mode

Transparent Inline Mode option allows the device to act as a “bump in the wire” and means that the device
forwards all the network traffic it sees, regardless of its source and destination. Note that you cannot disable
this option on 7000 and 8000 Series devices.
Strict TCP Enforcement
Note Strict TCP enforcement is not supported on virtual devices.
To maximize TCP security, you can enable strict enforcement, which blocks connections where the three-way
handshake was not completed. Strict enforcement also blocks:
• non-SYN TCP packets for connections where the three-way handshake was not completed
• non-SYN/RST packets from the initiator on a TCP connection before the responder sends the SYN-ACK
• non-SYN-ACK/RST packets from the responder on a TCP connection after the SYN but before the
session is established
• SYN packets on an established TCP connection from either the initiator or the responder
Note that only 7000 and 8000 Series devices support this option. In addition, you cannot enable this option
and tap mode on the same inline set.
Configuring Advanced Inline Set Options


Admin

496
Deleting Inline Sets
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device where you want to edit the inline set.
Step 4 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the inline set you want to edit.
Step 5 Click the Advanced tab.
Step 6 Configure options as described in Advanced Inline Set Options, on page 495.
Note Link state propagation and strict TCP enforcement are not supported on virtual devices.
Step 7 Click OK.
What to do next

Threat Protection Any Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
When you delete an inline set, any inline interfaces assigned to the set become available for inclusion in
another set. The interfaces are not deleted.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to delete the inline set, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Next to the inline set you want to delete, click the delete icon ( ).
Step 5 When prompted, confirm that you want to delete the inline set.
What to do next

497

498
PA R T VI
Classic Device High Availability and Scalability
• 7000 and 8000 Series Device High Availability, on page 501
• 8000 Series Device Stacking, on page 517
CHAPTER 24
7000 and 8000 Series Device High Availability
The following topics describe how to configure high availability for Firepower 7000 Series and 8000 Series
devices in the Firepower System:
• About 7000 and 8000 Series Device High Availability, on page 501
• Establishing Device High Availability, on page 505
• Editing Device High Availability, on page 506
• Configuring Individual Devices in a High-Availability Pair, on page 507
• Configuring Individual Device Stacks in a High-Availability Pair, on page 507
• Configuring Interfaces on a Device in a High-Availability Pair, on page 508
• Switching the Active Peer in a Device High-Availability Pair, on page 509
• Placing a High-Availability Peer into Maintenance Mode, on page 509
• Replacing a Device in a Stack in a High-Availability Pair, on page 510
• Device High Availability State Sharing, on page 510
• Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics for Troubleshooting, on page 513
• Separating Device High-Availability Pairs, on page 516
About 7000 and 8000 Series Device High Availability

With 7000 and 8000 Series device high availability, you can establish redundancy of networking functionality
and configuration data between two peer devices or two peer device stacks.
You achieve configuration redundancy by configuring two peer devices or two peer device stacks into a
high-availability pair to act as a single logical system for policy deploys, system updates, and registration.
The system automatically synchronizes other configuration data.
Note Static routes, non-SFRP IP addresses, and routing priorities are not synchronized between the peer devices
or peer device stacks. Each peer device or peer device stack maintains its own routing intelligence.
Related Topics
SFRP
Advanced Virtual Switch Settings, on page 1165

501
Device High Availability Requirements
Device High Availability Requirements

Before you can configure a 7000 and 8000 Series device high-availability pair, the following must be true:
• You can only pair single devices with single devices or device stacks with device stacks.
• Both devices or device stacks must have normal health status, be running the same software, and have
the same licenses. See Using the Health Monitor, on page 257 for more information. In particular, the
devices cannot have hardware failures that would cause them to enter maintenance mode and trigger a
failover.
Note After you pair the devices, you cannot change the license options for individual
paired devices, but you can change the license for the entire high-availability
pair.
• Interfaces must be configured on each device or each primary device in a stack.

• Both devices or the primary members of the device stacks must be the same model and have identical
copper or fiber interfaces.
• Device stacks must have identical hardware configurations, except for an installed malware storage pack.
For example, you can pair a Firepower 8290 with another 8290. None, one, or all devices in either stack
might have a malware storage pack.
Caution Do not attempt to install a hard drive that was not supplied by Cisco in your
device. Installing an unsupported hard drive may damage the device. Malware
storage pack kits are available for purchase only from Cisco, and are for use only
with 8000 Series devices. Contact Support if you require assistance with the
malware storage pack. See the Firepower System Malware Storage Pack Guide
• If the devices are targeted by NAT policies, both peers must have the same NAT policy.
• In a multidomain deployment, you can only establish 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability or
device stacks within a leaf domain.
Note After failover and recovery, SFRP preempts to the master node.
Device High Availability Failover and Maintenance Mode

With a 7000 and 8000 Series device high availability, the system fails over either manually or automatically.
You manually trigger failover by placing one of the paired devices or stacks in maintenance mode.
Automatic failover occurs after the health of the active device or stack becomes compromised, during a system
update, or after a user with Administrator privileges shuts down the device. Automatic failover also occurs
after an active device or device stack experiences NMSB failure, NFE failure, hardware failure, firmware

502
Configuration Deployment and Upgrade Behavior for High-Availability Pairs
failure, critical process failure, a disk full condition, or link failure between two stacked devices. If the health
of the standby device or stack becomes similarly compromised, the system does not fail over and enters a
degraded state. The system also does not fail over when one of the devices or device stacks is in maintenance
mode. Note that disconnecting the stacking cable from an active stack sends that stack into maintenance mode.
Shutting down the secondary device in an active stack also sends that stack into maintenance mode.
Note If the active member of the high-availability pair goes into maintenance mode and the active role fails over
to the other pair member, when the original active pair member is restored to normal operation it does not
automatically reclaim the active role.
Configuration Deployment and Upgrade Behavior for High-Availability Pairs

This topic describes upgrade and deployment behavior for 7000 and 8000 Series devices (and stacks) in high
availability pairs.
Behavior During Deploy

You deploy configuration changes to the members of a high availability pair at the same time. Deploy either
succeeds or fails for both peers. The Firepower Management Center deploys to the active device; if that
succeeds then changes are deployed to the standby.
Behavior During Upgrade

You should not experience interruptions in traffic flow or inspection while upgrading devices (or device
stacks) in high availability pairs. To ensure continuity of operations, they upgrade one at a time. Devices
operate in maintenance mode while they upgrade.
Which peer upgrades first depends on your deployment:
• Routed or switched—Standby upgrades first. The devices switch roles, then the new standby upgrades.
When the upgrade completes, the devices' roles remain switched. If you want to preserve the active/standby
roles, manually switch the roles before you upgrade. That way, the upgrade process switches them back.
• Access control only— Active upgrades first. When the upgrade completes, the active and standby maintain
their old roles.
Deployment Types and Device High Availability

You determine how to configure 7000 or 8000 Series device high availability depending on your Firepower
System deployment: passive, inline, routed, or switched. You can also deploy your system in multiple roles
at once. Of the four deployment types, only passive deployments require that you configure devices or stacks

503
Deployment Types and Device High Availability
using high availability to provide redundancy. You can establish network redundancy for the other deployment
types with or without device high availability. For a brief overview on high availability in each deployment
type, see the sections below.
Note You can achieve Layer 3 redundancy without using device high availability by using the Cisco Redundancy
Protocol (SFRP). SFRP allows devices to act as redundant gateways for specified IP addresses. With network
redundancy, you configure two devices or stacks to provide identical network connections, ensuring connectivity
for other hosts on the network.
Passive Deployment Redundancy

Passive interfaces are generally connected to tap ports on central switches, which allows them to analyze all
of the traffic flowing across the switch. If multiple devices are connected to the same tap feed, the system
generates events from each of the devices. When configured in a high-availability pair, devices act as either
active or standby, which allows the system to analyze traffic even in the event of a system failure while also
preventing duplicate events.
Inline Deployment Redundancy

Because an inline set has no control over the routing of the packets being passed through it, it must always
be active in a deployment. Therefore, redundancy relies on external systems to route traffic correctly. You
can configure redundant inline sets with or without 7000 or 8000 Series device high availability.
To deploy redundant inline sets, you configure the network topology so that it allows traffic to pass through
only one of the inline sets while preventing circular routing. If one of the inline sets fails, the surrounding
network infrastructure detects the loss of connectivity to the gateway address and adjusts the routes to send
traffic through the redundant set.
Routed Deployment Redundancy

Hosts in an IP network must use a well-known gateway address to send traffic to different networks. Establishing
redundancy in a routed deployment requires that routed interfaces share the gateway addresses so that only
one interface handles traffic for that address at any given time. To accomplish this, you must maintain an
equal number of IP addresses on a virtual router. One interface advertises the address. If that interface goes
down, the standby interface begins advertising the address.
In devices that are not members of a high-availability pair, you use SFRP to establish redundancy by configuring
gateway IP addresses shared between multiple routed interfaces. You can configure SFRP with or without
7000 or 8000 Series device high availability. You can also establish redundancy using dynamic routing such
as OSPF or RIP.
Switched Deployment Redundancy

You establish redundancy in a switched deployment using the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), one of the
advanced virtual switch settings. STP is a protocol that manages the topology of bridged networks. It is
specifically designed to allow redundant links to provide automatic standby for switched interfaces without
configuring standby links. Devices in a switched deployment rely on STP to manage traffic between redundant
interfaces. Two devices connected to the same broadcast network receive traffic based on the topology
calculated by STP.

504
Device High Availability Configuration
Note Cisco strongly recommends that you enable STP when configuring a virtual switch that you plan to deploy
in a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair.
Device High Availability Configuration

When establishing 7000 or 8000 Series device high availability, you designate one of the devices or stacks
as active and the other as standby. The system applies a merged configuration to the paired devices. If there
is a conflict, the system applies the configuration from the device or stack you designated as active.
After you pair the devices, you cannot change the license options for individual paired devices, but you can
change the license for the entire high-availability pair. If there are interface attributes that need to be set on
switched interfaces or routed interfaces, the system establishes the high-availability pair, but sets it to a pending
status. After you configure the necessary attributes, the system completes the high-availability pair and sets
it to a normal status.
After you establish a high-availability pair, the system treats the peer devices or stacks as a single device on
the Device Management page. Device high-availability pairs display the High Availability icon ( ) in the
appliance list. Any configuration changes you make are synchronized between the paired devices. The Device
Management page displays which device or stack in the high-availability pair is active, which changes after
manual or automatic failover.
Removing registration of a device high-availability pair from a Firepower Management Center removes
registration from both devices or stacks. You remove a device high-availability pair from the Firepower
Management Center as you would an individual managed device.
You can then register the high-availability pair on another Firepower Management Center. To register single
devices from a high-availability pair, you add remote management to the active device in the pair and then
add that device to the Firepower Management Center, which adds the whole pair. To register stacked devices
in a high-availability pair, you add remote management to the primary device of the either stack and then add
that device to the Firepower Management Center, which adds the whole pair.
After you establish a device high-availability pair, you should configure a high-availability link interface.
Note If you plan to set up dynamic NAT, HA state sharing, or VPN using the devices in the high-availability pair,
you must configure a high-availability link interface. For more information, see Configuring HA Link Interfaces,
on page 481.
Establishing Device High Availability

N/A Control 7000 & 8000 Series Any Admin/Network

Admin

505
Editing Device High Availability
Note This procedure describes establishing a 7000 & 8000 Series device high-availability pair. For information on
establishing Firepower Threat Defense high availability, see Add a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability
Pair, on page 681.
When establishing a 7000 & 8000 Series device high-availability pair, you designate one of the devices or
stacks as active and the other as standby. The system applies a merged configuration to the paired devices. If
there is a conflict, the system applies the configuration from the device or stack you designated as active.
In a multidomain deployment, devices in a high-availability pair must belong to the same domain.
Before you begin

• Confirm that all requirements are met; see Device High Availability Requirements, on page 502.
Procedure

Step 2 From the Add drop-down menu, choose Add High Availability.
Step 4 Under Device Type, choose Firepower.
Step 5 Assign roles for the devices or stacks:
a) Choose the Active Peer device or stack for the high-availability pair.
b) Choose the Standby Peer device or stack for the high-availability pair.
Step 6 Click Add. The process takes a few minutes as the system synchronizes data.
What to do next
Create an HA Link interface on each of the devices in the high-availability pair if you plan to set up HA state
sharing, dynamic NAT, or VPN with the devices. For more information on HA link interfaces, see Configuring
HA Link Interfaces, on page 481.
Editing Device High Availability

N/A Control 7000 & 8000 Series Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
After you establish a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair, most changes you make to the device
configuration also change the configuration of the whole high-availability pair.
You can view the status of the high-availability pair by hovering your pointer over the status icon in the
General section. You can also view which device or stack is the active peer and standby peer in the pair.

506
Configuring Individual Devices in a High-Availability Pair
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device high availability pair where you want to edit the configuration, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Use the sections on the High Availability page to make changes to the high-availability pair configuration as
you would a single device configuration.
Configuring Individual Devices in a High-Availability Pair


Admin
After you establish a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair, you can still configure some attributes
for each device within the pair. You can make changes to a paired device just as you would to a single device.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device high-availability pair where you want to edit the configuration, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click the Devices tab.

Step 4 From the Selected Device drop-down list, choose the device you want to modify.
Step 5 Use the sections on the Devices page to make changes to the individual paired device as you would a single
device.
Configuring Individual Device Stacks in a High-Availability Pair

N/A Control Firepower 8140, Leaf only Admin/Network

Firepower 8200 Admin
family, Firepower
8300 family
After you configure stacked 8000 Series devices into a high-availability pair, the system limits the stack
attributes that you can edit. You can edit the name of a stack in a paired stack. In addition, you can edit the

507
Configuring Interfaces on a Device in a High-Availability Pair
network configuration of the stack, as described in Configuring Interfaces on a Device in a High-Availability

Pair, on page 508.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device high-availability pair where you want to edit the configuration, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click the Stacks tab.

Step 4 From the Selected Device drop-down list, choose the stack you want to modify.
Step 5 Next to the General section, click the edit icon ( ).

Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
Configuring Interfaces on a Device in a High-Availability Pair


Admin
You can configure interfaces on individual devices in a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair.
However, you must also configure an equivalent interface on the peer device in the pair. For paired stacks,
you configure identical interfaces on the primary devices of the stacks. When you configure virtual routers,
you select the stack where you want to configure the routers.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device high-availability pair where you want to configure interfaces, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click the Interfaces tab.

Step 5 Configure interfaces as you would on an individual device.

508
Switching the Active Peer in a Device High-Availability Pair
Related Topics
Virtual Router Configuration, on page 1177
Switching the Active Peer in a Device High-Availability Pair


Admin
After you establish a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair, you can manually switch the active
and standby peer devices or stacks.
Procedure

Step 2 Next to the device high-availability pair where you want to change the active peer, click the Switch Active
Peer icon ( ).
Step 3 You can:
• Click Yes to immediately make the standby peer the active peer in the high-availability pair.
• Click No to cancel and return to the Device Management page.
Placing a High-Availability Peer into Maintenance Mode


Admin
After you establish a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair, you can manually trigger failover by
placing one of the peers into maintenance mode to perform maintenance on the devices. In maintenance mode,
the system administratively takes down all interfaces except for the management interface. After maintenance
is completed, you can re-enable the peer to resume normal operation.
Note You should not place both peers in a high-availability pair into maintenance mode at the same time. Doing
so will prevent that pair from inspecting traffic.
Procedure

509
Replacing a Device in a Stack in a High-Availability Pair
Step 2 Next to the peer you want to place in maintenance mode, click the toggle maintenance mode icon ( ).
Step 3 Click Yes to confirm maintenance mode.
What to do next
• When maintenance is complete, click the toggle maintenance mode icon ( ) again to bring the peer out
of maintenance mode.

N/A Control Firepower 8140, Any Admin/Network

8200 family, 8300 Admin
family
After you place a stack that is a member of a high-availability pair into maintenance mode, you can replace
a secondary device in the stack for another device. You can only select devices that are not currently stacked
or paired. The new device must follow the same guidelines for establishing a device stack.
Procedure

Step 2 Next to the stack member you want to place into maintenance mode, click the toggle maintenance mode icon
( ).
Step 4 Click the replace device icon ( ).

Step 5 Choose the Replacement Device from the drop-down list.
Step 6 Click Replace to replace the device.
Step 7 Click the toggle maintenance mode icon ( ) again to bring the stack immediately out of maintenance mode.
Note You do not need to re-deploy the device configuration.
Device High Availability State Sharing

Device high availability state sharing allows devices or stacks in high-availability pairs to synchronize as
much state as necessary, so that if either device or stack fails, the other peer can take over with no interruption
to traffic flow. Without state sharing, the following features may not fail over properly:
• Strict TCP enforcement

510
Device High Availability State Sharing
• Unidirectional access control rules

• Blocking persistence
Note, however, that enabling state sharing slows system performance.

You must configure and enable HA link interfaces on both devices or the primary stacked devices in the
high-availability pair before you can configure high availability state sharing. Firepower 82xx Family and
83xx Family devices require a 10G HA link, while other model devices require a 1G HA link.
You must disable state sharing before you can modify the HA link interfaces.
Note If paired devices fail over, the system terminates all existing SSL-encrypted sessions on the active device.
Even if you establish high availability state sharing, these sessions must be renegotiated on the standby device.
If the server establishing the SSL session supports session reuse and the standby device does not have the
SSL session ID, it cannot renegotiate the session.
Strict TCP Enforcement

When you enable strict TCP enforcement for a domain, the system drops any packets that are out of order on
TCP sessions. For example, the system drops non-SYN packets received on an unestablished connection.
With state sharing, devices in the high-availability pair allow TCP sessions to continue after failover without
having to reestablish the connection, even if strict TCP enforcement is enabled. You can enable strict TCP
enforcement on inline sets, virtual routers, and virtual switches.
Unidirectional Access Control Rules

If you have configured unidirectional access control rules, network traffic may match a different access control
rule than intended when the system reevaluates a connection midstream after failover. For example, consider
if you have a policy containing the following two access control rules:
Rule 1: Allow from 192.168.1.0/24 to 192.168.2.0/24

Rule 2: Block all
Without state sharing, if an allowed connection from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.1 is still active following a
failover and the next packet is seen as a response packet, the system denies the connection. With state sharing,
a midstream pickup would match the existing connection and continue to be allowed.
Blocking Persistence
While many connections are blocked on the first packet based on access control rules or other factors, there
are cases where the system allows some number of packets through before determining that the connection
should be blocked. With state sharing, the system immediately blocks the connection on the peer device or
stack as well.
When establishing state sharing for a high-availability pair, you can configure the following options:
Enabled
Click the check box to enable state sharing. Clear the check box to disable state sharing.

511
Establishing Device High-Availability State Sharing
Minimum Flow Lifetime

Specify the minimum time (in milliseconds) for a session before the system sends any synchronization messages
for it. You can use any integer from 0 to 65535. The system does not synchronize any sessions that have not
met the minimum flow lifetime, and the system synchronizes only when a packet is received for the connection.
Minimum Sync. Interval

Specify the minimum time (in milliseconds) between update messages for a session. You can use any integer
from 0 to 65535. The minimum synchronization interval prevents synchronization messages for a given
connection from being sent more frequently than the configured value after the connection reaches the minimum
lifetime.
Maximum HTTP URL Length

Specify the maximum characters for the URL the system synchronizes between the paired devices. You may
use any integer from 0 to 225.
Related Topics
Configuring HA Link Interfaces, on page 481
Establishing Device High-Availability State Sharing


Admin
Device high-availability state sharing allows 7000 or 8000 Series devices or stacks in high-availability pairs
to synchronize as much state as necessary, so that if either device or stack fails, the other peer can take over
with no interruption to traffic flow.
Caution Modifying a high-availability state sharing option on a 7000 or 8000 Series device restarts the Snort process
on the primary and secondary devices, temporarily interrupting traffic insepection on both devices. Whether
traffic drops during this interruption or passes without further inspection depends on how the target device
handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
Procedure
Step 1 Configure HA link interfaces for each device in the device high-availability pair; see Configuring HA Link
Interfaces, on page 481.
Step 3 Next to the device high-availability pair you want to edit, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 In the State Sharing section, click the edit icon ( ).

512
Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics for Troubleshooting
Step 5 Decrease the state sharing values to improve paired peer readiness, or increase the values to allow better
performance.
Note Cisco recommends that you use the default values, unless your deployment presents a good reason
to change them.
Step 6 Click OK to save your changes.
What to do next
Related Topics
Configuring HA Link Interfaces, on page 481
Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics for

Troubleshooting
The sections below describe the statistics you can view for each device and how you can use them to
troubleshoot your state sharing configuration for 7000 and 8000 Series device high-availability pairs.
Messages Received (Unicast)

Messages received are the number of high availability synchronization messages received from the paired
peer.
The value should be close to the number of messages sent by the peer. During active use, the values may not
match, but should be close. If traffic stops, the values should become stable and the messages received will
match the messages sent.
For troubleshooting, you should view both the messages received and the messages sent, compare the rate of
increase, and make sure the values are close. The sent value on each peer should be incrementing at
approximately the same rate as the received value on the opposite peer.
Contact Support if the received messages stop incrementing or increment slower than the messages sent by
the peer.
Packets Received
The system batches multiple messages into single packets in order to decrease overhead. The Packets Received
counter displays the total number of these data packets, as well as other control packets that have been received
by a device.
The value should be close to the number of packets sent by the peer device. During active use, the values may
not match, but should be close. Because the number of messages received should be close and incrementing
at the same rate as the number of messages sent by the peer, the number of packets received should have the
same behavior.

513
Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics for Troubleshooting
For troubleshooting, you should view both the packets received and the messages sent, compare the rate of
increase, and make sure the values are increasing at the same rate. If the sent value on the paired peer is
incrementing, the received value on the device should also increase at the same rate.
Contact Support if the received packets stop incrementing or increment slower than the messages sent by the
peer.
Total Bytes Received

Total bytes received are the number of bytes that make up the packets received by the peer.
The value should be close to the number of bytes sent by the other peer. During active use, the values may
not match, but should be close.
For troubleshooting, you should view both the total bytes received and the messages sent, compare the rate
of increase, and make sure the values are increasing at the same rate. If the sent value on the paired peer is
incrementing, the received value on the device should also increase at the same rate.
Contact Support if the received bytes stop incrementing or increment slower than the messages sent by the
peer.
Protocol Bytes Received

Protocol bytes received are the number of bytes of protocol overhead received, which includes everything
but the payload of session state synchronization messages.
The value should be close to the number of bytes sent by the peer. During active use, the values may not
match, but should be close.
For troubleshooting, you should view the total bytes received to discover how much actual state data is being
shared in comparison to protocol data. If the protocol data is a large percentage of the data being sent, you
can adjust the minimum sync interval.
Contact Support if the protocol bytes received increment at a similar rate to the total bytes received. Protocol
bytes received should be minimal in relation to the total bytes received.
Messages Sent
Messages sent are the number of high availability synchronization messages sent to the paired peer.
This data is useful in comparison to the number of messages received. During active use, the values may not
match, but should be close.
For troubleshooting, you should view both the messages received and the messages sent, compare the rate of
increase, and make sure the values are close.
Contact Support if the messages sent increment at a similar rate to the total bytes received.
Bytes Sent
Bytes sent are the total number of bytes sent that make up the high availability synchronization messages sent
to the peer.
This data are useful in comparison to the number of messages received. During active use, the values may
not match, but should be close. The number of bytes received on the peer should be close to, but not more
than this value.
Contact Support if the total bytes received is not incrementing at about the same rate as the bytes sent.

514
Viewing Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics
Tx Errors
Tx errors are the number of memory allocation failures the system encounters when trying to allocate space
for messages to be sent to the paired peer.
This value should be zero at all times on both peers. Contact Support if this number is not zero or if the number
steadily increases, which indicates the system has encountered an error where it cannot allocate memory.
Tx Overruns
Tx overruns are the number of times the system attempts and fails to place a message into the transit queue.
This value should be zero at all times on both peers. When the value is not zero or is steadily increasing, it
indicates that the system is sharing too much data across the HA link that cannot be sent quickly enough.
You should increase the HA link MTU if it was previously set below the default value (9918 or 9922). You
can change the minimum flow lifetime and minimum synchronization interval settings to reduce the amount
of data shared across the HA link to prevent the number from incrementing.
Contact Support if this value persists or continues to increase.
Recent Logs
The system log displays the most recent high availability synchronization messages. The log should not display
any ERROR or WARN messages. It should remain comparable between the peers, such as the same number
of sockets being connected.
However, the data displayed may be opposite in some instances, for example, one peer reports that it received
a connection from the other peer and references different IP addresses. The log provides a comprehensive
view of the high availability state sharing connection, and any errors within the connection.
Contact Support if the log displays an ERROR or WARN message, or any message that does not appear to
be purely informational.
Viewing Device High Availability State Sharing Statistics


Admin
After you establish state sharing, you can view the following information about the configuration in the State
Sharing section of the High Availability page:
• The HA link interface that is being used and its current link state
• Detailed synchronization statistics for troubleshooting issues
The state sharing statistics are primarily counters for different aspects of the high availability synchronization
traffic sent and received, along with some other error counters. In addition, you can view the latest system
logs for each device in the high-availability pair.

515
Separating Device High-Availability Pairs
Procedure
Step 3 In the State Sharing section, click the view statistics icon ( ).
Step 4 Choose a Device to view if your high-availability pair is composed of device stacks.
Step 5 You can:
• Click Refresh to update the statistics.
• Click View to view the latest data log for each device in the high-availability pair.
Separating Device High-Availability Pairs


Admin
When you separate, or "break," a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair:
• The active peer (device or stack) retains full deployment functionality
• The standby peer (device or stack) loses its interface configurations and fails over to the active peer,
unless you choose to leave the interface configurations active, in which case the standby peer resumes
normal operation.
• The standby peer always loses the configuration of passive interfaces.
• Any peer in maintenance mode resumes normal operation.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the high-availability pair you want to break, click the Break HA icon ( ).
Step 3 Optionally, check the check box to remove the interface configurations on the standby peer.
This step administratively takes down all interfaces except for the management interface.
Step 4 Click Yes.

516
CHAPTER 25
8000 Series Device Stacking
The following topics describe how to work with Firepower 8000 Series device stacks in the Firepower System:
• About Device Stacks, on page 517
• Device Stack Configuration, on page 519
• Establishing Device Stacks, on page 520
• Editing Device Stacks, on page 521
• Replacing a Device in a Stack, on page 521
• Replacing a Device in a Stack in a High-Availability Pair, on page 522
• Configuring Individual Devices in a Stack, on page 523
• Configuring Interfaces on a Stacked Device, on page 523
• Separating Stacked Devices, on page 524
• Replacing a Device in a Stack, on page 525
About Device Stacks

You can increase the amount of traffic inspected on a network segment by using devices in a stacked
configuration. For each stacked configuration, all devices in the stack must have the same hardware. However,
none, some, or all devices might have an installed malware storage pack. The devices must also be from the
same device family based on the following stacked configurations:
The stacked configuration is supported for Firepower 8140, Firepower 8200 family, Firepower 8300 family
devices.
For the 81xx Family:

• two Firepower 8140s

• up to four Firepower 8250s
• a Firepower 8260 (a primary device and a secondary device)
• a Firepower 8270 (a primary device with 40G capacity and two secondary devices)
• a Firepower 8290 (a primary device with 40G capacity and three secondary devices)

517
About Device Stacks

• up to four Firepower 8350s
• up to four AMP8350s
• a Firepower 8360 (a primary device with 40G capacity and a secondary device)
• an AMP8360 (a primary device with 40G capacity and a secondary device)
• a Firepower 8370 (a primary device with 40G capacity and two secondary devices)
• an AMP8370 (a primary device with 40G capacity and two secondary devices)
• a Firepower 8390 (a primary device with 40G capacity and three secondary devices)
• an AMP8390 (a primary device with 40G capacity and three secondary devices)
For more information about stacked configurations, see the Cisco Firepower 8000 Series Getting Started
Guide. For more information about the malware storage pack, see the Firepower System Malware Storage
Pack Guide. Firepower System Malware Storage Pack Guide.
Caution Do not attempt to install a hard drive that was not supplied by Cisco in your device. Installing an unsupported
hard drive may damage the device. Malware storage pack kits are available for purchase only from Cisco,
and are for use only with 8000 Series devices. Contact Support if you require assistance with the malware
storage pack. See the Firepower System Malware Storage Pack Guide for more information.
When you establish a stacked configuration, you combine the resources of each stacked device into a single,
shared configuration.
You designate one device as the primary device, where you configure the interfaces for the entire stack. You
designate the other devices as secondary. Secondary devices must not be currently sensing any traffic and
must not have link on any interface.
Connect the primary device to the network segment you want to analyze in the same way you would configure
a single device. Connect the secondary devices to the primary device using the stacked device cabling
instructions found in the Cisco Firepower 8000 Series Getting Started Guide.
All devices in the stacked configuration must have the same hardware, run the same software version, and
have the same licenses. If the devices are targeted by NAT policies, both the primary and secondary device
must have the same NAT policy. You must deploy updates to the entire stack from the Firepower Management
Center. If an update fails on one or more devices in the stack, the stack enters a mixed-version state. You
cannot deploy policies to or update a stack in a mixed-version state. To correct this state, you can break the
stack or remove individual devices with different versions, update the individual devices, then reestablish the
stacked configuration. After you stack the devices, you can change the licenses only for the entire stack at
once.
After you establish the stacked configuration, the devices act like a single, shared configuration. If the primary
device fails, no traffic is passed to the secondary devices. Health alerts are generated indicating that the stacking
heartbeat has failed on the secondary devices.
If the secondary device in a stack fails, inline sets with configurable bypass enabled go into bypass mode on
the primary device. For all other configurations, the system continues to load balance traffic to the failed
secondary device. In either case, a health alert is generated to indicate loss of link.

518
Device Stack Configuration
You can use a device stack as you would a single device in your deployment, with a few exceptions. If you
have 7000 or 8000 Series devices in a high-availability pair, you cannot stack a device high-availability pair
or a device in a high-availability pair. You also cannot configure NAT on a device stack.
Note If you use eStreamer to stream event data from stacked devices to an external client application, collect the
data from each device and ensure that you configure each device identically. The eStreamer settings are not
automatically synchronized between stacked devices.
In a multidomain deployment, you can only stack devices that belong to the same domain.
Related Topics
Device Stack Configuration

You can increase the amount of traffic inspected on a network segment by stacking two Firepower 8140
devices, up to four Firepower 8250s, a Firepower 8260, a Firepower 8270, a Firepower 8290, up to four
Firepower 8350s, a Firepower 8360, a Firepower 8370, or a Firepower 8390 and using their combined resources
in a single, shared, configuration. If you have 7000 or 8000 Series devices in a high-availability pair, you
cannot stack a device high-availability pair or a device in a high-availability pair. However, you can configure
two device stacks into a high-availability pair.
After you establish a device stack, the system treats the devices as a single device on the Device Management
page. Device stacks display the stack icon ( ) in the appliance list.
Removing registration of a device stack from a Firepower Management Center also removes registration from
both devices. You delete stacked devices from the Firepower Management Center as you would a single
managed device; you can then register the stack on another Firepower Management Center. You only need
to register one of the stacked devices on the new Firepower Management Center for the entire stack to appear.
After you establish the device stack, you cannot change which devices are primary or secondary unless you
break and reestablish the stack. However, you can:
• add secondary devices to an existing stack of two or three Firepower 8250s, a Firepower 8260, or a
Firepower 8270 up to the limit of four Firepower 8250s in a stack
• add secondary devices to an existing stack of two or three Firepower 8350s, a Firepower 8360, or a
Firepower 8370 up to the limit of four Firepower 8350s in a stack
For additional devices, the primary device in the stack must have the necessary stacking NetMods for additional
cabled devices. For example, if you have a Firepower 8260 where the primary only has a single stacking
NetMod, you cannot add another secondary device to this stack. You add secondary devices to an existing
stack in the same manner that you initially establish a stacked device configuration.

519
Establishing Device Stacks
Establishing Device Stacks

Smart License Classic License Supported Devices Supported Access
Domains
N/A Any Firepower 8140, 8200 Any Admin/Network

family, 8300 family Admin
All devices in a stack must be of the same hardware model (for example, a Firepower 8140 with another
8140). You can stack a total of four devices (one primary device and up to three secondary devices) in the
8200 family and in the 8300 family.
In a multidomain deployment, all devices in the stack must belong to the same domain.
Before you begin

• Decide which unit will be the primary device.
• Confirm that the units are cabled properly before designating the primary/secondary relationship. For
information about cabling, see the Cisco Firepower 8000 Series Getting Started Guide.
Procedure

Step 2 From the Add drop-down menu, choose Add Stack.
Step 3 From the Primary drop-down list, choose the device that you cabled for primary operation.
Note If you choose a device that is not cabled as the primary device, you cannot perform the next series
of steps.

Step 5 Click Add to choose the devices you want to include in the stack.
Step 6 From the Slot on Primary Device drop-down list, choose the stacking network module that connects the
primary device to the secondary device.
Step 7 From the Secondary Device drop-down list, choose the device you cabled for secondary operation.
Step 8 From the Slot on Secondary Device drop-down list, choose the stacking network module that connects the
secondary device to the primary device.
Step 9 Click Add.
Step 10 Repeat steps 5 through 9 if you are adding secondary devices to an existing stack of Firepower 8250s, a
Firepower 8260, a Firepower 8270, an existing stack of Firepower 8350s, a Firepower 8360, or a Firepower
8370.
Step 11 Click Stack to establish the device stack or to add secondary devices. Note that this process takes a few
minutes as the process synchronizes system data.
Related Topics

520
Editing Device Stacks
Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center, on page 199

Add Devices to the Firepower Management Center, on page 197
Editing Device Stacks

N/A Any Firepower 8140, Leaf only Admin/Network

family, Firepower
8300 family
After you establish a device stack, most changes you make to the device configuration also change the
configuration of the entire stack. On the Stack page of the appliance editor, you can make changes to the stack
configuration as on the Device page of a single device.
You can change the display name of the stack, enable and disable licenses, view system and health policies,
and configure advanced settings.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the stacked device where you want to edit the configuration, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Use the sections on the Stack page to make changes to the stacked configuration as you would a single device
configuration.
Replacing a Device in a Stack

N/A Any FirePOWER 8140, Any Admin/Network

family
If the Firepower Management Center cannot communciate with the device, you must connect to the device
and use CLI commands to separate the stack and unregister the device. For more information, see stacking
disable and delete CLI commands in the relevant chapter: Classic Device CLI Configuration Commands, on
page 2590.
To replace a device within a stack:

521
Procedure
Step 1 Select the stack with the device to replace and break that stack. For more information, see Separating Stacked
Step 2 Unregister the device from the Firepower Management Center. For more information, see Deleting Devices
from the Firepower Management Center, on page 199.
Step 3 Register the replacement device to the Firepower Management Center. For more information, see Add Devices
to the Firepower Management Center, on page 197.
Step 4 Create a device stack that includes the replacement deivce. for more information, see Establishing Device
Stacks, on page 520.

N/A Control Firepower 8140, Any Admin/Network

family
After you place a stack that is a member of a high-availability pair into maintenance mode, you can replace
a secondary device in the stack for another device. You can only select devices that are not currently stacked
or paired. The new device must follow the same guidelines for establishing a device stack.
Procedure

Step 2 Next to the stack member you want to place into maintenance mode, click the toggle maintenance mode icon
( ).
Step 4 Click the replace device icon ( ).

Step 5 Choose the Replacement Device from the drop-down list.
Step 6 Click Replace to replace the device.
Step 7 Click the toggle maintenance mode icon ( ) again to bring the stack immediately out of maintenance mode.
Note You do not need to re-deploy the device configuration.

522
Configuring Individual Devices in a Stack
Configuring Individual Devices in a Stack


family, Firepower
8300 family
After you establish a device stack, you can still configure some attributes for an individual device within the
stack. You can make changes to a device configured in a stack as you would for a single device. You can
change the display name of a device, view system settings, shut down or restart a device, view health
information, and edit device management settings.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the stacked device where you want to edit the configuration, click the edit icon ( ).

Step 5 Use the sections on the Devices page to make changes to the individual stacked device as you would a single
device.
Configuring Interfaces on a Stacked Device


family, Firepower
8300 family
With the exception of the management interface, you configure stacked device interfaces on the Interfaces
page of the primary device in the stack. You can choose any device in the stack to configure the management
interface.
The Interfaces page of a Firepower stacked device includes the hardware and interfaces views that you find
on an individual device.

523
Separating Stacked Devices
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the primary stacked device, click the edit icon ( ).

Step 5 Configure interfaces as you would on an individual device; see Configuring Sensing Interfaces, on page 480.
Related Topics
Separating Stacked Devices


family
If you no longer need to use a stacked configuration for your devices, you can break the stack and separate
the devices.
Note If a stacked device fails, or if communication fails between member devices of a stack, you cannot separate
the stacked devices using the Firepower Management Center web interface. In this case, use the auxiliary CLI
command configure stacking disable to remove the stack configuration from each device individually.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device stack you want to break, click the break stack icon ( ).
Tip To remove a secondary device from a stack of three or more Firepower 8250 devices without
breaking the stack, click the remove from stack icon ( ). Removing the secondary device causes
a brief disruption of traffic inspection, traffic flow, or link state as the system reconfigures the stack
for operation without the extra device.
Step 3 Click Yes to separate the device stack.

524


family
If the Firepower Management Center cannot communciate with the device, you must connect to the device
and use CLI commands to separate the stack and unregister the device. For more information, see stacking
disable and delete CLI commands in the relevant chapter: Classic Device CLI Configuration Commands, on
page 2590.
To replace a device within a stack:
Procedure
Step 1 Select the stack with the device to replace and break that stack. For more information, see Separating Stacked
Step 2 Unregister the device from the Firepower Management Center. For more information, see Deleting Devices
from the Firepower Management Center, on page 199.
Step 3 Register the replacement device to the Firepower Management Center. For more information, see Add Devices
Step 4 Create a device stack that includes the replacement deivce. for more information, see Establishing Device
Stacks, on page 520.

525

526
PA R T VII
Firepower Threat Defense Getting Started
• Transparent or Routed Firewall Mode for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 529
• Logical Devices for the Firepower Threat Defense on the Firepower 4100/9300, on page 541
• FlexConfig Policies for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 557
CHAPTER 26
Transparent or Routed Firewall Mode for
This chapter describes how to set the firewall mode to routed or transparent, as well as how the firewall works
in each firewall mode.
Note The firewall mode only affects regular firewall interfaces, and not IPS-only interfaces such as inline sets or
passive interfaces. IPS-only interfaces can be used in both firewall modes. See Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces
for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 639 for more information about IPS-only interfaces. Inline sets might
be familiar to you as "transparent inline sets," but the inline interface type is unrelated to the transparent
firewall mode described in this chapter or the firewall-type interfaces.
• About the Firewall Mode, on page 529

• Default Settings, on page 537
• Guidelines for Firewall Mode, on page 537
• Set the Firewall Mode, on page 538
About the Firewall Mode

The Firepower Threat Defense device supports two firewall modes for regular firewall interfaces: Routed
Firewall mode and Transparent Firewall mode.
About Routed Firewall Mode

In routed mode, the Firepower Threat Defense device is considered to be a router hop in the network. Each
interface that you want to route between is on a different subnet.
With Integrated Routing and Bridging, you can use a "bridge group" where you group together multiple
interfaces on a network, and the Firepower Threat Defense device uses bridging techniques to pass traffic
between the interfaces. Each bridge group includes a Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) to which you assign an
IP address on the network. The Firepower Threat Defense device routes between BVIs and regular routed
interfaces. If you do not need clustering or EtherChannel or redundant member interfaces, you might consider
using routed mode instead of transparent mode. In routed mode, you can have one or more isolated bridge
groups like in transparent mode, but also have normal routed interfaces as well for a mixed deployment.

529
About Transparent Firewall Mode
About Transparent Firewall Mode

Traditionally, a firewall is a routed hop and acts as a default gateway for hosts that connect to one of its
screened subnets. A transparent firewall, on the other hand, is a Layer 2 firewall that acts like a “bump in the
wire,” or a “stealth firewall,” and is not seen as a router hop to connected devices. However, like any other
firewall, access control between interfaces is controlled, and all of the usual firewall checks are in place.
Layer 2 connectivity is achieved by using a "bridge group" where you group together the inside and outside
interfaces for a network, and the Firepower Threat Defense device uses bridging techniques to pass traffic
between the interfaces. Each bridge group includes a Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) to which you assign an
IP address on the network. You can have multiple bridge groups for multiple networks. In transparent mode,
these bridge groups cannot communicate with each other.
Using the Transparent Firewall in Your Network

The Firepower Threat Defense device connects the same network between its interfaces. Because the firewall
is not a routed hop, you can easily introduce a transparent firewall into an existing network.
The following figure shows a typical transparent firewall network where the outside devices are on the same
subnet as the inside devices. The inside router and hosts appear to be directly connected to the outside router.
Figure 3: Transparent Firewall Network
Diagnostic Interface
In addition to each Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) IP address, you can add a separate Diagnostic slot/port
interface that is not part of any bridge group, and that allows only management traffic to the Firepower Threat
Defense device.

530
Passing Traffic For Routed-Mode Features
Passing Traffic For Routed-Mode Features

For features that are not directly supported on the transparent firewall, you can allow traffic to pass through
so that upstream and downstream routers can support the functionality. For example, by using an access rule,
you can allow DHCP traffic (instead of the unsupported DHCP relay feature) or multicast traffic such as that
created by IP/TV. You can also establish routing protocol adjacencies through a transparent firewall; you can
allow OSPF, RIP, EIGRP, or BGP traffic through based on an access rule. Likewise, protocols like HSRP or
VRRP can pass through the Firepower Threat Defense device.
About Bridge Groups

A bridge group is a group of interfaces that the Firepower Threat Defense device bridges instead of routes.
Bridge groups are supported in both transparent and routed firewall mode. Like any other firewall interfaces,
access control between interfaces is controlled, and all of the usual firewall checks are in place.
Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI)

Each bridge group includes a Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI). The Firepower Threat Defense device uses the
BVI IP address as the source address for packets originating from the bridge group. The BVI IP address must
be on the same subnet as the bridge group member interfaces. The BVI does not support traffic on secondary
networks; only traffic on the same network as the BVI IP address is supported.
In transparent mode: Only bridge group member interfaces are named and can be used with interface-based
features.
In routed mode: The BVI acts as the gateway between the bridge group and other routed interfaces. To route
between bridge groups/routed interfaces, you must name the BVI. For some interface-based features, you can
use the BVI itself:
• DHCPv4 server—Only the BVI supports the DHCPv4 server configuration.
• Static routes—You can configure static routes for the BVI; you cannot configure static routes for the
member interfaces.
• Syslog server and other traffic sourced from the Firepower Threat Defense device—When specifying a
syslog server (or SNMP server, or other service where the traffic is sourced from the Firepower Threat
Defense device), you can specify either the BVI or a member interface.
If you do not name the BVI in routed mode, then the Firepower Threat Defense device does not route bridge
group traffic. This configuration replicates transparent firewall mode for the bridge group. If you do not need
clustering or EtherChannel or redundant member interfaces, you might consider using routed mode instead.
In routed mode, you can have one or more isolated bridge groups like in transparent mode, but also have
normal routed interfaces as well for a mixed deployment.
Bridge Groups in Transparent Firewall Mode

Bridge group traffic is isolated from other bridge groups; traffic is not routed to another bridge group within
the Firepower Threat Defense device, and traffic must exit the Firepower Threat Defense device before it is
routed by an external router back to another bridge group in the Firepower Threat Defense device. Although
the bridging functions are separate for each bridge group, many other functions are shared between all bridge
groups. For example, all bridge groups share a syslog server or AAA server configuration.
You can include multiple interfaces per bridge group. See Guidelines for Firewall Mode, on page 537 for the
exact number of bridge groups and interfaces supported. If you use more than 2 interfaces per bridge group,

531
Bridge Groups in Routed Firewall Mode
you can control communication between multiple segments on the same network, and not just between inside
and outside. For example, if you have three inside segments that you do not want to communicate with each
other, you can put each segment on a separate interface, and only allow them to communicate with the outside
interface. Or you can customize the access rules between interfaces to allow only as much access as desired.
The following figure shows two networks connected to the Firepower Threat Defense device, which has two
bridge groups.
Figure 4: Transparent Firewall Network with Two Bridge Groups
Bridge Groups in Routed Firewall Mode

Bridge group traffic can be routed to other bridge groups or routed interfaces. You can choose to isolate bridge
group traffic by not assigning a name to the BVI interface for the bridge group. If you name the BVI, then
the BVI participates in routing like any other regular interface.
One use for a bridge group in routed mode is to use extra interfaces on the Firepower Threat Defense device
instead of an external switch. For example, the default configuration for some devices include an outside
interface as a regular interface, and then all other interfaces assigned to the inside bridge group. Because the
purpose of this bridge group is to replace an external switch, you need to configure an access policy so all
bridge group interfaces can freely communicate.

532
Allowing Layer 3 Traffic
Figure 5: Routed Firewall Network with an Inside Bridge Group and an Outside Routed Interface
Allowing Layer 3 Traffic

• Unicast IPv4 and IPv6 traffic requires an access rule to be allowed through the bridge group.
• ARPs are allowed through the bridge group in both directions without an access rule. ARP traffic can
be controlled by ARP inspection.
• IPv6 neighbor discovery and router solicitation packets can be passed using access rules.
• Broadcast and multicast traffic can be passed using access rules.
Allowed MAC Addresses

The following destination MAC addresses are allowed through the bridge group if allowed by your access
policy (see Allowing Layer 3 Traffic, on page 533). Any MAC address not on this list is dropped.
• TRUE broadcast destination MAC address equal to FFFF.FFFF.FFFF
• IPv4 multicast MAC addresses from 0100.5E00.0000 to 0100.5EFE.FFFF
• IPv6 multicast MAC addresses from 3333.0000.0000 to 3333.FFFF.FFFF
• BPDU multicast address equal to 0100.0CCC.CCCD
BPDU Handling
To prevent loops using the Spanning Tree Protocol, BPDUs are passed by default.

533
MAC Address vs. Route Lookups
MAC Address vs. Route Lookups

For traffic within a bridge group, the outgoing interface of a packet is determined by performing a destination
MAC address lookup instead of a route lookup.
Route lookups, however, are necessary for the following situations:
• Traffic originating on the Firepower Threat Defense device—Add a default/static route on the Firepower
Threat Defense device for traffic destined for a remote network where a syslog server, for example, is
located.
• Voice over IP (VoIP) and TFTP traffic, and the endpoint is at least one hop away—Add a static route
on the Firepower Threat Defense device for traffic destined for the remote endpoint so that secondary
connections are successful. The Firepower Threat Defense device creates a temporary "pinhole" in the
access control policy to allow the secondary connection; and because the connection might use a different
set of IP addresses than the primary connection, the Firepower Threat Defense device needs to perform
a route lookup to install the pinhole on the correct interface.
Affected applications include:
• H.323
• RTSP
• SIP
• Skinny (SCCP)
• SQL*Net
• SunRPC
• TFTP
• Traffic at least one hop away for which the Firepower Threat Defense device performs NAT—Configure
a static route on the Firepower Threat Defense device for traffic destined for the remote network. You
also need a static route on the upstream router for traffic destined for the mapped addresses to be sent to
the Firepower Threat Defense device.
This routing requirement is also true for embedded IP addresses for VoIP and DNS with NAT enabled,
and the embedded IP addresses are at least one hop away. The Firepower Threat Defense device needs
to identify the correct egress interface so it can perform the translation.

534
Unsupported Features for Bridge Groups in Transparent Mode
Figure 6: NAT Example: NAT within a Bridge Group
Unsupported Features for Bridge Groups in Transparent Mode

The following table lists the features are not supported in bridge groups in transparent mode.
Table 54: Unsupported Features in Transparent Mode
Feature Description
Dynamic DNS —
DHCP relay The transparent firewall can act as a DHCPv4 server,

but it does not support DHCP relay. DHCP relay is
not required because you can allow DHCP traffic to
pass through using two access rules: one that allows
DCHP requests from the inside interface to the
outside, and one that allows the replies from the server
in the other direction.

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Unsupported Features for Bridge Groups in Routed Mode
Feature Description
Dynamic routing protocols You can, however, add static routes for traffic
originating on the Firepower Threat Defense device
for bridge group member interfaces. You can also
allow dynamic routing protocols through the
Firepower Threat Defense device using an access rule.
Multicast IP routing You can allow multicast traffic through the Firepower
Threat Defense device by allowing it in an access rule.
QoS —
VPN termination for through traffic The transparent firewall supports site-to-site VPN
tunnels for management connections only on bridge
group member interfaces. It does not terminate VPN
connections for traffic through the Firepower Threat
Defense device. You can pass VPN traffic through
the ASA using an access rule, but it does not terminate
non-management connections.
Unsupported Features for Bridge Groups in Routed Mode

The following table lists the features are not supported in bridge groups in routed mode.
Table 55: Unsupported Features in Routed Mode
Feature Description
EtherChannel member interfaces Only physical interfaces, redundant interfaces, and

subinterfaces are supported as bridge group member
interfaces.
Diagnostic interfaces are also not supported.
Clustering Bridge groups are not supported in clustering.
Dynamic DNS —
DHCP relay The routed firewall can act as a DHCPv4 server, but
it does not support DHCP relay on BVIs or bridge
group member interfaces.
Dynamic routing protocols You can, however, add static routes for BVIs. You
can also allow dynamic routing protocols through the
Firepower Threat Defense device using an access rule.
Non-bridge group interfaces support dynamic routing.
Multicast IP routing You can allow multicast traffic through the Firepower
Threat Defense device by allowing it in an access rule.
Non-bridge group interfaces support multicast routing.
QoS Non-bridge group interfaces support QoS.

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Default Settings
Feature Description
VPN termination for through traffic You cannot terminate a VPN connection on the BVI.
Non-bridge group interfaces support VPN.
Bridge group member interfaces support site-to-site
VPN tunnels for management connections only. It
does not terminate VPN connections for traffic
through the Firepower Threat Defense device. You
can pass VPN traffic through the bridge group using
an access rule, but it does not terminate
non-management connections.
Default Settings
Bridge Group Defaults
By default, all ARP packets are passed within the bridge group.
Guidelines for Firewall Mode

Model Guidelines
• For the Firepower Threat Defense Virtual on VMware with bridged ixgbevf interfaces, bridge groups
are not supported.
• For the Firepower 2100 series, bridge groups are not supported in routed mode.
• For the Firepower Threat Defense Virtual, bridge groups are not supported in routed mode.
Bridge Group Guidelines (Transparent and Routed Mode)

• You can create up to 250 bridge groups, with 64 interfaces per bridge group.
• Each directly-connected network must be on the same subnet.
• The Firepower Threat Defense device does not support traffic on secondary networks; only traffic on
the same network as the BVI IP address is supported.
• For IPv4, an IP address for the BVI is required for each bridge group for both management traffic and
for traffic to pass through the Firepower Threat Defense device. IPv6 addresses are supported, but not
required for the BVI.
• You can only configure IPv6 addresses manually.
• The BVI IP address must be on the same subnet as the connected network. You cannot set the subnet to
a host subnet (255.255.255.255).
• Management interfaces are not supported as bridge group members.
• In transparent mode, you must use at least 1 bridge group; data interfaces must belong to a bridge group.

537
Set the Firewall Mode
• In transparent mode, do not specify the BVI IP address as the default gateway for connected devices;
devices need to specify the router on the other side of the Firepower Threat Defense device as the default
gateway.
• In transparent mode, the default route, which is required to provide a return path for management traffic,
is only applied to management traffic from one bridge group network. This is because the default route
specifies an interface in the bridge group as well as the router IP address on the bridge group network,
and you can only define one default route. If you have management traffic from more than one bridge
group network, you need to specify a regular static route that identifies the network from which you
expect management traffic.
• In transparent mode, PPPoE is not supported for the Diagnostic interface.
• In routed mode, to route between bridge groups and other routed interfaces, you must name the BVI.
• In routed mode, EtherChannel interfaces are not supported as bridge group members.
• Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) echo packets are not allowed through the FTD when using
bridge group members. If there are two neighbors on either side of the FTD running BFD, then the FTD
will drop BFD echo packets because they have the same source and destination IP address and appear
to be part of a LAND attack.

Access Admin
Network Admin
You can set the firewall mode when you perform the initial system setup at the CLI. We recommend setting
the firewall mode during setup because changing the firewall mode erases your configuration to ensure you
do not have incompatible settings. If you need to change the firewall mode later, you must do so from the
CLI.
Procedure
Step 1 Deregister the FTD device from the FMC.

You cannot change the mode until you deregister the device.
a) Choose Devices > Device Management.
b) Select the device from the list of managed devices.
c) Delete the device (click the Trash can icon), confirm, and wait for system to remove the device.
Step 2 Access the FTD device CLI, preferably from the console port.
If you use SSH to the diagnostic interface, then changing the mode erases your interface configuration and
you will be disconnected. You should instead connect to the management interface.
Step 3 Change the firewall mode:

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configure firewall [routed | transparent]

Example:
> configure firewall transparent

This will destroy the current interface configurations, are you sure that you want to
proceed? [y/N] y
The firewall mode was changed successfully.
Step 4 Re-register with the FMC:

configure manager add {hostname | ip_address | DONTRESOLVE} reg_key [nat_id]
where:
• {hostname | ip_address | DONTRESOLVE } specifies either the fully qualified host name or IP address
of the FMC. If the FMC is not directly addressable, use DONTRESOLVE.
• reg_key is the unique alphanumeric registration key required to register a device to the FMC.
• nat_id is an optional alphanumeric string used during the registration process between the FMC and the
device. It is required if the hostname is set to DONTRESOLVE.

539

540
CHAPTER 27
Logical Devices for the Firepower Threat Defense
on the Firepower 4100/9300
The Firepower 4100/9300 is a flexible security platform on which you can install one or more logical devices.
Before you can add the FTD to the FMC, you must configure chassis interfaces, add a logical device, and
assign interfaces to the device on the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis using the Firepower Chassis Manager or
the FXOS CLI. This chapter describes basic interface configuration and how to add a standalone or High
Availability logical device using the Firepower Chassis Manager. To add a clustered logical device, see
Clustering for the Firepower Threat Defense, on page 693. To use the FXOS CLI, see the FXOS CLI
configuration guide. For more advanced FXOS procedures and troubleshooting, see the FXOS configuration
guide.
• About Firepower Interfaces, on page 541
• About Logical Devices, on page 542
• Guidelines and Limitations for Logical Devices, on page 543
• Configure Interfaces, on page 544
• Configure Logical Devices, on page 547
• History for Firepower Threat Defense Logical Devices, on page 553
About Firepower Interfaces

The Firepower 4100/9300 chassis supports physical interfaces and EtherChannel (port-channel) interfaces.
EtherChannel interfaces can include up to 16 member interfaces of the same type.
Chassis Management Interface

The chassis management interface is used for management of the FXOS Chassis by SSH or Firepower Chassis
Manager. This interface appears at the top of the Interfaces tab as MGMT, and you can only enable or disable
this interface on the Interfaces tab. This interface is separate from the mgmt-type interface that you assign
to the logical devices for application management.
To configure parameters for this interface, you must configure them from the CLI. To view information about
this interface in the FXOS CLI, connect to local management and show the management port:
Firepower # connect local-mgmt
Firepower(local-mgmt) # show mgmt-port

541
Interface Types
Note that the chassis management interface remains up even if the physical cable or SFP module are unplugged,
or if the mgmt-port shut command is performed.
Interface Types
Each interface can be one of the following types:
• Data—Use for regular data. Data interfaces cannot be shared between logical devices.
• Mgmt—Use to manage application instances. These interfaces can be shared by one or more logical
devices to access external hosts; logical devices cannot communicate over this interface with other logical
devices that share the interface. You can only assign one management interface per logical device.
• Firepower-eventing—Use as a secondary management interface for FTD devices. To use this interface,
you must configure its IP address and other parameters at the FTD CLI. For example, you can separate
management traffic from events (such as web events). See Management Interfaces, on page 904.
Firepower-eventing interfaces can be shared by one or more logical devices to access external hosts;
logical devices cannot communicate over this interface with other logical devices that share the interface.
• Cluster—Use as the cluster control link for a clustered logical device. By default, the cluster control link
is automatically created on Port-channel 48. This type is only supported on EtherChannel interfaces.
Independent Interface States in the Chassis and in the Application

You can administratively enable and disable interfaces in both the chassis and in the application. For an
interface to be operational, the interface must be enabled in both operating systems. Because the interface
state is controlled independently, you may have a mismatch between the chassis and application.
Inline Set Link State Propagation for the Firepower Threat Defense
An inline set acts like a bump on the wire, and binds two interfaces together to slot into an existing network.
This function allows the system to be installed in any network environment without the configuration of
adjacent network devices. Inline interfaces receive all traffic unconditionally, but all traffic received on these
interfaces is retransmitted out of an inline set unless explicitly dropped.
When you configure an inline set in the FTD application and enable link state propagation, the FTD sends
inline set membership to the FXOS chassis. Link state propagation means that the chassis automatically brings
down the second interface in the inline interface pair when one of the interfaces in an inline set goes down.
When the downed interface comes back up, the second interface automatically comes back up, also. In other
words, if the link state of one interface changes, the chassis senses the change and updates the link state of
the other interface to match it. Note that the chassis requires up to 4 seconds to propagate link state changes.
Link state propagation is especially useful in resilient network environments where routers are configured to
reroute traffic automatically around network devices that are in a failure state.
About Logical Devices

A logical device lets you run one application instance (either ASA or Firepower Threat Defense) and also one
optional decorator application (Radware DefensePro) to form a service chain .

542
Standalone and Clustered Logical Devices
When you add a logical device, you also define the application instance type and version, assign interfaces,
and configure bootstrap settings that are pushed to the application configuration.
Note For the Firepower 9300, you must install the same application instance type (ASA or FTD) on all modules
in the chassis; different types are not supported at this time. Note that modules can run different versions of
an application instance type.
Standalone and Clustered Logical Devices

You can add the following logical device types:
• Standalone—A standalone logical device operates as a standalone unit or as a unit in a High Availability
pair.
• Cluster—A clustered logical device lets you group multiple units together, providing all the convenience
of a single device (management, integration into a network) while achieving the increased throughput
and redundancy of multiple devices. Multiple module devices, like the Firepower 9300, support
intra-chassis clustering. For the Firepower 9300, all three module application instances belong to a single
logical device.
Note For the Firepower 9300, all modules must belong to the cluster. You cannot create
a standalone logical device on one security module and then create a cluster using
the remaining 2 security modules.
Guidelines and Limitations for Logical Devices

See the following sections for guidelines and limitations.
Guidelines and Limitations for Firepower Interfaces

Inline Sets for FTD
• Supported for physical interfaces (both regular and breakout ports) and EtherChannels.
• Link state propagation is supported.
Hardware Bypass
• Supported for the FTD; you can use them as regular interfaces for the ASA.
• The FTD only supports Hardware Bypass with inline sets.
• Hardware Bypass-capable interfaces cannot be configured for breakout ports.

543
General Guidelines and Limitations
• You cannot include Hardware Bypass interfaces in an EtherChannel and use them for Hardware Bypass;
you can use them as regular interfaces in an EtherChannel.
Default MAC Addresses

Default MAC address assignments depend on the type of interface.
• Physical interfaces—The physical interface uses the burned-in MAC address.
• EtherChannels—For an EtherChannel, all interfaces that are part of the channel group share the same
MAC address. This feature makes the EtherChannel transparent to network applications and users,
because they only see the one logical connection; they have no knowledge of the individual links. The
port-channel interface uses a unique MAC address from a pool; interface membership does not affect
the MAC address.
General Guidelines and Limitations

Firewall Mode
You can set the firewall mode to routed or transparent in the bootstrap configuration for the FTD.
High Availability
• Configure high availability within the application configuration.
• You can use any data interfaces as the failover and state links.
• The two units in a High Availability Failover configuration must:
• Be the same model.
• Have the same interfaces assigned to the High Availability logical devices.
• Have the same number and types of interfaces. All interfaces must be preconfigured in FXOS
identically before you enable High Availability.
• For more information, see High Availability System Requirements, on page 667.
Context Mode
• Multiple context mode is only supported on the ASA.
Configure Interfaces
By default, physical interfaces are disabled. You can enable interfaces, add EtherChannels, and edit interface
properties.

544
Enable or Disable an Interface
Enable or Disable an Interface

You can change the Admin State of each interface to be enabled or disabled. By default, physical interfaces
are disabled.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Interfaces to open the Interfaces page.

The Interfaces page shows a visual representation of the currently installed interfaces at the top of the page
and provides a listing of the installed interfaces in the table below.
Step 2 To enable the interface, click the disabled slider ( ) so that it changes to the enabled slider ( ).
Click Yes to confirm the change. The corresponding interface in the visual representation changes from gray
to green.
Step 3 To disable the interface, click the enbled slider ( ) so that it changes to the disabled slider ( ).
Click Yes to confirm the change. The corresponding interface in the visual representation changes from green
to gray.
Configure a Physical Interface

You can physically enable and disable interfaces, as well as set the interface speed and duplex. To use an
interface, it must be physically enabled in FXOS and logically enabled in the application.
Before you begin

• Interfaces that are already a member of an EtherChannel cannot be modified individually. Be sure to
configure settings before you add it to the EtherChannel.
Procedure

The All Interfaces page shows a visual representation of the currently installed interfaces at the top of the
page and provides a listing of the installed interfaces in the table below.
Step 2 Click Edit in the row for the interface you want to edit to open the Edit Interface dialog box.
Step 3 To enable the interface, check the Enable check box. To disable the interface, uncheck the Enable check
box.
Step 4 Choose the interface Type: Data, Mgmt, Firepower-eventing, or Cluster.
Do not choose the Cluster type; by default, the cluster control link is automatically created on Port-channel
48.
Step 5 (Optional) Choose the speed of the interface from the Speed drop-down list.

545
Add an EtherChannel (Port Channel)
Step 6 (Optional) If your interface supports Auto Negotiation, click the Yes or No radio button.
Step 7 (Optional) Choose the duplex of the interface from the Duplex drop-down list.
Step 8 Click OK.
Add an EtherChannel (Port Channel)

An EtherChannel (also known as a port channel) can include up to 16 member interfaces of the same type.
The Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) aggregates interfaces by exchanging the Link Aggregation
Control Protocol Data Units (LACPDUs) between two network devices.
The Firepower 4100/9300 chassis only supports EtherChannels in Active LACP mode so that each member
interface sends and receives LACP updates. An active EtherChannel can establish connectivity with either
an active or a passive EtherChannel. You should use the active mode unless you need to minimize the amount
of LACP traffic.
LACP coordinates the automatic addition and deletion of links to the EtherChannel without user intervention.
It also handles misconfigurations and checks that both ends of member interfaces are connected to the correct
channel group.
When the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis creates an EtherChannel, the EtherChannel stays in a Suspended
state until you assign it to a logical device, even if the physical link is up. The EtherChannel will be brought
out of this Suspended state in the following situations:
• The EtherChannel is added as a data or management interface for a standalone logical device
• The EtherChannel is added as a management interface or cluster control link for a logical device that is
part of a cluster
• The EtherChannel is added as a data interface for a logical device that is part of a cluster and at least one
unit has joined the cluster
Note that the EtherChannel does not come up until you assign it to a logical device. If the EtherChannel is
removed from the logical device or the logical device is deleted, the EtherChannel will revert to a Suspended
state.
Procedure

The All Interfaces page shows a visual representation of the currently installed interfaces at the top of the
page and provides a listing of the installed interfaces in the table below.
Step 2 Click Add Port Channel above the interfaces table to open the Add Port Channel dialog box.
Step 3 Enter an ID for the port channel in the Port Channel ID field. Valid values are between 1 and 47.
Port-channel 48 is reserved for the cluster control link when you deploy a clustered logical device. If you do
not want to use Port-channel 48 for the cluster control link, you can configure an EtherChannel with a different
ID and choose the Cluster type for the interface. For intra-chassis clustering, do not assign any interfaces to
the Cluster EtherChannel.

546
Configure Logical Devices
Step 4 To enable the port channel, check the Enable check box. To disable the port channel, uncheck the Enable
check box.
Step 5 Choose the interface Type: Data, Mgmt, Firepower-eventing, or Cluster.
Do not choose the Cluster type unless you want to use this port-channel as the cluster control link instead of
the default.
Step 6 Set the Admin Speed of the member interfaces from the drop-down list.
Step 7 Set the Admin Duplex, Full Duplex or Half Duplex.
Step 8 To add an interface to the port channel, select the interface in the Available Interface list and click Add
Interface to move the interface to the Member ID list. You can add up to 16 interfaces of the same type and
speed.
Tip You can add multiple interfaces at one time. To select multiple individual interfaces, click on the
desired interfaces while holding down the Ctrl key. To select a range of interfaces, select the first
interface in the range, and then, while holding down the Shift key, click to select the last interface
in the range.
Step 9 To remove an interface from the port channel, click the Delete button to the right of the interface in the Member
ID list.
Step 10 Click OK.
Configure Logical Devices

Add a standalone logical device or a High Availability pair on the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis.
For clustering, see Clustering for the Firepower Threat Defense, on page 693.
Add a Standalone Firepower Threat Defense

Standalone logical devices work either alone or in a High Availability pair. On the Firepower 9300 with
multiple security modules, you can deploy either a cluster or standalone devices. The cluster must use all
modules, so you cannot mix and match a 2-module cluster plus a single standalone device, for example.
Before you begin

• Download the application image you want to use for the logical device from Cisco.com, and then upload
that image to the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis.
Note For the Firepower 9300, you must install the same application instance type (ASA
or FTD) on all modules in the chassis; different types are not supported at this
time. Note that modules can run different versions of an application instance type.
• Configure a management interface to use with the logical device. The management interface is required.
Note that this management interface is not the same as the chassis management port that is used only for
chassis management (and that appears at the top of the Interfaces tab as MGMT).

547
• You must also configure at least one Data type interface. Optionally, you can also create a
firepower-eventing interface to carry all event traffic (such as web events). See Interface Types, on page
• Gather the following information:
• Interface IDs for this device
• Management interface IP address and network mask
• Gateway IP address
• FMC IP address and/or NAT ID of your choosing
• DNS server IP address
• FTD hostname and domain name
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Logical Devices.

Step 2 Click Add Device, and set the following parameters:
a) Provide a Device Name.
This name is used by the chassis supervisor to configure management settings and to assign interfaces; it
is not the device name used in the application configuration.
b) For the Template, choose Cisco Firepower Threat Defense.
c) Choose the Image Version.
d) For the Device Mode, click the Standalone radio button.
e) Click OK.
You see the Provisioning - device name window.
Step 3 Expand the Data Ports area, and click each interface that you want to assign to the device.
You can only assign data interfaces that you previously enabled on the Interfaces page. You will later enable
and configure these interfaces in FMC, including setting the IP addresses.
Hardware Bypass-capable ports are shown with the following icon: . For certain interface modules, you
can enable the Hardware Bypass feature for Inline Set interfaces only (see the FMC configuration guide).
Hardware Bypass ensures that traffic continues to flow between an inline interface pair during a power outage.
This feature can be used to maintain network connectivity in the case of software or hardware failures. If you
do not assign both interfaces in a Hardware Bypass pair, you see a warning message to make sure your
assignment is intentional. You do not need to use the Hardware Bypass feature, so you can assign single
interfaces if you prefer.
Step 4 Click the device icon in the center of the screen.

A dialog box appears where you can configure initial bootstrap settings. These settings are meant for initial
deployment only, or for disaster recovery. For normal operation, you can later change most values in the
application CLI configuration.
Step 5 On the General Information page, complete the following:

548
a) (For the Firepower 9300) Under Security Module Selection click the security module that you want to
use for this logical device.
b) Choose the Management Interface.
This interface is used to manage the logical device. This interface is separate from the chassis management
port.
c) Choose the management interface Address Type: IPv4 only, IPv6 only, or IPv4 and IPv6.
d) Configure the Management IP address.
Set a unique IP address for this interface.
e) Enter a Network Mask or Prefix Length.
f) Enter a Network Gateway address.
Step 6 On the Settings tab, complete the following:
a) Enter a Registration Key to be shared between the FMC and the device during registration.
You can choose any text string for this key between 1 and 37 characters; you will enter the same key on
the FMC when you add the FTD.
b) Enter a Password for the FTD admin user for CLI access.
c) Enter the Firepower Management Center IP of the managing FMC.
d) Enter the Search Domains as a comma-separated list.
e) Choose the Firewall Mode: Transparent or Routed.
In routed mode, the FTD is considered to be a router hop in the network. Each interface that you want to
route between is on a different subnet. A transparent firewall, on the other hand, is a Layer 2 firewall that
acts like a “bump in the wire,” or a “stealth firewall,” and is not seen as a router hop to connected devices.
The firewall mode is only set at initial deployment. If you re-apply the bootstrap settings, this setting is
not used.
f) Enter the DNS Servers as a comma-separated list.
The FTD uses DNS if you specify a hostname for the FMC, for example.
g) Enter the Fully Qualified Hostname for the FTD.
h) Choose the Eventing Interface on which Firepower events should be sent. If not specified, the management
interface will be used.
This interface must be defined as a Firepower-eventing interface.
Step 7 On the Agreement tab, read and accept the end user license agreement (EULA).
Step 8 Click OK to close the configuration dialog box.
Step 9 Click Save.
The chassis deploys the logical device by downloading the specified software version and pushing the bootstrap
configuration and management interface settings to the application instance. Check the Logical Devices page
for the status of the new logical device. When the logical device shows its Status as online, you can start
configuring the security policy in the application.

549
Add a High Availability Pair
Step 10 See the FMC configuration guide to add the FTD as a managed device and start configuring your security
policy.
Add a High Availability Pair

High Availability (also known as failover) is configured within the application, not in FXOS. However, to
prepare your chassis for high availability, see the following steps.
Before you begin

• The two units in a High Availability Failover configuration must:
• Have the same interfaces assigned to the High Availability logical devices.
• Have the same number and types of interfaces. All interfaces must be preconfigured in FXOS
identically before you enable High Availability.
• For High Availability system requirements, see High Availability System Requirements, on page 667.
Procedure
Step 1 Each logical device should be on a separate chassis; intra-chassis High Availability for the Firepower 9300
is not recommended and may not be supported.
Step 2 Allocate the same interfaces to each logical device.
Step 3 Allocate 1 or 2 data interfaces for the failover and state link(s).
These interfaces exchange high availability traffic between the 2 chassis. We recommend that you use a 10
GB data interface for a combined failover and state link. If you have available interfaces, you can use separate
failover and state links; the state link requires the most bandwidth. You cannot use the management-type
interface for the failover or state link. We recommend that you use a switch between the chassis, with no other
device on the same network segment as the failover interfaces.

550
Change an Interface on a Firepower Threat Defense Logical Device
Step 4 Enable High Availability on the logical devices. See High Availability for Firepower Threat Defense, on page
667.
Step 5 If you need to make interface changes after you enable High Availability, perform the changes on the standby
unit first, and then perform the changes on the active unit.
Change an Interface on a Firepower Threat Defense Logical Device

You can allocate or unallocate an interface, or replace a management interface on a Firepower Threat Defense
logical device. You can then sync the interface configuration in the Firepower Management Center.
Before you begin

• Configure your interfaces, and add any EtherChannels according to Configure a Physical Interface, on
page 545 and Add an EtherChannel (Port Channel), on page 546.
• You can edit the membership of an allocated EtherChannel without affecting the logical device or requiring
a sync on the Firepower Management Center.
• If you want to add an already-allocated interface to an EtherChannel (for example, all interfaces are
allocated by default to a cluster), you need to unallocate the interface from the logical device first, then
add the interface to the EtherChannel. For a new EtherChannel, you can then allocate the EtherChannel
to the device.
• If you want to replace the management or firepower eventing interface with a management EtherChannel,
then you need to create the EtherChannel with at least 1 unallocated data member interface, and then
replace the current management interface with the EtherChannel. After the Firepower Threat Defense
device reboots (management interface changes cause a reboot), and you sync the configuration in the
Firepower Management Center, you can add the (now unallocated) management interface to the
EtherChannel as well.
• For clustering or High Availability, make sure you add or remove the interface on all units before you
sync the configuration in the Firepower Management Center. We recommend that you make the interface
changes on the slave/standby unit(s) first, and then on the master/active unit. Note that new interfaces
are added in an administratively down state, so they do not affect interface monitoring.
Procedure
Step 1 In the Firepower Chassis Manager, choose Logical Devices.

Step 2 Click the Edit icon at the top right to edit the logical device.
Step 3 Unallocate a data interface by de-selecting the interface in the Data Ports area.
Step 4 Allocate a new data interface by selecting the interface in the Data Ports area.
Step 5 Replace the management or eventing interface:
For these types of interfaces, the device reboots after you save your changes.
a) Click the device icon in the center of the page.
b) On the General/Cluster Information tab, choose the new Management Interface from the drop-down
list.

551
Connect to the Console of the Application
c) On the Settings tab, choose the new Eventing Interface from the drop-down list.
d) Click OK.
If you change the IP address of the Management interface, then you must also change the IP address for the
device in the Firepower Management Center: go to Devices > Device Management > Device/Cluster. In the
Management area, set the IP address to match the bootstrap configuration address.
Step 6 Click Save.

Step 7 Log into the Firepower Management Center.
Step 8 Select Devices > Device Management and click the edit icon ( ) for your FTD device. The Interfaces tab
is selected by default.
Step 9 Click the Sync Interfaces from device button on the top left of the Interfaces tab.
Step 10 Click Save.
You can now click Deploy and deploy the policy to assigned devices. The changes are not active until you
deploy them.
Connect to the Console of the Application

Use the following procedure to connect to the console of the application.
Procedure
Step 1 Connect to the module CLI.

connect module slot_number console
To connect to the security engine of a device that does not support multiple security modules, always use 1
as the slot_number.
Example:
Firepower# connect module 1 console

Telnet escape character is '~'.
Trying 127.5.1.1...
Connected to 127.5.1.1.
Escape character is '~'.
CISCO Serial Over LAN:

Close Network Connection to Exit
Firepower-module1>
Step 2 Connect to the application console.

connect ftd
Example:
Firepower-module1> connect ftd

Connecting to ftd(ftd-native) console... enter exit to return to bootCLI

552
History for Firepower Threat Defense Logical Devices
[...]
>
Step 3 Exit the application console to the FXOS module CLI.

• FTD—Enter Ctrl-a, d
You might want to use the FXOS module CLI for troubleshooting purposes.
Step 4 Return to the supervisor level of the FXOS CLI.

a) Enter ~
You exit to the Telnet application.
b) To exit the Telnet application, enter:
telnet>quit
Example
The following example connects to an ASA on security module 1 and then exits back to the supervisor
level of the FXOS CLI.
Firepower# connect module 1 console
Telnet escape character is '~'.
Trying 127.5.1.1...
Connected to 127.5.1.1.
Escape character is '~'.
CISCO Serial Over LAN:

Close Network Connection to Exit
Firepower-module1>connect asa
asa> ~
telnet> quit
Connection closed.
Firepower#

Support for EtherChannels in FTD inline 6.2.0 You can now use EtherChannels in a FTD
sets inline set.
Supported platforms: Firepower 4100/9300

553
Inter-chassis clustering for 6 FTD modules 6.2.0 You can now enable inter-chassis clustering
for the FTD. You can include up to 6
modules in up to 6 chassis.
New/modified Firepower Chassis Manager
screens:
• Logical Devices > Configuration
Hardware bypass support on the Firepower 6.1.0 Hardware Bypass ensures that traffic
4100/9300 for supported network modules continues to flow between an inline
interface pair during a power outage. This
feature can be used to maintain network
connectivity in the case of software or
hardware failures.
• Devices > Device Management >
Interfaces > Edit Physical Interface
Inline set link state propagation support for 6.1.0 When you configure an inline set in the
the FTD FTD application and enable link state
propagation, the FTD sends inline set
membership to the FXOS chassis. Link
state propagation means that the chassis
automatically brings down the second
interface in the inline interface pair when
one of the interfaces in an inline set goes
down.
New/Modified FXOS commands: show
fault |grep link-down, show interface
detail

554
Support for intra-chassis clustering on the 6.0.1 The Firepower 9300 supports intra-chassis
FTD on the Firepower 9300 clustering with the FTD application.
New/Modified Firepower Chassis Manager
screens:
• Logical Devices > Configuration
New/Modified FXOS commands: enter

mgmt-bootstrap ftd, enter bootstrap-key
FIREPOWER_MANAGER_IP, enter
bootstrap-key FIREWALL_MODE,
enter bootstrap-key-secret
REGISTRATION_KEY, enter
bootstrap-key-secret PASSWORD, enter
bootstrap-key FQDN, enter
bootstrap-key DNS_SERVERS, enter
bootstrap-key SEARCH_DOMAINS,
enter ipv4 firepower, enter ipv6
firepower, set value, set gateway, set ip,
accept-license-agreement

555

556
CHAPTER 28
FlexConfig Policies for Firepower Threat Defense
The following topics describe how to configure and deploy FlexConfig policies.
• FlexConfig Policy Overview, on page 557
• Guidelines and Limitations for FlexConfig, on page 576
• Customizing Device Configuration with FlexConfig Policies, on page 577
FlexConfig Policy Overview

A FlexConfig policy is a container of an ordered list of FlexConfig objects. Each object includes a series of
Apache Velocity scripting language commands, ASA software configuration commands, and variables that
you define. The contents of each FlexConfig object is essentially a program that generates a sequence of ASA
commands that will then be deployed to the assigned devices. This command sequence then configures the
related feature on the FTD device.
FTD uses ASA configuration commands to implement some features, but not all features. There is no unique
set of FTD configuration commands. Instead, the point of FlexConfig is to allow you to configure features
that are not yet directly supported through Firepower Management Center policies and settings.
Caution Cisco strongly recommends using FlexConfig policies only if you are an advanced user with a strong ASA
background and at your own risk. You may configure any commands that are not blacklisted. Enabling features
through FlexConfig policies may cause unintended results with other configured features.
You may contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center for support concerning FlexConfig policies that you
have configured. The Cisco Technical Assistance Center does not design or write custom configurations on
any customer's behalf. Cisco expresses no guarantees for correct operation or interoperability with other
Firepower System features. FlexConfig features may become deprecated at any time. For fully guaranteed
feature support, you must wait for Firepower Management Center support. When in doubt, do not use
FlexConfig policies.
Recommended Usage for FlexConfig Policies

There are two main recommended uses for FlexConfig:
• You are converting from ASA to FTD, and there are compatible features you are using (and need to
continue using) that Firepower Management Center does not directly support. In this case, use the show

557
CLI Commands in FlexConfig Objects
running-config command on the ASA to see the configuration for the feature and create your FlexConfig
objects to implement it. Experiment with the object’s deployment settings (once/everytime and
append/prepend) to get the right setting. Verify by comparing show running-config output on the two
devices.
• You are using FTD but there is a setting or feature that you need to configure, e.g. the Cisco Technical
Assistance Center tells you that a particular setting should resolve a specific problem you are encountering.
For complicated features, use a lab device to test the FlexConfig and verify that you are getting the
expected behavior.
The system includes a set of predefined FlexConfig objects that represent tested configurations. If the feature
you need is not represented by these objects, first determine if you can configure an equivalent feature in
standard policies. For example, the access control policy includes intrusion detection and prevention, HTTP
and other types of protocol inspection, URL filtering, application filtering, and access control, which the ASA
implements using separate features. Because many features are not configured using CLI commands, you will
not see every policy represented within the output of show running-config.
Note At all times, keep in mind that there is not a one-to-one overlap between ASA and FTD. Do not attempt to
completely recreate an ASA configuration on a FTD device. You must carefully test any feature that you
configure using FlexConfig.
CLI Commands in FlexConfig Objects

FTD uses ASA configuration commands to configure some features. Although not all ASA features are
compatible with FTD, there are some features that can work on FTD but that you cannot configure in Firepower
Management Center policies. You can use FlexConfig objects to specify the CLI required to configure these
features.
If you decide to use FlexConfig to manually configure a feature, you are responsible for knowing and
implementing the commands according to the proper syntax. FlexConfig policies do not validate CLI command
syntax. For more information about proper syntax and configuring CLI commands, use the ASA documentation
as a reference:
• ASA CLI configuration guides explain how to configure a feature. Find the guides at
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/asa-5500-series-next-generation-firewalls/products-installation-and-configuration-guides-list.html
• ASA command references provide additional information sorted by command name. Find the references
athttp://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/asa-5500-series-next-generation-firewalls/products-command-reference-list.html
The following topics explain more about configuration commands.
Determine the ASA Software Version and Current CLI Configuration

Any N/A Firepower Threat Any Admin

Defense
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual

558
Blacklisted CLI Commands
Because the system uses ASA software commands to configure some features, you need to determine the
current ASA version used in software running on the FTD device. This version number indicates which ASA
CLI configuration guides to use for instructions on configuring a feature. You also should examine the current
CLI-based configuration and compare it to the ASA configuration you want to implement.
Keep in mind that any ASA configuration will be very different from a FTD configuration. Many FTD policies
are configured outside of the CLI, so you cannot see the configuration by looking at the commands. Do not
try to create a one-to-one correspondence between an ASA and FTD configuration.
To view this information, make an SSH connection to the device's management interface and issue the following
commands:
• show version system and look for the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software Version number. (If
you issue the command through the Firepower Management Center CLI tool, omit the system keyword.)
• show running-config to view the current CLI configuration.
• show running-config all to include all the default commands in the current CLI configuration.
You can also issue these commands from within Firepower Management Center using the following procedure.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the name of the device targeted by the FlexConfig policy.
You might need to click the open/close arrow in the Count column in the Status table to see any devices.
Step 3 Choose Advanced Troubleshooting.

Step 4 Choose Threat Defense CLI.
Step 5 Choose show as the command, and type version or one of the other commands as the parameter.
Step 6 Click Execute.
For version, search the output for the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance Software Version number.
You can select the output and press Ctrl+C, then paste it into a text file for later analysis.

The purpose of FlexConfig is to configure features that are available on ASA devices that you cannot configure
on FTD devices using Firepower Management Center.
Thus, you are prevented from configuring ASA features that have equivalents in Firepower Management
Center. The following table lists some of these blacklisted command areas.
In addition, some clear commands are blacklisted because they overlap with managed policies, and can delete
part of the configuration for a managed policy.
The FlexConfig object editor prevents you from including blacklisted commands in the object.
Blacklisted CLI Command Description
AAA Configuration blocked.

559
AAA-Server Configuration blocked.
Access-list Advanced ACL, Extended ACL, and Standard ACL are blocked.
Ethertype ACL is allowed.
You can use standard and extended ACL objects defined in the object
manager inside the template as variables.
ARP Inspection Configuration blocked.
As-path Object Configuration blocked.
Banner Configuration blocked.
BGP Configuration blocked.
Clock Configuration blocked.
Community-list Object Configuration blocked.
Copy Configuration blocked.
Delete Configuration blocked.
DHCP Configuration blocked.
Enable Password Configuration blocked.
Erase Configuration blocked.
Fragment Setting Blocked, except for fragment reassembly.
Fsck Configuration blocked.
HTTP Configuration blocked.
ICMP Configuration blocked.
Interface Only nameif, mode, shutdown, ip address and mac-address commands

are blocked.
Multicast Routing Configuration blocked.
NAT Configuration blocked.
Network Object/Object-group Network object creation in the FlexConfig object is blocked, but you
can use network objects and groups defined in the object manager inside
the template as variables.
NTP Configuration blocked.
OSPF/OSPFv3 Configuration blocked.
pager Configuration blocked.

560
Template Scripts
Password Encryption Configuration blocked.
Policy-list Object Configuration blocked.
Prefix-list Object Configuration blocked.
Reload You cannot schedule reloads. The system does not use the reload
command to restart the system, it uses the reboot command.
RIP Configuration blocked.
Route-Map Object Route-map object creation in the FlexConfig object is blocked, but you
can use route map objects defined in the object manager inside the
template as variables.
Service Object/Object-group Service object creation in the FlexConfig object is blocked, but you can
use port objects defined in the object manager inside the template as
variables.
SNMP Configuration blocked.
SSH Configuration blocked.
Static Route Configuration blocked.
Syslog Configuration blocked.
Time Synchronization Configuration blocked.
Timeout Configuration blocked.
VPN Configuration blocked.
Template Scripts
You can use scripting language to control processing within a FlexConfig object. Scripting language instructions
are a subset of commands supported in the Apache Velocity 1.3.1 template engine, a Java-based scripting
language that supports looping, if/else statements, and variables.
To learn how to use the scripting language, see the Velocity Developer Guide at http://velocity.apache.org/
engine/devel/developer-guide.html.
FlexConfig Variables
You can use variables in a FlexConfig object in cases where part of a command or processing instruction
depends on runtime information rather than static information. During deployment, the variables are replaced
with strings obtained from other configurations for the device based on the type of variable:
• Policy object variables are replaced with strings obtained from objects defined in Firepower Management
Center.

561
How to Process Variables
• System variables are replaced with information obtained from the device itself or from policies configured
for it.
• Processing variables are loaded with the contents of policy object or system variables as scripting
commands are processed. For example, in a loop, you iteratively load one value from a policy object or
system variable into a processing variable, then use the processing variable to form a command string
or perform some other action. These processing variables do not show up in the Variables list within a
FlexConfig object. Also, you do not add them using the Insert menu in the FlexConfig object editor.
• Secret key variables are replaced with the single string defined for the variable within the FlexConfig
object.
Variables start with the $ character, except for secret keys, which start with the @ character. For example,
$ifname is a policy object variable in the following command, whereas @keyname is a secret key.
interface $ifname
key @keyname
Note The first time you insert a policy object or system variable, you must do so through the Insert menu in the
FlexConfig object editor. This action adds the variable to the Variables list at the bottom of the FlexConfig
object editor. But you must type in the variable string on subsequent uses, even when using system variables.
If you are adding a processing variable, which does not have an object or system variable assignment, do not
use the Insert menu. If you are adding a secret key, always use the Insert menu. Secret key variables do not
show up in the Variables list.
Whether a variable is resolved as a single string, a list of strings, or a table of values depends on the type of
policy object or system variable you assign to the variable. (Secret keys always resolve to a single string.)
You must understand what will be returned in order to process the variables correctly.
The following topics explain the various types of variable and how to process them.
How to Process Variables

At runtime, a variable can resolve to a single string, a list of strings of the same type, a list of strings of different
types, or a table of named values. In addition, variables that resolve to multiple values can be of determinate
or indeterminate length. You must understand what will be returned in order to process the values correctly.
Following are the main possibilities.
Single Value Variables

If a variable always resolves to a single string, use the variable directly without modification in the FlexConfig
script.
For example, the predefined text variable tcpMssBytes always resolves to a single value (which must be
numeric). The Sysopt_basic FlexConfig then uses an if/then/else structure to set the maximum segment size
based on the value of another single-value text variable, tcpMssMinimum:
#if($tcpMssMinimum == "true")
sysopt connection tcpmss minimum $tcpMssBytes
#else
sysopt connection tcpmss $tcpMssBytes

562
Multiple Value Variables, All Values Are the Same Type
#end
In this example, you would use the Insert menu in the FlexConfig object editor to add the first use of
$tcpMssBytes, but you would type in the variable directly on the #else line.
Secret key variables are a special type of single value variable. For secret keys, you always use the Insert
menu to add the variable, even for second and subsequent uses. These variables do not show up in the Variables
list within the FlexConfig object. For example, if you wanted to hide the keys for EIGRP configuration, you
could copy the Eigrp_Interface_Configure FlexConfig, and replace the $eigrpAuthKey and $eigrpAuthKeyId
variables with secret keys, @SecretEigrpAuthKey and @SecretEigrpAuthKeyId.
authentication key eirgp $eigrpAS @SecretEigrpAuthKey key-id @SecretEigrpAuthKeyId
Note Policy object variables for network objects also equate to a single IP address specification, either a host address,
network address, or address range. However, in this case, you must know what type of address to expect,
because the ASA commands require specific address types. For example, if a command requires a host address,
using a network object variable that points to an object that contains a network address will result in an error
during deployment.
Multiple Value Variables, All Values Are the Same Type

Several policy object and system variables resolve to multiple values of the same type. For example, an object
variable that points to a network object group resolves to a list of the IP addresses within the group. Similarly,
the system variable $SYS_FW_INTERFACE_NAME_LIST resolves to a list of interface names.
You can also create text objects for multiple values of the same type. For example, the predefined text object
enableInspectProtocolList can contain more than one protocol name.
Multiple value variables that resolve to a list of items of the same type are frequently of indeterminate length.
For example, you cannot know beforehand how many interfaces on a device are named, as users can configure
or unconfigure interfaces at any time.
Thus, you would typically use a loop to process multiple value variables of the same type. For example, the
predefined FlexConfig Default_Inspection_Protocol_Enable uses a #foreach loop to go through the
enableInspectProtocolList object and process each value.
policy-map global_policy
class inspection_default
#foreach ( $protocol in $enableInspectProtocolList)
inspect $protocol
#end
In this example, the script assigns each value in turn to the $protocol variable, which is then used in an ASA
inspect command to enable the inspection engine for that protocol. In this case, you simply type in $protocol
as a variable name. You do not use the Insert menu to add it, because you are not assigning an object or
system value to the variable. However, you must use the Insert menu to add $enableInspectProtocolList.
The system loops through the code between #foreach and #end until there are no values remaining in
$enableInspectProtocolList.

563
Multiple Value Variables, Values Are Different Types
Multiple Value Variables, Values Are Different Types

You can create multiple value text objects, but have each value serve a different purpose. For example, the
predefined netflow_Destination text object should have 3 values, in order, interface name, destination IP
address, and UDP port number.
Objects defined in this way should have a determinate number of values. Otherwise, they would be hard to
process.
Use the get method to process these objects. Type .get(n) at the end of the object name, replacing n with an
index into the object. Start counting at 0, even though the text object lists its values starting at 1.
For example, the Netflow_Add_Destination object uses the following line to add the 3 values from
netflow_Destination to the ASA flow-export command.
flow-export destination $netflow_Destination.get(0) $netflow_Destination.get(1)

$netflow_Destination.get(2)
In this example, you would use the Insert menu in the FlexConfig object editor to add the first use of
$netflow_Destination, and then add .get(0). But you would type in the variable directly for the
$netflow_Destination.get(1) and $netflow_Destination.get(2) specifications.
Multiple Value Variables that Resolve to a Table of Values

Some system variables return a table of values. These variables include MAP in their name, for example,
$SYS_FTD_ROUTED_INTF_MAP_LIST. The routed interface map returns data that looks like the following
(line returns added for clarity):
[{intf_hardwarare_id=GigabitEthernet0/0, intf_ipv6_eui64_addresses=[],
intf_ipv6_prefix_addresses=[], intf_subnet_mask_v4=255.255.255.0,
intf_ip_addr_v4=10.100.10.1, intf_ipv6_link_local_address=,
intf_logical_name=outside},
{intf_hardwarare_id=GigabitEthernet0/1, intf_ipv6_eui64_addresses=[],
intf_logical_name=inside},
intf_ipv6_prefix_addresses=[], intf_subnet_mask_v4=, intf_ip_addr_v4=,
intf_ipv6_link_local_address=, intf_logical_name=},
{intf_hardwarare_id=Management0/0, intf_ipv6_eui64_addresses=[],
intf_ipv6_link_local_address=, intf_logical_name=diagnostic}]
In the above example, information is returned for 4 interfaces. Each interface includes a table of named values.
For example, intf_hardwarare_id is the name of the interface hardware name property, and returns strings
such as GigabitEthernet0/0.
This type of variable is typically of indeterminate length, so you need to use looping to process the values.
But you also need to add the property name to the variable name to indicate which value to retrieve.
For example, IS-IS configuration requires that you add the ASA isis command to an interface that has a logical
name in interface configuration mode. However, you enter that mode using the interface’s hardware name.
Thus, you need to identify which interfaces have logical names, then configure just those interfaces using
their hardware names. The ISIS_Interface_Configuration predefined FlexConfig does this using an if/then

564
How to See What a Variable Will Return for a Device
structure nested in a loop. In the following code, you can see that the #foreach scripting command loads each
interface map into the $intf variable, then the #if statement keys off the intf_logical_name value in the map
($intf.intf_logical_name), and if the value is in the list defined in the isisIntfList predefined text variable,
enters the interface command using the intf_hardwarare_id value ($intf.intf_hardwarare_id). You would need
to edit the isisIntfList variable to add the names of the interfaces on which to configure IS-IS.
#foreach ($intf in $SYS_FTD_ROUTED_INTF_MAP_LIST)

#if ($isIsIntfList.contains($intf.intf_logical_name))
interface $intf.intf_hardwarare_id
isis
#if ($isIsAddressFamily.contains("ipv6"))
ipv6 router isis
#end
#end
#end
How to See What a Variable Will Return for a Device

An easy way to evaluate what a variable will return is to create a simple FlexConfig object that does nothing
more than process an annotated list of variables. Then, you can assign it to a FlexConfig policy, assign the
policy to a device, save the policy, then preview the configuration for that device. The preview will show the
resolved values. You can select the preview text, press Ctrl+C, then paste the output into a text file for analysis.
Note Do not deploy this FlexConfig to the device, however, because it will not contain any valid configuration
commands. You would get deployment errors. After obtaining the preview, delete the FlexConfig object from
the FlexConfig policy and save the policy.
For example, you could construct the following FlexConfig object:
Following is a network object group variable for the

IPv4-Private-All-RFC1918 object:
$IPv4_Private_addresses
Following is the system variable SYS_FW_MANAGEMENT_IP:
$SYS_FW_MANAGEMENT_IP
Following is the system variable SYS_FW_ENABLED_INSPECT_PROTOCOL_LIST:
$SYS_FW_ENABLED_INSPECT_PROTOCOL_LIST
Following is the system variable SYS_FTD_ROUTED_INTF_MAP_LIST:
$SYS_FTD_ROUTED_INTF_MAP_LIST
Following is the system variable SYS_FW_INTERFACE_NAME_LIST:
$SYS_FW_INTERFACE_NAME_LIST
The preview of this object might look like the following (line returns added for clarity):
###Flex-config Prepended CLI ###

565
FlexConfig Policy Object Variables
###CLI generated from managed features ###
###Flex-config Appended CLI ###

Following is an network object group variable for the
IPv4-Private-All-RFC1918 object:
[10.0.0.0, 172.16.0.0, 192.168.0.0]
Following is the system variable SYS_FW_MANAGEMENT_IP:
192.168.0.171
Following is the system variable SYS_FW_ENABLED_INSPECT_PROTOCOL_LIST:
[dns, ftp, h323 h225, h323 ras, rsh, rtsp, sqlnet, skinny, sunrpc,
xdmcp, sip, netbios, tftp, icmp, icmp error, ip-options]
Following is the system variable SYS_FTD_ROUTED_INTF_MAP_LIST:
[{intf_hardwarare_id=GigabitEthernet0/0, intf_ipv6_eui64_addresses=[],
intf_logical_name=outside},
intf_logical_name=inside},
intf_ipv6_link_local_address=, intf_logical_name=},
{intf_hardwarare_id=Management0/0, intf_ipv6_eui64_addresses=[],
intf_ipv6_link_local_address=, intf_logical_name=diagnostic}]
Following is the system variable SYS_FW_INTERFACE_NAME_LIST:
[outside, inside, diagnostic]
FlexConfig Policy Object Variables

A policy object variable is associated with a specific policy object configured in the Object Manager. When
you insert a policy object variable in a FlexConfig object, you give the variable a name and select the object
associated with it.
Although you can give the variable the exact same name as the associated object, the variable itself is not the
same thing as the associated object. You must use the Insert > Insert Policy Object > Object Type menu in
the FlexConfig object editor to add the variable for the first time to the script in the FlexConfig to establish
the association with the object. Simply typing in the name of the object preceded by a $ sign does not create
a policy object variable.
You can create variables to point to the following types of object. Ensure that you create the right type of
object for each variable. To create objects, go to the Objects > Object Management page.
• Text Objects—For text strings, which can include IP addresses, numbers, and other free-form text such
as interface or zone names. Select FlexConfig > Text Object from the table of contents, then click Add
Text Object. You can configure these objects to contain a single value or multiple values. These objects

566
FlexConfig System Variables
are highly flexible and built specifically for use within FlexConfig objects. For detailed information, see
Configure FlexConfig Text Objects, on page 583.
• Network—For IP addresses. You can use network objects or groups. Select Network from the table of
contents, then select Add Network > Add Object or Add Group. If you use a group object, the variable
returns a list of each IP address specification within the group. Addresses can be host, network, or address
ranges, depending on the object contents. See Network Objects, on page 375.
• Security Zones—For interfaces within a security zone or interface group. Select Interface from the
table of contents, then select Add > Security Zone or Interface Group. A security zone variable returns
a list of the interfaces within that zone or group for the device being configured. See Interface Objects:
Interface Groups and Security Zones, on page 382.
• Standard ACL Object—For standard access control lists. A standard ACL variable returns the name
of the standard ACL object. Select Access List > Standard from the table of contents, then click Add
Standard Access List Object. See Access List, on page 441.
• Extended ACL Object—For extended access control lists. An extended ACL variable returns the name
of the extended ACL object. Select Access List > Extended from the table of contents, then click Add
Extended Access List Object. See Access List, on page 441.
• Route Map—For route map objects. A route map variable returns the name of the route map object.
Select Route Map from the table of contents, then click Add Route Map. See Route Maps, on page 438.
FlexConfig System Variables

System variables are replaced with information obtained from the device itself or from policies configured
for it.
You must use the Insert > Insert System Variable > Variable Name menu in the FlexConfig object editor
to add the variable for the first time to the script in the FlexConfig to establish the association with the system
variable. Simply typing in the name of the system variable preceded by a $ sign does not create a system
variable within the context of the FlexConfig object.
The following table explains the available system variables. Before using a variable, examine what is typically
returned for the variable; see How to See What a Variable Will Return for a Device, on page 565.
Name Description
SYS_FW_OS_MODE The operating system mode of the device. Possible values are ROUTED or
TRANSPARENT.
SYS_FW_OS_MULTIPLICITY Whether the device is running in single or multiple context mode. Possible
values are SINGLE, MULTI, or NOT_APPLICABLE.
SYS_FW_MANAGEMENT_IP The management IP address of the device
SYS_FW_HOST_NAME The device hostname
SYS_FTD_INTF_POLICY_MAP A map with interface name as key and policy-map as value. This variable
returns nothing if there are no interface-based service policies defined on
the device.
SYS_FW_ENABLED_INSPECT_PROTOCOL_LIST The list of protocols for which inspection is enabled.

567
Predefined FlexConfig Objects
Name Description
SYS_FTD_ROUTED_INTF_MAP_LIST A list of routed interface maps on the device. Each map includes a set of
named values related to routed interface configuration.
SYS_FTD_SWITCHED_INTF_MAP_LIST A list of switched interface maps on the device. Each map includes a set of
named values related to switched interface configuration.
SYS_FTD_INLINE_INTF_MAP_LIST A list of inline interface maps on the device. Each map includes a set of
named values related to inline set interface configuration.
SYS_FTD_PASSIVE_INTF_MAP_LIST A list of passive interface maps on the device. Each map includes a set of
named values related to passive interface configuration.
SYS_FTD_INTF_BVI_MAP_LIST A list of Bridge Virtual Interface maps on the device. Each map includes
a set of named values related to BVI configuration.
SYS_FW_INTERFACE_HARDWARE_ID_LIST A list of the hardware names for interfaces on the device, such as
GigabitEthernet0/0.
SYS_FW_INTERFACE_NAME_LIST A list of logical names for interfaces on the device, such as inside.
SYS_FW_INLINE_INTERFACE_NAME_LIST A list of logical names for interfaces configured as passive or ERSPAN

passive.
SYS_FW_NON_INLINE_INTERFACE_NAME_LIST A list of logical names for interfaces that are not part of inline sets, such as
all routed interfaces.

The predefined FlexConfig objects provide tested configurations for select features. Use these objects if you
need to configure these features, which otherwise cannot be configured through Firepower Management
Center.
The following table lists the available objects. Make note of the associated text objects. You must edit these
text objects to customize the behavior of the predefined FlexConfig object. The text objects make it possible
for you to customize the configuration using the IP addresses and other attributes required by your network
and device.
If you need to modify a predefined FlexConfig object, copy the object, make changes to the copy, and save
it with a new name. You cannot directly edit a predefined FlexConfig object.
Although you might be able to configure other ASA-based features using FlexConfig, the configuration of
those features has not been tested. If an ASA feature overlaps with something that you can configure in
Firepower Management Center policies, do not attempt to configure it through FlexConfig.
For example, Snort inspection includes the HTTP protocol, so do not enable ASA-style HTTP inspection. (In
fact, you cannot add http to the enableInspectProtocolList object. In this case, you are prevented from
misconfiguring your device.) Instead, configure the access control policy to perform application or URL
filtering, as needed, to implement your HTTP inspection requirements.

568
FlexConfig Object Name Description Associated Text Objects
Default_DNS_Configure Configure the Default DNS group, which defaultDNSNameServerList,

defines the DNS servers that can be used defaultDNSParameters
when resolving fully-qualified domain
names on the data interfaces. This allows
you to use commands in the CLI, such as
ping, using host names rather than IP
addresses.
Default_Inspection_Protocol_Disable Disables protocols in the global_policy disableInspectProtocolList

default policy map.
Default_Inspection_Protocol_Enable Enables protocols in the global_policy enableInspectProtocolList

default policy map.
DHCPv6_Prefix_Delegation_Configure Configure one outside (Prefix Delegation pdoutside, pdinside

client) and one inside interface (recipient
Also uses the system variable
of delegated prefix) for IPv6 prefix
SYS_FTD_ROUTED_INTF_MAP_LIST
delegation. To use this template, copy it
and modify the variables.
DHCPv6_Prefix_Delegation_UnConfigure Removes the DHCPv6 prefix delegation pdoutside, pdinside

configuration.
DNS_Configure Configure DNS servers in a non-default dnsNameServerList, dnsParameters.

DNS server group. Copy the object to
change the name of the group.
DNS_UnConfigure Removes the DNS server configuration —

performed by Default_DNS_Configure and
DNS_Configure. Copy the object to change
the DNS server group names if you altered
DNS_Configure.
Eigrp_Configure Configures EIGRP routing next-hop, eigrpAS, eigrpNetworks,

auto-summary, router-id, eigrp-stub. eigrpDisableAutoSummary, eigrpRouterId,
eigrpStubReceiveOnly,
eigrpStubRedistributed,
eigrpStubConnected, eigrpStubStatic,
eigrpStubSummary
Eigrp_Interface_Configure Configures EIGRP interface authentication eigrpIntfList, eigrpAS, eigrpAuthKey,

mode, authentication key, hello interval, eigrpAuthKeyId, eigrpHelloInterval,
hold time, split horizon. eigrpHoldTime, eigrpDisableSplitHorizon
Eigrp_Unconfigure Clears EIGRP configuration for an —

autonomous system from the device.

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Eigrp_Unconfigure_all Clears all EIGRP configurations. —
Inspect_IPv6_Configure Configures IPv6 inspection in the IPv6RoutingHeaderDropLogList,

global_policy policy map, logging and IPv6RoutingHeaderLogList,
dropping traffic based on IPv6 header IPv6RoutingHeaderDropList.
contents.
Inspect_IPv6_UnConfigure Clears and disables IPv6 inspection. —
ISIS_Configure Configures global parameters for IS-IS isIsNet, isIsAddressFamily, isISType

routing.
ISIS_Interface_Configuration Interface level IS-IS configuration. isIsAddressFamily, IsIsIntfList

ISIS_Unconfigure Clears the IS-IS router configuration on the —

device.
ISIS_Unconfigure_All Clears the IS-IS router configuration from —

the device, including the router assignment
from the device interface.
Netflow_Add_Destination Creates and configures a Netflow export Netflow_Destinations,

destination. netflow_Event_Types
Netflow_Clear_Parameters Restores Netflow export global default —

settings.
Netflow_Delete_Destination Deletes a Netflow export destination. Netflow_Destinations,

netflow_Event_Types
Netflow_Set_Parameters Sets global parameters for Netflow export. netflow_Parameters
NGFW_TCP_NORMALIZATION Modifies the default TCP normalization —

configuration.
Policy_Based_Routing To use this example configuration, copy it, —

modify the interface name, and use the
r-map-object text object to identify a route
map object in the object manager.
Policy_Based_Routing_Clear Clears Policy Based Routing configurations —

from the device.
Sysopt_AAA_radius Ignores the authentication key in RADIUS —

accounting responses.
Sysopt_AAA_radius_negate Negates the Sysopt_AAA_radius —

configuration.

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Sysopt_basic Configures sysopt wait time , maximum tcpMssMinimum, tcpMssBytes

segment size for TCP packets, and detailed
traffic statistics.
Sysopt_basic_negate Clears sysopt_basic detailed traffic —

statistics, wait time, and TCP maximum
segment size.
Sysopt_clear_all Clears all sysopt configurations from the —

device.
Sysopt_noproxyarp Configures noproxy-arp CLIs. Uses system variable

SYS_FW_NON_INLINE_INTF_NAME_LIST
Sysopt_noproxyarp_negate Clears Sysopt_noproxyarp configurations. Uses system variable

SYS_FW_NON_INLINE_INTF_NAME_LIST
Sysopt_Preserve_Vpn_Flow Configures syopt preserve VPN flow. —
Sysopt_Preserve_Vpn_Flow_negate Clears the Sysopt_Preserve_Vpn_Flow —

configuration.
Sysopt_Reclassify_Vpn Configures sysopt reclassify vpn. —
Sysopt_Reclassify_Vpn_Negate Negates sysopt reclassify vpn. —
TCP_Embryonic_Conn_Limit Configures embryonic connection limits to tcp_conn_misc, tcp_conn_limit

protect against SYN Flood Denial of
Service (DoS) attacks.
TCP_Embryonic_Conn_Timeout Configures embryonic connection timeouts tcp_conn_misc, tcp_conn_timeout

to protect against SYN Flood Denial of
Service (DoS) attacks.
Threat_Detection_Clear Clear the threat detection TCP Intercept —

configuration.
Threat_Detection_Configure Configure threat detection statistics for threat_detection_statistics

attacks intercepted by TCP Intercept.
VxLAN_Clear_Nve Removes the NVE 1 configured when —

VxLAN_Configure_Port_And_Nve is used
from the device.
VxLAN_Clear_Nve_Only Clears the NVE configured on the interface —

when deployed.
VxLAN_Configure_Port_And_Nve Configures VLAN port and NVE 1. vxlan_Port_And_Nve

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Predefined Text Objects
VxLAN_Make_Nve_Only Sets an interface for NVE only. vxlan_Nve_Only

Also uses system variables
SYS_FTD_ROUTED_MAP_LIST and
SYS_FTD_SWITCHED_INTF_MAP_LIST
VxLAN_Make_Vni Creates a VNI interface. After deploying vxlan_Vni

this you have to unregister and re-register
the device to properly discover the VNI
interface.
Wccp_Configure This template provides an example for isServiceIdentifier, serviceIdentifier,

configuring WCCP. wccpPassword
Wccp_Configure_Clear Clears WCCP configurations. —

There are several predefined text objects. These objects are associated with variables used in the predefined
FlexConfig objects. In most cases, you must edit these objects to add values if you use the associated FlexConfig
object, or you will see errors during deployment. Although some of these objects contain default values, others
are empty.
For information on editing text objects, see Configure FlexConfig Text Objects, on page 583.
Name Description Associated FlexConfig Object
defaultDNSNameServerList The DNS server IP address to configure in Default_DNS_Configure

the Default DNS group.
defaultDNSParameters The parameters to control DNS behavior Default_DNS_Configure

for the default DNS server group. The
object contains separate entries, in order,
for retries, timeout, expire-entry-timer,
poll-timer, domain-name.
disableInspectProtocolList Disables protocols in the default policy map Disable_Default_Inspection_Protocol

(global_policy).
dnsNameServerList The DNS server IP address to configure in DNS_Configure

a user-defined DNS group.
dnsParameters The parameters to control DNS behavior DNS_Configure

for a non-default DNS server group. The
object contains separate entries, in order,
for retries, timeout, domain-name,
name-server-interface.
eigrpAS Autonomous system number. Eigrp_Configure,

Eigrp_Interface_Configure,
Eigrp_Unconfigure

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eigrpAuthKey EIGRP authentication key. Eigrp_Interface_Configure
eigrpAuthKeyId Shared key id that matches the Eigrp_Interface_Configure

authentication key.
eigrpDisableAutoSummary A flag that, when true, disables Eigrp_Configure

auto-summary.
eigrpDisableSplitHorizon A flag that, when true, disables split Eigrp_Interface_Configure

horizon.
eigrpHelloInterval Seconds between hello transmission. Eigrp_Interface_Configure
eigrpHoldTime Seconds before neighbor is considered Eigrp_Interface_Configure

down.
eigrpIntfList List of logical interface names where Eigrp_Interface_Configure

EIGRP is to be applied.
eigrpRouterId Router-Id, in IP address format. Eigrp_Configure
eigrpStubConnected A flag that, when true, allows you to use Eigrp_Configure

connected in the eigrp stub configuration.
eigrpStubReceiveOnly A flag that, when true, allows you to use Eigrp_Configure

receive-only in the eigrp stub
configuration.
eigrpStubRedistributed A flag that, when true, allows you to use Eigrp_Configure

redistributed in the eigrp stub
configuration.
eigrpStubSummary A flag that, when true, allows you to use Eigrp_Configure

summary in the eigrp stub configuration.
enableInspectProtocolList Enables protocols in the default policy map Enable_Default_Inspection_Protocol

(global_policy). You are prevented from
adding protocols whose inspection conflicts
with Snort inspection.
IPv6RoutingHeaderDropList The list of IPv6 routing header types that Inspect_IPv6_Configure

you want to disallow. IPv6 inspection drops
packets that contain these headers without
logging the drop.
IPv6RoutingHeaderDropLogList The list of IPv6 routing header types that Inspect_IPv6_Configure

you want to disallow and log. IPv6
inspection drops packets that contain these
headers and sends a syslog message about
the drop.

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IPv6RoutingHeaderLogList The list of IPv6 routing header types that Inspect_IPv6_Configure

you want to allow but log. IPv6 inspection
allows packets that contain these headers,
but sends a syslog message about the
existence of the header.
isIsAddressFamily The IPv4 or IPv6 address family. ISIS_Configure

ISIS_Interface_Configuration
IsIsIntfList List of logical interface names. ISIS_Interface_Configuration
isIsISType IS Type (level-1, level-2-only or level-1-2). ISIS_Configure
isIsNet Network entity. ISIS_Configure
isServiceIdentifier When false, uses the standard web-cache Wccp_Configure

service identifier.
netflow_Destination Defines a single Netflow export Netflow_Add_Destination

destination's interface, destination, and
UDP port number.
netflow_Event_Types Defines the types of events to be exported Netflow_Add_Destination

for a destination as any subset of: all,
flow-create, flow-defined, flow-teardown,
flow-update.
netflow_Parameters Provides the Netflow export global settings: Netflow_Set_Parameters

active refresh interval (number of minutes
between flow update events), delay (flow
create delay in seconds; default 0 =
command will not appear), and template
time-out rate in minutes.
PrefixDelegationInside Configures the inside interface for DHCPv6 None, but could be used with a copy of
prefix delegation. The object includes DHCPv6_Prefix_Delegation_Configure.
multiple entries, in order, interface name,
IPv6 suffix with prefix length, and prefix
pool name.
PrefixDelegationOutside Configure the outside DHCPv6 prefix None, but could be used with a copy of
delegation client. The object includes DHCPv6_Prefix_Delegation_Configure.
multiple entries, in order, interface name
and IPv6 prefix length
serviceIdentifier Dynamic WCCP service identifier number. Wccp_Configure
tcp_conn_limit Parameters used for configuring the TCP TCP_Embryonic_Conn_Limit

embryonic connection limits.

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tcp_conn_misc Parameters used for configuring the TCP TCP_Embryonic_Conn_Limit,

embryonic connection settings. TCP_Embryonic_Conn_Timeout
tcp_conn_timeout Parameters used for configuring the TCP TCP_Embryonic_Conn_Timeout

embryonic connection timeouts.
tcpMssBytes Maximum segment size in bytes. Sysopt_basic
tcpMssMinimum Checks whether to set maximum segment Sysopt_basic

size (MSS), which is set only if this flag is
true.
threat_detection_statistics Parameters used for threat detection Threat_Detection_Configure

statistics for TCP Intercept.
vxlan_Nve_Only Parameters for configuring NVE-only on VxLAN_Make_Nve_Only

interface:
• logical name of interface
• IPv4 address (optional for routed
interface)
• IPv4 netmask (optional for routed
interface)
vxlan_Port_And_Nve Parameters used for configuring ports and VxLAN_Configure_Port_And_Nve

NVE for VXLAN:
• vxlan port
• source interface (logical name)
• type (peer or mcast)
• Peer IP Address or
default-mcast-grooup

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Guidelines and Limitations for FlexConfig
vxlan_Vni Parameters used for creating VNI: VxLAN_Make_Vni

• Interface number (1-10000)
• segment-id (1-16777215)
• nameif (Logical Name of the
interface)
• type (routed or transparent)
• IP address (used in case of routed
mode device) or bridge-group number
(used in case of transparent mode
device)
• netmask (If device is in routed mode)
or unused
wccpPassword WCCP password. Wccp_Configure
Guidelines and Limitations for FlexConfig

• If you make a mistake in the FlexConfig policy, the system will roll back all changes included in the
deployment attempt that includes the failed FlexConfig. Because rollback due to a failed deployment
includes clearing the configuration, this can be disruptive to your network. Consider timing deployments
that include FlexConfig changes to non-business hours. Also, consider isolation the deployment so it
includes just FlexConfig changes, and no other policy updates.
• When you use the VxLAN_Make_VNI object, you must deploy the same FlexConfig to all units in a
cluster or high availability pair before you form the cluster or high availability pair. The Management
Center requires the VXLAN interfaces to match on all devices before forming the cluster or high
availability pair.
• If you want to configure Equal-Cost-Multi-Path (ECMP) routing using traffic zones, the zone command
differs for FTD devices compared to the one used on ASA. Although you can still follow the instructions
in the ASA general configuration guide, use zone name ecmp instead of the ASA version of the command.
Otherwise, the operation of the traffic zone feature is identical between the ASA and FTD .
Note The system also configures zone name passive commands to configure passive
zones if you define some interfaces as passive. This is handled automatically
based on your interface configuration. Do not use FlexConfig to create passive
traffic zones.

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Customizing Device Configuration with FlexConfig Policies


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Use FlexConfig policies to customize the configuration of a FTD device.

Before using FlexConfig, try to configure all the policies and settings you need using the other features in
Firepower Management Center. FlexConfig is a method of last resort to configure ASA-based features that
are compatible with FTD but which are not otherwise configurable in Firepower Management Center.
Following is the end-to-end procedure for configuring and deploying a FlexConfig policy.
Procedure
Step 1 Determine the CLI command sequence that you want to configure.
If you have a functioning configuration on an ASA device, use show running-config to get the sequence of
commands that you need. Make adjustments to items such as interface names and IP addresses as needed.
If this is for a new feature, it is best to try to implement it on an ASA device in a lab setting to verify that you
have the correct command sequence.
For more information, see the following topics:
• Recommended Usage for FlexConfig Policies, on page 557
• CLI Commands in FlexConfig Objects, on page 558
Step 2 Select Objects > Object Management, then select FlexConfig > FlexConfig Objects from the table of
contents.
Examine the predefined FlexConfig objects to determine if any will be able to generate the commands you
need. Click the view icon ( ) to see the object contents. If an existing object is close to what you want, start
by making a copy of the object, and then edit the copy. See Predefined FlexConfig Objects, on page 568.
Examining the objects will also give you an idea of the structure, command syntax, and expected sequencing
for a FlexConfig object.
Note If you find any objects that you will use, either directly or as copies, examine the Variables list at
the bottom of the object. Make note of the variable names, except those in all capitals that start with
SYS, which are system variables. These variables are text objects that you will probably need to
edit and define overrides for, especially if the default value column shows the object has no value.
Step 3 If you need to create your own FlexConfig objects, determine what variables you will need and create the
associated objects.

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The CLI you need to deploy might contain IP addresses, interface names, port numbers, and other parameters
that you might want to adjust over time. These are best isolated into variables, which point to objects that
contain the necessary values. You might also need variables for strings that are part of the configuration but
which might change over time.
Also, determine if you need different values for each device to which you will assign the policy. For example,
you might want to configure the feature on three devices, but you might need to specify a different interface
name or IP address on a given command for each of these devices. If you need to customize the object for
each device, ensure that you enable overrides when creating the object, and then define the override values
per device.
See the following topics for an explanation of the various types of variables and how to configure the related
objects when necessary.
• FlexConfig Variables, on page 561
• FlexConfig Policy Object Variables, on page 566
• FlexConfig System Variables, on page 567
• Configure FlexConfig Text Objects, on page 583
Step 4 If you are using the predefined FlexConfig objects, edit the text objects used as variables.
See Configure FlexConfig Text Objects, on page 583.
Step 5 (If necessary.) Configure FlexConfig Objects, on page 579.

You need to create objects only if the predefined objects cannot do the job.
Step 6 Configure the FlexConfig Policy, on page 585.

Step 7 Set Target Devices for a FlexConfig Policy, on page 586.
You can also assign the policy to devices when you create the policy. The policy must have at least one
assigned device before you can preview it.
Step 8 Preview the FlexConfig Policy, on page 587.

You must save changes before you can preview the policy.
Verify that the generated commands are the ones intended, and that all variables are resolving correctly.
Step 9 Click Deploy in the menu bar, select the devices assigned to the policy, and click the Deploy button.
Wait for deployment to complete.
Step 10 Verify the Deployed Configuration, on page 588.

Step 11 (If necessary.) Remove Features Configured Using FlexConfig, on page 590.
Unlike other types of policy, simply unassigning a FlexConfig from a device might not remove the related
configuration. If you want to remove a FlexConfig-generated configuration, you follow the cited procedure.

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Configure FlexConfig Objects


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Use FlexConfig objects to define a configuration to be deployed to a device. Each FlexConfig policy is
composed of a list of FlexConfig objects, so the objects are essentially code modules composed of Apache
Velocity scripting commands, ASA software configuration commands, and variables.
There are several predefined FlexConfig objects that you can use directly, or you can make copies if you need
to edit them. You can also create your own objects from scratch. A FlexConfig object’s content can range
from a single simple command string to elaborate CLI command structures that use variables and scripting
commands to deploy commands whose content can differ from device to device or deployment to deployment.
You can also create FlexConfig policy objects when defining FlexConfig policies.
Before you begin

Keep the following in mind:
• FlexConfig objects translate into commands that are then deployed to the device. These commands are
already issued in global configuration mode. Therefore, do not include the enable and configure terminal
commands as part of the FlexConfig object.
• Determine what types of variables you will need, and create any policy objects that you will require.
You cannot create objects for variables while editing a FlexConfig object.
• Ensure that your commands do not conflict in any way with the VPN or access control configuration on
the devices.
• If there is more than one set of commands for an interface, only the last set of commands is deployed.
Therefore, we recommend you not use beginning and ending commands to configure interfaces. For an
example of configuring interfaces, see the ISIS_Interface_Configuration predefined FlexConfig object.
Procedure

Step 2 Choose FlexConfig > FlexConfig Object from the list of object types.
• Click Add FlexConfig Object to create a new object.
• Click the view icon ( ) to see the contents of a predefined object.

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• If you want to edit a predefined object, click the copy icon ( ) to create a new object with the same
contents.
Step 4 Enter a Name and optionally, a description for the object.

Step 5 In the object body area, enter the commands and instructions to produce the required configuration.
The object content is a sequence of scripting commands and configuration commands that generate a valid
ASA software command sequence. The FTD device uses ASA software commands to configure some features.
For more information on scripting and configuration commands, see:
• Template Scripts, on page 561
• CLI Commands in FlexConfig Objects, on page 558
You can use variables to supply information that can be known only at runtime, or which can differ from
device to device. You simply type in processing variables, but you must use the Insert menu to add variables
that are associated with policy objects or system variables, or which are secret keys. For a complete discussion
of variables, see FlexConfig Variables, on page 561.
• To insert system variables, choose Insert > Insert System Variable > Variable Name. For a detailed
explanation of these variables, see FlexConfig System Variables, on page 567.
• To insert policy object variables, choose Insert > Insert Policy Object > Object Type, selecting the
appropriate type of object. Then, give the variable a name (which can be the same name as the associated
policy object), select the object to associate with the variable, and click Save. For a detailed explanation
of these types, see FlexConfig Policy Object Variables, on page 566. For more detail on the procedure,
see Add a Policy Object Variable to a FlexConfig Object, on page 581.
• To insert secret key variables, choose Insert > Secret Key and define the variable name and value. For
more detail on the procedure, see Configure Secret Keys, on page 582.
Note You must use the Insert menu to create a new policy object or system variable. However, for
subsequent uses of that variable, you must type it in, $ included. This is also true for system variables:
the first time you use it, add it from the Insert menu. Then, type it out for subsequent uses. If you
use the Insert menu more than once for a system variable, the system variable is added to the
Variables list multiple times, and the FlexConfig will not validate, meaning you cannot save your
changes. For processing variables (those not associated with a policy object or system variable),
simply type in the variable. If you are adding a secret key, always use the Insert menu. Secret key
variables do not show up in the Variables list.
Step 6 Choose the deployment frequency and type.

• Deployment—Whether to deploy the commands in the object Once or Everytime. The only way to
choose the right option is to test the results of deployment.
Start by selecting Everytime. Then, after you attach the object to a FlexConfig policy, deploy the
configuration. After a successful deployment, come back to the FlexConfig policy and preview the
configuration for one of the assigned devices as described in Preview the FlexConfig Policy, on page
587. If the section labeled ###CLI generated from managed features ### contains commands that
clear or negate the commands in the object, and the ###Flex-config Appended CLI ### section contains
the commands to reconfigure the feature, you know that Everytime is the right option.
Even if you do not see negate commands, make some minor change to the device configuration, then
run another deployment. If the deployment completes successfully, you can check the deployment

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Add a Policy Object Variable to a FlexConfig Object
transcript (see Verify the Deployed Configuration, on page 588). If you see that the commands were
issued again (even when they were already configured) without error, then you can keep Everytime.
Change to Once only if the system does not first negate the commands in the object before issuing them
again, or if the deployment results in errors that are specific to the command. In some cases, the system
does not allow you to issue a command that is already configured, but this is the exception.
Some additional tips:
• If the FlexConfig object points to system-managed objects such as network or ACL objects, choose
Everytime. Otherwise, updates to the objects might not get deployed.
• Use Once if the only thing you do in the object is to clear a configuration. Then, remove the object
from the FlexConfig policy after the next deployment.
• Type—Select one of the following:

• Append—(The default.) Commands in the object are put at the end of the configurations generated
from the Firepower Management Center policies. You must use Append if you use policy object
variables, which point to objects generated from managed objects. If commands generated for other
policies overlap with those specified in the object, you should select this option so your commands
are not overwritten. This is the safest option.
• Prepend—Commands in the object are put at the beginning of the configurations generated from
the Firepower Management Center policies. You would typically use prepend for commands that
clear or negate a configuration.
Step 7 (Optional.) Click the Validate icon above the object body to check the integrity of the script.
The object is always validated when you click Save. You cannot save an invalid object.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Add a Policy Object Variable to a FlexConfig Object


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You can insert variables into a FlexConfig policy object that are associated with other types of policy object.
When the FlexConfig is deployed to a device, these variables resolve to the names or content of the associated
object.

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Configure Secret Keys
Use the following procedure for the first use of a policy object variable in a FlexConfig object. If you need
to refer to the object again, type in the variable (including the $ sign). To understand how to use these variables,
see How to Process Variables, on page 562.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Insert > Insert Policy Object > Object Type, selecting the appropriate type of object.
Step 2 Enter a name for the variable, and optionally, a description.
The name must be unique within the context of the FlexConfig object. It cannot include spaces. You are
allowed to use the exact same name as the object associated with the variable.
Step 3 Select the object to associate with the variable and click Add to move it to the Selected Object list.
You can associate a variable with a single object only.
Note For text objects, you can select any of the predefined objects as needed. However, many of these
objects have no default values. You must update the objects to add the required values either directly
or as overrides for the device to which you will deploy the FlexConfig object. Trying to deploy a
FlexConfig without updating these objects typically results in deployment errors.
Step 4 Click Save.

The variable appears in the Variables list at the bottom of the FlexConfig object editor.
Configure Secret Keys


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A secret key is any single-string variable whose content you want to mask, such as passwords. The system
provides special treatment for these variables to help you prevent the dissemination of sensitive information.
Secret key variables do not show up in the Variables list in the FlexConfig object.
Use the following procedure to create, insert, and otherwise manage secret key variables in a FlexConfig
object. Unlike other types of variables, you can use the Insert command every time you need to insert a given
secret key variable. With respect to processing, these variables behave like single-value text object variables;
see Single Value Variables, on page 562.
Note Any data defined in a secret key variable is masked from users except when previewing a FlexConfig policy.
In addition, if you export a FlexConfig policy, the content of any secret key variable is erased. When you
import the policy, you will need to manually edit each secret key variable to enter the data.

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Configure FlexConfig Text Objects
Procedure
Step 1 While editing a FlexConfig Policy Object, choose Insert > Secret Key.
Step 2 In the Insert Secret Key dialog box, do any of the following:
• To create a new key, click Add Secret Key, then fill in the following information and click Add.
• Secret Key Name—The name of the variable. This name appears in the FlexConfig object prefixed
with @.
• Password, Confirm Password—The secret string, which is masked with asterisks as you type.
• To insert a secret key variable in the FlexConfig object, select the check box for the variable.
• To edit the value of a secret key variable, click the edit icon ( ) for the variable. Make your changes
and click Add.
• To delete a secret key variable, click the delete icon ( ) for the variable.
Step 3 Click Save.


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Use text objects in FlexConfig objects as the target of policy object variables. You can use variables to supply
information that can be known only at runtime, or which can differ from device to device. During deployment,
variables that point to text objects are replaced by the content of the text object.
Text objects contain free-form strings, which can be keywords, interface names, numbers, IP addresses, and
so forth. The content depends on how you will use the information within a FlexConfig script.
Before creating or editing a text object, determine exactly what content you will need. This includes how you
intend to process the object, which will help you decide between creating a single string or multiple string
object. Read the following topics:
• FlexConfig Variables, on page 561
• How to Process Variables, on page 562
Procedure

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Step 2 Choose FlexConfig > Text Object from the list of object types.
• Click Add Text Object to create a new object.
• Click the edit icon ( ) to edit an existing object. You are allowed to edit the predefined text objects,
which is required if you intended to use the predefined FlexConfig objects.
Step 4 Enter a Name and optionally, a description for the object.

Step 5 (New objects only.) Choose a Variable Type from the drop-down list:
• Single—If the object should contain a single text string.
• Multiple—If the object should contain a list of text strings.
You cannot change the variable type after you save the object.
Step 6 If the variable type is Multiple, use the up and down arrows to specify a Count.
Rows are added or removed from the object as you change the number.
Step 7 Add content to the object.

You can either click in the text box next to a variable number and type in a value, or you can set up device
overrides for each device that will be assigned a FlexConfig object that uses the text object. You can also do
both, in which case the values configured in the base object act as default values in cases where an override
does not exist for a given device.
When editing predefined objects, it is a good practice to use device overrides, so that the system defaults
remain in place for other users who might need to use the object in different FlexConfig policies. The approach
you take depends on the requirements of your organization.
Tip Some predefined objects require multiple values where each value serves a specific purpose. Read
the description text carefully to determine the expected values in the object. In some cases, the
instructions specify that you must use overrides instead of changing the base values. In the case of
enableInspectProtocolList, you are prevented from entering protocols whose inspection is
incompatible with Snort inspection.
If you decide to use device overrides, do the following.

a) Select Allow Overrides.
b) Expand the Overrides area (if necessary) and click Add.
If an override already exists for the device, click the edit icon for the override to change it.
c) On the Targets tab in the Add Object Override dialog box, select the device for which you are defining
values and click Add to move it to the Selected Devices list.
d) Click the Override tab, adjust the Count as needed, then click in the variable fields and type in the values
for the device.
e) Click Add.
Step 8 Click Save.

584
Configure the FlexConfig Policy
What to do next
Configure the FlexConfig Policy


Defense
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
A FlexConfig policy contains two ordered lists of FlexConfig objects, one prepended list and one appended
list. For an explanation of prepend/append, see Configure FlexConfig Objects, on page 579.
FlexConfig policies are shared policies that you can assign to multiple devices.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > FlexConfig.

• Click New Policy to create a new FlexConfig Policy. You are prompted to enter a name. Optionally,
select devices in the Available Devices list and click Add to Policy to assign devices. Click Save.
• Click the edit icon ( ) to edit an existing Policy. You can change the name or description by clicking
them in edit mode.
• Click the copy icon ( ) to create a new policy with the same contents. You are prompted for a name.
Device assignments are not retained for the copy.
• Click the delete icon to remove a policy you no longer need.
Step 3 Select the FlexConfig objects required for the policy from the Available FlexConfig list and click > to add
them to the policy.
Objects are automatically added to the prepended or appended list based on the deployment type specified in
the FlexConfig object.
To remove a selected object, click the delete icon ( ) next to an object.
Step 4 For each selected object, click the view icon ( ) next to the object to identify the variables used in the object.
Except for system variables, which start with SYS, you need to ensure that the objects associated with the
variables are not empty. A blank or brackets with nothing between them, [ ], indicate an empty object. You
will need to edit these objects before deploying the policy.

585
Set Target Devices for a FlexConfig Policy
Note If you use object overrides, those values will not show up in this view. Thus, an empty default value
does not necessarily mean that you have not updated the object with the required values. Previewing
the configuration will show whether the variables resolve correctly for a given device. See Preview
the FlexConfig Policy, on page 587.
Step 5 Click Save.
What to do next
• Set target devices for the policy; see Set Target Devices for a FlexConfig Policy, on page 586.
Set Target Devices for a FlexConfig Policy


Defense
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
When you create a FlexConfig policy, you can select the devices that use the policy. You can subsequently
change device assignments for the policy as described below.
Note Normally, when you unassign a policy from a device, the system automatically removes the associated
configuration upon the next deployment. However, because FlexConfig objects are scripts for deploying
customized commands, simply unassigning a FlexConfig policy from a device does not remove the commands
that were configuring by the FlexConfig objects. If your intention is to remove FlexConfig-generated commands
from a device's configuration, see Remove Features Configured Using FlexConfig, on page 590.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > FlexConfig and edit a FlexConfig policy.

Step 2 Click Policy Assignments.
Step 3 On the Targeted Devices tab, build your target list:
• Add—Choose one or more Available Devices, then click Add to Policy or drag and drop into the list
of Selected Devices. You can assign the policy to devices, high availability pairs, and clustered devices.
• Delete—Click the delete icon ( ) next to a single device, or select multiple devices, right-click, then
choose Delete Selection.
Step 4 Click OK to save your selection.

586
Preview the FlexConfig Policy
Step 5 Click Save to save the FlexConfig policy.
What to do next
Preview the FlexConfig Policy


Defense
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
Preview a FlexConfig policy to see how the FlexConfig objects get translated into CLI commands. The preview
shows the commands that will be generated for a selected device from the scripts and variables used in the
FlexConfig objects. The variables are resolved based on the configuration for the device, so you get a clear
idea of what will be deployed.
Use the preview to look for potential problems in the FlexConfig objects. Correct the objects until the preview
shows the expected results.
You must preview the configuration separately for each device, because the variables can resolve differently
based on the device configuration.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > FlexConfig and edit a FlexConfig policy.

Step 2 If there are any pending changes, click Save.
The preview shows results only for those FlexConfig objects that were in the most recently saved version of
the policy. You must save the policy to see a preview of newly-added objects.
Step 3 Click Preview Config.

Step 4 Choose a device from the Select Device drop-down list.
The system retrieves information from the device and configured policies, and determines what CLI commands
will be generated on the next deployment to the device. You can select the output and use Ctrl+C to copy it
to the clipboard, where you can paste it into a text file for further analysis.
The preview includes the following sections:
• Flex-config Prepended CLI—These are the commands generated by FlexConfigs that are prepended to
the configuration.
• CLI generated from managed features—These are commands generated for policies configured in
Firepower Management Center. Commands are generated for new or changed policies since the last
successful deployment to the device. These commands do not represent all commands needed to implement
the assigned policies. No commands in this section are generated from FlexConfig objects.

587
Verify the Deployed Configuration
• Flex-config Appended CLI—These are the commands generated by FlexConfigs that are appended to
the configuration.
Step 5 Click Close to close the preview dialog.


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After you deploy a FlexConfig policy to a device, verify that the deployment was successful and that the
resulting configuration is what you expected. Also, verify that the device is performing as expected.
Procedure
Step 1 To verify that deployment was successful:

a) Click the System Status icon in the menu bar, which is the unnamed icon between Deploy and System.
The icon looks like one of the following, and it might include a number if there are errors:
• — Indicates no warnings or errors are present on the system.
• — Indicates one or more warnings and no errors are present on the system.
• — Indicates one or more errors and any number of warnings are present on the system.
b) On the Deployments tab, verify that the deployment was successful.

c) To see more detailed information, especially for failed deployments, click Show History.
d) Select the deployment job in the list of jobs in the left column.
Jobs are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent job at the top of the list.
e) Click the download icon in the Transcript column for the device in the right column.
The deployment transcript includes commands sent to the device, and any responses returned from the
device. These response can be informative messages or error messages. For failed deployments, look for
messages that indicate errors with the commands that you sent through FlexConfig. These errors can help
you correct the script in the FlexConfig object that is trying to configure the commands.
Note There is no distinction made in the transcript between commands sent for managed features and
those generated from FlexConfig policies.
For example, the following sequence shows that Firepower Management Center (FMC) sent commands
to configure GigabitEthernet0/0 with the logical name outside. The device responded that it automatically

588
set the security level to 0. FTD does not use the security level for anything. Messages relevant to FlexConfig
are in the CLI Apply section of the transcript.
========= CLI APPLY =========
FMC >> interface GigabitEthernet0/0

FMC >> nameif outside
FTDv 192.168.0.152 >> [info] : INFO: Security level for "outside" set to 0 by default.
Step 2 Verify that the deployed configuration includes the expected commands.
You can do this by making an SSH connection to the device's management IP address. Use the show
running-config command to view the configuration.
Alternatively, use the CLI tool within Firepower Management Center.
a) Choose System > Health > Monitor and click the name of the device.
You might need to click the open/close arrow in the Count column in the Status table to see any devices.
b) Click Advanced Troubleshooting.
c) Click the Threat Defense CLI tab.
d) Select show as the command, and type running-config as the parameter.
e) Click Execute.
The running configuration appears in the text box. You can select the configuration and press Ctrl+C,
then paste it into a text file for later analysis.
Step 3 Verify that the device is performing as expected.

Use the show commands related to the feature to see detailed information and statistics. For example, if you
enabled additional protocol inspections, the show service-policy command provides this information. The
exact commands to use are feature-dependent and should be mentioned in the ASA configuration guide and
command reference you used to learn how to configure the feature.
If commands that show statistics indicate that numbers are not changing (for example, hit counts, connection
counts, and so forth), the configuration might be valid but not meaningful. If you know that traffic is going
through the device that should show up in statistics, look for what is missing in your configuration. For
example, NAT or access rules might be dropping or changing traffic before a feature can act on it.
You can use the show commands from an SSH session or through the Firepower Management Center CLI
tool.
However, if the show command that you need to use is not available directly within the FTD CLI, you will
need make an SSH connection to the device to use the commands. From the CLI, enter the following command
sequence to enter Privileged EXEC mode within the diagnostic CLI. From there, you should be able to enter
these otherwise unsupported show commands.
> system support diagnostic-cli

Attaching to Diagnostic CLI ... Press 'Ctrl+a then d' to detach.
Type help or '?' for a list of available commands.
firepower> enable
Password: <press enter, do not enter a password>
firepower#

589
Remove Features Configured Using FlexConfig


Defense
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
If you decide you need to remove a set of configuration commands you configured using FlexConfig, you
might need to manually remove that configuration. Unassigning the FlexConfig policy from a device might
not remove all of the configuration.
To manually remove the configuration, you create new FlexConfig objects to clear or negate the configuration
commands.
Before you begin

To determine if you need to manually remove some or all of the configuration generated by an object:
1. Examine the configuration preview, as described in Preview the FlexConfig Policy, on page 587. If the
###CLI generated from managed features ### section contains the clear or negate commands to
remove all of the commands in the FlexConfig object, then you can simply remove the object from the
FlexConfig policy, save, and redeploy.
2. Remove the object from the FlexConfig policy, save the change, then preview the configuration again. If
the ###CLI generated from managed features ### section still does not include the required clear or
negate commands, you must follow this procedure to manually remove the configuration.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Objects > Object Management and create the FlexConfig Objects to clear or negate the configuration
commands.
If a feature has a clear command that can remove all configuration settings, then use that command. For
example, the predefined Eigrp_Unconfigure_All object contains a single command that removes all
EIGRP-related configuration commands:
clear configure router eigrp
If there is not a clear command for the feature, you need to use the no form of each command you want to
remove. For example, the predefined Sysopt_basic_negate object removes the commands configured through
the predefined Sysopt_basic object.
no sysopt traffic detailed-statistics
no sysopt connection timewait
You would typically configure a FlexConfig object that removes configurations as a prepended, deploy once
object.

590
Step 2 Choose Devices > FlexConfig and create a new FlexConfig policy or edit the existing policy.
If you want to preserve the FlexConfig policy that deploys the configuration commands, create a new policy
specifically for negating the commands, and assign the devices to the policy. Then, add the new FlexConfig
objects to the policy.
If you want to completely remove the FlexConfig configuration objects from all devices, you can simply
delete those commands from the existing FlexConfig policy and replace them with the objects that negate the
configuration.
Step 3 Click Save to save the FlexConfig policy.

Step 4 Click Preview Config and verify that the clear and negation commands are generating correctly.
Step 5 Click Deploy in the menu bar, select the device, and click the Deploy button.
Wait for deployment to complete.
Step 6 Verify that the commands were removed.

View the running configuration on the device to confirm that the commands are removed. For more detailed
information, see Verify the Deployed Configuration, on page 588.
Step 7 While editing the FlexConfig policy, click Policy Assignments and remove the device. Optionally, remove
the FlexConfig Objects from the policy.
Assuming that the FlexConfig policy simply removes the unwanted configuration commands, there is no need
to keep the policy assigned to the device after the removal is complete.
However, if the FlexConfig policy retains options that you still want configured on the device, remove the
negation objects from the policy. They are no longer needed.

591

592
PA R T VIII
Firepower Threat Defense Interfaces and Device
Settings
• Interface Overview for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 595
• Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 601
• Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 639
• DHCP and DDNS Services for Threat Defense, on page 649
• Quality of Service (QoS) for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 657
CHAPTER 29
Interface Overview for Firepower Threat Defense
The FTD device includes data interfaces that you can configure in different modes, as well as a
management/diagnostic interface.
• Management/Diagnostic Interface, on page 595
• Interface Mode and Types, on page 596
• Security Zones and Interface Groups, on page 597
• Auto-MDI/MDIX Feature, on page 597
• Default Settings for Interfaces, on page 597
• Enable the Physical Interface and Configure Ethernet Settings, on page 598
• Sync Interface Changes with the Firepower Management Center, on page 599
Management/Diagnostic Interface
The physical management interface is shared between the Diagnostic logical interface and the Management
logical interface.
Management Interface
The Management logical interface is separate from the other interfaces on the device. It is used to set up and
register the device to the Firepower Management Center. It uses its own IP address and static routing. You
can configure its settings at the CLI using the configure network command. If you change the IP address at
the CLI after you add it to the Firepower Management Center, you can match the IP address in the Firepower
Management Center in the Devices > Device Management > Devices > Management area.
Diagnostic Interface
The Diagnostic logical interface can be configured along with the rest of the data interfaces on the Devices >
Device Management > Interfaces screen. Using the Diagnostic interface is optional (see the routed and
transparent mode deployments for scenarios). The Diagnostic interface only allows management traffic, and
does not allow through traffic. It does not support SSH; you can SSH to data interfaces or to the Management
interface only. The Diagnostic interface is useful for SNMP or syslog monitoring.

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Firepower Threat Defense Interfaces and Device Settings
Interface Mode and Types
Interface Mode and Types

You can deploy FTD interfaces in two modes: Regular firewall mode and IPS-only mode. You can include
both firewall and IPS-only interfaces on the same device.
Regular Firewall Mode

Firewall mode interfaces subject traffic to firewall functions such as maintaining flows, tracking flow states
at both IP and TCP layers, IP defragmentation, and TCP normalization. You can also optionally configure
IPS functions for this traffic according to your security policy.
The types of firewall interfaces you can configure depends on the firewall mode set for the device: routed or
transparent mode. See Transparent or Routed Firewall Mode for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 529 for
more information.
• Routed mode interfaces (routed firewall mode only)—Each interface that you want to route between is
on a different subnet.
• Bridge group interfaces (routed and transparent firewall mode)—You can group together multiple
interfaces on a network, and the Firepower Threat Defense device uses bridging techniques to pass traffic
between the interfaces. Each bridge group includes a Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) to which you assign
an IP address on the network. In routed mode, the Firepower Threat Defense device routes between BVIs
and regular routed interfaces. In transparent mode, each bridge group is separate and cannot communicate
with each other.
IPS-Only Mode
IPS-only mode interfaces bypass many firewall checks and only support IPS security policy. You might want
to implement IPS-only interfaces if you have a separate firewall protecting these interfaces and do not want
the overhead of firewall functions.
Note The firewall mode only affects regular firewall interfaces, and not IPS-only interfaces such as inline sets or
passive interfaces. IPS-only interfaces can be used in both firewall modes.
IPS-only interfaces can be deployed as the following types:

• Inline Set, with optional Tap mode—An inline set acts like a bump on the wire, and binds two interfaces
together to slot into an existing network. This function allows the system to be installed in any network
environment without the configuration of adjacent network devices. Inline interfaces receive all traffic
unconditionally, but all traffic received on these interfaces is retransmitted out of an inline set unless
explicitly dropped.
With tap mode, the device is deployed inline, but instead of the packet flow passing through the device,
a copy of each packet is sent to the device and the network traffic flow is undisturbed. However, rules
of these types do generate intrusion events when they are triggered, and the table view of intrusion events
indicates that the triggering packets would have dropped in an inline deployment. There are benefits to
using tap mode with devices that are deployed inline. For example, you can set up the cabling between
the device and the network as if the device were inline and analyze the kinds of intrusion events the
device generates. Based on the results, you can modify your intrusion policy and add the drop rules that
best protect your network without impacting its efficiency. When you are ready to deploy the device

596
Security Zones and Interface Groups
inline, you can disable tap mode and begin dropping suspicious traffic without having to reconfigure the
cabling between the device and the network.
Note Inline sets might be familiar to you as "transparent inline sets," but the inline
interface type is unrelated to the transparent firewall mode or the firewall-type
interfaces.
• Passive or ERSPAN Passive—Passive interfaces monitor traffic flowing across a network using a switch
SPAN or mirror port. The SPAN or mirror port allows for traffic to be copied from other ports on the
switch. This function provides the system visibility within the network without being in the flow of
network traffic. When configured in a passive deployment, the system cannot take certain actions such
as blocking or shaping traffic. Passive interfaces receive all traffic unconditionally and no traffic received
on these interfaces is retransmitted. Encapsulated remote switched port analyzer (ERSPAN) interfaces
allow you to monitor traffic from source ports distributed over multiple switches, and uses GRE to
encapsulate the traffic. ERSPAN interfaces are only allowed when the device is in routed firewall mode.
Security Zones and Interface Groups

Each interface must be assigned to a security zone and/or interface group. You then apply your security policy
based on zones or groups. For example, you can assign the inside interface to the inside zone; and the outside
interface to the outside zone. You can configure your access control policy to enable traffic to go from inside
to outside, but not from outside to inside, for example. Some policies only support security zones, while other
policies support zones and groups. For specifics, see Interface Objects: Interface Groups and Security Zones,
on page 382. You can create security zones and interface groups on the Objects page. You can also add a zone
when you are configuring the interface. You can only add interfaces to the correct zone type for your interface,
either Passive, Inline, Routed, or Switched zone types.
The Diagnostic/Management interface does not belong to a zone or interface group.
Auto-MDI/MDIX Feature
For RJ-45 interfaces, the default auto-negotiation setting also includes the Auto-MDI/MDIX feature.
Auto-MDI/MDIX eliminates the need for crossover cabling by performing an internal crossover when a
straight cable is detected during the auto-negotiation phase. Either the speed or duplex must be set to
auto-negotiate to enable Auto-MDI/MDIX for the interface. If you explicitly set both the speed and duplex
to a fixed value, thus disabling auto-negotiation for both settings, then Auto-MDI/MDIX is also disabled. For
Gigabit Ethernet, when the speed and duplex are set to 1000 and full, then the interface always auto-negotiates;
therefore Auto-MDI/MDIX is always enabled and you cannot disable it.
Default Settings for Interfaces

This section lists default settings for interfaces.

597
Enable the Physical Interface and Configure Ethernet Settings
Default State of Interfaces

The default state of an interface depends on the type.
• Physical interfaces—Disabled. The exception is the Diagnostic interface that is enabled for initial setup.
• Redundant Interfaces—Enabled. However, for traffic to pass through the redundant interface, the member
physical interfaces must also be enabled.
• VLAN subinterfaces—Enabled. However, for traffic to pass through the subinterface, the physical
interface must also be enabled.
• EtherChannel port-channel interfaces (ASA models)—Enabled. However, for traffic to pass through the
EtherChannel, the channel group physical interfaces must also be enabled.
• EtherChannel port-channel interfaces (Firepower models)—Disabled.
Note For the Firepower 4100/9300, you can administratively enable and disable interfaces in both the chassis and
in the FMC. For an interface to be operational, the interface must be enabled in both operating systems.
Because the interface state is controlled independently, you may have a mismatch between the chassis and
FMC.
Default Speed and Duplex

By default, the speed and duplex for copper (RJ-45) interfaces are set to auto-negotiate.
Enable the Physical Interface and Configure Ethernet Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
This section describes how to:

• Enable the physical interface. By default, physical interfaces are disabled (with the exception of the
Diagnostic interface).
• Set a specific speed and duplex. By default, speed and duplex are set to Auto.
This procedure only covers a small subset of Interface settings. Refrain from setting other parameters at this
point. For example, you cannot name an interface that you want to use as part of an EtherChannel or redundant
interface.
Note For the Firepower 4100/9300, you configure basic interface settings in FXOS. See Configure a Physical
Interface, on page 545 for more information.

598
Sync Interface Changes with the Firepower Management Center
Before you begin

If you changed the physical interfaces on the device after you added it to the FMC, you need to refresh the
interface listing by clicking the Sync Interfaces from device button on the top left of the Interfaces tab.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) for the interface you want to edit.
Step 3 Enable the interface by checking the Enabled check box.
Step 4 (Optional) Add a description in the Description field.
The description can be up to 200 characters on a single line, without carriage returns.
Step 5 (Optional) Set the duplex and speed by clicking the Hardware Configuration tab.
• Duplex—Choose Full, Half, or Auto. Auto is the default when the interface supports it. For example,
you cannot select Auto for the SFP interfaces on a Firepower 2100 series device.
• Speed—Choose 10, 100, 1000, or Auto. Auto is the default. The type of interface limits the options you
can select. For example, on Firepower 2100 series devices, you can select 10, 100, or 1000 (1Gbps) for
GigabitEthernet ports, and 1000 or 10000 (10 Gpbs) for SFP ports. Note that the SFP interfaces on
Firepower 2100 series devices do not support Auto.
Step 6 In the Mode drop-down list, choose one of the following:.

• None—Choose this setting for regular firewall interfaces and inline sets. The mode will automatically
be changed to Routed, Switched, or Inline based on futher configuration.
• Passive—Choose this setting for passive IPS-only interfaces.
• Erspan—Choose this setting for ERSPAN passive IPS-only interfaces.
Step 7 Click OK.

Step 8 Click Save.
deploy them.
SyncInterfaceChangeswiththeFirepowerManagementCenter
Access Admin
Network Admin

599
Sync Interface Changes with the Firepower Management Center
Interface configuration changes on the device can cause the FMC and the device to get out of sync. The FMC
can detect interface changes by one of the following methods:
• Event sent from the device
• Sync when you deploy from the FMC
If the FMC detects interface changes when it attempts to deploy, the deploy will fail. You must first
accept the interface changes.
• Manual sync
This procedure describes how to manually sync device changes if required and how to save the detected
changes. If device changes are temporary, you should not save the changes in the FMC; you should wait until
the device is stable, and then re-sync.
Procedure
Step 2 If required, click the Sync Device button on the top left of the Interfaces tab.
Step 3 After the changes are detected, you will see a red banner on the Interfaces tab indicating that the interface
configuration has changed. Click the Click to know more link to view the interface changes.
Step 4 Click Save.
deploy them.

600
CHAPTER 30
Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat
Defense
This chapter includes regular firewall FTD interface configuration including EtherChannels, VLAN
subinterfaces, IP addressing, and more.
Note For initial interface configuration on the Firepower 4100/9300, see Configure Interfaces, on page 544.
• Configure EtherChannel and Redundant Interfaces, on page 601

• Configure VLAN Subinterfaces and 802.1Q Trunking, on page 608
• Configure Routed and Transparent Mode Interfaces, on page 611
• Configure Advanced Interface Settings, on page 627
• History for Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 637
Configure EtherChannel and Redundant Interfaces

This section tells how to configure EtherChannels and redundant interfaces.
Note For the Firepower 4100/9300, you configure EtherChannels in FXOS. See Add an EtherChannel (Port Channel),
on page 546 for more information. Redundant interfaces are not supported.
About EtherChannels and Redundant Interfaces

This section describes EtherChannels and Redundant Interfaces.
Redundant Interfaces
A logical redundant interface consists of a pair of physical interfaces: an active and a standby interface. When
the active interface fails, the standby interface becomes active and starts passing traffic. You can configure a
redundant interface to increase the Firepower Threat Defense device reliability.
You can configure up to 8 redundant interface pairs.

601
Redundant Interface MAC Address
Redundant Interface MAC Address

The redundant interface uses the MAC address of the first physical interface that you add. If you change the
order of the member interfaces in the configuration, then the MAC address changes to match the MAC address
of the interface that is now listed first. Alternatively, you can assign a manual MAC address to the redundant
interface, which is used regardless of the member interface MAC addresses. When the active interface fails
over to the standby, the same MAC address is maintained so that traffic is not disrupted.
EtherChannels
An 802.3ad EtherChannel is a logical interface (called a port-channel interface) consisting of a bundle of
individual Ethernet links (a channel group) so that you increase the bandwidth for a single network. A port
channel interface is used in the same way as a physical interface when you configure interface-related features.
You can configure up to 48 EtherChannels.
Channel Group Interfaces

Each channel group can have up to 16 active interfaces. For switches that support only 8 active interfaces,
you can assign up to 16 interfaces to a channel group: while only 8 interfaces can be active, the remaining
interfaces can act as standby links in case of interface failure. For 16 active interfaces, be sure that your switch
supports the feature (for example, the Cisco Nexus 7000 with F2-Series 10 Gigabit Ethernet Module).
All interfaces in the channel group must be the same type and speed. The first interface added to the channel
group determines the correct type and speed. Note that for interfaces that you can configure to use either the
RJ-45 or SFP connector, you can include both RJ-45 and SFP interfaces in the same EtherChannel.
The EtherChannel aggregates the traffic across all the available active interfaces in the channel. The interface
is selected using a proprietary hash algorithm, based on source or destination MAC addresses, IP addresses,
TCP and UDP port numbers and VLAN numbers.
Connecting to an EtherChannel on Another Device

The device to which you connect the Firepower Threat Defense device EtherChannel must also support 802.3ad
EtherChannels; for example, you can connect to the Catalyst 6500 switch or the Cisco Nexus 7000.
When the switch is part of a Virtual Switching System (VSS) or Virtual Port Channel (vPC), then you can
connect Firepower Threat Defense device interfaces within the same EtherChannel to separate switches in
the VSS/vPC. The switch interfaces are members of the same EtherChannel port-channel interface, because
the separate switches act like a single switch.
Figure 7: Connecting to a VSS/vPC

602
Link Aggregation Control Protocol
If you use the Firepower Threat Defense device in an Active/Standby failover deployment, then you need to
create separate EtherChannels on the switches in the VSS/vPC, one for each Firepower Threat Defense device.
On each Firepower Threat Defense device, a single EtherChannel connects to both switches. Even if you
could group all switch interfaces into a single EtherChannel connecting to both Firepower Threat Defense
device (in this case, the EtherChannel will not be established because of the separate Firepower Threat Defense
device system IDs), a single EtherChannel would not be desirable because you do not want traffic sent to the
standby Firepower Threat Defense device.
Figure 8: Active/Standby Failover and VSS/vPC
Link Aggregation Control Protocol

The Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) aggregates interfaces by exchanging the Link Aggregation
Control Protocol Data Units (LACPDUs) between two network devices.
You can configure each physical interface in an EtherChannel to be:
• Active—Sends and receives LACP updates. An active EtherChannel can establish connectivity with
either an active or a passive EtherChannel. You should use the active mode unless you need to minimize
the amount of LACP traffic.
• Passive—Receives LACP updates. A passive EtherChannel can only establish connectivity with an active
EtherChannel.
• On—The EtherChannel is always on, and LACP is not used. An “on” EtherChannel can only establish
a connection with another “on” EtherChannel.
LACP coordinates the automatic addition and deletion of links to the EtherChannel without user intervention.
It also handles misconfigurations and checks that both ends of member interfaces are connected to the correct
channel group. “On” mode cannot use standby interfaces in the channel group when an interface goes down,
and the connectivity and configurations are not checked.
Load Balancing
The Firepower Threat Defense device distributes packets to the interfaces in the EtherChannel by hashing the
source and destination IP address of the packet (this criteria is configurable). The resulting hash is divided by
the number of active links in a modulo operation where the resulting remainder determines which interface
owns the flow. All packets with a hash_value mod active_links result of 0 go to the first interface in the
EtherChannel, packets with a result of 1 go to the second interface, packets with a result of 2 go to the third
interface, and so on. For example, if you have 15 active links, then the modulo operation provides values from
0 to 14. For 6 active links, the values are 0 to 5, and so on.

603
EtherChannel MAC Address
If an active interface goes down and is not replaced by a standby interface, then traffic is rebalanced between
the remaining links. The failure is masked from both Spanning Tree at Layer 2 and the routing table at Layer
3, so the switchover is transparent to other network devices.
EtherChannel MAC Address

All interfaces that are part of the channel group share the same MAC address. This feature makes the
EtherChannel transparent to network applications and users, because they only see the one logical connection;
they have no knowledge of the individual links.
The port-channel interface uses the lowest numbered channel group interface MAC address as the port-channel
MAC address. Alternatively you can manually configure a MAC address for the port-channel interface. We
recommend manually configuring a unique MAC address in case the group channel interface membership
changes. If you remove the interface that was providing the port-channel MAC address, then the port-channel
MAC address changes to the next lowest numbered interface, thus causing traffic disruption.
Guidelines for EtherChannels and Redundant Interfaces

Bridge Group
In routed mode, EtherChannels are not supported as bridge group members.
High Availability
• When you use a redundant or EtherChannel interface as a High Availability link, it must be pre-configured
on both units in the High Availability pair; you cannot configure it on the primary unit and expect it to
replicate to the secondary unit because the High Availability link itself is required for replication.
• If you use a redundant or EtherChannel interface for the state link, no special configuration is required;
the configuration can replicate from the primary unit as normal.
• You can monitor redundant or EtherChannel interfaces for High Availability. When an active member
interface fails over to a standby interface, this activity does not cause the redundant or EtherChannel
interface to appear to be failed when being monitored for device-level High Availability. Only when all
physical interfaces fail does the redundant or EtherChannel interface appear to be failed (for an
EtherChannel interface, the number of member interfaces allowed to fail is configurable).
• If you use an EtherChannel interface for a High Availability or state link, then to prevent out-of-order
packets, only one interface in the EtherChannel is used. If that interface fails, then the next interface in
the EtherChannel is used. You cannot alter the EtherChannel configuration while it is in use as a High
Availability link. To alter the configuration, you need to either shut down the EtherChannel while you
make changes, or temporarily disable High Availability; either action prevents High Availability from
occurring for the duration.
Model Support
• EtherChannels are supported on Firepower Threat Defense device appliances only; they are not supported
on the Firepower Threat Defense Virtual.
• For the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis, you configure EtherChannels in FXOS, not in the FTD OS.
• Redundant interfaces are not supported on the Firepower 2100, Firepower 4100/9300 chassis.

604
Guidelines for EtherChannels and Redundant Interfaces
Redundant Interfaces
• You can configure up to 8 redundant interface pairs.
• All FTD configuration refers to the logical redundant interface instead of the member physical interfaces.
• You cannot use a redundant interface as part of an EtherChannel, nor can you use an EtherChannel as
part of a redundant interface. You cannot use the same physical interfaces in a redundant interface and
an EtherChannel interface. You can, however, configure both types on the FTD if they do not use the
same physical interfaces.
• If you shut down the active interface, then the standby interface becomes active.
• Redundant interfaces do not support Diagnostic slot/port interfaces as members. You can, however, set
a redundant interface comprised of non-Diagnostic interfaces as management-only.
EtherChannels
• EtherChannels are supported on FTD appliances only; they are not supported on the Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual.
• You can configure up to 48 EtherChannels.
• Each channel group can have up to 16 active interfaces. For switches that support only 8 active interfaces,
you can assign up to 16 interfaces to a channel group: while only eight interfaces can be active, the
remaining interfaces can act as standby links in case of interface failure.
• All interfaces in the channel group must be the same type and speed. The first interface added to the
channel group determines the correct type and speed. Note that for interfaces that you can configure to
use either the RJ-45 or SFP connector, you can include both RJ-45 and SFP interfaces on the same
network module in the same EtherChannel.
• The device to which you connect the FTD EtherChannel must also support 802.3ad EtherChannels; for
example, you can connect to the Catalyst 6500 switch or Cisco Nexus 7000 switch.
• The FTD does not support LACPDUs that are VLAN-tagged. If you enable native VLAN tagging on
the neighboring switch using the Cisco IOS vlan dot1Q tag native command, then the FTD will drop
the tagged LACPDUs. Be sure to disable native VLAN tagging on the neighboring switch.
• In Cisco IOS software versions earlier than 15.1(1)S2, the FTD did not support connecting an EtherChannel
to a switch stack. With default switch settings, if the FTD EtherChannel is connected cross stack, and if
the master switch is powered down, then the EtherChannel connected to the remaining switch will not
come up. To improve compatibility, set the stack-mac persistent timer command to a large enough
value to account for reload time; for example, 8 minutes or 0 for indefinite. Or, you can upgrade to more
a more stable switch software version, such as 15.1(1)S2.
• All FTD configuration refers to the logical EtherChannel interface instead of the member physical
interfaces.
• You cannot use a redundant interface as part of an EtherChannel, nor can you use an EtherChannel as
part of a redundant interface. You cannot use the same physical interfaces in a redundant interface and
an EtherChannel interface. You can, however, configure both types on the FTD if they do not use the
same physical interfaces.

605
Configure a Redundant Interface
Configure a Redundant Interface

Access Admin
Network Admin
A logical redundant interface consists of a pair of physical interfaces: an active and a standby interface. When
the active interface fails, the standby interface becomes active and starts passing traffic. You can configure a
redundant interface to increase the FTD reliability. By default, redundant interfaces are enabled.
• You can configure up to 8 redundant interface pairs.
• Both member interfaces must be of the same physical type. For example, both must be GigabitEthernet.
Note Redundant interfaces are not supported on the Firepower 4100/9300.
Before you begin

• You cannot add a physical interface to the redundant interface if you configured a name for it. You must
first remove the name.
Caution If you are using a physical interface already in your configuration, removing the
name will clear any configuration that refers to the interface.
Procedure
Step 2 Enable the member interfaces according to Enable the Physical Interface and Configure Ethernet Settings, on
page 598.
Step 3 Click Add Interfaces > Redundant Interface.
Step 4 On the General tab, set the following parameters:
a) Redundant ID—Set an integer between 1 and 8.
b) Primary Interface—Choose an interface from the drop-down list. After you add the interface, any
configuration for it (such as an IP address) is removed.
c) Secondary Interface—The second interface must be the same physical type as the first interface.
Step 5 Click OK.
Step 6 Click Save.
deploy them.

606
Configure an EtherChannel
Step 7 (Optional) Add a VLAN subinterface. See Add a Subinterface, on page 610.
Step 8 Configure the routed or transparent mode interface parameters. See Configure Routed Mode Interfaces, on
page 614 or Configure Bridge Group Interfaces, on page 617.
Configure an EtherChannel
Access Admin
Network Admin
This section describes how to create an EtherChannel port-channel interface, assign interfaces to the
EtherChannel, and customize the EtherChannel.
• You can configure up to 48 EtherChannels.
• Each channel group can have up to 16 active interfaces. For switches that support only 8 active interfaces,
you can assign up to 16 interfaces to a channel group: while only 8 interfaces can be active, the remaining
interfaces can act as standby links in case of interface failure.
• All interfaces in the channel group must be the same type, speed, and duplex. Half duplex is not supported.
Note For the Firepower 4100/9300, you configure EtherChannels in FXOS. See Add an EtherChannel (Port Channel),
Before you begin

• You cannot add a physical interface to the channel group if you configured a name for it. You must first
remove the name.
Note If you are using a physical interface already in your configuration, removing the
name will clear any configuration that refers to the interface.
Procedure
Step 2 Enable the member interfaces according to Enable the Physical Interface and Configure Ethernet Settings, on
page 598.
Step 3 Click Add Interfaces > Ether Channel Interface.
Step 4 On the General tab, set the Ether Channel ID to a number between 1 and 48.

607
Configure VLAN Subinterfaces and 802.1Q Trunking
Step 5 In the Available Interfaces area, click an interface and then click Add to move it to the Selected Interfaces
area. Repeat for all interfaces that you want to make members.
Make sure all interfaces are the same type and speed. The first interface you add determines the type and
speed of the EtherChannel. Any non-matching interfaces you add will be put into a suspended state. The FMC
does not prevent you from adding non-matching interfaces.
Step 6 (Optional) Click the Advanced tab to customize the EtherChannel. Set the following parameters on the
Information sub-tab:
• Load Balancing—Select the criteria used to load balance the packets across the group channel interfaces.
By default, the FTD device balances the packet load on interfaces according to the source and destination
IP address of the packet. If you want to change the properties on which the packet is categorized, choose
a different set of criteria. For example, if your traffic is biased heavily towards the same source and
destination IP addresses, then the traffic assignment to interfaces in the EtherChannel will be unbalanced.
Changing to a different algorithm can result in more evenly distributed traffic. For more information
about load balancing, see Load Balancing, on page 603.
• LACP Mode—Choose Active, Passive, or On. We recommend using Active mode (the default).
• Active Physical Interface: Range—From the left drop-down list, choose the minimum number of active
interfaces required for the EtherChannel to be active, between 1 and 16. The default is 1. From the right
drop-down list, choose the maximum number of active interfaces allowed in the EtherChannel, between
1 and 16. The default is 16. If your switch does not support 16 active interfaces, be sure to set this
command to 8 or fewer.
• Active Mac Address—Set a manual MAC address if desired. The mac_address is in H.H.H format,
where H is a 16-bit hexadecimal digit. For example, the MAC address 00-0C-F1-42-4C-DE is entered
as 000C.F142.4CDE.
Step 7 (Optional) Click the Hardware Configuration tab and set the Duplex and Speed to override these settings
for all member interfaces. This method provides a shortcut to set these parameters because these parameters
must match for all interfaces in the channel group.
Step 8 Click OK.
Step 9 Click Save.
deploy them.
Step 10 (Optional) Add a VLAN subinterface. See Add a Subinterface, on page 610.
Configure VLAN Subinterfaces and 802.1Q Trunking

VLAN subinterfaces let you divide a physical, redundant, or EtherChannel interface into multiple logical
interfaces that are tagged with different VLAN IDs. An interface with one or more VLAN subinterfaces is
automatically configured as an 802.1Q trunk. Because VLANs let you keep traffic separate on a given physical
interface, you can increase the number of interfaces available to your network without adding additional
physical interfaces or devices.

608
Guidelines and Limitations for VLAN Subinterfaces
Guidelines and Limitations for VLAN Subinterfaces

High Availability
You cannot use a subinterface for the failover or state link.
Additional Guidelines
• Preventing untagged packets on the physical interface—If you use subinterfaces, you typically do not
also want the physical interface to pass traffic, because the physical interface passes untagged packets.
This property is also true for the active physical interface in a redundant interface pair and for EtherChannel
links. Because the physical, redundant, or EtherChannel interface must be enabled for the subinterface
to pass traffic, ensure that the physical, redundant, or EtherChannel interface does not pass traffic by not
configuring a name for the interface. If you want to let the physical, redundant, or EtherChannel interface
pass untagged packets, you can configure the name as usual.
• You cannot configure subinterfaces on the Diagnostic interface.
• All subinterfaces on the same parent interface must be either bridge group members or routed interfaces;
you cannot mix and match.
• The FTD does not support the Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP), so you must configure the connected
switch port to trunk unconditionally.
• You might want to assign unique MAC addresses to subinterfaces defined on the FTD, because they use
the same burned-in MAC address of the parent interface. For example, your service provider might
perform access control based on the MAC address. Also, because IPv6 link-local addresses are generated
based on the MAC address, assigning unique MAC addresses to subinterfaces allows for unique IPv6
link-local addresses, which can avoid traffic disruption in certain instances on the FTD.
Maximum Number of VLAN Subinterfaces by Device Model

The device model limits the maximum number of VLAN subinterfaces that you can configure. Note that you
can configure subinterfaces on data interfaces only, you cannot configure them on the management interface.
The following table explains the limits for each device model.
Model Maximum VLAN Subinterfaces
ASA 5506-X 30
ASA 5506W-X
ASA 5506H-X
ASA 5508-X 50
ASA 5512-X 100
ASA 5515-X 100
ASA 5516-X 100
ASA 5525-X 200

609
Add a Subinterface
Model Maximum VLAN Subinterfaces
ASA 5545-X 300
ASA 5555-X 500
Firepower 2100 1024
Firepower 4100 1024
Firepower 9300 1024
Firepower Threat Defense Virtual 50
ISA 3000 25
Add a Subinterface
Access Admin
Network Admin
Add one or more subinterfaces to a physical, redundant, or port-channel interface.
Note The parent physical interface passes untagged packets. You may not want to pass untagged packets, so be
sure not to include the parent interface in your security policy.
Procedure
Step 2 Enable the parent interface according to Enable the Physical Interface and Configure Ethernet Settings, on
page 598.
Step 3 Click Add Interfaces > Sub Interface.
Step 4 On the General tab, set the following parameters:
a) Interface—Choose the physical, redundant, or port-channel interface to which you want to add the
subinterface.
b) Sub-Interface ID—Enter the subinterface ID as an integer between 1 and 4294967295. The number of
subinterfaces allowed depends on your platform. You cannot change the ID after you set it.
c) VLAN ID—Enter the VLAN ID between 1 and 4094 that will be used to tag the packets on this
subinterface.
This VLAN ID must be unique.
Step 5 Click OK.

610
Configure Routed and Transparent Mode Interfaces
Step 6 Click Save.

deploy them.
Configure Routed and Transparent Mode Interfaces

This section includes tasks to complete the regular interface configuration for all models in routed or transparent
firewall mode.
About Routed and Transparent Mode Interfaces

The Firepower Threat Defense device supports two types of interfaces: routed and bridged.
Each Layer 3 routed interface requires an IP address on a unique subnet.
Bridged interfaces belong to a bridge group, and all interfaces are on the same network. The bridge group is
represented by a Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) that has an IP address on the bridge network. Routed mode
supports both routed and bridged interfaces, and you can route between routed interfaces and BVIs. Transparent
firewall mode only supports bridge group and BVI interfaces.
Routed Mode Deployment

We recommend that you do not configure an IP address for the Diagnostic interface if you do not have an
inside router. The benefit to leaving the IP address off of the Diagnostic interface is that you can place the
Management interface on the same network as any other data interfaces. If you configure the Diagnostic
interface, its IP address is typically on the same network as the Management IP address, and it counts as a
regular interface that cannot be on the same network as any other data interfaces. Because the Management
interface requires Internet access for updates, putting Management on the same network as an inside interface
means you can deploy the FTD device with only a switch on the inside and point to the inside interface as its
gateway. See the following deployment that uses an inside switch:
To cable the above scenario on the ASA 5506-X, ASA 5508-X, or ASA 5516-X, see the following:

611
Transparent Mode Deployment
If you configure the Diagnostic IP address, then you need an inside router:
Transparent Mode Deployment

Like the routed mode deployment, you can choose to deploy the device with an inside switch, in which case
you need to keep the Diagnostic interface without an IP address:

612
Dual IP Stack (IPv4 and IPv6)
Or you can deploy with an inside router, in which case you can use the Diagnostic interface with an IP address
for additional management access:
Dual IP Stack (IPv4 and IPv6)

The Firepower Threat Defense device supports both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses on an interface. Make sure you
configure a default route for both IPv4 and IPv6.
Guidelines and Requirements for Routed and Transparent Mode Interfaces

High Availability
• Do not configure failover links with the procedures in this chapter. See the High Availability chapter for
more information.
• When you use High Availability, you must set the IP address and standby address for data interfaces
manually; DHCP and PPPoE are not supported. Set the standby IP addresses on the Devices > Device
Management > High Availability tab in the Monitored Interfaces area. See the High Availability
chapter for more information.
IPv6
• IPv6 is supported on all interfaces.
• You can only configure IPv6 addresses manually in transparent mode.
• The Firepower Threat Defense device does not support IPv6 anycast addresses.
Model Support
• For the Firepower 2100 series, bridge groups are not supported in routed mode.
• For the Firepower Threat Defense Virtual, bridge groups are not supported in routed mode.
Transparent Mode and Bridge Group Guidelines

• You can create up to 250 bridge groups, with 64 interfaces per bridge group.
• Each directly-connected network must be on the same subnet.

613
Configure Routed Mode Interfaces
• The Firepower Threat Defense device does not support traffic on secondary networks; only traffic on
the same network as the BVI IP address is supported.
• For IPv4, an IP address for the BVI is required for each bridge group for both management traffic and
for traffic to pass through the Firepower Threat Defense device. IPv6 addresses are supported, but not
required for the BVI.
• You can only configure IPv6 addresses manually.
• The BVI IP address must be on the same subnet as the connected network. You cannot set the subnet to
a host subnet (255.255.255.255).
• Management interfaces are not supported as bridge group members.
• In transparent mode, you must use at least 1 bridge group; data interfaces must belong to a bridge group.
• In transparent mode, do not specify the BVI IP address as the default gateway for connected devices;
devices need to specify the router on the other side of the Firepower Threat Defense device as the default
gateway.
• In transparent mode, the default route, which is required to provide a return path for management traffic,
is only applied to management traffic from one bridge group network. This is because the default route
specifies an interface in the bridge group as well as the router IP address on the bridge group network,
and you can only define one default route. If you have management traffic from more than one bridge
group network, you need to specify a regular static route that identifies the network from which you
expect management traffic.
• In transparent mode, PPPoE is not supported for the Diagnostic interface.
• In routed mode, to route between bridge groups and other routed interfaces, you must name the BVI.
• In routed mode, EtherChannel interfaces are not supported as bridge group members.
bridge group members. If there are two neighbors on either side of the FTD running BFD, then the FTD
will drop BFD echo packets because they have the same source and destination IP address and appear
to be part of a LAND attack.

Access Admin
Network Admin
This procedure describes how to set the name, security zone, and IPv4 address.
Before you begin

• Firepower 4100/9300—Configure a Physical Interface, on page 545
• Configure any special interfaces.
Firepower 4100/9300:

614
• Add an EtherChannel (Port Channel), on page 546

• Add a Subinterface, on page 610 in FMC
All other models:

• Configure a Redundant Interface, on page 606
• Configure an EtherChannel, on page 607
• Add a Subinterface, on page 610
Procedure
Step 3 In the Name field, enter a name up to 48 characters in length.
Step 5 (Optional) Set this interface to Management Only to limit traffic to management traffic; through-the-box
traffic is not allowed.
Step 7 In the Mode drop-down list, choose None.

Regular firewall interfaces have the mode set to None. The other modes are for IPS-only interface types.
Step 8 From the Security Zone drop-down list, choose a security zone or add a new one by clicking New.
The routed interface is a Routed-type interface, and can only belong to Routed-type zones.
Step 9 See Configure the MTU, on page 631 for information about the MTU.
Step 10 Click the IPv4 tab. To set the IP address, use one of the following options from the IP Type drop-down list.
• Use Static IP—Enter the IP address and subnet mask. For High Availabilty, you can only use a static
IP address. Set the standby IP address on the Devices > Device Management > High Availability tab
in the Monitored Interfaces area. If you do not set the standby IP address, the active unit cannot monitor
the standby interface using network tests; it can only track the link state.
• Use DHCP—Configure the following optional parameters:
• Obtain default route using DHCP—Obtains the default route from the DHCP server.
• DHCP route metric—Assigns an administrative distance to the learned route, between 1 and 255.
The default administrative distance for the learned routes is 1.
• Use PPPoE—If the interface is connected to a DSL, cable modem, or other connection to your ISP, and
your ISP uses PPPoE to provide your IP address, configure the following parameters:
• VPDN Group Name—Specify a group name of your choice to represent this connection.

615
• PPPoE User Name—Specify the username provided by your ISP.

• PPPoE Password/Confirm Password—Specify and confirm the password provided by your ISP.
• PPP Authentication—Choose PAP, CHAP, or MSCHAP.
PAP passes a cleartext username and password during authentication and is not secure. With CHAP,
the client returns the encrypted [challenge plus password], with a cleartext username in response to
the server challenge. CHAP is more secure than PAP, but it does not encrypt data. MSCHAP is
similar to CHAP but is more secure because the server stores and compares only encrypted passwords
rather than cleartext passwords as in CHAP. MSCHAP also generates a key for data encryption by
MPPE.
• PPPoE route metric—Assign an administrative distance to the learned route. Valid values are from
1 to 255. By default, the administrative distance for the learned routes is 1.
• Enable Route Settings—To manually configure the PPPoE IP address, check this box and then
enter the IP Address.
If you select the Enable Route Settings check box and leave the IP Address blank, the ip address
pppoe setroute command is applied as shown in this example:
interface GigabitEthernet0/2
nameif inside2_pppoe
cts manual
propagate sgt preserve-untag
policy static sgt disabled trusted
security-level 0
pppoe client vpdn group test
pppoe client route distance 10
ip address pppoe setroute
• Store Username and Password in Flash—Stores the username and password in flash memory.
The FTD device stores the username and password in a special location of NVRAM.
Step 11 (Optional) See Configure IPv6 Addressing, on page 621 to configure IPv6 addressing on the IPv6 tab.
Step 12 (Optional) See Configure the MAC Address, on page 632 to manually configure the MAC address on the
Advanced tab.
Step 14 Click OK.

Step 15 Click Save.
deploy them.

616
Configure Bridge Group Interfaces
Configure Bridge Group Interfaces

A bridge group is a group of interfaces that the Firepower Threat Defense device bridges instead of routes.
Bridge groups are supported in both transparent and routed firewall mode. For more information about bridge
groups, see About Bridge Groups, on page 531.
To configure bridge groups and associated interfaces, perform these steps.
Configure General Bridge Group Member Interface Parameters

Access Admin
Network Admin
This procedure describes how to set the name and security zone for each bridge group member interface. The
same bridge group can include different types of interfaces: physical interfaces, VLAN subinterfaces,
EtherChannels, and redundant interfaces. The Diagnostic interface is not supported. In routed mode,
EtherChannels are not supported.
Before you begin

• Firepower 4100/9300—Configure a Physical Interface, on page 545
• Configure any special interfaces.
Firepower 4100/9300:
• Add an EtherChannel (Port Channel), on page 546
• Add a Subinterface, on page 610 in FMC
All other models:

• Configure a Redundant Interface, on page 606
• Configure an EtherChannel, on page 607
• Add a Subinterface, on page 610
Procedure
Step 5 (Optional) Set this interface to Management Only to limit traffic to management traffic; through-the-box
traffic is not allowed.

617
Configure the Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI)

Regular firewall interfaces have the mode set to None. The other modes are for IPS-only interface types. After
you assign this interface to a bridge group, the mode will show as Switched.
The bridge group member interface is a Switched-type interface, and can only belong to Switched-type zones.
Do not configure any IP address settings for this interface. You will set the IP address for the Bridge Virtual
Interface (BVI) only. Note that the BVI does not belong to a zone, and you cannot apply access control policies
to the BVI.
Step 9 See Configure the MTU, on page 631 for information about the MTU.
Step 11 (Optional) See Configure IPv6 Addressing, on page 621 to configure IPv6 addressing on the IPv6 tab.
Step 12 (Optional) See Configure the MAC Address, on page 632 to manually configure the MAC address on the
Advanced tab.
Step 13 Click OK.
Step 14 Click Save.
deploy them.

Each bridge group requires a BVI for which you configure an IP address. The FTD uses this IP address as
the source address for packets originating from the bridge group. The BVI IP address must be on the same
subnet as the connected network. For IPv4 traffic, the BVI IP address is required to pass any traffic. For IPv6
traffic, you must, at a minimum, configure the link-local addresses to pass traffic, but a global management
address is recommended for full functionality, including remote management and other management operations.
For routed mode, if you provide a name for the BVI, then the BVI participates in routing. Without a name,
the bridge group remains isolated as in transparent firewall mode.
Note For a separate Diagnostic interface, a non-configurable bridge group (ID 301) is automatically added to your
configuration. This bridge group is not included in the bridge group limit.

618
Before you begin

You cannot add the BVI to a security zone; therefore, you cannot apply Access Control policies to the BVI.
You must apply your policy to the bridge group member interfaces based on their zones.
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Add Interfaces > Bridge Group Interface.
Step 3 (Routed Mode) In the Name field, enter a name up to 48 characters in length.
You must name the BVI if you want to route traffic outside the bridge group members, for example, to the
outside interface or to members of other bridge groups. The name is not case-sensitive.
Step 4 In the Bridge Group ID field, enter the bridge group ID between 1 and 250.
Step 5 In the Description field, enter a description for this bridge group.
Step 6 On the Interfaces tab, click an interface and then click Add to move it to the Selected Interfaces area. Repeat
for all interfaces that you want to make members of the bridge group.
Step 7 (Transparent Mode) Click the IPv4 tab. In the IP Address field, enter the IPv4 address and subnet mask.
Do not assign a host address (/32 or 255.255.255.255) to the BVI. Also, do not use other subnets that contain
fewer than 3 host addresses (one each for the upstream router, downstream router, and transparent firewall)
such as a /30 subnet (255.255.255.252). The FTD device drops all ARP packets to or from the first and last
addresses in a subnet. For example, if you use a /30 subnet and assign a reserved address from that subnet to
the upstream router, then the FTD device drops the ARP request from the downstream router to the upstream
router.
For High Availabilty, set the standby IP address on the Devices > Device Management > High Availability
tab in the Monitored Interfaces area. If you do not set the standby IP address, the active unit cannot monitor
Step 8 (Routed Mode) Click the IPv4 tab. To set the IP address, use one of the following options from the IP Type
drop-down list.
• Use Static IP—Enter the IP address and subnet mask. For High Availabilty, you can only use a static
IP address. Set the standby IP address on the Devices > Device Management > High Availability tab
in the Monitored Interfaces area. If you do not set the standby IP address, the active unit cannot monitor
Step 9 (Optional) See Configure IPv6 Addressing, on page 621 to configure IPv6 addressing.
Step 10 (Optional) See Add a Static ARP Entry, on page 633 and Add a Static MAC Address and Disable MAC
Learning for a Bridge Group, on page 634 (for transparent mode only) to configure the ARP and MAC settings.
Step 11 Click OK.

619
Configure a Diagnostic (Management) Interface for Transparent Mode
Step 12 Click Save.

deploy them.
Configure a Diagnostic (Management) Interface for Transparent Mode

Access Admin
Network Admin
In transparent firewall mode, all interfaces must belong to a bridge group. The only exception is the Diagnostic
slot/port interface. For the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis, the diagnostic interface ID depends on the mgmt-type
interface that you assigned to the FTD logical device. You cannot use any other interface types as diagnostic
interfaces. You can configure one diagnostic interface.
Before you begin

Do not assign this interface to a bridge group; a non-configurable bridge group (ID 301) is automatically
added to your configuration. This bridge group is not included in the bridge group limit.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) for the Diagnostic interface.

Step 4 Click the IPv4 tab. To set the IP address, use one of the following options from the IP Type drop-down list.
• Use Static IP—Enter the IP address and subnet mask.
• Use PPPoE—Configure the following parameters:

• VPDN Group Name—Specify a group name.
• PPPoE User Name—Specify the username provided by your ISP.
• PPPoE Password/Confirm Password—Specify and confirm the password provided by your ISP.
• PPP Authentication—Choose PAP, CHAP, or MSCHAP.
PAP passes a cleartext username and password during authentication and is not secure. With CHAP,
the client returns the encrypted [challenge plus password], with a cleartext username in response to

620
Configure IPv6 Addressing
the server challenge. CHAP is more secure than PAP, but it does not encrypt data. MSCHAP is
similar to CHAP but is more secure because the server stores and compares only encrypted passwords
rather than cleartext passwords as in CHAP. MSCHAP also generates a key for data encryption by
MPPE.
• PPPoE route metric—Assign an administrative distance to the learned route. Valid values are from
1 to 255. By default, the administrative distance for the learned routes is 1.
• Enable Route Settings—To manually configure the PPPoE IP address, check this box and then
enter the IP Address.
• Store Username and Password in Flash—Stores the username and password in flash memory.
The FTD device stores the username and password in a special location of NVRAM.
Step 5 (Optional) See Configure IPv6 Addressing, on page 621 to configure IPv6 addressing.
Step 6 (Optional) On the Advanced tab, configure optional settings.
• See Configure the MAC Address, on page 632.
• See Add a Static ARP Entry, on page 633.
• See Set Security Configuration Parameters, on page 635.
Step 7 Click OK.

Step 8 Click Save.
deploy them.
Configure IPv6 Addressing

This section describes how to configure IPv6 addressing in routed and transparent mode.
About IPv6
This section includes information about IPv6.
IPv6 Addressing
You can configure two types of unicast addresses for IPv6:
• Global—The global address is a public address that you can use on the public network. For a bridge
group, this address needs to be configured for the BVI, and not per member interface. You can also
configure a global IPv6 address for the management interface in transparent mode.
• Link-local—The link-local address is a private address that you can only use on the directly-connected
network. Routers do not forward packets using link-local addresses; they are only for communication
on a particular physical network segment. They can be used for address configuration or for the Neighbor
Discovery functions such as address resolution. In a bridge group, only member interfaces have link-local
addresses; the BVI does not have a link-local address.

621
Modified EUI-64 Interface IDs
At a minimum, you need to configure a link-local address for IPv6 to operate. If you configure a global address,
a link-local address is automatically configured on the interface, so you do not also need to specifically
configure a link-local address. For bridge group member interfaces, when you configure the global address
on the BVI, the Firepower Threat Defense device automatically generates link-local addresses for member
interfaces. If you do not configure a global address, then you need to configure the link-local address, either
automatically or manually.
Modified EUI-64 Interface IDs

RFC 3513: Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Addressing Architecture requires that the interface identifier
portion of all unicast IPv6 addresses, except those that start with binary value 000, be 64 bits long and be
constructed in Modified EUI-64 format. The Firepower Threat Defense device can enforce this requirement
for hosts attached to the local link.
When this feature is enabled on an interface, the source addresses of IPv6 packets received on that interface
are verified against the source MAC addresses to ensure that the interface identifiers use the Modified EUI-64
format. If the IPv6 packets do not use the Modified EUI-64 format for the interface identifier, the packets are
dropped and the following system log message is generated:
325003: EUI-64 source address check failed.
The address format verification is only performed when a flow is created. Packets from an existing flow are
not checked. Additionally, the address verification can only be performed for hosts on the local link.
Configure a Global IPv6 Address

Access Admin
Network Admin
To configure a global IPv6 address for any routed mode interface and for the transparent or routed mode BVI,
perform the following steps.
Note Configuring the global address automatically configures the link-local address, so you do not need to configure
it separately. For bridge groups, configuring the global address on the BVI automatically configures link-local
addresses on all member interfaces.
For subinterfaces defined on the FTD, we recommend that you also set the MAC address manually, because
they use the same burned-in MAC address of the parent interface. IPv6 link-local addresses are generated
based on the MAC address, so assigning unique MAC addresses to subinterfaces allows for unique IPv6
link-local addresses, which can avoid traffic disruption in certain instances on the FTD. See Configure the
MAC Address, on page 632.
Procedure

622
Configure a Global IPv6 Address
Step 3 Click the IPv6 tab.
For routed mode, the Basic tab is selected by default. For transparent mode, the Address tab is selected by
default.
Step 4 Configure the global IPv6 address using one of the following methods.
• (Routed interface) Stateless autoconfiguration—Check the Autoconfiguration check box.
Enabling stateless autconfiguration on the interface configures IPv6 addresses based upon prefixes
received in Router Advertisement messages. A link-local address, based on the Modified EUI-64 interface
ID, is automatically generated for the interface when stateless autoconfiguration is enabled.
Although RFC 4862 specifies that hosts configured for stateless autoconfiguration do not send Router
Advertisement messages, the FTD device does send Router Advertisement messages in this case. Uncheck
the IPv6 > Settings > Enable RA check box to suppress messages.
• Manual configuration—To manually configure a global IPv6 address:
1. Click the Address tab, and click Add Address.
The Add Address dialog box appears.
2. In the Address field, enter either a full global IPv6 address, including the interface ID, or enter the
IPv6 prefix, along with the IPv6 prefix length. (Routed Mode) If you only enter the prefix, then be
sure to check the Enforce EUI 64 check box to generate the interface ID using the Modified EUI-64
format. For example, 2001:0DB8::BA98:0:3210/48 (full address) or 2001:0DB8::/48 (prefix, with
EUI 64 checked).
For High Availabilty (if you did not set Enforce EUI 64), set the standby IP address on the Devices >
Device Management > High Availability tab in the Monitored Interfaces area. If you do not set
the standby IP address, the active unit cannot monitor the standby interface using network tests; it
can only track the link state.
Step 5 For Routed interfaces, you can optionally set the following values on the Basic tab:
• To automatically configure the link-local address when you do not configure the global address, check
the Enable IPv6 check box.
If you do not want to configure a global address, and only need to configure a link-local address, you
have the option of generating the link-local addresses based on the interface MAC addresses (Modified
EUI-64 format. Because MAC addresses use 48 bits, additional bits must be inserted to fill the 64 bits
required for the interface ID.)
• To enforce the use of Modified EUI-64 format interface identifiers in IPv6 addresses on a local link,
check the Enforce EUI-64 check box.
• To manually set the link-local address, enter an address in the Link-Local address field.
A link-local address should start with FE8, FE9, FEA, or FEB, for example fe80::20d:88ff:feee:6a82. If
you do not want to configure a global address, and only need to configure a link-local address, you have
the option of manually defining the link-local address. Note that we recommend automatically assigning
the link-local address based on the Modified EUI-64 format. For example, if other devices enforce the
use of the Modified EUI-64 format, then a manually-assigned link-local address may cause packets to
be dropped.

623
Configure IPv6 Neighbor Discovery
• Check the Enable DHCP for address config check box to set the Managed Address Config flag in the
IPv6 router advertisement packet.
This flag in IPv6 router advertisements informs IPv6 autoconfiguration clients that they should use
DHCPv6 to obtain addresses, in addition to the derived stateless autoconfiguration address.
• Check the Enable DHCP for non-address config check box to set the Other Address Config flag in the
IPv6 router advertisement packet.
This flag in IPv6 router advertisements informs IPv6 autoconfiguration clients that they should use
DHCPv6 to obtain additional information from DHCPv6, such as the DNS server address.
Step 6 For Routed interfaces, see Configure IPv6 Neighbor Discovery, on page 624 to configure settings on the
Prefixes and Settings tabs. For BVI interfaces, see the following parameters on the Settings tab:
• DAD attempts—The maximum number of DAD attempts, between 1 and 600. Set the value to 0 to
disable duplicate address detection (DAD) processing. This setting configures the number of consecutive
neighbor solicitation messages that are sent on an interface while DAD is performed on IPv6 addresses.
1 attempt is the default.
• NS Interval—The interval between IPv6 neighbor solicitation retransmissions on an interface, between
1000 and 3600000 ms. The default value is 1000 ms.
• Reachable Time—The amount of time that a remote IPv6 node is considered reachable after a reachability
confirmation event has occurred, between 0 and 3600000 ms. The default value is 0 ms. When 0 is used
for the value, the reachable time is sent as undetermined. It is up to the receiving devices to set and track
the reachable time value. The neighbor reachable time enables detecting unavailable neighbors. Shorter
configured times enable detecting unavailable neighbors more quickly, however, shorter times consume
more IPv6 network bandwidth and processing resources in all IPv6 network devices. Very short configured
times are not recommended in normal IPv6 operation.
Step 7 Click OK.

Step 8 Click Save.
deploy them.

Access Admin
Network Admin
The IPv6 neighbor discovery process uses ICMPv6 messages and solicited-node multicast addresses to
determine the link-layer address of a neighbor on the same network (local link), verify the readability of a
neighbor, and keep track of neighboring routers.
Nodes (hosts) use neighbor discovery to determine the link-layer addresses for neighbors known to reside on
attached links and to quickly purge cached values that become invalid. Hosts also use neighbor discovery to
find neighboring routers that are willing to forward packets on their behalf. In addition, nodes use the protocol

624
to actively keep track of which neighbors are reachable and which are not, and to detect changed link-layer
addresses. When a router or the path to a router fails, a host actively searches for functioning alternates.
Before you begin

Supported in Routed mode only.
Procedure
Step 3 Click the IPv6 tab, and then the Prefixes tab.
Step 4 (Optional) To configure which IPv6 prefixes are included in IPv6 router advertisements, perform the following
steps:
a) Click Add Prefix.
b) In the Address field, enter the IPv6 address with the prefix length or check the Default check box to use
the default prefix.
c) (Optional) Uncheck the Advertisement check box to indicate that the IPv6 prefix is not advertised.
d) Check the Off Link check box to indicate that the specified prefix is assigned to the link. Nodes sending
traffic to addresses that contain the specified prefix consider the destination to be locally reachable on the
link. This prefix should not be used for on-link determination.
e) To use the specified prefix for autoconfiguration, check the Autoconfiguration check box.
f) For the Prefix Lifetime, click Duration or Expiration Date.
• Duration—Enter a Preferred Lifetime for the prefix in seconds. This setting is the amount of time
that the specified IPv6 prefix is advertised as being valid. The maximum value represents infinity.
Valid values are from 0 to 4294967295. The default is 2592000 (30 days). Enter a Valid Lifetime
for the prefix in seconds. This setting is the amount of time that the specified IPv6 prefix is advertised
as being preferred. The maximum value represents infinity. Valid values are from 0 to 4294967295.
The default setting is 604800 (seven days). Alternatively, check the Infinite checkbox to set an
unlimited duration.
• Expiration Date—Choose a Valid and Preferred date and time.
g) Click OK.
Step 5 Click the Settings tab.
Step 6 (Optional) Set the maximum number of DAD attempts, between 1 and 600. 1 attempt is the default. Set the
value to 0 to disable duplicate address detection (DAD) processing.
This setting configures the number of consecutive neighbor solicitation messages that are sent on an interface
while DAD is performed on IPv6 addresses.
During the stateless autoconfiguration process, Duplicate Address Detection verifies the uniqueness of new
unicast IPv6 addresses before the addresses are assigned to interfaces.
When a duplicate address is identified, the state of the address is set to DUPLICATE, the address is not used,
and the following error message is generated:

625
325002: Duplicate address ipv6_address/MAC_address on interface
If the duplicate address is the link-local address of the interface, the processing of IPv6 packets is disabled
on the interface. If the duplicate address is a global address, the address is not used.
Step 7 (Optional) Configure the interval between IPv6 neighbor solicitation retransmissions in the NS Interval field,
between 1000 and 3600000 ms.
The default value is 1000 ms.
Neighbor solicitation messages (ICMPv6 Type 135) are sent on the local link by nodes attempting to discover
the link-layer addresses of other nodes on the local link. After receiving a neighbor solicitation message, the
destination node replies by sending a neighbor advertisement message (ICPMv6 Type 136) on the local link.
After the source node receives the neighbor advertisement, the source node and destination node can
communicate. Neighbor solicitation messages are also used to verify the reachability of a neighbor after the
link-layer address of a neighbor is identified. When a node wants to verifying the reachability of a neighbor,
the destination address in a neighbor solicitation message is the unicast address of the neighbor.
Neighbor advertisement messages are also sent when there is a change in the link-layer address of a node on
a local link.
Step 8 (Optional) Configure the amount of time that a remote IPv6 node is considered reachable after a reachability
confirmation event has occurred in the Reachable Time field, between 0 and 3600000 ms.
The default value is 0 ms. When 0 is used for the value, the reachable time is sent as undetermined. It is up
to the receiving devices to set and track the reachable time value.
The neighbor reachable time enables detecting unavailable neighbors. Shorter configured times enable detecting
unavailable neighbors more quickly, however, shorter times consume more IPv6 network bandwidth and
processing resources in all IPv6 network devices. Very short configured times are not recommended in normal
IPv6 operation.
Step 9 (Optional) To suppress the router advertisement transmissions, uncheck the Enable RA check box. If you
enable router advertisement transmissions, you can set the RA lifetime and interval.
Router advertisement messages (ICMPv6 Type 134) are automatically sent in response to router solicitation
messages (ICMPv6 Type 133). Router solicitation messages are sent by hosts at system startup so that the
host can immediately autoconfigure without needing to wait for the next scheduled router advertisement
message.
You may want to disable these messages on any interface for which you do not want the Firepower Threat
Defense device to supply the IPv6 prefix (for example, the outside interface).
• RA Lifetime—Configure the router lifetime value in IPv6 router advertisements, between 0 and 9000
seconds.
The default is 1800 seconds.
• RA Interval—Configure the interval between IPv6 router advertisement transmissions, between 3 and
1800 seconds.
Step 10 Click OK.

Step 11 Click Save.

626
Configure Advanced Interface Settings
deploy them.
Configure Advanced Interface Settings

This section describes how to configure MAC addresses for regular firewall mode interfaces, how to set the
maximum transmission unit (MTU), and how to set other advanced parameters.
About Advanced Interface Configuration

This section describes advanced interface settings.
About MAC Addresses

You can manually assign MAC addresses to override the default.
Note You might want to assign unique MAC addresses to subinterfaces defined on the FTD, because they use the
same burned-in MAC address of the parent interface. For example, your service provider might perform access
control based on the MAC address. Also, because IPv6 link-local addresses are generated based on the MAC
address, assigning unique MAC addresses to subinterfaces allows for unique IPv6 link-local addresses, which
can avoid traffic disruption in certain instances on the FTD.
Default MAC Addresses

Default MAC address assignments depend on the type of interface.
• Physical interfaces—The physical interface uses the burned-in MAC address.
• Redundant interfaces—A redundant interface uses the MAC address of the first physical interface that
you add. If you change the order of the member interfaces in the configuration, then the MAC address
changes to match the MAC address of the interface that is now listed first. If you assign a MAC address
to the redundant interface, then it is used regardless of the member interface MAC addresses.
• EtherChannels (Firepower Models)—For an EtherChannel, all interfaces that are part of the channel
group share the same MAC address. This feature makes the EtherChannel transparent to network
applications and users, because they only see the one logical connection; they have no knowledge of the
individual links. The port-channel interface uses a unique MAC address from a pool; interface membership
does not affect the MAC address.
• EtherChannels (ASA Models)—The port-channel interface uses the lowest-numbered channel group
interface MAC address as the port-channel MAC address. Alternatively you can configure a MAC address
for the port-channel interface. We recommend configuring a unique MAC address in case the group
channel interface membership changes. If you remove the interface that was providing the port-channel
MAC address, then the port-channel MAC address changes to the next lowest numbered interface, thus
causing traffic disruption.
• Subinterfaces—All subinterfaces of a physical interface use the same burned-in MAC address. You
might want to assign unique MAC addresses to subinterfaces. For example, your service provider might

627
About the MTU
perform access control based on the MAC address. Also, because IPv6 link-local addresses are generated
based on the MAC address, assigning unique MAC addresses to subinterfaces allows for unique IPv6
link-local addresses, which can avoid traffic disruption in certain instances on the ASA.
About the MTU

The MTU specifies the maximum frame payload size that the Firepower Threat Defense device can transmit
on a given Ethernet interface. The MTU value is the frame size without Ethernet headers, VLAN tagging, or
other overhead. For example, when you set the MTU to 1500, the expected frame size is 1518 bytes including
the headers, or 1522 when using VLAN. Do not set the MTU value higher to accommodate these headers.
Path MTU Discovery

The Firepower Threat Defense device supports Path MTU Discovery (as defined in RFC 1191), which lets
all devices in a network path between two hosts coordinate the MTU so they can standardize on the lowest
MTU in the path.
Default MTU
The default MTU on the Firepower Threat Defense device is 1500 bytes. This value does not include the
18-22 bytes for the Ethernet header, VLAN tagging, or other overhead.
MTU and Fragmentation

For IPv4, if an outgoing IP packet is larger than the specified MTU, it is fragmented into 2 or more frames.
Fragments are reassembled at the destination (and sometimes at intermediate hops), and fragmentation can
cause performance degradation. For IPv6, packets are typically not allowed to be fragmented at all. Therefore,
your IP packets should fit within the MTU size to avoid fragmentation.
For TCP packets, the endpoints typically use their MTU to determine the TCP maximum segment size (MTU
- 40, for example). If additional TCP headers are added along the way, for example for site-to-site VPN
tunnels, then the TCP MSS might need to be adjusted down by the tunneling entity. See About the TCP MSS,
on page 629.
For UDP or ICMP, the application should take the MTU into account to avoid fragmentation.
Note The Firepower Threat Defense device can receive frames larger than the configured MTU as long as there is
room in memory.
MTU and Jumbo Frames

A larger MTU lets you send larger packets. Larger packets might be more efficient for your network. See the
following guidelines:
• Matching MTUs on the traffic path—We recommend that you set the MTU on all Firepower Threat
Defense device interfaces and other device interfaces along the traffic path to be the same. Matching
MTUs prevents intermediate devices from fragmenting the packets.
• Accommodating jumbo frames—You can set the MTU up to 9198 bytes. The maximum is 9000 for the
Firepower Threat Defense Virtual and 9184 for the FTD on the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis.

628
About the TCP MSS
About the TCP MSS

The TCP maximum segment size (MSS) is the size of the TCP payload before any TCP and IP headers are
added. UDP packets are not affected. The client and the server exchange TCP MSS values during the three-way
handshake when establishing the connection.
You can set the TCP MSS on the Firepower Threat Defense device for through traffic using the Sysopt_Basic
object in FlexConfig; see FlexConfig Policies for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 557; by default, the
maximum TCP MSS is set to 1380 bytes. This setting is useful when the Firepower Threat Defense device
needs to add to the size of the packet for IPsec VPN encapsulation. However, for non-IPsec endpoints, you
should disable the maximum TCP MSS on the Firepower Threat Defense device.
If you set a maximum TCP MSS, if either endpoint of a connection requests a TCP MSS that is larger than
the value set on the Firepower Threat Defense device, then the Firepower Threat Defense device overwrites
the TCP MSS in the request packet with the Firepower Threat Defense device maximum. If the host or server
does not request a TCP MSS, then the Firepower Threat Defense device assumes the RFC 793-default value
of 536 bytes (IPv4) or 1220 bytes (IPv6), but does not modify the packet. For example, you leave the default
MTU as 1500 bytes. A host requests an MSS of 1500 minus the TCP and IP header length, which sets the
MSS to 1460. If the Firepower Threat Defense device maximum TCP MSS is 1380 (the default), then the
Firepower Threat Defense device changes the MSS value in the TCP request packet to 1380. The server then
sends packets with 1380-byte payloads. The Firepower Threat Defense device can then add up to 120 bytes
of headers to the packet and still fit in the MTU size of 1500.
You can also configure the minimum TCP MSS; if a host or server requests a very small TCP MSS, the
Firepower Threat Defense device can adjust the value up. By default, the minimum TCP MSS is not enabled.
For to-the-box traffic, including for SSL VPN connections, this setting does not apply. The Firepower Threat
Defense device uses the MTU to derive the TCP MSS: MTU - 40 (IPv4) or MTU - 60 (IPv6).
Default TCP MSS

By default, the maximum TCP MSS on the Firepower Threat Defense device is 1380 bytes. This default
accommodates IPv4 IPsec VPN connections where the headers can equal up to 120 bytes; this value fits within
the default MTU of 1500 bytes.
Suggested Maximum TCP MSS Setting

The default TCP MSS assumes the Firepower Threat Defense device acts as an IPv4 IPsec VPN endpoint and
has an MTU of 1500. When the Firepower Threat Defense device acts as an IPv4 IPsec VPN endpoint, it
needs to accommodate up to 120 bytes for TCP and IP headers.
If you change the MTU value, use IPv6, or do not use the Firepower Threat Defense device as an IPsec VPN
endpoint, then you should change the TCP MSS setting using the Sysopt_Basic object in FlexConfig; see
FlexConfig Policies for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 557. See the following guidelines:
• Normal traffic—Disable the TCP MSS limit and accept the value established between connection
endpoints. Because connection endpoints typically derive the TCP MSS from the MTU, non-IPsec packets
usually fit this TCP MSS.
• IPv4 IPsec endpoint traffic—Set the maximum TCP MSS to the MTU - 120. For example, if you use
jumbo frames and set the MTU to 9000, then you need to set the TCP MSS to 8880 to take advantage
of the new MTU.
• IPv6 IPsec endpoint traffic—Set the maximum TCP MSS to the MTU - 140.

629
ARP Inspection for Bridge Group Traffic
ARP Inspection for Bridge Group Traffic

By default, all ARP packets are allowed between bridge group members. You can control the flow of ARP
packets by enabling ARP inspection.
ARP inspection prevents malicious users from impersonating other hosts or routers (known as ARP spoofing).
ARP spoofing can enable a “man-in-the-middle” attack. For example, a host sends an ARP request to the
gateway router; the gateway router responds with the gateway router MAC address. The attacker, however,
sends another ARP response to the host with the attacker MAC address instead of the router MAC address.
The attacker can now intercept all the host traffic before forwarding it on to the router.
ARP inspection ensures that an attacker cannot send an ARP response with the attacker MAC address, so
long as the correct MAC address and the associated IP address are in the static ARP table.
When you enable ARP inspection, the Firepower Threat Defense device compares the MAC address, IP
address, and source interface in all ARP packets to static entries in the ARP table, and takes the following
actions:
• If the IP address, MAC address, and source interface match an ARP entry, the packet is passed through.
• If there is a mismatch between the MAC address, the IP address, or the interface, then the Firepower
Threat Defense device drops the packet.
• If the ARP packet does not match any entries in the static ARP table, then you can set the Firepower
Threat Defense device to either forward the packet out all interfaces (flood), or to drop the packet.
Note The dedicated Diagnostic interface never floods packets even if this parameter
is set to flood.
MAC Address Table

When you use bridge groups, the FTD learns and builds a MAC address table in a similar way as a normal
bridge or switch: when a device sends a packet through the bridge group, the FTD adds the MAC address to
its table. The table associates the MAC address with the source interface so that the FTD knows to send any
packets addressed to the device out the correct interface. Because traffic between bridge group members is
subject to the FTD security policy, if the destination MAC address of a packet is not in the table, the FTD
does not flood the original packet on all interfaces as a normal bridge does. Instead, it generates the following
packets for directly-connected devices or for remote devices:
• Packets for directly-connected devices—The FTD generates an ARP request for the destination IP address,
so that it can learn which interface receives the ARP response.
• Packets for remote devices—The FTD generates a ping to the destination IP address so that it can learn
which interface receives the ping reply.
The original packet is dropped.
Default Settings
• If you enable ARP inspection, the default setting is to flood non-matching packets.
• The default timeout value for dynamic MAC address table entries is 5 minutes.

630
Guidelines for ARP Inspection and the MAC Address Table
• By default, each interface automatically learns the MAC addresses of entering traffic, and the Firepower
Threat Defense device adds corresponding entries to the MAC address table.
Guidelines for ARP Inspection and the MAC Address Table

• ARP inspection is only supported for bridge groups.
• MAC address table configuration is only supported for bridge groups.
Configure the MTU

Access Admin
Network Admin
Customize the MTU on the interface, for example, to allow jumbo frames.
Caution Changing the highest MTU value on the device for a non-management/diagnostic interface restarts the Snort
interrupted on all non-management/diagnostic interfaces, not just the interface you modified. Whether this
interruption drops traffic or passes it without further inspection depends on the model of the managed device
and the interface type. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
Before you begin

• Changing the MTU above 1500 bytes automatically enables jumbo frames; for ASA models, you must
reload the system before you can use jumbo frames.
• If you use an interface in an inline set, the MTU setting is not used. However, the jumbo frame setting
is relevant to inline sets; jumbo frames enable the inline interfaces to receive packets up to 9000 bytes.
To enable jumbo frames, you must set the MTU of any interface above 1500 bytes.
Procedure
Step 3 On the General tab, set the MTU between 64 and 9198 bytes; the maximum is 9000 for the Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual and 9184 for the FTD on the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis.
The default is 1500 bytes.
Step 4 Click OK.

631
Configure the MAC Address
Step 5 Click Save.

deploy them.
Step 6 For ASA models, if you set the MTU above 1500 bytes, reload the system to enable jumbo frames.
Configure the MAC Address

Access Admin
Network Admin
You might need to manually assign a MAC address. You can also set the Active and Standby MAC addresses
on the Devices > Device Management > High Availability tab. If you set the MAC address for an interface
on both screens, the addresses on the Interfaces > Advanced tab take precedence.
Procedure
The Information tab is selected.
Step 4 In the Active MAC Address field, enter a MAC address in H.H.H format, where H is a 16-bit hexadecimal
digit.
For example, the MAC address 00-0C-F1-42-4C-DE would be entered as 000C.F142.4CDE. The MAC address
must not have the multicast bit set, that is, the second hexadecimal digit from the left cannot be an odd number.
Step 5 In the Standby MAC Address field, enter a MAC address for use with High Availability.
If the active unit fails over and the standby unit becomes active, the new active unit starts using the active
MAC addresses to minimize network disruption, while the old active unit uses the standby address.
Step 6 Click OK.

Step 7 Click Save.
deploy them.

632
Add a Static ARP Entry
Add a Static ARP Entry

Access Admin
Network Admin
packets by enabling ARP inspection (see Configure ARP Inspection, on page 985). ARP inspection compares
ARP packets with static ARP entries in the ARP table.
For routed interfaces, you can enter static ARP entries, but normally dynamic entries are sufficient. For routed
interfaces, the ARP table is used to deliver packets to directly-connected hosts. Although senders identify a
packet destination by an IP address, the actual delivery of the packet on Ethernet relies on the Ethernet MAC
address. When a router or host wants to deliver a packet on a directly connected network, it sends an ARP
request asking for the MAC address associated with the IP address, and then delivers the packet to the MAC
address according to the ARP response. The host or router keeps an ARP table so it does not have to send
ARP requests for every packet it needs to deliver. The ARP table is dynamically updated whenever ARP
responses are sent on the network, and if an entry is not used for a period of time, it times out. If an entry is
incorrect (for example, the MAC address changes for a given IP address), the entry needs to time out before
it can be updated with the new information.
For transparent mode, the FTD only uses dynamic ARP entries in the ARP table for traffic to and from the
FTD device, such as management traffic.
Before you begin

This screen is only available for named interfaces.
Procedure
Step 3 Click the Advanced tab, and then click the ARP tab (called ARP and MAC for transparent mode).
Step 4 Click Add ARP Config.
The Add ARP Config dialog box appears.
Step 5 In the IP Address field, enter the IP address of the host.
Step 6 In the MAC Address field, enter the MAC address of the host; for example, 00e0.1e4e.3d8b.
Step 7 To perform proxy ARP for this address, check the Enable Alias check box.
If the FTD device receives an ARP request for the specified IP address, then it responds with the specified
MAC address.
Step 8 Click OK, and then click OK again to exit the Advanced settings.
Step 9 Click Save.

633
Add a Static MAC Address and Disable MAC Learning for a Bridge Group
deploy them.
Add a Static MAC Address and Disable MAC Learning for a Bridge Group
Access Admin
Network Admin
Normally, MAC addresses are added to the MAC address table dynamically as traffic from a particular MAC
address enters an interface. You can disable MAC address learning; however, unless you statically add MAC
addresses to the table, no traffic can pass through the FTD device. You can also add static MAC addresses to
the MAC address table. One benefit to adding static entries is to guard against MAC spoofing. If a client with
the same MAC address as a static entry attempts to send traffic to an interface that does not match the static
entry, then the FTD device drops the traffic and generates a system message. When you add a static ARP
entry (see Add a Static ARP Entry, on page 633), a static MAC address entry is automatically added to the
MAC address table.
Before you begin

Procedure
Step 3 Click the Advanced tab, and then click the ARP and MAC tab.
Step 4 (Optional) Disable MAC learning by unchecking the Enable MAC Learning check box.
Step 5 To add a static MAC address, click Add MAC Config.
The Add MAC Config dialog box appears.
Step 6 In the MAC Address field, enter the MAC address of the host; for example, 00e0.1e4e.3d8b. Click OK.
Step 7 Click OK to exit the Advanced settings.
Step 8 Click Save.
deploy them.

634
Set Security Configuration Parameters

Access Admin
Network Admin
This section describes how to prevent IP spoofing, allow full fragment reassembly, and override the default
fragment setting set for at the device level in Platform Settings .
Anti-Spoofing
This section lets you enable Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding on an interface. Unicast RPF guards against
IP spoofing (a packet uses an incorrect source IP address to obscure its true source) by ensuring that all packets
have a source IP address that matches the correct source interface according to the routing table.
Normally, the FTD device only looks at the destination address when determining where to forward the packet.
Unicast RPF instructs the device to also look at the source address; this is why it is called Reverse Path
Forwarding. For any traffic that you want to allow through the FTD device, the device routing table must
include a route back to the source address. See RFC 2267 for more information.
For outside traffic, for example, the FTD device can use the default route to satisfy the Unicast RPF protection.
If traffic enters from an outside interface, and the source address is not known to the routing table, the device
uses the default route to correctly identify the outside interface as the source interface.
If traffic enters the outside interface from an address that is known to the routing table, but is associated with
the inside interface, then the FTD device drops the packet. Similarly, if traffic enters the inside interface from
an unknown source address, the device drops the packet because the matching route (the default route) indicates
the outside interface.
Unicast RPF is implemented as follows:
• ICMP packets have no session, so each packet is checked.
• UDP and TCP have sessions, so the initial packet requires a reverse route lookup. Subsequent packets
arriving during the session are checked using an existing state maintained as part of the session. Non-initial
packets are checked to ensure they arrived on the same interface used by the initial packet.
Fragment per Packet

By default, the FTD device allows up to 24 fragments per IP packet, and up to 200 fragments awaiting
reassembly. You might need to let fragments on your network if you have an application that routinely
fragments packets, such as NFS over UDP. However, if you do not have an application that fragments traffic,
we recommend that you do not allow fragments through the FTD device. Fragmented packets are often used
as DoS attacks.
Fragment Reassembly
The FTD device performs the following fragment reassembly processes:
• IP fragments are collected until a fragment set is formed or until a timeout interval has elapsed.
• If a fragment set is formed, integrity checks are performed on the set. These checks include no overlapping,
no tail overflow, and no chain overflow.
• IP fragments that terminate at the FTD device are always fully reassembled.

635
• If Full Fragment Reassembly is disabled (the default), the fragment set is forwarded to the transport
layer for further processing.
• If Full Fragment Reassembly is enabled, the fragment set is first coalesced into a single IP packet. The
single IP packet is then forwarded to the transport layer for further processing.
Before you begin

Procedure
Step 3 Click the Advanced tab, and then click the Security Configuration tab.
Step 4 To enable Unicast Reverse Path Forwarding, check the Anti-Spoofing check box.
Step 5 To enable full fragment reassembly, check the Full Fragment Reassembly check box.
Step 6 To change the number of fragments allowed per packet, check the Override Default Fragment Setting check
box, and set the following values:
• Size—Set the maximum number of packets that can be in the IP reassembly database waiting for
reassembly. The default is 200. Set this value to 1 to disable fragments.
• Chain—Set the maximum number of packets into which a full IP packet can be fragmented. The default
is 24 packets.
• Timeout—Set the maximum number of seconds to wait for an entire fragmented packet to arrive. The
timer starts after the first fragment of a packet arrives. If all fragments of the packet do not arrive by the
number of seconds specified, all fragments of the packet that were already received will be discarded.
Step 7 Click OK.

Step 8 Click Save.
deploy them.

636
History for Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense
History for Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat

Defense
Integrated Routing and Bridging 6.2.0 Integrated Routing and Bridging provides
the ability to route between a bridge group
and a routed interface. A bridge group is a
group of interfaces that the FTD bridges
instead of routes. The FTD is not a true
bridge in that the FTD continues to act as
a firewall: access control between interfaces
is controlled, and all of the usual firewall
checks are in place. Previously, you could
only configure bridge groups in transparent
firewall mode, where you cannot route
between bridge groups. This feature lets
you configure bridge groups in routed
firewall mode, and to route between bridge
groups and between a bridge group and a
routed interface. The bridge group
participates in routing by using a Bridge
Virtual Interface (BVI) to act as a gateway
for the bridge group. Integrated Routing
and Bridging provides an alternative to
using an external Layer 2 switch if you have
extra interfaces on the FTD to assign to the
bridge group. In routed mode, the BVI can
be a named interface and can participate
separately from member interfaces in some
features, such as access rules and DHCP
server.
The following features that are supported
in transparent mode are not supported in
routed mode: clustering. The following
features are also not supported on BVIs:
dynamic routing and multicast routing.
Devices > Device Management >
Interfaces > Add Interfaces > Bridge
Group Interface
Supported platforms: All except for the
Firepower 2100 and the Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual

637
History for Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense

638
CHAPTER 31
Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces for Firepower
Threat Defense
You can configure IPS-only passive interfaces, passive ERSPAN interfaces, and inline sets. IPS-only mode
interfaces bypass many firewall checks and only support IPS security policy. You might want to implement
IPS-only interfaces if you have a separate firewall protecting these interfaces and do not want the overhead
of firewall functions.
• About Hardware Bypass for Inline Sets, on page 639
• Prerequisites for Inline Sets, on page 640
• Guidelines for Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces, on page 641
• Configure a Passive Interface, on page 642
• Configure an Inline Set, on page 643
• History for Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 646
About Hardware Bypass for Inline Sets

For certain interface modules on the Firepower 9300 and 4100 series (see Prerequisites for Inline Sets, on
page 640), you can enable the Hardware Bypass feature. Hardware Bypass ensures that traffic continues to
flow between an inline interface pair during a power outage. This feature can be used to maintain network
connectivity in the case of software or hardware failures.
Hardware Bypass Triggers

Hardware Bypass can be triggered in the following scenarios:
• FTD application crash
• FTD application reboot
• Security Module reboot
• Firepower chassis crash
• Firepower chassis reboot or upgrade
• Manual trigger
• Firepower chassis power loss

639
Hardware Bypass Switchover
• Security Module power loss
Hardware Bypass Switchover

When switching from normal operation to hardware bypass or from hardware bypass back to normal operation,
traffic may be interrupted for several seconds. A number of factors can affect the length of the interruption;
for example, copper port auto-negotiation; behavior of the optical link partner such as how it handles link
faults and de-bounce timing; spanning tree protocol convergence; dynamic routing protocol convergence; and
so on. During this time, you may experience dropped connections.
You may also experience dropped connections due to application identification errors when analyzing
connections midstream after the return to normal operations.
Snort Fail Open vs. Hardware Bypass

For inline sets other than those in tap mode, you can use the Snort Fail Open option to either drop traffic or
allow traffic to pass without inspection when the Snort process is busy or down. Snort Fail Open is supported
on all inline sets except those in tap mode, not just on interfaces that support Hardware Bypass.
The Hardware Bypass functionality allows traffic to flow during a hardware failure, including a complete
power outage, and certain limited software failures. A software failure that triggers Snort Fail Open does not
trigger a Hardware Bypass.
Hardware Bypass Status

If the system has power, then the Bypass LED indicates the Hardware Bypass status. See the Firepower chassis
hardware installation guide for LED descriptions.
Prerequisites for Inline Sets

Hardware Bypass Support
The FTD supports Hardware Bypass for interface pairs on specific network modules on the following models:
• Firepower 9300
• Firepower 4100 series
The supported Hardware Bypass network modules for these models include:
• Firepower 6-port 1G SX FTW Network Module single-wide (FPR-NM-6X1SX-F)
• Firepower 6-port 10G SR FTW Network Module single-wide (FPR-NM-6X10SR-F)
• Firepower 6-port 10G LR FTW Network Module single-wide (FPR-NM-6X10LR-F)
• Firepower 2-port 40G SR FTW Network Module single-wide (FPR-NM-2X40G-F)
• Firepower 8-port 1G Copper FTW Network Module single-wide (FPR-NM-8X1G-F)
Hardware Bypass can only use the following port pairs:

640
Guidelines for Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces
•1&2
•3&4
•5&6
•7&8
Guidelines for Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces

Firewall Mode
• ERSPAN interfaces are only allowed when the device is in routed firewall mode.
General Guidelines
• Inline sets and passive interfaces support physical interfaces and EtherChannels only, and cannot use
redundant interfaces, VLANs, and so on.
• Inline sets and passive interfaces are supported in intra-chassis and inter-chassis clustering.
inline sets. If there are two neighbors on either side of the FTD running BFD, then the FTD will drop
BFD echo packets because they have the same source and destination IP address and appear to be part
of a LAND attack.
Hardware Bypass Guidelines

• Hardware Bypass ports are supported only for inline sets.
• Hardware Bypass ports cannot be part of an EtherChannel.
• Supported with intra-chassis clustering. Ports are placed in Hardware Bypass mode when the last unit
in the chassis fails. Inter-chassis clustering is not supported.
• If all units in the cluster fail, then Hardware Bypass is triggered on the final unit, and traffic continues
to pass. When units come back up, Hardware Bypass returns to standby mode. However, when you use
rules that match application traffic, those connections may be dropped and need to be reestablished.
Connections are dropped because state information is not retained on the cluster unit, and the unit cannot
identify the traffic as belonging to an allowed application. To avoid a traffic drop, use a port-based rule
instead of an application-based rule, if appropriate for your deployment.
• Hardware Bypass is not supported in high availability mode.
Unsupported Firewall Features on IPS Interfaces

• DHCP server
• DHCP relay
• DHCP client
• TCP Intercept

641
Configure a Passive Interface
• Routing
• NAT
• VPN
• Application inspection
• QoS
• NetFlow
• VXLAN
Configure a Passive Interface

Access Admin
Network Admin
This section describes how to:

• Enable the interface. By default, interfaces are disabled.
• Set the interface mode to Passive or ERSPAN. For ERSPAN interfaces, you will set the ERSPAN
parameters and the IP address.
• Change the MTU. By default, the MTU is set to 1500 bytes. For more information about the MTU, see
About the MTU, on page 628.
• Set a specific speed and duplex (if available). By default, speed and duplex are set to Auto.
Note For the Firepower Threat Defense on the FXOS chassis, you configure basic interface settings on the Firepower
4100/9300 chassis. See Configure a Physical Interface, on page 545 for more information.
Procedure
Step 3 In the Mode drop-down list, choose Passive or Erspan.

642
Configure an Inline Set
Step 8 (Optional) On the General tab, set the MTU between 64 and 9198 bytes; for the Firepower Threat Defense
Virtual and Firepower Threat Defense on the FXOS chassis, the maximum is 9000 bytes.
The default is 1500 bytes.
Step 9 For ERSPAN interfaces, set the following parameters:

• Flow Id—Configure the ID used by the source and destination sessions to identify the ERSPAN traffic,
between 1 and 1023. This ID must also be entered in the ERSPAN destination session configuration.
• Source IP—Configure the IP address used as the source of the ERSPAN traffic.
Step 10 For ERSPAN interfaces, set the IPv4 address and mask on the IPv4 tab.
The exact speed and duplex options depend on your hardware.
• Duplex—Choose Full, Half, or Auto. Auto is the default.
• Speed—Choose 10, 100, 1000, or Auto. Auto is the default.
Step 12 Click OK.

Step 13 Click Save.
deploy them.

Access Admin
Network Admin
This section enables and names two physical interfaces that you can add to an inline set. You can also optionally
enable Hardware Bypass for supported interface pairs.
Note For the Firepower Threat Defense on the FXOS chassis, you configure basic interface settings on the Firepower
4100/9300 chassis. See Configure a Physical Interface, on page 545 for more information.
Before you begin

• We recommend that you set STP PortFast for STP-enabled switches that connect to Firepower Threat
Defense inline pair interfaces. This setting is especially useful for Hardware Bypass configurations and
can reduce bypass times.

643
Procedure
After you add this interface to an inline set, this field will show Inline for the mode.

Do not set the security zone yet; you must set it after you create the inline set later in this procedure.

The exact speed and duplex options depend on your hardware.
• Duplex—Choose Full, Half, or Auto. Auto is the default.
• Speed—Choose 10, 100, 1000, or Auto. Auto is the default.
Step 8 Click OK.

Do not set any other settings for this interface.
Step 9 Click the edit icon ( ) for the second interface you want to add to the inline set.
Step 10 Configure the settings as for the first interface.
Step 12 Click Add Inline Set.
The Add Inline Set dialog box appears with the General tab selected.
Step 13 In the Name field, enter a name for the set.
Step 14 (Optional) Change the MTU to enable jumbo frames.
For inline sets, the MTU setting is not used. However, the jumbo frame setting is relevant to inline sets; jumbo
frames enable the inline interfaces to receive packets up to 9000 bytes. To enable jumbo frames, you must
set the MTU of any interface on the device above 1500 bytes.
Step 15 (Optional) For the Bypass mode, choose one of the following options:
• Disabled—Set Hardware Bypass to disabled for interfaces where Hardware Bypass is supported, or use
interfaces where Hardware Bypass is not supported.
• Standby—Set Hardware Bypass to the standby state on supported interfaces. Only pairs of Hardware
Bypass interfaces are shown. In the standby state, the interfaces remain in normal operation until there
is a trigger event.
• Bypass-Force—Manually forces the interface pair to go into a bypass state. The Inline Sets tab shows
Yes for any interface pairs that are in Bypass-Force mode.

644
Step 16 In the Available Interfaces Pairs area, click a pair and then click Add to move it to the Selected Interface
Pair area.
All possible pairings between named and enabled interfaces with the mode set to None show in this area.
Step 17 (Optional) Click the Advanced tab to set the following optional parameters:
• Tap Mode—Set to inline tap mode.
Note that you cannot enable this option and strict TCP enforcement on the same inline set.
• Propagate Link State—Configure link state propagation.
Link state propagation automatically brings down the second interface in the inline interface pair when
one of the interfaces in an inline set goes down. When the downed interface comes back up, the second
interface automatically comes back up, also. In other words, if the link state of one interface changes,
the device senses the change and updates the link state of the other interface to match it. Note that devices
require up to 4 seconds to propagate link state changes. Link state propagation is especially useful in
resilient network environments where routers are configured to reroute traffic automatically around
network devices that are in a failure state.
• Strict TCP Enforcement—To maximize TCP security, you can enable strict enforcement, which blocks
connections where the three-way handshake was not completed.
Strict enforcement also blocks:
• Non-SYN TCP packets for connections where the three-way handshake was not completed
• Non-SYN/RST packets from the initiator on a TCP connection before the responder sends the
SYN-ACK
• Non-SYN-ACK/RST packets from the responder on a TCP connection after the SYN but before
the session is established
• Snort Fail Open—Enable or disable either or both of the Busy and Down options if you want new and
existing traffic to pass without inspection (enabled) or drop (disabled) when the Snort process is busy or
down.
By default, traffic passes without inspection when the Snort process is down, and drops when it is busy.
When the Snort process is:
• Busy—It cannot process traffic fast enough because traffic buffers are full, indicating that there is
more traffic than the device can handle, or because of other software resource issues.
• Down—It is restarting because you deployed a configuration that requires it to restart. See
Configurations that Restart the Snort Process When Deployed or Activated, on page 316.
When the Snort process is down and comes back up, it inspects new connections. To prevent false
positives and false negatives, it does not inspect existing connections on inline, routed, or transparent
interfaces because initial session information might have been lost while it was down.
Note When Snort fails open, features that rely on the Snort process do not function. These include
application control and deep inspection. The system performs only basic access control using
simple, easily determined transport and network layer characteristics.

645
History for Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense
Step 19 Click the edit icon ( ) for one of the member interfaces.
You can only set the zone after you add the interface to the inline set; adding it to an inline set configures the
mode to Inline and lets you choose inline-type security zones.
Step 21 Click OK.

Step 22 Set the security zone for the second interface.
Step 23 Click Save.
deploy them.
History for Inline Sets and Passive Interfaces for Firepower

Threat Defense
Support for EtherChannels in FTD inline 6.2.0 You can now use EtherChannels in a FTD
sets inline set.
Hardware bypass support on the Firepower 6.1.0 Hardware Bypass ensures that traffic
4100/9300 for supported network modules continues to flow between an inline
interface pair during a power outage. This
feature can be used to maintain network
connectivity in the case of software or
hardware failures.

646
Inline set link state propagation support for 6.1.0 When you configure an inline set in the
the FTD FTD application and enable link state
propagation, the FTD sends inline set
membership to the FXOS chassis. Link
state propagation means that the chassis
automatically brings down the second
interface in the inline interface pair when
one of the interfaces in an inline set goes
down.
New/Modified FXOS commands: show
fault |grep link-down, show interface
detail

647

648
CHAPTER 32
DHCP and DDNS Services for Threat Defense
The following topics explain DHCP and DDNS services and how to configure them on Threat Defense devices.
• About DHCP and DDNS Services, on page 649
• Guidelines for DHCP and DDNS Services, on page 651
• Configure the DHCP Server, on page 652
• Configure the DHCP Relay Agent, on page 654
• Configure DDNS, on page 655
About DHCP and DDNS Services

The following topics describe the DHCP server, DHCP relay agent, and DDNS update.
About the DHCPv4 Server

DHCP provides network configuration parameters, such as IP addresses, to DHCP clients. The Firepower
Threat Defense device can provide a DHCP server to DHCP clients attached to Firepower Threat Defense
device interfaces. The DHCP server provides network configuration parameters directly to DHCP clients.
An IPv4 DHCP client uses a broadcast rather than a multicast address to reach the server. The DHCP client
listens for messages on UDP port 68; the DHCP server listens for messages on UDP port 67.
The DHCP server for IPv6 is not supported; you can, however, enable DHCP relay for IPv6 traffic.
DHCP Options
DHCP provides a framework for passing configuration information to hosts on a TCP/IP network. The
configuration parameters are carried in tagged items that are stored in the Options field of the DHCP message
and the data are also called options. Vendor information is also stored in Options, and all of the vendor
information extensions can be used as DHCP options.
For example, Cisco IP Phones download their configuration from a TFTP server. When a Cisco IP Phone
starts, if it does not have both the IP address and TFTP server IP address preconfigured, it sends a request
with option 150 or 66 to the DHCP server to obtain this information.
• DHCP option 150 provides the IP addresses of a list of TFTP servers.
• DHCP option 66 gives the IP address or the hostname of a single TFTP server.
• DHCP option 3 sets the default route.

649
About the DHCP Relay Agent
A single request might include both options 150 and 66. In this case, the ASA DHCP server provides values
for both options in the response if they are already configured on the ASA.
You can use advanced DHCP options to provide DNS, WINS, and domain name parameters to DHCP clients;
DHCP option 15 is used for the DNS domain suffix.You can also use the DHCP automatic configuration
setting to obtain these values or define them manually. When you use more than one method to define this
information, it is passed to DHCP clients in the following sequence:
1. Manually configured settings.
2. Advanced DHCP options settings.
3. DHCP automatic configuration settings.
For example, you can manually define the domain name that you want the DHCP clients to receive and then
enable DHCP automatic configuration. Although DHCP automatic configuration discovers the domain together
with the DNS and WINS servers, the manually defined domain name is passed to DHCP clients with the
discovered DNS and WINS server names, because the domain name discovered by the DHCP automatic
configuration process is superseded by the manually defined domain name.
About the DHCP Relay Agent

You can configure a DHCP relay agent to forward DHCP requests received on an interface to one or more
DHCP servers. DHCP clients use UDP broadcasts to send their initial DHCPDISCOVER messages because
they do not have information about the network to which they are attached. If the client is on a network
segment that does not include a server, UDP broadcasts normally are not forwarded by the Firepower Threat
Defense device because it does not forward broadcast traffic. The DHCP relay agent lets you configure the
interface of the Firepower Threat Defense device that is receiving the broadcasts to forward DHCP requests
to a DHCP server on another interface.
About DDNS
DDNS update integrates DNS with DHCP. The two protocols are complementary: DHCP centralizes and
automates IP address allocation; DDNS update automatically records the association between assigned
addresses and hostnames at predefined intervals. DDNS allows frequently changing address-hostname
associations to be updated frequently. Mobile hosts, for example, can then move freely on a network without
user or administrator intervention. DDNS provides the necessary dynamic update and synchronization of the
name-to-address mapping and address-to-name mapping on the DNS server.
The DDNS name and address mapping is held on the DHCP server in two resource records (RRs): the A RR
includes the name-to-IP address mapping, while the PTR RR maps addresses to names. Of the two methods
for performing DDNS updates—the IETF standard defined by RFC 2136 and a generic HTTP method—the
Firepower Threat Defense device supports the IETF method.
Note DDNS is not supported on the BVI or bridge group member interfaces.
DDNS Update Configurations

The two most common DDNS update configurations are the following:
• The DHCP client updates the A RR, while the DHCP server updates the PTR RR.

650
UDP Packet Size
• The DHCP server updates both the A RR and PTR RR.
In general, the DHCP server maintains DNS PTR RRs on behalf of clients. Clients may be configured to
perform all desired DNS updates. The server may be configured to honor these updates or not. The DHCP
server must know the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the client to update the PTR RR. The client
provides an FQDN to the server using a DHCP option called Client FQDN.
UDP Packet Size

DDNS allows DNS requesters to advertise the size of their UDP packets and facilitates the transfer of packets
larger than 512 octets. When a DNS server receives a request over UDP, it identifies the size of the UDP
packet from the OPT RR and scales its response to contain as many resource records as are allowed in the
maximum UDP packet size specified by the requester. The size of the DNS packets can be up to 4096 bytes
for BIND or 1280 bytes for the Windows 2003 DNS Server.
Guidelines for DHCP and DDNS Services

This section includes guidelines and limitations that you should check before configuring DHCP and DDNS
services.
Firewall Mode
• DHCP Relay is not supported in transparent firewall mode or in routed mode on the BVI or bridge group
member interface.
• DHCP Server is supported in transparent firewall mode on a bridge group member interface. In routed
mode, the DHCP server is supported on the BVI interface, not the bridge group member interface. The
BVI must have a name for the DHCP server to operate.
• DDNS is not supported in transparent firewall mode or in routed mode on the BVI or bridge group
member interface.
IPv6
Does not support IPv6 for DHCP server; IPv6 for DHCP relay is supported.
DHCPv4 Server
• The maximum available DHCP pool is 256 addresses.
• You can configure only one DHCP server on each interface. Each interface can have its own pool of
addresses to use. However the other DHCP settings, such as DNS servers, domain name, options, ping
timeout, and WINS servers, are configured globally and used by the DHCP server on all interfaces.
• You cannot configure a DHCP client or DHCP relay service on an interface on which the server is
enabled. Additionally, DHCP clients must be directly connected to the interface on which the server is
enabled.
• Firepower Threat Defense device does not support QIP DHCP servers for use with the DHCP proxy
service.
• The relay agent cannot be enabled if the DHCP server is also enabled.

651
Configure the DHCP Server
• The DHCP server does not support BOOTP requests.
DHCP Relay
• You can configure a maximum of 10 DHCPv4 relay servers, global and interface-specific servers
combined, with a maximum of 4 servers per interface.
• You can configure a maximum of 10 DHCPv6 relay servers. Interface-specific servers for IPv6 are not
supported.
• The relay agent cannot be enabled if the DHCP server feature is also enabled.
• DHCP relay services are not available in transparent firewall mode. You can, however, allow DHCP
traffic through using an access rule. To allow DHCP requests and replies through the Firepower Threat
Defense device, you need to configure two access rules, one that allows DCHP requests from the inside
interface to the outside (UDP destination port 67), and one that allows the replies from the server in the
other direction (UDP destination port 68).
• For IPv4, clients must be directly-connected to the Firepower Threat Defense device and cannot send
requests through another relay agent or a router. For IPv6, the Firepower Threat Defense device supports
packets from another relay server.
• The DHCP clients must be on different interfaces from the DHCP servers to which the Firepower Threat
Defense device relays requests.
• You cannot enable DHCP Relay on an interface in a traffic zone.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > Device Management, and edit the FTD device.
Step 2 Select DHCP > DHCP Server.
Step 3 Configure the following DHCP server options:
• Ping Timeout—The amount of time in milliseconds that Firepower Threat Defense device waits to time
out a DHCP ping attempt. Valid values range from 10 to 10000 milliseconds. The default value is 50
milliseconds.
To avoid address conflicts, the Firepower Threat Defense device sends two ICMP ping packets to an
address before assigning that address to a DHCP client.

652
• Lease Length—The amount of time in seconds that the client may use its allocated IP address before
the lease expires. Valid values range from 300 to 1048575 seconds. The default value is 3600 seconds
(1 hour).
• (Routed mode) Auto-configuration—Enables DHCP auto configuration on the Firepower Threat Defense
device. Auto-configuration enables the DHCP server to provide the DHCP clients with the DNS server,
domain name, and WINS server information obtained from a DHCP client running on the specified
interface. Otherwise, you can disable auto configuration and add the values yourself in Step 4.
• (Routed mode) Interface—Specifies the interface to be used for auto configuration.
Step 4 To override auto-configured settings, do the following:

• Enter the domain name of the interface. For example, your device may be in the Your_Company domain.
• From the drop-down list, choose the DNS servers (primary and secondary) configured for the interface.
To add a new DNS server, see Creating Network Objects, on page 376.
• From the drop-down list, choose the WINS servers (primary and secondary) configured for the interface.
To add a new WINS server, see Creating Network Objects, on page 376.
Step 5 Select the Server tab, click Add, and configure the following options:
• Interface—Choose the interface from the drop-down list. In transparent mode, specify a named bridge
group member interface. In routed mode, specify a named routed interface or a named BVI; do not specify
the bridge group member interface. Note that each bridge group member interface for the BVI must also
be named for the DHCP server to operate.
• Address Pool—The range of IP addresses from lowest to highest that is used by the DHCP server. The
range of IP addresses must be on the same subnet as the selected interface and cannot include the IP
address of the interface itself.
• Enable DHCP Server—Enables the DHCP server on the selected interface.
Step 6 Click OK to save the DHCP server configuration.

Step 7 (Optional) Select the Advanced tab, click Add, and specify the type of information you want the option to
return to the DHCP client:
• Option Code—The Firepower Threat Defense device supports the DHCP options listed in RFC 2132,
RFC 2562, and RFC 5510 to send information. All DHCP options (1 through 255) are supported except
for 1, 12, 50–54, 58–59, 61, 67, and 82. See About the DHCPv4 Server, on page 649for more information
on DHCP option codes.
Note The Firepower Threat Defense device does not verify that the option type and value that you
provide match the expected type and value for the option code, as defined in RFC 2132. For
more information about option codes and their associated types and expected values, see RFC
2132.
• Type—DHCP option type. Available options include IP, ASCII, and HEX. If you chose IP, you must
add IP addresses in the IP Address fields. If you chose ASCII, you must add the ASCII value in the
ASCII field. If you chose HEX, you must add the HEX value in the HEX field.
• IP Address 1 and IP Address 2—The IP address(es) to be returned with this option code. To add a new
IP address, see Creating Network Objects, on page 376.

653
Configure the DHCP Relay Agent
• ASCII—The ASCII value that is returned to the DHCP client. The string cannot include spaces.
• HEX—The HEX value that is returned to the DHCP client. The string must have an even number of
digits and no spaces. You do not need to use a 0x prefix.
Step 8 Click OK to save the option code configuration.

Step 9 Click Save on the DHCP page to save your changes.
Configure the DHCP Relay Agent

Access Admin
Network Admin
You can configure a DHCP relay agent to forward DHCP requests received on an interface to one or more
DHCP servers. DHCP clients use UDP broadcasts to send their initial DHCPDISCOVER messages because
they do not have information about the network to which they are attached. If the client is on a network
segment that does not include a server, UDP broadcasts normally are not forwarded by the Firepower Threat
Defense device because it does not forward broadcast traffic.
You can remedy this situation by configuring the interface of the Firepower Threat Defense device that is
receiving the broadcasts to forward DHCP requests to a DHCP server on another interface.
Note DHCP Relay is not supported in transparent firewall mode.
Procedure
Step 2 Select DHCP > DHCP Relay.
Step 3 In the Timeout field, enter the amount of time in seconds that the Firepower Threat Defense device waits to
time out the DHCP relay agent. Valid values range from 1 to 3600 seconds. The default value is 60 seconds.
The timeout is for address negotiation through the local DHCP Relay agent.
Step 4 On the DHCP Relay Agent tab, click Add, and configure the following options:
• Interface—The interface connected to the DHCP clients.
• Enable IPv4 Relay—Enables IPv4 DHCP Relay for this interface.
• Set Route—(For IPv4) Changes the default gateway address in the DHCP message from the server to
that of the Firepower Threat Defense device interface that is closest to the DHCP client, which relayed
the original DHCP request. This action allows the client to set its default route to point to the Firepower
Threat Defense device even if the DHCP server specifies a different router. If there is no default router
option in the packet, the Firepower Threat Defense device adds one containing the interface address.

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Configure DDNS
• Enable IPv6 Relay—Enables IPv6 DHCP Relay for this interface.
Step 5 Click OK to save the DHCP relay agent changes.

Step 6 On the DHCP Servers tab, click Add, and configure the following options:
Add the IPv4 and IPv6 server addresses as separate entries, even if they belong to the same server.
• Server—The IP address of the DHCP server. Chose an IP address from the drop-down list. To add a
new one, see Creating Network Objects, on page 376
• Interface—The interface to which the specified DHCP server is attached. The DHCP Relay agent and
the DHCP server cannot be configured on the same interface.
Step 7 Click OK to save the DHCP server changes.

Configure DDNS
Access Admin
Network Admin
Dynamic DNS (DDNS) update integrates DNS with DHCP. DDNS update automatically records the association
between assigned addresses and hostnames, which allows frequently changing address-hostname associations
to be updated efficiently.
Before you begin

• For overview information, see About DDNS, on page 650.
• DDNS is not supported in transparent firewall mode.
Procedure
Step 2 Select DHCP > DDNS, and configure the following DDNS options:
• DHCP Client Requests DHCP Server to update Records—Configures the DHCP client to request
that it update the specified records. Available options are Not Selected, No Update, Only PTR, and
Both A and PTR Records. See About DDNS, on page 650 for a description of A and PTR records.
• Enable DHCP Client Broadcast—Enables the DHCP client to use a broadcast address to reach the
DHCP server.
• Dynamic DNS Update—Which records to update for the DDNS updates for the DHCP server. Available
options are Not Selected, Only PTR, and Both A and PTR Records .

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Configure DDNS
• Override DHCP Client Requests—Specifies that the DHCP server actions should override any update
actions requested by the DHCP client.
Step 3 On the DHCP Client ID Interface tab, choose the interface from the Available Interfaces list, and then click
Add to move it to the Selected Interfaces list.
Step 4 On the DDNS Interface Settings tab, click Add, and configure the following options:
• Interface—Choose the interface from the drop-down list to add DDNS settings for each configured
interface .
• Method Name—The DDNS update method assigned to the interface.
• Host Name—The host name of the DDNS client.
• DHCP Client requests DHCP server to update requests—Configures the DHCP client to request that
it update the specified records. Available options are Not Selected, No Update, Only PTR, and Both
A and PTR Records. See About DDNS, on page 650 for a description of A and PTR records.
• Dynamic DNS Update—Which records to update for the DDNS updates for the DHCP server. Available
options are Not Selected, Only PTR, and Both A and PTR Records .
• Override DHCP Client Requests—Specifies that the DHCP server actions should override any update
actions requested by the DHCP client.
Step 5 Click OK to save the DDNS interface changes.

Step 6 On the DDNS Update Methods tab, click Add, and configure the following options:
• Method Name—The DDNS update method assigned to the interface.
• Update Interval—The update interval in whole numbers between DNS update attempts configured for
the update method in days (0 to 364), hours (0 to 23), minutes (0 to 59), and seconds (0 to 59). These
units are additive. That is, if you enter 0 days, 0 hours, 5 minutes and 15 seconds, the update method
tries an update every 5 minutes and 15 seconds for as long as the method is active.
• Update Records—Stores server resource record updates that the DNS client updates. Available options
are Not Defined, Both A and PTR Records, and A Records.
Step 7 Click OK to save the DDNS update methods changes.


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CHAPTER 33
Quality of Service (QoS) for Firepower Threat
Defense
The following topics describe how to use the Quality of Service (QoS) feature to police network traffic using
Firepower Threat Defense devices:
• Introduction to QoS, on page 657
• About QoS Policies, on page 657
• Rate Limiting with QoS Policies, on page 658
Introduction to QoS
Quality of Service, or QoS, rate limits (polices) network traffic that is allowed or trusted by access control.
The system does not rate limit traffic that was fastpathed.
QoS is supported for routed interfaces on Firepower Threat Defense devices only.
Logging Rate-Limited Connections

There are no logging configurations for QoS. A connection can be rate limited without being logged, and you
cannot log a connection simply because it was rate limited. To view QoS information in connection events,
you must independently log the ends of the appropriate connections to the Firepower Management Center
database; see Other Connections You Can Log, on page 2318.
Connection events for rate-limited connections contain information on how much traffic was dropped, and
which QoS configurations limited the traffic. You can view this information in event views (workflows),
dashboards, and reports.
About QoS Policies

QoS policies deployed to managed devices govern rate limiting. Each QoS policy can target multiple devices;
each device can have one deployed QoS policy at a time.
In a QoS policy, a maximum of 32 QoS rules handle network traffic. The system matches traffic to QoS rules
in the order you specify. The system rate limits traffic according to the first rule where all rule conditions
match the traffic. Traffic that does not match any of the rules is not rate limited.

657
Rate Limiting with QoS Policies
You must constrain QoS rules by source or destination (routed) interfaces. The system enforces rate limiting
independently on each of those interfaces; you cannot specify an aggregate rate limit for a set of interfaces.
QoS rules can also rate limit traffic by other network characteristics, as well as contextual information such
as application, URL, user identity, and custom Security Group Tags (SGTs).
You can rate limit download and upload traffic independently. The system determines download and upload
directions based on the connection initiator.
Note QoS is not subordinate to a master access control configuration; you configure QoS independently. However,
the access control and QoS policies deployed to the same device share identity configurations; see Associating
Other Policies with Access Control, on page 1254.
QoS Policies and Multitenancy

in a lower domain, switch to that domain.
Administrators in ancestor domains can deploy the same QoS policy to devices in different descendant domains.
Administrators in those descendant domains can use this read-only ancestor-deployed QoS policy, or replace
it with a local policy.
Rate Limiting with QoS Policies

Any N/A FTD Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
To perform policy-based rate limiting, configure and deploy QoS policies to managed devices. Each QoS
policy can target mutiple devices; each device can have one deployed QoS policy at a time.
Only one person should edit a policy at a time, using a single browser window. If multiple users save the same
policy, the last saved changes are retained. For your convenience, the system displays information on who (if
anyone) is currently editing each policy. To protect the privacy of your session, a warning appears after 30
minutes of inactivity on the policy editor. After 60 minutes, the system discards your changes.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > QoS.

Step 2 Click New Policy to create a new QoS policy and, optionally, assign target devices; see Creating a QoS Policy,
on page 659.
You can also copy ( ) or edit ( ) an exisiting policy.

658
Creating a QoS Policy
Step 3 Configure QoS rules; see Configuring QoS Rules, on page 660 and Rule Management: Common Characteristics,
on page 325.
The Rules tab in the QoS policy editor lists each rule in evaluation order, and displays a summary of the rule
conditions and rate limiting configurations. A right-click menu provides rule management options, including
moving, enabling, and disabling.
Helpful in larger deployments, you can Filter by Device to display only the rules that affect a specfic device
or group of devices. You can also search for and within rules; the system matches text you enter in the Search
Rules field to rule names and condition values, including objects and object groups.
Note Properly creating and ordering rules is a complex task, but one that is essential to building an
effective deployment. If you do not plan carefully, rules can preempt other rules, require additional
licenses, or contain invalid configurations. Icons represent comments, warnings, and errors. If issues
exist, click Show Warnings to display a list. For more information, see Rule Performance Guidelines,
on page 356.
Step 4 Click Policy Assignments to identify the managed devices targeted by the policy; see Setting Target Devices
for a QoS Policy, on page 660.
If you identified target devices during policy creation, verify your choices.
Step 5 Save the QoS policy.

Creating a QoS Policy


Access Admin
Network Admin
A new QoS policy with no rules performs no rate limiting.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > QoS.

Step 2 Click New Policy.
Step 3 Enter a Name and, optionally, a Description.
Step 4 (Optional) Choose the Available Devices where you want to deploy the policy, then click Add to Policy, or
drag and drop to the Selected Devices. To narrow the devices that appear, type a search string in the Search
field.
You must assign devices before you deploy the policy.
Step 5 Click Save.

659
Setting Target Devices for a QoS Policy
What to do next
• Configure and deploy the QoS policy; see Rate Limiting with QoS Policies, on page 658.
Setting Target Devices for a QoS Policy


Access Admin
Network Admin
Each QoS policy can target mutiple devices; each device can have one deployed QoS policy at a time.
Procedure
Step 1 In the QoS policy editor, click Policy Assignments.

Step 2 Build your target list:
• Add—Choose one or more Available Devices, then click Add to Policy or drag and drop into the list
of Selected Devices.
• Delete—Click the delete icon ( ) next to a single device, or choose multiple devices, right-click, then
choose Delete Selected.
• Search—Enter a search string in the search field. Click clear ( ) to clear the search.
Step 3 Click OK to save policy assignments.

Step 4 Click Save to save the policy.
What to do next
Configuring QoS Rules


Admin/Network
Admin
When you create or edit a rule, use the upper portion of the rule editor to configure general rule properties.
Use the tabs on the lower portion to configure rule conditions and comments.

660
QoS Rule Components
Procedure
Step 1 On the Rules tab of the QoS policy editor:

• Add Rule—Click Add Rule.
• Edit Rule—Click the edit icon ( ).

Step 3 Configure rule components:
• Enabled—Specify whether the rule is Enabled.
• Apply QoS On—Choose the interfaces you want to rate limit, either Interfaces in Destination Interface
Objects or Interfaces in Source Interface Objects. Your choice must correspond with a populated
interface constraint (not any).
• Traffic Limit Per Interface—Enter a Download Limit and an Upload Limit in Mbits/sec. The default
value of Unlimited prevent matching traffic from being rate limited in that direction.
• Conditions—Click the tab corresponding to the condition you want to add. You must configure a source
or destination interface condition, corresponding to your choice for Apply QoS On.
• Comments—Click the Comments tab. To add a comment click New Comment, enter a comment, and
click OK. You can edit or delete this comment until you save the rule.
For detailed information on rule components, see QoS Rule Components, on page 661.
Step 4 Save the rule.

Step 5 In the policy editor, set the rule position. Click and drag or use the right-click menu to cut and paste.
Rules are numbered starting at 1. The system matches traffic to rules in top-down order by ascending rule
number. The first rule that traffic matches is the rule that handles that traffic. Proper rule order reduces the
resources required to process network traffic and prevents rule preemption.
What to do next
Related Topics
Rule Performance Guidelines, on page 356
QoS Rule Components
State (Enabled/Disabled)
By default, rules are enabled. If you disable a rule, the system does not use it and stops generating warnings
and errors for that rule.
Interfaces (Apply QoS On)

You cannot save a QoS rule that rate limits all traffic. For each QoS rule, you must apply QoS on either:

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QoS Rule Components
• Interfaces in Source Interface Objects—Rate limits traffic through the rule's source interfaces. If you
choose this option, you must add at least one source interface constraint (cannot be any).
• Interfaces in Destination Interface Objects—Rate limits traffic through the rule's destination interfaces.
If you choose this option, you must add at least one destination interface constraint (cannot be any).
Traffic Limit Per Interface

A QoS rule enforces rate limiting independently on each of the interfaces you specify with the Apply QoS
On option. You cannot specify an aggregate rate limit for a set of interfaces.
You can rate limit traffic by Mbits per second. The default value of Unlimited prevents matching traffic from
being rate limited.
You can rate limit download and upload traffic independently. The system determines download and upload
directions based on the connection initiator.
If you specify a limit greater than the maximum throughput of an interface, the system does not rate limit
matching traffic. Maximum throughput may be affected by an interface’s hardware configuration, which you
specify in each device’s properties (Devices > Device Management).
Conditions
Conditions specify the specific traffic the rule handles. You can configure each rule with multiple conditions.
Traffic must match all conditions to match the rule. Each condition type has its own tab in the rule editor.
You can rate limit traffic using:
• Interface Conditions, on page 330 (routed only; required)
• Network Conditions, on page 332
• Port and ICMP Code Conditions, on page 336
• Application Conditions (Application Control), on page 338
• URL Conditions (URL Filtering), on page 346
• User, Realm, and ISE Attribute Conditions (User Control), on page 346
• Custom SGT Conditions, on page 351
Comments
Each time you save changes to a rule you can add comments. For example, you might summarize the overall
configuration for the benefit of other users, or note when you change a rule and the reason for the change.
In the policy editor, the system displays how many comments a rule has. In the rule editor, use the Comments
tab to view existing comments and add new ones.

662
History for QOS
History for QOS

Rate limit increased 6.2.1 Raised the maximum rate limit from 1,000 Mbps to 100,000 Mbps.
Modified screen: QoS rule editor
Supported platforms: Firepower Threat Defense
Custom SGT and original client 6.2.1 QoS can now rate limit traffic using custom Security Group Tags (SGTs)
network filtering and original client network information (XFF, True-Client-IP, or
custom-defined HTTP headers).
Modified screen: QoS rule editor
QoS (rate limiting) 6.1 Feature introduced.

QoS rate limits (polices) network traffic that is allowed or trusted by access
control.
New screens: Devices > QoS

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History for QOS

664
PA R T IX
Firepower Threat Defense High Availability and
Scalability
• High Availability for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 667
• Clustering for the Firepower Threat Defense, on page 693
CHAPTER 34
High Availability for Firepower Threat Defense
The following topics describe how to configure Active/Standby failover to accomplish high availability of
the Cisco Firepower Threat Defense.
• About Firepower Threat Defense High Availability, on page 667
• Guidelines for High Availability, on page 680
• Add a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability Pair, on page 681
• Configure Optional High Availability Parameters, on page 683
• Manage High Availability, on page 685
• Monitoring High Availability, on page 691
About Firepower Threat Defense High Availability

Configuring high availability, also called failover, requires two identical Firepower Threat Defense devices
connected to each other through a dedicated failover link and, optionally, a state link. Firepower Threat Defense
supports Active/Standby failover, where one unit is the active unit and passes traffic. The standby unit does
not actively pass traffic, but synchronizes configuration and other state information from the active unit. When
a failover occurs, the active unit fails over to the standby unit, which then becomes active.
The health of the active unit (hardware, interfaces, software, and environmental status) is monitored to
determine if specific failover conditions are met. If those conditions are met, failover occurs.
Note High availability is not supported on Firepower Threat Defense Virtual running in the public cloud.
High Availability System Requirements

This section describes the hardware, software, and license requirements for Firepower Threat Defense devices
in a High Availability configuration.
Hardware Requirements
The two units in a High Availability configuration must:
• Have the same number and types of interfaces.

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Firepower Threat Defense High Availability and Scalability
For the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis, all interfaces must be preconfigured in FXOS identically before
you enable High Availability. If you change the interfaces after you enable High Availability, make the
interface changes in FXOS on the standby unit, and then make the same changes on the active unit.
If you are using units with different flash memory sizes in your High Availability configuration, make sure
the unit with the smaller flash memory has enough space to accommodate the software image files and the
configuration files. If it does not, configuration synchronization from the unit with the larger flash memory
to the unit with the smaller flash memory will fail.
The two units in a High Availability configuration must:
• Be in the same firewall mode (routed or transparent).
• Have the same major (first number), minor (second number), and maintenance (third number) software
version.
• Be in the same domain or group on the Firepower Management Center.
• Have the same NTP configuration. See Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense, on
page 1021.
• Be fully deployed on the Firepower Management Center with no uncommitted changes.
• Not have DHCP or PPPoE configured in any of their interfaces.
License Requirements for FTD Devices in a High Availability Pair

Firepower Threat Defense devices in a high availability configuration must have the same licenses. Before
high availability is established, it does not matter which licenses are assigned to the secondary/standby device.
During high availability configuration, the Firepower Management Center releases any unnecessary licenses
assigned to the standby device and replaces them with identical licenses assigned to the primary/active device.
For example, if the active device has a Base license and a Threat license, and the standby device has only a
Base license, the Firepower Management Center communicates with the Cisco Smart Software Manager to
obtain an available Threat license from your account for the standby device. If your Smart Licenses account
does not include enough purchased entitlements, your account becomes Out-of-Compliance until you purchase
the correct number of licenses. High availability configurations require two Smart License entitlements; one
for each device in the pair.
Failover and Stateful Failover Links

The failover link and the optional stateful failover link are dedicated connections between the two units. Cisco
recommends to use the same interface between two devices in a failover link or a stateful failover link. For
example, in a failover link, if you have used eth0 in device 1, use the same interface (eth0) in device 2 as well.
Failover Link
The two units in a failover pair constantly communicate over a failover link to determine the operating status
of each unit.
Failover Link Data

The following information is communicated over the failover link:

668
Interface for the Failover Link
• The unit state (active or standby)

• Hello messages (keep-alives)
• Network link status
• MAC address exchange
• Configuration replication and synchronization
Interface for the Failover Link

You can use an unused data interface (physical, redundant, or EtherChannel) as the failover link; however,
you cannot specify an interface that is currently configured with a name. You also cannot use a subinterface.
The failover link interface is not configured as a normal networking interface; it exists for failover
communication only. This interface can only be used for the failover link (and also for the state link).
The FTD does not support sharing interfaces between user data and the failover link.
Note When using an EtherChannel or Redundant Interface as the failover or state link, you must confirm that the
same EtherChannel or Redundant interface with the same member interfaces exists on both devices before
establishing high availability.
For a redundant interface used as the failover link, see the following benefits for added redundancy:
• When a failover unit boots up, it alternates between the member interfaces to detect an active unit.
• If a failover unit stops receiving keepalive messages from its peer on one of the member interfaces, it
switches to the other member interface.
For an EtherChannel used as the failover link, to prevent out-of-order packets, only one interface in the
EtherChannel is used. If that interface fails, then the next interface in the EtherChannel is used. You cannot
alter the EtherChannel configuration while it is in use as a failover link.
Connecting the Failover Link

Connect the failover link in one of the following two ways:
• Using a switch, with no other device on the same network segment (broadcast domain or VLAN) as the
failover interfaces of the Firepower Threat Defense device.
• Using an Ethernet cable to connect the units directly, without the need for an external switch.
If you do not use a switch between the units, if the interface fails, the link is brought down on both peers. This
condition may hamper troubleshooting efforts because you cannot easily determine which unit has the failed
interface and caused the link to come down.
Stateful Failover Link

To use Stateful Failover, you must configure a Stateful Failover link (also known as the state link) to pass
connection state information.

669
Shared with the Failover Link
Note Cisco recommends that the bandwidth of the stateful failover link should at least match the bandwidth of the
data interfaces.
Shared with the Failover Link

Sharing a failover link is the best way to conserve interfaces. However, you must consider a dedicated interface
for the state link and failover link, if you have a large configuration and a high traffic network.
Dedicated Interface for the Stateful Failover Link

You can use a dedicated data interface (physical, redundant, or EtherChannel) for the state link. For an
EtherChannel used as the state link, to prevent out-of-order packets, only one interface in the EtherChannel
is used. If that interface fails, then the next interface in the EtherChannel is used.
Connect a dedicated state link in one of the following two ways:
• Using a switch, with no other device on the same network segment (broadcast domain or VLAN) as the
failover interfaces of the Firepower Threat Defense device.
• Using an Ethernet cable to connect the appliances directly, without the need for an external switch.
If you do not use a switch between the units, if the interface fails, the link is brought down on both peers.
This condition may hamper troubleshooting efforts because you cannot easily determine which unit has
the failed interface and caused the link to come down.
The Firepower Threat Defense device supports Auto-MDI/MDIX on its copper Ethernet ports, so you
can either use a crossover cable or a straight-through cable. If you use a straight-through cable, the
interface automatically detects the cable and swaps one of the transmit/receive pairs to MDIX.
For optimum performance when using long distance failover, the latency for the state link should be less than
10 milliseconds and no more than 250 milliseconds. If latency is more than 10 milliseconds, some performance
degradation occurs due to retransmission of failover messages.
Avoiding Interrupted Failover and Data Links

We recommend that failover links and data interfaces travel through different paths to decrease the chance
that all interfaces fail at the same time. If the failover link is down, the Firepower Threat Defense device can
use the data interfaces to determine if a failover is required. Subsequently, the failover operation is suspended
until the health of the failover link is restored.
See the following connection scenarios to design a resilient failover network.
Scenario 1—Not Recommended

If a single switch or a set of switches are used to connect both failover and data interfaces between two
Firepower Threat Defense devices, then when a switch or inter-switch-link is down, both Firepower Threat
Defense devices become active. Therefore, the two connection methods shown in the following figures are
not recommended.

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Avoiding Interrupted Failover and Data Links
Figure 9: Connecting with a Single Switch—Not Recommended
Figure 10: Connecting with a Double-Switch—Not Recommended
Scenario 2—Recommended
We recommend that failover links not use the same switch as the data interfaces. Instead, use a different switch
or use a direct cable to connect the failover link, as shown in the following figures.
Figure 11: Connecting with a Different Switch
Figure 12: Connecting with a Cable
If the Firepower Threat Defense data interfaces are connected to more than one set of switches, then a failover
link can be connected to one of the switches, preferably the switch on the secure (inside) side of network, as
shown in the following figure.
Figure 13: Connecting with a Secure Switch
The most reliable failover configurations use a redundant interface on the failover link, as shown in the
following figures.

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MAC Addresses and IP Addresses in High Availability
Figure 14: Connecting with Redundant Interfaces
Figure 15: Connecting with Inter-switch Links
MAC Addresses and IP Addresses in High Availability

When you configure your interfaces, you can specify an active IP address and a standby IP address on the
same network. Generally, when a failover occurs, the new active unit takes over the active IP addresses and
MAC addresses. Because network devices see no change in the MAC to IP address pairing, no ARP entries
change or time out anywhere on the network.
Note Although recommended, the standby address is not required. Without a standby IP address, the active unit
cannot perform network tests to check the standby interface health; it can only track the link state. You also
cannot connect to the standby unit on that interface for management purposes.
The IP address and MAC address for the state link do not change at failover.

672
Stateful Failover
Active/Standby IP Addresses and MAC Addresses

For Active/Standby High Availability, see the following for IP address and MAC address usage during a
failover event:
1. The active unit always uses the primary unit's IP addresses and MAC addresses.
2. When the active unit fails over, the standby unit assumes the IP addresses and MAC addresses of the
failed unit and begins passing traffic.
3. When the failed unit comes back online, it is now in a standby state and takes over the standby IP addresses
and MAC addresses.
However, if the secondary unit boots without detecting the primary unit, then the secondary unit becomes the
active unit and uses its own MAC addresses, because it does not know the primary unit MAC addresses. When
the primary unit becomes available, the secondary (active) unit changes the MAC addresses to those of the
primary unit, which can cause an interruption in your network traffic. Similarly, if you swap out the primary
unit with new hardware, a new MAC address is used.
Virtual MAC addresses guard against this disruption, because the active MAC addresses are known to the
secondary unit at startup, and remain the same in the case of new primary unit hardware. If you do not configure
virtual MAC addresses, you might need to clear the ARP tables on connected routers to restore traffic flow.
The Firepower Threat Defense device does not send gratuitous ARPs for static NAT addresses when the MAC
address changes, so connected routers do not learn of the MAC address change for these addresses.
Virtual MAC Addresses

The Firepower Threat Defense device has multiple methods to configure virtual MAC addresses. We
recommend using only one method. If you set the MAC address using multiple methods, the MAC address
used depends on many variables, and might not be predictable.
Stateful Failover
During Stateful Failover, the active unit continually passes per-connection state information to the standby
unit. After a failover occurs, the same connection information is available at the new active unit. Supported
end-user applications are not required to reconnect to keep the same communication session.
Supported Features
For Stateful Failover, the following state information is passed to the standby Firepower Threat Defense
device:
• NAT translation table.
• TCP and UDP connections and states, including HTTP connection states. Other types of IP protocols,
and ICMP, are not parsed by the active unit, because they get established on the new active unit when a
new packet arrives.
• Snort connection states, inspection results, and pin hole information, including strict TCP enforcement.
• The ARP table
• The Layer 2 bridge table (for bridge groups)
• The ISAKMP and IPsec SA table

673
Supported Features
• GTP PDP connection database

• SIP signaling sessions and pin holes.
• Static and dynamic routing tables—Stateful Failover participates in dynamic routing protocols, like OSPF
and EIGRP, so routes that are learned through dynamic routing protocols on the active unit are maintained
in a Routing Information Base (RIB) table on the standby unit. Upon a failover event, packets travel
normally with minimal disruption to traffic because the active secondary unit initially has rules that
mirror the primary unit. Immediately after failover, the re-convergence timer starts on the newly active
unit. Then the epoch number for the RIB table increments. During re-convergence, OSPF and EIGRP
routes become updated with a new epoch number. Once the timer is expired, stale route entries (determined
by the epoch number) are removed from the table. The RIB then contains the newest routing protocol
forwarding information on the newly active unit.
Note Routes are synchronized only for link-up or link-down events on an active unit.
If the link goes up or down on the standby unit, dynamic routes sent from the
active unit may be lost. This is normal, expected behavior.
• DHCP Server—DHCP address leases are not replicated. However, a DHCP server configured on an
interface will send a ping to make sure an address is not being used before granting the address to a
DHCP client, so there is no impact to the service. State information is not relevant for DHCP relay or
DDNS.
• Access control policy decisions—Decisions related to traffic matching (including URL, URL category,
geolocation, and so forth), intrusion detection, malware, and file type are preserved during failover.
However, for connections being evaluated at the moment of failover, there are the following caveats:
• AVC—App-ID verdicts are replicated, but not detection states. Proper synchronization occurs as
long as the App-ID verdicts are complete and synchronized before failover occurs.
• Intrusion detection state—Upon failover, once mid-flow pickup occurs, new inspections are
completed, but old states are lost.
• File malware blocking—The file disposition must become available before failover.
• File type detection and blocking—The file type must be identified before failover. If failover occurs
while the original active device is identifying the file, the file type is not synchronized. Even if your
file policy blocks that file type, the new active device downloads the file.
• User identity decisions from the identity policy, including the user-to-IP address mappings gathered
passively through the User Agent and ISE Session Directory, and active authentication through captive
portal. Users who are actively authenticating at the moment of failover might be prompted to authenticate
again.
• Network AMP—Cloud lookups are independent from each device, so failover does not affect this feature
in general. Specifically:
• Signature Lookup—If failover occurs in the middle of a file transmission, no file event is generated
and no detection occurs.
• File Storage—If failover occurs when the file is being stored, it is stored on the original active
device. If the original active device went down while the file was being stored, the file does not get
stored.

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Unsupported Features
• File Pre-classification (Local Analysis)—If failover occurs in the middle of pre-classification,

detection fails.
• File Dynamic Analysis (Connectivity to the cloud)—If failover occurs, the system might submit
the file to the cloud.
• Archive File Support—If failover occurs in the middle of an analysis, the system loses visibility
into the file/archive.
• Custom Blacklisting—If failover occurs, no events are generated.
• Security Intelligence decisions. However, DNS-based decisions that are in process at the moment of
failover are not completed.
• RA VPN—Remote access VPN end users do not have to reauthenticate or reconnect the VPN session
after a failover. However, applications operating over the VPN connection could lose packets during the
failover process and not recover from the packet loss.
Unsupported Features
For Stateful Failover, the following state information is not passed to the standby Firepower Threat Defense
device:
• Sessions inside plaintext tunnels such as GRE or IP-in-IP. Sessions inside tunnels are not replicated and
the new active node will not be able to reuse existing inspection verdicts to match the correct policy
rules.
• Connections decrypted by the SSL Decryption policy—The decryption states are not synchronized and
current decrypted connections will be blocked with reset. New connections will work correctly.
Connections that are not decrypted (they match a do not decrypt rule) are not affected and are replicated
correctly as any other TCP connection.
• Multicast routing.
Bridge Group Requirements for High Availability

There are special considerations for high availability when using bridge groups.
When the active unit fails over to the standby unit, the switch port running Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) can
go into a blocking state for 30 to 50 seconds when it senses the topology change. To avoid traffic loss on the
bridge group member interfaces while the port is in a blocking state, you can configure one of the following
workarounds:
• Switch port is in Access mode—Enable the STP PortFast feature on the switch:
interface interface_id
spanning-tree portfast
The PortFast feature immediately transitions the port into STP forwarding mode upon linkup. The port
still participates in STP. So if the port is to be a part of the loop, the port eventually transitions into STP
blocking mode.
• If the switch port is in Trunk mode, or you cannot enable STP PortFast, then you can use one of the
following less desirable workarounds that impacts failover functionality or STP stability:

675
Failover Health Monitoring
• Disable interface monitoring on the bridge group and member interfaces.

• Increase the interface hold time in the failover criteria to a high value that will allow STP to converge
before the unit fails over.
• Decrease the STP timers on the switch to allow STP to converge faster than the interface hold time.
Failover Health Monitoring

The Firepower Threat Defense device monitors each unit for overall health and for interface health. This
section includes information about how the Firepower Threat Defense device performs tests to determine the
state of each unit.
Unit Health Monitoring

The Firepower Threat Defense device determines the health of the other unit by monitoring the failover link
with hello messages. When a unit does not receive three consecutive hello messages on the failover link, the
unit sends LANTEST messages on each data interface, including the failover link, to validate whether or not
the peer is responsive. The action that the Firepower Threat Defense device takes depends on the response
from the other unit. See the following possible actions:
• If the Firepower Threat Defense device receives a response on the failover link, then it does not fail over.
• If the Firepower Threat Defense device does not receive a response on the failover link, but it does receive
a response on a data interface, then the unit does not failover. The failover link is marked as failed. You
should restore the failover link as soon as possible because the unit cannot fail over to the standby while
the failover link is down.
• If the Firepower Threat Defense device does not receive a response on any interface, then the standby
unit switches to active mode and classifies the other unit as failed.
Interface Monitoring
When a unit does not receive hello messages on a monitored interface for 15 seconds, it runs interface tests.
If one of the interface tests fails for an interface, but this same interface on the other unit continues to
successfully pass traffic, then the interface is considered to be failed, and the device stops running tests.
If the threshold you define for the number of failed interfaces is met , and the active unit has more failed
interfaces than the standby unit, then a failover occurs. If an interface fails on both units, then both interfaces
go into the “Unknown” state and do not count towards the failover limit defined by failover interface policy.
An interface becomes operational again if it receives any traffic. A failed device returns to standby mode if
the interface failure threshold is no longer met.
If an interface has IPv4 and IPv6 addresses configured on it, the device uses the IPv4 addresses to perform
the health monitoring. If an interface has only IPv6 addresses configured on it, then the device uses IPv6
neighbor discovery instead of ARP to perform the health monitoring tests. For the broadcast ping test, the
device uses the IPv6 all nodes address (FE02::1).
Interface Tests
The Firepower Threat Defense device uses the following interface tests. The duration of each test is
approximately 1.5 seconds.

676
Interface Status
1. Link Up/Down test—A test of the interface status. If the Link Up/Down test indicates that the interface
is down, then the device considers it failed, and testing stops. If the status is Up, then the device performs
the Network Activity test.
2. Network Activity test—A received network activity test. At the start of the test, each unit clears its received
packet count for its interfaces. As soon as a unit receives any eligible packets during the test, then the
interface is considered operational. If both units receive traffic, then testing stops. If one unit receives
traffic and the other unit does not, then the interface on the unit that does not receive traffic is considered
failed, and testing stops. If neither unit receives traffic, then the device starts the ARP test.
3. ARP test—A test for successful ARP replies. Each unit sends a single ARP request for the IP address in
the most recent entry in its ARP table. If the unit receives an ARP reply or other network traffic during
the test, then the interface is considered operational. If the unit does not receive an ARP reply, then the
device sends a single ARP request for the IP address in the next entry in the ARP table. If the unit receives
an ARP reply or other network traffic during the test, then the interface is considered operational. If both
units receive traffic, then testing stops. If one unit receives traffic, and the other unit does not, then the
interface on the unit that does not receive traffic is considered failed, and testing stops. If neither unit
receives traffic, then the device starts the Broadcast Ping test.
4. Broadcast Ping test—A test for successful ping replies. Each unit sends a broadcast ping, and then counts
all received packets. If the unit receives any packets during the test, then the interface is considered
operational. If both units receive traffic, then testing stops. If one unit receives traffic, and the other unit
does not, then the interface on the unit that does not receive traffic is considered failed, and testing stops.
If neither unit receives traffic, then testing starts over again with the ARP test. If both units continue to
receive no traffic from the ARP and Broadcast Ping tests, then these tests will continue running in
perpetuity.
Interface Status
Monitored interfaces can have the following status:
• Unknown—Initial status. This status can also mean the status cannot be determined.
• Normal—The interface is receiving traffic.
• Normal (Waiting)—The interface is up, but has not yet received a hello packet from the corresponding
interface on the peer unit.
• Normal (Not-Monitored)—The interface is up, but is not monitored by the failover process.
• Testing—Hello messages are not heard on the interface for five poll times.
• Link Down—The interface or VLAN is administratively down.
• Link Down (Waiting)—The interface or VLAN is administratively down and has not yet received a hello
packet from the corresponding interface on the peer unit.
• Link Down (Not-Monitored)—The interface or VLAN is administratively down, but is not monitored
by the failover process.
• No Link—The physical link for the interface is down.
• No Link (Waiting)—The physical link for the interface is down and has not yet received a hello packet
from the corresponding interface on the peer unit.
• No Link (Not-Monitored)—The physical link for the interface is down, but is not monitored by the
failover process.

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Failover Triggers and Detection Timing
• Failed—No traffic is received on the interface, yet traffic is heard on the peer interface.
Failover Triggers and Detection Timing

The following table shows the failover triggering events and associated failure detection timing. If failover
occurs, you can view the reason for the failover in the Message Center, along with various operations pertaining
to the high availability pair.
Table 56: Firepower Threat Defense Failover Times
Failover Triggering Event Minimum Default Maximum
Active unit loses power or stops 800 milliseconds 15 seconds 45 seconds

normal operation.
Active unit interface physical 500 milliseconds 5 seconds 15 seconds

link down.
Active unit interface up, but 5 seconds 25 seconds 75 seconds

connection problem causes
interface testing.
About Active/Standby Failover

Active/Standby failover lets you use a standby Firepower Threat Defense device to take over the functionality
of a failed unit. When the active unit fails, the standby unit becomes the active unit.
Primary/Secondary Roles and Active/Standby Status

When setting up Active/Standby failover, you configure one unit to be primary and the other to be secondary.
During configuration, the primary unit's policies are synchronized to the secondary unit. At this point, the two
units act as a single device for device and policy configuration. However, for events, dashboards, reports and
health monitoring, they continue to display as separate devices.
The main differences between the two units in a failover pair are related to which unit is active and which
unit is standby, namely which IP addresses to use and which unit actively passes traffic.
However, a few differences exist between the units based on which unit is primary (as specified in the
configuration) and which unit is secondary:
• The primary unit always becomes the active unit if both units start up at the same time (and are of equal
operational health).
• The primary unit MAC addresses are always coupled with the active IP addresses. The exception to this
rule occurs when the secondary unit becomes active and cannot obtain the primary unit MAC addresses
over the failover link. In this case, the secondary unit MAC addresses are used.
Active Unit Determination at Startup

The active unit is determined by the following:
• If a unit boots and detects a peer already running as active, it becomes the standby unit.

678
Failover Events
• If a unit boots and does not detect a peer, it becomes the active unit.
• If both units boot simultaneously, then the primary unit becomes the active unit, and the secondary unit
becomes the standby unit.
Failover Events
In Active/Standby failover, failover occurs on a unit basis.
The following table shows the failover action for each failure event. For each failure event, the table shows
the failover policy (failover or no failover), the action taken by the active unit, the action taken by the standby
unit, and any special notes about the failover condition and actions.
Table 57: Failover Events
Failure Event Policy Active Group Action Standby Group Action Notes
Active unit failed (power Failover n/a Become active No hello messages are
or hardware) received on any
Mark active as failed
monitored interface or the
failover link.
Formerly active unit No failover Become standby No action None.

recovers
Standby unit failed No failover Mark standby as failed n/a When the standby unit is
(power or hardware) marked as failed, then the
active unit does not
attempt to fail over, even
if the interface failure
threshold is surpassed.
Failover link failed No failover Mark failover link as Mark failover link as You should restore the
during operation failed failed failover link as soon as
possible because the unit
cannot fail over to the
standby unit while the
failover link is down.
Failover link failed at No failover Mark failover link as Become active If the failover link is
startup failed down at startup, both
units become active.
State link failed No failover No action No action State information

becomes out of date, and
sessions are terminated if
a failover occurs.
Interface failure on active Failover Mark active as failed Become active None.
unit above threshold

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Guidelines for High Availability
Failure Event Policy Active Group Action Standby Group Action Notes
Interface failure on No failover No action Mark standby as failed When the standby unit is
standby unit above marked as failed, then the
threshold active unit does not
attempt to fail over even
if the interface failure
threshold is surpassed.
Guidelines for High Availability

Model Support
• ASA 5506W-X—You must disable interface monitoring for the internal GigabitEthernet 1/9 interface.
These interfaces will not be able to communicate to perform the default interface monitoring checks,
resulting in a switch from active to standby and back again because of expected interface communication
failures.
• Firepower Threat Defense on the Firepower 9300—Intra-chassis High Availability is not supported.
• The Firepower Threat Defense Virtual on public cloud networks such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon
Web Services are not supported with High Availability because Layer 2 connectivity is required.
• When the active unit fails over to the standby unit, the connected switch port running Spanning Tree
Protocol (STP) can go into a blocking state for 30 to 50 seconds when it senses the topology change. To
avoid traffic loss while the port is in a blocking state, you can enable the STP PortFast feature on the
switch:
interface interface_id spanning-tree portfast
This workaround applies to switches connected to both routed mode and bridge group interfaces. The
PortFast feature immediately transitions the port into STP forwarding mode upon linkup. The port still
participates in STP. So if the port is to be a part of the loop, the port eventually transitions into STP
blocking mode.
• You cannot enable failover if a local CA server is configured. Remove the CA configuration using the
no crypto ca server command.
• Configuring port security on the switch(es) connected to the Firepower Threat Defense failover pair can
cause communication problems when a failover event occurs. This problem occurs when a secure MAC
address configured or learned on one secure port moves to another secure port, a violation is flagged by
the switch port security feature.
• For Active/Standby High Availability and a VPN IPsec tunnel, you cannot monitor both the active and
standby units using SNMP over the VPN tunnel. The standby unit does not have an active VPN tunnel,
and will drop traffic destined for the NMS. You can instead use SNMPv3 with encryption so the IPsec
tunnel is not required.

680
Add a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability Pair

Any N/A Firepower Threat Any Admin/Network

Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
When establishing an Active/Standby High Availability pair, you designate one of the devices as primary and
the other as secondary. The system applies a merged configuration to the paired devices. If there is a conflict,
the system applies the configuration from the device you designated as primary.
In a multidomain deployment, devices in a high availability pair must belong to the same domain.
Note The system uses the failover link to sync configuration, while the stateful failover link is used to sync application
content between peers. The failover link and the stateful failover link are in a private IP space and are only
used for communication between peers in a high availability pair.After high availability is established, selected
interface links and encryption settings cannot be modified without breaking the high availability pair and
reconfiguring it.
Caution Creating or breaking a Firepower Threat Defense high availability pair immediately restarts the Snort process
on the primary and secondary devices, temporarily interrupting traffic inspection on both devices. Whether
traffic drops during this interruption or passes without further inspection depends on how the target device
handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information. The system warns
you that continuing to create a high availability pair restarts the Snort process on the primary and secondary
devices and allows you to cancel.
Before you begin

Confirm that both devices:
• Are the same model.
• Have the same number and type of interfaces.
• Are in the same domain and group.
• Have normal health status and are running the same software.
• Are either in routed or transparent mode.
• Have the same NTP configuration. See Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense, on
page 1021.
• Are fully deployed with no uncommitted changes.
• Do not have DHCP or PPPoE configured in any of their interfaces.

681
Note The High Availability formation is possible between the two Firepower Threat Defense devices when the
certificate available on the primary device is not present on the secondary device. When High Availability is
formed, the certificate will be synched on the secondary device.
Procedure
Step 1 Add both devices to the Firepower Management Center according to Add Devices to the Firepower Management
Step 3 From the Add drop-down menu, choose Add High Availability.
Step 4 Enter a display Name for the high availability pair.
Step 5 Under Device Type, choose Firepower Threat Defense.
Step 6 Choose the Primary Peer device for the high availability pair.
Step 7 Choose the Secondary Peer device for the high availability pair.
Step 9 Under LAN Failover Link, choose an Interface with enough bandwidth to reserve for failover communications.
Note Only interfaces that do not have a logical name and do not belong to a security zone,will be listed
in the Interface drop-down in the Add High Availability Pair dialog.
Step 10 Type any identifying Logical Name.

Step 11 Type a Primary IP address for the failover link on the active unit. This address should be on an unused subnet.
Note 169.254.0.0/16 and fd00:0:0:*::/64 are internally used subnets and cannot be used for the failover
or state links.
Step 12 Optionally, choose Use IPv6 Address.

Step 13 Type a Secondary IP address for the failover link on the standby unit. This IP address must be in the same
subnet as the primary IP address.
Step 14 If IPv4 addresses are used, type a Subnet Mask that applies to both the primary and secondary IP addresses.
Step 15 Optionally, under Stateful Failover Link, choose the same Interface, or choose a different interface and enter
the high availability configuration information.
Note 169.254.0.0/16 and fd00:0:0:*::/64 are internally used subnets and cannot be used for the failover
or state links.
Step 16 Optionally, choose Enabled and choose the Key Generation method for IPsec Encryption between the
failover links.
Step 17 Click OK. This process takes a few minutes as the process synchronizes system data.

682
Configure Optional High Availability Parameters
Configure Optional High Availability Parameters

You can view the initial High Availability Configuration on the Firepower Management Center. You cannot
edit these settings without breaking the high availability pair and then re-establishing it.
You can edit the Failover Trigger Criteria to improve failover results. Interface Monitoring allows you to
determine which interfaces are better suited for failover.
Configure Standby IP Addresses and Interface Monitoring


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
For each interface, set a standby IP address. Although recommended, the standby address is not required.
Without a standby IP address, the active unit cannot perform network tests to check the standby interface
health; it can only track the link state.
By default, monitoring is enabled on all physical interfaces with logical names configured. You might want
to exclude interfaces attached to less critical networks from affecting your failover policy.
Procedure

Step 3 Click the High Availability tab.

Step 4 In the Monitored Interfaces area, click the edit icon ( ) next to the interface you want to edit.
Step 5 Check the Monitor this interface for failures check box.
Step 6 On the IPv4 tab, enter the Standby IP Address.
This address must be a free address on the same network as the active IP address.
Step 7 If you configured the IPv6 address manually, on the IPv6 tab, click the edit icon ( ) next to the active IP
address, enter the Standby IP Address, and click OK.
This address must be a free address on the same network as the active IP address. For autogenerated and
Enforce EUI 64 addresses, the standby address is automatically generated.
Step 8 Click OK.

683
Edit High Availability Failover Criteria
Edit High Availability Failover Criteria


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
You can customize failover criteria based on your network deployment.
Procedure


Step 4 Next to Failover Trigger Criteria, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 5 Under Interface Failure Threshold, choose the number or percentage of interfaces that must fail before the
device fails over.
Step 6 Under Hello packet Intervals, choose how often hello packets are sent over the failover link.
Step 7 Click OK.
Configure Virtual MAC addresses


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
You can configure active and standby MAC addresses for failover in two places on the Firepower Management
Center:
• The Advanced tab of the Edit Interface page during interface configuration; see Configure the MAC
Address, on page 632.
• The Add Interface MAC Address page accessed from the High Availability page; see
If active and standby MAC addresses are configured in both locations, the addresses defined during interface
configuration takes preference for failover.
You can minimize loss of traffic during failover by designating active and standby mac addresses to the
physical interface. This feature offers redundancy against IP address mapping for failover.

684
Manage High Availability
Procedure

Step 4 Choose the add icon ( )next to Interface Mac Addresses.
Step 5 Choose a Physical Interface.
Step 6 Type an Active Interface Mac Address.
Step 7 Type a Standby Interface Mac Address.
Step 8 Click OK.
Manage High Availability

This section describes how to manage High Availability units after you enable High Availability, including
how to change the High Availability setup and how to force failover from one unit to another.
Switch the Active Peer in a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability Pair

Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
After you establish a Firepower Threat Defense high availability pair, you can manually switch the active and
standby units, effectively forcing failover for reasons such as persistent fault or health events on the current
active unit. Both units should be fully deployed before you complete this procedure.
Before you begin

Refresh node status in a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability pair, on page 686
Note This ensures that the status on the Firepower Threat Defense high availability device pair is in sync with the
status on the Firepower Management Center.

685
Refresh node status in a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability pair
Procedure

Step 2 Next to the high availability pair where you want to change the active peer, click the Switch Active Peer icon
( ).
Step 3 You can:
• Click Yes to immediately make the standby device the active device in the high availability pair.
Refresh node status in a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability pair


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
Whenever active or standby devices in a high availability pair are rebooted, the Firepower Management Center
may not display accurate high availability status for either device. This is because when theFirepower Threat
Defense reboots, the high availability status is immediately updated on the Firepower Threat Defense and its
corresponding event is sent to the Firepower Management Center. However, the status may not be updated
on the Firepower Management Center because the communication between the Firepower Threat Defense
and the Firepower Management Center is yet to be established.
Communication failures or weak communication channels between the Firepower Management Center and
the Firepower Threat Defense devices may result in out of sync data. When you switch the active and standby
devices in a high availability pair, the change may not be reflected in the Firepower Management Center even
after a significant time duration.
In these scenarios, you can refresh the high availability node status to obtain accurate information about the
active and standby device in a high availability pair.
Note The node refresh operation is available only on a Firepower Threat Defense high availability device being
managed by Firepower Management Center version 6.2.3 or later.
Procedure

Step 2 Next to the high availability pair where you want to refresh the node status, click the Refresh HA Node Status
icon ( ).

686
Suspend and Resume High Availability
Step 3 You can:

• Click Yes to refresh the node status of the high availability pair.
Suspend and Resume High Availability

You can suspend a unit in a high availability pair. This is useful when:
• Both units are in an active-active situation and fixing the communication on the failover link does not
correct the problem.
• You want to troubleshoot an active or standby unit and do not want the units to fail over during that time.
When you suspend high availability, you stop the pair of devices from behaving as a failover unit. The currently
active device remains active, handling all user connections. However, failover criteria are no longer monitored,
and the system will never fail over to the now pseudo-standby device. The standby device will retain its
configuration, but it will remain inactive.
The key difference between suspending HA and breaking HA is that on a suspended HA device, the high
availability configuration is retained. When you break HA, the configuration is erased. Thus, you have the
option to resume HA on a suspended system, which enables the existing configuration and makes the two
devices function as a failover pair again.
To suspend HA, use the configure high-availability suspend command.
> configure high-availability suspend

Please ensure that no deployment operation is in progress before suspending
high-availability.
Please enter 'YES' to continue if there is no deployment operation in
progress and 'NO' if you wish to abort: YES
Successfully suspended high-availability.
If you suspend high availability from the active unit, the configuration is suspended on both the active and
standby unit. If you suspend it from the standby unit, it is suspended on the standby unit only, but the active
unit will not attempt to fail over to a suspended unit.
To resume failover, use the configure high-availability resume command.
> configure high-availability resume

Successfully resumed high-availablity.
You can resume a unit only if it is in Suspended state. The unit will negotiate active/standby status with the
peer unit.
Note Suspending high availability is a temporary state. If you reload a unit, it resumes the high-availability
configuration automatically and negotiates the active/standby state with the peer.

687
Replace a Unit
Replace a Unit
If you need to replace a failed unit in a Firepower Threat Defense high availability pair, you must choose the
Force Break option to separate the pair. After you replace or repair the unit, you must then register the device
on the Firepower Management Center and reestablish high availability. The process varies depending on
whether the device is primary or secondary.
Replace a Primary Unit


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
Follow the steps below to replace a failed primary unit in a Firepower Threat Defense high availability pair.
Failing to follow these steps can overwrite the existing high availability configuration.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Force Break to separate the high availability pair; see Separate Units in a High Availability Pair, on
page 689.
Step 2 Unregister the failed primary Firepower Threat Defense device from the Firepower Management Center; see
Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center, on page 199.
Step 3 Register the replacement Firepower Threat Defense to the Firepower Management Center; see Add Devices
Step 4 Configure high availability, using the existing secondary/active unit as the primary device and the replacement
device as the secondary/standby device during registration; see Add a Firepower Threat Defense High
Availability Pair, on page 681.
Replace a Secondary Unit


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
Follow the steps below to replace a failed secondary unit in a Firepower Threat Defense high availability pair.

688
Separate Units in a High Availability Pair
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Force Break to separate the high availability pair; see Separate Units in a High Availability Pair, on
page 689.
Step 2 Unregister the secondary Firepower Threat Defense device from the Firepower Management Center; see
Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center, on page 199.
Step 3 Register the replacement Firepower Threat Defense to the Firepower Management Center; see Add Devices
Step 4 Configure high availability, using the existing primary/active unit as the primary device and the replacement
device as the secondary/standby device during registration; see Add a Firepower Threat Defense High
Availability Pair, on page 681.
Separate Units in a High Availability Pair


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
When you break a high availability pair, the active device retains full deployed functionality. The standby
device loses its failover and interface configurations, and becomes a standalone device.
Policies that were not deployed to the active device prior to the break operation continue to remain un-deployed
after the break operation is complete. Deploy the policies on the standalone device, after the break operation
is complete.
Tip An exception to this is the flex-config policy. A flex-config policy deployed on the active device may show
a deployment failure after the break HA operation. You must alter and re-deploy the flex-config policy on
the active device.
Note If you cannot reach the high availability pair using the Firepower Management Center, use the CLI command
configure high-availability disable to remove the failover configuration from both devices.
Before you begin

Refresh node status in a Firepower Threat Defense High Availability pair, on page 686
Note This ensures that the status on the Firepower Threat Defense high availability device pair is in sync with the
status on the Firepower Management Center.

689
Unregister a High Availability Pair
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the high-availability pair you want to break, click the Break HA icon ( ).
Step 3 Optionally, check the check box to force break, if the standby peer does not respond.
Step 4 Click Yes. The device high-availability pair is separated.
The Break operation removes the failover configuration from the active and standby devices.
What to do next
(Optional) If you are using a flex-config policy on the active device, alter and re-deploy the flex-config policy
to eliminate deployment errors.
Unregister a High Availability Pair


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
You can delete the pair from the Firepower Management Center and disable High Availability on each unit
using the CLI.
Before you begin

This procedure requires CLI access.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the high-availability pair you want to unregister, click the Delete icon ( ).
Step 3 Click Yes. The device high availability pair is deleted.
Step 4 On each unit, access the Firepower Threat Defense CLI, and enter the following command:
configure high-availability disable
If you do not enter this command, you cannot re-register the units and form a new HA pair.

690
Monitoring High Availability
Note Enter this command before you change the firewall mode; if you change the mode, the unit will not
later let you enter the configure high-availability disable command, and the Firepower Management
Center cannot re-form the HA pair without this command.
Monitoring High Availability

This section lets you monitor the High Availability status.
View Failover History


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
You can view the failover history of both high availability devices in a single view. The history displays in
chronological order and includes the reason for any failover.
Procedure
Step 3 Choose Summary.

Step 4 Under General, click the view icon ( ).
View Stateful Failover Statistics


Defense Admin
Firepower Threat
Defense Virtual
You can view the stateful failover link statistics of both the primary and secondary devices in the high
availability pair.

691
View Stateful Failover Statistics
Procedure

Step 4 Under Stateful Failover Link, click the view icon ( ).
Step 5 Choose a device to view statistics.

692
CHAPTER 35
Clustering for the Firepower Threat Defense
Clustering lets you group multiple FTD units together as a single logical device. Clustering is only supported
for the FTD device on the Firepower 9300 and the Firepower 4100 series. A cluster provides all the convenience
of a single device (management, integration into a network) while achieving the increased throughput and
redundancy of multiple devices.
Note Some features are not supported when using clustering. See Unsupported Features with Clustering, on page
698.
• About Clustering on the Firepower 4100/9300 Chassis, on page 693

• Firepower Threat Defense Features and Clustering, on page 698
• Licenses for Clustering, on page 701
• Requirements and Prerequisites for Clustering, on page 701
• Clustering Guidelines and Limitations, on page 702
• Configure Clustering, on page 706
• FXOS: Remove a Cluster Member, on page 716
• FMC: Manage Cluster Members, on page 718
• FMC: Monitoring the Cluster, on page 720
• Reference for Clustering, on page 721
• History for Clustering, on page 726
About Clustering on the Firepower 4100/9300 Chassis

The cluster consists of multiple devices acting as a single logical unit. When you deploy a cluster on the
Firepower 4100/9300 chassis, it does the following:
• Creates a cluster-control link (by default, port-channel 48) for unit-to-unit communication. For intra-chassis
clustering (Firepower 9300 only), this link utilizes the Firepower 9300 backplane for cluster
communications. For inter-chassis clustering, you need to manually assign physical interface(s) to this
EtherChannel for communications between chassis.
• Creates the cluster bootstrap configuration within the application.

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Bootstrap Configuration
When you deploy the cluster, the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis supervisor pushes a minimal bootstrap
configuration to each unit that includes the cluster name, cluster control link interface, and other cluster
settings.
• Assigns data interfaces to the cluster as Spanned interfaces.
For intra-chassis clustering, spanned interfaces are not limited to EtherChannels, like it is for inter-chassis
clustering.The Firepower 9300 supervisor uses EtherChannel technology internally to load-balance traffic
to multiple modules on a shared interface, so any data interface type works for Spanned mode. For
inter-chassis clustering, you must use Spanned EtherChannels for all data interfaces.
Note Individual interfaces are not supported, with the exception of a management
interface.
• Assigns a management interface to all units in the cluster.
The following sections provide more detail about clustering concepts and implementation. See also Reference
for Clustering, on page 721.
Bootstrap Configuration
When you deploy the cluster, the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis supervisor pushes a minimal bootstrap
configuration to each unit that includes the cluster name, cluster control link interface, and other cluster
settings.
Cluster Members
Cluster members work together to accomplish the sharing of the security policy and traffic flows.
One member of the cluster is the master unit. The master unit is determined automatically. All other members
are slave units.
You must perform all configuration on the master unit only; the configuration is then replicated to the slave
units.
Some features do not scale in a cluster, and the master unit handles all traffic for those features. See Centralized
Features for Clustering, on page 698.
Cluster Control Link

The cluster control link is automatically created using the Port-channel 48 interface. For intra-chassis clustering,
this interface has no member interfaces. This Cluster type EtherChannel utilizes the Firepower 9300 backplane
for cluster communications for intra-chassis clustering.
Cluster control link traffic includes both control and data traffic.
Size the Cluster Control Link for Inter-Chassis Clustering

If possible, you should size the cluster control link to match the expected throughput of each chassis so the
cluster-control link can handle the worst-case scenarios.

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Cluster Control Link Redundancy for Inter-Chassis Clustering
Cluster control link traffic is comprised mainly of state update and forwarded packets. The amount of traffic
at any given time on the cluster control link varies. The amount of forwarded traffic depends on the
load-balancing efficacy or whether there is a lot of traffic for centralized features. For example:
• NAT results in poor load balancing of connections, and the need to rebalance all returning traffic to the
correct units.
• When membership changes, the cluster needs to rebalance a large number of connections, thus temporarily
using a large amount of cluster control link bandwidth.
A higher-bandwidth cluster control link helps the cluster to converge faster when there are membership changes
and prevents throughput bottlenecks.
Note If your cluster has large amounts of asymmetric (rebalanced) traffic, then you should increase the cluster
control link size.
Cluster Control Link Redundancy for Inter-Chassis Clustering

The following diagram shows how to use an EtherChannel as a cluster control link in a Virtual Switching
System (VSS) or Virtual Port Channel (vPC) environment. All links in the EtherChannel are active. When
the switch is part of a VSS or vPC, then you can connect Firepower 9300 chassis interfaces within the same
EtherChannel to separate switches in the VSS or vPC. The switch interfaces are members of the same
EtherChannel port-channel interface, because the separate switches act like a single switch. Note that this
EtherChannel is device-local, not a Spanned EtherChannel.

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Cluster Control Link Reliability for Inter-Chassis Clustering
Cluster Control Link Reliability for Inter-Chassis Clustering

To ensure cluster control link functionality, be sure the round-trip time (RTT) between units is less than 20
ms. This maximum latency enhances compatibility with cluster members installed at different geographical
sites. To check your latency, perform a ping on the cluster control link between units.
The cluster control link must be reliable, with no out-of-order or dropped packets; for example, for inter-site
deployment, you should use a dedicated link.
Cluster Control Link Network

The Firepower 4100/9300 chassis auto-generates the cluster control link interface IP address for each unit
based on the chassis ID and slot ID: 127.2.chassis_id.slot_id. You cannot set this IP address manually, either
in FXOS or within the application. The cluster control link network cannot include any routers between units;
only Layer 2 switching is allowed.
Management Network
We recommend connecting all units to a single management network. This network is separate from the cluster
control link.
Management Interface
You must assign a Management type interface to the cluster. This interface is a special individual interface
as opposed to a Spanned interface. The management interface lets you connect directly to each unit. This
Management logical interface is separate from the other interfaces on the device. It is used to set up and
register the device to the Firepower Management Center. It uses its own local authentication, IP address, and
static routing. Each cluster member uses a separate IP address on the management network that you set as
part of the bootstrap configuration.
The management interface is shared between the Management logical interface and the Diagnostic logical
interface. The Diagnostic logical interface is optional and is not configured as part of the bootstrap configuration.
The Diagnostic interface can be configured along with the rest of the data interfaces. If you choose to configure
the Diagnostic interface, configure a Main cluster IP address as a fixed address for the cluster that always
belongs to the current master unit. You also configure a range of addresses so that each unit, including the
current master, can use a Local address from the range. The Main cluster IP address provides consistent
diagnostic access to an address; when a master unit changes, the Main cluster IP address moves to the new
master unit, so access to the cluster continues seamlessly. For outbound management traffic such as TFTP or
syslog, each unit, including the master unit, uses the Local IP address to connect to the server.
Cluster Interfaces
For intra-chassis clustering, you can assign both physical interfaces or EtherChannels (also known as port
channels) to the cluster. Interfaces assigned to the cluster are Spanned interfaces that load-balance traffic
across all members of the cluster.
For inter-chassis clustering, you can only assign data EtherChannels to the cluster. These Spanned
EtherChannels include the same member interfaces on each chassis; on the upstream switch, all of these
interfaces are included in a single EtherChannel, so the switch does not know that it is connected to multiple
devices.
Individual interfaces are not supported, with the exception of a management interface.

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Spanned EtherChannels
Spanned EtherChannels
You can group one or more interfaces per chassis into an EtherChannel that spans all chassis in the cluster.
The EtherChannel aggregates the traffic across all the available active interfaces in the channel. A Spanned
EtherChannel can be configured in both routed and transparent firewall modes. In routed mode, the
EtherChannel is configured as a routed interface with a single IP address. In transparent mode, the IP address
is assigned to the BVI, not to the bridge group member interface. The EtherChannel inherently provides load
balancing as part of basic operation.
Connecting to a VSS or vPC

We recommend connecting EtherChannels to a VSS or vPC to provide redundancy for your interfaces.
Configuration Replication
All units in the cluster share a single configuration. You can only make configuration changes on the master
unit, and changes are automatically synced to all other units in the cluster.

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Firepower Threat Defense Features and Clustering
Firepower Threat Defense Features and Clustering

Some FTD features are not supported with clustering, and some are only supported on the master unit. Other
features might have caveats for proper usage.
Unsupported Features with Clustering

These features cannot be configured with clustering enabled, and the commands will be rejected.
• Remote access VPN (SSL VPN and IPsec VPN)
• DHCP client, server, and proxy. DHCP relay is supported.
• High Availability
• Integrated Routing and Bridging
Centralized Features for Clustering

The following features are only supported on the master unit, and are not scaled for the cluster.
Note Traffic for centralized features is forwarded from member units to the master unit over the cluster control
link.
If you use the rebalancing feature, traffic for centralized features may be rebalanced to non-master units before
the traffic is classified as a centralized feature; if this occurs, the traffic is then sent back to the master unit.
For centralized features, if the master unit fails, all connections are dropped, and you have to re-establish the
connections on the new master unit.
• The following application inspections:

• DCERPC
• NetBIOS
• RSH
• SUNRPC
• TFTP
• XDMCP
• Dynamic routing
• Static route monitoring

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Dynamic Routing and Clustering
Dynamic Routing and Clustering

The routing process only runs on the master unit, and routes are learned through the master unit and replicated
to secondaries. If a routing packet arrives at a slave, it is redirected to the master unit.
Figure 16: Dynamic Routing
After the slave members learn the routes from the master unit, each unit makes forwarding decisions
independently.
The OSPF LSA database is not synchronized from the master unit to slave units. If there is a master unit
switchover, the neighboring router will detect a restart; the switchover is not transparent. The OSPF process
picks an IP address as its router ID. Although not required, you can assign a static router ID to ensure a
consistent router ID is used across the cluster. See the OSPF Non-Stop Forwarding feature to address the
interruption.
NAT and Clustering

NAT can affect the overall throughput of the cluster. Inbound and outbound NAT packets can be sent to
different Firepower Threat Defense devices in the cluster, because the load balancing algorithm relies on IP
addresses and ports, and NAT causes inbound and outbound packets to have different IP addresses and/or
ports. When a packet arrives at the Firepower Threat Defense device that is not the NAT owner, it is forwarded
over the cluster control link to the owner, causing large amounts of traffic on the cluster control link. Note
that the receiving unit does not create a forwarding flow to the owner, because the NAT owner may not end
up creating a connection for the packet depending on the results of security and policy checks.
If you still want to use NAT in clustering, then consider the following guidelines:
• NAT pool address distribution for dynamic PAT—The master unit evenly pre-distributes addresses across
the cluster. If a member receives a connection and they have no addresses left, then the connection is
dropped even if other members still have addresses available. Make sure to include at least as many NAT
addresses as there are units in the cluster to ensure that each unit receives an address.
• No round-robin—Round-robin for a PAT pool is not supported with clustering.
• Dynamic NAT xlates managed by the master unit—The master unit maintains and replicates the xlate
table to slave units. When a slave unit receives a connection that requires dynamic NAT, and the xlate
is not in the table, it requests the xlate from the master unit. The slave unit owns the connection.
• No static PAT for the following inspections—

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SIP Inspection and Clustering
• FTP
• RSH
• SQLNET
• TFTP
• XDMCP
• SIP
SIP Inspection and Clustering

A control flow can be created on any unit (due to load balancing); its child data flows must reside on the same
unit.
Syslog and Clustering

• Each unit in the cluster generates its own syslog messages. You can configure logging so that each unit
uses either the same or a different device ID in the syslog message header field. For example, the hostname
configuration is replicated and shared by all units in the cluster. If you configure logging to use the
hostname as the device ID, syslog messages generated by all units look as if they come from a single
unit. If you configure logging to use the local-unit name that is assigned in the cluster bootstrap
configuration as the device ID, syslog messages look as if they come from different units.
SNMP and Clustering

An SNMP agent polls each individual Firepower Threat Defense device by its Diagnostic interface Local IP
address. You cannot poll consolidated data for the cluster.
You should always use the Local address, and not the Main cluster IP address for SNMP polling. If the SNMP
agent polls the Main cluster IP address, if a new master is elected, the poll to the new master unit will fail.
FTP and Clustering

• If FTP data channel and control channel flows are owned by different cluster members, then the data
channel owner will periodically send idle timeout updates to the control channel owner and update the
idle timeout value. However, if the control flow owner is reloaded, and the control flow is re-hosted, the
parent/child flow relationship will not longer be maintained; the control flow idle timeout will not be
updated.
Cisco TrustSec and Clustering

Only the master unit learns security group tag (SGT) information. The master unit then populates the SGT to
slaves, and slaves can make a match decision for SGT based on the security policy.

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VPN and Clustering
VPN and Clustering

Site-to-site VPN is a centralized feature; only the master unit supports VPN connections.
Note Remote access VPN is not supported with clustering.
VPN functionality is limited to the master unit and does not take advantage of the cluster high availability
capabilities. If the master unit fails, all existing VPN connections are lost, and VPN users will see a disruption
in service. When a new master is elected, you must reestablish the VPN connections.
When you connect a VPN tunnel to a Spanned interface address, connections are automatically forwarded to
the master unit.
VPN-related keys and certificates are replicated to all units.
Licenses for Clustering

The FTD uses Smart Licensing. You assign licenses to the cluster as a whole, not to individual units. However,
each unit of the cluster consumes a separate license for each feature.
When you add a cluster member to the FMC, you can specify the feature licenses you want to use for the
cluster. If you choose different feature licenses for each device before you form them into a cluster in the
FMC, then the licenses you chose for the master unit are used for the cluster. You can modify licenses for the
cluster in the Devices > Device Management > Cluster > License area.
Note If you add the cluster before the FMC is licensed (and running in Evaluation mode), then when you license
the FMC, you can experience traffic disruption when you deploy policy changes to the cluster. Changing to
licensed mode causes all slave units to leave the cluster and then rejoin.
Requirements and Prerequisites for Clustering

Cluster Model Support
• Firepower 9300—You can include up to 6 units in the cluster in up to 6 chassis. Supports intra-chassis
and inter-chassis clustering.
• Firepower 4100 series—Supported for up to 6 units using inter-chassis clustering.
Inter-Chassis Clustering Hardware and Software Requirements

All chassis in a cluster:
• For the Firepower 4100 series: All chassis must be the same model. For the Firepower 9300: All security
modules must be the same type. You can have different quantities of installed security modules in each
chassis, although all modules present in the chassis must belong to the cluster including any empty slots.

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Clustering Guidelines and Limitations
• Must run the identical FXOS software except at the time of an image upgrade.
• Must include the same interface configuration for interfaces you assign to the cluster, such as the same
Management interface, EtherChannels, active interfaces, speed and duplex, and so on. You can use
different network module types on the chassis as long as the capacity matches for the same interface IDs
and interfaces can successfully bundle in the same spanned EtherChannel. Note that all data interfaces
must be EtherChannels in inter-chassis clustering. If you change the interfaces in FXOS after you enable
clustering (by adding or removing interface modules, or configuring EtherChannels, for example), then
perform the same changes on each chassis, starting with the slave units, and ending with the master.
• Must use the same NTP server. For Firepower Threat Defense, the Firepower Management Center must
also use the same NTP server. Do not set the time manually.
Switch Requirements for Inter-Chassis Clustering

• Be sure to complete the switch configuration and successfully connect all the EtherChannels from the
chassis to the switch(es) before you configure clustering on the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis.
• For a list of supported switches, see Cisco FXOS Compatibility.

Switches for Inter-Chassis Clustering
• For the ASR 9006, if you want to set a non-default MTU, set the ASR interface MTU to be 14 bytes
higher than the cluster device MTU. Otherwise, OSPF adjacency peering attempts may fail unless the
mtu-ignore option is used. Note that the cluster device MTU should match the ASR IPv4 MTU.
• On the switch(es) for the cluster control link interfaces, you can optionally enable Spanning Tree PortFast
on the switch ports connected to the cluster unit to speed up the join process for new units.
• When you see slow bundling of a Spanned EtherChannel on the switch, you can enable LACP rate fast
for an individual interface on the switch. Note that some switches, such as the Nexus series, do not support
LACP rate fast when performing in-service software upgrades (ISSUs), so we do not recommend using
ISSUs with clustering.
• On the switch, we recommend that you use one of the following EtherChannel load-balancing algorithms:
source-dest-ip or source-dest-ip-port (see the Cisco Nexus OS and Cisco IOS port-channel load-balance
command). Do not use a vlan keyword in the load-balance algorithm because it can cause unevenly
distributed traffic to the devices in a cluster.
• If you change the load-balancing algorithm of the EtherChannel on the switch, the EtherChannel interface
on the switch temporarily stops forwarding traffic, and the Spanning Tree Protocol restarts. There will
be a delay before traffic starts flowing again.
• Some switches do not support dynamic port priority with LACP (active and standby links). You can
disable dynamic port priority to provide better compatibility with Spanned EtherChannels.
• Switches on the cluster control link path should not verify the L4 checksum. Redirected traffic over the
cluster control link does not have a correct L4 checksum. Switches that verify the L4 checksum could
cause traffic to be dropped.
• Port-channel bundling downtime should not exceed the configured keepalive interval.

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• On Supervisor 2T EtherChannels, the default hash distribution algorithm is adaptive. To avoid asymmetric
traffic in a VSS design, change the hash algorithm on the port-channel connected to the cluster device
to fixed:
router(config)# port-channel id hash-distribution fixed
Do not change the algorithm globally; you may want to take advantage of the adaptive algorithm for the
VSS peer link.
EtherChannels for Inter-Chassis Clustering

• For connecting switches, set the EtherChannel mode to Active; On mode is not supported on the Firepower
4100/9300 chassis, even for the cluster control link.
• FXOS EtherChannels have the LACP rate set to fast by default. Some switches, such as the Nexus series,
do not support LACP rate fast when performing in-service software upgrades (ISSUs), so we do not
recommend using ISSUs with clustering.
• In Catalyst 3750-X Cisco IOS software versions earlier than 15.1(1)S2, the cluster unit did not support
connecting an EtherChannel to a switch stack. With default switch settings, if the cluster unit EtherChannel
is connected cross stack, and if the master switch is powered down, then the EtherChannel connected to
the remaining switch will not come up. To improve compatibility, set the stack-mac persistent timer
command to a large enough value to account for reload time; for example, 8 minutes or 0 for indefinite.
Or, you can upgrade to more a more stable switch software version, such as 15.1(1)S2.
• Spanned vs. Device-Local EtherChannel Configuration—Be sure to configure the switch appropriately
for Spanned EtherChannels vs. Device-local EtherChannels.
• Spanned EtherChannels—For cluster unit Spanned EtherChannels, which span across all members
of the cluster, the interfaces are combined into a single EtherChannel on the switch. Make sure each
interface is in the same channel group on the switch.

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• Device-local EtherChannels—For cluster unit Device-local EtherChannels including any

EtherChannels configured for the cluster control link, be sure to configure discrete EtherChannels
on the switch; do not combine multiple cluster unit EtherChannels into one EtherChannel on the
switch.

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• When adding a unit to an existing cluster, or when reloading a unit, there will be a temporary, limited
packet/connection drop; this is expected behavior. In some cases, the dropped packets can hang
connections; for example, dropping a FIN/ACK packet for an FTP connection will make the FTP client
hang. In this case, you need to reestablish the FTP connection.
• If you use a Windows 2003 server connected to a Spanned EtherChannel interface, when the syslog
server port is down, and the server does not throttle ICMP error messages, then large numbers of ICMP
messages are sent back to the cluster. These messages can result in some units of the cluster experiencing
high CPU, which can affect performance. We recommend that you throttle ICMP error messages.
• We recommend connecting EtherChannels to a VSS or vPC for redundancy.
• Within a chassis, you cannot cluster some security modules and run other security modules in standalone
mode; you must include all security modules in the cluster.

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Configure Clustering
Defaults
• The cluster health check feature is enabled by default with the holdtime of 3 seconds. Interface health
monitoring is enabled on all interfaces by default.
• The cluster auto-rejoin feature for a failed cluster control link is set to unlimited attempts every 5 minutes.
• The cluster auto-rejoin feature for a failed data interface is set to 3 attempts every 5 minutes, with the
increasing interval set to 2.
• Connection replication delay of 5 seconds is enabled by default for HTTP traffic.
Configure Clustering
You can easily deploy the cluster from the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis supervisor. All initial configuration
is automatically generated for each unit. You can then add the units to the FMC and group them into a cluster.
FXOS: Add a Firepower Threat Defense Cluster

You can add a single Firepower 9300 chassis as an intra-chassis cluster, or add multiple chassis for inter-chassis
clustering. For inter-chassis clustering, you must configure each chassis separately. Add the cluster on one
chassis; you can then copy the bootstrap configuration from the first chassis to the next chassis for ease of
deployment
Create a Firepower Threat Defense Cluster

You can easily deploy the cluster from the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis supervisor. All initial configuration
is automatically generated for each unit.
For inter-chassis clustering, you must configure each chassis separately. Deploy the cluster on one chassis;
you can then copy the bootstrap configuration from the first chassis to the next chassis for ease of deployment.
You must enable clustering for all 3 module slots in a Firepower 9300 chassis, even if you do not have a
module installed. If you do not configure all 3 modules, the cluster will not come up.
Before you begin

• Download the application image you want to use for the logical device from Cisco.com, and then upload
that image to the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis.
• Gather the following information:
• Management interface ID, IP addresses, and network mask
• Gateway IP address
• FMC IP address and/or NAT ID of your choosing
• DNS server IP address
• FTD hostname and domain name

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Procedure
Step 1 Configure interfaces.

a) Add at least one Data type interface or EtherChannel (also known as a port-channel) before you deploy
the cluster.
For inter-chassis clustering, all data interfaces must be Spanned EtherChannels with at least one member
interface. Add the same EtherChannels on each chassis. Combine the member interfaces from all cluster
units into a single EtherChannel on the switch. See Clustering Guidelines and Limitations, on page 702
for more information about EtherChannels for inter-chassis clustering.
All interfaces are assigned to the cluster by default. For inter-chassis clustering, only EtherChannels are
assigned; you cannot assign other interface types. You can also add data interfaces to the cluster after you
deploy it.
b) Add a Management type interface or EtherChannel.
The management interface is required. Note that this management interface is not the same as the chassis
management interface that is used only for chassis management (in FXOS, you might see the chassis
management interface displayed as MGMT, management0, or other similar names).
For inter-chassis clustering, add the same Management interface on each chassis.
c) For inter-chassis clustering, add a member interface to port-channel 48, which is used as the cluster control
link.
Do not add a member interface for intra-chassis clustering. If you add a member, the chassis assumes this
cluster will be inter-chassis, and will only allow you to use Spanned EtherChannels, for example.
On the Interfaces tab, the port-channel 48 cluster type interface shows the Operation State as failed if
it does not include any member interfaces. For intra-chassis clustering, this EtherChannel does not require
any member interfaces, and you can ignore this Operational State.
Add the same member interfaces on each chassis. The cluster control link is a device-local EtherChannel
on each chassis. Use separate EtherChannels on the switch per device. See Clustering Guidelines and
Limitations, on page 702 for more information about EtherChannels for inter-chassis clustering.
d) (Optional) Add a Firepower-eventing interface.
This interface is a secondary management interface for FTD devices. To use this interface, you must
configure its IP address and other parameters at the FTD CLI. For example, you can separate management
traffic from events (such as web events). See the configure network commands in the Firepower Threat
Defense command reference.
For inter-chassis clustering, add the same eventing interface on each chassis.
Step 2 Choose Logical Devices.

Step 3 Click Add Device, and set the following parameters:

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a) Provide a Device Name.

This name is used by the chassis supervisor to configure management settings and to assign interfaces; it
is not the device name used in the application configuration.
b) For the Template, choose Cisco Firepower Threat Defense.
c) Choose the Image Version.
d) For the Instance Type, only the Native type is supported.
e) For the Usage, click the Cluster radio button.
f) Click the Create New Cluster radio button.
g) Click OK.
You see the Provisioning - device name window. All interfaces are assigned to the cluster by default.
Step 4 Click the device icon in the center of the screen.

A dialog box appears where you can configure initial bootstrap settings. These settings are meant for initial
deployment only, or for disaster recovery. For normal operation, you can later change most values in the
application CLI configuration.
Step 5 On the Cluster Information page, complete the following.

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a) For inter-chassis clustering, in the Chassis ID field, enter a chassis ID. Each chassis in the cluster must
use a unique ID.
This field only appears if you added a member interface to cluster control link Port-Channel 48.
b) For inter-site clustering, in the Site ID field, enter the site ID for this chassis between 1 and 8. This feature
is only configurable using the Firepower Management Center FlexConfig feature.
c) In the Cluster Key field, configure an authentication key for control traffic on the cluster control link.
The shared secret is an ASCII string from 1 to 63 characters. The shared secret is used to generate the
key. This option does not affect datapath traffic, including connection state update and forwarded packets,
which are always sent in the clear.
d) Set the Cluster Group Name, which is the cluster group name in the logical device configuration.
The name must be an ASCII string from 1 to 38 characters.
e) Choose the Management Interface.
This interface is used to manage the logical device. This interface is separate from the chassis management
port.
If you assign a Hardware Bypass-capable interface as the Management interface, you see a warning
message to make sure your assignment is intentional.

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Step 6 On the Settings page, complete the following.
a) In the Registration Key field, enter the key to be shared between the Firepower Management Center and
the cluster members during registration.
You can choose any text string for this key between 1 and 37 characters; you will enter the same key on
the FMC when you add the FTD.
b) Enter a Password for the FTD admin user for CLI access.
c) In the Firepower Management Center IP field, enter the IP address of the managing Firepower
Management Center.
d) In the Search Domains field, enter a comma-separated list of search domains for the management network.
e) From the Firewall Mode drop-down list, choose Transparent or Routed.
In routed mode, the FTD is considered to be a router hop in the network. Each interface that you want to
route between is on a different subnet. A transparent firewall, on the other hand, is a Layer 2 firewall that
acts like a “bump in the wire,” or a “stealth firewall,” and is not seen as a router hop to connected devices.
The firewall mode is only set at initial deployment. If you re-apply the bootstrap settings, this setting is
not used.
f) In the DNS Servers field, enter a comma-separated list of DNS servers.
The FTD uses DNS if you specify a hostname for the FMC, for example.

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g) In the Fully Qualified Hostname field, enter a fully qualified name for the FTD device.
h) From the Eventing Interface drop-down list, choose the interface on which Firepower events should be
sent. If not specified, the management interface will be used.
To specify a separate interface to use for Firepower events, you must configure an interface as a
firepower-eventing interface. If you assign a Hardware Bypass-capable interface as the Eventing interface,
you see a warning message to make sure your assignment is intentional.
Step 7 On the Interface Information page, configure a management IP address for each security module in the
cluster. Select the type of address from the Address Type drop-down list and then complete the following
for each security module.
Note You must set the IP address for all 3 module slots in a chassis, even if you do not have a module
installed. If you do not configure all 3 modules, the cluster will not come up.
a) In the Management IP field, configure an IP address.

Specify a unique IP address on the same network for each module.
b) Enter a Network Mask or Prefix Length.
c) Enter a Network Gateway address.
Step 8 On the Agreement tab, read and accept the end user license agreement (EULA).

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Step 9 Click OK to close the configuration dialog box.

Step 10 Click Save.
The chassis deploys the logical device by downloading the specified software version and pushing the bootstrap
configuration and management interface settings to the application instance. Check the Logical Devices page
for the status of the new logical device. When the logical device shows its Status as online, you can start
configuring the security policy in the application.
Step 11 For inter-chassis clustering, add the next chassis to the cluster:
a) On the first chassis Firepower Chassis Manager, click the Show Configuration icon ( ) at the top right;
copy the displayed cluster configuration.
b) Connect to the Firepower Chassis Manager on the next chassis, and add a logical device according to this
procedure.
c) Choose Join an Existing Cluster.
d) Click the Copy config check box, and click OK. If you uncheck this check box, you must manually enter
the settings to match the first chassis configuration.
e) In the Copy Cluster Details box, paste in the cluster configuration from the first chassis, and click OK.
f) Click the device icon in the center of the screen. The cluster information is mostly pre-filled, but you must
change the following settings:
• Chassis ID—Enter a unique chassis ID.
• Site ID—For inter-site clustering, enter the site ID for this chassis between 1 and 8. This feature is
only configurable using the Firepower Management Center FlexConfig feature.
• Cluster Key—(Not prefilled) Enter the same cluster key.
• Management IP—Change the management address for each module to be a unique IP address on
the same network as the other cluster members.
Click OK.
g) Click Save.
Step 12 Add each unit separately to the Firepower Management Center using the management IP addresses, and then
group them into a cluster at the web interface.

712
Add More Cluster Members
All cluster units must be in a successfully-formed cluster on FXOS prior to adding them to Firepower
Management Center.
Add More Cluster Members

Add or replace a FTD cluster member in an existing cluster.
Note The FXOS steps in this procedure only apply to adding a new chassis; if you are adding a new module to a
Firepower 9300 where clustering is already enabled, the module will be added automatically. However, you
must still add the new module to the Firepower Management Center; skip to the Firepower Management
Center steps.
Before you begin

• In the case of a replacement, you must delete the old cluster member from the Firepower Management
Center. When you replace it with a new unit, it is considered to be a new device on the Firepower
Management Center.
• The interface configuration must be the same on the new chassis. You can export and import FXOS
chassis configuration to make this process easier.
Procedure
Step 1 On an existing cluster chassis Firepower Chassis Manager, choose Logical Devices to open the Logical
Devices page.
Step 2 Click the Show Configuration icon ( ) at the top right; copy the displayed cluster configuration.
Step 3 Connect to the Firepower Chassis Manager on the new chassis, and click Add Device.
Step 4 For the Device Name, provide a name for the logical device.
Step 5 For the Template, choose Cisco Firepower Threat Defense.
Step 6 For the Image Version, choose the FTD software version.
Step 7 For the Device Mode, click the Cluster radio button.
Step 8 Choose Join an Existing Cluster.
Step 9 Click the Copy config check box, and click OK. If you uncheck this check box, you must manually enter the
settings to match the first chassis configuration.
Step 10 In the Copy Cluster Details box, paste in the cluster configuration from the first chassis, and click OK.
Step 11 Click the device icon in the center of the screen. The cluster information is mostly pre-filled, but you must
change the following settings:
• Chassis ID—Enter a unique chassis ID.
• Site ID—For inter-site clustering, enter the site ID for this chassis between 1 and 8. This feature is only
configurable using the Firepower Management Center FlexConfig feature.
• Cluster Key—(Not prefilled) Enter the same cluster key.

713
FMC: Add a Cluster
• Management IP—Change the management address for each module to be a unique IP address on the
same network as the other cluster members.
Click OK.
Step 12 Click Save.

Step 13 In the Firepower Management Center, choose Devices > Device Management, and select the Add > Add
Device to add the new logical device.
Step 14 Choose Add > Add Cluster.
Step 15 Choose the current Master device from the drop-down list.
When you choose a master device that is already in a cluster, then the existing cluster name is auto-filled, and
all eligible slave devices are added to the Slave Devices box, including the new unit you just added to the
FMC.
Step 16 Click Add, and then Deploy.

The cluster is updated to include the new member(s).
FMC: Add a Cluster

Any N/A FTD on the Any Access Admin

Firepower 4100 and Administrator
9300 Network Admin
Add the logical devices to the FMC, and then group them into a cluster.
Before you begin

• Refer to the Firepower Chassis Manager Logical Devices screen to see which unit is the master unit.
• All cluster units must be in a successfully formed cluster on FXOS prior to adding them to the FMC.
Procedure
Step 1 In the FMC, choose Devices > Device Management, and choose Add > Add Device to add each unit as a
separate managed device using the management IP addresses you assigned when you deployed the cluster.
Note If you use FMC High Availability, make sure the standby FMC also successfully registers each unit
before you continue and form the cluster on the active FMC: Log into the standby FMC to check
the registration status of each unit.
Step 2 Choose Add > Add Cluster to group the units into a cluster.
a) Choose the Master device from the drop-down list.
All other eligible members are added to the Slave Devices box.

714
FMC: Configure Data and Diagnostic Interfaces
b) Specify a Name for the cluster.

c) Click OK.
The cluster object is added to the Devices screen, with the member units underneath. The current master
unit is indicated by "(master)" after the unit name.
Note If you add more units to the cluster later on the FXOS chassis, then you must add each unit to
the FMC, and then add them as slave nodes of the cluster as soon as possible.
Step 3 To configure device-specific settings, click the edit icon ( ) for the cluster; you can only configure the cluster
as a whole, and not member units in the cluster.
Step 4 On the Devices > Device Management > Cluster tab, you can see General, License, and Health settings.
This tab is most useful for setting license entitlements.
Step 5 On the Devices > Device Management > Devices tab, you can choose each member in the cluster from the
top right drop-down menu.
If you change the management IP address in the device configuration, you must match the new address in the
FMC so that it can reach the device on the network; edit the Host address in the Management area.
FMC: Configure Data and Diagnostic Interfaces

Any N/A Firepower Threat Any Access Admin

Defense on the Administrator
Firepower 4100 and Network Admin
9300
This procedure configures basic parameters for each data interface that you assigned to the cluster when you
deployed it in FXOS. For inter-chassis clustering, data interfaces are always Spanned EtherChannel interfaces.
You can also configure the Diagnostic interface, which is the only interface that can run as an individual
interface.
Note When using Spanned EtherChannels for inter-chassis clustering, the port-channel interface will not come up
until clustering is fully enabled. This requirement prevents traffic from being forwarded to a unit that is not
an active unit in the cluster.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > Device Management, and click the edit icon ( ) next to the cluster.
Step 3 (Optional) Configure VLAN subinterfaces on the interface. The rest of this procedure applies to the
subinterfaces.
Step 4 Click the edit icon ( ) for the data interface.

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FXOS: Remove a Cluster Member
Step 5 For inter-chassis clusters, set a manual global MAC address for the EtherChannel.
You must configure a MAC address for a Spanned EtherChannel to avoid potential network connectivity
problems. With a manually-configured MAC address, the MAC address stays with the current master unit. If
you do not configure a MAC address, then if the master unit changes, the new master unit uses a new MAC
address for the interface, which can cause a temporary network outage.
a) Click the Advanced tab.
The Information tab is selected.
b) In the Active MAC Address field, enter a MAC address in H.H.H format, where H is a 16-bit hexadecimal
digit.
For example, the MAC address 00-0C-F1-42-4C-DE would be entered as 000C.F142.4CDE. The MAC
address must not have the multicast bit set, that is, the second hexadecimal digit from the left cannot be
an odd number.
Do not set the Standby MAC Address; it is ignored.
Step 6 Configure the name, IP address, and other parameters.

Step 7 Click OK. Repeat the above steps for other data interfaces.
Step 8 (Optional) Configure the Diagnostic interface.
The Diagnostic interface is the only interface that can run in Individual interface mode. You can use this
interface for syslog messages or SNMP, for example.
a) Choose Objects > Object Management > Address Pools to add an IPv4 and/or IPv6 address pool.
Include at least as many addresses as there are units in the cluster. The Virtual IP address is not a part of
this pool, but needs to be on the same network. You cannot determine the exact Local address assigned
to each unit in advance.
b) On Devices > Device Management > Interfaces, click the edit icon ( ) for the Diagnostic interface.
c) On the IPv4 tab, enter the Virtual IP Address and mask. This IP address is a fixed address for the cluster,
and always belongs to the current master unit.
d) From the IPv4 Address Pool drop-down list, choose the address pool you created.
e) On the IPv6 > Basic tab, from the IPv6 Address Pool drop-down list, choose the address pool you created.
f) Configure other interface settings as normal.
Step 9 Click Save.
deploy them.

The following sections describe how to remove members temporarily or permanently from the cluster.
Temporary Removal
A cluster member will be automatically removed from the cluster due to a hardware or network failure, for
example. This removal is temporary until the conditions are rectified, and it can rejoin the cluster. You can
also manually disable clustering.

716
To check whether a device is currently in the cluster, check the cluster status on the Firepower Chassis Manager
Logical Devices page:
For FTD using FMC, you should leave the device in the FMC device list so that it can resume full functionality
after you reenable clustering.
• Disable clustering in the application—You can disable clustering using the application CLI. Enter the
cluster remove unit name command to remove any unit other than the one you are logged into. The
bootstrap configuration remains intact, as well as the last configuration synced from the master unit, so
you can later re-add the unit without losing your configuration. If you enter this command on a slave
unit to remove the master unit, a new master unit is elected.
When a device becomes inactive, all data interfaces are shut down; only the Management interface can
send and receive traffic. To resume traffic flow, re-enable clustering. The Management interface remains
up using the IP address the unit received from the bootstrap configuration. However if you reload, and
the unit is still inactive in the cluster , the Management interface is disabled.
To reenable clustering, on the FTD enter cluster enable.
• Disable the application instance—In Firepower Chassis Manager on the Logical Devices page, click the
Disable slider ( ). You can later reenable it using the Enable slider ( ).
• Shut down the security module/engine—In Firepower Chassis Manager on the Security Module/Engine
page, click the Power off icon ( ).
• Shut down the chassis—In Firepower Chassis Manager on the Overview page, click the Shut down icon
( ).
Permanent Removal
You can permanently remove a cluster member using the following methods.
For FTD using FMC, be sure to remove the unit from the FMC device list after you disable clustering on the
chassis.
• Delete the logical device—In Firepower Chassis Manager on the Logical Devices page, click the delete
icon ( ). You can then deploy a standalone logical device, a new cluster, or even add a new logical
device to the same cluster.
• Remove the chassis or security module from service—If you remove a device from service, you can add
replacement hardware as a new member of the cluster.

717
FMC: Manage Cluster Members
FMC: Manage Cluster Members

After you deploy the cluster, you can change the configuration and manage cluster members.
Add or Replace a Cluster Member


9300 Network Admin
You can add a new cluster member to an existing cluster, for example, when you add an additional module
to the Firepower 9300 device, or an additional chassis, or replace a unit. This procedure also applies to a unit
that was reinitialized; in this case, although the hardware remains the same, it appears to be a new member.
Before you begin

• Add the units to the cluster on the FXOS chassis, and make sure they are in the FXOS cluster before you
add them to the FMC. Make sure the interface configuration is the same as other chassis.
Procedure
Step 1 In the case of a replacement or a reinitialized unit, you must delete the old cluster member from the Firepower
Management Center.
When you replace it with a new or reinitialized unit, it is considered to be a new device on the Firepower
Management Center
a) In the FMC, choose Devices > Device Management, and click the delete icon ( ) next to the slave unit.
b) Confirm that you want to delete the unit.
The unit is removed from the cluster and from the FMC devices list.
Step 2 Choose Devices > Device Management, and choose Add > Add Device to add the new logical device.
Step 3 Choose Add > Add Cluster.
Step 4 Choose the current Master device from the drop-down list.
When you choose a master device that is already in a cluster, then the existing cluster name is auto-filled, and
all eligible slave devices are added to the Slave Devices box, including the new unit you just added to the
FMC.
Step 5 Click Add, and then Deploy.

The cluster is updated to include the new member(s).

718
Delete a Slave Member
Delete a Slave Member


9300 Network Admin
If you need to permanently remove a cluster member (for example, if you remove a module on the Firepower
9300, or remove a chassis), then you should delete it from the FMC.
Before you begin

Do not delete the member if it is still a healthy part of the cluster, or if you only want to disable the member
temporarily. To delete it permanently from the cluster in FXOS, see FXOS: Remove a Cluster Member, on
page 716. If you remove it from the FMC, and it is still part of the cluster, it will continue to pass traffic, and
could even become the master unit—a master unit that the FMC can no longer manage.
Procedure
Step 1 In the FMC, choose Devices > Device Management, and click the delete icon ( ) next to the slave unit.
Step 2 Confirm that you want to delete the unit.
The unit is removed from the cluster and from the FMC devices list.
Deactivate a Member
To deactivate a member other than the unit you are logged into, perform the following steps at the FTD CLI.
This procedure is meant to temporarily deactivate a member, and you should keep the unit in the FMC device
list.
Note When a unit becomes inactive, all data interfaces are shut down; only the Management interface can send and
receive traffic. To resume traffic flow, reenable clustering. The Management interface remains up using the
IP address the unit received from the bootstrap configuration. However if you reload, and the unit is still
inactive in the cluster, the management interface is disabled. You must use the console for any further
configuration.
Procedure
Step 1 Access the FTD CLI.

Step 2 Remove the unit from the cluster:
cluster remove unit unit_name

719
Rejoin the Cluster
The bootstrap configuration remains intact, as well as the last configuration synched from the master unit, so
that you can later re-add the unit without losing your configuration. If you enter this command on a slave unit
to remove the master unit, a new master unit is elected.
To view member names, enter cluster remove unit ?, or enter the show cluster info command.
Example:
> cluster remove unit ?
Current active units in the cluster:

ftd1
ftd2
ftd3
> cluster remove unit ftd2

WARNING: Clustering will be disabled on unit ftd2. To bring it back
to the cluster please logon to that unit and re-enable clustering
Step 3 To reenable clustering, see Rejoin the Cluster, on page 720.
Rejoin the Cluster

Any N/A Firepower Threat Any Access Admin

Defense on the Administrator
Firepower 4100 and Network Admin
9300
If a unit was removed from the cluster, for example for a failed interface, you must manually rejoin the cluster
by accessing the unit CLI. Make sure the failure is resolved before you try to rejoin the cluster. See Rejoining
the Cluster, on page 723 for more information about why a unit can be removed from a cluster.
Procedure
Step 1 Access the CLI of the unit that needs to rejoin the cluster, either from the console port or using SSH to the
Management interface. Log in with the username admin and the password you set during initial setup.
Step 2 Enable clustering:
cluster enable
FMC: Monitoring the Cluster

You can monitor the cluster in Firepower Management Center and at the FTD CLI.
• Devices > Device Management > cluster_name.

720
Reference for Clustering
When you expand the cluster on the devices listing page, you can see all member units, including the
master unit shown with "(master)" next to the IP address.
• show cluster {access-list [acl_name] | conn [count] | cpu [usage] | history | interface-mode | memory
| resource usage | service-policy | traffic | xlate count}
To view aggregated data for the entire cluster or other information, use the show cluster command.
• show cluster info [auto-join | clients | conn-distribution | flow-mobility counters | goid [options] |
health | incompatible-config | loadbalance | old-members | packet-distribution | trace [options] |
transport { asp | cp}]
To view cluster information, use the show cluster info command.
Reference for Clustering

This section includes more information about how clustering operates.
Performance Scaling Factor

When you combine multiple units into a cluster, you can expect the total cluster performance to be
approximately:
• 80% of the combined TCP or CPS throughput
• 90% of the combined UDP throughput
• 60% of the combined Ethernet MIX (EMIX) throughput, depending on the traffic mix.
For example, for TCP throughput, the Firepower 9300 with 3 modules can handle approximately 135 Gbps
of real world firewall traffic when running alone. For 2 chassis, the maximum combined throughput will be
approximately 80% of 270 Gbps (2 chassis x 135 Gbps): 216 Gbps.
Master Unit Election

Members of the cluster communicate over the cluster control link to elect a master unit as follows:
1. When you deploy the cluster, each unit broadcasts an election request every 3 seconds.
2. Any other units with a higher priority respond to the election request; the priority is set when you deploy
the cluster and is not configurable.
3. If after 45 seconds, a unit does not receive a response from another unit with a higher priority, then it
becomes master.
4. If a unit later joins the cluster with a higher priority, it does not automatically become the master unit; the
existing master unit always remains as the master unless it stops responding, at which point a new master
unit is elected.

721
High Availability Within the Cluster
Note You can manually force a unit to become the master. For centralized features, if you force a master unit change,
then all connections are dropped, and you have to re-establish the connections on the new master unit.
High Availability Within the Cluster

Clustering provides high availability by monitoring chassis, unit, and interface health and by replicating
connection states between units.
Chassis-Application Monitoring
Chassis-application health monitoring is always enabled. The Firepower 4100/9300 chassis supervisor checks
the Firepower Threat Defense application periodically (every second). If the Firepower Threat Defense device
is up and cannot communicate with the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis supervisor for 3 seconds, the Firepower
Threat Defense device generates a syslog message and leaves the cluster.
If the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis supervisor cannot communicate with the application after 45 seconds, it
reloads the Firepower Threat Defense device. If the Firepower Threat Defense device cannot communicate
with the supervisor, it removes itself from the cluster.
Unit Health Monitoring

The master unit monitors every slave unit by sending keepalive messages over the cluster control link
periodically. Each slave unit monitors the master unit using the same mechanism. If the unit health check
fails, the unit is removed from the cluster.
Interface Monitoring
Each unit monitors the link status of all hardware interfaces in use, and reports status changes to the master
unit. For inter-chassis clustering, Spanned EtherChannels use the cluster Link Aggregation Control Protocol
(cLACP). Each chassis monitors the link status and the cLACP protocol messages to determine if the port is
still active in the EtherChannel, and informs the Firepower Threat Defense application if the interface is down.
When you enable health monitoring, all physical interfaces are monitored by default (including the main
EtherChannel for EtherChannel interfaces). Only named interfaces that are in an Up state can be monitored.
For example, all member ports of an EtherChannel must fail before a named EtherChannel is removed from
the cluster.
If a monitored interface fails on a particular unit, but it is active on other units, then the unit is removed from
the cluster. The amount of time before the Firepower Threat Defense device removes a member from the
cluster depends on whether the unit is an established member or is joining the cluster. The Firepower Threat
Defense device does not monitor interfaces for the first 90 seconds that a unit joins the cluster. Interface status
changes during this time will not cause the Firepower Threat Defense device to be removed from the cluster.
For an established member, the unit is removed after 500 ms.
For inter-chassis clustering, if you add or delete an EtherChannel from the cluster, interface health-monitoring
is suspended for 95 seconds to ensure that you have time to make the changes on each chassis.
Status After Failure

When a unit in the cluster fails, the connections hosted by that unit are seamlessly transferred to other units;
state information for traffic flows is shared over the control cluster link.

722
Rejoining the Cluster
If the master unit fails, then another member of the cluster with the highest priority (lowest number) becomes
the master unit.
The Firepower Threat Defense device automatically tries to rejoin the cluster, depending on the failure event.
Note When the Firepower Threat Defense device becomes inactive and fails to automatically rejoin the cluster, all
data interfaces are shut down; only the Management/Diagnostic interface can send and receive traffic.
Rejoining the Cluster

After a cluster member is removed from the cluster, how it can rejoin the cluster depends on why it was
removed:
• Failed cluster control link—After you resolve the problem with the cluster control link, you must manually
rejoin the cluster by re-enabling clustering.
• Failed data interface—The FTD application automatically tries to rejoin at 5 minutes, then at 10 minutes,
and finally at 20 minutes. If the join is not successful after 20 minutes, then the FTD application disables
clustering. After you resolve the problem with the data interface, you have to manually enable clustering.
• Failed unit—If the unit was removed from the cluster because of a unit health check failure, then rejoining
the cluster depends on the source of the failure. For example, a temporary power failure means the unit
will rejoin the cluster when it starts up again as long as the cluster control link is up. The FTD application
attempts to rejoin the cluster every 5 seconds.
• Failed Chassis-Application Communication—When the FTD application detects that the
chassis-application health has recovered, it tries to rejoin the cluster automatically.
• Internal error—Internal failures include: application sync timeout; inconsistent application statuses; and
so on.
Data Path Connection State Replication

Every connection has one owner and at least one backup owner in the cluster. The backup owner does not
take over the connection in the event of a failure; instead, it stores TCP/UDP state information, so that the
connection can be seamlessly transferred to a new owner in case of a failure. The backup owner is usually
also the director.
Some traffic requires state information above the TCP or UDP layer. See the following table for clustering
support or lack of support for this kind of traffic.
Table 58: Features Replicated Across the Cluster
Traffic State Support Notes
Up time Yes Keeps track of the system up time.
ARP Table Yes —
MAC address table Yes —
User Identity Yes —

723
How the Cluster Manages Connections
Traffic State Support Notes
IPv6 Neighbor database Yes —
Dynamic routing Yes —
SNMP Engine ID No —
Centralized VPN (Site-to-Site) No VPN sessions will be disconnected

if the master unit fails.
How the Cluster Manages Connections

Connections can be load-balanced to multiple members of the cluster. Connection roles determine how
connections are handled in both normal operation and in a high availability situation.
Connection Roles
See the following roles defined for each connection:
• Owner—Usually, the unit that initially receives the connection. The owner maintains the TCP state and
processes packets. A connection has only one owner. If the original owner fails, then when new units
receive packets from the connection, the director chooses a new owner from those units.
• Backup owner—The unit that stores TCP/UDP state information received from the owner, so that the
connection can be seamlessly transferred to a new owner in case of a failure. The backup owner does
not take over the connection in the event of a failure. If the owner becomes unavailable, then the first
unit to receive packets from the connection (based on load balancing) contacts the backup owner for the
relevant state information so it can become the new owner.
As long as the director (see below) is not the same unit as the owner, then the director is also the backup
owner. If the owner chooses itself as the director, then a separate backup owner is chosen.
For inter-chassis clustering on the Firepower 9300, which can include up to 3 cluster units in one chassis,
if the backup owner is on the same chassis as the owner, then an additional backup owner will be chosen
from another chassis to protect flows from a chassis failure.
• Director—The unit that handles owner lookup requests from forwarders. When the owner receives a new
connection, it chooses a director based on a hash of the source/destination IP address and ports, and sends
a message to the director to register the new connection. If packets arrive at any unit other than the owner,
the unit queries the director about which unit is the owner so it can forward the packets. A connection
has only one director. If a director fails, the owner chooses a new director.
As long as the director is not the same unit as the owner, then the director is also the backup owner (see
above). If the owner chooses itself as the director, then a separate backup owner is chosen.
• Forwarder—A unit that forwards packets to the owner. If a forwarder receives a packet for a connection
it does not own, it queries the director for the owner, and then establishes a flow to the owner for any
other packets it receives for this connection. The director can also be a forwarder. Note that if a forwarder
receives the SYN-ACK packet, it can derive the owner directly from a SYN cookie in the packet, so it
does not need to query the director. (If you disable TCP sequence randomization, the SYN cookie is not
used; a query to the director is required.) For short-lived flows such as DNS and ICMP, instead of
querying, the forwarder immediately sends the packet to the director, which then sends them to the owner.
A connection can have multiple forwarders; the most efficient throughput is achieved by a good

724
New Connection Ownership
load-balancing method where there are no forwarders and all packets of a connection are received by
the owner.
New Connection Ownership

When a new connection is directed to a member of the cluster via load balancing, that unit owns both directions
of the connection. If any connection packets arrive at a different unit, they are forwarded to the owner unit
over the cluster control link. If a reverse flow arrives at a different unit, it is redirected back to the original
unit.
Sample Data Flow

The following example shows the establishment of a new connection.
1. The SYN packet originates from the client and is delivered to one Firepower Threat Defense device (based
on the load balancing method), which becomes the owner. The owner creates a flow, encodes owner
information into a SYN cookie, and forwards the packet to the server.
2. The SYN-ACK packet originates from the server and is delivered to a different Firepower Threat Defense
device (based on the load balancing method). This Firepower Threat Defense device is the forwarder.
3. Because the forwarder does not own the connection, it decodes owner information from the SYN cookie,
creates a forwarding flow to the owner, and forwards the SYN-ACK to the owner.
4. The owner sends a state update to the director, and forwards the SYN-ACK to the client.
5. The director receives the state update from the owner, creates a flow to the owner, and records the TCP
state information as well as the owner. The director acts as the backup owner for the connection.
6. Any subsequent packets delivered to the forwarder will be forwarded to the owner.
7. If packets are delivered to any additional units, it will query the director for the owner and establish a
flow.

725
History for Clustering
8. Any state change for the flow results in a state update from the owner to the director.

Support for Site-to-Site VPN with 6.2.3.3 You can now configure site-to-site VPN
clustering as a centralized feature with clustering. Site-to-site VPN is a
centralized feature; only the master unit
supports VPN connections.
Automatically rejoin the cluster after an 6.2.3 Formerly, many internal error conditions
internal failure caused a cluster unit to be removed from
the cluster, and you were required to
manually rejoin the cluster after resolving
the issue. Now, a unit will attempt to rejoin
the cluster automatically at the following
intervals: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and then
20 minutes. Internal failures include:
application sync timeout; inconsistent
application statuses; and so on.
New/Modified command: show cluster
info auto-join
No modified screens.
Supported platforms: Firepower Threat
Defense on the Firepower 4100/9300
Inter-chassis clustering for 6 modules; 6.2.0 With FXOS 2.1.1, you can now enable
Firepower 4100 support inter-chassis clustering on the Firepower
9300 and 4100. You can include up to 6
units in up to 6 chassis.
Note Inter-site clustering is now
supported using FlexConfig
only.
No modified screens.
Defense on the Firepower 4100/9300

726
Intra-chassis Clustering for the Firepower 6.0.1 You can cluster up to 3 security modules
9300 within the Firepower 9300 chassis. All
modules in the chassis must belong to the
cluster.
Devices > Device Management > Add >
Add Cluster
Devices > Device Management > Cluster
Defense on the Firepower 9300

727

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PA R T X
Firepower Threat Defense Routing
• Routing Overview for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 731
• Static and Default Routes for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 741
• OSPF for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 745
• BGP for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 771
• RIP for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 787
• Multicast Routing for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 793
CHAPTER 36
Routing Overview for Firepower Threat Defense
This chapter describes underlying concepts of how routing behaves within the Firepower Threat Defense.
• Path Determination, on page 731
• Supported Route Types, on page 732
• Supported Internet Protocols for Routing, on page 733
• Routing Table, on page 734
• Routing Table for Management Traffic, on page 737
• Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) Routing, on page 738
• About Route Maps, on page 738
Path Determination
Routing protocols use metrics to evaluate what path will be the best for a packet to travel. A metric is a standard
of measurement, such as path bandwidth, that is used by routing algorithms to determine the optimal path to
a destination. To aid the process of path determination, routing algorithms initialize and maintain routing
tables, which include route information. Route information varies depending on the routing algorithm used.
Routing algorithms fill routing tables with a variety of information. Destination or next hop associations tell
a router that a particular destination can be reached optimally by sending the packet to a particular router
representing the next hop on the way to the final destination. When a router receives an incoming packet, it
checks the destination address and attempts to associate this address with a next hop.
Routing tables also can include other information, such as data about the desirability of a path. Routers compare
metrics to determine optimal routes, and these metrics differ depending on the design of the routing algorithm
used.
Routers communicate with one another and maintain their routing tables through the transmission of a variety
of messages. The routing update message is one such message that generally consists of all or a portion of a
routing table. By analyzing routing updates from all other routers, a router can build a detailed picture of
network topology. A link-state advertisement, another example of a message sent between routers, informs
other routers of the state of the sender links. Link information also can be used to build a complete picture of
network topology to enable routers to determine optimal routes to network destinations.

731
Supported Route Types
Supported Route Types

There are several route types that a router can use. The Firepower Threat Defense device uses the following
route types:
• Static Versus Dynamic
• Single-Path Versus Multipath
• Flat Versus Hierarchical
• Link-State Versus Distance Vector
Static Versus Dynamic

Static routing algorithms are actually table mappings established by the network administrator. These mappings
do not change unless the network administrator alters them. Algorithms that use static routes are simple to
design and work well in environments where network traffic is relatively predictable and where network
design is relatively simple.
Because static routing systems cannot react to network changes, they generally are considered unsuitable for
large, constantly changing networks. Most of the dominant routing algorithms are dynamic routing algorithms,
which adjust to changing network circumstances by analyzing incoming routing update messages. If the
message indicates that a network change has occurred, the routing software recalculates routes and sends out
new routing update messages. These messages permeate the network, stimulating routers to rerun their
algorithms and change their routing tables accordingly.
Dynamic routing algorithms can be supplemented with static routes where appropriate. A router of last resort
(a default route for a router to which all unroutable packets are sent), for example, can be designated to act
as a repository for all unroutable packets, ensuring that all messages are at least handled in some way.
Single-Path Versus Multipath

Some sophisticated routing protocols support multiple paths to the same destination. Unlike single-path
algorithms, these multipath algorithms permit traffic multiplexing over multiple lines. The advantages of
multipath algorithms are substantially better throughput and reliability, which is generally called load sharing.
Flat Versus Hierarchical

Some routing algorithms operate in a flat space, while others use routing hierarchies. In a flat routing system,
the routers are peers of all others. In a hierarchical routing system, some routers form what amounts to a
routing backbone. Packets from non-backbone routers travel to the backbone routers, where they are sent
through the backbone until they reach the general area of the destination. At this point, they travel from the
last backbone router through one or more non-backbone routers to the final destination.
Routing systems often designate logical groups of nodes, called domains, autonomous systems, or areas. In
hierarchical systems, some routers in a domain can communicate with routers in other domains, while others
can communicate only with routers within their domain. In very large networks, additional hierarchical levels
may exist, with routers at the highest hierarchical level forming the routing backbone.

732
Link-State Versus Distance Vector
The primary advantage of hierarchical routing is that it mimics the organization of most companies and
therefore supports their traffic patterns well. Most network communication occurs within small company
groups (domains). Because intradomain routers need to know only about other routers within their domain,
their routing algorithms can be simplified, and, depending on the routing algorithm being used, routing update
traffic can be reduced accordingly.
Link-State Versus Distance Vector

Link-state algorithms (also known as shortest path first algorithms) flood routing information to all nodes in
the internetwork. Each router, however, sends only the portion of the routing table that describes the state of
its own links. In link-state algorithms, each router builds a picture of the entire network in its routing tables.
Distance vector algorithms (also known as Bellman-Ford algorithms) call for each router to send all or some
portion of its routing table, but only to its neighbors. In essence, link-state algorithms send small updates
everywhere, while distance vector algorithms send larger updates only to neighboring routers. Distance vector
algorithms know only about their neighbors. Typically, link-state algorithms are used in conjunction with
OSPF routing protocols.
Supported Internet Protocols for Routing

The Firepower Threat Defense device supports several Internet protocols for routing. Each protocol is briefly
described in this section.
• Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)
EIGRP is a Cisco proprietary protocol that provides compatibility and seamless interoperation with IGRP
routers. An automatic-redistribution mechanism allows IGRP routes to be imported into Enhanced IGRP,
and vice versa, so it is possible to add Enhanced IGRP gradually into an existing IGRP network.
• Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
OSPF is a routing protocol developed for Internet Protocol (IP) networks by the interior gateway protocol
(IGP) working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). OSPF uses a link-state algorithm
to build and calculate the shortest path to all known destinations. Each router in an OSPF area includes
an identical link-state database, which is a list of each of the router usable interfaces and reachable
neighbors.
• Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
RIP is a distance-vector protocol that uses hop count as its metric. RIP is widely used for routing traffic
in the global Internet and is an interior gateway protocol (IGP), which means that it performs routing
within a single autonomous system.
• Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
BGP is an interautonomous system routing protocol. BGP is used to exchange routing information for
the Internet and is the protocol used between Internet service providers (ISP). Customers connect to ISPs,
and ISPs use BGP to exchange customer and ISP routes. When BGP is used between autonomous systems
(AS), the protocol is referred to as External BGP (EBGP). If a service provider is using BGP to exchange
routes within an AS, then the protocol is referred to as Interior BGP (IBGP).

733
Routing Table
Routing Table
This section describes the routing table.
How the Routing Table Is Populated

The Firepower Threat Defense device routing table can be populated by statically defined routes, directly
connected routes, and routes discovered by the dynamic routing protocols. Because the Firepower Threat
Defense device can run multiple routing protocols in addition to having static and connected routes in the
routing table, it is possible that the same route is discovered or entered in more than one manner. When two
routes to the same destination are put into the routing table, the one that remains in the routing table is
determined as follows:
• If the two routes have different network prefix lengths (network masks), then both routes are considered
unique and are entered into the routing table. The packet forwarding logic then determines which of the
two to use.
For example, if the RIP and OSPF processes discovered the following routes:
• RIP: 192.168.32.0/24
• OSPF: 192.168.32.0/19
Even though OSPF routes have the better administrative distance, both routes are installed in the routing
table because each of these routes has a different prefix length (subnet mask). They are considered
different destinations and the packet forwarding logic determines which route to use.
• If the Firepower Threat Defense device learns about multiple paths to the same destination from a single
routing protocol, such as RIP, the route with the better metric (as determined by the routing protocol) is
entered into the routing table.
Metrics are values associated with specific routes, ranking them from most preferred to least preferred.
The parameters used to determine the metrics differ for different routing protocols. The path with the
lowest metric is selected as the optimal path and installed in the routing table. If there are multiple paths
to the same destination with equal metrics, load balancing is done on these equal cost paths.
• If the Firepower Threat Defense device learns about a destination from more than one routing protocol,
the administrative distances of the routes are compared, and the routes with lower administrative distance
are entered into the routing table.
Administrative Distances for Routes

You can change the administrative distances for routes discovered by or redistributed into a routing protocol.
If two routes from two different routing protocols have the same administrative distance, then the route with
the lower default administrative distance is entered into the routing table. In the case of EIGRP and OSPF
routes, if the EIGRP route and the OSPF route have the same administrative distance, then the EIGRP route
is chosen by default.
Administrative distance is a route parameter that the Firepower Threat Defense device uses to select the best
path when there are two or more different routes to the same destination from two different routing protocols.
Because the routing protocols have metrics based on algorithms that are different from the other protocols, it

734
Backup Dynamic and Floating Static Routes
is not always possible to determine the best path for two routes to the same destination that were generated
by different routing protocols.
Each routing protocol is prioritized using an administrative distance value. The following table shows the
default administrative distance values for the routing protocols supported by the Firepower Threat Defense
device.
Table 59: Default Administrative Distance for Supported Routing Protocols
Route Source Default Administrative Distance
Connected interface 0
Static route 1
EIGRP Summary Route 5
External BGP 20
Internal EIGRP 90
OSPF 110
IS-IS 115
RIP 120
EIGRP external route 170
Internal and local BGP 200
Unknown 255
The smaller the administrative distance value, the more preference is given to the protocol. For example, if
the Firepower Threat Defense device receives a route to a certain network from both an OSPF routing process
(default administrative distance - 110) and a RIP routing process (default administrative distance - 120), the
Firepower Threat Defense device chooses the OSPF route because OSPF has a higher preference. In this case,
the router adds the OSPF version of the route to the routing table.
In this example, if the source of the OSPF-derived route was lost (for example, due to a power shutdown),
the Firepower Threat Defense device would then use the RIP-derived route until the OSPF-derived route
reappears.
The administrative distance is a local setting. For example, if you change the administrative distance of routes
obtained through OSPF, that change would only affect the routing table for the Firepower Threat Defense
device on which the command was entered. The administrative distance is not advertised in routing updates.
Administrative distance does not affect the routing process. The routing processes only advertise the routes
that have been discovered by the routing process or redistributed into the routing process. For example, the
RIP routing process advertises RIP routes, even if routes discovered by the OSPF routing process are used in
the routing table.
Backup Dynamic and Floating Static Routes

A backup route is registered when the initial attempt to install the route in the routing table fails because
another route was installed instead. If the route that was installed in the routing table fails, the routing table

735
How Forwarding Decisions Are Made
maintenance process calls each routing protocol process that has registered a backup route and requests them
to reinstall the route in the routing table. If there are multiple protocols with registered backup routes for the
failed route, the preferred route is chosen based on administrative distance.
Because of this process, you can create floating static routes that are installed in the routing table when the
route discovered by a dynamic routing protocol fails. A floating static route is simply a static route configured
with a greater administrative distance than the dynamic routing protocols running on the Firepower Threat
Defense device. When the corresponding route discovered by a dynamic routing process fails, the static route
is installed in the routing table.
How Forwarding Decisions Are Made

Forwarding decisions are made as follows:
• If the destination does not match an entry in the routing table, the packet is forwarded through the interface
specified for the default route. If a default route has not been configured, the packet is discarded.
• If the destination matches a single entry in the routing table, the packet is forwarded through the interface
associated with that route.
• If the destination matches more than one entry in the routing table, then the packet is forwarded out of
the interface associated with the route that has the longer network prefix length.
For example, a packet destined for 192.168.32.1 arrives on an interface with the following routes in the routing
table:
• 192.168.32.0/24 gateway 10.1.1.2
• 192.168.32.0/19 gateway 10.1.1.3
In this case, a packet destined to 192.168.32.1 is directed toward 10.1.1.2, because 192.168.32.1 falls within
the 192.168.32.0/24 network. It also falls within the other route in the routing table, but 192.168.32.0/24 has
the longest prefix within the routing table (24 bits verses 19 bits). Longer prefixes are always preferred over
shorter ones when forwarding a packet.
Note Existing connections continue to use their established interfaces even if a new similar connection would result
in different behavior due to a change in routes.
Dynamic Routing and High Availability

Dynamic routes are synchronized on the standby unit when the routing table changes on the active unit. This
means that all additions, deletions, or changes on the active unit are immediately propagated to the standby
unit. If the standby unit becomes active in an active/standby ready High Availability pair, it will already have
an identical routing table as that of the former active unit because routes are synchronized as a part of the
High Availability bulk synchronization and continuous replication processes.
Dynamic Routing in Clustering

The routing process only runs on the master unit, and routes are learned through the master unit and replicated
to slaves. If a routing packet arrives at a slave, it is redirected to the master unit.

736
Routing Table for Management Traffic
Figure 17: Dynamic Routing in Clustering
After the slave members learn the routes from the master unit, each unit makes forwarding decisions
independently.
The OSPF LSA database is not synchronized from the master unit to slave units. If there is a master unit
switchover, the neighboring router will detect a restart; the switchover is not transparent. The OSPF process
picks an IP address as its router ID. Although not required, you can assign a static router ID to ensure a
consistent router ID is used across the cluster. See the OSPF Non-Stop Forwarding feature to address the
interruption.
Routing Table for Management Traffic

As a standard security practice, it is often necessary to segregate and isolate Management traffic from data
traffic. To achieve this isolation, the FTD uses a separate routing table for management-only traffic vs. data
traffic.
The Management routing table supports dynamic routing separate from the data interface routing table. A
given dynamic routing process must run on either the management-only interface or the data interface; you
cannot mix both types.
For all features that open a remote file using HTTP, SCP, TFTP and so on, if you do not specify the interface,
then the FTD checks the management-only routing table; if there are no matches, it then checks the data
routing table.

737
Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) Routing
For all other features, if you do not specify the interface, then the FTD checks the data routing table; if there
are no matches, it then checks the management-only routing table. For example ping, DNS, DHCP, and so
on.
If you specify the interface when using a feature, then the FTD checks the correct routing table for routes for
that interface. For example, if the interface is a management-only interface, then the FTD checks the
management-only routing table. In this case, the ASA does not check the data routing table as a backup,
because there are no routes in the data routing table using this interface.
If you use a feature that defaults to the incorrect routing table, then you should specify the interface you want
to use. For example, if you use the ping command, which defaults to the data routing table, but you know
that the destination is on a management-only network, then you should specify the interface. In some cases,
you cannot rely on the FTD to fall back to the correct routing table; for example, if the default routing table
includes a default route, then the traffic will find a match and will never fall back to the other routing table.
Management-only interfaces include any Diagnostic x/x interfaces as well as any interfaces that you have
configured to be management-only.
Note This routing table does not affect the special FTD Management logical interface that it uses to communicate
with the FMC; that interface has its own routing table. The Diagnostic logical interface, on the other hand,
uses the management-only routing table described in this section.
Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) Routing

The Firepower Threat Defense device supports Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing.
You can have up to 3 equal cost static or dynamic routes per interface. For example, you can configure multiple
default routes on the outside interface that specify different gateways.
route for 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 through outside to 10.1.1.2
In this case, traffic is load-balanced on the outside interface between 10.1.1.2, 10.1.1.3, and 10.1.1.4. Traffic
is distributed among the specified gateways based on an algorithm that hashes the source and destination IP
addresses, incoming interface, protocol, source and destination ports.
ECMP is not supported across multiple interfaces, so you cannot define a route to the same destination on a
different interface. The following route is disallowed when configured with any of the routes above:
route for 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 through outside2 to 10.2.1.1
About Route Maps

Route maps are used when redistributing routes into an OSPF, RIP, EIGRP or BGP routing process. They are
also used when generating a default route into an OSPF routing process. A route map defines which of the
routes from the specified routing protocol are allowed to be redistributed into the target routing process.
Route maps have many features in common with widely known ACLs. These are some of the traits common
to both:

738
Permit and Deny Clauses
• They are an ordered sequence of individual statements, and each has a permit or deny result. Evaluation
of an ACL or a route map consists of a list scan, in a predetermined order, and an evaluation of the criteria
of each statement that matches. A list scan is aborted once the first statement match is found and an
action associated with the statement match is performed.
• They are generic mechanisms. Criteria matches and match interpretation are dictated by the way that
they are applied and the feature that uses them. The same route map applied to different features might
be interpreted differently.
These are some of the differences between route maps and ACLs:
• Route maps are more flexible than ACLs and can verify routes based on criteria which ACLs can not
verify. For example, a route map can verify if the type of route is internal.
• Each ACL ends with an implicit deny statement, by design convention. If the end of a route map is
reached during matching attempts, the result depends on the specific application of the route map. Route
maps that are applied to redistribution behave the same way as ACLs: if the route does not match any
clause in a route map then the route redistribution is denied, as if the route map contained a deny statement
at the end.
Permit and Deny Clauses

Route maps can have permit and deny clauses. The deny clause rejects route matches from redistribution.
You can use an ACL as the matching criterion in the route map. Because ACLs also have permit and deny
clauses, the following rules apply when a packet matches the ACL:
• ACL permit + route map permit: routes are redistributed.
• ACL permit + route map deny: routes are not redistributed.
• ACL deny + route map permit or deny: the route map clause is not matched, and the next route-map
clause is evaluated.
Match and Set Clause Values

Each route map clause has two types of values:
• A match value selects routes to which this clause should be applied.
• A set value modifies information that will be redistributed into the target protocol.
For each route that is being redistributed, the router first evaluates the match criteria of a clause in the route
map. If the match criteria succeeds, then the route is redistributed or rejected as dictated by the permit or deny
clause, and some of its attributes might be modified by the values set from the set commands. If the match
criteria fail, then this clause is not applicable to the route, and the software proceeds to evaluate the route
against the next clause in the route map. Scanning of the route map continues until a clause is found that
matches the route or until the end of the route map is reached.
A match or set value in each clause can be missed or repeated several times, if one of these conditions exists:
• If several match entries are present in a clause, all must succeed for a given route in order for that route
to match the clause (in other words, the logical AND algorithm is applied for multiple match commands).

739
Match and Set Clause Values
• If a match entry refers to several objects in one entry, either of them should match (the logical OR
algorithm is applied).
• If a match entry is not present, all routes match the clause.
• If a set entry is not present in a route map permit clause, then the route is redistributed without modification
of its current attributes.
Note Do not configure a set entry in a route map deny clause because the deny clause prohibits route
redistribution—there is no information to modify.
A route map clause without a match or set entry does perform an action. An empty permit clause allows a
redistribution of the remaining routes without modification. An empty deny clause does not allow a
redistribution of other routes (this is the default action if a route map is completely scanned, but no explicit
match is found).

740
CHAPTER 37
Static and Default Routes for Firepower Threat
Defense
This chapter describes how to configure static and default routes on the FTD.
• About Static and Default Routes, on page 741
• Guidelines for Static and Default Routes, on page 743
• Add a Static Route, on page 743
About Static and Default Routes

To route traffic to a non-connected host or network, you must define a route to the host or network, either
using static or dynamic routing. Generally, you must configure at least one static route: a default route for all
traffic that is not routed by other means to a default network gateway, typically the next hop router.
Default Route
The simplest option is to configure a default static route to send all traffic to an upstream router, relying on
the router to route the traffic for you. A default route identifies the gateway IP address to which the FTD
device sends all IP packets for which it does not have a learned or static route. A default static route is simply
a static route with 0.0.0.0/0 (IPv4) or ::/0 (IPv6) as the destination IP address.
You should always define a default route.
Static Routes
You might want to use static routes in the following cases:
• Your networks use an unsupported router discovery protocol.
• Your network is small and you can easily manage static routes.
• You do not want the traffic or CPU overhead associated with routing protocols.
• In some cases, a default route is not enough. The default gateway might not be able to reach the destination
network, so you must also configure more specific static routes. For example, if the default gateway is
outside, then the default route cannot direct traffic to any inside networks that are not directly connected
to the FTD device.

741
Route to null0 Interface to “Black Hole” Unwanted Traffic
• You are using a feature that does not support dynamic routing protocols.
Route to null0 Interface to “Black Hole” Unwanted Traffic

Access rules let you filter packets based on the information contained in their headers. A static route to the
null0 interface is a complementary solution to access rules. You can use a null0 route to forward unwanted
or undesirable traffic into a “black hole” so the traffic is dropped.
Static null0 routes have a favorable performance profile. You can also use static null0 routes to prevent routing
loops. BGP can leverage the static null0 route for Remotely Triggered Black Hole routing.
Route Priorities
• Routes that identify a specific destination take precedence over the default route.
• When multiple routes exist to the same destination (either static or dynamic), then the administrative
distance for the route determines priority. Static routes are set to 1, so they typically are the highest
priority routes.
• When you have multiple static routes to the same destination with the same administrative distance, see
Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) Routing, on page 738.
• For traffic emerging from a tunnel with the Tunneled option, this route overrides any other configured
or learned default routes.
Transparent Firewall Mode and Bridge Group Routes

For traffic that originates on the Firepower Threat Defense device and is destined through a bridge group
member interface for a non-directly connected network, you need to configure either a default route or static
routes so the Firepower Threat Defense device knows out of which bridge group member interface to send
traffic. Traffic that originates on the Firepower Threat Defense device might include communications to a
syslog server or SNMP server. If you have servers that cannot all be reached through a single default route,
then you must configure static routes. For transparent mode, you cannot specify the BVI as the gateway
interface; only member interfaces can be used. For bridge groups in routed mode, you must specify the BVI
in a static route; you cannot specify a member interface. See MAC Address vs. Route Lookups, on page 534
Static Route Tracking

One of the problems with static routes is that there is no inherent mechanism for determining if the route is
up or down. They remain in the routing table even if the next hop gateway becomes unavailable. Static routes
are only removed from the routing table if the associated interface on the Firepower Threat Defense device
goes down.
The static route tracking feature provides a method for tracking the availability of a static route and installing
a backup route if the primary route should fail. For example, you can define a default route to an ISP gateway
and a backup default route to a secondary ISP in case the primary ISP becomes unavailable.
The Firepower Threat Defense device implements static route tracking by associating a static route with a
monitoring target host on the destination network that the Firepower Threat Defense device monitors using

742
Guidelines for Static and Default Routes
ICMP echo requests. If an echo reply is not received within a specified time period, the host is considered
down, and the associated route is removed from the routing table. An untracked backup route with a higher
metric is used in place of the removed route.
When selecting a monitoring target, you need to make sure that it can respond to ICMP echo requests. The
target can be any network object that you choose, but you should consider using the following:
• The ISP gateway (for dual ISP support) address
• The next hop gateway address (if you are concerned about the availability of the gateway)
• A server on the target network, such as a syslog server, that the Firepower Threat Defense device needs
to communicate with
• A persistent network object on the destination network
Note A PC that may be shut down at night is not a good choice.
You can configure static route tracking for statically defined routes or default routes obtained through DHCP
or PPPoE. You can only enable PPPoE clients on multiple interfaces with route tracking configured.
Guidelines for Static and Default Routes

Firewall Mode and Bridge Groups
• In transparent mode, static routes must use the bridge group member interface as the gateway; you cannot
specify the BVI.
• In routed mode, you must specify the BVI as the gateway; you cannot specify the member interface.
• Static route tracking is not supported for bridge group member interfaces or on the BVI.
IPv6
• Static route tracking is not supported for IPv6.
Clustering
In clustering, static route monitoring is only supported on the primary unit.
Add a Static Route

A static route defines where to send traffic for specific destination networks. You should at a minimum define
a default route. A default route is simply a static route with 0.0.0.0/0 as the destination IP address.

743
Add a Static Route
Procedure
Step 2 Click the Routing tab.
Step 3 Select Static Route from the table of contents.
Step 4 Click Add Routes.
Step 5 Click the IPv4 or IPv6 radio button depending on the type of static route that you are adding.
Step 6 Choose the Interface to which this static route applies.
For transparent mode, choose a bridge group member interface name. For routed mode with bridge groups,
you can choose either the bridge group member interface for the BVI name. To “black hole” unwanted traffic,
choose the Null0 interface.
Step 7 In the Available Network list, choose the destination network.

To define a default route, create an object with the address 0.0.0.0/0 and select it here.
Step 8 In the Gateway or IPv6 Gateway field, enter or choose the gateway router which is the next hop for this
route. You can provide an IP address or a Networks/Hosts object.
Step 9 In the Metric field, enter the number of hops to the destination network. Valid values range from 1 to 255;
the default value is 1. The metric is a measurement of the “expense” of a route, based on the number of hops
(hop count) to the network on which a specific host resides. Hop count is the number of networks that a
network packet must traverse, including the destination network, before it reaches its final destination. The
metric is used to compare routes among different routing protocols. The default administrative distance for
static routes is 1, giving it precedence over routes discovered by dynamic routing protocols but not directly
connected routes. The default administrative distance for routes discovered by OSPF is 110. If a static route
has the same administrative distance as a dynamic route, the static route takes precedence. Connected routes
always take precedence over static or dynamically discovered routes.
Step 10 (Optional) For a default route, click the Tunneled checkbox to define a separate default route for VPN traffic.
You can define a separate default route for VPN traffic if you want your VPN traffic to use a different default
route than your non VPN traffic. For example, traffic incoming from VPN connections can be easily directed
towards internal networks, while traffic from internal networks can be directed towards the outside. When
you create a default route with the tunneled option, all traffic from a tunnel terminating on the device that
cannot be routed using learned or static routes, is sent to this route. You can configure only one default tunneled
gateway per device. ECMP for tunneled traffic is not supported.
Step 11 (IPv4 static route only) To monitor route availability, enter or choose the name of an SLA (service level
agreement) Monitor object that defines the monitoring policy, in the Route Tracking field.
See SLA Monitor Objects, on page 435.
Step 12 Click Ok.

744
CHAPTER 38
OSPF for Firepower Threat Defense
This chapter describes how to configure the FTD to route data, perform authentication, and redistribute routing
information using the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol.
• OSPF for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 745
• Guidelines for OSPF, on page 748
• Configure OSPFv2, on page 749
• Configure OSPFv3, on page 760
OSPF for Firepower Threat Defense

information using the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol.
About OSPF
OSPF is an interior gateway routing protocol that uses link states rather than distance vectors for path selection.
OSPF propagates link-state advertisements rather than routing table updates. Because only LSAs are exchanged
instead of the entire routing tables, OSPF networks converge more quickly than RIP networks.
OSPF uses a link-state algorithm to build and calculate the shortest path to all known destinations. Each router
in an OSPF area contains an identical link-state database, which is a list of each of the router usable interfaces
and reachable neighbors.
The advantages of OSPF over RIP include the following:
• OSPF link-state database updates are sent less frequently than RIP updates, and the link-state database
is updated instantly, rather than gradually, as stale information is timed out.
• Routing decisions are based on cost, which is an indication of the overhead required to send packets
across a certain interface. The Firepower Threat Defense device calculates the cost of an interface based
on link bandwidth rather than the number of hops to the destination. The cost can be configured to specify
preferred paths.
The disadvantage of shortest path first algorithms is that they require a lot of CPU cycles and memory.
The Firepower Threat Defense device can run two processes of OSPF protocol simultaneously on different
sets of interfaces. You might want to run two processes if you have interfaces that use the same IP addresses
(NAT allows these interfaces to coexist, but OSPF does not allow overlapping addresses). Or you might want

745
About OSPF
to run one process on the inside and another on the outside, and redistribute a subset of routes between the
two processes. Similarly, you might need to segregate private addresses from public addresses.
You can redistribute routes into an OSPF routing process from another OSPF routing process, a RIP routing
process, or from static and connected routes configured on OSPF-enabled interfaces.
The Firepower Threat Defense device supports the following OSPF features:
• Intra-area, inter-area, and external (Type I and Type II) routes.
• Virtual links.
• LSA flooding.
• Authentication to OSPF packets (both password and MD5 authentication).
• Configuring the Firepower Threat Defense device as a designated router or a designated backup router.
The Firepower Threat Defense device also can be set up as an ABR.
• Stub areas and not-so-stubby areas.
• Area boundary router Type 3 LSA filtering.
OSPF supports MD5 and clear text neighbor authentication. Authentication should be used with all routing
protocols when possible because route redistribution between OSPF and other protocols (such as RIP) can
potentially be used by attackers to subvert routing information.
If NAT is used, if OSPF is operating on public and private areas, and if address filtering is required, then you
need to run two OSPF processes—one process for the public areas and one for the private areas.
A router that has interfaces in multiple areas is called an Area Border Router (ABR). A router that acts as a
gateway to redistribute traffic between routers using OSPF and routers using other routing protocols is called
an Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR).
An ABR uses LSAs to send information about available routes to other OSPF routers. Using ABR Type 3
LSA filtering, you can have separate private and public areas with the ASA acting as an ABR. Type 3 LSAs
(inter-area routes) can be filtered from one area to other, which allows you to use NAT and OSPF together
without advertising private networks.
Note Only Type 3 LSAs can be filtered. If you configure the Firepower Threat Defense device as an ASBR in a
private network, it will send Type 5 LSAs describing private networks, which will get flooded to the entire
AS, including public areas.
If NAT is employed but OSPF is only running in public areas, then routes to public networks can be redistributed
inside the private network, either as default or Type 5 AS external LSAs. However, you need to configure
static routes for the private networks protected by the Firepower Threat Defense device. Also, you should not
mix public and private networks on the same Firepower Threat Defense device interface.
You can have two OSPF routing processes, one RIP routing process, and one EIGRP routing process running
on the Firepower Threat Defense device at the same time.

746
OSPF Support for Fast Hello Packets
OSPF Support for Fast Hello Packets

The OSPF Support for Fast Hello Packets feature provides a way to configure the sending of hello packets in
intervals less than one second. Such a configuration would result in faster convergence in an Open Shortest
Path First (OSPF) network.
Prerequisites for OSPF Support for Fast Hello Packets

OSPF must be configured in the network already or configured at the same time as the OSPF Support for Fast
Hello Packets feature.
OSPF Hello Interval and Dead Interval

OSPF hello packets are packets that an OSPF process sends to its OSPF neighbors to maintain connectivity
with those neighbors. The hello packets are sent at a configurable interval (in seconds). The defaults are 10
seconds for an Ethernet link and 30 seconds for a non broadcast link. Hello packets include a list of all neighbors
for which a hello packet has been received within the dead interval. The dead interval is also a configurable
interval (in seconds), and defaults to four times the value of the hello interval. The value of all hello intervals
must be the same within a network. Likewise, the value of all dead intervals must be the same within a network.
These two intervals work together to maintain connectivity by indicating that the link is operational. If a router
does not receive a hello packet from a neighbor within the dead interval, it will declare that neighbor to be
down.
OSPF Fast Hello Packets

OSPF fast hello packets refer to hello packets being sent at intervals of less than 1 second. To understand fast
hello packets, you should already understand the relationship between OSPF hello packets and the dead
interval. See OSPF Hello Interval and Dead Interval, on page 747.
OSPF fast hello packets are achieved by using the ospf dead-interval command. The dead interval is set to 1
second, and the hello-multiplier value is set to the number of hello packets you want sent during that 1 second,
thus providing subsecond or "fast" hello packets.
When fast hello packets are configured on the interface, the hello interval advertised in the hello packets that
are sent out this interface is set to 0. The hello interval in the hello packets received over this interface is
ignored.
The dead interval must be consistent on a segment, whether it is set to 1 second (for fast hello packets) or set
to any other value. The hello multiplier need not be the same for the entire segment as long as at least one
hello packet is sent within the dead interval.
Benefits of OSPF Fast Hello Packets

The benefit of the OSPF Fast Hello Packets feature is that your OSPF network will experience faster
convergence time than it would without fast hello packets. This feature allows you to detect lost neighbors
within 1 second. It is especially useful in LAN segments, where neighbor loss might not be detected by the
Open System Interconnection (OSI) physical layer and data-link layer.

747
Implementation Differences Between OSPFv2 and OSPFv3
Implementation Differences Between OSPFv2 and OSPFv3

OSPFv3 is not backward compatible with OSPFv2. To use OSPF to route both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic, you
must run both OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 at the same time. They coexist with each other, but do not interact with
each other.
The additional features that OSPFv3 provides include the following:
• Protocol processing per link.
• Removal of addressing semantics.
• Addition of flooding scope.
• Support for multiple instances per link.
• Use of the IPv6 link-local address for neighbor discovery and other features.
• LSAs expressed as prefix and prefix length.
• Addition of two LSA types.
• Handling of unknown LSA types.
• Authentication support using the IPsec ESP standard for OSPFv3 routing protocol traffic, as specified
by RFC-4552.
Guidelines for OSPF

Firewall Mode Guidelines
OSPF supports routed firewall mode only. OSPF does not support transparent firewall mode.
High Availability Guidelines

OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 support Stateful High Availability.
IPv6 Guidelines
• OSPFv2 does not support IPv6.
• OSPFv3 supports IPv6.
• OSPFv3 uses IPv6 for authentication.
• The Firepower Threat Defense device installs OSPFv3 routes into the IPv6 RIB, provided it is the best
route.
Clustering Guidelines
• OSPFv3 encryption is not supported. An error message appears if you try to configure OSPFv3 encryption
in a clustering environment.
• In Spanned interface mode, dynamic routing is not supported on management-only interfaces.

748
Configure OSPFv2
• When a master role change occurs in the cluster, the following behavior occurs:
• In spanned interface mode, the router process is active only on the master unit and is in a suspended
state on the slave units. Each cluster unit has the same router ID because the configuration has been
synchronized from the master unit. As a result, a neighboring router does not notice any change in
the router ID of the cluster during a role change.
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and OSPF Guidelines

When a MPLS-configured router sends Link State (LS) update packets containing opaque Type-10 link-state
advertisements (LSAs) that include an MPLS header, authentication fails and the appliance silently drops the
update packets, rather than acknowledging them. Eventually the peer router will terminate the neighbor
relationship because it has not received any acknowledgments.
Make sure that non-stop forwarding (NSF) is disabled on the appliance to ensure that the neighbor relationship
remains stable:
• Navigate to the Non Stop Forwarding tab in Firepower Management Center (Devices > Device
Management (select the desired device) > Routing > OSPF > Advanced > Non Stop Forwarding).
Ensure the Non Stop Forwarding Capability boxes are not checked.
• OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 support multiple instances on an interface.
• OSPFv3 supports encryption through ESP headers in a non-clustered environment.
• OSPFv3 supports Non-Payload Encryption.
• OSPFv2 supports Cisco NSF Graceful Restart and IETF NSF Graceful Restart mechanisms as defined
in RFCs 4811, 4812 & 3623 respectively.
• OSPFv3 supports Graceful Restart mechanism as defined in RFC 5187.
• There is a limit to the number of intra area (type 1) routes that can be distributed. For these routes, a
single type-1 LSA contains all prefixes. Because the system has a limit of 35 KB for packet size, 3000
routes result in a packet that exceeds the limit. Consider 2900 type 1 routes to be the maximum number
supported.
Configure OSPFv2
This section describes the tasks involved in configuring an OSPFv2 routing process.
Configure OSPF Areas, Ranges, and Virtual Links

You can configure several OSPF area parameters, which include setting authentication, defining stub areas,
and assigning specific costs to the default summary route. You can enable up to two OSPF process instances.
Each OSPF process has its own associated areas and networks. Authentication provides password-based
protection against unauthorized access to an area.

749
Stub areas are areas into which information on external routes is not sent. Instead, there is a default external
route generated by the ABR into the stub area for destinations outside the autonomous system. To take
advantage of the OSPF stub area support, default routing must be used in the stub area.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Routing > OSPF.
Step 3 Select Process 1. You can enable up to two OSPF process instances for each context. You must chose an
OSPF process to be able to configure the Area parameters.
Step 4 Chose the OSPF role from the drop-down list, and enter a description for it in the next field. The options are
Internal, ABR, ASBR, and ABR and ASBR. See About OSPF, on page 745 for a description of the OSPF
roles.
Step 5 Select the Area tab, and click Add.
You can click the edit icon ( ), or use the right-click menu to cut, copy, past, insert, and delete areas.
Step 6 Configure the following area options for each OSPF process:
• OSPF Process—Choose 1 or 2.
• Area ID—Designation of the area for which routes are to be summarized.
• Area Type—Choose one of the following:
• Normal— (Default) Standard OSPF area.
• Stub—A stub area does not have any routers or areas beyond it. Stub areas prevent Autonomous
System (AS) External LSAs (Type 5 LSAs) from being flooded into the stub area. When you create
a stub area, you can prevent summary LSAs (Types 3 and 4) from being flooded into the area by
NOT checking the Summary Stub check box.
• NSSA—Makes the area a not-so-stubby area (NSSA). NSSAs accept Type 7 LSAs. You can disable
route redistribution by NOT checking the Redistribute check box and checking the Default
Information Originate check box. You can prevent summary LSAs from being flooded into the
area by NOT checking the Summary NSSA check box.
• Metric Value—The metric used for generating the default route. The default value is 10. Valid metric
values range from 0 to 16777214.
• Metric Type—The metric type is the external link type that is associated with the default route that is
advertised into the OSPF routing domain. The available options are 1 for a Type 1 external route or 2
for a Type 2 external route.
• Available Network—Choose one of the available networks and click Add, or click the add icon ( )
to add a new network object. See Network Objects, on page 375 for the procedure for adding networks.
• Authentication—Choose the OSPF authentication:
• None—(Default) Disables OSPF area authentication.
• Password—Provides a clear text password for area authentication, which is not recommended
where security is a concern.

750
• MD5—Allows MD5 authentication.
• Default Cost—The default cost for the OSPF area, which is used to determine the shortest paths to the
destination. Valid values range from 0 to 65535. The default value is 1.
Step 7 Click OK to save the area configuration.

Step 8 Select the Range tab, and click Add.
• Choose one of the available networks and whether to advertise, or,
• Click the add icon ( ) to add a new network object. See Network Objects, on page 375 for the procedure
for adding networks.
Step 9 Click OK to save the range configuration.

Step 10 Select the Virtual Link tab, click Add, and configure the following options for each OSPF process:
• Peer Router—Choose the IP address of the peer router. To add a new peer router, click the add icon
( ). See Network Objects, on page 375 for the procedure for adding networks.
• Hello Interval—The time in seconds between the hello packets sent on an interface. The hello interval
is an unsigned integer that is to be advertised in the hello packets. The value must be the same for all
routers and access servers on a specific network. Valid values range from 1 to 65535. The default is 10.
The smaller the hello interval, the faster topological changes are detected, but the more traffic is sent on
the interface.
• Transmit Delay—The estimated time in seconds that is required to send an LSA packet on the interface.
The integer value must be greater than zero. Valid values range from 1 to 8192. The default is 1.
LSAs in the update packet have their own ages incremented by this amount before transmission. If the
delay is not added before transmission over a link, the time in which the LSA propagates over the link
is not considered. The value assigned should take into account the transmission and propagation delays
for the interface. This setting has more significance on very low-speed links.
• Retransmit Interval—The time in seconds between LSA retransmissions for adjacencies that belong
to the interface. The retransmit interval is the expected round-trip delay between any two routers on the
attached network. The value must be greater than the expected round-trip delay, and can range from 1
to 65535. The default is 5.
When a router sends an LSA to its neighbor, it keeps the LSA until it receives the acknowledgment
message. If the router receives no acknowledgment, it resends the LSA. Be conservative when setting
this value, or needless retransmission can result. The value should be larger for serial lines and virtual
links.
• Dead Interval—The time in seconds that hello packets are not seen before a neighbor indicates that the
router is down. The dead interval is an unsigned integer. The default is four times the hello interval, or
40 seconds. The value must be the same for all routers and access servers that are attached to a common
network. Valid values range from 1 to 65535.
• Authentication—Choose the OSPF virtual link authentication from the following:
• None—(Default) Disables virtual link area authentication.
• Area Authentication—Enables area authentication using MD5. Click the Add button, and enter
the key ID, key, confirm the key, and then click OK.

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Configure OSPF Redistribution
• Password—Provides a clear text password for virtual link authentication, which is not recommended
• MD5—Allows MD5 authentication. Click the Add button, and enter the key ID, key, confirm the
key, and then click OK.
Note Ensure to enter only numbers as the MD5 key ID.
Step 11 Click OK to save the virtual link configuration.

Step 12 Click Save on the Routing page to save your changes.
What to do next
Continue with Configure OSPF Redistribution.
Configure OSPF Redistribution

The Firepower Threat Defense device can control the redistribution of routes between the OSPF routing
processes. The rules for redistributing routes from one routing process into an OSPF routing process are
displayed. You can redistribute routes discovered by RIP and BGP into the OSPF routing process. You can
also redistribute static and connected routes into the OSPF routing process.
Procedure
Step 3 Select the Redistribution tab, and click Add.
Step 4 Configure the following redistribution options for each OSPF process:
• Route Type—Choose one of the following types:
• Static—Redistributes static routes to the OSPF routing process.
• Connected—Redistributes connected routes (routes established automatically by virtue of having
the IP address enabled on the interface) to the OSPF routing process. Connected routes are
redistributed as external to the device. You can select whether to use subnets under the Optional
list .
• OSPF—Redistributes routes from another OSPF routing process, for example, internal, external 1
and 2, NSSA external 1 and 2, or whether to use subnets. You can select these options under the
Optional list.
• BGP—Redistribute routes from the BGP routing process. Add the AS number and whether to use
subnets.

752
Configure OSPF Inter-Area Filtering
• RIP—Redistributes routes from the RIP routing process. You can select whether to use subnets
under the Optional list.
• Metric Value—Metric value for the routes being distributed. The default value is 10. Valid values range
from 0 to 16777214.
When redistributing from one OSPF process to another OSPF process on the same device, the metric
will be carried through from one process to the other if no metric value is specified. When redistributing
other processes to an OSPF process, the default metric is 20 when no metric value is specified.
• Tag Value—Tag specifies the 32-bit decimal value attached to each external route that is not used by
OSPF itself, but which may be used to communicate information between ASBRs. If none is specified,
then the remote autonomous system number is used for routes from BGP and EGP. For other protocols,
zero is used. Valid values are from 0 to 4294967295.
• RouteMap—Checks for filtering the importing of routes from the source routing protocol to the current
routing protocol. If this parameter is not specified, all routes are redistributed. If this parameter is specified,
but no route map tags are listed, no routes are imported. Or you can add a new route map by clicking the
add icon ( ). See Route Maps to add a new route map.
Step 5 Click OK to save the redistribution configuration.

What to do next
Continue with Configure OSPF Inter-Area Filtering, on page 753.
Configure OSPF Inter-Area Filtering

ABR type 3 LSA filtering extends the capability of an ABR that is running OSPF to filter type 3 LSAs between
different OSPF areas. Once a prefix list is configured, only the specified prefixes are sent from one OSPF
area to another OSPF area. All other prefixes are restricted to their OSPF area. You can apply this type of
area filtering to traffic going into or coming out of an OSPF area, or to both the incoming and outgoing traffic
for that area
When multiple entries of a prefix list match a given prefix, the entry with the lowest sequence number is used.
For efficiency, you may want to put the most common matches or denials near the top of the list by manually
assigning them a lower sequence number. By default, sequence numbers are automatically generated in
increments of 5, beginning with 5.
Procedure
Step 3 Select the InterArea tab, and click Add.

753
Configure OSPF Filter Rules
You can click the edit icon ( ), or use the right-click menu to cut, copy, past, insert, and delete inter-areas.
Step 4 Configure the following inter-area filtering options for each OSPF process:
• Area ID—The area for which routes are to be summarized.
• PrefixList—The name of the prefix. To add a new prefix list object, see Step 5.
• Traffic Direction—Inbound or outbound. Choose Inbound to filter LSAs coming into an OSPF area,
or Outbound to filter LSAs coming out of an OSPF area. If you are editing an existing filter entry, you
cannot modify this setting.
Step 5 Click the add icon ( ), and enter a name for the new prefix list, and whether to allow overrides.
You must configure a prefix list before you can configure a prefix rule.
Step 6 Click Add to configure prefix rules, and configure the following parameters:
• Action—Select Block or Allow for the redistribution access.
• Sequence No—The routing sequence number. By default, sequence numbers are automatically generated
in increments of 5, beginning with 5.
• IP Address—Specify the prefix number in the format of IP address/mask length.
• Min Prefix Length—(Optional) The minimum prefix length.
• Max Prefix Length—(Optional)The maximum prefix length.
Step 7 Click OK to save the inter-area filtering configuration.

What to do next
Continue with Configure OSPF Filter Rules, on page 754.
Configure OSPF Filter Rules

You can configure ABR Type 3 LSA filters for each OSPF process. ABR Type 3 LSA filters allow only
specified prefixes to be sent from one area to another area and restrict all other prefixes. You can apply this
type of area filtering out of a specific OSPF area, into a specific OSPF area, or into and out of the same OSPF
area at the same time. OSPF ABR Type 3 LSA filtering improves your control of route distribution between
OSPF areas.
Procedure
Step 3 Select the Filter Rule tab, and click Add.

754
Configure OSPF Summary Addresses
You can click the edit icon ( ), or use the right-click menu to cut, copy, past, insert, and delete filter rules.
Step 4 Configure the following filter rule options for each OSPF process:
• Access List—The access list for this OSPF process. To add a new standard access list object, click the
add icon ( ) and see Configure Standard ACL Objects, on page 443.
• Traffic Direction—Choose In or Out for the traffic direction being filtered. Choose In to filter LSAs
coming into an OSPF area, or Out to filter LSAs coming out of an OSPF area. If you are editing an
existing filter entry, you cannot modify this setting.
• Interface—The interface for this filter rule.
Step 5 Click OK to save the filter rule configuration.

What to do next
Continue with Configure OSPF Summary Addresses, on page 755.
Configure OSPF Summary Addresses

When routes from other protocols are redistributed into OSPF, each route is advertised individually in an
external LSA. However, you can configure the Firepower Threat Defense device to advertise a single route
for all the redistributed routes that are included for a specified network address and mask. This configuration
decreases the size of the OSPF link-state database. Routes that match the specified IP address mask pair can
be suppressed. The tag value can be used as a match value for controlling redistribution through route maps.
Routes learned from other routing protocols can be summarized. The metric used to advertise the summary
is the smallest metric of all the more specific routes. Summary routes help reduce the size of the routing table.
Using summary routes for OSPF causes an OSPF ASBR to advertise one external route as an aggregate for
all redistributed routes that are covered by the address. Only routes from other routing protocols that are being
redistributed into OSPF can be summarized.
Procedure
Step 3 Select the Summary Address tab, and click Add.
You can click the edit icon ( ) to edit, or use the right-click menu to cut, copy, past, insert, and delete
summary addresses.
Step 4 Configure the following summary address options for each OSPF process:

755
Configure OSPF Interfaces and Neighbors
• Available Network—The IP address of the summary address. Select one from the Available networks
list and click Add, or to add a new network, click the add icon ( ). See Network Objects, on page 375
for the procedure for adding networks.
• Tag—A 32-bit decimal value that is attached to each external route. This value is not used by OSPF
itself, but may be used to communicate information between ASBRs .
• Advertise— Advertises the summary route. Uncheck this check box to suppress routes that fall under
the summary address. By default, this check box is checked.
Step 5 Click OK to save the summary address configuration.

What to do next
Continue with Configure OSPF Interfaces and Neighbors, on page 756.

You can change some interface-specific OSPFv2 parameters, if necessary. You are not required to change
any of these parameters, but the following interface parameters must be consistent across all routers in an
attached network: the hello interval, the dead interval, and the authentication key. If you configure any of
these parameters, be sure that the configurations for all routers on your network have compatible values.
You need to define static OSPFv2 neighbors to advertise OSPFv2 routes over a point-to-point, non-broadcast
network. This feature lets you broadcast OSPFv2 advertisements across an existing VPN connection without
having to encapsulate the advertisements in a GRE tunnel.
Procedure
Step 3 Select the Interface tab, and click Add.
Step 4 Configure the following Interface options for each OSPF process:
• Interface—The interface you are configuring.
• Default Cost—The cost of sending a packet through the interface. The default value is 10.
• Priority— Determines the designated router for a network. Valid values range from 0 to 255. The default
value is 1. Entering 0 for this setting makes the router ineligible to become the designated router or
backup designated router.
When two routers connect to a network, both attempt to become the designated router. The device with
the higher router priority becomes the designated router. If there is a tie, the router with the higher router
ID becomes the designated router. This setting does not apply to interfaces that are configured as
point-to-point interfaces.

756
• MTU Ignore— OSPF checks whether neighbors are using the same MTU on a common interface. This
check is performed when neighbors exchange DBD packets. If the receiving MTU in the DBD packet
is higher than the IP MTU configured on the incoming interface, OSPF adjacency is not established.
• Database Filter—Use this setting to filter the outgoing LSA interface during synchronization and
flooding. By default, OSPF floods new LSAs over all interfaces in the same area, except the interface
on which the LSA arrives. In a fully meshed topology, this flooding can waste bandwidth and lead to
excessive link and CPU usage. Checking this check box prevents OSPF flooding of the LSA on the
selected interface.
• Hello Interval—Specifies the interval, in seconds, between hello packets sent on an interface. Valid
values range from 1 to 8192 seconds. The default value is 10 seconds.
The smaller the hello interval, the faster topological changes are detected, but more traffic is sent on the
interface. This value must be the same for all routers and access servers on a specific interface.
• Transmit Delay—Estimated time in seconds to send an LSA packet on the interface. Valid values range
from 1 to 65535 seconds. The default is 1 second.
LSAs in the update packet have their ages increased by the amount specified by this field before
transmission. If the delay is not added before transmission over a link, the time in which the LSA
propagates over the link is not considered. The value assigned should take into account the transmission
and propagation delays for the interface. This setting has more significance on very low-speed links.
• Retransmit Interval—Time in seconds between LSA retransmissions for adjacencies that belong to the
interface. The time must be greater than the expected round-trip delay between any two routers on the
attached network. Valid values range from 1 to 65535 seconds. The default is 5 seconds.
links.
• Dead Interval—Time period in seconds for which hello packets must not be seen before neighbors
indicate that the router is down. The value must be the same for all nodes on the network and can range
from 1 to 65535.
• Hello Multiplier—Specifies the number of Hello packets to be sent per second. Valid values are between
3 and 20.
• Point-to-Point—Lets you transmit OSPF routes over VPN tunnels.
• Authentication—Choose the OSPF interface authentication from the following:
• None—(Default) Disables interface authentication.
• Area Authentication—Enables interface authentication using MD5. Click the Add button, and
enter the key ID, key, confirm the key, and then click OK.
• Password—Provides a clear text password for virtual link authentication, which is not recommended
• MD5—Allows MD5 authentication. Click the Add button, and enter the key ID, key, confirm the
key, and then click OK.
Note Ensure to enter only numbers as the MD5 key ID.
• Enter Password—The password you configure if you choose Password as the type of authentication.

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Configure OSPF Advanced Properties
• Confirm Password—Confirm the password you chose.
Step 5 Select the Neighbor tab, and click Add.
Step 6 Configure the following parameters for each OSPF process:

• Neighbor—Choose one of the neighbors in the drop-down list, or click the add icon ( ) to add a new
neighbor; enter the name, description, network, whether to allow overrides, and then click Save.
• Interface—Choose the interface associated with the neighbor.
Step 7 Click OK to save the neighbor configuration.


The Advanced Properties tab allows you to configure options, such as syslog message generation, administrative
route distances, an LSA timer, and graceful restarts.
Graceful Restarts
The Firepower Threat Defense device may experience some known failure situations that should not
affect packet forwarding across the switching platform. The Non-Stop Forwarding (NSF) capability
allows data forwarding to continue along known routes, while the routing protocol information is being
restored. This capability is useful when there is a scheduled hitless software upgrade. You can configure
graceful restart on OSPFv2 by using either using NSF Cisco (RFC 4811 and RFC 4812) or NSF IETF
(RFC 3623).
Note NSF capability is also useful in HA mode and clustering.
Configuring the NSF graceful-restart feature involves two steps; configuring capabilities and configuring
a device as NSF-capable or NSF-aware. A NSF-capable device can indicate its own restart activities to
neighbors and a NSF-aware device can help a restarting neighbor.
A device can be configured as NSF-capable or NSF-aware, depending on some conditions:
• A device can be configured as NSF-aware irrespective of the mode in which it is.
• A device has to be in either Failover or Spanned Etherchannel (L2) cluster mode to be configured
as NSF-capable.
• For a device to be either NSF-aware or NSF-capable, it should be configured with the capability of
handling opaque Link State Advertisements (LSAs)/ Link Local Signaling (LLS) block as required.

758
Procedure
Step 2 Select Routing > OSPF, and click Advanced.
Step 3 Select the General tab, and configure the following:
• Router ID—Choose Automatic or IP address for the router ID. If you choose IP address, enter the IP
address in the IP Address field.
• Ignore LSA MOSPF—Suppresses syslog messages when the route receives unsupported LSA Type 6
multicast OSPF (MOSPF) packets.
• RFC 1583 Compatible—Configures RFC 1583 compatibility as the method used to calculate summary
route costs. Routing loops can occur with RFC 1583 compatibility enabled. Disable it to prevent routing
loops. All OSPF routers in an OSPF routing domain should have RFC compatibility set identically.
• Adjacency Changes—Defines the adjacency changes that cause syslog messages to be sent.
By default, a syslog message is generated when an OSPF neighbor goes up or down. You can configure
the router to send a syslog message when an OSPF neighbor goes down and also a syslog for each state.
• Log Adjacency Changes—Causes the Firepower Threat Defense device to send a syslog message
whenever an OSPF neighbor goes up or down. This setting is checked by default.
• Log Adjacency Change Details—Causes the Firepower Threat Defense device to send a syslog
message whenever any state change occurs, not just when a neighbor goes up or down. This setting
is unchecked by default.
• Administrative Route Distances—Allows you to modify the settings that were used to configure
administrative route distances for inter-area, intra-area, and external IPv6 routes. The administrative
route distance is an integer from 1 to 254. The default is 110.
• LSA Group Pacing—Specifies the interval in seconds at which LSAs are collected into a group and
refreshed, check summed, or aged. Valid values range from 10 to 1800. The default value is 240.
• Enable Default Information Originate—Check the Enable check box to generate a default external
route into an OSPF routing domain and configure the following options:
• Always advertise the default route—Ensures that the default route is always advertised.
• Metric—Metric used for generating the default route. Valid metric values range from 0 to 16777214.
The default value is 10.
• Metric Type—The external link type that is associated with the default route that is advertised into
the OSPFv3 routing domain. Valid values are 1 (Type 1 external route) and 2 (Type 2 external
route). The default is Type 2 external route.
• Route Map—Choose the routing process that generates the default route if the route map is satisfied
or click the add icon ( ) to add a new one. See Route Maps to add a new route map.
Step 4 Click OK to save the general configuration.

Step 5 Select the Non Stop Forwarding tab, and configure Cisco NSF graceful restart for OSPFv2, for an NSF-capable
or NSF-aware device:

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Configure OSPFv3
Note There are two graceful restart mechanisms for OSPFv2, Cisco NSF and IETF NSF. Only one of
these graceful restart mechanisms can be configured at a time for an OSPF instance. An NSF-aware
device can be configured as both Cisco NSF helper and IETF NSF helper but a NSF-capable device
can be configured in either Cisco NSF or IETF NSF mode at a time for an OSPF instance.
a) Check the Enable Cisco Non Stop Forwarding Capability check box.
b) (Optional) Check the Cancel NSF restart when non-NSF-aware neighboring networking devices are
detected check box if required.
c) (Optional) Make sure the Enable Cisco Non Stop Forwarding Helper mode check box is unchecked to
disable the helper mode on an NSF-aware device.
Step 6 Configure IETF NSF Graceful Restart for OSPFv2, for an NSF-capable or NSF-aware device:
a) Check the Enable IETF Non Stop Forwarding Capability check box.
b) In the Length of graceful restart interval (seconds) field, enter the restart interval in seconds. The default
value is 120 seconds. For a restart interval below 30 seconds, graceful restart will be terminated.
c) (Optional) Make sure the Enable IETF nonstop forwarding (NSF) for helper mode check box is
unchecked to disable the IETF NSF helper mode on an NSF-aware device.
d) Enable Strict Link State advertisement checking—When enabled, it indicates that the helper router
will terminate the process of restarting the router if it detects that there is a change to a LSA that would
be flooded to the restarting router, or if there is a changed LSA on the retransmission list of the restarting
router when the graceful restart process is initiated.
e) Enable IETF Non Stop Forwarding—Enables non stop forwarding, which allows for the forwarding
of data packets to continue along known routes while the routing protocol information is being restored
following a switchover. OSPF uses extensions to the OSPF protocol to recover its state from neighboring
OSPF devices. For the recovery to work, the neighbors must support the NSF protocol extensions and be
willing to act as "helpers" to the device that is restarting. The neighbors must also continue forwarding
data traffic to the device that is restarting while protocol state recovery takes place.
Configure OSPFv3
This section describes the tasks involved in configuring an OSPFv3 routing process.
Configure OSPFv3 Areas, Route Summaries, and Virtual Links

To enable OSPFv3, you need to create an OSPFv3 routing process, create an area for OSPFv3, enable an
interface for OSPFv3, and then redistribute the route into the targeted OSPFv3 routing process.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Routing > OSPFv3.
Step 3 By default Enable Process 1 is selected. You can enable up to two OSPF process instances.
Step 4 Chose the OSPFv3 role from the drop-down list, and enter a description for it. The options are Internal, ABR,
ASBR, and ABR and ASBR. See About OSPF, on page 745 for descriptions of the OSPFv3 roles.
Step 5 Select the Area tab, and click Add.

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Configure OSPFv3 Areas, Route Summaries, and Virtual Links
Step 6 Select the General tab, and configure the following options for each OSPF process:
• Area ID—The area for which routes are to be summarized.
• Cost—The metric or cost for the summary route, which is used during OSPF SPF calculations to determine
the shortest paths to the destination. Valid values range from 0 to 16777215.
• Type—Specifies Normal, NSSA, or Stub. If you select Normal, there are no other parameters to configure.
If you select Stub, you can choose to send summary LSAs in the area. If you select NSSA, you can
configure the next three options:
• Allow Sending summary LSA into this area—Allows the sending of summary LSAs into the
area.
• Redistribute imports routes to normal and NSSA area—Allows redistribution to import routes
to normal and not to stubby areas.
• Defaults information originate—Generates a default external route into an OSPFv3 routing domain.
• Metric—Metric used for generating the default route. The default value is 10. Valid metric values range
from 0 to 16777214.
advertised into the OSPFv3 routing domain. The available options are 1 for a Type 1 external route or
2 for a Type 2 external route.

Step 8 Select the Route Summary tab, and click Add Route Summary.
You can click the edit icon ( ), or use the right-click menu to cut, copy, past, insert, and delete route
summaries.
Step 9 Configure the following route summary options for each OSPF process:
• IPv6 Prefix/Length—The IPv6 prefix. To add a new network object, click the add icon ( ). See
Network Objects, on page 375 for the procedure for adding networks.
• Cost—The metric or cost for the summary route, which is used during OSPF SPF calculations to determine
the shortest paths to the destination. Valid values range from 0 to 16777215.
• Advertise—Advertises the summary route. Uncheck this check box to suppress routes that fall under
the summary address. By default, this check box is checked.
Step 10 Click OK to save the route summary configuration.

Step 11 Select the Virtual Link tab, click Add Virtual Link, and configure the following options for each OSPF
process:
• Peer RouterID—Choose the IP address of the peer router. To add a new network object, click the add
icon ( ). See Network Objects, on page 375 for the procedure for adding networks.
• TTL Security—Enables TTL security check. The value for the hop-count is a number from 1 to 254.
The default is 1.

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Configure OSPFv3 Redistribution
OSPF sends outgoing packets with an IP header Time to Live (TTL) value of 255 and discards incoming
packets that have TTL values less than a configurable threshold. Because each device that forwards an
IP packet decrements the TTL, packets received via a direct (one-hop) connection have a value of 255.
Packets that cross two hops have a value of 254, and so on. The receive threshold is configured in terms
of the maximum number of hops that a packet may have traveled.
• Dead Interval—The time in seconds that hello packets are not seen before a neighbor indicates that the
router is down. The default is four times the hello interval, or 40 seconds. Valid values range from 1 to
65535.
The dead interval is an unsigned integer. The value must be the same for all routers and access servers
that are attached to a common network.
• Hello Interval—The time in seconds between the hello packets sent on an interface. Valid values range
from 1 to 65535. The default is 10.
The hello interval is an unsigned integer that is to be advertised in the hello packets. The value must be
the same for all routers and access servers on a specific network. The smaller the hello interval, the faster
topological changes are detected, but the more traffic is sent on the interface.
• Retransmit Interval—The time in seconds between LSA retransmissions for adjacencies that belong
to the interface. The retransmit interval is the expected round-trip delay between any two routers on the
attached network. The value must be greater than the expected round-trip delay, and can range from 1
to 65535. The default is 5.
links.
• Transmit Delay—The estimated time in seconds that is required to send an LSA packet on the interface.
The integer value must be greater than zero. Valid values range from 1 to 8192. The default is 1.
LSAs in the update packet have their own ages incremented by this amount before transmission. If the
delay is not added before transmission over a link, the time in which the LSA propagates over the link
is not considered. The value assigned should take into account the transmission and propagation delays
for the interface. This setting has more significance on very low-speed links.
Step 12 Click OK to save the virtual link configuration.

Step 13 Click Save on the Router page to save your changes.
What to do next
Continue with Configure OSPFv3 Redistribution.

The Firepower Threat Defense device can control the redistribution of routes between the OSPF routing
processes. The rules for redistributing routes from one routing process into an OSPF routing process are
displayed. You can redistribute routes discovered by RIP and BGP into the OSPF routing process. You can
also redistribute static and connected routes into the OSPF routing process.

762
Procedure
Step 3 Select the Redistribution tab, and click Add.
Step 4 Configure the following redistribution options for each OSPF process:
• Source Protocol—The source protocol from which routes are being redistributed. The supported protocols
are connected, OSPF, static, and BGP. If you choose OSPF, you must enter the Process ID in the Process
ID field. If you choose BCP, you must add the AS number in the AS Number field.
• Metric —Metric value for the routes being distributed. The default value is 10. Valid values range from
0 to 16777214.
When redistributing from one OSPF process to another OSPF process on the same device, the metric
will be carried through from one process to the other if no metric value is specified. When redistributing
other processes to an OSPF process, the default metric is 20 when no metric value is specified.
• Tag —Tag specifies the 32-bit decimal value attached to each external route that is not used by OSPF
itself, but which may be used to communicate information between ASBRs. If none is specified, then
the remote autonomous system number is used for routes from BGP and EGP. For other protocols, zero
is used. Valid values are from 0 to 4294967295.
• Route Map—Checks for filtering the importing of routes from the source routing protocol to the current
routing protocol. If this parameter is not specified, all routes are redistributed. If this parameter is specified,
but no route map tags are listed, no routes are imported. Or you can add a new route map by clicking the
add icon ( ). See Route Maps, on page 438 for the procedure to add a new route map.
• Process ID—The OSPF process ID, either 1 or 2.
Note The Process ID is enabled the OSPFv3 process is redistributing a route learned by another
OSPFv3 process.
• Match—Enables OSPF routes to be redistributed into other routing domains:

• Internal for routes that are internal to a specific autonomous system.
• External 1 for routes that are external to the autonomous system, but are imported into OSPFv3 as
Type 1 external routes.
• External 2 for routes that are external to the autonomous system, but are imported into OSPFv3 as
Type 2 external routes.
• NSSA External 1 for routes that are external to the autonomous system, but are imported into
OSPFv3 in an NSSA for IPv6 as Type 1 external routes.
• NSSA External 2 for routes that are external to the autonomous system, but are imported into
OSPFv3 in an NSSA for IPv6 as Type 2 external routes.

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Configure OSPFv3 Summary Prefixes
Step 5 Click OK to save the redistribution configuration.

What to do next
Continue with Configure OSPFv3 Summary Prefixes, on page 764.
Configure OSPFv3 Summary Prefixes

You can configure the Firepower Threat Defense device to advertise routes that match a specified IPv6 prefix
and mask pair.
Procedure
Step 3 Select the Summary Prefix tab, and click Add.
You can click the edit icon ( ), or use the right-click menu to cut, copy, past, insert, and delete summary
prefixes.
Step 4 Configure the following summary prefix options for each OSPF process:
• IPv6 Prefix/Length—The IPv6 prefix and prefix length label. Select one from the list or click the add
icon ( ) to add a new network object. See Network Objects, on page 375 for the procedure for adding
networks.
• Advertise— Advertises routes that match the specified prefix and mask pair. Uncheck this check box
to suppress routes that match the specified prefix and mask pair.
• (Optional) Tag—A value that you can use as a match value for controlling redistribution through route
maps.
Step 5 Click OK to save the summary prefix configuration.

What to do next
Continue with Configure OSPFv3 Interfaces, Authentication, and Neighbors, on page 764.
Configure OSPFv3 Interfaces, Authentication, and Neighbors

You can change certain interface-specific OSPFv3 parameters, if necessary. You are not required to change
any of these parameters, but the following interface parameters must be consistent across all routers in an
attached network: the hello interval and the dead interval. If you configure any of these parameters, be sure
that the configurations for all routers on your network have compatible values.

764
Procedure
Step 3 Select the Interface tab, and click Add.
You can click the Pencil icon to edit, or use the right-click menu to cut, copy, past, insert, and delete areas.
Step 4 Configure the following interface options for each OSPFv3 process:
• Interface—The interface you are configuring.
• Enable OSPFv3—Enables OSPFv3.
• Area—The area ID for this process.
• Instance —Specifies the area instance ID to be assigned to the interface. An interface can have only one
OSPFv3 area. You can use the same area on multiple interfaces, and each interface can use a different
area instance ID.
Step 5 Select the Properties tab, and configuring the following options for each OSPFv3 process:
• Filter Outgoing Link Status Advertisements—Filters outgoing LSAs to an OSPFv3 interface. All
outgoing LSAs are flooded to the interface by default.
• Disable MTU mismatch detection—Disables the OSPF MTU mismatch detection when DBD packets
are received. OSPF MTU mismatch detection is enabled by default.
• Flood Reduction—Changes normal LSAs into Do Not Age LSAs, so that they don't get flooded every
3600 seconds across areas.
OSPF LSAs are refreshed every 3600 seconds. In large OSPF networks, this can lead to large amounts
of unnecessary LSA flooding from area to area.
• Point-to-Point Network—Lets you transmit OSPF routes over VPN tunnels. When an interface is
configured as point-to-point, non-broadcast, the following restrictions apply:
• You can define only one neighbor for the interface.
• You need to manually configure the neighbor.
• You need to define a static route pointing to the crypto endpoint.
• If OSPF over a tunnel is running on the interface, regular OSPF with an upstream router cannot be
run on the same interface.
• You should bind the crypto map to the interface before specifying the OSPF neighbor to ensure that
the OSPF updates are passed through the VPN tunnel. If you bind the crypto map to the interface
after specifying the OSPF neighbor, use the clear local-host all command to clear OSPF connections
so that the OSPF adjacencies can be established over the VPN tunnel.
• Broadcast— Specifies that the interface is a broadcast interface. By default, this check box is checked
for Ethernet interfaces. Uncheck this check box to designate the interface as a point-to-point, nonbroadcast

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interface. Specifying an interface as point-to-point, nonbroadcast lets you transmit OSPF routes over
VPN tunnels.
• Cost—Specifies the cost of sending a packet on the interface. Valid values for this setting range from 0
to 255. The default value is 1. Entering 0 for this setting makes the router ineligible to become the
designated router or backup designated router. This setting does not apply to interfaces that are configured
as point-to-point, nonbroadcast interfaces.
When two routers connect to a network, both attempt to become the designated router. The device with
the higher router priority becomes the designated router. If there is a tie, the router with the higher router
ID becomes the designated router.
• Priority—Determines the designated router for a network. Valid values range from 0 to 255.
• Dead Interval—Time period in seconds for which hello packets must not be seen before neighbors
indicate that the router is down. The value must be the same for all nodes on the network and can range
from 1 to 65535.
• Poll Interval— Time period in seconds between OSPF packets that the router will send before adjacency
is established with a neighbor. Once the routing device detects an active neighbor, the hello packet interval
changes from the time specified in the poll interval to the time specified in the hello interval. Valid values
range from 1 to 65535 seconds.
• Retransmit Interval—Time in seconds between LSA retransmissions for adjacencies that belong to the
interface. The time must be greater than the expected round-trip delay between any two routers on the
attached network. Valid values range from 1 to 65535 seconds. The default is 5 seconds.
• Transmit Delay—Estimated time in seconds to send a link-state update packet on the interface. Valid
values range from 1 to 65535 seconds. The default is 1 second.
Step 6 Click OK to save the properties configuration.

Step 7 Select the Authentication tab, and configure the following options for each OSPFv3 process:
• Type—Type of authentication. The available options are Area, Interface, and None. The None option
indicates that no authentication is used.
• Security Parameters Index— A number from 256 to 4294967295. Configure this if you chose Interface
as the type.
• Authentication—Type of authentication algorithm. Supported values are SHA-1 and MD5. Configure
this if you chose Interface as the type.
• Authentication Key— When MD5 authentication is used, the key must be 32 hexadecimal digits (16
bytes) long. When SHA-1 authentication is used, the key must be 40 hexadecimal digits (20 bytes) long.
• Encrypt Authentication Key—Enables encryption of the authentication key.
• Include Encryption— Enables encryption.
• Encryption Algorithm—Type of encryption algorithm. Supported value is DES. The NULL entry
indicates no encryption. Configure this if you chose Include Encryption.
• Encryption Key—Enter the encryption key. Configure this if you chose Include Encryption.
• Encrypt Key—Enables the key to be encrypted.
Step 8 Click OK to save the authentication configuration.

766
Configure OSPFv3 Advanced Properties
Step 9 Select the Neighbor tab, click Add, and configure the following options for each OSPFv3 process:
• Link Local Address—The IPv6 address of the static neighbor.
• Cost—Enables cost. Enter the cost in the Cost field, and check the Filter Outgoing Link State
Advertisements if you want to advertise.
• (Optional) Poll Interval—Enables the poll interval. Enter the Priority level and the Poll Interval in
seconds.
Step 10 Click Add to add the neighbor.

Step 11 Click OK to save the Interface configuration.

The Advanced Properties tab allows you to configure options, such as syslog message generation, administrative
route distances, passive OSPFv3 routing, LSA timers, and graceful restarts.
Graceful Restarts
The Firepower Threat Defense device may experience some known failure situations that should not
affect packet forwarding across the switching platform. The Non-Stop Forwarding (NSF) capability
allows data forwarding to continue along known routes, while the routing protocol information is being
restored. This capability is useful when there is a scheduled hitless software upgrade. You can configure
graceful restart on OSPFv3 using graceful-restart (RFC 5187).
Note NSF capability is also useful in HA mode and clustering.
Configuring the NSF graceful-restart feature involves two steps; configuring capabilities and configuring
a device as NSF-capable or NSF-aware. A NSF-capable device can indicate its own restart activities to
neighbors and a NSF-aware device can help a restarting neighbor.
A device can be configured as NSF-capable or NSF-aware, depending on some conditions:
• A device can be configured as NSF-aware irrespective of the mode in which it is.
• A device has to be in either Failover or Spanned Etherchannel (L2) cluster mode to be configured
as NSF-capable.
• For a device to be either NSF-aware or NSF-capable, it should be configured with the capability of
handling opaque Link State Advertisements (LSAs)/ Link Local Signaling (LLS) block as required.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Routing > OSPFv3, and click Advanced.
Step 3 For Router ID, choose Automatic or IP address. If you choose IP address, enter the IP address in the IP
Address field.

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Step 4 Check the Ignore LSA MOSPF check box if you want to suppress syslog messages when the route receives
unsupported LSA Type 6 multicast OSPF (MOSPF) packets.
Step 5 Select the General tab, and configure the following:
• Adjacency Changes—Defines the adjacency changes that cause syslog messages to be sent.
By default, a syslog message is generated when an OSPF neighbor goes up or down. You can configure
the router to send a syslog message when an OSPF neighbor goes down and also a syslog for each state.
• Adjacency Changes—Causes the Firepower Threat Defense device to send a syslog message
whenever an OSPF neighbor goes up or down. This setting is checked by default.
• Include Details—Causes the Firepower Threat Defense device to send a syslog message whenever
any state change occurs, not just when a neighbor goes up or down. This setting is unchecked by
default.
• Administrative Route Distances—Allows you to modify the settings that were used to configure
administrative route distances for inter-area, intra-area, and external IPv6 routes. The administrative
route distance is an integer from 1 to 254. The default is 110.
• Default Information Originate—Check the Enable check box to generate a default external route into
an OSPFv3 routing domain and configure the following options:
• Always Advertise—Will always advertise the default route whether or not one exists.
• Metric—Metric used for generating the default route. Valid metric values range from 0 to 16777214.
• Metric Type—The external link type that is associated with the default route that is advertised into
the OSPFv3 routing domain. Valid values are 1 (Type 1 external route) and 2 (Type 2 external
route). The default is Type 2 external route.
• Route Map—Choose the routing process that generates the default route if the route map is satisfied
or click the add icon ( ) to add a new one. See Route Maps, on page 438 to add a new route map.

Step 7 Select the Passive Interface tab, select the interfaces on which you want to enable passive OSPFv3 routing
from the Available Interfaces list, and click Add to move them to the Selected Interfaces list.
Passive routing assists in controlling the advertisement of OSPFv3 routing information and disables the sending
and receiving of OSPFv3 routing updates on an interface.
Step 8 Click OK to save the passive interface configuration.

Step 9 Select the Timer tab, and configure the following LSA pacing and SPF calculation timers:
• Arrival—Specifies the minimum delay in milliseconds that must pass between acceptance of the same
LSA arriving from neighbors. The range is from 0 to 6000,000 milliseconds. The default is 1000
milliseconds.
• Flood Pacing—Specifies the time in milliseconds at which LSAs in the flooding queue are paced in
between updates. The configurable range is from 5 to 100 milliseconds. The default value is 33
milliseconds.
• Group Pacing—Specifies the interval in seconds at which LSAs are collected into a group and refreshed,
check summed, or aged. Valid values range from 10 to 1800. The default value is 240.

768
• Retransmission Pacing—Specifies the time in milliseconds at which LSAs in the retransmission queue
are paced. The configurable range is from 5 to 200 milliseconds. The default value is 66 milliseconds.
• LSA Throttle—Specifics the delay in milliseconds to generate the first occurrence of the LSA. The
default value is 0 millisecond. The minimum specifies the minimum delay in milliseconds to originate
the same LSA. The default value is 5000 milliseconds. The maximum specifies the maximum delay in
milliseconds to originate the same LSA. The default value is 5000 milliseconds.
Note For LSA throttling, if the minimum or maximum time is less than the first occurrence value,
then OSPFv3 automatically corrects to the first occurrence value. Similarly, if the maximum
delay specified is less than the minimum delay, then OSPFv3 automatically corrects to the
minimum delay value.
• SPF Throttle—Specifies the delay in milliseconds to receive a change to the SPF calculation. The default
value is 5000 milliseconds. The minimum specifies the delay in milliseconds between the first and second
SPF calculations. The default value is 10000 milliseconds. The maximum specifies the maximum wait
time in milliseconds for SPF calculations. The default value is 10000 milliseconds.
Note For SPF throttling, if the minimum or maximum time is less than the first occurrence value,
then OSPFv3 automatically corrects to the first occurrence value. Similarly, if the maximum
delay specified is less than the minimum delay, then OSPFv3 automatically corrects to the
minimum delay value.
Step 10 Click OK to save the LSA timer configuration.

Step 11 Select the Non Stop Forwarding tab, and check the Enable graceful-restart helper check box. This is
checked by default. Uncheck this to disable the graceful-restart helper mode on an NSF-aware device.
Step 12 Check the Enable link state advertisement check box to enable strict link state advertisement checking.
When enabled, it indicates that the helper router will terminate the process of restarting the router if it detects
that there is a change to a LSA that would be flooded to the restarting router, or if there is a changed LSA on
the retransmission list of the restarting router when the graceful restart process is initiated.
Step 13 Check the Enable graceful-restart (Use when Spanned Cluster or Failover Configured) and enter the
graceful-restart interval in seconds. The range is 1-1800. The default value is 120 seconds. For a restart interval
below 30 seconds, graceful restart will be terminated.
Step 14 Click OK to save the graceful restart configuration.

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770
CHAPTER 39
BGP for Firepower Threat Defense
This section describes how to configure the FTD to route data, perform authentication, and redistribute routing
information using the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP).
• About BGP, on page 771
• Guidelines for BGP, on page 774
• Configure BGP, on page 774
About BGP
BGP is an inter and intra autonomous system routing protocol. An autonomous system is a network or group
of networks under a common administration and with common routing policies. BGP is used to exchange
routing information for the Internet and is the protocol used between Internet service providers (ISP).
Routing Table Changes

BGP neighbors exchange full routing information when the TCP connection between neighbors is first
established. When changes to the routing table are detected, the BGP routers send to their neighbors only
those routes that have changed. BGP routers do not send periodic routing updates, and BGP routing updates
advertise only the optimal path to a destination network.
Routes learned via BGP have properties that are used to determine the best route to a destination, when multiple
paths exist to a particular destination. These properties are referred to as BGP attributes and are used in the
route selection process:
• Weight—This is a Cisco-defined attribute that is local to a router. The weight attribute is not advertised
to neighboring routers. If the router learns about more than one route to the same destination, the route
with the highest weight is preferred.
• Local preference—The local preference attribute is used to select an exit point from the local AS. Unlike
the weight attribute, the local preference attribute is propagated throughout the local AS. If there are
multiple exit points from the AS, the exit point with the highest local preference attribute is used as an
exit point for a specific route.
• Multi-exit discriminator—The multi-exit discriminator (MED) or metric attribute is used as a suggestion
to an external AS regarding the preferred route into the AS that is advertising the metric. It is referred
to as a suggestion because the external AS that is receiving the MEDs may also be using other BGP
attributes for route selection. The route with the lower MED metric is preferred.

771
When to Use BGP
• Origin—The origin attribute indicates how BGP learned about a particular route. The origin attribute
can have one of three possible values and is used in route selection.
• IGP—The route is interior to the originating AS. This value is set when the network router
configuration command is used to inject the route into BGP.
• EGP—The route is learned via the Exterior Border Gateway Protocol (EBGP).
• Incomplete—The origin of the route is unknown or learned in some other way. An origin of
incomplete occurs when a route is redistributed into BGP.
• AS_path—When a route advertisement passes through an autonomous system, the AS number is added
to an ordered list of AS numbers that the route advertisement has traversed. Only the route with the
shortest AS_path list is installed in the IP routing table.
• Next hop—The EBGP next-hop attribute is the IP address that is used to reach the advertising router.
For EBGP peers, the next-hop address is the IP address of the connection between the peers. For IBGP,
the EBGP next-hop address is carried into the local AS.
• Community—The community attribute provides a way of grouping destinations, called communities, to
which routing decisions (such as acceptance, preference, and redistribution) can be applied. Route maps
are used to set the community attribute. The predefined community attributes are as follows:
• no-export—Do not advertise this route to EBGP peers.
• no-advertise—Do not advertise this route to any peer.
• internet—Advertise this route to the Internet community; all routers in the network belong to it.
When to Use BGP

Customer networks, such as universities and corporations, usually employ an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP)
such as OSPF for the exchange of routing information within their networks. Customers connect to ISPs, and
ISPs use BGP to exchange customer and ISP routes. When BGP is used between autonomous systems (AS),
the protocol is referred to as External BGP (EBGP). If a service provider is using BGP to exchange routes
within an AS, then the protocol is referred to as Interior BGP (IBGP).
BGP can also be used for carrying routing information for IPv6 prefix over IPv6 networks.
BGP Path Selection

BGP may receive multiple advertisements for the same route from different sources. BGP selects only one
path as the best path. When this path is selected, BGP puts the selected path in the IP routing table and
propagates the path to its neighbors. BGP uses the following criteria, in the order presented, to select a path
for a destination:
• If the path specifies a next hop that is inaccessible, drop the update.
• Prefer the path with the largest weight.
• If the weights are the same, prefer the path with the largest local preference.
• If the local preferences are the same, prefer the path that was originated by BGP running on this router.
• If no route was originated, prefer the route that has the shortest AS_path.

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BGP Multipath
• If all paths have the same AS_path length, prefer the path with the lowest origin type (where IGP is lower
than EGP, and EGP is lower than incomplete).
• If the origin codes are the same, prefer the path with the lowest MED attribute.
• If the paths have the same MED, prefer the external path over the internal path.
• If the paths are still the same, prefer the path through the closest IGP neighbor.
• Determine if multiple paths require installation in the routing table for BGP Multipath, on page 773.
• If both paths are external, prefer the path that was received first (the oldest one).
• Prefer the path with the lowest IP address, as specified by the BGP router ID.
• If the originator or router ID is the same for multiple paths, prefer the path with the minimum cluster list
length.
• Prefer the path that comes from the lowest neighbor address.
BGP Multipath
BGP Multipath allows installation into the IP routing table of multiple equal-cost BGP paths to the same
destination prefix. Traffic to the destination prefix is then shared across all installed paths.
These paths are installed in the table together with the best path for load-sharing. BGP Multipath does not
affect best-path selection. For example, a router still designates one of the paths as the best path, according
to the algorithm, and advertises this best path to its BGP peers.
In order to be candidates for multipath, paths to the same destination need to have these characteristics equal
to the best-path characteristics:
• Weight
• Local preference
• AS-PATH length
• Origin code
• Multi Exit Discriminator (MED)
• One of these:
• Neighboring AS or sub-AS (before the addition of the BGP Multipaths)
• AS-PATH (after the addition of the BGP Multipaths)
Some BGP Multipath features put additional requirements on multipath candidates:

• The path should be learned from an external or confederation-external neighbor (eBGP).
• The IGP metric to the BGP next hop should be equal to the best-path IGP metric.
These are the additional requirements for internal BGP (iBGP) multipath candidates:
• The path should be learned from an internal neighbor (iBGP).

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Guidelines for BGP
• The IGP metric to the BGP next hop should be equal to the best-path IGP metric, unless the router is
configured for unequal-cost iBGP multipath.
BGP inserts up to n most recently received paths from multipath candidates into the IP routing table, where
n is the number of routes to install to the routing table, as specified when you configure BGP Multipath. The
default value, when multipath is disabled, is 1.
For unequal-cost load balancing, you can also use BGP Link Bandwidth.
Note The equivalent next-hop-self is performed on the best path that is selected among eBGP multipaths before it
is forwarded to internal peers.
Guidelines for BGP

Firewall Mode Guidelines
Does not support transparent firewall mode. BGP is supported only in router mode.
IPv6 Guidelines
Supports IPv6. Graceful restart is not supported for IPv6 address family.
Configure BGP
To configure BGP, see the following topics:
Procedure
Step 1 Configure BGP Basic Settings, on page 775

Step 2 Configure BGP General Settings, on page 777
Step 3 Configure BGP Neighbor Settings, on page 778
Step 4 Configure BGP Aggregate Address Settings, on page 781
Step 5 Configure BGPv4 Filtering Settings, on page 782
Note The Filtering section is applicable only to IPv4 settings
Step 6 Configure BGP Network Settings, on page 783

Step 7 Configure BGP Redistribution Settings, on page 783
Step 8 Configure BGP Route Injection Settings, on page 784

774
Configure BGP Basic Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
You can set many basic settings for BGP.
Procedure
Step 2 Select the Routing tab.
Step 3 Select BGP.
Step 4 Select the Enable BGP checkbox to enable the BGP routing process.
Step 5 In the AS Number field, enter the autonomous system (AS) number for the BGP process. The AS number
internally includes multiple autonomous numbers. The AS number can be from 1 to4294967295 or from 1.0
to 65535.65535. The AS number is a uniquely assigned value, that identifies each network on the Internet.
Step 6 (Optional) Edit the various BGP settings, starting with General. The defaults for these settings are appropriate
in most cases, but you can adjust them to fit the needs of your network. Click the Edit (pencil) button to edit
the settings in the group :
a) In the Router ID drop-down list, select Automatic or Manual from the drop-down list. If you choose
Automatic, the highest-level IP address on the Firepower Threat Defense device is used as the router ID.
To use a fixed router ID, choose Manual and enter an IPv4 address in theIP Address field. The default
value is Automatic.
b) Enter the number of AS numbers in AS_PATH attribute. An AS _PATH attribute is a sequence of
intermediate AS numbers between source and destination routers that form a directed route for packets
to travel. Valid values are between 1 and 254. The default value is None.
c) Check the Log Neighbor Changes check box to enable logging of BGP neighbor changes (up or down)
and resets. This helps in troubleshooting network connectivity problems and measuring network stability.
This is enabled by default.
d) Check the Use TCP Path MTU Discovery check box to use the Path MTU determining technique to
determine the maximum transmission unit (MTU) size on the network path between two IP hosts. This
avoids IP fragmentation. This is enabled by default.
e) Check the Reset session upon Failover check box to reset the external BGP session immediately upon
link failure. This is enabled by default.
f) Check the Enforce that the first AS is peer’s AS for EBGP routes check box to discard incoming
updates received from external BGP peers that do not list their AS number as the first segment in the
AS_PATH attribute. This prevents a mis-configured or unauthorized peer from misdirecting traffic by
advertising a route as if it was sourced from another autonomous system. This is enabled by default.
g) Check the Use dot notation for AS number check box to split the full binary 4-byte AS number into
two words of 16 bits each, separated by a dot. AS numbers from 0-65553 are represented as decimal
numbers and AS numbers larger than 65535 are represented using the dot notation. This is disabled by
default.
h) Click OK.
Step 7 (Optional) Edit the Best Path Selection section:

775
a) Enter a value for Default Local Preference between 0 and 4294967295.The default value is 100. Higher
values indicate higher preference. This preference is sent to all routers and access servers in the local
autonomous system.
b) Check the Allow comparing MED from different neighbors check box to allow the comparison of
Multi Exit Discriminator (MED) for paths from neighbors in different autonomous systems. This is
disabled by default.
c) Check the Compare Router ID for identical EBGP paths check box to compare similar paths received
from external BGP peers during the best path selection process and switch the best path to the route with
the lowest router ID. This is disabled by default.
d) Check the Pick the best MED path among paths advertised from the neighboring AS check box to
enable MED comparison among paths learned from confederation peers. The comparison between MEDs
is made only if no external autonomous systems are there in the path. This is disabled by default.
e) Check the Treat missing MED as the least preferred one check box to consider the missing MED
attribute as having a value of infinity, making the path the least desirable; therefore, a path with a missing
MED is least preferred. This is disabled by default.
f) Click OK.
Step 8 (Optional) Edit the Neighbor Timers section:
a) Enter the time interval for which the BGP neighbor remains active after not sending a keepalive message
in the Keepalive interval field. At the end of this keepalive interval, the BGP peer is declared dead, if
no messages are sent. The default value is 60 seconds.
b) Enter the time interval for which the BGP neighbor remains active while a BGP connection is being
initiated and configured in the Hold time field. The default value is 180 seconds.
c) (Optional) Enter the minimum time interval for which the BGP neighbor remains active while a BGP
connection is being initiated and configured in the Min Hold time field. Specify a value from 0 to 65535.
d) Click OK.
Step 9 (Optional) Edit the Graceful Restart section:
Note This section is available only when the Firepower Threat Defensedevice is in failover or spanned
cluster mode. This is done so that there is no drop in packets in the traffic flow, when one of the
devices in the failover setup fails.
a) Check the Enable Graceful Restartcheckbox to enable FTD peers to avoid a routing flap following a
switchover.
b) Specify the time duration that FTD peers will wait to delete stale routes before a BGP open message is
received in the Restart Time field. The default value is 120 seconds. Valid values are between 1 and
3600 seconds.
c) Enter the time duration that the FTD will wait before deleting stale routes after an end of record (EOR)
message is received from the restarting FTD in theStalepath Time field. The default value is 360 seconds.
Valid values are between 1 and 3600 seconds.
d) Click OK.
Step 10 Click Save.

776
Configure BGP General Settings
Configure BGP General Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
Configure Route maps, Administrative Route Distances, Synchronisation, Next-hop, and packet forwarding.
The defaults for these settings are appropriate in most cases, but you can adjust them to fit the needs of your
network.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Routing > BGP > IPv4or IPv6 and select the General tab.
Step 2 In the General tab, update the following sections:
a) In the Settings section, enter or select a Route Map object and enter a Scanning Interval for BGP routers
for next-hop validation. Valid values are from 5 to 60 seconds. The default value is 60. Click OK.
Note The Route Map field is applicable only to IPv4 settings
b) In the Routes and Synchronization section, update the following as required, and clickOK :
• (Optional) Generate Default Routes— Select this to configure, a BGP routing process to distribute
a default route (network 0.0.0.0).
• (Optional) Summarize subnet routes into network-level routes— Select this to configure automatic
summarization of subnet routes into network-level routes. This checkbox is applicable only to IPv4
settings.
• (Optional) Advertise inactive routes— Select this to advertise routes that are not installed in the
routing information base (RIB).
• (Optional) Synchronise between BGP and IGP system— Select this to enable synchronization
between BGP and your Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) system. Usually, a BGP speaker does not
advertise a route to an external neighbor unless that route is local or exists in the IGP. This feature
allows routers and access servers within an autonomous system to have the route before BGP makes
it available to other autonomous systems.
• (Optional) Redistribute IBGP into IGP— Select this to configure iBGP redistribution into an
interior gateway protocol (IGP), such as OSPF.
c) In the Administrative Route Distances section, update the following as required, and clickOK :
• External — Enter the administrative distance for external BGP routes. Routes are external when
learned from an external autonomous system. The range of values for this argument are from 1 to
255. The default value is 20.
• Internal — Enter administrative distance for internal BGP routes. Routes are internal when learned
from peer in the local autonomous system. The range of values for this argument are from 1 to 255.

777
Configure BGP Neighbor Settings
• Local — Enter administrative distance for local BGP routes. Local routes are those networks listed
with a network router show command, often as back doors, for the router or for the networks that is
being redistributed from another process. The range of values for this argument are from 1 to 255.
d) In the Next Hop section, optionally select the Enable address tracking checkbox to enable BGP next
hop address tracking and enter the Delay Interval between checks on updated next-hop routes installed
in the routing table. Click OK.
Note The Next Hop section is applicable only to IPv4 settings.
e) In the Forward Packets over Multiple Paths section, update the following as required and click OK:
• (Optional) Number of Paths — Specify the maximum number of Border Gateway Protocol routes
that can be installed in a routing table. The range of values are from 1 to 8. The default value is 1.
• (Optional) IBGP Number of Paths — Specify the maximum number of parallel internal Border
Gateway Protocol (iBGP) routes that can be installed in a routing table. The range of values are from
1 to 8. The default value is 1.
Step 3 Click Save.

Access Admin
Network Admin
A BGP router needs to establish a connection with each of its peers before exchanging updates. These peers
are called BGP neighbors. Use the Neighbor tab to define BGP IPv4 or IPv6 neighbors and neighbor settings.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Routing > BGP > IPv4or IPv6 and click the Neighbor tab.
Step 2 Click Add to define BGP neighbors and neighbor settings.
Step 3 Enter the BGP neighbor IP address. This IP address is added to the BGP neighbor table.
Step 4 Enter the BGP neighbor Interface.
Note The Interface field is only applicable to IPv6 settings.
Step 5 Enter the autonomous system to which the BGP neighbor belongs, in the Remote AS field.
Step 6 Select the Enabled address checkbox to enable communication with this BGP neighbor. Further neighbor
settings will be configured only if the Enabled address check box is selected.
Step 7 (Optional) Select the Shutdown administratively checkbox to disable a neighbor or peer group.

778
Step 8 (Optional) Select the Configure graceful restart checkbox to enable configuration of the BGP graceful restart
capability for this neighbor. After selecting this option, you must use the Graceful Restart (failover / spanned
mode) option to specify whether graceful restart should be enabled or disabled for this neighbor.
Note The graceful restart fields are only applicable to IPv4 settings.
Step 9 (Optional) Enter a Description for the BGP neighbor.

Step 10 (Optional) In the Filtering Routes tab, use access lists, route maps, prefix lists and AS path filters as required,
to distribute BGP Neighbor information. Update the following sections:
a) Enter or Select the appropriate incoming or outgoing Access List to distribute BGP neighbor information.
Note Access Lists are only applicable to IPv4 settings.
b) Enter or Select the appropriate incoming or outgoing Route Maps to apply a route map to incoming or
outgoing routes.
c) Enter or Select the appropriate incoming or outgoing Prefix List to distribute BGP neighbor information.
d) Enter or Select the appropriate incoming or outgoing AS path filter to distribute BGP neighbor information.
e) Select the Limit the number of prefixes allowed from the neighborto control the number of prefixes
that can be received from a neighbor.
• Enter the maximum number of prefixes allowed from a specific neighbor in the Maximum Prefixes
field.
• Enter the percentage (of maximum) at which the router starts to generate a warning message in the
Threshold Level field. Valid values are integers between 1 and 100. The default value is 75.
f) Select theControl prefixes received from the peer check box to specify additional controls for the
prefixes received from a peer. Do one of the following
• Select the Terminate peering when prefix limit is exceeded radio button to stop the BGP neighbor
when the prefix limit is reached. Specify the interval after which the BGP neighbor will restart in
the Restart interval field.
• Select Give only warning message when prefix limit is exceeded radio button to generate a log
message when the maximum prefix limit is exceeded. Here, the BGP neighbor will not be terminated.
g) Click OK.
Step 11 (Optional) In the Routes tab, specify miscellaneous Neighbor route parameter. Proceed to update the following:
a) Enter the minimum interval (in seconds) between the sending of BGP routing updates in the Advertisment
Interval field. Valid values are between 1 and 600.
b) Select the Remove private AS numbers from outbound routing updates to exclude the private AS
numbers from being advertised on outbound routes.
c) Select the Generate default routes checkbox to allow the local router to send the default route 0.0.0.0
to a neighbor to use as a default route. Enter or Select the route map that allows the route 0.0.0.0 to be
injected conditionally in the Route map field.
d) To add conditionally advertised routes, click the Add Row + button. In the Add Advertised Route dialog
box, do the following:
1. Add or select a route map in the Advertise Map field, that will be advertised if the conditions of the
exist map or the non-exist map are met.

779
2. Select the Exist Map radio button and choose a route map from the Route Map Object Selector. This
route map will be compared with the routes in the BGP table, to determine whether or not the advertise
map route is advertised.
3. Select the Non-Exist Map radio button and choose a route map from the Route Map Object Selector.
This route map will be compared with the routes in the BGP table, to determine whether or not the
advertise map route is advertised.
4. Click OK.
Step 12 In the Timers tab, select the Set Timers for the BGP Peer check box to set the keepalive frequency, hold
time and minimum hold time
• Keepalive Interval — Enter the frequency (in seconds) with which the FTD device sends keepalive
messages to the neighbor. Valid values are between 0 and 65535. The default value is 60 seconds.
• Hold time — Enter the interval (in seconds) after not receiving a keepalive message that theFTD device
declares a peer dead. Valid values are between 0 and 65535. The default value is 180 seconds.
• Min hold time — (Optional) Enter the minimum interval (in seconds) after not receiving a keepalive
message that the FTD device declares a peer dead. Valid values are between 0 and 65535. The default
value is 0 seconds.
Step 13 In the Advanced tab, update the following:

a) (Optional) Select Enable Authentication to enable MD5 authentication on a TCP connection between
two BGP peers.
1. Choose an encryption type from the Enable Encryption drop-down list.
2. Enter a password in the Password field. Reenter the password in the Confirm field.The password is
case-sensitive and can be up to 25 characters long when the service password-encryption command
is enabled and up to 81 characters long when the service password-encryption command is not enabled.
The first character cannot be a number. The string can contain any alphanumeric characters, including
spaces.
Note You cannot specify a password in the format number-space-anything. The space after the
number can cause authentication to fail.
b) (Optional) Select the Send Communty attribute to this neighbor check box to specify that communities
attributes should be sent to the BGP neighbor
c) (Optional) Select the Use FTD as next hop for this neighbor check box to configure the router as the
next-hop for a BGP speaking neighbor or peer group.
d) Select the Disable Connection Verification checkbox to disable the connection verification process for
eBGP peering sessions that are reachable by a single hop but are configured on a loopback interface or
otherwise configured with a non-directly connected IP address. When deselected (default), a BGP routing
process will verify the connection of single-hop eBGP peering session (TTL=254) to determine if the
eBGP peer is directly connected to the same network segment by default. If the peer is not directly
connected to same network segment, connection verification will prevent the peering session from being
established.
e) Select the Allow connections with neighbor that is not directly connected radio button to accept and
attempt BGP connections to external peers residing on networks that are not directly connected. (Optional)
Enter the time-to-live in the TTL hops field. Valid values are between 1 and 255. Alternately, select the
Limited number of TTL hops to neighbor radio button, to secure a BGP peering session. Enter the
maximum number of hops that separate eBGP peers in the TTL hops field. Valid values are between 1
and 254.

780
Configure BGP Aggregate Address Settings
f) (Optional) Select the Use TCP MTU path discovery check box to enable a TCP transport session for a
BGP session.
g) Choose the TCP connection mode from the TCP Transport Modedrop-down list. Options are Default,
Active, or Passive.
h) (Optional) Enter a Weight for the BGP neighbor connection.
i) Select the BGP Version that the FTD device will accept from the drop-down list. The version can be set
to 4-Only to force the software to use only Version 4 with the specified neighbor. The default is to use
Version 4 and dynamically negotiate down to Version 2 if requested.
Step 14 Update the Migration tab, only if AS migration is considered.
Note The AS migration customization should be removed after transition has been completed.
a) (Optional) Select the Customize the AS number for routes received from the neighbor check box to
customize the AS_PATH attribute for routes received from an eBGP neighbor.
b) Enter the local autonomous system number in the Local AS number field. Valid values are any valid
autonomous system number from 1 to 4294967295 or 1.0 to65535.65535.
c) (Optional) Select the Do not prepend local AS number to routes received from neighbor check box
to prevent the local AS number from being prepended to any routes received from eBGP peer.
d) (Optional) Select the Replace real AS number with local AS number in routes received from neighbor
check box to replace the real autonomous system number with the local autonomous system number in
the eBGP updates. The autonomous system number from the local BGP routing process is not prepended.
e) (Optional) Select the Accept either real AS number or local AS number in routesreceived from
neighbor check box to configure the eBGP neighbor to establish a peering session using the real
autonomous system number (from the local BGP routing process) or by using the local autonomous system
number.
Step 15 Click OK.
Step 16 Click Save.
Configure BGP Aggregate Address Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
BGP neighbors store and exchange routing information and the amount of routing information increases as
more BGP speakers are configured. Route aggregation is the process of combining the attributes of several
different routes so that only a single route is advertised. Aggregate prefixes use the classless interdomain
routing (CIDR) principle to combine contiguous networks into one classless set of IP addresses that can be
summarized in routing tables. As a result fewer routes need to be advertised. Use the Add/Edit Aggregate
Address dialog box to define the aggregation of specific routes into one route.

781
Configure BGPv4 Filtering Settings
Procedure
Step 1 When editing a Firepower Threat Defense device, select Routing > BGP > IPv4or IPv6 and select the
Aggregate Address tab.
Step 2 Click the Aggregate Addresses tab.
Step 3 Enter a value for the aggregate timer (in seconds) in the Aggregate Timer field. Valid values are 0 or any
value between 6 and 60. The default value is 30.
Step 4 Click Add and update the Add Aggregate Address dialog:
a) Network — Enter an IPv4 address or select the desired network/hosts objects.
b) Attribute Map — (Optional) Enter or select the route map used to set the attribute of the aggregate route.
c) Advertise Map — (Optional) Enter or select the route map used to select the routes to create AS_SET
origin communities.
d) Suppress Map — (Optional) Enter or select the route map used to select the routes to be suppressed.
e) Generate AS set path Information— (Optional) Select the check box to enable generation of autonomous
system set path information.
f) Filter all routes from updates— (Optional) Select the check box to filter all more-specific routes from
updates.
g) Click OK.
What to do next
• For BGPv4 settings, proceed to Configure BGPv4 Filtering Settings, on page 782
• For BGPv6 settings, proceed to Configure BGP Network Settings, on page 783
Configure BGPv4 Filtering Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
Filtering settings are used to filter routes or networks received in incoming BGP updates. Filtering is used to
restrict routing information that the router learns or advertises.
Before you begin

Filtering is only applicable for a BGP IPv4 routing policy.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Routing > BGP > IPv4 and select the Filtering tab.
Step 2 Click Add and update the Add Filter dialog:

782
Configure BGP Network Settings
a) Access List— Select an access control list that defines which networks are to be received and which are
to be suppressed in routing updates.
b) Direction— (Optional) Select a direction that specifies if the filter should be applied to inbound updates
or outbound updates.
c) Protocol— (Optional) Select the routing process for which you want to filter: None, BGP, Connected,
OSPF, RIP, or Static.
d) Process ID— (Optional) Enter the process ID for the OSPF routing protocol.
e) Click OK.
Step 3 Click Save.
Configure BGP Network Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
Network settings are used to add networks that will be advertised by the BGP routing process and route maps
that will be examined to filter the networks to be advertised.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Routing > BGP > IPv4or IPv6 and select the Networks tab.
Step 2 Click Add and update the Add Networks dialog:
a) Network— Enter the network to be advertised by the BGP routing processes.
b) (Optional) Route Map— Enter or select a route map that should be examined to filter the networks to be
advertised. If not specified, all networks are redistributed.
c) Click OK.
Step 3 Click Save.
Configure BGP Redistribution Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
Redistribution settings allow you to define the conditions for redistributing routes from another routing domain
into BGP.

783
Configure BGP Route Injection Settings
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Routing > BGP > IPv4or IPv6 and select the Redistribution tab.
Step 2 Click Add and update the Add Redistribution dialog:
a) Source Protocol— Select the protocol from which you want to redistribute routes into the BGP domain
from the Source Protocol drop-down list.
b) Process ID— Enter the identifier for the selected source protocol. Applies to the OSPF protocol.
c) Metric— (Optional) Enter a metric for the redistributed route.
d) Route Map— Enter or select a route map that should be examined to filter the networks to be redistributed.
If not specified, all networks are redistributed.
e) Match— The conditions used for redistributing routes from one routing protocol to another. The routes
must match the selected condition to be redistributed. You can choose one or more of the following match
conditions. These options are enabled only when OSPF is chosen as the Source Protocol.
• Internal
• External 1
• External 2
• NSSA External 1
• NSSA External 2
f) Click OK.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Route Injection settings allow you to define the routes to be conditionally injected into the BGP routing table.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Routing > BGP > IPv4or IPv6 and select the Route Injection tab.
Step 2 Click Add and update the Add Route Injection dialog:
a) Inject Map— Enter or select the route map that specifies the prefixes to inject into the local BGP routing
table.
b) Exist Map— Enter or select the route map containing the prefixes that the BGP speaker will track.
c) Injected routes will inherit the attributes of the aggregate route— Select this to configure the injected
route to inherit attributes of the aggregate route.
d) Click OK.

784
Step 3 Click Save.

785

786
CHAPTER 40
RIP for Firepower Threat Defense
information, using the Routing Information Protocol (RIP).
• About RIP, on page 787
• Guidelines for RIP, on page 788
• Configure RIP, on page 789
About RIP
The Routing Information Protocol, or RIP, as it is more commonly called, is one of the most enduring of all
routing protocols. RIP has four basic components: routing update process, RIP routing metrics, routing stability,
and routing timers. Devices that support RIP send routing-update messages at regular intervals and when the
network topology changes. These RIP packets include information about the networks that the devices can
reach, as well as the number of routers or gateways that a packet must travel through to reach the destination
address. RIP generates more traffic than OSPF, but is easier to configure.
RIP is a distance-vector routing protocol that uses hop count as the metric for path selection. When RIP is
enabled on an interface, the interface exchanges RIP broadcasts with neighboring devices to dynamically
learn about and advertise routes.
The Firepower Threat Defense device supports both RIP Version 1 and RIP Version 2. RIP Version 1 does
not send the subnet mask with the routing update. RIP Version 2 sends the subnet mask with the routing update
and supports variable-length subnet masks. Additionally, RIP Version 2 supports neighbor authentication
when routing updates are exchanged. This authentication ensures that the Firepower Threat Defense device
receives reliable routing information from a trusted source.
RIP has advantages over static routes because the initial configuration is simple, and you do not need to update
the configuration when the topology changes. The disadvantage to RIP is that there is more network and
processing overhead than in static routing.
Routing Update Process

RIP sends routing-update messages at regular intervals and when the network topology changes. When a
router receives a routing update that includes changes to an entry, it updates its routing table to reflect the
new route. The metric value for the path is increased by 1, and the sender is indicated as the next hop. RIP
routers maintain only the best route (the route with the lowest metric value) to a destination. After updating

787
RIP Routing Metric
its routing table, the router immediately begins transmitting routing updates to inform other network routers
of the change. These updates are sent independently of the regularly scheduled updates that RIP routers send.
RIP Routing Metric

RIP uses a single routing metric (hop count) to measure the distance between the source and a destination
network. Each hop in a path from source to destination is assigned a hop count value, which is typically 1.
When a router receives a routing update that contains a new or changed destination network entry, the router
adds 1 to the metric value indicated in the update and enters the network in the routing table. The IP address
of the sender is used as the next hop.
RIP Stability Features

RIP prevents routing loops from continuing indefinitely by implementing a limit on the number of hops
allowed in a path from the source to a destination. The maximum number of hops in a path is 15. If a router
receives a routing update that contains a new or changed entry, and if increasing the metric value by 1 causes
the metric to be infinity (that is, 16), the network destination is considered unreachable. The downside of this
stability feature is that it limits the maximum diameter of a RIP network to less than 16 hops.
RIP includes a number of other stability features that are common to many routing protocols. These features
are designed to provide stability despite potentially rapid changes in network topology. For example, RIP
implements the split horizon and hold-down mechanisms to prevent incorrect routing information from being
propagated.
RIP Timers
RIP uses numerous timers to regulate its performance. These include a routing-update timer, a route-timeout
timer, and a route-flush timer. The routing-update timer clocks the interval between periodic routing updates.
Generally, it is set to 30 seconds, with a small random amount of time added whenever the timer is reset. This
is done to help prevent congestion, which could result from all routers simultaneously attempting to update
their neighbors. Each routing table entry has a route-timeout timer associated with it. When the route-timeout
timer expires, the route is marked invalid but is retained in the table until the route-flush timer expires.
Guidelines for RIP

IPv6 Guidelines
Does not support IPv6.
The following information applies to RIP Version 2 only:
• If using neighbor authentication, the authentication key and key ID must be the same on all neighbor
devices that provide RIP Version 2 updates to the interface.
• With RIP Version 2, the Firepower Threat Defense device transmits and receives default route updates
using the multicast address 224.0.0.9. In passive mode, it receives route updates at that address.

788
Configure RIP
• When RIP Version 2 is configured on an interface, the multicast address 224.0.0.9 is registered on that
interface. When a RIP Version 2 configuration is removed from an interface, that multicast address is
unregistered.
Limitations
• The Firepower Threat Defense device cannot pass RIP updates between interfaces.
• RIP Version 1 does not support variable-length subnet masks.
• RIP has a maximum hop count of 15. A route with a hop count greater than 15 is considered unreachable.
• RIP convergence is relatively slow compared to other routing protocols.
• You can only enable a single RIP process on the Firepower Threat Defense device.
Configure RIP
RIP is a distance-vector routing protocol that uses hop count as the metric for path selection.
Procedure
Step 2 Select the Routing tab.
Step 3 Select RIP from the table of contents.
Step 4 Select the Enable RIP checkbox to configure the RIP settings.
Step 5 Select the RIP versions for sending and receiving RIP updates from the RIP Version drop-down list.
Step 6 (Optional) Select the Generate Default Route checkbox to generate a default route for distribution, based
on the route map that you specify.
a) Specify a route map name to use for generating default routes, in the Route Map field.
The default route 0.0.0.0/0 is generated for distribution over a certain interface , when the route map,
specified in the Route Map field, is present.
Step 7 When Send and Receive Version 2 is the chosen RIP Version, the Enable Auto Summary option is available.
When the Enable Auto Summary checkbox is checked, automatic route summarization is enabled. Disable
automatic summarization if you must perform routing between disconnected subnets. When automatic
summarization is disabled, subnets are advertised.
Note RIP Version 1 always uses automatic summarization—you cannot disable it.
Step 8 Click the Networks tab. Define one or more networks for RIP routing. Enter IP address(es), or enter or select
the desired Network/Hosts objects. There is no limit to the number of networks you can add to the security
appliance configuration. Any interface that belongs to a network defined by this command, will participate
in the RIP routing process. The RIP routing updates will be sent and received only through interfaces on the
specified networks. Also, if the network of an interface is not specified, the interface will not be advertised
in any RIP updates.
Note RIP only supports IPv4 objects.

789
Configure RIP
Step 9 (Optional) Click the Passive Interface tab. Use this option to specify passive interfaces on the appliance, and
by extension the active interfaces. The device listens for RIP routing broadcasts on passive interfaces, using
that information to populate its routing tables, but does not broadcast routing updates on passive interfaces.
Interfaces that are not designated as passive, receive and send updates.
Step 10 Click the Redistribution tab to manage redistribution routes. These are the routes that are being redistributed
from other routing processes into the RIP routing process.
a) Click Add to specify redistribution routes.
b) Select the routing protocol to redistribute into the RIP routing process, in the Protocol drop-down list.
Note For the OSPF protocol, specify a process ID. Similarly, specify an AS path for BGP. When you
choose the Connected option in the Protocol drop-down list, you can redistribute, directly
connected networks into the RIP routing process.
c) (Optional) If you are redistributing OSPF routes into the RIP routing process, you can select specific types
of OSPF routes to redistribute in the Match drop-down list . Ctrl-click to select multiple types:
• Internal – Routes internal to the autonomous system (AS) are redistributed.
• External 1 – Type 1 routes external to the AS are redistributed.
• External 2 – Type 2 routes external to the AS are redistributed.
• NSSA External 1 – Type 1 routes external to a not-so-stubby area (NSSA) are redistributed.
• NSSA External 2 – Type 2 routes external to an NSSA are redistributed
Note The default is match Internal, External 1, and External 2
d) Select the RIP metric type to apply to the redistributed routes in the Metric drop-down list. The two
choices are:
• Transparent – Use the current route metric
• Specified Value – Assign a specific metric value. Enter a specific value from 0-16, in the Metric
Value field.
• None – No metric is specified. Do not use any metric value, to apply to redistributed routes.
e) (Optional) Enter the name of a route map that must be satisfied, in the Route Map field before the route
can be redistributed into the RIP routing process. Routes are redistributed only if IP address matches an
allow statement in the route map address list.
f) Click OK.
Step 11 (Optional) Click the Filtering tab to manage filters for the RIP policy. In this section, filters are used to prevent
routing updates through an interface, control the advertising of routes in routing updates, control the processing
of routing updates and filtering sources of routing updates.
a) Click Add to add RIP filters.
b) Select the type of traffic to be filtered - Inbound or Outbound in the Traffic Direction field.
Note If traffic direction is inbound, you can only define an Interface filter.
c) Specify whether the filter is based on an Interface or a Route, by selecting the appropriate radio button in
the Filter On field. If you select Interface, enter or Select the name of the interface on which routing
updates are to be filtered. If you select Route, choose the route type:

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Configure RIP
• Static – Only static routes are filtered.

• Connected – Only connected routes are filtered.
• OSPF – Only OSPFv2 routes discovered by the specified OSPF process are filtered. Enter the Process
ID of the OSPF process to be filtered.
• BGP – Only BGPv4 routes discovered by the specified BGP process are filtered. Enter the AS path
of the BGP process to be filtered.
d) In the Access List field, enter or select the name of one or more access control lists (ACLs) that define
the networks to be allowed or removed from RIP route advertisements.
e) Click OK.
Step 12 (Optional) Click the Broadcast tab to add or edit interface configurations. Using the Broadcast tab, you can
override the global RIP versions to send or receive per interface. You can also define the authentication
parameters per interface if you want to implement authentication to ensure valid RIP updates.
a) Click Add to add interface configurations.
b) Enter or Select an interface defined on this appliance in the Interface field.
c) In the Send option, select the appropriate boxes to specify sending updates using the RIP Version 1,
Version 2, or both. These options let you override, for the specified interface, the global Send versions
specified .
d) In the Receive option, select the appropriate boxes to specify accepting updates using the RIP Version
1, Version 2, or both. These options let you override, for the specified interface, the global Receive
versions specified .
e) Select the Authentication used on this interface for RIP broadcasts.
• None – No authentication
• MD5 – Employ MD5
• Clear Text – Employ clear-text authentication
If you choose MD5 or Clear Text, you must also provide the following authentication parameters.
• Key ID – The ID of the authentication key. Valid values are from 0 to 255.
• Key – The key used by the chosen authentication method. Can contain up to 16 characters
• Confirm – Enter the authentication key again, to confirm
f) Click OK.

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Configure RIP

792
CHAPTER 41
Multicast Routing for Firepower Threat Defense
This chapter describes how to configure the Firepower Threat Defense device to use the multicast routing
protocol.
• About Multicast Routing, on page 793
• Guidelines for Multicast Routing, on page 797
• Configure IGMP Features, on page 797
• Configure PIM Features, on page 802
• Configure Multicast Routes, on page 808
• Configure Multicast Boundary Filters, on page 809
About Multicast Routing

Multicast routing is a bandwidth-conserving technology that reduces traffic by simultaneously delivering a
single stream of information to thousands of corporate recipients and homes. Applications that take advantage
of multicast routing include videoconferencing, corporate communications, distance learning, and distribution
of software, stock quotes, and news.
Multicast routing protocols deliver source traffic to multiple receivers without adding any additional burden
on the source or the receivers while using the least network bandwidth of any competing technology. Multicast
packets are replicated in the network by Firepower Threat Defense device enabled with Protocol Independent
Multicast (PIM) and other supporting multicast protocols, which results in the most efficient delivery of data
to multiple receivers possible.
The Firepower Threat Defense device supports both stub multicast routing and PIM multicast routing. However,
you cannot configure both concurrently on a single Firepower Threat Defense device.
Note The UDP and non-UDP transports are both supported for multicast routing. However, the non-UDP transport
has no FastPath optimization.
IGMP Protocol
IP hosts use the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) to report their group memberships to
directly-connected multicast routers. IGMP is used to dynamically register individual hosts in a multicast
group on a particular LAN. Hosts identify group memberships by sending IGMP messages to their local

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Stub Multicast Routing
multicast router. Under IGMP, routers listen to IGMP messages and periodically send out queries to discover
which groups are active or inactive on a particular subnet.
IGMP uses group addresses (Class D IP address) as group identifiers. Host group address can be in the range
of 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. The address 224.0.0.0 is never assigned to any group. The address 224.0.0.1
is assigned to all systems on a subnet. The address 224.0.0.2 is assigned to all routers on a subnet.
Note When you enable multicast routing on the Firepower Threat Defense device, IGMP Version 2 is automatically
enabled on all interfaces.
Query Messages to Multicast Groups

The Firepower Threat Defense device sends query messages to discover which multicast groups have
members on the networks attached to the interfaces. Members respond with IGMP report messages
indicating that they want to receive multicast packets for specific groups. Query messages are addressed
to the all-systems multicast group, which has an address of 224.0.0.1, with a time-to-live value of 1.
These messages are sent periodically to refresh the membership information stored on the Firepower
Threat Defense device. If the Firepower Threat Defense device discovers that there are no local members
of a multicast group still attached to an interface, it stops forwarding multicast packets for that group to
the attached network, and it sends a prune message back to the source of the packets.
By default, the PIM designated router on the subnet is responsible for sending the query messages. By
default, they are sent once every 125 seconds.
When changing the query response time, by default, the maximum query response time advertised in
IGMP queries is 10 seconds. If the Firepower Threat Defense device does not receive a response to a
host query within this amount of time, it deletes the group.
Stub Multicast Routing

Stub multicast routing provides dynamic host registration and facilitates multicast routing. When configured
for stub multicast routing, the Firepower Threat Defense device acts as an IGMP proxy agent. Instead of fully
participating in multicast routing, the Firepower Threat Defense device forwards IGMP messages to an
upstream multicast router, which sets up delivery of the multicast data. When configured for stub multicast
routing, the Firepower Threat Defense device cannot be configured for PIM sparse or bidirectional mode.
You must enable PIM on the interfaces participating in IGMP stub multicast routing.
The Firepower Threat Defense device supports both PIM-SM and bidirectional PIM. PIM-SM is a multicast
routing protocol that uses the underlying unicast routing information base or a separate multicast-capable
routing information base. It builds unidirectional shared trees rooted at a single Rendezvous Point (RP) per
multicast group and optionally creates shortest-path trees per multicast source.
PIM Multicast Routing

Bidirectional PIM is a variant of PIM-SM that builds bidirectional shared trees connecting multicast sources
and receivers. Bidirectional trees are built using a Designated Forwarder (DF) election process operating on
each link of the multicast topology. With the assistance of the DF, multicast data is forwarded from sources
to the Rendezvous Point (RP), and therefore along the shared tree to receivers, without requiring source-specific
state. The DF election takes place during RP discovery and provides a default route to the RP.

794
PIM Source Specific Multicast Support
Note If the Firepower Threat Defense device is the PIM RP, use the untranslated outside address of the Firepower
Threat Defense device as the RP address.
PIM Source Specific Multicast Support

The Firepower Threat Defense device does not support PIM Source Specific Multicast (SSM) functionality
and related configuration. However, the Firepower Threat Defense device allows SSM-related packets to pass
through unless it is placed as a last-hop router.
SSM is classified as a data delivery mechanism for one-to-many applications such as IPTV. The SSM model
uses a concept of "channels" denoted by an (S,G) pair, where S is a source address and G is an SSM destination
address. Subscribing to a channel is achieved by using a group management protocol such as IGMPv3. SSM
enables a receiving client, once it has learned about a particular multicast source, to receive multicast streams
directly from the source rather than receiving it from a shared Rendezvous Point (RP). Access control
mechanisms are introduced within SSM providing a security enhancement not available with current sparse
or sparse-dense mode implementations.
PIM-SSM differs from PIM-SM in that it does not use an RP or shared trees. Instead, information on source
addresses for a multicast group is provided by the receivers through the local receivership protocol (IGMPv3)
and is used to directly build source-specific trees.
Multicast Bidirectional PIM

Multicast bidirectional PIM is useful for networks that have many sources and receivers talking to each other
simultaneously and where each participant can become both the source and receiver of multicast traffic, such
as in videoconferencing, Webex meetings, and group chat. When PIM bidirectional mode is used, the RP only
creates the (*,G) entry for the shared tree. There is no (S,G) entry. This conserves resources on the RP because
state tables for each (S,G) entry are not maintained.
In PIM sparse mode, traffic only flows down the shared tree. In PIM bidirectional mode, traffic flows up and
down the shared tree.
PIM bidirectional mode also does not use the PIM register/register-stop mechanism to register sources to the
RP. Each source can begin sending to the source at any time. When the multicast packets arrive at the RP,
they are forwarded down the shared tree (if there are receivers) or dropped (when there are no receivers).
However, there is no way for the RP to tell the source to stop sending multicast traffic.
Design-wise you must think about where to place the RP in your network because it should be somewhere in
the middle between the sources and receivers in the network.
PIM bidirectional mode has no Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF) check. Instead it uses the concept of a
Designated Forwarder (DF) to prevent loops. This DF is the only router on the segment that is allowed to
send multicast traffic to the RP. If there is only one router per segment that forwards multicast traffic, there
will be no loops. The DF is chosen using the following mechanism:
• The router with the lowest metric to the RP is the DF.
• If the metric is equal, then the router with the highest IP address becomes the DF.

795
PIM Bootstrap Router (BSR)
PIM Bootstrap Router (BSR)

PIM Bootstrap Router (BSR) is a dynamic Rendezvous Point (RP) selection model that uses candidate routers
for RP function and for relaying the RP information for a group. The RP function includes RP discovery and
provides a default route to the RP. It does this by configuring a set of devices as candidate BSRs (C-BSR)
which participate in a BSR election process to choose a BSR amongst themselves. Once the BSR is chosen,
devices that are configured as candidate Rendezvous Points (C-RP) start sending their group mapping to the
elected BSR. The BSR then distributes the group-to-RP mapping information to all the other devices down
the multicast tree through BSR messages that travel from PIM router to PIM router on a per-hop basis.
This feature provides a means of dynamically learning RPs, which is very essential in large complex networks
where an RP can periodically go down and come up.
PIM Bootstrap Router (BSR) Terminology

The following terms are frequently referenced in the PIM BSR configuration:
• Bootstrap Router (BSR) — A BSR advertises Rendezvous Point (RP) information to other routers with
PIM on a hop-by-hop basis. Among multiple Candidate-BSRs, a single BSR is chosen after an election
process. The primary purpose of this Bootstrap router is to collect all Candidate-RP (C-RP) announcements
in to a database called the RP-set and to periodically send this out to all other routers in the network as
BSR messages (every 60 seconds).
• Bootstrap Router (BSR) messages — BSR messages are multicast to the All-PIM-Routers group with a
TTL of 1. All PIM neighbors that receive these messages retransmit them (again with a TTL of 1) out
of all interfaces except the one in which the messages were received. BSR messages contain the RP-set
and the IP address of the currently active BSR. This is how C-RPs know where to unicast their C-RP
messages.
• Candidate Bootstrap Router (C-BSR) — A device that is configured as a candidate-BSR participates in
the BSR election mechanism. A C-BSR with highest priority is elected as the BSR. The highest IP address
of the C-BSR is used as a tiebreaker. The BSR election process is preemptive, for example if a new
C-BSR with a higher priority comes up, it triggers a new election process.
• Candidate Rendezvous Point (C-RP) — An RP acts as a meeting place for sources and receivers of
multicast data. A device that is configured as a C-RP periodically advertises the multicast group mapping
information directly to the elected BSR through unicast. These messages contain the Group-range, C-RP
address, and a hold time. The IP address of the current BSR is learned from the periodic BSR messages
that are received by all routers in the network. In this way, the BSR learns about possible RPs that are
currently up and reachable.
Note The Firepower Threat Defense device does not act as a C-RP, even though the
C-RP is a mandatory requirement for BSR traffic. Only routers can act as a C-RP.
So, for BSR testing functionality, you must add routers to the topology.
• BSR Election Mechanism — Each C-BSR originates Bootstrap messages (BSMs) that contain a BSR
Priority field. Routers within the domain flood the BSMs throughout the domain. A C-BSR that hears
about a higher-priority C-BSR than itself suppresses its sending of further BSMs for some period of time.
The single remaining C-BSR becomes the elected BSR, and its BSMs inform all the other routers in the
domain that it is the elected BSR.

796
Multicast Group Concept
Multicast Group Concept

Multicast is based on the concept of a group. An arbitrary group of receivers expresses an interest in receiving
a particular data stream. This group does not have any physical or geographical boundaries—the hosts can
be located anywhere on the Internet. Hosts that are interested in receiving data flowing to a particular group
must join the group using IGMP. Hosts must be a member of the group to receive the data stream.
Multicast Addresses
Multicast addresses specify an arbitrary group of IP hosts that have joined the group and want to receive traffic
sent to this group.
Clustering
Multicast routing supports clustering. In Spanned EtherChannel clustering, the primary unit sends all multicast
routing packets and data packets until fast-path forwarding is established. After fast-path forwarding is
established, subordinate units may forward multicast data packets. All data flows are full flows. Stub forwarding
flows are also supported. Because only one unit receives multicast packets in Spanned EtherChannel clustering,
redirection to the primary unit is common.
Guidelines for Multicast Routing

Context Mode
Supported in single context mode.
Firewall Mode
Supported only in routed firewall mode. Transparent firewall mode is not supported.
IPv6
Does not support IPv6.
Clustering
In clustering, for IGMP and PIM, this feature is only supported on the primary unit.
You must configure an access control or prefilter rule on the inbound security zone to allow traffic to the
multicast host, such as 224.1.2.3. However, you cannot specify a destination security zone for the rule, or it
cannot be applied to multicast connections during initial connection validation.
Configure IGMP Features

IP hosts use IGMP to report their group memberships to directly-connected multicast routers. IGMP is used
to dynamically register individual hosts in a multicast group on a particular LAN. Hosts identify group

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Enable Multicast Routing
memberships by sending IGMP messages to their local multicast router. Under IGMP, routers listen to IGMP
messages and periodically send out queries to discover which groups are active or inactive on a particular
subnet.
This section describes how to configure optional IGMP settings on a per-interface basis.
Procedure
Step 1 Enable Multicast Routing, on page 798

Step 2 Configure IGMP Protocol, on page 799.
Step 3 Configure IGMP Access Groups, on page 800.
Step 4 Configure IGMP Static Groups, on page 801.
Step 5 Configure IGMP Join Groups, on page 801.
Enable Multicast Routing

Enabling multicast routing on the Firepower Threat Defense device, enables IGMP and PIM on all interfaces
by default. IGMP is used to learn whether members of a group are present on directly attached subnets. Hosts
join multicast groups by sending IGMP report messages. PIM is used to maintain forwarding tables to forward
multicast datagrams.
Note Only the UDP transport layer is supported for multicast routing.
The following table lists the maximum number of entries for specific multicast tables based on the amount
of RAM on the Firepower Threat Defense device. Once these limits are reached, any new entries are discarded.
Table 60: Entry Limits for Multicast Tables
Table 16 MB 128 MB 128+ MB
MFIB 1000 3000 30000
IGMP Groups 1000 3000 30000
PIM Routes 3000 7000 72000
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Routing > Multicast Routing > IGMP.
Step 3 Check the Enable Multicast Routing check box.
Checking this check box enables IP multicast routing on the Firepower Threat Defense device. Unchecking
this check box disables IP multicast routing. By default, multicast is disabled. Enabling multicast routing
enables multicast on all interfaces.

798
Configure IGMP Protocol
You can disable multicast on a per-interface basis. This is useful if you know that there are no multicast hosts
on a specific interface and you want to prevent the Firepower Threat Defense device from sending host query
messages on that interface.
Configure IGMP Protocol

You can configure IGMP parameters per interface, such as the forward interface, query messages, and time
intervals.
Procedure
Step 3 On the Protocol tab, click Add or Edit.
Use the Add IGMP parameters dialog box to add new IGMP parameters to the Firepower Threat Defense
device. Use the Edit IGMP parameters dialog box to change existing parameters.
Step 4 Configure the following options:

• Interface—From the drop-down list, select the interface for which you want to configure IGMP protocol.
• Enable IGMP—Check the check box to enable IGMP.
Note Disabling IGMP on specific interfaces is useful if you know that there are no multicast hosts
on a specific interface and you want to prevent the Firepower Threat Defense device from
sending host query messages on that interface.
• Forward Interface—From the drop-down list, select the specific interface from which you want to
forward IGMP messages.
This configures the Firepower Threat Defense device to act as an IGMP proxy agent and forward IGMP
messages from hosts connected on one interface to an upstream multicast router on another interface.
• Version—Choose IGMP Version 1 or 2.
By default, the Firepower Threat Defense device runs IGMP Version 2, which enables several additional
features.
Note All multicast routers on a subnet must support the same version of IGMP. The Firepower Threat
Defense device does not automatically detect Version 1 routers and switch to Version 1.
However, you can have a mix of IGMP Version 1 and 2 hosts on the subnet; the Firepower
Threat Defense device running IGMP Version 2 works correctly when IGMP Version 1 hosts
are present.
• Query Interval—The interval in seconds at which the designated router sends IGMP host-query messages.
The range is 1 to 3600. The default is 125.
Note If the Firepower Threat Defense device does not hear a query message on an interface for the
specified timeout value, then the Firepower Threat Defense device becomes the designated
router and starts sending the query messages.

799
Configure IGMP Access Groups
• Response Time—The interval in seconds before the Firepower Threat Defense device deletes the group.
The range is 1 to 25. The default is 10.
If the Firepower Threat Defense device does not receive a response to a host query within this amount
of time, it deletes the group.
• Group Limit—The maximum number of hosts that can join on an interface. The range is 1 to 500. The
default is 500.
You can limit the number of IGMP states resulting from IGMP membership reports on a per-interface
basis. Membership reports exceeding the configured limits are not entered in the IGMP cache, and traffic
for the excess membership reports is not forwarded
• Query Timeout—The period of time in seconds before which the Firepower Threat Defense device
takes over as the requester for the interface after the previous requester has stopped. The range is 60 to
300. The default is 255.
Step 5 Click OK to save the IGMP protocol configuration.
Configure IGMP Access Groups

You can control access to multicast groups by using access control lists.
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Routing > Multicast Routing > Access Group.
Step 3 On the Access Group tab, click Add or Edit.
Use the Add IGMP Access Group parameters dialog box to add new IGMP access groups to the Access
Group table. Use the Edit IGMP Access Group parameters dialog box to change existing parameters.

a) From the Interface drop-down list, select the interface with which the access group is associated. You
cannot change the associated interface when you are editing an existing access group.
b) CLick one of the following radio buttons:
• Standard Access List— From the Standard Access List drop-down list, select the standard ACL
or click the add icon ( ) to create a new standard ACL. See Configure Standard ACL Objects, on
page 443 for the procedure.
• Extended Access List—From the Extended Access List drop-down list, select the extended ACL
or click the add icon ( ) to create a new extended ACL. See Configure Extended ACL Objects, on
page 442 for the procedure.
Step 5 Click OK to save the access group configuration.

800
Configure IGMP Static Groups
Configure IGMP Static Groups

Sometimes a group member cannot report its membership in the group or there may be no members of a group
on the network segment, but you still want multicast traffic for that group to be sent to that network segment.
You can have multicast traffic for that group sent to the segment by configuring a statically joined IGMP
group. With this method, the Firepower Threat Defense device does not accept the packets itself, but only
forwards them. Therefore, this method allows fast switching. The outgoing interface appears in the IGMP
cache, but this interface is not a member of the multicast group.
Procedure
Step 3 On the Static Group tab, click Add or Edit.
Use the Add IGMP Static Group parameters dialog box to statically assign a multicast group to an interface.
Use the Edit IGMP Static Group parameters dialog box to change existing static group assignments.

• From the Interface drop-down list, select the interface to which you want to statically assign a multicast
group. If you are editing an existing entry, you cannot change the value.
• From the Multicast Groups drop-down list, select the multicast group to which you want to assign the
interface, or click the add icon ( ) to create a new multicast group. See Creating Network Objects for
the procedure.
Step 5 Click OK to save the static group configuration.
Configure IGMP Join Groups

You can configure an interface to be a member of a multicast group. Configuring the Firepower Threat Defense
device to join a multicast group causes upstream routers to maintain multicast routing table information for
that group and keep the paths for that group active.
Note See Configure IGMP Static Groups, on page 801 if you want to forward multicast packets for a specific group
to an interface without the Firepower Threat Defense device accepting those packets as part of the group.
Procedure
Step 3 On the Join Group tab, click Add or Edit.

801
Configure PIM Features
Use the Add IGMP Join Group parameters dialog box to configure the Firepower Threat Defense device
to be a member of a multicast group. Use the Edit IGMP Join Group parameters dialog box to change
existing parameters.

• From the Interface drop-down list, select the interface you want to be a member of a multicast group.
If you are editing an existing entry, you cannot change the value.
• From the Join Group drop-down list, select the multicast group to which you want to assign the interface,
or click the Plus icon to create a new multicast group. See Creating Network Objects for the procedure.
Configure PIM Features

Routers use PIM to maintain forwarding tables to use for forwarding multicast diagrams. When you enable
multicast routing on the Firepower Threat Defense device, PIM and IGMP are automatically enabled on all
interfaces.
Note PIM is not supported with PAT. The PIM protocol does not use ports, and PAT only works with protocols
that use ports.
This section describes how to configure optional PIM settings.
Procedure
Step 1 Configure PIM Protocol, on page 802

Step 2 Configure PIM Neighbor Filters, on page 803
Step 3 Configure PIM Bidirectional Neighbor Filters, on page 804
Step 4 Configure PIM Rendezvous Points, on page 805
Step 5 Configure PIM Route Trees, on page 806
Step 6 Configure PIM Request Filters, on page 806
Step 7 Configure Multicast Boundary Filters, on page 809
Configure PIM Protocol

You can enable or disable PIM on a specific interface.
You can also configure the Designated Router (DR) priority. The DR is responsible for sending PIM register,
join, and prune messages to the RP. When there is more than one multicast router on a network segment,
choosing the DR is based on the DR priority. If multiple devices have the same DR priority, then the device
with the highest IP address becomes the DR. By default, the Firepower Threat Defense device has a DR
priority of 1.

802
Configure PIM Neighbor Filters
Router query messages are used to choose the PIM DR. The PIM DR is responsible for sending router query
messages. By default, router query messages are sent every 30 seconds. Additionally, every 60 seconds, the
Firepower Threat Defense device sends PIM join or prune messages.
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Routing > Multicast Routing > PIM.
Step 3 On the Protocol tab, click Add or Edit.
Use the Add PIM parameters dialog box to add new PIM parameters to the interface. Use the Edit PIM
parameters dialog box to change existing parameters.

• Interface—From the drop-down list, select the interface for which you want to configure PIM protocol.
• Enable PIM—Check the check box to enable PIM.
• DR Priority—The value for the DR for the selected interface. The router with the highest DR priority
on the subnet becomes the designated router. Valid values range from 0 to 4294967294. The default DR
priority is 1. Setting this value to 0 makes the Firepower Threat Defense device interface ineligible to
become the default router.
• Hello Interval—The interval in seconds at which the interface sends PIM hello messages. The range is
1 to 3600. The default is 30.
• Join Prune Interval—The interval in seconds at which the interface sends PIM join and prune
advertisements. The range is 10 to 600. The default is 60.
Step 5 Click OK to save the PIM protocol configuration.
Configure PIM Neighbor Filters

You can define the routers that can become PIM neighbors. By filtering the routers that can become PIM
neighbors, you can do the following:
• Prevent unauthorized routers from becoming PIM neighbors.
• Prevent attached stub routers from participating in PIM.
Procedure
Step 3 On the Neighbor Filter tab, click Add or Edit.
Use the Add PIM Neighbor Filter dialog box to add new PIM neighbor filters to the interface. Use the Edit
PIM Neighbor Filter dialog box to change existing parameters.

803
Configure PIM Bidirectional Neighbor Filters

• From the Interface drop-down list, select the interface to which you want to add a PIM neighbor filter.
• Standard Access List— From the Standard Access List drop-down list, select a standard ACL or click
the add icon ( ) to create a new standard ACL. See Configure Standard ACL Objects, on page 443 for
the procedure.
Note Choosing Allow on the Add Standard Access List Entry dialog box lets the multicast group
advertisements pass through the interface. Choosing Block prevents the specified multicast
group advertisements from passing through the interface. When a multicast boundary is
configured on an interface, all multicast traffic is prevented from passing through the interface
unless permitted with a neighbor filter entry.
Step 5 Click OK to save the PIM neighbor filter configuration.
Configure PIM Bidirectional Neighbor Filters

A PIM bidirectional neighbor filter is an ACL that defines the neighbor devices that can participate in the
Designated Forwarder (DF) election. If a PIM bidirectional neighbor filter is not configured for an interface,
there are no restrictions. If a PIM bidirectional neighbor filter is configured, only those neighbors permitted
by the ACL can participate in the DF election process.
Bidirectional PIM allows multicast routers to keep reduced state information. All of the multicast routers in
a segment must be bidirectionally enabled to elect a DF.
When a PIM bidirectional neighbor filter is enabled, the routers that are permitted by the ACL are considered
to be bidirectionally capable. Therefore, the following is true:
• If a permitted neighbor does not support bidirectional mode, then the DF election does not occur.
• If a denied neighbor supports bidirectional mode, then the DF election does not occur.
• If a denied neighbor does not support bidirectional mode, the DF election can occur.
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Multicast Routing > PIM.
Step 3 On the Bidirectional Neighbor Filter tab, click Add or Edit.
Use the Add PIM Bidirectional Neighbor Filter dialog box to create ACL entries for the PIM bidirectional
neighbor filter ACL. Use the Edit PIM Bidirectional Neighbor Filter dialog box to change existing
parameters.

• From the Interface drop-down list, select the interface to which you want to configure the PIM
bidirectional neighbor filter ACL entry.

804
Configure PIM Rendezvous Points
• Standard Access List— From the Standard Access List drop-down list, select a standard ACL or click
the add icon ( ) to create a new standard ACL. See Configure Standard ACL Objects, on page 443 for
the procedure.
Note Choosing Allow on the Add Standard Access List Entry dialog box lets the specified devices
participate in the DR election process. Choosing Block prevents the specified devices from
participating in the DR election process.
Step 5 Click OK to save the PIM bidirectional neighbor filter configuration.
Configure PIM Rendezvous Points

You can configure the Firepower Threat Defense device to serve as a RP to more than one group. The group
range specified in the ACL determines the PIM RP group mapping. If an ACL is not specified, then the RP
for the group is applied to the entire multicast group range (224.0.0.0/4). See Multicast Bidirectional PIM,
on page 795 for more information about bidirectional PIM.
The following restrictions apply to RPs:
• You cannot use the same RP address twice.
• You cannot specify All Groups for more than one RP.
Procedure
Step 3 On the Rendezvous Points tab, click Add or Edit.
Use the Add Rendezvous Point dialog box to create a new entry to the Rendezvous Point table. Use the Edit
Rendezvous Point dialog box to change existing parameters.

• From the Rendezvous Point IP address drop-down list, select the IP address that you want to add as
an RP or click the add icon ( ) to create a new network object. See Creating Network Objects for the
procedure.
• Check the Use bi-directional forwarding check box if the specified multicast groups are to operate in
bidirectional mode. In bidirectional mode, if the Firepower Threat Defense device receives a multicast
packet and has no directly connected members or PIM neighbors present, it sends a prune message back
to the source.
• Choose the Use this RP for all Multicast Groups radio button to to use the specified RP for all multicast
groups on the interface.
• Choose the Use this RP for all Multicast Groups as specified below to designate the multicast groups
to use with the specified RP and then from the Standard Access List drop-down list, choose a standard

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Configure PIM Route Trees
ACL or click the add icon ( ) to create a new standard ACL. See Configure Standard ACL Objects,
on page 443 for the procedure.
Step 5 Click OK to save the rendezvous point configuration.
Configure PIM Route Trees

By default, PIM leaf routers join the shortest-path tree immediately after the first packet arrives from a new
source. This method reduces delay, but requires more memory than the shared tree. You can configure whether
or not the Firepower Threat Defense device should join the shortest-path tree or use the shared tree, either for
all multicast groups or only for specific multicast addresses.
The shortest-path tree is used for any group that is not specified in the Multicast Groups table. The Multicast
Groups table displays the multicast groups to use with the shared tree. The table entries are processed from
the top down. You can create an entry that includes a range of multicast groups, but excludes specific groups
within that range by placing deny rules for the specific groups at the top of the table and the permit rule for
the range of multicast groups below the deny statements.
Note This behavior is known as Shortest Path Switchover (SPT). We recommend that you always use the Shared
Tree option.
Procedure
Step 3 On the Route Tree tab, select the path for the route tree:
• Click the Shortest Path radio button to use the shortest-path tree for all multicast groups.
• Click the Shared Tree radio button to use the shared tree for all multicast groups.
• Click the Shared tree for below mentioned group radio button to designate the groups specified in the
Multicast Groups table, and then from the Standard Access List drop-down list, select a standard ACL
or click the add icon ( ) to create a new standard ACL. See Configure Standard ACL Objects, on page
443 for the procedure.
Step 4 Click OK to save the route tree configuration.
Configure PIM Request Filters

When the Firepower Threat Defense device is acting as an RP, you can restrict specific multicast sources from
registering with it to prevent unauthorized sources from registering with the RP. You can define the multicast
sources from which the Firepower Threat Defense device will accept PIM register messages.

806
Configure the Firepower Threat Defense Device as a Candidate Bootstrap Router
Procedure
Step 3 On the Request Filter tab, define the multicast sources that are allowed to register with the Firepower Threat
Defense device when it acts as an RP:
• From the Filter PIM register messages using: drop-down list select None, Access List, or Route Map.
• If you choose Access List from the drop-down list, select an extended ACL or click the add icon ( )
to create a new extended ACL. See Configure Extended ACL Objects, on page 442 for the procedure.
Note In the Add Extended Access List Entry dialog box, select Allow from the drop-down list o
create a rule that allows the specified source of the specified multicast traffic to register with
the Firepower Threat Defense device, or select Block to create a rule that prevents the specified
source of the specified multicast traffic from registering with the Firepower Threat Defense
device.
• If you choose Route Map, select a route map from the Route Map drop-down list, or click the add icon
( ) to create a new route map. See Creating Network Objects for the procedure.
Step 4 Click OK to save the request filter configuration.
Configure the Firepower Threat Defense Device as a Candidate Bootstrap

Router
You can configure the Firepower Threat Defense device as a candidate BSR.
Procedure
Step 3 On the Bootstrap Router tab, check the Configure this FTD as a Candidate Bootstrap Router (C-BSR)
check box to perform the C-BSR setup.
a) From the Interface drop-down list, select the interface on the Firepower Threat Defense device from
which the BSR address is derived to make it a candidate.
This interface must be enabled with PIM.
b) In the Hash mask length field, enter the length of a mask (32 bits maximum) that is to be ANDed with
the group address before the hash function is called. All groups with the same seed hash (correspond) to
the same RP. For example, if this value is 24, only the first 24 bits of the group addresses matter. This
fact allows you to get one RP for multiple groups. The range is 0 to 32.
c) In the Priority field, enter the priority of the candidate BSR. The BSR with the larger priority is preferred.
If the priority values are the same, the router with the larger IP address is the BSR. The range is 0 to 255.

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Configure Multicast Routes
Step 4 (Optional) Click the add icon ( ) to select an interface on which no PIM BSR messages will be sent or
received in the Configure this FTD as a Border Bootstrap Router (BSR) section.
• From the Interface drop-down list, select the interface on which no PIM BSR messages will be sent or
received.
RP or BSR advertisements are filtered effectively isolating two domains of RP information exchange.
• Check the Enable Border BSR check box to enable BSR.
Step 5 Click OK to save the bootstrap router configuration.
Configure Multicast Routes

Configuring static multicast routes lets you separate multicast traffic from unicast traffic. For example, when
a path between a source and destination does not support multicast routing, the solution is to configure two
multicast devices with a GRE tunnel between them and to send the multicast packets over the tunnel.
When using PIM, the Firepower Threat Defense device expects to receive packets on the same interface where
it sends unicast packets back to the source. In some cases, such as bypassing a route that does not support
multicast routing, you may want unicast packets to take one path and multicast packets to take another.
Static multicast routes are not advertised or redistributed.
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Routing > Multicast Routing > Multicast Routes, and then click Add or Edit.
Use the Add Multicast Route Configuration dialog box to add a new multicast route to the Firepower Threat
Defense device. Use the Edit Multicast Route Configuration dialog box to change an existing multicast
route.
Step 3 From the Source Network drop-down box, select an existing network or click the add icon ( ) to add a new
one. See Creating Network Objects for the procedure.
Step 4 To configure an interface to forward the route, click the Interface radio button and configure the following
options:
• From the Source Interface drop-down list, select the incoming interface for the multicast route.
• From the Output Interface/Dense drop-down list, select the destination interface that the route is
forwarded through.
• In the Distance field, enter the distance of the multicast route. The range is 0 to 255.
Step 5 To configure an RPF address to forward the route, click the Address radio button and configure the following
options:
• In the RPF Address field, enter the IP address for the multicast route.

808
Configure Multicast Boundary Filters
• In the Distance field, enter the distance of the multicast route The range is 0 to 255.
Step 6 Click OK to save the multicast routes configuration.

Address scoping defines domain boundary filters so that domains with RPs that have the same IP address do
not leak into each other. Scoping is performed on the subnet boundaries within large domains and on the
boundaries between the domain and the Internet.
You can set up an administratively scoped boundary filter on an interface for multicast group addresses. IANA
has designated the multicast address range from 239.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 as the administratively scoped
addresses. This range of addresses can be reused in domains administered by different organizations. The
addresses would be considered local, not globally unique.
A standard ACL defines the range of affected addresses. When a boundary filter is set up, no multicast data
packets are allowed to flow across the boundary from either direction. The boundary filter allows the same
multicast group address to be reused in different administrative domains.
You can configure, examine, and filter Auto-RP discovery and announcement messages at the administratively
scoped boundary. Any Auto-RP group range announcements from the Auto-RP packets that are denied by
the boundary ACL are removed. An Auto-RP group range announcement is permitted and passed by the
boundary filter only if all addresses in the Auto-RP group range are permitted by the boundary ACL. If any
address is not permitted, the entire group range is filtered and removed from the Auto-RP message before the
Auto-RP message is forwarded.
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Routing > Multicast Routing > Multicast Boundary Filter, and then click Add or Edit.
Use the Add Multicast Boundary Filter dialog box to add new multicast boundary filters to the Firepower
Threat Defense device. Use the Edit Multicast Boundary Filter dialog box to change existing parameters.
You can configure a multicast boundary for administratively scoped multicast addresses. A multicast boundary
restricts multicast data packet flows and enables reuse of the same multicast group address in different
administrative domains. When a multicast boundary is defined on an interface, only the multicast traffic
permitted by the filter ACL passes through the interface.
Step 3 From the Interface drop-down list, choose the interface for which you are configuring the multicast boundary
filter ACL.
Step 4 From the Standard Access List drop-down list, choose the standard ACL you want to use, or click the add
icon ( ) to create a new standard ACL. See Configure Standard ACL Objects, on page 443 for the procedure.
Step 5 Check the Remove any Auto-RP group range announcement from the Auto-RP packets that are denied
by the boundary check box to filter Auto-RP messages from sources denied by the boundary ACL. If this
check box is not checked, all Auto-RP messages are passed.
Step 6 Click OK to save the multicast boundary filter configuration.

809

810
PA R T XI
Firepower Threat Defense VPN
• VPN Overview for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 813
• Site-to-Site VPNs for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 825
• Remote Access VPNs for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 837
• VPN Monitoring for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 873
• VPN Troubleshooting for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 877
CHAPTER 42
VPN Overview for Firepower Threat Defense
A virtual private network (VPN) connection establishes a secure tunnel between endpoints over a public
network such as the Internet.
This chapter applies to Remote Access and Site-to-site VPNs on Firepower Threat Defense devices only. It
describes the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec), the Internet Security Association and Key Management
Protocol (ISAKMP, or IKE) and SSL standards that are used to build site-to-site and remote access VPNs.
Site-to-site VPNs on 7000 and 8000 Series devices, referred to as Gateway VPNs or Firepower VPNs in the
Firepower Management Center are described in Gateway VPNs, on page 1219.
• VPN Types, on page 813
• VPN Basics, on page 814
• VPN Packet Flow, on page 816
• VPN Licensing, on page 816
• How Secure Should a VPN Connection Be?, on page 816
• VPN Topology Options, on page 821
VPN Types
The Firepower Management Center supports the following types of VPN connections:
• Remote Access VPNs on Firepower Threat Defense devices.
Remote access VPNs are secure, encrypted connections, or tunnels, between remote users and your
company’s private network. The connection consists of a VPN endpoint device, which is a workstation
or mobile device with VPN client capabilities, and a VPN headend device, or secure gateway, at the edge
of the corporate private network.
Firepower Threat Defense devices can be configured to support Remote Access VPNs over SSL or IPsec
IKEv2 by the Firepower Management Center. Functioning as secure gateways in this capacity, they
authenticate remote users, authorize access, and encrypt data to provide secure connections to your
network. No other types of appliances, managed by the Firepower Management Center, support Remote
Access VPN connections.
Firepower Threat Defense secure gateways support the AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client full tunnel
client. This client is required to provide secure SSL IPsec IKEv2 connections for remote users. This
client gives remote users the benefits of a client without the need for network administrators to install
and configure clients on remote computers since it can be deployed to the client platform upon connectivity.
It is the only client supported on endpoint devices.

813
VPN Basics
• Site-to-site VPNs on Firepower Threat Defense devices.

A site-to-site VPN connects networks in different geographic locations. You can create site-to-site IPsec
connections between managed devices, and between managed devices and other Cisco or third-party
peers that comply with all relevant standards. These peers can have any mix of inside and outside IPv4
and IPv6 addresses. Site-to-site tunnels are built using the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocol
suite and IKEv1 or IKEv2. After the VPN connection is established, the hosts behind the local gateway
can connect to the hosts behind the remote gateway through the secure VPN tunnel.
• Site-to-site VPNs on 7000 and 8000 Series devices.
These site-to-site VPNs are referred to as Gateway VPNs or Firepower VPNs in the Firepower
Management Center. See Gateway VPNs, on page 1219, for information on this type of VPN connection.
VPN Basics
Tunneling makes it possible to use a public TCP/IP network, such as the Internet, to create secure connections
between remote users and private corporate networks. Each secure connection is called a tunnel.
IPsec-based VPN technologies use the Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP,
or IKE) and IPsec tunneling standards to build and manage tunnels. ISAKMP and IPsec accomplish the
following:
• Negotiate tunnel parameters.
• Establish tunnels.
• Authenticate users and data.
• Manage security keys.
• Encrypt and decrypt data.
• Manage data transfer across the tunnel.
• Manage data transfer inbound and outbound as a tunnel endpoint or router.
A device in a VPN functions as a bidirectional tunnel endpoint. It can receive plain packets from the private
network, encapsulate them, create a tunnel, and send them to the other end of the tunnel where they are
unencapsulated and sent to their final destination. It can also receive encapsulated packets from the public
network, unencapsulate them, and send them to their final destination on the private network.
After the site-to-site VPN connection is established, the hosts behind the local gateway can connect to the
hosts behind the remote gateway through the secure VPN tunnel. A connection consists of the IP addresses
and hostnames of the two gateways, the subnets behind them, and the method the two gateways use to
authenticate to each other.
Internet Key Exchange (IKE)

and distribute IPsec encryption keys, and to automatically establish IPsec security associations (SAs).

814
IPsec
The IKE negotiation comprises two phases. Phase 1 negotiates a security association between two IKE peers,
which enables the peers to communicate securely in Phase 2. During Phase 2 negotiation, IKE establishes
SAs for other applications, such as IPsec. Both phases use proposals when they negotiate a connection.
An IKE policy is a set of algorithms that two peers use to secure the IKE negotiation between them. IKE
negotiation begins by each peer agreeing on a common (shared) IKE policy. This policy states which security
parameters protect subsequent IKE negotiations. For IKE version 1 (IKEv1), IKE policies contain a single
set of algorithms and a modulus group. Unlike IKEv1, in an IKEv2 policy, you can select multiple algorithms
and modulus groups from which peers can choose during the Phase 1 negotiation. It is possible to create a
single IKE policy, although you might want different policies to give higher priority to your most desired
options. For site-to-site VPNs, you can create a single IKE policy.
To define an IKE policy, specify:
• A unique priority (1 to 65,543, with 1 the highest priority).
• An encryption method for the IKE negotiation, to protect the data and ensure privacy.
• A Hashed Message Authentication Codes (HMAC) method (called integrity algorithm in IKEv2) to
ensure the identity of the sender, and to ensure that the message has not been modified in transit.
• For IKEv2, a separate pseudorandom function (PRF) used as the algorithm to derive keying material and
hashing operations required for the IKEv2 tunnel encryption. The options are the same as those used for
the hash algorithm.
• A Diffie-Hellman group to determine the strength of the encryption-key-determination algorithm. The
device uses this algorithm to derive the encryption and hash keys.
• An authentication method, to ensure the identity of the peers.
• A limit to the time the device uses an encryption key before replacing it.
When IKE negotiation begins, the peer that starts the negotiation sends all of its policies to the remote peer,
and the remote peer searches for a match with its own policies, in priority order. A match between IKE policies
exists if they have the same encryption, hash (integrity and PRF for IKEv2), authentication, and Diffie-Hellman
values, and an SA lifetime less than or equal to the lifetime in the policy sent. If the lifetimes are not identical,
the shorter lifetime—From the remote peer policy—Applies. By default, the Firepower Management Center
deploys an IKEv1 policy at the lowest priority for all VPN endpoints to ensure a successful negotiation.
IPsec
IPsec is one of the most secure methods for setting up a VPN. IPsec provides data encryption at the IP packet
level, offering a robust security solution that is standards-based. With IPsec, data is transmitted over a public
network through tunnels. A tunnel is a secure, logical communication path between two peers. Traffic that
enters an IPsec tunnel is secured by a combination of security protocols and algorithms.
An IPsec Proposal policy defines the settings required for IPsec tunnels. An IPsec proposal is a collection of
one or more crypto-maps that are applied to the VPN interfaces on the devices. A crypto map combines all
the components required to set up IPsec security associations, including:
• A proposal (or transform set) is a combination of security protocols and algorithms that secure traffic in
an IPsec tunnel. During the IPsec security association (SA) negotiation, peers search for a proposal that
is the same at both peers. When it is found, it is applied to create an SA that protects data flows in the
access list for that crypto map, protecting the traffic in the VPN. There are separate IPsec proposals for

815
VPN Packet Flow
IKEv1 and IKEv2. In IKEv1 proposals (or transform sets), for each parameter, you set one value. For
IKEv2 proposals, you can configure multiple encryption and integration algorithms for a single proposal.
• A crypto map, combines all components required to set up IPsec security associations (SA), including
IPsec rules, proposals, remote peers, and other parameters that are necessary to define an IPsec SA. When
two peers try to establish an SA, they must each have at least one compatible crypto map entry.
Dynamic crypto map policies are used in site-to-site VPNs when an unknown remote peer tries to start
an IPsec security association with the local hub. The hub cannot be the initiator of the security association
negotiation. Dynamic crypto-policies allow remote peers to exchange IPsec traffic with a local hub even
if the hub does not know the remote peer’s identity. A dynamic crypto map policy essentially creates a
crypto map entry without all the parameters configured. The missing parameters are later dynamically
configured (as the result of an IPsec negotiation) to match a remote peer’s requirements.
Dynamic crypto map policies apply only in a hub-and-spoke and full-mesh VPN topologies. In a
point-to-point or full mesh VPN topology, you can apply only static crypto map policies. Emulate the
use of dynamic crypto-maps in a point-to-point topology by creating a hub-and-spoke topology with two
devices. Specify a dynamic IP address for the spoke and enable dynamic crypto-maps on this topology.
VPN Packet Flow

On a FTD device, by default no traffic is allowed to pass through access-control without explicit permission.
VPN tunnel traffic as well, is not relayed to the endpoints until it has passed through Snort. Incoming tunnel
packets are decrypted before being sent to the Snort process. Snort processes outgoing packets before encryption.
Access Control identifying the protected networks for each endpoint node of a VPN tunnel determines which
traffic is allowed to pass through the FTD device and reach the endpoints. For Remote Access VPN traffic,
a Group Policy filter or an Access Control rule must be configured to permit VPN traffic flow.
In addition, the system does not send tunnel traffic to the public source when the tunnel is down.
VPN Licensing
There is no specific licensing for enabling Firepower Threat Defense VPN, it is available by default.
The Firepower Management Center determines whether to allow or block the usage of strong crypto on a
Firepower Threat Defense device based on attributes provided by the smart licensing server.
This is controlled by whether you selected the option to allow export-controlled functionality on the device
when you registered with Cisco Smart License Manager. If you are using the evaluation license, or you did
not enable export-controlled functionality, you cannot use strong encryption.
How Secure Should a VPN Connection Be?

Because a VPN tunnel typically traverses a public network, most likely the Internet, you need to encrypt the
connection to protect the traffic. You define the encryption and other security techniques to apply using IKE
polices and IPsec proposals.
If your device license allows you to apply strong encryption, there is a wide range of encryption and hash
algorithms, and Diffie-Hellman groups, from which to choose. However, as a general rule, the stronger the

816
Complying with Security Certification Requirements
encryption that you apply to the tunnel, the worse the system performance. Find a balance between security
and performance that provides sufficient protection without compromising efficiency.
We cannot provide specific guidance on which options to choose. If you operate within a larger corporation
or other organization, there might already be defined standards that you need to meet. If not, take the time to
research the options.
The following topics explain the available options.
Complying with Security Certification Requirements

Many VPN settings have options that allow you to comply with various security certification standards.
Review your certification requirements and the available options to plan your VPN configuration. See Security
Certifications Compliance, on page 1025 for additional system information related to compliance.
Deciding Which Encryption Algorithm to Use

When deciding which encryption algorithms to use for the IKE policy or IPsec proposal, your choice is limited
to algorithms supported by the devices in the VPN.
For IKEv2, you can configure multiple encryption algorithms. The system orders the settings from the most
secure to the least secure and negotiates with the peer using that order. For IKEv1, you can select a single
option only.
For IPsec proposals, the algorithm is used by the Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP), which provides
authentication, encryption, and anti-replay services. ESP is IP protocol type 50. In IKEv1 IPsec proposals,
the algorithm name is prefixed with ESP-.
If your device license qualifies for strong encryption, you can choose from the following encryption algorithms.
If you are not qualified for strong encryption, you can select DES only.
• AES-GCM—(IKEv2 only.) Advanced Encryption Standard in Galois/Counter Mode is a block cipher
mode of operation providing confidentiality and data-origin authentication, and provides greater security
than AES. AES-GCM offers three different key strengths: 128-, 192-, and 256-bit keys. A longer key
provides higher security but a reduction in performance. GCM is a mode of AES that is required to
support NSA Suite B. NSA Suite B is a set of cryptographic algorithms that devices must support to
meet federal standards for cryptographic strength. .
• AES-GMAC—(IKEv2 IPsec proposals only.) Advanced Encryption Standard Galois Message
Authentication Code is a block cipher mode of operation providing only data-origin authentication. It is
a variant of AES-GCM that allows data authentication without encrypting the data. AES-GMAC offers
three different key strengths: 128-, 192-, and 256-bit keys.
• AES—Advanced Encryption Standard is a symmetric cipher algorithm that provides greater security
than DES and is computationally more efficient than 3DES. AES offers three different key strengths:
128-, 192-, and 256-bit keys. A longer key provides higher security but a reduction in performance.
• 3DES—Triple DES, which encrypts three times using 56-bit keys, is more secure than DES because it
processes each block of data three times with a different key. However, it uses more system resources
and is slower than DES.
• DES—Data Encryption Standard, which encrypts using 56-bit keys, is a symmetric secret-key block
algorithm. It is faster than 3DES and uses less system resources, but it is also less secure. If you do not
need strong data confidentiality, and if system resources or speed is a concern, choose DES.

817
Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use
• Null—A null encryption algorithm provides authentication without encryption. This is typically used
for testing purposes only.
Deciding Which Hash Algorithms to Use

In IKE policies, the hash algorithm creates a message digest, which is used to ensure message integrity. In
IKEv2, the hash algorithm is separated into two options, one for the integrity algorithm, and one for the
pseudo-random function (PRF).
In IPsec proposals, the hash algorithm is used by the Encapsulating Security Protocol (ESP) for authentication.
In IKEv2 IPsec Proposals, this is called the integrity hash. In IKEv1 IPsec proposals, the algorithm name is
prefixed with ESP-, and there is also an -HMAC suffix (which stands for “hash method authentication code”).
For IKEv2, you can configure multiple hash algorithms. The system orders the settings from the most secure
to the least secure and negotiates with the peer using that order. For IKEv1, you can select a single option
only.
You can choose from the following hash algorithms.
• SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm)—Produces a 160-bit digest. SHA is more resistant to brute-force attacks
than MD5. However, it is also more resource intensive than MD5. For implementations that require the
highest level of security, use the SHA hash algorithm.
Standard SHA (SHA1) produces a 160-bit digest.
The following SHA-2 options, which are even more secure, are available for IKEv2 configurations.
Choose one of these if you want to implement the NSA Suite B cryptography specification.
• SHA256—Specifies the Secure Hash Algorithm SHA 2 with the 256-bit digest.
• MD5 (Message Digest 5)—Produces a 128-bit digest. MD5 uses less processing time for an overall faster
performance than SHA, but it is considered to be weaker than SHA.
• Null or None (NULL, ESP-NONE)—(IPsec Proposals only.) A null Hash Algorithm; this is typically
used for testing purposes only. However, you should choose the null integrity algorithm if you select
one of the AES-GCM/GMAC options as the encryption algorithm. Even if you choose a non-null option,
the integrity hash is ignored for these encryption standards.
Deciding Which Diffie-Hellman Modulus Group to Use

You can use the following Diffie-Hellman key derivation algorithms to generate IPsec security association
(SA) keys. Each group has a different size modulus. A larger modulus provides higher security, but requires
more processing time. You must have a matching modulus group on both peers.
If you select AES encryption, to support the large key sizes required by AES, you should use Diffie-Hellman
(DH) Group 5 or higher. IKEv1 policies allow groups 1, 2, and 5 only.
To implement the NSA Suite B cryptography specification, use IKEv2 and select one of the elliptic curve
Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) options: 19, 20, or 21. Elliptic curve options and groups that use 2048-bit modulus
are less exposed to attacks such as Logjam.

818
Deciding Which Authentication Method to Use
For IKEv2, you can configure multiple groups. The system orders the settings from the most secure to the
least secure and negotiates with the peer using that order. For IKEv1, you can select a single option only.
• 1—Diffie-Hellman Group 1: 768-bit modulus. DH group 1 is considered insecure, please do not use it.
• 2—Diffie-Hellman Group 2: 1024-bit modulus. This option is no longer considered good protection.
• 5—Diffie-Hellman Group 5: 1536-bit modulus. Formerly considered good protection for 128-bit keys,
this option is no longer considered good protection.
• 14—Diffie-Hellman Group 14: 2048 bit modulus. Considered good protection for 192-bit keys.
• 19—Diffie-Hellman Group 19: 256 bit elliptic curve.
• 24—Diffie-Hellman Group 24: 2048-bit modulus and 256-bit prime order subgroup. This option is no
longer recommended.
Deciding Which Authentication Method to Use

Preshared keys and digital certificates are the methods of authentication available for VPNs.
Site-to-site, IKEv1 and IKEv2 VPN connections can use both options.
Remote Access, which uses SSL and IPsec IKEv2 only, supports digital certificate authentication only.
Preshared keys allow for a secret key to be shared between two peers and used by IKE during the authentication
phase. The same shared key must be configured at each peer or the IKE SA cannot be established.
Digital certificates use RSA key pairs to sign and encrypt IKE key management messages. Certificates provide
non-repudiation of communication between two peers, meaning that it can be proved that the communication
actually took place. When using this authentication method, you need a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
defined where peers can obtain digital certificates from a Certification Authority (CA). CAs manage certificate
requests and issue certificates to participating network devicesproviding centralized key management for all
of the participating devices.
Preshared keys do not scale well, using a CA improves the manageability and scalability of your IPsec network.
With a CA, you do not need to configure keys between all encrypting devices. Instead, each participating
device is registered with the CA, and requests a certificate from the CA. Each device that has its own certificate
and the public key of the CA can authenticate every other device within a given CA’s domain.
Pre-shared Keys
Preshared keys allow for a secret key to be shared between two peers. The key is used by IKE in the
authentication phase. The same shared key must be configured on each peer, or the IKE SA cannot be
established.
To configure the pre-shared keys, choose whether you will use a manual or automatically generated key, and
then speicify the key in the IKEv1/IKEv2 options. Then, when your configuration is deployed, the key is
configured on all devices in the topology.

819
PKI Infrastructure and Digital Certificates
PKI Infrastructure and Digital Certificates
Public Key Infrastructure

A PKI provides centralized key management for participating network devices. It is a defined set of policies,
procedures, and roles that support public key cryptography by generating, verifying, and revoking public key
certificates commonly known as digital certificates.
In public key cryptography, each endpoint of a connection has a key pair consisting of both a public and a
private key. The key pairs are used by the VPN endpoints to sign and encrypt messages. The keys act as
complements, and anything encrypted with one of the keys can be decrypted with the other, securing the data
flowing over the connection.
Generate a general purpose RSA or ECDSA key pair, used for both signing and encryption, or you generate
separate key pairs for each purpose. Separate signing and encryption keys help to reduce exposure of the keys.
SSL uses a key for encryption but not signing, however, IKE uses a key for signing but not encryption. By
using separate keys for each, exposure of the keys is minimized.
Digital Certificates
When you use Digital Certificates as the authentication method for VPN connections, peers are configured
to obtain digital certificates from a Certificate Authority (CA). CAs are trusted authorities that “sign” certificates
to verify their authenticity, thereby guaranteeing the identity of the device or user.
CA servers manage public CA certificate requests and issue certificates to participating network devices as
part of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), this activity is called Certificate Enrollment. These digital certificates,
also called identity certificates contain:
• The digital identification of the owner for authentication, such as name, serial number, company,
department, or IP address.
• A public key needed to send and receive encrypted data to the certificate owner.
• The secure digital signature of a CA.
Certificates also provide non-repudiation of communication between two peers, meaning that it they prove
that the communication actually took place.
Certificate Enrollment
Using a PKI improves the manageability and scalability of your VPN since you do not have to configure
pre-shared keys between all the encrypting devices. Instead, you individually enroll each participating device
with a CA server, which is explicitly trusted to validate identities and create an identity certificate for the
device. When this has been accomplished, each participating peer sends their identity certificate to the other
peer to validate their identities and establish encrypted sessions with the public keys contained in the certificates.
See Certificate Enrollment Objects, on page 429for details on enrolling FTD devices.
Certificate Authority Certificates

In order to validate a peer’s certificate, each participating device must retrieve the CA's certificate from the
server. A CA certificate is used to sign other certificates. It is self-signed and called a root certificate. This
certificate contains the public key of the CA, used to decrypt and validate the CA's digital signature and the
contents of the received peer's certificate. The CA certificate may be obtained by:

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VPN Topology Options
• Using the Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) to retrieve the CA’s certificate from the CA
server
• Manually copying the CA's certificate from another participating device
Trustpoints
Once enrollment is complete, a trustpoint is created on the managed device. It is the object representation of
a CA and associated certificates. A trustpoint includes the identity of the CA, CA-specific parameters, and
an association with a single enrolled identity certificate.
PKCS#12 File
A PKCS#12, or PFX, file holds the server certificate, any intermediate certificates, and the private key in one
encrypted file. This type of file may be imported directly into a device to create a trustpoint.
Revocation Checking
A CA may also revoke certificates for peers that no longer participate in you network. Revoked certificates
are either managed by an Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) server or are listed in a certificate revocation
list (CRL) stored on an LDAP server. A peer may check these before accepting a certificate from another
peer.
VPN Topology Options

When you create a new VPN topology you must, at minimum, give it a unique name, specify a topology type,
and select the IKE version. You can select from three types of topologies, each containing a group of VPN
tunnels:
• Point-to-point (PTP) topologies establish a VPN tunnel between two endpoints.
• Hub and Spoke topologies establish a group of VPN tunnels connecting a hub endpoint to a group of
spoke endpoints.
• Full Mesh topologies establish a group of VPN tunnels among a set of endpoints.
Define a pre-shared key for VPN authentication manually or automatically, there is no default key. When
choosing automatic, the Firepower Management Center generates a pre-shared key and assigns it to all the
nodes in the topology.
Point-to-Point VPN Topology

In a point-to-point VPN topology, two endpoints communicate directly with each other. You configure the
two endpoints as peer devices, and either device can start the secured connection.
The following diagram displays a typical point-to-point VPN topology.

821
Hub and Spoke VPN Topology
Hub and Spoke VPN Topology

In a Hub and Spoke VPN topology, a central endpoint (hub node) connects with multiple remote endpoints
(spoke nodes). Each connection between the hub node and an individual spoke endpoint is a separate VPN
tunnel. The hosts behind any of the spoke nodes can communicate with each other through the hub node.
The Hub and Spoke topology commonly represent a VPN that connects an organization’s main and branch
office locations using secure connections over the Internet or other third-party network. These deployments
provide all employees with controlled access to the organization’s network. Typically, the hub node is located
at the main office. Spoke nodes are located at branch offices and start most of the traffic.
The following diagram displays a typical Hub and Spoke VPN topology.

822
Full Mesh VPN Topology
Full Mesh VPN Topology

In a Full Mesh VPN topology, all endpoints can communicate with every other endpoint by an individual
VPN tunnel. This topology offers redundancy so that when one endpoint fails, the remaining endpoints can
still communicate with each other. It commonly represents a VPN that connects a group of decentralized
branch office locations. The number of VPN-enabled managed devices you deploy in this configuration
depends on the level of redundancy you require.
The following diagram displays a typical Full Mesh VPN topology.
Implicit Topologies
In addition to the three main VPN topologies, other more complex topologies can be created as combinations
of these topologies. They include:
• Partial mesh—A network in which some devices are organized in a full mesh topology, and other devices
form either a hub-and-spoke or a point-to-point connection to some of the fully meshed devices. A partial
mesh does not provide the level of redundancy of a full mesh topology, but it is less expensive to
implement. Partial mesh topologies are used in peripheral networks that connect to a fully meshed
backbone.
• Tiered hub-and-spoke—A network of hub-and-spoke topologies in which a device can behave as a hub
in one or more topologies and a spoke in other topologies. Traffic is permitted from spoke groups to their
most immediate hub.

823
Implicit Topologies
• Joined hub-and-spoke—A combination of two topologies (hub-and-spoke, point-to-point, or full mesh)

that connect to form a point-to-point tunnel. For example, a joined hub-and-spoke topology could comprise
two hub-and-spoke topologies, with the hubs acting as peer devices in a point-to-point topology.

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CHAPTER 43
Site-to-Site VPNs for Firepower Threat Defense
• About Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs, on page 825
• Managing Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs, on page 827
• Configuring Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs, on page 828
About Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs

Firepower Threat Defense site-to-site VPN supports the following features:
• Both IPsec IKEv1 & IKEv2 protocols are supported.
• Certificates and automatic or manual preshared keys for authentication.
• IPv4 & IPv6. All combinations of inside and outside are supported.
• IPsec IKEv2 Site-to-Site VPN topologies provide configuration settings to comply with Security
Certifications.
• Static and Dynamic Interfaces.
• Support for both Firepower Management Center and FTD HA environments.
• VPN alerts when the tunnel goes down.
• Tunnel statistics available using the FTD Unified CLI.
• Support for IKEv1 back-up peer configuration for point-to-point extranet VPN.
VPN Topology
To create a new site-to-site VPN topology you must, at minimum, give it a unique name, specify a topology
type, choose the IKE version that is used for IPsec IKEv1 or IKEv2, or both. Also, determine your authentication
method. Once configured, you deploy the topology to Firepower Threat Defense devices. The Firepower
Management Center configures site-to-site VPNs on FTD devices only.
You can select from three types of topologies, containing one or more VPN tunnels:
• Point-to-point (PTP) deployments establish a VPN tunnel between two endpoints.
• Hub and Spoke deployments establish a group of VPN tunnels connecting a hub endpoint to a group of
spoke nodes.

825
Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPN Guidelines and Limitations
• Full Mesh deployments establish a group of VPN tunnels among a set of endpoints.
IPsec and IKE

In the Firepower Management Center, site-to-site VPNs are configured based on IKE policies and IPsec
proposals that are assigned to VPN topologies. Policies and proposals are sets of parameters that define the
characteristics of a site-to-site VPN, such as the security protocols and algorithms that are used to secure
traffic in an IPsec tunnel. Several policy types may be required to define a full configuration image that can
be assigned to a VPN topology.
Authentication
For authentication of VPN connections, configure a preshared key in the topology, or a trustpoint on each
device. Preshared keys allow for a secret key, used during the IKE authentication phase, to be shared between
two peers. A trustpoint includes the identity of the CA, CA-specific parameters, and an association with a
single enrolled identity certificate.
Extranet Devices
Each topology type can include Extranet devices, devices that you do not manage in Firepower Management
Center. These include:
• Cisco devices that Firepower Management Center supports, but for which your organization is not
responsible. Such as spokes in networks managed by other organizations within your company, or a
connection to a service provider or partner's network.
• Non-Cisco devices. You cannot use Firepower Management Center to create and deploy configurations
to non-Cisco devices.
Add non-Cisco devices, or Cisco devices not managed by the Firepower Management Center, to a VPN
topology as "Extranet" devices. Also specify the IP address of each remote device.
Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPN Guidelines and Limitations

• A VPN connection can only be made across domains by using an extranet peer for the endpoint not in
the current domain.
• A VPN topology cannot be moved between domains.
• Network objects with a 'range' option are not supported in VPN
• Firepower Threat Defense VPNs are only be backed up using the Firepower Management backup.
• The Firepower Threat Defense VPNs do not currently support PDF export and policy comparison.
• There is no per-tunnel or per-device edit option for Firepower Threat Defense VPNs, only the whole
topology can be edited.
• Device interface address verification will not be performed for Transport mode when Crypto ACL is
selected.
• All nodes in a topology must be configured with either Crypto ACL or Protected Network. A topology
may not be configured with Crypto ACL on one node and Protected Network on another.

826
Managing Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs
• There is no support for automatic mirror ACE generation. Mirror ACE generation for the peer is a manual
process on either side.
• While using Crypto ACL, there is no support for Hub, Spoke, and Full Mesh topologies; only point to
point VPN is supported. Additionally with Crypto ACL, there is no support for tunnel health events for
VPN topologies.
• Whenever IKE ports 500/4500 are in use or when there are some PAT translations that are active, the
Site-to-Site VPN cannot be configured on the same ports as it fails to start the service on those ports.
• Tunnel status is not updated in realtime, but at an interval of 5 minutes in the Firepower Management
Center.
• Transport mode is not supported, only tunnel mode. IPsec tunnel mode encrypts the entire original IP
datagram which becomes the payload in a new IP packet. Use tunnel mode when the firewall is protecting
traffic to and from hosts positioned behind a firewall. Tunnel mode is the normal way regular IPsec is
implemented between two firewalls (or other security gateways) that are connected over an untrusted
network, such as the Internet.
Managing Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs

Procedure
Step 1 For certificate authentication for your VPNs, you must prepare the devices by allocating trustpoints as described
in Firepower Threat Defense Certificate-Based Authentication, on page 465.
Step 2 Select Devices > VPN > Site To Site to manage your Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPN configurations
and deployments. Choose from the following:
• Add—To create a new VPN topology, click Add VPN > Firepower Threat Defense Device, and
continue as instructed in Configuring Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs, on page 828:
Note VPNs topologies can be created only on leaf domains.
• Edit—To modify the settings of an existing VPN topology, click the edit icon ( ). Modifying is similar
to configuring, continue as instructed above.
Note You cannot edit the topology type after you initially save it. To change the topology type,
delete the topology and create a new one.
Two users should not edit the same topology simultaneously; however, the web interface does
not prevent simultaneous editing.
• Delete—To delete a VPN deployment, click the delete icon ( ).

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Configuring Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs
• View VPN status—This status applies to Firepower VPNs ONLY. Currently, no status is displayed for
FTD VPNs. To determine the status of the FTD VPNs, see VPN Monitoring for Firepower Threat Defense,
on page 873.
• Deploy—Click Deploy; see Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.
Note Some VPN settings are validated only during deployment. Be sure to verify that your deployment
was successful.
Configuring Firepower Threat Defense Site-to-site VPNs

Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > VPN > Site To Site.Then Add VPN > Firepower Threat Defense Device, or edit a listed
VPN Topology. .
Step 2 Enter a unique Topology Name. We recommend naming your topology to indicate that it is a FTD VPN, and
its topology type.
Step 3 Choose the Network Topology for this VPN.
Step 4 Choose the IKE versions to use during IKE negotiations. IKEv1 or IKEv2.
Default is IKEv2. Select either or both options as appropriate; select IKEv1 if any device in the topology does
not support IKEv2.
For IKEv1, you can configure backup peer for point-to-point extranet VPN. For more information, see FTD
VPN Endpoint Options, on page 829.
Step 5 Required: Add Endpoints for this VPN deployment by clicking the add icon ( ) for each node in the topology.
Configure each endpoint field as described in FTD VPN Endpoint Options, on page 829.
• For Point to point, configure Node A and Node B.
• For Hub and Spoke, configure a Hub Node and Spoke Nodes
• For Full Mesh, configure multiple Nodes
Step 6 (Optional) Specify non-default IKE options for this deployment as described in FTD VPN IKE Options, on
page 831
Step 7 (Optional) Specify non-default IPsec options for this deployment as described in FTD VPN IPsec Options,
on page 832
Step 8 (Optional) Specify non-default Advanced options for this deployment as described in FTD Advanced Site-to-site
VPN Deployment Options, on page 834.
Step 9 Click Save.

828
FTD VPN Endpoint Options
The endpoints are added to your configuration.
What to do next
Deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.
Note Some VPN settings are validated only during deployment. Be sure to verify that your deployment was
successful.

Navigation Path
Devices > VPN > Site To Site. Then Add VPN > Firepower Threat Defense Device, or edit a listed VPN
Topology. Open the Endpoint tab.
Fields
Device
Choose an endpoint node for your deployment:
• A FTD device managed by this Firepower Management Center.
• A FTD high availability container managed by this Firepower Management Center.
• An Extranet device, any device (Cisco or third-party) not managed by this Firepower Management
Center.
Device Name
For Extranet devices only, provide a name for this device. We recommend naming it such that it is
identifiable as an un-manaaged device.
Interface
If you chose a managed device as your endpoint, choose an interface on that managed device.
IP Address
• If you choose an extranet device, a device not managed by the Firepower Management Center,
specify an IP address for the endpoint.
If you have chosen point-to-point topology and only IKEv1, you can configure backup peer by
entering the primary IP address and backup peer IP addresses separated by a comma.
• If you chose a managed device as an endpoint, choose a single IPv4 address or multiple IPv6
addresses from the drop-down list (these are the addresses already assigned to this interface on this
managed device).
• All endpoints in a topology must have the same IP addressing scheme. IPv4 tunnels can carry IPv6
traffic and vice-versa. The Protected Networks define which addressing scheme the tunneled traffic
will use.

829
• If the managed device is a high-availability container, choose from a list of interfaces.
This IP is Private
Check the check box if the endpoint resides behind a firewall with network address translation (NAT).
Public IP address
If you checked the This IP is Private check box, specify a public IP address for the firewall. If the
endpoint is a responder, specify this value.
Connection Type
Specify the allowed negotiation as bidirectional, answer-only, or originate-only. Supported combinations
for the connection type are:
Table 61: Connection Type Supported Combinations
Remote Node Central Node
Originate-Only Answer-Only
Bi-Directional Answer-Only
Bi-Directional Bi-Directional
Certificate Map
Choose a pre-configured certificate map object, or click the add icon ( ) to add a certificate map object
that defines what information is necessary in the received client certificate for it to be valid for VPN
connectivity. See FTD Certificate Map Objects, on page 459 for details.
Protected Networks
Defines the networks that are protected by this VPN Endpoint. The networks may be marked by selecting
the list of Subnet/IP Address that define the networks that are protected by this endpoint. Click the add
icon ( ) to select from available Network Objects or add new Network Objects. See Creating Network
Objects, on page 376. Access Control Lists will be generated from the choices made here.
• Subnet/IP Address (Network)—VPN endpoints cannot have the same IP address and protected
networks in a VPN endpoint pair cannot overlap. If a list of protected networks for an endpoint
contains one or more IPv4 or IPv6 entries, the other endpoint's protected network must have at least
one entry of the same type (that is, IPv4 or IPv6). If it does not, then the other endpoint's IP address
must be of the same type and must not overlap with the entries in the protected network. (Use /32
CIDR address blocks for IPv4 and /128 CIDR address blocks for IPv6.) If both of these checks fail,
the endpoint pair is invalid.

830
FTD VPN IKE Options
Note Subnet/IP Address (Network) remains the default selection.

When you have selected Protected Networks as Any and observe default route
traffic being dropped, disable the Reverse Route Injection under VPN> Site to
Site > edit a VPN > IPsec > Enable Reverse Route Injection. Deploy the
configuration changes; this will remove set reverse-route (Reverse Route Injection)
from the crypto map configuration and remove the VPN-advertised reverse route
that causes the reverse tunnel traffic to be dropped.
• Access List (Extended)—An extended access lists provide the capability to control the type of
traffic that will be accepted by this endpoint, like GRE or OSPF traffic. Traffic may be restricted
either by address or port. Click the add icon ( ) to add access control list objects.
Note Access Control List is supported only in the point to point topology.
FTD VPN IKE Options

For the versions of IKE you have chosen for this topology, specify the IKEv1/IKEv2 Settings.
Note Settings in this dialog apply to the entire topology, all tunnels, and all managed devices.
Navigation Path
Devices > VPN > Site To Site. Then Add VPN > Firepower Threat Defense Device, or edit a listed VPN
Topology. Open the IKE tab.
Fields
Policy
Choose a predefined IKEv1 or IKEv2 policy object or create a new one to use. For details, see FTD IKE
Policies, on page 447
Authentication Type
Note In a VPN topology that supports IKEv1, the Authentication Method specified in the chosen IKEv1
Policy object becomes the default in the IKEv1 Authentication Type setting. These values must match,
otherwise, your configuration will error.
• Pre-shared Automatic Key—The Management Center automatically defines the preshared key
that is used for this VPN. Specify the Pre-shared Key Length, the number of characters in the key,
1-27.

831
FTD VPN IPsec Options
• Pre-shared Manual Key—Manually assign the preshared key that is used for this VPN. Specify
the Key and then re-enter it in Confirm Key to confirm.
When this option is chosen for IKEv2, the Enforce hex-based pre-shared key only check box
appears, check if desired. If enforced, you must enter a valid hex value for the key, an even number
of 2-256 characters, using numerals 0-9, or A-F.
• Certificate—When you use Certificates as the authentication method for VPN connections, peers
obtain digital certificates from a CA server in your PKI infrastructure, and trade them to authenticate
each other.
In the Certificate field, select a pre-configured PKI Enrollment Object. This enrollment object is
used to generate a trustpoint with the same name on the managed device. The trustpoint is created
when the PKI enrollment object is associated with that device.
For a full explanation of the options, see Deciding Which Authentication Method to Use, on page 819.
Note Settings in this dialog apply to the entire topology, all tunnels, and all managed devices.
Crypto-Map Type
A crypto map combines all the components required to set up IPsec security associations (SA). When
two peers try to establish an SA, they must each have at least one compatible crypto map entry. The
proposals defined in the crypto map entry are used in the IPsec security negotiation to protect the data
flows specified by that crypto map’s IPsec rules. Choose static or dynamic for this deployment's
crypto-map:
• Static—Use a static crypto map in a point-to-point or full mesh VPN topology.
• Dynamic—Dynamic crypto-maps essentially create a crypto map entry without all the parameters
configured. The missing parameters are later dynamically configured (as the result of an IPsec
negotiation) to match a remote peer’s requirements.
Dynamic crypto map policies apply only in a hub-and-spoke VPN configuration. In a point-to-point
or full mesh VPN topology, you can apply only static crypto map policies. Emulate the use of
dynamic crypto-maps in a point-to-point topology by creating a hub-and-spoke topology with two
devices. Specify a dynamic IP address for the spoke, and enable dynamic crypto map on this topology.
IKEv2 Mode
For IPsec IKEv2 only, specify the encapsulation mode for applying ESP encryption and authentication
to the tunnel. This determines what part of the original IP packet has ESP applied.
• Tunnel mode—(default) Encapsulation mode is set to tunnel mode. Tunnel mode applies ESP
encryption and authentication to the entire original IP packet (IP header and data), hiding the ultimate
source and destination addresses and becoming the payload in a new IP packet.
The major advantage of tunnel mode is that the end systems do not need to be modified to receive
the benefits of IPsec. This mode allows a network device, such as a router, to act as an IPsec proxy.
That is, the router performs encryption on behalf of the hosts. The source router encrypts packets
and forwards them along the IPsec tunnel. The destination router decrypts the original IP datagram
and forwards it onto the destination system. Tunnel mode also protects against traffic analysis; with

832
tunnel mode, an attacker can only determine the tunnel endpoints and not the true source and
destination of the tunneled packets, even if they are the same as the tunnel endpoints.
• Transport preferred— Encapsulation mode is set to transport mode with an option to fallback to
tunnel mode if the peer does not support it. In Transport mode only the IP payload is encrypted,
and the original IP headers are left intact. Therefore, the admin must select a protected network that
matches the VPN interface IP address.
This mode has the advantages of adding only a few bytes to each packet and allowing devices on
the public network to see the final source and destination of the packet. With transport mode, you
can enable special processing (for example, QoS) on the intermediate network based on the
information in the IP header. However, the Layer 4 header is encrypted, which limits examination
of the packet.
• Transport required— Encapsulation mode is set to transport mode only, falling back to tunnel
mode is not allowed. If the endpoints cannot successfully negotiate transport mode, due to one
endpoint not supporting it, the VPN connection is not made.
Proposals
Click ( ) to specify the proposals for your chosen IKEv1 or IKEv2 method. Select from the available
IKEv1 IPsec Proposals or IKEv2 IPsec Proposals objects, or create and then select a new one. See
Configure IKEv1 IPsec Proposal Objects, on page 451 and Configure IKEv2 IPsec Proposal Objects, on
page 452 for details.
Enable Security Association (SA) Strength Enforcement
Enabling this option ensures that the encryption algorithm used by the child IPsec SA is not stronger (in
terms of the number of bits in the key) than the parent IKE SA.
Enable Reverse Route Injection
Reverse Route Injection (RRI) enables static routes to be automatically inserted into the routing process
for those networks and hosts protected by a remote tunnel endpoint.
Enable Perfect Forward Secrecy
Whether to use Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) to generate and use a unique session key for each encrypted
exchange. The unique session key protects the exchange from subsequent decryption, even if the entire
exchange was recorded and the attacker has obtained the preshared or private keys used by the endpoint
devices. If you select this option, also select the Diffie-Hellman key derivation algorithm to use when
generating the PFS session key in the Modulus Group list.
Modulus Group
The Diffie-Hellman group to use for deriving a shared secret between the two IPsec peers without
transmitting it to each other. A larger modulus provides higher security but requires more processing
time. The two peers must have a matching modulus group. For a full explanation of the options,
see Deciding Which Diffie-Hellman Modulus Group to Use, on page 818.
Lifetime (seconds)
The number of seconds a security association exists before expiring. The default is 28,800 seconds.
Lifetime (kbytes)
The volume of traffic (in kilobytes) that can pass between IPsec peers using a given security association
before it expires. The default is 4,608,000 kilobytes. Infinite data is not allowed.
ESPv3 Settings
Validate incoming ICMP error messages
Choose whether to validate ICMP error messages received through an IPsec tunnel and destined
for an interior host on the private network.

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FTD Advanced Site-to-site VPN Deployment Options
Enable 'Do Not Fragment' Policy

Define how the IPsec subsystem handles large packets that have the do-not-fragment (DF) bit set
in the IP header.
Policy
• Copy DF bit—Maintains the DF bit.
• Clear DF bit—Ignores the DF bit.
• Set DF bit—Sets and uses the DF bit.
Enable Traffic Flow Confidentiality (TFC) Packets

Enable dummy TFC packets that mask the traffic profile which traverses the tunnel. Use the Burst,
Payload Size, and Timeout parameters to generate random length packets at random intervals
across the specified SA.
FTD Advanced Site-to-site VPN Deployment Options

The following sections describes the advanced options you can specify in your S2S VPN deployment. These
settings apply to the entire topology, all tunnels, and all managed devices.
FTD VPN Advanced IKE Options
Advanced > IKE > ISAKAMP Settings

IKE Keepalive
Enable or disables IKE Keepalives. Or set to EnableInfinite specifying that the device never starts
keepalive monitoring itself.
Threshold
Specifies the IKE keep alive confidence interval. This is the number of seconds allowing a peer to
idle before beginning keepalive monitoring. The minimum and default is 10 seconds; the maximum
is 3600 seconds.
Retry Interval
Specifies number of seconds to wait between IKE keep alive retries. The default is 2 seconds, the
maximum is 10 seconds.
Identity Sent to Peers:
Choose the Identity that the peers will use to identify themselves during IKE negotiations:
• autoOrDN(default)—Determines IKE negotiation by connection type: IP address for preshared key,
or Cert DN for certificate authentication (not supported).
• ipAddress—Uses the IP addresses of the hosts exchanging ISAKMP identity information.
• hostname—Uses the fully qualified domain name of the hosts exchanging ISAKMP identity
information. This name comprises the hostname and the domain name.
Enable Aggressive Mode

Available only in a hub-and-spoke VPN topology. Select this negotiation method for exchanging key
information if the IP address is not known and DNS resolution might not be available on the devices.
Negotiation is based on hostname and domain name.

834
FTD VPN Advanced IPsec Options
Advanced > IKE > IVEv2 Security Association (SA) Settings

More session controls are available for IKE v2 that limit the number of open SAs. By default, there is no limit
to the number of open SAs:
Cookie Challenge
Whether to send cookie challenges to peer devices in response to SA initiate packets, which can help
thwart denial of service (DoS) attacks. The default is to use cookie challenges when 50% of the available
SAs are in negotiation. Select one of these options:
• Custom:
• Never (default)
• Always
Threshold to Challenge Incoming Cookies

The percentage of the total allowed SAs that are in-negotiation. This triggers cookie challenges for any
future SA negotiations. The range is zero to 100%.
Number of SAs Allowed in Negotiation
Limits the maximum number of SAs that can be in negotiation at any time. If used with Cookie Challenge,
configure the cookie challenge threshold lower than this limit for an effective cross-check.
Maximum number of SAs Allowed
Limits the number of allowed IKEv2 connections. Default is unlimited.
Enable Notification on Tunnel Disconnect
Allows an administrator to enable or disable the sending of an IKE notification to the peer when an
inbound packet that is received on an SA does not match the traffic selectors for that SA. Sending this
notification is disabled by default.
FTD VPN Advanced IPsec Options
Advanced > IPsec > IPsec Settings

Enable Fragmentation Before Encryption
This option lets traffic travel across NAT devices that do not support IP fragmentation. It does not impede
the operation of NAT devices that do support IP fragmentation.
Path Maximum Transmission Unit Aging
Check to enable PMTU (Path Maximum Transmission Unit) Aging, the interval to Reset PMTU of an
SA (Security Association)
Value Reset Interval
Enter the number of minutes at which the PMTU value of an SA (Security Association) is reset to its
original value. Valid range is 10 to 30 minutes, default is unlimited.
FTD Advanced Site-to-site VPN Tunnel Options
Navigation Path
Devices > VPN > Site To Site, then select Add VPN > Firepower Threat Defense Device, or edit a listed
VPN Topology. Open the Advanced tab, and select Tunnel in the navigation pane.
Tunnel Options
Only available for Hub and Spoke, and Full Mesh topologies. This section will not display for Point to Point
configurations.

835
FTD Advanced Site-to-site VPN Tunnel Options
• Enable Spoke to Spoke Connectivity through Hub—Disabled by default. Choosing this field enables
the devices on each end of the spokes to extend their connection through the hub node to the other device.
NAT Settings
• Keepalive Messages Traversal —Elect whether to enable NAT keepalive message traversal. NAT
traversal keepalive is used for the transmission of keepalive messages when there is a device (middle
device) located between a VPN-connected hub and spoke, and that device performs NAT on the IPsec
flow.
If you select this option, configure the Interval, in seconds, between the keepalive signals sent between
the spoke and the middle device to indicate that the session is active. The value can be from 5 to 3600
seconds. The default is 20 seconds.
Access Control for VPN Traffic

• Bypass Access Control policy for decrypted traffic (sysopt permit-vpn) — Decrypted traffic is
subjected to Access Control Policy inspection by default. Enabling the Bypass Access Control policy
for decrypted traffic option bypasses the ACL inspection, but VPN Filter ACL and authorization ACL
downloaded from AAA server are still applied to VPN traffic.
Certificate Map Settings

• Use the certificate map configured in the Endpoints to determine the tunnel—If this option is enabled
(checked), the tunnel will be determined by matching the contents of the received certificate to the
certificate map objects configured in the endpoint nodes.
• Use the certificate OU field to determine the tunnel—Indicates that if a node is not determined based
on the configured mapping (the above option) if selected, then use the value of the organizational unit
(OU) in the subject distinguished name (DN) of the received certificate to determine the tunnel.
• Use the IKE identity to determine the tunnel—Indicates that if a node is not determined based on a
rule matching or taken from the OU (the above options) if selected, then the certificate-based IKE sessions
are mapped to a tunnel based on the content of the phase1 IKE ID.
• Use the peer IP address to determine the tunnel—Indicates that if a tunnel is not determined based
on a rule matching or taken from the OU or IKE ID methods (the above options) if selected, then use the
established peer IP address.

836
CHAPTER 44
Remote Access VPNs for Firepower Threat
Defense
• Firepower Threat Defense Remote Access VPN Overview, on page 837
• Guidelines and Limitations for Remote Access VPNs, on page 842
• Configuring a New Remote Access VPN Connection, on page 844
• Optional Remote Access VPN Configurations, on page 851
Firepower Threat Defense Remote Access VPN Overview

Firepower Threat Defense provides secure gateway capabilities that support remote access SSL and IPsec-IKEv2
VPNs. The full tunnel client, AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, provides secure SSL and IPsec-IKEv2
connections to the security gateway for remote users. AnyConnect is the only client supported on endpoint
devices for remote VPN connectivity to Firepower Threat Defense devices. The client gives remote users the
benefits of an SSL or IPsec-IKEv2 VPN client without the need for network administrators to install and
configure clients on remote computers. The AnyConnect mobile client for Windows, Mac, and Linux is
deployed from the secure gateway upon connectivity. The AnyConnect apps for Apple iOS and Android
devices are installed from the platform app store.
Use the Remote Access VPN Policy wizard in the Firepower Management Center to quickly and easily set
up SSL and IPsec-IKEv2 remote access VPNs with basic capabilities. Then, enhance the policy configuration
if desired and deploy it to your Firepower Threat Defense secure gateway devices.
Remote Access VPN Features

The following section describes the features of Firepower Threat Defense remote access VPN:
• SSL and IPsec-IKEv2 remote access using the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client.
• Firepower Management Center supports all combinations such as IPv6 over an IPv4 tunnel.
• Configuration support on both FMC and FDM. Device-specific overrides.
• Support for both Firepower Management Center and FTD HA environments.
• Support for multiple interfaces and multiple AAA servers.

837
AnyConnect Components
AAA
• Server authentication using self-signed or CA-signed identity certificates.
• AAA username and password-based remote authentication using RADIUS server or LDAP or AD.
• RADIUS group and user authorization attributes, and RADIUS accounting.
• NGFW Access Control integration using VPN Identity.
VPN Tunneling
• Address assignment
• Split tunneling
• Split DNS
• Client Firewall ACLs
• Session Timeouts for maximum connect and idle time
Monitoring
• New VPN Dashboard Widget showing VPN users by various characteristics such as duration and client
application.
• Remote access VPN events including authentication information such as username and OS platform.
• Tunnel statistics available using the FTD Unified CLI.
AnyConnect Components
AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Deployment
Your remote access VPN Policy can include the AnyConnect Client Image and an AnyConnect Client Profile
for distribution to connecting endpoints. Or, the client software can be distributed using other methods. See
the Deploy AnyConnect chapter in the appropriate version of the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
Administrator Guide.
Without a previously installed client, remote users enter the IP address in their browser of an interface
configured to accept SSL or IPsec-IKEv2 VPN connections. Unless the security appliance is configured to
redirect http:// requests to https://, remote users must enter the URL in the form https://address. After the user
enters the URL, the browser connects to that interface and displays the login screen.
After a user logs in, if the secure gateway identifies the user as requiring the VPN client, it downloads the
client that matches the operating system of the remote computer. After downloading, the client installs and
configures itself, establishes a secure connection, and either remains or uninstalls itself (depending on the
security appliance configuration) when the connection stops. In the case of a previously installed client, after
login, the Firepower Threat Defense security gateway examines the client version and upgrades it as necessary.
AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Operation

When the client negotiates a connection with the security appliance, the client connects using Transport Layer
Security (TLS), and optionally, Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS). DTLS avoids latency and

838
Remote Access VPN Authentication
bandwidth problems associated with some SSL connections and improves the performance of real-time
applications that are sensitive to packet delays.
When an IPsec-IKEv2 VPN client initiates a connection to the secure gateway, negotiation consists of
authenticating the device through Internet Key Exchange (IKE), followed by user authentication using IKE
Extended Authentication (Xauth). The group profile is pushed to the VPN client and an IPsec security
association (SA) is created to complete the VPN.
AnyConnect Client Profile and Editor

An AnyConnect client profile is a group of configuration parameters, stored in an XML file that the VPN
client uses to configure its operation and appearance. These parameters (XML tags) include the names and
addresses of host computers and settings to enable more client features.
You can configure a profile using the AnyConnect Profile Editor. This editor is a convenient GUI-based
configuration tool that is available as part of the AnyConnect software package. It is an independent program
that you run outside of the Firepower Management Center.
Remote Access VPN Authentication

Remote Access VPN Server Authentication
Firepower Threat Defense secure gateways always use certificates to identify and authenticate themselves to
the VPN client endpoint.
While setting up the remote access VPN configuration using the wizard, you can enroll the selected certificate
on the targeted Firepower Threat Defense device. In the wizard, under Access & Certificate phase, select
“Enroll the selected certificate object on the target devices” option. The certificate enrollment gets automatically
initiated on the specified devices. As you complete the Remote Access VPN configuration, you can view the
status of the enrolled certificate under the device certificate homepage. The status provides a clear standing
as to whether the certificate enrollment was successful or not. Your Remote Access VPN configuration is
now fully completed and ready for deployment.
Obtaining a certificate for the secure gateway, also known as PKI enrollment, is explained in Firepower Threat
Defense Certificate-Based Authentication, on page 465. This chapter contains a full description of configuring,
enrolling, and maintaining gateway certificates.
Remote Access VPN Client AAA

For both SSL and IPsec-IKEv2, remote user authentication is done using usernames and passwords only,
certificates only, or both.
Note If you are using client certificates in your deployment, they must be added to your client's platform independent
of the Firepower Threat Defense or Firepower Management Center. Facilities such as SCEP or CA Services
are not provided to populate your clients with certificates.
AAA servers enable managed devices acting as secure gateways to determine who a user is (authentication),
what the user is permitted to do (authorization), and what the user did (accounting). Some examples of the
AAA servers are RADIUS, LDAP/AD, TACACS+, and Kerberos. For Remote Access VPN on Firepower
Threat Defense devices, AD, LDAP, and RADIUS AAA servers are supported for authentication. Only
RADIUS servers can be configured and used for authorization and accounting servers. Please refer to

839
Understanding Policy Enforcement of Permissions and Attributes
Understanding Policy Enforcement of Permissions and Attributes to understand more about remote access
VPN authorization.
Note Before you add or edit the Remote Access VPN policy, you must configure the Realm and RADIUS server
groups you want to specify. For more information, see Create a Realm, on page 1989 and RADIUS Server
Groups, on page 462.
Without DNS configured, the device cannot resolve AAA server names, named URLs, and CA Servers with
FQDN or Hostnames, it can only resolve IP addresses.
The login information provided by a remote user is validated by an LDAP or AD realm or a RADIUS server
group. These entities are integrated with the Firepower Threat Defense secure gateway.
Note If users authenticate with RA VPN using Active Directory as the authentication source, users must log in
using their username; the format domain\username or username@domain fails. (Active Directory
refers to this username as the logon name or sometimes as sAMAccountName.) For more information, see
User Naming Attributes on MSDN.
If you use RADIUS to authenticate, users can log in with any of the preceding formats.
Once authenticated via a VPN connection, the remote user takes on a VPN Identity. This VPN Identity is used
by identity policies on the Firepower Threat Defense secure gateway to recognize and filter network traffic
belonging to that remote user.
Identity policies are associated with access control policies, which determine who has access to network
resources. It is in this way that the remote user blocked or allowed to access your network resources.
For more information, see the About Identity Policies, on page 2035 and Getting Started with Access Control
Policies, on page 1239 sections.
Understanding Policy Enforcement of Permissions and Attributes

The Firepower Threat Defense device supports applying user authorization attributes (also called user
entitlements or permissions) to VPN connections from an external authentication server and/or authorization
AAA server (RADIUS) or from a group policy on the Firepower Threat Defense device. If the Firepower
Threat Defense device receives attributes from the external AAA server that conflicts with those configured
on the group policy, then attributes from the AAA server always take the precedence.
The Firepower Threat Defense device applies attributes in the following order:
1. User attributes on the external AAA server—The server returns these attributes after successful user
authentication and/or authorization.
2. Group policy configured on the Firepower Threat Defense device—If a RADIUS server returns the
value of the RADIUS Class attribute IETF-Class-25 (OU= group-policy) for the user, the Firepower
Threat Defense device places the user in the group policy of the same name and enforces any attributes
in the group policy that are not returned by the server.
3. Group policy assigned by the Connection Profile (also known as Tunnel Group)—The Connection
Profile has the preliminary settings for the connection, and includes a default group policy applied to the
user before authentication.

840
Understanding AAA Server Connectivity
Note The Firepower Threat Defense device does not support inheriting system default attributes from the default
group policy, DfltGrpPolicy. The attributes on the group policy assigned to the connection profile are used
for the user session, if they are not overridden by user attributes or the group policy from the AAA server as
indicated above.
Understanding AAA Server Connectivity

LDAP, AD, and RADIUS AAA servers must be reachable from the Firepower Threat Defense device for
your intended purposes: user-identity handling only, VPN authentication only, or both activities. AAA servers
are used in remote access VPN for the following activities:
• User-identity handling— the servers must be reachable over the Management interface.
On the Firepower Threat Defense device, the Management interface has a separate routing process and
configuration from the regular interfaces used by VPN.
• VPN authentication—the servers must be reachable over one of the regular interfaces: the Diagnostic
interface or a data interface.
For regular interfaces, two routing tables are used. A management-only routing table for the Diagnostic
interface as well as any other interfaces configured for management-only, and a data routing table used
for data interfaces. When a route-lookup is done, the management-only routing table is checked first,
and then the data routing table. The first match is chosen to reach the AAA server.
Note If you place a AAA server on a data interface, be sure the management-only
routing policies do not match traffic destined for a data interface. For example,
if you have a default route through the Diagnostic interface, then traffic will never
fall back to the data routing table. Use the show route management-only and
show route commands to verify routing determination.
For both activities on the same AAA servers, in addition to making the servers reachable over the Management
interface for user-identity handling, do one of the following to provide VPN authentication access to the same
AAA servers:
• Enable and configure the Diagnostic interface with an IP address on the same subnet as the Management
interface, and then configure a route to the AAA server through this interface. The Diagnostic interface
access will be used for VPN activity, the Management interface access for identity handling.
Note When configured this way, you cannot also have a data interface on the same
subnet as the Diagnostic and Management interfaces. If you want the Management
interface and a data interface on the same network, for example when using the
device itself as a gateway, you will not be able to use this solution because the
Diagnostic interface must remain disabled.
• Configure a route through a data interface to the AAA server. The data interface access will be used for
VPN activity, the Management interface access for user-identity handling.

841
Guidelines and Limitations for Remote Access VPNs
Note You must configure DNS on each device in order to use AAA server names,
named URLs, and CA Servers using FQDN or Hostnames. Without DNS the
system can only configure and use IP addresses. You can configure DNS by
creating a FlexConfig policy using FlexConfig objects with the DNS configuration
CLI commands. For more information, see Configure the FlexConfig Policy, on
page 585 and Configure FlexConfig Objects, on page 579.
For more information about various interfaces, see Regular Firewall Interfaces for Firepower Threat Defense,
on page 601.
After deployment, use the following CLI commands to monitor and troubleshoot AAA server connectivity
from the Firepower Threat Defense device:
• show aaa-server to display AAA server statistics.
• show route management-only to view the management-only routing table entries.
• show route to view data traffic routing table entries.
• ping system and traceroute system to verify the path to the AAA server through the Management
interface.
• ping interface ifname and traceroute destination to verify the path to the AAA server through the
Diagnostic and data interfaces.
• test aaa-server authentication and test aaa-server authorization to test authentication and authorization
on the AAA server.
• clear aaa-server statistics groupname or clear aaa-server statistics protocol protocol to clear AAA
server statistics by group or protocol.
• aaa-server groupname active host hostname to activate a failed AAA server, or aaa-server
groupname fail host hostname to fail a AAA server.
• debug ldap level, debug aaa authentication, debug aaa authorization, and debug aaa accounting.

Remote Access VPN Policy Configuration
• You can add a new remote access VPN policy only by using the wizard. You must proceed through the
entire wizard to create a new policy; the policy will not be saved if you cancel before completing the
wizard.
• Two users must not edit a remote access VPN policy at the same time; however, the web interface does
not prevent simultaneous editing. If this occurs, the last saved configuration persists.
• Moving a Firepower Threat Defense device from one domain to another domain is not possible if a
remote access VPN policy is assigned to that device.
• Firepower 9300 and 4100 series in cluster mode do not support remote access VPN configuration.

842
• Remote access VPN connectivity could fail if there is an FTD NAT rule is misconfigured.
• Whenever IKE ports 500/4500 or SSL port 443 is in use or when there are some PAT translations that
are active, the AnyConnect IPSec-IKEv2 or SSL remote access VPN cannot be configured on the same
port as it fails to start the service on those ports. These ports must not be used on the Firepower Threat
Defense device before configuring Remote Access VPN.
• While configuring remote access VPNs using the wizard, you can create in-line certificate enrollment
objects, but you cannot use them to install the identity certificate. Certificate enrollment objects are used
for generating the identity certificate on the Firepower Threat Defense device being configured as the
remote access VPN gateway. Install the identity certificate on the device before deploying the remote
access VPN policy to the device. For more information about how to install the identity certificate based
on the certificate enrollment object, see The Object Manager, on page 368.
• While you are configuring remote access VPNs using the wizard, you cannot create in-line AAA servers
used to authenticate VPN sessions. Hence, they must be pre-configured before using the remote access
VPN configuration wizard. For more information about creating LDAP or AD AAA servers, see Create
a Realm, on page 1989. For creating RADIUS AAA server group, see RADIUS Server Groups, on page
462.
• After you change the remote access VPN policy configurations, re-deploy the changes to the Firepower
Threat Defense devices. The time it takes to deploy configuration changes depends on multiple factors
such as complexity of the policies and rules, type and volume of configurations you send to the device,
and memory and device model. Before deploying remote access VPN policy changes, review the
Guidelines for Deploying Configuration Changes, on page 308.
Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting

• Firepower Threat Defense device supports authentication of remote access VPN users using
system-integrated authentication servers only; a local user database is not supported.
• The LDAP or AD authorization and accounting are not supported for remote access VPN. Only RADIUS
server groups can be configured as authorization or accounting servers in the remote access VPN policy.
• Configure DNS on each device in the topology in to use remote access VPN. Without DNS, the device
cannot resolve AAA server names, named URLs, and CA Servers with FQDN or Hostnames; it can only
resolve IP addresses.
You can configure DNS by creating a FlexConfig policy using a FlexConfig object with the DNS
configuration CLI commands. For more information, see Configure the FlexConfig Policy, on page 585
and Configure FlexConfig Objects, on page 579.
Client Certificates
• If you are using client certificates in your deployment, they must be added to your client's platform
independent of the Firepower Threat Defense or Firepower Management Center. Facilities such as SCEP
or CA Services are not provided to populate your clients with certificates.
Unsupported Features of AnyConnect

The only supported VPN client is the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client. No other clients or native
VPNs are supported. Clientless VPN is not supported for VPN connectivity; it is only used to deploy the
AnyConnect client using a web browser.

843
Configuring a New Remote Access VPN Connection
The following AnyConnect features are not supported when connecting to an FTD secure gateway:
• Secure Mobility, Network Access Management, and all other AnyConnect modules and their profiles
beyond the core VPN capabilities and the VPN client profile.
• Posture variants such as Hostscan, Endpoint Posture Assessment, and ISE, and any Dynamic Access
Policies based on the client posture.
• AnyConnect Customization and Localization support. The FTD device does not configure or deploy the
files necessary to configure AnyConnect for these capabilities.
• Custom Attributes for the AnyConnect Client are not supported on the FTD. Hence all features that make
use of Custom Attributes are not supported, such as Deferred Upgrade on desktop clients and Per-App
VPN on mobile clients.
• Local authentication; VPN users cannot be configured on the FTD secure gateway.
Local CA, the secure gateway cannot act as a Certificate Authority.
• Secondary or Double Authentication using two sets of username and password from two AAA servers
for primary and secondary authentications.
• Single Sign-on using SAML 2.0.
• TACACS, Kerberos (KCD Authentication and RSA SDI).
• LDAP Authorization (LDAP Attribute Map).
• Browser Proxy.
• RADIUS CoA.
• VPN load balancing.
Configuring a New Remote Access VPN Connection

This section provides instructions to configure a new remote access VPN policy with Firepower Threat Defense
devices as VPN gateways and Cisco AnyConnect as the VPN client.
Do This More Info
Step Review the guidelines and prerequisites. Guidelines and Limitations for Remote Access VPNs,
1 on page 842
Prerequisites for Configuring Remote Access VPN, on
page 845
Step Create a new remote access VPN policy Create a New Remote Access VPN Policy, on page 845
2 using the wizard.
Step Update the access control policy deployed Update the Access Control Policy on the Firepower
3 on the device. Threat Defense Device, on page 847
Step (Optional) Configure a NAT exemption (Optional) Configure NAT Exemption, on page 848
4 rule if NAT is configured on the device.

844
Prerequisites for Configuring Remote Access VPN
Do This More Info
Step Configure DNS. Configure DNS, on page 849

5
Step Add an AnyConnect Client Profile. Add an AnyConnect Client Profile XML File, on page
6 849
Step Deploy the remote access VPN policy. Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310
7
Step (Optional) Verify the remote access VPN Verify the Configuration, on page 851
8 policy configuration.
Prerequisites for Configuring Remote Access VPN

• Deploy Firepower Threat Defense devices and configure Firepower Management Center to manage the
device with required licenses with export-controlled features enabled. For more information, see VPN
Licensing, on page 816.
• Configure the certificate enrollment object that is used to obtain the identity certificate for each Firepower
Threat Defense device that act as a remote access VPN gateway.
• Configure the RADIUS server group object and any AD or LDAP realms being used by remote access
VPN policies.
• Ensure that the AAA Server is reachable from the Firepower Threat Defense device for the remote access
VPN configuration to work. Configure routing (at Devices > Device Management > Edit Device >
Routing) to ensure connectivity to the AAA servers.
• Purchase and enable one of the following Cisco AnyConnect licenses: AnyConnect Plus, AnyConnect
Apex, or AnyConnect VPN Only to enable the Firepower Threat Defense Remote Access VPN.
• Download the latest AnyConnect image files from Cisco Software Download Center.
On your Firepower Management Center web interface, go to Objects > Object Management > VPN >
AnyConnect File and add the new AnyConnect client image files.
• Create security zone or interface group that contains the network interfaces that users will access for
VPN connections. See Interface Objects: Interface Groups and Security Zones, on page 382
• Download the AnyConnect Profile Editor from Cisco Software Download Center to create an AnyConnect
client profile. You can use the standalone profile editor to create a new or modify an existing AnyConnect
profile.
Create a New Remote Access VPN Policy

You can add a new remote access VPN Policy only by using the Remote Access VPN Policy wizard. The
wizard guides you to quickly and easily set up remote access VPNs with basic capabilities. Further, you can
enhance the policy configuration by specifying additional attributes as desired and deploy it to your Firepower
Threat Defense secure gateway devices.

845
Create a New Remote Access VPN Policy

AnyConnect
licenses associated
with your Smart
License account
with
Export-Controlled
Features enabled:
• AnyConnect
VPN Only
• AnyConnect
Plus
• AnyConnect
Apex
Before you begin

• Ensure that you complete all the prerequisites listed in Prerequisites for Configuring Remote Access
VPN, on page 845.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > VPN > Remote Access.

Step 2 Click ( ) Add to create a new Remote Access VPN Policy using a wizard that walks you through a basic
policy configuration.
You must proceed through the entire wizard to create a new policy; the policy is not saved if you cancel before
completing the wizard.
Step 3 Select the Target Devices and Protocols.

The Firepower Threat Defense devices selected here will function as your remote access VPN gateways for
the VPN client users. You can select the devices from the list or add a new device.
You can select SSL or IPSec-IKEv2, or both the VPN protocols. Firepower Threat Defense supports both the
protocols to establish secure connections over a public network through VPN tunnels.
Step 4 Configure the Connection Profile and Group Policy settings.

A connection profile specifies a set of parameters that define how the remote users connect to the VPN device.
The parameters include settings and attributes for authentication, address assignments to VPN clients, and
group policies. Firepower Threat Defense device provides a default connection profile named
DefaultWEBVPNGroup when you configure a remote access VPN policy.
access VPN experience for VPN users. You configure attributes such as user authorization profile, IP addresses,

846
Update the Access Control Policy on the Firepower Threat Defense Device
AnyConnect settings, VLAN mapping, and user session settings and so on using the group policy. The RADIUS
Step 5 Select the AnyConnect Client Image that the VPN users will use to connect to the remote access VPN.
The Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility client provides secure SSL or IPSec (IKEv2) connections to the
Firepower Threat Defense device for remote users with full VPN profiling to corporate resources. After the
remote access VPN policy is deployed on the Firepower Threat Defense device, VPN users can enter the IP
address of the configured device interface in their browser to download and install the AnyConnect client.
Step 6 Select the Network Interface and Identity Certificate.

Interface objects segment your network to help you manage and classify traffic flow. A security zone object
simply groups interfaces. These groups may span multiple devices; you can also configure multiple zones
interface objects on a single device. There are two types of interface objects:
• Security zones—An interface can belong to only one security zone.
• Interface groups—An interface can belong to multiple interface groups (and to one security zone).
Step 7 View the Summary of the Remote Access VPN policy configuration.
The Summary page displays all the remote access VPN settings you have configured so far and provides links
to the additional configurations that need to be performed before deploying the remote access VPN policy on
the selected devices.
Click Back to make changes to the configuration, if required.
Step 8 Click Finish to complete the basic configuration for the remote access VPN policy.
When you have completed the remote access VPN policy using the wizard, it returns to the policy listing
page. Set up DNS configuration, configure access control for VPN users, and enable NAT exemption (if
necessary) to complete a basic RA VPN Policy configuration. Then, deploy the configuration and establish
VPN connections.
Update the Access Control Policy on the Firepower Threat Defense Device
Before deploying the remote access VPN policy, you must update the access control policy on the targeted
Firepower Threat Defense device with a rule that allows VPN traffic. The rule must allow all traffic coming
in from the outside interface, with source as the defined VPN pool networks and destination as the corporate
network.
Note If you have selected the Bypass Access Control policy for decrypted traffic (sysopt permit-vpn) option
on the Access Interface tab, you need not update the access control policy for remote access VPN. For more
information, see Configure Access Interfaces for Remote Access VPN, on page 859.
Before you begin

Complete the remote access VPN policy configuration using the Remote Access VPN Policy wizard.

847
(Optional) Configure NAT Exemption
Procedure
Step 1 On your Firepower Management Center web interface, choose Policies > Access Control.
Step 2 Select the access control policy assigned to the target devices where the remote access VPN policy will be
deployed and click Edit.
Step 3 Click Add Rule to add a new rule.
Step 4 Specify the Name for the rule and select Enabled.
Step 5 Select the Action, Allow or Trust.
Step 6 Select the following on the Zones tab:
a) Select the outside zone from Available Zones and click Add to Source.
b) Select the inside zone from Available Zones and click Add to Destination.
Step 7 Select the following on the Networks tab:
a) Select the inside network (inside interface and/or a corporate network) from Available networks and click
Add to Destination.
b) Select the VPN address pool network from Available Networks and click Add to Source Networks.
Step 8 Configure other required access control rule settings and click Add.
Step 9 Save the rule and access control policy.
(Optional) Configure NAT Exemption

NAT exemption exempts addresses from translation and allows both translated and remote hosts to initiate
connections with your protected hosts. Like identity NAT, you do not limit translation for a host on specific
interfaces; you must use NAT exemption for connections through all interfaces. However, NAT exemption
enables you to specify the real and destination addresses when determining the real addresses to translate
(similar to policy NAT). Use static identity NAT to consider ports in the access list.
Before you begin

Check if NAT is configured on the targeted devices where remote access VPN policy is deployed. If NAT is
enabled on the targeted devices, you must define a NAT policy to exempt VPN traffic.
Procedure
Step 1 On your Firepower Management Center web interface, click Devices > NAT.
Step 2 Select a NAT policy to update or click New Policy > Threat Defense NAT to create a NAT policy with a
NAT rule to allow connections through all interfaces.
Step 3 Click Add Rule to add a NAT rule.
Step 4 On the Add NAT Rule window, select the following:
a) Select the NAT Rule as Manual NAT Rule.
b) Select the Type as Static.
c) On the Interface Objects tab, select the Source and destination interface objects.

848
Configure DNS
Note This interface object must be the same as the interface selected in the remote access VPN policy.
For more information, see Configure Access Interfaces for Remote Access VPN, on page 859.
a) On the Translation tab, select the source and destination networks:
• Original Source and Translated Source
• Original Destination and Translated Destination
Step 5 On the Advanced tab, select Do not proxy ARP on Destination Interface.
Do not proxy ARP on Destination Interface—Disables proxy ARP for incoming packets to the mapped IP
addresses. If you use addresses on the same network as the mapped interface, the system uses proxy ARP to
answer any ARP requests for the mapped addresses, thus intercepting traffic destined for a mapped address.
This solution simplifies routing because the device does not have to be the gateway for any additional networks.
You can disable proxy ARP if desired, in which case you need to be sure to have proper routes on the upstream
router.
Step 6 Click OK.
Configure DNS
Configure DNS on each Firepower Threat Defense device in order to use remote access VPN. Without DNS,
the devices cannot resolve AAA server names, named URLs, and CA Servers with FQDN or Hostnames. It
can only resolve IP addresses.
Procedure
Step 1 Configure DNS server details and domain-lookup interfaces using the Platform Settings.
Step 2 Configure split-tunnel in group policy to allow DNS traffic through remote access VPN tunnel if the DNS
server is reachable through VNP network. For more information, see Configure Group Policy Objects, on
page 453.
Add an AnyConnect Client Profile XML File

An AnyConnect client profile is a group of configuration parameters stored in an XML file that the client uses
to configure its operation and appearance. These parameters (XML tags) include the names and addresses of
host computers and settings to enable more client features.
You can create an AnyConnect client profile using the AnyConnect Profile Editor. This editor is a GUI-based
configuration tool that is available as part of the AnyConnect software package. It is an independent program
that you run outside of the Firepower Management Center. For more information about AnyConnect Profile
Editor, see Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Administrator Guide.

849
(Optional) Configure Split Tunneling
Before you begin

A Firepower Threat Defense remote access VPN policy requires an AnyConnect client profile to be assigned
to the VPN clients. The client profile is attached to a group policy.
Download the AnyConnect Profile Editor from Cisco Software Download Center.
Procedure

Step 2 Select an existing remote access VPN policy in the list and click the corresponding Edit icon.
The connection profiles configured for the remote access VPN policy are listed.
Step 3 Select a connection profile on which you want to update the AnyConnect client profile and click the Edit
icon.
Step 4 Click the Add icon to add a group policy or click Edit Group Policy > General > AnyConnect.
Step 5 Select a Client Profile from the list or click the Add icon to add a new one:
a) Specify the AnyConnect profile Name.
b) Click Browse and select an AnyConnect profile XML file.
c) Click Save.
(Optional) Configure Split Tunneling

Split tunnel allows VPN connectivity to a remote network across a secure tunnel, and it also allows connectivity
to a network outside VPN tunnel. You can configure split tunnel if you want to allow your VPN users to
access an outside network while they are connected to a remote access VPN. To configure a split-tunnel list,
you must create a Standard Access List or Extended Access List.
For more information, see Configuring Group Policies, on page 865.
Procedure

Step 2 Select an existing Remote Access policy in the list and click the corresponding Edit icon.
Step 3 Select a connection profile and click the Edit icon.
Step 4 Click the Add icon to add a group policy, or click Edit Group Policy > General > Split Tunneling.
Step 5 From the IPv4 Split Tunneling or IPv6 Split Tunneling list, select Exclude networks specified below;
and then select the networks to be excluded from VPN traffic.
If the split tunneling option is left as is, all traffic from the endpoint goes over the VPN connection.
Step 6 Click Standard Access List or Extended Access List, and select an access list from the drop-down or add
a new one.
Step 7 If you chose to add a new standard or extended access list, do the following:
a) Specify the Name for the new access list and click Add.
b) Select Allow from the Action drop-down.
c) Select the network traffic to be allowed over the VPN tunnel and click Add.

850
Verify the Configuration
Step 8 Click Save.
Related Topics
Access List, on page 441
Verify the Configuration

Procedure
Step 1 Open a web browser on a machine on the outside network.

Step 2 Enter the URL of an FTD device configured as a remote access VPN gateway.
Step 3 Enter the username and password when prompted, and click Logon.
Note If AnyConnect is installed on the system, you will be connected to the VPN automatically.
If AnyConnect is not installed, you will be prompted to download the AnyConnect client.
Step 4 Download AnyConnect if it is not installed already and connect to the VPN.
The AnyConnect client installs itself. On successful authentication, you will be connected to the Firepower
Threat Defense remote access VPN gateway. The applicable identity or QoS policy is enforced according to
your remote access VPN policy configuration.
Optional Remote Access VPN Configurations

Configure Connection Profile Settings
Remote Access VPN policy contains the connection profiles targeted for specific devices. These policies
pertain to creating the tunnel itself, such as, how AAA is accomplished, and how addresses are assigned
(DHCP or Address Pools) to VPN clients. They also include user attributes, which are identified in group
policies configured on the Firepower Threat Defense device or obtained from a AAA server. A device also
provides a default connection profile named DefaultWEBVPNGroup. The connection profile that is configured
using the wizard appears in the list.
Procedure

Step 3 Select a Connection Profile and click the corresponding Edit icon.
The edit connection profile page is displayed.
Step 4 (Optional) Add multiple connection profiles.
Configure Multiple Connection Profiles, on page 852
Step 5 Configure IP Addresses for VPN Clients.
Configure IP Addresses for VPN Clients, on page 852

851
Configure Multiple Connection Profiles
Step 6 (Optional) Update AAA Settings for remote access VPNs.

Remote Access VPN Authentication, on page 839
Step 7 (Optional) Create or update Aliases.
Create or Update Aliases for a Connection Profile, on page 858
Step 8 Save the connection profile.
Configure Multiple Connection Profiles

If you decide to grant different rights to different groups of VPN users, then you can configure specific
connection profiles or group policies for each of the user groups. For example, you might allow a finance
group to access one part of a private network, a customer support group to access another part, and an MIS
group to access other parts. In addition, you might allow specific users within MIS to access systems that
other MIS users cannot access. Connection profiles and group policies provide the flexibility to do so securely.
You can configure only one connection profile when you create a VPN policy using the Remote Access Policy
wizard. You can add more connection profiles later. A device also provides a default connection profile named
DfaultWEBVPNGroup.
Before you begin

Ensure that you have configured remote access VPN using the Remote Access Policy wizard with a connection
profile.
Procedure
Step 1 On your Firepower Management Center web interface, choose Devices > VPN > Remote Access.
Existing remote access policies are listed.
Step 3 Click the Add icon and specify the following in the Add Connection Profile window:
a) Connection Profile—Provide a name that the remote users will use for VPN connections. The connection
profile contains a set of parameters that define how the remote users connect to the VPN device.
b) Client Address Assignment— Assign IP Address for the remote clients from the local IP Address pools,
DHCP servers, and AAA servers.
c) AAA— Configure the AAA servers to enable managed devices acting as secure VPN gateways to determine
who a user is (authentication), what the user is permitted to do (authorization), and what the user did
(accounting).
d) Aliases—Provide an alternate name or URL for the connection profile. Remote Access VPN administrators
can enable or disable the Alias names and Alias URLs. VPN users can choose an Alias name when they
connect to the Firepower Threat Defense device remote access VPN using the AnyConnect VPN client.
Step 4 Click Save.
Related Topics
Configure Connection Profile Settings, on page 851
Configure IP Addresses for VPN Clients

Client address assignment provides a means of assigning IP addresses for the remote access VPN users.

852
Configure IP Addresses for VPN Clients
You can configure to assign IP Address for remote VPN clients from the local IP Address pools, DHCP
Servers, and AAA servers. The AAA servers are assigned first, followed by others. Configure the Client
Address Assignment policy in the Advanced tab to define the assignment criteria. The IP pool(s) defined
in this connection profile will only be used if no IP pools are defined in group policy associated with the
connection profile, or the system default group policy DfltGrpPolicy.
IPv4 Address Pools—SSL VPN clients receive new IP addresses when they connect to the Firepower Threat
Defense device. Address Pools define a range of addresses that remote clients can receive. Select an existing
IP address pool. You can add a maximum of six pools for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses each.
Note You can use the IP address from the existing IP pools in Firepower Management Center or create a new pool
using the Add option. Also, you can create an IP pool in Firepower Management Center using the Objects
> Object Management > Address Pools path. For more information, see Address Pools, on page 460.
Procedure
Existing remote access policies are listed.
Step 3 Select the connection profile that you want to update and click the corresponding Edit icon, and then select
the Client Address Assignment tab.
Step 4 Select the following for Address Pools:
a) Click the Add icon to add IP addresses, and select IPv4 or IPv6 to add the corresponding address pool.
Select the IP address pool from Available Pools and click Add.
Note If you share your remote access VPN policy among multiple Firepower Threat Defense devices,
bear in mind that all devices share the same address pool unless you use device-level object
overrides to replace the global definition with a unique address pool for each device. Unique
address pools are required to avoid overlapping addresses in cases where the devices are not
using NAT.
b) Select the Add icon in the Address Pools window to add a new IPv4 or IPv6 address pool. When you
choose the IPv4 pool, provide a starting and ending IP address. When you choose to include a new IPv6
address pool, enter Number of Addresses in the range 1-16384. Select the Allow Overrides option
to avoid conflicts with IP address when objects are shared across many devices. For more information,
see Address Pools, on page 460.
c) Click OK.
Step 5 Select the following for DHCP Servers:
Note The DHCP server address can be configured only with IPv4 address.
a) Specify the name and DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server address as network objects.
Select the Add icon and choose the server from the object list. To delete a DHCP server, select the Delete
icon in that row.
b) Select the Add icon in the New Network Objects window to add a new network object. Enter the new
object name, description, network, and select the Allow Overrides option as applicable. For more
information, see Creating Network Objects, on page 376 and Allowing Object Overrides, on page 373.
c) Click OK.

853
Configure AAA Settings for Remote Access VPN
Step 6 Click Save.
Related Topics


AnyConnect
licenses associated
with your Smart
License account
with
Export-Controlled
Features enabled:
• AnyConnect
VPN Only
• AnyConnect
Plus
• AnyConnect
Apex
Procedure

Step 3 Select a connection profile to update AAA settings, click the corresponding Edit icon and then click the AAA
tab.
Step 4 Select the following for Authentication:
• Authentication Method— Determines how a user is identified before being allowed access to the
network and network services. It controls access by requiring valid user credentials, which are typically
a username and password. It may also include the certificate from the client. Supported authentication
methods are AAA only, Client Certificate only, and AAA + Client Certificate.
When you select the Authentication Method as:
• AAA Only—If you select the Authentication Server as RADIUS, by default, the Authorization
Server has the same value. Select the Accounting Server from the drop-down list. Whenever you
select AD and LDAP from the Authentication Server drop-down list, you must manually select the
Authorization Server and Accounting Server respectively.
• Client Certificate Only— Each user is authenticated with a client certificate. The client certificate
must be configured on VPN client endpoints. By default, the user name is derived from the client
certificate fields CN and OU. If the user name is specified in other fields in the client certificate,
use 'Primary' and 'Secondary' field to map appropriate fields.

854
If you select the Map specific field option, which includes the username from the client certificate,
the Primary and Secondary fields display default values: CN (Common Name) and OU
(Organisational Unit) respectively. If you select the Use entire DN as username option, the system
automatically retrieves the user identity. A distinguished name (DN) is a unique identification, made
up of individual fields that can be used as the identifier when matching users to a connection profile.
DN rules are used for enhanced certificate authentication.
The primary and Secondary fields pertaining to the Map specific field option contain these common
values:
• C (Country)
• CN (Common Name)
• DNQ (DN Qualifier)
• EA (Email Address)
• GENQ (Generational Qualifier)
• GN (Given Name)
• I (Initial)
• L (Locality)
• N (Name)
• O (Organisation)
• OU (Organisational Unit)
• SER (Serial Number)
• SN (Surname)
• SP (State Province)
• T (Title)
• UID (User ID)
• UPN (User Principal Name)
• Client Certificate & AAA— Each user is authenticated with both a client certificate and AAA
server.
Whichever authentication method you choose, select or deselect Allow connection only if user
exists in authorization database.
• Authentication Server—Authentication is the way a user is identified before being allowed access to
the network and network services. Authentication requires valid user credentials, a certificate, or both.
You can use authentication alone, or with authorization and accounting.
Specify an LDAP or AD realm, or a RADIUS server group that has been previously configured to
authenticate Remote Access VPN users.
Step 5 Select the following for Authorization:

855
• Authorization Server—After authentication is complete, authorization controls the services and

commands available to each authenticated user. Authorization works by assembling a set of attributes
that describe what the user is authorized to perform, their actual capabilities, and restrictions. Were you
not to use authorization, authentication alone would provide the same access to all authenticated users.
Authorization requires authentication. Only RADIUS servers are supported for Authorization services.
To know more about how remote access VPN authorization works, see Understanding Policy Enforcement
of Permissions and Attributes, on page 840.
Enter or select a RADIUS server group object that has been pre-configured to authorize Remote Access
VPN users.
When a RADIUS Server is configured for user authorization in the connection profile, the Remote Access
VPN system administrator can configure multiple authorization attributes for users or user-groups. The
authorization attributes that are configured on the RADIUS server can be specific for a user or a user-group.
Once users are authenticated, these specific authorization attributes are pushed to the Firepower Threat
Defense device.
Note The AAA server attributes obtained from the authorization server override the attribute values
that may have been previously configured on the group policy or the connection profile.
• Check Allow connection only if user exists in authorization database if desired.
When enabled, the system checks the username of the client must exist in the authorization database to
allow a successful connection. If the username does not exist in the authorization database, then the
connection is denied.
Step 6 Select the following for Accounting:

• Accounting Server—Accounting is used to track the services that users are accessing and the amount
of network resources they are consuming. When AAA accounting is activated, the network access server
reports user activity to the RADIUS server. Accounting information includes when sessions start and
stop, usernames, the number of bytes that pass through the device for each session, the services used,
and the duration of each session. This data can then be analyzed for network management, client billing,
or auditing. You can use accounting alone or together with authentication and authorization.
Specify the RADIUS Server Group object that will be used to account for the Remote Access VPN
session.
Step 7 Select the following Advanced Settings:

• Strip Realm from username—Select to remove the realm from the username before passing the username
on to the AAA server. For example, if you select this option and provide domain\username, the domain
is stripped off from the username and sent to AAA server for authentication. By default this option is
unchecked.
• Strip Group from username—Select to remove the group name from the username before passing the
username on to the AAA server. By default this option is unchecked.
Note A realm is an administrative domain. Enabling these options allows the authentication to be
based on the username alone. You can enable any combination of these options. However, you
must select both check boxes if your server cannot parse delimiters.
• Password Management—Enable managing the password for the Remote Access VPN users. Select to
notify ahead of the password expiry or on the day the password expires.

856
RADIUS Server Attributes for Firepower Threat Defense
Step 8 Click Save.
RADIUS Server Attributes for Firepower Threat Defense

The Firepower Threat Defense device supports applying user authorization attributes (also called user
entitlements or permissions) to VPN connections from the external RADIUS server that are configured for
authentication and/or authorization in the remote access VPN policy.
Note Firepower Threat Defense devices support attributes with vendor ID 3076.
The following user authorization attributes are sent to the Firepower Threat Defense device from the RADIUS
server.
• RADIUS attributes 146 and 150 are sent from Firepower Threat Defense devices to the RADIUS server
for authentication and authorization requests.
• All three (146, 150, and 151) attributes are sent from Firepower Threat Defense devices to the RADIUS
server for accounting start, interim-update, and stop requests.
Table 62: RADIUS Attributes Sent from Firepower Threat Defense to RADIUS Server
Attribute Single or
Attribute Number Syntax, Type Multi-valued Description or Value
Connection Profile Name 146 String Single 1-253 characters

or Tunnel Group Name
Client Type 150 Integer Single 2 = AnyConnect Client SSL VPN, 6 = AnyConnect
Client IPsec VPN (IKEv2)
Session Type 151 Integer Single 1 = AnyConnect Client SSL VPN, 2 = AnyConnect
Client IPsec VPN (IKEv2)
Table 63: RADIUS Attributes Sent to Firepower Threat Defense
Attribute Single or
Access-List-Inbound 86 String Single Both of the Access-List attributes take the name of an
ACL that is configured on the FTD device. Create these
Access-List-Outbound 87 String Single ACLs using the Smart CLI Extended Access List object
type (select Device > Advanced Configuration >
Smart CLI > Objects).
These ACLs control traffic flow in the inbound (traffic
entering the FTD device) or outbound (traffic leaving
the FTD device) direction.

857
Create or Update Aliases for a Connection Profile
Attribute Single or
Address-Pools 217 String Single The name of a network object defined on the FTD device
that identifies a subnet, which will be used as the address
pool for clients connecting to the RA VPN. Define the
network object on the Objects page.
Banner1 15 String Single The banner to display when the user logs in.
Banner2 36 String Single The second part of the banner to display when the user
logs in. Banner2 is appended to Banner1.
Downloadable ACLs Cisco-AV-Pair merge-dacl Supported via Cisco-AV-Pair configuration.

{before-avpair
|
after-avpair}
Filter ACLs 86, 87 String Single Filter ACLs are referred to by ACL name in the
RADIUS server. It requires the ACL configuration to
be already present on the Firepower Threat Defense
device, so that it can be used during RADIUS
authorization.
86=Access-List-Inbound
87=Access-List-Outbound
Group-Policy 25 String Single The group policy to use in the connection. You must
create the group policy on the RA VPN Group Policy
page. You can use one of the following formats:
• group policy name
• OU=group policy name
• OU=group policy name;
Simultaneous-Logins 2 Integer Single The number of separate simultaneous connections the

user is allowed to establish, 0 - 2147483647.
VLAN 140 Integer Single The VLAN on which to confine the user's connection,
0 - 4094. You must also configure this VLAN on a
subinterface on the FTD device.
Create or Update Aliases for a Connection Profile

Aliases contain alternate names or URLs for a specific connection profile. Remote Access VPN administrators
can enable or disable the Alias names and Alias URLs. VPN users can choose an Alias name when they
connect to the Firepower Threat Defense device. Aliases names for all connections configured on this device
can be turned on or off for display. You can also configure the list of Alias URLs, which your endpoints can
select while initiating the Remote Access VPN connection. If users connect using the Alias URL, system will
automatically log them using the connection profile that matches the Alias URL.

858
Configure Access Interfaces for Remote Access VPN
Procedure

Step 2 From the list of available VPN policies, select the policy for which you want to modify the settings.
Step 3 Select a Connection Profile and click the corresponding Edit icon.
Step 4 Click the Aliases tab.
Step 5 To add an Alias name, do the following:
a) Click Add under Alias Names.
b) Specify the Alias Name.
c) Select the Enabled check box in each window to enable the aliases.
d) Click OK.
Step 6 To add an Alias URL, do the following:
a) Click Add under Alias URLs.
b) Select the Alias URL from the list or create a new URL object. For more information see Creating URL
Objects, on page 381.
c) Select the Enabled check box in each window to enable the aliases.
d) Click OK.
• Click the Edit icon to edit the Alias name or the Alias URL.
• To delete an Alias name or the Alias URL, click the Delete icon in that row.
Step 7 Click Save.
Related Topics

The Access Interface table lists the interface groups and security zones that contain the device interfaces.
These are configured for remote access SSL or IPsec IKEv2 VPN connections. The table displays the name
of each interface group or security-zone, the interface trustpoints used by the interface, and whether Datagram
Transport Layer Security (DTLS) is enabled.

859

AnyConnect
licenses associated
with your Smart
License account
with
Export-Controlled
Features enabled:
• AnyConnect
VPN Only
• AnyConnect
Plus
• AnyConnect
Apex
Procedure

Step 3 Click the Access Interface tab.
Step 4 To add an access interface, select the Add icon and specify values for the following in the Add Access
Interface window:
a) Access Interface—Select the interface group or security zone to which the interface belongs.
The interface group or security zone must be a Routed type. Other interface types are not supported for
Remote Access VPN connectivity.
b) Associate the Protocol object with the access interface by selecting the following options:
• Enable IPSet-IKEv2—Select this option to enable IKEv2 settings.
• Enable SSL—Select this option to enable SSL settings.
• Select Enable Datagram Transport Layer Security.
When selected, it enables Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) on the interface and
allows an AnyConnect VPN client to establish an SSL VPN connection using two simultaneous
tunnels—an SSL tunnel and a DTLS tunnel.
Enabling DTLS avoids the latency and bandwidth problems associated with certain SSL
connections and improves the performance of real-time applications that are sensitive to packet
delays.
• Select the Configure Interface Specific Identity Certificate check box and select Interface
Identity Certificate from the drop-down list.
If you do not select the Interface Identity Certificate, the Trustpoint will be used by default.

860
Configuring Remote Access VPN Advanced Options
If you do not select the Interface Identity Certificate or Trustpoint, the SSL Global Identity
Certificate will be used by default.
c) Click OK to save the changes.

Step 5 Select the following under Access Settings:
• Allow Users to select connection profile while logging in—If you have multiple connection profiles,
selecting this option allows the user to select the correct connection profile during login. You must select
this option for IPsec-IKEv2 VPNs.
Step 6 Use the following options to configure SSL Settings:

• Web Access Port Number—The port to use for VPN sessions. The default port is 443.
• DTLS Port Number—The UDP port to use for DTLS connections. The default port is 443.
• SSL Global Identity Certificate— The selected SSL Global Identity Certificate will be used for all
the associated interfaces if the Interface Specific Identity Certificate is not provided.
Step 7 For IPsec-IKEv2 Settings, select the IKEv2 Identity Certificate from the list or add an identity certificate.
Step 8 Under the Access Control for VPN Traffic section, select the following option if you want to bypass access
control policy:
• Bypass Access Control policy for decrypted traffic (sysopt permit-vpn) — Decrypted traffic is
subjected to Access Control Policy inspection by default. Enabling the Bypass Access Control policy
for decrypted traffic option bypasses the ACL inspection, but VPN Filter ACL and authorization ACL
downloaded from AAA server are still applied to VPN traffic.
Step 9 Click Save to save the access interface changes.
Related Topics
Interface Objects: Interface Groups and Security Zones, on page 382
Configuring Remote Access VPN Advanced Options

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Image
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Image

The Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility client provides secure SSL or IPsec (IKEv2) connections to the
Firepower Threat Defense device for remote users with full VPN profiling to corporate resources. Without a
previously-installed client, remote users can enter the IP address of an interface configured to accept clientless
VPN connections in their browser to download and install the AnyConnect client. The Firepower Threat
Defense device downloads the client that matches the operating system of the remote computer. After
downloading, the client installs and establishes a secure connection. In case of a previously installed client,
when the user authenticates, the Firepower Threat Defense device, examines the version of the client, and
upgrades the client if necessary.

861
Adding a Cisco AnyConnect Mobility Client Image to the Firepower Management Center
The Remote Access VPN administrator associates any new or additional AnyConnect client images to the
VPN policy. The administrator can unassociate the unsupported or end of life client packages that are no
longer required.
The Firepower Management Center determines the type of operating system by using the file package name.
If the user renamed the file without indicating the operating system information, the valid operating system
type must be selected from the list box.
Download the AnyConnect client image file by visiting Cisco Software Download Center.
Related Topics
Adding a Cisco AnyConnect Mobility Client Image to the Firepower Management Center, on page 862
Adding a Cisco AnyConnect Mobility Client Image to the Firepower Management Center
You can upload the Cisco AnyConnect Mobility client image to the Firepower Management Center by using
the AnyConnect File object. For more information, see FTD File Objects, on page 458. For more information
about the client image, see Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Image, on page 861.
Click the Show re-order buttons link to view a specific client image.
Note To delete an already installed Cisco AnyConnect client image, click the Delete icon in that row.

AnyConnect
licenses associated
with your Smart
License account
with
Export-Controlled
Features enabled:
• AnyConnect
VPN Only
• AnyConnect
Plus
• AnyConnect
Apex
Procedure
Step 1 On the Firepower Management Center web interface, choose Devices > VPN > Remote Access, choose and
edit a listed RA VPN policy, then choose the Advanced tab.
Step 2 Click the Add icon in the Available AnyConnect Images portion of the AnyConnect Images dialog.
Step 3 Enter the Name, File Name, and Description for the available AnyConnect Image.
Step 4 Click Browse to navigate to the location for selecting the client image to be uploaded.

862
Update AnyConnect Images for Remote Access VPN Clients
Step 5 Click Save to upload the image in the Firepower Management Center.
Once you upload the client image to the Firepower Management Center, the operating system displays platform
information for the image that you uploaded to the Firepower Management Center.
Related Topics
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Image, on page 861
Update AnyConnect Images for Remote Access VPN Clients

When new AnyConnect client updates are available in Cisco Software Download Center, you can download
the packages manually and add them to the remote access VPN policy so that the new AnyConnect packages
are upgraded on the VPN client systems according to their operating systems.
Before you begin

Instructions in this section help you update new AnyConnect client images to remote access VPN clients
connecting to Firepower Threat Defense VPN gateway. Ensure that the following configurations are complete
before updating your AnyConnect images:
• Download the latest AnyConnect image files from Cisco Software Download Center.
• On your Firepower Management Center web interface, go to Objects > Object Management > VPN >
AnyConnect File and add the new AnyConnect client image files.
Procedure
Step 2 Select an existing remote access policy in the list and click the corresponding Edit icon.
Step 3 Click Advanced > AnyConnect Client Image> Add.
Step 4 Select a client image file from Available AnyConnect Images and click Add.
If the required AnyConnect client image is not listed, click the Add icon to browse and upload an image.
Step 5 Save the remote access VPN policy.

After the remote access VPN policy changes are deployed, the new AnyConnect client images are updated
on the Firepower Threat Defense device that is configured as the remote access VPN gateway. When a new
VPN user connects to the VPN gateway, the user will get the new AnyConnect client image to download
depending on the operating system of the client system. For existing VPN users, the AnyConnect client image
will be updated in their next VPN session.
Related Topics
Remote Access VPN Connection Profile Options
Remote Access VPN Address Assignment Policy

The Firepower Threat Defense device can use an IPv4 or IPv6 policy for assigning IP addresses to Remote
Access VPN clients. If you configure more than one address assignment method, the Firepower Threat Defense
device tries each of the options until it finds an IP address.
IPv4 or IPv6 Policy

863
Configure Certificate Maps
You can use the IPv4 or IPv6 policy to address an IP address to Remote Access VPN clients. Firstly, you
must try with the IPv4 policy and later followed by IPv6 policy.
• Use Authorization Server—Retrieves address from an external authorization server on a per-user basis.
If you are using an authorization server that has IP address configured, we recommend using this method.
Address assignment is supported by RADIUS-based authorization server only. It is not supported for
AD/LDAP. This method is available for both IPv4 and IPv6 assignment policies.
• Use DHCP—Obtains IP addresses from a DHCP server configured in a connection profile. You can also
define the range of IP addresses that the DHCP server can use by configuring DHCP network scope in
the group policy. If you use DHCP, configure the server in the Objects > Object Management > Network
pane. This method is available for IPv4 assignment policies.
• Use an internal address pool—Internally configured address pools are the easiest method of address
pool assignment to configure. If you use this method, create the IP address pools in the Objects > Object
Management >Address Pools pane and select the same in the connection profile. This method is available
for both IPv4 and IPv6 assignment policies.
• Reuse an IP address so many minutes after it is released—Delays the reuse of an IP address after its
return to the address pool. Adding a delay helps to prevent problems firewalls can experience when an
IP address is reassigned quickly. By default, the delay is set to zero, meaning the Firepower Threat
Defense device does not impose a delay in reusing the IP address. If you want to extend the delay, enter
the number of minutes in the range 0 - 480 to delay the IP address reassignment. This configurable
element is available for IPv4 assignment policies.
Related Topics
Remote Access VPN Authentication, on page 839
Configure Certificate Maps

Certificate maps let you define rules matching a user certificate to a connection profile based on the contents
of the certificate fields. Certificate maps are used for certificate authentication on secure gateways.
The rules or the certificate maps are defined in FTD Certificate Map Objects, on page 459.
Procedure

Step 3 Click Advanced > Certificate Maps.
Step 4 Select the following options under the General Settings for Certificate Group Matching pane:
Selections are priority-based, if a match is not found for the first selection matching continues down the list
of options. When the rules are satisfied, the mapping is done. If the rules are not satisfied, the default connection
profile (listed at the bottom) is used for this connection. Select any, or all, of the following options to establish
authentication and to determine which connection profile (tunnel group) that should be mapped to the client.
• Use Group URL if Group URL and Certificate Map match different Connection profiles
• Use the configured rules to match a certificate to a Connection Profile—Enable this to use the rules
defined here in the Connection Profile Maps.

864
Configuring Group Policies
Note Configuring a certificate mapping implies certificate-based authentication. The remote user will be
prompted for a client certificate regardless of the configured Authentication Method.
Step 5 Under the Certificate to Connection Profile Mapping section, click Add Mapping to create certificate to
connection profile mapping for this policy.
a) Choose or create a Certificate Map object.
b) Select the Connection Profile that should be used if the rules in the certificate map object are satisfied.
c) Click OK to create the mapping.
Step 6 Click Save.
Configuring Group Policies

access VPN experience. For example, in the group policy object, you configure general attributes such as
addresses, protocols, and connection settings.
The group policy applied to a user is determined when the VPN tunnel is being established. The RADIUS
Note There is no group policy attribute inheritance on the FTD. A group policy object is used, in its entirety, for a
user. The group policy object identified by the AAA server upon login is used, or, if that is not specified, the
default group policy configured for the VPN connection is used. The provided default group policy can be
set to your default values, but will only be used if it is assigned to a connection profile and no other group
policy has been identified for the user.
Procedure

Step 3 Click Advanced > Group Policies.
Step 4 Select one or more group policies to associate with this remote access VPN policy. These are above and
beyond the default group policy assigned during the remote access VPN policy creation. Click Add.
Use the Refresh and Search utilities to locate the group policy. Add a new group policy object if necessary.
Step 5 Select group policies from the available group policy and click Add to select them.
Step 6 Click OK to complete the group policy selection.
Related Topics

865
Configuring IPsec Settings for Remote Access VPNs
Configuring IPsec Settings for Remote Access VPNs

The IPsec settings are applicable only if you selected IPsec as the VPN protocol while configuring your remote
access VPN policy. If not, you can enable IKEv2 using the Edit Access Interface dialog box. See Configure
Access Interfaces for Remote Access VPN, on page 859 for more information.

AnyConnect
licenses associated
with your Smart
License account
with
Export-Controlled
Features enabled:
• AnyConnect
VPN Only
• AnyConnect
Plus
• AnyConnect
Apex
Procedure

The list of IPsec settings appears in a navigation pane on the left of the screen.
Step 4 Use the navigation pane to edit the following IPsec options:
a) Crypto Maps—The Crypto Maps page lists the interface groups on which IKEv2 protocol is enabled.
Crypto Maps are auto generated for the interfaces on which IKEv2 protocol is enabled. To edit a Crypto
Map, see Configure Remote Access VPN Crypto Maps, on page 867. You can add or remove interface
groups to the selected VPN policy in the Access Interface tab. See Configure Access Interfaces for Remote
Access VPN, on page 859 for more information.
b) IKE Policy—The IKE Policy page lists all the IKE policy objects applicable for the selected VPN policy
when AnyConnect endpoints connect using the IPsec protocol. See IKE Policies in Remote Access VPNs,
on page 869 for more information. To add a new IKE policy, see Configure IKEv2 Policy Objects , on
page 449. FTD supports only AnyConnect IKEv2 clients. Third-party standard IKEv2 clients are not
supported.
c) IPsec/IKEv2 Parameters—The IPsec/IKEv2 Parameters page enables you to modify the IKEv2 session
settings, IKEv2 Security Association settings, IPsec settings, and NAT Transparency settings. See Configure
Remote Access VPN IPsec/IKEv2 Parameters, on page 870 for more information.
Step 5 Click Save.

866
Configure Remote Access VPN Crypto Maps

Crypto maps are automatically generated for the interfaces on which IPsec-IKEv2 protocol has been enabled.
You can add or remove interface groups to the selected VPN policy in the Access Interface tab. See Configure
Access Interfaces for Remote Access VPN, on page 859 for more information.

AnyConnect
licenses associated
with your Smart
License account
with
Export-Controlled
Features enabled:
• AnyConnect
VPN Only
• AnyConnect
Plus
• AnyConnect
Apex
Procedure

Step 3 Click the Advanced > Crypto Maps, and select a row in the table and click the Edit icon to edit the Crypto
map options.
Step 4 Select IKEv2 IPsec Proposals and select the transform sets to specify which authentication and encryption
algorithms will be used to secure the traffic in the tunnel.
Step 5 Select Enable Reverse Route Injection to enable static routes to be automatically inserted into the routing
process for those networks and hosts protected by a remote tunnel endpoint.
Step 6 Select Enable Client Services and specify the port number.
The Client Services Server provides HTTPS (SSL) access to allow the AnyConnect Downloader to receive
software upgrades, profiles, localization and customization files, CSD, SCEP, and other file downloads required
by the AnyConnect client. If you select this option, specify the client services port number. If you do not
enable the Client Services Server, users will not be able to download any of these files that the AnyConnect
client might need.
Note You can use the same port that you use for SSL VPN running on the same device. Even if you have
an SSL VPN configured, you must select this option to enable file downloads over SSL for
IPsec-IKEv2 clients.
Step 7 Select Enable Perfect Forward Secrecy and select the Modulus group.

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Use Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) to generate and use a unique session key for each encrypted exchange.
The unique session key protects the exchange from subsequent decryption, even if the entire exchange was
recorded and the attacker has obtained the preshared or private keys used by the endpoint devices. If you
select this option, also select the Diffie-Hellman key derivation algorithm to use when generating the PFS
session key in the Modulus Group list.
Modulus group is the Diffie-Hellman group to use for deriving a shared secret between the two IPsec peers
without transmitting it to each other. A larger modulus provides higher security but requires more processing
time. The two peers must have a matching modulus group. Select the modulus group that you want to allow
in the remote access VPN configuration:
• 1—Diffie-Hellman Group 1 (768-bit modulus).
• 2—Diffie-Hellman Group 2 (1024-bit modulus).
• 5—Diffie-Hellman Group 5 (1536-bit modulus, considered good protection for 128-bit keys, but group
14 is better). If you are using AES encryption, use this group (or higher).
• 14—Diffie-Hellman Group 14 (2048-bit modulus, considered good protection for 128-bit keys).
• 19—Diffie-Hellman Group 19 (256-bit elliptical curve field size).
• 24—Diffie-Hellman Group 24 (2048-bit modulus and 256-bit prime order subgroup).
Step 8 Specify the Lifetime Duration (seconds).

The lifetime of the security association (SA), in seconds. When the lifetime is exceeded, the SA expires and
must be renegotiated between the two peers. Generally, the shorter the lifetime (up to a point), the more secure
your IKE negotiations will be. However, with longer lifetimes, future IPsec security associations can be set
up more quickly than with shorter lifetimes.
You can specify a value from 120 to 2147483647 seconds. The default is 28800 seconds.
Step 9 Specify the Lifetime Size (kbytes).

The volume of traffic (in kilobytes) that can pass between IPsec peers using a given security association before
it expires.
You can specify a value from 10 to 2147483647 kbytes. The default is 4,608,000 kilobytes. No specification
allows infinite data.
Step 10 Select the following ESPv3 Settings:

• Validate incoming ICMP error messages—Choose whether to validate ICMP error messages received
through an IPsec tunnel and destined for an interior host on the private network.
• Enable 'Do Not Fragment' Policy—Define how the IPsec subsystem handles large packets that have
the do-not-fragment (DF) bit set in the IP header, and select one of the following from the Policy list:
• Copy—Maintains the DF bit.
• Clear—Ignores the DF bit.
• Set—Sets and uses the DF bit.

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IKE Policies in Remote Access VPNs
• Select Enable Traffic Flow Confidentiality (TFC) Packets— Enable dummy TFC packets that mask the
traffic profile which traverses the tunnel. Use the Burst, Payload Size, and Timeout parameters to
generate random length packets at random intervals across the specified SA.
• Burst—Specify a value from 1 to 16 bytes.
• Payload Size—Specify a value from 64 to 1024 bytes.
• Timeout—Specify a value from 10 to 60 seconds.
Step 11 Click OK.
Related Topics
IKE Policies in Remote Access VPNs

and distribute IPsec encryption keys, and automatically establish IPsec security associations (SAs). The IKE
negotiation comprises two phases. Phase 1 negotiates a security association between two IKE peers, which
enables the peers to communicate securely in Phase 2. During Phase 2 negotiation, IKE establishes SAs for
other applications, such as IPsec. Both phases use proposals when they negotiate a connection. An IKE
proposal is a set of algorithms that two peers use to secure the negotiation between them. IKE negotiation
begins by each peer agreeing on a common (shared) IKE policy. This policy states which security parameters
are used to protect subsequent IKE negotiations.
Note FTD supports only IKEv2 for remote access VPNs.
Unlike IKEv1, in an IKEv2 proposal, you can select multiple algorithms and modulus groups in one policy.
Since peers choose during the Phase 1 negotiation, this makes it possible to create a single IKE proposal, but
consider multiple, different proposals to give higher priority to your most desired options. For IKEv2, the
policy object does not specify authentication, other policies must define the authentication requirements.
An IKE policy is required when you configure a remote access IPsec VPN.
Configuring Remote Access VPN IKE Policies

The IKE Policy table specifies all the IKE policy objects applicable for the selected VPN configuration when
AnyConnect endpoints connect using the IPsec protocol. For more information, see IKE Policies in Remote
Access VPNs, on page 869.
Note FTD supports only IKEv2 for remote access VPNs.
Procedure


869
Configure Remote Access VPN IPsec/IKEv2 Parameters
Step 3 Click Advanced > IKE Policy.

Step 4 Click the Add button to select from the available IKEv2 policies, or add a new IKEv2 policy and specify the
following:
• Name—Name of the IKEv2 policy.
• Description—Optional description of the IKEv2 policy
• Priority—The priority value determines the order of the IKE policy compared by the two negotiating
peers when attempting to find a common security association (SA).
• Lifetime— Lifetime of the security association (SA), in seconds
• Integrity—The Integrity Algorithms portion of the Hash Algorithm used in the IKEv2 policy.
• Encryption—The Encryption Algorithm used to establish the Phase 1 SA for protecting Phase 2
negotiations.
• PRF Hash—The pseudorandom function (PRF) portion of the Hash Algorithm used in the IKE policy.
In IKEv2, you can specify different algorithms for these elements.
• DH Group—The Diffie-Hellman group used for encryption.
Step 5 Click Save.
Related Topics
Remote Access VPN Access Interface Options
Procedure

Step 3 Click Advanced > IPsec> IPsec/IKEv2 Parameters.
Step 4 Select the following for IKEv2 Session Settings:
• Identity Sent to Peers—Choose the identity that the peers will use to identify themselves during IKE
negotiations:
• Auto—Determines the IKE negotiation by connection type: IP address for preshared key, or Cert
DN for certificate authentication (not supported).
• IP address—Uses the IP addresses of the hosts exchanging ISAKMP identity information.
• Hostname—Uses the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the hosts exchanging ISAKMP
identity information. This name comprises the hostname and the domain name.
• Enable Notification on Tunnel Disconnect—Allows an administrator to enable or disable the sending

of an IKE notification to the peer when an inbound packet that is received on an SA does not match the
traffic selectors for that SA. Sending this notification is disabled by default.

870
• Do not allow device reboot until all sessions are terminated—Check to enable waiting for all active
sessions to voluntarily terminate before the system reboots. This is disabled by default.
Step 5 Select the following for IKEv2 Security Association (SA) Settings:
• Cookie Challenge—Whether to send cookie challenges to peer devices in response to SA initiated
packets, which can help thwart denial of service (DoS) attacks. The default is to use cookie challenges
when 50% of the available SAs are in negotiation. Select one of these options:
• Custom—Specify Threshold to Challenge Incoming Cookies, the percentage of the total allowed
SAs that are in-negotiation. This triggers cookie challenges for any future SA negotiations. The
range is zero to 100%. The default is 50%.
• Always— Select to send cookie challenges to peer devices always.
• Never— Select to never send cookie challenges to peer devices.
•
• Number of SAs Allowed in Negotiation—Limits the maximum number of SAs that can be in negotiation
at any time. If used with Cookie Challenge, configure the cookie challenge threshold lower than this
limit for an effective cross-check. The default is 100 %.
• Maximum number of SAs Allowed—Limits the number of allowed IKEv2 connections.
Step 6 Select the following for IPsec Settings:

• Enable Fragmentation Before Encryption—This option lets traffic travel across NAT devices that do
not support IP fragmentation. It does not impede the operation of NAT devices that do support IP
fragmentation.
• Path Maximum Transmission Unit Aging—Check to enable PMTU (Path Maximum Transmission
Unit) Aging, the interval to Reset PMTU of an SA (Security Association).
• Value Reset Interval—Enter the number of minutes at which the PMTU value of an SA (Security
Association) is reset to its original value. Valid range is 10 to 30 minutes, default is unlimited.
Step 7 Select the following for NAT Settings:

• Keepalive Messages Traversal—Select whether to enable NAT keepalive message traversal. NAT
traversal keepalive is used for the transmission of keepalive messages when there is a device (middle
device) located between a VPN-connected hub and spoke, and that device performs NAT on the IPsec
flow. If you select this option, configure the interval, in seconds, between the keepalive signals sent
between the spoke and the middle device to indicate that the session is active. The value can be from 10
to 3600 seconds. The default is 20 seconds.
• Interval—Sets the NAT keepalive interval, from 10 to 3600 seconds. The default is 20 seconds.
Step 8 Click Save.

871

872
CHAPTER 45
VPN Monitoring for Firepower Threat Defense
This chapter describes Firepower Threat Defense VPN monitoring tools, parameters, and statistics information.
• VPN Summary Dashboard, on page 873
• VPN Session and User Information, on page 874
• VPN Health Events, on page 875
VPN Summary Dashboard

Firepower System dashboards provide you with at-a-glance views of current system status, including data
about the events collected and generated by the system. You can use the VPN dashboard to see consolidated
information about VPN users, including the current status of users, device types, client applications, user
geolocation information, and duration of connections.
Viewing the VPN Summary Dashboard

Remote access VPNs provide secure connections for remote users, such as mobile users or telecommuters.
Monitoring these connections provides important indicators of connction and user session performance at a
glance.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Overview > Dashboards > Access Controlled User Statistics, and then choose the VPN dashboard.
Step 2 View the Remote Access VPN information widgets:
• Current VPN Users by Duration.
• Current VPN Users by Client Application.
• Current VPN Users by Device.
• VPN Users by Data Transferred.
• VPN Users by Duration.
• VPN Users by Client Application.

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VPN Session and User Information
• VPN Users by Client Country.
What to do next
The VPN dashboard is a complex, highly customizable monitoring feature that provides exhaustive data.
• For complete information on how to use dashboards in the Firepower System, see Dashboards, on page
219.
• For information on how to modify the VPN dashboard widgets, see Configuring Widget Preferences, on
page 235.
VPN Session and User Information

The Firepower System generates events that communicate the details of user activity on your network, including
VPN-related activity. The Firepower System monitoring capabilities enable you to determine quickly whether
remote access VPN problems exist and where they exist. You can then apply this knowledge and use your
network management tools to reduce or eliminate problems for your network and users. Optionally, you can
logout remote access VPN users as needed.
Viewing Remote Access VPN Active Sessions

Analysis > Users > Active Sessions
Lets you view the currently logged-in VPN users at any given point in time with supporting information such
as the user name, login duration, authentication type, assigned/public IP address, device details, client version,
end point information, throughput, bandwidth consumed group policy, tunnel group etc. The system also
provides the ability to filter current user information, log users out, and delete users from the summary list.
• To learn more about active sessions; see Viewing Active Session Data, on page 2519.
• To learn more about the contents of the columns in the active sessions table; see Active Sessions, Users,
and User Activity Data, on page 2512.
Viewing Remote Access VPN User Activity

Analysis > Users > User Activity
Lets you view the details of user activity on your network. The system logs historical events and includes
VPN-related information such as connection profile information, IP address, geolocation information, connection
duration, throughput, and device information.
• To learn more about user activity; see Viewing User Activity Data, on page 2525.
• To learn more about the contents of the columns in the user activity table; see Active Sessions, Users,
and User Activity Data, on page 2512.

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VPN Health Events
VPN Health Events

The Health Events page allows you to view VPN health events logged by the health monitor on the Firepower
Management Center. When one or more VPN tunnels between Firepower System devices are down, these
events are tracked:
• VPN for 7000 & 8000 Series (7000 & 8000 Series)
• Site-to-site VPN for Firepower Threat Defense
• Remote access VPN for Firepower Threat Defense
See Health Monitoring, on page 241 for more details on how you can use the health monitor to check the status
of critical functionality across your Firepower System deployment.
Viewing VPN Health Events


Security Analyst
When you access health events from the Health Events page on your Firepower Management Center, you
retrieve all health events for all managed appliances. You can narrow the events by specifying the module
which generated the health events you want to view.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Health > Events.

Step 2 Select VPN Status under the Module Name column.
See Health Event Views, on page 261 for more details on system health events.

875
Viewing VPN Health Events

876
CHAPTER 46
VPN Troubleshooting for Firepower Threat
Defense
This chapter describes Firepower Threat Defense VPN troubleshooting tools and debug information.
• System Messages, on page 877
• VPN System Logs, on page 877
• Debug Commands, on page 878
System Messages
The Message Center is the place to start your troubleshooting. This feature allows you to view messages that
are continually generated about system activities and status. To open the Message Center, click in the System
Status icon, located to the immediate right of the Deploy button in the main menu. See System Messages,
on page 281 for details on using the Message Center.
VPN System Logs

You can enable system logging (syslog) for FTD devices. Logging information can help you identify and
isolate network or device configuration problems. When you enable VPN logging, these syslogs are sent from
FTD devices to the Firepower Management Center for analysis and archiving.
Any VPN syslogs that are displayed have a default severity level ‘ERROR’ or higher (unless changed). VPN
logging is managed through FTD platform settings. You can adjust the message severity level by editing the
VPN Logging Settings in the FTD platform settings policy for targeted devices (Platform Settings > Syslog >
Logging Setup). See Configure Syslog, on page 1006 for details on enabling VPN logging, configuring syslog
servers, and viewing the system logs.
Note VPN syslogs are automatically enabled to be sent to the Firepower Management Center by default whenever
a device is configured with site-to-site or remote access VPNs.

877
Viewing VPN System Logs
Viewing VPN System Logs

The Firepower System captures event information to help you to gather additional information about the
source of your VPN problems. Any VPN syslogs that are displayed have a default severity level ‘ERROR’
or higher (unless changed). By default the rows are sorted by the Time column.
Before you begin

Enable VPN logging by checking the Enable Logging to FMC check box in the FTD platform settings
(Devices > Platform Settings > Syslog > Logging Setup). See Configure Syslog, on page 1006 for details on
enabling VPN logging, configuring syslog servers, and viewing the system logs.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > VPN > Troubleshooting.

• Search — To filter current message information, click Edit Search.
• View — To view VPN details associated with the selected message in the view, click View.
• View All — To view VPN details for all messages in the view, click View All.
• Delete — To delete selected messages from the database, click Delete or click Delete All to delete all
the messages.
Debug Commands
This section explains how you use debug commands to help you diagnose and resolve VPN-related problems.
Not all available debug commands are described in this section. Commands are included here based on the
their usefulness in assisting you to diagnose VPN-related problems.
Usage Guidelines Because debugging output is assigned high priority in the CPU process, it can render the system unusable.
For this reason, use debug commands only to troubleshoot specific problems or during troubleshooting sessions
with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC). Moreover, it is best to use debug commands during
periods of lower network traffic and fewer users. Debugging during these periods decreases the likelihood
that increased debug command processing overhead will affect system use.
You can view debug output in a CLI session only. Output is directly available when connected to the Console
port, or when in the diagnostic CLI (enter system support diagnostic-cli). You can also view output from
the regular Firepower Threat Defense CLI using the show console-output command.
To show debugging messages for a given feature, use the debug command. To disable the display of debug
messages, use the no form of this command. Use no debug all to turn off all debugging commands.
debug feature [subfeature] [level]

878
Debug Commands
no debug feature [subfeature]
Syntax Description feature Specifies the feature for which you want to enable debugging. To see available
features, use the debug ? command for CLI help.
subfeature (Optional) Depending on the feature, you can enable debug messages for one or
more subfeatures. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
level (Optional) Specifies the debugging level. The level might not be available for all
features. Use ? to see the available levels.
Command Default The default debugging level is 1.
Example
With multiple sessions running on a remote access VPN, troubleshooting can be difficult given the
size of the logs. You can use the debug webvpn condition command to set up filters to target your
debug process more precisely.
debug webvpn condition {group name | p-ipaddress ip_address [{subnet subnet_mask | prefix
length}] | reset | user name}
Where:
• group name filters on a group policy (not a tunnel group or connection profile).
• p-ipaddress ip_address [{subnet subnet_mask | prefix length}] filters on the public IP address
of the client. The subnet mask (for IPv4) or prefix (for IPv6) is optional.
• reset resets all filters. You can use the no debug webvpn condition command to turn off a
specific filter.
• user name filters by username.
If you configure more than one condition, the conditions are conjoined (ANDed), so that debugs are
shown only if all conditions are met.
After setting up the condition filter, use the base debug webvpn command to turn on the debug.
Simply setting the conditions does not enable the debug. Use the show debug and show webvpn
debug-condition commands to view the current state of debugging.
The following shows an example of enabling a conditional debug on the user jdoe.
firepower# debug webvpn condition user jdoe
firepower# show webvpn debug-condition

INFO: Webvpn conditional debug is turned ON
INFO: User name filters:
INFO: jdoe
firepower# debug webvpn

INFO: debug webvpn enabled at level 1.
firepower# show debug

debug webvpn enabled at level 1
INFO: Webvpn conditional debug is turned ON
INFO: User name filters:

879
debug aaa
INFO: jdoe
Related Commands Command Description
show debug Shows the currently active debug settings.
undebug Disables debugging for a feature. This command is a synonym for no debug.
debug aaa
See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with authentication,
authorization, and accounting (AAA, pronounced “triple A”).
debug aaa [accounting | authentication | authorization | common | internal | shim |

url-redirect]
Syntax Description aaa Enables debugging for AAA. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
accounting (Optional) Enables AAA accounting debugging.
authentication (Optional) Enables AAA authentication debugging.
authorization (Optional) Enables AAA authorization debugging.
common (Optional) Specifies the AAA common debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
internal (Optional) Enables AAA internal debugging.
shim (Optional) Specifies the AAA shim debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.
url-redirect (Optional) Enables AAA url-redirect debugging.
show debug aaa Shows the currently active debug settings for AAA.
undebug aaa Disables debugging for AAA. This command is a synonym for no debug aaa.
debug crypto
See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with crypto.
debug crypto [ca | condition | engine | ike-common | ikev1 | ikev2 | ipsec | ss-apic]
Syntax Description crypto Enables debugging for crypto. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

880
debug crypto ca
ca (Optional) Specifies the PKI debug levels. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
condition (Optional) Specifies the IPsec/ISAKMP debug filters. Use ? to see the available
filters.
engine (Optional) Specifies the crypto engine debug levels. Use ? to see the available
levels.
ike-common (Optional) Specifies the IKE common debug levels. Use ? to see the available
levels.
ikev1 (Optional) Specifies the IKE version 1 debug levels. Use ? to see the available
levels.
ikev2 (Optional) Specifies the IKE version 2 debug levels. Use ? to see the available
levels.
ipsec (Optional) Specifies the IPsec debug levels. Use ? to see the available levels.
condition (Optional) Specifies the Crypto Secure Socket API debug levels. Use ? to see the
available levels.
vpnclient (Optional) Specifies the EasyVPN client debug levels. Use ? to see the available
levels.
show debug crypto Shows the currently active debug settings for crypto.
undebug crypto Disables debugging for crypto. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto.
debug crypto ca
See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with crypto ca.
debug crypto ca [cluster | messages | periodic-authentication | scep-proxy | transactions |

trustpool] [1-255]
Syntax Description crypto ca Enables debugging for crypto ca. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
cluster (Optional) Specifies the PKI cluster debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.
cmp (Optional) Specifies the CMP transactions debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
messages (Optional) Specifies the PKI Input/Output message debug level. Use ? to see the
available levels.
periodic-authentication (Optional) Specifies the PKI periodic-authentication debug level. Use ? to see
the available levels.

881
debug crypto ikev1
scep-proxy (Optional) Specifies the SCEP proxy debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
server (Optional) Specifies the local CA server debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
transactions (Optional) Specifies the PKI transaction debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
trustpool (Optional) Specifies the trustpool debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.
1-255 (Optional) Specifies the debugging level.
show debug crypto ca Shows the currently active debug settings for crypto ca.
undebug Disables debugging for crypto ca. This command is a synonym for no debug
crypto ca.
debug crypto ikev1

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with Internet Key Exchange
version 1 (IKEv1).
debug crypto ikev1 [timers] [1-255]
Syntax Description ikev1 Enables debugging for ikev1. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
timers (Optional) Enables debugging for IKEv1 timers.
show debug crypto ikev1 Shows the currently active debug settings for IKEv1.
undebug crypto ikev1 Disables debugging for IKEv1. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto
ikev1.
debug crypto ikev2

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with Internet Key Exchange
version 2 (IKEv2).
debug crypto ikev2 [ha | platform | protocol | timers]

882
debug crypto ipsec
Syntax Description ikev2 Enables debugging ikev2. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
ha (Optional) Specifies the IKEv2 HA debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.
platform (Optional) Specifies the IKEv2 platform debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
protocol (Optional) Specifies the IKEv2 protocol debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
timers (Optional) Enables debugging for IKEv2 timers.
show debug crypto ikev2 Shows the currently active debug settings for IKEv2.
undebugcrypto ikev2 Disables debugging for IKEv2. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto
ikev2.
debug crypto ipsec

See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with IPsec.
debug crypto ipsec [1-255]
Syntax Description ipsec Enables debugging for ipsec. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
show debug crypto ipsec Shows the currently active debug settings for IPsec.
undebugcrypto ipsec Disables debugging for IPsec. This command is a synonym for no debug crypto
ipsec.
debug ldap
See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with LDAP (Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol).
debug ldap [1-255]
Syntax Description ldap Enables debugging for LDAP. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.

883
debug ssl
show debug ldap Shows the currently active debug settings for LDAP.
undebugldap Disables debugging for LDAP. This command is a synonym for no debug ldap.
debug ssl
See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with SSL sessions.
debug ssl [cipher | device] [1-255]
Syntax Description ssl Enables debugging for SSL. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
cipher (Optional) Specifies the SSL cipher debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.
device (Optional) Specifies the SSL device debug level. Use ? to see the available levels.
show debug ssl Shows the currently active debug settings for SSL.
undebug ssl Disables debugging for SSL. This command is a synonym for no debug ssl.
debug webvpn
See the following commands for debugging configurations or settings associated with WebVPN.
debug webvpn [anyconnect | chunk | cifs | citrix | compression | condition | cstp-auth |

customization | failover | html | javascript | kcd | listener | mus | nfs | request | response
| saml | session | task | transformation | url | util | xml]
Syntax Description webvpn Enables debugging for WebVPN. Use ? to see the available subfeatures.
anyconnect (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN AnyConnect debug level. Use ? to see the
available levels.
chunk (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN chunk debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.

884
debug webvpn
cifs (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN CIFS debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
citrix (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN Citrix debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
compression (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN compression debug level. Use ? to see the
available levels.
condition (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN filter conditions debug level. Use ? to see the
available levels.
cstp-auth (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN CSTP authentication debug level. Use ? to see
the available levels.
customization (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN customization debug level. Use ? to see the
available levels.
failover (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN failover debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
html (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN HTML debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
javascript (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN Javascript debug level. Use ? to see the
available levels.
kcd (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN KCD debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
listener (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN listener debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
mus (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN MUS debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
nfs (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN NFS debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
request (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN request debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
response (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN response debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
saml (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN SAML debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
session (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN session debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
task (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN task debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.

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debug webvpn
transformation (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN transformation debug level. Use ? to see the
available levels.
url (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN URL debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
util (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN utility debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
xml (Optional) Specifies the WebVPN XML debug level. Use ? to see the available
levels.
show debug webvpn Shows the currently active debug settings for WebVPN.
undebug webvpn Disables debugging for WebVPN. This command is a synonym for no debug
webvpn.

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PA R T XII
Appliance Platform Settings
• System Configuration, on page 889
• Platform Settings Policies for Managed Devices, on page 959
• Platform Settings for Classic Devices, on page 963
• Platform Settings for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 985
• Security Certifications Compliance, on page 1025
CHAPTER 47
System Configuration
The following topics explain how to configure system configuration settings on Firepower Management
Centers and managed devices:
• Introduction to System Configuration, on page 889
• Appliance Information, on page 892
• HTTPS Certificates, on page 894
• External Database Access Settings, on page 901
• Database Event Limits, on page 902
• Management Interfaces, on page 904
• System Shut Down and Restart, on page 920
• Remote Storage Management, on page 922
• Change Reconciliation, on page 925
• Policy Change Comments, on page 927
• The Access List, on page 928
• Audit Logs, on page 929
• Audit Log Certificate , on page 932
• Dashboard Settings, on page 938
• DNS Cache, on page 938
• Email Notifications, on page 939
• Language Selection, on page 940
• Login Banners, on page 941
• SNMP Polling, on page 942
• Time and Time Synchronization, on page 944
• Session Timeouts, on page 948
• Vulnerability Mapping, on page 949
• Remote Console Access Management, on page 950
• REST API Preferences, on page 956
• VMware Tools and Virtual Systems, on page 957
• (Optional) Opt Out of Web Analytics Tracking, on page 958
Introduction to System Configuration

System configuration settings apply to either a Firepower Management Center or a Classic managed device
(7000 and 8000 Series, ASA FirePOWER, NGIPSv):

889
Navigating the Firepower Management Center System Configuration
• For the Firepower Management Center these configuration settings are part of a "local" system
configuration. Note that system configuration on the Firepower Management Center is specific to a single
system, and changes to a FMC's system configuration affect only that system.
• For a Classic managed device, you apply a configuration from the Firepower Management Center as
part of a platform settings policy. You create a shared policy to configure a subset of the system
configuration settings, appropriate for managed devices, that are likely to be similar across a deployment.
Tip For 7000 and 8000 Series devices, you can perform limited system configuration
tasks from the local web interface, such as console configuration and remote
management. These are not the same configurations that you apply to a 7000 or
8000 Series device using a platform settings policy.
Navigating the Firepower Management Center System Configuration

Any Any FMC Global only Admin
The system configuration identifies basic settings for a Firepower Management Center.
Procedure

Step 2 Use the navigation panel to choose configurations to change; see Table 64: System Configuration Settings ,
System Configuration Settings

The following table describes the system configuration settings for the Firepower Management Center. For
7000 and 8000 Series devices, the table also identifies which settings you configure from the device's local
web interface, and which you configure using a platform settings policy deployed from the Firepower
Management Center.
Table 64: System Configuration Settings
Setting Description Also configurable from:
Platform 7000 & 8000

Settings Series
Information View current information about the appliance and edit the display name; see no yes
Appliance Information, on page 892.
HTTPS Certificate Request an HTTPS server certificate, if needed, from a trusted authority and no yes
upload certificates to the system; see HTTPS Certificates, on page 894 .

890
System Configuration Settings

Settings Series
External Database Enable external read-only access to the database, and provide a client driver to no no
Access download; see External Database Access Settings, on page 901.
Database Specify the maximum number of each type of event that the Firepower no no
Management Center can store; see Database Event Limits, on page 902.
Management Change options such as the IP address, hostname, and proxy settings of the no yes
Interfaces appliance; see Management Interfaces, on page 904.
Process Shut down, reboot, or restart Firepower System-related processes; see System no yes
Shut Down and Restart, on page 920.
Remote Storage Configure remote storage for backups and reports; see Remote Storage no no
Device Management, on page 922.
Change Configure the system to send a detailed report of changes to the system over the no yes
Reconciliation last 24 hours; see Change Reconciliation, on page 925.
Access Control Configure the system to prompt users for a comment when they add or modify no no
Preferences an access control policy; see Policy Change Comments, on page 927.
Access List Control which computers can access the system on specific ports; see The Access yes no
List, on page 928.
Audit Log Configure the system to send an audit log to an external host; see Audit Logs, yes no
on page 929.
Audit Log Client Configure the system to secure the channel when streaming the audit log to an yes yes
Certificates external host; see Audit Log Certificate , on page 932
Dashboard Enable Custom Analysis widgets on the dashboard; see Dashboard Settings, on no no
page 938.
DNS Cache Configure the system to resolve IP addresses automatically on event view pages; no no
see DNS Cache, on page 938.
Email Notification Configure a mail host, select an encryption method, and supply authentication no no
credentials for email-based notifications and reporting; see Email Notifications,
on page 939.
External Set the default user role for any user who is authenticated by an external RADIUS, yes no
Authentication LDAP or Microsoft Active Directory repository; see External Authentication
Settings, on page 974
Intrusion Policy Configure the system to prompt users for a comment when they modify an no no
Preferences intrusion policy; see Policy Change Comments, on page 927.
Language Specify a different language for the web interface; see Language Selection, on yes no
page 940.

891
Appliance Information

Settings Series
Login Banner Create a custom login banner that appears when users log in; see Login Banners, yes no
on page 941.
Network Analysis Configure the system to prompt users for a comment when they modify a network no no
Policy Preferences analysis policy; see Policy Change Comments, on page 927.
SNMP Enable Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) polling; see SNMP yes no
Polling, on page 942.
UCAPL/CC Enable compliance with specific requirements set out by the United States yes no
Compliance Department of Defense; see Enabling Security Certifications Compliance, on
page 1030.
Time View the current time setting and, if the time synchronization setting in the current no yes
system configuration is set to Manually in Local Configuration, change the
time; see Time and Time Synchronization, on page 944.
Time Manage time synchronization on the system; see Time and Time Synchronization, yes no
Synchronization on page 944.
Shell Timeout Configure the amount of idle time, in minutes, before a user’s login session times yes no
out due to inactivity; see Session Timeouts, on page 948.
Vulnerability Map vulnerabilities to a host IP address for any application protocol traffic no no
Mapping received or sent from that address; see Vulnerability Mapping, on page 949.
Console Configure console access via VGA or serial port, or via Lights-Out Management no limited
Configuration (LOM); see Remote Console Access Management, on page 950.
REST API Enable or disable access to the Firepower Management Center via the Firepower no no
Preferences REST API; see REST API Preferences, on page 956.
VMware Tools Enable and use VMware Tools on a Firepower Management Center Virtual; see n/a n/a
VMware Tools and Virtual Systems, on page 957.
Web Analytics Enable and disable collection of non-personally-identifiable information from no no

your system. See (Optional) Opt Out of Web Analytics Tracking, on page 958.
Related Topics
Introduction to Firepower Platform Settings, on page 963
Appliance Information
The Information page of the web interface includes the information listed in the table below. Unless otherwise
noted, all fields are read-only.

892
Viewing and Modifying the System Information
Field Description
Name A name you assign to the appliance. Note that this

name is only used within the context of the Firepower
System. Although you can use the host name as the
name of the appliance, entering a different name in
this field does not change the host name.
Product Model The model name of the appliance.
Serial Number The serial number of the appliance.
Software Version The version of the software currently installed on the

appliance.
Prohibit Packet Transfer to the Firepower Specifies whether the managed device sends packet
Management Center data with events, allowing the data to be stored on the
Firepower Management Center. This setting is
available on the local web interface on 7000 and 8000
Series devices.
Operating System The operating system currently running on the

appliance.
Operating System Version The version of the operating system currently running
on the appliance.
IPv4 Address The IPv4 address of the default (eth0) management

interface. If IPv4 management is disabled, this field
indicates that.
IPv6 Address The IPv6 address of the default (eth0) management

interface. If IPv6 management is disabled, this field
indicates that.
Current Policies The system-level policies currently deployed . If a

policy has been updated since it was last deployed,
the name of the policy appears in italics.
Model Number The appliance-specific model number stored on the

internal flash drive. This number may be important
for troubleshooting.
Viewing and Modifying the System Information


7000 & 8000 Series
The Information page on the Firepower Management Center’s web interface or on the 7000 and 8000 Series
local web interface provides information about your system, including read-only information such as the

893
HTTPS Certificates
product name and model number. The page also provides you with an option to change the display name of
the system and, for 7000 and 8000 Series devices, prohibit packet transfer.
Note Prohibiting packet transfer can be a good idea in a low-bandwidth deployment where you are not concerned
about the specific content of the packet that triggered the intrusion policy violation.
Procedure

Step 2 Optionally, change the system information settings:
• Name—To change the display name, enter a name in the Name field.
• Prohibit packet transfer—To prevent sending packet data to the Firepower Management Center, check
the Prohibit Packet Transfer to the Management Center check box. This option is only available
from a 7000 or 8000 Series device's local web interface.
Step 3 Click Save.
HTTPS Certificates
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates enable Firepower Management Centers and 7000 and 8000 Series
devices to establish an encrypted channel between the system and a web browser. A default certificate is
included with all Firepower devices, but it is not generated by a certificate authority (CA) trusted by any
globally known CA. For this reason, consider replacing it with a custom certificate signed by a globally known
or internally trusted CA.
Caution The Firepower Management Center supports 4096-bit HTTPS certificates. If the certificate used by the
Firepower Management Center was generated using a public server key larger than 4096 bits, you will not
be able to log in to the FMC web interface. For more information about updating HTTPS Certificates to
Version 6.0.0, see "Update Management Center HTTPS Certificates to Version 6.0" in Firepower System
Release Notes, Version 6.0. If you generate or import an HTTPS Certificate and cannot log in to the FMC
web interface, contact Support.
Default HTTPS Server Certificates

If you use the default server certificate provided with an appliance, do not configure the system to require a
valid HTTPS client certificate for web interface access because the default server certificate is not signed by
the CA that signs your client certificate.

894
Custom HTTPS Server Certificates
Custom HTTPS Server Certificates

You can use the Firepower Management Center web interface to generate a server certificate request based
on your system information and the identification information you supply. You can use that request to sign a
certificate if you have an internal certificate authority (CA) installed that is trusted by your browser. You can
also send the resulting request to a certificate authority to request a server certificate. After you have a signed
certificate from a certificate authority (CA), you can import it.
HTTPS Server Certificate Requirements

When you use HTTPS certificates to secure the connection between your web browser and the Firepower
appliance web interface, you must use certificates that comply with the Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure
Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile (RFC 3280). When you import a server certificate
to the appliance, the system rejects the certificate if it does not comply with version 3 (X.509 v3) of that
standard.
Before importing an HTTPS server certificate, be certain it includes the following fields:
Certificate Field Description
Version Version of the encoded certificate. Use version 3. See

Section 4.1.2.1 of RFC 3280.
Serial number A positive integer assigned to the certificate by the

issuing CA. Issuer and serial number together uniquely
identify the certificate. See Section 4.1.2.2 of RFC
3280.
Signature Identifier for the algorithm used by the CA to sign the

certificate. Must match the signatureAlgorithm field.
See Section 4.1.2.3 of RFC 3280.
Issuer Identifies the entity that signed and issued the

certificate. See Section 4.1.2.4 of RFC 3280.
Validity Interval during which the CA warrants that it will

maintain information about the status of the certificate.
See Section 4.1.2.5 of RFC 3280.
Subject Identifies the entitity associated with the public key

stored in the subject public key field; must be an
X.500 disinguished name (DN). See Section 4.1.2.6
of RFC 3280.
Subject Public Key Info Public key and an identifier for its algorithm. See
Authority Key Identifier extension Provides a means of identifying the public key
corresponding to the private key used to sign a
certificate. See Section 4.2.1.1 of RFC 3280.

895
HTTPS Client Certificates
Certificate Field Description
Subject Key Identifier extension Provides a means of identifying certificates that

contain a particular public key. See Section 4.2.1.2
of RFC 3280.
Key Usage extension Defines the purpose of the key contained in the
certificates. See Section 4.2.1.3 of RFC 3280.
Basic Constraints extension Identifies whether the certificate Subject is a CA, and
the maximum depth of validation certification paths
that include this certificate. See Section 4.2.1.10 of
RFC 3280. For server certificates used in Firepower
appliances, use critical CA:FALSE.
Extended Key Usage extension Indicates one or more purposes for which the certified
public key may be used, in addition to or in place of
the basic purposes indicated in the Key Usage
extension. See Section 4.2.1.13 of RFC 3280. For
server certificates used in Firepower appliances, use
TLC Web Server Authentication.
signatureAlgorithm Identifier for the algorithm the CA used to sign the

certificate. Must match the Signature field. See
signatureValue Digital signature. See Section 4.1.1.3 of RFC 3280.
HTTPS Client Certificates

You can restrict access to the Firepower System web server using client browser certificate checking. When
you enable user certificates, the web server checks that a user’s browser client has a valid user certificate
selected. That user certificate must be generated by the same trusted certificate authority that is used for the
server certificate. The browser cannot load the web interface under any of the following circumstances:
• The user selects a certificate in the browser that is not valid.
• The user selects a certificate in the browser that is not generated by the certificate authority that signed
the server certificate.
• The user selects a certificate in the browser that is not generated by a certificate authority in the certificate
chain on the device.
To verify client browser certificates, configure the system to use the online certificate status protocol (OCSP)
or load one or more certificate revocation lists (CRLs). Using the OCSP, when the web server receives a
connection request it communicates with the certificate authority to confirm the client certificate's validity
before establishing the connection. If you configure the server to load one or more CRLs, the web server
compares the client certificate against those listed in the CRLs. If a user selects a certificate that is listed in a
CRL as a revoked certificate, the browser cannot load the web interface.

896
Viewing the Current HTTPS Server Certificate
Note If you choose to verify certificates using CRLs, the system uses the same CRLs to validate both client browser
certificates and audit log server certificates.
Viewing the Current HTTPS Server Certificate


7000 and 8000
Series
You can only view server certificates for the appliance you are logged in to.
Procedure

Step 2 Click HTTPS Certificate.
Generating an HTTPS Server Certificate Signing Request

N/A Any FMC Global only Admin

7000 and 8000
Series
When you generate a certificate request through the local configuration HTTPS Certificate page using this
procedure, you can only generate a certificate for a single system. If you install a certificate that is not signed
by a globally known or internally trusted CA, your browser displays a security warning when you try to
connect to the web interface.
The key generated for the certificate request is in Base-64 encoded PEM format.
Procedure

Step 3 Click Generate New CSR.
Step 4 Enter a country code in the Country Name (two-letter code) field.
Step 5 Enter a state or province postal abbreviation in the State or Province field.
Step 6 Enter a Locality or City.

897
Importing HTTPS Server Certificates
Step 7 Enter an Organization name.

Step 8 Enter an Organizational Unit (Department) name.
Step 9 Enter the fully qualified domain name of the server for which you want to request a certificate in the Common
Name field.
Note Enter the fully qualified domain name of the server exactly as it should appear in the certificate in
the Common Name field. If the common name and the DNS hostname do not match, you receive
a warning when connecting to the appliance.

Step 11 Open a text editor.
Step 12 Copy the entire block of text in the certificate request, including the BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST and END
CERTIFICATE REQUEST lines, and paste it into a blank text file.
Step 13 Save the file as servername.csr, where servername is the name of the server where you plan to use the
certificate.
Step 14 Click Close.
What to do next
• Submit the certificate request to the certificate authority.
• When you receive the signed certificate, import it to the Firepower Management Center; see Importing
HTTPS Server Certificates, on page 898.
Importing HTTPS Server Certificates


7000 and 8000
Series
If the signing authority that generated the certificate requires you to trust an intermediate CA, you must also
supply a certificate chain (or certificate path).
If you require client certificates, accessing an appliance via the web interface will fail when the server certificate
does not meet either of the following criteria:
• The certificate is signed by the same CA that signed the client certificate.
• The certificate is signed by a CA that has signed an intermediate certificate in the certificate chain.

898
Requiring Valid HTTPS Client Certificates
Caution The Firepower Management Center supports 4096-bit HTTPS certificates. If the certificate used by the
Firepower Management Center was generated using a public server key larger than 4096 bits, you will not
be able to log in to the FMC web interface. For more information about updating HTTPS Certificates to
Version 6.0.0, see "Update Management Center HTTPS Certificates to Version 6.0" in Firepower System
Release Notes, Version 6.0. If you generate or import an HTTPS Certificate and cannot log in to the FMC
web interface, contact Support.
Before you begin

• Generate a certificate signing request; see Generating an HTTPS Server Certificate Signing Request, on
page 897.
• Upload the CSR file to the certificate authority where you want to request a certificate, or use the CSR
to create a self-signed certificate.
• Confirm that the certificate meets the requirements described in HTTPS Server Certificate Requirements,
on page 895.
Procedure

Step 3 Click Import HTTPS Server Certificate.
Step 4 Open the server certificate in a text editor, copy the entire block of text, including the BEGIN CERTIFICATE
and END CERTIFICATE lines. Paste this text into the Server Certificate field.
Step 5 Whether you must supply a Private Key depends on how you generated the Certificate Signing Request:
• If you generated the Certificate Signing Request using the Firepower Management Center web interface
(as described in Generating an HTTPS Server Certificate Signing Request, on page 897), the system
already has the private key and you need not enter one here.
• If you generated the Certificate Signing Request using some other means, you must supply the private
key here. Open the private key file and copy the entire block of text, include the BEGIN RSA PRIVATE
KEY and END RSA PRIVATE KEY lines. Paste this text into the Private Key field.
Step 6 Open any required intermediate certificates, copy the entire block of text for each, and paste it into the
Certificate Chain field.
Step 7 Click Save.


7000 and 8000
Series

899
The system supports validating HTTPS client certificates using either OCSP or imported CRLs in
Privacy-enhanced Electronic Mail (PEM) format.
If you choose to use CRLs, to ensure that the list of revoked certificates stays current, you can create a scheduled
task to update the CRLs. The system displays the most recent refresh of the CRLs.
Note To access the web interface after enabling client certificates, you must have a valid client certificate present
in your browser (or a CAC inserted in your reader).
Before you begin

• Import a server certificate signed by the same certificate authority that signed the client certificate to be
used for the connection; see Importing HTTPS Server Certificates, on page 898.
• Import the server certificate chain if needed; see Importing HTTPS Server Certificates, on page 898.
Procedure

Step 3 Choose Enable Client Certificates. If prompted, select the appropriate certificate from the drop-down list.
Step 4 You have three options:
• To verify client certificates using one or more CRLS, select Enable Fetching of CRL and continue with
Step 5.
• To verify client certificates using OCSP, select Enable OCSP and skip to Step 7.
• To accept client certificates without checking for revocation, skip to Step 8.
Step 5 Enter a valid URL to an existing CRL file and click Add CRL. Repeat to add up to 25 CRLs.
Step 6 Click Refresh CRL to load the current CRL or CRLs from the specified URL or URLs.
Note Enabling fetching of the CRL creates a scheduled task to regularly update the CRL or CRLs. Edit
the task to set the frequency of the update.
Step 7 Verify that the client certificate is signed by the certificate authority loaded onto the appliance and the server
certificate is signed by a certificate authority loaded in the browser certificate store. (These should be the same
certificate authority.)
Caution Saving a configuration with enabled client certificates, with no valid client certificate in your browser
certificate store, disables all web server access to the appliance. Make sure that you have a valid
client certificate installed before saving settings.
Step 8 Click Save.
Related Topics
Configuring Certificate Revocation List Downloads, on page 152

900
External Database Access Settings
External Database Access Settings

You can configure the Firepower Management Center to allow read-only access to its database by a third-party
client. This allows you to query the database using SQL using any of the following:
• industry-standard reporting tools such as Actuate BIRT, JasperSoft iReport, or Crystal Reports
• any other reporting application (including a custom application) that supports JDBC SSL connections
• the Cisco-provided command-line Java application called RunQuery, which you can either run interactively
or use to obtain comma-separated results for a single query
Use the Firepower Management Center's system configuration to enable database access and create an access
list that allows selected hosts to query the database. Note that this access list does not also control appliance
access.
You can also download a package that contains the following:
• RunQuery, the Cisco-provided database query tool
• InstallCert, a tool you can use to retrieve and accept the SSL certificate from the Firepower Management
Center you want to access
• the JDBC driver you must use to connect to the database
See the Firepower System Database Access Guide for information on using the tools in the package you
downloaded to configure database access.
Enabling External Access to the Database

Procedure

Step 2 Click External Database Access.
Step 3 Select the Allow External Database Access check box.
Step 4 Enter an appropriate value in the Server Hostname field. Depending on your third-party application
requirements, this value can be either the fully qualified domain name (FQDN), IPv4 address, or IPv6 address
of the Firepower Management Center.
Step 5 Next to Client JDBC Driver, click Download and follow your browser’s prompts to download the client.zip
package.
Step 6 To add database access for one or more IP addresses, click Add Hosts. An IP Address field appears in the
Access List field.
Step 7 In the IP Address field, enter an IP address or address range, or any.
Step 8 Click Add.

901
Database Event Limits
Step 9 Click Save.

Tip If you want to revert to the last saved database settings, click Refresh.
Related Topics
Firepower System IP Address Conventions, on page 14

You can specify the maximum number of each type of event that the Firepower Management Center can store.
To improve performance, you should tailor event limits to the number of events you regularly work with. For
some event types, you can disable storage.
The system automatically prunes intrusion events, discovery events, audit records, security intelligence data,
or URL filtering data from the appliance's database. You can configure the system to generate automated
email notifications when events are automatically pruned. You can also manually prune the discovery and
user databases to remove selected discovery data; and you can purge discovery and connection data from the
Firepower Management Center database.
Configuring Database Event Limits

Before you begin

• If you want to receive email notifications when events are pruned from the Firepower Management
Center's database, you must configure an email server; see Configuring a Mail Relay Host and Notification
Address, on page 939.
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Database.
Step 3 For each of the databases, enter the number of records you want to store.
For information on how many records each database can maintain, see Database Event Limits, on page 903.
Step 4 Optionally, in the Data Pruning Notification Address field, enter the email address where you want to
receive pruning notifications.
Step 5 Click Save.

902

The following table lists the minimum and maximum number of records for each event type that you can store
on a Firepower Management Center.
Table 65: Database Event Limits
Event Type Upper Limit Lower Limit
Intrusion events 10 million (FMC Virtual) 10,000

20 million (MC750)
30 million (MC1000, MC1500)
60 million (MC2000, MC2500)
150 million (MC3500)
300 million (MC4000, MC4500)
Discovery events 10 million Zero (disables storage)

20 million (MC2000, MC2500, MC4000,
MC4500)
Connection events 50 million (FMC Virtual) Zero (disables storage)

Security Intelligence events 50 million (MC750)
100 million (MC1000, MC1500)
300 million (MC2000, MC2500)
1 billion (MC4000, MC4500)
Limit is shared between connection events and
Security Intelligence events. The sum of the
configured maximums cannot exceed this limit.
Connection summaries (aggregated 50 million (FMC Virtual) Zero (disables storage)

connection events)
50 million (MC750)
100 million (MC1000, MC1500)
300 million (MC2000, MC2500)
1 billion (MC4000, MC4500)
Correlation events and compliance 1 million One

white list events
2 million (MC2000, MC2500 , MC4000,
MC4500)

903
Management Interfaces
Event Type Upper Limit Lower Limit
Malware events 10 million 10,000

20 million (MC2000, MC2500 , MC4000,
MC4500)
File events 10 million Zero (disables storage)

20 million (MC2000, MC2500 MC4000,
MC4500)
Health events 1 million Zero (disables storage)
Audit records 100,000 One
Remediation status events 10 million One
White list violation history a 30-day history of violations One day’s history
User activity (user events) 10 million One
User logins (user history) 10 million One
Intrusion rule update import log 1 million One

records
VPN Troubleshooting database 10 million Zero (disables storage)
Management Interfaces
After setup, you can change the management network settings, including adding more management interfaces,
hostname, search domains, DNS servers, and HTTP proxy on both the FMC and the managed devices.
About Management Interfaces

By default, the Firepower Management Center manages all devices on a single management interface. Each
device includes a single management interface for communicating with the FMC.
You also perform initial setup on the management interface (for both the FMC and managed devices), and
log into the FMC on this interface as an administrator.
Management interfaces are also used to communicate with the Smart Licensing server, to download updates,
and to perform other management functions.
Management Interfaces on the Firepower Management Center

The Firepower Management Center uses the eth0 interface for initial setup, HTTP access for administrators,
management of devices, as well as other management functions such as licensing and updates.
You can also configure additional management interfaces on the same network, or on different networks.
When the FMC manages large numbers of devices, adding more management interfaces can improve throughput
and performance. You can also use these interfaces for all other management functions. You might want to

904
Management Interfaces on Managed Devices
use each management interface for particular functions; for example, you might want to use one interface for
HTTP administrator access and another for device management.
For device management, the management interface carries two separate traffic channels: the management
traffic channel carries all internal traffic (such as inter-device traffic specific to managing the device), and
the event traffic channel carries all event traffic (such as web events). You can optionally configure a separate
event-only interface on the FMC to handle event traffic; you can configure only one event interface. Event
traffic can use a large amount of bandwidth, so separating event traffic from management traffic can improve
the performance of the FMC. For example, you can assign a 10 GigabitEthernet interface to be the event
interface, if available, while using 1 GigabitEthernet interfaces for management. You might want to configure
an event-only interface on a completely secure, private network while using the regular management interface
on a network that includes Internet access, for example. You can also use both management and event interfaces
on the same network if the goal is only to take advantage of increased throughput. If you configure an event-only
interface on the FMC, you can support devices with separate management and event-only interfaces, but also
devices that do not have separate interfaces. For devices with a single combined management/event interface,
all traffic goes to the FMC management interface.
Note All management interfaces support HTTP administrator access as controlled by your Access List configuration
(Configuring the Access List for Your System, on page 928). Conversely, you cannot restrict an interface to
only HTTP access; management interfaces always support device management (management traffic, event
traffic, or both).
Note Only the eth0 interface supports DHCP IP addressing. Other management interfaces only support static IP
addresses.
Management Interfaces on Managed Devices

Some models include an additional management interface that you can configure for event-only traffic, so
you can separate management and event traffic when communicating with the FMC.
When you set up your device, you specify the FMC IP address that you want to connect to. Both management
and event traffic go to this address at initial registration. Note: In some situations, the FMC might establish
the initial connection on a different management interface; subsequent connections should use the management
interface with the specified IP address.
If both the device and the FMC have separate event interfaces, then after they learn about each other's event
interfaces during management communication, subsequent event traffic is sent between these interfaces if the
network allows. If the event network goes down, then event traffic reverts to the regular management interface.
The device uses a separate event interface when possible, but the management interface is always the backup.
If you use only one management interface on the managed device, then you cannot send management traffic
to the FMC management interface, and then send event traffic to the separate FMC event interface; both FMC
and managed device must have separate event interfaces. In this case, both management and event traffic go
to the FMC management interface, and the FMC event interface is not used for this device.
Management Interface Support

See the hardware installation guide for your model for the management interface locations.

905
Note For the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis, the MGMT interface is for chassis management, not for FTD logical
device management. You must configure a separate NIC interface to be of type mgmt (and/or
firepower-eventing), and then assign it to the FTD logical device.
Note For FTD on any chassis, the physical management interface is shared between the Diagnostic logical interface,
which is useful for SNMP or syslog, and is configured along with data interfaces in the FMC, and the
Management logical interface for FMC communication. See Management/Diagnostic Interface, on page 595
See the following tables for supported management interfaces on each Firepower Management Center and
managed device model.
Table 66: Management Interface Support on the Firepower Management Center
Model Management Interfaces
MC750, MC1500, MC3500 eth0 (Default)

eth1
MC2000, MC4000 eth0 (Default)

eth1
eth2
eth3
MC1000 eth0 (Default)

eth1
MC2500, MC4500 eth0 (Default)

eth1
eth2
eth3
Firepower Management Center Virtual eth0 (Default)
Table 67: Management Interface Support on Managed Devices
Model Management Interface Optional Event Interface
7000 series eth0 No support
8000 series eth0 eth1
NGIPSv eth0 No support

906
ASA FirePOWER services module eth0 eth1

on the ASA 5585-X
Note eth0 is the internal name Note eth1 is the internal name
of the Management 1/0 of the Management 1/1
interface. interface.
ASA FirePOWER services module eth0 No support

on the ASA 5506-X, 5508-X, or
Note eth0 is the internal name
5516-X
of the Management 1/1
interface.
ASA FirePOWER services module eth0 No support

on the ASA 5512-X-X through
Note eth0 is the internal name
5555-X
interface.
Firepower Threat Defense on the management0 No Support

Firepower 2100
Note management0 is the
internal name of the
Management 1/1
interface.
Firepower Threat Defense on the management0 management1

Firepower 4100 and 9300
Note management0 is the Note management1 is the
internal name of this internal name of this
interface, regardless of interface, regardless of
the physical interface the physical interface
ID. ID.
Firepower Threat Defense on the br1 No support

ASA 5506-X, 5508-X, or 5516-X
Note br1 is the internal name
interface.

5512-X through 5555-X
interface.

ISA 3000
interface.

907
Network Routes on Management Interfaces
Firepower Threat Defense Virtual br1 No support
Network Routes on Management Interfaces

Management interfaces (including event-only interfaces) support only static routes to reach remote networks.
When you set up your FMC or managed device, the setup process creates a default route to the gateway IP
address that you specify. You cannot delete this route; you can only modify the gateway address.
You can configure multiple management interfaces on some platforms. The default route does not include an
egress interface, so the interface chosen depends on the gateway address you specify, and which interface's
network the gateway belongs to. In the case of multiple interfaces on the default network, the device uses the
lower-numbered interface as the egress interface.
At least 1 static route is recommended per management interface to access remote networks, including when
multiple interfaces are on the same network.
For example, on the FMC both eth0 and eth1 are on the same network, but you want to manage a different
group of devices on each interface. The default gateway is 192.168.45.1. If you want eth1 to manage devices
on the remote 10.6.6.0/24 destination network, you can create a static route for 10.6.6.0/24 through eth1 with
the same gateway of 192.168.45.1. Traffic to 10.6.6.0/24 will hit this route before it hits the default route, so
eth1 will be used as expected.
If you want to use 2 FMC interfaces to manage remote devices that are on the same network, then static routing
on the FMC may not scale well, because you need separate static routes per device IP address.
Another example includes separate management and event-only interfaces on both the FMC and the managed
device. The event-only interfaces are on a separate network from the management interfaces. In this case, add
a static route through the event-only interface for traffic destined for the remote event-only network, and vice
versa.
Note The routing for management interfaces is completely separate from routing that you configure for data
interfaces.
Management and Event Traffic Channel Examples

The following example shows the Firepower Management Center and managed devices using only the default
management interfaces.
Figure 18: Single Management Interface on the Firepower Management Center

908
Configure Management Interfaces
The following example shows the Firepower Management Center using separate management interfaces for
devices; and each managed device using 1 management interface.
Figure 19: Mutliple Management Interfaces on the Firepower Management Center
The following example shows the Firepower Management Center and managed devices using a separate event
interface.
Figure 20: Separate Event Interface on the Firepower Management Center and Managed Devices
The following example shows a mix of multiple management interfaces and a separate event interface on the
Firepower Management Center and a mix of managed devices using a separate event interface, or using a
single management interface.
Figure 21: Mixed Management and Event Interface Usage
Configure Management Interfaces

You can change management interface settings for Firepower appliances:
• Firepower Management Center—Use the web interface. (The Firepower Management Center supports
Linux shell access only under Cisco TAC supervision.)
• FTD devices, NGIPSv, ASA FirePOWER—Use the CLI

909
Configure Firepower Management Center Management Interfaces
• 7000 & 8000 Series devices—Use the limited web interface or the CLI.
See the following sections.

Related Topics
Communication Port Requirements, on page 2553

Modify the management interface settings on the Firepower Management Center. You can optionally enable
additional management interfaces or configure an event-only interface.
Caution Be careful when making changes to the management interface to which you are connected; if you cannot
re-connect because of a configuration error, you need to access the FMC console port to re-configure the
network settings in the Linux shell. You must contact Cisco TAC to guide you in this operation.
Before you begin

If you use a proxy:
• Proxies that use NT LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication are not supported.
• If you use or will use Smart Licensing, the proxy FQDN cannot have more than 64 characters.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Configuration, and then choose Management Interfaces.
Step 2 In the Interfaces area, click Edit next to the interface that you want to configure.
All available interfaces are listed in this section. You cannot add more interfaces.
You can configure the following options on each management interface:
• Enabled—Enable the management interface. Do not disable the default eth0 management interface.
Some processes require the eth0 interface.
• Channels—Configure an event-only interface; you can configure only one event interface on the FMC.
To do so, uncheck the Management Traffic check box, and leave the Event Traffic check box checked.
You can optionally disable Event Traffic for the management interface(s). In either case, the device will
try to send events to the event-only interface, and if that interface is down, it will send events on the
management interface even if you disable the event channel. You cannot disable both event and
management channels on an interface.
• Mode—Specify a link mode. Note that any changes you make to auto-negotiation are ignored for
GigabitEthernet interfaces.
• MDI/MDIX—Set the Auto-MDIX setting.

910
• MTU—Set the maximum transmission unit (MTU). The default is 1500. The range within which you
can set the MTU can vary depending on the model and interface type.
Because the system automatically trims 18 bytes from the configured MTU value, any value below 1298
does not comply with the minimum IPv6 MTU setting of 1280, and any value below 594 does not comply
with the minimum IPv4 MTU setting of 576. For example, the system automatically trims a configured
value of 576 to 558.
• IPv4 Configuration—Set the IPv4 IP address. Choose:
• Static—Manually enter the IPv4 Management IP address and IPv4 Netmask.
• DHCP—Set the interface to use DHCP (eth0 only).
• Disabled—Disable IPv4. Do not disable both IPv4 and IPv6.

• Static—Manually enter the IPv6 Management IP address and IPv6 Prefix Length.
• DHCP—Set the interface to use DHCPv6 (eth0 only).
• Router Assigned—Enable stateless autoconfiguration.
Step 3 In the Routes area, edit a static route by clicking the edit icon ( ), or add a route by clicking the add icon
( ). View the route statistics by clicking the view icon ( ).
You need a static route for each additional interface to reach remote networks. For more information about
when new routes are needed, see Network Routes on Management Interfaces, on page 908.
Note For the default route, you can change only the gateway IP address.The egress interface is chosen
automatically by matching the specified gateway to the interface's network.
You can configure the following settings for a static route:

• Destination—Set the destination address of the network to which you want to create a route.
• Netmask or Prefix Length—Set the netmask (IPv4) or prefix length (IPv6) for the network.
• Interface—Set the egress management interface.
• Gateway—Set the gateway IP address.
Step 4 In the Shared Settings area, set network parameters shared by all interfaces.
Note If you selected DHCP for the eth0 interface, you cannot manually specify some shared settings
derived from the DHCP server.
You can configure the following shared settings:

• Hostname—Set the FMC hostname. If you change the hostname, reboot the FMC if you want the new
hostname reflected in syslog messages. Syslog messages do not reflect a new hostname until after a
reboot.

911
Configure Classic Device Management Interfaces at the Web Interface
• Domains—Set the search domain(s) for the FMC, separated by commas. These domains are added to
hostnames when you do not specify a fully-qualified domain name in a command, for example, ping
system. The domains are used only on the management interface, or for commands that go through the
management interface.
• Primary DNS Server, Secondary DNS Server, Tertiary DNS Server—Set the DNS servers to be used
in order of preference.
• Remote Management Port—Set the remote management port for communication with managed devices.
The FMC and managed devices communicate using a two-way, SSL-encrypted communication channel,
which by default is on port 8305.
Note Cisco strongly recommends that you keep the default settings for the remote management
port, but if the management port conflicts with other communications on your network, you
can choose a different port. If you change the management port, you must change it for all
devices in your deployment that need to communicate with each other.
Step 5 In the Proxy area, configure HTTP proxy settings.

The FMC is configured to directly-connect to the internet on ports TCP/443 (HTTPS) and TCP/80 (HTTP).
You can use a proxy server, to which you can authenticate via HTTP Digest.
See proxy requirements in the prerequisites to this topic.
a) Check the Enabled check box.
b) In the HTTP Proxy field, enter the IP address or fully-qualified domain name of your proxy server.
See requirements in the prerequisites to this topic.
c) In the Port field, enter a port number.
d) Supply authentication credentials by choosing Use Proxy Authentication, and then provide a User Name
and Password.
Step 6 Click Save.
Step 7 If you changed the management IP address, it might affect communication between the FMC and managed
devices.
Changing the IP address will not affect the current connection. However, if the device or FMC reloads, then
the connection needs to be reestablished. You need at least one of the devices (FMC or managed device) to
have the correct IP address of the peer. For example, if you added the device on the FMC and specified a
NAT ID (instead of an IP address), then the FMC IP address that you defined on the device at setup will be
wrong, and the device will not be able to reestablish communications. Moreover, you cannot update the FMC
IP address on a device; you can only replace the IP address and re-register as a new device (configure manager
add). On the other hand, if the FMC knows the correct IP address of the managed device, then even if the
managed device has the wrong IP address for the FMC, then the FMC can successfully establish the connection.

N/A Any 7000 & 8000 Series Global only Admin

912
Modify the management interface settings on the managed device using the web interface. You can optionally
enable an event interface if your model supports it.
Caution Be careful when making changes to the management interface; if you cannot re-connect because of a
configuration error, you will need to access the device console port and reconfigure the settings at the CLI.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Configuration, and then choose Management Interfaces.
Step 2 In the Interfaces area, click Edit next to the interface that you want to configure.
All available interfaces are listed in this section. You cannot add more interfaces.
You can configure the following options on each management interface:
• Enabled—Enable the management interface. Do not disable the default eth0 management interface.
Some processes require the eth0 interface.
• Channels—(8000 series only) Configure an event-only interface. You can enable the eth1 management
interface on your 8000 series device to act as an event interface. To do so, uncheck the Management
Traffic check box, and leave the Event Traffic check box checked. For the eth0 management interface,
leave both check boxes checked.
The Firepower Management Center event-only interface cannot accept management channel traffic, so
you should simply disable the management channel on the device event interface.
You can optionally disable Event Traffic for the management interface. In either case, the device will
try to send events on the event-only interface, and if that interface is down, it will send events on the
management interface even if you disable the event channel.
You cannot disable both event and management channels on an interface.
• Mode—Specify a link mode. Note that any changes you make to auto-negotiation are ignored for
GigabitEthernet interfaces.
• MTU—Set the maximum transmission unit (MTU). The default is 1500. The range within which you
can set the MTU can vary depending on the model and interface type.
Because the system automatically trims 18 bytes from the configured MTU value, any value below 1298
does not comply with the minimum IPv6 MTU setting of 1280, and any value below 594 does not comply
with the minimum IPv4 MTU setting of 576. For example, the system automatically trims a configured
value of 576 to 558.
• MDI/MDIX—Set the Auto-MDIX setting.
• Static—Manually enter the IPv4 Management IP address and IPv4 Netmask.
• DHCP—Set the interface to use DHCP (eth0 only).

913
• Static—Manually enter the IPv6 Management IP address and IPv6 Prefix Length.
• DHCP—Set the interface to use DHCPv6 (eth0 only).
• Router Assigned—Enable stateless autoconfiguration.
Step 3 In the Routes area, edit a static route by clicking the edit icon ( ), or add a route by clicking the add icon
( ). View the route statistics by clicking the view icon ( ).
Note You need to add a static route for the event-only interface if the Firepower Management Center is
on a remote network; otherwise, all traffic will match the default route through the management
interface. For the default route, you can change only the gateway IP address.The egress interface
is chosen automatically by matching the specified gateway to the interface's network. For information
about routing, see Network Routes on Management Interfaces, on page 908.
You can configure the following settings for a static route:

• Destination—Set the destination address of the network to which you want to create a route.
• Netmask or Prefix Length—Set the netmask (IPv4) or prefix length (IPv6) for the network.
• Interface—Set the egress management interface.
• Gateway—Set the gateway IP address.
Step 4 In the Shared Settings area, set network parameters shared by all interfaces.
Note If you selected DHCP for the eth0 interface, you cannot manually specify some shared settings
derived from the DHCP server.
You can configure the following shared settings:

• Hostname—Set the device hostname. If you change the hostname, reboot the device if you want the
new hostname reflected in syslog messages. Syslog messages do not reflect a new hostname until after
a reboot.
• Domains—Set the search domain(s) for the device, separated by commas. These domains are added to
hostnames when you do not specify a fully-qualified domain name in a command, for example, ping
system. The domains are used only on the management interface, or for commands that go through the
• Primary DNS Server, Secondary DNS Server, Tertiary DNS Server—Set the DNS servers to be used
in order of preference.
• Remote Management Port—Set the remote management port for communication with the FMC. The
FMC and managed devices communicate using a two-way, SSL-encrypted communication channel,
Note Cisco strongly recommends that you keep the default settings for the remote management
port, but if the management port conflicts with other communications on your network, you
can choose a different port. If you change the management port, you must change it for all
devices in your deployment that need to communicate with each other.

914
Configure Firepower Threat Defense or Classic Device Management Interfaces at the CLI
Step 5 In the LCD Panel area, check the Allow reconfiguration of network settings check box to enable changing
network settings using the device’s LCD panel.
You can use the LCD panel to edit the IP address for the device. Confirm that any changes you make are
reflected on the managing Firepower Management Center. In some cases, you may need to update the data
manually on the Firepower Management Center as well.
Caution Allowing reconfiguration using the LCD panel can present a security risk. You need only physical
access, not authentication, to configure network settings using the LCD panel. The web interface
warns you that enabling this option is a potential security issue.
Step 6 In the Proxy area, configure HTTP proxy settings.

The device is configured to directly-connect to the internet on ports TCP/443 (HTTPS) and TCP/80 (HTTP).
You can use a proxy server, to which you can authenticate via HTTP Digest.
Note Proxies that use NT LAN Manager (NTLM) authentication are not supported.
a) Check the Enabled check box.

b) In the HTTP Proxy field, enter the IP address or fully-qualified domain name of your proxy server.
c) In the Port field, enter a port number.
d) Supply authentication credentials by choosing Use Proxy Authentication, and then provide a User Name
and Password.
Step 7 Click Save.
Step 8 If you changed the management IP address, it might affect communication between the FMC and the managed
device.
Changing the IP address will not affect the current connection. However, if the device or FMC reloads, then
the connection needs to be reestablished. You need at least one of the devices (FMC or managed device) to
have the correct IP address of the peer. For example, if you specified a NAT ID (instead of an IP address) for
the FMC during device setup, then the device IP address that you defined on the FMC when you added the
device will be wrong, and the FMC will not be able to reestablish communications. In this case, you must
change the management IP address of the device in the FMC; see Editing Device Management Settings, on
page 203.
Any Any FTD Global only Admin

Classic
Modify the management interface settings on the managed device using the CLI. Many of these settings are
ones that you set when you performed the initial setup; this procedure lets you change those settings, and set
additional settings such as enabling an event interface if your model supports it, or adding static routes. For
information about the FTD CLI, see Command Reference for Firepower Threat Defense. For information
about the classic device CLI, see Classic Device Command Line Reference, on page 2557in this guide. The
FTD and classic devices use the same commands for management interface configuration. Other commands
may differ between the platforms.

915
Note When using SSH, be careful when making changes to the management interface; if you cannot re-connect
because of a configuration error, you will need to access the device console port.
Before you begin

• For the Firepower Threat Defense, you can create user accounts that can log into the CLI using the
configure user add command; see Add an Internal User at the CLI, on page 45. You can also configure
AAA users according to Configure External Authentication for SSH, on page 987.
• For the 7000 & 8000 Series devices, you can create user accounts at the web interface as described in
Add an Internal User at the Web Interface, on page 43.
Procedure
Step 1 Connect to the device CLI, either from the console port or using SSH.
See Logging Into the Command Line Interface on FTD Devices, on page 26 or Logging Into the Command
Line Interface on Classic Devices, on page 25.
Step 2 Log in with the Admin username and password.
Step 3 Enable an event-only interface (for supported models; see Management Interface Support, on page 905):
configure network management-interface enable management_interface
configure network management-interface disable-management-channel management_interface
Example:
This example is for a Firepower 4100 or 9300 device; valid interface names differ by device type.
> configure network management-interface enable management1

Configuration updated successfully
> configure network management-interface disable-management-channel management1

Preserve existing configuration- currently no IP addresses on eth1 to update (bootproto
IPv4:,bootproto IPv6:
at /usr/local/sf/lib/perl/5.10.1/SF/NetworkConf/NetworkSettings.pm line 821.
>
The Firepower Management Center event-only interface cannot accept management channel traffic, so you
should simply disable the management channel on the device event interface.
You can optionally disable events for the management interface using the configure network
management-interface disable-events-channel command. In either case, the device will try to send events
on the event-only interface, and if that interface is down, it will send events on the management interface even
if you disable the event channel.
You cannot disable both event and management channels on an interface.
Step 4 Configure the network settings of the management interface and/or event interface:

916
If you do not specify the management_interface argument, then you change the network settings for the default
management interface. When configuring an event interface, be sure to specify the management_interface
argument. The event interface can be on a separate network from the management interface, or on the same
network. If you are connected to the interface you are configuring, you will be disconnected. You can re-connect
to the new IP address.
a) Configure the IPv4 address:
• Manual configuration:
configure network ipv4 manual ip_address netmask gateway_ip [management_interface]
Note that the gateway_ip in this command is only used to create the default route for the primary
management interface. If you set the gateway for an event-only interface, then this command ignores
the gateway and does not create a default or static route for it. You must create a static route separately
using the configure network static-routes command.
Example:
> configure network ipv4 manual 10.10.10.45 255.255.255.0 management1

Setting IPv4 network configuration.
Network settings changed.
>
• DHCP (supported on the default management interface only):

configure network ipv4 dhcp
b) Configure the IPv6 address:

• Stateless autoconfiguration:
configure network ipv6 router [management_interface]
Example:
> configure network ipv6 router management0

>
• Manual configuration:
configure network ipv6 manual ip6_address ip6_prefix_length [ip6_gateway_ip]
[management_interface]
Note that the ipv6_gateway_ip in this command is only used to create the default route for the primary
management interface. If you set the gateway for an event-only interface, then this command ignores
the gateway and does not create a default or static route for it. You must create a static route separately
using the configure network static-routes command.
Example:
> configure network ipv6 manual 2001:0DB8:BA98::3210 64 management1


917
>
• DHCPv6 (supported on the default management interface only):

configure network ipv6 dhcp
Step 5 (FTD only) Enable a DHCP server on the default management interface to provide IP addresses to connected
hosts:
configure network ipv4 dhcp-server-enable start_ip_address end_ip_address
Example:
> configure network ipv4 dhcp-server-enable 10.10.10.200 10.10.10.254

DHCP Server Enabled
>
You can only configure a DHCP server when you set the management interface IP address manually. This
command is not supported on the Firepower Threat Defense Virtual. To display the status of the DHCP server,
enter show network-dhcp-server:
> show network-dhcp-server

DHCP Server Enabled
10.10.10.200-10.10.10.254
Step 6 Add a static route for the event-only interface if the Firepower Management Center is on a remote network;
otherwise, all traffic will match the default route through the management interface.
configure network static-routes {ipv4 | ipv6}add management_interface destination_ip netmask_or_prefix
gateway_ip
For the default route, do not use this command; you can only change the default route gateway IP address
when you use the configure network ipv4 or ipv6 commands for the default management interface (see step
4).
For information about routing, see Network Routes on Management Interfaces, on page 908.
Example:
> configure network static-routes ipv4 add management1 192.168.6.0 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.1
> configure network static-routes ipv6 add management1 2001:0DB8:AA89::5110 64

2001:0DB8:BA98::3211
>
To display static routes, enter show network-static-routes (the default route is not shown):
> show network-static-routes

---------------[ IPv4 Static Routes ]---------------
Interface : management1
Destination : 192.168.6.0

918
Gateway : 10.10.10.1
Netmask : 255.255.255.0
[…]
Step 7 Set the hostname:

configure network hostname name
Example:
> configure network hostname farscape1
Syslog messages do not reflect a new hostname until after a reboot.
Step 8 Set the search domains:

configure network dns searchdomains domain_list
Example:
> configure network dns searchdomains example.com,cisco.com
Set the search domain(s) for the device, separated by commas. These domains are added to hostnames when
you do not specify a fully-qualified domain name in a command, for example, ping system. The domains are
used only on the management interface, or for commands that go through the management interface.
Step 9 Set up to 3 DNS servers, separated by commas:

configure network dns servers dns_ip_list
Example:
> configure network dns servers 10.10.6.5,10.20.89.2,10.80.54.3
Step 10 Set the remote management port for communication with the FMC:
configure network management-interface tcpport number
Example:
> configure network management-interface tcpport 8555
The FMC and managed devices communicate using a two-way, SSL-encrypted communication channel,
Note Cisco strongly recommends that you keep the default settings for the remote management port, but
if the management port conflicts with other communications on your network, you can choose a
different port. If you change the management port, you must change it for all devices in your
deployment that need to communicate with each other.
Step 11 Configure an HTTP proxy. The device is configured to directly-connect to the internet on ports TCP/443
(HTTPS) and TCP/80 (HTTP). You can use a proxy server, to which you can authenticate via HTTP Digest.
After issuing the command, you are prompted for the HTTP proxy address and port, whether proxy
authentication is required, and if it is required, the proxy username, proxy password, and confirmation of the
proxy password.

919
System Shut Down and Restart
configure network http-proxy

Example:
> configure network http-proxy

Manual proxy configuration
Enter HTTP Proxy address: 10.100.10.10
Enter HTTP Proxy Port: 80
Use Proxy Authentication? (y/n) [n]: Y
Enter Proxy Username: proxyuser
Enter Proxy Password: proxypassword
Confirm Proxy Password: proxypassword
Step 12 If you changed the management IP address, change the managed device IP address in the FMC according to
Editing Device Management Settings, on page 203.
If you specified a NAT ID (instead of an IP address) for the device in the FMC, then you can skip this step.
System Shut Down and Restart

Use your Firepower System's web interface to control the shut down and restart of processes on your appliance.
Shutting down the appliance prepares the system to be safely powered off and restarted without losing
configuration data.
You have several options for controlling the processes on Firepower Management Centers. You can:
• Shut down the system — Initiates a graceful shutdown of the Firepower system.
• Reboot the system — Shuts down and restarts the system in an orderly manner.
• Restart the console — Restarts the communications, database, and HTTP server processes. This is
typically used during troubleshooting.
These same options are available for 7000 and 8000 Series managed devices. You can also restart the Snort
process on these devices.
Caution Do not shut off appliances using the power button; it may cause a loss of data. Shut down appliances completely
via the web interface.
Caution Restarting the Snort process temporarily interrupts traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during this
interruption or passes without further inspection depends on how the target device handles traffic. See Snort®
Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
For Firepower virtual managed devices, the virtual infrastructure, such as VMware, typically provides
configurable power options to define the way a virtual machine is shut down, restarted, or suspended. Consult
the documentation for your virtual platform to determine how to set these options.

920
Shutting Down and Restarting the System
Note For Firepower virtual managed devices running on VMware, custom power options are part of VMware Tools,
so you must have VMware Tools installed on your virtual machines to configure graceful shut down.
Shutting Down and Restarting the System


7000 & 8000 Series
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Process.
Step 3 To shut down the appliance:
• FMC—Click Run Command next to Shutdown Management Center.
• Managed device—Click Run Command next to Shutdown Appliance.
Step 4 To reboot the appliance:

• FMC—Click Run Command next to Reboot Management Center.
• Managed device—Click Run Command next to Reboot Appliance.
Note When you reboot your Firepower Management Center or managed device, this logs you out of your
appliance, and the system runs a database check that can take up to an hour to complete.
Step 5 To restart the appliance:

• FMC—Click Run Command next to Restart Management Center.
• Managed device—Click Run Command next to Restart Appliance Console.
Note Restarting the Firepower Management Center may cause deleted hosts to reappear in the network
map.
Step 6 To restart the Snort process on a managed device, click Run Command next to Restart Snort.
Note This command is only available from the 7000 and 8000 Series device’s local web interface.
Caution Restarting the Snort process temporarily interrupts traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during
this interruption or passes without inspection depends on how the device is configured. See Snort®
Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
Related Topics

921
Remote Storage Management
Remote Storage Management

On Firepower Management Centers, you can use the following for local or remote storage for backups and
reports:
• Network File System (NFS)
• Server Message Block (SMB)/Common Internet File System (CIFS)
• Secure Shell (SSH)
Note The system supports only SMBv1 for backup and remote storage.
You cannot send backups to one remote system and reports to another, but you can choose to send either to
a remote system and store the other on the Firepower Management Center.
Tip After configuring and selecting remote storage, you can switch back to local storage only if you have not
increased the connection database limit.
Configuring Local Storage

Procedure

Step 2 Choose Remote Storage Device.
Step 3 Choose Local (No Remote Storage) from the Storage Type drop-down list.
Step 4 Click Save.
Configuring NFS for Remote Storage

Before you begin

• Ensure that your external remote storage system is functional and accessible from your FMC.

922
Configuring SMB for Remote Storage
Procedure

Step 2 Click Remote Storage Device.
Step 3 Choose NFS from the Storage Type drop-down list.
Step 4 Add the connection information:
• Enter the IPv4 address or hostname of the storage system in the Host field.
• Enter the path to your storage area in the Directory field.
Step 5 Optionally, check the Use Advanced Options check box and enter any required command line options; see
Remote Storage Management Advanced Options, on page 925.
Step 6 Under System Usage:
• Choose Use for Backups to store backups on the designated host.
• Choose Use for Reports to store reports on the designated host.
• Enter Disk Space Threshold for backup to remote storage. Default is 90%.
Step 7 To test the settings, click Test.

Step 8 Click Save.
Configuring SMB for Remote Storage

Before you begin

• Ensure that your external remote storage system is functional and accessible from your FMC.
Procedure

Step 3 Choose SMB from the Storage Type drop-down list.
• Enter the IPv4 address or hostname of the storage system in the Host field.
• Enter the share of your storage area in the Share field. Note that the system only recognizes top-level
shares and not full file paths. To use the specified Share directory as a remote backup destination, it must
be shared on the Windows system.

923
Configuring SSH for Remote Storage
• Optionally, enter the domain name for the remote storage system in the Domain field.
• Enter the user name for the storage system in the Username field and the password for that user in the
Password field.
Step 7 To test the settings, click Test.

Step 8 Click Save.
Configuring SSH for Remote Storage

Before you begin

• Ensure that your external remote storage system is functional and accessible from your Firepower
Management Center.
Procedure

Step 3 Choose SSH from the Storage Type drop-down list.
• Enter the IP address or host name of the storage system in the Host field.
• Enter the path to your storage area in the Directory field.
• Enter the storage system’s user name in the Username field and the password for that user in the Password
field. To specify a network domain as part of the connection user name, precede the user name with the
domain followed by a forward slash (/).
• To use SSH keys, copy the content of the SSH Public Key field and place it in your authorized_keys
file.

924
Remote Storage Management Advanced Options

Step 7 If you want to test the settings, you must click Test.
Step 8 Click Save.
Remote Storage Management Advanced Options

If you select the Network File System (NFS) protocol, Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, or SSH to use
secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) to store your reports and backups, you can select the Use Advanced
Options check box to use one of the mount binary options as documented in an NFS, SMB, or SSH mount
man page.
If you select SMB, you can enter the security mode in the Command Line Options field using the following
format:
sec=mode
where mode is the security mode you want to use for remote storage.
Table 68: SMB Security Mode Settings
Mode Description
[none] Attempt to connect as null user (no name).
krb5 Use Kerberos version 5 authentication.
krb5i Use Kerberos authentication and packet signing.
ntlm Use NTLM password hashing. (Default)
ntlmi Use NTLM password hashing with signing (may be

Default if /proc/fs/cifs/PacketSigningEnabled
is on or if server requires signing).
ntlmv2 Use NTLMv2 password hashing.
ntlmv2i Use NTLMv2 password hashing with packet signing.
Change Reconciliation
To monitor the changes that users make and ensure that they follow your organization’s preferred standard,
you can configure the system to send, via email, a detailed report of changes made over the past 24 hours.
Whenever a user saves changes to the system configuration, a snapshot is taken of the changes. The change
reconciliation report combines information from these snapshots to present a clear summary of recent system
changes.
The following sample graphic displays a User section of an example change reconciliation report and lists
both the previous value for each configuration and the value after changes. When users make multiple changes

925
Configuring Change Reconciliation
to the same configuration, the report lists summaries of each distinct change in chronological order, beginning
with the most recent.
You can view changes made during the previous 24 hours.
Configuring Change Reconciliation


7000 & 8000 Series
Before you begin

• Configure an email server to receive emailed reports of changes made to the system over a 24 hour period;
see Configuring a Mail Relay Host and Notification Address, on page 939 for more information.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Change Reconciliation.
Step 3 Check the Enable check box.
Step 4 Choose the time of day you want the system to send out the change reconciliation report from the Time to
Run drop-down lists.
Step 5 Enter email addresses in the Email to field.
Tip Once you have added email addresses, click Resend Last Report to send recipients another copy
of the most recent change reconciliation report.
Step 6 If you want to include policy changes, check the Include Policy Configuration check box.
Step 7 If you want to include all changes over the past 24 hours, check the Show Full Change History check box.
Step 8 Click Save.
Related Topics
Using the Audit Log to Examine Changes, on page 2544
Change Reconciliation Options

The Include Policy Configuration option controls whether the system includes records of policy changes in
the change reconciliation report. This includes changes to access control, intrusion, system, health, and network
discovery policies. If you do not select this option, the report will not show changes to any policies. This
option is available on Firepower Management Centers only.
The Show Full Change History option controls whether the system includes records of all changes over the
past 24 hours in the change reconciliation report. If you do not select this option, the report includes only a
consolidated view of changes for each category.

926
Policy Change Comments
Policy Change Comments

You can configure the Firepower System to track several policy-related changes using the comment functionality
when users modify access control, intrusion, or network analysis policies.
With policy change comments enabled, administrators can quickly assess why critical policies in a deployment
were modified. Optionally, you can have changes to intrusion and network analysis policies written to the
audit log.
Configuring Comments to Track Policy Changes

You can configure the Firepower System to prompt users for comments when they modify an access control
policy, intrusion policy, or network analysis policy. You can use comments to track users’ reasons for policy
changes. If you enable comments on policy changes, you can make the comment optional or mandatory. The
system prompts the user for a comment when each new change to a policy is saved.
Procedure

The system configuration options appear in the left navigation panel.
Step 2 Configure the policy comment preferences for any of the following:
• Click Access Control Preferences for comment preferences for access control policies.
• Click Intrusion Policy Preferences for comment preferences for intrusion policies.
• Click Network Analysis Policy Preferences for comment preferences for network analysis policies.
Step 3 You have the following choices for each policy type:
• Disabled—Disables change comments.
• Optional—Gives users the option to describe their changes in a comment.
• Required—Requires users to describe their changes in a comment before saving.
Step 4 Optionally for intrusion or network analysis policy comments:

• Check Write changes in Intrusion Policy to audit log to write all intrusion policy changes to the audit
log.
• Check Write changes in Network Analysis Policy to audit log to write all network analysis policy
changes to the audit log.
Step 5 Click Save.

927
The Access List
The Access List

On Firepower Management Center and Classic managed devices, you can use access lists to limit access to
the system by IP address and port. By default, the following ports are enabled for any IP address:
• 443 (HTTPS)—Used for web interface access.
• 22 (SSH)—Used for command line access.
You can also add access to poll for SNMP information over port 161.
Caution By default, access is not restricted. To operate in a more secure environment, consider adding access for
specific IP addresses and then deleting the default any option.
Configuring the Access List for Your System


Classic
This configuration applies to either a Firepower Management Center or a Classic managed device (7000 and
8000 Series, ASA FirePOWER, and NGIPSv):
• For the Firepower Management Center, this configuration is part of the system configuration.
• For a Classic managed device, you apply this configuration from the Firepower Management Center as
part of a platform settings policy.
In either case, the configuration does not take effect until you save your system configuration changes or
deploy the shared platform settings policy.
Note that this access list does not control external database access.
Procedure
Step 1 Depending on whether you are configuring a Firepower Management Center or a Classic managed device:
• FMC—Choose System > Configuration.
• Managed device—Choose Devices > Platform Settings and create or edit a Firepower policy.
Step 2 Click Access List.
Step 3 Optionally, to delete one of the current settings, click the delete icon ( ).
Caution If you delete access for the IP address that you are currently using to connect to the appliance
interface, and there is no entry for “IP=any port=443”, you will lose access to the system when
you deploy the policy.

928
Audit Logs
Step 4 To add access for one or more IP addresses, click Add Rules.
Step 6 Choose SSH, HTTPS, SNMP, or a combination of these options to specify which ports you want to enable
for these IP addresses.
Step 7 Click Add.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Audit Logs
Firepower Management Center records the activity of management center users in read-only audit logs.
Classic devices also maintain audit logs. See Audit Logs on Classic Devices, on page 966.
You can review audit log data in several ways:
• Audit logs are presented in a standard event view in the web interface. From this event view, you can
view, sort, and filter audit log messages based on any item in the audit view. You can easily delete and
report on audit information and you can view detailed reports of the changes that users make. See Auditing
the System, on page 2541.
• You can configure Firepower Management Center to send audit log messages to the syslog. See Sending
Audit Log Messages to the Syslog, on page 929.
• You can configure Firepower Management Center to stream audit log messages to an HTTP server. See
Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server, on page 931.
Streaming audit log data to an external syslog or HTTP server allows you to conserve space on the local
appliance.
To secure the channel for audit log streaming, enable TLS and mutual authentication using TLS certificates;
for more information, see Audit Log Certificate , on page 932.
Caution Sending audit information to an external URL may affect system performance.
Sending Audit Log Messages to the Syslog


929
Sending Audit Log Messages to the Syslog
Note To send audit log messages from Classic devices to a syslog server, see Sending Audit Log Messages from
Classic Devices to the Syslog, on page 966.
When this feature is enabled, audit log records appear in the syslog in the following format :
Date Time Host [Tag] Sender: User_Name@User_IP, Subsystem, Action
Where the local date, time, and originating hostname precede the bracketed optional tag, and the sending
device name precedes the audit log message.
For example, if you specify a tag of FROMMC, a sample audit log message could appear as follows:
Mar 01 14:45:24 localhost [FROMMC] Dev-MC7000: admin@10.1.1.2, Operations > Monitoring,
Page View
You can specify the severity, facility, and an optional tag associated with the messages. The tag appears with
the audit log messages in the syslog. The facility indicates the subsystem that creates the message and the
severity defines the severity of the message. Syslog messages do not include facilities and severities; these
values tell the system that receives the syslog messages how to categorize them.
Before you begin

• Ensure that the syslog server is functional and accessible from the system sending the audit log.
• You can secure the channel for audit log streaming by enabling TLS and mutual authentication using
TLS certificates; for more information, see Audit Log Certificate , on page 932.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Audit Log.
Step 3 Choose Enabled from the Send Audit Log to Syslog drop-down menu.
Step 4 Designate the destination host for the audit information by using the IP address or the fully qualified name
of the syslog server in the Host field. The default port (6514) is used.
Note Enter valid IPv4 addresses in the Host field; IPv6 addresses are not supported.
Caution If the computer you configure to receive an audit log is not set up to accept remote messages, the
host will not accept the audit log.
Step 5 From the Facility list, choose a facility described in Syslog Alert Facilities, on page 2184.
Step 6 From the Severity list, choose a severity described in Syslog Severity Levels, on page 2185.
Step 7 Optionally, in the Tag field, enter the tag name that you want to appear with the syslog message. For example,
if you want all audit log records sent to the syslog to be preceded with FROMMC, enter FROMMC in the field.
Step 8 Click Save.

930
Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server
Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server

Note To send audit log messages from Classic devices to an HTTP server, see Sending Audit Log Messages to an
HTTP Server from a Classic Device, on page 967.
When this feature is enabled, the appliance or device sends audit log records to an HTTP server in the following
format:
appliance or device name precedes the audit log message.
Page View
Before you begin

• Ensure that the external host is functional and accessible from the appliance or device sending the audit
log.
• You can secure the channel for this stream by enabling TLS and mutual authentication using SSL
certificates; for more information, see Audit Log Certificate , on page 932.
Procedure

Step 3 Optionally, in the Tag field, enter the tag name that you want to appear with the message. For example, if
you want all audit log records to be preceded with FROMMC, enter FROMMC in the field.
Step 4 Choose Enabled from the Send Audit Log to HTTP Server drop-down list.
Step 5 In the URL to Post Audit field, designate the URL where you want to send the audit information. Enter a
URL that corresponds to a Listener program that expects the HTTP POST variables as listed:
• subsystem
• actor
• event_type
• message
• action_source_ip
• action_destination_ip

931
Audit Log Certificate
• result
• time
• tag (if defined; see Step 3)
Caution To allow encrypted posts, use an HTTPS URL. Sending audit information to an external URL may
affect system performance.
Step 6 Click Save.
Audit Log Certificate

Client Certificate
To use a client certificate to secure communications between an audit log server and:
• The Firepower Management Center: See How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from the FMC, on page
933.
• Classic devices: See How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from NGIPS Devices, on page 969.
Note You cannot use the Management Center to work with certificates for managed devices; you must log in to
each device directly using its local web interface in order to work with certificates for those devices.
Server Certificate
You can optionally require the audit log server to provide a signed certificate.
Note If you require the server to provide a signed certificate, the client certificate must be signed by the same
certificate authority as the server certificate.
To verify the server certificate, configure the appliance to load one of more certificate revocation lists (CRLs).
The appliance compares the server certificate against those listed in the CRLs. If a server offers a certificate
that is listed in a CRL as a revoked certificate, the audit log cannot be streamed to that server. See Require
Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and FMC, on page 936.
Note If you choose to verify certificates using CRLs, the system uses the same CRLs to validate both audit log
server certificates and certificates used to secure the HTTP connection between an appliance and a web
browser.

932
How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from the FMC
How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from the FMC

If you stream the audit log to a trusted HTTP server or syslog server, you can use Transport Layer Security
(TLS) certificates to secure the channel between the appliance and the server.
Each client certificate is unique to a specific appliance or device. If you have multiple appliances and/or
devices, follow all steps below for each appliance.
To securely stream audit logs from managed Classic devices to an external server, see How to Securely Stream
Audit Logs from NGIPS Devices, on page 969.
Use the following procedure to securely stream the audit log from a Firepower Management Center to an
external server.
Before you begin

See ramifications of requiring client and server certificates at Audit Log Certificate , on page 932.
Procedure
Step 1 Obtain and install a signed client certificate on your appliance:

a) Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for the FMC, on page 934:
Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) from the appliance based on your system information and
the identification information you supply.
Submit the CSR to a recognized, trusted certificate authority (CA) to request a signed client certificate.
If you will require mutual authentication between the appliance and the audit log server, the client certificate
must be signed by the same CA that signed the server certificate to be used for the connection.
b) After you receive the signed certificate from the certificate authority, import it into the appliance. See
Import an Audit Log Client Certificate into the FMC, on page 935.
Step 2 Configure the communication channel with the server to use Transport Layer Security (TLS) and enable
mutual authentication.
See Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and FMC, on page 936.
Step 3 Configure audit log streaming if you have not yet done so: See
• Sending Audit Log Messages to the Syslog, on page 929
• Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server, on page 931

933
Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for the FMC
Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for the FMC

N/A Any FMC Global only Admin
To obtain a certificate for a managed Classic device, see Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for a
Classic Device, on page 970.
Important The Audit Log Certificate page is not available on a standby Firepower Management Center in a high
availability setup. You cannot perform this task from a standby Firepower Management Center.
The system generates certificate request keys in Base-64 encoded PEM format.
Before you begin

• You must generate a certificate signing request (CSR) from the device or appliance on which you will
install the certificate. (For example, you cannot generate a certificate signing request for Device B from
Appliance A.) You must generate a unique certificate signing request from each device and appliance.
• To ensure security, use a globally recognized and trusted Certificate Authority (CA) to sign your certificate.
• If you will require mutual authentication between the appliance and the audit log server, the same
Certificate Authority must sign both the client certificate and the server certificate.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Audit Log Certificate.
Name field.
Note If the common name and the DNS hostname do not match, audit log streaming will fail.

Step 11 Open a new blank file with a text editor.

934
Import an Audit Log Client Certificate into the FMC
Step 13 Save the file as clientname.csr, where clientname is the name of the appliance where you plan to use the
certificate.
What to do next
• Submit the certificate signing request to the certificate authority that you selected using the guidelines
in the "Before You Begin" section of this procedure.
• When you receive the signed certificate, import it to the appliance; see Import an Audit Log Client
Certificate into the FMC, on page 935.
Import an Audit Log Client Certificate into the FMC

Note To import an audit log client certificate into a Classic managed device, see Import an Audit Log Client
Certificate into a Classic Device, on page 971.
Before you begin

• Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for the FMC, on page 934.
• Make sure you are importing the signed certificate for the correct appliance. Each certificate is unique
to a specific appliance or device.
• If the signing authority that generated the certificate requires you to trust an intermediate CA, be prepared
to provide the necessary certificate chain (or certificate path). The CA that signed the client certificate
must be the same CA that signed any intermediate certificates in the certificate chain.
Procedure
Step 1 On the FMC, choose System > Configuration.

Step 3 Click Import Audit Client Certificate.
Step 4 Open the client certificate in a text editor, copy the entire block of text, including the BEGIN CERTIFICATE
and END CERTIFICATE lines. Paste this text into the Client Certificate field.

935
Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and FMC
Step 5 To upload a private key, open the private key file and copy the entire block of text, including the BEGIN RSA
PRIVATE KEY and END RSA PRIVATE KEY lines. Paste this text into the Private Key field.
Step 6 Open any required intermediate certificates, copy the entire block of text for each, and paste it into the
Step 7 Click Save.
Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and FMC

The system supports validating audit log server certificates using imported CRLs in Distinguished Encoding
Rules (DER) format.
browser.
To require certificates for Classic managed devices, see Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log
Server and 7000 and 8000 Series Devices, on page 972.
Before you begin

• Understand the ramifications of requiring mutual authentication and of using certificate revocation lists
(CRLs) to ensure that certificates are still valid. See Audit Log Certificate , on page 932.
• Obtain and import the client certificate following the steps in How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from
the FMC, on page 933 and the topics referenced in that procedure.
Procedure
Step 1 On the FMC, choose System > Configuration.

Step 3 To use Transport Layer Security to securely stream the audit log to an external server, choose Enable TLS.
Step 4 If you want to accept server certificates without verification (not recommended):
a) Deselect Enable Mutual Authentication.
b) Click Save and skip the remainder of this procedure.
Step 5 To verify the certificate of the audit log server, choose Enable Mutual Authentication.

936
View the Audit Log Client Certificate on the FMC
Step 6 (If you enabled mutual authentication) To automatically recognize certificates that are no longer valid:
a) Select Enable Fetching of CRL.
Note Enabling fetching of the CRL creates a scheduled task to regularly update the CRL or CRLs.
b) Enter a valid URL to an existing CRL file and click Add CRL.
Repeat to add up to 25 CRLs.
c) Click Refresh CRL to load the current CRL or CRLs from the specified URL or URLs.
Step 7 Verify that you have a valid server certificate generated by the same certificate authority that created the client
certificate.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
(Optional) To set the frequency of CRL updates, see Configuring Certificate Revocation List Downloads, on
page 152.
View the Audit Log Client Certificate on the FMC

You can view the audit log client certificate only for the appliance or device that you are logged in to.
Note To view the audit log certificate for a hardware 7000 or 8000 Series or ASA FirePOWER managed device,
see View the Audit Log Client Certificate on a Classic Device, on page 973.
To view the current audit log certificate on the FMC:
Procedure


937
Dashboard Settings
Dashboard Settings
Dashboards provide you with at-a-glance views of current system status through the use of widgets: small,
self-contained components that provide insight into different aspects of the Firepower System. The Firepower
System is delivered with several predefined dashboard widgets.
You can configure the Firepower Management Center so that Custom Analysis widgets are enabled on the
dashboard.
Related Topics
About Dashboards, on page 219
Enabling Custom Analysis Widgets for Dashboards

Use Custom Analysis dashboard widgets to create a visual representation of events based on a flexible,
user-configurable query.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Dashboard.
Step 3 Check the Enable Custom Analysis Widgets check box to allow users to add Custom Analysis widgets to
dashboards.
Step 4 Click Save.
DNS Cache
You can configure the system to resolve IP addresses automatically on the event view pages. You can also
configure basic properties for DNS caching performed by the appliance. Configuring DNS caching allows
you to identify IP addresses you previously resolved without performing additional lookups. This can reduce
the amount of traffic on your network and speed the display of event pages when IP address resolution is
enabled.
Configuring DNS Cache Properties

DNS resolution caching is a system-wide setting that allows the caching of previously resolved DNS lookups.

938
Email Notifications
Procedure

Step 2 Choose DNS Cache.
Step 3 From the DNS Resolution Caching drop-down list, choose one of the following:
• Enabled—Enable caching.
• Disabled—Disable caching.
Step 4 In the DNS Cache Timeout (in minutes) field, enter the number of minutes a DNS entry remains cached in
memory before it is removed for inactivity.
The default setting is 300 minutes (five hours).
Step 5 Click Save.
Related Topics
Configuring Event View Settings, on page 33
Email Notifications
Configure a mail host if you plan to:
• Email event-based reports
• Email status reports for scheduled tasks
• Email change reconciliation reports
• Email data-pruning notifications
• Use email for discovery event, impact flag, correlation event alerting, intrusion event alerting, and health
event alerting
When you configure email notification, you can select an encryption method for the communication between
the system and mail relay host, and can supply authentication credentials for the mail server if needed. After
configuring, you can test the connection.
Configuring a Mail Relay Host and Notification Address

Procedure

939
Language Selection
Step 2 Click Email Notification.

Step 3 In the Mail Relay Host field, enter the hostname or IP address of the mail server you want to use. The mail
host you enter must allow access from the appliance.
Step 4 In the Port Number field, enter the port number to use on the email server.
Typical ports include:
• 25, when using no encryption
• 465, when using SSLv3
• 587, when using TLS
Step 5 Choose an Encryption Method:

• TLS—Encrypt communications using Transport Layer Security.
• SSLv3—Encrypt communications using Secure Socket Layers.
• None—Allow unencrypted communication.
Note Certificate validation is not required for encrypted communication between the appliance and mail
server.
Step 6 In the From Address field, enter the valid email address you want to use as the source email address for
messages sent by the appliance.
Step 7 Optionally, to supply a user name and password when connecting to the mail server, choose Use
Authentication. Enter a user name in the Username field. Enter a password in the Password field.
Step 8 To send a test email using the configured mail server, click Test Mail Server Settings.
A message appears next to the button indicating the success or failure of the test.
Step 9 Click Save.
Language Selection
You can use the Language page to specify a different language for the web interface.
Specifying a Different Language


7000 & 8000 Series
This configuration applies to either a Firepower Management Center or a 7000 and 8000 Series managed
device.
• For a 7000 and 8000 Series managed device, you apply this configuration from the Firepower Management
Center as part of a platform settings policy.

940
Login Banners
Caution The language you specify here is used for the web interface for every user who logs into the appliance.
Procedure
Step 2 Click Language.

Step 3 Choose the language you want to use.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
Login Banners
You can use the Login Banner page to specify session, login, or custom message banners for a security
appliance or shared policy.
You can use spaces but not tabs in banner text. You can specify multiple lines of text for the banner. If your
text includes empty lines, the system displays this as a carriage return (CR) in the banner. You can only use
ASCII characters, including new-line (press the Enter key), which counts as two characters.
When you access the security appliance through Telnet or SSH, the session closes if there is not enough system
memory available to process the banner messages, or if a TCP write error occurs when attempting to display
the banner messages.
Adding a Custom Login Banner


Classic
You can create a custom login banner that appears to users logging in via either SSH or the web interface.

941
SNMP Polling
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Login Banner.

Step 3 In the Custom Login Banner field, enter the login banner text you want to use.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
SNMP Polling
You can enable Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) polling for Firepower Management Centers
and Classic managed devices. This feature supports use of versions 1, 2, and 3 of the SNMP protocol.
This feature allows access to:
• The standard management information base (MIB), which includes system details such as contact,
administrative, location, service information, IP addressing and routing information, and transmission
protocol usage statistics
• Additional MIBs for 7000 and 8000 Series managed devices that include statistics on traffic passing
through physical interfaces, logical interfaces, virtual interfaces, ARP, NDP, virtual bridges, and virtual
routers
Note When selecting SNMP versions for the SNMP protocol, note that SNMPv2 only supports read-only communities
and SNMPv3 only supports read-only users. SNMPv3 also supports encryption with AES128.
Note that enabling the SNMP feature does not cause the system to send SNMP traps; it only makes the
information in the MIBs available for polling by your network management system.

942
Configuring SNMP Polling


Classic
Note You must add SNMP access for any computer you plan to use to poll the system. Note that the SNMP MIB
contains information that could be used to attack your deployment. Cisco recommends that you restrict your
access list for SNMP access to the specific hosts that will be used to poll for the MIB. Cisco also recommends
you use SNMPv3 and use strong passwords for network management access.
SNMPv3 only supports read-only users and encryption with AES128.
Before you begin

• Add SNMP access for each computer you plan to use to poll the system as described in Configuring the
Access List for Your System, on page 928.
Procedure
Step 2 Click SNMP.

Step 3 From the SNMP Version drop-down list, choose the SNMP version you want to use.
• If you chose Version 1 or Version 2, enter the SNMP community name in the Community String field.
Go to step 13.
Note SNMPv2 only supports read-only communities.
• If you chose Version 3, click Add User to display the user definition page.
Note SNMPv3 only supports read-only users and encryption with AES128.

943
Time and Time Synchronization
Step 5 Enter a Username.

Step 6 Choose the protocol you want to use for authentication from the Authentication Protocol drop-down list.
Step 7 Enter the password required for authentication with the SNMP server in the Authentication Password field.
Step 8 Re-enter the authentication password in the Verify Password field.
Step 9 Choose the privacy protocol you want to use from the Privacy Protocol list, or choose None to not use a
privacy protocol.
Step 10 Enter the SNMP privacy key required by the SNMP server in the Privacy Password field.
Step 11 Re-enter the privacy password in the Verify Password field.
Step 12 Click Add.
Step 13 Click Save.
What to do next
Time and Time Synchronization

Synchronizing the system time on your Firepower Management Center and its managed devices is essential
to successful operation of your Firepower System.
Use a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server to synchronize system time on FMC and all devices.
Caution Unintended consequences may occur when time is not synchronized between the Firepower Management
Center and managed devices.
Synchronize Time Using a Network NTP Server

The best way to ensure proper synchronization between Firepower Management Center and all managed
devices is to use an NTP server on your network.
Before you begin

Note the following:
• If your FMC and managed devices cannot access a network NTP server, do not use this procedure.
Instead, see Synchronize Time Without Access to a Network NTP Server, on page 945.
• Do not specify an untrusted NTP server.
• Connections to NTP servers do not use configured proxy settings.

944
Synchronize Time Without Access to a Network NTP Server
Caution If the Firepower Management Center is rebooted and your DHCP server sets an NTP server record different
than the one you specify here, the DHCP-provided NTP server will be used instead. To avoid this situation,
configure your DHCP server to set the same NTP server.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Time Synchronization.
Step 3 If Serve Time via NTP is Enabled, choose Disabled.
Step 4 For the Set My Clock option, choose Via NTP from and enter the hostname or IP address of an NTP server.
If your organization has corroborative NTP servers, enter multiple NTP servers as a comma-separated list.
Step 5 Click Save.

Step 6 Set managed devices to synchronize with the same NTP server:
a) In the Time Synchronization settings for the platform settings policy assigned to your managed devices,
set the clock to synchronize Via NTP from and specify the same NTP server that you specified above.
b) Deploy the change to the devices.
For instructions:
• For Firepower Threat Defense devices, see Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense,
on page 1021
• For all other devices, see Synchronizing Time on Classic Devices, on page 981
Synchronize Time Without Access to a Network NTP Server

If your devices cannot directly reach the network NTP server, or your organization does not have a network
NTP server, a physical-hardware Firepower Management Center can serve as an NTP server.
Important Do not use a virtual Firepower Management Center as an NTP server.
Procedure
Step 1 Manually set the system time on the Firepower Management Center:
a) Choose System > Configuration.

945
About Changing Time Synchronization Settings
b) Click Time Synchronization.

c) If Serve Time via NTP is Enabled, choose Disabled.
d) Click Save.
e) For Set My Clock, choose Manually in Local Configuration.
f) Click Save.
g) In the navigation panel at the left side of the screen, click Time.
h) Use the Set Time drop-down lists to set the time.
i) If the time zone displayed is not UTC, click it and set the time zone to UTC.
j) Click Save.
k) Click Done.
l) Click Apply.
Step 2 Set the Firepower Management Center to serve as an NTP server:
a) In the navigation panel at the left side of the screen, click Time Synchronization.
b) For Serve Time via NTP, choose Enabled.
c) Click Save.
Step 3 Set managed devices to synchronize with the Firepower Management Center NTP server:
a) In the Time Synchronization settings for the platform settings policy assigned to your managed devices,
set the clock to synchronize Via NTP from Management Center.
b) Deploy the change to managed devices.
For instructions:
• For Firepower Threat Defense devices, see Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense,
on page 1021
• For all other devices, see Synchronizing Time on Classic Devices, on page 981
About Changing Time Synchronization Settings

• If you configure the FMC to serve time using NTP, and then later disable it, the NTP service on managed
devices still attempts to synchronize time with the FMC. You must update and redeploy any applicable
platform settings policies to establish a new time source.
• If you need to change the time manually after configuring the Firepower Management Center as an NTP
server, you need to disable the NTP option, change the time manually, and then re-enable the NTP option.
View Current System Time, Source, and NTP Server Connection Status
Time settings are displayed on most pages in local time using the time zone you set on the Time Zone page
in User Preferences (the default is America/New York), but are stored on the appliance using UTC time.

946
NTP Server Status
In addition, the current time appears in UTC at the top of the Time Synchronization page (local time is displayed
in the Manual clock setting option, if enabled).
Note To view time and time source information on your NGIPS hardware device, see View Current System Time,
Source, and NTP Server Connection Status for NGIPS Devices, on page 982.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Time.
If your appliance uses an NTP server: For information about the table entries, see NTP Server Status, on page
947.
NTP Server Status

When the system is synchronizing time from an NTP server, you can view the NTP Status from the Firepower
Management Center's Time page (under the System > Configuration menu) and from the local web interface
of 7000 and 8000 Series devices:
Table 69: NTP Status
Column Description
NTP Server The IP address and name of the configured NTP server.
Status The status of the NTP server time synchronization:

• Being Used indicates that the appliance is synchronized with the NTP server.
• Available indicates that the NTP server is available for use, but time is not
yet synchronized.
• Not Available indicates that the NTP server is in your configuration, but
the NTP daemon is unable to use it.
• Pending indicates that the NTP server is new or the NTP daemon was
recently restarted. Over time, its value should change to Being Used,
Available, or Not Available.
• Unknown indicates that the status of the NTP server is unknown.

947
Session Timeouts
Column Description
Offset The number of milliseconds of difference between the time on the appliance and
the configured NTP server. Negative values indicate that the appliance is behind
the NTP server, and positive values indicate that it is ahead.
Last Update The number of seconds that have elapsed since the time was last synchronized
with the NTP server. The NTP daemon automatically adjusts the synchronization
times based on a number of conditions. For example, if you see larger update
times such as 300 seconds, that indicates that the time is relatively stable and the
NTP daemon has determined that it does not need to use a lower update increment.
Session Timeouts
Unattended login sessions of the Firepower System web interface or auxiliary command line interface may
be security risks. You can configure, in minutes, the amount of idle time before a user’s login session times
out due to inactivity. You can also set a similar timeout for shell (command line) sessions.
Your deployment may have users who plan to passively, securely monitor the web interface for long periods
of time. You can exempt users from the web interface session timeout with a user configuration option. Users
with the Administrator role, whose complete access to menu options poses an extra risk if compromised,
cannot be made exempt from session timeouts.
Configuring Session Timeouts


Classic
Procedure
Step 2 Click Shell Timeout.

948
Vulnerability Mapping

• To configure session timeout for the web interface, enter a number (of minutes) in the Browser Session
Timeout (Minutes) field. The default value is 60; the maximum value is 1440 (24 hours). For information
on how to exempt users from this session timeout, see Add an Internal User at the Web Interface, on
page 43.
• To configure session timeout for the command line interface, enter a number (of minutes) in the Shell
Timeout (Minutes) field. The default value is 0; the maximum value is 1440 (24 hours).
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
Vulnerability Mapping
The Firepower System automatically maps vulnerabilities to a host IP address for any application protocol
traffic received or sent from that address, when the server has an application ID in the discovery event database
and the packet header for the traffic includes a vendor and version.
For any servers which do not include vendor or version information in their packets, you can configure whether
the system associates vulnerabilities with server traffic for these vendor and versionless servers.
For example, a host serves SMTP traffic that does not have a vendor or version in the header. If you enable
the SMTP server on the Vulnerability Mapping page of a system configuration, then save that configuration
to the Firepower Management Center managing the device that detects the traffic, all vulnerabilities associated
with SMTP servers are added to the host profile for the host.
Although detectors collect server information and add it to host profiles, the application protocol detectors
will not be used for vulnerability mapping, because you cannot specify a vendor or version for a custom
application protocol detector and cannot select the server for vulnerability mapping.
Mapping Vulnerabilities for Servers

Any Protection FMC Global only Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Vulnerability Mapping.
• To prevent vulnerabilities for a server from being mapped to hosts that receive application protocol traffic
without vendor or version information, clear the check box for that server.

949
Remote Console Access Management
• To cause vulnerabilities for a server to be mapped to hosts that receive application protocol traffic without
vendor or version information, check the check box for that server.
Tip You can check or clear all check boxes at once using the check box next to Enabled.
Step 4 Click Save.
Remote Console Access Management

You can use a Linux system console for remote access on supported systems via either the VGA port (which
is the default) or the serial port on the physical appliance. Use the Console Configuration page to choose the
option most suitable to the physical layout of your organization’s Cisco deployment.
On supported physical-hardware-based Firepower systems, you can use Lights-Out Management (LOM) on
the default (eth0) management interface on a Serial Over LAN (SOL) connection to remotely monitor or
manage the system without logging into the management interface of the system. You can perform limited
tasks, such as viewing the chassis serial number or monitoring such conditions as fan speed and temperature,
using a command line interface on an out-of-band management connection.
You must enable LOM for both the system and the user you want to manage the system. After you enable the
system and the user, you use a third-party Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) utility to access
and manage your system.
Configuring Remote Console Settings on the System

Any Any FMC and 7000 & Global only Admin with LOM
8000 Series access
Before you begin

• Disable Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) on any third-party switching equipment connected to the device’s
Procedure

Step 2 Click Console Configuration.
Step 3 Choose a remote console access option:
• Choose VGA to use the appliance’s VGA port.
• Choose Physical Serial Port to use the appliance’s serial port, or to use LOM/SOL on a Firepower
Management Center, Firepower 7050, or 8000 Series device.
• Choose Lights-Out Management to use LOM/SOL on a 7000 Series device (except the Firepower
7050). On these devices, you cannot use SOL and a regular serial connection at the same time.

950
Lights-Out Management User Access Configuration
Note When you change your remote console from Physical Serial Port to Lights-Out Management or
from Lights-Out Management to Physical Serial Port on the 70xx Family of devices (except the
Firepower 7050), you may have to reboot the appliance twice to see the expected boot prompt.
Step 4 To configure LOM via SOL, enter the necessary IPv4 settings:
• Choose the address Configuration for the system (DHCP or Manual)
• Enter the IP Address to be used for LOM.
Note The LOM IP address must be different from the management interface IP address of the system.
• Enter the Netmask for the system.

• Enter the Default Gateway for the system.
Step 5 Click Save.
What to do next
• If you configured Lights-Out Management, enable a Lights-Out Management user; see Lights-Out
Management User Access Configuration, on page 951.
Lights-Out Management User Access Configuration

You must explicitly grant Lights-Out Management permissions to users who will use the feature. LOM users
also have the following restrictions:
• You must assign the Administrator role to the user.
• The username may have up to 16 alphanumeric characters. Hyphens and longer user names are not
supported for LOM users.
• The password may have up to 20 alphanumeric characters, except when set on 71xx Family devices. If
LOM is enabled on a Firepower 7110, 7115, 7120, or 7125 device, the password may have up to 16
alphanumeric characters. Passwords longer than 20 or 16 characters, respectively, are not supported for
LOM users. A user’s LOM password is the same as that user’s system password. Cisco recommends that
you use a complex, non-dictionary-based password of the maximum supported length for your appliance
and change it every three months.
• Physical Firepower Management Centers and 8000 Series devices can have up to 13 LOM users. 8000
Series devices can have up to eight LOM users.
Note that if you deactivate, then reactivate, a role with LOM while a user with that role is logged in, or restore
a user or user role from a backup during that user’s login session, that user must log back into the web interface
to regain access to IPMItool commands.

951
Enabling Lights-Out Management User Access
Enabling Lights-Out Management User Access

Any Any FMC and 7000 & Global only Admin with LOM
8000 Series access
You configure LOM and LOM users on a per-system basis using each system’s local web interface. You
cannot use the Firepower Management Center to configure LOM on a managed device. Similarly, because
users are managed independently per appliance, enabling or creating a LOM-enabled user on the Firepower
Management Center does not transfer that capability to users on managed devices.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Console Configuration.
Step 3 Click Lights Out Management.
• To grant LOM user access to an existing user, click the edit icon ( ) next to a user name in the list.
• To grant LOM user access to a new user, click Create User.
Step 5 Under User Configuration, enable the Administrator role.

Step 6 Check the Allow Lights-Out Management Access check box.
Step 7 Click Save.
Serial Over LAN Connection Configuration

You use a third-party IPMI utility on your computer to create a Serial Over LAN connection to the appliance.
If your computer uses a Linux-like or Mac environment, use IPMItool; for Windows environments, use
IPMIutil.
Note Cisco recommends using IPMItool version 1.8.12 or greater.
Linux
IPMItool is standard with many distributions and is ready to use.
Mac
You must install IPMItool on a Mac. First, confirm that your Mac has Apple's XCode Developer tools installed,
making sure that the optional components for command line development are installed (UNIX Development
and System Tools in newer versions, or Command Line Support in older versions). Then you can install
macports and the IPMItool. Use your favorite search engine for more information or try these sites:

952
Configuring Serial Over LAN with IPMItool
https://developer.apple.com/technologies/tools/
http://www.macports.org/
Windows
You must compile IPMIutil on Windows. If you do not have access to a compiler, you can use IPMIutil itself
to compile. Use your favorite search engine for more information or try this site:
http://ipmiutil.sourceforge.net/
Understanding IPMI Utility Commands

Commands used for IPMI utilities are composed of segments as in the following IPMItool example:
ipmitool -I lanplus -H IP_address -U user_name command
where:
• ipmitool invokes the utility
• -I lanplus enables encryption for the session
• -H IP_address indicates the IP address of the appliance you want to access
• -U user_name is the name of an authorized user
• - command is the name of the command you want to give
The same command for Windows looks like this:
ipmiutil command -V 4 -J 3 -N IP_address -Uuser_name
This command connects you to the command line on the appliance where you can log in as if you were
physically present at the appliance. You may be prompted to enter a password.
Configuring Serial Over LAN with IPMItool

Any Any FMC and 7000 & Any Admin with LOM
8000 Series access
Procedure
Using IPMItool, enter the following command, and a password if prompted:

953
Configuring Serial Over LAN with IPMIutil
ipmitool -I lanplus -H IP_address -U user_name sol activate
Configuring Serial Over LAN with IPMIutil

8000 Series access
Procedure
Using IPMIutil, enter the following command, and a password if prompted:
ipmiutil -J 3 -H IP_address -U username sol -a
Lights-Out Management Overview

Lights-Out Management (LOM) provides the ability to perform a limited set of actions over an SOL connection
on the default (eth0) management interface without the need to log into the system. You use the command
to create a SOL connection followed by one of the LOM commands. After the command is completed, the
connection ends. Note that not all power control commands are valid on 70xx Family devices.
Note The baseboard management controller (BMC) for a Firepower 71xx, Firepower 82xx, or a Firepower 83xx
device is only accessible via 1Gbps link speeds when the host is powered on. When the device is powered
down, the BMC can only establish Ethernet link at 10 and 100Mbps. Therefore if LOM is being used to
remotely power the device, connect the device to the network using 10 and 100Mbps link speeds only.
Caution In rare cases, if your computer is on a different subnet than the system's management interface and the system
is configured for DHCP, attempting to access LOM features can fail. If this occurs, you can either disable and
then re-enable LOM on the system, or use a computer on the same subnet as the system to ping its management
interface. You should then be able to use LOM.
Caution Cisco is aware of a vulnerability inherent in the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) standard
(CVE-2013-4786). Enabling Lights-Out Management (LOM) on an system exposes this vulnerability. To
mitigate this vulnerability, deploy your systems on a secure management network accessible only to trusted
users and use a complex, non-dictionary-based password of the maximum supported length for your system
and change it every three months. To prevent exposure to this vulnerability, do not enable LOM.

954
Lights-Out Management Overview
If all attempts to access your system have failed, you can use LOM to restart your system remotely. Note that
if a system is restarted while the SOL connection is active, the LOM session may disconnect or time out.
Caution Do not restart your system unless it does not respond to any other attempts to restart. Remotely restarting
does not gracefully reboot the system and you may lose data.
Table 70: Lights-Out Management Commands
IPMItool IPMIutil Description
(not applicable) -V 4 Enables admin privileges for the

IPMI session
-I lanplus -J 3 Enables encryption for the IPMI

session
-H -N Indicates the IP address of the

remote appliance
-U -U Indicates the username of an

authorized LOM account
sol activate sol -a Starts the SOL session
sol deactivate sol -d Ends the SOL session
chassis power cycle power -c Restarts the appliance (not valid on

70xx Family devices)
chassis power on power -u Powers up the appliance
chassis power off power -d Powers down the appliance (not

valid on 70xx Family devices)
sdr sensor Displays appliance information,

such as fan speeds and temperatures
For example, to display a list of appliance information, the IPMItool command is:
ipmitool -I lanplus -H IP_address -U user_name sdr
The same command with the IPMIutil utility is:
ipmiutil sensor -V 4 -J 3 -N IP_address -U user_name

955
Configuring Lights-Out Management with IPMItool
Configuring Lights-Out Management with IPMItool

8000 Series access
Procedure
Enter the following command for IPMItool and a password if prompted:
ipmitool -I lanplus -H IP_address -U user_name command
Configuring Lights-Out Management with IPMIutil

8000 Series access
Procedure
Enter the following command for IPMIutil and a password if prompted:
ipmiutil -J 3 -H IP_address -U username command
REST API Preferences

The Firepower REST API provides a lightweight interface for third-party applications to view and manage
appliance configuration using a REST client and standard HTTP methods. For more information on the
Firepower REST API, see the Firepower REST API Quick Start Guide.
By default, the Firepower Management Center allows requests from applications using the REST API. You
can configure the Firepower Management Center to block this access.
Enabling REST API Access


956
VMware Tools and Virtual Systems
Note In deployments using Firepower Management Center high availability, this feature is available only in the
active Firepower Management Center.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose System > Configuration

Step 2 Click REST API Preferences.
Step 3 To enable or disable REST API access to the Firepower Management Center, check or uncheck the Enable
REST API checkbox.
Step 4 Click Save.
VMware Tools and Virtual Systems

VMware Tools is a suite of performance-enhancing utilities intended for virtual machines. These utilities
allow you to make full use of the convenient features of VMware products. Firepower virtual appliances
running on VMware support the following plugins:
• guestInfo
• powerOps
• timeSync
• vmbackup
You can also enable VMware Tools on all supported versions of ESXi. For a list of supported versions, see
the Cisco Firepower NGIPSv for VMware Quick Start Guide. For information on the full functionality of
VMware Tools, see the VMware website (http://www.vmware.com/).
Enabling VMware Tools on the Firepower Management Center for VMware

Any Any Firepower Global only Admin

Management Center
Because NGIPSv does not have a web interface, you must use the CLI to enable VMware Tools on that
platform; see the Cisco Firepower NGIPSv for VMware Quick Start Guide.
Procedure

Step 2 Click VMware Tools.

957
(Optional) Opt Out of Web Analytics Tracking
Step 3 Click Enable VMware Tools.

Step 4 Click Save.
(Optional) Opt Out of Web Analytics Tracking

By default, in order to improve Firepower products, Cisco collects non-personally-identifiable usage data,
including but not limited to pages viewed, the time spent on a page, browser versions, product versions, user
location, and management IP addresses or hostnames of your Firepower Management Center appliances.
If you do not want Cisco to collect this data, you can opt out.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Web Analytics.
Step 3 Make your choice and click Save.
What to do next
(Optional) Determine whether to share data via the Cisco Success Network, on page 111.

958
CHAPTER 48
Platform Settings Policies for Managed Devices
The following topics explain platform settings policies and how to deploy them to managed devices:
• Introduction to Platform Settings, on page 959
• Managing Platform Settings Policies, on page 960
• Creating a Platform Settings Policy, on page 960
• Setting Target Devices for a Platform Settings Policy, on page 961
Introduction to Platform Settings

A platform settings policy is a shared set of features or parameters that define the aspects of a managed device
that are likely to be similar to other managed devices in your deployment, such as time settings and external
authentication.
A shared policy makes it possible to configure multiple managed devices at once, which provides consistency
in your deployment and streamlines your management efforts. Any changes to a platform settings policy
affects all the managed devices where you applied the policy. Even if you want different settings per device,
you must create a shared policy and apply it to the desired device.
For example, your organization’s security policies may require that your appliances have a “No Unauthorized
Use” message when a user logs in. With platform settings, you can set the login banner once in a platform
settings policy.
You can also benefit from having multiple platform settings policies on a Firepower Management Center.
For example, if you have different mail relay hosts that you use under different circumstances or if you want
to test different access lists, you can create several platform settings policies and switch between them, rather
than editing a single policy.
Related Topics
Configuring Firepower Platform Settings, on page 963
System Configuration Settings, on page 890

959
Managing Platform Settings Policies
Managing Platform Settings Policies


Admin/Network
Admin
Use the Platform Settings page (Devices > Platform Settings) to manage platform settings policies. This
page indicates the type of device for each policy. The Status column shows the device targets for the policy.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > Platform Settings.

Step 2 Manage your platform settings policies:
• Create — To create a new platform settings policy, click New Policy; see Creating a Platform Settings
Policy, on page 960.
• Copy — To copy a platform settings policy, click the copy icon ( ).
• Edit — To modify the settings in an existing platform settings policy, click the edit icon ( ).
• Delete — To delete a policy that is not in use, click the delete icon ( ), then confirm your choice.
Caution You should not delete a policy that is the last deployed policy on any of its target devices, even
if it is out of date. Before you delete the policy completely, it is good practice to deploy a
different policy to those targets.
What to do next
Creating a Platform Settings Policy


Admin/Network
Admin
When you create a new platform settings policy you must, at minimum, choose the device type: Classic
managed devices or Firepower Threat Defense.

960
Setting Target Devices for a Platform Settings Policy
Note Platform settings for Firepower Threat Defense devices differ from platform settings for Classic managed
devices.
Procedure

Step 3 Choose a device type from the drop-down list:
• Choose Firepower Settings to create a shared policy for Classic managed devices.
• Choose Threat Defense Settings to create a shared policy for Firepower Threat Defense managed
devices.
Step 4 Enter a Name for the new policy and optionally, a Description.
Step 5 Optionally, choose the Available Devices where you want to apply the policy and click Add to Policy (or
drag and drop) to add the selected devices. You can enter a search string in the Search field to narrow the list
of devices.
Step 6 Click Save.
The system creates the policy and opens it for editing.
Step 7 Configure the platform settings based on the device platform type:
• For Firepower Settings, see Introduction to Firepower Platform Settings, on page 963.
• For Threat Defense Settings, see Platform Settings for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 985.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next


Admin/Network
Admin
You can add targeted devices at the same time you create a new policy, or you can change them later.
Procedure

961
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the platform settings policy that you want to edit.
Step 3 Click Policy Assignment.
Step 4 Do any of the following:
• To assign a device, stack, high-availability pair, or device group to the policy, select it in the Available
Devices list and click Add to Policy. You can also drag and drop.
• To remove a device assignment, click the delete icon ( ) next to a device, stack, high-availability pair,
or device group in the Selected Devices list.
Step 5 Click OK.
What to do next

962
CHAPTER 49
Platform Settings for Classic Devices
The following topics explain Firepower platform settings and how to configure them on Classic devices:
• Introduction to Firepower Platform Settings, on page 963
• Configuring Firepower Platform Settings, on page 963
• Audit Logs on Classic Devices, on page 966
• Audit Log Certificate (Classic Devices), on page 969
• External Authentication Settings, on page 974
• Language Selection, on page 976
• SNMP Polling, on page 979
• Time and Time Synchronization (Classic Devices), on page 981
Introduction to Firepower Platform Settings

Platform settings for Firepower Classic managed devices configure a range of unrelated features whose values
you might want to share among several devices. In this case, 7000 and 8000 Series, ASA FirePOWER modules,
and NGIPSv devices. Even if you want different settings per device, you must create a shared policy and
apply it to the desired device.
Related Topics
Platform Settings Policies for Managed Devices, on page 959
System Configuration Settings, on page 890
Configuring Firepower Platform Settings

Any Any Classic Any Admin
To configure platform settings, you can edit an existing platform settings policy or create a new policy. If you
edit a platform settings policy that is currently deployed to a device, redeploy the policy after you have saved
your changes.

963
The Access List
Procedure

The Platform Settings page appears, including a list of the existing policies.
Step 2 Create a new policy or edit an existing policy.

• To create a new policy, see Creating a Platform Settings Policy, on page 960.
• To edit an existing policy, click the edit icon ( ) next to the policy that you want to edit.
The Edit Policy page appears. You can change the policy name and policy description. For information about
configuring each aspect of the platform settings policy, see one of the following sections:
• Configuring the Access List for Your System, on page 928
• Sending Audit Log Messages from Classic Devices to the Syslog, on page 966
• Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server, on page 931
• Audit Log Certificate (Classic Devices), on page 969
• Enabling External Authentication to Classic Devices, on page 975
• Specifying a Different Language, on page 940
• Adding a Custom Login Banner, on page 941
• Configuring Session Timeouts, on page 948
• Configuring SNMP Polling, on page 943
• Synchronizing Time on Classic Devices, on page 981
• Enabling Security Certifications Compliance, on page 1030
Step 3 (Optional) Click Policy Assignment to choose the Available Devices where you want to deploy the policy.
Click Add to Policy (or drag and drop) to add the selected devices.
You can enter a search string in the Search field to narrow the list of devices.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
The Access List

On Firepower Management Center and Classic managed devices, you can use access lists to limit access to
the system by IP address and port. By default, the following ports are enabled for any IP address:
• 443 (HTTPS)—Used for web interface access.
• 22 (SSH)—Used for command line access.
You can also add access to poll for SNMP information over port 161.

964
Caution By default, access is not restricted. To operate in a more secure environment, consider adding access for
specific IP addresses and then deleting the default any option.


Classic
Note that this access list does not control external database access.
Procedure
Step 2 Click Access List.
Step 3 Optionally, to delete one of the current settings, click the delete icon ( ).
Caution If you delete access for the IP address that you are currently using to connect to the appliance
interface, and there is no entry for “IP=any port=443”, you will lose access to the system when
you deploy the policy.
Step 4 To add access for one or more IP addresses, click Add Rules.
Step 6 Choose SSH, HTTPS, SNMP, or a combination of these options to specify which ports you want to enable
for these IP addresses.
Step 7 Click Add.
Step 8 Click Save.

965
Audit Logs on Classic Devices
What to do next
Audit Logs on Classic Devices

Classic devices record the activity of management center users in read-only audit logs.
You can review audit log data in several ways:
• Audit logs are presented in a standard event view in the web interface. From this event view, you can
view, sort, and filter audit log messages based on any item in the audit view. You can easily delete and
report on audit information and you can view detailed reports of the changes that users make. See Auditing
the System, on page 2541.
• You can configure Classic devices to send audit log messages to the syslog. See Sending Audit Log
Messages from Classic Devices to the Syslog, on page 966.
• You can configure Classic devices to stream audit log messages to an HTTP server. See Sending Audit
Log Messages to an HTTP Server from a Classic Device, on page 967.
Streaming audit log data to an external syslog or HTTP server allows you to conserve space on the local
device.
To secure the channel for audit log streaming, enable TLS and mutual authentication using TLS certificates;
for more information, see Audit Log Certificate (Classic Devices), on page 969.
Caution Sending audit information to an external URL may affect system performance.
Sending Audit Log Messages from Classic Devices to the Syslog

N/A Any Classic Any Admin
When this feature is enabled, audit log records appear in the syslog in the following format :
device name precedes the audit log message.
Page View
You can specify the severity, facility, and an optional tag associated with the messages. The tag appears with
the audit log messages in the syslog. The facility indicates the subsystem that creates the message and the
severity defines the severity of the message. Syslog messages do not include facilities and severities; these
values tell the system that receives the syslog messages how to categorize them.

966
Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server from a Classic Device
Before you begin

• Ensure that the syslog server is functional and accessible from the system sending the audit log.
• You can secure the channel for audit log streaming by enabling TLS and mutual authentication using
TLS certificates; for more information, see Audit Log Certificate (Classic Devices), on page 969.
Procedure

Step 2 Create or edit a Firepower policy.
Step 4 Choose Enabled from the Send Audit Log to Syslog drop-down menu.
Step 5 Designate the destination host for the audit information by using the IP address or the fully qualified name
of the syslog server in the Host field. .
Note Enter valid IPv4 addresses in the Host field; IPv6 addresses are not supported.
Caution If the computer you configure to receive an audit log is not set up to accept remote messages, the
host will not accept the audit log.
Step 6 From the Facility list, choose a facility described in Syslog Alert Facilities, on page 2184.
Step 7 From the Severity list, choose a severity described in Syslog Severity Levels, on page 2185.
Step 8 Optionally, in the Tag field, enter the tag name that you want to appear with the syslog message. For example,
if you want all audit log records sent to the syslog to be preceded with FROMMC, enter FROMMC in the field.
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next
• Make sure the policy is assigned to your devices. See Setting Target Devices for a Platform Settings

N/A Any Classic Any Admin
When this feature is enabled, the appliance or device sends audit log records to an HTTP server in the following
format:
appliance or device name precedes the audit log message.

967

Page View
Before you begin

• Ensure that the external host is functional and accessible from the appliance or device sending the audit
log.
• You can secure the channel for this stream by enabling TLS and mutual authentication using SSL
certificates; for more information, see Audit Log Certificate , on page 932.
Procedure

Step 4 Optionally, in the Tag field, enter the tag name that you want to appear with the message. For example, if
you want all audit log records to be preceded with FROMMC, enter FROMMC in the field.
Step 5 Choose Enabled from the Send Audit Log to HTTP Server drop-down list.
Step 6 In the URL to Post Audit field, designate the URL where you want to send the audit information. Enter a
URL that corresponds to a Listener program that expects the HTTP POST variables as listed:
• subsystem
• actor
• event_type
• message
• action_source_ip
• action_destination_ip
• result
• time
• tag (if defined; see Step 3)
Caution To allow encrypted posts, use an HTTPS URL. Sending audit information to an external URL may
affect system performance.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next

968
Audit Log Certificate (Classic Devices)
Audit Log Certificate (Classic Devices)

Client Certificate
To use client certificates to secure communications between managed Classic devices and audit log servers,
see How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from NGIPS Devices, on page 969.
Note You cannot use the Management Center to work with certificates for managed devices; you must log in to
each device directly using its local web interface in order to work with certificates for those devices.
Server Certificate
You can optionally require the audit log server to provide a signed certificate.
Note If you require the server to provide a signed certificate, the client certificate must be signed by the same
certificate authority as the server certificate.
To verify the server certificate, configure the appliance to load one of more certificate revocation lists (CRLs).
The appliance compares the server certificate against those listed in the CRLs. If a server offers a certificate
that is listed in a CRL as a revoked certificate, the audit log cannot be streamed to that server. See Require
Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and FMC, on page 936.
browser.
How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from NGIPS Devices

N/A Any 7000 and 8000 Any Admin

Series
If you stream the audit log to a trusted HTTP server or syslog server, you can use Transport Layer Security
(TLS) certificates to secure the channel between the appliance and the server.
Each client certificate is unique to a specific appliance or device. If you have multiple appliances and/or
devices, follow all steps below for each device.
Use the following procedure to securely stream the audit log from a 7000 or 8000 series device to an external
server.
Before you begin

See ramifications of requiring client and server certificates at Audit Log Certificate , on page 932.

969
Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for a Classic Device
Procedure
Step 1 Obtain and install a signed client certificate on your device:

a) Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for a Classic Device, on page 970:
Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) from the device based on your system information and the
identification information you supply.
Submit the CSR to a recognized, trusted certificate authority (CA) to request a signed client certificate.
If you will require mutual authentication between the device and the audit log server, the client certificate
must be signed by the same CA that signed the server certificate to be used for the connection.
b) After you receive the signed certificate from the certificate authority, import it into the device. See Import
an Audit Log Client Certificate into a Classic Device, on page 971.
Step 2 Configure the communication channel with the server to use Transport Layer Security (TLS) and enable
mutual authentication.
See Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and 7000 and 8000 Series Devices, on page 972.
Step 3 Configure audit log streaming if you have not yet done so: See
• Sending Audit Log Messages from Classic Devices to the Syslog, on page 966
• Sending Audit Log Messages to an HTTP Server from a Classic Device, on page 967
Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for a Classic Device


NGIPSv
Note For an ASA FirePOWER device, generate the key pair and certificate from that device.
The system generates certificate request keys in Base-64 encoded PEM format.
Use the following procedure to obtain a certificate for a 7000 or 8000 series hardware device.
Before you begin

• You must generate a certificate signing request (CSR) from the device or appliance on which you will
install the certificate. (For example, you cannot generate a certificate signing request for Device B from
Appliance A.) You must generate a unique certificate signing request from each device and appliance.
• To ensure security, use a globally recognized and trusted Certificate Authority (CA) to sign your
certificates.

970
Import an Audit Log Client Certificate into a Classic Device
• If you will require mutual authentication between the device and the audit log server, the same Certificate
Authority must sign both the client certificate and the server certificate.
Procedure
Step 1 Access the web-based user interface of the device. See Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000
Series Device, on page 23.
Name field.
Note If the common name and the DNS hostname do not match, audit log streaming will fail.

Step 12 Open a new blank file with a text editor.
Step 14 Save the file as clientname.csr, where clientname is the name of the appliance where you plan to use the
certificate.
What to do next
• Submit the certificate signing request to the certificate authority that you selected using the guidelines
in the "Before You Begin" section of this procedure.
• When you receive the signed certificate, import it into the device; see Import an Audit Log Client
Certificate into a Classic Device, on page 971.
Import an Audit Log Client Certificate into a Classic Device


NGIPSv ASA
FirePOWER

971
Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and 7000 and 8000 Series Devices
Before you begin

• Obtain a Signed Audit Log Client Certificate for a Classic Device, on page 970.
• Make sure you are importing the signed certificate for the correct device. Each certificate is unique to a
specific appliance or device.
• If the signing authority that generated the certificate requires you to trust an intermediate CA, be prepared
to provide the necessary certificate chain (or certificate path). The CA that signed the client certificate
must be the same CA that signed any intermediate certificates in the certificate chain.
Procedure
Step 1 To import an audit log client certificate to an ASA FirePOWER device:

Access the command-line interface of the device and use the CLI command configure audit_cert import.
Step 2 To import an audit log client certificate into a 7000 or 8000 Series device:
a) Access the web-based user interface of the device. See Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000
b) Choose System > Configuration.
c) Click Audit Log Certificate.
d) Click Import Audit Client Certificate.
e) Open the client certificate in a text editor, copy the entire block of text, including the BEGIN CERTIFICATE
and END CERTIFICATE lines. Paste this text into the Client Certificate field.
f) To upload a private key, open the private key file and copy the entire block of text, including the BEGIN
RSA PRIVATE KEY and END RSA PRIVATE KEY lines. Paste this text into the Private Key field.
g) Open any required intermediate certificates, copy the entire block of text for each, and paste it into the
h) Click Save.
Require Secure Connections Between Audit Log Server and 7000 and 8000
Series Devices
N/A Any 7000 and 8000 Global only Admin

Series
The system supports validating audit log server certificates using imported CRLs in Distinguished Encoding
Rules (DER) format.
browser.

972
View the Audit Log Client Certificate on a Classic Device
Before you begin

• Understand the ramifications of requiring mutual authentication and of using certificate revocation lists
(CRLs) to ensure that certificates are still valid. See Audit Log Certificate (Classic Devices), on page
969.
• Obtain and import the client certificate following the steps in How to Securely Stream Audit Logs from
NGIPS Devices, on page 969 and the topics referenced in that procedure.
Procedure
Step 1 Access the web-based user interface of the device. See Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000
Step 4 To use Transport Layer Security to securely stream the audit log to an external server, choose Enable TLS.
Step 5 If you want to accept server certificates without verification (not recommended):
a) Deselect Enable Mutual Authentication.
b) Click Save and skip the remainder of this procedure.
Step 6 To verify the certificate of the audit log server, choose Enable Mutual Authentication.
Step 7 (If you enabled mutual authentication) To automatically recognize certificates that are no longer valid:
a) Select Enable Fetching of CRL.
Note Enabling fetching of the CRL creates a scheduled task to regularly update the CRL or CRLs.
b) Enter a valid URL to an existing CRL file and click Add CRL.
Repeat to add up to 25 CRLs.
c) Click Refresh CRL to load the current CRL or CRLs from the specified URL or URLs.
Step 8 Verify that you have a valid server certificate generated by the same certificate authority that created the client
certificate.
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next
(Optional) To set the frequency of CRL updates, see Configuring Certificate Revocation List Downloads, on
page 152.
View the Audit Log Client Certificate on a Classic Device


Series
ASA FirePOWER

973
External Authentication Settings
You can view the audit log client certificate only for the appliance or device that you are logged in to.
Procedure
Step 1 To view the current audit log client certificate for an ASA FirePOWER device:
Access the command-line interface of that device and use the CLI command show audit_cert.
Step 2 To view the current audit log certificate for a 7000 or 8000 series hardware device:
a) Access the web-based user interface of the device. See Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000
b) Choose System > Configuration.
c) Click Audit Log Certificate.
External Authentication Settings

If you create an authentication object referencing an external authentication server, you can enable external
authentication to let users logging into the managed device authenticate to that server, rather than using the
local database.
When you enable external authentication, the system verifies the user credentials against users on an LDAP
or RADIUS server. In addition, if a user has local, internal authentication enabled and the user credentials are
not found in the internal database, the system then checks the external server for a set of matching credentials.
If a user has the same username on multiple systems, all passwords across all servers work. Note, however,
that if authentication fails on the available external authentication servers, the system does not revert to
checking the local database.
When you enable external authentication, you can set the default user role for any user whose account is
externally authenticated. You can select multiple roles, as long as those roles can be combined. For example,
if you enable external authentication that retrieves only users in the Network Security group in your company,
you may set the default user role to include the Security Analyst role so users can access collected event data
without any additional user configuration on your part. However, if your external authentication retrieves
records for other personnel in addition to the security group, you would probably want to leave the default
role unselected.
If no access role is selected, users can log in but cannot access any functionality. After a user attempts to log
in, their account is listed on the user management page (System > Users), where you can edit the account
settings to grant additional permissions.
Tip If you configure the system to use one user role and apply the policy, then later modify the configuration to
use different default user roles, any user accounts created before the modification retain the first user role
until you modify the accounts, or delete and recreate them.
If you want to specify the set of users who can authenticate against the LDAP server for shell access or for
CAC authentication and authorization, you must create separate authentication objects for each and enable
the objects separately.

974
Enabling External Authentication to Classic Devices
If a user with internal authentication attempts to log in, the system first checks if that user is in the local user
database. If the user exists, the system then checks the username and password against the local database. If
a match is found, the user logs in successfully. If the login fails, however, and external authentication is
enabled, the system checks the user against each external authentication server in the authentication order
shown in the configuration. If the username and password match results from an external server, the system
changes the user to an external user with the default privileges for that authentication object.
If an external user attempts to log in, the system checks the username and password against the external
authentication server. If a match is found, the user logs in successfully. If the login fails, the user login attempt
is rejected. External users cannot authenticate against the user list in the local database. If the user is a new
external user, an external user account is created in the local database with the default privileges from the
external authentication object.
Related Topics
Configure External Authentication, on page 47
Enabling External Authentication to Classic Devices

Any Any 7000 & 8000 Any Admin
Before you begin

• Configure external authentication objects as described in Configure External Authentication, on page
47.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > Platform Settings and create or edit a Firepower policy.
Step 2 Click External Authentication.
Step 3 From the Status drop-down list, choose Enabled.
Step 4 From the Default User Role drop-down list, choose user roles to define the default permissions you want to
grant to externally authenticated users.
Step 5 If you want to use the external server to authenticate CLI or shell access accounts, choose Enabled from the
Shell Authentication drop-down list.
Step 6 If you want to enable CAC authentication and authorization, choose an available CAC authentication object
from the CAC Authentication drop-down list. For information about configuring CAC authentication and
authorization, see Configure Common Access Card Authentication with LDAP, on page 61.
Step 7 Check the check boxes next to the each external authentication object that you want to use. If you enable more
than 1 object, then users are checked against servers in the order specified. See the next step to reorder servers.
If you enable shell authentication, you must enable an external authentication object that includes a Shell
Access Filter. CLI/shell access users can only authenticate against the server whose authentication object is
highest in the list.
If you need both CLI and CAC authentication, you must use separate authentication objects for each purpose.

975
Language Selection
Step 8 (Optional) Use the up and down arrows to change the order in which authentication servers are accessed when
an authentication request occurs.
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next
Language Selection
You can use the Language page to specify a different language for the web interface.
Specifying a Different Language


7000 & 8000 Series
This configuration applies to either a Firepower Management Center or a 7000 and 8000 Series managed
device.
• For a 7000 and 8000 Series managed device, you apply this configuration from the Firepower Management
Center as part of a platform settings policy.
Caution The language you specify here is used for the web interface for every user who logs into the appliance.
Procedure
Step 2 Click Language.

Step 3 Choose the language you want to use.
Step 4 Click Save.

976
Login Banners
What to do next
Login Banners
You can use the Login Banner page to specify session, login, or custom message banners for a security
appliance or shared policy.
You can use spaces but not tabs in banner text. You can specify multiple lines of text for the banner. If your
text includes empty lines, the system displays this as a carriage return (CR) in the banner. You can only use
ASCII characters, including new-line (press the Enter key), which counts as two characters.
When you access the security appliance through Telnet or SSH, the session closes if there is not enough system
memory available to process the banner messages, or if a TCP write error occurs when attempting to display
the banner messages.
Adding a Custom Login Banner


Classic
You can create a custom login banner that appears to users logging in via either SSH or the web interface.
Procedure
Step 2 Choose Login Banner.

Step 3 In the Custom Login Banner field, enter the login banner text you want to use.
Step 4 Click Save.

977
Session Timeouts
What to do next
Session Timeouts
Unattended login sessions of the Firepower System web interface or auxiliary command line interface may
be security risks. You can configure, in minutes, the amount of idle time before a user’s login session times
out due to inactivity. You can also set a similar timeout for shell (command line) sessions.
Your deployment may have users who plan to passively, securely monitor the web interface for long periods
of time. You can exempt users from the web interface session timeout with a user configuration option. Users
with the Administrator role, whose complete access to menu options poses an extra risk if compromised,
cannot be made exempt from session timeouts.
Configuring Session Timeouts


Classic
Procedure
Step 2 Click Shell Timeout.

• To configure session timeout for the web interface, enter a number (of minutes) in the Browser Session
Timeout (Minutes) field. The default value is 60; the maximum value is 1440 (24 hours). For information
on how to exempt users from this session timeout, see Add an Internal User at the Web Interface, on
page 43.
• To configure session timeout for the command line interface, enter a number (of minutes) in the Shell
Timeout (Minutes) field. The default value is 0; the maximum value is 1440 (24 hours).

978
SNMP Polling
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
SNMP Polling
You can enable Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) polling for Firepower Management Centers
and Classic managed devices. This feature supports use of versions 1, 2, and 3 of the SNMP protocol.
This feature allows access to:
• The standard management information base (MIB), which includes system details such as contact,
administrative, location, service information, IP addressing and routing information, and transmission
protocol usage statistics
• Additional MIBs for 7000 and 8000 Series managed devices that include statistics on traffic passing
through physical interfaces, logical interfaces, virtual interfaces, ARP, NDP, virtual bridges, and virtual
routers
Note When selecting SNMP versions for the SNMP protocol, note that SNMPv2 only supports read-only communities
and SNMPv3 only supports read-only users. SNMPv3 also supports encryption with AES128.
Note that enabling the SNMP feature does not cause the system to send SNMP traps; it only makes the
information in the MIBs available for polling by your network management system.


Classic

979
Note You must add SNMP access for any computer you plan to use to poll the system. Note that the SNMP MIB
contains information that could be used to attack your deployment. Cisco recommends that you restrict your
access list for SNMP access to the specific hosts that will be used to poll for the MIB. Cisco also recommends
you use SNMPv3 and use strong passwords for network management access.
Before you begin

• Add SNMP access for each computer you plan to use to poll the system as described in Configuring the
Access List for Your System, on page 928.
Procedure
Step 2 Click SNMP.

Step 3 From the SNMP Version drop-down list, choose the SNMP version you want to use.
• If you chose Version 1 or Version 2, enter the SNMP community name in the Community String field.
Go to step 13.
Note SNMPv2 only supports read-only communities.
• If you chose Version 3, click Add User to display the user definition page.
Note SNMPv3 only supports read-only users and encryption with AES128.
Step 5 Enter a Username.

Step 6 Choose the protocol you want to use for authentication from the Authentication Protocol drop-down list.
Step 7 Enter the password required for authentication with the SNMP server in the Authentication Password field.
Step 8 Re-enter the authentication password in the Verify Password field.
Step 9 Choose the privacy protocol you want to use from the Privacy Protocol list, or choose None to not use a
privacy protocol.
Step 10 Enter the SNMP privacy key required by the SNMP server in the Privacy Password field.
Step 11 Re-enter the privacy password in the Verify Password field.
Step 12 Click Add.
Step 13 Click Save.

980
Time and Time Synchronization (Classic Devices)
What to do next
Time and Time Synchronization (Classic Devices)

Use a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server to synchronize system time on FMC and all devices.
Caution Unintended consequences may occur when time is not synchronized between the Firepower Management
Center and managed devices.
Synchronizing Time on Classic Devices

N/A Any 7000 & 8000 Series Any Admin
ASA FirePOWER
NGIPSv
Before you begin

• If your organization has one or more NTP servers, use the same NTP server or servers for your devices
that you have configured for Time Synchronization on your FMC on the System > Configuration page.
Copy the specified value.
• If your managed devices cannot reach your NTP server or your organization does not have one, you must
configure your Firepower Management Center to serve as an NTP server. See Synchronize Time Without
Access to a Network NTP Server, on page 945.
Procedure

Step 3 Click Time Synchronization.
Step 4 Specify how time is synchronized on Classic managed devices:
• Choose Via NTP from Management Center if your Firepower Management Center is configured to
serve as an NTP server.

981
View Current System Time, Source, and NTP Server Connection Status for NGIPS Devices
• Choose Via NTP from to receive time from an NTP server on your network. In the text box, enter the
same IP address(es) or hostname(s) that you entered on your FMC on the System > Configuration >
Time Synchronization page.
Step 5 Click Save.
What to do next
• If your Firepower system includes FTD devices, set up time syncronization for those devices. See
Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense, on page 1021.
Note It may take a few minutes for managed devices to synchronize with the configured NTP servers. In addition,
if you are synchronizing managed devices to a FMC that is configured as an NTP server, and the FMC itself
is configured to use an NTP server, it may take some time for the time to synchronize. This is because the
FMC must first synchronize with its configured NTP server before it can serve time to the managed device.
View Current System Time, Source, and NTP Server Connection Status for
NGIPS Devices

Series
Use this procedure to verify system time information on 7000 and 8000 Series hardware devices.
Time settings are displayed on most pages in local time using the time zone you set on the Time Zone page
in User Preferences (the default is America/New York), but are stored on the appliance using UTC time.
In addition, the current time appears in UTC at the top of the Time Synchronization page (local time is displayed
in the Manual clock setting option, if enabled).
Procedure
Step 1 Log on to the local web interface of your NGIPS hardware device.

982
NTP Server Status
For information, see Logging Into the Web Interface of a 7000 or 8000 Series Device, on page 23.

Step 3 Click Time.
If your appliance uses an NTP server: For information about the table entries, see NTP Server Status, on page
947.
NTP Server Status

When the system is synchronizing time from an NTP server, you can view the NTP Status from the Firepower
Management Center's Time page (under the System > Configuration menu) and from the local web interface
of 7000 and 8000 Series devices:
Table 71: NTP Status
Column Description
NTP Server The IP address and name of the configured NTP server.
Status The status of the NTP server time synchronization:

• Being Used indicates that the appliance is synchronized with the NTP server.
• Available indicates that the NTP server is available for use, but time is not
yet synchronized.
• Not Available indicates that the NTP server is in your configuration, but
the NTP daemon is unable to use it.
• Pending indicates that the NTP server is new or the NTP daemon was
recently restarted. Over time, its value should change to Being Used,
Available, or Not Available.
• Unknown indicates that the status of the NTP server is unknown.
Offset The number of milliseconds of difference between the time on the appliance and
the configured NTP server. Negative values indicate that the appliance is behind
the NTP server, and positive values indicate that it is ahead.
Last Update The number of seconds that have elapsed since the time was last synchronized
with the NTP server. The NTP daemon automatically adjusts the synchronization
times based on a number of conditions. For example, if you see larger update
times such as 300 seconds, that indicates that the time is relatively stable and the
NTP daemon has determined that it does not need to use a lower update increment.

983
NTP Server Status

984
CHAPTER 50
Platform Settings for Firepower Threat Defense
Platform settings for FTD devices configure a range of unrelated features whose values you might want to
share among several devices. Even if you want different settings per device, you must create a shared policy
and apply it to the desired device.
• Configure ARP Inspection, on page 985
• Configure Banners, on page 987
• Configure External Authentication for SSH, on page 987
• Configure Fragment Handling, on page 991
• Configure HTTP, on page 992
• Configure ICMP Access Rules, on page 993
• Configure SSL Settings , on page 995
• Configure Secure Shell, on page 998
• Configure SMTP, on page 1000
• Configure SNMP for Threat Defense, on page 1000
• Configure Syslog, on page 1006
• Configure Global Timeouts, on page 1019
• Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense, on page 1021
• History for Firepower Threat Defense Platform Settings, on page 1022
Configure ARP Inspection

Access Admin
Network Admin
packets by enabling ARP inspection.
ARP inspection prevents malicious users from impersonating other hosts or routers (known as ARP spoofing).
ARP spoofing can enable a “man-in-the-middle” attack. For example, a host sends an ARP request to the
gateway router; the gateway router responds with the gateway router MAC address. The attacker, however,
sends another ARP response to the host with the attacker MAC address instead of the router MAC address.
The attacker can now intercept all the host traffic before forwarding it on to the router.

985
Configure ARP Inspection
ARP inspection ensures that an attacker cannot send an ARP response with the attacker MAC address, so
long as the correct MAC address and the associated IP address are in the static ARP table.
When you enable ARP inspection, the Firepower Threat Defense device compares the MAC address, IP
address, and source interface in all ARP packets to static entries in the ARP table, and takes the following
actions:
• If the IP address, MAC address, and source interface match an ARP entry, the packet is passed through.
• If there is a mismatch between the MAC address, the IP address, or the interface, then the Firepower
Threat Defense device drops the packet.
• If the ARP packet does not match any entries in the static ARP table, then you can set the Firepower
Threat Defense device to either forward the packet out all interfaces (flood), or to drop the packet.
Note The dedicated Diagnostic interface never floods packets even if this parameter
is set to flood.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Devices > Platform Settings and create or edit a FTD policy.
Step 2 Select ARP Inspection.
Step 3 Add entries to the ARP inspection table.
a) Click Add to create a new entry, or click the Edit icon if the entry already exists.
b) Select the desired options.
• Inspect Enabled—To perform ARP inspection on the selected interfaces and zones.
• Flood Enabled—Whether to flood ARP requests that do not match static ARP entries out all interfaces
other than the originating interface or the dedicated management interface. This is the default behavior.
If you do not elect to flood ARP requests, then only those requests that exactly match static ARP
entries are allowed.
• Security Zones—Add the zones that contain the interfaces on which to perform the selected actions.
The zones must be switched zones. For interfaces not in a zone, you can type the interface name into
the field below the Selected Security Zone list and click Add. These rules will be applied to a device
only if the device includes the selected interfaces or zones.
c) Click OK.
Step 4 Add static ARP entries according to Add a Static ARP Entry, on page 633.
Step 5 Click Save.
deploy them.

986
Configure Banners
Configure Banners
Access Admin
Network Admin
You can configure messages to show users when they connect to the device command line interface (CLI).
Procedure
Step 2 Select Banner.
Step 3 Configure the banner.
Following are some tips and requirements for banners.
• Only ASCII characters are allowed. You can use line returns (press Enter), but you cannot use tabs.
• You can dynamically add the hostname or domain name of the device by including the variables
$(hostname) or $(domain).
• Although there is no absolute length restriction on banners, Telnet or SSH sessions will close if there is
not enough system memory available to process the banner messages.
• From a security perspective, it is important that your banner discourage unauthorized access. Do not use
the words "welcome" or "please," as they appear to invite intruders in. The following banner sets the
correct tone for unauthorized access:
You have logged in to a secure device.

If you are not authorized to access this device,
log out immediately or risk criminal charges.
Step 4 Click Save.

deploy them.
Configure External Authentication for SSH

Any N/A FTD Any Administrator

987
When you enable external authentication for management users, the FTD verifies the user credentials with
an LDAP or RADIUS server as specified in an external authentication object.
Sharing External Authentication Objects
External authentication objects can be used by the FMC, 7000 and 8000 Series, and FTD devices. You can
share the same object between all 3 types, or create separate objects.
Assigning External Authentication Objects to Devices
For the FMC, enable the external authentication objects directly on the System > Users > External
Authentication tab; this setting only affects FMC usage, and it does not need to be enabled on this tab for
managed device usage. For 7000 and 8000 Series and FTD devices, you must enable the external authentication
object in the platform settings that you deploy to the devices. For the FTD, you can only activate one external
authentication object per policy. An LDAP object with CAC authentication enabled cannot also be used for
CLI access.
FTD Supported Fields
Only a subset of fields in the external authentication object are used for FTD SSH access. If you fill in additional
fields, they are ignored. If you also use this object for other device types, those fields will be used. This
procedure only covers the supported fields for the FTD. For other fields, see Configure External Authentication,
on page 47.
Usernames
Usernames must be Linux-valid usernames and be lower-case only, using alphanumeric characters plus period
(.) or hyphen (-). Other special characters such as at sign (@) and slash (/) are not supported. You cannot add
the admin user for external authentication. You can only add external users (as part of the External
Authentication object) in the FMC; you cannot add them at the CLI. Note that internal users can only be added
at the CLI, not in the FMC.
If you previously configured the same username for an internal user using the configure user add command,
the FTD first checks the password against the internal user, and if that fails, it checks the AAA server. Note
that you cannot later add an internal user with the same name as an external user; only pre-existing internal
users are supported.
Privilege Level
External users always have Config privileges; other user roles are not supported.
Before you begin

• SSH access is enabled by default on the management interface. To enable SSH access on data interfaces,
see Configure Secure Shell, on page 998. SSH is not supported to the Diagnostic interface.
• Please inform RADIUS users of the following behavior to set their expectations appropriately:
• The first time an external user logs in, FTD creates the required structures but cannot simultaneously
create the user session. The user simply needs to authenticate again to start the session. The user
will see a message similar to the following: "New external username identified. Please log in again
to start a session."
• Similarly, if the user’s authorization as defined in the Service-Type changed since the last login,
the user will need to re-authenticate. The user will see a message similar to the following: "Your
authorization privilege has changed. Please log in again to start a session."

988
Procedure
Step 2 Click External Authentication.
Step 3 Click the Manage External Authentication Server link.
The System > Users > External Authentication screen opens in a new browser tab.
Step 4 Configure an LDAP Authentication Object.

a) Click Add External Authentication Object.
b) Set the Authentication Method to LDAP
c) Enter a Name and optional Description.
d) Choose a Server Type from the drop-down list.
e) For the Primary Server, enter a Host Name/IP Address.
Note If you are using a certificate to connect via TLS or SSL, the host name in the certificate must
match the host name used in this field. In addition, IPv6 addresses are not supported for
encrypted connections.
f) (Optional) Change the Port from the default.

g) (Optional) Enter the Backup Sever parameters.
h) Enter LDAP-Specific Parameters.
• Base DN—Enter the base distinguished name for the LDAP directory you want to access. For
example, to authenticate names in the Security organization at the Example company, enter
ou=security,dc=example,dc=com. Alternatively click Fetch DNs, and choose the appropriate
base distinguished name from the drop-down list.
• (Optional) Base Filter—For example, if the user objects in a directory tree have a
physicalDeliveryOfficeName attribute and users in the New York office have an attribute value
of NewYork for that attribute, to retrieve only users in the New York office, enter
(physicalDeliveryOfficeName=NewYork).
• User Name—Enter a distinguished name for a user who has sufficient credentials to browse the
LDAP server. For example, if you are connecting to an OpenLDAP server where user objects have
a uid attribute, and the object for the administrator in the Security division at our example company
has a uid value of NetworkAdmin, you might enter
uid=NetworkAdmin,ou=security,dc=example,dc=com.
• Password and Confirm Password—Enter and confirm the password for the user.
• (Optional) Show Advanced Options—Configure the following advanced options.
• Encryption—Click None, TLS, or SSL.
Note If you change the encryption method after specifying a port, you reset the port to
the default value for that method. For None or TLS, the port resets to the default
value of 389. If you choose SSL encryption, the port resets to 636.
• SSL Certificate Upload Path—For SSL or TLS encryption, you must choose a certificate
by clicking Choose File.
• (Not Used) User Name Template—Not used by the FTD.

989
• Timeout—Enter the number of seconds before rolling over to the backup connection. The
default is 30.
i) (Optional) Set the Shell Access Attribute if you want to use a shell access attribute other than the user
distinguished type. For example, on a Microsoft Active Directory Server, use the sAMAccountName shell
access attribute to retrieve shell access users by typing sAMAccountName in the Shell Access Attribute
field.
j) Set the Shell Access Filter.
Choose one of the following methods:
• To use the same filter you specified when configuring authentication settings, choose Same as
Base Filter.
• To retrieve administrative user entries based on attribute value, enter the attribute name, a
comparison operator, and the attribute value you want to use as a filter, enclosed in parentheses.
For example, if all network administrators have a manager attribute which has an attribute value
of shell, you can set a base filter of (manager=shell).
k) Click Save.
Step 5 For LDAP, if you later add or delete users on the LDAP server, you must refresh the user list and redeploy
the Platform Settings.
a) Choose System > Users > External Authentication.
b) Click the refresh icon ( ) next to the LDAP server.
If the user list changed, you will see a message advising you to deploy configuration changes for your
device. The Firepower Theat Defense Platform Setttings will also show that it is "Out-of-Date on x targeted
devices."
c) Deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.
Step 6 Configure a RADIUS Authentication Object.
a) In FMC, click Add External Authentication Object.
b) Set the Authentication Method to RADIUS.
c) Enter a Name and optional Description.
d) For the Primary Server, enter a Host Name/IP Address.
Note If you are using a certificate to connect via TLS or SSL, the host name in the certificate must
match the host name used in this field. In addition, IPv6 addresses are not supported for
encrypted connections.
e) (Optional) Change the Port from the default.

f) Enter a RADIUS Secret Key.
g) (Optional) Enter the Backup Sever parameters.
h) Enter RADIUS-Specific Parameters.
• Timeout (Seconds)—Enter the number of seconds before rolling over to the backup connection.
The default is 30.
• Retries—Enter the number of times the primary server connection should be tried before rolling
over to the backup connection. The default is 3.

990
Configure Fragment Handling
i) Under Shell Access Filter, enter a comma-separated list of usernames in the Administrator Shell
Access User List field. For example, enter jchrichton, aerynsun, rygel.
j) Click Save.
Step 7 Return to the Devices > > Platform Settings > External Authentication tab.
Step 8 Click the refresh icon ( ) to view any newly-added objects.
For LDAP when you specify SSL or TLS encryption, you must upload a certificate for the connection;
otherwise, the server will not be listed on this tab.
Step 9 Click the slider ( ) next to the External Authentication object you want to use. You can only enable one
object.
Step 10 Click Save.
Configure Fragment Handling

Access Admin
Network Admin
By default, the FTD device allows up to 24 fragments per IP packet, and up to 200 fragments awaiting
reassembly. You might need to let fragments on your network if you have an application that routinely
fragments packets, such as NFS over UDP. However, if you do not have an application that fragments traffic,
we recommend that you do not allow fragments by setting Chain to 1. Fragmented packets are often used as
Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.
Note These settings establish the defaults for devices assigned this policy. You can override these settings for
specific interfaces on a device by selecting Override Default Fragment Setting in the interface configuration.
When you edit an interface, you can find the option on the Advanced > Security Configuration tab. Select
Devices > Device Management, edit a FTD device, and select the Interfaces tab to edit interface properties..
Procedure
Step 2 Select Fragment.
Step 3 Configure the following options. Click Reset to Defaults if you want to use the default settings.
• Size (Block)—The maximum number of packet fragments from all connections collectively that can be
waiting for reassembly. The default is 200 fragments.
• Chain (Fragment)—The maximum number of packets into which a full IP packet can be fragmented.
The default is 24 packets. Set this option to 1 to disallow fragments.

991
Configure HTTP
• Timeout (Sec)—The maximum number of seconds to wait for an entire fragmented packet to arrive.
The default is 5 seconds. If all fragments are not received within this time, all fragments are discarded.
Step 4 Click Save.

deploy them.
Configure HTTP
Access Admin
Network Admin
If you want to allow HTTPS connections to one or more interfaces on the FTD device, configure HTTPS
settings. You can use HTTPS to download packet captures for troubleshooting.
Before you begin

• When you manage the FTD using the Firepower Management Center, HTTPS access to the FTD is only
for viewing packet capture files. The FTD does not have a web interface for configuration in this
management mode.
• HTTPS local users can only be configured at the CLI using the configure user add command. By default,
there is an admin user for which you configured the password during initial setup. AAA external
authentication is not supported.
• The physical management interface is shared between the Diagnostic logical interface and the Management
logical interface; this configuration applies only to the Diagnostic logical interface, if used, or to other
data interfaces. The Management logical interface is separate from the other interfaces on the device. It
is used to set up and register the device to the Firepower Management Center. It has a separate IP address
and static routing.
• To use HTTPS, you do not need an access rule allowing the host IP address. You only need to configure
HTTPS access according to this section.
• You can only use HTTPS to a reachable interface; if your HTTPS host is located on the outside interface,
you can only initiate a management connection directly to the outside interface.
• You cannot configure both HTTPS and AnyConnect remote access SSL VPN on the same interface for
the same TCP port. For example, if you configure remote access SSL VPN on the outside interface, you
cannot also open the outside interface for HTTPS connections on port 443. If you must configure both
features on the same interface, use different ports. For example, open HTTPS on port 4443.
• The device allows a maximum of 5 concurrent HTTPS connections.
• You need network objects that define the hosts or networks you will allow to make HTTPS connections
to the device. You can add objects as part of the procedure, but if you want to use object groups to identify

992
Configure ICMP Access Rules
a group of IP addresses, ensure that the groups needed in the rules already exist. Select Objects > Object
Management to configure objects.
Note You cannot use the system-provided any network object group. Instead, use
any-ipv4 or any-ipv6.
Procedure
Step 2 Select HTTP.
Step 3 Enable the HTTPS server by clicking Enable HTTP server.
Step 4 (Optional) Change the HTTPS port. The default is 443.
Step 5 Identify the interfaces and IP addresses that allow HTTPS connections.
Use this table to limit which interfaces will accept HTTPS connections, and the IP addresses of the clients
who are allowed to make those connections. You can use network addresses rather than individual IP addresses.
a) Click Add to add a new rule, or click the Edit icon to edit an existing rule.
b) Configure the rule properties:
• IP Address—The network object that identifies the hosts or networks you are allowing to make
HTTPS connections. Choose an object from the drop-down menu, or add a new network object by
clicking the + button.
• Security Zones—Add the zones that contain the interfaces to which you will allow HTTPS
connections. For interfaces not in a zone, you can type the interface name into the field below the
Selected Security Zone list and click Add. These rules will be applied to a device only if the device
c) Click OK.
Step 6 Click Save.
deploy them.

Access Admin
Network Admin
By default, you can send ICMP packets to any interface using either IPv4 or IPv6, with these exceptions:

993
• The Firepower Threat Defense device does not respond to ICMP echo requests directed to a broadcast
address.
• The Firepower Threat Defense device only responds to ICMP traffic sent to the interface that traffic
comes in on; you cannot send ICMP traffic through an interface to a far interface.
To protect the device from attacks, you can use ICMP rules to limit ICMP access to interfaces to particular
hosts, networks, or ICMP types. ICMP rules function like access rules, where the rules are ordered, and the
first rule that matches a packet defines the action.
If you configure any ICMP rule for an interface, an implicit deny ICMP rule is added to the end of the ICMP
rule list, changing the default behavior. Thus, if you want to simply deny a few message types, you must
include a permit any rule at the end of the ICMP rule list to allow the remaining message types.
We recommend that you always grant permission for the ICMP unreachable message type (type 3). Denying
ICMP unreachable messages disables ICMP path MTU discovery, which can halt IPsec and PPTP traffic.
Additionally ICMP packets in IPv6 are used in the IPv6 neighbor discovery process.
Before you begin

Ensure that the objects needed in the rules already exist. Select Objects > Object Management to configure
objects. You need network objects or groups that define the desired hosts or networks, and port objects that
define the ICMP message types you want to control.
Procedure
Step 2 Select ICMP.
Step 3 Configure ICMP rules.
• Action—Whether to permit (allow) or deny (drop) matching traffic.
• ICMP Service—The port object that identifies the ICMP message type.
• Network—The network object or group that identifies the hosts or networks whose access you are
controlling.
• Security Zones—Add the zones that contain the interfaces that you are protecting. For interfaces
not in a zone, you can type the interface name into the field below the Selected Security Zone list
and click Add. These rules will be applied to a device only if the device includes the selected interfaces
or zones.
c) Click OK.
Step 4 (Optional.) Set rate limits on ICMPv4 Unreachable messages.
• Rate Limit—Sets the rate limit of unreachable messages, between 1 and 100 messages per second. The
default is 1 message per second.
• Burst Size—Sets the burst rate, between 1 and 10. This value is not currently used by the system.

994
Configure SSL Settings
Step 5 Click Save.

deploy them.
Configure SSL Settings

Before you begin

You must make sure that you are running a fully licensed version of the Firepower Management Center. The
SSL Settings tab will be disabled if you are running Firepower Management Center in evaluation mode.
Additionally, the SSL Settings tab will be disabled when the licensed Firepower Management Center version
does not meet the export-compliance criteria. If you are using Remote Access VPN with SSL, your Smart
Account must have the strong-crypto features enabled. For more information, see Smart License Types and
Restrictions, on page 80.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Devices > Platform Settings and create or edit a Firepower Threat Defense policy.
Step 2 Select SSL.
Step 3 Add entries to the Add SSL Configuration table.
a) Click Add to create a new entry, or click the Edit icon if the entry already exists.
b) Select the required security configurations from the drop-down list .
• Protocol Version—Specifies the TLS protocols to be used while establishing remote access VPN sessions.
• Security Level—Indicates the kind of security positioning you would like to set up for the SSL.
Step 4 Select the Available Algorithms based on the protocol version that you select and click Add to include them
for the selected protocol. For more information, seeAbout SSL Settings, on page 996
The algorithms are listed based on the protocol version that you select. Each security protocol identifies unique
algorithm for setting up the security level.
Step 5 Click OK to save the changes.
What to do next
You can click Deploy to deploy the policy to the assigned devices.

995
About SSL Settings
About SSL Settings

The Firepower Threat Defense device uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol and Transport Layer
Security (TLS) to support secure message transmission for Remote Access VPN connection from remote
clients. The SSL Settings window lets you configure SSL versions and encryption algorithms that will be
negotiated and used for message transmission during remote VPN access over SSL.
Configure the SSL Settings at the following location:
Devices > Platform Settings > SSL
Fields
Minimum SSL Version as Server—Specify the minimum SSL/TLS protocol version that the Firepower
Threat Defense device uses when acting as a server. For example, when it functions as a Remote Access VPN
Gateway. Select the protocol version from drop-down list.
TLS V1 Accepts SSLv2 client hellos and negotiates TLSv1

(or greater).
TLSV1.1 Accepts SSLv2 client hellos and negotiates TLSv1.1

(or greater).
TLSV1.2 Accepts SSLv2 client hellos and negotiates TLSv1.2

(or greater).
Diffie-Hellmann Group—Choose a group from the drop-down list. Available options are Group1 - 768-bit
modulus, Group2 - 1024-bit modulus, Group5 - 1536-bit modulus, Group14 - 2048-bit modulus, 224-bit prime
order, and Group24 - 2048-bit modulus, 256-bit prime order. The default is Group1.
Elliptical Curve Diffie-Hellman Group—Choose a group from the drop-down list. Available options are
Group19 - 256-bit EC, Group20 - 384-bit EC, and Group21 - 521-bit EC. The default value is Group19.
TLSv1.2 adds support for the following ciphers:
• ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
• ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
• DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
• AES256-GCM-SHA384
• ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384
• ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384
• ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
• ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
• DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
• RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
• ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256
• ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256

996
About SSL Settings
Note ECDSA and DHE ciphers are the highest priority.
The SSL configuration table can be used to specify the protocol version, security level, and Cipher algorithms
that you want to support on the Firepower Threat Defense devices.
Protocol Version—Lists the protocol version that the Firepower Threat Defense device supports and uses
for SSL connections. Available protocol versions are:
• Default
• TLSV1
• TLSV1.1
• TLSV1.2
• DTLSv1
Security Level—Lists the cipher security levels that Firepower Threat Defense device supports and uses for
SSL connections. Choose one of the following options:
All includes all ciphers, including NULL-SHA.
Low includes all ciphers, except NULL-SHA.
Medium includes all ciphers, except NULL-SHA, DES-CBC-SHA, RC4-SHA, and RC4-MD5 (this is the
default).
Fips includes all FIPS-compliant ciphers, except NULL-SHA, DES-CBC-SHA, RC4-MD5, RC4-SHA, and
DES-CBC3-SHA.
High includes only AES-256 with SHA-2 ciphers and applies to TLS version 1.2 and the default version.
Custom includes one or more ciphers that you specify in the Cipher algorithms/custom string box. This option
provides you with full control of the cipher suite using OpenSSL cipher definition strings.
Cipher Algorithms/Custom String—Lists the cipher algorithms that Firepower Threat Defense device
supports and uses for SSL connections. For more information about ciphers using OpenSSL, see
https://www.openssl.org/docs/apps/ciphers.html
The Firepower Threat Defense device specifies the order of priority for supported ciphers as:
Ciphers supported by TLSv1.2 only
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384
AES256-GCM-SHA384
ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384
ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384
DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256

997
Configure Secure Shell
AES256-SHA256
ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
AES128-GCM-SHA256
ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256
DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256
AES128-SHA256
Ciphers not supported by TLSv1.1 or TLSv1.2
RC4-SHA
RC4-MD5
DES-CBC-SHA
NULL-SHA

Access Admin
Network Admin
If you want to allow SSH connections to one or more data interfaces on the FTD device, configure Secure
Shell settings. SSH is not supported to the Diagnostic logical interface. The physical management interface
is shared between the Diagnostic logical interface and the Management logical interface. SSH is enabled by
default on the Management logical interface; however, this screen does not affect Management SSH access.
The Management logical interface is separate from the other interfaces on the device. It is used to set up and
register the device to the Firepower Management Center. SSH for data interfaces shares the internal and
external user list with SSH for the Management interface. Other settings are configured separately: for data
interfaces, enable SSH and access lists using this screen; SSH traffic for data interfaces uses the regular routing
configuration, and not any static routes configured at setup or at the CLI.
For the Management interface, to configure an SSH access list, see the configure ssh-access-list command
in the Firepower Threat Defense Command Reference. To configure a static route, see the configure network
static-routes command. By default, you configure the default route through the Management interface at
initial setup.

998
To use SSH, you do not also need an access rule allowing the host IP address. You only need to configure
SSH access according to this section.
You can only SSH to a reachable interface; if your SSH host is located on the outside interface, you can only
initiate a management connection directly to the outside interface.
The device allows a maximum of 5 concurrent SSH connections.
Before you begin

• You can configure SSH internal users at the CLI using the configure user add command; see Add an
Internal User at the CLI, on page 45. By default, there is an admin user for which you configured the
password during initial setup. You can also configure external users on LDAP or RADIUS by configuring
External Authentication in platform settings. See Configure External Authentication for SSH, on page
987.
• You need network objects that define the hosts or networks you will allow to make SSH connections to
the device. You can add objects as part of the procedure, but if you want to use object groups to identify
a group of IP addresses, ensure that the groups needed in the rules already exist. Select Objects > Object
Management to configure objects.
Note You cannot use the system-provided any network object. Instead, use any-ipv4
or any-ipv6.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Secure Shell.
Step 3 Identify the interfaces and IP addresses that allow SSH connections.
Use this table to limit which interfaces will accept SSH connections, and the IP addresses of the clients who
are allowed to make those connections. You can use network addresses rather than individual IP addresses.
• IP Address—The network object that identifies the hosts or networks you are allowing to make SSH
connections. Choose an object from the drop-down menu, or add a new network object by clicking
the + button.
• Security Zones—Add the zones that contain the interfaces to which you will allow SSH connections.
For interfaces not in a zone, you can type the interface name into the field below the Selected Security
Zone list and click Add. These rules will be applied to a device only if the device includes the selected
interfaces or zones.
c) Click OK.
Step 4 Click Save.

999
Configure SMTP
deploy them.
Configure SMTP
Access Admin
Network Admin
You must identity an SMTP server if you configure email alerts in the Syslog settings. The source email
address you configure for Syslog must be a valid account on the SMTP servers.
Before you begin

Ensure that the network objects that define the host address of the primary and secondary SMTP servers exist.
Select Objects > Object Management to define the objects. Alternatively, you can create the objects while
editing the policy.
Procedure
Step 2 Click SMTP Server.
Step 3 Select the network objects that identify the Primary Server IP Address and optionally, the Secondary Server
IP Address.
Step 4 Click Save.
deploy them.
Configure SNMP for Threat Defense

Access Admin
Network Admin
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) defines a standard way for network management stations
running on PCs or workstations to monitor the health and status of many types of devices, including switches,
routers, and security appliances. You can use the SNMP page to configure a firewall device for monitoring
by SNMP management stations.

1000
Add SNMPv3 Users
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) enables monitoring of network devices from a central
location. Cisco security appliances support network monitoring using SNMP versions 1, 2c, and 3, as well as
traps and SNMP read access; SNMP write access is not supported.
Note To create an alert to an external SNMP server, access Policies > Action > Alerts
Procedure
Step 2 Select SNMP.
Step 3 Enable SNMP and configure basic options.
• Enable SNMP Servers—Whether to provide SNMP information to the configured SNMP hosts. You
can deselect this option to disable SNMP monitoring while retaining the configuration information.
• Read Community String, Confirm—Enter the password used by a SNMP management station when
sending requests to the FTD device. The SNMP community string is a shared secret among the SNMP
management stations and the network nodes being managed. The security device uses the password to
determine if the incoming SNMP request is valid. The password is a case-sensitive alphanumeric string
of up to 32 characters; spaces are not permitted.
• System Administrator Name—Enter the name of the device administrator or other contact person. This
string is case-sensitive and can be up to 127 characters. Spaces are accepted, but multiple spaces are
shortened to a single space.
• Location—Enter the location of this security device (for example, Building 42,Sector 54). This string
is case-sensitive and can be up to 127 characters. Spaces are accepted, but multiple spaces are shortened
to a single space.
• Port—Enter the UDP port on which incoming requests will be accepted. The default is 161.
Step 4 (SNMPv3 only.) Add SNMPv3 Users, on page 1001.

Step 5 Add SNMP Hosts, on page 1003.
Step 6 Configure SNMP Traps, on page 1004.
Step 7 Click Save.
deploy them.
Add SNMPv3 Users
Note You create users for SNMPv3 only. These steps are not applicable for SNMPv1 or SNMPv2c.
Note that SNMPv3 only supports read-only users.

1001
Add SNMPv3 Users
SNMP users have a specified username, an authentication password, an encryption password, and authentication
and encryption algorithms to use. The authentication algorithm options are MD5 and SHA. The encryption
algorithm options are DES, 3DES, and AES128.
Procedure
Step 2 Click SNMP from the table of contents and then click the Users tab.
Step 3 Click Add.
Step 4 Select the security level for the user from the Security Level drop-down list.
• Auth—Authentication but No Privacy, which means that messages are authenticated.
• No Auth—No Authentication and No Privacy, which means that no security is applied to messages.
• Priv—Authentication and Privacy, which means that messages are authenticated and encrypted.
Step 5 Enter the name of the SNMP user in the Username field. Usernames must be 32 characters or less.
Step 6 Select the type of password, you want to use in the Encryption Password Type drop-down list.
• Clear text—The FTD device will still encrypt the password when deploying to the device.
• Encrypted—The FTD device will directly deploy the encrypted password.
Step 7 Select the type of authentication you want to use: MD5 or SHA, in the Auth Algorithm Type drop-down
list.
Step 8 In the Authentication Password field, enter the password to use for authentication. If you selected Encrypted
as the Encrypt Password Type, the password must be formatted as xx:xx:xx..., where xx are hexadecimal
values.
Note The length of the password will depend on the authentication algorithm selected. For all passwords,
the length must be 256 characters or less.
If you selected Clear Text as the Encrypt Password Type, repeat the password in the Confirm field.
Step 9 In the Encryption Type drop-down list, select the type of encryption you want to use: AES128,
AES192,AES256, 3DES, DES.
Note To use AES or 3DES encryption, you must have the appropriate license installed on the device.
Step 10 Enter the password to use for encryption in theEncryption Password field. If you selected Encrypted as the
Encrypt Password Type, the password must be formatted as xx:xx:xx..., where xx are hexadecimal values.
For encrypted passwords, the length of the password depends on the encryption type selected. The password
sizes are as follows (where each xx is one octal):
• AES 128 requires 16 octals
• 3DES requires 32 octals
• DES can be any size

1002
Add SNMP Hosts
Note For all passwords, the length must be 256 characters or less.
If you selected Clear Text as the Encrypt Password Type, repeat the password in the Confirm field.
Step 11 Click OK.

Step 12 Click Save.
deploy them.
Add SNMP Hosts

Use the Host tab to add or edit entries in the SNMP Hosts table on the SNMP page. These entries represent
SNMP management stations allowed to access the FTD device.
Before you begin

Ensure that the network objects that define the SNMP management stations exist. Select Device > Object
Management to configure network objects.
Note Only IPv4 addresses are supported.
Procedure
Step 2 Click SNMP from the table of contents and then click the Hosts tab.
Step 3 Click Add.
Step 4 In the IP Address field, either enter a valid IPv6 or IPv4 host or select the network object that defines the
SNMP management station's host address.
Step 5 Select the appropriate SNMP version from the SNMP version drop-down list.
Step 6 (SNMPv3 only.) Select the username of the SNMP user that you configured from the User Name drop-down
list.
Note You can associate up to 23 SNMP users per SNMP host.
Step 7 (SNMPv1, 2c only.) In the Read Community String field, enter the community string that you have already
configured, for read access to the device. Re-enter the string to confirm it.
Note This string is required, only if the string used with this SNMP station is different from the one
already defined in the Enable SNMP Server section.
Step 8 Select the type of communication between the device and the SNMP management station. You can select
both types.
• Poll—The management station periodically requests information from the device.
• Trap—The device sends trap events to the management station as they occur.

1003
Configure SNMP Traps
Step 9 In the Port field, enter a UDP port number for the SNMP host. The default value is 162. The valid range is
1 to 65535.
Step 10 Click Add to enter or select the interface on which this SNMP management station contacts the device.
Step 11 In the Zones/Interfaces list, add the zones that contain the interfaces through which the device communicates
with the management station. For interfaces not in a zone, you can type the interface name into the field below
the Selected Zone/Interface list and click Add. The host will be configured on a device only if the device
Step 12 Click OK.
Step 13 Click Save.
deploy them.

Use the SNMP Traps tab to configure SNMP traps (event notifications) for the FTD device. Traps are different
from browsing; they are unsolicited “comments” from the FTD device to the management station for certain
events, such as linkup, linkdown, and syslog event generated. An SNMP object ID (OID) for the device
appears in SNMP event traps sent from the device.
Some traps are not applicable to certain hardware models. These traps will be ignored if you apply the policy
to one of these models. For example, not all models have field-replaceable units, so the Field Replaceable
Unit Insert/Delete trap will not be configured on those models.
SNMP traps are defined in either standard or enterprise-specific MIBs. Standard traps are created by the IETF
and documented in various RFCs. SNMP traps are compiled into the FTD software.
If needed, you can download RFCs, standard MIBs, and standard traps from the following location:
http://www.ietf.org/
Browse the complete list of Cisco MIBs, traps, and OIDs from the following location:
ftp://ftp.cisco.com/pub/mibs/
In addition, download Cisco OIDs by FTP from the following location:
ftp://ftp.cisco.com/pub/mibs/oid/oid.tar.gz
Procedure
Step 2 Click SNMP from the table of contents and click the SNMP Traps tab to configure SNMP traps (event
notifications) for the FTD device.
Step 3 Select the appropriate Enable Traps options. You can select either or both options.
a) Check Enable All SNMP Traps to quickly select all traps in the subsequent four sections.
b) Check Enable All Syslog Traps to enable transmission of trap-related syslog messages.

1004
Note SNMP traps are of higher priority than other notification messages from the FTD as they are expected
to be near real-time. When you enable all SNMP or syslog traps, it is possible for the SNMP process
to consume excess resources in the agent and in the network, causing the system to hang. If you
notice system delays, unfinished requests, or timeouts, you can selectively enable SNMP and syslog
traps. You can also limit the rate at which syslog messages are generated by severity level or message
ID. For example, all syslog message IDs that begin with the digits 212 are associated with the SNMP
class; see Limit the Rate of Syslog Message Generation, on page 1016.
Step 4 The event-notification traps in the Standard section are enabled by default for an existing policy:
• Authentication – Unauthorized SNMP access. This authentication failure occurs for packets with an
incorrect community string
• Link Up – One of the device’s communication links has become available (it has “come up”), as indicated
in the notification
• Link Down – One of the device’s communication links has failed, as indicated in the notification
• Cold Start – The device is reinitializing itself such that its configuration or the protocol entity
implementation may be altered
• Warm Start – The device is reinitializing itself such that its configuration and the protocol entity
implementation is unaltered
Step 5 Select the desired event-notification traps in the Entity MIB section:
• Field Replaceable Unit Insert – A Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) has been inserted, as indicated. (FRUs
include assemblies such as power supplies, fans, processor modules, interface modules, etc.)
• Field Replaceable Unit Delete – A Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) has been removed, as indicated in
the notification
• Configuration Change – There has been a hardware change, as indicated in the notification
Step 6 Select the desired event-notification traps in the Resource section:

• Connection Limit Reached – This trap indicates that a connection attempt was rejected because the
configured connections limit has been reached.
Step 7 Select the desired event-notification traps in the Other section:

• NAT Packet Discard – This notification is generated when IP packets are discarded by the NAT function.
Available Network Address Translation addresses or ports have fallen below configured threshold
Step 8 Click Save.

deploy them.

1005
Configure Syslog
Configure Syslog
You can enable system logging (syslog) for FTD devices. Logging information can help you identify and
isolate network or device configuration problems. The following topics explain logging and how to configure
it.
About Syslog
System logging is a method of collecting messages from devices to a server running a syslog daemon. Logging
to a central syslog server helps in aggregation of logs and alerts. Cisco devices can send their log messages
to a UNIX-style syslog service. A syslog service accepts messages and stores them in files, or prints them
according to a simple configuration file. This form of logging provides protected long-term storage for logs.
Logs are useful both in routine troubleshooting and in incident handling.
Table 72: System Logs for Firepower Threat Defense
Logs Related To Details Configure In
Device and This syslog configuration generates messages for features running on Platform
system health, the data plane, that is, features that are defined in the CLI configuration Settings
network that you can view with the show running-config command. This
configuration includes features such as routing, VPN, data interfaces, DHCP server,
NAT, and so forth. Data plane syslog messages are numbered, and they
are the same as those generated by devices running ASA software.
However, Firepower Threat Defense does not necessarily generate every
message type that is available for ASA Software. For information on
these messages, see Cisco Firepower Threat Defense Syslog Messages
at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/firepower/Syslogs/
b_fptd_syslog_guide.html. This configuration is explained in the
following topics.
Policies, rules, This syslog configuration generates alerts for access control rules, Alert Responses
and events intrusion rules, and other advanced services as described in
Configurations Supporting Alert Responses, on page 2182. These messages
are not numbered. For information on configuring this type of syslog,
see Creating a Syslog Alert Response, on page 2183.
You can configure more than one syslog server, and control the messages and events sent to each server. You
can also configure different destinations, such as console, email, internal buffer, and so forth.
Severity Levels
The following table lists the syslog message severity levels.
Table 73: Syslog Message Severity Levels
Level Number Severity Level Description
0 emergencies System is unusable.

1006
Syslog Message Filtering
Level Number Severity Level Description
1 alert Immediate action is needed.
2 critical Critical conditions.
3 error Error conditions.
4 warning Warning conditions.
5 notification Normal but significant conditions.
6 informational Informational messages only.
7 debugging Debugging messages only.
Note Firepower Threat Defense does not generate syslog messages with a severity level of zero (emergencies).
Syslog Message Filtering

You can filter generated syslog messages so that only certain syslog messages are sent to a particular output
destination. For example, you could configure the Firepower Threat Defense device to send all syslog messages
to one output destination and to send a subset of those syslog messages to a different output destination.
Specifically, you can direct syslog messages to an output destination according to the following criteria:
• Syslog message ID number
• Syslog message severity level
• Syslog message class (equivalent to a functional area)
You customize these criteria by creating a message list that you can specify when you set the output destination.
Alternatively, you can configure the Firepower Threat Defense device to send a particular message class to
each type of output destination independently of the message list.
Syslog Message Classes

You can use syslog message classes in two ways:
• Specify an output location for an entire category of syslog messages.
• Create a message list that specifies the message class.
The syslog message class provides a method of categorizing syslog messages by type, equivalent to a feature
or function of the device. For example, the rip class denotes RIP routing.
All syslog messages in a particular class share the same initial three digits in their syslog message ID numbers.
For example, all syslog message IDs that begin with the digits 611 are associated with the vpnc (VPN client)
class. Syslog messages associated with the VPN client feature range from 611101 to 611323.

1007
In addition, most of the ISAKMP syslog messages have a common set of prepended objects to help identify
the tunnel. These objects precede the descriptive text of a syslog message when available. If the object is not
known at the time that the syslog message is generated, the specific heading = value combination does not
appear.
The objects are prefixed as follows:
Group = groupname, Username = user, IP = IP_address
Where the group is the tunnel-group, the username is the username from the local database or AAA server,
and the IP address is the public IP address of the remote access client or Layer 2 peer.
The following table lists the message classes and the range of message IDs in each class.
Table 74: Syslog Message Classes and Associated Message ID Numbers
Class Definition Syslog Message ID Numbers
auth User Authentication 109, 113
— Access Lists 106
— Application Firewall 415
bridge Transparent Firewall 110, 220
ca PKI Certification Authority 717
citrix Citrix Client 723
— Clustering 747
— Card Management 323
config Command Interface 111, 112, 208, 308
csd Secure Desktop 724
cts Cisco TrustSec 776
dap Dynamic Access Policies 734
eap, eapoudp EAP or EAPoUDP for Network Admission Control 333, 334
eigrp EIGRP Routing 336
email E-mail Proxy 719
— Environment Monitoring 735
ha Failover 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 210, 311, 709
— Identity-based Firewall 746
ids Intrusion Detection System 400, 733
— IKEv2 Toolkit 750, 751, 752

1008
ip IP Stack 209, 215, 313, 317, 408
ipaa IP Address Assignment 735
ips Intrusion Protection System 400, 401, 420
— IPv6 325
— Blacklists, Whitelists, and Graylists 338
— Licensing 444
mdm-proxy MDM Proxy 802
nac Network Admission Control 731, 732
nacpolicy NAC Policy 731
nacsettings NAC Settings to apply NAC Policy 732
— Network Access Point 713
np Network Processor 319
— NP SSL 725
ospf OSPF Routing 318, 409, 503, 613
— Password Encryption 742
— Phone Proxy 337
rip RIP Routing 107, 312
rm Resource Manager 321
— Smart Call Home 120
session User Session 106, 108, 201, 202, 204, 302, 303, 304,
305, 314, 405, 406, 407, 500, 502, 607,
608, 609, 616, 620, 703, 710
snmp SNMP 212
— ScanSafe 775
ssl SSL Stack 725
svc SSL VPN Client 722
sys System 199, 211, 214, 216, 306, 307, 315, 414,
604, 605, 606, 610, 612, 614, 615,701,
711, 741

1009
Guidelines for Logging
— Threat Detection 733
tre Transactional Rule Engine 780
— UC-IME 339
tag-switching Service Tag Switching 779
vm VLAN Mapping 730
vpdn PPTP and L2TP Sessions 213, 403, 603
vpn IKE and IPsec 316, 320, 402, 404, 501, 602, 702, 713,
714, 715
vpnc VPN Client 611
vpnfo VPN Failover 720
vpnlb VPN Load Balancing 718
— VXLAN 778
webfo WebVPN Failover 721
webvpn WebVPN and AnyConnect Client 716
— NAT and PAT 305
Guidelines for Logging

This section includes guidelines and limitations that you should review before configuring logging.
IPv6 Guidelines
• IPv6 is supported. Syslogs can be sent using TCP or UDP.
• Ensure that the interface configured for sending syslogs is enabled, IPv6 capable, and the syslog server
is reachable through the designated interface.
• Secure logging over IPv6 is not supported.
• The syslog server must run a server program called syslogd. Windows provides a syslog server as part
of its operating system.
• To view logs generated by the Firepower Threat Defense device, you must specify a logging output
destination. If you enable logging without specifying a logging output destination, the Firepower Threat
Defense device generates messages but does not save them to a location from which you can view them.
You must specify each different logging output destination separately.

1010
Configure Syslog Logging for FTD Devices
• It is not possible to have two different lists or classes being assigned to different syslog servers or same
locations.
• You can configure up to 16 syslog servers.
• The syslog server should be reachable through the Firepower Threat Defense device. You should configure
the device to deny ICMP unreachable messages on the interface through which the syslog server is
reachable and to send syslogs to the same server. Make sure that you have enabled logging for all severity
levels. To prevent the syslog server from crashing, suppress the generation of syslogs 313001, 313004,
and 313005.
• The number of UDP connections for syslog is directly related to the number of CPUs on the hardware
platform and the number of syslog servers you configure. At any point in time, there can be as many
UDP syslog connections as there are CPUs times the number of configured syslog servers. For example,
for each syslog server:
• A Firepower 4110 can have up to 22 UDP syslog connections.
• A Firepower 4120 can have up to 46 UDP syslog connections.
This is the expected behavior. Note that the global UDP connection idle timeout applies to these sessions,
and the default is 2 minutes. You can adjust that setting if you want to close these session more quickly,
but the timeout applies to all UDP connections, not just syslog.
• When the Firepower Threat Defense device sends syslogs via TCP, the connection takes about one minute
to initiate after the syslogd service restarts.
Configure Syslog Logging for FTD Devices

Access Admin
Network Admin
To configure syslog settings, perform the following steps:
Procedure
Step 2 Click Syslog from the table of contents.
Step 3 Click the Logging Setup tab to enable logging, specify FTP Server settings, and specify Flash usage. For
more information, see Enable Logging and Configure Basic Settings, on page 1012
Step 4 Click the Logging Destinations tab to enable logging to specific destinations and to specify filtering on
message severity level, event class, or on a custom event list. For more information, see Enable Logging
Destinations, on page 1013
You must enable a logging destination to see messages at that destination.

1011
Enable Logging and Configure Basic Settings
Step 5 Click the E-mail Setup tab to specify the e-mail address that is used as the source address for syslog messages
that are sent as e-mail messages. For more information, see Send Syslog Messages to an E-mail Address, on
page 1014
Step 6 Click the Events List tab to define a custom event list that includes an event class, a severity level, and an
event ID. For more information, see Create a Custom Event List, on page 1015
Step 7 Click the Rate Limit tab to specify the volume of messages being sent to all configured destinations and
define the message severity level to which you want to assign rate limits. For more information, see Limit the
Rate of Syslog Message Generation, on page 1016
Step 8 Click the Syslog Settings tab to specify the logging facility, enable the inclusion of a time stamp, and enable
other settings to set up a server as a syslog destination. For more information, see Configure Syslog Settings,
on page 1017
Step 9 Click the Syslog Servers tab to specify the IP address, protocol used, format, and security zone for the syslog
server that is designated as a logging destination. For more information, see Configure a Syslog Server, on
page 1018
Enable Logging and Configure Basic Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
You must enable logging for the system to generate syslog messages for data plane events.
You can also set up archiving on flash or an FTP server as a storage location when the local buffer becomes
full. You can manipulate logging data after it is saved. For example, you could specify actions to be executed
when certain types of syslog messages are logged, extract data from the log and save the records to another
file for reporting, or track statistics using a site-specific script.
The following procedure explains some of the basic syslog settings.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Syslog > Logging Setup.
Step 3 Enable logging and configure basic logging settings.
• Enable Logging—Turns on data plane system logging for the Firepower Threat Defense device.
• Enable Logging on the Failover Standby Unit—Turns on logging for the standby for the Firepower
Threat Defense device, if available.
• Send syslogs in EMBLEM format—Enables EMBLEM format logging for every logging destination.
If you enable EMBLEM, you must use the UDP protocol to publish syslog messages; EMBLEM is not
compatible with TCP.
• Send debug messages as syslogs—Redirects all the debug trace output to the syslog. The syslog message
does not appear in the console if this option is enabled. Therefore, to see debug messages, you must
enable logging at the console and configure it as the destination for the debug syslog message number

1012
Enable Logging Destinations
and logging level. The syslog message number used is 711011. Default logging level for this syslog is
debug.
• Memory Size of Internal Buffer—Specify the size of the internal buffer to which syslog messages are
saved if the logging buffer is enabled. When the buffer fills up, it is overwritten. The default is 4096
bytes. The range is 4096 to 52428800.
Step 4 (Optional) Enable VPN logging by checking the Enable Logging to FMC check box. Choose the syslog
severity level for VPN messages from the Logging Level drop-down list.
For information on the levels, see Severity Levels, on page 1006.
Step 5 (Optional) Configure an FTP server if you want to save log buffer contents to the server before the buffer is
overwritten. Specify the FTP Server information.
• FTP Server Buffer Wrap— To save the buffer contents to the FTP server before it is overwritten, check
this box and enter the necessary destination information in the following fields. To remove the FTP
configuration, deselect this option.
• IP Address—Select the host network object that contains the IP address of the FTP server.
• User Name—Enter the user name to use when connecting to the FTP server.
• Path—Enter the path, relative to the FTP root, where the buffer contents should be saved.
• Password/ Confirm—Enter and confirm the password used to authenticate the user name to the FTP
server.
Step 6 (Optional) Specify Flash size if you want to save log buffer contents to flash before the buffer is overwritten.
• Flash—To save the buffer contents to the flash memory before it is overwritten, check this box.
• Maximum flash to be used by logging (KB)—Specify the maximum space to be used in the flash
memory for logging(in KB). The range is 4-8044176 bytes.
• Minimum free space to be preserved (KB)—Specifies the minimum free space to be preserved in flash
memory (in KB). The range is 0-8044176 bytes.
Step 7 Click Save.

deploy them.
Enable Logging Destinations

Access Admin
Network Admin
You must enable a logging destination to see messages at that destination. When enabling a destination, you
must also specify the message filter for the destination.
Procedure

1013
Send Syslog Messages to an E-mail Address
Step 2 Select Syslog > Logging Destinations.

Step 3 Click Add to enable a destination and apply a logging filter, or edit an existing destination.
Step 4 In the Logging Destinations dialog box, select a destination and configure the filter to use for a destination:
a) Choose the destination you are enabling in the Logging Destination drop-down list. You can create one
filter per destination: Console, E-Mail, Internal buffer, SNMP trap, SSH Sessions, and Syslog servers.
Note Console and SSH session logging works in the diagnostic CLI only. Enter system support
diagnostic-cli.
b) In Event Class, choose the filter that will apply to all classes not listed in the table.
You can configure these filters:
• Filter on severity —Select the severity level. Messages at this level or higher are sent to the
destination
• Use Event List —Select the event list that defines the filter. You create these lists on the Event Lists
tab.
• Disable Logging —Prevents messages from being sent to this destination.
c) If you want to create filters per event class, click Add to create a new filter, or edit an existing filter, and
select the event class and severity level to limit messages in that class. Click OK to save the filter.
For an explanation of the event classes, see Syslog Message Classes, on page 1007.
d) Click OK .
Step 5 Click Save.
deploy them.
Send Syslog Messages to an E-mail Address

Access Admin
Network Admin
You can set up a list of recipients for syslog messages to be sent as e-mails.
Before you begin

• Configure an SMTP server on the SMTP Server platform settings page
• Enable Logging and Configure Basic Settings, on page 1012
• Enable Logging Destinations

1014
Create a Custom Event List
Procedure
Step 2 Select Syslog > Email Setup.
Step 3 Specify the e-mail address that is used as the source address for syslog messages that are sent as e-mail
messages.
Step 4 Click Add to enter a new e-mail address recipient of the specified syslog messages.
Step 5 Choose the severity level of the syslog messages that are sent to the recipient from the drop-down list.
The syslog message severity filter used for the destination e-mail address causes messages of the specified
severity level and higher to be sent. For information on the levels, see Severity Levels, on page 1006.
Step 6 Click OK.

Step 7 Click Save.
deploy them.
Create a Custom Event List

Access Admin
Network Admin
An event list is a custom filter you can apply to a logging destination to control which messages are sent to
the destination. Normally, you filter messages for a destination based on severity only, but you can use an
event list to fine-tune which messages are sent based on a combination of event class, severity, and message
identifier (ID).
Creating a custom event list is a two-step process. You create a custom list in the Event Lists tab, and then
use the event list to define the logging filter for the various types of destination, in the Logging Destinations
tab.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Syslog > Events List.
Step 3 Configure an event list.
a) Click Add to add a new list, or edit an existing list.
b) Enter a name for the event list in the Name field. Spaces are not allowed.
c) To identify messages based on severity or event class, select the Severity/Event Class tab and add or edit
entries.
For information on the available classes see Syslog Message Classes, on page 1007.
For information on the levels, see Severity Levels, on page 1006.

1015
Limit the Rate of Syslog Message Generation
Certain event classes are not applicable for the device in transparent mode. If such options are configured
then they will be bypassed and not deployed.
d) To identify messages specifically by message ID, select the Message ID tab and add or edit the IDs.
You can enter a range of IDs using a hyphen, for example, 100000-200000. IDs are six digits. For
information on how the initial three digits map to features, see Syslog Message Classes, on page 1007.
For specific message numbers, see Cisco ASA Series Syslog Messages.
e) Click OK to save the event list.
Step 4 Click the Logging Destinations tab and add or edit the destination that should use the filter.
See Enable Logging Destinations, on page 1013.
Step 5 Click Save.

deploy them.
Limit the Rate of Syslog Message Generation

Access Admin
Network Admin
You can limit the rate at which syslog messages are generated by severity level or message ID. You can
specify individual limits for each logging level and each Syslog message ID. If the settings conflict, the Syslog
message ID limits take precedence.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Syslog > Rate Limit.
Step 3 To limit message generation by severity level, click Add on the Logging Level tab and configure the following
options:
• Logging Level—The severity level you are rate limiting. For information on the levels, see Severity
Levels, on page 1006.
• Number of messages—The maximum number of messages of the specified type allowed in the specified
time period.
• Interval—The number of seconds before the rate limit counter resets.
Step 4 Click OK.

Step 5 To limit message generation by syslog message ID, click Add on the Syslog Level tab and configure the
following options:
• Syslog ID—The syslog message ID you are rate limiting. For specific message numbers, see Cisco ASA
Series Syslog Messages.

1016
Configure Syslog Settings
• Number of messages—The maximum number of messages of the specified type allowed in the specified
time period.
• Interval—The number of seconds before the rate limit counter resets.
Step 6 Click OK.

Step 7 Click Save.
deploy them.
Configure Syslog Settings

Access Admin
Network Admin
You can configure general syslog settings to set the facility code to be included in syslog messages that are
sent to syslog servers, specify whether a timestamp is included in each message, specify the device ID to
include in messages, view and modify the severity levels for messages, and disable the generation of specific
messages.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Syslog > Syslog Settings.
Step 3 Select a system log facility for syslog servers to use as a basis to file messages in the Facility drop-down list.
The default is LOCAL4(20), which is what most UNIX systems expect. However, because your network
devices share available facilities, you might need to change this value for system logs.
Step 4 Select the Enable timestamp on each syslog message check box to include the date and time a message was
generated in the syslog message.
Timestamp timezone is always UTC.
Step 5 If you want to add a device identifier to syslog messages (which is placed at the beginning of the message),
check the Enable Syslog Device ID check box and then select the type of ID.
• Interface—To use the IP address of the selected interface, regardless of the interface through which the
appliance sends the message. Select the security zone that identifies the interface. The zone must map
to a single interface.
• User Defined ID—To use a text string (up to 16 characters) of your choice.
• Host Name—To use the hostname of the device.
Step 6 Use the Syslog Message table to alter the default settings for specific syslog messages. You need to configure
rules in this table only if you want to change the default settings. You can change the severity assigned to a
message, or you can disable the generation of a message.
By default, Netflow is enabled and the entries are shown in the table.

1017
Configure a Syslog Server
a) To suppress syslog messages that are redundant because of Netflow, select Netflow Equivalent Syslogs.
This adds the messages to the table as suppressed messages.
Note If any of these syslog equivalents are already in the table, your existing rules are not overwritten.
b) To add a rule, click the Add button.

c) You select the message number whose configuration you want to change, from the Syslog ID drop down
list and then select the new severity level from the Logging Level drop down list, or select Suppressed
to disable the generation of the message. Typically, you would not change the severity level and disable
the message, but you can make changes to both fields if desired.
d) Click OK to add the rule to the table.
Step 7 Click Save.
deploy them.
What to do next
Configure a Syslog Server

Access Admin
Network Admin
To configure a syslog server to handle messages generated from the data plane, perform the following steps.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Syslog > Syslog Server.
Step 3 Check the Allow user traffic to pass when TCP syslog server is down check box, to allow traffic if any
syslog server that is using the TCP protocol is down.
Step 4 Enter a size of the queue for storing syslog messages on the security appliance when syslog server is busy in
the Message queue size (messages) field. The minimum is 1 message. The default is 512. Specify 0 to allow
an unlimited number of messages to be queued (subject to available block memory).
Step 5 Click Add to add a new syslog server.
a) In the IP Address drop-down list, select a network host object that contains the IP address of the syslog
server.
b) Choose the protocol (either TCP or UDP) and enter the port number for communications between the
Firepower Threat Defense device and the syslog server.
UDP is faster and uses less resources on the device than TCP.

1018
Configure Global Timeouts
The default ports are 514 for UDP, 1470 for TCP. Valid non-default port values for either protocol are
1025 through 65535.
c) Check the Log messages in Cisco EMBLEM format (UDP only) check box to specify whether to log
messages in Cisco EMBLEM format (available only if UDP is selected as the protocol).
d) Check the Enable Secure Syslog check box to encrypt the connection between the device and server
using SSL/TLS over TCP.
e) Add the zones that contain the interfaces used to communicate with the syslog server. For interfaces not
in a zone, you can type the interface name into the field below the Selected Zones/Interface list and click
Add. These rules will be applied to a device only if the device includes the selected interfaces or zones.
Note If the syslog server is on the network attached to the physical Management interface, you must
type the name of that interface into the Interface Name field below the Selected Security
Zones list and click Add. You must also configure this name (if not already configured), and
an IP address, for the Diagnostic interface (edit the device from the Device Management page
and select the Interfaces tab). For more information about the management/diagnostic interface,
see Diagnostic Interface, on page 595.
f) Click OK.
Step 6 Click Save.
deploy them.
What to do next

Access Admin
Network Admin
You can set the global idle timeout durations for the connection and translation slots of various protocols. If
the slot has not been used for the idle time specified, the resource is returned to the free pool.
You can also set a time out for console sessions with the device.
Procedure
Step 2 Select Timeouts.
Step 3 Configure the timeouts you want to change.

1019
For any given setting, select Custom to define your own value, Default to return to the system default value.
In most cases, the maximum timeout is 1193 hours.
You can disable some timeouts by selecting Disable.
• Console Timeout—The idle time until a connection to the console is closed, range is 0 or 5 to 1440
minutes. The default is 0, which means the session does not time out. If you change the value, existing
console sessions use the old timeout value. The new value applies to new connections only.
• Translation Slot (xlate)—The idle time until a NAT translation slot is freed. This duration must be at
least 1 minute. The default is 3 hours.
• Connection (Conn)—The idle time until a connection slot is freed. This duration must be at least 5
minutes. The default is 1 hour.
• Half-Closed—The idle time until a TCP half-closed connection closes. The minimum is 30 seconds.
The default is 10 minutes.
• UDP—The idle time until a UDP connection closes. This duration must be at least 1 minute. The default
is 2 minutes.
• ICMP—The idle time after which general ICMP states are closed. The default (and minimum) is 2
seconds.
• RPC/Sun RPC—The idle time until a SunRPC slot is freed. This duration must be at least 1 minute.
• H.225—The idle time until an H.225 signaling connection closes. The default is 1 hour. To close a
connection immediately after all calls are cleared, a timeout of 1 second (0:0:1) is recommended.
• H.323—The idle time after which H.245 (TCP) and H.323 (UDP) media connections close. The default
(and minimum) is 5 minutes. Because the same connection flag is set on both H.245 and H.323 media
connections, the H.245 (TCP) connection shares the idle timeout with the H.323 (RTP and RTCP) media
connection.
• SIP—The idle time until a SIP signaling port connection closes. This duration must be at least 5 minutes.
• SIP Media—The idle time until a SIP media port connection closes. This duration must be at least 1
minute. The default is 2 minutes. The SIP media timer is used for SIP RTP/RTCP with SIP UDP media
packets, instead of the UDP inactivity timeout.
• SIP Disconnect—The idle time after which SIP session is deleted if the 200 OK is not received for a
CANCEL or a BYE message, between 0:0:1 and 0:10:0. The default is 2 minutes (0:2:0).
• SIP Invite—The idle time after which pinholes for PROVISIONAL responses and media xlates will be
closed, between 0:1:0 and 00:30:0. The default is 3 minutes (0:3:0).
• SIP Provisional Media—The timeout value for SIP provisional media connections, between 1 and 30
minutes. The default is 2 minutes.
• Floating Connection—When multiple routes exist to a network with different metrics, the ASA uses
the one with the best metric at the time of connection creation. If a better route becomes available, then
this timeout lets connections be closed so a connection can be reestablished to use the better route. The
default is 0 (the connection never times out). To make it possible to use better routes, set the timeout to
a value between 0:0:30 and 1193:0:0.

1020
Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense
• Xlate PAT—The idle time until a PAT translation slot is freed, between 0:0:30 and 0:5:0. The default
is 30 seconds. You may want to increase the timeout if upstream routers reject new connections using a
freed PAT port because the previous connection might still be open on the upstream device.
• TCP Proxy Reassembly—The idle timeout after which buffered packets waiting for reassembly are
dropped, between 0:0:10 and 1193:0:0. The default is 1 minute (0:1:0).
• ARP Timeout—(Transparent mode only.) The number of seconds between ARP table rebuilds, from
60 to 4294967. The default is 14,400 seconds (4 hours).
Step 4 Click Save.

deploy them.
Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense

Access Admin
Network Admin
Use an Network Time Protocol (NTP) server to synchronize the clock settings on your devices. By default,
the device uses the Firepower Management Center server as the NTP server, but you should configure a
different NTP server if possible.
Note If you are deploying FTD on the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis, you must configure NTP on the Firepower
4100/9300 chassis so that Smart Licensing will work properly and to ensure proper timestamps on device
registrations. You should use the same NTP server for the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis and the Firepower
Management Center.
Before you begin

• If your organization has one or more NTP servers that your FTD can reach, use the same NTP server or
servers for your devices that you have configured for Time Synchronization on the System >
Configuration page on your FMC. Copy the specified value.
• If your device cannot reach an NTP server or your organization does not have one, you must configure
your Firepower Management Center to serve as an NTP server. See Synchronize Time Without Access
to a Network NTP Server, on page 945.
Procedure

1021
History for Firepower Threat Defense Platform Settings
Step 2 Select Time Synchronization.

Step 3 Configure one of the following clock options:
• Via NTP from Defense Center—Use the Firepower Management Center server as the NTP server if
you have configured it to serve this function. This is the default.
• Via NTP from—If your Firepower Management Center is using an NTP server on the network, select
this option and enter the fully-qualified DNS name (such as ntp.example.com), or IP address, of the same
NTP server or servers that you specified on the FMC in System > Configuration > Time
Synchronization.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
• If your Firepower system includes Classic devices, set up time syncronization for those devices. See
Synchronizing Time on Classic Devices, on page 981.

External Authentication added for SSH 6.2.3 You can now configure external
authentication for SSH access to the
Firepower Threat Defense using LDAP or
RADIUS.
New/Modified screen:
Authentication
Defense

1022
Support for UC/APPL compliance mode 6.2.1 You can enable security certifications
compliance in CC mode or UCAPL mode.
Enabling security certifications compliance
does not guarantee strict compliance with
all requirements of the security mode
selected. For more information on
hardening procedures, refer to the
guidelines for this product provided by the
certifying entity.
Devices > Platform Settings > UC/APPL
Compliance
Supported platforms: Any device
SSL settings for remote access VPN 6.2.1 The Firepower Threat Defense device uses
the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol
and Transport Layer Security (TLS) to
support secure message transmission for
Remote Access VPN connection from
remote clients. You can configure SSL
versions and encryption algorithms that will
be negotiated and used for message
transmission during remote VPN access
over SSL.
Devices > Platform Settings > SSL
Defense

1023
External Authentication for SSH and 6.1.0 Due to changes to support converged
HTML removed management access, only local users are
supported for SSH and HTML to data
interfaces. Also, you can no longer SSH to
the logical Diagnostic interface; instead you
can SSH to the logical Management
interface (which shares the same physical
port). Previously, only external
authentication was supported for SSH and
HTML access to Diagnostic and data
interfaces, while only local users were
supported to the Management interface.
Authentication
Defense
Firepower Threat Defense support 6.0.1 This feature was introduced.

Devices > Platform Settings
Defense

1024
CHAPTER 51
Security Certifications Compliance
The following topics describe how to configure your system to comply with security certifications standards:
• Security Certifications Compliance Modes, on page 1025
• Security Certifications Compliance Characteristics, on page 1026
• Security Certifications Compliance Recommendations, on page 1027
• Enabling Security Certifications Compliance, on page 1030
Security Certifications Compliance Modes

Your organization might be required to use only equipment and software complying with security standards
established by the U.S. Department of Defense and global certification organizations. The Firepower System
supports compliance with the following security certifications standards:
• Common Criteria (CC): a global standard established by the international Common Criteria Recognition
Arrangement, defining properties for security products
• Unified Capabilities Approved Products List (UCAPL): a list of products meeting security requirements
established by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
Note The U.S. Government has changed the name of the Unified Capabilities Approved
Products List (UCAPL) to the Department of Defense Information Network
Approved Products List (DODIN APL). References to UCAPL in this
documentation and the Firepower Management Center web interface can be
interpreted as references to DODIN APL.
• Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140: a requirements specification for encryption modules
You can enable security certifications compliance in CC mode or UCAPL mode. Enabling security certifications
compliance does not guarantee strict compliance with all requirements of the security mode selected. For
more information on hardening procedures, refer to the guidelines for this product provided by the certifying
entity.
Caution After you enable this setting, you cannot disable it. If you need to take the appliance out of CC or UCAPL
mode, you must reimage the appliance.

1025
Security Certifications Compliance Characteristics
Security Certifications Compliance Characteristics

The following table describes behavior changes when you enable CC or UCAPL mode. (Restrictions on login
accounts refers to command line or shell access, not web interface access. )
System Change Firepower Management Classic Managed Firepower Threat

Center Devices Defense
CC Mode UCAPL CC Mode UCAPL CC Mode UCAPL

Mode Mode Mode
FIPS compliance is enabled. Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
The system does not allow remote storage for Yes Yes — — — —
backups or reports.
The system starts an additional system audit daemon. No Yes No Yes No No
The system boot loader is secured. No Yes No Yes No No
The system applies additional security to login No Yes No Yes No No

accounts.
The system disables the reboot key sequence No Yes No Yes No No

Ctrl+Alt+Del.
The system enforces a maximum of ten simultaneous No Yes No Yes No No

login sessions.
Passwords must be at least 15 characters long, and No Yes No Yes No No

must consist of alphanumeric characters of mixed
case and must include at least one numeric character.
The minimum required password length for the local — — No No Yes Yes
admin user can be configured using the local device
CLI.
Passwords cannot be a word that appears in a No Yes No Yes No No

dictionary or include consecutive repeating
characters.
The system locks out users other than admin after No Yes No Yes No No
three failed login attempts in a row. In this case, the
password must be reset by an administrator.
The system stores password history. No Yes No Yes No No
The admin user can be locked out after a maximum Yes Yes Yes Yes — —
number of failed login attempts configurable through
the web interface.

1026
Security Certifications Compliance Recommendations
System Change Firepower Management Classic Managed Firepower Threat

Center Devices Defense
CC Mode UCAPL CC Mode UCAPL CC Mode UCAPL

Mode Mode Mode
The admin user can be locked out after a maximum — — Yes, Yes, Yes Yes
number of failed login attempts configurable through regardless regardless
the local appliance CLI. of security of security
certifications certifications
compliance compliance
enablement. enablement.
The system automtically rekeys an SSH session with Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
an appliance:
• After a key has been in use for one hour of
session activity
• After a key has been used to transmit 1 GB of
data over the connection
The system performs a file system integrity check Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
(FSIC) at boot-time. If the FSIC fails, Firepower
software does not start, remote SSH access is
disabled, and you can access the appliance only via
local console. If this happens, contact Cisco TAC.
Security Certifications Compliance Recommendations

Cisco recommends that you observe the following best practices when using a system with security certifications
compliance enabled:
• To enable security certifications compliance in your deployment, enable it first on the Firepower
Management Center, then enable it in the same mode on all managed devices.
Caution The Firepower Management Center will not receive event data from a managed
device unless both are operating in the same security certifications compliance
mode.
• If you are using Firepower Management Centers in a high-availability configuration, configure them
both to use the same security certifications compliance mode.
• When you configure Firepower Threat Defense on a Firepower 4100/9300 Chassis to operate in CC or
UCAPL mode, you should also configure the Firepower 4100/9300 Chassis to operate in CC mode. For
more information, see the Cisco FXOS Firepower Chassis Manager Configuration Guide.
• Do not configure the system to use any of the following features:
• Email reports, alerts, or data pruning notifications.

1027
Appliance Hardening
• Nmap Scan, Cisco IOS Null Route, Set Attribute Value, or ISE EPS remediations.
• Remote storage for backups or reports.
• Third-party client access to the system database.
• External notifications or alerts transmitted via email (SMTP), SNMP trap, or syslog.
• Audit log messages transmitted to an HTTP server or to a syslog server without using SSL certificates
to secure the channel between the appliance and the server.
• Do not enable external authentication using LDAP or RADIUS in deployments using CC mode.
• Do not enable CACs in deployments using CC mode.
• Disable access to the Firepower Management Center and managed devices via the Firepower REST API
in deployments using CC or UCAPL mode.
• Enable CACs in deployments using UCAPL mode.
• Do not configure Firepower Threat Defense devices into a high availability pair unless they are both
using the same security certifications compliance mode.
Note The Firepower System does not support CC or UCAPL mode for:
• Classic devices in stacks or high availability pairs
• Firepower Threat Defense devices in clusters
Appliance Hardening
For information about features you can use to further harden your Firepower system, see the latest versions
of the Cisco Firepower Mangement Center Hardening Guide and the Cisco Firepower Threat Defense
Hardening Guide, as well as the following topics within this document:
• Licensing the Firepower System, on page 73
• About User Accounts, on page 39
• Logging into the Firepower System, on page 17
• Audit Logs, on page 929
• Time and Time Synchronization, on page 944
• Configure NTP Time Synchronization for Threat Defense, on page 1021
• Creating an Email Alert Response, on page 2186
• Configuring Email Alerting for Intrusion Events, on page 2193
• Configure SMTP, on page 1000

1028
Protecting Your Network
• Configuring SNMP for the Firepower 2100 Series, on page 213

• Configure SNMP for Threat Defense, on page 1000
• Creating an SNMP Alert Response, on page 2182
• Configure DDNS, on page 655
• DNS Cache, on page 938
• Auditing the System, on page 2541
• Security Certifications Compliance, on page 1025
• Configuring SSH for Remote Storage, on page 924
• HTTPS Certificates, on page 894
• Customize User Roles for the Web Interface, on page 63
• Add an Internal User Account, on page 43
• Configure Syslog, on page 1006
• Backup Automation, on page 150
• Site-to-Site VPNs for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 825
• Remote Access VPNs for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 837
• FlexConfig Policies for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 557
Protecting Your Network

See the following topics to learn about Firepower System features you can configure to protect your network:
• Getting Started with Access Control Policies, on page 1239
• Security Intelligence Blacklisting, on page 1295
• Getting Started with Intrusion Policies, on page 1571
• Tuning Intrusion Policies Using Rules, on page 1579
• The Intrusion Rules Editor, on page 1633
• Update Intrusion Rules, on page 122
• Globally Limiting Intrusion Event Logging, on page 1627
• Transport & Network Layer Preprocessors, on page 1843
• Detecting Specific Threats, on page 1877
• Application Layer Preprocessors, on page 1773

1029
Enabling Security Certifications Compliance
• IPS Device Deployments and Configuration, on page 487

• Auditing the System, on page 2541
• Working with Intrusion Events, on page 2361
• Searching for Events, on page 2287
• Workflows, on page 2245
• Device Management Basics, on page 191
• System Software Updates, on page 117

This configuration applies to a Firepower Management Center, a Classic managed device (7000 and 8000
Series, ASA FirePOWER, and NGIPSv), or Firepower Threat Defense:
• For a Classic or Firepower Threat Defense managed device, you apply this configuration from the
Firepower Management Center as part of a platform settings policy.
In any case, the configuration does not take effect until you save your system configuration changes or deploy
the shared platform settings policy.
Caution After you enable this setting, you cannot disable it. If you need to take the appliance out of CC or UCAPL
mode, you must reimage the appliance.
Before you begin

• Cisco recommends registering all devices that you plan to be part of your deployment to the Firepower
Management Center before enabling security certifications compliance on any appliances.
• For Firepower Threat Defense devices, ensure that you are not using an evaluation license. The device
must be registered through a Smart Software Manager account that is enabled for export-controlled
features.
• Firepower Threat Defense devices must be deployed in routed mode to support security certifications
compliance.

1030
Procedure
Step 1 Depending on the type of appliance you are configuring:

• Classic Managed device—Choose Devices > Platform Settings and create or edit a Firepower policy.
• Firepower Threat Defense—Choose Devices > Platform Settings and create or edit a Firepower Threat
Defense policy.
Step 2 Click UCAPL/CC Compliance.

Note Appliances reboot when you enable UCAPL or CC compliance. The Firepower Management Center
reboots when you save the system configuration; managed devices reboot when you deploy
configuration changes.
Step 3 To permanently enable security certifications compliance on the appliance, you have two choices:
• To enable security certifications compliance in Common Criteria mode, choose CC from the drop-down
list.
• To enable security certifications compliance in Unified Capabilities Approved Products List mode, choose
UCAPL from the drop-down list.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
• If you have not already, apply the Control and Protection licenses to all classic appliances in your
deployment.
• Establish additional configuration changes as described in the guidelines for this product provided by
the certifying entity.

1031

1032
PA R T XIII
Network Address Translation (NAT)
• NAT Policy Management, on page 1035
• NAT for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices, on page 1041
• Network Address Translation (NAT) for Firepower Threat Defense, on page 1059
CHAPTER 52
NAT Policy Management
The following topics describe how to manage NAT policies for your Firepower System:
• Managing NAT Policies, on page 1035
• Creating NAT Policies, on page 1036
• Configuring NAT Policies, on page 1037
• Configuring NAT Policy Targets, on page 1038
• Copying NAT Policies, on page 1039
Managing NAT Policies

Any Control 7000 & 8000 Series Any Access Admin

Administrator
FTD
Network Admin
Administrators in ancestor domains can target NAT policies to devices in descendant domains, which descendant
domains can use or replace with customized local policies. If a NAT policy targets devices in different
descendant domains, administrators in the descendant domains can view information about target devices
belonging to their domain only.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > NAT .

Step 2 Manage your NAT policies:
• Copy — Click the copy icon ( ) next to the policy you want to copy; see Copying NAT Policies, on
page 1039.
• Create — Click New Policy; see Creating NAT Policies, on page 1036.

1035
Creating NAT Policies
• Delete — Click the delete icon ( ) next to the policy you want to delete, then click OK. When prompted
whether to continue, you are also informed if another user has unsaved changes in the policy.
Caution After you have deployed a NAT policy to a managed device, you cannot delete the policy from
the device. Instead, you must deploy a NAT policy with no rules to remove the NAT rules
already present on the managed device. You also cannot delete a policy that is the last deployed
policy on any of its target devices, even if it is out of date. Before you can delete the policy
completely, you must deploy a different policy to those targets.
• Edit — Click the edit icon ( ); see Configuring NAT Policies, on page 1037.
• Report—Click the report icon ( ); see Generating Current Policy Reports, on page 320.
Creating NAT Policies


Administrator
FTD
Network Admin
When you create a new NAT policy you must, at minimum, give it a unique name. Although you are not
required to identify policy targets at policy creation time, you must perform this step before you can deploy
the policy. If you apply a NAT policy with no rules to a device, the system removes all NAT rules from that
device.
Procedure

Step 2 From the New Policy drop-down list, choose one of the following:
• Firepower NAT for 7000 & 8000 Series devices.
• Threat Defense NAT for FTD devices.

1036
Configuring NAT Policies
In a multidomain deployment, policy names must be unique within the domain hierarchy. The system may
identify a conflict with the name of a policy you cannot view in your current domain.

Step 5 Choose the devices where you want to deploy the policy:
• Choose a device in the Available Devices list, and click Add to Policy.
• Click and drag a device from the Available Devices list to the Selected Devices list.
• Remove a device from the Selected Devices list by clicking the delete icon ( ) next to the device.
Step 6 Click Save.
What to do next
Configuring NAT Policies


Administrator
FTD
Network Admin
If you change the type of an interface to a type that is not valid for use with a NAT policy that targets a device
with that interface, the policy labels the interface as deleted. Click Save in the NAT policy to automatically
remove the interface from the policy.
Note Rule attributes differ by NAT policy type. When adding or editing rules, click ? in the dialog box for more
information, or see the relevant chapter: Network Address Translation (NAT) for Firepower Threat Defense,
on page 1059 or NAT for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices, on page 1041.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the NAT policy you want to modify.

1037
Configuring NAT Policy Targets
Step 3 Configure your NAT policies:

• To modify the policy name or description, click the Name or Description field, delete any characters as
needed, then enter the new name or description. In a multidomain deployment, policy names must be
unique within the domain hierarchy. The system may identify a conflict with the name of a policy you
cannot view in your current domain.
• To manage policy targets, see Configuring NAT Policy Targets, on page 1038.
• To save your policy changes, click Save.
• To add a rule to a policy, click Add Rule.
• To edit an existing rule, click the edit icon ( ) next to the rule.
• To delete a rule, click the delete icon ( ) next to the rule, then click OK.
• To enable or disable an existing rule, right-click a rule, choose State, and choose Disable or Enable.
• (Firepower NAT only.) To display the configuration page for a specific rule attribute, click the name,
value, or icon in the column for the condition on the row for the rule. For example, click the name or
value in the Source Networks column to display the Source Network page for the selected rule.
What to do next
Configuring NAT Policy Targets


Administrator
FTD
Network Admin
You can identify the managed devices you want to target with your policy while creating or editing a policy.
You can search a list of available devices, 7000 or 8000 Series stacks, and high-availability pairs, and add
them to a list of selected devices.
You cannot target stacked devices running different versions of the Firepower System (for example, if an
upgrade on one of the devices fails).

1038
Copying NAT Policies
Procedure
Step 3 Click Policy Assignments.

Step 4 Do any of the following:
• To assign a device, stack, high-availability pair, or device group to the policy, select it in the Available
Devices list and click Add to Policy. You can also drag and drop.
• To remove a device assignment, click the delete icon ( ) next to a device, stack, high-availability pair,
or device group in the Selected Devices list.
Step 5 Click OK.
What to do next


Administrator
FTD
Network Admin
You can make a copy of a NAT policy. The copy includes all policy rules and configurations.
In a multidomain deployment, you can copy policies from current and ancestor domains.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the copy icon ( ) next to the NAT policy you want to copy.
Step 3 Enter a unique Name for the policy.
In a multidomain deployment, policy names must be unique within the domain hierarchy. The system may
identify a conflict with the name of a policy you cannot view in your current domain.
Step 4 Click OK.

1039

1040
CHAPTER 53
NAT for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices
The following topics describe how to configure NAT for 7000 and 8000 Series devices:
• NAT Policy Configuration, on page 1041
• Rule Organization in a NAT Policy, on page 1042
• Organizing NAT Rules, on page 1043
• NAT Policy Rules Options, on page 1044
NAT Policy Configuration

You can configure NAT policies in different ways to manage specific network needs. You can:
• Expose an internal server to an external network.
In this configuration, you define a static translation from an external IP address to an internal IP address
so the system can access an internal server from outside the network. Traffic sent to the server targets
the external IP address or IP address and port, and is translated into the internal IP address or IP address
and port. Return traffic from the server is translated back to the external address.
• Allow an internal host/server to connect to an external application.
In this configuration, you define a static translation from an internal address to an external address. This
definition allows the internal host or server to initiate a connection to an external application that is
expecting the internal host or server to have a specific IP address and port. Therefore, the system cannot
dynamically allocate the address of the internal host or server.
• Hide private network addresses from an external network.
You can obscure your internal network addresses using either of the following configurations:
• If you have a sufficient number of external IP addresses to satisfy your internal network needs, you
can use a block of IP addresses. In this configuration, you create a dynamic translation that
automatically converts the source IP address of any outgoing traffic to an unused IP address from
your externally facing IP addresses.
• If you have an insufficient number of external IP addresses to satisfy your internal network needs,
you can use a limited block of IP addresses and port translation. In this configuration, you create a
dynamic translation that automatically converts the source IP address and port of outgoing traffic
to an unused IP address and port from your externally facing IP addresses.

1041
NAT Policies Configuration Guidelines
Caution In 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pairs, only select an individual peer interface for a static NAT
rule on a paired device if all networks affected by the NAT translations are private. Do not use configurations
for static NAT rules affecting traffic between public and private networks.
NAT Policies Configuration Guidelines

To configure a NAT policy, you must give the policy a unique name and identify the devices, or targets,
where you want to deploy the policy. You can also add, edit, delete, enable, and disable NAT rules. After you
create or modify a NAT policy, you can deploy the policy to all or some targeted devices.
You can deploy NAT policies to a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair, including paired stacks,
as you would a standalone device. However, you can define static NAT rules for interfaces on individual
paired devices or the entire high-availability pair and use the interfaces in source zones. For dynamic rules,
you can use only the interfaces on the whole high-availability pair in source or destination zones.
Caution In 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pairs, only select an individual peer interface for a static NAT
rule on a paired device if all networks affected by the NAT translations are private. Do not use this configuration
for static NAT rules affecting traffic between public and private networks.
If you configure dynamic NAT on a device high-availability pair without HA link interfaces established, both
paired devices independently allocate dynamic NAT entries, and the system cannot synchronize the entries
between devices.
You can deploy NAT policies to a device stack as you would a standalone device. If you establish a device
stack from devices that were included in a NAT policy and had rules associated with interfaces from the
secondary device that was a member of the stack, the interfaces from the secondary device remain in the NAT
policy. You can save and deploy policies with the interfaces, but the rules do not provide any translation.
Note Active FTP is not supported on a 7000 or 8000 series device with NAT configured, use passive FTP instead.
in a lower domain, switch to that domain. Administrators in ancestor domains can target NAT policies to
devices in descendant domains, which descendant domains can use or replace with customized local policies
Rule Organization in a NAT Policy

The Edit page for the NAT policy lists static NAT rules and dynamic NAT rules separately. The system sorts
static rules alphabetically by name, and you cannot change the display order. You cannot create static rules
with identical matching values. The system inspects static translations for a match before it inspects any
dynamic translations.
Dynamic rules are processed in numerical order. The numeric position of each dynamic rule appears on the
left side of the page next to the rule. You can move or insert dynamic rules and otherwise change the rule

1042
Organizing NAT Rules
order. For example, if you move dynamic rule 10 under dynamic rule 3, rule 10 becomes rule 4 and all
subsequent numbers increment accordingly.
A dynamic rule’s position is important because the system compares packets to dynamic rules in the rules'
numeric order on the policy Edit page. When a packet meets all the conditions of a dynamic rule, the system
applies the conditions of that rule to the packet and ignores all subsequent rules for that packet.
You can specify a dynamic rule’s numeric position when you add or edit a dynamic rule. You can also highlight
a dynamic rule before adding a new dynamic rule to insert the new rule below the rule you highlighted.
You can select one or more dynamic rules by clicking a blank space in the row for the rule. You can drag and
drop selected dynamic rules into a new location, thereby changing the position of the rules you moved and
all subsequent rules.
You can cut or copy selected rules and paste them above or below an existing rule. You can only paste static
rules in the Static Translations list and only dynamic rules in the Dynamic Translations list. You can also
delete selected rules and insert new rules into any location in the list of existing rules.
You can display explanatory warnings to identify rules that will never match because they are preempted by
preceding rules.
If you have access control policies in your deployment, the system does not translate traffic until it has passed
through access control.
Organizing NAT Rules


Admin
Procedure
Step 3 Organize your NAT rules:

• To choose a rule, click a blank area in the row for a rule.
• To clear rule selections, click the reload icon ( ) on the lower right side of the page. To clear individual
rules, click a blank area in a rule's row while holding the Ctrl key.
• To cut or copy selected rules, right-click a blank area in the row for a selected rule, then select Cut or
Copy.
• To paste rules you have cut or copied into the rule list, right-click a blank area in the row for a rule where
you want to paste selected rules, then select Paste above or Paste below.
• To move selected rules, drag and drop selected rules beneath a new location, indicated by a horizontal
blue line that appears above your pointer as you drag.

1043
NAT Rule Warnings and Errors
• To delete a rule, click the delete icon ( ) next to the rule, then click OK.
• To show warnings, click Show Warnings.
NAT Rule Warnings and Errors

The conditions of a NAT rule may preempt a subsequent rule from matching traffic. Any type of rule condition
can preempt a subsequent rule.
A rule also preempts an identical subsequent rule where all configured conditions are the same. A subsequent
rule would not be preempted if any condition were different.
If you create a rule that causes the NAT policy to fail upon deploy, an error icon ( ) appears next to the rule.
An error occurs if there is a conflict in the static rules, or if you edit a network object used in the policy that
now makes the policy invalid. For example, an error occurs if you change a network object to use only IPv6
addresses and the rule that uses that object no longer has any valid networks where at least one network is
required. Error icons appear automatically; you do not have to click Show Warnings.
Showing and Hiding NAT Rule Warnings


Admin
Procedure
Step 3 To show warnings, click Show Warnings.

The page updates with an warning icon ( ) next to each preempted rule.
Step 4 To display the warning for a rule, hover your pointer over the warning icon ( ) next to a rule.
A message indicates which rule preempts the rule.
Step 5 To clear warnings, click Hide Warnings.
The page refreshes and the warnings disappear.
NAT Policy Rules Options

A NAT rule is simply a set of configurations and conditions that:

1044
Creating and Editing NAT Rules
• qualifies network traffic

• specifies how the traffic that matches those qualifications is translated
You create and edit NAT rules from within an existing NAT policy. Each rule belongs to only one policy.
The web interface for adding or editing a rule is similar. You specify the rule name, state, type, and position
(if dynamic) at the top of the page. You build conditions using the tabs on the left side of the page; each
condition type has its own tab.
The following list summarizes the configurable components of a NAT rule.
Name
Give each rule a unique name. For static NAT rules, use a maximum of 22 characters. For dynamic NAT
rules, use a maximum of 30 characters. You can use printable characters, including spaces and special characters,
with the exception of the colon (:).
Rule State
By default, rules are enabled. If you disable a rule, the system does not use it to evaluate network traffic for
translation. When viewing the list of rules in a NAT policy, disabled rules are grayed out, although you can
still modify them.
Type
A rule’s type determines how the system handles traffic that matches the rule’s conditions. When you create
and edit NAT rules, the configurable components vary according to rule type.
Position (Dynamic Rules Only)

Dynamic rules in a NAT policy are numbered, starting at 1. The system matches traffic to NAT rules in
top-down order by ascending rule number.
When you add a rule to a policy, you specify its position by placing it above or below a specific rule, using
rule numbers as a reference point. When editing an existing rule, you can Move the rule in a similar fashion.
Conditions
Rule conditions identify the specific traffic you want to translate. Conditions can match traffic by any
combination of multiple attributes, including security zone, network, and transport protocol port.
Related Topics
Creating and Editing NAT Rules, on page 1045
Creating and Editing NAT Rules


Admin

1045
NAT Rule Types
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays policies and rules created in the current domain, which
you can edit. It also displays policies and rules created in ancestor domains, which you cannot edit. To view
and edit rules created in a lower domain, switch to that domain.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the NAT policy where you want to add a rule.
Step 3 Add a new rule or edit an existing rule:

• To add a new rule, click Add Rule.
• To edit an existing rule, click the edit icon ( ) next to the rule you want to edit.
Step 4 Enter a unique rule Name.

Step 5 Configure the following rule components:
• Specify whether the rule is Enabled.
• Specify a rule Type.
• Specify the rule position (dynamic rules only).
• Configure the rule’s conditions.
Note Static rules must include an original destination network. Dynamic rules must include a translated
source network.
Step 6 Click Add.

Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
NAT Rule Types

Every NAT rule has an associated type that:
• qualifies network traffic
• specifies how the traffic that matches those qualifications is translated
The following list summarizes the NAT rule types.

1046
NAT Rule Types
Static
Static rules provide one-to-one translations on destination networks and optionally port and protocol. When
configuring static translations, you can configure source zones, destination networks, and destination ports.
You cannot configure destination zones or source networks.
You must specify an original destination network. For destination networks, you can only select network
objects and groups containing a single IP address or enter literal IP addresses that represent a single IP address.
You can only specify a single original destination network and a single translated destination network.
You can specify a single original destination port and a single translated destination port. You must specify
an original destination network before you can specify an original destination port. In addition, you cannot
specify a translated destination port unless you also specify an original destination port, and the translated
value must match the protocol of the original value.
Caution For static NAT rules on a 7000 or 8000 Series device in a high-availability pair, only select an individual peer
interface if all networks affected by the NAT translations are private. Do not use this configuration for static
NAT rules affecting traffic between public and private networks.
Dynamic IP Only
Dynamic IP Only rules translate many-to-many source networks, but maintain port and protocol. When
configuring dynamic IP only translations, you can configure zones, source networks, original destination
networks, and original destination ports. You cannot configure translated destination networks or translated
destination ports.
You must specify at least one translated source network. If the number of translated source network values
is less than the number of original source networks, the system displays a warning on the rule that it is possible
to run out of translated addresses before all original addresses are matched.
If there are multiple rules with conditions that match the same packet, the low priority rules become dead,
meaning they can never be triggered. The system also displays warnings for dead rules. You can view tooltips
to determine which rule supersedes the dead rule.
Note You can save and deploy policies with dead rules, but the rules cannot provide any translation.
In some instances, you may want to create rules with limited scope preceding rules with a broader scope. For
example:
Rule 1: Match on address A and port A/Translate to address B

Rule 2: Match on address A/Translate to Address C
In this example, rule 1 matches some packets that also match rule 2. Therefore, rule 2 is not completely dead.
If you specify only original destination ports, you cannot specify translated destination ports.

1047
NAT Rule Condition Types
Dynamic IP + Port
Dynamic IP and port rules translate many-to-one or many-to-many source networks and port and protocol.
When configuring dynamic IP and port translations, you can configure zones, source networks, original
destination networks, and original destination ports. You cannot configure translated destination networks or
translated destination ports.
You must specify at least one translated source network. If there are multiple rules with conditions that match
the same packet, the low priority rules become dead, meaning they can never be triggered. The system also
displays warnings for dead rules. You can view tool tips to determine which rule supersedes the dead rule.
Note You can save and deploy policies with dead rules, but the rules cannot provide any translation.
If you specify only original destination ports, you cannot specify translated destination ports.
Note If you create a dynamic IP and port rule, and the system passes traffic that does not use a port, no translation
occurs for the traffic. For example, a ping (ICMP) from an IP address that matches the source network does
not map, because ICMP does not use a port.
NAT Rule Condition Types

The following table summarizes the NAT rule condition types that can be configured based on the specified
NAT rule type:
Table 75: Available NAT Rule Condition Types per NAT Rule Type
Condition Static Dynamic (IP Only or IP + Port)
Source Zones Optional Optional
Destination Zones Not allowed Optional
Original Source Networks Not allowed Optional
Translated Source Networks Not allowed Required
Original Destination Networks Required Optional
Translated Destination Networks Optional; single address only Not allowed
Original Destination Ports Optional; single port only, and only allowed Optional
if you define the original destination
network
Translated Destination Ports Optional; single port only, and only allowed Not allowed
if you define the original destination port

1048
NAT Rule Conditions and Condition Mechanics
NAT Rule Conditions and Condition Mechanics

You can add conditions to NAT rules to identify the type of traffic that matches the rule. For each condition
type, you select conditions you want to add to a rule from a list of available conditions. When applicable,
condition filters allow you to constrain available conditions. Lists of available and selected conditions may
be as short as a single condition or many pages long. You can search available conditions and display only
those matching a typed name or value in a list that updates as you type.
Depending on the type of condition, lists of available conditions may be comprised of a combination of
conditions provided directly by Cisco or configured using other Firepower System features, including objects
created using the object manager (Objects > Object Management), objects created directly from individual
conditions pages, and literal conditions.
NAT Rule Conditions

You can set a NAT rule to match traffic meeting any of the conditions described in the following table:
Table 76: NAT Rule Condition Types
Condition Description
Zones A configuration of one or more routed interfaces

where you can deploy NAT policies. Zones provide
a mechanism for classifying traffic on source and
destination interfaces, and you can add source and
destination zone conditions to rules.
Networks Any combination of individual IP addresses, CIDR

blocks, and prefix lengths, either specified explicitly
or using network objects and groups.You can add
source and destination network conditions to NAT
rules.
Destination Ports Transport protocol ports, including individual and

group port objects you create based on transport
protocols.
Adding Conditions to NAT Rules


Admin
Adding conditions to NAT rules is essentially the same for each type of condition. You choose from a list of
available conditions on the left, and add the conditions you chose to one or two lists of selected conditions
on the right.
For all condition types, you choose one or more individual available conditions by clicking on them to highlight
them. You can either click a button between the two types of lists to add available conditions that you choose
to your lists of selected conditions, or drag and drop available conditions that you choose into the list of
selected conditions.

1049
Adding Conditions to NAT Rules
You can add up to 50 conditions of each type to a list of selected conditions. For example, you can add up to
50 source zone conditions, up to 50 destination zone conditions, up to 50 source network conditions, and so
on, until you reach the upper limit for the appliance.
Procedure
Step 3 Click Add Rule.

Step 4 Enter a Name for the rule.
Step 5 Specify a Type for the rule.
Step 6 Click the tab for the type of condition you want to add to the rule.
Step 7 Take any of the following actions:
• To choose available conditions to add to a list of selected conditions, click the available condition.
• To choose all listed available conditions, right-click the row for any available condition, then click Select
All.
• To choose a list of available conditions or filters, click inside the Search field and enter a search string.
The list updates as you type to display matching items.
You can search on object names and on the values configured for objects. For example, if you have an
individual network object named Texas Office with the configured value 192.168.3.0/24, and the
object is included in the group object US Offices, you can display both objects by entering a partial or
complete search string such as Tex, or by entering a value such as 3.
• To clear a search when searching available conditions or filters, click the reload icon ( ) above the
Search field or the clear icon ( ) in the Search field.
• To add selected zone conditions from a list of available conditions to a list of selected source or destination
conditions, click Add to Source or Add to Destination.
• To add selected network and port conditions from a list of available conditions to a list of selected original
or translated conditions, click Add to Original or Add to Translated.
• To drag and drop selected available conditions into a list of selected conditions, click a selected condition,
then drag and drop into the list of selected conditions.
• To add a literal condition to a list of selected conditions using a literal field, click to remove the prompt
from the literal field, enter the literal condition, and click Add. Network conditions provide a field for
adding literal conditions.
• To add a literal condition to a list of selected conditions using a drop-down list, choose a condition from
the drop-down list, then click Add. Port conditions provide a drop-down list for adding literal conditions.
• To add an individual object or condition filter so you can then choose it from the list of available
conditions, click the add icon ( ).
• To delete a single condition from a list of selected conditions, click the delete icon ( ) next to the
condition.

1050
Literal Conditions in NAT Rules
• To delete a condition from a list of selected conditions, right-click to highlight the row for a selected
condition, then click Delete.
Step 8 Click Add to save your configuration.
Literal Conditions in NAT Rules

You can add a literal value to the list of original and translated conditions for the following condition types:
• Networks
• Ports
For network conditions, you type the literal value in a configuration field below the list of original or translated
conditions.
In the case of port conditions, you choose a protocol from a drop-down list. When the protocol is All, or TCP
or UDP, you enter a port number in a configuration field.
Each relevant conditions page provides the controls needed to add literal values. Values you enter in a
configuration field appear as red text if the value is invalid, or until it is recognized as valid. Values change
to blue text as you type when they are recognized as valid. A grayed Add button activates when a valid value
is recognized. Literal values you add appear immediately in the list of selected conditions.
Objects in NAT Rule Conditions

Objects that you create in the object manager (Objects > Object Management) are immediately available
for you to select from relevant lists of available NAT rule conditions.
You can also create objects on-the-fly from the NAT policy. A control on relevant conditions pages provides
access to the same configuration controls that you use in the object manager.
Individual objects created on-the-fly appear immediately in the list of available objects. You can add them to
the current rule, and to other existing and future rules. On the relevant conditions page, and also on the policy
Edit page, you can hover your pointer over an individual object to display the contents of the object, and over
a group object to display the number of individual objects in the group.
Zone Conditions in NAT Rules

The security zones on your system are comprised of interfaces on your managed devices. Zones that you add
to a NAT rule target the rule to devices on your network that have routed or hybrid interfaces in those zones.
You can only add security zones with routed or hybrid interfaces as conditions for NAT rules.
You can add either zones or standalone interfaces that are currently assigned to a virtual router to NAT rules.
If there are devices with un-deployed device configurations, the Zones page displays a warning icon ( ) at

1051
Adding Zone Conditions to NAT Rules
the top of the available zones list, indicating that only deployed zones and interfaces are displayed. You can
click the arrow icon ( ) next to a zone to collapse or expand the zone to hide or view its interfaces.
If an interface is on a 7000 or 8000 Series device in a high-availability pair, the available zones list displays
an additional branch from that interface with the other interfaces in the high-availability pair as children of
the primary interface on the active device in the high-availability pair. You can also click the arrow icon ( )
to collapse or expand the paired device interfaces to hide or view its interfaces.
Note You can save and deploy policies with disabled interfaces, but the rules cannot provide any translation until
the interfaces are enabled.
The two lists on the right are the source and destination zones used for matching purposes by the NAT rules.
If the rule already has values configured, these lists display the existing values when you edit the rule. If the
source zones list is empty, the rule matches traffic from any zone or interface. If the destination zones list is
empty, the rule matches traffic to any zone or interface.
The system displays warnings for rules with zone combinations that never trigger on a targeted device.
Note You can save and deploy policies with these zone combinations, but the rules will not provide any translation.
You can add individual interfaces by selecting an item in a zone or by selecting a standalone interface. You
can only add interfaces in a zone if the zone it is assigned to has not already been added to a source zones or
destination zones list. These individually selected interfaces are not affected by changes to zones, even if you
remove them and add them to a different zone. If an interface is the primary member of a high-availability
pair and you are configuring a dynamic rule, you can add only the primary interface to the source zones or
destination zones list. For static rules, you can add individual high-availability pair member interfaces to the
source zones list. You can only add a primary high-availability pair interface to a list if none of its children
have been added, and you can only add individual high-availability pair interfaces if the primary has not been
added.
If you add a zone, the rule uses all interfaces associated with the zone. If you add or remove an interface from
the zone, the rule will not use the updated version of the zone until the device configuration has been re-deployed
to the devices where the interfaces reside.
Note In a static NAT rule, you can add only source zones. In a dynamic NAT rule, you can add both source and
destination zones.
Adding Zone Conditions to NAT Rules


Admin

1052
Source Network Conditions in Dynamic NAT Rules
Procedure

Step 6 Click the Zones tab.
Step 7 Click a zone or interface in the Available Zones list.
• To match traffic by source zone, click Add to Source.
• To match traffic by destination zone, click Add to Destination.
Note You can add only source zones to static NAT rules. Additionally, while you can add disabled
interfaces to a NAT rule, the rule does not provide any translation.
Step 9 Click Add to save the new rule.

Step 10 Click Save to save the changed policy.
What to do next
Source Network Conditions in Dynamic NAT Rules

You configure the matching values and translation values of the source IP address for packets. If the original
source network is not configured, then any source IP address matches the dynamic NAT rule. Note that you
cannot configure source networks for static NAT rules. If a packet matches the NAT rule, the system uses the
values in the translated source network to assign the new value for the source IP address. For dynamic rules,
you must configure a translated source network with at least one value.
Caution If a network object or object group is being used by a NAT rule, and you change or delete the object or group,
it can cause the rule to become invalid.
You can add any of the following kinds of source network conditions to a dynamic NAT rule:
• individual and group network objects that you have created using the object manager
• individual network objects that you add from the Source Network conditions page, and can then add to
your rule and to other existing and future rules

1053
Adding Network Conditions to a Dynamic NAT Rule
• literal, single IP addresses, ranges, or address blocks
Adding Network Conditions to a Dynamic NAT Rule


Admin
When you update the network conditions in a dynamic rule in use in a deployed policy, the system drops any
network sessions using the existing translated address pool.
Procedure

Step 5 Specify a dynamic Type for the rule:
• Dynamic IP Only
• Dynamic IP + Port
Step 6 Click the Source Networks tab.
Step 7 Optionally, add an individual network object to the Available Networks list by clicking the add icon ( )
above the list.
You can add multiple IP addresses, CIDR blocks, and prefix lengths to each network object.
Step 8 Click a condition in the Available Networks list.

• To match traffic by original source network, click Add to Original.
• To specify the translation value for traffic that matches the translated source network, click Add to
Translated.
Step 10 To add a literal IP address, range, or address block:

a) Click the Enter an IP address prompt below the Original Source Network or Translated Source
Network list.

1054
Destination Network Conditions in NAT Rules
b) Enter an IP address, range, or address block.

You add ranges in the following format: lower IP address-upper IP address. For example:
179.13.1.1-179.13.1.10.
c) Click Add next to the value you entered.

Step 11 Click Add to save the rule.
Step 12 Click Save to save the changed policy.
What to do next
Destination Network Conditions in NAT Rules

You configure the matching values and translation values of the destination IP address for packets. Note that
you cannot configure translated destination networks for dynamic NAT rules.
Because static NAT rules are one-to-one translations, the Available Networks list contains only network
objects and groups that contain only a single IP address. For static translations, you can add only a single
object or literal value to both the Original Destination Network or Translated Destination Network lists.
Caution If a network object or object group is being used by a NAT rule, and you change or delete the object or group,
it can cause the rule to become invalid.
You can add any of the following kinds of destination network conditions to a NAT rule:
• individual and group network objects that you have created using the object manager
• individual network objects that you add from the Destination Network conditions page, and can then add
to your rule and to other existing and future rules
• literal, single IP addresses, range, or address blocks
For static NAT rules, you can add only a CIDR with subnet mask /32, and only if there is not already a
value in the list.

1055
Adding Destination Network Conditions to NAT Rules
Adding Destination Network Conditions to NAT Rules


Admin
When you update the network conditions in a dynamic rule in use in a deployed policy, the system drops any
network sessions using the existing translated address pool.
Procedure

Step 6 Click the Destination Network tab.
Step 7 Optionally, add an individual network object to the Available Networks list by clicking the add icon ( )
above the list.
For dynamic rules, you can add multiple IP addresses, CIDR blocks, and prefix lengths to each network object.
For static rules, you can add only a single IP address.
Step 8 Click a condition or object in the Available Networks list.

• To match traffic by original destination network, click Add to Original.
• To specify the translation value for traffic that matches the translated destination network, click Add to
Translated.
Step 10 Optionally, click the Enter an IP address prompt below the Original Destination Network or Translated
Destination Network list, enter an IP address or address block, and click Add.
Step 11 Click Add.
Step 12 Click Save to save the changes to the policy.
What to do next

1056
Port Conditions in NAT Rules
Port Conditions in NAT Rules

You can add a port condition to a rule to match network traffic based on the original and translated destination
port and transport protocol for translation. If the original port is not configured, any destination port matches
the rule. If a packet matches the NAT rule and a translated destination port is configured, the system translates
the port into that value. Note that for dynamic rules, you can specify only the original destination port. For
static rules, you can define a translated destination port, but only with an object with the same protocol as the
original destination port object or literal value.
The system matches the destination port against the value of the port object or literal port in the original
destination port list for static rules, or multiple values for dynamic rules.
Because static NAT rules are one-to-one translations, the Available Ports list contains only port objects and
groups that contain only a single port. For static translations, you can add only a single object or literal value
to both the Original Port or Translated Port lists.
For dynamic rules, you can add a range of ports. For example, when specifying the original destination port,
you can add 1000-1100 as a literal value.
Caution If a port object or object group is being used by a NAT rule, and you change or delete the object or group, it
can cause the rule to become invalid.
You can add any of the following kinds of port conditions to a NAT rule:
• individual and group port objects that you have created using the object manager
• individual port objects that you add from the Destination Ports conditions page, and can then add to your
rule and to other existing and future rules
• literal port values, consisting of a TCP, UDP, or All (TCP and UDP) transport protocol and a port
Adding Port Conditions to NAT Rules


Admin
Procedure


1057
Adding Port Conditions to NAT Rules
Step 6 Click the Destination Port tab.
Step 7 Optionally, add an individual port object to the Available Ports list by clicking the add icon ( ) above the
list.
You can identify a single port or a port range in each port object that you add. You can then choose objects
you added as conditions for your rule. For static rules, you can use only port objects with single ports.
Step 8 Click a condition in the Available Ports list.

• Click Add to Original.
• Click Add to Translated.
• Drag and drop available ports into a list.
Step 10 To add a literal port:

a) Choose an entry from the Protocol drop-down list beneath the Original Port or Translated Port lists.
b) Enter a port.
c) Click Add.
For dynamic rules, you can specify a single port or a range.
Step 11 Click Add.

Step 12 Click Save to save the changes to the policy.
What to do next

1058
CHAPTER 54
Network Address Translation (NAT) for
The following topics explain Network Address Translation (NAT) and how to configure it on Firepower
Threat Defense devices.
• Why Use NAT?, on page 1059
• NAT Basics, on page 1060
• Guidelines for NAT, on page 1067
• Configure NAT for Threat Defense, on page 1072
• Translating IPv6 Networks, on page 1107
• Monitoring NAT, on page 1116
• Examples for NAT, on page 1116
• History for FTD NAT, on page 1155
Why Use NAT?

Each computer and device within an IP network is assigned a unique IP address that identifies the host. Because
of a shortage of public IPv4 addresses, most of these IP addresses are private, not routable anywhere outside
of the private company network. RFC 1918 defines the private IP addresses you can use internally that should
not be advertised:
• 10.0.0.0 through 10.255.255.255
• 172.16.0.0 through 172.31.255.255
• 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.255.255
One of the main functions of NAT is to enable private IP networks to connect to the Internet. NAT replaces
a private IP address with a public IP address, translating the private addresses in the internal private network
into legal, routable addresses that can be used on the public Internet. In this way, NAT conserves public
addresses because it can be configured to advertise at a minimum only one public address for the entire network
to the outside world.
Other functions of NAT include:
• Security—Keeping internal IP addresses hidden discourages direct attacks.
• IP routing solutions—Overlapping IP addresses are not a problem when you use NAT.

1059
NAT Basics
• Flexibility—You can change internal IP addressing schemes without affecting the public addresses
available externally; for example, for a server accessible to the Internet, you can maintain a fixed IP
address for Internet use, but internally, you can change the server address.
• Translating between IPv4 and IPv6 (Routed mode only) (Version 9.0(1) and later)—If you want to
connect an IPv6 network to an IPv4 network, NAT lets you translate between the two types of addresses.
Note NAT is not required. If you do not configure NAT for a given set of traffic, that traffic will not be translated,
but will have all of the security policies applied as normal.
NAT Basics
The following topics explain some of the basics of NAT.
NAT Terminology
This document uses the following terminology:
• Real address/host/network/interface—The real address is the address that is defined on the host, before
it is translated. In a typical NAT scenario where you want to translate the inside network when it accesses
the outside, the inside network would be the “real” network. Note that you can translate any network
connected to the device, not just an inside network. Therefore if you configure NAT to translate outside
addresses, “real” can refer to the outside network when it accesses the inside network.
• Mapped address/host/network/interface—The mapped address is the address that the real address is
translated to. In a typical NAT scenario where you want to translate the inside network when it accesses
the outside, the outside network would be the “mapped” network.
Note During address translation, IP addresses configured for the device interfaces are
not translated.
• Bidirectional initiation—Static NAT allows connections to be initiated bidirectionally, meaning both to

the host and from the host.
• Source and destination NAT—For any given packet, both the source and destination IP addresses are
compared to the NAT rules, and one or both can be translated/untranslated. For static NAT, the rule is
bidirectional, so be aware that “source” and “destination” are used in commands and descriptions
throughout this guide even though a given connection might originate at the “destination” address.
NAT Types
You can implement NAT using the following methods:

1060
NAT in Routed and Transparent Mode
• Dynamic NAT—A group of real IP addresses are mapped to a (usually smaller) group of mapped IP
addresses, on a first come, first served basis. Only the real host can initiate traffic. See Dynamic NAT,
on page 1076.
• Dynamic Port Address Translation (PAT)—A group of real IP addresses are mapped to a single IP address
using a unique source port of that IP address. See Dynamic PAT, on page 1081.
• Static NAT—A consistent mapping between a real and mapped IP address. Allows bidirectional traffic
initiation. See Static NAT, on page 1088.
• Identity NAT—A real address is statically translated to itself, essentially bypassing NAT. You might
want to configure NAT this way when you want to translate a large group of addresses, but then want
to exempt a smaller subset of addresses. See Identity NAT, on page 1097.
NAT in Routed and Transparent Mode

You can configure NAT in both routed and transparent firewall mode. You cannot configure NAT for interfaces
operating in inline, inline tap, or passive modes. The following sections describe typical usage for each firewall
mode.
NAT in Routed Mode

The following figure shows a typical NAT example in routed mode, with a private network on the inside.
Figure 22: NAT Example: Routed Mode
1. When the inside host at 10.1.2.27 sends a packet to a web server, the real source address of the packet,
10.1.2.27, is translated to a mapped address, 209.165.201.10.
2. When the server responds, it sends the response to the mapped address, 209.165.201.10, and the Firepower
Threat Defense device receives the packet because the Firepower Threat Defense device performs proxy
ARP to claim the packet.

1061
NAT in Transparent Mode or Within a Bridge Group
3. The Firepower Threat Defense device then changes the translation of the mapped address, 209.165.201.10,
back to the real address, 10.1.2.27, before sending it to the host.
NAT in Transparent Mode or Within a Bridge Group

Using NAT in transparent mode eliminates the need for the upstream or downstream routers to perform NAT
for their networks. It can perform a similar function within a bridge group in routed mode.
NAT in transparent mode, or in routed mode between members of the same bridge group, has the following
requirements and limitations:
• You cannot configure interface PAT when the mapped address is a bridge group member interface,
because there is no IP address attached to the interface.
• ARP inspection is not supported. Moreover, if for some reason a host on one side of the Firepower Threat
Defense device sends an ARP request to a host on the other side of the Firepower Threat Defense device,
and the initiating host real address is mapped to a different address on the same subnet, then the real
address remains visible in the ARP request.
• Translating between IPv4 and IPv6 networks is not supported. Translating between two IPv6 networks,
or between two IPv4 networks is supported.
The following figure shows a typical NAT scenario in transparent mode, with the same network on the inside
and outside interfaces. The transparent firewall in this scenario is performing the NAT service so that the
upstream router does not have to perform NAT.
Figure 23: NAT Example: Transparent Mode
1. When the inside host at 10.1.1.75 sends a packet to a web server, the real source address of the packet,
10.1.1.75, is changed to a mapped address, 209.165.201.15.

1062
Auto NAT and Manual NAT
2. When the server responds, it sends the response to the mapped address, 209.165.201.15, and the Firepower
Threat Defense device receives the packet because the upstream router includes this mapped network in
a static route directed to the Firepower Threat Defense device management IP address.
3. The Firepower Threat Defense device then undoes the translation of the mapped address, 209.165.201.15,
back to the real address, 10.1.1.1.75. Because the real address is directly-connected, the Firepower Threat
Defense device sends it directly to the host.
4. For host 192.168.1.2, the same process occurs, except for returning traffic, the Firepower Threat Defense
device looks up the route in its routing table and sends the packet to the downstream router at 10.1.1.3
based on the Firepower Threat Defense device static route for 192.168.1.0/24.
Auto NAT and Manual NAT

You can implement address translation in two ways: auto NAT and manual NAT.
We recommend using auto NAT unless you need the extra features that manual NAT provides. It is easier to
configure auto NAT, and it might be more reliable for applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP). (For VoIP,
you might see a failure in the translation of indirect addresses that do not belong to either of the objects used
in the rule.)
Auto NAT
All NAT rules that are configured as a parameter of a network object are considered to be auto NAT rules.
This is a quick and easy way to configure NAT for a network object. You cannot create these rules for a group
object, however.
Although these rules are configured as part of the object itself, you cannot see the NAT configuration in the
object definition through the object manager.
When a packet enters an interface, both the source and destination IP addresses are checked against the auto
NAT rules. The source and destination address in the packet can be translated by separate rules if separate
matches are made. These rules are not tied to each other; different combinations of rules can be used depending
on the traffic.
Because the rules are never paired, you cannot specify that sourceA/destinationA should have a different
translation than sourceA/destinationB. Use manual NAT for that kind of functionality, where you can identify
the source and destination address in a single rule.
Manual NAT
Manual NAT lets you identify both the source and destination address in a single rule. Specifying both the
source and destination addresses lets you specify that sourceA/destinationA can have a different translation
than sourceA/destinationB.
Note For static NAT, the rule is bidirectional, so be aware that “source” and “destination” are used in commands
and descriptions throughout this guide even though a given connection might originate at the “destination”
address. For example, if you configure static NAT with port address translation, and specify the source address
as a Telnet server, and you want all traffic going to that Telnet server to have the port translated from 2323
to 23, then you must specify the source ports to be translated (real: 23, mapped: 2323). You specify the source
ports because you specified the Telnet server address as the source address.

1063
Comparing Auto NAT and Manual NAT
The destination address is optional. If you specify the destination address, you can either map it to itself
(identity NAT), or you can map it to a different address. The destination mapping is always a static mapping.
Comparing Auto NAT and Manual NAT

The main differences between these two NAT types are:
• How you define the real address.
• Auto NAT—The NAT rule becomes a parameter for a network object. The network object IP address
serves as the original (real) address.
• Manual NAT—You identify a network object or network object group for both the real and mapped
addresses. In this case, NAT is not a parameter of the network object; the network object or group
is a parameter of the NAT configuration. The ability to use a network object group for the real
address means that manual NAT is more scalable.
• How source and destination NAT is implemented.

• Auto NAT— Each rule can apply to either the source or destination of a packet. So two rules might
be used, one for the source IP address, and one for the destination IP address. These two rules cannot
be tied together to enforce a specific translation for a source/destination combination.
• Manual NAT—A single rule translates both the source and destination. A packet matches one rule
only, and further rules are not checked. Even if you do not configure the optional destination address,
a matching packet still matches one manual NAT rule only. The source and destination are tied
together, so you can enforce different translations depending on the source/destination combination.
For example, sourceA/destinationA can have a different translation than sourceA/destinationB.
• Order of NAT Rules.

• Auto NAT—Automatically ordered in the NAT table.
• Manual NAT—Manually ordered in the NAT table (before or after auto NAT rules).
NAT Rule Order

Auto NAT and manual NAT rules are stored in a single table that is divided into three sections. Section 1
rules are applied first, then section 2, and finally section 3, until a match is found. For example, if a match is
found in section 1, sections 2 and 3 are not evaluated. The following table shows the order of rules within
each section.
Table 77: NAT Rule Table
Table Section Rule Type Order of Rules within the Section
Section 1 Manual NAT Applied on a first match basis, in the order they appear in the
configuration. Because the first match is applied, you must ensure
that specific rules come before more general rules, or the specific
rules might not be applied as desired. By default, manual NAT
rules are added to section 1.

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NAT Rule Order
Table Section Rule Type Order of Rules within the Section
Section 2 Auto NAT If a match in section 1 is not found, section 2 rules are applied in
the following order:
1. Static rules.
2. Dynamic rules.
Within each rule type, the following ordering guidelines are

used:
1. Quantity of real IP addresses—From smallest to largest. For
example, an object with one address will be assessed before
an object with 10 addresses.
2. For quantities that are the same, then the IP address number
is used, from lowest to highest. For example, 10.1.1.0 is
assessed before 11.1.1.0.
3. If the same IP address is used, then the name of the network
object is used, in alphabetical order. For example, abracadabra
is assessed before catwoman.
Section 3 Manual NAT If a match is still not found, section 3 rules are applied on a first
match basis, in the order they appear in the configuration. This
section should contain your most general rules. You must also
ensure that any specific rules in this section come before general
rules that would otherwise apply.
For section 2 rules, for example, you have the following IP addresses defined within network objects:
• 192.168.1.0/24 (static)
• 192.168.1.0/24 (dynamic)
• 10.1.1.0/24 (static)
• 192.168.1.1/32 (static)
• 172.16.1.0/24 (dynamic) (object def)
• 172.16.1.0/24 (dynamic) (object abc)
The resultant ordering would be:

• 192.168.1.1/32 (static)
• 10.1.1.0/24 (static)
• 192.168.1.0/24 (static)
• 172.16.1.0/24 (dynamic) (object abc)
• 172.16.1.0/24 (dynamic) (object def)
• 192.168.1.0/24 (dynamic)

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NAT Interfaces
NAT Interfaces
Except for bridge group member interfaces, you can configure a NAT rule to apply to any interface (in other
words, all interfaces), or you can identify specific real and mapped interfaces. You can also specify any
interface for the real address, and a specific interface for the mapped address, or vice versa.
For example, you might want to specify any interface for the real address and specify the outside interface
for the mapped address if you use the same private addresses on multiple interfaces, and you want to translate
them all to the same global pool when accessing the outside.
Figure 24: Specifying Any Interface
However, the concept of “any” interface does not apply to bridge group member interfaces. When you specify
“any” interface, all bridge group member interfaces are excluded. Thus, to apply NAT to bridge group members,
you must specify the member interface. This could result in many similar rules where only one interface is
different. You cannot configure NAT for the Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) itself, you can configure NAT
for member interfaces only.
Note You cannot configure NAT for interfaces operating in inline, inline tap, or passive modes. When specifying
interfaces, you do so indirectly by selecting the interface object that contains the interface.
Configuring Routing for NAT

The FTD device needs to be the destination for any packets sent to the translated (mapped) address.
When sending packets, the device uses the destination interface if you specify one, or a routing table lookup
if you do not, to determine the egress interface. For identity NAT, you have the option to use a route lookup
even if you specify a destination interface.
The type of routing configuration needed depends on the type of mapped address, as explained in the following
topics.
Addresses on the Same Network as the Mapped Interface

If you use addresses on the same network as the destination (mapped) interface, the Firepower Threat Defense
device uses proxy ARP to answer any ARP requests for the mapped addresses, thus intercepting traffic destined
for a mapped address. This solution simplifies routing because the Firepower Threat Defense device does not
have to be the gateway for any additional networks. This solution is ideal if the outside network contains an

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Addresses on a Unique Network
adequate number of free addresses, a consideration if you are using a 1:1 translation like dynamic NAT or
static NAT. Dynamic PAT greatly extends the number of translations you can use with a small number of
addresses, so even if the available addresses on the outside network is small, this method can be used. For
PAT, you can even use the IP address of the mapped interface.
Note If you configure the mapped interface to be any interface, and you specify a mapped address on the same
network as one of the mapped interfaces, then if an ARP request for that mapped address comes in on a
different interface, then you need to manually configure an ARP entry for that network on the ingress interface,
specifying its MAC address. Typically, if you specify any interface for the mapped interface, then you use a
unique network for the mapped addresses, so this situation would not occur. Configure the ARP table in the
ingress interface's Advanced settings.
Addresses on a Unique Network

If you need more addresses than are available on the destination (mapped) interface network, you can identify
addresses on a different subnet. The upstream router needs a static route for the mapped addresses that points
to the Firepower Threat Defense device.
Alternatively for routed mode, you can configure a static route on the Firepower Threat Defense device for
the mapped addresses using any IP address on the destination network as the gateway, and then redistribute
the route using your routing protocol. For example, if you use NAT for the inside network (10.1.1.0/24) and
use the mapped IP address 209.165.201.5, then you can configure a static route for 209.165.201.5
255.255.255.255 (host address) to the 10.1.1.99 gateway that can be redistributed.
For transparent mode, if the real host is directly-connected, configure the static route on the upstream router
to point to the Firepower Threat Defense device: specify the bridge group IP address. For remote hosts in
transparent mode, in the static route on the upstream router, you can alternatively specify the downstream
router IP address.
The Same Address as the Real Address (Identity NAT)

The default behavior for identity NAT has proxy ARP enabled, matching other static NAT rules. You can
disable proxy ARP if desired. You can also disable proxy ARP for regular static NAT if desired, in which
case you need to be sure to have proper routes on the upstream router.
Normally for identity NAT, proxy ARP is not required, and in some cases can cause connectivity issues. For
example, if you configure a broad identity NAT rule for “any” IP address, then leaving proxy ARP enabled
can cause problems for hosts on the network directly connected to the mapped interface. In this case, when a
host on the mapped network wants to communicate with another host on the same network, then the address
in the ARP request matches the NAT rule (which matches “any” address). The Firepower Threat Defense
device will then proxy ARP for the address, even though the packet is not actually destined for the Firepower
Threat Defense device. (Note that this problem occurs even if you have a manual NAT rule; although the
NAT rule must match both the source and destination addresses, the proxy ARP decision is made only on the
“source” address). If the Firepower Threat Defense device ARP response is received before the actual host
ARP response, then traffic will be mistakenly sent to the Firepower Threat Defense device.
Guidelines for NAT

The following topics provide detailed guidelines for implementing NAT.

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Firewall Mode Guidelines for NAT
Firewall Mode Guidelines for NAT

NAT is supported in routed and transparent firewall mode.
However, configuring NAT on bridge group member interfaces (interfaces that are part of a Bridge Group
Virtual Interface, or BVI) has the following restrictions:
• When configuring NAT for the members of a bridge group, you specify the member interface. You
cannot configure NAT for the bridge group interface (BVI) itself.
• When doing NAT between bridge group member interfaces, you must specify the real and mapped
addresses. You cannot specify “any” as the interface.
• You cannot configure interface PAT when the mapped address is a bridge group member interface,
because there is no IP address attached to the interface.
• You cannot translate between IPv4 and IPv6 networks (NAT64/46) when the source and destination
interfaces are members of the same bridge group. Static NAT/PAT 44/66, dynamic NAT44/66, and
dynamic PAT44 are the only allowed methods; dynamic PAT66 is not supported. However, you can do
NAT64/46 between members of different bridge groups, or between a bridge group member (source)
and standard routed interface (destination).
Note You cannot configure NAT for interfaces operating in inline, inline tap, or passive modes.
IPv6 NAT Guidelines

NAT supports IPv6 with the following guidelines and restrictions.
• For standard routed mode interfaces, you can also translate between IPv4 and IPv6.
• You cannot translate between IPv4 and IPv6 for interfaces that are members of the same bridge group.
You can translate between two IPv6 or two IPv4 networks only. This restriction does not apply when
the interfaces are members of different bridge groups, or between a bridge group member and a standard
routed interface.
• You cannot use dynamic PAT for IPv6 (NAT66) when translating between interfaces in the same bridge
group. This restriction does not apply when the interfaces are members of different bridge groups, or
between a bridge group member and a standard routed interface.
• For static NAT, you can specify an IPv6 subnet up to /64. Larger subnets are not supported.
• When using FTP with NAT46, when an IPv4 FTP client connects to an IPv6 FTP server, the client must
use either the extended passive mode (EPSV) or extended port mode (EPRT); PASV and PORT commands
are not supported with IPv6.
IPv6 NAT Recommendations

You can use NAT to translate between IPv6 networks, and also to translate between IPv4 and IPv6 networks
(routed mode only). We recommend the following best practices:

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NAT Support for Inspected Protocols
• NAT66 (IPv6-to-IPv6)—We recommend using static NAT. Although you can use dynamic NAT or
PAT, IPv6 addresses are in such large supply, you do not have to use dynamic NAT. If you do not want
to allow returning traffic, you can make the static NAT rule unidirectional (manual NAT only).
• NAT46 (IPv4-to-IPv6)—We recommend using static NAT. Because the IPv6 address space is so much
larger than the IPv4 address space, you can easily accommodate a static translation. If you do not want
to allow returning traffic, you can make the static NAT rule unidirectional (manual NAT only). When
translating to an IPv6 subnet (/96 or lower), the resulting mapped address is by default an IPv4-embedded
IPv6 address, where the 32-bits of the IPv4 address is embedded after the IPv6 prefix. For example, if
the IPv6 prefix is a /96 prefix, then the IPv4 address is appended in the last 32-bits of the address. For
example, if you map 192.168.1.0/24 to 201b::0/96, then 192.168.1.4 will be mapped to 201b::0.192.168.1.4
(shown with mixed notation). If the prefix is smaller, such as /64, then the IPv4 address is appended after
the prefix, and a suffix of 0s is appended after the IPv4 address. You can also optionally translate the
addresses net-to-net, where the first IPv4 address maps to the first IPv6 address, the second to the second,
and so on.
• NAT64 (IPv6-to-IPv4)—You may not have enough IPv4 addresses to accommodate the number of IPv6
addresses. We recommend using a dynamic PAT pool to provide a large number of IPv4 translations.

Some application layer protocols that open secondary connections, or that embedded IP addresses in packets,
are inspected to provide the following services:
• Pinhole creation—Some application protocols open secondary TCP or UDP connections either on standard
or negotiated ports. Inspection opens pinholes for these secondary ports so that you do not need to create
access control rules to allow them.
• NAT rewrite— Protocols such as FTP embed IP addresses and ports for the secondary connections in
packet data as part of the protocol. If there is NAT translation involved for either of the endpoints, the
inspection engines rewrite the packet data to reflect the NAT translation of the embedded addresses and
ports. The secondary connections would not work without NAT rewrite.
• Protocol enforcement—Some inspections enforce some degree of conformance to the RFCs for the
inspected protocol.
The following table lists the inspected protocols that apply NAT rewrite and their NAT limitations. Keep
these limitations in mind when writing NAT rules that include these protocols. Inspected protocols not listed
here do not apply NAT rewrite. These inspections include GTP, HTTP, IMAP, POP, SMTP, SSH, and SSL.
Note NAT rewrite is supported on the listed ports only. For some of these protocols, you can extend inspection to
other ports using Network Analysis Policies, but NAT rewrite is not extended to those ports. This includes
DCERPC, DNS, FTP, and Sun RPC inspection. If you use these protocols on non-standard ports, do not use
NAT on the connections.
Table 78: NAT Supported Application Inspection
Application Inspected Protocol, Port NAT Limitations Pinholes Created
DCERPC TCP/135 No NAT64. Yes

1069
DNS over UDP UDP/53 No NAT support is available for name resolution No
through WINS.
ESMTP TCP/25 No NAT64. No
FTP TCP/21 No limitations. Yes

(Clustering) No static PAT.
H.323 H.225 (Call TCP/1720 (Clustering) No static PAT. Yes

signaling)
UDP/1718 No extended PAT.
H.323 RAS
For RAS, No NAT64.
UDP/1718-1719
ICMP ICMP No limitations. No

ICMP Error (ICMP traffic directed to
a device interface is
never inspected.)
IP Options RSVP No NAT64. No
NetBIOS Name Server UDP/137, 138 (Source No extended PAT. No

over IP ports)
No NAT64.
RSH TCP/514 No PAT. Yes

No NAT64.
RTSP TCP/554 No extended PAT. Yes

(No handling for HTTP No NAT64.
cloaking.)
SIP TCP/5060 No extended PAT. Yes

UDP/5060 No NAT64 or NAT46.
Skinny (SCCP) TCP/2000 No extended PAT. Yes

No NAT64, NAT46, or NAT66.
SQL*Net TCP/1521 No extended PAT. Yes

(versions 1, 2) No NAT64.

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Additional Guidelines for NAT
Sun RPC TCP/111 No extended PAT. Yes

UDP/111 No NAT64.
TFTP UDP/69 No NAT64. Yes

Payload IP addresses are not translated.
XDMCP UDP/177 No extended PAT. Yes

No NAT64.
Additional Guidelines for NAT

• For interfaces that are members of a bridge group, you write NAT rules for the member interfaces. You
cannot write NAT rules for the Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI) itself.
• (Auto NAT only.) You can only define a single NAT rule for a given object; if you want to configure
multiple NAT rules for an object, you need to create multiple objects with different names that specify
the same IP address.
• If a VPN is defined on an interface, inbound ESP traffic on the interface is not subject to the NAT rules.
The system allows the ESP traffic for established VPN tunnels only, dropping traffic not associated with
an existing tunnel. This restriction applies to ESP and UDP ports 500 and 4500.
• If you define a site-to-site VPN on a device that is behind a device that is applying dynamic PAT, so that
UDP ports 500 and 4500 are not the ones actually used, you must initiate the connection from the device
that is behind the PAT device. The responder cannot initiate the security association (SA) because it does
not know the correct port numbers.
• If you change the NAT configuration, and you do not want to wait for existing translations to time out
before the new NAT configuration is used, you can clear the translation table using the clear xlate
command in the device CLI. However, clearing the translation table disconnects all current connections
that use translations.
Note If you remove a dynamic NAT or PAT rule, and then add a new rule with mapped
addresses that overlap the addresses in the removed rule, then the new rule will
not be used until all connections associated with the removed rule time out or are
cleared using the clear xlate command. This safeguard ensures that the same
address is not assigned to multiple hosts.
• You cannot use an object group with both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; the object group must include only
one type of address.
• (Manual NAT only.) When using any as the source address in a NAT rule, the definition of “any” traffic
(IPv4 vs. IPv6) depends on the rule. Before the Firepower Threat Defense device performs NAT on a

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Configure NAT for Threat Defense
packet, the packet must be IPv6-to-IPv6 or IPv4-to-IPv4; with this prerequisite, the Firepower Threat
Defense device can determine the value of any in a NAT rule. For example, if you configure a rule from
“any” to an IPv6 server, and that server was mapped from an IPv4 address, then any means “any IPv6
traffic.” If you configure a rule from “any” to “any,” and you map the source to the interface IPv4 address,
then any means “any IPv4 traffic” because the mapped interface address implies that the destination is
also IPv4.
• You can use the same mapped object or group in multiple NAT rules.
• The mapped IP address pool cannot include:
• The mapped interface IP address. If you specify “any” interface for the rule, then all interface IP
addresses are disallowed. For interface PAT (routed mode only), specify the interface name instead
of the interface address.
• The failover interface IP address.
• (Transparent mode.) The management IP address.
• (Dynamic NAT.) The standby interface IP address when VPN is enabled.
• Avoid using overlapping addresses in static and dynamic NAT policies. For example, with overlapping
addresses, a PPTP connection can fail to get established if the secondary connection for PPTP hits the
static instead of dynamic xlate.
• If you specify a destination interface in a rule, then that interface is used as the egress interface rather
than looking up the route in the routing table. However, for identity NAT, you have the option to use a
route lookup instead.
• NAT applies to through traffic only. Traffic generated by the system is not subject to NAT.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Network address translation can be very complex. We recommend that you keep your rules as simple as
possible to avoid translation problems and difficult troubleshooting situations. Careful planning before you
implement NAT is critical. The following procedure provides the basic approach.
The NAT policy is a shared policy. You assign the policy to devices that should have similar NAT rules.
Whether a given rule in the policy applies to an assigned device is determined by the interface objects (security
zones or interface groups) used in the rule. If the interface objects include one or more interface for the device,
the rule is deployed to the device. Thus, you can configure rules that apply to subsets of devices within a
single shared policy by carefully designing your interface objects. Rules that apply to “any” interface object
are deployed to all devices.
You can configure multiple NAT policies if groups of your devices require significantly different rules.

1072
Procedure
Step 1 Select Devices > NAT.

• Click New Policy > Threat Defense NAT to create a new policy. Give the policy a name, optionally
assign devices to it, and click Save.
You can change device assignments later by editing the policy and clicking the Policy Assignments
link.
• Click the the edit icon ( ) to edit an existing Threat Defense NAT policy. Note that the page also shows
Firepower NAT policies, which are not used by FTD devices.
Step 2 Decide what kinds of rules you need.

You can create dynamic NAT, dynamic PAT, static NAT, and identity NAT rules. For an overview, see NAT
Types, on page 1060.
Step 3 Decide which rules should be implemented as manual or auto NAT.

For a comparison of these two implementation options, see Auto NAT and Manual NAT, on page 1063.
Step 4 Decide which rules should be custom per device.

Because you can assign a NAT policy to multiple devices, you can configure a single rule on many devices.
However, you might have rules that should be interpreted differently by each device, or some rules that should
apply to a subset of devices only.
Use interface objects to control on which devices a rule is configured. Then, use object overrides on network
objects to customize the addresses used per device.
For detailed information, see Customizing NAT Rules for Multiple Devices, on page 1074.
Step 5 Create the rules as explained in the following sections.

• Dynamic NAT, on page 1076
• Dynamic PAT, on page 1081
• Static NAT, on page 1088
• Identity NAT, on page 1097
Step 6 Manage the NAT policy and rules.

You can do the following to manage the policy and its rules.
• To edit the policy name or description, click in those fields, type in your changes, and click outside the
fields.
• To view only those rules that apply to a specific device, click Filter by Device and select the desired
device. A rule applies to a device if it uses an interface object that includes an interface on the device.
• To change the devices to which the policy is assigned, click the Policy Assignments link and modify
the selected devices list as desired.
• To change whether a rule is enabled or disabled, right click the rule and select the desired option from
the State command. You can temporarily disable a rule without deleting it using these controls.

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Customizing NAT Rules for Multiple Devices
• To edit a rule, click the edit icon ( ) for the rule.
• To delete a rule, click the delete icon ( ) for the rule.
Step 7 Click Save.

deploy them.

Because the NAT policy is shared, you can assign a given policy to more than one device. However, you can
configure at most one auto NAT rule for a given object. Thus, if you want to configure different translations
for an object based on the specific device doing the translation, you need to carefully configure the interface
objects (security zones or interface groups) and define network object overrides for the translated address.
The interface objects determine on which devices a rule gets configured. The network object overrides
determine what IP addresses are used by a given device for that object.
Consider the following scenario:
• FTD-A and FTD-B have inside networks 192.168.1.0/24 attached to the interface named “inside.”
• On FTD-A, you want to translate all 192.168.1.0/24 addresses to a NAT pool in the 10.100.10.10 -
10.100.10.200 range when going to the “outside” interface.
• On FTD-B, you want to translate all 192.168.1.0/24 addresses to a NAT pool in the 10.200.10.10 -
10.200.10.200 range when going to the “outside” interface.
To accomplish the above, you would do the following. Although this example rule is for dynamic auto NAT,
you can generalize the technique for any type of NAT rule.
Procedure
Step 1 Create the security zones for the inside and outside interfaces.
a) Choose Objects > Object Management.
b) Select Interface Objects from the table of contents and click Add > Security Zone. (You can use interface
groups instead of zones.)
c) Configure the inside zone properties.
• Name—Enter a name, for example, inside-zone.
• Type—Select Routed for routed-mode devices, Switched for transparent mode.
• Selected Interfaces—Add the FTD-A/inside and FTD-B/inside interfaces to the selected list.
d) Click Save.
e) Click Add > Security Zone and define the outside zone properties.
• Name—Enter a name, for example, outside-zone.

1074
• Type—Select Routed for routed-mode devices, Switched for transparent mode.

• Selected Interfaces—Add the FTD-A/outside and FTD-B/outside interfaces to the selected list.
f) Click Save.
Step 2 Create the network object for the original inside network on the Object Management page.
a) Select Network from the table of contents and click Add Network > Add Object.
b) Configure the inside network properties.
• Name—Enter a name, for example, inside-network.
• Network—Enter the network address, for example, 192.168.1.0/24.
c) Click Save.
Step 3 Create the network object for the translated NAT pool and define overrides.
a) Click Add Network > Add Object.
b) Configure the NAT pool properties for FTD-A.
• Name—Enter a name, for example, NAT-pool.
• Network—Enter the range of addresses to include in the pool for FTD-A, for example,
10.100.10.10-10.100.10.200.
c) Select Allow Overrides.

d) Click the Overrides heading to open the list of object overrides.
e) Click Add to open the Add Object Override dialog box.
f) Select FTD-B and Add it to the Selected Devices list.
g) Click the Override tab and change Network to 10.200.10.10-10.200.10.200
h) Click Add to add the override to the device.
By defining an override for FTD-B, whenever the system configures this object on FTD-B, it will use the
override value instead of the value defined in the original object.
i) Click Save.
Step 4 Configure the NAT rule.
a) Select Devices > NAT and create or edit a FTD NAT policy.
b) Click Add Rule.
c) Configure the following properties:
• NAT Rule = Auto NAT Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.
d) On the Interface Objects tab, configure the following:

• Source Interface Objects = inside-zone.
• Destination Interface Objects = outside-zone.
Note The interface objects control on which devices the rule is configured. Because in this example
the zones contain interfaces for FTD-A and FTD-B only, even if the NAT policy were assigned
to additional devices, the rule would be deployed to those 2 devices only.

1075
Dynamic NAT
e) On the Translation tab, configure the following:

• Original Source = inside-network object.
• Translated Source > Address= NAT-pool object.
f) Click Save.
You now have a single rule that will be interpreted differently for FTD-A and FTD-B, providing unique
translations for the inside networks protected by each firewall.
Dynamic NAT
The following topics explain dynamic NAT and how to configure it.
About Dynamic NAT

Dynamic NAT translates a group of real addresses to a pool of mapped addresses that are routable on the
destination network. The mapped pool typically includes fewer addresses than the real group. When a host
you want to translate accesses the destination network, NAT assigns the host an IP address from the mapped
pool. The translation is created only when the real host initiates the connection. The translation is in place
only for the duration of the connection, and a given user does not keep the same IP address after the translation
times out. Users on the destination network, therefore, cannot initiate a reliable connection to a host that uses
dynamic NAT, even if the connection is allowed by an access rule.
Note For the duration of the translation, a remote host can initiate a connection to the translated host if an access
rule allows it. Because the address is unpredictable, a connection to the host is unlikely. Nevertheless, in this
case you can rely on the security of the access rule.
The following figure shows a typical dynamic NAT scenario. Only real hosts can create a NAT session, and
responding traffic is allowed back.
Figure 25: Dynamic NAT
The following figure shows a remote host attempting to initiate a connection to a mapped address. This address
is not currently in the translation table; therefore, the packet is dropped.

1076
Dynamic NAT Disadvantages and Advantages
Figure 26: Remote Host Attempts to Initiate a Connection to a Mapped Address
Dynamic NAT Disadvantages and Advantages

Dynamic NAT has these disadvantages:
• If the mapped pool has fewer addresses than the real group, you could run out of addresses if the amount
of traffic is more than expected.
Use PAT or a PAT fall-back method if this event occurs often because PAT provides over 64,000
translations using ports of a single address.
• You have to use a large number of routable addresses in the mapped pool, and routable addresses may
not be available in large quantities.
The advantage of dynamic NAT is that some protocols cannot use PAT. PAT does not work with the following:
• IP protocols that do not have a port to overload, such as GRE version 0.
• Some multimedia applications that have a data stream on one port, the control path on another port, and
are not open standard.
Configure Dynamic Auto NAT

Access Admin
Network Admin
Use dynamic auto NAT rules to translate addresses to different IP addresses that are routable on the destination
network.

1077
Configure Dynamic Auto NAT
Before you begin

Select Objects > Object Management and create the network objects or groups needed in the rule.
Alternatively, you can create the objects while defining the NAT rule. The objects must meet the following
requirements:
• Original Source—This must be a network object (not a group), and it can be a host, range, or subnet.
• Translated Source—This can be a network object or group, but it cannot include a subnet. The group
cannot contain both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; it must contain one type only. If a group contains both
ranges and host IP addresses, then the ranges are used for dynamic NAT, and then the host IP addresses
are used as a PAT fallback.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Devices > NAT and create or edit a FTD NAT policy.
• Click the Add Rule button to create a new rule.
• Click the edit icon ( ) to edit an existing rule.
The right click menu also has options to cut, copy, paste, insert, and delete rules.
Step 3 Configure the basic rule options:

• NAT Rule—Select Auto NAT Rule.
• Type—Select Dynamic.
Step 4 On the Interface Objects tab, configure the following options:

• Source Interface Objects, Destination Interface Objects—(Required for bridge group member
interfaces.) The interface objects (security zones or interface groups) that identify the interfaces where
this NAT rule applies. Source is the object containing the real interface, the one through which the traffic
enters the device. Destination is the object containing the mapped interface, the one through which traffic
exits the device. By default, the rule applies to all interfaces (Any) except for bridge group member
interfaces.
Step 5 On the Translation tab, configure the following options:

• Original Source—The network object that contains the addresses you are translating.
• Translated Source—The network object or group that contains the mapped addresses.
Step 6 (Optional.) On the Advanced tab, select the desired options:

• Translate DNS replies that match this rule—Whether to translate the IP address in DNS replies. For
DNS replies traversing from a mapped interface to a real interface, the Address (the IPv4 A or IPv6
AAAA) record is rewritten from the mapped value to the real value. Conversely, for DNS replies traversing
from a real interface to a mapped interface, the record is rewritten from the real value to the mapped
value. This option is used in specific circumstances, and is sometimes needed for NAT64/46 translation,
where the rewrite also converts between A and AAAA records. For more information, see Rewriting
DNS Queries and Responses Using NAT, on page 1142.
• Fallthrough to Interface PAT (Destination Interface)—Whether to use the IP address of the destination
interface as a backup method when the other mapped addresses are already allocated (interface PAT

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Configure Dynamic Manual NAT
fallback). This option is available only if you select a destination interface that is not a member of a
bridge group. To use the IPv6 address of the interface, also check the IPv6 option.
• IPv6—Whether to use the IPv6 address of the destination interface for interface PAT.
Step 7 Click Save to add the rule.

Step 8 Click Save on the NAT page to save your changes.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Use dynamic manual NAT rules when auto NAT does not meet your needs. For example, if you want to do
different translations based on the destination. Dynamic NAT translates addresses to different IP addresses
that are routable on the destination network.
Before you begin

Select Objects > Object Management and create the network objects or groups needed in the rule. Groups
cannot contain both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; they must contain one type only. Alternatively, you can create
the objects while defining the NAT rule. The objects must also meet the following requirements:
• Original Source—This can be a network object or group, and it can contain a host, range, or subnet. If
you want to translate all original source traffic, you can skip this step and specify Any in the rule.
• Translated Source—This can be a network object or group, but it cannot include a subnet. If a group
contains both ranges and host IP addresses, then the ranges are used for dynamic NAT, and then the host
IP addresses are used as a PAT fallback.
You can also create network objects for the Original Destination and Translated Destination if you are
configuring a static translation for those addresses in the rule.
For dynamic NAT, you can also perform port translation on the destination. In the Object Manager, ensure
that there are port objects you can use for the Original Destination Port and Translated Destination Port.
If you specify the source port, it will be ignored.
Procedure

1079
• NAT Rule—Select Manual NAT Rule.

• Type—Select Dynamic. This setting only applies to the source address. If you define a translation for
the destination address, the translation is always static.
• Enable—Whether you want the rule to be active. You can later activate or deactivate the rule using the
right-click menu on the rules page.
• Insert—Where you want to add the rule. You can insert it in a category (before or after auto NAT rules),
or above or below the rule number you specify.

interfaces.
Step 5 (On the Translation tab.) Identify the original packet addresses, either IPv4 or IPv6; namely, the packet
addresses as they appear in the original packet.
See the following figure for an example of the original packet vs. the translated packet.
• Original Source—The network object or group that contains the addresses you are translating.
• Original Destination—(Optional.) The network object that contains the addresses of the destinations.
If you leave this blank, the source address translation applies regardless of destination. If you do specify
the destination address, you can configure a static translation for that address or just use identity NAT
for it.
You can select Source Interface IP to base the original destination on the source interface (which cannot
be Any). If you select this option, you must also select a translated destination object. To implement a
static interface NAT with port translation for the destination addresses, select this option and also select
the appropriate port objects for the destination ports.
Step 6 Identify the translated packet addresses, either IPv4 or IPv6; namely, the packet addresses as they appear on
the destination interface network. You can translate between IPv4 and IPv6 if desired.
• Translated Source—The network object or group that contains the mapped addresses.
• Translated Destination—(Optional.) The network object or group that contains the destination addresses
used in the translated packet. If you selected an object for Original Destination, you can set up identity
NAT (that is, no translation) by selecting the same object.
Step 7 (Optional.) Identify the destination service ports for service translation: Original Destination Port, Translated
Destination Port.

1080
Dynamic PAT
Dynamic NAT does not support port translation, so leave the Original Source Port and Translated Source
Port fields empty. However, because the destination translation is always static, you can perform port translation
for the destination port.
NAT only supports TCP or UDP. When translating a port, be sure the protocols in the real and mapped service
objects are identical (both TCP or both UDP). For identity NAT, you can use the same service object for both
the real and mapped ports.

• (For source translation only.) Translate DNS replies that match this rule—Whether to translate the
IP address in DNS replies. For DNS replies traversing from a mapped interface to a real interface, the
Address (the IPv4 A or IPv6 AAAA) record is rewritten from the mapped value to the real value.
Conversely, for DNS replies traversing from a real interface to a mapped interface, the record is rewritten
from the real value to the mapped value. This option is used in specific circumstances, and is sometimes
needed for NAT64/46 translation, where the rewrite also converts between A and AAAA records. For
more information, see Rewriting DNS Queries and Responses Using NAT, on page 1142.

Dynamic PAT
The following topics describe dynamic PAT.
About Dynamic PAT

Dynamic PAT translates multiple real addresses to a single mapped IP address by translating the real address
and source port to the mapped address and a unique port. If available, the real source port number is used for
the mapped port. However, if the real port is not available, by default the mapped ports are chosen from the
same range of ports as the real port number: 0 to 511, 512 to 1023, and 1024 to 65535. Therefore, ports below
1024 have only a small PAT pool that can be used. If you have a lot of traffic that uses the lower port ranges,
you can specify a flat range of ports to be used instead of the three unequal-sized tiers.
Each connection requires a separate translation session because the source port differs for each connection.
For example, 10.1.1.1:1025 requires a separate translation from 10.1.1.1:1026.
The following figure shows a typical dynamic PAT scenario. Only real hosts can create a NAT session, and
responding traffic is allowed back. The mapped address is the same for each translation, but the port is
dynamically assigned.

1081
Dynamic PAT Disadvantages and Advantages
Figure 27: Dynamic PAT
For the duration of the translation, a remote host on the destination network can initiate a connection to the
translated host if an access rule allows it. Because the port address (both real and mapped) is unpredictable,
a connection to the host is unlikely. Nevertheless, in this case you can rely on the security of the access rule.
After the connection expires, the port translation also expires.
Note We recommend that you use different PAT pools for each interface. If you use the same pool for multiple
interfaces, especially if you use it for "any" interface, the pool can be quickly exhausted, with no ports available
for new translations.
Dynamic PAT Disadvantages and Advantages

Dynamic PAT lets you use a single mapped address, thus conserving routable addresses. You can even use
the Firepower Threat Defense device interface IP address as the PAT address.
You cannot use dynamic PAT for IPv6 (NAT66) when translating between interfaces in the same bridge
group. This restriction does not apply when the interfaces are members of different bridge groups, or between
a bridge group member and a standard routed interface.
Dynamic PAT does not work with some multimedia applications that have a data stream that is different from
the control path. For more information, see NAT Support for Inspected Protocols, on page 1069.
Dynamic PAT might also create a large number of connections appearing to come from a single IP address,
and servers might interpret the traffic as a DoS attack. You can configure a PAT pool of addresses and use a
round-robin assignment of PAT addresses to mitigate this situation.
PAT Pool Object Guidelines

When creating network objects for a PAT pool, follow these guidelines.
For a PAT pool

• If available, the real source port number is used for the mapped port. However, if the real port is not
available, by default the mapped ports are chosen from the same range of ports as the real port number:
0 to 511, 512 to 1023, and 1024 to 65535. Therefore, ports below 1024 have only a small PAT pool that
can be used. If you have a lot of traffic that uses the lower port ranges, you can specify a flat range of
ports to be used instead of the three unequal-sized tiers: either 1024 to 65535, or 1 to 65535.
• If you use the same PAT pool object in two separate rules, then be sure to specify the same options for
each rule. For example, if one rule specifies extended PAT and a flat range, then the other rule must also
specify extended PAT and a flat range.

1082
Configure Dynamic Auto PAT
For extended PAT for a PAT pool

• Many application inspections do not support extended PAT.
• If you enable extended PAT for a dynamic PAT rule, then you cannot also use an address in the PAT
pool as the PAT address in a separate static NAT with port translation rule. For example, if the PAT pool
includes 10.1.1.1, then you cannot create a static NAT-with-port-translation rule using 10.1.1.1 as the
PAT address.
• If you use a PAT pool and specify an interface for fallback, you cannot specify extended PAT.
• For VoIP deployments that use ICE or TURN, do not use extended PAT. ICE and TURN rely on the
PAT binding to be the same for all destinations.
For round robin for a PAT pool

• If a host has an existing connection, then subsequent connections from that host will use the same PAT
IP address if ports are available. However, this “stickiness” does not survive a failover. If the device fails
over, then subsequent connections from a host might not use the initial IP address.
• IP address “stickiness” is also impacted if you mix PAT pool/round robin rules with interface PAT rules
on the same interface. For any given interface, choose either a PAT pool or interface PAT; do not create
competing PAT rules.
• Round robin, especially when combined with extended PAT, can consume a large amount of memory.
Because NAT pools are created for every mapped protocol/IP address/port range, round robin results in
a large number of concurrent NAT pools, which use memory. Extended PAT results in an even larger
number of concurrent NAT pools.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Use dynamic auto PAT rules to translate addresses to unique IP address/port combinations, rather than to
multiple IP addresses only. You can translate to a single address (either the destination interface's address or
another address), or use a PAT pool of addresses to provide a larger number of possible translations.
Before you begin

requirements:
• Translated Source—You have the following options to specify the PAT address:
• Destination Interface—To use the destination interface address, you do not need a network object.
• Single PAT address—Create a network object containing a single host.

1083
• PAT pool—Create a network object that includes a range, or create a network object group that
contains hosts, ranges, or both. You cannot include subnets. The group cannot contain both IPv4
and IPv6 addresses; it must contain one type only.
Procedure

• Type—Select Dynamic.

interfaces.

• Translated Source—One of the following:
• (Interface PAT.) To use the address of the destination interface, select Destination Interface IP.
You must also select a specific destination interface object. To use the IPv6 address of the interface,
you must also select the IPv6 option on the Advanced tab. Skip the step for configuring a PAT
pool.
• To use a single address other than the destination interface address, select the host network object
you created for this purpose. Skip the step for configuring a PAT pool.
• To use a PAT pool, leave Translated Source empty.
Step 6 If you are using a PAT pool, select the PAT Pool tab and do the following:
a) Select Enable PAT pool.
b) Select the network object group that contains the addresses for the pool in the PAT > Address field.
You can alternatively select Destination Interface IP, which is another way to implement interface PAT.
c) (Optional) Select the following options as needed:
• Use Round Robin Allocation—To assign addresses/ports in a round-robin fashion. By default
without round robin, all ports for a PAT address will be allocated before the next PAT address is

1084
Configure Dynamic Manual PAT
used. The round-robin method assigns one address/port from each PAT address in the pool before
returning to use the first address again, and then the second address, and so on.
• Extended PAT Table—To use extended PAT. Extended PAT uses 65535 ports per service, as
opposed to per IP address, by including the destination address and port in the translation information.
Normally, the destination port and address are not considered when creating PAT translations, so
you are limited to 65535 ports per PAT address. For example, with extended PAT, you can create a
translation of 10.1.1.1:1027 when going to 192.168.1.7:23 as well as a translation of 10.1.1.1:1027
when going to 192.168.1.7:80. You cannot use this option with interface PAT or interface PAT
fallback.
• Flat Port Range, Include Reserved Ports—To use the 1024 to 65535 port range as a single flat
range when allocating TCP/UDP ports. When choosing the mapped port number for a translation,
PAT uses the real source port number if it is available. However, without this option, if the real port
is not available, by default the mapped ports are chosen from the same range of ports as the real port
number: 1 to 511, 512 to 1023, and 1024 to 65535. To avoid running out of ports at the low ranges,
configure this setting. To use the entire range of 1 to 65535, also check the Include Reserved Ports
option.

bridge group. To use the IPv6 address of the interface, also check the IPv6 option. You cannot select
this option if you already configured interface PAT as the translated address or PAT pool.


Access Admin
Network Admin
Use dynamic manual PAT rules when auto PAT does not meet your needs. For example, if you want to do
different translations based on the destination. Dynamic PAT translates addresses to unique IP address/port
combinations, rather than to multiple IP addresses only. You can translate to a single address (either the
destination interface's address or another address), or use a PAT pool of addresses to provide a larger number
of possible translations.
Before you begin


1085
• Translated Source—You have the following options to specify the PAT address:
• Single PAT address—Create a network object containing a single host.
• PAT pool—Create a network object that includes a range, or create a network object group that
contains hosts, ranges, or both. You cannot include subnets.
configuring a static translation for those addresses in the rule.
For dynamic NAT, you can also perform port translation on the destination. In the Object Manager, ensure
that there are port objects you can use for the Original Destination Port and Translated Destination Port.
If you specify the source port, it will be ignored.
Procedure

• Type—Select Dynamic. This setting only applies to the source address. If you define a translation for
the destination address, the translation is always static.

interfaces.

1086
for it.
• (Interface PAT.) To use the address of the destination interface, select Destination Interface IP.
You must also select a specific destination interface object. To use the IPv6 address of the interface,
you must also select the IPv6 option on the Advanced tab. Skip the step for configuring a PAT
pool.
• To use a single address other than the destination interface address, select the host network object
you created for this purpose. Skip the step for configuring a PAT pool.
• To use a PAT pool, leave Translated Source empty.
Step 7 (Optional.) Identify the destination service ports for service translation: Original Destination Port, Translated
Destination Port.
Dynamic NAT does not support port translation, so leave the Original Source Port and Translated Source
Port fields empty. However, because the destination translation is always static, you can perform port translation
for the destination port.
Step 8 If you are using a PAT pool, select the PAT Pool tab and do the following:
a) Select Enable PAT pool.
b) Select the network object group that contains the addresses for the pool in the PAT > Address field.

1087
Static NAT
You can alternatively select Destination Interface IP, which is another way to implement interface PAT.
c) (Optional) Select the following options as needed:
• Use Round Robin Allocation—To assign addresses/ports in a round-robin fashion. By default
without round robin, all ports for a PAT address will be allocated before the next PAT address is
used. The round-robin method assigns one address/port from each PAT address in the pool before
returning to use the first address again, and then the second address, and so on.
• Extended PAT Table—To use extended PAT. Extended PAT uses 65535 ports per service, as
opposed to per IP address, by including the destination address and port in the translation information.
Normally, the destination port and address are not considered when creating PAT translations, so
you are limited to 65535 ports per PAT address. For example, with extended PAT, you can create a
translation of 10.1.1.1:1027 when going to 192.168.1.7:23 as well as a translation of 10.1.1.1:1027
when going to 192.168.1.7:80. You cannot use this option with interface PAT or interface PAT
fallback.
• Flat Port Range, Include Reserved Ports—To use the 1024 to 65535 port range as a single flat
range when allocating TCP/UDP ports. When choosing the mapped port number for a translation,
PAT uses the real source port number if it is available. However, without this option, if the real port
is not available, by default the mapped ports are chosen from the same range of ports as the real port
number: 1 to 511, 512 to 1023, and 1024 to 65535. To avoid running out of ports at the low ranges,
configure this setting. To use the entire range of 1 to 65535, also check the Include Reserved Ports
option.


Static NAT
The following topics explain static NAT and how to implement it.
About Static NAT

Static NAT creates a fixed translation of a real address to a mapped address. Because the mapped address is
the same for each consecutive connection, static NAT allows bidirectional connection initiation, both to and
from the host (if an access rule exists that allows it). With dynamic NAT and PAT, on the other hand, each
host uses a different address or port for each subsequent translation, so bidirectional initiation is not supported.
The following figure shows a typical static NAT scenario. The translation is always active so both real and
remote hosts can initiate connections.

1088
Static NAT with Port Translation
Figure 28: Static NAT
Note You can disable bidirectionality if desired.
Static NAT with Port Translation

Static NAT with port translation lets you specify a real and mapped protocol and port.
When you specify the port with static NAT, you can choose to map the port and/or the IP address to the same
value or to a different value.
The following figure shows a typical static NAT with port translation scenario showing both a port that is
mapped to itself and a port that is mapped to a different value; the IP address is mapped to a different value
in both cases. The translation is always active so both translated and remote hosts can initiate connections.
Figure 29: Typical Static NAT with Port Translation Scenario
Static NAT-with-port-translation rules limit access to the destination IP address for the specified port only.
If you try to access the destination IP address on a different port not covered by a NAT rule, then the connection
is blocked. In addition, for manual NAT, traffic that does not match the source IP address of the NAT rule
will be dropped if it matches the destination IP address, regardless of the destination port. Therefore, you
must add additional rules for all other traffic allowed to the destination IP address. For example, you can
configure a static NAT rule for the IP address, without port specification, and place it after the port translation
rule.
Note For applications that require application inspection for secondary channels (for example, FTP and VoIP),
NAT automatically translates the secondary ports.
Following are some other uses of static NAT with port translation.

1089
One-to-Many Static NAT
Static NAT with Identity Port Translation

You can simplify external access to internal resources. For example, if you have three separate servers
that provide services on different ports (such as FTP, HTTP, and SMTP), you can give external users a
single IP address to access those services. You can then configure static NAT with identity port translation
to map the single external IP address to the correct IP addresses of the real servers based on the port they
are trying to access. You do not need to change the port, because the servers are using the standard ones
(21, 80, and 25 respectively).
Static NAT with Port Translation for Non-Standard Ports
You can also use static NAT with port translation to translate a well-known port to a non-standard port
or vice versa. For example, if inside web servers use port 8080, you can allow outside users to connect
to port 80, and then undo translation to the original port 8080. Similarly, to provide extra security, you
can tell web users to connect to non-standard port 6785, and then undo translation to port 80.
Static Interface NAT with Port Translation
You can configure static NAT to map a real address to an interface address/port combination. For example,
if you want to redirect Telnet access for the device's outside interface to an inside host, then you can map
the inside host IP address/port 23 to the outside interface address/port 23.
One-to-Many Static NAT

Typically, you configure static NAT with a one-to-one mapping. However, in some cases, you might want to
configure a single real address to several mapped addresses (one-to-many). When you configure one-to-many
static NAT, when the real host initiates traffic, it always uses the first mapped address. However, for traffic
initiated to the host, you can initiate traffic to any of the mapped addresses, and they will be untranslated to
the single real address.
The following figure shows a typical one-to-many static NAT scenario. Because initiation by the real host
always uses the first mapped address, the translation of real host IP/first mapped IP is technically the only
bidirectional translation.
Figure 30: One-to-Many Static NAT
For example, you have a load balancer at 10.1.2.27. Depending on the URL requested, it redirects traffic to
the correct web server.

1090
Other Mapping Scenarios (Not Recommended)
Figure 31: One-to-Many Static NAT Example
Other Mapping Scenarios (Not Recommended)

NAT has the flexibility to allow any kind of static mapping scenario: one-to-one, one-to-many, but also
few-to-many, many-to-few, and many-to-one mappings. We recommend using only one-to-one or one-to-many
mappings. These other mapping options might result in unintended consequences.
Functionally, few-to-many is the same as one-to-many; but because the configuration is more complicated
and the actual mappings may not be obvious at a glance, we recommend creating a one-to-many configuration
for each real address that requires it. For example, for a few-to-many scenario, the few real addresses are
mapped to the many mapped addresses in order (A to 1, B to 2, C to 3). When all real addresses are mapped,
the next mapped address is mapped to the first real address, and so on until all mapped addresses are mapped
(A to 4, B to 5, C to 6). This results in multiple mapped addresses for each real address. Just like a one-to-many
configuration, only the first mappings are bidirectional; subsequent mappings allow traffic to be initiated to
the real host, but all traffic from the real host uses only the first mapped address for the source.
The following figure shows a typical few-to-many static NAT scenario.

1091
Configure Static Auto NAT
Figure 32: Few-to-Many Static NAT
For a many-to-few or many-to-one configuration, where you have more real addresses than mapped addresses,
you run out of mapped addresses before you run out of real addresses. Only the mappings between the lowest
real IP addresses and the mapped pool result in bidirectional initiation. The remaining higher real addresses
can initiate traffic, but traffic cannot be initiated to them (returning traffic for a connection is directed to the
correct real address because of the unique 5-tuple (source IP, destination IP, source port, destination port,
protocol) for the connection).
Note Many-to-few or many-to-one NAT is not PAT. If two real hosts use the same source port number and go to
the same outside server and the same TCP destination port, and both hosts are translated to the same IP address,
then both connections will be reset because of an address conflict (the 5-tuple is not unique).
The following figure shows a typical many-to-few static NAT scenario.

Figure 33: Many-to-Few Static NAT
Instead of using a static rule this way, we suggest that you create a one-to-one rule for the traffic that needs
bidirectional initiation, and then create a dynamic rule for the rest of your addresses.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Use static auto NAT rules to translate addresses to different IP addresses that are routable on the destination
network. You can also do port translation with the static NAT rule.

1092
Before you begin

requirements:
• Translated Source—You have the following options to specify the translated address:
This configures static interface NAT with port translation: the source address/port is translated to
the interface's address and the same port number.
• Address—Create a network object or group containing hosts, ranges, or subnets. A group cannot
contain both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; it must contain one type only. Typically, you configure the
same number of mapped addresses as real addresses for a one-to-one mapping. You can, however,
have a mismatched number of addresses.
Procedure

• Type—Select Static.

interfaces.

• To use a set group of addresses, select Address and the network object or group that contains the
mapped addresses. Typically, you configure the same number of mapped addresses as real addresses
for a one-to-one mapping. You can, however, have a mismatched number of addresses.
• (Static interface NAT with port translation.) To use the address of the destination interface, select
Destination Interface IP. You must also select a specific destination interface object. To use the

1093
Configure Static Manual NAT
IPv6 address of the interface, you must also select the IPv6 option on the Advanced tab. This
configures static interface NAT with port translation: the source address/port is translated to the
interface's address and the same port number.
• (Optional.) Original Port, Translated Port—If you need to translate a TCP or UDP port, select the
protocol in Original Port, and type the original and translated port numbers. For example, you can
translate TCP/80 to 8080 if necessary.

DNS Queries and Responses Using NAT, on page 1142. This option is not available if you are doing port
translation.
• Net to Net Mapping—For NAT 46, select this option to translate the first IPv4 address to the first IPv6
address, the second to the second, and so on. Without this option, the IPv4-embedded method is used.
For a one-to-one translation, you must use this option.
• Do not proxy ARP on Destination Interface—Disables proxy ARP for incoming packets to the mapped
IP addresses. If you use addresses on the same network as the mapped interface, the system uses proxy
ARP to answer any ARP requests for the mapped addresses, thus intercepting traffic destined for a
mapped address. This solution simplifies routing because the device does not have to be the gateway for
any additional networks. You can disable proxy ARP if desired, in which case you need to be sure to
have proper routes on the upstream router. Normally for identity NAT, proxy ARP is not required, and
in some cases can cause connectivity issues.


Access Admin
Network Admin
Use static manual NAT rules when auto NAT does not meet your needs. For example, if you want to do
different translations based on the destination. Static NAT translates addresses to different IP addresses that
are routable on the destination network. You can also do port translation with the static NAT rule.
Before you begin


1094
• Translated Source—You have the following options to specify the translated address:
This configures static interface NAT with port translation: the source address/port is translated to
the interface's address and the same port number.
• Address—Create a network object or group containing hosts, range, or subnets. Typically, you
configure the same number of mapped addresses as real addresses for a one-to-one mapping. You
can, however, have a mismatched number of addresses.
configuring a static translation for those addresses in the rule. If you want to configure destination static
interface NAT with port translation only, you can skip adding an object for the destination mapped addresses
and specify the interface in the rule.
You can also perform port translation on the source, destination, or both. In the Object Manager, ensure that
there are port objects you can use for the original and translated ports.
Procedure

• Type—Select Static. This setting only applies to the source address. If you define a translation for the
destination address, the translation is always static.

interfaces.

1095
for it.
• To use a set group of addresses, select Address and the network object or group that contains the
mapped addresses. Typically, you configure the same number of mapped addresses as real addresses
for a one-to-one mapping. You can, however, have a mismatched number of addresses.
• (Static interface NAT with port translation.) To use the address of the destination interface, select
Destination Interface IP. You must also select a specific destination interface object. To use the
IPv6 address of the interface, you must also select the IPv6 option on the Advanced tab. This
configures static interface NAT with port translation: the source address/port is translated to the
interface's address and the same port number.
Step 7 (Optional.) Identify the source or destination service ports for service translation.
If you are configuring static NAT with port translation, you can translate ports for the source, destination, or
both. For example, you can translate between TCP/80 and TCP/8080.
• Original Source Port, Translated Source Port—Defines a port translation for the source address.
• Original Destination Port, Translated Destination Port—Defines a port translation for the destination
address.

1096
Identity NAT

DNS Queries and Responses Using NAT, on page 1142. This option is not available if you are doing port
translation.
• Net to Net Mapping—For NAT 46, select this option to translate the first IPv4 address to the first IPv6
address, the second to the second, and so on. Without this option, the IPv4-embedded method is used.
For a one-to-one translation, you must use this option.
• Unidirectional—Select this option to prevent the destination addresses from initiating traffic to the
source addresses.

Identity NAT
You might have a NAT configuration in which you need to translate an IP address to itself. For example, if
you create a broad rule that applies NAT to every network, but want to exclude one network from NAT, you
can create a static NAT rule to translate an address to itself.
The following figure shows a typical identity NAT scenario.
Figure 34: Identity NAT
The following topics explain how to configure identity NAT.

1097
Configure Identity Auto NAT
Configure Identity Auto NAT

Access Admin
Network Admin
Use static identity auto NAT rules to prevent the translation of an address. That is, to translate the address to
itself.
Before you begin

requirements:
• Translated Source—A network object or group with the exact same contents as the original source
object. You can use the same object.
Procedure

• Type—Select Static.

interfaces.

• Translated Source—The same object as the original source. Optionally, you can select a different object
that has the exact same contents.
Do not configure the Original Port and Translated Port options for identity NAT.

1098
Configure Identity Manual NAT

• Translate DNS replies that match this rule—Do not configure this option for identity NAT.
• IPv6—Do not configure this option for identity NAT.
• Net to Net Mapping—Do not configure this option for identity NAT.
• Perform Route Lookup for Destination Interface— If you select source and destination interfaces
when selecting the same object for original and translated source address, you can select this option to
have the system determine the destination interface based on the routing table rather than using the
destination interface configured in the NAT rule.


Access Admin
Network Admin
Use static identity manual NAT rules when auto NAT does not meet your needs. For example, if you want
to do different translations based on the destination. Use static identity NAT rules to prevent the translation
of an address. That is, to translate the address to itself.
Before you begin

configuring a static translation for those addresses in the rule. If you want to configure destination static
interface NAT with port translation only, you can skip adding an object for the destination mapped addresses
and specify the interface in the rule.
You can also perform port translation on the source, destination, or both. In the Object Manager, ensure that
there are port objects you can use for the original and translated ports. You can use the same object for identity
NAT.

1099
Procedure

• Type—Select Static. This setting only applies to the source address. If you define a translation for the
destination address, the translation is always static.

interfaces.
Step 5 Identify the original packet addresses, either IPv4 or IPv6; namely, the packet addresses as they appear in the
original packet.
See the following figure for an example of the original packet vs. the translated packet where you perform
identity NAT on the inside host but translate the outside host.
for it.
You can select Interface Object to base the original destination on the source interface (which cannot

1100
NAT Rule Properties for Firepower Threat Defense
Step 7 (Optional.) Identify the source or destination service ports for service translation.
If you are configuring static NAT with port translation, you can translate ports for the source, destination, or
both. For example, you can translate between TCP/80 and TCP/8080.
• Original Source Port, Translated Source Port—Defines a port translation for the source address.
• Original Destination Port, Translated Destination Port—Defines a port translation for the destination
address.

• Translate DNS replies that match this rule—Do not configure this option for identity NAT.
• Perform Route Lookup for Destination Interface— If you select source and destination interfaces
when selecting the same object for original and translated source address, you can select this option to
have the system determine the destination interface based on the routing table rather than using the
destination interface configured in the NAT rule.
• Unidirectional—Select this option to prevent the destination addresses from initiating traffic to the
source addresses.

NAT Rule Properties for Firepower Threat Defense

Use Network Address Translation (NAT) rules to translate IP addresses to other IP addresses. You would
typically use NAT rules to convert private addresses to publically routable addresses. The translation can be

1101
Interface Objects NAT Properties
from one address to another, or you can use Port Address Translation (PAT) to translate many addresses to
one or a few addresses, using port numbers to distinguish among the source addresses.
NAT rules include the following basic properties. The properties are the same for auto NAT and manual NAT
rules except where indicated.
NAT Type
Whether you want to configure a Manual NAT Rule or an Auto NAT Rule. Auto NAT translates the
source address only, and you cannot make different translations based on the destination address. Because
auto NAT is more simple to configure, use it unless you need the added features of manual NAT. For
more information on the differences, see Auto NAT and Manual NAT, on page 1063.
Type
Whether the translation rule is Dynamic or Static. Dynamic translation automatically chooses the mapped
address from a pool of addresses, or an address/port combination when implementing PAT. Use static
translation if you want to precisely define the mapped address/port.
Enable (Manual NAT only.)
Whether you want the rule to be active. You can later activate or deactivate the rule using the right-click
menu on the rules page. You cannot disable auto NAT rules.
Insert (Manual NAT only.)
Where you want to add the rule. You can insert it in a category (before or after auto NAT rules), or above
or below the rule number you specify.
Description (Optional. Manual NAT only.)
A description of the purpose of the rule.
The following topics describe the tabs for the NAT rules properties.
Interface Objects NAT Properties

Interface objects (security zones or interface groups) define the interfaces to which a NAT rule applies. In
routed mode, you can use the default "any" for both source and destination to apply to all interfaces of all
assigned devices. However, you typically want to select specific source and destination interfaces.
Note The concept of “any” interface does not apply to bridge group member interfaces. When you specify “any”
interface, all bridge group member interfaces are excluded. Thus, to apply NAT to bridge group members,
you must specify the member interface. You cannot configure NAT for the Bridge Virtual Interface (BVI)
itself, you can configure NAT for member interfaces only.
If you select interface objects, a NAT rule will be configured on an assigned device only if the device has
interfaces included in all selected objects. For example, if you select both source and destination security
zones, both zones must contain one or more interface for a given device.
Source Interface Objects, Destination Interface Objects
(Required for bridge group member interfaces.) The interface objects (security zones or interface groups)
that identify the interfaces where this NAT rule applies. Source is the object containing the real interface,
the one through which the traffic enters the device. Destination is the object containing the mapped
interface, the one through which traffic exits the device. By default, the rule applies to all interfaces
(Any) except for bridge group member interfaces.

1102
Translation Properties for Auto NAT
Translation Properties for Auto NAT

Use the options on the Translation tab to define the source addresses and the mapped translated addresses.
The following properties apply to auto NAT only.
Original Source (Always required.)
The network object that contains the addresses you are translating. This must be a network object (not
a group), and it can be a host, range, or subnet.
Translated Source (Usually required.)
The mapped addresses, the ones to which you are translating. What you select here depends on the type
of translation rule you are defining.
• Dynamic NAT—The network object or group that contains the mapped addresses. This can be a
network object or group, but it cannot include a subnet. The group cannot contain both IPv4 and
IPv6 addresses; it must contain one type only. If a group contains both ranges and host IP addresses,
then the ranges are used for dynamic NAT, and then the host IP addresses are used as a PAT fallback.
• Dynamic PAT—One of the following:
• (Interface PAT.) To use the address of the destination interface, select Destination Interface
IP. You must also select a specific destination interface object. To use the IPv6 address of the
interface, you must also select the IPv6 option on the Advanced tab. Do not configure a PAT
pool.
• To use a single address other than the destination interface address, select the host network
object you created for this purpose. Do not configure a PAT pool.
• To use a PAT pool, leave Translated Source empty. Select the PAT pool object on the PAT
Pool tab.
• Static NAT—One of the following:

• To use a set group of addresses, select Address and the network object or group that contains
the mapped addresses. The object or group can contain hosts, ranges, or subnets. Typically,
you configure the same number of mapped addresses as real addresses for a one-to-one mapping.
You can, however, have a mismatched number of addresses.
• (Static interface NAT with port translation.) To use the address of the destination interface,
select Destination Interface IP. You must also select a specific destination interface object.
To use the IPv6 address of the interface, you must also select the IPv6 option on the Advanced
tab. This configures static interface NAT with port translation: the source address/port is
translated to the interface's address and the same port number.
• Identity NAT—The same object as the original source. Optionally, you can select a different object
Original Port, Translated Port (Static NAT only.)

If you need to translate a TCP or UDP port, select the protocol in Original Port, and type the original
and translated port numbers. For example, you can translate TCP/80 to 8080 if necessary. Do not configure
these options for identity NAT.

1103
Translation Properties for Manual NAT
Translation Properties for Manual NAT

Use the options on the Translation tab to define the source addresses and the mapped translated addresses.
The following properties apply to manual NAT only. All are optional except as indicated.
Original Source (Always required.)
The network object or group that contains the addresses you are translating. This can be a network object
or group, and it can contain a host, range, or subnet. If you want to translate all original source traffic,
you can specify Any in the rule.
Translated Source (Usually required.)
The mapped addresses, the ones to which you are translating. What you select here depends on the type
of translation rule you are defining.
• Dynamic NAT—The network object or group that contains the mapped addresses. This can be a
network object or group, but it cannot include a subnet. The group cannot contain both IPv4 and
IPv6 addresses; it must contain one type only. If a group contains both ranges and host IP addresses,
then the ranges are used for dynamic NAT, and then the host IP addresses are used as a PAT fallback.
• Dynamic PAT—One of the following:
• (Interface PAT.) To use the address of the destination interface, select Destination Interface
IP. You must also select a specific destination interface object. To use the IPv6 address of the
interface, you must also select the IPv6 option on the Advanced tab. Do not configure a PAT
pool.
• To use a single address other than the destination interface address, select the host network
object you created for this purpose. Do not configure a PAT pool.
• To use a PAT pool, leave Translated Source empty. Select the PAT pool object on the PAT
Pool tab.
• Static NAT—One of the following:

• To use a set group of addresses, select Address and the network object or group that contains
the mapped addresses. The object or group can contain hosts, ranges, or subnets. Typically,
you configure the same number of mapped addresses as real addresses for a one-to-one mapping.
You can, however, have a mismatched number of addresses.
• (Static interface NAT with port translation.) To use the address of the destination interface,
select Destination Interface IP. You must also select a specific destination interface object.
To use the IPv6 address of the interface, you must also select the IPv6 option on the Advanced
tab. This configures static interface NAT with port translation: the source address/port is
translated to the interface's address and the same port number.
• Identity NAT—The same object as the original source. Optionally, you can select a different object
Original Destination
The network object that contains the addresses of the destinations. If you leave this blank, the source
address translation applies regardless of destination. If you do specify the destination address, you can
configure a static translation for that address or just use identity NAT for it.

1104
PAT Pool NAT Properties
Translated Destination
The network object or group that contains the destination addresses used in the translated packet. If you
selected an object for Original Destination, you can set up identity NAT (that is, no translation) by
selecting the same object.
Original Source Port, Translated Source Port, Original Destination Port, Translated Destination Port
The port objects that define the source and destination services for the original and translated packets.
You can translate the ports, or select the same object to make the rule sensitive to the service without
translating the ports. Keep the following rules in mind when configuring services:
• (Dynamic NAT or PAT.) You cannot do translation on the Original Source Port and Translated
Source Port. You can do translation on the destination port only.
• NAT only supports TCP or UDP. When translating a port, be sure the protocols in the real and
mapped service objects are identical (both TCP or both UDP). For identity NAT, you can use the
same service object for both the real and mapped ports.
PAT Pool NAT Properties

When you configure dynamic NAT, you can define a pool of addresses to use for Port Address Translation
using the properties on the PAT Pool tab.
Enable PAT Pool
Select this option to configure a pool of addresses for PAT.
PAT
The addresses to use for the PAT pool, one of the following:
• Address—The object that defines the PAT pool addresses, either a network object that includes a
range, or a network object group that contains hosts, ranges, or both. You cannot include subnets.
The group cannot contain both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses; it must contain one type only.
• Destination Interface IP—Indicates that you want to use the destination interface as the PAT
address. For this option, you must select a specific Destination Interface Object; you cannot use
Any as the destination interface. This is another way to implement interface PAT.
Round Robin
To assign addresses/ports in a round-robin fashion. By default without round robin, all ports for a PAT
address will be allocated before the next PAT address is used. The round-robin method assigns one
address/port from each PAT address in the pool before returning to use the first address again, and then
the second address, and so on.
Extended PAT Table
To use extended PAT. Extended PAT uses 65535 ports per service, as opposed to per IP address, by
including the destination address and port in the translation information. Normally, the destination port
and address are not considered when creating PAT translations, so you are limited to 65535 ports per
PAT address. For example, with extended PAT, you can create a translation of 10.1.1.1:1027 when going

1105
Advanced NAT Properties
to 192.168.1.7:23 as well as a translation of 10.1.1.1:1027 when going to 192.168.1.7:80. You cannot

use this option with interface PAT or interface PAT fallback.
Flat Port Range; Include Reserved Ports
To use the 1024 to 65535 port range as a single flat range when allocating TCP/UDP ports. When choosing
the mapped port number for a translation, PAT uses the real source port number if it is available. However,
without this option, if the real port is not available, by default the mapped ports are chosen from the same
range of ports as the real port number: 1 to 511, 512 to 1023, and 1024 to 65535. To avoid running out
of ports at the low ranges, configure this setting. To use the entire range of 1 to 65535, also check the
Include Reserved Ports option.
Advanced NAT Properties

When you configure NAT, you can configure properties that provide specialized services in the Advanced
options. All of these properties are optional: configure them only if you need the service.
Translate DNS replies that match this rule
Whether to translate the IP address in DNS replies. For DNS replies traversing from a mapped interface
to a real interface, the Address (the IPv4 A or IPv6 AAAA) record is rewritten from the mapped value
to the real value. Conversely, for DNS replies traversing from a real interface to a mapped interface, the
record is rewritten from the real value to the mapped value. This option is used in specific circumstances,
and is sometimes needed for NAT64/46 translation, where the rewrite also converts between A and
AAAA records. For more information, see Rewriting DNS Queries and Responses Using NAT, on page
1142. This option is not available if you are doing port translation in a static NAT rule.
Fallthrough to Interface PAT (Destination Interface) (Dynamic NAT only.)
Whether to use the IP address of the destination interface as a backup method when the other mapped
addresses are already allocated (interface PAT fallback). This option is available only if you select a
destination interface that is not a member of a bridge group. To use the IPv6 address of the interface,
also check the IPv6 option. You cannot select this option if you already configured interface PAT as the
translated address. You also cannot select the option if you configure a PAT pool.
IPv6
Whether to use the IPv6 address of the destination interface for interface PAT.
Net to Net Mapping (Static NAT only.)
For NAT 46, select this option to translate the first IPv4 address to the first IPv6 address, the second to
the second, and so on. Without this option, the IPv4-embedded method is used. For a one-to-one
translation, you must use this option.
Do not proxy ARP on Destination Interface (Static NAT only.)
Disables proxy ARP for incoming packets to the mapped IP addresses. If you use addresses on the same
network as the mapped interface, the system uses proxy ARP to answer any ARP requests for the mapped
addresses, thus intercepting traffic destined for a mapped address. This solution simplifies routing because
the device does not have to be the gateway for any additional networks. You can disable proxy ARP if
desired, in which case you need to be sure to have proper routes on the upstream router. Normally for
identity NAT, proxy ARP is not required, and in some cases can cause connectivity issues.

1106
Translating IPv6 Networks
Perform Route Lookup for Destination Interface (Static Identity NAT only. Routed mode only.)
If you select source and destination interfaces when selecting the same object for original and translated
source address, you can select this option to have the system determine the destination interface based
on the routing table rather than using the destination interface configured in the NAT rule.
Unidirectional (Manual NAT only, static NAT only.)
Select this option to prevent the destination addresses from initiating traffic to the source addresses.
Translating IPv6 Networks

In cases where you need to pass traffic between IPv6-only and IPv4-only networks, you need to use NAT to
convert between the address types. Even with two IPv6 networks, you might want to hide internal addresses
from the outside network.
You can use the following translation types with IPv6 networks:
• NAT64, NAT46—Translates IPv6 packets into IPv4 and vice versa. You need to define two policies,
one for the IPv6 to IPv4 translation, and one for the IPv4 to IPv6 translation. Although you can accomplish
this with a single manual NAT rule, if the DNS server is on the external network, you probably need to
rewrite the DNS response. Because you cannot enable DNS rewrite on a manual NAT rule when you
specify a destination, creating two auto NAT rules is the better solution.
Note NAT46 supports static mappings only.
• NAT66—Translates IPv6 packets to a different IPv6 address. We recommend using static NAT. Although
you can use dynamic NAT or PAT, IPv6 addresses are in such large supply, you do not have to use
dynamic NAT.
Note NAT64 and NAT 46 are possible on standard routed interfaces only. NAT66 is possible on both routed and
bridge group member interfaces.
NAT64/46: Translating IPv6 Addresses to IPv4

When traffic goes from an IPv6 network to an IPv4-only network, you need to convert the IPv6 address to
IPv4, and return traffic from IPv4 to IPv6. You need to define two address pools, an IPv4 address pool to
bind IPv6 addresses in the IPv4 network, and an IPv6 address pool to bind IPv4 addresses in the IPv6 network.
• The IPv4 address pool for the NAT64 rule is normally small and typically might not have enough addresses
to map one-to-one with the IPv6 client addresses. Dynamic PAT might more easily meet the possible
large number of IPv6 client addresses compared to dynamic or static NAT.
• The IPv6 address pool for the NAT46 rule can be equal to or larger than the number of IPv4 addresses
to be mapped. This allows each IPv4 address to be mapped to a different IPv6 address. NAT46 supports
static mappings only, so you cannot use dynamic PAT.

1107
NAT64/46 Example: Inside IPv6 Network with Outside IPv4 Internet
You need to define two policies, one for the source IPv6 network, and one for the destination IPv4 network.
Although you can accomplish this with a single manual NAT rule, if the DNS server is on the external network,
you probably need to rewrite the DNS response. Because you cannot enable DNS rewrite on a manual NAT
rule when you specify a destination, creating two auto NAT rules is the better solution.

Access Admin
Network Admin
Following is a typical example where you have an inside IPv6-only network, but there are some IPv4-only
services on the outside Internet that internal users need.
In this example, you translate the inside IPv6 network to IPv4 using dynamic interface PAT with the IP address
of the outside interface. Outside IPv4 traffic is statically translated to addresses on the 2001:db8::/96 network,
allowing transmission on the inside network. You enable DNS rewrite on the NAT46 rule, so that replies from
the external DNS server can be converted from A (IPv4) to AAAA (IPv6) records, and the addresses converted
from IPv4 to IPv6.
Following is a typical sequence for a web request where a client at 2001:DB8::100 on the internal IPv6 network
tries to open www.example.com.
1. The client’s computer sends a DNS request to the DNS server at 2001:DB8::D1A5:CA81. The NAT rules
make the following translations to the source and destination in the DNS request:
• 2001:DB8::100 to a unique port on 209.165.201.1 (The NAT64 interface PAT rule.)
• 2001:DB8::D1A5:CA81 to 209.165.202.129 (The NAT46 rule. D1A5:CA81 is the IPv6 equivalent
of 209.165.202.129.)

1108
2. The DNS server responds with an A record indicating that www.example.com is at 209.165.200.225. The
NAT46 rule, with DNS rewrite enabled, converts the A record to the IPv6-equivalent AAAA record, and
translates 209.165.200.225 to 2001:db8:D1A5:C8E1in the AAAA record. In addition, the source and
destination addresses in the DNS response are untranslated:
• 209.165.202.129 to 2001:DB8::D1A5:CA81
• 209.165.201.1 to 2001:db8::100
3. The IPv6 client now has the IP address of the web server, and makes an HTTP request to www.example.com
at 2001:db8:D1A5:C8E1. (D1A5:C8E1 is the IPv6 equivalent of 209.165.200.225.) The source and
destination of the HTTP request are translated:
• 2001:DB8::100 to a unique port on 209.156.101.54 (The NAT64 interface PAT rule.)
• 2001:db8:D1A5:C8E1 to 209.165.200.225 (The NAT46 rule.)
The following procedure explains how to configure this example.
Before you begin

Ensure that you have interface objects (security zones or interface groups) that contain the interfaces for the
device. In this example, we will assume the interface objects are security zones named inside and outside.
To configure interface objects, select Objects > Object Management, then select Interface.
Procedure
Step 1 Create the network objects that define the inside IPv6 and outside IPv4 networks.
b) Select Network from the table of contents and click Add Network > Add Object.
c) Define the inside IPv6 network.
Name the network object (for example, inside_v6) and enter the network address, 2001:db8::/96.
d) Click Save.
e) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the outside IPv4 network.
Name the network object (for example, outside_v4_any) and enter the network address 0.0.0.0/0.

1109
f) Click Save.
Step 2 Configure the NAT64 dynamic PAT rule for the inside IPv6 network.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.

• Source Interface Objects = inside.
• Destination Interface Objects = outside.

• Original Source = inside_v6 network object.
• Translated Source = Destination Interface IP.
f) Click OK.
With this rule, any traffic from the 2001:db8::/96 subnet on the inside interface going to the outside
interface gets a NAT64 PAT translation using the IPv4 address of the outside interface.
Step 3 Configure the static NAT46 rule for the outside IPv4 network.
a) Click Add Rule.

1110
NAT66: Translating IPv6 Addresses to Different IPv6 Addresses
b) Configure the following properties:

• Type = Static.
c) On the Interface Objects tab, configure the following:

• Source Interface Objects = outside.
• Destination Interface Objects = inside.
d) On the Translation tab, configure the following:

• Original Source = outside_v4_any network object.
• Translated Source > Address = inside_v6 network object.
e) On the Advanced tab, select Translate DNS replies that match this rule.
f) Click OK.
With this rule, any IPv4 address on the outside network coming to the inside interface is translated to an
address on the 2001:db8::/96 network using the embedded IPv4 address method. In addition, DNS responses
are converted from A (IPv4) to AAAA (IPv6) records, and the addresses converted from IPv4 to IPv6.
NAT66: Translating IPv6 Addresses to Different IPv6 Addresses

When going from an IPv6 network to another IPv6 network, you can translate the addresses to different IPv6
addresses on the outside network. We recommend using static NAT. Although you can use dynamic NAT or
PAT, IPv6 addresses are in such large supply, you do not have to use dynamic NAT.
Because you are not translating between different address types, you need a single rule for NAT66 translations.
You can easily model these rules using auto NAT. However, if you do not want to allow returning traffic,
you can make the static NAT rule unidirectional using manual NAT only.

1111
NAT66 Example, Static Translation between Networks

Access Admin
Network Admin
You can configure a static translation between IPv6 address pools using auto NAT. The following example
explains how to convert inside addresses on the 2001:db8:122:2091::/96 network to outside addresses on the
2001:db8:122:2999::/96 network.
Before you begin

Procedure
Step 1 Create the network objects that define the inside IPv6 and outside IPv6 NAT networks.
Name the network object (for example, inside_v6) and enter the network address, 2001:db8:122:2091::/96.

1112
d) Click Save.
e) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the outside IPv6 NAT network.
Name the network object (for example, outside_nat_v6) and enter the network address
2001:db8:122:2999::/96.
f) Click Save.
Step 2 Configure the static NAT rule for the inside IPv6 network.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.


• Translated Source > Address = outside_nat_v6 network object.

1113
NAT66 Example, Simple IPv6 Interface PAT
f) Click OK.
With this rule, any traffic from the 2001:db8:122:2091::/96 subnet on the inside interface going to the
outside interface gets a static NAT66 translation to an address on the 2001:db8:122:2999::/96 network.

Access Admin
Network Admin
A simple approach for implementing NAT66 is to dynamically assign internal addresses to different ports on
the outside interface IPv6 address.
When you configure an interface PAT rule for NAT66, all the global addresses that are configured on that
interface are used for PAT mapping. Link-local or site-local addresses for the interface are not used for PAT.

1114
Before you begin

Procedure
Step 1 Create the network object that defines the inside IPv6 network.
Name the network object (for example, inside_v6) and enter the network address, 2001:db8:122:2091::/96.
d) Click Save.
Step 2 Configure the dynamic PAT rule for the inside IPv6 network.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.


• Translated Source = Destination Interface IP.
f) On the Advanced tab, select IPv6, which indicates that the IPv6 address of the destination interface should
be used.

1115
Monitoring NAT
g) Click OK.
With this rule, any traffic from the 2001:db8:122:2091::/96 subnet on the inside interface going to the
outside interface gets a NAT66 PAT translation to one of the IPv6 global addresses configured for the
outside interface.
Monitoring NAT
To monitor and troubleshoot NAT connections, log into the device CLI and use the following commands.
• show nat displays the NAT rules and per-rule hit counts. There are additional keywords to show other
aspects of NAT.
• show xlate displays the actual NAT translations that are currently active.
• clear xlate lets you remove an active NAT translation. You might need to remove active translations if
you alter NAT rules, because existing connections continue to use the old translation slot until the
connection ends. Clearing a translation allows the system to build a new translation for a client on the
client's next connection attempt based on your new rules.
Examples for NAT

The following topics provide examples for configuring NAT on Threat Defense devices.
Providing Access to an Inside Web Server (Static Auto NAT)

Access Admin
Network Admin
The following example performs static NAT for an inside web server. The real address is on a private network,
so a public address is required. Static NAT is necessary so hosts can initiate traffic to the web server at a fixed
address.

1116
Figure 35: Static NAT for an Inside Web Server
Before you begin

device that protects the web server. In this example, we will assume the interface objects are security zones
named inside and outside. To configure interface objects, select Objects > Object Management, then select
Interface.
Procedure
Step 1 Create the network objects that define the server’s private and public host addresses.
c) Define the web server’s private address.
Name the network object (for example, WebServerPrivate) and enter the real host IP address, 10.1.2.27.

1117
d) Click Save.
e) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the public address.
Name the network object (for example, WebServerPublic) and enter the host address 209.165.201.10.
f) Click Save.
Step 2 Configure static NAT for the object.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.


• Original Source = WebServerPrivate network object.
• Translated Source > Address= WebServerPublic network object.
f) Click Save.

1118
Dynamic Auto NAT for Inside Hosts and Static NAT for an Outside Web Server
Step 3 Click Save on the NAT rule page.
Access Admin
Network Admin
The following example configures dynamic NAT for inside users on a private network when they access the
outside. Also, when inside users connect to an outside web server, that web server address is translated to an
address that appears to be on the inside network.
Figure 36: Dynamic NAT for Inside, Static NAT for Outside Web Server
Before you begin

Interface.

1119
Procedure
Step 1 Create a network object for the dynamic NAT pool to which you want to translate the inside addresses.
c) Define the dynamic NAT pool.
Name the network object (for example, myNATpool) and enter the network range
209.165.201.20-209.165.201.30.
d) Click Save.
Step 2 Create a network object for the inside network.
b) Name the network object (for example, MyInsNet) and enter the network address 10.1.2.0/24.
c) Click Save.
Step 3 Create a network object for the outside web server.
b) Name the network object (for example, MyWebServer) and enter the host address 209.165.201.12.

1120
c) Click Save.
Step 4 Create a network object for the translated web server address.
b) Name the network object (for example, TransWebServer) and enter the host address 10.1.2.20.
c) Click Save.
Step 5 Configure dynamic NAT for the inside network using the dynamic NAT pool object.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.


• Original Source = myInsNet network object.
• Translated Source > Address= myNATpool network group.
f) Click Save.
Step 6 Configure static NAT for the web server.

1121
Inside Load Balancer with Multiple Mapped Addresses (Static Auto NAT, One-to-Many)
a) Click Add Rule.

• Type = Static.


• Original Source = myWebServer network object.
• Translated Source > Address= TransWebServer network object.
e) Click Save.
Inside Load Balancer with Multiple Mapped Addresses (Static Auto NAT,
One-to-Many)
Access Admin
Network Admin
The following example shows an inside load balancer that is translated to multiple IP addresses. When an
outside host accesses one of the mapped IP addresses, it is untranslated to the single load balancer address.
Depending on the URL requested, it redirects traffic to the correct web server.

1122
Figure 37: Static NAT with One-to-Many for an Inside Load Balancer
Before you begin

Interface.
Procedure
Step 1 Create a network object for the addresses to which you want to map the load balancer.
c) Define the addresses.
Name the network object (for example, myPublicIPs) and enter the network range
209.165.201.3-209.165.201.5.

1123
d) Click Save.
Step 2 Create a network object for the load balancer.
b) Name the network object (for example, myLBHost), enter the host address 10.1.2.27.
c) Click Save.
Step 3 Configure static NAT for the load balancer.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.


• Original Source = myLBHost network object.
• Translated Source > Address= myPublicIPs network group.

1124
Single Address for FTP, HTTP, and SMTP (Static Auto NAT-with-Port-Translation)
f) Click Save.
Single Address for FTP, HTTP, and SMTP (Static Auto

NAT-with-Port-Translation)
Access Admin
Network Admin
The following static NAT-with-port-translation example provides a single address for remote users to access
FTP, HTTP, and SMTP. These servers are actually different devices on the real network, but for each server,
you can specify static NAT-with-port-translation rules that use the same mapped IP address, but different
ports.

1125
Figure 38: Static NAT-with-Port-Translation
Before you begin

device that protects the servers. In this example, we will assume the interface objects are security zones named
inside and outside. To configure interface objects, select Objects > Object Management, then select Interface.
Procedure
Step 1 Create a network object for the FTP server.

c) Name the network object (for example, FTPserver), and enter the real IP address for the FTP server,
10.1.2.27.

1126
d) Click Save.
Step 2 Create a network object for the HTTP server.
b) Name the network object (for example, HTTPserver), enter the host address 10.1.2.28.
c) Click Save.
Step 3 Create a network object for the SMTP server.
b) Name the network object (for example, SMTPserver), enter the host address 10.1.2.29.
c) Click Save.
Step 4 Create a network object for the public IP address used for the three servers.
b) Name the network object (for example, ServerPublicIP) and enter the host address 209.165.201.3.
c) Click Save.
Step 5 Configure static NAT with port translation for the FTP server, mapping the FTP port to itself.
b) Click Add Rule.

1127
• Type = Static.


• Original Source = FTPserver network object.
• Translated Source > Address= ServerPublicIP network object.
• Original Port > TCP = 21.
• Translated Port = 21.
f) Click Save.
Step 6 Configure static NAT with port translation for the HTTP server, mapping the HTTP port to itself.
a) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.


• Original Source = HTTPserver network object.

1128
e) Click Save.
Step 7 Configure static NAT with port translation for the SMTP server, mapping the SMTP port to itself.
a) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.


• Original Source = SMTPserver network object.
e) Click Save.

1129
Different Translation Depending on the Destination (Dynamic Manual PAT)

Access Admin
Network Admin
The following figure shows a host on the 10.1.2.0/24 network accessing two different servers. When the host
accesses the server at 209.165.201.11, the real address is translated to 209.165.202.129:port. When the host
accesses the server at 209.165.200.225, the real address is translated to 209.165.202.130:port.
Figure 39: Manual NAT with Different Destination Addresses
Before you begin

inside and dmz. To configure interface objects, select Objects > Object Management, then select Interface.
Procedure


1130
c) Name the network object (for example, myInsideNetwork), and enter the real network address, 10.1.2.0/24.
d) Click Save.
Step 2 Create a network object for the DMZ network 1.
b) Name the network object (for example, DMZnetwork1) and enter the network address 209.165.201.0/27
(subnet mask of 255.255.255.224).
c) Click Save.
Step 3 Create a network object for the PAT address for DMZ network 1.
b) Name the network object (for example, PATaddress1) and enter the host address 209.165.202.129.
c) Click Save.
Step 4 Create a network object for the DMZ network 2.
b) Name the network object (for example, DMZnetwork2) and enter the network address 209.165.200.224/27
(subnet mask of 255.255.255.224).

1131
c) Click Save.
Step 5 Create a network object for the PAT address for DMZ network 2.
c) Click Save.
Step 6 Configure dynamic manual PAT for DMZ network 1.
b) Click Add Rule.
• NAT Rule = Manual NAT Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.

• Destination Interface Objects = dmz.

• Original Source = myInsideNetwork network object.
• Translated Source > Address= PATaddress1 network object.
• Original Destination > Address = DMZnetwork1 network object.
• Translated Destination = DMZnetwork1 network object.
Note Because you do not want to translate the destination address, you need to configure identity
NAT for it by specifying the same address for the original and translated destination
addresses. Leave all of the port fields blank.

1132
f) Click Save.
Step 7 Configure dynamic manual PAT for DMZ network 2.
a) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.


• Original Destination > Address = DMZnetwork2 network object.
• Translated Destination = DMZnetwork2 network object.

1133
Different Translation Depending on the Destination Address and Port (Dynamic Manual PAT)
e) Click Save.
Different Translation Depending on the Destination Address and Port (Dynamic

Manual PAT)
Access Admin
Network Admin
The following figure shows the use of source and destination ports. The host on the 10.1.2.0/24 network
accesses a single host for both web services and Telnet services. When the host accesses the server for Telnet
services, the real address is translated to 209.165.202.129:port. When the host accesses the same server for
web services, the real address is translated to 209.165.202.130:port.
Figure 40: Manual NAT with Different Destination Ports
Before you begin

inside and dmz. To configure interface objects, select Objects > Object Management, then select Interface.

1134
Procedure

c) Name the network object (for example, myInsideNetwork) and enter the real network address, 10.1.2.0/24.
d) Click Save.
Step 2 Create a network object for the Telnet/Web server.
b) Name the network object (for example, TelnetWebServer) and enter the host address 209.165.201.11.
c) Click Save.
Step 3 Create a network object for the PAT address when using Telnet.
c) Click Save.
Step 4 Create a network object for the PAT address when using HTTP.

1135
c) Click Save.
Step 5 Configure dynamic manual PAT for Telnet access.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.


• Original Destination > Address = TelnetWebServer network object.
• Translated Destination = TelnetWebServer network object.
• Original Destination Port = TELNET port object (system-defined).
• Translated Destination Port = TELNET port object (system-defined).
Note Because you do not want to translate the destination address or port, you need to configure
identity NAT for them by specifying the same address for the original and translated
destination addresses, and the same port for the original and translated port.

1136
f) Click Save.
Step 6 Configure dynamic manual PAT for web access.
a) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.


• Original Destination > Address = TelnetWebServer network object.
• Translated Destination = TelnetWebServer network object.
• Original Destination Port = HTTP port object (system-defined).
• Translated Destination Port = HTTP port object (system-defined).

1137
NAT and Site-to-Site VPN
e) Click Save.

Access Admin
Network Admin
The following figure shows a site-to-site tunnel connecting the Boulder and San Jose offices. For traffic that
you want to go to the Internet (for example from 10.1.1.6 in Boulder to www.example.com), you need a public
IP address provided by NAT to access the Internet. The below example uses interface PAT rules. However,
for traffic that you want to go over the VPN tunnel (for example from 10.1.1.6 in Boulder to 10.2.2.78 in San
Jose), you do not want to perform NAT; you need to exempt that traffic by creating an identity NAT rule.
Identity NAT simply translates an address to the same address.

1138
Figure 41: Interface PAT and Identity NAT for Site-to-Site VPN
The following example explains the configuration for Firewall1 (Boulder).
Before you begin

devices in the VPN. In this example, we will assume the interface objects are security zones named
inside-boulder and outside-boulder for the Firewall1 (Boulder) interfaces. To configure interface objects,
select Objects > Object Management, then select Interfaces.
Procedure
Step 1 Create the objects to define the various networks.

c) Identify the Boulder inside network.
Name the network object (for example, boulder-network) and enter the network address, 10.1.1.0/24.

1139
d) Click Save.
e) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the inside San Jose network.
Name the network object (for example, sanjose-network) and enter the network address 10.2.2.0/24.
f) Click Save.
Step 2 Configure manual identity NAT for the Boulder network when going over the VPN to San Jose on Firewall1
(Boulder).
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.

• Source Interface Objects = inside-boulder.
• Destination Interface Objects = outside-boulder.

• Original Source = boulder-network object.
• Translated Source > Address = boulder-network object.
• Original Destination > Address = sanjose-network object.
• Translated Destination = sanjose-network object.
Note Because you do not want to translate the destination address, you need to configure identity
NAT for it by specifying the same address for the original and translated destination
addresses. Leave all of the port fields blank. This rule configures identity NAT for both
source and destination.
f) On the Advanced tab, select Do not proxy ARP on Destination interface.

1140
g) Click Save.
Step 3 Configure manual dynamic interface PAT when going to the Internet for the inside Boulder network on
Firewall1 (Boulder).
a) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.
• Insert Rule = any position after the first rule. Because this rule will apply to any destination address,
the rule that uses sanjose-network as the destination must come before this rule, or the sanjose-network
rule will never be matched. The default is to place new manual NAT rules at the end of the "NAT
Rules Before Auto NAT" section.

• Source Interface Objects = inside-boulder.
• Destination Interface Objects = outside-boulder.

• Original Source = boulder-network object.
• Translated Source = Destination Interface IP. This option configures interface PAT using the
interface contained in the destination interface object.
• Original Destination > Address = any (leave blank).
• Translated Destination = any (leave blank).

1141
Rewriting DNS Queries and Responses Using NAT
e) Click Save.
Step 4 If you are also managing Firewall2 (San Jose), you can configure similar rules for that device.
• The manual identity NAT rule would be for sanjose-network when the destination is boulder-network.
Create new interface objects for the Firewall2 inside and outside networks.
• The manual dynamic interface PAT rule would be for sanjose-network when the destination is "any."
Rewriting DNS Queries and Responses Using NAT

You might need to configure the Firepower Threat Defense device to modify DNS replies by replacing the
address in the reply with an address that matches the NAT configuration. You can configure DNS modification
when you configure each translation rule. DNS modification is also known as DNS doctoring.
This feature rewrites the address in DNS queries and replies that match a NAT rule (for example, the A record
for IPv4, the AAAA record for IPv6, or the PTR record for reverse DNS queries). For DNS replies traversing
from a mapped interface to any other interface, the record is rewritten from the mapped value to the real value.
Inversely, for DNS replies traversing from any interface to a mapped interface, the record is rewritten from
the real value to the mapped value.
Following are the main circumstances when you would need to configure DNS rewrite on a NAT rule.
• The rule is NAT64 or NAT46, and the DNS server is on the outside network. You need DNS rewrite to
convert between DNS A records (for IPv4) and AAAA records (for IPv6).
• The DNS server is on the outside, clients are on the inside, and some of the fully-qualified domain names
that the clients use resolve to other inside hosts.
• The DNS server is on the inside and responds with private IP addresses, clients are on the outside, and
the clients access fully-qualified domain names that point to servers that are hosted on the inside.
DNS Rewrite Limitations

Following are some limitations with DNS rewrite:
• DNS rewrite is not applicable for PAT because multiple PAT rules are applicable for each A or AAAA
record, and the PAT rule to use is ambiguous.

1142
DNS64 Reply Modification
• If you configure a manual NAT rule, you cannot configure DNS modification if you specify the destination
address as well as the source address. These kinds of rules can potentially have a different translation
for a single address when going to A vs. B. Therefore, the Firepower Threat Defense device cannot
accurately match the IP address inside the DNS reply to the correct twice NAT rule; the DNS reply does
not contain information about which source/destination address combination was in the packet that
prompted the DNS request.
• You must enable DNS application inspection with DNS NAT rewrite enabled for NAT rules to rewrite
DNS queries and responses. By default, DNS inspection with DNS NAT rewrite enabled is globally
applied, so you probably do not need to change the inspection configuration.
• DNS rewrite is actually done on the xlate entry, not the NAT rule. Thus, if there is no xlate for a dynamic
rule, rewrite cannot be done correctly. The same problem does not occur for static NAT.
• DNS rewrite does not rewrite DNS Dynamic Update messages (opcode 5).
The following topics provide examples of DNS rewrite in NAT rules.

Access Admin
Network Admin
The following figure shows an FTP server and DNS server on the outside IPv4 network. The system has a
static translation for the outside server. In this case, when an inside IPv6 user requests the address for
ftp.cisco.com from the DNS server, the DNS server responds with the real address, 209.165.200.225.
Because you want inside users to use the mapped address for ftp.cisco.com (2001:DB8::D1A5:C8E1, where
D1A5:C8E1 is the IPv6 equivalent of 209.165.200.225) you need to configure DNS reply modification for
the static translation. This example also includes a static NAT translation for the DNS server, and a PAT rule
for the inside IPv6 hosts.

1143
Before you begin

Procedure
Step 1 Create the network objects for the FTP server, DNS server, inside network, and PAT pool.
c) Define the real FTP server address.
Name the network object (for example, ftp_server) and enter the host address, 209.165.200.225.

1144
d) Click Save.
e) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the FTP server's translated IPv6 address.
Name the network object (for example, ftp_server_v6) and enter the host address,
2001:DB8::D1A5:C8E1.
f) Click Save.
g) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the DNS server's real address.
Name the network object (for example, dns_server) and enter the host address, 209.165.201.15.
h) Click Save.
i) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the DNS server's translated IPv6 address.
Name the network object (for example, dns_server_v6) and enter the host address,
2001:DB8::D1A5:C90F (where D1A5:C90F is the IPv6 equivalent of 209.165.201.15).

1145
j) Click Save.
k) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the inside IPv6 network.
Name the network object (for example, inside_v6) and enter the network address, 2001:DB8::/96.
l) Click Save.
m) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the IPv4 PAT pool for the inside IPv6 network.
Name the network object (for example, ipv4_pool) and enter the range 209.165.200.230-209.165.200.235.
n) Click Save.
Step 2 Configure the static NAT rule with DNS modification for the FTP server.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.

1146


• Original Source = ftp_server network object.
• Translated Source > Address = ftp_server_v6 network object.
f) On the Advanced tab, select the following options:

• Translate DNS replies that match this rule.
• Net to Net Mapping, because this is a one-to-one NAT46 translation.
g) Click OK.
Step 3 Configure the static NAT rule for the DNS server.
a) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.


• Original Source = dns_server network object.
• Translated Source > Address = dns_server_v6 network object.
e) On the Advanced tab, select Net to Net Mapping, because this is a one-to-one NAT46 translation.

1147
f) Click OK.
Step 4 Configure the dynamic NAT with a PAT pool rule for the inside IPv6 network.
a) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Dynamic.


• Translated Source > Address = leave this field empty.
e) On the PAT Pool tab, configure the following:

• Enable PAT Pool = select this option.
• Translated Source > Address = ipv4_pool network object.

1148
DNS Reply Modification, DNS Server on Outside
f) Click OK.

Access Admin
Network Admin
The following figure shows a DNS server that is accessible from the outside interface. A server, ftp.cisco.com,
is on the inside interface. You configure NAT to statically translate the ftp.cisco.com real address (10.1.3.14)
to a mapped address (209.165.201.10) that is visible on the outside network.
In this case, you want to enable DNS reply modification on this static rule so that inside users who have access
to ftp.cisco.com using the real address receive the real address from the DNS server, and not the mapped
address.
When an inside host sends a DNS request for the address of ftp.cisco.com, the DNS server replies with the
mapped address (209.165.201.10). The system refers to the static rule for the inside server and translates the
address inside the DNS reply to 10.1.3.14. If you do not enable DNS reply modification, then the inside host
attempts to send traffic to 209.165.201.10 instead of accessing ftp.cisco.com directly.

1149
Before you begin

Procedure
Step 1 Create the network objects for the FTP server.


1150
d) Click Save.
e) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the FTP server's translated address.
Name the network object (for example, ftp_server_outside) and enter the host address, 209.165.201.10.
f) Click Save.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.


• Translated Source > Address = ftp_server_outside network object.
f) On the Advanced tab, select Translate DNS replies that match this rule.

1151
DNS Reply Modification, DNS Server on Host Network
g) Click OK.

Access Admin
Network Admin
The following figure shows an FTP server and DNS server on the outside. The system has a static translation
for the outside server. In this case, when an inside user requests the address for ftp.cisco.com from the DNS
server, the DNS server responds with the real address, 209.165.20.10. Because you want inside users to use
the mapped address for ftp.cisco.com (10.1.2.56) you need to configure DNS reply modification for the static
translation.

1152
Before you begin

Procedure
Step 1 Create the network objects for the FTP server.


1153
d) Click Save.
e) Click Add Network > Add Object and define the FTP server's translated address.
Name the network object (for example, ftp_server_translated) and enter the host address, 10.1.2.56.
f) Click Save.
b) Click Add Rule.
• Type = Static.


• Translated Source > Address = ftp_server_translated network object.
f) On the Advanced tab, select Translate DNS replies that match this rule.

1154
History for FTD NAT
g) Click OK.
History for FTD NAT

Network Address Translation (NAT) 6.0.1 The NAT policy for Firepower Threat Defense was added.
for Firepower Threat Defense.
New/modified screens: Threat Defense was added as a type of NAT policy
to the Devices > NAT page.
Support for network range objects in 6.1.0 You can now use network range objects in Firepower Threat Defense NAT
NAT for Firepower Threat Defense. rules where appropriate.

1155
History for FTD NAT

1156
PA R T XIV
7000 and 8000 Series Advanced Deployment
Options
• Setting Up Virtual Switches, on page 1159
• Setting Up Virtual Routers, on page 1169
• Aggregate Interfaces and LACP, on page 1201
• Hybrid Interfaces, on page 1215
• Gateway VPNs, on page 1219
CHAPTER 55
Setting Up Virtual Switches
The following topics describe how to set up virtual switches in the Firepower System:
• Virtual Switches, on page 1159
• Switched Interface Configuration, on page 1159
• Virtual Switch Configuration, on page 1164
Virtual Switches
You can configure a 7000 or 8000 Series device in a Layer 2 deployment so that it provides packet switching
between two or more networks. In a Layer 2 deployment, you can configure virtual switches to operate as
standalone broadcast domains, dividing your network into logical segments. A virtual switch uses the media
access control (MAC) address from a host to determine where to send packets.
When you configure a virtual switch, the switch initially broadcasts packets through every available port on
the switch. Over time, the switch uses tagged return traffic to learn which hosts reside on the networks
connected to each port.
A virtual switch must contain two or more switched interfaces to handle traffic. For each virtual switch, traffic
becomes limited to the set of ports configured as switched interfaces. For example, if you configure a virtual
switch with four switched interfaces, packets sent in through one port for broadcast can only be sent out of
the remaining three ports on the switch.
When you configure a physical switched interface, you must assign it to a virtual switch. You can also define
additional logical switched interfaces on a physical port as needed. You can group multiple physical interfaces
into a single logical switched interface called a link aggregation group (LAG). This single aggregate logical
link provides higher bandwidth, redundancy, and load-balancing between two endpoints.
Caution If a Layer 2 deployment fails for any reason, the device no longer passes traffic.
Switched Interface Configuration

You can set up switched interfaces to have either physical or logical configurations. You can configure physical
switched interfaces for handling untagged VLAN traffic. You can also create logical switched interfaces for
handling traffic with designated VLAN tags.

1159
7000 and 8000 Series Advanced Deployment Options
Switched Interface Configuration Notes
In a Layer 2 deployment, the system drops any traffic received on an external physical interface that does not
have a switched interface waiting for it. If the system receives a packet with no VLAN tag and you have not
configured a physical switched interface for that port, it drops the packet. If the system receives a VLAN-tagged
packet and you have not configured a logical switched interface, it also drops the packet.
The system handles traffic that has been received with VLAN tags on switched interfaces by stripping the
outermost VLAN tag on ingress before any rules evaluation or forwarding decisions. Packets leaving the
device through a VLAN-tagged logical switched interface are encapsulated with the associated VLAN tag on
egress.
Note that if you change the parent physical interface to inline or passive, the system deletes all the associated
logical interfaces.
Switched Interface Configuration Notes

You can configure one or more physical ports on a managed device as switched interfaces. You must assign
a physical switched interface to a virtual switch before it can handle traffic. You can configure link mode
settings and MDI/MDIX settings only for copper interfaces.
Note Interfaces on 8000 Series appliances do not support half-duplex options.
For each physical switched interface, you can add multiple logical switched interfaces. You must associate
each logical interface with a VLAN tag to handle traffic received by the physical interface with that specific
tag. You must assign a logical switched interface to a virtual switch to handle traffic.
When configuring a switched interface, the range within which you can set the MTU can vary depending on
the Firepower System device model and interface type.
To edit an existing logical switched interface, click the edit icon ( ) next to the interface.
When you delete a logical switched interface, you remove it from the physical interface where it resides, as
well as the virtual switch and security zone it is associated with.
Related Topics

1160
Configuring Physical Switched Interfaces
Configuring Physical Switched Interfaces

Any Control 7000 & 8000 Series Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to configure the switched interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Next to the interface you want to configure as a switched interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Click the Switched tab.
Step 5 If you want to associate the switched interface with a security zone, do one of the following:
page 383.
Step 6 If you want to associate the switched interface with a virtual switch, do one of the following:
• Choose an existing virtual switch from the Virtual Switch drop-down list.
• Choose New to add a new virtual switch; see Adding Virtual Switches, on page 1165.
Step 7 Check the Enabled check box to allow the switched interface to handle traffic.
Note If you clear the check box, the interface becomes disabled so that users cannot access it for security
purposes.
specify that the interface is configured to auto negotiate speed and duplex settings.
Step 10 In the MTU field, enter a maximum transmission unit (MTU), which designates the largest size packet allowed.

1161
Adding Logical Switched Interfaces
more information.
Step 11 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Adding Logical Switched Interfaces


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to add the switched interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Choose Add Logical Interface from the Add drop-down menu.
Step 4 Click Switched.
Step 5 From the Interface drop-down list, choose the physical interface that will receive the VLAN-tagged traffic.
Step 6 In the VLAN Tag field, enter a tag value that gets assigned to inbound and outbound traffic on this interface.
The tag value can be any integer from 1 to 4094.
Step 7 If you want to associate the switched interface with a security zone, do one of the following:
page 383.
Step 8 If you want to associate the switched interface with a virtual switch, do one of the following:

1162
Deleting Logical Switched Interfaces
Step 9 Check the Enabled check box to allow the switched interface to handle traffic.
If you clear the check box, the interface becomes disabled and administratively taken down. If you disable a
physical interface, you also disable all of the logical interfaces associated with it.
more information.
Step 11 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Deleting Logical Switched Interfaces


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the managed device that contains the switched interface you want to delete, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Next to the logical switched interface you want to delete, click the delete icon ( ).
Step 4 When prompted, confirm that you want to delete the interface.
What to do next

1163
Virtual Switch Configuration
Virtual Switch Configuration

Before you can use switched interfaces in a Layer 2 deployment, you must configure virtual switches and
assign switched interfaces to them. A virtual switch is a group of switched interfaces that process inbound
and outbound traffic through your network.
Virtual Switch Configuration Notes

You can add virtual switches from the Virtual Switches tab of the Device Management page. The Virtual
Switches tab displays a list of all the virtual switches you have configured on a device. The page includes
summary information about each switch.
Table 79: Virtual Switches Table View Fields
Field Description
Name The name of the virtual switch.
Interfaces All switched interfaces that are assigned to the virtual

switch. Interfaces that you have disabled from the
Interfaces tab are not available.
Hybrid Interface The optionally configured hybrid interface that ties

the virtual switch to a virtual router.
Unicast Packets Unicast packet statistics for the virtual switch,

including:
• Unicast packets received
• Unicast packets forwarded (excludes drops by
host)
• Unicast packets unintentionally dropped
Broadcast Packets Broadcast packet statistics for the virtual switch,

including:
• Broadcast packets received
• Broadcast packets forwarded
• Broadcast packets unintentionally dropped
You can also add switches as you configure switched interfaces. You can assign only switched interfaces to
a virtual switch. If you want to create a virtual switch before you configure the switched interfaces on your
managed devices, you can create an empty virtual switch and add interfaces to it later.
Tip
To edit an existing virtual switch, click the edit icon ( ) next to the switch.

1164
Adding Virtual Switches
Adding Virtual Switches


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to add the virtual switch, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Click the Virtual Switches tab.

Step 4 Click Add Virtual Switch.
Step 5 Enter a name in the Name field.
Step 6 From the Available list, choose one or more switched interfaces to add to the virtual switch.
Tip Interfaces that you have disabled from the Interfaces tab are not available; disabling an interface
after you add it removes it from the configuration.
Step 7 Click Add.

Step 8 If you want to tie the virtual switch to a virtual router, choose a hybrid interface from the Hybrid Interface
drop-down list.
Step 9 Optionally, configure advanced settings for the switch; see Advanced Virtual Switch Settings, on page 1165
Step 10 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Logical Hybrid Interfaces, on page 1215
Advanced Virtual Switch Settings

Adding Static MAC Entries
Over time, a virtual switch learns MAC addresses by tagging return traffic from the network. You can manually
add a static MAC entry, which designates that a MAC address resides on a specific port. Regardless of whether
you ever receive traffic from that port, the MAC address remains static in the table. You can specify one or
more static MAC addresses for each virtual switch.

1165
Configuring Advanced Virtual Switch Settings
Enabling Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Dropping Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDU)
STP is a network protocol used to prevent network loops. BPDUs are exchanged through the network, carrying
information about network bridges. The protocol uses BPDUs to identify and select the fastest network links,
if there are redundant links in the network. If a network link fails, Spanning Tree fails over to an existing
alternate link.
Note Cisco strongly recommends that you enable STP when configuring a virtual switch that you plan to deploy
in a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair. Only enable STP if your virtual switch switches traffic
between multiple network interfaces.
If your virtual switch routes traffic between VLANs, similar to a router on a stick, BPDUs enter and exit the
device through different logical switched interfaces, but the same physical switched interface. As a result,
STP identifies the device as a redundant network loop, which can cause issues in certain Layer 2 deployments.
To prevent this, you can configure the virtual switch at the domain level to have the device drop BPDUs when
monitoring traffic. You can only drop BPDUs if you disable STP.
Note Drop BPDUs only if your virtual swtich routes traffic between VLANs on a single physical interface.
Enabling Strict TCP Enforcement

Note that if you associate the virtual switch with a logical hybrid interface, the switch uses the same strict
TCP enforcement setting as the virtual router associated with the logical hybrid interface. You cannot specify
strict TCP enforcement on the switch in this case.
Configuring Advanced Virtual Switch Settings


Admin
Procedure

1166
Deleting Virtual Switches
Step 2 Next to the device that contains the virtual switch you want to edit, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Next to the virtual switch that you want to edit, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 6 To add a static MAC entry, click Add.
Step 7 In the MAC Address field, enter the address using the standard format of six groups of two hexadecimal
digits separated by colons (for example, 01:23:45:67:89:AB).
Note Broadcast addresses (00:00:00:00:00:00 and FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF) cannot be added as static MAC
addresses.
Step 8 From the Interface drop-down list, choose the interface where you want to assign the MAC address.
Step 9 Click OK.
Step 10 If you want to enable the Spanning Tree Protocol, check the Enable Spanning Tree Protocol check box.
Step 11 If you want to enable strict TCP enforcement, check the Strict TCP Enforcement check box.
If you associate the virtual switch with a logical hybrid interface, this option does not appear and the switch
uses the same setting as the virtual router associated with the logical hybrid interface.
Step 12 If you want to drop BPDUs at the domain level, check the Drop BPDUs check box.
Step 13 Click Save.
What to do next


Admin
When you delete a virtual switch, any switched interfaces assigned to the switch become available for inclusion
in another switch.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the managed device that contains the virtual switch you want to delete, click the edit icon ( ).

1167
Step 4 Next to the virtual switch that you want to delete, click the delete icon ( ).
Step 5 When prompted, confirm that you want to delete the virtual switch.
What to do next

1168
CHAPTER 56
Setting Up Virtual Routers
The following topics describe how to set up virtual routers in the Firepower System:
• Virtual Routers, on page 1169
• Routed Interfaces, on page 1170
• Configuring Physical Routed Interfaces, on page 1171
• Adding Logical Routed Interfaces, on page 1173
• Deleting Logical Routed Interfaces, on page 1175
• Configuring SFRP, on page 1176
• Virtual Router Configuration, on page 1177
• Adding Virtual Routers, on page 1178
• DHCP Relay, on page 1179
• Static Routes, on page 1181
• Dynamic Routing, on page 1183
• Virtual Router Filters, on page 1195
• Adding Virtual Router Authentication Profiles, on page 1198
• Viewing Virtual Router Statistics, on page 1199
• Deleting Virtual Routers, on page 1199
Virtual Routers
You can configure a managed device in a Layer 3 deployment so that it routes traffic between two or more
interfaces. To route traffic, you must assign an IP address to each interface and assign the interfaces to the
virtual router. The interfaces assigned to virtual routers can be physical, logical, or link aggregation group
(LAG) interfaces.
You can configure the system to route packets by making packet forwarding decisions according to the
destination address. Interfaces configured as routed interfaces receive and forward the Layer 3 traffic. Routers
obtain the destination from the outgoing interface based on the forwarding criteria, and access control rules
designate the security policies to be applied.
In Layer 3 deployments, you can define static routes. In addition, you can configure Routing Information
Protocol (RIP) and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) dynamic routing protocols. You can also configure a
combination of static routes and RIP or static routes and OSPF.
Note that you can only configure virtual routers, physical routed interfaces, or logical routed interfaces on a
7000 or 8000 Series device.

1169
Routed Interfaces
Caution If a Layer 3 deployment fails for any reason, the device no longer passes traffic.
Related Topics
LAG Configuration, on page 1202
Routed Interfaces
You can set up routed interfaces with either physical or logical configurations. You can configure physical
routed interfaces for handling untagged VLAN traffic. You can also create logical routed interfaces for handling
traffic with designated VLAN tags.
In a Layer 3 deployment, the system drops any traffic received on an external physical interface that does not
have a routed interface waiting for it. The system drops a packet if:
• It receives a packet with no VLAN tag, and you have not configured a physical routed interface for that
port.
• It receives a VLAN-tagged packet, and you have not configured a logical routed interface for that port.
The system handles traffic that has been received with VLAN tags on switched interfaces by stripping the
outermost VLAN tag on ingress prior to any rules evaluation or forwarding decisions. Packets leaving the
device through a VLAN-tagged logical routed interface are encapsulated with the associated VLAN tag on
egress. The system drops any traffic received with a VLAN tag after the stripping process completes.
You can add static Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) entries to a routed interface. If an external host needs
to know the MAC address of the destination IP address it needs to send traffic to on your local network, it
sends an ARP request. When you configure static ARP entries, the virtual router responds with an IP address
and associated MAC address.
Note that disabling the ICMP Enable Responses option for logical routed interfaces does not prevent ICMP
responses in all scenarios. You can add network-based rules to an access control policy to drop packets where
the destination IP is the routed interface’s IP and the protocol is ICMP.
If you have enabled the Inspect Local Router Traffic option on the managed device, the system drops the
packets before they reach the host, thereby preventing any response.
If you change the parent physical interface to inline or passive, the system deletes all the associated logical
interfaces.
Related Topics
Advanced Device Settings, on page 201

1170
Configuring Physical Routed Interfaces


Admin
You can configure one or more physical ports on a managed device as routed interfaces. You must assign a
physical routed interface to a virtual router before it can route traffic.
Caution Adding a routed interface pair on a 7000 or 8000 Series device restarts the Snort process when you deploy
configuration changes, temporarily interrupting traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during this interruption
Procedure
Step 3 Next to the interface you want to modify, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Click Routed to display the routed interface options.
Step 5 If you want to apply a security zone, do one of the following:
page 383.
Step 6 If you want to specify a virtual router, do one of the following:

• Choose an existing virtual router from the Virtual Router drop-down list.
• Choose New to add a new virtual router; Adding Virtual Routers, on page 1178.
Step 7 Check the Enabled check box to allow the routed interface to handle traffic. If you clear the check box, the
interface becomes disabled so that users cannot access it for security purposes.
specify that the interface is configured to auto negotiate speed and duplex settings.

1171
Normally, MDI/MDIX is set to Auto-MDIX, which automatically handles switching between MDI and MDIX
to attain link.
Step 10 In the MTU field, choose a maximum transmission unit (MTU), which designates the largest size packet
allowed.
The MTU is the Layer 2 MTU/MRU and not the Layer 3 MTU.
more information.
Step 11 Next to ICMP, check the Enable Responses check box to allow the interface to respond to ICMP traffic such
as pings and traceroute.
Step 12 Next to IPv6 NDP, check the Enable Router Advertisement check box to enable the interface to broadcast
router advertisements.
Step 13 To add an IP address, click Add.
Step 14 In the Address field, enter the routed interface’s IP address and subnet mask using CIDR notation.
Note the following:
• You cannot add network and broadcast addresses, or the static MAC addresses 00:00:00:00:00:00 and
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF.
• You cannot add identical IP addresses, regardless of subnet mask, to interfaces in virtual routers.
Step 15 If your organization uses IPv6 addresses and you want to set the IP address of the interface automatically,
check the Address Autoconfiguration check box next to the IPv6 field.
Step 16 For Type, choose either Normal or SFRP.
For SFRP options, see Configuring SFRP, on page 1176 for more information.
Step 17 Click OK.
• To edit an IP address, click the edit icon ( ).
• To delete an IP address, click the delete icon ( ).

Note When adding an IP address to a routed interface of a 7000 or 8000 Series device in a
high-availability pair, you must add a corresponding IP address to the routed interface on the
high-availability pair peer.
Step 18 To add a static ARP entry, click Add.

Step 19 In the IP Address field, enter an IP address for the static ARP entry.
Step 20 In the MAC Address field, enter a MAC address to associate with the IP address. Use the standard address
format of six groups of two hexadecimal digits separated by colons (for example, 01:23:45:67:89:AB).

1172
Adding Logical Routed Interfaces
Step 21 Click OK.

Tip
To edit a static ARP entry, click the edit icon ( ). To delete a static ARP entry, click the delete
icon ( ).
Step 22 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics


Admin
For each physical routed interface, you can add multiple logical routed interfaces. You must associate each
logical interface with a VLAN tag to handle traffic received by the physical interface with that specific tag.
You must assign a logical routed interface to a virtual router to route traffic.
Caution Adding a routed interface pair on 7000 or 8000 Series devices restarts the Snort process when you deploy
Procedure
Step 3 Click Add Interface.

Step 4 Click Routed to display the routed interface options.
Step 5 From the Interface drop-down list, choose the physical interface where you want to add the logical interface.
Step 6 In the VLAN Tag field, enter a tag value that gets assigned to inbound and outbound traffic on this interface.
The value can be any integer from 1 to 4094.

1173

page 383.
Step 8 If you want to specify a virtual router, do one of the following:

Step 9 Check the Enabled check box to allow the routed interface to handle traffic.
If you clear the check box, the interface becomes disabled and administratively taken down. If you disable a
physical interface, you also disable all of the logical interfaces associated with it.
The MTU is the Layer 2 MTU/MRU and not the Layer 3 MTU.
more information.
Step 11 Next to ICMP, check the Enable Responses check box to communicate updates or error information to other
routers, intermediary devices, or hosts.
router advertisements.
Step 14 In the Address field, enter the IP address in CIDR notation.
Note the following:
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF.
Step 15 If your organization uses IPv6 addresses and you want to set the IP address of the interface automatically,
choose the Address Autoconfiguration check box next to the IPv6 field.
For SFRP options, see Configuring SFRP, on page 1176 for more information.
Step 17 Click OK.
• To edit an IP address, click the edit icon ( ).
• To delete an IP address, click the delete icon ( ).

1174
Deleting Logical Routed Interfaces
Note When you add an IP address to a routed interface of a 7000 or 8000 Series device in a
high-availability pair, you must add a corresponding IP address to the routed interface on the
high-availability pair peer.
Step 18 To add a static ARP entry, click Add.

Step 19 In the IP Address field, enter an IP address for the static ARP entry.
Step 20 In the MAC Address field, enter a MAC address to associate with the IP address. Use the standard address
format of six groups of two hexadecimal digits separated by colons (for example, 01:23:45:67:89:AB).
Step 21 Click OK. The static ARP entry is added.
Tip
To edit a static ARP entry, click the edit icon ( ). To delete a static ARP entry, click the delete
icon ( ).
Step 22 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Deleting Logical Routed Interfaces


Admin
When you delete a logical routed interface, you remove it from the physical interface where it resides, as well
as its assigned virtual router and security zone.
Procedure
Step 3 Next to the logical routed interface you want to delete, click the delete icon ( ).

1175
Configuring SFRP
What to do next
Configuring SFRP

Admin
You can configure Cisco Redundancy Protocol (SFRP) to achieve network redundancy for high availability
on either a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair or individual devices. SFRP provides gateway
redundancy for both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. You can configure SFRP on routed and hybrid interfaces.
If the interfaces are configured on individual devices, they must be in the same broadcast domain. You must
designate at least one of the interfaces as master and an equal number as backup. The system supports only
one master and one backup per IP address. If network connectivity is lost, the system automatically promotes
the backup to master to maintain connectivity.
The options you set for SFRP must be the same on all interfaces in a group of SFRP interfaces. Multiple IP
addresses in a group must be in the same master/backup state. Therefore, when you add or edit an IP address,
the state you set for that address propagates to all the addresses in the group. For security purposes, you must
enter values for Group ID and Shared Secret that are shared among the interfaces in the group.
To enable SFRP IP addresses on a virtual router, you must also configure one non-SFRP IP address. Note
that only one non-SFRP address should be configured per interface.
As all SFRPs in a group failover together, all SFRPs on the same virtual router should be in the same SFRP
group. In addition, you should also set up an HA link interface on each device in a high-availability pair when
using NAT, HA state sharing, or VPN. For more information on HA link interfaces, see Configuring HA Link
For 7000 or 8000 Series devices in a high-availability pair, you designate the shared secret and the system
copies it to the high-availability pair peer along with the SFRP IP configuration. The shared secret authenticates
peer data.
Note Cisco does not recommend enabling more than one non-SFRP IP address on a 7000 or 8000 Series device
high-availability pair's routed or hybrid interface where one SFRP IP address is already configured. The system
does not perform NAT if a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability pair fails over while in standby mode.
Procedure

1176
Virtual Router Configuration
Step 3 Next to the interface where you want to configure SFRP, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Choose the type of interface where you want to configure SFRP, either Routed or Hybrid.
Step 5 You can configure SFRP while adding or editing an IP address. Click Add to add an IP address. To edit an
IP address, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 6 For Type, choose SFRP to display the SFRP options.
Step 7 In the Group ID field, enter a value that designates a group of master or backup interfaces configured for
SFRP.
Step 8 For Priority, choose either Master or Backup to designate the preferred interface:
• For individual devices, you must set one interface to master on one device and the other to backup on a
second device.
• For 7000 or 8000 Seriesdevice high-availability pairs, when you set one interface as master, the other
automatically becomes the backup.
Step 9 In the Shared Secret field, enter a shared secret.

The Shared Secret field populates automatically for a group in a 7000 or 8000 Series device high-availability
pair.
Step 10 In the Adv. Interval (seconds) field, enter an interval for route advertisements for Layer 3 traffic.
Step 11 Click OK.
Step 12 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Virtual Router Configuration
Caution Adding a virtual router on a 7000 or 8000 Series device restarts the Snort process when you deploy configuration
changes, temporarily interrupting traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during this interruption or passes
without further inspection depends on how the target device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic
Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
Before you can use routed interfaces in a Layer 3 deployment, you must configure virtual routers and assign
routed interfaces to them. A virtual router is a group of routed interfaces that route Layer 3 traffic.
You can assign only routed and hybrid interfaces to a virtual router.

1177
Adding Virtual Routers
Note that if you change the configuration of a Layer 3 interface to a non-Layer 3 interface or remove a Layer
3 interface from the virtual router, the router may fall into an invalid state. For example, if it is used in DHCPv6,
it may cause an upstream and downstream mismatch.
Adding Virtual Routers


Admin
You can add virtual routers from the Virtual Routers tab of the device management page. You can also add
routers as you configure routed interfaces.
If you want to create a virtual router before you configure the interfaces on your managed devices, you can
create an empty virtual router and add interfaces to it later.
Caution Adding a virtual router on a 7000 or 8000 Series device restarts the Snort process when you deploy configuration
changes, temporarily interrupting traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during this interruption or passes
without further inspection depends on how the target device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic
Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
Procedure
Step 3 Click the Virtual Routers tab.

Tip If your devices are in a stack in a high-availability pair, choose the stack you want to modify from
the Selected Device drop-down list.
Step 4 Click Add Virtual Router.

Step 5 In the Name field, enter a name for the virtual router. You can use alphanumeric characters and spaces.
Step 6 Configure IPv6 static routing, OSPFv3, and RIPng on your virtual router by checking or clearing the IPv6
Support check box.
Step 7 If you do not want to enable strict TCP enforcement, clear the Strict TCP Enforcement check box. This
option is enabled by default.

1178
DHCP Relay
Step 8 Choose one or more interfaces from the Available list under Interfaces, and click Add.
The Available list contains all enabled Layer 3 interfaces, routed and hybrid, on the device that you can assign
to the virtual router.
Tip
To remove a routed or hybrid interface from the virtual router, click the delete icon ( ). Disabling
a configured interface from the Interfaces tab also removes it.
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next
DHCP Relay
DHCP provides configuration parameters to Internet hosts. A DHCP client that has not yet acquired an IP
address cannot communicate directly with a DHCP server outside its broadcast domain. To allow DHCP
clients to communicate with DHCP servers, you can configure DHCP relay instances to handle cases where
the client is not on the same broadcast domain as the server.
You can set up DHCP relay for each virtual router you configure. By default, this feature is disabled. You
can enable either DHCPv4 relay or DHCPv6 relay.
Note You cannot run a DHCPv6 Relay chain through two or more virtual routers running on the same device.
Setting Up DHCPv4 Relay


Admin
The following procedure explains how to set up DHCPv4 relay on a virtual router.
Procedure
Step 4 Next to the virtual router you want to modify, click the edit icon ( ).

1179
Step 5 Check the DHCPv4 check box.

Step 6 Under the Servers field, enter a server IP address.
Step 7 Click Add.
You can add up to four DHCP servers.
Step 8 In the Max Hops field, enter the maximum number of hops from 1 to 255.
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next


Admin
You cannot run a DHCPv6 Relay chain through two or more virtual routers running on the same device.
Procedure
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to set up DHCP relay, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 5 Check the DHCPv6 check box.
Step 6 In the Interfaces field, check the check boxes next to one or more interfaces that have been assigned to the
virtual router.
Tip You cannot disable an interface from the Interfaces tab while it is configured for DHCPv6 Relay.
You must first clear the DHCPv6 Relay interfaces check box and save the configuration.
Step 7 Next to a selected interface, click the drop-down icon and choose whether the interface relays DHCP requests
Upstream, Downstream, or Both.
Note You must include at least one downstream interface and one upstream interface. Choosing both
means that the interface is both downstream and upstream.
Step 8 In the Max Hops field, enter the maximum number of hops from 1 to 255

1180
Static Routes
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next
Static Routes
Static routing allows you to write rules about the IP addresses of traffic passing through a router. It is the
simplest way of configuring path selection of a virtual router because there is no communication with other
routers regarding the current topology of the network.
Do not configure routing to IP interfaces for DHCPv4 servers that the assigned virtual router cannot route
packets to. Doing so will render previously specified routable DHCP4 servers unroutable.
The Static Routes table includes summary information about each route, as described in the following table.
Table 80: Static Routes Table View Fields
Field Description
Enabled Specifies whether this route is currently enabled or

disabled.
Name The name of the static route.
Destination The destination network where traffic is routed.
Type Specifies the action that is taken for this route, which
will is one of the following:
• IP — designates that the route forwards packets
to the address of a neighboring router.
• Interface — designates that the route forwards
packets to an interface through which traffic is
routed to hosts on a directly connected network.
• Discard — designates that the static route drops
packets.
Gateway The target IP address if you selected IP as the static

route type or the interface if you selected Interface as
the static route type.
Preference Determines the route selection. If you have multiple

routes to the same destination, the system selects the
route with the higher preference.

1181
Viewing the Static Routes Table
Viewing the Static Routes Table

Any Control 7000 & 8000 Series Any Admin/Network

Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device you want to view, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to view static routes, click the edit icon ( ).
If a view icon ( ) appears instead, the configuration belongs to a descendant domain, or you do not have
Step 5 Click the Static tab.
Adding Static Routes


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to add the static route, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to add the static route, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 5 Click Static to display the static route options.
Step 6 Click Add Static Route.
Step 7 In the Route Name field, enter a name for the static route. You can use alphanumeric characters and spaces.
Step 8 For Enabled, check the check box to specify that the route is currently enabled.
Step 9 In the Preference field, enter a numerical value between 1 and 65535 to determine the route selection.

1182
Dynamic Routing
Note If you have multiple routes to the same destination, the system uses the route with the higher
preference.
Step 10 From the Type drop-down list, choose the type of static route you are configuring.
Step 11 In the Destination field, enter the IP address for the destination network where traffic should be routed.
Step 12 In the Gateway field, you have two options:
• If you chose IP as the selected static route type, choose an IP address.
• If you chose Interface as the selected static route type, choose an enabled interface from the drop-down
list.
Tip Interfaces you have disabled from the Interfaces tab are not available; disabling an interface
you have added removes it from the configuration.
Step 13 Click OK.

Step 14 Click Save.
What to do next
Dynamic Routing
Dynamic, or adaptive, routing uses a routing protocol to alter the path that a route takes in response to a change
in network conditions. The adaptation is intended to allow as many routes as possible to remain valid, that is,
have destinations that can be reached in response to the change. This allows the network to “route around”
damage, such as loss of a node or a connection between nodes, so long as other path choices are available.
You can configure a router with no dynamic routing, or you can configure the Routing Information Protocol
(RIP) or the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) routing protocol.
RIP Configuration
Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a dynamic routing protocol, designed for small IP networks, that relies
on hop count to determine routes. The best routes use the fewest number of hops. The maximum number of
hops allowed for RIP is 15. This hop limit also limits the size of the network that RIP can support.
Adding Interfaces for RIP Configuration


Admin
While configuring RIP, you must choose interfaces from those already included in the virtual router, where
you want to configure RIP. Disabled interfaces are not available.

1183
Configuring Authentication Settings for RIP Configuration
Procedure
Step 5 Click Dynamic Routing to display the dynamic routing options.
Step 6 Click RIP to display the RIP options.
Step 7 Under Interfaces, click the add icon ( ).

Step 8 From the Name drop-down list, choose the interface where you want to configure RIP.
Tip Interfaces you have disabled from the Interfaces tab are not available; disabling an interface you
have added removes it from the configuration.
Step 9 In the Metric field, enter a metric for the interface. When routes from different RIP instances are available
and all of them have the same preference, the route with the lowest metric becomes the preferred route.
Step 10 From the Mode drop-down list, choose one of the following options:
• Multicast — default mode where RIP multicasts the entire routing table to all adjacent routers at a
specified address.
• Broadcast — forces RIP to use broadcast (for example, RIPv1) even though multicast mode is possible.
• Quiet — RIP will not transmit any periodic messages to this interface.
• No Listen — RIP will send to this interface but not listen to it.
Step 11 Click Save.
What to do next
Configuring Authentication Settings for RIP Configuration


Admin
RIP authentication uses one of the authentication profiles you configured on the virtual router.

1184
Configuring Advanced Settings for RIP Configuration
Procedure
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to add the RIP authentication profile, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 7 Under Authentication, choose an existing virtual router authentication profile from the Profile drop-down
list, or choose None.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Configuring Advanced Settings for RIP Configuration


Admin
You can configure several advanced RIP settings pertaining to various timeout values and other features that
affect the behavior of the protocol.
Caution Changing any of the advanced RIP settings to incorrect values can prevent the router from communicating
successfully with other RIP routers.
Procedure

1185
Adding Import Filters for RIP Configuration
Step 7 In the Preference field, enter a numerical value (higher is better) for the preference of the routing protocol.
The system prefers routes learned through RIP over static routes.
Step 8 In the Period field, enter the interval, in seconds, between periodic updates. A lower number determines faster
convergence, but larger network load.
Step 9 In the Timeout Time field, enter a numerical value that specifies how old routes must be, in seconds, before
being considered unreachable.
Step 10 In the Garbage Time field, enter a numerical value that specifies how old routes must be, in seconds, before
being discarded.
Step 11 In the Infinity field, enter a numerical value that specifies a value for infinity distance in convergence
calculations. Larger values will make protocol convergence slower.
Step 12 From the Honor drop-down list, choose one of the following options to designate when requests for dumping
routing tables should be honored:
• Always — always honor requests
• Neighbor — only honor requests sent from a host on a directly connected network
• Never — never honor requests
Step 13 Click Save.
What to do next
Adding Import Filters for RIP Configuration


Admin
You can add an import filter to designate which routes are accepted or rejected from RIP into the route table.
Import filters are applied in the order they appear in the table.
When adding an import filter, you use one of the filters you configured on the virtual router.
Tip
To edit a RIP import filter, click the edit icon ( ). To delete a RIP import filter, click the delete icon ( ).
Before you begin

• Add a virtual router as described in Adding Virtual Routers, on page 1178.
• Configure a filter on the virtual router as described in Setting Up Virtual Router Filters, on page 1197.

1186
Adding Export Filters for RIP Configuration
Procedure
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to add the RIP virtual router filter, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 7 Under Import Filters, click the add icon ( ).

Step 8 From the Name drop-down list, choose the filter you want to add as an import filter.
Step 9 Next to Action, choose Accept or Reject.
Step 10 Click OK.
Tip
To change the order of the import filters, click the move up ( ) and move down ( ) icons as
needed. You can also drag the filters up or down in the list.
Step 11 Click Save.
What to do next
Adding Export Filters for RIP Configuration


Admin
You can add an export filter to define which routes will be accepted or rejected from the route table to RIP.
Export filters are applied in the order they appear in the table.
When adding an export filter, you use one of the filters you configured on the virtual router.
Procedure

1187
OSPF Configuration
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to add the RIP virtual router filter, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 7 Under Export Filters, click the add icon ( ).

Step 8 From the Name drop-down list, choose the filter you want to add as an export filter.
Step 10 Click OK.
Tip
To change the order of the export filters, click the move up ( ) and move down ( ) icons as
Step 11 Click Save.
What to do next
OSPF Configuration
Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is an adaptive routing protocol that defines routes dynamically by obtaining
information from other routers and advertising routes to other routers using link state advertisements. The
router keeps information about the links between it and the destination to make routing decisions. OSPF
assigns a cost to each routed interface, and considers the best routes to have the lowest costs.
OSPF Routing Areas

An OSPF network may be structured, or subdivided, into routing areas to simplify administration and optimize
traffic and resource use. Areas are identified by 32-bit numbers, expressed either simply in decimal or often
in octet-based dot-decimal notation.
By convention, area zero or 0.0.0.0 represents the core or backbone region of an OSPF network. You may
choose to identify other areas. Often, administrators select the IP address of a main router in an area as the
area's identification. Each additional area must have a direct or virtual connection to the backbone OSPF area.
Such connections are maintained by an interconnecting router, known as the area border router (ABR). An
ABR maintains separate link state databases for each area it serves and maintains summarized routes for all
areas in the network.
Adding OSPF Areas

Admin

1188
OSPF Area Interfaces
Procedure
Step 6 Click OSPF to display the OSPF options.
Step 7 Under Areas, click the add icon ( ).

Step 8 In the Area Id field, enter a numerical value for the area. This value can be either an integer or an IPv4 address.
Step 9 Optionally, check the Stubnet check box to designate that the area does not receive router advertisements
external to the autonomous system and routing from within the area is based entirely on a default route. If
you clear the check box, the area becomes a backbone area or otherwise non-stub area.
Step 10 In the Default cost field, enter a cost associated with the default route for the area.
Step 11 Under Stubnets, click the add icon ( ).

Step 12 In the IP Address field, enter an IP address in CIDR notation.
Step 13 Choose the Hidden check box to indicate that the stubnet is hidden.
Hidden stubnets are not propagated into other areas.
Step 14 Choose the Summary check box to designate that default stubnets that are subnetworks of this stubnet are
suppressed.
Step 15 In the Stub cost field, enter a value that defines the cost associated with routing to this stub network.
Step 16 Click OK.
Step 17 If you want to add a network, click the add icon ( ) under Networks.
Step 18 In the IP Address field, enter an IP address in CIDR notation for the network.
Step 19 Check the Hidden check box to indicate that the network is hidden. Hidden networks are not propagated into
other areas.
Step 20 Click OK.
Step 21 Click Save.
What to do next

You can configure a subset of the interfaces assigned to the virtual router for OSPF. The following list describes
the options you can specify on each interface.

1189
Interfaces
Select the interface where you want to configure OSPF. Interfaces you have disabled from the Interfaces tab
are not available.
Type
Select the type of OSPF interface from the following choices:
• Broadcast — On broadcast networks, flooding and hello messages are sent using multicasts, a single
packet for all the neighbors. The option designates a router to be responsible for synchronizing the link
state databases and originating network link state advertisements. This network type cannot be used on
physically non-broadcast multiple-access (NBMP) networks and on unnumbered networks without proper
IP prefixes.
• Point-to-Point (PtP) — Point-to-point networks connect just two routers together. No election is performed
and no network link state advertisement is originated, which makes it simpler and faster to establish.
This network type is useful not only for physically PtP interfaces, but also for broadcast networks used
as PtP links. This network type cannot be used on physically NBMP networks.
• Non-Broadcast — On NBMP networks, the packets are sent to each neighbor separately because of the
lack of multicast capabilities. Similar to broadcast networks, the option designates a router, which plays
a central role in the propagation of link state advertisements. This network type cannot be used on
unnumbered networks.
• Autodetect — The system determines the correct type based on the specified interface.
Cost
Specify the output cost of the interface.
Stub
Specify whether the interface should listen for OSPF traffic and transmit its own traffic.
Priority
Enter a numerical value that specifies the priority value used in designated router election. On every multiple
access network, the system designates a router and backup router. These routers have some special functions
in the flooding process. Higher priority increases preferences in this election. You cannot configure a router
with a priority of 0.
Nonbroadcast
Specify whether hello packets are sent to any undefined neighbors. This switch is ignored on any NBMA
network.
Authentication
Select the OSPF authentication profile that this interface uses from one of the authentication profiles you
configured on the virtual router or select None. For more information about configuring authentication profiles,
see Adding Virtual Router Authentication Profiles, on page 1198.

1190
Adding OSPF Area Interfaces
Hello Interval
Type the interval, in seconds, between the sending of hello messages.
Poll
Type the interval, in seconds, between the sending of hello messages for some neighbors on NBMA networks.
Retrans Interval
Type the interval, in seconds, between retransmissions of unacknowledged updates.
Retrans Delay
Type the estimated number of seconds it takes to transmit a link state update packet over the interface.
Wait Time
Type the number of seconds that the router waits between starting election and building adjacency.
Dead Interval
Type the number of seconds that the router waits before declaring a neighbor down when not receiving
messages from it. If this value is defined, it overrides the value calculated from dead count.
Dead Count
Type a numerical value that when multiplied by the hello interval specifies the number of seconds that the
router waits before declaring a neighbor down when not receiving messages from it.
To edit an OSPF area interface, click the edit icon ( ). To delete an OSPF area interface, click the delete
icon ( ). Disabling a configured interface from the Interfaces tab also deletes it.
Adding OSPF Area Interfaces

Any Control 7000 & 8000 Seriess Leaf only Admin/Network

Admin
You can configure a subset of the interfaces assigned to the virtual router for OSPF.
You can choose only one interface for use in an OSPF area.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to add the OSPF interface, click the edit icon ( ).

1191
Adding OSPF Area Vlinks
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to add the OSPF interface, click the edit icon ( ).

Step 8 Click Interfaces.
Step 9 Click the add icon ( ).

Step 10 Take any of the actions as described in OSPF Area Interfaces, on page 1189.
Step 11 If you want to add a network, click the add icon ( ) under Networks.
Step 12 In the IP address field, enter an IP address for the neighbor receiving hello messages on non-broadcast
networks from this interface.
Step 13 Check the Eligible check box to indicate that the neighbor is eligible to receive messages.
Step 14 Click OK.
Tip
To edit a neighbor, click the edit icon ( ). To delete a neighbor, click the delete icon ( ).
Step 15 Click OK.

Step 16 Click Save.
Step 17 Click Save.
What to do next
Adding OSPF Area Vlinks


Admin
All areas in an OSPF autonomous system must be physically connected to the backbone area. In some cases
where this physical connection is not possible, you can use a vlink to connect to the backbone through a
non-backbone area. Vlinks can also be used to connect two parts of a partitioned backbone through a
non-backbone area.
You must add a minimum of two OSPF areas before you can add a vlink.
Procedure

1192
Adding Import Filters for OSPF Configuration

Step 8 Click Vlinks.

Step 10 In the Router ID field, enter an IP address for the router.
Step 11 From the Authentication drop-down list, choose the authentication profile the vlink will use.
Step 12 In the Hello Interval field, enter the interval, in seconds, between sending of hello messages.
Step 13 In the Retrans Interval field, enter the interval, in seconds, between retransmissions of unacknowledged
updates.
Step 14 In the Wait Time field, enter the number of seconds that the router waits between starting election and building
adjacency.
Step 15 In the Dead Interval field, enter the number of seconds that the router waits before declaring a neighbor down
when not receiving messages from it. If this value is defined, it overrides the value calculated from dead count.
Step 16 In the Dead Count field, enter a numerical value that when multiplied by the hello interval, specifies the
number of seconds that the router waits before declaring a neighbor down when not receiving messages from
it.
Step 17 Click OK.
Step 18 Click Save.
Step 19 Click Save.
What to do next
Adding Import Filters for OSPF Configuration


Admin
You can add an import filter to define which routes are accepted or rejected from OSPF into the route table.
Import filters are applied in the order they appear in the table.
When adding an import filter, you use one of the filters you configured on the virtual router.
Procedure

1193
Adding Export Filters for OSPF Configuration
Step 3 Click Virtual Routers.
Step 7 Under Import Filters, click the add icon ( ).

Step 8 From the Name drop-down list, choose the filter you want to add as an import filter.
Step 10 Click OK.
Tip
To change the order of the import filters, click the move up ( ) and move down ( ) icons as
Step 11 Click Save.
What to do next
Adding Export Filters for OSPF Configuration


Admin
You can add an export filter to define which routes will be accepted or rejected from the route table to OSPF.
Export filters are applied in the order they appear in the table.
When adding an export filter, you use one of the filters you configured on the virtual router.
Procedure
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to add the OSPF virtual router filter, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 5 Click the Dynamic Routing tab to display the dynamic routing options.
Step 7 Under Export Filters, click the add icon ( ).

1194
Virtual Router Filters
Step 8 From the Name drop-down list, choose the filter you want to add as an export filter.
Step 10 Click OK.
Tip
To change the order of the export filters, click the move up ( ) and move down ( ) icons as
Step 11 Click Save.
What to do next
Virtual Router Filters

Filters provide a way to match routes for importing into the virtual router’s route table and for exporting routes
to dynamic protocols. You can create and manage a list of filters. Each filter defines specific criteria to look
for in routes that are defined statically or received from a dynamic protocol.
The Virtual Routers Filters table includes summary information about each filter you have configured on a
virtual router, as described in the following table.
Table 81: Virtual Router Filters Table View Fields
Field Description
Name The name of the filter.
Protocol The protocol that the route originates from:

• Static — The route originates as a local static
route.
• RIP — The route originates from a dynamic RIP
configuration.
• OSPF — The route originates from a dynamic
OSPF configuration.
From Router The router IP addresses that this filter attempts to

match in a router. You must enter this value for static
and RIP filters.
Next Hop The next hop where packets using this route are
forwarded. You must enter this value for static and
RIP filters.

1195
Viewing Virtual Router Filters
Field Description
Destination Type The type of destination where packets are sent:

• Router
• Device
• Discard
Destination Network The networks that this filter attempts to match in a

route.
OSPF Path Type Applies only to OSPF protocol. The path type can be
one of the following:
• Ext-1
• Ext-2
• Inter Area
• Intra Area
OSPF Router ID Applies only to OSPF protocol. The router ID of the

router advertising that route/network.
Viewing Virtual Router Filters


Admin
The Filter tab of the virtual router editor displays a table listing of all the filters you have configured on a
virtual router. The table includes summary information about each filter.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device you want to view, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to view the filters, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 5 Click the Filter tab.

1196
Setting Up Virtual Router Filters
Setting Up Virtual Router Filters


Admin
Procedure
Step 5 Click the Filter tab.
Step 6 Click Add Filter.
Step 7 In the Name field, enter a name for the filter. You can use alphanumeric characters only.
Step 8 Under Protocol, choose All or choose the protocol that applies to the filter.
Step 9 If you chose All, Static, or RIP as the Protocol, under From Router, enter the router IP addresses that this
filter will attempt to match in a route.
Note You can also enter a /32 CIDR block for IPv4 addresses and a /128 prefix length for IPv6 addresses.
All other address blocks are invalid for this field.
Step 10 Click Add.

Step 11 If you chose All, Static, or RIP as the Protocol, under Next Hop, enter the IP addresses for the gateways that
this filter will attempt to match in a route.
Note You can also enter a /32 CIDR block for IPv4 addresses and a /128 prefix length for IPv6 addresses.
All other address blocks are invalid for this field.
Step 12 Click Add.

Step 13 Under Destination Type, choose the options that apply to the filter.
Step 14 Under Destination Network, enter the IP address of the network that this filter will attempt to match in a
route.
Step 15 Click Add.
Step 16 If you chose All or OSPF as the Protocol, under Path Type, choose the options that apply to the filter. You
must choose at least one path type.
Step 17 If you chose OSPF as the Protocol, under Router ID, enter the IP address that serves as the router ID of the
router advertising the route/network.
Step 18 Click Add.
Step 19 Click OK.

1197
Adding Virtual Router Authentication Profiles
Step 20 Click Save.
What to do next
Adding Virtual Router Authentication Profiles


Admin
You can set up Authentication Profiles for use in RIP and OSPF configurations. You can configure a simple
password or specify a shared cryptographic key. Simple passwords allow for every packet to carry eight bytes
of the password. The system ignores received packets lacking this password. Cryptographic keys allow for
validation, a 16-byte long digest generated from a password to be appended to every packet.
Note that for OSPF, each area can have a different authentication method. Therefore, you create authentication
profiles that can be shared among many areas. You cannot add authentication for OSPFv3.
Procedure
Step 5 Click Authentication Profile.
Step 6 Click Add Authentication Profile.
Step 7 In the Authentication Profile Name field, enter a name for the authentication profile.
Step 8 From the Authentication Type drop down list, choose simple or cryptographic.
Step 9 In the Password field, enter a secure password.
Step 10 In the Confirm Password field, enter the password again to confirm it.
Step 11 Click OK.
Step 12 Click Save.
What to do next

1198
Viewing Virtual Router Statistics
Viewing Virtual Router Statistics


Admin
You can view runtime statistics for each virtual router. The statistics display unicast packets, packets dropped,
and separate routing tables for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to view statistics, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 4 Next to the virtual router where you want to view the router statistics, click the view icon ( ).
Deleting Virtual Routers


Admin
When you delete a virtual router, any routed interfaces assigned to the router become available for inclusion
in another router.
Procedure
Step 4 Next to the virtual router that you want to delete, click the delete icon ( ).
Step 5 When prompted, confirm that you want to delete the virtual router.

1199
Deleting Virtual Routers
What to do next

1200
CHAPTER 57
Aggregate Interfaces and LACP
The following topics explain aggregate interface configuration and how LACP functions on managed devices:
• About Aggregate Interfaces, on page 1201
• LAG Configuration, on page 1202
• Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), on page 1206
• Adding Aggregate Switched Interfaces, on page 1207
• Adding Aggregate Routed Interfaces, on page 1209
• Adding Logical Aggregate Interfaces, on page 1212
• Viewing Aggregate Interface Statistics, on page 1213
• Deleting Aggregate Interfaces, on page 1213
About Aggregate Interfaces

In the Firepower System, you can group multiple physical Ethernet interfaces into a single logical link on
managed devices configured in either a Layer 2 deployment that provides packet switching between networks,
or a Layer 3 deployment that routes traffic between interfaces. This single aggregate logical link provides
higher bandwidth, redundancy, and load-balancing between two endpoints.
You create aggregate links by creating a switched or routed link aggregation group, or LAG. When you create
an aggregation group, a logical interface called an aggregate interface is created. To an upper layer entity a
LAG looks like a single logical link and data traffic is transmitted through the aggregate interface. The
aggregate link provides increased bandwidth by adding the bandwidth of multiple links together. It also
provides redundancy by load-balancing traffic across all available links. If one link fails, the system
automatically load-balances traffic across all remaining links.
The endpoints in a LAG can be two 7000 or 8000 Series devices, as shown in the illustration above, or a 7000
or 8000 Series device connected to a third-party access switch or router. The two devices do not have to match,
but they must have the same physical configuration and they must support the IEEE 802.ad link aggregation
standard. A typical deployment for a LAG might be to aggregate access links between two managed devices,
or to create a point-to-point connection between a managed device and an access switch or a router.
Note that you cannot configure aggregate interfaces on NGIPSv devices or ASA FirePOWER modules.

1201
LAG Configuration
LAG Configuration
There are two types of aggregate interfaces:
• switched — Layer 2 aggregate interfaces
• routed — Layer 3 aggregate interfaces
You implement link aggregation through the use of link aggregation groups (LAGs). You configure a LAG
by creating an aggregate switched or routed interface and then associating a set of physical interfaces with
the link. All of the physical interfaces must be of the same speed and medium.
You create aggregate links either dynamically or statically. Dynamic link aggregation uses Link Aggregation
Control Protocol (LACP), a component of the IEEE 802.ad link aggregation standard, while static link
aggregation does not. LACP enables each device on either end of the LAG to exchange link and system
information to determine which links will be actively used in the aggregation. A static LAG configuration
requires you to manually maintain link aggregations and deploy load-balancing and link selection policies.
When you create a switched or routed aggregate interface, a link aggregation group of the same type is created
and numbered automatically. For example, when you create your first LAG (switched or routed), the aggregate
interface can be identified by the lag0 label in the Interfaces tab for your managed device. When you associate
physical and logical interfaces with this LAG, they appear nested below the primary LAG in a hierarchical
tree menu. Note that a switched LAG can only contain switched physical interfaces, and a routed LAG can
only contain routed physical interfaces.
Consider the following requirements when you configure a LAG:
• The Firepower System supports a maximum of 14 LAGs, and assigns a unique ID to each LAG interface
in the range of 0 to 13. The LAG ID is not configurable.
• You must configure the LAG on both sides of the link, and you must set the interfaces on either side of
the link to the same speed.
• You must associate at least two physical interfaces per LAG, up to a maximum of eight. A physical
interface cannot belong to more than one LAG.
• Physical interfaces in a LAG cannot be used in any other mode of operation, either as inline or passive,
or be used as part of another logical interface for tagged traffic.
• Physical interfaces in a LAG can span multiple NetMods, but cannot span multiple sensors (i.e. all
physical interfaces must reside on the same device).
• A LAG cannot contain a stacking NetMod.
Aggregate Switched Interfaces

You can combine between two and eight physical ports on a managed device to create a switched LAG
interface. You must assign a switched LAG interface to a virtual switch before it can handle traffic. A managed
device can support up to 14 LAG interfaces.

1202
Aggregate Routed Interfaces
Related Topics
Aggregate Routed Interfaces

You can combine between two and eight physical ports on a7000 or 8000 Series device to create a routed
LAG interface. You must assign a routed LAG interface to a virtual router before it can route traffic. A
managed device can support up to 14 LAG interfaces.
You can add static Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) entries to a routed LAG interface. If an external host
needs to know the MAC address of the destination IP address it needs to send traffic to on your local network,
it sends an ARP request. When you configure static ARP entries, the virtual router responds with an IP address
and associated MAC address.
Disabling the ICMP Enable Responses option for routed LAG interfaces does not prevent ICMP responses
in all scenarios. You can still use access control rules to handle connections where the destination IP is the
routed interface’s IP and the protocol is ICMP; see Port and ICMP Code Conditions, on page 336.
If you enable the Inspect Local Router Traffic option, the system blocks packets before they reach the host,
thereby preventing any response. For more information about inspecting local router traffic, see Advanced
Device Settings, on page 201.
Related Topics
Logical Aggregate Interfaces

For each switched or routed aggregate interface, you can add multiple logical interfaces. You must associate
each logical LAG interface with a VLAN tag to handle traffic received by the LAG interface with that specific
tag. You add logical interfaces to switched or routed aggregate interfaces in the same way you would add
them to physical switched or routed interfaces.

1203
Load-Balancing Algorithms
Note When you create a LAG interface you also create an “untagged” logical interface by default, which is identified
by the lagn.0 label, where n is an integer from 0 to 13. To be operational, each LAG requires this one logical
interface at a minimum. You can associate additional logical interfaces with any LAG to handle VLAN-tagged
traffic. Each additional logical interface requires a unique VLAN tag. The Firepower System supports VLAN
tags in the range of 1 through 4094.
You can also configure the Cisco Redundancy Protocol (SFRP) on a logical routed interface. SFRP allows
devices to act as redundant gateways for specified IP addresses.
Note that disabling the ICMP Enable Responses option for logical routed interfaces does not prevent ICMP
responses in all scenarios. You can add network-based rules to an access control policy to drop packets where
the destination IP is the routed interface’s IP and the protocol is ICMP.
If you have enabled the Inspect Local Router Traffic option, which is an advanced setting on the managed
device, it drops the packets before they reach the host, thereby preventing any response.
Related Topics
SFRP
Load-Balancing Algorithms
You assign an egress load-balancing algorithm to the LAG that determines how to distribute traffic to the
LAG bundle’s member links. The load-balancing algorithm makes hashing decisions based on values in
various packet fields, such as Layer 2 MAC addresses, Layer 3 IP addresses, and Layer 4 port numbers
(TCP/UDP traffic). The load-balancing algorithm you select applies to all of the LAG bundle’s member links.
Choose the load-balancing algorithm that supports your deployment scenario from the following options when
you configure a LAG:
• Destination IP
• Destination MAC
• Destination Port
• Source IP
• Source MAC

1204
Link Selection Policies
• Source Port
• Source and Destination IP
• Source and Destination MAC
• Source and Destination Port
Note You should configure both ends of the LAG to have the same load-balancing
algorithm. Higher layer algorithms will back off to lower layer algorithms as
necessary (such as a Layer 4 algorithm backing off to Layer 3 for ICMP traffic).
Link Selection Policies

Link aggregation requires the speed and medium of each link to be the same at both endpoints. Because link
properties can change dynamically, the link selection policy helps determine how the system manages the
link selection process. A link selection policy that maximizes the highest port count supports link redundancy,
while a link selection policy that maximizes total bandwidth supports overall link speed. A stable link selection
policy attempts to minimize excessive changes in link states.
Note You should configure both ends of the LAG to have the same link selection policy.
Choose the link selection policy that supports your deployment scenario from the following options:
• Highest Port Count — Choose this option for the highest total active port count to provide added
redundancy.
• Highest Total Bandwidth — Choose this option to provide the highest total bandwidth for the aggregated
link.
• Stable — Choose this option if your primary concern is link stability and reliability. Once you configure
a LAG, the active links change only when absolutely necessary (such as link failure) rather than doing
so for added port count or bandwidth.
• LACP Priority — Choose this option to use the LACP algorithm to determine which links are active in
the LAG. This setting is appropriate if you have undefined deployment goals, or if the device at the other
end of the LAG is not managed by the Firepower Management Center.
LACP is a key aspect of automating the link selection method that supports dynamic link aggregation. When
LACP is enabled, a link selection policy based on LACP priority uses the following properties of LACP:
LACP system priority
You configure this value on each partnered device running LACP to determine which one is superior in
link aggregation. The system with the lower value has the higher system priority. In dynamic link
aggregation, the system with the higher LACP system priority sets the selected state of member links on
its side first, then the system with the lower priority sets its member links accordingly. You can specify
0 to 65535. If you do not specify a value, the default priority is 32768.

1205
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
LACP link priority

You configure this value on each link belonging to the aggregation group. The link priority determines
the active and standby links in the LAG. Links with lower values have higher priority. If an active link
goes down, the standby link with the highest priority is selected to replace the downed link. However,
if two or more links have the same LACP link priority, the link with the lowest physical port number is
selected as the standby link. You can specify 0 to 65535. If you do not specify a value, the default priority
is 32768.
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)

Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), a component of IEEE 802.3ad, is a method of exchanging system
and port information to create and maintain LAG bundles. When you enable LACP, each device on either
end of the LAG uses LACP to determine which links will be actively used in the aggregation. LACP provides
availability and redundancy by exchanging LACP packets (or control messages) between links. It learns the
capabilities of the links dynamically and informs the other links. Once LACP identifies correctly matched
links, it facilitates grouping the links into the LAG. If a link fails, traffic continues on the remaining links.
LACP must be enabled at both ends of the LAG for the link to be operational.
LACP
When you enable LACP, you need to specify a transmission mode for each end of the LAG that determines
how LACP packets are exchanged between partnered devices. There are two options for LACP mode:
• Active — Choose this mode to place a device into an active negotiating state, in which the device initiates
negotiations with remote links by sending LACP packets.
• Passive — Choose this mode to place a device into a passive negotiating state, in which the device
responds to LACP packets it receives but does not initiate LACP negotiation.
Note Both modes allow LACP to negotiate between links to determine if they can form
a link bundle based on criteria such as port speed. However, you should avoid a
passive-passive configuration, which essentially places both ends of the LAG in
listening mode.
LACP has a timer which defines how often LACP packets are sent between devices. LACP exchanges packets
at these rates:
• Slow — 30 seconds
• Fast — 1 second
The device where this option is applied expects to receive LACP packets with this frequency from the partner
device on the other side of the LAG.

1206
Adding Aggregate Switched Interfaces
Note When a LAG is configured on a managed device that is part of a device stack, only the primary device
participates in LACP communication with the partner system. All secondary devices forward LACP messages
to the primary device. The primary device relays any dynamic LAG modifications to the secondary devices.


Admin
You can combine between two and eight physical ports on a managed device to create a switched LAG
interface. You must assign a switched LAG interface to a virtual switch before it can handle traffic. A managed
device can support up to 14 LAG interfaces.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device where you want to configure the switched LAG interface.
Step 3 Choose Add Aggregate Interface from the Add drop-down menu.
Step 4 Click Switched to display the switched LAG interface options.
page 383.
Step 6 Specify a virtual switch:

Step 7 Check the Enabled check box to allow the switched LAG interface to handle traffic.
Step 8 From the Mode, choose an option to designate the link mode, or choose Autonegotiation to specify that the
interface is configured to auto negotiate speed and duplex settings.
Interfaces on 8000 Series appliances do not support half-duplex options. When links auto negotiate speed, all
active links are selected for the LAG based on the same speed setting.

1207

The range within which you can set the MTU can vary depending on the Firepower System device model and
interface type. See MTU Ranges for 7000 and 8000 Series Devices and NGIPSv, on page 484 for more
information.
Step 11 Under Link Aggregation, choose one or more physical interfaces from Available Interfaces to add to the
LAG bundle.
Tip To remove physical interfaces from the LAG bundle, choose one or more physical interfaces and
click the remove selected icon ( ). To remove all physical interfaces from the LAG bundle, click
the remove all icon ( ). Deleting the LAG interface from the Interfaces tab also removes the
interfaces.
Step 12 Choose an option from the Load-Balancing Algorithm drop-down list.

Step 13 Choose a Link Selection Policy from the drop-down list.
Tip Choose LACP Priority if you are configuring an aggregate interface between a Firepower System
device and a third-party network device.
Step 14 If you chose LACP Priority as the Link Selection Policy, assign a value for System Priority and click the
Configure Interface Priority link to assign a priority value for each interface in the LAG.
Step 15 Choose either Inner or Outer from the Tunnel Level drop-down list.
Note The tunnel level only applies to IPv4 traffic when Layer 3 load balancing is configured. The outer
tunnel is always used for Layer 2 and IPv6 traffic. If the Tunnel Level is not explicitly set, the
default is Outer.
Step 16 Under LACP, check the Enabled check box to allow the switched LAG interface to handle traffic using the
Link Aggregation Control Protocol.
If you clear the check box, the LAG interface becomes a static configuration and the Firepower System will
use all of the physical interfaces selected for the aggregation.
Step 17 Click a Rate radio button to set the frequency that determines how often LACP control messages are received
from the partner device:
• Click Slow to receive packets every 30 seconds.
• Click Fast to receive packets every 1 second.
Step 18 Click a Mode radio button to establish the listening mode of the device:
• Click Active to initiate negotiations with remote links by sending LACP packets to the partner device.
• Click Passive to respond to LACP packets received.
Step 19 Click Save.

1208
Adding Aggregate Routed Interfaces
What to do next
Related Topics


Admin
You can combine between two and eight physical ports on a managed device to create a routed LAG interface.
You must assign a routed LAG interface to a virtual router before it can route traffic. A managed device can
support up to 14 LAG interfaces.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the device where you want to configure the routed LAG interface.
Step 3 Choose Add Aggregate Interface from the Add drop-down menu.
Step 4 Click Routed to display the routed LAG interface options.
page 383.
Step 6 Specify a virtual router:

Step 7 Check the Enabled check box to allow the routed LAG interface to handle traffic.

1209
specify that the LAG interface is configured to auto negotiate speed and duplex settings.
Interfaces on 8000 Series appliances do not support half-duplex options. When links auto negotiate speed, all
active links are selected for the LAG based on the same speed setting.
Step 9 Choose an option from the MDI/MDIX drop-down list to designate whether the interface is configured for

more information.
Step 11 If you want to allow the LAG interface to respond to ICMP traffic such as pings and traceroute, check the
Enable Responses check box next to ICMP.
Step 12 If you want to enable the LAG interface to broadcast router advertisements, check the Enable Router
Advertisement check box next to IPv6 NDP.
Step 13 Click Add to add an IP address.
Step 14 In the Address field, enter the routed LAG interface’s IP address and subnet mask using CIDR notation.
Note the following:
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF.
Step 15 If your organization uses IPv6 addresses and you want to set the IP address of the LAG interface automatically,
check the Address Autoconfiguration check box next to the IPv6 field.
Step 17 If you chose SFRP for Type, set options as described in SFRP.
Step 18 Click OK.
Note When adding an IP address to a routed interface of a 7000 or 8000 Series device in a high-availability
pair, you must add a corresponding IP address to the routed interface on the high-availability peer.
Step 19 Click Add to add a static ARP entry.

Step 20 Enter an IP address the IP Address field.
Step 21 Enter a MAC address to associate with the IP address in the MAC Address field. Use the standard format
(for example, 01:23:45:67:89:AB).

1210
Step 22 Click OK.

Step 23 Under Link Aggregation, choose one or more physical interfaces from Available Interfaces to add to the
LAG bundle.
Tip To remove physical interfaces from the LAG bundle, choose one or more physical interfaces and
click the remove selected icon ( ). To remove all physical interfaces from the LAG bundle, click
the remove all icon ( ). Deleting the LAG interface from the Interfaces tab also removes the
interfaces.
Step 24 Choose a Load-Balancing Algorithm from the drop-down list.

Step 25 Choose a Link Selection Policy from the drop-down list.
Tip Choose LACP Priority if you are configuring an aggregate interface between a Firepower System
device and a third-party network device.
Step 26 If you chose LACP Priority as the Link Selection Policy, assign a value for System Priority and click the
Configure Interface Priority link to assign a priority value for each interface in the LAG.
Step 27 Choose either Inner or Outer from the Tunnel Level drop-down list.
Note The tunnel level only applies to IPv4 traffic when Layer 3 load balancing is configured. The outer
tunnel is always used for Layer 2 and IPv6 traffic. If the Tunnel Level is not explicitly set, the
default is Outer.
Step 28 Under LACP, check the Enabled check box to allow the routed LAG interface to handle traffic using the
Link Aggregation Control Protocol.
If you clear the check box, the LAG interface becomes a static configuration and the Firepower System will
use all of the physical interfaces for the aggregation.
Step 29 Click a Rate radio button to set the frequency that determines how often LACP control messages are received
from the partner device.
• Click Slow to receive packets every 30 seconds.
• Click Fast to receive packets every 1 second.
Step 30 Click a Mode radio button to establish the listening mode of the device.
• Click Active to initiate negotiations with remote links by sending LACP packets to the partner device.
• Click Passive to respond to LACP packets received.
Step 31 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics

1211
Adding Logical Aggregate Interfaces
Adding Logical Aggregate Interfaces


Admin
For each switched or routed aggregate interface, you can add multiple logical interfaces. You must associate
each logical LAG interface with a VLAN tag to handle traffic received by the LAG interface with that specific
tag. You add logical interfaces to switched or routed aggregate interfaces in the same way you would add
them to physical switched or routed interfaces.
Note When you create a LAG interface you also create an “untagged” logical interface by default, which is identified
by the lagn.0 label, where n is an integer from 0 to 13. To be operational, each LAG requires this one logical
interface at a minimum. You can associate additional logical interfaces with any LAG to handle VLAN-tagged
traffic. Each additional logical interface requires a unique VLAN tag. The Firepower System supports VLAN
tags in the range of 1 through 4094.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to add the logical LAG interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 From the Add drop-down menu, choose Add Logical Interface.
Step 4 Click Switched to display the switched interface options, or click Routed to display the routed interface
options.
Step 5 Choose an available LAG from the Interface drop-down list. The aggregate interface is identified by the lagn
label, where n is an integer from 0 to 13.
Step 6 Configure the remaining settings appropriate to the interface type you chose:
• Switched — See Adding Logical Switched Interfaces, on page 1162 for more information on adding a
logical interface to a switched interface.
• Routed — See Adding Logical Routed Interfaces, on page 1173 for more information on adding a logical
interface to a routed interface.

1212
Viewing Aggregate Interface Statistics
Related Topics
SFRP
Viewing Aggregate Interface Statistics


Admin
You can view protocol and traffic statistics for each aggregate interface. The statistics show LACP protocol
information such as LACP key and partner information, packets received, packets transmitter, and packets
dropped. Statistics are further refined per member interface to show traffic and link information on a per-port
basis.
Aggregate interface information is also presented to the dashboard via predefined dashboard widgets. The
Current Interface Status widget shows the status of all interfaces on the appliance, enabled or unused. The
Interface Traffic widget shows the rate of traffic received (Rx) and transmitted (Tx) on the appliance’s interfaces
over the dashboard time range. See Predefined Dashboard Widgets, on page 222.
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to view the logical aggregate interface statistics, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Next to the interface where you want to view the interface statistics, click the view icon ( ).
Deleting Aggregate Interfaces


Admin
The aggregate interface can be identified by the lagn label, where n can be an integer from 0 to 13.
Procedure

1213
Deleting Aggregate Interfaces
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to delete the aggregate interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Next to the aggregate interface you want to delete, click the delete icon ( ).
Step 4 When prompted, confirm that you want to delete the aggregate interface.
What to do next

1214
CHAPTER 58
Hybrid Interfaces
The following topics describe how to configure local hybrid interfaces:
• About Hybrid Interfaces, on page 1215
• Logical Hybrid Interfaces, on page 1215
• Adding Logical Hybrid Interfaces, on page 1216
• Deleting Logical Hybrid Interfaces, on page 1218
About Hybrid Interfaces

You can configure logical hybrid interfaces on managed devices that allow the Firepower System to bridge
traffic between virtual routers and virtual switches. If IP traffic received on interfaces in a virtual switch is
addressed to the MAC address of an associated hybrid logical interface, the system handles it as Layer 3 traffic
and either routes or responds to the traffic depending on the destination IP address. If the system receives any
other traffic, it handles it as Layer 2 traffic and switches it appropriately. You cannot configure logical hybrid
interfaces on an NGIPSv device.
Note that hybrid interfaces that are not associated with both a virtual switch and a virtual router are not available
for routing, and do not generate or respond to traffic.
Logical Hybrid Interfaces

You must associate a logical hybrid interface with a virtual router and virtual switch to bridge traffic between
Layer 2 and Layer 3. You can only associate a single hybrid interface with a virtual switch. However, you
can associate multiple hybrid interfaces with a virtual router.
You can also configure the Cisco Redundancy Protocol (SFRP) on a logical hybrid interface. SFRP allows
devices to act as redundant gateways for specified IP addresses.
Note that disabling the ICMP Enable Responses option for hybrid interfaces does not prevent ICMP responses
in all scenarios. You can add network-based rules to an access control policy to drop packets where the
destination IP is the hybrid interface’s IP and the protocol is ICMP.
If you have enabled the Inspect Local Router Traffic option on the managed device, it drops the packets
before they reach the host, thereby preventing any response.

1215
Adding Logical Hybrid Interfaces
Related Topics
Configuring SFRP, on page 1176


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to add the hybrid interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 From the Add drop-down menu, choose Add Logical Interface.
Step 4 Click Hybrid to display the hybrid interface options.
Step 5 In the Name field, enter a name for the interface.
Step 6 From the Virtual Router drop-down list, choose an existing virtual router, choose None, or choose New to
add a new virtual router.
Note If you add a new virtual router, you must configure it on the Device Management page after you
finish setting up the hybrid interface. See Adding Virtual Routers, on page 1178.
Step 7 From the Virtual Switch drop-down list, choose an existing virtual switch, choose None, or choose New to
add a new virtual switch.

1216
Note If you add a new virtual switch, you must configure it on the Device Management page after you
finish setting up the hybrid interface. See Adding Virtual Switches, on page 1165.
Step 8 Check the Enabled check box to allow the hybrid interface to handle traffic.
Note If you clear the check box, the interface becomes disabled and administratively taken down.
more information.
Step 10 Next to ICMP, check the Enable Responses check box to allow the interface to respond to ICMP traffic such
as pings and traceroute.
router advertisements. You can only enable this option if you added IPv6 addresses.
Step 13 In the Address field, enter the IP address and subnet mask. Note the following:
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF.
Step 14 Optionally if you have IPv6 addresses, next to the IPv6 field, check the Address Autoconfiguration check
box to set the IP address of the interface automatically.
Step 16 If you chose SFRP for Type, set options as described in SFRP.
Step 17 Click OK.
Step 18 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics

1217
Deleting Logical Hybrid Interfaces
Deleting Logical Hybrid Interfaces


Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Next to the device where you want to delete the logical hybrid interface, click the edit icon ( ).
Step 3 Next to the logical hybrid interface you want to delete, click the delete icon ( ).
What to do next

1218
CHAPTER 59
Gateway VPNs
The following topics describe how to manage your VPN deployment:
• Gateway VPN Basics, on page 1219
• VPN Deployments, on page 1220
• VPN Deployment Management, on page 1222
• VPN Deployment Status, on page 1233
• VPN Statistics and Logs, on page 1234
Gateway VPN Basics

A virtual private network (VPN) is a network connection that establishes a secure tunnel between endpoints
via a public source, such as the internet or other network. You can configure the Firepower System to build
secure VPN tunnels between the virtual routers of Firepower managed devices. The system builds tunnels
using the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocol suite.
After the VPN connection is established, the hosts behind the local gateway can connect to the hosts behind
the remote gateway through the secure VPN tunnel. A connection consists of the IP addresses and host names
of the two gateways, the subnets behind them, and the shared secrets for the two gateways to authenticate to
each other.
The VPN endpoints authenticate to each other with either the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) version 1 or
version 2 protocol to create a security association for the tunnel. The system uses either the IPsec authentication
header (AH) protocol or the IPsec encapsulating security payload (ESP) protocol to authenticate the data
entering the tunnel. The ESP protocol encrypts the data as well as providing the same functionality as AH.
If you have access control policies in your deployment, the system does not send VPN traffic until it has
passed through access control. In addition, the system does not send tunnel traffic to the public source when
the tunnel is down.
To configure and deploy VPN for Firepower, you must have a VPN license enabled on each of your target
managed devices. Additionally, VPN features are only available on 7000 and 8000 Series devices.
IPsec
The IPsec protocol suite defines how IP packets across a VPN tunnel are hashed, encrypted, and encapsulated
in the ESP or AH security protocol. The Firepower System uses the hash algorithm and encryption key of the
Security Association (SA), which becomes established between the two gateways by the Internet Key Exchange
(IKE) protocol.

1219
IKE
Security associations (SA) establish shared security attributes between two devices and allow VPN endpoints
to support secure communication. An SA allows two VPN endpoints to handle the parameters for how the
VPN tunnel is secured between them.
The system uses the Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol (ISAKMP) during the initial
phase of negotiating the IPsec connection to establish the VPN between endpoints and the authenticated key
exchange. The IKE protocol resides within ISAKMP.
The AH security protocol provides protection for packet headers and data, but it cannot encrypt them. ESP
provides encryption and protection for packets, but it cannot secure the outermost IP header. In many cases,
this protection is not required, and most VPN deployments use ESP more frequently than AH because of its
encryption capabilities. Since VPN only operates in tunnel mode, the system encrypts and authenticates the
entire packet from Layer 3 and up in the ESP protocol. ESP in tunnel mode encrypts the data as well as
providing the latter’s encryption capabilities.
IKE
The Firepower System uses the IKE protocol to mutually authenticate the two gateways against each other
as well as to negotiate the SA for the tunnel. The process consists of two phases.
IKE phase 1 establishes a secure authenticated communication channel by using the Diffie-Hellman key
exchange to generate a pre-shared key to encrypt further IKE communications. This negotiation results in a
bidirectional ISAKMP security association. The system allows you to perform the authentication using a
pre-shared key. Phase 1 operates in main mode, which seeks to protect all data during the negotiation, while
also protecting the identity of the peers.
During IKE phase 2, the IKE peers use the secure channel established in phase 1 to negotiate security
associations on behalf of IPsec. The negotiation results in a minimum of two unidirectional security associations,
one inbound and one outbound.
VPN Deployments
A VPN deployment specifies the endpoints and networks that are included in a VPN and how they connect
to each other. After you configure a VPN deployment on the Firepower Management Center, you can then
deploy it to your managed devices or devices managed by another Firepower Management Center.
The system supports three types of VPN deployments: point-to-point, star, and mesh.
Point-to-Point VPN Deployments

In a point-to-point VPN deployment, two endpoints communicate directly with each other. You configure the
two endpoints as peer devices, and either device can start the secured connection. Each of the devices in this
configuration must be a VPN-enabled managed device.
The following diagram displays a typical point-to-point VPN deployment.

1220
Star VPN Deployments
Star VPN Deployments

In a star VPN deployment, a central endpoint (hub node) establishes a secure connection with multiple remote
endpoints (leaf nodes). Each connection between the hub node and an individual leaf node is a separate VPN
tunnel. The hosts behind any of the leaf nodes can communicate with each other through the hub node.
Star deployments commonly represent a VPN that connects an organization’s main and branch office locations
using secure connections over the Internet or other third-party network. Star VPN deployments provide all
employees with controlled access to the organization’s network.
In a typical star deployment, the hub node is located at the main office. Leaf nodes are located at branch offices
and start most of the traffic. Each of the nodes must be a VPN-enabled managed device.
Star deployments only support IKE version 2.
The following diagram displays a typical star VPN deployment.

1221
Mesh VPN Deployments
Mesh VPN Deployments

In a mesh VPN deployment, all endpoints can communicate with every other endpoint by an individual VPN
tunnel. The mesh deployment offers redundancy so that when one endpoint fails, the remaining endpoints can
still communicate with each other. This type of deployment commonly represents a VPN that connects a group
of decentralized branch office locations. The number of VPN-enabled managed devices you deploy in this
configuration depends on the level of redundancy you require. Each of the endpoints must be a VPN-enabled
managed device.
The following diagram displays a typical mesh VPN deployment.
VPN Deployment Management

On the VPN page (Devices > VPN > Site to Site), you can view all of your current VPN deployments by
name and the endpoints contained in the deployment. Options on this page allow you to view the status of a
VPN deployment, create a new deployment, deploy to managed devices, and edit or delete a deployment.
Note that when you register a device to a Firepower Management Center, deployed VPN deployments sync
to the Firepower Management Center during registration.
Related Topics
Managing VPN Deployments, on page 1228

1222
VPN Deployment Options
VPN Deployment Options

When you create a new VPN deployment you must, at minimum, give it a unique name, specify a deployment
type, and designate a preshared key. You can select from three types of deployment, each containing a group
of VPN tunnels:
• Point-to-point (PTP) deployments establish a VPN tunnel between two endpoints.
• Star deployments establish a group of VPN tunnels connecting a hub endpoint to a group of leaf endpoints.
• Mesh deployments establish a group of VPN tunnels among a set of endpoints.
Only Cisco managed devices can be used as endpoints in VPN deployments. Third-party endpoints are not
supported.
You must define a pre-shared key for VPN authentication. You can specify a default key to use in all of the
VPN connections you generate in a deployment. For point-to-point deployments, you can specify a preshared
key for each endpoint pair.
In a multidomain deployment, you can configure a VPN deployment across domains; that is, you can assign
endpoints to devices that belong to different domains. In such cases, you can view but not modify the ancestor
deployment in the related descendant domains. When you drill down for deployment details, the system
displays information for devices that belong to the current domain only.
Point-to-Point VPN Deployment Options

When configuring a point-to-point VPN deployment, you define a group of endpoint pairs and then create a
VPN between the two nodes in each pair.
The following list describes the options you can specify in your deployment.
Name
Specify a unique name for the deployment.
Type
Click PTP to specify that you are configuring a point-to-point deployment.
Pre-shared Key
Define a unique pre-shared key for authentication. The system uses this key for all the VPNs in your
deployment, unless you specify a pre-shared key for each endpoint pair.
Device
You can choose a managed device, including a device stack or device high-availability pair, as an endpoint
for your deployment. For Cisco-managed devices not managed by the Firepower Management Center
you are using, choose Other and then specify an IP address for the endpoint.
Virtual Router
If you chose a managed device as your endpoint, choose a virtual router that is currently applied to the
selected device. You cannot choose the same virtual router for more than one endpoint.
Interface
If you chose a managed device as your endpoint, choose a routed interface that is assigned to the virtual
router you specified.

1223
Star VPN Deployment Options
IP Address
• If you chose a managed device as an endpoint, choose an IP address that is assigned to the specified
routed interface.
• If the managed device is a device high-availability pair, you can choose only from a list of SFRP
IP addresses.
• If you choose a managed device not managed by the Firepower Management Center, specify an IP
address for the endpoint.
Protected Networks
Specify the networks in your deployment that are encrypted. Enter a subnet with CIDR block for each
network. IKE version 1 only supports a single protected network.
Note that VPN endpoints cannot have the same IP address and that protected networks in a VPN endpoint
pair cannot overlap. If a list of protected networks for an endpoint contains one or more IPv4 or IPv6
entry, the other endpoint's protected network must have at least one entry of the same type (i.e., IPv4 or
IPv6). If it does not, then the other endpoint's IP address must be of the same type and must not overlap
with the entries in the protected network. (Use /32 CIDR address blocks for IPv4 and /128 CIDR address
blocks for IPv6). If both of these checks fail, the endpoint pair is invalid.
Internal IP
Check the check box if the endpoint resides behind a firewall with network address translation.
Public IP
If you checked the Internal IP check box, specify a public IP address for the firewall. If the endpoint is
a responder, you must specify this value.
Public IKE Port
If you checked the Internal IP check box, specify a single numerical value from 1 to 65535 for the UDP
port on the firewall that is being port-forwarded to the internal endpoint. If the endpoint is a responder
and the port on the firewall being forwarded is not 500 or 4500, you must specify this value.
Use Deployment Key
Check the check box to use the pre-shared key defined for the deployment. Clear the check box to specify
a pre-shared key for VPN authentication for this endpoint pair.
Pre-shared Key
If you cleared the Use Deployment Key check box, specify a pre-shared key in this field.
Related Topics
Configuring Point-to-Point VPN Deployments, on page 1229

When configuring a star VPN deployment, you define a single hub node endpoint and a group of leaf node
endpoints. You must define the hub node endpoint and at least one leaf node endpoint to configure the
deployment.
Name

1224
Type
Click Star to specify that you are configuring a star deployment.
Pre-shared Key
Define a unique pre-shared key for authentication.
Device
Virtual Router
selected device. You cannot choose the same virtual router for more than one endpoint.
Interface
If you chose a managed device as your endpoint, choose a routed interface that is assigned to the selected
virtual router.
IP Address
• If you chose a managed device as an endpoint, choose an IP address that is assigned to the specified
routed interface.
IP addresses.
• If you chose a managed device not managed by the Firepower Management Center, specify an IP
Protected Networks
network.
Internal IP
Public IP
Public IKE Port

1225
Mesh VPN Deployment Options
Related Topics
Configuring Star VPN Deployments, on page 1229
Mesh VPN Deployment Options

When configuring a mesh VPN deployment, you define a group of VPNs to link any two points for a given
set of endpoints.
Name
Type
Click Mesh to specify that you are configuring a mesh deployment.
Pre-shared Key
Define a unique pre-shared key for authentication.
Device
Virtual Router
specified device. You cannot choose the same virtual router for more than one endpoint.
Interface
If you chose a managed device as your endpoint, choose a routed interface that is assigned to the specified
virtual router.
IP Address
• If you chose a managed device as an endpoint, choose an IP address that is assigned to the selected
routed interface.
IP addresses.
• If you chose a managed device not managed by the Firepower Management Center, specify an IP
Protected Networks
network. IKE version 1 only supports a single protected network.

1226
Advanced VPN Deployment Options
Internal IP
Public IP
Public IKE Port
Related Topics
Configuring Mesh VPN Deployments, on page 1230
Advanced VPN Deployment Options

VPN deployments contain some common settings that can be shared among the VPNs in a deployment. Each
VPN can use the default settings or you can override the default settings. Advanced settings typically require
little or no modification and are not common to every deployment.
The following list describes the advanced options you can specify in your deployment.
Other Algorithm Allowed
Check the check box to enable auto negotiation to an algorithm not listed in the Algorithm list, but
proposed by the remote peer.
Algorithm
Specify the phase one and phase two algorithm proposals to secure data in your deployment. Choose
Cipher, Hash, and Diffie-Hellman (DH) group authentication messages for both phases.
IKE Life Time
Specify a numerical value and choose a time unit for the maximum IKE SA renegotiation interval. You
can specify a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 30 days.
IKE v2
Check the check box to specify that the system uses IKE version 2. This version supports the star
deployment and multiple protected networks.
Life Time
Specify a numerical value and select a time unit for the maximum SA renegotiation interval. You can
specify a minimum of 5 minutes and a maximum of 24 hours.
Life Packets
Specify the number of packets that can be transmitted over an IPsec SA before it expires. You can use
any integer between 0 and 18446744073709551615.
Life Bytes
Specify the number of bytes that can be transmitted over an IPsec SA before it expires. You can use any
integer between 0 and 18446744073709551615.

1227
Managing VPN Deployments
AH
Check the check box to specify that the system uses the authentication header security protocol for the
data to be protected. Clear the check box to use encryption service payload (ESP) protocol.
Related Topics
Configuring Advanced VPN Deployment Settings, on page 1231
Managing VPN Deployments

N/A VPN 7000 & 8000 Series Any Admin/Network

Admin
Caution Adding or removing a VPN on a 7000 or 8000 Series device restarts the Snort process when you deploy
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Devices > VPN > Site to Site.

Step 2 Manage your VPN deployments:
• Add — To create a new VPN deployment, click Add VPN > Firepower Device, and continue as follows
depending on deployment type:
• Configuring Mesh VPN Deployments, on page 1230
• Configuring Point-to-Point VPN Deployments, on page 1229
• Configuring Star VPN Deployments, on page 1229
• Edit — To modify the settings in an existing VPN deployment, click the edit icon ( ); see Editing VPN
Deployments, on page 1232.
• Delete — To delete a VPN deployment, click the delete icon ( ).

• View VPN status — To view the status of an existing VPN deployment, click the status icon; see Viewing
VPN Status, on page 1233.
Related Topics

1228
Configuring Point-to-Point VPN Deployments
Configuring Point-to-Point VPN Deployments


Admin
Before you begin

If you are using managed devices as endpoints, create a virtual router and apply it to the appropriate device.
Note You cannot use the same virtual router for more than one endpoint. For more information, see Setting Up
Virtual Routers, on page 1169
Procedure

Step 2 Click Add VPN > Firepower Device.
Step 4 Verify that PTP is chosen as the Type.
Step 5 Enter a unique Pre-shared Key.
Step 6 Next to Node Pairs, click the add icon ( ).

Step 7 Configure the VPN deployment options described in Point-to-Point VPN Deployment Options, on page 1223.
Step 8 Under Node A, next to Protected Networks, click the add icon ( ).
Step 9 Enter a CIDR block for the protected network.
Step 10 Click OK.
Step 11 Repeat step 8 through step 10 for Node B.
Step 12 Click Save.
The endpoint pair is added to your deployment.
Step 13 Click Save to finish configuring your deployment.
What to do next
Configuring Star VPN Deployments


Admin

1229
Configuring Mesh VPN Deployments
Before you begin

Procedure

Step 4 Click Star to specify the Type.
Step 6 Next to Hub Node, click the edit icon ( ).

Step 7 Configure the VPN deployment options described in Star VPN Deployment Options, on page 1224.
Step 8 Next to Protected Networks, click the add icon ( ).

Step 9 Enter an IP address for the protected network.
Step 10 Click OK.
Step 11 Click Save. The hub node is added to your deployment.
Step 12 Next to Leaf Nodes, click the add icon ( ).

Step 13 Repeat step 7 through step 10 to complete the leaf node, which has the same options as the hub node.
Step 14 Click Save.
The leaf node is added to your deployment.
Step 15 Click Save to finish configuring your deployment.
What to do next
Configuring Mesh VPN Deployments


Admin
Before you begin


1230
Configuring Advanced VPN Deployment Settings
Procedure

Step 4 Click Mesh to specify the Type.
Step 6 Next to Nodes, click the add icon ( ).

Step 7 Configure the VPN deployment options described in Mesh VPN Deployment Options, on page 1226.
Step 8 Next to Protected Networks, click the add icon ( ).

Step 9 Enter a CIDR block for the protected network.
Step 10 Click OK.
The protected network is added.
Step 11 Click Save.
The endpoint is added to your deployment.
Step 12 Repeat step 6 through step 11 to add more endpoints.
Step 13 Click Save to complete your deployment.
What to do next
Configuring Advanced VPN Deployment Settings


Admin
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays VPN deployments created in the current domain, which
you can edit. It also displays VPN deployments created in ancestor domains if one of the endpoint devices
belongs to your domain. You cannot edit VPN deployments created in ancestor domains. To view and edit
VPN deployments created in a lower domain, switch to that domain.
Procedure

1231
Editing VPN Deployments
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ).

Step 4 Configure the advanced settings, as described in Advanced VPN Deployment Options, on page 1227.
Step 5 Next to Algorithms, click the add icon ( ).

Step 6 Chose Cipher, Hash, and Diffie-Hellman (DH) group authentication messages for both phases.
Step 7 Click OK.
Step 8 Click Save.
What to do next
Editing VPN Deployments
Caution Two users should not edit the same deployment simultaneously; however, note that the web interface does
not prevent simultaneous editing.
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays VPN deployments created in the current domain, which
you can edit. It also displays VPN deployments created in ancestor domains if one of the endpoint devices
belongs to your domain. You cannot edit VPN deployments created in ancestor domains. To view and edit
VPN deployments created in a lower domain, switch to that domain.
Procedure
Step 3 Modify the desired settings:

• Advanced settings; see Configuring Advanced VPN Deployment Settings, on page 1231.
• Mesh deployment settings; see Configuring Mesh VPN Deployments, on page 1230.
• Point-to-point deployment settings; see Configuring Point-to-Point VPN Deployments, on page 1229.
• Star deployment settings; see Configuring Star VPN Deployments, on page 1229.

1232
VPN Deployment Status
Tip You cannot edit the deployment type after you initially save the deployment. To change the
deployment type, you must delete the deployment and create a new one.
What to do next
VPN Deployment Status

After you configure a VPN deployment, you can view the status of your configured VPN tunnels. The VPN
page displays a status icon for each VPN deployment once it has been deployed:
• The ( ) icon designates that all VPN endpoints are up.
• The ( ) icon designates that all VPN endpoints are down.
• The ( ) icon designates that some endpoints are up, while others are down.
You can click a status icon to view the deployment status along with basic information about the endpoints
in the deployment, such as endpoint name and IP address. The VPN status updates every minute or when a
status change occurs, such as an endpoint going down or coming up.
Related Topics
Viewing VPN Status, on page 1233
Viewing VPN Status


Admin
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays VPN deployments created in the current domain. It also
displays VPN deployments created in ancestor domains if one of the endpoint devices belongs to your domain.
To view VPN deployments created in a lower domain, switch to that domain.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the VPN status icon next to the deployment where you want to view the status.
Step 3 Click OK.

1233
VPN Statistics and Logs
VPN Statistics and Logs

After you configure a VPN deployment, you can view statistics about the data traversing your configured
VPN tunnels. In addition, you can view the latest VPN system and IKE logs for each endpoint.
The system displays the following statistics:
Endpoint
The device path to the routed interface and IP address designated as the VPN endpoint.
Status
Whether the VPN connection is up or down.
Protocol
The protocol used for encryption, either ESP or AH.
Packets Received
The number of packets per interface the VPN tunnel receives during an IPsec SA negotiation.
Packets Forwarded
The number of packets per interface the VPN tunnel transmits during an IPsec SA negotiation.
Bytes Received
The number of bytes per interface the VPN tunnel receives during an IPsec SA negotiation.
Bytes Forwarded
The number of bytes per interface the VPN tunnel transmits during an IPsec SA negotiation.
Time Created
The date and time the VPN connection was created.
Time Last Used
The last time a user initiated a VPN connection.
NAT Traversal
If "Yes" is displayed, at least one of the VPN endpoints resides behind a device with network address
translation.
IKE State
The state of the IKE SA: connecting, established, deleting, or destroying.
IKE Event
The IKE SA event: reauthentication or rekeying.
IKE Event Time
The time in seconds the next event should occur.
IKE Algorithm
The IKE algorithm being used by the VPN deployment.

1234
Viewing VPN Statistics and Logs
IPsec State
The state of the IPsec SA: installing, installed, updating, rekeying, deleting, and destroying.
IPsec Event
Notification of when the IPsec SA event is rekeying.
IPsec Event Time
The time in seconds until the next event should occur.
IPsec Algorithm
IPsec algorithm being used by the VPN deployment.
Related Topics
Viewing VPN Statistics and Logs, on page 1235


Admin
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays VPN deployments created in the current domain. It also
displays VPN deployments created in ancestor domains if one of the endpoint devices belongs to your domain.
To view VPN deployments created in a lower domain, switch to that domain.
Procedure

Step 2 Click the VPN status icon next to the deployment for which you want to view statistics.
Step 3 Click the view statistics icon ( ).

Step 4 Optionally, click Refresh to update the VPN statistics.
Step 5 Optionally, click View Recent Log to view the latest data log for each endpoint. To view the log for 7000 or
8000 Series devices in high-availability pairs and stacked devices, you can click the link for either the
active/primary or backup/secondary device.

1235

1236
PA R T XV
Access Control
• Getting Started with Access Control Policies, on page 1239
• Access Control Rules, on page 1257
• Access Control Using Intrusion and File Policies, on page 1271
• URL Filtering, on page 1279
• HTTP Response Pages and Interactive Blocking, on page 1291
• Security Intelligence Blacklisting, on page 1295
• DNS Policies, on page 1301
• Prefiltering and Prefilter Policies, on page 1313
• Intelligent Application Bypass, on page 1325
• Access Control Using Content Restriction, on page 1333
CHAPTER 60
Getting Started with Access Control Policies
The following topics describe how to start using access control policies:
• Introduction to Access Control, on page 1239
• Managing Access Control Policies, on page 1244
• Creating a Basic Access Control Policy, on page 1245
• Editing an Access Control Policy, on page 1246
• Managing Access Control Policy Inheritance, on page 1248
• Setting Target Devices for an Access Control Policy, on page 1251
• Access Control Policy Advanced Settings, on page 1252
Introduction to Access Control

Access control is a hierarchical policy-based feature that allows you to specify, inspect, and log
(non-fast-pathed) network traffic. Especially useful in multidomain deployments, you can nest access control
policies, where each policy inherits the rules and settings from an ancestor (or base) policy. You can enforce
this inheritance, or allow lower-level policies to override their ancestors. Each managed device can be targeted
by one access control policy.
The data that the policy’s target devices collect about your network traffic can be used to filter and control
that traffic based on:
• simple, easily determined transport and network layer characteristics: source and destination, port,
protocol, and so on
• the latest contextual information on the traffic, including characteristics such as reputation, risk, business
relevance, application used, or URL visited
• realm, user, user group, or ISE attribute
• custom Security Group Tag (SGT)
• characteristics of encrypted traffic; you can also decrypt this traffic for further analysis
• whether unencrypted or decrypted traffic contains a prohibited file, detected malware, or intrusion attempt
Each type of traffic inspection and control occurs where it makes the most sense for maximum flexibility and
performance. For example, reputation-based blacklisting uses simple source and destination data, so it can
block prohibited traffic early in the process. In contrast, detecting and blocking intrusions and exploits is a
last-line defense.

1239
Access Control
Access Control Policy Components
Although you can configure the system without licensing your deployment, many features require that you
enable the appropriate licenses before you deploy. Also, some features are only available on certain device
models. Warning icons and confirmation dialog boxes designate unsupported features.
Note For the system to affect traffic, you must deploy relevant configurations to managed devices using routed,
switched, or transparent interfaces, or inline interface pairs. Sometimes, the system prevents you from deploying
inline configurations to passively deployed devices, including inline devices in tap mode. In other cases, the
policy may deploy successfully, but attempting to block or alter traffic using passively deployed devices can
have unexpected results. For example, the system may report multiple beginning-of-connection events for
each blocked connection, because blocked connections are not blocked in passive deployments.
Access Control Policy Components

A newly created access control policy directs its target devices to handle all traffic using its default action.
In the following graphic, the default action uses the Balanced Security and Connectivity intrusion policy to
inspect traffic before allowing it to its final destination.
The following list describes the configurations you can change after you create a simple policy.
Note You can only edit access control policies that were created in the current domain. Also, you cannot edit settings
that are locked by an ancestor access control policy.

Each access control policy must have a unique name. A description is optional.
Inheritance Settings
Policy inheritance allows you to create a hierarchy of access control policies. A parent (or base) policy
defines and enforces default settings for its descendants, which is especially useful in multidomain
deployments.

1240
Access Control
Access Control Policy Default Action
A policy's inheritance settings allow you to select its base policy. You can also lock settings in the current
policy to force any descendants to inherit them. Descendant policies can override unlocked settings.
Policy Assignment
Each access control policy identifies the devices that use it. Each device can be targeted by only one
access control policy. In a multidomain deployment, you can require that all the devices in a domain use
the same base policy.
Rules
Access control rules provide a granular method of handling network traffic. Rules in an access control
policy are numbered, starting at 1, including rules inherited from ancestor policies. The system matches
traffic to access control rules in top-down order by ascending rule number.
Usually, the system handles network traffic according to the first access control rule where all the rule’s
conditions match the traffic. Conditions can be simple or complex, and their use often depends on certain
licenses.
Default Action
The default action determines how the system handles and logs traffic that is not handled by any other
access control configuration. The default action can block or trust all traffic without further inspection,
or inspect traffic for intrusions and discovery data.
Although an access control policy can inherit its default action from an ancestor policy, you cannot
enforce this inheritance.
Security Intelligence
Security Intelligence is a first line of defense against malicious internet content. This feature allows you
to blacklist (block) connections based on the latest IP address, URL, and domain name reputation
intelligence. To ensure continual access to vital resources, you can override blacklists with custom
whitelists.
HTTP Responses
When the system blocks a user’s website request, you can either display a generic system-provided
response page, or a custom page. You can also display a page that warns users, but also allows them to
continue to the originally requested site.
Advanced Access Control Options
Advanced access control policy settings typically require little or no modification. Often, the default
settings are appropriate. Advanced settings you can modify include traffic preprocessing, SSL inspection,
identity, and various performance options.
Related Topics
Rule Management: Common Characteristics, on page 325

In a simple access control policy, the default action specifies how target devices handle all traffic. In a more
complex policy, the default action handles traffic that:
• is not trusted by Intelligent Application Bypass
• is not blacklisted by Security Intelligence

1241
Access Control
• is not blocked by SSL inspection (encrypted traffic only)

• matches none of the rules in the policy (except Monitor rules, which match and log—but do not handle
or inspect—traffic)
The access control policy default action can block or trust traffic without further inspection, or inspect traffic
for intrusions and discovery data.
Note You cannot perform file or malware inspection on traffic handled by the default action. Logging for connections
handled by the default action is initially disabled, though you can enable it.
If you are using policy inheritance, the default action for the lowest-level descendant determines final traffic
handling. Although an access control policy can inherit its default action from its base policy, you cannot
enforce this inheritance.
The following table describes the types of inspection you can perform on traffic handled by each default
action.
Table 82: Access Control Policy Default Actions
Default Action Effect on Traffic Inspection Type and Policy
Access Control: Block All Traffic block without further inspection none
Access Control: Trust All Traffic trust (allow to its final destination none
without further inspection)
Intrusion Prevention allow, as long as it is passed by the intrusion, using the specified
intrusion policy you specify intrusion policy and associated
variable set, and
discovery, using the network
discovery policy
Network Discovery Only allow discovery only, using the network

discovery policy
Inherit from base policy defined in base policy defined in base policy
The following diagram illustrates the table.
The following diagrams illustrate the Block All Traffic and Trust All Traffic default actions.

1242
Access Control
Access Control Policy Inheritance
The following diagrams illustrate the Intrusion Prevention and Network Discovery Only default actions.
Tip The purpose of Network Discovery Only is to improve performance in a discovery-only deployment. Different
configurations can disable discovery if you are only interested in intrusion detection and prevention.
Related Topics
Performance Considerations for Limited Deployments, on page 322
Logging Connections with a Policy Default Action, on page 2331
Access Control Policy Inheritance

Access control uses a hierarchical policy-based implementation that complements multitenancy. Just as you
create a domain hierarchy, you can create a corresponding hierarchy of access control policies. A descendant,
or child, access control policy inherits rules and settings from its direct parent, or base, policy. That base
policy may have its own parent policy from which it inherits rules and settings, and so on.
An access control policy’s rules are nested between its parent policy’s Mandatory and Default rule sections.
This implementation enforces Mandatory rules from ancestor policies, but allows the current policy to write
rules that preempt Default rules from ancestor policies.
You can lock the following settings to enforce them in all descendant policies. Descendant policies can override
unlocked settings.
• Security Intelligence — Blacklisting and whitelisting connections based on the latest IP address, URL,
and domain name reputation intelligence.

1243
Access Control
Managing Access Control Policies
• HTTP Response pages — Displaying a custom or system-provided response page when you block a
user's website request.
• Advanced settings — Specifying associated subpolicies, network analysis settings, performance settings,
and other general options.
Although an access control policy can inherit its default action from an ancestor policy, you cannot enforce
this inheritance.
Policy Inheritance and Multitenancy

In a typical multidomain deployment, access control policy hierarchy corresponds to domain structure, and
you apply the lowest-level access control policy to managed devices. This implementation allows selective
access control enforcement at a higher domain level, while lower-level domain administrators can tailor
deployment-specific settings. (You must use roles, not policy inheritance and enforcement alone, to restrict
administrators in descendant domains.)
For example, as a Global domain administrator for your organization, you can create an access control policy
at the Global level. You can then require that all your devices, which are divided into subdomain by function,
use that Global-level policy as a base policy.
When subdomain administrators log into the Firepower Management Center to configure access control, they
can deploy the Global-level policy as-is. Or, they can create and deploy a descendant access control policy
within the boundaries of the Global-level policy.
Note Although the most useful implementation of access control inheritance and enforcement complements
multitenancy, you can create a hierarchy of access control policies within a single domain. You can also assign
and deploy access control policies at any level.
Related Topics
Managing Access Control Policy Inheritance, on page 1248
Security Intelligence Blacklisting, on page 1295
HTTP Response Pages and Interactive Blocking, on page 1291
Access Control Policy Advanced Settings, on page 1252
Managing Access Control Policies


Access Admin
Network Admin
The Firepower System allows you to edit system-provided access control policies and create custom access
control policies. Depending on your devices' initial configurations, system-provided policies can include:
• Default Access Control—Blocks all traffic without further inspection.
• Default Intrusion Prevention—Allows all traffic, but also inspects with the Balanced Security and
Connectivity intrusion policy and default intrusion variable set.

1244
Access Control
Creating a Basic Access Control Policy
• Default Network Discovery—Allows all traffic while inspecting it for discovery data but not intrusions
or exploits.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Policies > Access Control .

Step 2 Manage access control policies:
• Copy—Click the copy icon ( )..

• Create—Click New Policy; see Creating a Basic Access Control Policy, on page 1245.
• Delete—Click the delete icon ( ).

• Edit—Click the edit icon ( ); see Editing an Access Control Policy, on page 1246
• Inheritance—Click the plus icon ( ) next to a policy with desdendants to expand your view of the
policy's hierarchy.
• Import/Export—Click Import/Export; see Configuration Import and Export, on page 143.
Related Topics
Out-of-Date Policies, on page 321
Creating a Basic Access Control Policy


Admin/Network
Admin
When you create a new access control policy, you must, at minimum, choose a default action.
In most cases, logging of connections handled by a default action is initially disabled. An exception occurs
if you create a subpolicy in a multidomain deployment. In that case, the system enables connection logging
according to the logging configuration of the inherited default action.

1245
Access Control
Editing an Access Control Policy
Procedure

Step 3 Enter a unique Name and, optionally, a Description.
Step 4 Optionally, choose a base policy from the Select Base Policy drop-down list.
If an access control policy is enforced on your domain, this step is not optional. You must choose the enforced
policy or one of its descendants as the base policy.
Step 5 Specify the initial Default Action:

• If you chose a base policy, your new policy inherits its default action. You cannot change it here.
• Block all traffic creates a policy with the Access Control: Block All Traffic default action.
• Intrusion Prevention creates a policy with the Intrusion Prevention: Balanced Security and
Connectivity default action, associated with the default intrusion variable set.
• Network Discovery creates a policy with the Network Discovery Only default action.
Tip If you want to trust all traffic by default, or if you chose a base policy and do not want to inherit
the default action, you can change the default action later.
Step 6 Optionally, choose the Available Devices where you want to deploy the policy, then click Add to Policy (or
drag and drop) to add the selected devices. To narrow the devices that appear, type a search string in the
Search field.
If you want to deploy this policy immediately, you must perform this step.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
• Optionally, further configure the new policy as described in Editing an Access Control Policy, on page
1246.
Related Topics
Access Control Policy Default Action, on page 1241
Setting Target Devices for an Access Control Policy, on page 1251


Admin/Network Admin

1246
Access Control
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the access control policy you want to edit.
Step 3 Edit your access control policy:

• Name and Description—Click either field and enter new information.
• Default Action—Choose a value from the Default Action drop-down list.
• Default Action Variable Set—To change the variable set associated with an Intrusion Prevention default
action, click the variables icon ( ). In the popup window that appears, select a new variable set and
click OK. You can also click the edit icon ( ) to edit the selected variable set in a new window. For
more information, see Managing Variables, on page 398.
• Default Action Logging—To configure logging for connections handled by the default action, click the
logging icon ( ); see Logging Connections with a Policy Default Action, on page 2331.
• HTTP Responses—To specify what the user sees in a browser when the system blocks a website request,
click the HTTP Responses tab; see Choosing HTTP Response Pages, on page 1292.
• Inheritance: Change Base Policy—To change the base access control policy for this policy, click
Inheritance Settings; see Choosing a Base Access Control Policy, on page 1249.
• Inheritance: Lock Settings in Descendants—To enforce this policy's settings in its descendant policies,
click Inheritance Settings; see Locking Settings in Descendant Access Control Policies, on page 1250.
• Policy Assignment: Targets—To identify the managed devices targeted by this policy, click Policy
Assignment; see Setting Target Devices for an Access Control Policy, on page 1251.
• Policy Assignment: Required in Domains—To enforce this policy in a subdomain, click Policy
Assignment; see Requiring an Access Control Policy in a Domain, on page 1250.
• Rules—To manage access control rules, and to inspect and block malicious traffic using intrusion and
file policies, click the Rules tab; see Creating and Editing Access Control Rules, on page 1264.
• Rule Conflicts—To show rule conflict warnings, enable Show rule conflicts. Rule conflicts occur when
a rule will never match traffic because an earlier rule always matches the traffic first. Because determining
rule conflicts is resource intensive, displaying them may take some time. For more information, see
Guidelines for Ordering Rules, on page 357.
• Security Intelligence—To immediately blacklist (block) connections based on the latest reputation
intelligence, click the Security Intelligence tab; see Configure Security Intelligence, on page 1297.
• Advanced Options—To set preprocessing, SSL inspection, identity, performance, and other advanced
options, click the Advanced tab; see Access Control Policy Advanced Settings, on page 1252.

1247
Access Control
Managing Access Control Policy Inheritance
• Warnings—To view a list of warnings or errors in your access control policy (and its descendant and
associated policies), click Show Warnings. Warnings and errors mark configurations that could adversely
affect traffic analysis and flow or prevent the policy from deploying. If there are no warnings, the button
does not appear. To view rule conflict warnings, first enable Show rule conflicts.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Rule and Other Policy Warnings, on page 355
About Deep Inspection, on page 1271
Managing Access Control Policy Inheritance


Admin/Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Edit the access control policy whose inheritance settings you want to change; see Editing an Access Control
Step 2 Manage policy inheritance:
• Change Base Policy — To change the base access control policy for this policy, click Inheritance
Settings and proceed as described in Choosing a Base Access Control Policy, on page 1249.
• Lock Settings in Descendants — To enforce this policy's settings in its descendant policies, click
Inheritance Settings and proceed as described in Locking Settings in Descendant Access Control Policies,
on page 1250 .
• Required in Domains — To enforce this policy in a subdomain, click Policy Assignment and proceed
as described in Requiring an Access Control Policy in a Domain, on page 1250.
• Inherit Settings from Base Policy — To inherit settings from a base access control policy, click the
Security Intelligence, HTTP Responses, or Advanced tab and proceed as directed in Inheriting Access
Control Policy Settings from the Base Policy, on page 1249.
What to do next

1248
Access Control
Choosing a Base Access Control Policy
Choosing a Base Access Control Policy


Admin/Network Admin
You can use one access control policy as the base (parent) for another. By default, a child policy inherits its
settings from its base policy, though you can change unlocked settings.
When you change the base policy for the current access control policy, the system updates the current policy
with any locked settings from the new base policy.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click Inheritance Settings.

Step 2 Choose a policy from the Select Base Policy drop-down list.
In a multidomain deployment, an access control policy may be required in the current domain. You can choose
only the enforced policy or one of its descendants as the base policy.
Step 3 Click Save.
What to do next
Inheriting Access Control Policy Settings from the Base Policy


Admin/Network Admin
A new child policy inherits many settings from its base policy. If these settings are unlocked in the base policy,
you can override them.
If you later reinherit the settings from the base policy, the system displays the base policy's settings and dims
the controls. However, the system saves the overrides you made, and restores them if you disable inheritance
again.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click the Security Intelligence, HTTP Responses, or Advanced tab.
Step 2 Check the Inherit from base policy check box for each setting you want to inherit.
If the controls are dimmed, settings are inherited from an ancestor policy, or you do not have permission to
modify the configuration.

1249
Access Control
Locking Settings in Descendant Access Control Policies
Step 3 Click Save.
What to do next
Locking Settings in Descendant Access Control Policies


Admin/Network Admin
Lock a setting in an access control policy to enforce the setting in all descendant policies. Descendant policies
can override unlocked settings.
When you lock settings, the system saves overrides already made in descendant polices so that the overrides
can be restored if you unlock settings again.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click Inheritance Settings.

Step 2 In the Child Policy Inheritance Settings area, check the settings you want to lock.
modify the configuration.
Step 3 Click OK to save the inheritance settings.

Step 4 Click Save to save the access control policy.
What to do next
Requiring an Access Control Policy in a Domain


Admin/Network Admin
You can require that every device in a domain use the same base access control policy or one of its descendant
policies.

1250
Access Control
Setting Target Devices for an Access Control Policy
Before you begin

• Configure at least one domain other than the Global domain.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click Policy Assignments.

Step 2 Click the Required on Domains tab.
Step 3 Build your domain list:
• Add — Select the domains where you want to enforce the current access control policy, then click Add
or drag and drop into the list of selected domains.
• Delete — Click the delete icon ( ) next to a leaf domain, or right-click an ancestor domain and choose
Delete Selected.
• Search — Type a search string in the search field. Click the clear icon ( ) to clear the search.
Step 4 Click OK to save the domain enforcement settings.

What to do next
Setting Target Devices for an Access Control Policy


Admin/Network
Admin
An access control policy specifies the devices that use it. Each device can be targeted by only one access
control policy. In multidomain deployments, you can require that all the devices in a domain use the same
base policy.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click Policy Assignments.

Step 2 On the Targeted Devices tab, build your target list:
• Add — Select one or more Available Devices, then click Add to Policy or drag and drop into the list
of Selected Devices.
• Delete — Click the delete icon ( ) next to a single device, or select multiple devices, right-click, then
choose Delete Selected.

1251
Access Control
• Search — Type a search string in the search field. Click the clear icon ( ) to clear the search.
Under Impacted Devices, the system lists the devices whose assigned access control policies are children of
the current policy. Any change to the current policy affects these devices.
Step 3 Optionally, click the Required on Domains tab to require that all the devices in the subdomains you choose
use the same base policy. See Requiring an Access Control Policy in a Domain, on page 1250.
Step 4 Click OK to save your targeted device settings.
What to do next

Advanced access control policy settings typically require little or no modification. The default settings are
appropriate for most deployments. Note that many of the advanced preprocessing and performance options
in access control policies may be modified by rule updates as described in Update Intrusion Rules, on page
122.
If a view icon ( ) appears instead, settings are inherited from an ancestor policy, or you do not have permission
to modify the settings. If the configuration is unlocked, uncheck Inherit from base policy to enable editing.
Caution See Configurations that Restart the Snort Process When Deployed or Activated, on page 316 for a list of
advanced setting modifications that restart the Snort process, temporarily interrupting traffic inspection.
device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on page 314 for more information.
General Settings
To customize the number of characters you store for each URL requested by your users, see Limiting Logging
of Long URLs, on page 2332.
To customize the length of time before you re-block a website after a user bypasses an initial block, see Setting
the User Bypass Timeout for a Blocked Website, on page 1294.
Disable Retry URL cache miss lookup to allow the system to immediately pass traffic to a URL without a
cloud lookup when the category is not cached. The system treats URLs that require a cloud lookup as
Uncategorized until the cloud lookup completes with a different category. In passive deployments, the system
does not retry the lookup, as it cannot hold packets.
Disable Enable Threat Intelligence Director to stop publishing TID data to your configured devices. For
more information about TID, see Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page 1493.
To inspect traffic when you deploy configuration changes unless specific configurations require restarting
the Snort process, ensure that Inspect traffic during policy apply is set to its default value (enabled). When
this option is enabled, resource demands could result in a small number of packets dropping without inspection.

1252
Access Control
device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Scenarios, on page 313 for more information.
Associated Policies
Use advanced settings to associate subpolicies (SSL, identity, prefilter) with access control; see Associating
Other Policies with Access Control, on page 1254.
Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies

Advanced network analysis and intrusion policy settings allow you to:
• Change the access control policy’s default intrusion policy and associated variable set, which are used
to initially inspect traffic before the system can determine exactly how to inspect that traffic.
• Change the access control policy’s default network analysis policy, which governs many preprocessing
options.
• Use custom network analysis rules and network analysis policies to tailor preprocessing options to specific
security zones, networks, and VLANs.
For more information, see Advanced Access Control Settings for Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies,
on page 1759.
File and Malware Settings

File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage Tuning, on page 1487 provides information on performance
options for file control and AMP for Networks.
Intelligent Application Bypass Settings

Intelligent Application Bypass (IAB) is an expert-level configuration that specifies applications to bypass or
test for bypass if traffic exceeds a combination of inspection performance and flow thresholds. For more
information, see Intelligent Application Bypass, on page 1325.
Transport/Network Layer Preprocessor Settings

Advanced transport and network preprocessor settings apply globally to all networks, zones, and VLANs
where you deploy your access control policy. You configure these advanced settings in an access control
policy rather than in a network analysis policy. For more information, see Advanced Transport/Network
Preprocessor Settings, on page 1843.
Detection Enhancement Settings

Advanced detection enhancement settings allow you to configure adaptive profiles so you can:
• Use file policies and applications in access control rules.
• Use service metadata in intrusion rules.
• In passive deployments, improve reassembly of packet fragments and TCP streams based on your
network’s host operating systems.
For more information, see Adaptive Profiles, on page 1897.

1253
Access Control
Associating Other Policies with Access Control
Performance Settings and Latency-Based Performance Settings

About Intrusion Prevention Performance Tuning, on page 1745 provides information on improving the
performance of your system as it analyzes traffic for attempted intrusions.
For information specific to latency-based performance settings, see Packet and Intrusion Rule Latency Threshold
Configuration, on page 1749.

Any feature dependent feature dependent Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
Use an access control policy's advanced settings to associate one of each of the following subpolicies with
the access control policy:
• SSL policy—Monitors, decrypts, blocks, or allows application layer protocol traffic encrypted with
Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS).
Caution Adding or removing an SSL policy restarts the Snort process when you deploy
configuration changes, temporarily interrupting traffic inspection. Whether traffic
drops during this interruption or passes without further inspection depends on
how the target device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on
page 314 for more information.
• Identity policy—Performs user authentication based on the realm and authentication method associated
with the traffic.
• Prefilter policy—Performs early traffic handling using limited network (layer 4) outer-header criteria.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click the Advanced tab.
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) in the appropriate Policy Settings area.
Step 3 Choose a policy from the drop-down list.

If you choose a user-created policy, you can click the edit icon that appears to edit the policy.
Step 4 Click OK.


1254
Access Control
What to do next
Related Topics

1255
Access Control

1256
CHAPTER 61
Access Control Rules
The following topics describe how to configure access control rules:
• Introduction to Access Control Rules, on page 1257
• Adding an Access Control Rule Category, on page 1263
• Creating and Editing Access Control Rules, on page 1264
• Enabling and Disabling Access Control Rules, on page 1265
• Positioning an Access Control Rule, on page 1266
• Access Control Rule Actions, on page 1266
• Access Control Rule Comments, on page 1269
Introduction to Access Control Rules

Within an access control policy, access control rules provide a granular method of handling network traffic
across multiple managed devices.
Note 8000 Series fastpathing, prefilter evaluation, Security Intelligence filtering, SSL inspection, user identification,
and some decoding and preprocessing occur before access control rules evaluate network traffic.
The system matches traffic to access control rules in the order you specify. In most cases, the system handles
network traffic according to the first access control rule where all the rule’s conditions match the traffic.
Each rule also has an action, which determines whether you monitor, trust, block, or allow matching traffic.
When you allow traffic, you can specify that the system first inspect it with intrusion or file policies to block
any exploits, malware, or prohibited files before they reach your assets or exit your network.
The following scenario summarizes the ways that traffic can be evaluated by access control rules in an inline,
intrusion prevention deployment.

1257
Access Control
Introduction to Access Control Rules
In this scenario, traffic is evaluated as follows:

• Rule 1: Monitor evaluates traffic first. Monitor rules track and log network traffic but do not affect
traffic flow. The system continues to match traffic against additional rules to determine whether to permit
or deny it.
• Rule 2: Trust evaluates traffic next. Matching traffic is allowed to pass to its destination without further
inspection, though it is still subject to identity requirements and rate limiting. Traffic that does not match
continues to the next rule.
• Rule 3: Block evaluates traffic third. Matching traffic is blocked without further inspection. Traffic that
does not match continues to the final rule.
• Rule 4: Allow is the final rule. For this rule, matching traffic is allowed; however, prohibited files,
malware, intrusions, and exploits within that traffic are detected and blocked. Remaining non-prohibited,
non-malicious traffic is allowed to its destination, though it is still subject to identity requirements and
rate limiting. You can configure Allow rules that perform only file inspection, or only intrusion inspection,
or neither.
• Default Action handles all traffic that does not match any of the rules. In this scenario, the default action
performs intrusion prevention before allowing non-malicious traffic to pass. In a different deployment,
you might have a default action that trusts or blocks all traffic, without further inspection. (You cannot
perform file or malware inspection on traffic handled by the default action.)
Traffic you allow, whether with an access control rule or the default action, is automatically eligible for
inspection for host, application, and user data by the network discovery policy. You do not explicitly enable
discovery, although you can enhance or disable it. However, allowing traffic does not automatically guarantee
discovery data collection. The system performs discovery only for connections involving IP addresses that
are explicitly monitored by your network discovery policy; additionally, application discovery is limited for
encrypted sessions.
Note that access control rules handle encrypted traffic when your SSL inspection configuration allows it to
pass, or if you do not configure SSL inspection. However, some access control rule conditions require
unencrypted traffic, so encrypted traffic may match fewer rules. Also, by default, the system disables intrusion
and file inspection of encrypted payloads. This helps reduce false positives and improve performance when
an encrypted connection matches an access control rule that has intrusion and file inspection configured.

1258
Access Control
Recommendations for Application Control
Recommendations for Application Control

We recommend controlling applications' access to the network as follows:
• To allow or block application access from a less secure network to a more secure network: Use Port
(Selected Destination Port) conditions on the access control rule
For example, allow ICMP traffic from the internet (less secure) to an internal network (more secure.)
• To allow or block applications being accessed by user groups: Use Application conditions on the access
control rule
For example, block Facebook from being accessed by members of the Contractors group
The following table provides an example of how to set up your access control rules:
VLAN Comments
Tags
Application Your Any Any Do not set Available Any Use only Any
from less secure choice Ports : with
to more secure (Allow in SSH ISE/ISE-PIC.
network when this
Add to
application uses example)
Selected
a port (for
Destination
example, SSH)
Ports
Application Your Any Any Do not set Selected Do Use only Any
from less secure choice Destination not with
to more secure (Allow in Ports set ISE/ISE-PIC.
network when this Protocol:
application does example) ICMP
not use a port
Type: Any
(for example,
ICMP)

1259
Access Control
Access Control Rule Management
VLAN Comments
Tags
Application Your Your Choose a Choose the Do not set Do Use only Your
access by a user choice choice user group name of the not with choice
group (Block in (Contractors application set ISE/ISE-PIC.
this group in ( Facebook
example) this in this
example) example)
Access Control Rule Management

The Rules tab of the access control policy editor allows you to add, edit, categorize, search, move, enable,
disable, delete, and otherwise manage access control rules in the current policy.
For each access control rule, the policy editor displays its name, a summary of its conditions, the rule action,
and icons that communicate the rule’s inspection options or status. These icons represent:
• intrusion policy option ( )
• file policy option ( )
• Safe Search option ( )
• YouTube EDU option ( )
• logging option ( )
• Original Client option ( )
• comments ( )
• warnings ( )
• errors ( )
• important information ( )
Disabled rules are dimmed and marked (disabled) beneath the rule name.
To create or edit a rule, use the access control rule editor. You can:
• Configure basic properties such as the rule’s name, state, position, and action in the upper portion of the
editor.
• Add conditions using the tabs on the left side of the lower portion of the editor.
• Use the tabs on the right side of the lower portion to configure inspection and logging options, and also
to add comments to the rule. For your convenience, the editor lists the rule’s inspection and logging
options regardless of which tab you are viewing.

1260
Access Control
Access Control Rule Components
Note Properly creating and ordering access control rules is a complex task, but one that is essential to building an
effective deployment. If you do not plan your policy carefully, rules can preempt other rules, require additional
licenses, or contain invalid configurations. To help ensure that the system handles traffic as you expect, the
access control policy interface has a robust warning and error feedback system for rules.
Related Topics
Access Control Rule Components, on page 1261
Create Custom User Roles, on page 63
Access Control Rule Components

In addition to its unique name, each access control rule has the following basic components:
State
Position
Rules in an access control policy are numbered, starting at 1. If you are using policy inheritance, rule 1 is the
first rule in the outermost policy. The system matches traffic to rules in top-down order by ascending rule
number. With the exception of Monitor rules, the first rule that traffic matches is the rule that handles that
traffic.
Rules can also belong to a section and a category, which are organizational only and do not affect rule position.
Rule position goes across sections and categories.
Section and Category

To help you organize access control rules, every access control policy has two system-provided rule sections,
Mandatory and Default. To further organize access control rules, you can create custom rule categories inside
the Mandatory and Default sections.
If you are using policy inheritance, the current policy's rules are nested between its parent policy's Mandatory
and Default sections.
Conditions
Conditions specify the specific traffic the rule handles. Conditions can be simple or complex; their use often
depends on license.
Action
A rule’s action determines how the system handles matching traffic. You can monitor, trust, block, or allow
(with or without further inspection) matching traffic. The system does not perform deep inspection on trusted,
blocked, or encrypted traffic.

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Access Control Rule Order
Inspection
Deep inspection options govern how the system inspects and blocks malicious traffic you would otherwise
allow. When you allow traffic with a rule, you can specify that the system first inspect it with intrusion or file
policies to block any exploits, malware, or prohibited files before they reach your assets or exit your network.
Logging
A rule’s logging settings govern the records the system keeps of the traffic it handles. You can keep a record
of traffic that matches a rule. In general, you can log sessions at the beginning or end of a connection, or both.
You can log connections to the database, as well as to the system log (syslog) or to an SNMP trap server.
Comments
Each time you save changes to an access control rule, you can add comments.
Related Topics
Access Control Rule Management, on page 1260
Creating and Editing Access Control Rules, on page 1264
Rule Condition Types, on page 327
Access Control Rule Actions, on page 1266
Best Practices for Connection Logging, on page 2325
Access Control Rule Comments, on page 1269
Access Control Rule Order

Rules in an access control policy are numbered, starting at 1. The system matches traffic to access control
rules in top-down order by ascending rule number.
In most cases, the system handles network traffic according to the first access control rule where all the rule’s
conditions match the traffic. Except Monitor rules (which log traffic but do not affect traffic flow), the system
does not continue to evaluate traffic against additional, lower-priority rules after that traffic matches a rule.
To help you organize access control rules, every access control policy has two system-provided rule sections,
Mandatory and Default. To further organize, you can create custom rule categories inside the Mandatory or
Default sections. After you create a category, you cannot move it, although you can delete it, rename it, and
move rules into, out of, within, and around it. The system assigns rule numbers across sections and categories.
If you use policy inheritance, the current policy's rules are nested between its parent policy's Mandatory and
Default rule sections. Rule 1 is the first rule in the outermost policy, not the current policy, and the system
assigns rule numbers across policies, sections, and categories.
Any predefined user role that allows you to modify access control policies also allows you to move and modify
access control rules within and among rules categories. You can, however, create custom roles that restrict
users from moving and modifying rules. Any user who is allowed to modify access control policies can add
rules to custom categories and modify rules in them without restriction.

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Access Control
Adding an Access Control Rule Category
Tip Proper access control rule order reduces the resources required to process network traffic, and prevents rule
preemption. Although the rules you create are unique to every organization and deployment, there are a few
general guidelines to follow when ordering rules that can optimize performance while still addressing your
needs.
Related Topics
Guidelines for Ordering Rules, on page 357
Adding an Access Control Rule Category


Admin/Network
Admin
You can divide an access control policy's Mandatory and Default rule sections into custom categories. After
you create a category, you cannot move it, although you can delete it, rename it, and move rules into, out of,
within, and around it. The system assigns rule numbers across sections and categories.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click Add Category.

Tip If your policy already contains rules, you can click a blank area in the row for an existing rule to
set the position of the new category before you add it. You can also right-click an existing rule and
select Insert new category.

Step 3 From the Insert drop-down list, choose where you want to add the category:
• To insert a category below all existing categories in a section, choose into Mandatory or into Default.
• To insert a category above an existing category, choose above category, then choose a category.
• To insert a category above or below an access control rule, choose above rule or below rule, then enter
an existing rule number.
Step 4 Click OK.

What to do next

1263
Access Control
Creating and Editing Access Control Rules
Creating and Editing Access Control Rules


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, you have the following options:
• To edit an existing rule, click the edit icon ( ).
If a view icon ( ) appears next to a rule instead, the rule belongs to an ancestor policy, or you do not have
permission to modify the rule.

Step 3 Configure the rule components, or accept the defaults:
• Position—Specify the rule position; see Access Control Rule Order, on page 1262.
• Action—Choose a rule Action; see Access Control Rule Actions, on page 1266.
• Conditions—Click the tab corresponding to the condition you want to add. See Rule Condition Types,
• Deep Inspection—For Allow and Interactive Block rules, click the intrusion inspection icon ( ) or the
file and malware inspection icon ( ) to configure the rule’s Inspection options. If the icon is dimmed,
no policy of that type is selected for the rule. See Access Control Using Intrusion and File Policies, on
• Content Restriction—Click the Safe Search icon ( ) or YouTube EDU icon ( ) to configure content
restriction settings on the Applications tab of the rule editor. If the icons are dimmed, content restriction
is disabled for the rule. See About Content Restriction, on page 1333 for more information.
• Logging—Click an active (blue) logging icon ( ) to specify Logging options. If the icon is dimmed,
connection logging is disabled for the rule. See Best Practices for Connection Logging, on page 2325 for
more information.
• Comments—Click the number in the comment column to add Comments. The number indicates how
many comments the rule already contains. See Access Control Rule Comments, on page 1269 for more
information.

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Access Control
Enabling and Disabling Access Control Rules

What to do next
Related Topics
Enabling and Disabling Access Control Rules


Admin/Network
Admin
When you create an access control rule, it is enabled by default. If you disable a rule, the system does not use
it to evaluate network traffic and stops generating warnings and errors for that rule. When viewing the list of
rules in an access control policy, disabled rules are grayed out, although you can still modify them.
Tip You can also enable or disable an access control rule using the rule editor.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, right-click the rule and choose a rule state.
If a view icon ( ) appears next to a rule instead, the rule belongs to an ancestor policy, or you do not have
permission to modify the rule.
Step 2 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics
Access Control Rule Components, on page 1261

1265
Access Control
Positioning an Access Control Rule
Positioning an Access Control Rule


Admin/Network
Admin
You can move an existing rule within, but not between, access control policies. When you add or move a rule
to a category, the system places it last in the category.
Tip You can move multiple rules at once by selecting the rules then cutting and pasting using the right-click menu.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control rule editor, you have the following options:
• If you are adding a new rule, use the Insert drop-down list.
• If you are editing an existing rule, click Move.
Step 2 Choose where you want to move or insert the rule:

• Choose into Mandatory or into Default.
• Choose a into Category, then choose the user-defined category.
• Choose above rule or below rule, then type the appropriate rule number.
Step 3 Click Save.

What to do next
Access Control Rule Actions

Every access control rule has an action that determines how the system handles and logs matching traffic.
You can monitor, trust, block, or allow (with or without further inspection).
The access control policy’s default action handles traffic that does not meet the conditions of any non-Monitor
access control rule.

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Access Control
Access Control Rule Monitor Action
Access Control Rule Monitor Action

The Monitor action does not affect traffic flow; matching traffic is neither immediately permitted nor denied.
Rather, traffic is matched against additional rules to determine whether to permit or deny it. The first
non-Monitor rule matched determines traffic flow and any further inspection. If there are no additional matching
rules, the system uses the default action.
Because the primary purpose of Monitor rules is to track network traffic, the system automatically logs end-of
connection events for monitored traffic. That is, connections are logged even if the traffic matches no other
rules and you do not enable logging on the default action.
Note If locally-bound traffic matches a Monitor rule in a Layer 3 deployment, that traffic may bypass inspection.
To ensure inspection of the traffic, enable Inspect Local Router Traffic in the advanced device settings for
the managed device routing the traffic.
Related Topics
Logging for Monitored Connections, on page 2320
Access Control Rule Trust Action

The Trust action allows traffic to pass without deep inspection or network discovery. Trusted traffic is still
subject to identity requirements and rate limiting.
Related Topics
Logging for Trusted Connections, on page 2320
Access Control Rule Blocking Actions

The Block and Block with reset actions deny traffic without further inspection of any kind.

1267
Access Control
Access Control Rule Interactive Blocking Actions
Block with reset rules reset the connection, with the exception of web requests met with an HTTP response
page. This is because the response page, which you configure to appear when the system blocks web requests,
cannot display if the connection is immediately reset. For more information, see HTTP Response Pages and
Interactive Blocking, on page 1291.
Related Topics
Logging for Blocked Connections, on page 2321
About HTTP Response Pages, on page 1291
Access Control Rule Interactive Blocking Actions

For more information, see HTTP Response Pages and Interactive Blocking, on page 1291.
If a user bypasses the block, the rule mimics an allow rule. Therefore, you can associate interactive block
rules with file and intrusion policies, and matching traffic is also eligible for network discovery.
If a user does not (or cannot) bypass the block, the rule mimics a block rule. Matching traffic is denied without
further inspection.
Note that if you enable interactive blocking, you cannot reset all blocked connections. This is because the
response page cannot display if the connection is immediately reset. Use the Interactive Block with reset
action to (non-interactively) block-with-reset all non-web traffic, while still enabling interactive blocking for
web requests.
For more information, see HTTP Response Pages and Interactive Blocking, on page 1291.
Related Topics
Logging for Allowed Connections, on page 2322
TLS/SSL Rule Blocking Actions, on page 1395

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Access Control
Access Control Rule Allow Action
Access Control Rule Allow Action

The Allow action allows matching traffic to pass, though it is still subject to identity requirements and rate
limiting.
Optionally, you can use deep inspection to further inspect and block unencrypted or decrypted traffic before
it reaches its destination:
• You can use an intrusion policy to analyze network traffic according to intrusion detection and prevention
configurations, and drop offending packets depending on the configuration.
• You can perform file control using a file policy. File control allows you to detect and block your users
from uploading (sending) or downloading (receiving) files of specific types over specific application
protocols.
• You can perform network-based advanced malware protection (AMP), also using a file policy. AMP for
Networks can inspect files for malware, and block detected malware depending on the configuration.
The following diagram illustrates the types of inspection performed on traffic that meets the conditions of an
Allow rule (or a user-bypassed Interactive Block rule. Notice that file inspection occurs before intrusion
inspection; blocked files are not inspected for intrusion-related exploits.
For simplicity, the diagram displays traffic flow for situations where both (or neither) an intrusion and a file
policy are associated with an access control rule. You can, however, configure one without the other. Without
a file policy, traffic flow is determined by the intrusion policy; without an intrusion policy, traffic flow is
determined by the file policy.
Regardless of whether the traffic is inspected or dropped by an intrusion or file policy, the system can inspect
it using network discovery. However, allowing traffic does not automatically guarantee discovery inspection.
The system performs discovery only for connections involving IP addresses that are explicitly monitored by
your network discovery policy; additionally, application discovery is limited for encrypted sessions.
Related Topics
Logging for Allowed Connections, on page 2322
Access Control Rule Comments

When you create or edit an access control rule, you can add a comment. For example, you might summarize
the overall configuration for the benefit of other users, or note when you change a rule and the reason for the

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Access Control
Adding Comments to an Access Control Rule
change. You can display a list of all comments for a rule along with the user who added each comment and
the date the comment was added.
When you save a rule, all comments made since the last save become read-only.
Related Topics
Configuring Access Control Policy Preferences
Adding Comments to an Access Control Rule


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control rule editor, click the Comments tab.
Step 2 Click New Comment.
Step 3 Enter your comment and click OK. You can edit or delete this comment until you save the rule.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next

1270
CHAPTER 62
Access Control Using Intrusion and File Policies
The following topics describe how to configure access control policies to use intrusion and file policies:
• About Deep Inspection, on page 1271
• Access Control Traffic Handling, on page 1272
• File and Intrusion Inspection Order, on page 1273
• Access Control Rule Configuration to Perform Malware Protection, on page 1274
• Access Control Rule Configuration to Perform Intrusion Prevention, on page 1276
About Deep Inspection

Intrusion and file policies work together as the last line of defense before traffic is allowed to its destination:
• Intrusion policies govern the system’s intrusion prevention capabilities.
• File policies govern the system’s file control and AMP for Networks capabilities.
Access control occurs before deep inspection; access control rules and the access control default action
determine which traffic is inspected by intrusion and file policies.
By associating an intrusion or file policy with an access control rule, you are telling the system that before it
passes traffic that matches the access control rule’s conditions, you first want to inspect the traffic with an
intrusion policy, a file policy, or both.
Note By default, the system disables intrusion and file inspection of encrypted payloads. This helps reduce false
positives and improve performance when an encrypted connection matches an access control rule that has
intrusion and file inspection configured.
The system can also receive AMP for Endpoints data from the AMP cloud, then present this data alongside
any AMP for Networks data.
Related Topics
How Policies Examine Traffic For Intrusions, on page 1540
File Policies, on page 1467

1271
Access Control
Access Control Traffic Handling
Access Control Traffic Handling

Access control rules provide a granular method of handling network traffic across multiple managed devices.
The system matches traffic to access control rules in the order you specify. In most cases, the system handles
network traffic according to the first access control rule where all the rule’s conditions match the traffic. An
access control rule’s action determines how the system handles matching traffic. You can monitor, trust,
block, or allow (with or without further inspection) matching traffic.
The following diagram shows the flow of traffic in an inline intrusion prevention and AMP for Networks
deployment, as governed by an access control policy that contains four different types of access control rules
and a default action.
In the scenario above, the first three access control rules in the policy—Monitor, Trust, and Block—cannot
inspect matching traffic. Monitor rules track and log but do not inspect network traffic, so the system continues
to match traffic against additional rules to determine whether to permit or deny it. Trust and Block rules handle
matching traffic without further inspection of any kind, while traffic that does not match continues to the next
The fourth and final rule in the policy, an Allow rule, invokes various other policies to inspect and handle
matching traffic, in the following order:
• Discovery: Network Discovery Policy—First, the network discovery policy inspects traffic for discovery
data. Discovery is passive analysis and does not affect the flow of traffic. Although you do not explicitly
enable discovery, you can enhance or disable it. However, allowing traffic does not automatically guarantee
discovery data collection. The system performs discovery only for connections involving IP addresses
that are explicitly monitored by your network discovery policy.
• AMP for Networks and File Control: File Policy—After traffic is inspected by discovery, the system
can inspect it for prohibited files and malware. AMP for Networks detects and optionally blocks malware
in many types of files, including PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, and others. If your organization
wants to block not only the transmission of malware files, but all files of a specific type (regardless of
whether the files contain malware), file control allows you to monitor network traffic for transmissions
of specific file types, then either block or allow the file.
• Intrusion Prevention: Intrusion Policy—After file inspection, the system can inspect traffic for intrusions
and exploits. An intrusion policy examines decoded packets for attacks based on patterns, and can block

1272
Access Control
File and Intrusion Inspection Order
or alter malicious traffic. Intrusion policies are paired with variable sets, which allow you to use named
values to accurately reflect your network environment.
• Destination—Traffic that passes all the checks described above passes to its destination.
An Interactive Block rule (not shown in the diagram) has the same inspection options as an Allow rule. This
is so you can inspect traffic for malicious content when a user bypasses a blocked website by clicking through
a warning page.
Traffic that does not match any of the non-Monitor access control rules in the policy is handled by the default
action. In this scenario, the default action is an Intrusion Prevention action, which allows traffic to its final
destination as long as it is passed by the intrusion policy you specify. In a different deployment, you might
have a default action that trusts or blocks all traffic without further inspection. Note that the system can inspect
traffic allowed by the default action for discovery data and intrusions, but not prohibited files or malware.
You cannot associate a file policy with the access control default action.
Note Sometimes, when a connection is analyzed by an access control policy, the system must process the first few
packets in that connection, allowing them to pass, before it can decide which access control rule (if any) will
handle the traffic. However, so these packets do not reach their destination uninspected, you can use an
intrusion policy—called the default intrusion policy—to inspect them and generate intrusion events.
File and Intrusion Inspection Order

In your access control policy, you can associate multiple Allow and Interactive Block rules with different
intrusion and file policies to match inspection profiles to various types of traffic.
Note Traffic allowed by an Intrusion Prevention or Network Discovery Only default action can be inspected for
discovery data and intrusions, but cannot be inspected for prohibited files or malware. You cannot associate
a file policy with the access control default action.
You do not have to perform both file and intrusion inspection in the same rule. For a connection matching an
Allow or Interactive Block rule:
• without a file policy, traffic flow is determined by the intrusion policy
• without an intrusion policy, traffic flow is determined by the file policy
• without either, allowed traffic is inspected by network discovery only
Tip The system does not perform any kind of inspection on trusted traffic. Although configuring an Allow rule
with neither an intrusion nor file policy passes traffic like a Trust rule, Allow rules let you perform discovery
on matching traffic.
The diagram below illustrates the types of inspection you can perform on traffic that meets the conditions of
either an Allow or user-bypassed Interactive Block access control rule. For simplicity, the diagram displays

1273
Access Control
Access Control Rule Configuration to Perform Malware Protection
traffic flow for situations where both (or neither) an intrusion and a file policy are associated with a single
For any single connection handled by an access control rule, file inspection occurs before intrusion inspection.
That is, the system does not inspect files blocked by a file policy for intrusions. Within file inspection, simple
blocking by type takes precedence over malware inspection and blocking.
For example, consider a scenario where you normally want to allow certain network traffic as defined in an
access control rule. However, as a precaution, you want to block the download of executable files, examine
downloaded PDFs for malware and block any instances you find, and perform intrusion inspection on the
traffic.
You create an access control policy with a rule that matches the characteristics of the traffic you want to
provisionally allow, and associate it with both an intrusion policy and a file policy. The file policy blocks the
download of all executables, and also inspects and blocks PDFs containing malware:
• First, the system blocks the download of all executables, based on simple type matching specified in the
file policy. Because they are immediately blocked, these files are subject to neither malware nor intrusion
inspection.
• Next, the system performs malware cloud lookups for PDFs downloaded to a host on your network. Any
PDFs with a malware disposition are blocked, and are not subject to intrusion inspection.
• Finally, the system uses the intrusion policy associated with the access control rule to inspect any remaining
traffic, including files not blocked by the file policy.
Note Until a file is detected and blocked in a session, packets from the session may be subject to intrusion inspection.
Access Control Rule Configuration to Perform Malware

Protection
An access control policy can have multiple access control rules associated with file policies. You can configure
file inspection for any Allow or Interactive Block access control rule, which permits you to match different
file and malware inspection profiles against different types of traffic on your network before it reaches its
final destination.

1274
Access Control
Configuring an Access Control Rule to Perform Malware Protection
When the system detects a prohibited file (including malware) according to the settings in the file policy, it
automatically logs an event to the Firepower Management Center database. If you do not want to log file or
malware events, you can disable this logging on a per-access-control-rule basis.
The system also logs the end of the associated connection to the Firepower Management Center database,
regardless of the logging configuration of the invoking access control rule.
Configuring an Access Control Rule to Perform Malware Protection

Threat (file control) Protection (file Any Any Admin/Access

Malware (AMP) control) Admin/Network
Malware (AMP) Admin
Caution Enabling or disabling Store files in a Detect Files or Block Files rule, or adding the first or removing the last
file rule that combines the Malware Cloud Lookup or Block Malware file rule action with an analyis option
(Spero Analysis or MSEXE, Dynamic Analysis, or Local Malware Analysis) or a store files option
(Malware, Unknown, Clean, or Custom), restarts the Snort process when you deploy configuration changes,
temporarily interrupting traffic inspection. Whether traffic drops during this interruption or passes without
further inspection depends on how the target device handles traffic. See Snort® Restart Traffic Behavior, on
Before you begin

• Adaptive profiling must be enabled (its default state) as described in Configuring Adaptive Profiles, on
page 1899 for access control rules to perform file control, including AMP.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control rule editor, choose an Action of Allow, Interactive Block, or Interactive Block with
reset.
Step 2 Click the Inspection tab.
Step 3 Choose a Malware Policy (file policy) to inspect traffic that matches the access control rule, or choose None
to disable file inspection for matching traffic.
Step 4 (Optional) Disable logging of file or malware events for matching connections by clicking the Logging tab
and unchecking Log Files.
Note Cisco recommends you leave file and malware event logging enabled.


1275
Access Control
Access Control Rule Configuration to Perform Intrusion Prevention
What to do next
Related Topics
Creating a File Policy, on page 1469
Access Control Rule Configuration to Perform Intrusion

Prevention
An access control policy can have multiple access control rules associated with intrusion policies. You can
configure intrusion inspection for any Allow or Interactive Block access control rule, which permits you to
match different intrusion inspection profiles against different types of traffic on your network before it reaches
its final destination.
Whenever the system uses an intrusion policy to evaluate traffic, it uses an associated variable set. Variables
in a set represent values commonly used in intrusion rules to identify source and destination IP addresses and
ports. You can also use variables in intrusion policies to represent IP addresses in rule suppressions and
dynamic rule states.
Tip Even if you use system-provided intrusion policies, Cisco strongly recommends you configure the system’s
intrusion variables to accurately reflect your network environment. At a minimum, modify default variables
in the default set.
Understanding System-Provided and Custom Intrusion Policies

Cisco delivers several intrusion policies with the Firepower System. By using system-provided intrusion
policies, you can take advantage of the experience of theCisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group
(Talos). For these policies, Talos sets intrusion and preprocessor rule states, as well as provides the initial
configurations for advanced settings. You can use system-provided policies as-is, or you can use them as the
base for custom policies. Building custom policies can improve the performance of the system in your
environment and provide a focused view of the malicious traffic and policy violations occurring on your
network.
Connection and Intrusion Event Logging

When an intrusion policy invoked by an access control rule detects an intrusion and generates an intrusion
event, it saves that event to the Firepower Management Center. The system also automatically logs the end
of the connection where the intrusion occurred to the Firepower Management Center database, regardless of
the logging configuration of the access control rule.
Related Topics
Predefined Default Variables, on page 388

1276
Access Control
Access Control Rule Configuration and Intrusion Policies
Access Control Rule Configuration and Intrusion Policies

In addition to custom intrusion policies that you create, the system provides two custom policies: Initial Inline
Policy and Initial Passive Policy. These two intrusion policies use the Balanced Security and Connectivity
intrusion policy as their base. The only difference between them is their Drop When Inline setting, which
enables drop behavior in the inline policy and disables it in the passive policy.
The number of unique intrusion policies you can use in a single access control policy depends on the model
of the target devices; more powerful devices can handle more. Every unique pair of intrusion policy and
variable set counts as one policy. Although you can associate a different intrusion policy-variable set pair
with each Allow and Interactive Block rule (as well as with the default action), you cannot deploy an access
control policy if the target devices have insufficient resources to perform inspection as configured.
Configuring an Access Control Rule to Perform Intrusion Prevention


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, create a new rule or edit an existing rule; see Access Control Rule
Components, on page 1261.
Step 2 Ensure the rule action is set to Allow, Interactive Block, or Interactive Block with reset.
Step 3 Click the tab.
Step 4 Choose a system-provided or custom Intrusion Policy, or choose None to disable intrusion inspection for
traffic that matches the access control rule.
Step 5 If you want to change the variable set associated with the intrusion policy, choose a value from the Variable
Set drop-down list.
Step 6 Click Save to save the rule.
What to do next
Related Topics
Variable Sets, on page 385

1277
Access Control
Configuring an Access Control Rule to Perform Intrusion Prevention

1278
CHAPTER 63
URL Filtering
• URL Filtering Overview, on page 1279
• About URL Filtering with Category and Reputation, on page 1279
• Guidelines and Limitations for URL Filtering, on page 1280
• How to Configure URL Filtering with Category and Reputation, on page 1283
• Manual URL Filtering, on page 1287
• Troubleshoot URL Filtering, on page 1288
URL Filtering Overview

Use the URL filtering feature to control the websites that users on your network can access:
• Category and reputation-based URL filtering—With a URL Filtering license, you can control access to
websites based on the URL’s general classification (category) and risk level (reputation). This is the
recommended option.
• Manual URL filtering—With any license, you can manually specify individual URLs, groups of URLs,
and URL lists and feeds to achieve granular, custom control over web traffic. For more information, see
Manual URL Filtering, on page 1287.
About URL Filtering with Category and Reputation

With a URL Filtering license, you can control access to websites based on the category and reputation of
requested URLs:
• Category—A general classification for the URL. For example, ebay.com belongs to the Auctions category,
and monster.com belongs to the Job Search category. A URL can belong to more than one category.
• Reputation—How likely the URL is to be used for purposes that might be against your organization’s
security policy. Reputations range from High Risk (level 1) to Well Known (level 5).
Benefits of Category and Reputation-Based URL Filtering

URL categories and reputations help you quickly configure URL filtering. For example, you can use access
control to block high risk URLs in the Hacking category. Or, you can use QoS to rate limit traffic from sites

1279
Access Control
Guidelines and Limitations for URL Filtering
in the Streaming Media category. There are also categories for types of threats, such as a Spyware and Adware
category.
Using category and reputation data simplifies policy creation and administration. It grants you assurance that
the system controls web traffic as expected. Because Cisco continually updates its threat intelligence with
new URLs, as well as new categories and risks for existing URLs, you can ensure that the system uses
up-to-date information to filter requested URLs. Sites that (for example) represent security threats, or that
serve undesirable content, may appear and disappear faster than you can update and deploy new policies.
Some examples of how the system can adapt include:
• If an access control rule blocks all gaming sites, as new domains get registered and classified as Games,
the system can block those sites automatically. Similarly, if a QoS rule rate limits all streaming media
sites, the system can automatically limit traffic to new Streaming Media sites.
• If an access control rule blocks all malware sites and a shopping page gets infected with malware, the
system can recategorize the URL from Shopping to Malware Sites and block that site.
• If an access control rule blocks high-risk social networking sites and somebody posts a link on their
profile page that contains links to malicious payloads, the system can change the reputation of that page
from Benign Sites to High Risk and block it.
Related Topics

Limitations to URL Identification
The system cannot filter URLs before:
• A monitored connection is established between a client and server.
• The system identifies the HTTP or HTTPS application in the session.
• The system identifies the requested URL (for encrypted sessions, from either the ClientHello message
or the server certificate).
This identification should occur within 3 to 5 packets, or after the server certificate exchange in the TLS/SSL
handshake if the traffic is encrypted.
If early traffic matches all other rule conditions but identification is incomplete, the system allows the packet
to pass and the connection to be established (or the TLS/SSL handshake to complete). After the system
completes its identification, the system applies the appropriate rule action to the remaining session traffic.
For access control, these passed packets are inspected by the access control policy’s default intrusion
policy—not the default action intrusion policy nor the almost-matched rule’s intrusion policy.
URL Rules Before Application and Other Rules


1280
Access Control
For additional guidelines for rules, see the Rule Management: Common Characteristics, on page 325 chapter,
including the following topics: Rule Condition Mechanics, on page 328 and Rule Performance Guidelines, on
page 356.
Uncategorized/Reputationless URLs
If the system does not know the category and reputation of a URL, browsing to that website does not match
rules with category and reputation-based URL conditions. You cannot assign categories and reputations to
URLs manually.
When you build a URL rule, you first choose the category you want to match. If you explicitly choose
Uncategorized URLs, you cannot further constrain by reputation, because uncategorized URLs do not have
reputations.
URL Filtering for Encrypted Web Traffic

When performing URL filtering on encrypted web traffic, the system:
• Disregards the encryption protocol; a rule matches both HTTPS and HTTP traffic if the rule has a URL
condition but not an application condition that specifies the protocol.
• Does not use URL lists. You must use URL objects and groups instead.
• Matches HTTPS traffic based on the subject common name in the public key certificate used to encrypt
the traffic, and disregards subdomains within the subject common name.
• Does not display an HTTP response page for encrypted connections blocked by access control rules (or
any other configuration); see Limitations to HTTP Response Pages, on page 1291.
HTTP/2
The system can extract HTTP/2 URLs from TLS certificates, but not from a payload.
Search Query Parameters in URLs

The system does not use search query parameters in the URL to match URL conditions. For example, consider
a scenario where you block all shopping traffic. In that case, using a web search to search for amazon.com is
not blocked, but browsing to amazon.com is.
URL Filtering in High Availability Deployments

For guidelines for URL filtering with Firepower Management Centers in high availability, see URL Filtering
and Security Intelligence, on page 174.
Memory Limitations for Selected Device Models

Due to memory limitations, some device models perform most URL filtering with a smaller, less granular,
set of categories and reputations. For example, even if a parent URL's subsites have different URL categories
and reputations, some devices may only store the parent URL's data. For web traffic handled by these devices,
the system may perform cloud lookups to determine category and reputation for sites not in the local database.
Lower-memory devices include:

1281
Access Control
Filtering HTTPS Traffic
• 7100 series
• ASA 5506-X, ASA 5506H-X, ASA 5506W-X, ASA 5508-X, and ASA 5516-X
• ASA 5512-X, ASA 5515-X, and ASA 5525-X
If you are using NGIPSv, see the Cisco Firepower NGIPSv for VMware Quick Start Guide for information
on allocating the correct amount of memory to perform category and reputation-based URL filtering.
Manual URL Filtering

When manually filtering specific URLs, carefully consider other traffic that might be affected. To determine
whether network traffic matches a URL condition, the system performs a simple substring match. If the
requested URL matches any part of the string, the URLs are considered to match.
Related Topics
Filtering HTTPS Traffic

To filter encrypted traffic, the system determines the requested URL based on information passed during the
TLS/SSL handshake: the subject common name in the public key certificate used to encrypt the traffic.
HTTPS filtering, unlike HTTP filtering, disregards subdomains within the subject common name. Do not
include subdomain information when manually filtering HTTPS URLs in access control or QoS policies. For
example, use example.com rather than www.example.com.
HTTPS filtering also does not support URL lists. You must use URL objects and groups instead.
Tip In an SSL policy, you can handle and decrypt traffic to specific URLs by defining a distinguished name SSL
rule condition. The common name attribute in a certificate’s subject distinguished name contains the site’s
URL. Decrypting HTTPS traffic allows access control rules to evaluate the decrypted session, which improves
URL filtering.
Controlling Traffic by Encryption Protocol

The system disregards the encryption protocol (HTTP vs HTTPS) when performing URL filtering in access
control or QoS policies. This occurs for both manual and reputation-based URL conditions. In other words,
URL filtering treats traffic to the following websites identically:
• http://example.com/
• https://example.com/
To configure a rule that matches only HTTP or HTTPS traffic, add an application condition to the rule. For
example, you could allow HTTPS access to a site while disallowing HTTP access by constructing two access
control rules, each with an application and URL condition.
The first rule allows HTTPS traffic to the website:
Action: Allow
Application: HTTPS
URL: example.com

1282
Access Control
How to Configure URL Filtering with Category and Reputation
The second rule blocks HTTP access to the same website:

Action: Block
Application: HTTP
URL: example.com
How to Configure URL Filtering with Category and Reputation

Do This More Information
Step 1 If you will use category and Cisco Firepower NGIPSv for VMware Quick Start Guide
reputation-based URL filtering on an
NGIPSv device, allocate the required
amount of memory.
Step 2 Ensure that you have the correct licenses. Licensing the Firepower System, on page 73, including
URL Filtering Licenses for Firepower Threat Defense
Devices, on page 83 and URL Filtering Licenses for
Classic Devices, on page 100.
Assign the URL Filtering license to each managed device
that will filter URLs.
In order to enable the feature, at least one managed device
must have a URL Filtering license assigned to it.
Step 3 Ensure that your Firepower Management Internet Access Requirements, on page 2551 and
Center can communicate with the cloud Communication Port Requirements, on page 2553.
to obtain URL filtering data.
Step 4 Understand limitations and guidelines and Guidelines and Limitations for URL Filtering, on page
take any necessary actions. 1280
Step 5 Enable the URL Filtering feature. Enable URL Filtering Using Category and Reputation,
on page 1283
Step 6 Configure policies to filter URLs by Configuring URL Conditions, on page 1285, including the
category and reputation. information preceding Step 1, and URL Rule Order, on
page 360
Enable URL Filtering Using Category and Reputation

URL Filtering URL Filtering Any Any Admin
Before you begin

Complete prerquisites described in How to Configure URL Filtering with Category and Reputation, on page
1283.

1283
Access Control
URL Filtering Options
Procedure

Step 2 Click the Cisco CSI tab.
Step 3 Configure URL Filtering Options, on page 1284.
Step 4 Click Save.
URL Filtering Options
Enable URL Filtering

Allows traffic filtering based on a website’s general classification, or category, and risk level, or reputation.
Adding a URL Filtering license automatically enables Enable URL Filtering. URL filtering must be enabled
before you can choose other URL filtering options.
When you enable URL filtering, depending on how long since URL filtering was last enabled, or if this is the
first time you are enabling URL filtering, the Firepower Management Center downloads URL data from Cisco
Collective Security Intelligence (Cisco CSI). This process may take some time.
Enable Automatic Updates

Options for updating URL filtering threat data:
• If you enable the Enable Automatic Updates option on this page, the Firepower Management Center
checks the cloud every 30 minutes for updates. This option is enabled by default when you add a URL
filtering license.
• If you need strict control over when the system contacts external resources, disable automatic updates
on this page and instead create a recurring task using the scheduler. See Automating URL Filtering
Updates Using a Scheduled Task, on page 164.
Update Now
You can perform a one-time, on-demand update by clicking the Update Now button at the top of this dialog
box, but you should also either enable automatic updates or create a recurring task using the scheduler. You
cannot start an on-demand update if an update is already in progress.
Although daily updates tend to be small, if it has been more than five days since your last update, new URL
data may take up to 20 minutes to download, depending on your bandwidth. Then, it may take up to 30 minutes
to perform the update itself.
Query Cisco CSI for Unknown URLs

Allows the system to submit URLs to the cloud for threat intelligence evaluation when users browse to a
website whose category and reputation are not in the local dataset. Disable this option if you do not want to
submit your uncategorized URLs, for example, for privacy reasons.
Connections to uncategorized URLs do not match rules with category or reputation-based URL conditions.
You cannot assign categories or reputations to URLs manually.

1284
Access Control
Configuring URL Conditions
If you use SSL rules to handle encrypted traffic, see also TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on page
1381.
Configuring URL Conditions

URL Filtering URL Filtering Any Any Admin/Access

(cat/rep) (cat/rep) Admin/Network
Admin
Any (manual) Any (manual)
When you build a URL condition, you choose the URL categories whose traffic you want to control. Optionally,
you can constrain those URL categories with a reputation.
In access control and QoS rules, you can also filter individual URLs using predefined URL objects, URL lists
and feeds, and manual per-rule URLs. You cannot constrain these URLs with a reputation. Manual URL
filtering is not supported in SSL rules; instead, use distinguished name conditions.
Procedure
Step 1 In the rule editor, click the tab for URL conditions:
• Access control or QoS—Click the URLs tab.
• SSL—Click the Category tab.
Step 2 Find and choose the URLs you want to control:

• Categories—Choose URL categories, or keep the default of Any. In an access control or QoS rule, click
the Category sub-tab to choose categories.
• URL Objects, Lists, and Feeds—Choose predefined URL objects and URL lists and feeds. In an access
control or QoS rule, click the URLs sub-tab to choose URLs.
Step 3 (Optional) Constrain URL categories by choosing a Reputation.

Note that if you explicitly match Uncategorized URLs, you cannot further constrain by reputation, because
uncategorized URLs do not have reputations. Choosing a reputation level also includes other reputations either
more or less severe than the level you choose, depending on the rule action:
• Includes less severe reputations—If the rule allows or trusts web traffic. For example, if you configure
an access control rule to allow Benign Sites (level 4), it also automatically allows Well Known (level 5)
sites.
• Includes more severe reputations—If the rule rate limits, decrypts, blocks, or monitors web traffic. For
example, if you configure an access control rule to block Suspicious Sites (level 2), it also blocks High
Risk (level 1) sites.
If you change the rule action, the system automatically changes the reputation levels in URL conditions.

Step 5 (Optional) In an access control or QoS rule, add any URLs that you want to specify manually by entering a
URL and clicking Add.

1285
Access Control
Rules with URL Conditions
You can enter a URL or IP address. This field does not support wildcards.
Example: URL Condition in an Access Control Rule

The following graphic shows the URL condition for an access control rule that blocks all malware
sites, all high-risk sites, and all non-benign social networking sites. It also blocks a single site,
example.com, which is represented by a URL object.
The following table summarizes how you build the condition.
Blocked URL Category or URL Object Reputation
Malware sites, regardless of Malware Sites Any

reputation
Any URL with a high risk (level 1) Any 1 - High Risk
Social networking sites with a risk Social Network 3 - Benign sites with security risks
greater than benign (levels 1
through 3)
example.com The URL object named None

example.com
What to do next
• If you are configuring an access control policy to filter by URL category, specify how to handle access
to URLs that require cloud lookups. See information about the Retry URL cache miss lookup option
in Access Control Policy Advanced Settings, on page 1252.
• When you block web traffic, you can allow the user’s browser its default behavior, or you can display a
generic system-provided or custom HTTP response page. Interactive blocking gives users a chance to
bypass a website block by clicking through a warning page. For more information, see HTTP Response
Pages and Interactive Blocking, on page 1291.
Rules with URL Conditions

The following table lists rules that support URL conditions, and the types of filtering that each rule type
supports.

1286
Access Control
URL Rule Order
Rule Type Supports Cat. and Rep. Filtering? Supports Manual Filtering?
SSL yes no; use distinguished name conditions

instead
QoS yes yes
URL Rule Order

Manual URL Filtering

In access control and QoS rules, you can supplement or selectively override category and reputation-based
URL filtering by manually filtering individual URLs, groups of URLs, or URL lists and feeds.
Note To filter a large number of URLs, use a URL list instead of individual or grouped URL objects. For more
information, see Security Intelligence Lists and Feeds, on page 401.
You can perform this type of URL filtering without a special license. Manual URL filtering is not supported
in SSL rules; instead, use distinguished name conditions.
For example, you might use access control to block a category of websites that are not appropriate for your
organization. However, if the category contains a website that is appropriate, and to which you want to provide
access, you can create a manual Allow rule for that site and place it before the Block rule for the category.
When manually filtering specific URLs, carefully consider other traffic that might be affected. To determine
whether network traffic matches a URL condition, the system performs a simple substring match. If the
requested URL matches any part of the string, the URLs are considered to match.
For example, if you allow all traffic to example.com, your users could browse to URLs including:
• http://example.com/
• http://example.com/newexample
• http://www.example.com/
As another example, consider a scenario where you want to explicitly block ign.com (a gaming site). However,
substring matching means that blocking ign.com also blocks verisign.com, which might not be your intent.
Related Topics

1287
Access Control
Troubleshoot URL Filtering

How can I find the category and reputation of a particular URL?
Do a manual lookup. See Finding URL Category and Reputation, on page 2240.
Error when attempting a manual lookup: "Cloud Lookup Failure for <URL>"
Make sure the feature is properly enabled. See the prerequisites in Finding URL Category and Reputation,
on page 2240.
URL appears to be incorrectly handled based on its URL category and reputation
Problem: The system does not handle the URL correctly based on its URL category and reputation.
Solutions:
• Verify that the URL category and reputation associated with the URL are what you think they are. See
Finding URL Category and Reputation, on page 2240.
• The following issues may be addressed by settings described in URL Filtering Options, on page 1284,
accessible using Enable URL Filtering Using Category and Reputation, on page 1283.
• The URL cache may hold stale information. Contact Cisco TAC.
• The local data set may not be updated with current information from the cloud. See information
about the Enable Automatic Updates setting in URL Filtering Options, on page 1284.
• The system may be configured to not check the cloud for current data. See information about the
Query Cisco CSI for Unknown URLs setting in URL Filtering Options, on page 1284.
• Your access control policy may be configured to pass traffic to the URL without checking the cloud. See
information about the Retry URL cache miss lookup setting in Access Control Policy Advanced Settings,
on page 1252.
• See also Guidelines and Limitations for URL Filtering, on page 1280.
• If the URL is processed using an SSL rule, see TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on page 1381
and SSL Rule Order, on page 359
• Verify that the URL is being handled using the access control rule that you think it is being handled by,
and that the rule does what you think it does.
• Verify that the local URL category and reputation database on the Firepower Management Center is
successfully being updated from the cloud and that managed devices are successfully being updated from
the Firepower Management Center.
Status of these processes are reported in the Health Monitor, in the URL Filtering Monitor module. For
details, see Health Monitoring, on page 241.
If you want to immediately update the local URL category and reputation database, go to System > Integration,
click the Cisco CSI tab, then click Update Now. For more information, see URL Filtering Options, on page
1284.

1288
Access Control
A URL category or reputation is not correct

For access control or QoS rules: Use manual filtering, paying careful attention to rule order. See Manual URL
Filtering, on page 1287 and Configuring URL Conditions, on page 1285.
For SSL rules: Manual filtering is not supported. Instead, use distinguished name conditions.

1289
Access Control

1290
CHAPTER 64
HTTP Response Pages and Interactive Blocking
The following topics describe how to configure custom pages to display when the system blocks web requests:
• About HTTP Response Pages, on page 1291
• Choosing HTTP Response Pages, on page 1292
• Interactive Blocking with HTTP Response Pages, on page 1293
About HTTP Response Pages

As part of access control, you can configure an HTTP response page to display when the system blocks web
requests, using either access control rules or the access control policy default action.
The response page displayed depends on how you block the session:
• Block Response Page: Overrides the default browser or server page that explains that the connection
was denied.
• Interactive Block Response Page: Warns users, but also allows them to click a button (or refresh the
page) to load the originally requested site. Users may have to refresh after bypassing the response page
to load page elements that did not load.
If you do not choose a response page, the system blocks sessions without interaction or explanation.
Limitations to HTTP Response Pages

Response Pages are for Access Control Rules/Default Action Only
The system displays a response page only for unencrypted or decrypted HTTP/HTTPS connections blocked
(or interactively blocked) either by access control rules or by the access control policy default action. The
system does not display a response page for connections blocked or blacklisted by any other policy or
mechanism.
Displaying the Response Page Disables Connection Reset

The system cannot display a response page if the connection is reset (RST packet sent). If you enable response
pages, the system prioritizes that configuration. Even if you choose Block with reset or Interactive Block
with reset as the rule action, the system displays the response page and does not reset matching web
connections. To ensure that blocked web connections reset, you must disable response pages.

1291
Access Control
Choosing HTTP Response Pages
Note that all non-web traffic that matches the rule is blocked with reset.
No Response Page for Encrypted Connections (Must Decrypt)

The system does not display a response page for encrypted connections blocked by access control rules (or
any other configuration). Access control rules evaluate encrypted connections if you did not configure an SSL
policy, or your SSL policy passes encrypted traffic.
For example, the system cannot decrypt HTTP/2 or SPDY sessions. If web traffic encrypted using one of
these protocols reaches access control rule evaluation, the system does not display a response page if the
session is blocked.
However, the system does display a response page for connections decrypted by the SSL policy, then blocked
(or interactively blocked) either by access control rules or by the access control policy default action. In these
cases, the system encrypts the response page and sends it at the end of the reencrypted SSL stream.
No Response Page for "Promoted" Connections

The system does not display a response page when web traffic is blocked as a result of a promoted access
control rule (an early-placed blocking rule with only simple network conditions).
No Response Page Before URL Identification

The system does not display a response page when web traffic is blocked before the system identifies the
requested URL; see Guidelines and Limitations for URL Filtering, on page 1280.
Choosing HTTP Response Pages


Admin/Network
Admin
Reliable display of HTTP response pages depends on your network configuration, traffic loads, and size of
the page. Smaller pages are more likely to display successfully.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click the HTTP Responses tab.
modify the configuration. If the configuration is unlocked, uncheck Inherit from base policy to enable editing.
Step 2 Choose the Block Response Page and Interactive Block Response Page:
• System-provided—Displays a generic response. Click the view icon ( ) to view the code for this page.
• Custom—Create a custom response page. A pop-up window appears, prepopulated with system-provided
code that you can replace or modify by clicking the edit icon ( ). A counter shows how many characters
you have used.

1292
Access Control
Interactive Blocking with HTTP Response Pages
• None—Disables the response page and blocks sessions without interaction or explanation. To quickly
disable interactive blocking for the whole access control policy, choose this option.
What to do next
Interactive Blocking with HTTP Response Pages

When you configure interactive blocking, users can load an originally requested site after reading a warning.
Users may have to refresh after bypassing the response page to load page elements that did not load.
Tip To quickly disable interactive blocking for the whole access control policy, display neither the system-provided
page nor a custom page. The system then blocks all connections without interaction.
If a user does not bypass an interactive block, matching traffic is denied without further inspection. If a user
bypasses an interactive block, the access control rule allows the traffic, although the traffic may still be subject
to deep inspection and blocking.
By default, a user bypass is in effect for 10 minutes (600 seconds) without displaying the warning page on
subsequent visits. You can set the duration to as long as a year, or you can force the user to bypass the block
every time. This limit applies to every Interactive Block rule in the policy. You cannot set the limit per rule.
Logging options for interactively blocked traffic are identical to those in allowed traffic, but if a user does
not bypass the interactive block, the system can log only beginning-of-connection events. When the system
initially warns the user, it marks any logged beginning-of-connection event with the Interactive Block
or Interactive Block with reset action. If the user bypasses the block, additional connection
events logged for the session have an action of Allow.
Configuring Interactive Blocking


Access Admin
Network Admin
Procedure
Step 1 As part of access control, configure an access control rule that matches web traffic; see Creating and Editing
Access Control Rules, on page 1264:
• Action—Set the rule action to Interactive Block or Interactive Block with reset; see Access Control
Rule Interactive Blocking Actions, on page 1268.

1293
Access Control
Setting the User Bypass Timeout for a Blocked Website
• Conditions—Use URL conditions to specify the web traffic to interactively block; see URL Conditions
(URL Filtering), on page 346.
• Logging—Assume users will bypass the block and choose logging options accordingly; see Logging for
Allowed Connections, on page 2322.
• Inspection—Assume users will bypass the block and choose deep inspection options accordingly; see
Access Control Using Intrusion and File Policies, on page 1271.
Step 2 (Optional) On the access control policy HTTP Responses tab, choose a custom interactive-block HTTP
response page; see Choosing HTTP Response Pages, on page 1292.
Step 3 (Optional) On the access control policy Advanced tab, change the user bypass timeout; see Setting the User
Bypass Timeout for a Blocked Website, on page 1294.
After a user bypasses a block, the system allows the user to browse to that page without warning until the
timeout period elapses.
Step 4 Save the access control policy.

Setting the User Bypass Timeout for a Blocked Website


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to General Settings.
to modify the settings.If the configuration is unlocked, uncheck Inherit from base policy to enable editing.
Step 3 In the Allow an Interactive Block to bypass blocking for (seconds) field, type the number of seconds that
must elapse before the user bypass expires. Specifying zero forces your users to bypass the block every time.
Step 4 Click OK.
What to do next

1294
CHAPTER 65
Security Intelligence Blacklisting
The following topics provide an overview of Security Intelligence, including use for blacklisting and whitelisting
traffic and basic configuration.
• About Security Intelligence, on page 1295
• Requirements for Security Intelligence, on page 1296
• Guidelines for Security Intelligence, on page 1296
• Configure Security Intelligence, on page 1297
• Troubleshooting Security Intelligence, on page 1300
About Security Intelligence

As an early line of defense against malicious internet content, Security Intelligence uses reputation intelligence
to quickly block connections to or from IP addresses, URLs, and domain names. This is called Security
Intelligence blacklisting.
Security Intelligence is an early phase of access control, before the system performs more resource-intensive
evaluation. Blacklisting improves performance by quickly excluding traffic that does not require inspection.
Note You cannot blacklist fastpathed traffic. 8000 Series fastpathing and prefilter evaluation occur before Security
Intelligence filtering. Fastpathed traffic bypasses all further evaluation, including Security Intelligence.
Although you can configure custom blacklists, Cisco provides access to regularly updated intelligence feeds.
Sites representing security threats such as malware, spam, botnets, and phishing appear and disappear faster
than you can update and deploy custom configurations.
You can refine Security Intelligence blacklisting with whitelists and monitor-only blacklists. These mechanisms
exempt traffic from being blacklisted, but do not automatically trust or fastpath matching traffic. Traffic
whitelisted or monitored at the Security Intelligence stage is intentionally subject to further analysis with the
rest of access control.
Related Topics
Other Connections You Can Log, on page 2318
Using Connection and Security Intelligence Event Tables, on page 2355

1295
Access Control
Requirements for Security Intelligence
Requirements for Security Intelligence

If you want to whitelist, blacklist, or monitor specific IP addresses, URLs, or domain names, you must configure
custom objects, lists, or feeds. You have the following options:
• To configure network, URL, or DNS feeds, see Creating Security Intelligence Feeds, on page 406.
• To configure network, URL, or DNS lists, see Updating Security Intelligence Lists, on page 409.
• To configure network objects and object groups, see Creating Network Objects, on page 376.
• To configure URL objects and object groups, see Creating URL Objects, on page 381.
Blacklisting, whitelisting, or monitoring traffic based on a DNS list or feed also requires that you:
• Create a DNS policy. See Creating Basic DNS Policies, on page 1303 for more information.
• Configure DNS rules that reference your DNS lists or feeds. See Creating and Editing DNS Rules, on
Because you deploy the DNS policy as part of your access control policy, you must associate both policies.
See DNS Policy Deploy, on page 1312 for more information.
Guidelines for Security Intelligence

Security Intelligence strategies include using:
• Cisco-provided feeds—Cisco provides access to regularly updated intelligence feeds. Sites representing
security threats such as malware, spam, botnets, and phishing appear and disappear faster than you can
update and deploy custom configurations.
• Third-party feeds—Supplement Cisco-provided feeds with third-party reputation feeds, which are dynamic
lists that the Firepower Management Center downloads from the internet on a regular basis.
• Global and custom blacklists—Blacklist specific IP addresses, URLs, or domain names. To improve
performance, you may want to target enforcement, for example, restricting spam blacklisting to a security
zone that handles email traffic.
• Whitelists to eliminate false positives—When a blacklist is too broad in scope, or preemptively blocks
traffic that you want to further analyze with the rest of access control, you can override a blacklist with
a custom whitelist.
• Monitoring instead of blacklisting—Especially useful in passive deployments and for testing feeds before
you implement them; you can merely monitor and log the violating sessions instead of blocking them,
generating end-of-connection events.
Note In passive deployments, to optimize performance, we recommend that you use monitor-only settings. Managed
devices that are deployed passively cannot affect traffic flow; there is no advantage to configuring the system
to block traffic. Additionally, because blocked connections are not actually blocked in passive deployments,
the system may report multiple beginning-of-connection events for each blocked connection.

1296
Access Control
Configure Security Intelligence
Example: Whitelisting
If a reputable feed improperly blocks your access to vital resources but is overall useful to your
organization, you can whitelist only the improperly classified IP addresses, rather than removing the
whole feed from the blacklist.
Example: Security Intelligence by Zone

You can whitelist an improperly classified URL, but then restrict the whitelist object using a security
zone used by those in your organization who need to access those URLs. That way, only those with
a business need can access the whitelisted URLs. Or, you could use a third-party spam feed to blacklist
traffic on an email server security zone.
Example: Monitor-Only Blacklisting

Consider a scenario where you want to test a third-party feed before you implement blocking using
that feed. When you set the feed to monitor-only, the system allows connections that would have
been blocked to be further analyzed by the system, but also logs a record of each of those connections
for your evaluation.


Admin/Network
Admin
Each access control policy has Security Intelligence options. You can whitelist or blacklist network objects,
URL objects and lists, and Security Intelligence feeds and lists, all of which you can constrain by security
zone. You can also associate a DNS policy with your access control policy, and whitelist or blacklist domain
names.
The number of objects in the whitelists plus the number in the blacklists cannot exceed 255 network objects,
or 32767 URL objects and lists.
Before you begin

In passive deployments, or if you want to set Security Intelligence filtering to monitor-only, enable logging;
see Logging Connections with Security Intelligence, on page 2329.

1297
Access Control
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click the Security Intelligence tab.
modify the configuration. If the configuration is unlocked, uncheck Inherit from base policy to enable editing.

• Click the Networks tab to add network objects.
• Click the URLs tab to add URL objects.
Step 3 Find the Available Objects you want to add to the whitelist or blacklist. You have the following options:
• Search the available objects by typing in the Search by name or value field. Clear the search string by
clicking reload ( ) or clear ( ).
• If no existing list or feed meets your needs, click the add icon ( ), select New Network List or New
URL List, and proceed as described in Creating Security Intelligence Feeds, on page 406 or Uploading
New Security Intelligence Lists to the Firepower Management Center, on page 408.
• If no existing object meets your needs, click the add icon ( ), select New Network Object or New
URL Object, and proceed as described in Creating Network Objects, on page 376.
Security Intelligence ignores IP address blocks using a /0 netmask.
Step 4 Choose one or more Available Objects to add.

Step 5 (Optional) Choose an Available Zone to constrain the selected objects by zone.
You cannot constrain system-provided Security Intelligence lists by zone.
Step 6 Click Add to Whitelist or Add to Blacklist, or click and drag the selected objects to either list.
To remove an object from a whitelist or blacklist, click its delete icon ( ) To remove multiple objects, choose
the objects and right-click to Delete Selected.
Step 7 (Optional) Set blacklisted objects to monitor-only by right-clicking the object under Blacklist, then choosing
Monitor-only (do not block).
You cannot set system-provided Security Intelligence lists to monitor only.
Step 8 Choose a DNS policy from the DNS Policy drop-down list; see DNS Policy Overview, on page 1301.
Step 9 Click Save.
What to do next
Related Topics

1298
Access Control
Security Intelligence Options
Security Intelligence Options

Use the Security Intelligence tab in the access control policy editor to configure network (IP address) and
URL Security Intelligence, and to associate the access control policy with a DNS policy.
Object, Zone, and Blacklist Icons

On the Security Intelligence tab of the access control policy editor, each type of object or zone is distinguished
with an different icon.
In the blacklist, objects set to block are marked with the block icon ( ) while monitor-only objects are marked
with the monitor icon ( ). Monitor-only allows the system to handle connections involving blacklisted IP
addresses and URLs using access control, but also logs the connection’s match to the blacklist.
Because the whitelist overrides the blacklist, if you add the same object to both lists, the system displays the
blacklisted object with a strikethrough.
If configured, TID also impacts action prioritization. For more information, see TID-Firepower Management
Center Action Prioritization, on page 1514.
Zone Constraints
Except for the system-provded Global lists, you can constrain Security Intelligence filtering by zone. To
enforce Security Intelligence filtering for an object on multiple zones, you must add the object to the whitelist
or blacklist separately for each zone.
Logging
Security Intelligence logging, enabled by default, logs all blocked and monitored connections handled by an
access control policy’s target devices. However, the system does not log whitelist matches; logging of
whitelisted connections depends on their eventual disposition. You must enable logging for blacklisted
connections before you can set blacklisted objects to monitor-only.
Security Intelligence Categories
Security Intelligence Description

Category
Attacker Active scanners and blacklisted hosts known for outbound malicious activity
Bogon Bogon networks and unallocated IP addresses
Bots Sites that host binary malware droppers
CnC Sites that host command-and-control servers for botnets
Dga Malware algorithms used to generate a large number of domain names acting as
rendezvous points with their command-and-control servers
Exploitkit Software kits designed to identify software vulnerabilities in clients
Malware Sites that host malware binaries or exploit kits
OpenProxy Open proxies that allow anonymous web browsing

1299
Access Control
Troubleshooting Security Intelligence
Security Intelligence Description

Category
OpenRelay Open mail relays that are known to be used for spam
Phishing Sites that host phishing pages
Response IP addresses and URLs that are actively participating in malicious or suspicious
activity
Spam Mail hosts that are known for sending spam
Suspicious Files that appear to be suspicious and have characteristics that resemble known
malware
TorExitNode Tor exit nodes
Related Topics
Blacklist Now, Whitelist Now, and Global Lists, on page 403
Security Intelligence Lists and Multitenancy, on page 404
Troubleshooting Security Intelligence

Troubleshooting Memory Use
Symptoms: Connections that should be blacklisted by Security Intelligence are instead evaluated by access
control rules. The Security Intelligence health module alerts that it is out of memory.
Cause: Memory limitations. Cisco Intelligence Feeds are based on the latest threat intelligence from Cisco
Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos). These feeds tend to get larger as time passes. When
a Firepower device receives a feed update, it loads as many entries as it can into the memory it has allocated
for Security Intelligence. When a device cannot load all the entries, it may not block traffic as expected. Some
connections that should be blacklisted instead continue to be evaluated by access control rules.
Affected platforms: Lower-memory devices are most likely to have this issue, especially if you blacklist a
lot of Security Intelligence categories or are also filtering URLs based on category and reputation. These
devices include Firepower 7010, 7020, and 7030; ASA 5506-X, 5508-X, 5516-X, 5512-X, 5515-X, and
5525-X; NGIPSv.
Workaround: If you think this is happening, redeploy configurations to the affected devices. This can allocate
more memory to Security Intelligence. If the issue persists, contact Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC),
who can help you verify the issue and propose a solution appropriate to your deployment.

1300
CHAPTER 66
DNS Policies
The following topics explain DNS policies, DNS rules, and how to deploy DNS policies to managed devices.
• DNS Policy Overview, on page 1301
• DNS Policy Components, on page 1301
• DNS Rules, on page 1305
• DNS Policy Deploy, on page 1312
DNS Policy Overview

DNS-based Security Intelligence allows you to whitelist or blacklist traffic based on the domain name requested
by a client. Cisco provides domain name intelligence you can use to filter your traffic; you can also configure
custom lists and feeds of domain names tailored to your deployment.
Traffic blacklisted by a DNS policy is immediately blocked and therefore is not subject to any further
inspection—not for intrusions, exploits, malware, and so on, but also not for network discovery. You can
override blacklisting with whitelisting to force access control rule evaluation, and, recommended in passive
deployments, you can use a “monitor-only” setting for Security Intelligence filtering. This allows the system
to analyze connections that would have been blacklisted, but also logs the match to the blacklist and generates
an end-of-connection Security Intelligence event.
Note DNS-based Security Intelligence may not work as intended for a domain name unless the DNS server deletes
a domain cache entry due to expiration, or a client’s DNS cache or the local DNS server’s cache is cleared or
expires.
You configure DNS-based Security Intelligence using a DNS policy and associated DNS rules. To deploy it
to your devices, you must associate your DNS policy with an access control policy, then deploy your
configuration to managed devices.
DNS Policy Components

A DNS policy allows you to whitelist or blacklist connections based on domain name. The following list
describes the configurations you can change after creating a DNS policy.

1301
Access Control
DNS Policy Components

Each DNS policy must have a unique name. A description is optional.
In a multidomain deployment, policy names must be unique within the domain hierarchy. The system
may identify a conflict with the name of a policy you cannot view in your current domain.
Rules
Rules provide a granular method of handling network traffic based on the domain name. Rules in a DNS
policy are numbered, starting at 1. The system matches traffic to DNS rules in top-down order by ascending
rule number.
When you create a DNS policy, the system populates it with a default Global DNS Whitelist rule and a
default Global DNS Blacklist rule. Both rules are fixed to the first position in their respective categories.
You cannot modify these rules, but you can disable them.
In a multidomain deployment, the system also adds Descendant DNS Whitelists and Descendant DNS
Blacklists rules to DNS policies in ancestor domains. These rules are fixed to the second position in their
respective categories.
Note If multitenancy is enabled for your Firepower Management Center, the system is organized into a hierarchy
of domains, including ancestor and descendant domains. These domains are distinct and separate from
the domain names used in DNS management.
A descendant list contains the domains whitelisted or blacklisted by Firepower System subdomain users.
From an ancestor domain, you cannot view the contents of descendant lists. If you do not want subdomain
users to whitelist or blacklist domains:
• disable the descendant list rules, and
• enforce Security Intelligence using the access control policy inheritance settings
The system evaluates rules in the following order:

• Global DNS Whitelist rule (if enabled)
• Descendant DNS Whitelists rule (if enabled)
• Whitelist rules
• Global DNS Blacklist rule (if enabled)
• Descendant DNS Blacklists rule (if enabled)
• Blacklist and Monitor rules
Usually, the system handles DN-based network traffic according to the first DNS rule where all the rule’s
conditions match the traffic. If no DNS rules match the traffic, the system continues evaluating the traffic
based on the associated access control policy's rules. DNS rule conditions can be simple or complex.

1302
Access Control
Creating Basic DNS Policies
Creating Basic DNS Policies


Admin/Network
Admin
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Policies > Access Control > DNS.

Step 2 Click Add DNS Policy.
Step 3 Give the policy a unique Name and, optionally, a Description.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
• Optionally, further configure the new policy as described in Logging Connections with Security
Intelligence, on page 2329.
Editing DNS Policies


Admin/Network
Admin
Only one person should edit a DNS policy at a time, using a single browser window. If multiple users attempt
to save the same policy, only the first set of saved changes are retained.
To protect the privacy of your session, after thirty minutes of inactivity on the policy editor, a warning appears.
After sixty minutes, the system discards your changes.
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the DNS policy you want to edit.
Step 3 Edit your DNS policy:

1303
Access Control
Managing DNS Policies
• Name and Description—To change the name or description, click the field and type the new information.
• Rules—To add, categorize, enable, disable, or otherwise manage DNS rules, click the Rules tab and
proceed as described in Creating and Editing DNS Rules, on page 1305.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
Managing DNS Policies


Admin/Network
Admin
Use the DNS Policy page (Policies > Access Control > DNS) to manage custom DNS policies. In addition
to custom policies that you create, the system provides the Default DNS Policy, which uses the default blacklist
and whitelist. You can edit and use this system-provided custom policy. In a multidomain deployment, this
default policy uses the default Global DNS Blacklist, Global DNS Whitelist, Descendant DNS Blacklists,
and Descendant DNS Whitelists, and can only be edited in the Global domain.
Procedure

Step 2 Manage your DNS policy:
• Compare—To compare DNS policies, click Compare Policies and proceed as described in Comparing
Policies, on page 319.
• Copy—To copy a DNS policy, click the copy icon ( ) and proceed as described in Editing DNS Policies,
on page 1303.
• Create—To create a new DNS policy, click Add DNS Policy and proceed as described in Creating Basic
DNS Policies, on page 1303.
• Delete—To delete a DNS policy, click the delete icon ( ), then confirm you want to delete the policy.
• Edit—To modify an existing DNS policy, click the edit icon ( ) and proceed as described in Editing
DNS Policies, on page 1303.

1304
Access Control
DNS Rules
DNS Rules
DNS rules handle traffic based on the domain name requested by a host. As part of Security Intelligence, this
evaluation happens after any traffic decryption, and before access control evaluation.
The system matches traffic to DNS rules in the order you specify. In most cases, the system handles network
traffic according to the first DNS rule where all the rule’s conditions match the traffic. When you create DNS
rules, the system places whitelist rules before monitor and blacklist rules, and evaluates traffic against whitelist
rules first.
In addition to its unique name, each DNS rule has the following basic components:
State
By default, rules are enabled. If you disable a rule, the system does not use it to evaluate network traffic, and
stops generating warnings and errors for that rule.
Position
Rules in a DNS policy are numbered, starting at 1. The system matches traffic to rules in top-down order by
ascending rule number. With the exception of Monitor rules, the first rule that traffic matches is the rule that
handles that traffic.
Conditions
Conditions specify the specific traffic the rule handles. A DNS rule must contain a DNS feed or list condition,
and can also match traffic by security zone, network, or VLAN.
Action
A rule’s action determines how the system handles matching traffic:
• Whitelisted traffic is allowed, subject to further access control inspection.
• Monitored traffic is subject to further evaluation by remaining DNS blacklist rules. If the traffic does
not match a DNS blacklist rule, it is inspected with access control rules. The system logs a Security
Intelligence event for the traffic.
• Blacklisted traffic is dropped without further inspection. You can also return a Domain Not Found
response, or redirect the DNS query to a sinkhole server.
Related Topics
About Security Intelligence, on page 1295
Creating and Editing DNS Rules


Admin/Network
Admin

1305
Access Control
DNS Rule Management
In a DNS policy, you can add up to a total of 32767 DNS lists to the whitelist and blacklist rules; that is, the
number of lists in the DNS policy cannot exceed 32767.
Procedure
Step 1 In the DNS policy editor, you have the following options:
• To add a new rule, click Add DNS Rule.

Step 3 Configure the rule components, or accept the defaults:
• Action—Choose a rule Action; see DNS Rule Actions, on page 1307.
• Conditions—Configure the rule’s conditions; see DNS Rule Conditions, on page 1309.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
DNS Rule Management

The Rules tab of the DNS policy editor allows you to add, edit, move, enable, disable, delete, and otherwise
manage DNS rules within your policy.
For each rule, the policy editor displays its name, a summary of its conditions, and the rule action. Other icons
represent warnings ( ), errors ( ), and other important information ( ). Disabled rules are dimmed and
marked (disabled) beneath the rule name.
Enabling and Disabling DNS Rules


Admin/Network
Admin
When you create a DNS rule, it is enabled by default. If you disable a rule, the system does not use it to
evaluate network traffic and stops generating warnings and errors for that rule. When viewing the list of rules
in a DNS policy, disabled rules are dimmed, although you can still modify them. Note that you can also enable
or disable a DNS rule using the DNS rule editor.

1306
Access Control
DNS Rule Order Evaluation
Procedure
Step 1 In the DNS policy editor, right-click the rule and choose a rule state.
Step 2 Click Save.
What to do next
DNS Rule Order Evaluation

Rules in a DNS policy are numbered, starting at 1. The system matches traffic to DNS rules in top-down order
by ascending rule number. In most cases, the system handles network traffic according to the first DNS rule
where all the rule’s conditions match the traffic:
• For Monitor rules, the system logs the traffic, then continues evaluating traffic against lower-priority
DNS blacklist rules.
• For non-Monitor rules, the system does not continue to evaluate traffic against additional, lower-priority
DNS rules after that traffic matches a rule.
Note the following regarding rule order:

• The Global Whitelist is always first, and takes precedence over all other rules.
• The Descendant DNS Whitelists rule only appears in multidomain deployments, in non-leaf domains. It
is always second, and takes precedence over all other rules except the Global Whitelist.
• The Whitelist section precedes the Blacklist section; whitelist rules always take precedence over other
rules.
• The Global Blacklist is always first in the Blacklist section, and takes precedence over all other Monitor
and blacklist rules.
• The Descendant DNS Blacklists rule only appears in multidomain deployments, in non-leaf domains. It
is always second in the Blacklist section, and takes precedence over all other Monitor and blacklist rules
except the Global Blacklist.
• The Blacklist section contains Monitor and blacklist rules.
• When you first create a DNS rule, the system positions it last in the Whitelist section if you assign a
Whitelist action, or last in the Blacklist section if you assign any other action.
You can drag and drop rules to reorder them.
DNS Rule Actions

Every DNS rule has an action that determines the following for matching traffic:
• handling—foremost, the rule action governs whether the system will whitelist, monitor, or blacklist
traffic that matches the rule’s conditions

1307
Access Control
DNS Rule Actions
• logging—the rule action determines when and how you can log details about matching traffic
Keep in mind that only devices deployed inline can blacklist traffic. Devices deployed passively or in tap
mode can whitelist and log, but not affect, traffic.
Whitelist Action
The Whitelist action allows matching traffic to pass. When you whitelist traffic, it is subject to further
inspection either by a matching access control rule, or the access control policy's default action.
The system does not log whitelist matches. However, logging of whitelisted connections depends on their
eventual disposition.
Monitor Action
The Monitor action does not affect traffic flow; matching traffic is neither immediately whitelisted nor
blacklisted. Rather, traffic is matched against additional rules to determine whether to permit or deny it. The
first non-Monitor DNS rule matched determines whether the system blacklists the traffic. If there are no
additional matching rules, the traffic is subject to access control evaluation.
For connections monitored by a DNS policy, the system logs end-of-connection Security Intelligence and
connection events to the Firepower Management Center database.
Blacklist Actions
The blacklist actions blacklist traffic without further inspection of any kind:
• The Drop action drops the traffic.
• The Domain Not Found action returns a non-existent internet domain response to the DNS query, which
prevents the client from resolving the DNS request.
• The Sinkhole action returns a sinkhole object's IPv4 or IPv6 address in response to the DNS query. The
sinkhole server can log, or log and block, follow-on connections to the IP address. If you configure a
Sinkhole action, you must also configure a sinkhole object.
For a connection blacklisted based on the Drop or Domain Not Found actions, the system logs
beginning-of-connection Security Intelligence and connection events. Because blacklisted traffic is immediately
denied without further inspection, there is no unique end of connection to log.
For a connection blacklisted based on the Sinkhole action, logging depends on the sinkhole object configuration.
If you configure your sinkhole object to only log sinkhole connections, the system logs end-of-connection
connection events for the follow-on connection. If you configure your sinkhole object to log and block sinkhole
connections, the system logs beginning-of-connection connection events for the follow-on connection, then
blocks that connection.

1308
Access Control
DNS Rule Conditions
Note On an ASA FirePOWER device, if you configure a DNS rule with a sinkhole action, and traffic matches the
rule, the ASA blocks the follow-on sinkhole connection by default. As a workaround, run the following
commands from the ASA command line:
asa(config)# policy-map global_policy
asa(config-pmap)# class inspection_default
asa(config-pmap-c)# no inspect dns preset_dns_map
If the ASA continues to block the connection, contact Support.
Related Topics
How Rules and Policy Actions Affect Logging, on page 2319
DNS Rule Conditions

A DNS rule’s conditions identify the type of traffic that rule handles. Conditions can be simple or complex.
You must define a DNS feed or list condition within a DNS rule. You can also optionally control traffic by
security zone, network, or VLAN.
When adding conditions to a DNS rule:
• If you do not configure a particular condition for a rule, the system does not match traffic based on that
criterion.
• You can configure multiple conditions per rule. Traffic must match all the conditions in the rule for the
rule to apply to traffic. For example, a rule with a DNS feed or list condition and network condition but
no VLAN tag condition evaluates traffic based on the domain name and source or destination, regardless
of any VLAN tagging in the session.
• For each condition in a rule, you can add up to 50 criteria. Traffic that matches any of a condition’s
criteria satisfies the condition. For example, you can use a single rule to blacklist traffic based on up to
50 DNS lists and feeds.
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS and Security Zone


Admin/Network
Admin
Zone conditions in DNS rules allow you to control traffic by its source and destination security zones. A
security zone is a grouping of one or more interfaces, which may be located across multiple devices. An option
you choose during a device’s initial setup, called its detection mode, determines how the system initially
configures the device’s interfaces, and whether those interfaces belong to a security zone.
Procedure
Step 1 In the DNS rule editor, click the Zones tab.

1309
Access Control
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS and Network
Step 2 Find and select the zones you want to add from the Available Zones. To search for zones to add, click the
Search by name prompt above the Available Zones list, then type a zone name. The list updates as you type
to display matching zones.
Step 3 Click to select a zone, or right-click and then select Select All.
Step 4 Click Add to Source, or drag and drop.
What to do next
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS and Network


Admin/Network
Admin
Network conditions in DNS rules allow you to control traffic by its source IP address. You can explicitly
specify the source IP addresses for the traffic you want to control.
Procedure
Step 1 In the DNS rule editor, click the Networks tab.

Step 2 Find and select the networks you want to add from the Available Networks, as follows:
• To add a network object on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add icon ( )
above the Available Networks list and proceed as described in Creating Network Objects, on page 376.
• To search for network objects to add, click the Search by name or value prompt above the Available
Networks list, then type an object name or the value of one of the object’s components. The list updates
as you type to display matching objects.
Step 3 Click Add to Source, or drag and drop.

Step 4 Add any source IP addresses or address blocks that you want to specify manually. Click the Enter an IP
address prompt below the Source Networks list; then type an IP address or address block and click Add.
What to do next

1310
Access Control
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS and VLAN
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS and VLAN


Admin/Network
Admin
VLAN conditions in DNS rules allow you to control VLAN-tagged traffic. The system uses the innermost
VLAN tag to identify a packet by VLAN.
When you build a VLAN-based DNS rule condition, you can manually specify VLAN tags. Alternately, you
can configure VLAN conditions with VLAN tag objects, which are reusable and associate a name with one
or more VLAN tags.
Procedure
Step 1 In the DNS rule editor, select the VLAN Tags tab.
Step 2 Find and select the VLANs you want to add from the Available VLAN Tags, as follows:
• To add a VLAN tag object on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add icon ( )
above the Available VLAN Tags list and proceed as described in Creating VLAN Tag Objects, on page
379.
• To search for VLAN tag objects and groups to add, click the Search by name or value prompt above
the Available VLAN Tags list, then type either the name of the object, or the value of a VLAN tag in
the object. The list updates as you type to display matching objects.

Step 4 Add any VLAN tags that you want to specify manually. Click the Enter a VLAN Tag prompt below the
Selected VLAN Tags list; then type a VLAN tag or range and click Add. You can specify any VLAN tag
from 1 to 4094; use a hyphen to specify a range of VLAN tags.
VLAN tags to constrain this configuration can have unexpected results. Using override-enabled objects allows
descendant domain administrators to tailor Global configurations to their local environments.
What to do next

1311
Access Control
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS List, Feed, or Category
Controlling Traffic Based on DNS List, Feed, or Category


Admin/Network
Admin
DNS conditions in DNS rules allow you to control traffic if a DNS list, feed, or category contains the domain
name requested by the client. You must define a DNS condition in a DNS rule.
Regardless of whether you add a global or custom whitelist or blacklist to a DNS condition, the system applies
the configured rule action to the traffic. For example, if you add the Global Whitelist to a rule, and configure
a Drop action, the system blacklists all traffic that should have been whitelisted.
Procedure
Step 1 In the DNS rule editor, click the DNS tab.

Step 2 Find and select the DNS lists and feeds you want to add from the DNS Lists and Feeds, as follows:
• To add a DNS list or feed on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add icon ( )
above the DNS Lists and Feeds list and proceed as described in Creating Security Intelligence Feeds,
on page 406 .
• To search for DNS lists, feeds, or categories to add, click the Search by name or value prompt above
the DNS Lists and Feeds list, then type an object name or the value of one of the object’s components.
The list updates as you type to display matching objects.

What to do next
DNS Policy Deploy

Smart License Classic License Supported Devices Supported Domains
Threat Protection Any Any
After you finish updating your DNS policy configuration, you must deploy it as part of access control
configuration.
• Associate your DNS policy with an access control policy, as described in Configure Security Intelligence,
on page 1297.

1312
CHAPTER 67
Prefiltering and Prefilter Policies
The following topics describe how to configure prefiltering:
• About Prefiltering, on page 1313
• Guidelines and Limitations for Prefiltering, on page 1316
• Configure Prefiltering, on page 1316
• Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering, on page 1321
About Prefiltering
Prefiltering is the first phase of access control, before the system performs more resource-intensive evaluation.
Prefiltering is simple, fast, and early. Prefiltering uses limited outer-header criteria to quickly handle traffic.
Compare this to subsequent evaluation, which uses inner headers and has more robust inspection capabilities.
Configure prefiltering to:
• Improve performance— The sooner you exclude traffic that does not require inspection, the better. You
can fastpath or block certain types of plaintext, passthrough tunnels based on their outer encapsulation
headers, without inspecting their encapsulated connections. You can also fastpath or block any other
connections that benefit from early handling.
• Tailor deep inspection to encapsulated traffic—You can rezone certain types of tunnels, so that you can
later handle their encapsulated connections using the same inspection criteria. Rezoning is necessary
because after prefiltering, access control uses inner headers.
Prefiltering vs Access Control

Prefilter and access control policies both allow you to block and trust traffic, though the prefiltering "trust"
functionality is called "fastpathing" because it skips more inspection. The following table explains this and
other differences between prefiltering and access control, to help you decide whether to configure custom
prefiltering.
If you do not configure custom prefiltering, you can only approximate—not replicate—prefilter functionality
with early-placed Block and Trust rules in the access control policy.

1313
Access Control
Prefiltering vs Access Control
Characteristic Prefiltering Access Control For more information, see...
Primary function Quickly fastpath or block certain Inspect and control all network About Prefiltering, on page 1313
types of plaintext, passthrough traffic, using simple or complex
tunnels (see Encapsulation criteria, including contextual
Conditions, on page 338), or tailor information and deep inspection
subsequent inspection to their results.
encapsulated traffic.
Fastpath or block any other
connections that benefit from early
handling.
Implementation Prefilter policy. Access control policy. About Prefilter Policies, on page 1318
The prefilter policy is invoked by The access control policy is a Associating Other Policies with
the access control policy. master configuration. In addition Access Control, on page 1254
to invoking subpolicies, access
control policies have their own
rules.
Sequence within First. — —

access control
The system matches traffic to
prefilter criteria before all other
access control configurations.
Rule actions Fewer. More. Tunnel and Prefilter Rule

Components, on page 1319
You can stop further inspection Access control rules have a larger
(Fastpath and Block) or allow variety of actions, including Access Control Rule Actions, on
further analysis with the rest of monitoring, deep inspection, block page 1266
access control (Analyze). with reset, and interactive blocking.
Bypass capability Fastpath rule action. Trust rule action. Introduction to Access Control
Rules, on page 1257
Fastpathing traffic in the prefilter Traffic trusted by access control
stage bypasses all further inspection rules is only exempt from deep
and handling, including: inspection and discovery.
• Security Intelligence
• authentication requirements
imposed by an identity policy
• SSL decryption
• access control rules
• deep inspection of packet
payloads
• discovery
• rate limiting

1314
Access Control
Passthrough Tunnels and Access Control
Characteristic Prefiltering Access Control For more information, see...
Rule criteria Limited. Robust. Tunnel vs Prefilter Rules, on page

1318
Rules in the prefilter policy use Access control rules use network
simple network criteria: IP address, criteria, but also user, application, Rule Condition Types, on page 327
VLAN tag, port, and protocol. requested URL, and other
contextual information available in
For tunnels, tunnel endpoint
packet payloads.
conditions specify the IP address of
the routed interfaces of the network Network conditions specify the IP
devices on either side of the tunnel. address of source and destination
hosts.
IP headers used Outermost. Innermost possible. Passthrough Tunnels and Access

(tunnel handling) Control, on page 1315
Using outer headers allows you to For a nonencrypted tunnel, access
handle entire plaintext, passthrough control acts on its individual
tunnels. encapsulated connections, not the
tunnel as a whole.
For nonencapsulated traffic,
prefiltering still uses "outer"
headers—which in this case are the
only headers.
Rezone encapsulated Rezones tunneled traffic. Uses tunnel zones. Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering, on
connections for page 1321
Tunnel zones allow you to tailor Access control uses the tunnel
further analysis
subsequent inspection to prefiltered, zones you assign during
encapsulated traffic. prefiltering.
Connection logging Fastpathed and blocked traffic only. Any connection. Other Connections You Can Log,
Allowed connections may still be on page 2318
logged by other configurations.
Supported devices Firepower Threat Defense only. All. Guidelines and Limitations for
Prefiltering, on page 1316
Passthrough Tunnels and Access Control

Plaintext (nonencrypted) tunnels can encapsulate multiple connections, often flowing between discontinuous
networks. These tunnels are especially useful for routing custom protocols over IP networks, IPv6 traffic over
IPv4 networks, and so on.
An outer encapsulation header specifies the source and destination IP addresses of the tunnel endpoints—the
routed interfaces of the network devices on either side of the tunnel. Inner payload headers specify the source
and destination IP addresses of the encapsulated connections' actual endpoints.
Often, network security devices handle plaintext tunnels as passthrough traffic. That is, the device is not one
of the tunnel endpoints. Instead, it is deployed between the tunnel endpoints and monitors the traffic flowing
between them.

1315
Access Control
Guidelines and Limitations for Prefiltering
Some network security devices, such as Cisco ASA firewalls running Cisco ASA Software (rather than
Firepower Threat Defense), enforce security policies using outer IP headers. Even for plaintext tunnels, these
devices have no control over or insight into individual encapsulated connections and their payloads.
By contrast, the Firepower System leverages access control as follows:
• Outer header evaluation—First, prefiltering uses outer headers to handle traffic. You can block or fastpath
entire plaintext, passthrough tunnels at this stage.
• Inner header evaluation—Next, the rest of access control (and other features such as QoS) use the
innermost detectable level of headers to ensure the most granular level of inspection and handling possible.
If a passthrough tunnel is not encrypted, the system acts on its individual encapsulated connections at
this stage. You must rezone a tunnel (see Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering, on page 1321) to act on all its
encapsulated connections.
Access control has no insight into encrypted passthrough tunnels. For example, access control rules see a
passthrough VPN tunnel as one connection. The system handles the entire tunnel using only the information
in its outer, encapsulation header.
Guidelines and Limitations for Prefiltering

Model Requirements
Prefiltering is supported on Firepower Threat Defense devices only. Prefilter configurations have no effect
on other devices.
Prefilter-like Capabilities on Other Devices

For Classic devices (7000/8000 series, ASA FirePOWER, NGIPSv):
• Use early-placed Trust and Block access control rules to approximate prefilter functionality, keeping in
mind the differences between the two features. See Prefiltering vs Access Control, on page 1313.
• Match entire GRE-encapsulated tunnels using access control rules, with some limitations. See Port and
ICMP Code Conditions, on page 336.
• (8000 series only) Device-specific fastpath rules can bypass access control, but cannot block traffic. See
Configuring Fastpath Rules (8000 Series), on page 207.
Configure Prefiltering
Admin/Network
Admin
To perform custom prefiltering, configure and deploy prefilter policies to managed devices, as a part of access
control.

1316
Access Control
Configure Prefiltering
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Policies > Access Control > Prefilter.

Step 2 Click New Policy to create a custom prefilter policy.
A new prefilter policy has no rules and a default action of Analyze all tunnel traffic. It performs no logging
or tunnel rezoning. You can also copy ( ) or edit ( ) an existing policy.
Step 3 Configure the prefilter policy's default action and its logging options.
• Default action—Choose a default action for supported plaintext, passthrough tunnels: Analyze all tunnel
traffic (with access control) or Block all tunnel traffic.
• Default action logging—Click the logging icon ( ) next to the default action; see Logging Connections
with a Policy Default Action, on page 2331. You can configure default action logging for blocked tunnels
only.
Step 4 Configure tunnel and prefilter rules.

In a custom prefilter policy, you can use both kinds of rule, in any order. Create rules depending on the specific
type of traffic you want to match and the actions or further analysis you want to perform; see Tunnel vs
Prefilter Rules, on page 1318.
Caution Exercise caution when using tunnel rules to assign tunnel zones. Connections in rezoned tunnels
may not match security zone constraints in later evaluation. For more information, see Tunnel Zones
and Prefiltering, on page 1321.
For detailed information on configuring rule components, see Tunnel and Prefilter Rule Components, on page
1319 and Rule Management: Common Characteristics, on page 325.
Step 5 Evaluate rule order. To move a rule, click and drag or use the right-click menu to cut and paste.
Properly creating and ordering rules is a complex task, but one that is essential to building an effective
deployment. If you do not plan carefully, rules can preempt other rules or contain invalid configurations. For
more information, see Rule Performance Guidelines, on page 356.
Step 6 Save the prefilter policy.

Step 7 For configurations that support tunnel zone constraints, appropriately handle rezoned tunnels.
Match connections in rezoned tunnels by using tunnel zones as source zone constraints; see Configuring
Interface Conditions, on page 331.
Step 8 Associate the prefilter policy with the access control policy deployed to your managed devices.
See Associating Other Policies with Access Control, on page 1254.

1317
Access Control
About Prefilter Policies
About Prefilter Policies

Prefiltering is a policy-based feature. In the Firepower System, an access control policy is a master configuration
that invokes subpolicies and other configurations, including a prefilter policy.
Policy Components: Rules and Default Action

In a prefilter policy, tunnel rules, prefilter rules, and a default action handle network traffic:
• Tunnel and prefilter rules—First, rules in a prefilter policy handle traffic in the order you specify. Tunnel
rules match specific tunnels only and support rezoning. Prefilter rules have a wider range of constraints
and do not support rezoning. For more information, see Tunnel vs Prefilter Rules, on page 1318.
• Default action (tunnels only)—If a tunnel does not match any rules, the default action handles it. The
default action can block these tunnels, or continue access control on their individual encapsulated
connections. You cannot rezone tunnels with the default action.
There is no default action for nonencapsulated traffic. If a nonencapsulated connection does not match
any prefilter rules, the system continues with access control.
Connection Logging
You can log connections fastpathed and blocked by the prefilter policy; see Other Connections You Can Log,
on page 2318.
Connection events contain information on whether and how logged connections—including entire tunnels—were
prefiltered. You can view this information in event views (workflows), dashboards, and reports, and use it as
correlation criteria. Keep in mind that because fastpathed and blocked connections are not subject to deep
inspection, associated connection events contain limited information.
Default Prefilter Policy

Every access control policy has an associated prefilter policy.
The system uses a default policy if you do not configure custom prefiltering. Initially, this system-provided
policy passes all traffic to the next phase of access control. You can change the policy's default action and
configure its logging options, but you cannot add rules to it or delete it.
Prefilter Policy Inheritance and Multitenancy

Access control uses a hierarchical implementation that complements multitenancy. Along with other advanced
settings, you can lock a prefilter policy association, enforcing that association in all descendant access control
policies. For more information, see Access Control Policy Inheritance, on page 1243.
in a lower domain, switch to that domain. The default prefilter policy belongs to the Global domain.
Tunnel vs Prefilter Rules

Whether you configure a tunnel or prefilter rule depends on the specific type of traffic you want to match and
the actions or further analysis you want to perform.

1318
Access Control
Tunnel and Prefilter Rule Components
Characteristic Tunnel Rules Prefilter Rules
Primary function Quickly fastpath, block, or rezone plaintext, Quickly fastpath or block any other
passthough tunnels. connection that benefits from early
handling.
Encapsulation and Encapsulation conditions match only Port conditions can use a wider range of
port/protocol criteria plaintext tunnels over selected protocols, port and protocol constraints than tunnel
listed in Encapsulation Conditions, on page rules; see Port and ICMP Code Conditions,
338. on page 336.
Network criteria Tunnel endpoint conditions constrain the Network conditions constrain the source
endpoints of the tunnels you want to and destination hosts in each connection;
handle; see Tunnel Endpoint Conditions, see Network Conditions, on page 332.
on page 334.
Direction Bidirectional or unidirectional Unidirectional only (nonconfigurable).

(configurable).
Prefilter rules match source-to-destination
Tunnel rules are bidirectional by default, traffic only.
so they can handle all traffic between
tunnel endpoints.
Rezone sessions for Supported, using tunnel zones; see Tunnel Not supported.
further analysis Zones and Prefiltering, on page 1321.

State (Enabled/Disabled)
Position
Rules are numbered, starting at 1. The system matches traffic to rules in top-down order by ascending rule
number. The first rule that traffic matches is the rule that handles that traffic, regardless of rule type (tunnel
vs prefilter).
Action
A rule's action determines how the system handles and logs matching traffic:
• Fastpath—Exempts matching traffic from all futher inspection and control, including access control,
identity requirements, and rate limiting. Fastpathing a tunnel fastpaths all encapsulated connections.
• Block—Blocks matching traffic without further inspection of any kind. Blocking a tunnel blocks all
encapsulated connections.
• Analyze—Allows traffic to continue to be analyzed by the rest of access control, using inner headers. If
passed by access control and any related deep inspection, this traffic may also be rate limited. For tunnel
rules, enables rezoning with the Assign Tunnel Zone option.

1319
Access Control
Direction (Tunnel Rules Only)

A tunnel rule's direction determines how the system source and destination criteria:
• Match tunnels only from source (unidirectional)—Match source-to-destination traffic only. Matching
traffic must originate from one of the specified source interfaces or tunnel endpoints, and leave through
one of the destination interfaces or tunnel endpoints.
• Match tunnels from source and destination (bidirectional)—Match both source-to-destination traffic and
destination-to-source traffic. The effect is identical to writing two unidirectional rules, one the mirror of
the other.
Prefilter rules are always unidirectional.
Assign Tunnel Zone (Tunnel Rules Only)

In a tunnel rule, assigning a tunnel zone (whether existing or created on the fly), rezones matching tunnels.
Rezoning requires the Analyze action.
Rezoning a tunnel allows other configurations—such as access control rules—to recognize all the tunnel's
encapsulated connections as belonging together. By using a tunnel's assigned tunnel zone as an interface
constraint, you can tailor inspection to its encapsulated connections. For more information, see Tunnel Zones
and Prefiltering, on page 1321.
Caution Exercise caution when assigning tunnel zones. Connections in rezoned tunnels may not match security zone
constraints in later evaluation. See Using Tunnel Zones, on page 1321 for a brief walkthrough of a tunnel zone
implementation, and a discussion of the implications of rezoning without explicitly handling rezoned traffic.
Conditions
Conditions specify the specific traffic the rule handles. Traffic must match all a rule's conditions to match the
rule. Each condition type has its own tab in the rule editor.
You can prefilter traffic using the following outer-header constraints:
• Interface—Interface Conditions, on page 330
• Network—Tunnel Endpoint Conditions, on page 334 or Network Conditions, on page 332
• Port—Encapsulation Conditions, on page 338 or Port and ICMP Code Conditions, on page 336
• VLAN—VLAN Conditions, on page 335
You must constrain tunnel rules by encapsulation protocol.
Logging
A rule's logging settings govern the records the system keeps of the traffic it handles.
In tunnel and prefilter rules, you can log fastpathed and blocked traffic (the Fastpath and Block actions). For
traffic subject to further analysis (the Analyze action), logging in the prefilter policy is disabled, although
matching connections may still be logged by other configurations. For more information, see Logging
Connections with Tunnel and Prefilter Rules, on page 2328.

1320
Access Control
Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering
Comments
Each time you save changes to a rule you can add comments. For example, you might summarize the overall
configuration for the benefit of other users, or note when you change a rule and the reason for the change.
You cannot edit or delete these comments after you save the rule.
Related Topics
Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering

Tunnel zones allow you to use prefiltering to tailor subsequent traffic handling to encapsulated connections.
A special mechanism is required because usually, the system handles traffic using the innermost detectable
level of headers. This ensures the most granular level of inspection possible. But it also means that if a
passthrough tunnel is not encrypted, the system acts on its individual encapsulated connections; see Passthrough
Tunnels and Access Control, on page 1315.
Tunnel zones solve this problem. During the first phase of access control (prefiltering) you can use outer
headers to identify certain types of plaintext, pasthrough tunnels. Then, you can rezone those tunnels by
assigning a custom tunnel zone.
Rezoning a tunnel allows other configurations—such as access control rules—to recognize all the tunnel's
encapsulated connections as belonging together. By using a tunnel's assigned tunnel zone as an interface
constraint, you can tailor inspection to its encapsulated connections.
Despite its name, a tunnel zone is not a security zone. A tunnel zone does not represent a set of interfaces. It
is more accurate to think of a tunnel zone as a tag that, in some cases, replaces the security zone associated
with an encapsulated connection.
Caution For configurations that support tunnel zone constraints, connections in rezoned tunnels do not match security
zone constraints. For example, after you rezone a tunnel, access control rules can match its encapsulated
connections with their newly assigned tunnel zone, but not with any original security zone.
See Using Tunnel Zones, on page 1321 for a brief walkthough of a tunnel zone implementation, and a discussion
of the implications of rezoning without explicitly handling rezoned traffic.
Configurations Supporting Tunnel Zone Constraints

Only access control rules support tunnel zone constraints.
No other configurations support tunnel zone constraints. For example, you cannot use QoS to rate limit a
plaintext tunnel as a whole; you can only rate limit its individual encapsulated sessions.
Using Tunnel Zones

Any Any FTD Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin

1321
Access Control
Using Tunnel Zones
This example procedure summarizes how you might rezone GRE tunnels for further analysis, using tunnel
zones. You can adapt the concepts described in this example to other scenarios where you need to tailor traffic
inspection to connections encapsulated in plaintext, passthrough tunnels.
Consider a Firepower System deployment where your organization's internal traffic flows through the Trusted
security zone. The Trusted security zone represents a set of sensing interfaces across multiple managed devices
deployed in various locations. Your organization's security policy requires that you allow internal traffic after
deep inspection for exploits and malware.
Internal traffic sometimes includes plaintext, passthrough, GRE tunnels between particular endpoints. Because
the traffic profile of this encapsulated traffic is different from your "normal" interoffice activity—perhaps it
is known and benign—you can limit inspection of certain encapsulated connections while still complying
with your security policy.
In this example, after you deploy configuration changes:
• Plaintext, passthrough, GRE-encapsulated tunnels detected in the Trusted zone have their individual
encapsulated connections evaluated by one set of intrusion and file policies.
• All other traffic in the Trusted zone is evaluated with a different set of intrusion and file policies.
You accomplish this task by rezoning GRE tunnels. Rezoning ensures that access control associates
GRE-encapsulated connections with a custom tunnel zone, rather than their original Trusted security zone.
Rezoning is required due to the way the Firepower System and access control handle encapsulated traffic; see
Passthrough Tunnels and Access Control, on page 1315 and Tunnel Zones and Prefiltering, on page 1321.
Procedure
Step 1 Configure custom intrusion and file policies that tailor deep inspection to encapsulated traffic, and another
set of intrusion and file policies tailored to nonencapsulated traffic.
Step 2 Configure custom prefiltering to rezone GRE tunnels flowing through the Trusted security zone.
Create a custom prefilter policy and associate it with access control. In that custom prefilter policy, create a
tunnel rule (in this example, GRE_tunnel_rezone) and a corresponding tunnel zone (GRE_tunnel).
For more information, see Configure Prefiltering, on page 1316.
Table 83: GRE_tunnel_rezone Tunnel Rule
Rule Component Description
Interface object condition Match internal-only tunnels by using the Trusted security zone as both a Source
Interface Object and Destination Interface Object constraint.
Tunnel endpoint condition Specify the source and destination endpoints for the GRE tunnels used in your
organization.
Tunnel rules are bidirectional by default. If you do not change the Match tunnels
from... option, it does not matter which endpoints you specify as source and
which as destination.
Encapsulation condition Match GRE traffic.
Assign Tunnel Zone Create the GRE_tunnel tunnel zone, and assign it to tunnels that match the
rule.

1322
Access Control
Using Tunnel Zones
Action Analyze (with the rest of access control).
Step 3 Configure access control to handle connections in rezoned tunnels.

In the access control policy deployed to your managed devices, configure a rule (in this example,
GRE_inspection) that handles the traffic you rezoned. For more information, see Creating and Editing
Access Control Rules, on page 1264.
Table 84: GRE_inspection Access Control Rule
Security zone condition Match rezoned tunnels by using the GRE_tunnel security zone as a Source Zone
constraint; see Interface Conditions, on page 330.
Action Allow, with deep inspection enabled.

Choose the file and intrusion policies tailored to inspect encapsulated internal
traffic.
Caution If you skip this step, the rezoned connections may match any access control rule not constrained
by security zone. If the rezoned connections do not match any access control rules, they are handled
by the access control policy default action. Make sure this is your intent.
Step 4 Configure access control to handle nonencapsulated connections flowing through the Trusted security zone.
In the same access control policy, configure a rule (in this example, internal_default_inspection)
that handles non-rezoned traffic in the Trusted security zone.
Table 85: internal_default_inspection Access Control Rule
Security zone condition Match non-rezoned internal-only traffic by using the Trusted security zone as
both a Source Zone and Destination Zone constraint.
Action Allow, with deep inspection enabled.

Choose the file and intrusion policies tailored to inspect nonencapsulated internal
traffic.
Step 5 Evaluate the position of the new access control rules relative to preexisting rules. Change rule order if necessary.
If you place the two new access control rules next to each other, it does not matter which you place first.
Because you rezoned GRE tunnels, the two rules cannot preempt each other.
Step 6 Save all changed configurations.
What to do next

1323
Access Control
Creating Tunnel Zones
Creating Tunnel Zones

Any N/A Firepower Threat Any Admin/Access

Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Chose Tunnel Zone from the list of object types.
Step 3 Click Add Tunnel Zone.
Step 4 Enter a Name and, optionally, a Description.
Step 5 Click Save.
What to do next
• Assign tunnel zones to plaintext, passthrough tunnels as part of custom prefiltering; see Configure

1324
CHAPTER 68
Intelligent Application Bypass
The following topics describe how to configure access control polices to use Intelligent Application Bypass
(IAB)
• Introduction to IAB, on page 1325
• IAB Options, on page 1326
• Configuring IAB, on page 1328
• IAB Logging and Analysis, on page 1329
Introduction to IAB
IAB identifies applications that you trust to traverse your network without further inspection if performance
and flow thresholds are exceeded. For example, if a nightly backup significantly impacts system performance,
you can configure thresholds that, if exceeded, trust traffic generated by your backup application. Optionally,
you can configure IAB so that, when an inspection performance threshold is exceeded, IAB trusts all traffic
that exceeds any flow bypass threshold, regardless of the application type.
The system implements IAB on traffic allowed by access control rules or the access control policy's default
action, before the traffic is subject to deep inspection. A test mode allows you to determine whether thresholds
are exceeded and, if so, to identify the application flows that would have been bypassed if you had actually
enabled IAB (called bypass mode).
The following graphic illustrates the IAB decision-making process:

1325
Access Control
IAB Options
IAB Options
State
Enables or disables IAB.
Performance Sample Interval

Specifies the time in seconds between IAB performance sampling scans, during which the system collects
system performance metrics for comparison to IAB performance thresholds. A value of 0 disables IAB.
Bypassable Applications and Filters

This feature provides two mutually exclusive options:

1326
Access Control
IAB Options
Applications/Filters
Provides an editor where you can specify bypassable applications and sets of applications (filters). See
Application Conditions (Application Control), on page 338.
All applications including unidentified applications
When an inspection performance threshold is exceeded, trusts all traffic that exceeds any flow bypass
threshold, regardless of the application type.
Performance and Flow Thresholds

You must configure at least one inspection performance threshold and one flow bypass threshold. When a
performance threshold is exceeded, the system examines flow thresholds and, if one threshold is exceeded,
trusts the specified traffic.If you enable more than one of either, only one of each must be exceeded.
Inspection performance thresholds provide intrusion inspection performance limits that, if exceeded, trigger
the inspection of flow thresholds. IAB does not use inspection performance thresholds set to 0. You can
configure one or more of the following inspection performance thresholds:
Drop Percentage
Average packets dropped as a percentage of total packets, when packets are dropped because of
performance overloads caused by expensive intrusion rules, file policies, decompression, and so on. This
does not refer to packets dropped by normal configurations such as intrusion rules. Note that specifying
an integer greater than 1 activates IAB when the specified percentage of packets is dropped. When you
specify 1, any percentage from 0 through 1 activates IAB. This allows a small number of packets to
activate IAB.
Processor Utilization Percentage
Average percentage of processor resources used.
Package Latency
Average packet latency in microseconds.
Flow Rate
The rate at which the system processes flows, measured as the number of flows per second. Note that
this option configures IAB to measure flow rate, not flow count.
Flow bypass thresholds provide flow limits that, if exceeded, trigger IAB to trust bypassable application
traffic in bypass mode or allow application traffic subject to further inspection in test mode. IAB does not use
flow bypass thresholds set to 0. You can configure one or more of the following flow bypass thresholds:
Bytes per Flow
The maximum number of kilobytes a flow can include.
Packets per Flow
The maximum number of packets a flow can include.
Flow Duration
The maximum number of seconds a flow can remain open.
Flow Velocity
The maximum transfer rate in kilobytes per second.

1327
Access Control
Configuring IAB
Configuring IAB
Any Control Any Any Admin

Access Admin
Network Admin
Caution Not all deployments require IAB, and those that do might use it in a limited fashion. Do not enable IAB unless
you have expert knowledge of your network traffic, especially application traffic, and system performance,
including the causes of predictable performance issues. Before you run IAB in bypass mode, make sure that
trusting the specified traffic does not expose you to risk.
Procedure
Step 1 In the access control policy editor, click the Advanced tab, then click the edit icon ( ) next to Intelligent
Application Bypass Settings.
Step 2 Configure IAB options:

• State—Turn IAB Off or On, or enable IAB in Test mode.
• Performance Sample Interval—Enter the time in seconds between IAB performance-sampling scans. If
you enable IAB, even in test mode, enter a non-zero value. Entering 0 disables IAB.
• Bypassable Applications and Filters—Choose from:
• Click the number of bypassed applications and filters and specify the applications whose traffic you
want to bypass; see Configuring Application Conditions and Filters, on page 340.
• Click All applications including unidentified applications so that, when an inspection performance
threshold is exceeded, IAB trusts all traffic that exceeds any flow bypass threshold, regardless of
the application type.
• Inspection Performance Thresholds—Click Configure and enter at least one threshold value.
• Flow Bypass Thresholds—Click Configure and enter at least one threshold value.
You must specify at least one inspection performance threshold and one flow bypass threshold; both must be
exceeded for IAB to trust traffic. If you enter more than one threshold of each type, only one of each type
must be exceeded. For detailed information, see IAB Options, on page 1326.
Step 3 Click OK to save IAB settings.


1328
Access Control
IAB Logging and Analysis
What to do next

IAB forces an end-of-connection event that logs bypassed flows and flows that would have been bypassed,
regardless of whether you have enabled connection logging. Connection events indicate flows that are bypassed
in bypass mode or that would have been bypassed in test mode. Custom dashboard widgets and reports based
on connection events can display long-term statistics for bypassed and would-have-bypassed flows.
IAB Connection Events

Action
When Reason includes Intelligent App Bypass:
Allow -
indicates that the applied IAB configuration was in test mode and traffic for the application specified
by Application Protocol remains available for inspection.
Trust -
indicates that the applied IAB configuration was in bypass mode and traffic for the application
specified by Application Protocol has been trusted to traverse the network without further inspection.
Reason
Intelligent App Bypass indicates that IAB triggered the event in bypass or test mode.
Application Protocol
This field displays the application protocol that triggered the event.
Example
In the following truncated graphic, some fields are omitted. The graphic shows the Action, Reason,
and Application Protocol fields for two connection events resulting from different IAB settings in
two separate access control policies.
For the first event, the Trust action indicates that IAB was enabled in bypass mode and Bonjour
protocol traffic was trusted to pass without further inspection.
For the second event, the Allow action indicates that IAB was enabled in test mode, so Ubuntu Update
Manager traffic was subject to further inspection but would have been bypassed if IAB had been in
bypass mode.

1329
Access Control
Example
In the following truncated graphic, some fields are omitted. The flow in the second event was both
bypassed (Action: Trust; Reason: Intelligent App Bypass) and inspected by an intrusion rule
(Reason: Intrusion Monitor). The Intrusion Monitor reason indicates that an intrusion rule set
to Generate Events detected but did not block an exploit during the connection. In the example, this
happened before the application was detected. After the application was detected, IAB recognized
the application as bypassable and trusted the flow.
IAB Custom Dashboard Widgets

You can create a Custom Analysis dashboard widget to display long-term IAB statistics based on connection
events. Specify the following when creating the widget:
• Preset: None
• Table: Application Statistics
• Field: any
• Aggregate: either of:
• IAB Bypassed Connections
• IAB Would Bypass Connections
• Filter: any
Examples
In the following Custom Analysis dashboard widget examples:
• The Bypassed example shows statistics for application traffic bypassed because the applications
were specified as bypassable and IAB was enabled in bypass mode in the deployed access
control policy.
• The Would Have Bypassed example shows statistics for application traffic that would have been
bypassed because the applications were specified as bypassable and IAB was enabled in test
mode in the deployed access control policy. .

1330
Access Control
IAB Custom Reports

You can create a custom report to display long-term IAB statistics based on connection events. Specify the
following when creating the report:
• Table: Application Statistics
• Preset: None
• Filter: any
• X-Axis: any
• Y-Axis: either of:
• IAB Bypassed Connections
• IAB Would Bypass Connections
Examples
The following graphic shows two abbreviated report examples:
• The Bypassed example shows statistics for application traffic bypassed because the applications
were specified as bypassable and IAB was enabled in bypass mode in the deployed access
control policy.
• The Would Have Bypassed example shows statistics for application traffic that would have been
bypassed because the applications were specified as bypassable and IAB was enabled in test
mode in the deployed access control policy.

1331
Access Control
Related Topics
Connection and Security Intelligence Event Fields, on page 2335
The Custom Analysis Widget, on page 224
Adding Widgets to a Dashboard, on page 234
Report Templates, on page 2153

1332
CHAPTER 69
Access Control Using Content Restriction
The following topics describe how to configure access control policies to use content restriction features:
• About Content Restriction, on page 1333
• Using Access Control Rules to Enforce Content Restriction, on page 1334
• Using a DNS Sinkhole to Enforce Content Restriction, on page 1336
About Content Restriction

Major search engines and content delivery services provide features that allow you to restrict search results
and website content. For example, schools use content restriction features to comply with the Children's
Internet Protection Act (CIPA).
When implemented by search engines and content delivery services, you can enforce content restriction
features only for individual browsers or users. The Firepower System allows you to extend these features to
your entire network.
The system allows you to enforce:
• Safe Search—Supported in many major search engines, this service filters out explicit and adult-oriented
content that business, government, and education environments classify as objectionable. The system
does not restrict a user's ability to access the home pages for supported search engines.
• YouTube EDU—This service filters YouTube content for an educational environment. It allows schools
to set access for educational content while limiting access to noneducational content. YouTube EDU is
a different feature than YouTube Restricted Mode, which enforces restrictions on YouTube searches as
part of Google's Safe Search feature. YouTube Restricted Mode is a subfeature of Safe Search. With
YouTube EDU, users access the YouTube EDU home page, rather than the standard YouTube home
page.
You can use two methods to configure the system to enforce these features:
Method: Access Control Rules
Content restriction features communicate the restricted status of a search or content query via an element
in the request URI, an associated cookie, or a custom HTTP header element. You can configure access
control rules to modify these elements as the system processes traffic.
Method: DNS Sinkhole
For Google searches, you can configure the system to redirect traffic to the Google SafeSearch Virtual
IP Address (VIP), which imposes filters for Safe Search (including YouTube Restricted Mode).

1333
Access Control
Using Access Control Rules to Enforce Content Restriction
The table below describes the differences between these enforcement methods.
Table 86: Comparison of Content Restriction Methods
Attribute Method: Access Control Rules Method: DNS Sinkhole
Supported devices Any Firepower Threat Defense only

Search engines supported Any tagged safesearch Google only
supported in the Applications
tab of the rule editor
YouTube Restricted Mode Yes Yes

supported
YouTube EDU supported Yes No
SSL policy required Yes No
Hosts must be using IPv4 No Yes
Connection event logging Yes Yes
When determining which method to use, consider the following limitations:

• The access control rules method requires an SSL policy, which impacts performance.
• The Google SafeSearch VIP supports IPv4 traffic only. If you configure a DNS sinkhole to manage
Google searches, any hosts on the affected network must be using IPv4.
The system logs different values for the Reason field in connection events, depending on the method:
• Access Control Rules—Content Restriction
• DNS Sinkhole—DNS Block


Admin/Network
Admin
Caution To avoid rule preemption, position rules governing YouTube EDU above rules governing Safe Search in both
SSL and access control policies; see Content Restriction Rule Order, on page 359.

1334
Access Control
Procedure
Step 1 Create an SSL policy; see Create Basic SSL Policies, on page 1377.
Step 2 Add SSL rules for handling Safe Search and YouTube EDU traffic:
• Choose Decrypt - Resign as the Action for the rules. The system does not support any other action for
content restriction handling.
• In the Applications tab, add selections to the Selected Applications and Filters list:
• YouTube EDU—Add the YouTube and YouTube Upload applications.
• Safe Search—Add the Category: search engine filter.
For more information, see Adding an Application Condition to a TLS/SSL Rule, on page 1411.
Step 3 Set rule positions for the SSL rules you added. Click and drag, or use the right-click menu to cut and paste.
To avoid preemption, position the Safe Search rule after the YouTube EDU rule.
Step 4 Create or edit an access control policy, and associate the SSL policy with the access control policy.
For more information, see Associating Other Policies with Access Control, on page 1254.
Step 5 In the access control policy, add rules for handling Safe Search and YouTube EDU traffic:
• Choose Allow as the Action for the rules. The system does not allow any other action for content restriction
handling.
• In the Applications tab, click the dimmed icon for either Safe Search ( ) or YouTube EDU ( ), and
set related options; see Safe Search Options for Access Control Rules, on page 1336 and YouTube EDU
Options for Access Control Rules, on page 1336.
These icons are disabled, rather than dimmed, if you choose any Action other than Allow for the rule.
You cannot enable Safe Search and YouTube EDU restrictions for the same access control rule.
• In the Applications tab, refine application selections in the Selected Applications and Filters list.
In most cases, enabling Safe Search or YouTube EDU populates the Selected Applications and Filters
list with the appropriate values. The system does not automatically populate the list if a Safe Search or
YouTube application is already present in the list when you enable the feature. If applications do not
populate as expected, manually add them as follows:
• YouTube EDU—Add the YouTube and YouTube Upload applications.
• Safe Search—Add the Category: search engine filter.
For more information, see Configuring Application Conditions and Filters, on page 340.
Step 6 Set rule positions for the access control rules you added. Click and drag, or use the right-click menu to cut
and paste.
To avoid preemption, position the Safe Search rule after the YouTube EDU rule.
Step 7 Configure the HTTP response page that the system displays when it blocks restricted content; see Choosing
HTTP Response Pages, on page 1292.

1335
Access Control
Safe Search Options for Access Control Rules
Safe Search Options for Access Control Rules

The Firepower System supports Safe Search filtering for specific search engines only. For a list of supported
search engines, see applications tagged safesearch supported in the Applications tab of the access
control rule editor. For a list of unsupported search engines, see applications tagged safesearch
unsupported.
When enabling Safe Search for an access control rule, set the following parameters:
Enable Safe Search
Enables Safe Search filtering for traffic that matches this rule.
Unsupported Search Traffic
Specifies the action you want the system to take when it processes traffic from unsupported search
engines. If you choose Block or Block with Reset, you must also configure the HTTP response page
that the system displays when it blocks restricted content; see Choosing HTTP Response Pages, on page
1292.
YouTube EDU Options for Access Control Rules

When enabling YouTube EDU for an access control rule, set the following parameters:
Enable YouTube EDU
Enables YouTube EDU filtering for traffic that matches this rule.
Custom ID
Specifies the value that uniquely identifies a school or district network in the YouTube EDU initiative.
YouTube provides this ID when a school or district registers for a YouTube EDU account.
Note If you check Enable YouTube EDU, you must enter a Custom ID. This ID is defined externally by
YouTube. The system does not validate what you enter against the YouTube system. If you enter an
invalid ID, YouTube EDU restrictions may not perform as expected.
Using a DNS Sinkhole to Enforce Content Restriction

Threat Protection Firepower Threat Any Admin/Access

Admin
Typically, a DNS sinkhole directs traffic away from a particular target. This procedure describes how to
configure a DNS sinkhole to redirect traffic to the Google SafeSearch Virtual IP Address (VIP), which imposes
content filters on Google and YouTube search results.
Because Google SafeSearch uses a single IPv4 address for the VIP, hosts must use IPv4 addressing.

1336
Access Control
Caution If your network includes proxy servers, this content restriction method is not effective unless you position
your Firepower Threat Defense devices between the proxy servers and the Internet.
This procedure describes enforcing content restriction for Google searches only. To enforce content restriction
for other search engines, see Using Access Control Rules to Enforce Content Restriction, on page 1334.
Procedure
Step 1 Obtain a list of supported Google domains via the following URL: https://www.google.com/supported_
domains.
Step 2 Create a custom DNS list on your local computer, and add the following entries:
• To enforce Google SafeSearch, add an entry for each supported Google domain.
• To enforce YouTube Restricted Mode, add a "youtube.com" entry.
The custom DNS list must be in text file (.txt) format. Each line of the text file must specify an individual
domain name, stripped of any leading periods. For example, the supported domain ".google.com" must appear
as "google.com".
Step 3 Upload the custom DNS list to the Firepower Management Center; see Uploading New Security Intelligence
Lists to the Firepower Management Center, on page 408.
Step 4 Determine the IPv4 address for the Google SafeSearch VIP. For example, run nslookup on
forcesafesearch.google.com.
Step 5 Create a sinkhole object for the SafeSearch VIP; see Creating Sinkhole Objects, on page 410.
Use the following values for this object:
• IPv4 Address—Enter the SafeSearch VIP address.
• IPv6 Address—Enter the IPv6 loopback address (::1).
• Log Connections to Sinkhole—Click this radio button.
• Type—Choose None.
Step 6 Create a basic DNS policy; see Creating Basic DNS Policies, on page 1303.
Step 7 Add a DNS rule for the sinkhole; see Creating and Editing DNS Rules, on page 1305.
For this rule:
• Check the Enabled check box.
• Choose Sinkhole from the Action drop-down list.
• Choose the sinkhole object you created from the Sinkhole drop-down list.
• Add the custom DNS list you created to the Selected Items list on the DNS tab.
• (Optional) Choose a network in the Networks tab to limit content restriction to specific users. For
example, if you want to limit content restriction to student users, assign students to a different subnet
than faculty, and specify that subnet in this rule.

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Access Control
Step 8 Associate the DNS policy with an access control policy; see Associating Other Policies with Access Control,
on page 1254.

1338
PA R T XVI
Encrypted Traffic Handling
• Understanding Traffic Decryption, on page 1341
• Start Creating SSL Policies, on page 1373
• Get Started with TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1381
• Decryption Tuning Using TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1399
• Monitor SSL Hardware Acceleration, on page 1431
• Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1435
CHAPTER 70
Understanding Traffic Decryption
The following topics provide an overview of Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer (TLS/SSL)
inspection, discuss the prerequisites for TLS/SSL inspection configuration, and detail deployment scenarios.
Note Because TLS and SSL are often used interchangeably, we use the expression TLS/SSL to indicate that either
protocol is being discussed. The SSL protocol has been deprecated by the IETF in favor of the more secure
TLS protocol, so you can usually interpret TLS/SSL as referring to TLS only.
The exception is SSL policies. Because the FMC configuration option is Policies > Access Control > SSL,
we use the term SSL policies although these policies are used to define rules for TLS and SSL traffic.
For more information about SSL and TLS protocols, see a resource such as SSL vs. TLS - What's the
Difference?.
• About Traffic Decryption, on page 1341

• TLS/SSL Handshake Processing, on page 1342
• TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration, on page 1346
• TLS/SSL Best Practices, on page 1349
• TLS/SSL Inspection Appliance Deployment Scenarios, on page 1357
• History for TLS/SSL, on page 1370
About Traffic Decryption

By default, the Firepower System cannot inspect traffic encrypted with the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol
or its successor, the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. TLS/SSL inspection enables you to either block
encrypted traffic without inspecting it, or inspect encrypted or decrypted traffic with access control. As the
system handles encrypted sessions, it logs details about the traffic. The combination of inspecting encrypted
traffic and analyzing encrypted session data allows greater awareness and control of the encrypted applications
and traffic in your network.
TLS/SSL inspection is a policy-based feature. In the Firepower System, an access control policy is a master
configuration that invokes subpolicies and other configurations, including an SSL policy. If you associate an
SSL policy with access control, the system uses that SSL policy to handle encrypted sessions before it evaluates
them with access control rules. If you do not configure TLS/SSL inspection, or your devices do not support
it, access control rules handle all encrypted traffic.

1341
TLS/SSL Handshake Processing
Note that access control rules also handle encrypted traffic when your TLS/SSL inspection configuration
allows it to pass. However, some access control rule conditions require unencrypted traffic, so encrypted
traffic might match fewer rules. Also, by default, the system disables intrusion and file inspection of encrypted
payloads. This helps reduce false positives and improves performance when an encrypted connection matches
an access control rule that has intrusion and file inspection configured.
If the system detects a TLS/SSL handshake over a TCP connection, it determines whether it can decrypt the
detected traffic. If it cannot, it applies a configured action:
• Block the encrypted traffic
• Block the encrypted traffic and reset the TCP connection
• Not decrypt the encrypted traffic
If the system can decrypt the traffic, it blocks the traffic without further inspection, evaluates undecrypted
traffic with access control, or decrypts it using one of the following methods:
• Decrypt with a known private key. When an external host initiates a TLS/SSL handshake with a server
on your network, the system matches the exchanged server certificate with a server certificate previously
uploaded to the system. It then uses the uploaded private key to decrypt the traffic.
• Decrypt by resigning the server certificate. When a host on your network initiates a TLS/SSL handshake
with an external server, the system resigns the exchanged server certificate with a previously uploaded
certificate authority (CA) certificate. It then uses the uploaded private key to decrypt the traffic.
Decrypted traffic is subject to the same traffic handling and analysis as originally unencrypted traffic: network,
reputation, and user-based access control; intrusion detection and prevention; Cisco Advanced Malware
Protection (Cisco AMP); and discovery. If the system does not block the decrypted traffic post-analysis, it
re-encrypts the traffic before passing it to the destination host.
Note Set up decrypt rules only if your managed device handles encrypted traffic. Decryption rules require processing
overhead that can impact performance.
TLS/SSL Handshake Processing

In this documentation, the term TLS/SSL handshake represents the two-way handshake that initiates encrypted
sessions in both the SSL protocol and its successor protocol, TLS.
In a passive deployment, the Firepower System observes a copy of the handshake, but does not process the
actual handshake.
In an inline deployment, the Firepower System processes the TLS/SSL handshake, potentially modifying the
ClientHello message and acting as a TCP proxy server for the session.
After the client establishes a TCP connection with the server (after it successfully completes the TCP three-way
handshake), the managed device monitors the TCP session for any attempt to initiate an encrypted session.
The TLS/SSL handshake establishes an encrypted session via the exchange of specialized packets between
client and server. In the SSL and TLS protocols, these specialized packets are called handshake messages.
The handshake messages communicate which encryption attributes both the client and server support:
• ClientHello—The client specifies multiple supported values for each encryption attribute.

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ClientHello Message Handling
• ServerHello—The server specifies a single supported value for each encryption attribute, which determines
which encryption method the system uses during the secure session.
Although the data transmitted in the session is encrypted, the handshake messages are not.
After a TLS/SSL handshake completes, the managed device caches encrypted session data, which allows
session resumption without requiring the full handshake. The managed device also caches server certificate
data, which allows faster handshake processing in subsequent sessions.

The client sends the ClientHello message to the server that acts as the packet destination if a secure connection
can be established. The client sends the message to initiate the TLS/SSL handshake or in response to a Hello
Request message from the destination server.
If you configure TLS/SSL decryption, when a managed device receives a ClientHello message, the system
attempts to match the message to TLS/SSL rules that have the Decrypt - Resign action. The match relies on
data from the ClientHello message and from cached server certificate data. Possible data includes:
Table 87: Data Availability for TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
TLS/SSL Rule Condition Data Present In
Zones ClientHello
Networks ClientHello
VLAN Tags ClientHello
Ports ClientHello
Users ClientHello
Applications ClientHello (Server Name Indicator extension)
Categories ClientHello (Server Name Indicator extension)
Certificate server Certificate (potentially cached)
Distinguished Names server Certificate (potentially cached)
Certificate Status server Certificate (potentially cached)
Cipher Suites ServerHello
Versions ServerHello
If the ClientHello message does not match a Decrypt - Resign rule, the system does not modify the message.
It then determines whether the message passes access control evaluation (which can include deep inspection).
If the message passes, the system transmits it to the destination server.
If the message matches a Decrypt - Resign rule, the system modifies the ClientHello message as follows:

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• Compression methods—Strips the compression_methods element, which specifies the compression

methods the client supports. The Firepower System cannot decrypt compressed sessions. This modification
reduces the Compressed Session type of undecryptable traffic.
• Cipher suites—Strips cipher suites from the cipher_suites element if the Firepower System does not
support them. If the Firepower System does not support any of the specified cipher suites, the system
transmits the original, unmodified element. This modification reduces the Unknown Cipher Suite and
Unsupported Cipher Suite types of undecryptable traffic.
• Session identifiers—Strips any value from the Session Identifier element and the SessionTicket
extension that does not match cached session data. If a ClientHello value matches cached data, an
interrupted session can resume without the client and server performing the full TLS/SSL handshake.
This modification increases the chances of session resumption and reduces the Session Not Cached type
of undecryptable traffic.
• Elliptic curves—Strips elliptic curves from the Supported Elliptic Curves extension if the Firepower
System does not support them. If the Firepower System does not support any of the specified elliptic
curves, the managed device removes the extension and strips any related cipher suites from the
cipher_suites element.
• ALPN extensions—Strips any value from the Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation (ALPN) extension
that is unsupported in the Firepower System (for example, the SPDY and HTTP/2 protocols) if the
message matches an TLS/SSL rule associated with content restriction features or if SSL hardware
acceleration is enabled.
If content restriction is not being enforced or if SSL hardware acceleration is disabled, you can use the
system support ssl-client-hello-enabled ALPN true command to strip the ALPN extension. Stripping
the ALPN extension increases the likelihood of traffic decryption and inspection.
For more information about content restriction, see About Content Restriction, on page 1333.
• Other Extensions—Strips the Extended Master Secret, Next Protocol Negotiation (NPN), and TLS
Channel IDs extensions.
Note The system performs these ClientHello modifications by default. If your SSL policy is configured correctly,
this default behavior results in more frequent decryption of traffic. To tune the default behavior for your
individual network, contact Cisco TAC.
After the system modifies the ClientHello message, it determines whether the message passes access control
evaluation (which can include deep inspection). If the message passes, the system transmits it to the destination
server.
Direct communication between the client and server is no longer possible during the TLS/SSL handshake,
because after message modification the Message Authentication Codes (MACs) computed by the client and
server no longer match. For all subsequent handshake messages (and for the encrypted session once established),
the managed device acts as a man-in-the-middle (MITM). It creates two TLS/SSL sessions, one between client
and managed device, one between managed device and server. As a result, each session contains different
cryptographic session details.

1344
ServerHello and Server Certificate Message Handling
Note The cipher suites that the Firepower System can decrypt are frequently updated and do not correspond directly
to the cipher suites you can use in TLS/SSL rule conditions. For the current list of decryptable cipher suites,
contact Cisco TAC.
Related Topics
Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1375
Encrypted Traffic Inspection with a Re-signed Certificate in an Inline Deployment, on page 1368
ServerHello and Server Certificate Message Handling

The ServerHello message is the response to a ClientHello message in a successful TLS/SSL handshake.
After a managed device processes a ClientHello message and transmits it to the destination server, the server
determines whether it supports the decryption attributes the client specified in the message. If it does not
support those attributes, the server sends a handshake failure alert to the client. If it supports those attributes,
the server sends the ServerHello message. If the agreed-upon key exchange method uses certificates for
authentication, the server Certificate message immediately follows the ServerHello message.
When the managed device receives these messsages, it attempts to match them with TLS/SSL rules. These
messages contain information that was absent from either the ClientHello message or the session data cache.
Specifically, the system can potentially match these messages on Distinguished Names, Certificate Status,
Cipher Suites, and Versions conditions.
If the messages do not match any TLS/SSL rules, the managed device performs the default action for the SSL
policy. For more information, see SSL Policy Default Actions, on page 1374.
If the messages match an SSL rule, the managed device continues as appropriate:
Action: Monitor
The TLS/SSL handshake continues to completion. The managed device tracks and logs but does not
decrypt encrypted traffic.
Action: Block or Block with Reset
The managed device blocks the TLS/SSL session. If appropriate, it also resets the TCP connection.
Action: Do Not Decrypt
The TLS/SSL handshake continues to completion. The managed device does not decrypt the application
data exchanged during the TLS/SSL session.
Action: Decrypt - Known Key
The managed device attempts to match the server certificate data to an Internal Certificate object previously
imported into the Firepower Management Center. Because you cannot generate an Internal Certificate
object, and you must possess its private key, we assume you own the server on which you're using known
key decryption.
If the certificate matches a known certificate, the TLS/SSL handshake continues to completion. The
managed device uses the uploaded private key to decrypt and reencrypt the application data exchanged
during the TLS/SSL session.
If the server changes its certificate between the initial connection with the client and subsequent
connections, you must import the new server certificate in the Firepower Management Center for future
connections to be decrypted.

1345
TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration
Note Because the Firepower System does not support the Extended Master Secret extension defined by RFC
7627, you must disable this extension on the server for which you're decrypting with a known key;
otherwise, the connection is reset during decryption, resulting in connection errors.
Action: Decrypt - Resign

The managed device processes the server certificate message and re-signs the server certificate with the
previously imported or generated certificate authority (CA). The TLS/SSL handshake continues to
completion. The managed device then uses the uploaded private key to decrypt and reencrypt the
application data exchanged during the TLS/SSL session.
TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration

Certain Firepower managed device models support Transport Layer Security/Secure Sockets Layer (TLS/SSL)
encryption and decryption acceleration in hardware, greatly improving performance.
TLS/SSL hardware acceleration is disabled by default.
Supported Hardware
The following hardware models support TLS/SSL hardware acceleration:
• Firepower 9300 security module with Firepower Threat Defense
• Firepower 4100 security engine with Firepower Threat Defense
TLS/SSL hardware acceleration hardware acceleration is not supported on any virtual appliances or on any
hardware except for the preceding.
Features Not Supported by TLS/SSL hardware acceleration

Features not supported by TLS/SSL hardware acceleration include the following:
• Decryption of Camellia ciphers.
• Decryption of TLS/SSL traffic using passive network or inline tap mode interfaces.
• Decryption of TLS/SSL traffic encapsulated in tunnels such as Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
or IP in IP tunnels.
• If the inspection engine is configured to preserve connections and the inspection engine fails unexpectedly,
TLS/SSL traffic is dropped until the engine restarts.
This behavior is controlled by the configure snort preserve-connection {enable | disable} command.
If you need to use any of the preceding features, you can disable TLS/SSL hardware acceleration.
Enable or Disable TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration

Use the following commands to enable or disable TLS/SSL hardware acceleration on a managed device:
system support {ssl-hw-offload enable | ssl-hw-offload disable}

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TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration Guidelines and Limitations
Syntax Description ssl-hw-offload enable Enables TLS/SSL hardware acceleration; you are prompted to reboot the device.
ssl-hw-offload disable Disables TLS/SSL hardware acceleration; you are prompted to reboot the device.
(Disabled by default.)
TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration Guidelines and Limitations

Keep the following in mind if your managed device has TLS/SSL hardware acceleration enabled.
HTTP-only performance
Using TLS/SSL hardware acceleration on a managed device that is not decrypting traffic can affect performance.
We recommend you enable SSL hardware acceleration only on devices that decrypt SSL traffic.
Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS)

If TLS/SSL hardware acceleration and Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are both enabled,
connections with the following options fail:
• RSA keys less than 2048 bytes in size
• Rivest cipher 4 (RC4)
• Single Data Encryption Standard (single DES)
• Merkle–Damgard 5 (MD5)
• SSL v3
FIPS is enabled when you configure the Firepower Management Center and managed devices to operate in
a security certifications compliance mode. To allow connections when operating in those modes, you can
either disable TLS/SSL hardware acceleration or configure web browsers to accept more secure options.
For more information:
• Enable or disable TLS/SSL hardware acceleration: TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration, on page 1346.
• Ciphers supported by FIPS: About SSL Settings, on page 996.
• Security Certifications Compliance Modes, on page 1025.
• Common Criteria.
High Availability (HA)

If you have high availability (HA) or clustered managed devices, you must enable TLS/SSL hardware
acceleration on each managed device individually. One device's TLS/SSL hardware acceleration configuration
is not shared with the other device in the HA pair.
TLS heartbeat
Some applications use the TLS heartbeat extension to the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Datagram
Transport Layer Security (DTLS) protocols defined by RFC6520. TLS heartbeat provides a way to confirm
the connection is still alive—either the client or server sends a specified number of bytes of data and requests
the other party echo the response. If this is successful, encrypted data is sent.

1347
View the Status of TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration
When a managed device with TLS/SSL hardware acceleration enabled encounters a packet that uses the TLS
heartbeat extension,the managed device takes the action specified by the setting for Decryption Errors in
the SSL policy's Undecryptable Actions:
• Block
• Block with reset
For more information, see Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1375.
To determine whether applications are using TLS heartbeat, see Troubleshoot TLS Heartbeat, on page 1438.
If your managed device does not support TLS/SSL hardware acceleration or if is disabled, you can configure
a Max Heartbeat Length in a Network Analysis Policy (NAP) to determine how to handle TLS heartbeats.
For more information, see The SSL Preprocessor, on page 1833.
TLS/SSL oversubscription
TLS/SSL oversubscription is a state where a managed device is overloaded with TLS/SSL traffic. Any managed
device can experience TLS/SSL oversubscription but only managed devices that support TLS/SSL hardware
acceleration provide a configurable way to handle it.
When a managed device with TLS/SSL hardware acceleration enabled is oversubscribed, any packet received
by the managed device is acted on according to the setting for Handshake Errors in the SSL policy's
Undecryptable Actions:
• Inherit default action
• Do not decrypt
• Block
If the setting for Handshake Errors in the SSL policy's Undecryptable Actions is Do Not decrypt and the
associated access control policy is configured to inspect the traffic, inspection occurs; decryption does not
occur.
If a significant amount of oversubscription is occurring, you have the following options:
• Upgrade your managed devices to increase TLS/SSL processing capacity.
• Change your SSL policies to add Do Not Decrypt rules for traffic that is not a high priority to decrypt.
View the Status of TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration

This topic discusses how you can determine if TLS/SSL hardware acceleration is enabled on your managed
device. Only certain managed devices support this feature; for more information, see TLS/SSL Hardware
Acceleration, on page 1346.
Procedure
Step 1 Log in to the Firepower Management Center.

Step 2 Click Devices > Device Management.

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TLS/SSL Best Practices
Step 3 Click (edit) to edit a managed device.

Step 4 Click the Device tab page. TLS/SSL hardware acceleration status is displayed in the General section.
Related Topics
TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration, on page 1346
TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration Guidelines and Limitations, on page 1347
TLS/SSL Best Practices

This section discusses information you should keep in mind when creating your decryption policies and rules.
Difference?.
Related Topics
The Case for Decryption, on page 1349
When to Decrypt Traffic, When Not to Decrypt, on page 1350
Other TLS/SSL Rule Actions, on page 1352
TLS/SSL Rule Components, on page 1353
TLS/SSL Rule Order Evaluation, on page 1355
The Case for Decryption

Only decrypted traffic takes advantage of the Firepower System's threat defense and policy enforcement
features. Traffic that is encrypted when it passes through the Firepower System can be allowed or blocked
only but it cannot be subjected to deep inspection or the full range of policy enforcement (such as intrusion
prevention).
All encrypted connections are:
• Sent through the TLS/SSL decryption policy to determine if they should be decrypted or blocked.
You can also configure TLS/SSL decryption rules to block encrypted traffic of types you know you do
not want on your network, such as traffic that uses the unsecure SSL protocol or traffic with an expired
or invalid certificate.
• Any unblocked connections, whether or not decrypted, then go through the access control policy for a
final allow or block decision.
Keep in mind that decrypting and then re-encrypting traffic adds a processing load on the device, which can
reduce overall system performance.

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When to Decrypt Traffic, When Not to Decrypt
In summary:
• Encrypted traffic can be allowed or blocked by policy; encrypted traffic cannot be inspected
• Decrypted traffic is subject to threat defense and policy enforcement; decrypted traffic can be allowed
or blocked by policy
Related Topics
When to Decrypt Traffic, When Not to Decrypt

This section provides guidelines on when you should decrypt traffic and when you should allow it to pass
through the firewall encrypted.
When not to decrypt traffic

You should not decrypt traffic if doing so is forbidden by:
• Law; for example, some jurisdictions forbid decrypting financial information
• Company policy; for example, your company might forbid decrypting privileged communications
• Privacy regulations
• Traffic that uses certificate pinning (also referred to as TLS/SSL pinning) must remain encrypted to
prevent breaking the connection
If you elect to bypass decryption for certain types of traffic, no processing is done on the traffic. The encrypted
traffic is first evaluated by SSL policy and then proceeds to the access control policy, where a final allow or
block decision is made. Encrypted traffic can be allowed or blocked on any TLS/SSL rule condition, including,
but not limited to:
• Certificate status (for example, expired or invalid certificate)
• Protocol (for example, the unsecure SSL protocol)
• Network (security zone, IP address, VLAN tag, and so on)
• Exact URL or URL category
• Port
• User group
SSL policies provide a Do Not Decrypt action for this traffic; for more information, see TLS/SSL Rule Do
Not Decrypt Action, on page 1395.
Note The related information links at the end of this topic explain how some aspects of rule evaluation work.
Conditions such as URL and application filtering have limitations with respect to encrypted traffic. Make sure
you understand those limitations.

1350
Decrypt and Resign (Outgoing Traffic)
When to decrypt traffic

All encrypted traffic must be decrypted to take advantage of the Firepower System's threat protection and
policy enforcement features. To the extent your managed device allows traffic to be decrypted (subject to its
memory and processing power), you should decrypt traffic that is not protected by law or regulation. If you
must decide what traffic to decrypt, base your decision on the risk of allowing the traffic on your network.
The Firepower System provides a flexible framework for classifying traffic using rule conditions, which
include URL reputation, cipher suite, protocol, and many other factors.
The Firepower System provides two methods of decryption, which are discussed in the following sections.
Related Topics
Decrypt and Resign (Outgoing Traffic), on page 1351
Known Key Decryption (Incoming Traffic), on page 1351
TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on page 1381
SSL Rule Order, on page 359
URL Conditions (URL Filtering), on page 346
Application Rule Order, on page 359
Decrypt and Resign (Outgoing Traffic)

The Decrypt - Resign TLS/SSL rule action enables the Firepower System to act as a man in the middle,
intercepting, decrypting, and (if the traffic is allowed) inspecting, and re-encrypting it. The Decrypt - Resign
rule action is used with outgoing traffic; that is, the destination server is outside your protected network.
The FTD device negotiates with the client using the Certificate Authority (CA) certificate specified in the
rule and builds an SSL tunnel between the client and the FTD device. At the same time, the device connects
to the destination web site and creates an SSL tunnel between the server and the FTD device.
Thus, the client sees the CA certificate configured for the SSL decryption rule instead of the certificate from
the destination server. The client must trust the certificate to complete the connection. The FTD device then
performs decryption/re-encryption in both directions for traffic between the client and the destination server.
Prerequisite
To use the Decrypt - Resign rule action, you must have a CA certificate file and paired private key file. You
can generate a CA and private key in the Firepower System if you don't already have them.
Related Topics
TLS/SSL Rule Decrypt Actions, on page 1396
External Certificate Objects, on page 427
Known Key Decryption (Incoming Traffic)

The Decrypt - Known Key TLS/SSL rule action uses a server's private key to decrypt traffic. The Decrypt
- Known Key rule action is used with incoming traffic; that is, the destination server is inside your protected
network.
The main purpose of decrypting with a known key is to protect your servers from external attacks.
Prerequisite
To use the Decrypt - Known Key rule action, you must have the server’s certificate file and paired private
key file.

1351
Other TLS/SSL Rule Actions
Related Topics
Internal Certificate Objects, on page 428
Other TLS/SSL Rule Actions

The following sections discuss other TLS/SSL rule actions.
Related Topics
TLS/SSL Rule Monitor Action, on page 1395
TLS/SSL Rule Examples

The following sections provide examples of setting up recommended TLS/SSL rules.
Related Topics
Block Unsecure Protocols, on page 1352
Block Unsecure Protocols

This example shows how to block the following unsecure TLS/SSL protocols on your network:
• TLS 1.0
• SSLv3
• SSLv2
You should exclude these unsecure protocols from your network because they are all exploitable. You can
block TLS 1.0 and SSLv3 using the Version tab page on the SSL rule. Because the Firepower System considers
SSLv2 as undecryptable, you can block it using the Undecryptable Actions on the SSL policy.
Procedure
Step 1 Log in to the Firepower Management System if you have not already done so.
Step 2 Click Policies > Access Control > SSL.
Step 3 Add or edit an SSL policy.
Step 5 In the Name field, enter a name for the rule.
Step 6 From the Action list, click Block or Block with reset.
Step 7 Click the Version tab page.
Step 8 Check the SSL v3.0 and TLS 1.0 check boxes. Clear the other check boxes.
The following figure shows an example.

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TLS/SSL Rule Components
Step 9 Choose other rule conditions as needed.

Step 11 On the SSL policy page, click Undecryptable Actions.
Step 12 From the SSLv2 Session list, click Block or Block with reset. The following figure shows an example.
Step 13 Click Save.

Step 14 Because this is a specific rule, order it earlier in your policy than more general rules such as
application-matching rules.
What to do next
Related Topics
TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1392

Each TLS/SSL rule has the following components.

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State
By default, rules are enabled. If you disable a rule, the system does not use it to evaluate network traffic, and
stops generating warnings and errors for that rule.
Position
Rules in an SSL policy are numbered, starting at 1. The system matches traffic to rules in top-down order by
ascending rule number. With the exception of Monitor rules, the first rule that traffic matches is the rule that
handles that traffic.
Conditions
Conditions specify the specific traffic the rule handles. Conditions can match traffic by security zone, network
or geographical location, VLAN, port, application, requested URL, user, certificate, certificate subject or
issuer, certificate status, cipher suite, or encryption protocol version. The use of conditions can depend on
target device licenses.
Action
A rule’s action determines how the system handles matching traffic. You can monitor, allow, block, or decrypt
encrypted matching traffic. Decrypted and allowed encrypted traffic is subject to further inspection. Note that
the system does not perform inspection on blocked encrypted traffic.
Logging
A rule’s logging settings govern the records the system keeps of the traffic it handles. You can keep a record
of traffic that matches a rule. You can log a connection when the system blocks an encrypted session or allows
it to pass without decryption, according to the settings in an SSL policy. You can also force the system to log
connections that it decrypts for further evaluation by access control rules, regardless of how the system later
handles or inspects the traffic. You can log connections to the Firepower Management Center database, as
well as to the system log (syslog) or to an SNMP trap server.
For more information about logging, see Best Practices for Connection Logging, on page 2325.
Tip Properly creating and ordering TLS/SSL rules is a complex task. If you do not plan your policy carefully,
rules can preempt other rules, require additional licenses, or contain invalid configurations. To help ensure
that the system handles traffic as you expect, the SSL policy interface has a robust warning and error feedback
system for rules.
Related Topics
Interface Conditions, on page 330
Network Conditions, on page 332
VLAN Conditions, on page 335
Port and ICMP Code Conditions, on page 336
Application Conditions (Application Control), on page 338
URL Conditions (URL Filtering), on page 346
User, Realm, and ISE Attribute Conditions (User Control), on page 346
TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on page 1381

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TLS/SSL Rule Order Evaluation
TLS/SSL Rule Order Evaluation

When you create the TLS/SSL rule in an SSL policy, you specify its position using the Insert list in the rule
editor. TLS/SSL rules in an SSL policy are numbered, starting at 1. The system matches traffic to TLS/SSL
rules in top-down order by ascending rule number.
In most cases, the system handles network traffic according to the first TLS/SSL rule where all the rule’s
conditions match the traffic. Except in the case of Monitor rules (which log traffic but do not affect traffic
flow), the system does not continue to evaluate traffic against additional, lower-priority rules after that traffic
matches a rule. Conditions can be simple or complex; you can control traffic by security zone, network or
geographical location, VLAN, port, application, requested URL, user, certificate, certificate distinguished
name, certificate status, cipher suite, or encryption protocol version.
Each rule also has an action, which determines whether you monitor, block, or inspect matching encrypted
or decrypted traffic with access control. Note that the system does not further inspect encrypted traffic it
blocks. It does subject encrypted and undecryptable traffic to access control. However, access control rule
conditions require unencrypted traffic, so encrypted traffic matches fewer rules.
Rules that use specific conditions (such as network and IP addresses) should be ordered before rules that use
general conditions (such as applications). If you're familiar with the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model,
use similar numbering in concept. Rules with conditions for layers 1, 2, and 3 (physical, data link, and network)
should be ordered first in your rules. Conditions for layers 5, 6, and 7 (session, presentation, and application)
should be ordered later in your rules. For more information about the OSI model, see this Wikipedia article.
Tip Proper TLS/SSL rule order reduces the resources required to process network traffic, and prevents rule
preemption. Although the rules you create are unique to every organization and deployment, there are a few
general guidelines to follow when ordering rules that can optimize performance while still addressing your
needs.
In addition to ordering rules by number, you can group rules by category. By default the system provides
three categories: Administrator, Standard, and Root. You can add custom categories, but you cannot delete
the system-provided categories or change their order.
Related Topics
Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1375
Multi-Rule Example
The following scenario summarizes the ways that SSL rules handle traffic in an inline deployment.

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Multi-Rule Example
In this scenario, traffic is evaluated as follows:

• Undecryptable Traffic Action evaluates encrypted traffic first. For traffic the system cannot decrypt,
the system either blocks it without further inspection or passes it for access control inspection. Encrypted
traffic that does not match continues to the next rule.
• TLS/SSL Rule 1: Monitor evaluates encrypted traffic next. Monitor rules track and log encrypted traffic
but do not affect traffic flow. The system continues to match traffic against additional rules to determine
whether to permit or deny it.
• TLS/SSL Rule 2: Do Not Decrypt evaluates encrypted traffic third. Matching traffic is not decrypted;
the system inspects this traffic with access control, but not file or intrusion inspection. Traffic that does
not match continues to the next rule.
• TLS/SSL Rule 3: Block evaluates encrypted traffic fourth. Matching traffic is blocked without further
inspection. Traffic that does not match continues to the next rule.
• TLS/SSL Rule 4: Decrypt - Known Key evaluates encrypted traffic fifth. Matching traffic incoming
to your network is decrypted using a private key you upload. The decrypted traffic is then evaluated
against access control rules. Access control rules handle decrypted and unencrypted traffic identically.

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TLS/SSL Inspection Appliance Deployment Scenarios
The system can block traffic as a result of this additional inspection. All remaining traffic is reencrypted
before being allowed to the destination. Traffic that does not match the SSL rule continues to the next
rule.
• TLS/SSL Rule 5: Decrypt - Resign is the final rule. If traffic matches this rule, the system re-signs the
server certificate with an uploaded CA certificate, then acts as a man-in-the-middle to decrypt traffic.
The decrypted traffic is then evaluated against access control rules. Access control rules treat decrypted
and unencrypted traffic identically. The system can block traffic as a result of this additional inspection.
All remaining traffic is reencrypted before being allowed to the destination. Traffic that does not match
the SSL rule continues to the next rule.
• SSL Policy Default Action handles all traffic that does not match any of the TLS/SSL rules. The default
action either blocks encrypted traffic without further inspection or does not decrypt it, passing it for
access control inspection.
TLS/SSL Inspection Appliance Deployment Scenarios

This section presents several scenarios in which the Life Insurance Example, Inc. life insurance company
(LifeIns) uses SSL inspection on encrypted traffic to help audit their processes. Based on their business
processes, LifeIns plans to deploy:
• one 7000 or 8000 Series device in a passive deployment for the Customer Service department
• one 7000 or 8000 Series device in an inline deployment for the Underwriting Department
• one Firepower Management Center to manage both devices
Customer Service Business Processes

LifeIns created a customer-facing website for their customers. LifeIns receives encrypted questions and
requests regarding policies from prospective customers through their website and through e-mail. LifeIns’s
Customer Service department processes them and returns the requested information within 24 hours. Customer
Service wants to expand its incoming contact metrics collection. LifeIns has an established internal audit
review for Customer Service.
LifeIns also receives encrypted applications online. The Customer Service department processes the applications
within 24 hours before sending the case file to the Underwriting department. Customer Service filters out any
obvious false applications sent through the online form, which consumes a fair portion of their time.
Underwriting Business Processes

LifeIns’s underwriters submit encrypted medical information requests online to the Medical Repository
Example, LLC medical data repository (MedRepo). MedRepo reviews the requests and transmits the encrypted
records to LifeIns within 72 hours. The underwriters subsequently underwrite an application and submit policy
and rate decisions. Underwriting wants to expand its metrics collection.
Lately, an unknown source has been sending spoofed responses to LifeIns. Though LifeIns’s underwriters
receive training on proper Internet use, LifeIns’s IT department first wants to analyze all encrypted traffic
that takes the form of medical responses, then wants to block all spoof attempts.
LifeIns places junior underwriters on six-month training periods. Lately, these underwriters have been
incorrectly submitting encrypted medical regulation requests to MedRepo’s customer service department.

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Traffic Decryption in a Passive Deployment
MedRepo has submitted multiple complaints to LifeIns in response. LifeIns plans on extending their new
underwriter training period to also audit underwriter requests to MedRepo.
Traffic Decryption in a Passive Deployment

LifeIns’s business requirements state that Customer Service must:
• process all requests and applications within 24 hours
• improve its incoming contact metrics collection process
• identify and discard incoming false applications
Customer Service does not require additional audit review.

LifeIns plans to passively deploy a Customer Service managed device.
Traffic from an external network goes to LifeIns’s router. The router routes traffic to the Customer Service
department, and mirrors a copy of the traffic to the managed device for inspection.
On the managing Firepower Management Center, a user in the access control configures TLS/SSL inspection
to:
• log all encrypted traffic sent to the Customer Service department
• decrypt encrypted traffic sent using the online application form to Customer Service
• not decrypt all other encrypted traffic sent to Customer service, including traffic sent using the online
request form
The user also configures access control to inspect the decrypted application form traffic for fake application
data and log when fake data is detected.
In the following scenarios, the user submits an online form to Customer Service. The user’s browser establishes
a TCP connection with the server, then initiates a TLS/SSL handshake. The managed device receives a copy
of this traffic. The client and server complete the TLS/SSL handshake, establishing the encrypted session.
Based on handshake and connection details, the system logs the connection and acts upon the copy of the
encrypted traffic.

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Encrypted Traffic Monitoring in a Passive Deployment
Encrypted Traffic Monitoring in a Passive Deployment

For all TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic sent to Customer Service, the managed device logs the connection.
The following steps occur:

1. The user submits the plain text request (info). The client encrypts this (AaBb) and sends the encrypted
traffic to Customer Service.
2. LifeIns's router receives the encrypted traffic and routes it to the Customer Service department server. It
also mirrors a copy to the managed device.
3. The Customer Service department server receives the encrypted information request (AaBb) and decrypts
it to plain text (info).
4. The managed device does not decrypt the traffic.
The access control policy continues to process the encrypted traffic and allows it. The device generates
a connection event after the session ends.
5. The Firepower Management Center receives the connection event.
Undecrypted Encrypted Traffic in a Passive Deployment

For all TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic that contains requests about policies, the managed device allows the traffic
without decrypting it and logs the connection.

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Encrypted Traffic Inspection with a Private Key in a Passive Deployment

1. The user submits the plain text request (info). The client encrypts this (AaBb) and sends the encrypted
it to plain text (info).
The access control policy continues to process the encrypted traffic and allows it. The device generates

For all TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic that contains application form data, the system decrypts the traffic and logs
the connection.
Note In a passive deployment, if traffic is encrypted with either the DHE or ECDHE cipher suite, you cannot decrypt
it with a known private key.
For traffic with legitimate application form information, the system logs the connection.

1360

1. The user submits the plain text request (form). The client encrypts this (AaBb) and sends the encrypted
it to plain text (form).
4. The managed device uses the session key obtained with the uploaded known private key to decrypt the
encrypted traffic to plain text (form).
The access control policy continues to process the decrypted traffic and does not find fake application
information. The device generates a connection event after the session ends.
5. The Firepower Management Center receives a connection event with information about the encrypted
and decrypted traffic.
In contrast, if the decrypted traffic contains fake application data, the system logs the connection and the fake
data.

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Traffic Decryption in an Inline Deployment

1. The user submits the plain text request (fake). The client encrypts this (CcDd) and sends the encrypted
3. The Customer Service department server receives the encrypted information request (CcDd) and decrypts
it to plain text (fake).
4. The managed device uses the session key obtained with the uploaded known private key to decrypt the
encrypted traffic to plain text (fake).
The access control policy continues to process the decrypted traffic and finds fake application information.
The device generates an intrusion event. After the session ends, it generates a connection event.
and decrypted traffic, and an intrusion event for the fake application data.

LifeIns’s business requirements state that Underwriting must:
• audit new and junior underwriters, verifying that their information requests to MedRepo comply with
all applicable regulations
• improve its underwriting metrics collection process
• examine all requests that appear to come from MedRepo, then drop any spoofing attempts
• drop all improper regulatory requests to MedRepo’s Customer Service department from the Underwriting
department
• not audit senior underwriters
LifeIns plans to deploy a device in an inline deployment for the Underwriting department.

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Traffic from MedRepo’s network goes to MedRepo’s router. It routes traffic to LifeIns’s network. The managed
device receives the traffic, passes allowed traffic to LifeIns’s router, and sends events to the managing Firepower
Management Center. LifeIns’s router routes traffic to the destination host.
On the managing Firepower Management Center, a user in the Access Control and SSL Editor custom role
configures an SSL access control rule to:
• log all encrypted traffic sent to the Underwriting department
• block all encrypted traffic incorrectly sent from LifeIns’s underwriting department to MedRepo’s customer
service department
• decrypt all encrypted traffic sent from MedRepo to LifeIns’s underwriting department, and from LifeIns’s
junior underwriters to MedRepo’s requests department
• not decrypt encrypted traffic sent from the senior underwriters
The user also configures access control to inspect decrypted traffic with a custom intrusion policy and:
• block decrypted traffic if it contains a spoof attempt, and log the spoof attempt
• block decrypted traffic that contains information not compliant with regulations, and log the improper
information
• allow all other encrypted and decrypted traffic
The system reencrypts allowed decrypted traffic before sending it to the destination host.
You can also cause the system to decrypt and resign the traffic using a TLS/SSL control rule with the action
Decrypt - Resign. If traffic matches the TLS/SSL rule, after the system modifies the ClientHello message, it
determines whether the message passes access control evaluation (which can include deep inspection). If the
message passes, the system transmits it to the destination server. For more information, see ClientHello
Message Handling, on page 1343
In the following scenarios, the user submits information online to a remote server. The user’s browser establishes
a TCP connection with the server, then initiates an SSL handshake. The managed device receives this traffic;
based on handshake and connection details, the system logs the connection and acts on the traffic. If the system
blocks the traffic, it also closes the TCP connection. Otherwise, the client and server complete the SSL
handshake, establishing the encrypted session.

1363
Encrypted Traffic Monitoring in an Inline Deployment
Encrypted Traffic Monitoring in an Inline Deployment

For all SSL-encrypted traffic sent to and from the Underwriting department, the system logs the connection.

1. The user submits the plain text request (help). The client encrypts this (AaBb) and sends the encrypted
traffic to MedRepo’s Requests department server.
2. LifeIns's router receives the encrypted traffic and routes it to the Requests department server.
The access control policy continues to process the encrypted traffic and allows it, then generates a
connection event after the session ends.
4. The external router receives the traffic and routes it to the Requests department server.
5. The Underwriting department server receives the encrypted information request (AaBb) and decrypts it to
plain text (help).
Undecrypted Encrypted Traffic in an Inline Deployment

For all TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic originating from the senior underwriters, the managed device allows the
traffic without decrypting it and logs the connection.

1364
Encrypted Traffic Blocking in an Inline Deployment

traffic to MedRepo’s Requests department server.
2. LifeIns's router receives the encrypted traffic and routes it to the Requests department server.
3. The managed device does not decrypt this traffic.
The access control policy continues to process the encrypted traffic and allows it, then generates a
5. The Requests department server receives the encrypted information request (AaBb) and decrypts it to plain
text (help).
Encrypted Traffic Blocking in an Inline Deployment

For all SMTPS email traffic improperly sent from LifeIns’s underwriting department to MedRepo’s Customer
Service department, the system blocks the traffic during the SSL handshake without further inspection and
logs the connection.

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Encrypted Traffic Inspection with a Private Key in an Inline Deployment

1. Having received the request to establish a TLS/SSL handshake from a client’s browser, the Customer
Service department server sends the server certificate (cert) as the next step in the TLS/SSL handshake
to the LifeIns underwriter.
2. MedRepo’s router receives the certificate and routes it to the LifeIns underwriter.
3. The managed device blocks the traffic without further inspection and ends the TCP connection. It generates
a connection event.
4. The internal router does not receive the blocked traffic.
5. The underwriter does not receive the blocked traffic.

For all TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic sent from MedRepo to LifeIns’s underwriting department, the system uses
an uploaded server private key to obtain session keys, then decrypts the traffic and logs the connection.
Legitimate traffic is allowed and reencrypted before being sent to the Underwriting department.

1366

1. The user submits the plain text request (stats). The client encrypts this (AaBbC) and sends the encrypted
traffic to the Underwriting department server.
2. The external router receives the traffic and routes it to the Underwriting department server.
3. The managed device uses the session key obtained with the uploaded known private key to decrypt this
traffic to plain text (stats).
The access control policy continues to process the decrypted traffic with the custom intrusion policy and
does not find a spoof attempt. The device passes the encrypted traffic (AaBbC), then generates a connection
event after the session ends.
4. The internal router receives the traffic and routes it to the Underwriting department server.
5. The Underwriting department server receives the encrypted information (AaBbC) and decrypts it to plain
text (stats).
6. The Firepower Management Center receives the connection event with information about the encrypted
In contrast, any decrypted traffic that is a spoof attempt is dropped. The system logs the connection and the
spoof attempt.

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Encrypted Traffic Inspection with a Re-signed Certificate in an Inline Deployment

1. The user submits the plain text request (spoof), altering the traffic to appear to originate from MedRepo,
LLC. The client encrypts this (FfGgH) and sends the encrypted traffic to the Underwriting department
server.
2. The managed device uses the session key obtained with the uploaded known private key to decrypt this
traffic to plain text (spoof).
finds a spoof attempt. The device blocks the traffic, then generates an intrusion event. It generates a
3. The internal router does not receive the blocked traffic.
4. The Underwriting department server does not receive the blocked traffic.
and decrypted traffic, and an intrusion event for the spoofing attempt.

For all TLS/SSL-encrypted traffic sent from the new and junior underwriters to MedRepo’s requests department,
the system uses a re-signed server certificate to obtain session keys, then decrypts the traffic and logs the
connection. Legitimate traffic is allowed and reencrypted before being sent to MedRepo.
Note When decrypting traffic in an inline deployment by re-signing the server certificate, the device acts as a
man-in-the-middle. It creates two TLS/SSL sessions, one between client and managed device, one between
managed device and server. As a result, each session contains different cryptographic session details.

1368

traffic to the Requests department server.
2. The internal router receives the traffic and routes it to the Requests department server.
3. The managed device uses the session key obtained with a re-signed server certificate and private key to
decrypt this traffic to plain text (help).
does not find an improper request. The device reencrypts the traffic (CcDd), allowing it to pass. It generates
5. The Requests department server receives the encrypted information (CcDd) and decrypts it to plain text
(help).
6. The Firepower Management Center receives the connection event with information about the encrypted
Note Traffic encrypted with a re-signed server certificate causes client browsers to warn that the certificate is not
trusted. To avoid this, add the CA certificate to the organization’s domain root trusted certificates store or the
client trusted certificates store.
In contrast, any decrypted traffic that contains information that does not meet regulatory requirements is
dropped. The system logs the connection and the non-conforming information.

1369
History for TLS/SSL

1. The user submits the plain text request (regs), which does not comply with regulatory requirements. The
client encrypts this (EeFf) and sends the encrypted traffic to the Requests department server.
2. The internal router receives the traffic and routes it to the Requests department server.
3. The managed device uses the session key obtained with a re-signed server certificate and private key to
decrypt this traffic to plain text (regs).
finds an improper request. The device blocks the traffic, then generates an intrusion event. It generates a
4. The external router does not receive the blocked traffic.
5. The Requests department server does not receive the blocked traffic.
and decrypted traffic, and an intrusion event for the improper request.
History for TLS/SSL

Extended Master Secret extension 6.3.0.1 The TLS Extended Master Secret extension is supported for SSL policies;
supported (see RFC 7627) specifically, policies with a rule action of Decrypt - Resign or Decrypt
- Known Key.
Extended Master Secret extension 6.2.3.9 The TLS Extended Master Secret extension is supported for SSL policies;
supported (see RFC 7627) specifically, policies with a rule action of Decrypt - Resign or Decrypt
- Known Key.

1370
History for TLS/SSL
Aggressive TLS 1.3 downgrade 6.2.3.7 Using the system support ssl-client-hello-enabled
aggressive-tls13-downgrade {true|false} CLI command, you can
determine the behavior for downgrading TLS 1.3 traffic to TLS 1.2. For
details, see the Command Reference for Firepower Threat Defense.
TLS/SSL hardware acceleration introduced 6.2.3 Certain managed device models perform TLS/SSL encryption and
decryption in hardware, improving performance. By default, the feature
is enabled.
Affected screen: To view the status of TLS/SSL hardware acceleration,
Devices > Device Management > Device, General tab page.
Category and reputation conditions 6.2.2 Access control rules or SSL rules with category/reputation conditions.
supported
SafeSearch supported 6.1.0 • The system displays an HTTP response page for connections
decrypted by the SSL policy, then blocked (or interactively blocked)
either by access control rules or by the access control policy default
action. In these cases, the system encrypts the response page and
sends it at the end of the reencrypted SSL stream.
• SafeSearch filters objectionable content and stops people from
searching adult sites.

1371
History for TLS/SSL

1372
CHAPTER 71
Start Creating SSL Policies
The following topics provide an overview of SSL policy creation, configuration, management, and logging.
• SSL Policies Overview, on page 1373
• SSL Policy Default Actions, on page 1374
• Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1375
• Manage SSL Policies, on page 1376
• Create Basic SSL Policies, on page 1377
• Set Default Handling for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1378
• Editing an SSL Policy, on page 1379
SSL Policies Overview

An SSL policy determines how the system handles encrypted traffic on your network. You can configure one
or more SSL policies, associate an SSL policy with an access control policy, then deploy the access control
policy to a managed device. When the device detects a TCP handshake, the access control policy first handles
and inspects the traffic. If it subsequently identifies a TLS/SSL-encrypted session over the TCP connection,
the SSL policy takes over, handling and decrypting the encrypted traffic.
Caution Adding or removing an SSL policy restarts the Snort process when you deploy configuration changes,
The simplest SSL policy, as shown in the following diagram, directs the device where it is deployed to handle
encrypted traffic with a single default action. You can set the default action to block decryptable traffic without
further inspection, or to inspect undecrypted decryptable traffic with access control. The system can then
either allow or block the encrypted traffic. If the device detects undecryptable traffic, it either blocks the traffic
without further inspection or does not decrypt it, inspecting it with access control.

1373
SSL Policy Default Actions
A more complex SSL policy can handle different types of undecryptable traffic with different actions, control
traffic based on whether a certificate authority (CA) issued or trusts the encryption certificate, and use SSL
rules to exert granular control over encrypted traffic logging and handling. These rules can be simple or
complex, matching and inspecting encrypted traffic using multiple criteria.
Difference?.
Related Topics
TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1392
SSL Policy Default Actions

The default action for an SSL policy determines how the system handles decryptable encrypted traffic that
does not match any non-monitor rule in the policy. When you deploy an SSL policy that does not contain any
TLS/SSL rules, the default action determines how all decryptable traffic on your network is handled. Note
that the system does not perform any kind of inspection on encrypted traffic blocked by the default action.
Table 88: SSL Policy Default Actions
Default Action Effect on Encrypted Traffic
Block Block the TLS/SSL session without further inspection.
Block with reset Block the TLS/SSL session without further inspection and reset
the TCP connection. Choose this option if traffic uses a
connectionless protocol like UDP. In that case, the connectionless
protocol tries to reestablish the connection until it is reset.
This action also displays a connection reset error in the browser
so the user is informed that the connection is blocked.
Do not decrypt Inspect the encrypted traffic with access control.

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Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic
Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic

Table 89: Undecryptable Traffic Types
Type Description Default Action Available Action
Compressed Session The TLS/SSL session applies a Inherit default action Do not decrypt
data compression method.
Block
Block with reset
Inherit default action
SSLv2 Session The session is encrypted with Inherit default action Do not decrypt
SSL version 2.
Block
Note that traffic is decryptable
Block with reset
if the ClientHello message is
SSL 2.0, and the remainder of Inherit default action
the transmitted traffic is SSL
3.0.
Unknown Cipher Suite The system does not recognize Inherit default action Do not decrypt
the cipher suite.
Block
Block with reset
Unsupported Cipher Suite The system does not support Inherit default action Do not decrypt
decryption based on the detected
Block
cipher suite.
Block with reset
Session not cached The TLS/SSL session has Inherit default action Do not decrypt
session reuse enabled, the client
Block
and server reestablished the
session with the session Block with reset
identifier, and the system did
not cache that session identifier.
Handshake Errors An error occurred during Inherit default action Do not decrypt
TLS/SSL handshake
Block
negotiation.
Block with reset
Decryption Errors An error occurred during traffic Block Block

decryption.
Block with Reset

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Manage SSL Policies
When you first create an SSL policy, logging connections that are handled by the default action is disabled
by default. Because the logging settings for the default action also apply to undecryptable traffic handling,
logging connections handled by the undecryptable traffic actions is disabled by default.
Note that if your browser uses certificate pinning to verify a server certificate, you cannot decrypt this traffic
by re-signing the server certificate. For more information, see TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on
page 1381.
Manage SSL Policies

Any Any Any except Any Admin/Access

NGIPSv Admin/Network Admin
In the SSL policy editor, you can:

• Configure your policy.
• Add, edit, delete, enable, disable, and organize TLS/SSL rules.
• Add trusted CA certificates.
• Determine the handling for encrypted traffic the system cannot decrypt.
• Log traffic that is handled by the default action and undecryptable traffic actions.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Policies > Access Control > SSL.

Step 2 Manage SSL policies:
• Associate—To associate an SSL policy with an access control policy, see Associating Other Policies
with Access Control, on page 1254.
• Compare—Click Compare Policies; see Comparing Policies, on page 319.
• Copy—Click the copy icon ( ).

• Create—Click New Policy; see Create Basic SSL Policies, on page 1377.
• Delete—Click the delete icon ( ). If the controls are dimmed, the configuration belongs to an ancestor
domain, or you do not have permission to modify the configuration.

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Create Basic SSL Policies
• Edit—Click the edit icon ( ); see Editing an SSL Policy, on page 1379. If a view icon ( ) appears
instead, the configuration belongs to an ancestor domain, or you do not have permission to modify the
configuration.
• Import/Export—See About Configuration Import/Export, on page 143.
Create Basic SSL Policies


To configure an SSL policy, you must give the policy a unique name and specify a default action.
Procedure

Step 3 Give the policy a unique Name and, optionally, a Description.
Step 4 Specify the Default Action; see SSL Policy Default Actions, on page 1374.
Step 5 Configure logging options for the default action as described in Logging Connections with a Policy Default
Action, on page 2331.
Step 6 Click Save.
What To Do Next
• Configure rules to add to your SSL policy; see Creating and Modifying TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1388.
• Set the default handling for undecryptable traffic; see Set Default Handling for Undecryptable Traffic,
on page 1378.
• Configure logging options for default handling of undecryptable traffic; see Logging Connections with
a Policy Default Action, on page 2331.
• Associate the SSL policy with an access control policy as described in Associating Other Policies with
Access Control, on page 1254.

1377
Set Default Handling for Undecryptable Traffic
Set Default Handling for Undecryptable Traffic


You can set undecryptable traffic actions at the SSL policy level to handle certain types of encrypted traffic
the system cannot decrypt or inspect. When you deploy an SSL policy that contains no TLS/SSL rules, the
undecryptable traffic actions determine how all undecryptable encrypted traffic on your network is handled.
Depending on the type of undecryptable traffic, you can choose to:
• Block the connection.
• Block the connection, then reset it. This option is preferrable for connectionless protocols like UDP,
which keep trying to connect until the connection is blocked.
• Inspect the encrypted traffic with access control.
• Inherit the default action from the SSL policy.
Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL policy editor, click the Undecryptable Actions tab.
Step 2 For each field, choose either the SSL policy's default action or another action you want to take on the type of
undecryptable traffic. See Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1375 and SSL Policy
Default Actions, on page 1374 for more information.
Example
For example, to block all SSLv2 traffic, set the options as follows:

1378
Editing an SSL Policy
What to do next
• Configure default logging for connections handled by the undecryptable traffic actions; see Logging
Connections with a Policy Default Action, on page 2331.


Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the SSL policy you want to configure.
Step 3 Configure the SSL policy:

• Describe—If you want to update your SSL policy description, click the Description field and enter the
new description.
• Log—If you want to log connections for undecryptable traffic handling and traffic that does not match
SSL rules, see Logging Connections with a Policy Default Action, on page 2331.
• Rename—If you want to rename your SSL policy, click the Name field and enter the new name.
• Set the default action—If you want to configure how your SSL policy handles traffic that does not match
SSL rules, see SSL Policy Default Actions, on page 1374.
• Set the default action for undecryptable traffic—If you want to configure how your SSL policy handles
undecryptable traffic, see Set Default Handling for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1378.
• Trust—If you want to add trusted CA certificates to your SSL policy, see Trusting External Certificate
Authorities, on page 1422.
Step 4 Edit the rules in your SSL policy:

• Add—If you want to add a rule, click Add Rule.
• Copy—If you want to copy a rule, right-click a selected rule and choose Copy.

1379
• Cut—If you want to cut a rule, right-click a selected rule and choose Cut.
• Delete—To delete a rule, click the delete icon ( ) next to the rule, then click OK.
• Disable—To disable an enabled rule, right-click a selected rule, choose State, then choose Disable.
• Display—To display the configuration page for a specific rule attribute, click the name, value, or icon
in the column for the condition on the row for the rule. For example, click the name or value in the Source
Networks column to display the Networks page for the selected rule. See Network-Based TLS/SSL Rule
Conditions, on page 1400 for more information.
• Edit—To edit a rule, click the edit icon ( ) next to the rule.
• Enable—To enable a disabled rule, right-click a selected rule, choose State, then choose Enable. Disabled
rules are dimmed and marked (disabled) beneath the rule name.
• Paste—To paste a cut or copied rule, right-click a selected rule and choose Paste Above or Paste Below.
Step 5 Save or discard your configuration:

• To save your changes and continue editing, click Save.
• To discard your changes, click Cancel and, if prompted, click OK.
What to do next
• If the SSL policy is not already associated with an access control policy, associate it as described in
Associating Other Policies with Access Control, on page 1254.
Related Topics
Creating and Modifying TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1388

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CHAPTER 72
Get Started with TLS/SSL Rules
The following topics provide an overview of creating, configuring, managing, and troubleshooting TLS/SSL
rules:
Difference?.
• TLS/SSL Rules Overview, on page 1381

• TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on page 1381
• Encrypted Traffic Inspection Configuration, on page 1387
• Creating and Modifying TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1388
• TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1392
• TLS/SSL Rule Actions, on page 1395
• TLS/SSL Rules Management, on page 1398
TLS/SSL Rules Overview

TLS/SSL rules provide a granular method of handling encrypted traffic across multiple managed devices,
whether blocking the traffic without further inspection, not decrypting the traffic and inspecting it with access
control, or decrypting the traffic for access control analysis.
TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations

Keep the following points in mind when setting up your TLS/SSL rules. Properly configuring TLS/SSL rules
is a complex task, but one that is essential to building an effective deployment that handles encrypted traffic.
Many factors influence how you configure rules, including certain application behavior that you cannot control.

1381
Guideline for Using TLS/SSL Decryption
In addition, rules can preempt each other, require additional licenses, or contain invalid configurations.
Thoughtfully configured rules can also reduce the resources required to process network traffic. Creating
overly complex rules and ordering rules the wrong way can adversely affect performance.
For detailed information, see Rule Performance Guidelines, on page 356.
For guidelines related specifically to TLS/SSL hardware acceleration, see TLS/SSL Hardware Acceleration
Guidelines and Limitations, on page 1347.
Related Topics
Rule and Other Policy Warnings, on page 355
Guideline for Using TLS/SSL Decryption, on page 1382
TLS/SSL Rule Unsupported Features, on page 1382
TLS/SSL Do Not Decrypt Guidelines, on page 1382
TLS/SSL Decrypt - Resign Guidelines, on page 1383
TLS/SSL Decrypt - Known Key Guidelines, on page 1384
TLS/SSL Block Guidelines, on page 1385
TLS/SSL Certificate Pinning Guidelines, on page 1385
TLS/SSL Heartbeat Guidelines, on page 1386
TLS/SSL Anonymous Cipher Suite Limitation, on page 1386
TLS/SSL Normalizer Guidelines, on page 1386
Other TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines, on page 1386
Guideline for Using TLS/SSL Decryption

Set up Decrypt - Resign or Decrypt - Known Key rules only if your managed device handles encrypted
traffic. Decryption rules require processing overhead that can impact performance.
TLS/SSL Rule Unsupported Features

Zone conditions and passive interfaces
If you create a Decrypt - Resign rule, and later add a security zone with passive interfaces to a zone
condition, the system displays a warning icon next to the rule. Because you cannot decrypt traffic by
re-signing a certificate in a passive deployment, the rule has no effect until you remove the passive
interfaces from the rule or change the rule action.
TLS/SSL Do Not Decrypt Guidelines

You should not decrypt traffic if doing so is forbidden by:
• Law; for example, some jurisdictions forbid decrypting financial information
• Company policy; for example, your company might forbid decrypting privileged communications
• Privacy regulations
• Traffic that uses certificate pinning (also referred to as TLS/SSL pinning) must remain encrypted to
prevent breaking the connection

1382
TLS/SSL Decrypt - Resign Guidelines
If you elect to bypass decryption for certain types of traffic, no processing is done on the traffic. The encrypted
traffic is first evaluated by SSL policy and then proceeds to the access control policy, where a final allow or
block decision is made. Encrypted traffic can be allowed or blocked on any TLS/SSL rule condition, including,
but not limited to:
• Certificate status (for example, expired or invalid certificate)
• Protocol (for example, the unsecure SSL protocol)
• Network (security zone, IP address, VLAN tag, and so on)
• Exact URL or URL category
• Port
• User group
TLS/SSL Decrypt - Resign Guidelines

You can associate one Certificate Authority certificate and private key with the Decrypt - Resign action. If
traffic matches this rule, the system re-signs the server certificate with the CA certificate, then acts as a
man-in-the-middle. It creates two TLS/SSL sessions, one between client and managed device, one between
managed device and server. Each session contains different cryptographic session details, and allows the
system to decrypt and reencrypt traffic. This action is more suited for outgoing traffic, as you replace the
certificate’s private key with one you control to obtain the session keys.
Re-signing a server certificate involves either replacing the certificate’s public key with a CA certificate public
key, or replacing the entire certificate. Normally, if you replace an entire server certificate, the client browser
warns the certificate is not signed by a trusted authority when establishing the TLS/SSL connection. However,
if your client’s browser trusts the CA in the policy, the browser does not warn that the certificate is not trusted.
If the original server certificate is self-signed, the system replaces the entire certificate, and trusts the re-signing
CA, but the user’s browser does not warn that the certificate is self-signed. In this case, replacing only the
server certificate public key causes the client browser does warn that the certificate is self-signed.
If you configure a rule with the Decrypt - Resign action, the rule matches traffic based on the referenced
internal CA certificate’s signature algorithm type, in addition to any configured rule conditions. Because you
associate one CA certificate with a Decrypt - Resign action, you cannot create a TLS/SSL rule that decrypts
multiple types of outgoing traffic encrypted with different signature algorithms. In addition, any external
certificate objects and cipher suites you add to the rule must match the associated CA certificate encryption
algorithm type. You can optionally replace the self-signed certificate key only and not the entire certificate,
in which case users see a self-signed certificate key notice in the browser.
For example, outgoing traffic encrypted with an elliptic curve (EC) algorithm matches a Decrypt - Resign
rule only if the action references an EC-based CA certificate; you must add EC-based external certificates
and cipher suites to the rule to create certificate and cipher suite rule conditions. Similarly, a Decrypt - Resign
rule that references an RSA-based CA certificate matches only outgoing traffic encrypted with an RSA
algorithm; outgoing traffic encrypted with an EC algorithm does not match the rule, even if all other configured
rule conditions match.
Also note the following:
Anonymous cipher suite unsupported
By nature, anonymous cipher suites are not used for authentication and do not use key exchanges. There
are limited uses for anonymous cipher suites; for more information, see RFC 5246, section A.5.

1383
TLS/SSL Decrypt - Known Key Guidelines
You cannot use the Decrypt - Resign or Decrypt - Known Key action in the rule because anonymous
cipher suites are not used for authentication.
Inline or tap mode limitation
You cannot use the Decrypt - Resign action in a passive or inline (tap mode) deployment because the
device does not directly inspect traffic. If you create a rule with the Decrypt - Resign action that contains
passive or inline (tap mode) interfaces within a security zone, the policy editor displays a warning icon
( ) next to the rule.
If your SSL policy targets a device with passive or inline (tap mode) interfaces, and contains a Decrypt
- Resign rule, the system displays an information icon ( ) next to the rule. If you later add a zone
condition to the TLS/SSL rule that contains passive or inline (tap mode) interfaces, the system displays
a warning icon ( ). If you deploy an SSL policy that contains a Decrypt - Resign rule to a device with
passive or inline (tap mode) interfaces, any TLS/SSL sessions that match the rule fail.
Non-matching cipher suite
The following error is displayed if you attempt to save a TLS/SSL rule with a cipher suite that does not
match the certificate. To resolve the issue, see Verify TLS/SSL Cipher Suites, on page 1442.
Traffic cannot match this rule; none of your selected cipher suites contain a
signature algorithm that the resigning CA's signature algorithm
Untrusted Certificate Authority

If the client does not trust the Certificate Authority (CA) used to re-sign the server certificate, it warns
the user that the certificate should not be trusted. To prevent this, import the CA certificate into the client
trusted CA store. Alternatively, if your organization has a private PKI, you can issue an intermediate CA
certificate signed by the root CA which is automatically trusted by all clients in the organization, then
upload that CA certificate to the device.
HTTP proxy limitation
The system cannot decrypt traffic if an HTTP proxy is positioned between a client and your managed
device, and the client and server establish a tunneled TLS/SSL connection using the CONNECT HTTP
method. The Handshake Errors undecryptable action determines how the system handles this traffic.
Upload signed CA
If you create an internal CA object and choose to generate a certificate signing request (CSR), you cannot
use this CA for a Decrypt - Resign action until you upload the signed certificate to the object.
TLS/SSL Decrypt - Known Key Guidelines

When you configure the Decrypt - Known Key action, you can associate one or more server certificates and
paired private keys with the action. If traffic matches the rule, and the certificate used to encrypt the traffic
matches the certificate associated with the action, the system uses the appropriate private key to obtain the
session encryption and decryption keys. Because you must have access to the private key, this action is best
suited to decrypt traffic incoming to servers your organization controls.
Also note the following:
Limitation for DHE and ECDHE key exchanges
You cannot use the Decrypt - Known Key action in a passive deployment if the cipher suite used to
establish the TLS/SSL connection applies either the Diffie-Hellman ephemeral (DHE) or the elliptic
curve Diffie-Hellman ephemeral (ECDHE) key exchange algorithm. If your SSL policy targets a device

1384
TLS/SSL Block Guidelines
with passive or inline (tap mode) interfaces, and contains a Decrypt - Known Key rule with a cipher
suite condition containing either a DHE or an ECDHE cipher suite, the system displays an information
icon ( ) next to the rule. If you later add a zone condition to the TLS/SSL rule that contains passive or
inline (tap mode) interfaces, the system displays a warning icon ( ).
Anonymous cipher suite unsupported
By nature, anonymous cipher suites are not used for authentication and do not use key exchanges. There
are limited uses for anonymous cipher suites; for more information, see RFC 5246, section A.5.
You cannot use the Decrypt - Resign or Decrypt - Known Key action in the rule because anonymous
cipher suites are not used for authentication.
Cannot match on Distinguished Name or Certificate
You cannot match on Distinguished Name or Certificate conditions when creating a TLS/SSL rule
with a Decrypt - Known Key action. The assumption is that if this rule matches traffic, the certificate,
subject DN, and issuer DN already match the certificate associated with the rule.
Mismatched signature algorithm
If you configure a rule with the Decrypt - Resign action, and mismatch signature algorithm type for one
or more external certificate objects or cipher suites, the policy editor displays an information icon ( )
next to the rule. If you mismatch signature algorithm type for all external certificate objects, or all cipher
suites, the policy displays a warning icon ( ) next to the rule, and you cannot deploy the access control
policy associated with the SSL policy.
Certificate pinning
If the customer's browser uses certificate pinning to verify a server certificate, you cannot decrypt this
traffic by re-signing the server certificate. To allow this traffic, configure a TLS/SSL rule with the Do
not decrypt action to match the server certificate common name or distinguished name.
TLS/SSL Block Guidelines

If decrypted traffic matches an access control rule with an action of Interactive Block or Interactive Block
with reset, the system displays a customizable response page.
Provided you enabled logging in your rule, two connection events are displayed (in Analysis > Events >
Connections): One event for the interactive block and another event to indicate whether or not the user chose
to continue to the site or not.
TLS/SSL Certificate Pinning Guidelines

Because TLS/SSL pinning is used to avoid man-in-the-middle attacks, there is no way to prevent or work
around it. You have the following options:
• Create a Do Not Decrypt for those applications rule ordered before Decrypt - Resign rules.
• Instruct users to access the applications using a web browser.

1385
TLS/SSL Heartbeat Guidelines
For more information about rule ordering, see SSL Rule Order, on page 359.
To determine whether applications are using TLS/SSL pinning, see Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Pinning, on page
1440.
TLS/SSL Heartbeat Guidelines

If your managed device does not support TLS/SSL hardware acceleration or if is disabled, you can configure
a Max Heartbeat Length in a Network Analysis Policy (NAP) to determine how to handle TLS heartbeats.
For more information, see The SSL Preprocessor, on page 1833.
For more information, see About TLS Heartbeat, on page 1437.
TLS/SSL Anonymous Cipher Suite Limitation

By nature, anonymous cipher suites are not used for authentication and do not use key exchanges. There are
limited uses for anonymous cipher suites; for more information, see RFC 5246, section A.5.
You cannot use the Decrypt - Resign or Decrypt - Known Key action in the rule because anonymous cipher
suites are not used for authentication.
You can add an anonymous cipher suite to the Cipher Suite condition in a TLS/SSL rule, but the system
automatically strips anonymous cipher suites during ClientHello processing. For the system to use the rule,
you must also configure your TLS/SSL rules in an order that prevents ClientHello processing. For more
information, see SSL Rule Order, on page 359.
TLS/SSL Normalizer Guidelines

If you enable the Normalize Excess Payload option in the inline normalization preprocessor, when the
preprocessor normalizes decrypted traffic, it might drop a packet and replace it with a trimmed packet. This
does not end the TLS/SSL session. If the traffic is allowed, the trimmed packet is encrypted as part of the
TLS/SSL session.
Other TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines

Users and groups
If you add a group or user to a rule, then change your realm settings to exclude that group or user, the
rule has no effect. (The same applies to disabling the realm.) For more information about realms, see
Create a Realm, on page 1989.
Categories in TLS/SSL rules
If your SSL policy has a Decrypt - Resign action but web sites are not being decrypted, check the
Category tab page on rules associated with that policy.
In some cases, a web site redirects to another site for authentication or other purposes and the redirected
site might have a different URL categorization than the site you're trying to decrypt. For example,

1386
Encrypted Traffic Inspection Configuration
gmail.com (Web based email category) redirects to accounts.gmail.com (Internet Portals

category) for authentication. Be sure to include all relevant categories in the SSL rule.
Query for URLs not in the local database
If you create a Decrypt - Resign rule and users browse to a web site whose category and reputation are
not in the local database, data might not be decrypted. Some web sites are not categorized in the local
database and, if not, data from those web sites is not decrypted by default.
You can control this behavior with the setting System > Integration > Cisco CSI , and check Query
Cisco CSI for Unknown URLs.
For more information about this option, see Cisco Security Intelligence Clouds, on page 1464.
Encrypted Traffic Inspection Configuration

You must create reusable public key infrastructure (PKI) objects to control encrypted traffic based on encrypted
session characteristics and decrypt encrypted traffic. You can add this information on the fly when uploading
trusted certificate authority (CA) certificates to the SSL policy and creating SSL rule conditions, creating the
associated object in the process. However, configuring these objects ahead of time reduces the chance of
improper object creation.
Decrypting Encrypted Traffic with Certificates and Paired Keys

The system can decrypt incoming encrypted traffic if you configure an internal certificate object by uploading
the server certificate and private key used to encrypt the session. If you reference that object in an SSL rule
with an action of Decrypt - Known Key and traffic matches that rule, the system uses the uploaded private
key to decrypt the session.
The system can also decrypt outgoing traffic if you configure an internal CA object by uploading a CA
certificate and private key. If you reference that object in a TLS/SSL rule with an action of Decrypt - Resign
and traffic matches that rule, the system re-signs the server certificate passed to the client browser, then acts
as a man-in-the-middle to decrypt the session.You can optionally replace the self-signed certificate key only
and not the entire certificate, in which case users see a self-signed certificate key notice in the browser.
Controlling Traffic Based on Encrypted Session Characteristics

The system can control encrypted traffic based on the cipher suite or server certificate used to negotiate the
session. You can configure one of several different reusable objects and reference the object in a TLS/SSL
rule condition to match traffic. The following table describes the different types of reusable objects you can
configure:
If you configure... You can control encrypted traffic based on whether...
A cipher suite list containing one or more cipher suites The cipher suite used to negotiate the encrypted session matches
a cipher suite in the cipher suite list
A trusted CA object by uploading a CA certificate your The trusted CA trusts the server certificate used to encrypt the
organization trusts session, whether:
• The CA issued the certificate directly
• The CA issued a certificate to an intermediate CA that issued
the server certificate

1387
Creating and Modifying TLS/SSL Rules
If you configure... You can control encrypted traffic based on whether...
An external certificate object by uploading a server certificate The server certificate used to encrypt the session matches the
uploaded server certificate
A distinguished name object containing a certificate subject or The subject or issuer common name, country, organization, or
issuer distinguished name organizational unit on the certificate used to encrypt the session
matches the configured distinguished name
Related Topics
Cipher Suite Lists, on page 416
Distinguished Name Objects, on page 417
PKI Objects, on page 419
Creating and Modifying TLS/SSL Rules


Procedure
Step 1 Log in to the Firepower Management Center.

Step 2 Click Policies > Access Control > SSL.
Step 3 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the SSL policy.


Step 6 Specify whether the rule is Enabled.
Step 7 Specify the rule position; see TLS/SSL Rule Order Evaluation, on page 1355.
Step 8 Click a rule Action; see Configuring TLS/SSL Rule Actions, on page 1396.
Step 9 Configure the rule’s conditions; see TLS/SSL Rule Condition Types, on page 1393.
Step 10 Click Save.

1388
Adding a TLS/SSL Rule to a Rule Category
If the following error displays, see Verify TLS/SSL Cipher Suites, on page 1442: Traffic cannot match this
rule; none of your selected cipher suites contain a signature algorithm that the resigning CA's signature
algorithm.
What to do next
Adding a TLS/SSL Rule to a Rule Category


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, from the Insert drop-down list, select Into Category, then select the category you
want to use.
Step 2 Click Save.
Tip When you save the rule, it is placed last in that category.
What to do next
Positioning a TLS/SSL Rule by Number


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, from the Insert drop-down list, select above rule or below rule, then type the appropriate
rule number.
Step 2 Click Save.

1389
TLS/SSL Rule Search
Tip When you save the rule, it is placed where you specified.
What to do next
TLS/SSL Rule Search

You can search the list of TLS/SSL rules for matching values using an alphanumeric string, including spaces
and printable, special characters. The search inspects the rule name and any rule condition you have added to
the rule. For rule conditions, the search matches any name or value you can add for each condition type (zone,
network, application, and so on). This includes individual object names or values, group object names,
individual object names or values within a group, and literal values.
You can use complete or partial search strings. The column for matching values is highlighted for each
matching rule. For example, if you search on all or part of the string 100Bao, at a minimum, the Applications
column is highlighted for each rule where you have added the 100Bao application. If you also have a rule
named 100Bao, both the Name and Applications columns are highlighted.
You can navigate to each previous or next matching rule. A status message displays the current match and
the total number of matches.
Matches may occur on any page of a multi-page rule list. When the first match is not on the first page, the
page where the first match occurs is displayed. Selecting the next match when you are at the last match takes
you to the first match, and selecting the previous match when you are at the first match takes you to the last
match.
Searching TLS/SSL Rules


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL policy editor, click the Search Rules prompt, type a search string, then press Enter.
Tip Columns for rules with matching values are highlighted, with differentiated highlighting for the
indicated (first) match.
Step 2 Find the rules you are interested in:
• To navigate between matching rules, click the next-match ( ) or previous-match ( ) icon.

1390
Enabling and Disabling TLS/SSL Rules
• To refresh the page and clear the search string and any highlighting, click the clear icon ( ).
Enabling and Disabling TLS/SSL Rules


When you create a TLS/SSL rule, it is enabled by default. If you disable a rule, the system does not use it to
evaluate network traffic and stops generating warnings and errors for that rule. When viewing the list of rules
in an SSL policy, disabled rules are grayed out, although you can still modify them. Note that you can also
enable or disable a TLS/SSL rule using the rule editor.
Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL policy editor, right-click a rule and choose a rule state.
Step 2 Click Save.
What to do next
Moving a TLS/SSL Rule


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL policy editor, select the rules by clicking in a blank area for each rule.
Step 2 Right-click the rule and select Cut.
Step 3 Right-click a blank area for a rule next to where you want to paste the cut rules and select Paste above or
Paste below.
Tip You cannot copy and paste TLS/SSL rules between two different SSL policies.
Step 4 Click Save.

1391
Adding a New TLS/SSL Rule Category
What to do next
Adding a New TLS/SSL Rule Category


You can create custom categories between the Standard Rules and Root Rules categories to further organize
your rules without having to create additional policies. You can rename and delete categories that you add.
You cannot move these categories, but you can move rules into, within, and out of them.
Procedure
Step 1 In the policy editor, click Add Category.

Tip If your policy already contains rules, you can click a blank area in the row for an existing rule to
set the position of the new category before you add it. You can also right-click an existing rule and
select Insert new category.
Step 2 Type a Name.

• Select above Category from the first Insert drop-down list, then select the category above which you
want to position the rule from the second drop-down list.
• Select below rule from the drop-down list, then enter an existing rule number. This option is valid only
when at least one rule exists in the policy.
• Select above rule from the drop-down list, then, enter an existing rule number. This option is valid only
when at least one rule exists in the policy.
Step 4 Click OK.

Tip Rules in a category you delete are added to the category above.
Step 5 Click Save.
TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

An SSL rule’s conditions identify the type of encrypted traffic the rule handles. Conditions can be simple or
complex, and you can specify more than one condition type per rule. Only if traffic meets all the conditions
in a rule does the rule apply to the traffic.

1392
TLS/SSL Rule Condition Types
If you do not configure a particular condition for a rule, the system does not match traffic based on that
criterion. For example, a rule with a certificate condition but no version condition evaluates traffic based on
the server certificate used to negotiate the session, regardless of the session SSL or TLS version.
Every TLS/SSL rule has an associated action that determines the following for matching encrypted traffic:
• Handling: Most importantly, the rule action governs whether the system will monitor, trust, block, or
decrypt encrypted traffic that matches the rule’s conditions
• Logging: The rule action determines when and how you can log details about matching encrypted traffic.
Your TLS/SSL inspection configuration handles, inspects, and logs decrypted traffic:
• The SSL policy’s undecryptable actions handle traffic that the system cannot decrypt.
• The policy’s default action handles traffic that does not meet the condition of any non-Monitor TLS/SSL
rule.
You can log a connection event when the system blocks or trusts an encrypted session. You can also force
the system to log connections that it decrypts for further evaluation by access control rules, regardless of how
the system later handles or inspects the traffic. Connection logs for encrypted sessions contain details about
the encryption, such as the certificate used to encrypt that session. You can log only end-of-connection events,
however:
• For blocked connections (Block, Block with reset), the system immediately ends the sessions and generates
an event
• For trusted connections (Do not decrypt), the system generates an event when the session ends

When you add or edit an SSL rule, use the tabs on the left side of the lower portion of the rule editor to add
and edit rule conditions.
Table 90: TLS/SSL Rule Condition Types
This Condition... Matches Encrypted Traffic... Details
Zones Entering or leaving a device via an interface A security zone is a logical grouping of one
in a specific security zone or more interfaces according to your
deployment and security policies. Interfaces
in a zone may be located across multiple
devices.
Note You cannot decrypt traffic on an
inline or tap mode interface if
SSL hardware acceleration is
enabled.
Networks By its source or destination IP address, You can explicitly specify IP addresses.
country, or continent The geolocation feature also allows you to
control traffic based on its source or
destination country or continent.

1393
This Condition... Matches Encrypted Traffic... Details
VLAN Tags Tagged by VLAN The system uses the innermost VLAN tag
to identify a packet by VLAN.
Ports By its source or destination port You can control encrypted traffic based on
the TCP port.
Users By the user involved in the session You can control encrypted traffic based on
the LDAP user logged into a host involved
in an encrypted, monitored session. You
can control traffic based on individual users
or groups retrieved from a Microsoft Active
Directory server.
Applications By the application detected in a session You can control access to individual
applications in encrypted sessions, or filter
access according to basic characteristics:
type, risk, business relevance, and
categories.
Categories By the URL requested in the session, based You can limit the websites that users on
on the certificate subject distinguished your network can access based on the
name URL’s general classification and risk level.
Distinguished Names The URL the user enters in the browser You can control encrypted traffic based on
matches the Common Name (CN), or the the CA that issued a server certificate, or
URL is contained in the certificate's Subject the server certificate holder.
Alternative Name (SAN)
Certificates By the server certificate used to negotiate You can control encrypted traffic based on
the encrypted session the server certificate passed to the user’s
browser in order to negotiate the encrypted
session.
Certificate Status By properties of the server certificate used You can control encrypted traffic based on
to negotiate the encrypted session a server certificate’s status.
Cipher Suites By the cipher suite used to negotiate the You can control encrypted traffic based on
encrypted session the cipher suite selected by the server to
negotiate the encrypted session.
Versions By the version of SSL or TLS used to You can control encrypted traffic based on
encrypt the session the version of SSL or TLS used to encrypt
the session.
Related Topics
Network-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1400
User-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1407
Reputation-Based URL Blocking in Encrypted Traffic, on page 1413
Server Certificate-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1414
ClientHello Message Handling, on page 1343

1394
TLS/SSL Rule Actions
TLS/SSL Rule Actions

The following sections discuss the actions available with TLS/SSL rules.
Related Topics
TLS/SSL Rule Do Not Decrypt Action, on page 1395
TLS/SSL Rule Monitor Action, on page 1395
TLS/SSL Rule Monitor Action

The Monitor action does not affect encrypted traffic flow; matching traffic is neither immediately permitted
nor denied. Rather, traffic is matched against additional rules, if present, to determine whether to trust, block,
or decrypt it. The first non-Monitor rule matched determines traffic flow and any further inspection. If there
are no additional matching rules, the system uses the default action.
Because the primary purpose of Monitor rules is to track network traffic, the system automatically logs end-of
connection events for monitored traffic to the Firepower Management Center database, regardless of the
logging configuration of the rule or default action that later handles the connection.
TLS/SSL Rule Do Not Decrypt Action

The Do Not Decrypt action passes encrypted traffic for evaluation by the access control policy’s rules and
default action. Because some access control rule conditions require unencrypted traffic, this traffic may match
fewer rules. The system cannot perform deep inspection on encrypted traffic, such as intrusion or file inspection.
Typical reasons for a Do Not Decrypt rule action include:
• When decrypting TLS/SSL traffic is prohibited by law.
• Sites you know you can trust.
• Sites you can disrupt by inspecting traffic (such as Windows Update).
• To view the values of TLS/SSL fields using connection events. (You do not need to decrypt traffic to
view connection event fields.) For more information, see Requirements for Populating Connection Event
Fields, on page 2349.
For more information, see Default Handling Options for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1375
TLS/SSL Rule Blocking Actions

The Firepower System provides the following TLS/SSL rule actions for traffic you do not want to pass through
the system:
• Block to terminate the connection, resulting in an error in the client browser.
The error message does not indicate the site was blocked due to policy. Instead, errors might indicate
that there are no common encryption algorithms. It is not obvious from this message that you blocked
the connection on purpose.

1395
TLS/SSL Rule Decrypt Actions
• Interactive block to interrupt the connection to the destination server and require the user to acknowledge
that access to the server might be a violation of company policy.
You can use a default acknowledgement page or you can create a custom page.
Connection events indicate whether or not the user elected to continue to the destination server.
• Block with reset to terminate and reset the connection, resulting in an error in the client browser.
The error indicates the connection was reset but does not indicate why.
Tip You cannot use the Block or Block with reset action in a passive or inline (tap mode) deployment because
the device does not directly inspect the traffic. If you create a rule with the Block or Block with reset action
that contains passive or inline (tap mode) interfaces within a security zone condition, the policy editor displays
a warning icon ( ) next to the rule.
Related Topics
About HTTP Response Pages, on page 1291
TLS/SSL Rule Decrypt Actions

The Decrypt - Known Key and Decrypt - Resign actions decrypt encrypted traffic. The system inspects
decrypted traffic with access control. Access control rules handle decrypted and unencrypted traffic identically
— you can inspect it for discovery data as well as detect and block intrusions, prohibited files, and malware.
The system reencrypts allowed traffic before passing it to its destination.
We recommend you use a certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) to decrypt traffic. This prevents
Invalid Issuer from being displayed in the SSL Certificate Status column in connection events.
For more information about adding trusted objects, see Trusted Certificate Authority Objects, on page 425.
Configuring TLS/SSL Rule Actions


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL policy editor, you have the following options:
Step 2 Select a rule action from the Action drop-down list.

• To block encrypted traffic, select Block.

1396
Configuring a Decrypt - Resign Action
• To block encrypted traffic and reset the connection, select Block with reset.
• To decrypt incoming traffic, see Configuring a Decrypt - Known Key Action, on page 1398 for more
information.
• To decrypt outgoing traffic, see Configuring a Decrypt - Resign Action, on page 1397 for more information.
• To log encrypted traffic, select Monitor.
• To not decrypt encrypted traffic, select Do not decrypt.
Step 3 Click Add.
What to do next
• Configure rule conditions, as described in Network-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1400,
User-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1407, Reputation-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on
page 1407, and Server Certificate-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1414.
Configuring a Decrypt - Resign Action


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select Decrypt - Resign from the Action list.
Step 2 Select an internal CA certificate object from the list.
Step 3 To replace only the certificate public key instead of the entire certificate, you must check Replace Key Only
. Because you're replacing the public key only, users get a self-signed certificate notice in the browser.
Step 4 Click Add.
Step 5 Optional. To use a Trusted CA certificate in your SSL policy so you can avoid Invalid Issuer in the SSL
Certificate Status column in connection events, add the certificate to the policy:
a) In the SSL policy editor page, click the Trusted CA Certificates tab.
b) Add the CA certificate corresponding to your known key to the SSL policy.
What to do next

1397
Configuring a Decrypt - Known Key Action
Configuring a Decrypt - Known Key Action


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select Decrypt - Known Key from the Action drop-down list.
Step 2 Click the Click to select decryption certs field.
Step 3 Select one or more internal certificate objects in the Available Certificates list, then click Add to Rule.
Step 4 Click OK.
Step 5 Click Add.
Step 6 Optional. To use a Trusted CA certificate in your SSL policy so you can avoid Invalid Issuer in the SSL
Certificate Status column in connection events, add the certificate to the policy:
a) In the SSL policy editor page, click the Trusted CA Certificates tab.
b) Add the CA certificate corresponding to your known key to the SSL policy.
What to do next
TLS/SSL Rules Management

The Rules tab page of the SSL policy editor allows you to add, edit, search, move, enable, disable, delete,
and otherwise manage TLS/SSL rules in your policy.

1398
CHAPTER 73
Decryption Tuning Using TLS/SSL Rules
The following topics provide an overview of how to configure TLS/SSL rule conditions:
• TLS/SSL Rule Conditions Overview, on page 1399
• Network-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1400
• User-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1407
• Reputation-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1407
• Server Certificate-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1414
TLS/SSL Rule Conditions Overview

A basic TLS/SSL rule applies its rule action to all encrypted traffic inspected by the device. To better control
and decrypt encrypted traffic, you can configure rule conditions to handle and log specific types of traffic.
Each TLS/SSL rule can contain 0, 1, or more rule conditions; a rule matches traffic only if the traffic matches
every condition in that TLS/SSL rule.
Note When traffic matches a rule, the device applies the configured rule action to the traffic. When the connection
ends, the device logs the traffic if configured to do so.
Each rule condition allows you to specify one or more properties of traffic you want to match against; these
properties include details of:
• The flow of traffic, including the security zone through which it travels, IP address and port, country of
origin or destination, and origin or destination VLAN.
• The user associated with a detected IP address.
• The traffic payload, including the application detected in the traffic.
• The connection encryption, including the TLS/SSL protocol version and cipher suite and server certificate
used to encrypt the connection.
• The category and reputation of the URL specified in the server certificate’s distinguished name..
Related Topics
Network-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1400
User-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1407

1399
Network-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
Reputation-Based URL Blocking in Encrypted Traffic, on page 1413

Server Certificate-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions, on page 1414
ClientHello Message Handling, on page 1343
Network-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

TLS/SSL rules in SSL policies exert granular control over encrypted traffic logging and handling.
Network-based conditions allow you to manage which encrypted traffic can traverse your network, using one
or more of the following criteria:
• Zone conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to control encrypted traffic by its source and destination
security zones. A security zone is a grouping of one or more interfaces, which might be located across
multiple devices.
• Network conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to control and decrypt encrypted traffic by its source
and destination IP address. You can either explicitly specify the source and destination IP addresses for
the encrypted traffic you want to control, or use the geolocation feature, which associates IP addresses
with geographical locations, to control encrypted traffic based on its source or destination country or
continent.
• VLAN conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to control VLAN-tagged traffic. The system uses the
innermost VLAN tag to identify a packet by VLAN.
• Port conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to control encrypted traffic by its source and destination
TCP port.
You can combine network-based conditions with each other and with other types of conditions to create a
TLS/SSL rule. These TLS/SSL rules can be simple or complex, matching and inspecting traffic using multiple
conditions.
Related Topics
Network Zone TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

You can add a maximum of 50 zones to each of the Sources Zones and Destination Zones in a single zone
condition:
• To match encrypted traffic leaving the device from an interface in the zone, add that zone to the
Destination Zones.
Because devices deployed passively do not transmit traffic, you cannot use a zone comprised of passive
interfaces in a Destination Zone condition.
• To match encrypted traffic entering the device from an interface in the zone, add that zone to the Source
Zones.
If you add both source and destination zone conditions to a rule, matching traffic must originate from one of
the specified source zones and egress through one of the destination zones.

1400
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Network Zone
Note that just as all interfaces in a zone must be of the same type (all inline, all passive, all switched, or all
routed), all zones used in a zone condition for a TLS/SSL rule must be of the same type. That is, you cannot
write a single rule that matches encrypted traffic to or from zones of different types.
Warning icons indicate invalid configurations, such as zones that contain no interfaces. For details, hover
your pointer over the icon.
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Network Zone


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Zones tab.

Step 2 Find the zones you want to add from the Available Zones. To search for zones to add, click the Search by
name prompt above the Available Zones list, then type a zone name. The list updates as you type to display
matching zones.
Step 3 Click to select a zone. To select all zones, right-click and then select Select All.
Step 4 Click Add to Source or Add to Destination.
Tip You can also drag and drop selected zones.
Example
For example, you could deploy additional identically configured devices—managed by the same
Firepower Management Center—to protect similar resources in several different locations. Like the
first device, each of these devices protects the assets in an Internal security zone.
Note You are not required to group all internal (or external) interfaces into a single zone. Choose the
grouping that makes sense for your deployment and security policies.
In this deployment, you may decide that although you want these hosts to have unrestricted access
to the Internet, you nevertheless want to protect them by decrypting and inspecting incoming encrypted
traffic.
To accomplish this, configure a TLS/SSL rule with a zone condition where the Destination Zone
is set to Internal. This simple SSL rule matches traffic that leaves the device from any interface in
the Internal zone.

1401
Network or Geolocation TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
What to do next
Related Topics
Network or Geolocation TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

When you build a network-based TLS/SSL rule condition, you can manually specify IP address and geographical
locations. Alternately, you can configure network conditions with network and geolocation objects, which
are reusable and associate a name with one or more IP addresses, address blocks, countries, continents, and
so on.
Note If you want to write rules to control traffic by geographical location, to ensure you are using up-to-date
geolocation data to filter your traffic, Cisco strongly recommends you regularly update the geolocation
database (GeoDB) on your Firepower Management Center.
You can add a maximum of 50 items to each of the Source Networks and Destination Networks in a single
network condition, and you can mix network and geolocation-based configurations:
• To match encrypted traffic from an IP address or geographical location, configure the Source Networks.
• To match encrypted traffic to an IP address or geographical location, configure the Destination Networks.
If you add both source and destination network conditions to a rule, matching encrypted traffic must originate
from one of the specified IP addresses and be destined for one of the destination IP addresses.
When building a network condition, warning icons indicate invalid configurations. For details, hover your
pointer over the icon.
Related Topics
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Network or Geolocation


Before you begin

• Update the geolocation database (GeoDB) on your Firepower Management Center as described in Update
the Geolocation Database (GeoDB), on page 120.

1402
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Network or Geolocation
Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Networks tab.

Step 2 Find the networks you want to add from the Available Networks, as follows:
• Click the Networks tab to display network objects and groups to add; click the Geolocation tab to display
geolocation objects.
• To add a network object on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add icon ( )
above the Available Networks list.
• To search for network or geolocation objects to add, select the appropriate tab, click the Search by name
or value prompt above the Available Networks list, then type an object name or the value of one of the
object’s components. The list updates as you type to display matching objects.
Step 3 To select an object, click it. To select all objects, right-click and then select Select All.
Tip You can also drag and drop selected objects.
Step 5 Add any source or destination IP addresses or address blocks that you want to specify manually. Click the
Enter an IP address prompt below the Source Networks or Destination Networks list; then type an IP
address or address block and click Add.
Example
The following graphic shows the network condition for a TLS/SSL rule that blocks encrypted
connections originating from your internal network and attempting to access resources either in the
Cayman Islands or an offshore holding corporation server at 182.16.0.3.
The example manually specifies the offshore holding corporation’s server IP address, and uses a
system-provided Cayman Islands geolocation object to represent Cayman Island IP addresses.
What to do next
Related Topics
Network Objects, on page 375

1403
VLAN TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
VLAN TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

When you build a VLAN-based TLS/SSL rule condition, you can manually specify a VLAN tag from 1 to
4094. Alternately, you can configure VLAN conditions with VLAN tag objects, which are reusable and
associate a name with one or more VLAN tags.
Tip After you create a VLAN tag object, you can use it not only to build TLS/SSL rules, but also to represent
VLAN tags in various other places in the system’s web interface. You can create VLAN tag objects either
using the object manager or on-the-fly while you are configuring access control rules.
You can add a maximum of 50 items to the Selected VLAN Tags in a single VLAN tag condition. When
building a VLAN tag condition, warning icons indicate invalid configurations. For details, hover your pointer
over the icon.
Controlling Encrypted VLAN Traffic


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the VLAN Tags tab.
Step 2 Find the VLANs you want to add from the Available VLAN Tags, as follows:
• To add a VLAN tag object on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add icon ( )
above the Available VLAN Tags list.
• To search for VLAN tag objects and groups to add, click the Search by name or value prompt above
the Available VLAN Tags list, then type either the name of the object, or the value of a VLAN tag in
the object. The list updates as you type to display matching objects.
Step 4 Click Add to Rule.
Step 5 Add any VLAN tags that you want to specify manually. Click the Enter a VLAN Tag prompt below the
Selected VLAN Tags list; then type a VLAN tag or range and click Add. You can specify any VLAN tag
from 1 to 4094; use a hyphen to specify a range of VLAN tags.

1404
Port TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
Example
The following graphic shows a VLAN tag condition for an SSL rule that matches encrypted traffic
on public-facing VLANs (represented by a VLAN tag object group), as well as the manually added
VLAN 42.
What to do next
Related Topics
VLAN Tag Objects, on page 378
Port TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

When you build a port-based TLS/SSL rule condition, you can manually specify TCP ports. Alternately, you
can configure port conditions with port objects, which are reusable and associate a name with one or more
ports.
You can add a maximum of 50 items to each of the Selected Source Ports and Selected Destination Ports
lists in a single network condition:
• To match encrypted traffic from a TCP port, configure the Selected Source Ports.
• To match encrypted traffic to a TCP port, configure the Selected Destination Ports.
• To match encrypted traffic both originating from TCP Selected Source Portsand destined for TCP
Selected Destination Ports, configure both.
You can only configure the Selected Source Ports and Selected Destination Ports lists with TCP ports. Port
objects containing non-TCP ports are greyed out in the Available Ports list.
When building a port condition, warning icons indicate invalid configurations. For example, you can use the
object manager to edit in-use port objects so that the rules that use those object groups become invalid. For
details, hover your pointer over the icon.

1405
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Port
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Port


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Ports tab.

Step 2 Find the TCP ports you want to add from the Available Ports, as follows:
• To add a TCP port object on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add icon ( )
above the Available Ports list.
• To search for TCP-based port objects and groups to add, click the Search by name or value prompt
above the Available Ports list, then type either the name of the object, or the value of a port in the object.
The list updates as you type to display matching objects. For example, if you type 443, the Firepower
Management Center displays the system-provided HTTPS port object.
Step 3 To select a TCP-based port object, click it. To select all TCP-based port objects, right-click and then select
Select All. If the object includes non-TCP-based ports, you cannot add it to your port condition.
Step 5 Enter a Port under the Selected Source Ports or Selected Destination Ports list to manually specify source
or destination ports. You can specify a single port with a value from 0 to 65535.
Step 6 Click Add.
Note The Firepower Management Center will not add a port to a rule condition that results in an invalid
configuration.
What to do next
Related Topics
Port Objects, on page 377

1406
User-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
User-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

You can configure TLS/SSL rules to match traffic based on realm, group, or user. Realm, group, and user
conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you perform user control to manage which traffic can traverse your network
by associating authoritative users with IP addresses.
For traffic to match a TLS/SSL rule with a user condition, the IP address of either the source or destination
host in the monitored session must be associated with a logged in authoritative user. You can control traffic
based on realms, individual users, or the groups those users belong to.
Controlling Encrypted Traffic Based on User

Any Control Any except NGIPSv Any Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
Before you begin

• Configure one or more authoritative user identity sources as described in User Identity Sources.
• Configure a realm as described in Create a Realm, on page 1989.
Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Users tab.

Step 2 Search by name or value above the Available Realms list and select a realm.
Step 3 Search by name or value above the Available Users list and select a user or group.
Tip You can also drag and drop selected users and groups.
What to do next
Reputation-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

Reputation-based conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to manage which encrypted traffic can traverse your
network, by contextualizing your network traffic and limiting it where appropriate. SSL rules govern the
following types of reputation-based control:

1407
Selected Applications and Filters in TLS/SSL Rules
• Application conditions allow you to perform application control. When the system analyzes encrypted
IP traffic, it can identify and classify commonly used encrypted applications on your network prior to
decrypting the encrypted session. The system uses this discovery-based application awareness feature
to allow you to control encrypted application traffic on your network.
I a single TLS/SSL rule, you can select individual applications, including custom applications. You can
use system-provided application filters, which are named sets of applications organized according to its
basic characteristics: type, risk, business relevance, and categories.
• URL conditions allow you to control web traffic based on a websites’ assigned category and reputation.
Selected Applications and Filters in TLS/SSL Rules

Cisco frequently updates and adds additional detectors via system and vulnerability database (VDB) updates.
You can also create your own detectors and assign characteristics (risk, relevance, and so on) to the applications
they detect. By using filters based on application characteristics, you can ensure that the system uses the most
up-to-date detectors to monitor application traffic.
For traffic to match a TLS/SSL rule with an application condition, the traffic must match one of the filters or
applications that you add to a Selected Applications and Filters list.
Note When you filter application traffic using access control rules, you can use application tags as a criterion. to
filter. However, you cannot use application tags to filter encrypted traffic because there is no benefit. All
applications that the system can detect in encrypted traffic are tagged SSL Protocol; applications without this
tag can only be detected in unencrypted or decrypted traffic.
In a single application condition, you can add a maximum of 50 items to the Selected Applications and
Filters list. Each of the following counts as an item:
• One or more filters from the Application Filters list, individually or in custom combination. This item
represents set of applications, grouped by characteristic.
• A filter created by saving search of the applications in the Available Applications list. This item represents
a set of applications, grouped by substring match.
• An individual application from the Available Applications list.
In the web interface, filters added to a condition are listed above and separately from individually added
applications.
Note that when you deploy an SSL policy, for each rule with an application condition, the system generates
a list of unique applications to match. In other words, you may use overlapping filters and individually specified
applications to ensure complete coverage.
Application Filters in TLS/SSL Rules

When building an application condition in a TLS/SSL rule, use the Application Filters list to create a set of
applications, grouped by characteristic, whose traffic you want to match.

1408
Available Applications in TLS/SSL Rules
For your convenience, the system characterizes each application by type, risk, business relevance, category,
and tag. You can use these criteria as filters or create custom combinations of filters to perform application
control.
Note that the mechanism for filtering applications in a TLS/SSL rule is the same as that for creating reusable,
custom application filters using the object manager. You can also save many filters you create on-the-fly in
access control rules as new, reusable filters. You cannot save a filter that includes another user-created filter
because you cannot nest user-created filters.
Understanding How Filters Are Combined

When you select filters, singly or in combination, the Available Applications list updates to display only the
applications that meet your criteria. You can select system-provided filters in combination, but not custom
filters.
The system links multiple filters of the same filter type with an OR operation. For example, if you select the
Medium and High filters under the Risks type, the resulting filter is:
Risk: Medium OR High
If the Medium filter contained 110 applications and the High filter contained 82 applications, the system
displays all 192 applications in the Available Applications list.
The system links different types of filters with an AND operation. For example, if you select the Medium and
High filters under the Risks type, and the Medium and High filters under the Business Relevance type, the
resulting filter is:
Risk: Medium OR High

AND
Business Relevance: Medium OR High
In this case, the system displays only those applications that are included in both the Medium or High Risk
type AND the Medium or High Business Relevance type.
Finding and Selecting Filters

To select filters, click the arrow next to a filter type to expand it, then select or clear the check box next to
each filter whose applications you want to display or hide. You can also right-click a Cisco-provided filter
type (Risks, Business Relevance, Types, or Categories) and select Check All or Uncheck All.
To search for filters, click the Search by name prompt above the Available Filters list, then type a name.
The list updates as you type to display matching filters.
After you are done selecting filters, use the Available Applications list to add those filters to the rule.
Related Topics
Application Filters, on page 378

When building an application condition in a TLS/SSL rule, use the Available Applications list to select the
applications whose traffic you want to match.

1409
Browsing the List of Applications

When you first start to build the condition the list is unconstrained, and displays every application the system
detects, 100 at a time:
• To page through the applications, click the arrows underneath the list.
• To display a pop-up window with summary information about the application’s characteristics, as well
as Internet search links that you can follow, click the information icon ( ) next to an application.
Finding Applications to Match

To help you find the applications you want to match, you can constrain the Available Applications list in
the following ways:
• To search for applications, click the Search by name prompt above the list, then type a name. The list
updates as you type to display matching applications.
• To constrain the applications by applying a filter, use the Application Filters list. The Available
Applications list updates as you apply filters.
Once constrained, an All apps matching the filter option appears at the top of the Available Applications
list.
Note If you select one or more filters in the Application Filters list and also search the Available Applications list,
your selections and the search-filtered Available Applications list are combined using an AND operation.
That is, the All apps matching the filter condition includes all the individual conditions currently displayed
in the Available Applications list as well as the search string entered above the Available Applications list.
Selecting Single Applications to Match in a Condition

After you find an application you want to match, click to select it. To select all applications in the current
constrained view, right-click and select Select All.
In a single application condition, you can match a maximum of 50 applications by selecting them individually;
to add more than 50 you must either create multiple TLS/SSL rules or use filters to group applications.
Selecting All Applications Matching a Filter for a Condition

Once constrained by either searching or using the filters in the Application Filters list, the All apps matching
the filter option appears at the top of the Available Applications list.
This option allows you to add the entire set of applications in the constrained Available Applications list to
the Selected Applications and Filters list, at once. In contrast to adding applications individually, adding
this set of applications counts as only one item against the maximum of 50, regardless of the number of
individual application that comprise it.
When you build an application condition this way, the name of the filter you add to the Selected Applications
and Filters list is a concatenation of the filter types represented in the filter plus the names of up to three
filters for each type. More than three filters of the same type are followed by an ellipsis (...). For example, the
following filter name includes two filters under the Risks type and four under Business Relevance:

1410
Application-Based TLS/SSL Rule Condition Requirements
Risks: Medium, High Business Relevance: Low, Medium, High,...
Filter types that are not represented in a filter you add with All apps matching the filter are not included in
the name of the filter you add. The instructional text that is displayed when you hover your pointer over the
filter name in the Selected Applications and Filters list indicates that these filter types are set to any; that
is, these filter types do not constrain the filter, so any value is allowed for these.
You can add multiple instances of All apps matching the filter to an application condition, with each instance
counting as a separate item in the Selected Applications and Filters list. For example, you could add all high
risk applications as one item, clear your selections, then add all low business relevance applications as another
item. This application condition matches applications that are high risk OR have low business relevance.
Application-Based TLS/SSL Rule Condition Requirements

For encrypted traffic to match a TLS/SSL rule with an application condition, the traffic must match one of
the filters or applications that you add to a Selected Applications and Filters list.
You can add a maximum of 50 items per condition, and filters added to a condition are listed above and
separately from individually added applications. When building an application condition, warning icons
indicate invalid configurations. For details, hover your pointer over the icon.
Adding an Application Condition to a TLS/SSL Rule

Any Control Any except Any Admin/Access

Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Applications tab.

Step 2 If you want to constrain the list of applications displayed in the Available Applications list, you must select
one or more filters in the Application Filters list. For more information, see Application Filters in TLS/SSL
Rules, on page 1408.
Step 3 Find and select the applications you want to add from the Available Applications list. You can search for
and select individual applications, or, when the list is constrained, All apps matching the filter. For more
information, see Available Applications in TLS/SSL Rules, on page 1409.
Tip Click Clear All Filters to clear your existing selections. You can also drag and drop selected
applications and filters.

1411
Limitations to Encrypted Application Control
Example
The following graphic shows the application condition for a TLS/SSL rule that decrypts a custom
group of applications for MyCompany, all applications with high risk and low business relevance,
gaming applications, and some individually selected applications.
What to do next
Limitations to Encrypted Application Control

Encrypted Application Identification
The system can identify unencrypted applications that become encrypted using StartTLS. This includes such
applications as SMTPS, POPS, FTPS, TelnetS, and IMAPS. In addition, it can identify certain encrypted
applications based on the Server Name Indication in the TLS ClientHello message, or the server certificate
subject distinguished name value.
Speed of Application Identification

The system cannot perform application control on encrypted traffic before:
• An encrypted connection is established between a client and server, and
• The system identifies the application in the encrypted session
This identification occurs after the server certificate exchange. If traffic exchanged during the TLS/SSL
handshake matches all other conditions in a TLS/SSL rule containing an application condition but the
identification is not complete, the SSL policy allows the packet to pass. This behavior allows the handshake
to complete so that applications can be identified. For your convenience, affected rules are marked with an
information icon ( ).
After the system completes its identification, the system applies the TLS/SSL rule action to the remaining
session traffic that matches its application condition.

1412
Reputation-Based URL Blocking in Encrypted Traffic
Automatically Enabling Application Detectors

At least one detector must be enabled for each application rule condition in the policy. If no detector is enabled
for an application, the system automatically enables all system-provided detectors for the application; if none
exist, the system enables the most recently modified user-defined detector for the application.
Related Topics
Activating and Deactivating Detectors, on page 1981
Reputation-Based URL Blocking in Encrypted Traffic

With a URL Filtering license, URL conditions in TLS/SSL rules can control access to encrypted websites,
based on the category and reputation of the requested URLs. For detailed information, see URL Conditions
(URL Filtering), on page 346.
Tip URL conditions in TLS/SSL rules do not support manual URL filtering. Instead, use a distinguished name
condition matching on the subject common name.
Block Encrypted Traffic Based on URL Reputation

URL Filtering URL Filtering Any except Any Admin/Access

Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Category tab.

Step 2 Find the categories of URL you want to add from the Categories list. To match encrypted web traffic regardless
of category, select Any category. To search for categories to add, click the Search by name or value prompt
above the Categories list, then type the category name. The list updates as you type to display matching
categories.
Step 3 To select a category, click it.
Tip Although you can right-click and Select All categories, adding all categories this way exceeds the
50-item maximum for a TLS/SSL rule. Instead, use Any.
Step 4 If you want to qualify your category selections, you must click a reputation level from the Reputations list.
You can only select one reputation level. If you do not specify a reputation level, the system defaults to Any,
meaning all levels.
• If the rule blocks web access or decrypts traffic (the rule action is Block, Block with reset, Decrypt -
Known Key, Decrypt - Resign, or Monitor) selecting a reputation level also selects all reputations more
severe than that level. For example, if you configure a rule to block Suspicious sites (level 2), it also
automatically blocks High Risk (level 1) sites.

1413
Server Certificate-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
• If the rule allows web access, subject to access control (the rule action is Do not decrypt), selecting a
reputation level also selects all reputations less severe than that level. For example, if you configure a
rule to allow Benign sites (level 4), it also automatically allows Well known (level 5) sites.
Note If you change the rule action for a rule, the system automatically changes the reputation levels
in URL conditions according to the above points.
Step 5 Click Add to Rule to add the selected items to the Selected Categories list.
Tip You can also drag and drop selected items.
Example
The following graphic shows the URL condition for an example access control rule that blocks: all
malware sites, all high-risk sites, and all non-benign social networking sites.
The following table summarizes how you build the condition shown in the graphic above.
Table 91: Example: Building A URL Condition
To block... Select this Category or URL And this Reputation...

Object...
malware sites, regardless of Malware Sites Any

reputation
any URL with a high risk (level 1) Any 1 - High Risk
social networking sites with a risk Social Network 3 - Benign sites with security risks
greater than benign (levels 1
through 3)
What to do next
Server Certificate-Based TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

TLS/SSL rules can handle and decrypt encrypted traffic based on server certificate characteristics. You can
configure TLS/SSL rules based on the following server certificate attributes:

1414
Certificate Distinguished Name TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
• Distinguished name conditions allow you to handle and inspect encrypted traffic based on the CA that
issued a server certificate, or the certificate holder. Based on the issuer distinguished name, you can
handle traffic based on the CA that issued a site’s server certificate.
• Certificate conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to handle and inspect encrypted traffic based on the
server certificate used to encrypt that traffic. You can configure a condition with one or more certificates;
traffic matches the rule if the certificate matches any of the condition’s certificates.
• Certificate status conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to handle and inspect encrypted traffic based
on the status of the server certificate used to encrypt the traffic, including whether a certificate is valid,
revoked, expired, not yet valid, self-signed, signed by a trusted CA, whether the Certificate Revocation
List (CRL) is valid; whether the Server Name Indication (SNI) in the certificate matches the server in
the request.
• Cipher suite conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to handle and inspect encrypted traffic based on the
cipher suite used to negotiate the encrypted session.
• Session conditions in TLS/SSL rules allow you to inspect encrypted traffic based on the SSL or TLS
version used to encrypt the traffic.
To detect multiple cipher suites in a rule, the certificate issuer, or the certificate holder, you can create reusable
cipher suite list and distinguished name objects and add them to your rule. To detect the server certificate and
certain certificate statuses, you must create external certificate and external CA objects for the rule.
Certificate Distinguished Name TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

When configuring the rule condition, you can manually specify a literal value, reference a distinguished name
object, or reference a distinguished name group containing multiple objects.
Note You cannot configure a distinguished name condition if you also choose the Decrypt - Known Key action.
Because that action requires you to choose a server certificate to decrypt traffic, the certificate already matches
the traffic.
You can match against multiple subject and issuer distinguished names in a single certificate status rule
condition; only one common or distinguished name needs to match to match the rule.
If you add a distinguished name manually, it can contain the common name attribute (CN). If you add a
common name without CN=, the system prepends CN= before saving the object.
You can also add a distinguished name with one each of the following attributes, separated by commas: C,
CN, O, OU.
In a single DN condition, you can add a maximum of 50 literal values and distinguished name objects to the
Subject DNs, and 50 literal values and distinguished name objects to the Issuer DNs.
The system-provided DN object group, Cisco-Undecryptable-Sites, contains websites whose traffic the system
cannot decrypt. You can add this group to a DN condition to block or not decrypt traffic to or from these
websites, without wasting system resources attempting to decrypt that traffic. You can modify individual
entries in the group. You cannot delete the group. System updates can modify the entries on this list, but the
system preserves user changes.
The first time the system detects an encrypted session to a new server, DN data is not available for ClientHello
processing, which can result in an undecrypted first session. After the initial session, the managed device

1415
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Certificate Distinguished Name
caches data from the server Certificate message. For subsequent connections from the same client, the system
can match the ClientHello message conclusively to rules with DN conditions and process the message to
maximize decryption potential.
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Certificate Distinguished Name


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the DN tab.

Step 2 Find the distinguished names you want to add from the Available DNs, as follows:
• To add a distinguished name object on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add
icon ( ) above the Available DNs list.
• To search for distinguished name objects and groups to add, click the Search by name or value prompt
above the Available DNs list, then type either the name of the object, or a value in the object. The list
updates as you type to display matching objects.
Step 4 Click Add to Subject or Add to Issuer.
Step 5 Add any literal common names or distinguished names that you want to specify manually. Click the Enter
DN or CN prompt below the Subject DNs or Issuer DNs list; then type a common name or distinguished
name and click Add.
Step 6 Add or continue editing the rule.
Example
Example
The following graphic illustrates a distinguished name rule condition searching for certificates issued
to goodbakery.example.com or issued by goodca.example.com. Traffic encrypted with these
certificates is allowed, subject to access control.

1416
Certificate TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
The following graphic illustrates a distinguished name rule condition searching for certificates issued
to badbakery.example.com and associated domains, or certificates issued by badca.example.com.
Traffic encrypted with these certificates is decrypted using a re-signed certificate.
What to do next
Related Topics
Distinguished Name Objects, on page 417
Certificate TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

When you build a certificate-based TLS/SSL rule condition, you can upload a server certificate; you save the
certificate as an external certificate object, which is reusable and associates a name with a server certificate.
Alternately, you can configure certificate conditions with existing external certificate objects and object
groups.
You can search the Available Certificates field in the rule condition based for external certificate objects
and object groups based on the following certificate distinguished name characteristics:
• Subject or issuer common name (CN)
• Subject or issuer organization (O)
• Subject or issuer organizational unit (OU)
You can choose to match against multiple certificates in a single certificate rule condition; if the certificate
used to encrypt the traffic matches any of the uploaded certificates, the encrypted traffic matches the rule.
You can add a maximum of 50 external certificate objects and external certificate object groups to the Selected
Certificates in a single certificate condition.
Note the following:
• You cannot configure a certificate condition if you also select the Decrypt - Known Key action. Because
that action requires you to select a server certificate to decrypt traffic, the implication is that the certificate
already matches the traffic.

1417
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Certificate
• If you configure a certificate condition with an external certificate object, any cipher suites you add to
a cipher suite condition, or internal CA objects you associate with the Decrypt - Resign action, must
match the external certificate’s signature algorithm type. For example, if your rule’s certificate condition
references an EC-based server certificate, any cipher suites you add, or CA certificates you associate
with the Decrypt - Resign action, must also be EC-based. If you mismatch signature algorithm types in
this case, the policy editor displays a warning icon next to the rule.
• The first time the system detects an encrypted session to a new server, certificate data is not available
for ClientHello processing, which can result in an undecrypted first session. After the initial session, the
managed device caches data from the server Certificate message. For subsequent connections from the
same client, the system can match the ClientHello message conclusively to rules with certificate conditions
and process the message to maximize decryption potential.
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Certificate


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Certificate tab.

Step 2 Find the server certificates you want to add from the Available Certificates, as follows;
• To add an external certificate object on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add
icon ( ) above the Available Certificates list.
• To search for certificate objects and groups to add, click the Search by name or value prompt above
the Available Certificates list, then type either the name of the object, or a value in the object. The list
What to do next
Related Topics
External Certificate Objects, on page 427

1418
Certificate Status TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

For each certificate status TLS/SSL rule condition you configure, you can match traffic against the presence
or absence of a given status. You can select several statuses in one rule condition; if the certificate matches
any of the selected statuses, the rule matches the traffic.
You can choose to match against the presence or absence of multiple certificate statuses in a single certificate
status rule condition; the certificate needs to match only one of the criteria to match the rule.
You should consider, when setting this parameter, whether you're configuring a decrypt rule or a block rule.
Typically, you should click Yes for a block rule and No for a decrypt rule. Examples:
• If you're configuring a Decrypt - Resign rule, the default behavior is to decrypt traffic with an expired
certificate. To change that behavior, click No for Expired so traffic with an expired certificate is not
decrypted and resigned.
• If you're configuring a Block rule, the default behavior is to allow traffic with an expired certificate. To
change that behavior click Yes for Expired so traffic with an expired certificate is blocked.
The following table describes how the system evaluates encrypted traffic based on the encrypting server
certificate’s status.
Table 92: Certificate Status Rule Condition Criteria
Status Check Status Set to Yes Status Set to No
Revoked The policy trusts the CA that issued The policy trusts the CA that issued
the server certificate, and the CA the server certificate, and the CA
certificate uploaded to the policy certificate uploaded to the policy
contains a CRL that revokes the does not contain a CRL that
server certificate. revokes the certificate.
Self-signed The detected server certificate The detected server certificate

contains the same subject and issuer contains different subject and issuer
distinguished name. distinguished names.
Valid All of the following are true: At least one of the following is true:
• The policy trusts the CA that • The policy does not trust the
issued the certificate. CA that issued the certificate.
• The signature is valid. • The signature is invalid.
• The issuer is valid. • The issuer is invalid.
• None of the policy’s trusted • A trusted CA in the policy
CAs revoked the certificate. revoked the certificate.
• The current date is between • The current date is before the
the certificate Valid From and certificate Valid From date.
Valid To date.
• The current date is after the
certificate Valid To date.

1419
Invalid signature The certificate’s signature cannot The certificate’s signature is

be properly validated against the properly validated against the
certificate’s content. certificate’s content.
Invalid issuer The issuer CA certificate is not The issuer CA certificate is stored
stored in the policy’s list of trusted in the policy’s list of trusted CA
CA certificates. certificates.
Expired The current date is after the The current date is before or on the
certificate Valid To date. certificate Valid To date.
Not yet valid The current date is before the The current date is after or on the
certificate Valid From date. certificate Valid From date.

1420
Invalid certificate The certificate is not valid. At least The certificate is valid. All of the
one of the following is true: following are true:
• Invalid or inconsistent • Valid certificate extension.
certificate extension; that is, a
certificate extension had an • The certificate can be used for
invalid value (for example, an the specified purpose.
incorrect encoding) or some • Valid Basic Constraints path
value inconsistent with other length.
extensions.
• Valid values for Not Before
• The certificate cannot be used and Not After.
for the specified purpose.
• Valid name constraint.
• The Basic Constraints path
length parameter has been • The root certificate is trusted
exceeded. for the specified purpose.
For more information, see • The root certificate accepts the
RFC 5280, section 4.2.1.9. specified purpose.
• The certificate's value for Not
Before or Not After is invalid.
These dates can be encoded as
UTCTime or GeneralizedTime
For more information, see
RFC 5280 section 4.1.2.5.
• The format of the name
constraint is not recognized;
for example, an email address
format of a form not
mentioned in RFC 5280,
section 4.2.1.10. This could
be caused by an improper
extension or some new feature
not currently supported.
An unsupported name
constraint type was
encountered. OpenSSL
currently supports only
directory name, DNS name,
email, and URI types.
• The root certificate authority
is not trusted for the specified
purpose.
• The root certificate authority
rejects the specified purpose.

1421
Trusting External Certificate Authorities
Invalid CRL The Certificate Revocation List The CRL is valid. All of the
(CRL) digital signature is not valid. following are true:
At least one of the following is true:
• Next Update and Last Update
• The value of the CRL's Next fields are valid.
Update or Last Update field is
invalid. • The CRL's date is valid.
• The CRL is not yet valid. • The path is valid.
• The CRL has expired. • The CRL was found.
• An error occurred when • The CRL matches the

attempting to verify the CRL certificate's scope.
path. This error occurs only if
extended CRL checking is
enabled.
• CRL could not be found.
• The only CRLs that could be
found did not match the scope
of the certificate.
Server mismatch The server name does not match The server name matches the SNI
the server's Server Name Indication name of the server to which the
(SNI) name, which could indicate client is requesting access.
an attempt to spoof the server
name.
Note that even though a certificate might match more than one status, the rule causes an action to be taken on
the traffic only once.
Checking whether a CA issued or revoked a certificate requires uploading root and intermediate CA certificates
and associated CRLs as objects. You then add these trusted CA objects to an SSL policy’s list of trusted CA
certificates.
Trusting External Certificate Authorities


You can trust CAs by adding root and intermediate CA certificates to your SSL policy, then use these trusted
CAs to verify server certificates used to encrypt traffic.
If a trusted CA certificate contains an uploaded certificate revocation list (CRL), you can also verify whether
a trusted CA revoked the encryption certificate.

1422
Trusted External Certificate Authority Configuration
Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Trusted CA Certificates tab.
Step 2 Find the trusted CAs you want to add from the Available Trusted CAs, as follows:
• To add a trusted CA object on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add icon ( )
above the Available Trusted CAs list.
• To search for trusted CA objects and groups to add, click the Search by name or value prompt above
the Available Trusted CAs list, then type either the name of the object, or a value in the object. The list
What to do next
• Add a certificate status TLS/SSL rule condition to your SSL rule. See Matching Traffic on Certificate
Status, on page 1424 for more information.
Related Topics
Trusted Certificate Authority Objects, on page 425
Trusted External Certificate Authority Configuration

Verified server certificates include certificates signed by trusted CAs. After you add trusted CA certificates
to the SSL policy, you can configure a TLS/SSL rule with certificate status conditions to match against this
traffic.
Tip Upload all certificates within a root CA’s chain of trust to the list of trusted CA certificates, including the root
CA certificate and all intermediate CA certificates. Otherwise, it is more difficult to detect trusted certificates
issued by intermediate CAs. Also, if you configure certificate status conditions to trust traffic based on the
root issuer CA, all traffic within a trusted CA’s chain of trust can be allowed without decryption, rather than
unnecessarily decrypting it.
When you create an SSL policy, the system populates the Trusted CA Certificates tab with a default Trusted
CA object group, Cisco Trusted Authorities.
You can modify individual entries in the group, and choose whether to include this group in your SSL policy.
You cannot delete the group. System updates can modify the entries on this list, but user changes are preserved.

1423
Matching Traffic on Certificate Status
Matching Traffic on Certificate Status


Before you begin

• Add a trusted CA object or group to your SSL policy. See Trusting External Certificate Authorities, on
Procedure
Step 1 In the Firepower Management Center, choose Policies > Access Control > SSL.
Step 2 Add a new policy or edit an existing policy.
Step 3 Add a new TLS/SSL rule or edit an existing rule.
Step 4 In the Add Rule or Editing Rule dialog box, choose the Cert Status tab.
Step 5 For each certificate status, you have the following options:
• Choose Yes to match against the presence of that certificate status.
• Choose No to match against the absence of that certificate status.
• Choose Any to skip the condition when matching the rule. In other words, choosing Any means the rule
matches whether the certificate status is present or absent.
Example
The organization trusts the Verified Authority certificate authority. The organization does not trust
the Spammer Authority certificate authority. The system administrator uploads the Verified Authority
certificate and an intermediate CA certificate issued by Verified Authority to the system. Because
Verified Authority revoked a certificate it previously issued, the system administrator uploads the
CRL that Verified Authority provided.
The following graphic illustrates a certificate status rule condition checking for valid certificates,
those issued by a Verified Authority, are not on the CRL, and still within the Valid From and Valid
To date. Because of the configuration, traffic encrypted with these certificates is not decrypted and
inspected with access control.

1424
Cipher Suite TLS/SSL Rule Conditions
The following graphic illustrates a certificate status rule condition checking for the absence of a
status. In this case, because of the configuration, it matches against traffic encrypted with a certificate
that has not expired and monitors that traffic.
The following graphic illustrates a certificate status rule condition that matches on the presence or
absence of several statuses. Because of the configuration, if the rule matches incoming traffic encrypted
with a certificate issued by an invalid user, self-signed, invalid, or expired, it decrypts the traffic with
a known key.
The following graphic illustrates a certificate status rule condition that matches if the SNI of the
request matches the server name or if the CRL is not valid. Because of the configuration, if the rule
matches either condition, traffic is blocked.
What to do next

The system provides predefined cipher suites you can add to a cipher suite rule condition. You can also add
cipher suite list objects containing multiple cipher suites.
Note You cannot add new cipher suites. You can neither modify nor delete predefined cipher suites.
You can add a maximum of 50 cipher suites and cipher suite lists to the Selected Cipher Suites in a single
cipher suite condition. The system supports adding the following cipher suites to a cipher suite condition:
• SSL_RSA_FIPS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
• SSL_RSA_FIPS_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA

1425
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_128_CBC_SHA
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_128_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_256_CBC_SHA
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_256_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA
• TLS_DH_Anon_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
• TLS_DH_Anon_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
• TLS_DH_Anon_WITH_CAMELLIA_128_CBC_SHA
• TLS_DH_anon_WITH_CAMELLIA_128_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_DH_Anon_WITH_CAMELLIA_256_CBC_SHA
• TLS_DH_anon_WITH_CAMELLIA_256_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_NULL_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

1426
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA
• TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
• TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA
• TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA
• TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
• TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA
• TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
• TLS_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_128_CBC_SHA
• TLS_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_128_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_256_CBC_SHA
• TLS_RSA_WITH_CAMELLIA_256_CBC_SHA256
• TLS_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA
• TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_MD5
• TLS_RSA_WITH_NULL_SHA
• TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5
• TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA
Note the following:

• If you add cipher suites not supported for your deployment, you cannot deploy your configuration. For
example, passive deployments do not support decrypting traffic with the any of the ephemeral
Diffie-Hellman (DHE) or ephemeral elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDHE) cipher suites. Creating a
rule with these cipher suites prevents you from deploying your access control policy.
• If you configure a cipher suite condition with a cipher suite, any external certificate objects you add to
a certificate condition, or internal CA objects you associate with the Decrypt - Resign action, must match
the cipher suite’s signature algorithm type. For example, if your rule’s cipher suite condition references
an EC-based cipher suite, any server certificates you add, or CA certificates you associate with the
Decrypt - Resign action, must also be EC-based. If you mismatch signature algorithm types in this case,
the policy editor displays a warning icon next to the rule.
• You can add an anonymous cipher suite to the Cipher Suite condition in an SSL rule, but keep in mind:
• The system automatically strips anonymous cipher suites during ClientHello processing. For the
system to use the rule, you must also configure your TLS/SSL rules in an order that prevents
ClientHello processing. For more information, see SSL Rule Order, on page 359.
• You cannot use either the Decrypt - Resign or Decrypt - Known Key action in the rule, because
the system cannot decrypt traffic encrypted with an anonymous cipher suite.

1427
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Cipher Suite
• When specifying a cipher suite as a rule condition, consider that the rule matches on the negotiated cipher
suite in the ServerHello message, rather than on the full list of cipher suites specified in the ClientHello
message. During ClientHello processing, the managed device strips unsupported cipher suites from the
ClientHello message. However, if this results in all specified cipher suites being stripped, the system
retains the original list. If the system retains unsupported cipher suites, subsequent evaluation results in
an undecrypted session.
Controlling Encrypted Traffic by Cipher Suite


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Cipher Suite tab.
Step 2 Find the cipher suites you want to add from the Available Cipher Suites, as follows;
• To add a cipher suite list on the fly, which you can then add to the condition, click the add icon ( )
above the Available Cipher Suites list.
• To search for cipher suites and lists to add, click the Search by name or value prompt above the Available
Cipher Suites list, then type either the name of the cipher suite, or a value in the cipher suite. The list
updates as you type to display matching cipher suites.
Step 3 To select a cipher suite, click it. To select all cipher suites, right-click and then select Select All.
Tip You can also drag and drop selected cipher suites.
What to do next
Related Topics
Cipher Suite Lists, on page 416
Encryption Protocol Version TLS/SSL Rule Conditions

You can choose to match against traffic encrypted with SSL version 3.0, or TLS version 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2. By
default, all protocol versions are selected when you create a rule; if you select multiple versions, encrypted
traffic that matches any of the selected versions matches the rule. You must select at least one protocol version
when saving the rule condition.

1428
Controlling Traffic by Encryption Protocol Version
You cannot select SSL v2.0 in a version rule condition; the system does not support decrypting traffic encrypted
with SSL version 2.0. You can configure an undecryptable action to allow or block this traffic without further
inspection.


Procedure
Step 1 In the SSL rule editor, select the Version tab.

Step 2 Select the protocol versions you want to match against.
What to do next

1429

1430
CHAPTER 74
Monitor SSL Hardware Acceleration
Use the show counters command in the CLI to evaluate TLS crypto acceleration behavior. This command
lists a variety of metrics that inform you about normal activity, alerts, and potential fatal issues.
Note Use the show counters description command to see explanations for each counter. To view only counters
related to TLS crypto acceleration, use show counters description | include TLS_TRK.
• Informational Counters, on page 1431

• Alert Counters, on page 1432
• Error Counters, on page 1432
• Fatal Counters, on page 1433
Informational Counters
If a system under load is working well, you should see large counts for the following counters. Because there
are 2 sides to the tracker process per connection, you can see these counters increase by 2 per connection. The
PRIV_KEY_RECV and SECU_PARAM_RECV counters are the most important, and are highlighted. The
CONTEXT_CREATED and CONTEXT_DESTROYED counters relate to the allocation of cryptographic
chip memory.
> show counters

Protocol Counter Value Context
SSLENC CONTEXT_CREATED 258225 Summary
SSLENC CONTEXT_DESTROYED 258225 Summary
TLS_TRK OPEN_SERVER_SESSION 258225 Summary
TLS_TRK OPEN_CLIENT_SESSION 258225 Summary
TLS_TRK UPSTREAM_CLOSE 516450 Summary
TLS_TRK DOWNSTREAM_CLOSE 516450 Summary
TLS_TRK FREE_SESSION 516450 Summary
TLS_TRK CACHE_FREE 516450 Summary
TLS_TRK PRIV_KEY_RECV 258225 Summary
TLS_TRK NO_KEY_ENABLE 258225 Summary
TLS_TRK SECU_PARAM_RECV 516446 Summary
TLS_TRK DECRYPTED_ALERT 258222 Summary
TLS_TRK DECRYPTED_APPLICATION 33568976 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_CNT 258222 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_WARNING_ALERT 258222 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_CLOSE_NOTIFY 258222 Summary

1431
Alert Counters
TCP_PRX OPEN_SESSION 516450 Summary

TCP_PRX FREE_SESSION 516450 Summary
TCP_PRX UPSTREAM_CLOSE 516450 Summary
TCP_PRX DOWNSTREAM_CLOSE 516450 Summary
TCP_PRX FREE_CONN 258222 Summary
TCP_PRX SERVER_CLEAN_UP 258222 Summary
TCP_PRX CLIENT_CLEAN_UP 258222 Summary
Alert Counters
We implemented the following counters according to the TLS 1.2 specification. FATAL or BAD alerts could
indicate issues; however, ALERT_RX_CLOSE_NOTIFY is normal.
For details, see RFC 5246 section 7.2.
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_CNT 311 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_TX_CNT 2 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_TX_IN_HANDSHAKE_CNT 2 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_IN_HANDSHAKE_CNT 2 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_WARNING_ALERT 308 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_FATAL_ALERT 3 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_TX_FATAL_ALERT 2 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_CLOSE_NOTIFY 308 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_BAD_RECORD_MAC 2 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_TX_BAD_RECORD_MAC 2 Summary
TLS_TRK ALERT_RX_BAD_CERTIFICATE 1 Summary
Error Counters
These counters indicate system errors. These counts should be low on a healthy system. The BY_PASS
counters indicate packets that have been passed directly to or from the inspection engine (Snort) process
(which runs in software) without decryption. The following example lists some of the bad counters.
Counters with a value of 0 are not displayed. To view a complete list of counters, use the command show
counters description | include TLS_TRK
> show counters

TCP_PRX BYPASS_NOT_ENOUGH_MEM 2134 Summary
TLS_TRK CLOSED_WITH_INBOUND_PACKET 2 Summary
TLS_TRK ENC_FAIL 82 Summary
TLS_TRK DEC_FAIL 211 Summary
TLS_TRK DEC_CKE_FAIL 43194 Summary
TLS_TRK ENC_CB_FAIL 4335 Summary
TLS_TRK DEC_CB_FAIL 909 Summary
TLS_TRK DEC_CKE_CB_FAIL 818 Summary
TLS_TRK RECORD_PARSE_ERR 123 Summary
TLS_TRK IN_ERROR 44948 Summary
TLS_TRK ERROR_UPSTREAM_RECORD 43194 Summary
TLS_TRK INVALID_CONTENT_TYPE 123 Summary
TLS_TRK DOWNSTREAM_REC_CHK_ERROR 123 Summary
TLS_TRK DECRYPT_FAIL 43194 Summary
TLS_TRK UPSTREAM_BY_PASS 127 Summary
TLS_TRK DOWNSTREAM_BY_PASS 127 Summary

1432
Fatal Counters
Fatal Counters
The fatal counters indicate serious errors. These counters should be at or near 0 on a healthy system. The
following example lists the fatal counters.
> show counters

CRYPTO RING_FULL 1 Summary
CRYPTO ACCELERATOR_CORE_TIMEOUT 1 Summary
CRYPTO ACCELERATOR_RESET 1 Summary
CRYPTO RSA_PRIVATE_DECRYPT_FAILED 1 Summary
The RING_FULL counter is not a fatal counter, but indicates how often the system overloaded the cryptographic
chip. The ACCELERATOR_RESET counter is the number of times the TLS crypto acceleration process
failed unexpectedly, which also causes the failure of pending operations, which are the numbers you see in
ACCELERATOR_CORE_TIMEOUT and RSA_PRIVATE_DECRYPT_FAILED.
If you have persistent problems, disable TLS crypto acceleration (system support ssl-hw-offload disable)
and work with Cisco TAC to resolve the issues.
Note You can do additional troubleshooting using the show snort tls-offload and debug snort tls-offload commands.
Use the clear snort tls-offload command to reset the counters displayed in the show snort tls-offload command
to zero.

1433
Fatal Counters

1434
CHAPTER 75
Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Rules
You can diagnose a variety of error conditions using connection events; for example, your managed device
might be overloaded with TLS/SSL traffic, or applications might be using TLS/SSL pinning or TLS heartbeat.
These conditions might require you to adjust your SSL rules or take other actions to restore normal operation
in your network.
• About TLS/SSL Oversubscription, on page 1435
• About TLS Heartbeat, on page 1437
• About TLS/SSL Pinning, on page 1439
• Verify TLS/SSL Cipher Suites, on page 1442
About TLS/SSL Oversubscription

TLS/SSL oversubscription is a state where a managed device is overloaded with TLS/SSL traffic. Any managed
device can experience TLS/SSL oversubscription but only managed devices that support TLS/SSL hardware
acceleration provide a configurable way to handle it.
When a managed device with TLS/SSL hardware acceleration enabled is oversubscribed, any packet received
by the managed device is acted on according to the setting for Handshake Errors in the SSL policy's
Undecryptable Actions:
• Inherit default action
• Do not decrypt
• Block
If the setting for Handshake Errors in the SSL policy's Undecryptable Actions is Do Not decrypt and the
associated access control policy is configured to inspect the traffic, inspection occurs; decryption does not
occur.
Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Oversubscription

If your managed device has TLS/SSL hardware acceleration enabled, you can view connection events to
determine whether or not the devices are experiencing SSL oversubscription. You must add at least the SSL
Flow Flags event to the table view of connection events.

1435
Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Oversubscription
Before you begin

• Enable SSL hardware acceleration on your managed devices.
• Configure an SSL policy with a setting for Handshake Errors on the Undecryptable Actions tab page.
For more information, see Set Default Handling for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1378.
• Enable logging for your SSL rules as discussed in Logging Decryptable Connections with SSL Rules,
on page 2329.
Procedure
Step 1 If you haven't done so already, log in to the Firepower Management Center.
Step 2 Click Analysis > Connection > Events.
Step 3 Click Table View of Connection Events.
Step 4 In the table view of connection events, click x on any column to add at least the SSL Flow Flags column to
the table.
The following example shows adding the SSL Actual Action, SSL Flow Error, SSL Flow Flags, SSL Flow
Messages, SSL Policy, and SSL Rule columns to the table of connection events.
The columns are added in the order discussed in Connection and Security Intelligence Event Fields, on page
2335.
Step 5 Click Apply.

TLS/SSL oversubscription is indicated by the values of ERROR_EVENT_TRIGGERED and
OVER_SUBSCRIBED in the SSL Flow Flags column.
The following figure shows an example.

1436
About TLS Heartbeat
Step 6 If TLS/SSL oversubscription is occurring, log in to the managed device and enter any of the following
commands:
Command Result
show counters If the value of TCP_PRX

BYPASS_NOT_ENOUGH_MEM is large, consider
upgrading your device to one with a larger capacity
for SSL traffic or use Do Not Decrypt rules for lower
priority encrypted traffic.
show snort tls-offload If the value of BYPASS_NOT_ENOUGH_MEM is

large, consider upgrading your device to one with a
larger capacity for SSL traffic or use Do Not Decrypt
rules for lower priority encrypted traffic.
Related Topics
Information Available in Connection Event Fields, on page 2351
Event Searches, on page 2287
About TLS Heartbeat


1437
Troubleshoot TLS Heartbeat
When a managed device with TLS/SSL hardware acceleration enabled encounters a packet that uses the TLS
heartbeat extension,the managed device takes the action specified by the setting for Decryption Errors in
the SSL policy's Undecryptable Actions:
• Block
Related Topics
Troubleshoot TLS Heartbeat, on page 1438
Troubleshoot TLS Heartbeat

If your managed device has TLS/SSL hardware acceleration enabled, you can view connection events to
determine whether or not the devices are seeing traffic with the TLS heartbeat extension. You must add at
least the SSL Flow Messages event to the table view of connection events.
Before you begin

SSL heartbeat is indicated by the value of HEARTBEAT in the SSL Flow Messages column in the table view
of connection events. To determine if applications in your network use SSL heartbeat, first perform the
following tasks:
• Configure an SSL policy with a setting for Decryption Errors on the Undecryptable Actions tab page.
For more information, see Set Default Handling for Undecryptable Traffic, on page 1378.
• Enable logging for your SSL rules as discussed in Logging Decryptable Connections with SSL Rules,
on page 2329.
Procedure
Step 4 In the table view of connection events, click x on any column to add at least the SSL Flow Messages column
to the table.

1438
About TLS/SSL Pinning
2335.
Step 5 Click Apply.

TLS heartbeat is indicated by the value of HEARTBEAT in the SSL Flow Messages column.
Step 6 If applications in your network use SSL heartbeat, see TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on page
1381.
Related Topics
Troubleshoot TLS Heartbeat, on page 1438
About TLS Heartbeat, on page 1437
About TLS/SSL Pinning

To confirm that TLS/SSL pinning is occurring, attempt to log in to a mobile application like Facebook. If a
network connection error is displayed, log in using a web browser. (For example, you cannot log in to a
Facebook mobile application but can log in to Facebook using Safari or Chrome.) You can use Firepower
Management Center connection events as further proof of TLS/SSL pinning

1439
Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Pinning
Note TLS/SSL pinning is not limited to mobile applications.
If applications in your network use SSL pinning, see TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on page 1381
Related Topics
Troubleshoot TLS/SSL Pinning, on page 1440

You can view connection events to determine whether or not the devices are experiencing SSL pinning. You
must add at least the SSL Flow Flags and SSL Flow Messages columns to the table view of connection
events.
Before you begin

• Enable logging for your TLS/SSL rules as discussed in Logging Decryptable Connections with SSL
Rules, on page 2329.
• Log in to a mobile application like Facebook; if a network connection error displays, log in to Facebook
using Chrome or Safari. If you can log in using a web browser but not the native application, SSL pinning
is likely occurring.
Procedure
Step 4 Click x on any column to add additional columns to at least the SSL Flow Flags and SSL Flow Messages
columns the connection events table.

1440
2335.
Step 5 Click Apply.

Step 6 The following paragraphs discuss how you can identify SSL pinning behavior.
Step 7 If you determine that applications in your network use SSL pinning, see TLS/SSL Rule Guidelines and
Limitations, on page 1381.
What to do next
You can use TLS/SSL connection events to confirm TLS/SSL pinning is occurring by looking for any of the
following:
• Applications that send an SSL ALERT Message as soon as the client receives the SERVER_HELLO,
SERVER_CERTIFICATE, SERVER_HELLO_DONE message from the server, followed by a TCP
Reset, exhibit the following symptoms. (The alert, Unknown CA (48), can be viewed using a packet
capture.)
• The SSL Flow Flags column displays ALERT_SEEN but not APP_DATA_C2S or APP_DATA_S2C.
• If your managed device has SSL hardware acceleration enabled, the SSL Flow Messages column
typically displays: CLIENT_ALERT, CLIENT_HELLO, SERVER_HELLO,
SERVER_CERTIFICATE, SERVER_KEY_EXCHANGE, SERVER_HELLO_DONE.
• If your managed device doesn't support SSL hardware acceleration or if the feature is disabled, the
SSL Flow Messages column typically displays: CLIENT_HELLO, SERVER_HELLO,
SERVER_CERTIFICATE, SERVER_KEY_EXCHANGE, SERVER_HELLO_DONE.
• Success is displayed in the SSL Flow Error column.
• Applications that send no alerts but instead send TCP Reset after the SSL handshake is finished exhibit
the following symptoms:

1441
Verify TLS/SSL Cipher Suites
• The SSL Flow Flags column does not display ALERT_SEEN, APP_DATA_C2S, or
APP_DATA_S2C.
• If your managed device has SSL hardware acceleration enabled, the SSL Flow Messages column
typically displays: CLIENT_HELLO, SERVER_HELLO, SERVER_CERTIFICATE,
SERVER_KEY_EXCHANGE, SERVER_HELLO_DONE, CLIENT_KEY_EXCHANGE,
CLIENT_CHANGE_CIPHER_SPEC, CLIENT_FINISHED, SERVER_CHANGE_CIPHER_SPEC,
SERVER_FINISHED.
• If your managed device doesn't support SSL hardware acceleration or if the feature is disabled, the
SSL Flow Messages column typically displays: CLIENT_HELLO, SERVER_HELLO,
SERVER_CERTIFICATE, SERVER_KEY_EXCHANGE, SERVER_HELLO_DONE,
CLIENT_KEY_EXCHANGE, CLIENT_CHANGE_CIPHER_SPEC,
CLIENT_FINISHED,SERVER_CHANGE_CIPHER_SPEC, SERVER_FINISHED.
• Success is displayed in the SSL Flow Error column.
Related Topics

Before you begin
This topic discusses actions you must take if you see the following error when saving a TLS/SSL rule that
has cipher suite conditions:
Traffic cannot match this rule; none of your selected cipher suites contain a signature
algorithm that the resigning CA's signature algorithm
The error indicates that one or more of the cipher suites you chose for the TLS/SSL rule condition are
incompatible with the certificate used in the TLS/SSL rule. To resolve the issue, you must have access to the
certificate you're using.
Note The tasks in this topic assume knowledge of how TLS/SSL encryption works.
Procedure
Step 1 When you attempt to save an SSL rule with either Decrypt - Resign or Decrypt - Known Key with specified
cipher suites, the following error is displayed:
Example:
Traffic cannot match this rule; none of your selected cipher suites contain a
signature algorithm that the resigning CA's signature algorithm

1442
Step 2 Locate the certificate you're using to decrypt traffic and, if necessary, copy the certificate to a system that can
run openssl commands.
Step 3 Run the following command to display the signature algorithm used by the certificate:
openssl x509 -in CertificateName -text -noout
The first few lines of output are displayed similar to the following:
Certificate:
Data:
Version: 3 (0x2)
Serial Number: 4105 (0x1009)
Signature Algorithm: ecdsa-with-SHA256
Step 4 The Signature algorithm tells you the following:

• The cryptographic function used (in the preceding example, ECDSA means Elliptic Curve Digital
Signature Algorithm).
• The hash function used to create a digest of the encrypted message (in the preceding example, SHA256).
Step 5 Search a resource such as OpenSSL at University of Utah for cipher suites that match those values. The cipher
suite must be in RFC format.
You can also search a variety of other sites, such as Server Side TLS at the Mozilla wiki or Appendix C of
RFC 5246. Cipher Suites in TLS/SSL (Schannel SSP) in Microsoft documentation has a detailed explanation
of cipher suites.
Step 6 If necessary, translate the OpenSSL name to an RFC name that the Firepower Management System uses.
See the RFC mapping list on the on the https://testssl.sh site.
Step 7 The previous example, ecdsa-with-SHA256, can be found in the Modern Compatibility List on the Mozilla
wiki.
a) Choose only cipher suites that have ECDSA and SHA-256 in the name. These cipher suites follow:
b) Find the corresponding RFC cipher suite on RFC mapping list. These cipher suites follow:
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA256
Step 8 Add the preceding cipher suites to your TLS/SSL rule.

1443

1444
PA R T XVII
Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) and File
Control
• File Policies and Advanced Malware Protection, on page 1447
• File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage Tuning, on page 1487
CHAPTER 76
File Policies and Advanced Malware Protection
The following topics provide an overview of file control, file policies, file rules, AMP cloud connections, and
dynamic analysis connections.
• About File Policies and Advanced Malware Protection, on page 1447
• Malware Protection Methods, on page 1447
• License Requirements for File and Malware Policies, on page 1452
• How to Configure Malware Protection, on page 1452
• Cloud Connections for Malware Protection, on page 1455
• File Policies and File Rules, on page 1465
• Retrospective Disposition Changes, on page 1479
• (Optional) Malware Protection with AMP for Endpoints, on page 1480
• History for the File and Malware Chapter, on page 1484
About File Policies and Advanced Malware Protection

File policies can optionally be configured to detect and block malware.
Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) for Firepower can detect, capture, track, analyze, log, and optionally
block the transmission of malware in network traffic. In the Firepower Management Center web interface,
this feature is called AMP for Networks, formerly called AMP for Firepower. AMP identifies malware using
threat data from the Cisco cloud and managed devices deployed inline.
You implement Advanced Malware Protection using file policies, which you associate with access control
rules that handle network traffic as part of your overall access control configuration.
When the system detects malware on your network, it generates file and malware events. To analyze file and
malware event data, see File/Malware Events and Network File Trajectory, on page 2409.
Malware Protection Methods

The Firepower system applies several methods of file inspection and analysis to determine whether a file
contains malware.
Depending on the options you enable in a file rule, the system inspects files using the following tools, in order:
1. Spero Analysis, on page 1448 and AMP Cloud Lookup, on page 1448

1447
Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) and File Control
Spero Analysis
2. Local Malware Analysis, on page 1448

3. Dynamic Analysis, on page 1449
For a comparison of these tools, see Comparison of Malware Protection Methods, on page 1450.
(You can also, if you choose, block all files based on their file type. For more information, see Block All Files
by Type, on page 1450.)
See also information about Cisco's AMP for Endpoints product at (Optional) Malware Protection with AMP
for Endpoints, on page 1480 and subtopics.
Spero Analysis
Spero analysis examines structural characteristics such as metadata and header information in executable files.
After generating a Spero signature based on this information, if the file is an eligible executable file, the device
submits it to the Spero heuristic engine in the AMP cloud. Based on the Spero signature, the Spero engine
determines whether the file is malware. You can also configure rules to submit files for Spero analysis without
also submitting them to the AMP cloud.
Note that you cannot manually submit files for Spero analysis.
AMP Cloud Lookup

For files that are eligible for assessment using Advanced Malware Protection, the Firepower Management
Center performs a malware cloud lookup, querying the AMP cloud for the file's disposition based on its
SHA-256 hash value.
To improve performance, the system caches dispositions returned by the cloud and uses the cached disposition
for known files rather than querying the AMP cloud. For more information about this cache, see Cached
Disposition Longevity, on page 1448.
Local Malware Analysis

Local malware analysis allows a managed device to locally inspect executables, PDFs, office documents, and
other types of files for the most common types of malware, using a detection rule set provided by the Cisco
Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos). Because local analysis does not query the AMP
cloud, and does not run the file, local malware analysis saves time and system resources.
If the system identifies malware through local malware analysis, it updates the existing file disposition from
Unknown to Malware. The system then generates a new malware event. If the system does not identify
malware, it does not update the file disposition from Unknown to Clean. After the system runs local malware
analysis, it caches file information such as SHA-256 hash value, timestamp, and disposition, so that if detected
again within a certain period of time, the system can identify malware without additional analysis. For more
information about the cache, see Cached Disposition Longevity, on page 1448.
Local malware analysis does not require establishing communications with the Cisco Threat Grid cloud.
However, you must configure communications with the cloud to submit files preclassified as malware for
dynamic analysis, and to download updates to the local malware analysis ruleset.
Cached Disposition Longevity

Dispositions returned from an AMP cloud query, associated threat scores, and dispositions assigned by local
malware analysis, have a time-to-live (TTL) value. After a disposition has been held for the duration specified

1448
Dynamic Analysis
in the TTL value without update, the system purges the cached information. Dispositions and associated threat
scores have the following TTL values:
• Clean — 4 hours
• Unknown — 1 hour
• Malware — 1 hour
If a query against the cache identifies a cached disposition that timed out, the system re-queries the local
malware analysis database and the AMP cloud for a new disposition.
Dynamic Analysis
You can configure your file policy to automatically submit files for dynamic analysis using Cisco Threat Grid
(formerly AMP Threat Grid), Cisco’s file analysis and threat intelligence platform.
Devices submit eligible files to Cisco Threat Grid (either the public cloud or to an on-premises appliance,
whichever you have specified) regardless of whether the device stores the file.
Cisco Threat Grid runs the file in a sandbox environment, analyzes the file's behavior to determine whether
the file is malicious, and returns a threat score that indicates the likelihood that a file contains malware. From
the threat score, you can view a dynamic analysis summary report with the reasons for the assigned threat
score. You can also look in Cisco Threat Grid to view detailed reports for files that your organization submitted,
as well as scrubbed reports with limited data for files that your organization did not submit.
You can optionally configure the file policy to override AMP cloud file dispositions based on the threat score.
For more information about Cisco Cisco Threat Grid, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/
threat-grid/index.html
To configure your system to perform dynamic analysis, see the topics under Dynamic Analysis Connections,
on page 1461.
Which Files Are Eligible for Dynamic Analysis?

A file's eligibility for dynamic analysis depends on:
• the file type
• the file size
• the file rule's action
Additionally:
• The system submits only files that match the file rules you configure.
• The file must have a malware cloud lookup disposition of Unknown or Unavailable at the time the file
is sent for analysis.
• The system must preclassify the file as potential malware.

1449
Block All Files by Type
Block All Files by Type

If your organization wants to block not only the transmission of malware files, but all files of a specific type,
regardless of whether the files contain malware, you can do so.
File control is supported for all file types where the system can detect malware, plus many additional file
types. These file types are grouped into basic categories, such as multimedia (swf, mp3), executables (exe,
torrent), and PDFs.
Blocking all files based on their type is not technically a malware protection feature; it does not require a
Malware license and does not query the AMP cloud.
Comparison of Malware Protection Methods

The following table details the benefits and drawbacks of each type of file analysis, as well as the way each
malware protection method determines a file's disposition.
Analysis Type Benefit Limitations Malware Identification
Spero analysis Structural analysis of Less thorough than Disposition changes from
executable files, local malware analysis Unknown to Malware only on
submits Spero signature or dynamic analysis, positive identification of
to the AMP Cloud for only for executable files malware.
analysis
Local malware analysis Consumes fewer Less thorough results Disposition changes from
resources than dynamic than dynamic analysis Unknown to Malware only on
analysis, and returns positive identification of
results more quickly, malware.
especially if the
detected malware is
common
Dynamic analysis Thorough analysis of Eligible files are Threat score determines
unknown files using uploaded to the public maliciousness of a file.
Cisco Threat Grid cloud or an on-premises Disposition is based on the threat
appliance. It takes some score threshold configured in the
time to complete file policy.
analysis
Spero analysis and local Consumes fewer Less thorough than Disposition changes from
malware analysis resources than dynamic analysis, Spero Unknown to Malware only on
configuring local analysis only for positive identification of
malware analysis and executable files malware.
dynamic analysis, while
still using AMP cloud
resources to identify
malware

1450
Comparison of Malware Protection Methods
Analysis Type Benefit Limitations Malware Identification
Spero analysis and Uses full capabilities of Results obtained less Threat score changes based on
dynamic analysis AMP cloud in quickly than if using dynamic analysis results for files
submitting files and local malware analysis preclassified as possible
Spero signatures malware. Disposition changes
based on configured threat score
threshold in the file policy, and
from Unknown to Malware if
the Spero analysis identifies
malware.
Local malware analysis Thorough results in Consumes more Threat score changes based on
and dynamic analysis using both types of file resources than either dynamic analysis results for files
analysis alone preclassified as possible
malware. Disposition changes
local malware analysis identifies
malware, or based on configured
threat score threshold in the file
policy.
Spero analysis, local Most thorough results Consumes most Threat score changes based on
malware analysis and resources in running all dynamic analysis results for files
dynamic analysis three types of file preclassified as possible
analysis malware. Disposition changes
Spero analysis or local malware
analysis identifies malware, or
based on configured threat score
threshold in the file policy.
(Block transmission of Does not require a Legitimate files will (No analysis is performed.)
all files of a specified Malware license also be blocked
file type)
(This option is not
technically a malware
protection option.)
Note Preclassification does not itself determine a file's disposition; it is merely one of the factors that determine
whether a file is eligible for Dynamic Analysis.

1451
License Requirements for File and Malware Policies
License Requirements for File and Malware Policies

To Do This License Required File Rule Action
Block or allow all files of a particular type (for example, Threat (for FTD Allow, Block, Block with
block all .exe files) devices) Reset
Protection (for
Classic devices)
Selectively allow or block files based on a judgment that Malware Malware Cloud Lookup,
it contains or is likely to contain malware Block Malware
Store files Malware Any file rule action with

Store Files selected
For details about Malware licenses, see Malware Licenses for Firepower Threat Defense Devices, on page
82 and Malware Licenses for Classic Devices, on page 101.
How to Configure Malware Protection

This topic summarizes the steps you must take to set up your Firepower system to protect your network from
malicious software.
Procedure
Step 1 Plan and Deploy Products and Licenses for Malware Protection, on page 1452
Step 2 Configure Policies to Detect and Handle Malware, on page 1453
Step 3 Arrange Ongoing Maintenance and Monitoring of Malware Protection, on page 1454
What to do next
(Optional) Deploy and integrate Cisco's AMP for Endpoints product to further enhance detection of malware
in your network. See (Optional) Malware Protection with AMP for Endpoints, on page 1480 and subtopics.
Plan and Deploy Products and Licenses for Malware Protection

This procedure is the first set of steps in the complete process for configuring your system to provide malware
protection.
Procedure
Step 1 Purchase and install the necessary Malware licenses for your Firepower system.

1452
Configure Policies to Detect and Handle Malware
See License Requirements for File and Malware Policies, on page 1452 and Licensing the Firepower System,
on page 73.
Step 2 Understand how file policies and malware protection fit into your access control plan.
See the chapter Access Control Using Intrusion and File Policies, on page 1271.
Step 3 Understand the file analysis tools that are available for malware protection.
See Malware Protection Methods, on page 1447 and subtopics.
Step 4 Determine whether you will use public clouds or private (on-premises) clouds for malware file analysis and
dynamic analysis.
See Cloud Connections for Malware Protection, on page 1455 and subtopics.
Step 5 If you will use private (on-premises) Cisco AMP clouds: Purchase, deploy, and test those products.
For information, contact your Cisco sales representative or authorized reseller.
Step 6 Configure your firewall to allow communications with your chosen clouds.
See Security, Internet Access, and Communication Ports, on page 2551.
Step 7 Configure connections between the FMC and the AMP clouds (public or private).
• For the AMP cloud, see Change AMP Options, on page 1460.
• If you deployed an on-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliance, see Connect to an On-Premises Dynamic
Analysis Appliance, on page 1462. (Access to the public Threat Grid cloud does not require configuration.)
What to do next
Continue with the remaining steps in How to Configure Malware Protection, on page 1452.
Configure Policies to Detect and Handle Malware

Before you begin
Complete the tasks up to this point in the malware protection workflow:
See How to Configure Malware Protection, on page 1452.
Procedure
Step 1 Configure file policies:

a) Understand file policy and file rule restrictions.
See File Policy and File Rule Guidelines and Limitations, on page 1465 and subtopics.
b) Create a file policy.
See Creating a File Policy, on page 1469.

1453
Arrange Ongoing Maintenance and Monitoring of Malware Protection
c) Create rules within your file policy.

See File Rules, on page 1473 and subtopics.
Step 2 Add your file policies to your access control configuration:

a) Understand guidelines for file policies in access control policies. (These are different from the file rule
and file policy guidelines above.)
Review File and Intrusion Inspection Order, on page 1273.
b) Associate the file policy with an access control policy.
See Configuring an Access Control Rule to Perform Malware Protection, on page 1275
c) If you have not yet done so, configure network discovery policies so that file and malware events can be
associated with hosts on your network.
(Do not simply turn on network discovery; you must configure it to discover hosts on your network to
build a network map of your organization.)
See Network Discovery Policies, on page 2043 and subtopics.
d) Assign the access control policy to managed devices.
See Setting Target Devices for an Access Control Policy, on page 1251.
e) Deploy the access control policy to managed devices.
See Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.
Your system is now configured to detect and handle malware.
Step 3 Test your system to be sure it is processing malicious files as you expect it to.
What to do next
In order to ensure ongoing effectiveness of your deployment, see Arrange Ongoing Maintenance and Monitoring
of Malware Protection, on page 1454.
.
Arrange Ongoing Maintenance and Monitoring of Malware Protection

Ongoing maintenance is essential for protecting your network.
Before you begin

Configure your system to protect your network from malware.
See How to Configure Malware Protection, on page 1452 and referenced procedures.
Procedure
Step 1 Ensure that your system always has the most current and effective protection.

1454
Cloud Connections for Malware Protection
See Maintain Your System: Update File Types Eligible for Dynamic Analysis, on page 1464.
Step 2 Configure alerts for malware-related events and health monitoring.

See Configuring AMP for Networks Alerting, on page 2188 and information in Health Monitoring, on page
241 about the following modules:
• Local Malware Analysis
• Security Intelligence
• Intrusion and File Event Rate
• AMP for Firepower Status
• AMP for Endpoints Status
What to do next
Understand how to use file and malware events to research potential issues.
See File/Malware Events and Network File Trajectory, on page 2409.
Cloud Connections for Malware Protection

Connections to public or private clouds are required in order to protect your network from malware.
AMP Clouds
The Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) cloud is a Cisco-hosted server that uses big data analytics and
continuous analysis to provide intelligence that the system uses to detect and block malware on your network.
The AMP cloud provides dispositions for possible malware detected in network traffic by managed devices,
as well as data updates for local malware analysis and file pre-classification.
If your organization has deployed AMP for Endpoints and configured Firepower to import its data, the system
imports this data from the AMP cloud, including scan records, malware detections, quarantines, and indications
of compromise (IOC).
Cisco offers the following options for obtaining data from the Cisco cloud about known malware threats:
• AMP public cloud— Your Firepower Management Center communicates directly with the public Cisco
cloud.
• An AMP private cloud is deployed on your network and acts as a compressed, on-premises AMP cloud,
as well as an anonymized proxy to connect to the public AMP cloud.
For details, see Cisco AMP Private Cloud, on page 1457.
If you integrate with AMP for Endpoints, the AMP private cloud has some limitations. See AMP for
Endpoints and AMP Private Cloud, on page 1482.

1455
AMP Cloud Connection Configurations
Dynamic Analysis Cloud

• Cisco Threat Grid cloud—Processes eligible files that you send to the cloud for dynamic analysis, and
provides threat scores and dynamic analysis reports.
• On-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliance—If your organization's security policy does not allow the
Firepower System to send files outside of your network, you can deploy an on-premises appliance. This
appliance does not contact the public Cisco Threat Grid cloud.
For more information, see Dynamic Analysis On-Premises Appliance (Cisco Threat Grid) , on page 1462.
Configure Connections to AMP and Threat Grid Clouds

• AMP Cloud Connection Configurations, on page 1456
• Dynamic Analysis Connections, on page 1461
AMP Cloud Connection Configurations

The following topics describe AMP cloud connection configurations for different scenarios:
• Choose an AMP Cloud, on page 1457
• Connecting to an AMP Private Cloud, on page 1458
• Integrate Firepower and AMP for Endpoints, on page 1482
The following topics are also relevant:

• Cisco AMP Private Cloud, on page 1457
• Requirements and Guidelines for AMP Cloud Connections, on page 1456
• Managing Connections to the AMP Cloud (Public or Private) , on page 1459
Requirements and Guidelines for AMP Cloud Connections
Requirements for AMP Cloud Connections

To ensure your FMC can communicate with the AMP cloud, see the topics under Security, Internet Access,
and Communication Ports, on page 2551.
To use the legacy port for AMP communications, see Communication Port Requirements, on page 2553.
AMP and High Availability

Although they share file policies and related configurations, Firepower Management Centers in a high
availability pair share neither cloud connections nor captured files, file events, and malware events. To ensure
continuity of operations, and to ensure that detected files’ malware dispositions are the same on both Firepower
Management Centers, both Active and Standby Firepower Management Centers must have access to the cloud.
In high availability configurations, you must configure AMP cloud connections independently on the Active
and Standby instances of the Firepower Management Center; these configurations are not synchronized.
These requirements apply to both public and private AMP clouds.

1456
Choose an AMP Cloud
AMP Cloud Connections and Multitenancy

In a multidomain deployment, you configure the AMP for Networks connection at the Global level only. Each
Firepower Management Center can have only one AMP for Networks connection.
Choose an AMP Cloud

Malware Malware Any Any Admin
By default, a connection to the United States (US) AMP public cloud is configured and enabled for your
Firepower system. (This connection appears in the web interface as AMP for Networks and sometimes AMP
for Firepower.) You cannot delete or disable an AMP for Networks cloud connection, but you can switch
between different geographical AMP clouds, or configure an AMP private cloud connection.
Before you begin

• If you will use an AMP private cloud, see Connecting to an AMP Private Cloud, on page 1458 instead of
this topic.
• Unless Firepower is integrated with AMP for Endpoints, you can configure only one AMP cloud
connection. This connection is labeled AMP for Networks or AMP for Firepower.
• If you have deployed AMP for Endpoints and you want to add one or more AMP clouds to integrate that
application with Firepower, see Integrate Firepower and AMP for Endpoints, on page 1482.
• See Requirements and Guidelines for AMP Cloud Connections, on page 1456.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose AMP > AMP Management.

Step 2 Click the pencil icon to edit the existing cloud connection.
Step 3 From the Cloud Name drop-down list, choose the regional cloud nearest to your Firepower Management
Center.
Step 4 Click Save.
What to do next
• If your deployment is a high-availability configuration, see Requirements and Guidelines for AMP Cloud
Connections, on page 1456.
• (Optional) Change AMP Options, on page 1460.
Cisco AMP Private Cloud

The Firepower Management Center must connect to the AMP cloud for disposition queries for files detected
in network traffic and receipt of retrospective malware events. This cloud can be public or private.

1457
Connecting to an AMP Private Cloud
Your organization may have privacy or security concerns that make frequent or direct connections between
your monitored network and the AMP cloud difficult or impossible. In these situations, you can set up a Cisco
AMP Private Cloud, a proprietary Cisco product that acts as a compressed, on-premises version of the AMP
cloud, as well as a secure mediator between your network and the AMP cloud. Connecting a Firepower
Management Center to an AMP private cloud disables existing direct connections to the public AMP cloud.
All connections to the AMP cloud funnel through the AMP private cloud, which acts as an anonymized proxy
to ensure the security and privacy of your monitored network. This includes disposition queries for files
detected in network traffic, receiving of retrospective malware events, and so on. The AMP private cloud
does not share any of your endpoint data over an external connection.
Note The AMP private cloud does not perform dynamic analysis, nor does it support anonymized retrieval of threat
intelligence for other features that rely on Cisco Collective Security Intelligence (CSI), such as URL and
Security Intelligence filtering.
For information about AMP private cloud (sometimes referred to as "AMPv"), see https://www.cisco.com/c/
en/us/products/security/fireamp-private-cloud-virtual-appliance/index.html.
Connecting to an AMP Private Cloud
Malware (AMP for Malware (AMP for Any Any Admin

Networks) Networks)
Any (AMP for Any (AMP for
Endpoints) Endpoints)
Before you begin

• Configure your Cisco AMP private cloud or clouds according to the directions in the documentation for
that product. During configuration, note the private cloud host name. You will need this host name in
order to to configure the connection on the Firepower Management Center.
• Make sure the Firepower Management Center can communicate with the AMP private cloud, and confirm
that the private cloud has internet access so it can communicate with the public AMP cloud. See the
topics under Security, Internet Access, and Communication Ports, on page 2551.
• Unless your deployment is integrated with AMP for Endpoints, each Firepower Management Center can
have only one AMP cloud connection. This connection is labeled AMP for Networks or AMP for
Firepower.
If you integrate with AMP for Endpoints, you can configure multiple AMP for Endpoints cloud
connections.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Create AMP Cloud Connection.
Step 3 From the Cloud Name drop-down list, choose Private Cloud.

1458
Managing Connections to the AMP Cloud (Public or Private)

This information appears in malware events that are generated or transmitted by AMP private cloud.
Step 5 In the Host field, enter the private cloud host name that you configured when you set up the private cloud.
Step 6 Click Browse next to the Certificate Upload Path field to browse to the location of a valid TLS or SSL
encryption certificate for the private cloud. For more information, see the AMP private cloud documentation.
Step 7 If you want to use this private cloud for both AMP for Networks and AMP for Endpoints, select the Use for
AMP for Firepower check box.
If you configured a different private cloud to handle AMP for Networks communications, you can clear this
check box; if this is your only AMP private cloud connection, you cannot.
In a multidomain deployment, this check box appears only in the Global domain. Each Firepower Management
Center can have only one AMP for Networks connection.
Step 8 To communicate with the AMP private cloud using a proxy, check the Use Proxy for Connection check box.
Step 9 Click Register, confirm that you want to disable existing direct connections to the AMP cloud, and finally
confirm that you want to continue to the AMP private cloud management console to complete registration.
Step 10 Log into the management console and complete the registration process. For further instructions, see the AMP
private cloud documentation.
What to do next
Managing Connections to the AMP Cloud (Public or Private)

Malware (AMP for Malware (AMP for Any Any Admin

Networks) Networks)
Any (AMP for Any (AMP for
Endpoints) Endpoints)
Use the Firepower Management Center to manage connections to public and private AMP clouds used for
AMP for Networks or AMP for Endpoints or both.
You can delete a connection to a public or private AMP cloud if you no longer want to receive malware-related
information from the cloud. Note that deregistering a connection using the AMP for Endpoints or AMP private
cloud management console does not remove the connection from the system. Deregistered connections display
a failed state on the Firepower Management Center web interface.
You can also temporarily disable a connection. When you reenable a cloud connection, the cloud resumes
sending data to the system, including queued data from the disabled period.

1459
Change AMP Options
Caution For disabled connections, the public or private AMP cloud can store malware events, indications of compromise,
and so on until you re-enable the connection. In rare cases—for example, with a very high event rate or a
long-term disabled connection—the cloud may not be able to store all information generated while the
connection is disabled.
In a multidomain deployment, the system displays connections created in the current domain, which you can
manage. It also displays connections created in ancestor domains, which you cannot manage. To manage
connections in a lower domain, switch to that domain. Each Firepower Management Center can have only
one AMP for Networks connection, which belongs to the Global domain.
Procedure
Step 1 Select AMP > AMP Management.

Step 2 Manage your AMP cloud connections:
• Delete — Click the delete icon ( ), then confirm your choice.

• Enable or Disable — Click the slider, then confirm your choice.
What to do next
Change AMP Options

Malware Malware Any Any Admin
Procedure

Step 2 Click the Cisco CSI tab.
Step 3 Select options:
Table 93: AMP for Networks Options
Option Description
Enable Automatic Local Malware The local malware detection engine statically analyzes and
Detection Updates preclassifies files using signatures provided by Cisco. If you enable
this option, the Firepower Management Center checks for signature
updates once every 30 minutes.

1460
Dynamic Analysis Connections
Option Description
Share URI from Malware Events with The system can send information about the files detected in network
Cisco traffic to the AMP cloud. This information includes URI
information associated with detected files and their SHA-256 hash
values. Although sharing is opt-in, transmitting this information
to Cisco helps future efforts to identify and track malware.
Use Legacy Port 32137 for AMP for By default, Firepower uses port 443/HTTPS to communicate with
Networks the AMP public or private cloud to obtain file disposition data.
This option allows the system to use port 32137.
If you updated from a previous version of the system, this option
may be enabled.
This option will be greyed out if the FMC is configured with Proxy
settings.
Step 4 Click Save.
Dynamic Analysis Connections

Requirements for Dynamic Analysis
With the appropriate license, the Firepower system automatically has access to the Cisco Threat Grid public
cloud.
Dynamic analysis requires that managed devices have direct or proxied access to the Cisco Threat Grid public
cloud or an on-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliance on port 443.
See also Which Files Are Eligible for Dynamic Analysis?, on page 1449.
If you will connect to an on-premises Threat Grid appliance, see also the prerequisites in Connect to an
On-Premises Dynamic Analysis Appliance, on page 1462.
Viewing the Default Dynamic Analysis Connection

Malware Malware Any Global only Admin/Access

Admin/Network
Admin
By default, the Firepower Management Center can connect to the public Cisco Threat Grid cloud for file
submission and report retrieval. You can neither configure nor delete this connection.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose AMP > Dynamic Analysis Connections.

1461
Dynamic Analysis On-Premises Appliance (Cisco Threat Grid)

Note
For information about the button on the AMP > Dynamic Analysis Connections page, see
Enabling Access to Dynamic Analysis Results in the Public Cloud, on page 1463.
Dynamic Analysis On-Premises Appliance (Cisco Threat Grid)

If your organization has privacy or security concerns around submitting files to the public Cisco Threat Grid
cloud, you can deploy an on-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliance. Like the public cloud, the on-premises
appliance runs eligible files in a sandbox environment, and returns a threat score and dynamic analysis report
to the Firepower System. However, the on-premises appliance does not communicate with the public cloud,
or any other system external to your network.
For more information about on-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliances, see https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/
products/security/threat-grid/index.html.
Connect to an On-Premises Dynamic Analysis Appliance

Admin/Network
Admin
If you install an on-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliance on your network, you can configure a dynamic
analysis connection to submit files and retrieve reports from the appliance. When configuring the on-premises
appliance dynamic analysis connection, you register the Firepower Management Center to the on-premises
appliance.
Before you begin

• Set up your on-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliance; see the Cisco Threat Grid Appliance Setup and
Configuration Guide.
Documentation for this appliance is available from https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/security/
amp-threat-grid-appliances/tsd-products-support-series-home.html.
• Download the public key certificate from the Cisco Threat Grid appliance to use for logins to the
on-premises appliance; see the Cisco Threat Grid Appliance Administrator's Guide.
• Configure a proxy if you want to connect to the on-premises appliance using a proxy; see Configure
Firepower Management Center Management Interfaces, on page 910.
• Managed devices must have direct or proxied access to the Cisco Threat Grid appliance on port 443.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose AMP > Dynamic Analysis Connections.

Step 2 Click Add New Connection.

1462
Enabling Access to Dynamic Analysis Results in the Public Cloud

Step 4 Enter a Host URL.
Step 5 Next to Certificate Upload, click Browse to upload the public key certificate you want to use to establish
connections with the on-premises appliance.
Step 6 If you want to use a configured proxy to establish the connection, select Use Proxy When Available.
Step 8 Click Yes to display the on-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliance login page.
Step 9 Enter your username and password to the on-premises Cisco Threat Grid appliance.
Step 10 Click Sign in.
• If you previously registered the Firepower Management Center to the on-premises appliance, click
Return.
• If you did not register the Firepower Management Center, click Activate.
Enabling Access to Dynamic Analysis Results in the Public Cloud


Admin/Network
Admin
Cisco Threat Grid offers more detailed reporting on analyzed files than is available in the Firepower
Management Center. If your organization has an account in the Cisco Threat Grid public cloud, you can access
the Cisco Threat Grid portal directly to view additional details about files sent for analysis from your managed
devices. However, for privacy reasons, file analysis details are available only to the organization that submitted
the files. Therefore, before you can view this information, you must associate your Firepower Management
Center with the files submitted by its managed devices.
Before you begin

You must have an account on the Cisco Threat Grid public cloud, and have your account credentials ready.
Procedure
Step 1 Select AMP > Dynamic Analysis Connections.
Step 2 Click in the table row corresponding to the Cisco Threat Grid public cloud.
A Cisco Threat Grid portal window opens.
Step 3 Sign in to the Cisco Threat Grid public cloud.

Step 4 Click Submit Query.
Note Do not change the default value in the Devices field.
If you have difficulties with this process, contact your Cisco Threat Grid representative at Cisco TAC.

1463
Maintain Your System: Update File Types Eligible for Dynamic Analysis
It may take up to 24 hours for this change to take effect.
What to do next
After the association is activated, see Viewing Dynamic Analysis Results in the Cisco Threat Grid Public
Cloud, on page 2427.
Maintain Your System: Update File Types Eligible for Dynamic Analysis
The list of file types eligible for Dynamic Analysis is determined by the vulnerability database (VDB), which
is updated periodically (but no more than once per day.)
To ensure that your system has the current list:
Procedure

• (Recommended) See Vulnerability Database Update Automation, on page 162
• Regularly check for new VDB updates, and Update the Vulnerability Database (VDB) Manually, on
page 119 when needed.
If you choose this option, we recommend that you schedule regular reminders to do this.
Step 2 If your file policies specify individual file types instead of the Dynamic Analysis Capable file type category,
update your file policies to use the newly supported file types.
Step 3 If the list of eligible file types changes, deploy to managed devices.
Cisco Security Intelligence Clouds

The Firepower System uses Cisco’s Collective Security Intelligence (CSI) cloud to obtain the threat intelligence
data it uses to assess risk for files and to obtain URL category and reputation. With the correct licenses, you
can specify communications options for the AMP for Networks and URL Filtering features.
The FMC communicates with resources in the Cisco cloud for the following features:
• For Advanced Malware Protection, see: Change AMP Options, on page 1460
• For URL filtering, see:
• URL Filtering Options, on page 1284
• Enable URL Filtering Using Category and Reputation, on page 1283

1464
File Policies and File Rules
File Policies and File Rules

File Policy and File Rule Guidelines and Limitations
File Rule Configuration Guidelines and Limitations
• A rule configured to block files in a passive deployment does not block matching files. Because the
connection continues to transmit the file, if you configure the rule to log the beginning of the connection,
you may see multiple events logged for this connection.
• A policy can include multiple rules. When you create the rules, ensure that no rule is "shadowed" by a
previous rule.
• The file types supported for dynamic analysis are a subset of the file types supported for other types of
analysis. To view the file types supported for each type of analysis, navigate to the file rule configuration
page, select the Block Malware action, and select the checkboxes of interest.
To ensure that the system examines all file types, create separate rules (within the same policy) for
dynamic analysis and for other types of analysis.
• If a file rule is configured with a Malware Cloud Lookup or Block Malware action and the Firepower
Management Center cannot establish connectivity with the AMP cloud, the system cannot perform any
configured rule action options until connectivity is restored.
• Cisco recommends that you enable Reset Connection for the Block Files and Block Malware actions
to prevent blocked application sessions from remaining open until the TCP connection resets. If you do
not reset connections, the client session will remain open until the TCP connection resets itself.
• If you are monitoring high volumes of traffic, do not store all captured files, or submit all captured files
for dynamic analysis. Doing so can negatively impact system performance.
• You cannot perform malware analysis on all file types detected by the system. After you select values
from the Application Protocol, Direction of Transfer, and Action drop-down lists, the system constrains
the list of file types.
File Detection Notes and Limitations

• If adaptive profiling is not enabled, access control rules cannot perform file control, including AMP.
• If a file matches a rule with an application protocol condition, file event generation occurs after the
system successfully identifies a file’s application protocol. Unidentified files do not generate file events.
• FTP transfers commands and data over different channels. In a passive or inline tap mode deployment,
the traffic from an FTP data session and its control session may not be load-balanced to the same internal
resource.
• If the total number of bytes for all file names for files in a POP3, POP, SMTP, or IMAP session exceeds
1024, file events from the session may not reflect the correct file names for files that were detected after
the file name buffer filled.
• When transmitting text-based files over SMTP, some mail clients convert newlines to the CRLF newline
character standard. Since Mac-based hosts use the carriage return (CR) character and Unix/Linux-based

1465
File Blocking Notes and Limitations
hosts use the line feed (LF) character, newline conversion by the mail client can modify the size of the
file. Note that some mail clients default to newline conversion when processing an unrecognizable file
type.
• To detect ISO files, set the "Limit the number of bytes inspected when doing file type detection" option
to a value greater than 36870, as described in File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage
Options, on page 1487.
File Blocking Notes and Limitations

• If an end-of-file marker is not detected for a file, regardless of transfer protocol, the file will not be
blocked by a Block Malware rule or the custom detection list. The system waits to block the file until
the entire file has been received, as indicated by the end-of-file marker, and blocks the file after the
marker is detected.
• If the end-of-file marker for an FTP file transfer is transmitted separately from the final data segment,
the marker will be blocked and the FTP client will indicate that the file transfer failed, but the file will
actually completely transfer to disk.
• File rules with Block Files and Block Malware actions block automatic resumption of file download
via HTTP by blocking new sessions with the same file, URL, server, and client application detected for
24 hours after the initial file transfer attempt occurs.
• In rare cases, if traffic from an HTTP upload session is out of order, the system cannot reassemble the
traffic correctly and therefore will not block it or generate a file event.
• If you transfer a file over NetBIOS-ssn (such as an SMB file transfer) that is blocked with a Block Files
rule, you may see a file on the destination host. However, the file is unusable because it is blocked after
the download starts, resulting in an incomplete file transfer.
• If you create file rules to detect or block files transferred over NetBIOS-ssn (such as an SMB file transfer),
the system does not inspect files transferred in an established TCP or SMB session started before you
deploy an access control policy invoking the file policy so those files will not be detected or blocked.
• If you configure Firepower Threat Defense high availability, and failover occurs while while the original
active device is identifying the file, the file type is not synced. Even if your file policy blocks that file
type, the new active device downloads the file.
File Policy General Guidelines and Limitations

• You cannot use a file policy to inspect traffic handled by the access control default action.
• For a new policy, the web interface indicates that the policy is not in use. If you are editing an in-use file
policy, the web interface tells you how many access control policies use the file policy. In either case,
you can click the text to jump to the Access Control Policies page.
• For an access control policy using a file policy with Block Malware rules for FTP, if you set the default
action to an intrusion policy with Drop when Inline disabled, the system generates events for detected
files or malware matching the rules, but does not drop the files. To block FTP file transfers and use an
intrusion policy as the default action for the access control policy where you select the file policy, you
must select an intrusion policy with Drop when Inline enabled.

1466
File Policies
• Based on your configuration, you can either inspect a file the first time the system detects it, and wait
for a cloud lookup result, or pass the file on this first detection without waiting for the cloud lookup
result.
File Policies
A file policy is a set of configurations that the system uses to perform malware protection and file control, as
part of your overall access control configuration. This association ensures that before the system passes a file
in traffic that matches an access control rule’s conditions, it first inspects the file. Consider the following
diagram of a simple access control policy in an inline deployment.
The policy has two access control rules, both of which use the Allow action and are associated with file
policies. The policy’s default action is also to allow traffic, but without file policy inspection. In this scenario,
traffic is handled as follows:
• Traffic that matches Rule 1 is inspected by File Policy A.
• Traffic that does not match Rule 1 is evaluated against Rule 2. Traffic that matches Rule 2 is inspected
by File Policy B.
• Traffic that does not match either rule is allowed; you cannot associate a file policy with the default
action.
You can associate a single file policy with an access control rule whose action is Allow, Interactive Block,
or Interactive Block with reset. The system then uses that file policy to inspect network traffic that meets
the conditions of the access control rule.
By associating different file policies with different access control rules, you have granular control over how
you identify and block files transmitted on your network.

1467
Managing File Policies
Managing File Policies


control) Admin
Malware (AMP for
Networks) Malware (AMP for
Networks)
The File Policies page displays a list of existing file policies along with their last-modified dates. You can
use this page to manage your file policies.
Note The system checks for updates to the list of file types eligible for dynamic analysis (no more than once a day).
If the list of eligible file types changes, this constitutes a change in the file policy; any access control policy
using the file policy is marked out-of-date if deployed to any devices. You must deploy policies before the
updated file policy can take effect on the device. See Maintain Your System: Update File Types Eligible for
Dynamic Analysis, on page 1464.
Procedure
Step 1 Select Policies > Access Control > Malware & File .
Step 2 Manage your file policies:
• Compare—Click Compare Policies; see Comparing Policies, on page 319.
• Create — To create a file policy, click New File Policy and proceed as described in Creating a File
• Copy — To copy a file policy, click the copy icon ( ).
• Delete — If you want to delete a file policy, click the delete icon ( ), then click Yes and OK as prompted.
If the controls are dimmed, the configuration belongs to an ancestor domain, or you do not have permission
to modify the configuration.
• Edit — If you want to modify an existing file policy, click the edit icon ( ).

1468
Creating a File Policy
Creating a File Policy


control) Admin
Malware (AMP for
Networks)
Before you begin

If you are configuring policies for malware protection, see Configure Policies to Detect and Handle Malware,
on page 1453.
Procedure
Tip
To make a copy of an existing file policy, click the copy icon ( ), then type a unique name for the
new policy in the dialog box that appears. You can then modify the copy.
Step 2 Click New File Policy.

Step 3 Enter a Name and optional Description for your new policy.
Step 4 Click Save.
Step 5 Add one or more rules to the file policy as described in Creating File Rules, on page 1478.
Step 6 Optionally, select the Advanced tab and configure advanced options as described in Advanced and Archive
File Inspection Options, on page 1469.
Step 7 Save the file policy.
What to do next
• If you are configuring policies for malware protection, return to Configure Policies to Detect and Handle
Malware, on page 1453.
• Otherwise:
• Add the file policy to an access control rule as described in Access Control Rule Configuration to
Perform Malware Protection, on page 1274.
Advanced and Archive File Inspection Options

The Advanced tab in the file policy editor has the following general options:
• First Time File Analysis—Select this option to store and locally analyze first-seen (Unknown) files
while the AMP cloud disposition is pending. The file must match a rule configured to perform a malware
cloud lookup and Spero, local malware, or dynamic analysis. Deselect this option to conserve storage

1469
Archive Files
and processing resources.If you deselect this option, files detected for the first time are marked with an
Unknown disposition.
• Enable Custom Detection List—Block files on the custom detection list.
• Enable Clean List—Allow files on the clean list.
• Override AMP Cloud Disposition Based upon Threat Score—Set a threshold threat score; files with
scores equal or worse than the threshold are considered malware.
If you select lower threshold values, you increase the number of files treated as malware. Depending on
the action selected in your file policy, this can result in an increase of blocked files.
The Advanced tab in the file policy editor has the following archive file inspection options:
• Inspect Archives—Enables inspection of the contents of archive files, for archive files as large as the
Maximum file size to store advanced access control setting.
• Block Encrypted Archives—Blocks archive files that have encrypted contents.
• Block Uninspectable Archives—Blocks archive files with contents that the system is unable to inspect
for reasons other than encryption. This usually applies to corrupted files, or those that exceed your
specified maximum archive depth.
• Max Archive Depth—Blocks nested archive files that exceed the specified depth. The top-level archive
file is not considered in this count; depth begins at 1 with the first nested file .
Archive Files
Archive files are files that contain other files, such as .zip or .rar files.
If any individual file in an archive matches a file rule with a block action, the system blocks the entire archive,
not just the individual file.
For details about options for archive file inspection, see Advanced and Archive File Inspection Options, on
page 1469.
Archive Files That Can Be Inspected

• File types
A complete list of inspectable archive file types appears on the file rule configuration page. To view that
page, see Creating File Rules, on page 1478.
Contained files that can be inspected appears in the same page.
• File size
You can inspect archive files as large as the Maximum file size to store file policy advanced access
control setting.
• Nested archives
Archive files can contain other archive files, which can in turn contain archive files. The level at which
a file is nested is its archive file depth. Note that the top-level archive file is not included in the depth
count; depth begins at 1 with the first nested file.

1470
Archive Files
The system can inspect up to three levels of nested files beneath the outermost archive file (level 0). You
can configure your file policy to block archive files that exceed that depth (or a lower maximum depth
that you specify).
If you choose not to block files that exceed the maximum archive file depth of 3, when archive files that
contain some extractable contents and some contents nested at a depth of 3 or greater appear in monitored
traffic, the system examines and reports data only for the files it was able to inspect.
All features applicable to uncompressed files (such as dynamic analysis and file storage) are available
for nested files inside archive files.
• Encrypted files
You can configure the system to block archives whose contents are encrypted or otherwise cannot be
inspected.
• Archives that are not inspected
If traffic that contains an archive file is blacklisted or whitelisted by Security Intelligence, or if the
top-level archive file’s SHA-256 value is on the custom detection list, the system does not inspect the
contents of the archive file. If a nested file is blacklisted, the entire archive is blocked; however, if a
nested file is whitelisted, the archive is not automatically passed (depending on any other nested files
and characteristics).
Archive File Dispositions

Archive file dispositions are based on the dispositions assigned to the files inside the archive. All archives
that contain identified malware files receive a disposition of Malware. Archives without identified malware
files receive a disposition of Unknown if they contain any unknown files, and a disposition of Clean if they
contain only clean files.
Table 94: Archive File Disposition by Contents
Archive File Disposition Number of Unknown Files Number of Clean Files Number of Malware Files
Unknown 1 or more Any 0
Clean 0 1 or more 0
Malware Any Any 1 or more
Archive files, like other files, may have dispositions of Custom Detection or Unavailable if the conditions
for those dispositions apply.
Viewing Archive Contents and Details

If your file policy is configured to inspect archive file contents, you can use the context menu in a table on
pages under the Analysis > Files menu, and the network file trajectory viewer to view information about the
files inside an archive when the archive file appears in a file event, malware event, or as a captured file.
All file contents of the archive are listed in table form, with a short summary of their relevant information:
name, SHA-256 hash value, type, category, and archive depth. A network file trajectory icon appears by each
file, which you can click to view further information about that specific file.

1471
Override File Disposition Using Custom Lists
Override File Disposition Using Custom Lists

If a file has a disposition in the AMP cloud that you know to be incorrect, you can add the file’s SHA-256
value to a file list that overrides the disposition from the cloud:
• To treat a file as if the AMP cloud assigned a clean disposition, add the file to the clean list.
• To treat a file as if the AMP cloud assigned a malware disposition, add the file to the custom detection
list.
On subsequent detection, the device either allows or blocks the file without reevaluating the file's disposition.
You can use the clean list or custom detection list per file policy.
Note To calculate a file's SHA-256 value, you must configure a rule in the file policy to either perform a malware
cloud lookup or block malware on matching files.
For complete information about using file lists in Firepower, see File Lists, on page 410.
Alternatively, if applicable, use Centralized File Lists from AMP for Endpoints, on page 1472.
Centralized File Lists from AMP for Endpoints

If your organization has deployed AMP for Endpoints, Firepower can use black- and whitelists created in
AMP for Endpoints when it queries the AMP cloud for file dispositions.
Requirements:
• Your organization must be using the AMP public cloud.
• Your organization has deployed AMP for Endpoints.
• You have registered your Firepower system to AMP for Endpoints using the procedure in Integrate
Firepower and AMP for Endpoints, on page 1482.
To create and deploy these lists, see the documentation or online help for AMP for Endpoints.
Note File lists created in Firepower override file lists created in AMP for Endpoints.
Editing a File Policy


control) Admin
Malware (AMP for
Networks)

1472
File Rules
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to the file policy you want to edit. If a view icon ( ) appears instead, the
configuration belongs to an ancestor domain, or you do not have permission to modify the configuration.
• Add a file rule by selecting Add File Rule. For more information, see File Rules, on page 1473.
• Edit an existing file rule by clicking the edit icon ( ) next to the rule you want to edit.
• Configure advanced options as described in Advanced and Archive File Inspection Options, on page 1469.
Note The file policy editor displays how many access control policies use the file policy you are currently
editing. You can click the notification to display a list of the parent policies and, optionally, continue
to the Access Control Policies page.
What to do next
File Rules
A file policy, like its parent access control policy, contains rules that determine how the system handles files
that match the conditions of each rule. You can configure separate file rules to take different actions for
different file types, application protocols, or directions of transfer.
For example, when a file matches a rule, the rule can:
• allow or block files based on simple file type matching
• block files based on disposition
• store captured files to the device
• submit captured files for local malware, Spero, or dynamic analysis
In addition, the file policy can:

• automatically treat a file as if it is clean or malware based on entries in the clean list or custom detection
list
• treat a file as if it is malware if the file’s threat score exceeds a configurable threshold
• inspect the contents of archive files (such as .zip or .rar)
• block archive files whose contents are encrypted, nested beyond a specified maximum archive depth, or
otherwise uninspectable

1473
File Rule Components
File Rule Components

Table 95: File Rule Components
File Rule Component Description
application protocol The system can detect and inspect files transmitted via FTP,
HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, and NetBIOS-ssn (SMB). Any, the
default, detects files in HTTP, SMTP, IMAP, POP3, FTP, and
NetBIOS-ssn (SMB) traffic. To improve performance, you can
restrict file detection to only one of those application protocols
on a per-file rule basis.
direction of transfer You can inspect incoming FTP, HTTP, IMAP, POP3, and
NetBIOS-ssn (SMB) traffic for downloaded files; you can inspect
outgoing FTP, HTTP, SMTP, and NetBIOS-ssn (SMB) traffic
for uploaded files.
Tip Use Any to detect files over multiple application
protocols, regardless of whether users are sending or
receiving.
file categories and types The system can detect various types of files. These file types are
grouped into basic categories, including multimedia (swf, mp3),
executables (exe, torrent), and PDFs. You can configure file rules
that detect individual file types, or on entire categories of file
types.
For example, you could block all multimedia files, or just
ShockWave Flash (swf) files. Or, you could configure the system
to alert you when a user downloads a BitTorrent (torrent) file.
For a list of file types the system can inspect, select Policies >
Access Control > Malware & File, create a temporary new file
policy, then click Add Rule. Select a file type category and the
file types that the system can inspect appear in the File Types
list.
Note Frequently triggered file rules can affect system
performance. For example, detecting multimedia files
in HTTP traffic (YouTube, for example, transmits
significant Flash content) could generate an
overwhelming number of events.

1474
File Rule Actions
File Rule Component Description
file rule action A file rule’s action determines how the system handles traffic that
matches the conditions of the rule.
Depending on the selected action, you can configure whether the
system stores the file or performs Spero, local malware, or
dynamic analysis on a file. If you select a Block action, you can
also configure whether the system also resets the blocked
connection.
For descriptions of these actions and options, see File Rule
Actions, on page 1475.
File rules are evaluated in rule-action, not numerical, order. For
details, see File Rule Actions: Evaluation Order, on page 1476.
File Rule Actions

File rules give you granular control over which file types you want to log, block, or scan for malware. Each
file rule has an associated action that determines how the system handles traffic that matches the conditions
of the rule. To be effective, a file policy must contain one or more rules. You can use separate rules within a
file policy to take different actions for different file types, application protocols, or directions of transfer.
File Rule Actions

• Detect Files rules allow you to log the detection of specific file types to the database, while still allowing
their transmission.
• Block Files rules allow you to block specific file types. You can configure options to reset the connection
when a file transfer is blocked, and store captured files to the managed device.
• Malware Cloud Lookup rules allow you to obtain and log the disposition of files traversing your network,
while still allowing their transmission.
• Block Malware rules allow you to calculate the SHA-256 hash value of specific file types, query the
AMP cloud to determine if files traversing your network contain malware, then block files that represent
threats.
File Rule Action Options

Depending on the action you select, you have different options:
File Rule Action Block Files Block Malware Detect Files Malware Cloud
Option capable? capable? capable? Lookup capable?
Spero Analysis* for no yes, you can submit no yes, you can submit
MSEXE executable files executable files
Dynamic Analysis* no yes, you can submit no yes, you can submit
executable files with executable files with
Unknown file Unknown file
dispositions dispositions

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File Rule Actions: Evaluation Order
File Rule Action Block Files Block Malware Detect Files Malware Cloud
Option capable? capable? capable? Lookup capable?
Capacity Handling no yes no yes
Local Malware no yes no yes

Analysis*
Reset Connection yes (recommended) yes (recommended) no no
Store files yes, you can store all yes, you can store yes, you can store all yes, you can store
matching file types file types matching matching file types file types matching
the file dispositions the file dispositions
you select you select
* For complete information about these options, see Malware Protection Methods, on page 1447 and its subtopics.
file rule that combines the Malware Cloud Lookup or Block Malware file rule action with an analysis option
File Rule Actions: Evaluation Order

A file policy will likely contain multiple rules with different actions for different situations. If more than one
rule can apply to a particular situation, the evaluation order described in this topic applies. In general, simple
blocking takes precedence over malware inspection and blocking, which takes precedence over simple detection
and logging.
The order of precedence of file-rule actions is:
• Block Files
• Block Malware
• Malware Cloud Lookup
• Detect Files
Dynamic Analysis and Capacity Handling

Capacity handling allows you to temporarily store files that are otherwise eligible for dynamic analysis if the
system is temporarily unable to submit files to the cloud, either because the device cannot communicate with
the cloud or because the maximum number of submissions has been reached. The system submits the stored
files when the hindering condition has passed.

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Captured Files and File Storage
The device stores files either on its hard drive or malware storage pack. See also Malware Storage Pack
(8000-Series Devices Only), on page 1477.
Captured Files and File Storage

The file storage feature allows you to capture selected files detected in traffic, and automatically store a copy
of the file temporarily to a device’s hard drive or, if installed, to the malware storage pack.
After your device captures the files, you can:
• Store captured files on the device’s hard drive for later analysis.
• Download the stored file to a local computer for further manual analysis or archival purposes.
• Submit captured files for AMP cloud lookup or dynamic analysis.
Note that once a device stores a file, it will not re-capture it if the file is detected in the future and the device
still has that file stored.
Note When a file is detected for the first time on your network, you can generate a file event that represents the
file’s detection. However, if your file rule performs a malware cloud lookup, the system requires additional
time to query the AMP cloud and return a disposition. Due to this delay, the system cannot store this file until
the second time it is seen on your network, and the system can immediately determine the file’s disposition.
Whether the system captures or stores a file, you can:

• Review information about the captured file from Analysis > Files > Captured Files, including whether
the file was stored or submitted for dynamic analysis, file disposition, and threat score, allowing you to
quickly review possible malware threats detected on your network.
• View the file’s trajectory to determine how it traversed your network and which hosts have a copy.
• Add the file to the clean list or custom detection list to always treat the file as if it had a clean or malware
disposition on future detection.
You configure file rules in a file policy to capture and store files of a specific type, or with a particular file
disposition, if available. After you associate the file policy with an access control policy and deploy it to your
devices, matching files in traffic are captured and stored. You can also limit the minimum and maximum file
sizes to store.
Stored files are not included in system backups.
You can view captured file information under Analysis > Files > Captured Files, and download a copy for
offline analysis.
Malware Storage Pack (8000-Series Devices Only)

Based on your file policy configuration, your device may store a substantial amount of file data to the hard
drive. You can install a malware storage pack in the device; the system stores files to the malware storage
pack, allowing more room on the primary hard drive to store events and configuration files. The system
periodically deletes older files. If the device's primary hard drive does not have enough available space, and
does not have an installed malware storage pack, you cannot store files.

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Creating File Rules
Caution Do not attempt to install a hard drive that was not supplied by Cisco in your device. Installing an unsupported
hard drive may damage the device. Malware storage pack kits are available for purchase only from Cisco,
and are for use only with 8000 Series devices. Contact Support if you require assistance with the malware
storage pack. See the Firepower System Malware Storage Pack Guide for more information.
Without a malware storage pack installed, when you configure a device to store files, it allocates a set portion
of the primary hard drive’s space to captured file storage. If you configure capacity handling to temporarily
store files for dynamic analysis, the system uses the same hard drive allocation to store these files until it can
resubmit them to the cloud.
When you install a malware storage pack in a device and configure file storage or capacity handling, the
device allocates the entire malware storage pack for storing these files. The device cannot store any other
information on the malware storage pack.
When the allocated space for captured file storage fills to capacity, the system deletes the oldest stored files
until the allocated space reaches a system-defined threshold. Based on the number of files stored, you may
see a substantial drop in disk usage after the system deletes files.
If a device has already stored files when you install a malware storage pack, the next time you restart the
device, any captured files or capacity handling files stored on the primary hard drive are moved to the malware
storage pack. Any future files the device stores are stored to the malware storage pack.
Creating File Rules


control) Admin
Malware (AMP for
Networks)
file rule that combines the Malware Cloud Lookup or Block Malware file rule action with an analyis option
Before you begin

If you are configuring rules for malware protection, see Configure Policies to Detect and Handle Malware,
on page 1453.
Procedure
Step 1 In the file policy editor, click Add File Rule.

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Retrospective Disposition Changes
Step 2 Select an Application Protocol and Direction of Transfer as described in File Rule Components, on page
1474.
Step 3 Select one or more File Types.
The file types you see depend on the selected application protocol, direction of transfer, and action.
You can filter the list of file types in the following ways:
• Select one or more File Type Categories, then click All types in selected Categories.
• Search for a file type by its name or description. For example, type Windows in the Search name and
description field to display a list of Microsoft Windows-specific files.
Tip Hover your pointer over a file type to view its description.
Step 4 Select a file rule Action as described in File Rule Actions, on page 1475, with consideration for File Rule
Actions: Evaluation Order, on page 1476.
The actions available to you depend on the licenses you have installed. See License Requirements for File
and Malware Policies, on page 1452.
Step 5 Depending on the action you selected, configure options:

• reset the connection after blocking the file
• store files that match the rule
• enable Spero analysis*
• enable local malware analysis*
• enable dynamic analysis* and capacity handling
* For information about these options, see File Rule Actions, on page 1475 and Malware Protection Methods,
on page 1447 and its subtopics.
Step 6 Click Add.

What to do next
• If you are configuring policies for malware protection, return to Configure Policies to Detect and Handle
Malware, on page 1453.
Retrospective Disposition Changes

File dispositions can change. For example, as new information is discovered, the AMP cloud can determine
that a file that was previously thought to be clean is now identified as malware, or the reverse—that a
malware-identified file is actually clean. When the disposition changes for a file you queried in the past week,
the AMP cloud notifies the system so it can automatically take action the next time it detects that file being
transmitted. A changed disposition is called a retrospective disposition.

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(Optional) Malware Protection with AMP for Endpoints
(Optional) Malware Protection with AMP for Endpoints

Cisco's AMP for Endpoints is a separate malware-protection product that can supplement malware protection
provided by the Firepower system and be integrated with your Firepower deployment.
AMP for Endpoints is Cisco’s enterprise-class Advanced Malware Protection solution that runs as a lightweight
connector on individual users' endpoints (computers and mobile devices) to discover, understand, and block
advanced malware outbreaks, advanced persistent threats, and targeted attacks.
Benefits of AMP for Endpoints include:
• configure custom malware detection policies and profiles for your entire organization, as well as perform
flash and full scans on all your users’ files
• perform malware analysis, including view heat maps, detailed file information, network file trajectory,
and threat root causes
• configure multiple aspects of outbreak control, including automatic quarantines, application blocking to
stop non-quarantined executables from running, and exclusion lists
• create custom protections, block execution of certain applications based on group policy, and create
custom whitelists
• use the AMP for Endpoints management console to help you mitigate the effect of malware. The
management console provides a robust, flexible web interface where you control all aspects of your AMP
for Endpoints deployment and manage all phases of an outbreak.
For detailed information about AMP for Endpoints, see:

• https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/amp-for-endpoints/index.html.
• Online help in the AMP for Endpoints management console.
• AMP for Endpoints documentation available from: http://docs.amp.cisco.com.
Comparison of Malware Protection: Firepower vs. AMP for Endpoints

Table 96: Advanced Malware Protection Differences by Detecting Product
Feature Firepower Malware Protection (AMP for AMP for Endpoints

Networks)
File type detection and blocking method In network traffic, using access control and Not supported
(file control) file policies
Malware detection and blocking method In network traffic, using access control and On individual endpoints (end-user
file policies computers and mobile devices), using a
connector that communicates with the AMP
cloud
Network traffic inspected Traffic passing through a managed device None; connectors installed on endpoints
directly inspect files

1480
About Integrating Firepower with AMP for Endpoints
Feature Firepower Malware Protection (AMP for AMP for Endpoints

Networks)
Malware intelligence data source AMP cloud (public or private) AMP cloud (public or private)
Malware detection robustness Limited file types All file types
Malware analysis choices FMC-based, plus analysis in the AMP cloud FMC-based, plus additional options on the
AMP for Endpoints management console
Malware mitigation Malware blocking in network traffic, AMP for Endpoints-based quarantine and
FMC-initiated remediations outbreak control options, FMC-initiated
remediations
Events generated File events, captured files, malware events, Malware events
and retrospective malware events
Information in malware events Basic malware event information, plus In-depth malware event information; no
connection data (IP address, port, and connection data
application protocol)
Network file trajectory FMC-based FMC and the AMP for Endpoints
management console each have a network
file trajectory. Both are useful.
Required licenses or subscriptions Licenses required to perform file control AMP for Endpoints subscription. No license
and AMP for Networks is required to bring AMP for Endpoints data
into FMC.
About Integrating Firepower with AMP for Endpoints

If your organization has deployed AMP for Endpoints, you can optionally integrate that product with your
Firepower deployment.
Integration with AMP for Endpoints does not require a dedicated Firepower license.
Benefits of Integrating Firepower and AMP for Endpoints

Integrating your AMP for Endpoints deployment with your Firepower system offers the following benefits:
• Centralized black- and whitelists configured in AMP for Endpoints can determine verdicts for file SHAs
sent from Firepower to the AMP cloud for disposition.
See Centralized File Lists from AMP for Endpoints, on page 1472.
• The system can import malware events detected by AMP for Endpoints into Firepower Management
Center so you can manage these events along with malware events generated by the Firepower system.
Imported data for these events includes scans, malware detections, quarantines, blocked executions, and
cloud recalls, as well as indications of compromise (IOCs) that FMC displays for hosts that it monitors.
For more information, see Malware Event Analysis with AMP for Endpoints, on page 2412.
• You can view file trajectory and other details in the AMP for Endpoints console.

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AMP for Endpoints and AMP Private Cloud
For details, see Work with Event Data in the AMP for Endpoints Console, on page 2439.
Important If you use a Cisco AMP Private Cloud, see limitations at AMP for Endpoints and AMP Private Cloud, on
page 1482.
AMP for Endpoints and AMP Private Cloud

If you configure a Cisco AMP private cloud to collect AMP endpoint data on your network, all AMP for
Endpoints connectors send data to the private cloud, which forwards that data to the Firepower Management
Center. The private cloud does not share any of your endpoint data over an external connection.
If your organization has deployed an AMP private cloud, all connections to the AMP cloud funnel through
the private cloud, which acts as an anonymized proxy to ensure the security and privacy of your monitored
network. This includes importing AMP for Endpoints data. The private cloud does not share any of your
endpoint data over an external connection.
The following integration features are not available if you use an AMP private cloud: Use of black- and
whitelists configured in AMP for Endpoints, and visibility in AMP for Endpoints of malware events generated
from Firepower.
You can configure multiple private clouds to support the capacity you require.
Integrate Firepower and AMP for Endpoints

If your organization has deployed Cisco's AMP for Endpoints product, you can integrate that application with
Firepower to achieve the benefits described in Benefits of Integrating Firepower and AMP for Endpoints, on
page 1481.
When you integrate with AMP for Endpoints, you must configure an AMP for Endpoints connection even if
you already have an AMP for Networks (AMP for Firepower) connection configured. You can configure
multiple AMP for Endpoints cloud connections.
Caution In a multidomain deployment, configure AMP for Endpoints connections at the leaf level only, especially if
your leaf domains have overlapping IP space. If multiple subdomains have hosts with the same IP-MAC
address pair, the system could save malware events that are generated by AMP for Endpoints to the wrong
leaf domain, or associate IOCs with the wrong hosts.
However, you can configure AMP for Endpoints connections at any domain level, provided you use a separate
AMP for Endpoints account for each connection. For example, each client of an MSSP might have its own
AMP for Endpoints deployment.
Note An AMP for Endpoints connection that has not registered successfully does not affect AMP for Networks.

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Integrate Firepower and AMP for Endpoints
Before you begin

• If your deployment uses Cisco AMP Private Cloud, see limitations at AMP for Endpoints and AMP
Private Cloud, on page 1482.
• AMP for Endpoints must be set up and working properly on your network.
• The Firepower Management Center must have direct access to the Internet.
• Make sure your FMC and AMP for Endpoints can communicate with each other. See the topics under
Security, Internet Access, and Communication Ports, on page 2551.
• If you are connecting to the AMP cloud after either restoring your Firepower Management Center to
factory defaults or reverting to a previous version, use the AMP for Endpoints management console to
remove the previous connection.
• You will need your AMP for Endpoints credentials to log in to the AMP for Endpoints console during
this procedure.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Add AMP Cloud Connection.
Step 3 From the Cloud Name drop-down list, choose the cloud you want to use:
• The AMP cloud closest to the geographical location of your Firepower Management Center.
• For AMP private cloud (AMPv), choose Private Cloud and proceed as described in Cisco AMP Private
Cloud, on page 1457.
Step 4 If you want to use this cloud for both AMP for Networks and AMP for Endpoints, select the Use for AMP
for Firepower check box.
If you configured a different cloud to handle AMP for Networks (AMP for Firepower) communications, you
can clear this check box; if this is your only AMP cloud connection, you cannot.
In a multidomain deployment, this check box appears only in the Global domain. Each Firepower Management
Center can have only one AMP for Networks connection.

A spinning state icon indicates that a connection is pending, for example, after you configure a connection
on the Firepower Management Center, but before you authorize it using the AMP for Endpoints management
console. A failed or denied icon ( ) indicates that the cloud denied the connection or the connection failed
for another reason.
Step 6 Confirm that you want to continue to the AMP for Endpoints management console, then log into the
management console.
Step 7 Using the management console, authorize the AMP cloud to send AMP for Endpoints data to the Firepower
Management Center.
Step 8 If you want to restrict the data that the FMC receives, select specific groups within your organization for
which you want to receive information.

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History for the File and Malware Chapter
By default, the AMP cloud sends data for all groups. To manage groups, choose Management > Groups on
the AMP for Endpoints management console. For detailed information, see the management console online
help.
Step 9 Click Allow to enable the connection and start the transfer of data.
Clicking Deny returns you to the Firepower Management Center, where the connection is marked as denied.
If you navigate away from the Applications page on the AMP for Endpoints management console, and neither
deny nor allow the connection, the connection is marked as pending on the Firepower Management Center’s
web interface. The health monitor does not alert you of a failed connection in either of these situations. If you
want to connect to the AMP cloud later, delete the failed or pending connection, then recreate it.
Incomplete registration of an AMP for Endpoints connection does not disable the AMP for Networks connection.
Step 10 To verify that the connection is correctly configured:

a) On the AMP > AMP Management page, click the Cloud Name that includes AMP for Endpoints
in the Cisco AMP Solution Type column.
b) In the AMP for Endpoints console window that displays, choose Accounts > Applications.
c) Verify that your Firepower Management Center is on the list.
d) In the AMP for Endpoints console window, choose Manage > Computers.
e) Verify that your Firepower Management Center is on the list.
What to do next
• In the AMP for Endpoints console window, configure settings as needed. For example, define group
membership for your management center and assign policies. For information, see the AMP for Endpoints
online help or other documentation.
• In high availability configurations, you must configure AMP cloud connections independently on the
Active and Standby instances of the Firepower Management Center; these configurations are not
synchronized.
• The default health policy warns you if the Firepower Management Center cannot connect to the AMP
for Endpoints portal after an initial successful connection, or if the connection is deregistered using the
AMP portal.
Verify that the AMP for Endpoints Status monitor is enabled under System > Health > Policy.

Chapter restructure any version that is republished Restructured this chapter's content to reduce
confusion.
Some content was moved to or from the
chapter for File/Malware Events and
Network File Trajectory, on page 2409.

1484
Moved URL Filtering information to the 6.3 Moved information about configuring cloud
new URL Filtering chapter communications for URL Filtering to the
new URL Filtering chapter. Made related
changes to the structure of the Cisco CSI
topics in the chapter.

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1486
CHAPTER 77
File and Malware Inspection Performance and
Storage Tuning
The following topics describe how to configure file and malware inspection performance and storage:
• File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage Options, on page 1487
• Tuning File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage, on page 1489
File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage Options

Increasing the file sizes can affect the performance of the system.
Table 97: Advanced Access Control File and AMP for Networks Options
Field Description Guidelines and Restrictions
Limit the number of bytes Specifies the number of bytes inspected 0 - 4294967295 (4GB)
inspected when doing file when performing file type detection.
0 removes the restriction.
type detection
The default value is the maximum segment size of a TCP
packet (1460 bytes). In most cases, the system can identify
common file types using the first packet.
To detect ISO files, enter a value greater than 36870.
Allow file if cloud lookup Specifies how long the system will hold the 0 - 30 seconds
for Block Malware takes last byte of a file that matches a Block
Do not set this option to 0 without contacting Support.
longer than (seconds) Malware rule and that does not have a
cached disposition, while malware cloud Cisco recommends that you use the default value to avoid
lookup occurs. If the time elapses without blocking traffic because of connection failures.
the system obtaining a disposition, the file
passes. Dispositions of Unavailable are not
cached.

1487
File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage Options
Do not calculate SHA-256 Prevents the system from storing files larger 0 - 4294967295 (4GB)
hash values for files larger than a certain size, performing a malware
0 removes the restriction.
than (in bytes) cloud lookup on the files, or blocking the
files if added to the custom detection list. This value must be greater than or equal to Maximum file
size to store (bytes) and Maximum file size for dynamic
analysis testing (bytes).
Minimum file size to store These settings specify: 0 - 10485760 (10MB)

(bytes)
• The file size that the system can 0 disables file storage.
inspect using the following detectors:
Must be less than or equal to Maximum file size to store
• Spero analysis (bytes) and Do not calculate SHA-256 hash values for
files larger than (in bytes).
• Sandboxing and preclassification
Maximum file size to store 0 - 10485760 (10MB)
• Local malware analysis/ClamAV
(bytes)
0 disables file storage.
• Archive inspection
Must be greater than or equal to Minimum file size to
• The file size that the system can store store (bytes), and less than or equal to Do not calculate
using a file rule. SHA-256 hash values for files larger than (in bytes).
Minimum file size for Specifies the minimum file size the system 0 -10485760 (10MB)
dynamic analysis testing can submit to the AMP cloud for dynamic
Must be less than or equal to Maximum file size for
(bytes) analysis.
dynamic analysis testing (bytes) and Do not calculate
SHA-256 hash values for files larger than (in bytes).
The file size for dynamic analysis must be within the limits
defined by the minimum and maximum settings for file
analysis.
The system checks the AMP cloud for updates to the
minimum file size you can submit (no more than once a
day). If the new minimum size is larger than your current
value, your current value is updated to the new minimum,
and your policy is marked out-of-date.

1488
Tuning File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage
Maximum file size for Specifies the maximum file size the system 0 -10485760 (10MB)
dynamic analysis testing can submit to the AMP cloud for dynamic
Must be greater than or equal to Minimum file size for
(bytes) analysis.
dynamic analysis testing (bytes), and less than or equal
to Do not calculate SHA-256 hash values for files larger
than (in bytes).
The file size for dynamic analysis must be within the limits
defined by the minimum and maximum settings for file
analysis.
The system checks the AMP cloud for updates to the
maximum file size you can submit (no more than once a
day). If the new maximum size is smaller than your current
value, your current value is updated to the new maximum,
and your policy is marked out-of-date.


Malware (AMP) control) Admin/Network
Malware (AMP) Admin
Procedure
Step 2 Click the edit icon ( ) next to Files and Malware Settings.
Step 3 Set any of the options described in File and Malware Inspection Performance and Storage Options, on page
1487.
Step 4 Click OK.
What to do next
Related Topics

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1490
PA R T XVIII
TID Intelligence and Threat Analysis
• Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page 1493
CHAPTER 78
Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID)
The topics in this chapter describe how to configure and use TID in the Firepower System.
• Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Overview, on page 1493
• Requirements for Threat Intelligence Director, on page 1496
• How To Set Up Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page 1498
• Analyze TID Incident and Observation Data, on page 1506
• View and Change Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Configurations, on page 1517
• Troubleshoot Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page 1532
• History for Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page 1535
Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Overview

The Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) operationalizes threat intelligence data, helping you aggregate
intelligence data, configure defensive actions, and analyze threats in your environment. This feature is intended
to supplement other Firepower functionality, offering an additional line of defense against threats.
When configured on your hosting platform, TID ingests data from threat intelligence sources and publishes
the data to all configured managed devices (elements.) For more information about the hosting platforms and
elements supported in this release, see Platform, Element, and License Requirements, on page 1496.
Sources contain indicators, which contain observables. An indicator conveys all of the characteristics associated
with a threat, and individual observables represent individual characteristics (e.g. a SHA-256 value) associated
with the threat. Simple indicators contain a single observable, and complex indicators contain two or more
observables.
Observables and the AND/OR operators between them form an indicator's pattern, as illustrated in the following
examples.

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Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Overview
Figure 42: Example: Indicator Patterns
After the observables are published to the elements, the elements monitor traffic and report observations to
the Firepower Management Center when the system identifies observables in traffic.
The Firepower Management Center collects observations from all elements, evaluates the observations against
TID indicators, and generates or updates incidents associated with the observable's parent indicator(s).
An incident is fully realized when an indicator's pattern is fulfilled. An incident is partially realized if traffic
matches one or more observables in the indicator but not the entire pattern. For more information, see
Observation and Incident Generation, on page 1506.
The following diagram shows data flow in a sample Firepower System configuration.
Figure 43: Firepower Management Center Data Flow
When a TID incident is fully or partially realized, the system takes the configured action (monitor, block,
partially block, or no action). For details, see Factors That Affect the Action Taken, on page 1517.

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TID and Security Intelligence
TID and Security Intelligence

As part of your access control policy, Security Intelligence uses reputation intelligence to quickly block
connections to or from IP addresses, URLs, and domains. Security Intelligence uniquely provides access to
industry-leading threat intelligence from Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos). For
more information on Security Intelligence, see About Security Intelligence, on page 1295.
TID enhances the system's ability to block connections based on security intelligence from third-party sources
as follows:
• TID supports additional traffic filtering criteria—Security Intelligence allows you to filter traffic
based on IP address, URL, and (if DNS policy is enabled) domain name. TID also supports filtering by
these criteria and adds support for filtering on SHA-256 hash values.
• TID supports additional intelligence ingestion methods—With both Security Intelligence and TID,
you can import threat intelligence into the system by either manually uploading flat files or configuring
the system to retrieve flat files from a third-party host. TID provides increased flexibility in managing
those flat files. In addition, TID can retrieve and ingest intelligence provided in Structured Threat
Information eXpression (STIX™) format.
• TID provides granular control of filtering actions—With Security Intelligence, you can specify filtering
criteria by network, URL, or DNS object. Security Intelligence objects, especially list and feeds, can
contain multiple IP addresses, URLs, or DNS domain names, but you can only blacklist or whitelist by
object, not by individual components of an object. With TID, you can configure filtering actions for
individual criteria (that is, simple indicators or individual observables).
• TID configuration changes do not require redeployment—After you modify Security Intelligence
settings in the access control policy, you must redeploy the changed configuration to managed devices.
With TID, after initial deployment of the access control policy to the managed devices, you can configure
sources, indicators, and observables without redeploying, and the system automatically publishes new
TID data to the elements.
For information about what the system does when either Security Intelligence or TID could handle a particular
incident, see TID-Firepower Management Center Action Prioritization, on page 1514.
Performance Impact of Threat Intelligence Director

In some cases, you may notice the following:
• The system may experience minor performance issues while ingesting particularly large STIX sources,
and ingestion may take longer than expected to finish.
• The system may take up to 15 minutes to publish new or modified TID data down to elements.
Managed Device
There is no exceptional performance impact. TID impacts performance identically to the Firepower Management
Center Security Intelligence feature.

1495

If you host TID on the active Firepower Management Center in a high availability configuration, the system
For details, see About Backing Up and Restoring TID Data, on page 1506.
Requirements for Threat Intelligence Director

Platform, Element, and License Requirements
Hosting Platforms
You can host TID on physical and virtual Firepower Management Centers:
• running Version 6.2.2 or later of the Firepower System.
• configured with a minimum of 15 GB of memory.
• configured with REST API access enabled. See Enabling REST API Access, on page 956.
Elements
You can use any Firepower Management Center-managed device as a TID element if the device is running
Version 6.2.2 or later of the Firepower System.
Licensing
If you want to configure file policies for SHA-256 observable publishing, the Firepower System requires a
Malware license (Classic or Smart).
For more information, see Configure Policies to Support TID, on page 1499 and About Firepower Licenses, on
page 73.
Source Requirements
Source Type Requirements:
STIX
Files must be STIX Version 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.1, or 1.2 and adhere to the guidelines in the STIX documentation:
http://stixproject.github.io/documentation/suggested-practices/.
STIX files can include complex indicators.
Flat File
Files must be ASCII text files with one observable value per line.

1496
Source Content Limitations
Flat files include only simple indicators (one observable per indicator.)
TID does not support:
• Delimiter characters separating observable values (e.g. observable, is invalid).
• Enclosing characters around observable values (e.g. "observable" is invalid).
Each file should contain only one type of content:

• SHA-256— SHA-256 hash values.
• Domain—domain names as defined in RFC 1035.
• URL— URLs as defined in RFC 1738.
Note TID normalizes any URLs that contain port, protocol, or authentication
information, and uses the normalized version when detecting indicators. For
example, TID normalizes any of the following URLs:
http://google.com/index.htm
http://google.com:8080/index.htm
google.com:8080/index.htm
google.com/index.htm
as:
google.com/index.htm
Or, for example, TID normalizes the following URL:
http://abc@google.com:8080/index.htm
as
abc@google.com/index.htm/
• IPv4— IPv4 addresses as defined in RFC 791.

TID does not accept CIDR blocks.
• IPv6— IPv6 addresses as defined in RFC 4291.
TID does not accept prefix lengths.
Source Delivery Requirements:

Uploaded files can be up to 500 MB.
Source Content Limitations

The system ingests, and matches on, only the first 1000 characters of a URL observable.

1497
How To Set Up Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID)
How To Set Up Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID)

Any Any Any Global Admin/Threat

Intelligence Director
(TID) User
Note If you encounter an issue during TID configuration or operation, see Troubleshoot Cisco Threat Intelligence
Director (TID), on page 1532.
Procedure
Step 1 Ensure that your installation meets the requirements for running TID.
See Platform, Element, and License Requirements, on page 1496
Step 2 For each managed device, configure the policies required to support TID and deploy those policies to the
devices.
See Configure Policies to Support TID, on page 1499.
You can configure elements before or after you ingest intelligence data sources.
Step 3 Configure the intelligence sources that you want TID to ingest.
See Source Requirements, on page 1496 and the topics under Options for Ingesting Data Sources, on page 1500.
Step 4 Publish data to the elements if you have not yet done so. See Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator,
or Observable Level, on page 1530.
What to do next
• Include TID in your regularly scheduled backups. See About Backing Up and Restoring TID Data, on
page 1506.
If your Firepower Management Center deployment is a high availability configuration, see also Cisco
Threat Intelligence Director (TID) and High Availability Configurations, on page 175.
• (Optional) Grant administrative access to TID functionality as desired. See User Roles with TID Access,
on page 1506 and User Accounts for Management Access, on page 39.
• As needed during operation, fine-tune your configuration. For example, whitelist observables that produce
false-positive incidents. See View and Change Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) Configurations,
on page 1517.

1498
Configure Policies to Support TID
Configure Policies to Support TID


(TID) User
You must configure access control policies to publish TID data from the Firepower Management Center to
your managed devices (elements). In addition, we recommend that you configure your access control policies
to maximize observation and Firepower Management Center event generation.
For each managed device that you want to support TID, perform the steps below to configure the associated
access control policy.
Elements that are configured to use TID after data has been published will automatically receive all
currently-published observables.
Procedure
Step 1 Verify that the Enable Threat Intelligence Director check box is checked in the Advanced Settings tab of
the access control policy. This option is enabled by default.
For more information, see Access Control Policy Advanced Settings, on page 1252.
Step 2 Add rules to the access control policy if they are not already present. TID requires that the access control
policy specify at least one rule.
For more information, see Creating a Basic Access Control Policy, on page 1245.
Step 3 If you choose Intrusion Prevention as the default action for the access control policy and you want to decrypt
traffic for TID detection, associate an SSL policy with the access control policy; see Associating Other Policies
with Access Control, on page 1254.
Step 4 If you want SHA-256 observables to generate observations and Firepower Management Center events:
a) Create a file policy containing one or more Malware Cloud Lookup or Block Malware file rules.
For more information, see Configuring an Access Control Rule to Perform Malware Protection, on page
1275.
b) Associate this file policy with one or more rules in the access control policy.
Step 5 If you want IPv4, IPv6, URL, or Domain Name observations to generate connection and security intelligence
events, enable connection and security intelligence logging in the access control policy:
a) In access control rules where you invoked a file policy, enable Log at End of Connection and File Events:
Log Files, if not already enabled.
For more information, see Logging Connections with Access Control Rules, on page 2330.
b) Verify that default logging (DNS Policy, Networks, and URLs) is enabled in your Security Intelligence
settings.
For more information, see Logging Connections with Security Intelligence, on page 2329.

1499
Options for Ingesting Data Sources
What to do next
Complete remaining items in How To Set Up Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page 1498
Options for Ingesting Data Sources

Choose a configuration option based on the data type and delivery mechanism you want to use.
For more information about these data types, see Source Requirements, on page 1496.
Table 98: Options for Ingesting Data Sources
Data Type Ingestion Options
STIX • Ingest STIX feeds from a TAXII server:

See Fetch TAXII Feeds to Use as Sources, on page 1500
• Download STIX data from a URL:
See Fetch Sources from a URL, on page 1502
• Upload a STIX file:
See Upload a Local File to Use as a Source, on page 1503
Flat file • Download data from a URL:

See Fetch Sources from a URL, on page 1502
• Upload a flat file:
See Upload a Local File to Use as a Source, on page 1503
Fetch TAXII Feeds to Use as Sources


(TID) User
If you encounter an issue during TID configuration or operation, see Troubleshoot Cisco Threat Intelligence
Director (TID), on page 1532
Procedure
Step 1 Make sure your source meets the requirements in Source Requirements, on page 1496
Step 2 Choose Intelligence > Sources.

1500
Fetch TAXII Feeds to Use as Sources

Step 4 Choose TAXII as the Delivery method for the source.
Step 5 Enter information.
• If the host server requires an encrypted connection, configure the SSL Settings as described in Configure
TLS/SSL Settings for a TID Source, on page 1504.
• You cannot change the Action selection for TAXII sources.
Block is not an Action option for TAXII sources, as STIX data can contain complex indicators, which
the system cannot block. Devices (elements) store and take action based on single observables; they
cannot take action based on multiple observables.
However, after ingestion, you can block individual observables and simple indicators obtained from the
source. For more information, see Edit TID Actions at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on
page 1527.
• It may take some time for the list of feeds to load.
• The Update Every interval specifies the frequency that TID retrieves updates from the TAXII source.
Set an update frequency that makes sense for how often the data source is updated. For example, if the
source is updated 3 times per day, set your update interval to 1440/3 or 480 minutes to regularly capture
the latest data.
• After the number of days you specify for TTL, TID deletes:
• all of the source's indicators that are not included in subsequent source updates.
• all observables not referenced by a surviving indicator.
Step 6 If you want to immediately begin publishing to elements, confirm that the Publish slider ( ) is enabled.
When this option is enabled, the system automatically publishes the initial source data and any subsequent
changes.
For details, see Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1530.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
• Because TAXII feeds can contain a lot of data, it may take some time for the system to ingest all of the
data. To view ingestion status, refresh the Sources page.
• If you see an error for this source, hover over the status icon for details.
• If you are doing initial TID configuration, return to How To Set Up Cisco Threat Intelligence Director
(TID), on page 1498.

1501
Fetch Sources from a URL
Fetch Sources from a URL


(TID) User
Configure a URL source if you want TID to fetch files from a host.
Procedure
Step 1 Make sure your source meets the requirements in Source Requirements, on page 1496
Step 4 Choose URL as the Delivery method for the source.
Step 5 Complete the form.
• If you are ingesting a flat file, choose a Content type that describes the data contained within the source.
• If the host server requires an encrypted connection, configure the SSL Settings as described in Configure
TLS/SSL Settings for a TID Source, on page 1504.
• For Name: To simpify sorting and handling of incidents based on TID indicators, use a consistent naming
scheme across sources. For example, <source>-<type>.
Including the source name simplifies returning to the source for further information or feedback.
Be sure to enter the name consistently. For example, for a source with IPv4 addresses, you might always
use IPV4 (not IPv4 or ipv4 or IP_v4 or IP_V4 or ip-v4 or IP-v4, IP-V4, etc.)
• If you are ingesting a STIX file, Block is not an Action option, as STIX data can contain complex
indicators, which the system cannot block. Devices (elements) store and take action based on single
observables; they cannot take action based on multiple observables.
However, after ingestion, you can block individual observables and simple indicators obtained from the
source. For more information, see Edit TID Actions at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on
page 1527.
• Set an update frequency that makes sense for how often the data source is updated. For example, if the
source is updated 3 times per day, set your update interval to 1440/3 or 480 minutes to regularly capture
the latest data.
• After the number of days you specify for the TTL interval, TID deletes:
• all of the source's indicators that are not included in subsequent source updates.

1502
Upload a Local File to Use as a Source
When this option is enabled, the system automatically publishes the initial source data and any subsequent
changes.
For details, see Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1530.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
• To view ingestion status, refresh the Sources page. If you see an error, hover over the status icon for
details.
Upload a Local File to Use as a Source


(TID) User
Use this procedure for a one-time manual upload of a local file.

When ingesting a STIX file, TID creates a simple or complex indicator from the contents of the STIX file.
When ingesting a flat file, TID creates a simple indicator for each observable value in the file.
Procedure
Step 1 Make sure your file meets the requirements in Source Requirements, on page 1496
Step 4 Choose Upload as the Delivery method for the source.
Step 5 Complete the form.
• If you are uploading a flat file, choose a Content type that describes the data contained within the source.
• For Name: To simpify sorting and handling of incidents based on TID indicators, use a consistent naming
scheme across sources. For example, <source>-<type>.
Including the source name simplifies returning to the source for further information or feedback.
Be sure to enter the name consistently. For example, for a source with IPv4 addresses, you might always
use IPV4 (not IPv4 or ipv4 or IP_v4 or IP_V4 or ip-v4 or IP-v4, IP-V4, etc.)

1503
Configure TLS/SSL Settings for a TID Source
• If you are uploading a STIX file, Block is not an Action option, because STIX data can contain complex
indicators. Devices (elements) store and take action based on single observables; they cannot take action
based on multiple observables.
However, you can block a simple indicator at the indicator or observable level. For more information,
see Edit TID Actions at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1527.
• After the number of days you specify for the TTL interval, TID deletes:
• all of the source's indicators that are not included in a subsequent upload.
If you do not publish the source at ingestion, you cannot publish all source indicators at once later; instead,
you must publish each observable individually. See Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or
Observable Level, on page 1530.
Step 7 Click Save.
What to do next
• To view ingestion status, refresh the Sources page. If you see an error, hover over the status icon for
details.


(TID) User
Configure SSL Settings if the host server requires an encrypted connection.
Before you begin

• Begin configuring a TAXII or URL source, as described in Fetch TAXII Feeds to Use as Sources, on page
1500 or Fetch Sources from a URL, on page 1502.
Procedure
Step 1 In the Edit Source dialog, expand the SSL Settings section.
Step 2 If your server certificate is self-signed:
a) Enable Self-Signed Certificate.

1504
b) Choose a SSL Hostname Verification method.

• Strict—TID requires the source URL to match the hostname provided in the server certificate.
If the hostname includes a wildcard, TID cannot match more than one subdomain.
• Browser Compatible—TID requires the source URL to match the hostname provided in the server
certificate.
If the hostname includes a wildcard, TID matches all subdomains.
• Allow All—TID does not require the source URL to match the hostname provided in the server
certificate.
For example, if subdomain1.subdomain2.cisco.com is your source URL and *.cisco.com is the

hostname provided in the server certificate:
• Strict hostname verification fails.
• Browser Compatible hostname verification succeeds.
• Allow All hostname verification ignores the hostname values completely.
c) For Server Certificate:

• If you have access to the PEM-encoded self-signed server certificate, open the certificate in a text
editor and copy the entire block of text, including the BEGIN CERTIFICATE and END
CERTIFICATE lines. Enter this entire string into the field.
• If you do not have access to the self-signed server certificate, leave the field blank. After you save
the source, TID retrieves the certificate from the server.
Step 3 If your server requires a user certificate:

a) Enter a User Certificate:
Open the PEM-encoded certificate in a text editor and copy the entire block of text, including the BEGIN
CERTIFICATE and END CERTIFICATE lines. Enter this entire string into the field.
b) Enter a User Private Key:
Open the private key file in a text editor and copy the entire block of text, including the BEGIN RSA
PRIVATE KEY and END RSA PRIVATE KEY lines. Enter this entire string into the field.
What to do next
• Take note of the certificate's expiration date. You may want to set a calendar reminder to enter a new
server certificate after the current certificate expires.
• Continue configuring the source:
• Fetch TAXII Feeds to Use as Sources, on page 1500
• Fetch Sources from a URL, on page 1502

1505
User Roles with TID Access
User Roles with TID Access

You can use Firepower Management Center user accounts to access the TID menus and pages:
• Accounts with the Admin or Threat Intelligence Director User user role.
• Accounts with a custom user role containing the Intelligence permission.
In addition, you can use Firepower Management Center user accounts with the Admin, Access Admin, or
Network Admin user role to enable or disable TID in your access control policies.
For more information about user accounts, see User Accounts for Management Access, on page 39.
About Backing Up and Restoring TID Data

You can use the Firepower Management Center to back up and restore all of the data needed for TID: Element
data, security intelligence events, connection events, TID configurations, and TID data. For more information,
see Backup and Restore, on page 133.
Note If you host TID on the active Firepower Management Center in a high availability configuration, the system
Table 99: TID-Related Backup and Restore File Contents
TID-Related File Contents Backup Selection Restore Selection
Element data Back Up Configuration Restore Configuration Data
Firepower Management Center Back Up Events Restore Event Data

event data
TID configurations and TID data Back Up Threat Intelligence Restore Threat Intelligense
Director Director Data
Analyze TID Incident and Observation Data

To analyze incident and observation data generated by TID elements, use the Incidents table and Incident
Details page.
Observation and Incident Generation

TID generates an incident when the first observable for an indicator is seen in traffic. Simple indicators are
fully realized after a single observation. Complex indicators are partially realized until one or more additional
observations fulfill their pattern. Complex indicators need not necessarily be fulfilled during a single transaction;
each observable can be fulfilled separately over time, by different transactions.

1506
Observation and Incident Generation
Note TID ignores unsupported, invalid, and whitelisted observables when evaluating an indicator's pattern.
After an incident is fully realized, subsequent observations trigger new incidents.

Figure 44: Example: Indicator Patterns
If TID ingested the observables from the example above and the observables were seen in order, incident
generation would proceed as follows:
1. When the system identifies Observable A in traffic, TID:
• Generates a fully-realized incident for Indicator 1.
• Generates partially-realized incidents for Indicator 2 and Indicator 3.
2. When the system identifies Observable B in traffic, TID:

• Updates the incident to fully-realized for Indicator 2, since the pattern was fulfilled.
• Updates the incident to partially-realized for Indicator 3.
3. When the system identifies Observable C in traffic, TID:

• Updates the incident to fully-realized for Indicator 3, since the pattern was fulfilled.
4. When the system identifies Observable A for a second time, TID:

• Generates a new fully-realized incident for Indicator 1.
• Generates new partially-realized incidents for Indicator 2 and Indicator 3.

1507
View and Manage Incidents
If a particular indicator exists in multiple sources, you may see duplicate incidents. For more information, see
Troubleshoot Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page 1532.
Note that incidents are generated only by actual traffic. If there is an observable for URL B, and a user visits
URL A which displays a link to URL B, no incident occurs unless the user clicks the URL B link.
View and Manage Incidents


(TID) User
The Incidents page displays summary information for up to 1.1 million of the most recent TID incidents; see
Incident Summary Information, on page 1509.
Before you begin

• Configure the feature as described in How To Set Up Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page
1498.
• Understand observation and incident generation, as described in Observation and Incident Generation,
on page 1506.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Intelligence > Incidents.

Step 2 View your incidents:
• Click the Filter icon ( ) to add one or more filters. The default filter is 6 hours. For more information,
see Filter TID Data in Table Views, on page 1525.
• To view the date and time an incident was last updated by TID, hover the cursor over the value in the
Last Updated column.
• To view more information about the indicator associated with the incident, click the text in the Indicator
Name column; see View and Manage Indicators, on page 1521.
Step 3 View additional details by clicking a value in the Incident ID column.

For an explanation of the details you see, see Incident Details, on page 1510.
• To view indicator details, click an indicator value (for example, an IP address or SHA-256 value) under
the Indicator heading in the lower section of the window.
• To view observation details, click the arrow to the left of an observation immediately under the
Observations heading.
• To view this incident on the Security Intelligence Events page, click the Events link in the observation
details section.

1508
Incident Summary Information
Step 4 (Optional) Enter descriptive information on the incident details page:

Tip: To maximize consistency and usefulness of the options below, plan ahead and document your naming
conventions, category choices, and confidence level criteria.
• Enter any value you like in the following fields: Name, Description, and Category.
• Click a rating level for Confidence.
• Indicate the status of your investigation into the incident by choosing a value from the drop-down list in
the Status field.
Incident Summary Information

The Incidents page displays summary information for all TID incidents.
Table 100: Incident Summary Information
Field Description
Last Updated The number of days since either the system or a user last updated the incident. To view the date and time of the
update, hover the cursor over the value in this column.
Incident ID The unique identifier for the incident. This ID has the following format:
<type>-<date>-<number>
• <type>—The type of indicator or observable involved in the incident. For simple indicators, this value
indicates the observable type: IP (IPv4 or IPv6), URL (URL), DOM (domain), or SHA (SHA-256). For complex
indicators, this value is COM.
• <date>—The date (yyyymmdd) on which the incident was created.
• <number>—The daily incident number, that is, a number specifying where the incident occurs in the daily
sequence of incidents. Note that this sequence starts at 0. For example, DOM-20170828-10 is the 11th incident
created on that day.
Next to the identifier, the system displays an icon that indicates whether the incident is partially realized ( )
or fully realized ( ). For more information, see Observation and Incident Generation, on page 1506.
Indicator Name The name of the indicator involved in the incident. To view additional information about the indicator, click
the value in this column; see View and Manage Indicators, on page 1521.
Type The type of indicator involved in the incident.

• Indicators that contain a single observable display the data type (URL, SHA-256, etc.)
• Indicators that contain two or more observables display as Complex.
Action Taken The action taken by the system in relation to the incident. For more information, see Incident Details, on page
1510.
Status The status of your investigation into the incident. For more information, see Incident Details, on page 1510.

1509
Incident Details
Field Description
Clicking this icon permanently deletes the incident.
Incident Details
The Incident Details window displays information about a single TID incident. This window is divided into
two sections:
• Incident Details: Basic Information, on page 1510
• Incident Details: Indicator and Observations, on page 1511
Incident Details: Basic Information

The upper section of the Incident Details window provides the information described below.
Table 101: Basic Incident Information Fields
Field Description
IncidentID or An icon indicating the incident's status (partially-realized or fully-realized), as well as the unique identifier
IncidentID for the incident.
Note TID ignores unsupported, invalid, or whitelisted observables when determining an incident's
status.
Opened The date and time the incident was last updated.
Name A custom, optional incident name that you enter manually.

Tip: If there is information from the source in the Description field (in the bottom part of the window),
use information from that field to name the incident.
Description A custom, optional incident description that you enter manually.

Tip: If there is information from the source in the Description field (in the bottom part of the window),
use information from that field to describe the incident.
Observations The number of observations within the incident.
Confidence An optional rating that you can manually select to indicate the relative importance of the incident.
Action Taken The action taken by the system: Monitored, Blocked, or Partially Blocked.
Partially Blocked indicates that the incident contained both Monitored and Blocked observations.
Note The Action Taken indicates the action taken by the system, not necessarily the action selected
in TID. For more information, see TID-Firepower Management Center Action Prioritization,
on page 1514.
Category A custom, optional tag or keyword that you manually add to the incident.

1510
Incident Details: Indicator and Observations
Field Description
Status A value indicating the current stage of your analysis of the incident. All incidents are New until you change
the Status for the first time.
This field is optional. Depending on the needs of your organization, consider using the status values as
follows:
• New—The incident requires investigation, but you have not started investigating.
• Open—You are currently investigating the incident.
• Closed—You investigated the incident and took action.
• Rejected—You investigated the incident and determined there was no action to take.
Clicking this icon permanently deletes this incident.

The lower section of the Incident Details window provides an in-depth view of the indicator and observation
information. This information is organized as Indicator fields, the indicator pattern, and Observations fields.
Indicator Section
When you first view indicator details, this section displays only the indicator name.
Click the indicator name to view the indicator on the Indicators page.
Click the down arrow next to the indicator name to view more indicator details without leaving the incident.
Detail fields include:
Table 102: Indicator Fields
Field Description
Description The indicator description provided by the source.
Source The source that contained the indicator. Click this link to access full source details.
Expires The date and time the incident will expire, based on the source's TTL value.
Action The action associated with the indicator. For more information, see Edit TID Actions
at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1527.
Publish The publish setting for the indicator. For more information, see Pause or Publish TID
Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1530.
Download STIX If the source type is STIX, click this button to download the STIX file.
Indicator Pattern
The indicator pattern is a graphical representation of the observables and operators that comprise the indicator.
Operators link the observables within the indicator. AND relationships are indicated with the AND operator.
OR relationships are indicated with the OR operator or by a close grouping of several observables.

1511
If an observable in the pattern has already been seen, the observable box is white. If an observable has not
already been seen, the observable box is grey.
In the indicator pattern:
• Click the Whitelist icon ( ) to whitelist the observable. This icon is present in both white and grey
observable boxes. For more information, see About Whitelisting TID Observables, on page 1531.
• If you hover the cursor over a white observable box, the system highlights the related observation in the
Observations section.
• If you click a white observable box, the system highlights the related observation in the Observations
section, scrolls that observation into view (if multiple observations are present), and expands that
observation's detailed display.
• If you hover the cursor over or click a grey observable box in the indicator pattern, there is no change in
the Observations section. Because the observable is unseen, there are no observation details to display
yet.
Observations Section
By default, the Observations section displays summary information, which includes:
• The type of observable that triggered the observation (for example, Domain)
• The data that comprises the observable
• Whether the observation is the first observation or a subsequent observation (for example, 1st or 3rd)
Note If a single observable has been seen three or more times, TID displays the first
and last observation details. The details for intermediary observations are not
available.
• The date and time of the observation

• The action configured for the observable
If you hover the cursor over an observation in the Observations section, the system highlights the related
observable in the indicator pattern.
If you click an observation in the Observations section, the system highlights the related observable(s) in the
indicator pattern and scrolls the first related observable into view (if multiple observables are present). Clicking
an observation also expands the details of the observation in the Observations section.
Observation details include the following fields:
Table 103: Observation Detail Fields
Field Description
SOURCE The source IP address and port for the traffic that
triggered the observation.

1512
View Events for a TID Observation
Field Description
DESTINATION The destination IP address and port for the traffic that
triggered the observation.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION DNS and authentication information related to the

traffic that triggered the observation.
Events This clickable link displays if the observation

generated connection, security intelligence, file, or
malware events. Click the link to view the events in
the Firepower Management Center event table; see
About Connection Events, on page 2333.
View Events for a TID Observation


(TID) User
For more information about the Firepower Management Center events that TID observations generate, see
TID Observations in Firepower Management Center Events, on page 1514.
The system action logged for TID-related events can vary, depending on the interaction of TID and other
Firepower Management Center features. For more information about action prioritization, see TID-Firepower
Management Center Action Prioritization, on page 1514.
Before you begin

• Configure the feature as described in How To Set Up Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID), on page
1498.
• Confirm that you enabled event logging required for TID in your access control policy, as described in
Configure Policies to Support TID, on page 1499.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Intelligence > Incidents.

Step 2 Click the Incident ID value for the incident.
Step 3 Click the observation in the Indicator section to display the observation box.
Step 4 Expand the observation box by clicking the arrow in the upper-left corner of the box.
Step 5 Click the Events link in the observation information. For more information on the Security Intelligence display,
see About Connection Events, on page 2333.

1513
TID Observations in Firepower Management Center Events
TID Observations in Firepower Management Center Events

If you fully configure your access control policy, TID observations generate the following Firepower
Management Center events:
Table 104: Firepower Management Center Events Generated by Observations
Observation Connection Events Table Security Intelligence Events File Events Table Malware Events Table
Content Table
SHA-256 Yes No Yes Yes, if disposition is

Malware or Custom
Detection.
Domain Yes Yes No No

Name, URL,
TID-related connection TID-related security
or IPv4/IPv6
events are identified with a intelligence events are
TID-related Security identified with a TID-related
Intelligence Category Security Intelligence
value. Category value.
TID-Firepower Management Center Action Prioritization

This section describes what the system does if more than one Firepower feature could apply to a particular
observable. For example, if you have enabled both Security Intelligence and TID in an access control policy,
the system filters traffic first by Security Intelligence criteria and then by TID criteria.
If TID observable actions conflict with Firepower Management Center policy actions, the system prioritizes
actions as follows:
Table 105: TID URL or IPv4/IPv6 Observable Action vs. Security Intelligence Action
Setting: Security Intelligence Setting: TID URL or IPv4/IPv6 TID Incidents Security Intelligence Events Fields:
Action Observable Action Field: Action
Taken Action Security Intelligence Reason
Category
Whitelist Monitor or Block (no incident Allow (none) (none)

generated)
Block Monitor or Block Blocked Block as determined by IP Block
system analysis; see or URL
Security Intelligence Block
Options, on page 1299
Monitor Monitor Monitored Allow as determined by IP

system analysis; see Monitor or
Security Intelligence URL
Options, on page 1299 Monitor
Block Blocked Block TID IP Block or IP Block

TID URL Block or URL
Block

1514
Table 106: TID Domain Name Observable Action vs. DNS Policy Action
Setting: DNS Policy Action Setting: TID TIDIncidents Security Intelligence Events Fields:
Domain Name Field: Action
Observable Taken Action Security Intelligence Reason
Action Category
Whitelist Monitor or Monitored Allow as determined by system DNS Monitor

Block analysis; see Security
Intelligence Options, on
page 1299
Monitor Monitor Monitored Allow as determined by system DNS Monitor

analysis; see Security
Intelligence Options, on
page 1299
Block Blocked Block TID Domain Name DNS Block

Block
Drop, Domain Not Found, Monitor Blocked Block as determined by system DNS Block
Sinkhole—Log, or analysis; see Security
Sinkhole—Block and Log Intelligence Options, on
page 1299
Block TID Domain Name

Block
Table 107: TID SHA-256 Observable Action vs. Malware Cloud Lookup File Policy
File Disposition TID SHA-256 Observable Action Taken in TID Action in File Events Action in Malware
Action Incidents Events
Clean Monitor or Block Monitored Malware Cloud n/a

Lookup
Malware Monitor or Block Monitored Malware Cloud n/a

Lookup
Custom Monitor or Block Monitored • Malware Cloud • Malware Cloud

Lookup, if Lookup, if
SHA-256 is not in a SHA-256 is not in a
custom detection custom detection
list. list.
• Custom • Custom
Detection, if Detection, if
SHA-256 is in a SHA-256 is in a
custom detection custom detection
list. list.

1515
Unknown Monitor or Block Monitored Malware Cloud n/a

Lookup
Note TID matching occurs before the system sends a file for dynamic analysis.
Table 108: TID SHA-256 Observable Action vs. Block Malware File Policy
Clean or Unknown Monitor Monitored Malware Cloud n/a

Lookup
Block Blocked • TID Block, if TID Block

SHA-256 is not in a
Modified file disposition
custom detection
is Custom.
list.
Modified file
disposition is
Custom.
• Custom
Detection
Block, if SHA-256
is in a custom
detection list.
Malware or Custom Monitor Blocked Block Malware Block Malware
Block Blocked • TID Block, if TID Block

SHA-256 is not in a
Modified file disposition
custom detection
is Custom.
list.
Modified file
disposition is
Custom.
• Custom
Detection
Block, if SHA-256
is in a custom
detection list.

1516
Factors That Affect the Action Taken
Factors That Affect the Action Taken

Many factors determine when the system takes action and what action the system takes when it detects traffic
that matches a TID observable.
• Features like Security Intelligence take action before TID does. For details, see TID-Firepower
Management Center Action Prioritization, on page 1514.
• Generally, the action configured for an observable (which may differ from the action configured for its
parent indicator or source) is the action that will be taken.
• Because STIX sources can contain complex indicators, the Action setting for the source can be set only
to Monitor. However, individual simple indicators or observables contained in a STIX feed or file can
be set to Block.
• Action settings for indicators and observables can be inherited or individually configured to override
inheritance. See Inheritance in TID Configurations, on page 1526 and Edit TID Actions at the Source,
Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1527.
• Traffic that might otherwise be actionable might be whitelisted. For details, see Whitelist TID Observables,
on page 1532.
• The configured action is taken for both partially- and fully-realized incidents.
• An incident based on a complex indicator can be partially blocked. This can occur if the indicator includes
both monitored and blocked observations.
• Pausing publishing affects actions the system takes. See About Pausing Publishing, on page 1528 and
Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1530.
• Pausing the TID feature prevents all actions. After you resume the feature, actionable data may be different
from before. For details, see Pause TID and Purge TID Data from Elements, on page 1529.
View and Change Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID)

Configurations
Use the following information to review and fine-tune your configuration as needed.
View TID Status of Elements (Managed Devices)


(TID) User
All devices that are registered to the Firepower Management Center as managed devices appear automatically
on the Elements page. All properly-configured elements (as specified in Configure Policies to Support TID,
on page 1499) will receive all currently-published observables, including those ingested before the element was
added.

1517
View and Manage Sources
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Intelligence > Elements.

Step 2 View your configured elements:
• The icon next to the Name value indicates whether the element is connected and TID is enabled.
• To view the access control policy where TID was enabled and deployed to this device, see the Access
Control Policy column. For more information, see Configure Policies to Support TID, on page 1499.
View and Manage Sources


(TID) User
The Sources page displays summary information about all configured sources; see Source Summary Information,
on page 1519.
Procedure

Step 2 View your sources:
• To filter the sources displayed on the page, click the Filter icon ( ). For more information, see Filter
TID Data in Table Views, on page 1525.
• To view detailed ingestion status, hover the cursor over the text in the Status column. For more
information, see Source Status Details, on page 1520.
Step 3 Manage your sources:

• To edit the Action setting, see Edit TID Actions at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page
1527. If an action is fixed, it is the only supported action for the source Type.
• To edit the Publish setting, click the slider ( ). For more information, see Pause or Publish TID Data
• To pause or resume TID updating the source, click Pause Updates or Resume Updates. If you pause
updates, updating is paused but existing indicators and observables remain in TID.

1518
Source Summary Information
• To delete the source, click the delete icon ( ). This icon is greyed out if the source is still processing.
Deleting a source deletes all indicators associated with that source. Associated observables may also be
deleted; they are retained if they are associated with indicators remaining in the system.
Source Summary Information

The Sources page displays summary information for all configured sources. The table below provides brief
descriptions of the fields in the summary display. For detailed information on these fields, see descriptions
in the relevant configuration topic for the source: See Options for Ingesting Data Sources, on page 1500.
Table 109: Sources Summary Information
Field Description
Name The source name.
Type The data format of the source (STIX or Flat File).
Delivery The method TID uses to retrieve the source.
Action The action (Block or Monitor) that the system is configured to perform on traffic matching the data contained
within this source.
For more information about TID actions, including availability, inheritance, and overriding inheritance, see
Factors That Affect the Action Taken, on page 1517.
Publish On or Off toggle specifying whether TID publishes data from the source to registered elements (managed devices
configured to support TID).
Indicators can inherit Publish settings from a parent source, and observables can inherit Publish settings from
a parent indicator. For more information, see Inheritance in TID Configurations, on page 1526.
Last Updated The date and time TID last updated the source.
Status The current status of the source:

• New—The source is newly created.
• Scheduled—The initial download or subsequent update is scheduled, but not yet in progress.
• Downloading—TID is performing the initial download or update refresh.
• Parsing or Processing ( )—TID is ingesting the source.
• Completed ( )—TID finished ingesting the source.
• Completed with Errors ( )—TID finished ingesting the source, but some observables are unsupported
or invalid.
• Error ( )—TID experienced a problem. If the source is a TAXII or URL source with an Update Frequency
specified, and updates are not paused, TID retries on the next scheduled update.
Refresh the page to update the status.

1519
Source Status Details
Field Description
Clicking this icon allows you to edit settings for the source.
Clicking this icon permanently deletes the source.
Source Status Details

When you hover over a source's Status value in the Sources summary page, TID provides the additional
details described below.
Data Description
Status Message Briefly describes the current status of the source.
Last Updated Specifies the date and time TID last updated the source.
Next Update For TAXII and URL sources, this value specifies when TID will update the source next.
Indicators Specifies indicator counts:

• Consumed—The number of indicators TID processed during the most recent source update. This
number represents all indicators contained in the update, regardless of whether they were ingested
or discarded.
• Discarded—The number of malformed indicators that the system did not add to TID during the
most recent update.
Note For TAXII sources, TID provides separate Last Update and Total indicator counts, because
TAXII updates add incremental data, rather than replacing existing data. For indicators
from other source types, TID provides only the Last Update count, because updates from
those sources replace the existing data set entirely.
If all of an indicator's observables are Invalid, TID discards the indicator.

1520
View and Manage Indicators
Data Description
Observables Specifies observable counts:

• Consumed—The number of observables TID processed during the most recent source update. This
number represents all observables contained in the update, regardless of whether they were ingested
or discarded.
• Unsupported—The number of unsupported observables that the system did not add to TID during
the most recent update.
For more information about supported observable types, see information about content types in
Source Requirements, on page 1496.
• Invalid—The number of invalid observables that the system did not add to TID during the most
recent update.
An observable is invalid if it is improperly constructed. For example, 10.10.10.10.123 is not a
valid IPv4 address.
Note For TAXII sources, TID provides separate Last Update and Total observable counts,
because TAXII updates add incremental data, rather than replacing existing data. For
observables from other source types, TID provides only the Last Update count, because
updates from those sources replace the existing data set entirely.
View and Manage Indicators


(TID) User
Indicators are generated automatically from ingested sources. For more information about information on this
page, see Indicator Summary Information, on page 1522.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Indicators.
Step 3 View your current indicators:
• To filter the indicators displayed on the page, click the Filter icon ( ). For more information, see Filter
• To view additional details about an indicator (including associated observables), click the indicator name.
For more information, see Indicator Details, on page 1523.
• In the Incidents column, click the number to view information about incidents associated with an indicator,
or hover the cursor over the icon to view whether the incidents are fully- or partially-realized.

1521
Indicator Summary Information
• To determine whether TID finished ingesting an indicator from the source, view the Status column.
Step 4 Manage your current indicators:

• To edit the Action, see Edit TID Actions at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1527. If
an action is fixed, it is the only supported action for the source Type.
• To edit the Publish setting, see Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level,
on page 1530.
• To whitelist one or more of an indicator's observables, click the indicator name to access the Indicator
Details page. For more information, see About Whitelisting TID Observables, on page 1531.
Indicator Summary Information

The Indicators page displays summary information for all indicators associated with configured sources.
Table 110: Indicators Summary Information
Field Description
Type • Indicators that have a single observable list the data type of that observable (URL,
SHA-256, etc.)
• Indicators that have two or more observables are listed as Complex.
Hover over the type to see the specific observable.
Name The indicator name.
Source The source that contained the indicator (the parent source).
Incidents Information about any incidents associated with the indicator:
• an icon specifying whether the incident is partially ( ) or fully ( ) realized

• the number of incidents associated with the indicator
Action The action associated with the indicator. For more information, see Edit TID Actions at the
Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1527.
Indicators can inherit Action settings from a parent source, and observables can inherit
Action settings from a parent indicator. For more information, see Inheritance in TID
Configurations, on page 1526.
Publish The publish setting for the indicator. For more information, see Pause or Publish TID Data
Indicators can inherit Publish settings from a parent source, and observables can inherit
Publish settings from a parent indicator. For more information, see Inheritance in TID
Last Updated The date and time TID last updated the indicator.

1522
Indicator Details
Field Description
Status The current status of the indicator:
• Pending ( )—TID is ingesting the indicator's observables.
• Completed ( )—TID successfully ingested all of the indicator's observables.
• Completed With Errors ( )—TID finished ingesting the indicator, but some
observables are unsupported or invalid.
Indicator Details
The Indicator Details page displays indicator and observable data for an incident.
Table 111: Indicator Details Information
Field Description
Name The indicator name.
Description The indicator description provided by the source.
Source The source that contained the indicator.
Expires The date and time the indicator will expire, based on the source's TTL value.
Action The action associated with the indicator. For more information, see Edit TID Actions at the Source,
Indicators can inherit the Action setting from a parent source, and observables can inherit the Action
setting from a parent indicator. For more information, see Inheritance in TID Configurations, on page
1526.
Publish The publish setting for the indicator. For more information, see Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source,
Indicators can inherit the Publish setting from a parent source, and observables can inherit the Publish
setting from a parent indicator. For more information, see Inheritance in TID Configurations, on page
1526.
Indicator Pattern The observables and operators that form the indicator's pattern. Operators link the observables within the
indicator. AND relationships are indicated with the AND operator. OR relationships are indicated with
the OR operator or by a close grouping of several observables.
Optionally, click the Whitelist icon ( ) to whitelist an observable. For more information, see About
Whitelisting TID Observables, on page 1531.

1523
View and Manage Observables
View and Manage Observables


(TID) User
The Observables page displays all successfully ingested observables; see Observable Summary Information,
on page 1524.
Before you begin

• Configure one or more sources as described in Fetch TAXII Feeds to Use as Sources, on page 1500, Fetch
Sources from a URL, on page 1502, or Upload a Local File to Use as a Source, on page 1503.
Procedure

Step 2 Click Observables.
Step 3 View your current observables:
• To filter the observables displayed on the page, click the Filter icon ( ). For more information, see Filter
• If the information in the Value column is cut off, hover over the value.
• To view indicators that contain the observable, click the number in the Indicators column. The Incidents
page opens with the observable value as the filter. For more information, see View and Manage Indicators,
on page 1521.
Step 4 Manage your current observables:

• To edit the Action, see Edit TID Actions at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1527.
• To edit an observable's Publish setting, see Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or
• To change an observable's expiration date, modify the TTL for the parent source. For more information,
see View and Manage Sources, on page 1518.
• To whitelist an observable, click the Whitelist icon ( ). For more information, see About Whitelisting
TID Observables, on page 1531.
Observable Summary Information

The Observables page displays summary information for all ingested observables.

1524
Filter TID Data in Table Views
Table 112: Observables Summary Information
Field Description
Type The type of observable data: SHA-256, Domain, URL, IPv4, or IPv6.
Value The data that comprises the observable.
Indicators The number of parent indicators containing the observable.
Action The action configured for the observable. For more information, see Edit TID Actions at
the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1527.
Indicators can inherit Action settings from a parent source, and observables can inherit
Action settings from a parent indicator. For more information, see Inheritance in TID
Publish The publish setting for the observable; see Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator,
or Observable Level, on page 1530.
Indicators can inherit Publish settings from a parent source, and observables can inherit
Publish settings from a parent indicator. For more information, see Inheritance in TID
Updated At The date and time TID last updated the observable.
Expires The date that the observable will be automatically purged from TID based on TTL for the
parent indicator.
Clicking this icon whitelists the observable; see About Whitelisting TID Observables, on
page 1531.
Filter TID Data in Table Views


(TID) User
Procedure
Step 1 Choose one of the following TID table views:

• Intelligence > Incidents
• Intelligence > Sources
• Intelligence > Sources > Indicators
• Intelligence > Sources > Observables

1525
Inheritance in TID Configurations
Step 2 Click the Filter icon ( ) and choose a filter attribute.

Step 3 Choose or enter a value for that filter attribute.
Filters are case-sensitive.
Step 4 (Optional) To filter by multiple attributes, click the Filter icon ( ) and repeat Step 2 and Step 3.
Step 5 To cancel the changes you have made since you last applied the filter, click Cancel.
Step 6 Click Apply to refresh the table with the filter applied.
Step 7 To remove a filter attribute individually, click the Remove icon ( ) next to the filter attribute and click Apply
to refresh the table.
Inheritance in TID Configurations

When TID ingests intelligence data from a source, it creates indicators and observables as child objects of
that source. On creation, these child objects inherit Action and Publish settings from the parent configuration.
An indicator inherits these settings from the parent source. An indicator can only have one parent source.
An observable inherits these settings from the parent indicator(s). An observable can have multiple parent
indicators.
For more information, see:
• Inheritance of TID Settings from Multiple Parents, on page 1526
• About Overriding Inherited TID Settings, on page 1527
Inheritance of TID Settings from Multiple Parents

If an observable has multiple parent indicators, the system compares the inherited settings from all the parents
and assigns the most secure option to the observable. Thus:
• Action: Block is more secure than Monitor
• Publish: On is more secure than Off
For example, SourceA might contribute IndicatorA and related ObservableA:
Setting SourceA IndicatorA ObservableA
Action Block Block Block
Publish Off Off Off
If SourceB later contributes IndicatorB, which also includes ObservableA, the system modifies ObservableA
as follows:
Setting SourceB IndicatorB ObservableA
Action Monitor Monitor Block (inherited from

IndicatorA)

1526
About Overriding Inherited TID Settings
Setting SourceB IndicatorB ObservableA
Publish On On On (inherited from

IndicatorB)
In this example, ObservableA has two parents: one parent for its Action setting and one parent for its Publish
setting. If you manually edit the settings for the observable and then revert the settings, the system sets the
Action setting to the IndicatorA value and the Publish setting to the IndicatorB value.
About Overriding Inherited TID Settings

To override an inherited setting, change the setting at the child level; see Edit TID Actions at the Source,
Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1527 and Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or
Observable Level, on page 1530. After you override an inherited setting, the child object retains that setting
despite changes to the parent object(s).
For example, you might start with the following original settings, with no overrides set:
Setting SourceA IndicatorA ObservableA1 ObservableA2
Publish Off Off Off Off
If you override the setting for IndicatorA, the settings would be the following:
Publish Off On On On
In this case, any changes to the Publish setting for SourceA no longer cascade automatically to IndicatorA.
However, inheritance from IndicatorA to ObservableA1 and ObservableA2 continues, because the observable
settings are not currently set to override values.
If you later override the setting for ObservableA1:
Publish Off On Off On
Any changes to the Publish setting for IndicatorA no longer cascade automatically to ObservableA1. However,
those changes continue to cascade to ObservableA2, because it is not set to an override value.
At the observable level, you can revert from an override setting to the inherited setting, and the system resumes
cascading setting changes automatically from the parent indicator to that observable.
Edit TID Actions at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level


(TID) User
Note:

1527
About Pausing Publishing
• Editing the action for a parent sets the action for all children. If you edit the action at the source level,
you set the action for all its indicators. If you edit the action at the indicator level, you set the action for
all of its observables.
• Editing the action for a child interrupts inheritance. If you edit the action at the indicator level, and
subsequently edit it at the source level, the indicator's action is retained until you edit the action for the
individual indicator. If you edit the action at the observable level, and subsequently edit it at the indicator
level, the observable's action is retained until you edit the action for the individual observable. At the
observable level, you can revert automatically to the parent indicator's action. For more information
about inheritance, see Inheritance in TID Configurations, on page 1526.
You may also want to review other Factors That Affect the Action Taken, on page 1517.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose any of the following:

Note TID does not support blocking TAXII sources at the source level. If the TAXII source contains
a simple indicator, you can block at the indicator or observable level.

Note TID does not support blocking complex indicators. Instead, block individual observables within
the complex indicator.
Step 2 Use the Action dropdown to choose Monitor ( ) or Block ( ).

Step 3 (Observables only) If you want to resume inheriting the action setting from the parent indicator, click the
revert icon ( ) next to the Action setting for the observable.
About Pausing Publishing

• If you pause publishing at the feature level, the system purges all TID observables stored on your elements.
This means that TID cannot detect, monitor or block threats. Other security features on your system are
not affected.
• If you pause publishing at the source, indicator, or observable level, the system removes the paused TID
observables from your elements, preventing them from matching traffic.
• Pausing publication for a parent pauses all children. If you pause publishing at the source level, you
pause publishing for all its indicators. If you pause publishing at the indicator level, you pause publishing
for all of its observables.
• Pausing publication for a child interrupts inheritance. If you pause publishing at the indicator level, and
subsequently publish at the source level, publishing for the indicator remains paused until you change
the individual setting for the indicator. If you pause publishing at the observable level, and subsequently

1528
Pause TID and Purge TID Data from Elements
publish at the indicator level, publishing for the observable remains paused until you change the individual
setting for the observable. At the observable level, you can revert automatically to the parent indicator's
publishing status. For more information about inheritance, see Inheritance in TID Configurations, on
page 1526.
• Publishing for Uploaded sources can only be paused at the indicator level.
• For a comparison of whitelisting and pausing publishing for an observable, see About Whitelisting TID
Observables, on page 1531.
• If you have specified a publish/pause setting for an individual observable or indicator, source updates
do not change that setting if the update contains the same observable or indicator.
• Publishing can be disabled on the object management pages. See Modify the Observable Publication
Frequency, on page 1531.
• The option on the Sources page to pause updates is not related to publishing data to elements; it applies
to updating sources on the Firepower Management Center from feeds.
Pause TID and Purge TID Data from Elements


(TID) User
Caution This setting pauses publishing to all elements, purges all TID observables stored on your elements, and stops
inspecting traffic using the TID feature.
To disable observables at a more granular level, see Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or
Data on the management center (existing incidents and configured sources, indicators, and observables, and
ingestion of sources) is not affected by this setting.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose Intelligence > Settings.

Step 2 Click Pause.
What to do next
When you are ready to resume synchronizing TID data on your elements and generating observations, manually
Resume publishing from this page. Existing observables on the management center are published to all
elements.

1529
Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level
Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level


(TID) User
If publishing is enabled at the Source level, the system automatically publishes the initial source data and any
subsequent changes including:
• changes from periodic source refreshes
• changes resulting from system action (for example, TTL expiration)
• any user-initiated changes (for example, a change in the Action setting for an indicator or observable)
Note To purge all TID observables at once from your devices (elements), see Pause TID and Purge TID Data from
Elements, on page 1529.
Before you begin

Before pausing publishing, understand the ramifications described in About Pausing Publishing, on page 1528.
Procedure
Step 1 Choose any of the following:

Step 2 Locate the Publish slider ( ) and use it to toggle publishing to elements.
Step 3 (Observables only) If you want to resume inheriting the publication setting from the parent indicator, click
the revert icon ( ) next to the Publish setting for the observable.
What to do next
• Wait at least 10 minutes for elements to receive changes. Changes involving large sources will take
longer.
• (Optional) Change the publication frequency for TID data at the observable level; see Modify the
Observable Publication Frequency, on page 1531.

1530
Modify the Observable Publication Frequency
Modify the Observable Publication Frequency


(TID) User
By default, the system publishes observables to TID elements every 5 minutes. Use this procedure to set this
interval to a different value.
Before you begin

• Enable publication of TID data at the observable level; see Pause or Publish TID Data at the Source,
Procedure

Step 2 Choose Security Intelligence > Network Feeds and Lists.
Step 3 Click the edit icon next to the Cisco-TID-Feed.
Step 4 Choose a value from the Update Frequency drop-down list:
• Choose Disable to stop publication of observable data to elements.
• Choose any other value to set the interval for observable publication.
Step 5 Click Save.
About Whitelisting TID Observables

If you want to exempt an observable in a simple indicator from the specified Action (let the traffic pass without
monitoring or blocking), you can whitelist the observable.
In a complex indicator, TID ignores whitelisted observables when evaluating traffic, but other observables in
that indicator are still evaluated. For example, if an indicator includes Observable 1 and Observable 2 linked
by the AND operator, and you whitelist Observable 1, TID generates a fully realized incident when Observable
2 is seen.
By comparison, in the same complex indicator, if you disable publishing of Observable 1 instead of whitelisting
it, TID generates a partially-realized incident when Observable 2 is seen.
Note If you whitelist an observable, whitelisting always takes precedence over the Action setting, whether the
setting in the observable is an inherited or override value.
Source updates do not affect the whitelist setting for individual observables if the update contains the same
observable.

1531
Whitelist TID Observables
Whitelist TID Observables


(TID) User
For detailed information about whitelisting, see About Whitelisting TID Observables, on page 1531.
Tip
A Whitelist icon ( ) can appear in several places in the web interface. You can whitelist an observable in
any of those locations by clicking the icon.
Procedure
Step 1 Click Intelligence > Sources > Observables.

Step 2 Navigate to the observable that you want to ignore.
Step 3 Click the Whitelist icon ( ) for that observable.
What to do next
(Optional) If you need to remove an observable from the whitelist, click the icon again.
View a STIX Source File

Procedure
Step 1 Select Intelligence > Sources > Indicators.

Step 2 Click the indicator name.
Step 3 Click Download STIX.
Step 4 Open the file in a text editor.
Troubleshoot Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID)

The sections below describe possible solutions and mitigations for common TID issues.
Fetching or uploading flat file sources generates an error

If the system fails to fetch or upload a flat file source, check that the data in the flat file matches the Type
column on the Intelligence > Sources page.

1532
TAXII or URL source update generates an error

If a TAXII or URL source update generates a source status error, check that your Server Certificate is not
expired. If the certificate has expired, enter a new Server Certificate or delete the existing Server Certificate
so TID can retrieve a new certificate. For more information, see Configure TLS/SSL Settings for a TID Source,
on page 1504.
"Block" action is not available for an indicator or source, only "Monitor"

You can change the action for individual observables in the indicator or source.
TID table views return "No results"

Table views include the Sources, Indicators, Observables, and Incidents pages.
If you do not see data in one of the TID table views:
• Check your table filter and consider expanding the time window for the Last Updated filter attribute;
see Filter TID Data in Table Views, on page 1525.
• Verify that you correctly configured your sources; see Options for Ingesting Data Sources, on page 1500.
• Verify that you configured your access control policy and related policies to support TID; see Configure
Policies to Support TID, on page 1499. For example, if your SHA-256 observables are not generating
observations, verify that your deployed access control policy contains one or more access control rules
that invoke a Malware Cloud Lookup or Block Malware file policy.
• Verify that you deployed the TID-supporting access control policy and related policies to your elements;
see Deploy Configuration Changes, on page 310.
• Verify that you did not pause TID data publication at the feature level; see Pause TID and Purge TID
Data from Elements, on page 1529.
System is experiencing slowness or decreased performance

For more information about performance impact, see Performance Impact of Threat Intelligence Director, on
page 1495.
Firepower Management Center table views do not show TID data

If you are publishing observables to your elements but no TID data appears in the connection, security
intelligence, file, or malware events tables, check the access control and file policies deployed to your elements.
For more information, see Configure Policies to Support TID, on page 1499.
One or more elements are overwhelmed by TID data

If TID data is overwhelming one or more of your devices, consider pausing TID publishing and purging the
data stored on your elements. For more information, see Pause TID and Purge TID Data from Elements, on
page 1529.
System is performing a Malware Cloud Lookup instead of a TID block

This is by design. For more information, see TID-Firepower Management Center Action Prioritization, on
page 1514.

1533
System is performing a Security Intelligence or DNS Policy action instead of a TID action
This is by design. For more information, see TID-Firepower Management Center Action Prioritization, on
page 1514.
TID is disabled
• Add memory to your appliance. Threat Intelligence Director can only be used on appliances with at least
15GB of memory.
• Enable REST API access for the Firepower Management Center. For more information, see Enabling
REST API Access, on page 956.
The system does not generate the TID incident or take the TID action that you expected
• Verify that all of your managed devices are properly enabled and configured for TID. See View TID
Status of Elements (Managed Devices), on page 1517 and Configure Policies to Support TID, on page 1499.
• It takes at least 5-10 minutes for changes to be published to elements, and significantly longer if publishing
a large data feed.
• Check the action setting for the observable. See View and Manage Observables, on page 1524.
• For a list of the other factors that influence the TID action that the system takes, see Factors That Affect
the Action Taken, on page 1517.
• Elements (managed devices) may not have the threat data you think they have. See About Pausing
Publishing, on page 1528.
One encounter with a particular threat generates multiple incidents

This can occur if a single indicator is included in multiple sources:
• Indicators from flat file sources – Each instance of the indicator generates an incident, so one encounter
with a particular threat may generate multiple incidents.
• Indicators from STIX sources – If indicators from different STIX sources share the same ID, only one
incident will be generated for that indicator, regardless of the number of sources that include it.
To avoid future duplicate incidents, pause publishing of all but one of the duplicated indicators. See Pause or
Publish TID Data at the Source, Indicator, or Observable Level, on page 1530.

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History for Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID)

Cisco Threat Intelligence Director (TID) 6.2.2 Feature introduced: Lets you use threat
intelligence from external sources to
identify and process threats.
New screens: A new top-level Intelligence
menu with multiple tabs.
Supported platforms: Firepower
Management Center

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1536
PA R T XIX
Intrusion Detection and Prevention
• An Overview of Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies, on page 1539
• Layers in Intrusion and Network Analysis Policies, on page 1555
• Getting Started with Intrusion Policies, on page 1571
• Tuning Intrusion Policies Using Rules, on page 1579
• Tailoring Intrusion Protection to Your Network Assets, on page 1607
• Sensitive Data Detection, on page 1613
• Globally Limiting Intrusion Event Logging, on page 1627
• The Intrusion Rules Editor, on page 1633
• Intrusion Prevention Performance Tuning, on page 1745
CHAPTER 79
An Overview of Network Analysis and Intrusion
Policies
The following topics provide an overview of network analysis and intrusion policies:
• Network Analysis and Intrusion Policy Basics, on page 1539
• How Policies Examine Traffic For Intrusions, on page 1540
• System-Provided and Custom Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies, on page 1544
• The Navigation Panel: Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies, on page 1551
• Conflicts and Changes: Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies, on page 1552
Network Analysis and Intrusion Policy Basics

Network analysis and intrusion policies work together as part of the Firepower System’s intrusion detection
and prevention feature.
• The term intrusion detection generally refers to the process of passively monitoring and analyzing network
traffic for potential intrusions and storing attack data for security analysis. This is sometimes referred to
as "IDS."
• The term intrusion prevention includes the concept of intrusion detection, but adds the ability to block
or alter malicious traffic as it travels across your network. This is sometimes referred to as "IPS."
In an intrusion prevention deployment, when the system examines packets:

• A network analysis policy governs how traffic is decoded and preprocessed so it can be further evaluated,
especially for anomalous traffic that might signal an intrusion attempt.
• An intrusion policy uses intrusion and preprocessor rules (sometimes referred to collectively as intrusion
rules) to examine the decoded packets for attacks based on patterns. Intrusion policies are paired with
variable sets, which allow you to use named values to accurately reflect your network environment.
Both network analysis and intrusion policies are invoked by a parent access control policy, but at different
times. As the system analyzes traffic, the network analysis (decoding and preprocessing) phase occurs before
and separately from the intrusion prevention (additional preprocessing and intrusion rules) phase. Together,
network analysis and intrusion policies provide broad and deep packet inspection. They can help you detect,
alert on, and protect against network traffic that could threaten the availability, integrity, and confidentiality
of hosts and their data.

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How Policies Examine Traffic For Intrusions
The Firepower System is delivered with several similarly named network analysis and intrusion policies (for
example, Balanced Security and Connectivity) that complement and work with each other. By using
system-provided policies, you can take advantage of the experience of the Cisco Talos Security Intelligence
and Research Group (Talos). For these policies, Talos sets intrusion and preprocessor rule states, as well as
provides the initial configurations for preprocessors and other advanced settings.
You can also create custom network analysis and intrusion policies. You can tune settings in custom policies
to inspect traffic in the way that matters most to you so that you can improve both the performance of your
managed devices and your ability to respond effectively to the events they generate.
You create, edit, save, and manage network analysis and intrusion policies using similar policy editors in the
web interface. When you are editing either type of policy, a navigation panel appears on the left side of the
web interface; the right side displays various configuration pages.
How Policies Examine Traffic For Intrusions

When the system analyzes traffic as part of your access control deployment, the network analysis (decoding
and preprocessing) phase occurs before and separately from the intrusion prevention (intrusion rules and
advanced settings) phase.
The following diagram shows, in a simplified fashion, the order of traffic analysis in an inline, intrusion
prevention and AMP for Networks deployment. It illustrates how the access control policy invokes other
policies to examine traffic, and in which order those policies are invoked. The network analysis and intrusion
policy selection phases are highlighted.
In an inline deployment (that is, where relevant configurations are deployed to devices using routed, switched,
or transparent interfaces, or inline interface pairs), the system can block traffic without further inspection at
almost any step in the illustrated process. Security Intelligence, the SSL policy, network analysis policies, file
policies, and intrusion policies can all either drop or modify traffic. Only the network discovery policy, which
passively inspects packets, cannot affect the flow of traffic.
Similarly, at each step of the process, a packet could cause the system to generate an event. Intrusion and
preprocessor events (sometimes referred to collectively as intrusion events) are indications that a packet or
its contents may represent a security risk.
Tip The diagram does not reflect that access control rules handle encrypted traffic when your SSL inspection
configuration allows it to pass, or if you do not configure SSL inspection. By default, the system disables
intrusion and file inspection of encrypted payloads. This helps reduce false positives and improve performance
when an encrypted connection matches an access control rule that has intrusion and file inspection configured.

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Decoding, Normalizing, and Preprocessing: Network Analysis Policies
Note that for a single connection, although the system selects a network analysis policy before an access
control rule as shown in the diagram, some preprocessing (notably application layer preprocessing) occurs
after access control rule selection. This does not affect how you configure preprocessing in custom network
analysis policies.
Decoding, Normalizing, and Preprocessing: Network Analysis Policies

Without decoding and preprocessing, the system could not appropriately evaluate traffic for intrusions because
protocol differences would make pattern matching impossible. Network analysis policies govern these
traffic-handling tasks:
• after traffic is filtered by Security Intelligence
• after encrypted traffic is decrypted by an optional SSL policy
• before traffic can be inspected by file or intrusion policies
A network analysis policy governs packet processing in phases. First the system decodes packets through the
first three TCP/IP layers, then continues with normalizing, preprocessing, and detecting protocol anomalies:
• The packet decoder converts packet headers and payloads into a format that can be easily used by the
preprocessors and later, intrusion rules. Each layer of the TCP/IP stack is decoded in turn, beginning
with the data link layer and continuing through the network and transport layers. The packet decoder
also detects various anomalous behaviors in packet headers.
• In inline deployments, the inline normalization preprocessor reformats (normalizes) traffic to minimize
the chances of attackers evading detection. It prepares packets for examination by other preprocessors
and intrusion rules, and helps ensure that the packets the system processes are the same as the packets
received by the hosts on your network.
Note In a passive deployment, Cisco recommends that you enable adaptive profile
updates at the access control policy level, instead of inline normalization at the
network analysis level.
• Various network and transport layers preprocessors detect attacks that exploit IP fragmentation, perform
checksum validation, and perform TCP and UDP session preprocessing.
Note that some advanced transport and network preprocessor settings apply globally to all traffic handled
by the target devices of an access control policy. You configure these in the access control policy rather
than in a network analysis policy.
• Various application-layer protocol decoders normalize specific types of packet data into formats that the
intrusion rules engine can analyze. Normalizing application-layer protocol encodings allows the system
to effectively apply the same content-related intrusion rules to packets whose data is represented differently,
and to obtain meaningful results.
• The Modbus and DNP3 SCADA preprocessors detect traffic anomalies and provide data to intrusion
rules. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) protocols monitor, control, and acquire data
from industrial, infrastructure, and facility processes such as manufacturing, production, water treatment,
electric power distribution, airport and shipping systems, and so on.

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Access Control Rules: Intrusion Policy Selection
• Several preprocessors allow you to detect specific threats, such as Back Orifice, portscans, SYN floods
and other rate-based attacks.
Note that you configure the sensitive data preprocessor, which detects sensitive data such as credit card
numbers and Social Security numbers in ASCII text, in intrusion policies.
In a newly created access control policy, one default network analysis policy governs preprocessing for all
traffic for all intrusion policies invoked by the same parent access control policy. Initially, the system uses
the Balanced Security and Connectivity network analysis policy as the default, but you can change it to another
system-provided or custom network analysis policy. In a more complex deployment, advanced users can tailor
traffic preprocessing options to specific security zones, networks, and VLANs by assigning different custom
network analysis policies to preprocess matching traffic.
Access Control Rules: Intrusion Policy Selection

After initial preprocessing, access control rules (when present) evaluate traffic. In most cases, the first access
control rule that a packet matches is the rule that handles that traffic; you can monitor, trust, block, or allow
matching traffic.
When you allow traffic with an access control rule, the system can inspect the traffic for discovery data,
malware, prohibited files, and intrusions, in that order. Traffic not matching any access control rule is handled
by the access control policy’s default action, which can also inspect for discovery data and intrusions.
Note All packets, regardless of which network analysis policy preprocesses them, are matched to configured access
control rules—and thus are potentially subject to inspection by intrusion policies—in top-down order.
The diagram in How Policies Examine Traffic For Intrusions, on page 1540 shows the flow of traffic through
a device in an inline, intrusion prevention and AMP for Networks deployment, as follows:
• Access Control Rule A allows matching traffic to proceed. The traffic is then inspected for discovery
data by the network discovery policy, for prohibited files and malware by File Policy A, and then for
intrusions by Intrusion Policy A.
• Access Control Rule B also allows matching traffic. However, in this scenario, the traffic is not inspected
for intrusions (or files or malware), so there are no intrusion or file policies associated with the rule. Note
that by default, traffic that you allow to proceed is inspected by the network discovery policy; you do
not need to configure this.
• In this scenario, the access control policy’s default action allows matching traffic. The traffic is then
inspected by the network discovery policy, and then by an intrusion policy. You can (but do not have
to) use a different intrusion policy when you associate intrusion policies with access control rules or the
default action.
The example in the diagram does not include any blocking or trusting rules because the system does not
inspect blocked or trusted traffic.
Intrusion Inspection: Intrusion Policies, Rules, and Variable Sets

You can use intrusion prevention as the system’s last line of defense before traffic is allowed to proceed to
its destination. Intrusion policies govern how the system inspects traffic for security violations and, in inline

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Intrusion Inspection: Intrusion Policies, Rules, and Variable Sets
deployments, can block or alter malicious traffic. The main function of intrusion policies is to manage which
intrusion and preprocessor rules are enabled and how they are configured.
Intrusion and Preprocessor Rules

An intrusion rule is a specified set of keywords and arguments that detects attempts to exploit vulnerabilities
on your network; the system uses an intrusion rule to analyze network traffic to check if it matches the criteria
in the rule. The system compares packets against the conditions specified in each rule and, if the packet data
matches all the conditions specified in a rule, the rule triggers.
The system includes the following types of rules created by Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research
Group (Talos):
• shared object intrusion rules, which are compiled and cannot be modified (except for rule header
information such as source and destination ports and IP addresses)
• standard text intrusion rules, which can be saved and modified as new custom instances of the rule.
• preprocessor rules, which are rules associated with preprocessors and packet decoder detection options
in the network analysis policy. You cannot copy or edit preprocessor rules. Most preprocessor rules are
disabled by default; you must enable them to use preprocessors to generate events and, in an inline
deployment, drop offending packets.
When the system processes packets according to an intrusion policy, first a rule optimizer classifies all activated
rules in subsets based on criteria such as: transport layer, application protocol, direction to or from the protected
network, and so on. Then, the intrusion rules engine selects the appropriate rule subsets to apply to each packet.
Finally, a multi-rule search engine performs three different types of searches to determine if the traffic matches
the rule:
• The protocol field search looks for matches in particular fields in an application protocol.
• The generic content search looks for ASCII or binary byte matches in the packet payload.
• The packet anomaly search looks for packet headers and payloads that, rather than containing specific
content, violate well-established protocols.
In a custom intrusion policy, you can tune detection by enabling and disabling rules, as well as by writing
and adding your own standard text rules. You can also use Firepower recommendations to associate the
operating systems, servers, and client application protocols detected on your network with rules specifically
written to protect those assets.
Variable Sets
Whenever the system uses an intrusion policy to evaluate traffic, it uses an associated variable set. Most
variables in a set represent values commonly used in intrusion rules to identify source and destination IP
addresses and ports. You can also use variables in intrusion policies to represent IP addresses in rule
suppressions and dynamic rule states.
The system provides a single default variable set, which is comprised of predefined default variables. Most
system-provided shared object rules and standard text rules use these predefined default variables to define
networks and port numbers. For example, the majority of the rules use the variable $HOME_NET to specify the
protected network and the variable $EXTERNAL_NET to specify the unprotected (or outside) network. In addition,
specialized rules often use other predefined variables. For example, rules that detect exploits against web
servers use the $HTTP_SERVERS and $HTTP_PORTS variables.

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Intrusion Event Generation
Tip Even if you use system-provided intrusion policies, Cisco strongly recommends that you modify key default
variables in the default set. When you use variables that accurately reflect your network environment, processing
is optimized and the system can monitor relevant systems for suspicious activity. Advanced users can create
and use custom variable sets for pairing with one or more custom intrusion policies.
Related Topics
Predefined Default Variables, on page 388
Intrusion Event Generation

When the system identifies a possible intrusion, it generates an intrusion or preprocessor event (sometimes
collectively called intrusion events). Managed devices transmit their events to the Firepower Management
Center, where you can view the aggregated data and gain a greater understanding of the attacks against your
network assets. In an inline deployment, managed devices can also drop or replace packets that you know to
be harmful.
Each intrusion event in the database includes an event header and contains information about the event name
and classification; the source and destination IP addresses; ports; the process that generated the event; and
the date and time of the event, as well as contextual information about the source of the attack and its target.
For packet-based events, the system also logs a copy of the decoded packet header and payload for the packet
or packets that triggered the event.
The packet decoder, the preprocessors, and the intrusion rules engine can all cause the system to generate an
event. For example:
• If the packet decoder (configured in the network analysis policy) receives an IP packet that is less than
20 bytes, which is the size of an IP datagram without any options or payload, the decoder interprets this
as anomalous traffic. If, later, the accompanying decoder rule in the intrusion policy that examines the
packet is enabled, the system generates a preprocessor event.
• If the IP defragmentation preprocessor encounters a series of overlapping IP fragments, the preprocessor
interprets this as a possible attack and, when the accompanying preprocessor rule is enabled, the system
generates a preprocessor event.
• Within the intrusion rules engine, most standard text rules and shared object rules are written so that they
generate intrusion events when triggered by packets.
As the database accumulates intrusion events, you can begin your analysis of potential attacks. The system
provides you with the tools you need to review intrusion events and evaluate whether they are important in
the context of your network environment and your security policies.
System-Provided and Custom Network Analysis and Intrusion

Policies
Creating a new access control policy is one of the first steps in managing traffic flow using the Firepower
System. By default, a newly created access control policy invokes system-provided network analysis and
intrusion policies to examine traffic.

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System-Provided Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies
The following diagram shows how a newly created access control policy in an inline, intrusion-prevention
deployment initially handles traffic. The preprocessing and intrusion prevention phases are highlighted.
Note how:
• A default network analysis policy governs the preprocessing of all traffic handled by the access control
policy. Initially, the system-provided Balanced Security and Connectivity network analysis policy is the
default.
• The default action of the access control policy allows all non-malicious traffic, as determined by the
system-provided Balanced Security and Connectivity intrusion policy. Because the default action allows
traffic to pass, the discovery feature can examine it for host, application, and user data before the intrusion
policy can examine and potentially block malicious traffic.
• The policy uses default Security Intelligence options (global whitelist and blacklist only), does not decrypt
encrypted traffic with an SSL policy, and does not perform special handling and inspection of network
traffic using access control rules.
A simple step you can take to tune your intrusion prevention deployment is to use a different set of
system-provided network analysis and intrusion policies as your defaults. Cisco delivers several pairs of these
policies with the Firepower System.
Or, you can tailor your intrusion prevention deployment by creating and using custom policies. You may find
that the preprocessor options, intrusion rule, and other advanced settings configured in those policies do not
address the security needs of your network. By tuning your network analysis and intrusion policies you can
configure, at a very granular level, how the system processes and inspects the traffic on your network for
intrusions.

Cisco delivers several pairs of network analysis and intrusion policies with the Firepower System. By using
system-provided network analysis and intrusion policies, you can take advantage of the experience of the
Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos). For these policies, Talos provides intrusion
and preprocessor rule states as well as initial configurations for preprocessors and other advanced settings.
No system-provided policy covers every network profile, traffic mix, or defensive posture. Each covers
common cases and network setups that provide a starting point for a well-tuned defensive policy. Although
you can use system-provided policies as-is, Cisco strongly recommends that you use them as the base for
custom policies that you tune to suit your network.
Tip Even if you use system-provided network analysis and intrusion policies, you should configure the system’s
intrusion variables to accurately reflect your network environment. At a minimum, modify key default variables
in the default set.
As new vulnerabilities become known, Talos releases intrusion rule updates (also known as Snort Rule
Updates). These rule updates can modify any system-provided network analysis or intrusion policy, and can
provide new and updated intrusion rules and preprocessor rules, modified states for existing rules, and modified

1545
default policy settings. Rule updates may also delete rules from system-provided policies and provide new
rule categories, as well as modify the default variable set.
If a rule update affects your deployment, the web interface marks affected intrusion and network analysis
policies as out of date, as well as their parent access control policies. You must re-deploy an updated policy
for its changes to take effect.
For your convenience, you can configure rule updates to automatically re-deploy affected intrusion policies,
either alone or in combination with affected access control policies. This allows you to easily and automatically
keep your deployment up-to-date to protect against recently discovered exploits and intrusions.
To ensure up-to-date preprocessing settings, you must re-deploy access control policies, which also deploys
any associated SSL, network analysis, and file policies that are different from those currently running, and
can also can update default values for advanced preprocessing and performance options.
Cisco delivers the following network analysis and intrusion policies with the Firepower System:
Balanced Security and Connectivity network analysis and intrusion policies
These policies are built for both speed and detection. Used together, they serve as a good starting point
for most organizations and deployment types. The system uses the Balanced Security and Connectivity
policies and settings as defaults in most cases.
Connectivity Over Security network analysis and intrusion policies
These policies are built for organizations where connectivity (being able to get to all resources) takes
precedence over network infrastructure security. The intrusion policy enables far fewer rules than those
enabled in the Security over Connectivity policy. Only the most critical rules that block traffic are enabled.
Security Over Connectivity network analysis and intrusion policies
These policies are built for organizations where network infrastructure security takes precedence over
user convenience. The intrusion policy enables numerous network anomaly intrusion rules that could
alert on or drop legitimate traffic.
Maximum Detection network analysis and intrusion policies
These policies are built for organizations where network infrastructure security is given even more
emphasis than is given by the Security Over Connectivity policies, with the potential for even greater
operational impact. For example, the intrusion policy enables rules in a large number of threat categories
including malware, exploit kit, old and common vulnerabilities, and known in-the-wild exploits.
No Rules Active intrusion policy
In the No Rules Active intrusion policy, all intrusion rules, and all advanced settings except intrusion
rule thresholds, are disabled. This policy provides a starting point if you want to create your own intrusion
policy instead of basing it on the enabled rules in one of the other system-provided policies.
Note Depending on the system-provided base policy that is selected, the settings of the policy vary. To view the
policy settings, click the Edit icon next to the policy and then click the Manage Base Policy link.

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Benefits of Custom Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies
Benefits of Custom Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies

You may find that the preprocessor options, intrusion rules, and other advanced settings configured in the
system-provided network analysis and intrusion policies do not fully address the security needs of your
organization.
Building custom policies can improve the performance of the system in your environment and can provide a
focused view of the malicious traffic and policy violations occurring on your network. By creating and tuning
custom policies you can configure, at a very granular level, how the system processes and inspects the traffic
on your network for intrusions.
All custom policies have a base policy, also called a base layer, which defines the default settings for all
configurations in the policy. A layer is a building block that you can use to efficiently manage multiple network
analysis or intrusion policies.
In most cases, you base custom policies on system-provided policies, but you can use another custom policy.
However, all custom policies have a system-provided policy as the eventual base in a policy chain. Because
rule updates can modify system-provided policies, importing a rule update may affect you even if you are
using a custom policy as your base. If a rule update affects your deployment, the web interface marks affected
policies as out of date.
In addition to custom policies that you create, the system provides two custom intrusion and two custom
network analysis policies: Initial Inline Policy and Initial Passive Policy. These policies use the appropriate
Balanced Security and Connectivity policy as their base. The only difference between them is their drop
behavior, which enables traffic blocking and modification in the inline policies and disables it in the passive
policies. You can edit and use these system-provided custom policies.
Benefits of Custom Network Analysis Policies

By default, one network analysis policy preprocesses all unencrypted traffic handled by the access control
policy. That means that all packets are decoded and preprocessed according to the same settings, regardless
of the intrusion policy (and therefore intrusion rule set) that later examines them.
Initially, the system-provided Balanced Security and Connectivity network analysis policy is the default. A
simple way to tune preprocessing is to create and use a custom network analysis policy as the default.
Tuning options available vary by preprocessor, but some of the ways you can tune preprocessors and decoders
include:
• You can disable preprocessors that do not apply to the traffic you are monitoring. For example, the HTTP
Inspect preprocessor normalizes HTTP traffic. If you are confident that your network does not include
any web servers using Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), you can disable the preprocessor
option that looks for IIS-specific traffic and thereby reduce system processing overhead.
Note If you disable a preprocessor in a custom network analysis policy, but the system needs to use that preprocessor
to later evaluate packets against an enabled intrusion or preprocessor rule, the system automatically enables
and uses the preprocessor although the preprocessor remains disabled in the network analysis policy web
interface.
• Specify ports, where appropriate, to focus the activity of certain preprocessors. For example, you can
identify additional ports to monitor for DNS server responses or encrypted SSL sessions, or ports on
which you decode telnet, HTTP, and RPC traffic.

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Benefits of Custom Intrusion Policies
For advanced users with complex deployments, you can create multiple network analysis policies, each tailored
to preprocess traffic differently. Then, you can configure the system to use those policies to govern the
preprocessing of traffic using different security zones, networks, or VLANs. (Note that ASA FirePOWER
modules cannot restrict preprocessing by VLAN.)
Note Tailoring preprocessing using custom network analysis policies—especially multiple network analysis
policies—is an advanced task. Because preprocessing and intrusion inspection are so closely related, you
must be careful to allow the network analysis and intrusion policies examining a single packet to complement
each other.
Benefits of Custom Intrusion Policies

In a newly created access control policy initially configured to perform intrusion prevention, the default action
allows all traffic, but first inspects it with the system-provided Balanced Security and Connectivity intrusion
policy. Unless you add access control rules or change the default action, all traffic is inspected by that intrusion
policy.
To customize your intrusion prevention deployment, you can create multiple intrusion policies, each tailored
to inspect traffic differently. Then, configure an access control policy with rules that specify which policy
inspects which traffic. Access control rules can be simple or complex, matching and inspecting traffic using
multiple criteria including security zone, network or geographical location, VLAN, port, application, requested
URL, or user.
The main function of intrusion policies is to manage which intrusion and preprocessor rules are enabled and
how they are configured, as follows:
• Within each intrusion policy, you should verify that all rules applicable to your environment are enabled,
and improve performance by disabling rules that are not applicable to your environment. In an inline
deployment, you can specify which rules should drop or modify malicious packets.
• Firepower recommendations allow you to associate the operating systems, servers, and client application
protocols detected on your network with rules specifically written to protect those assets.
• You can modify existing rules and write new standard text rules as needed to catch new exploits or to
enforce your security policies.
Other customizations you might make to an intrusion policy include:

• The sensitive data preprocessor detects sensitive data such as credit card numbers and Social Security
numbers in ASCII text. Note that other preprocessors that detect specific threats (back orifice attacks,
several portscan types, and rate-based attacks that attempt to overwhelm your network with excessive
traffic) are configured in network analysis policies.
• Global thresholds cause the system to generate events based on how many times traffic matching an
intrusion rule originates from or is targeted to a specific address or address range within a specified time
period. This helps prevent the system from being overwhelmed with a large number of events.
• Suppressing intrusion event notifications and setting thresholds for individual rules or entire intrusion
policies can also can prevent the system from being overwhelmed with a large number of events.
• In addition to the various views of intrusion events within the web interface, you can enable logging to
syslog facilities or send event data to an SNMP trap server. Per policy, you can specify intrusion event
notification limits, set up intrusion event notification to external logging facilities, and configure external

1548
Limitations of Custom Policies
responses to intrusion events. Note that in addition to these per-policy alerting configurations, you can
globally enable or disable email alerting on intrusion events for each rule or rule group. Your email alert
settings are used regardless of which intrusion policy processes a packet.

Because preprocessing and intrusion inspection are so closely related, you must be careful that your
configuration allows the network analysis and intrusion policies processing and examining a single packet to
complement each other.
By default, the system uses one network analysis policy to preprocess all traffic handled by managed devices
using a single access control policy. The following diagram shows how a newly created access control policy
in an inline, intrusion-prevention deployment initially handles traffic. The preprocessing and intrusion
prevention phases are highlighted.
Notice how a default network analysis policy governs the preprocessing of all traffic handled by the access
control policy. Initially, the system-provided Balanced Security and Connectivity network analysis policy is
the default.
A simple way to tune preprocessing is to create and use a custom network analysis policy as the default.
However, if you disable a preprocessor in a custom network analysis policy but the system needs to evaluate
preprocessed packets against an enabled intrusion or preprocessor rule, the system automatically enables and
uses the preprocessor although it remains disabled in the network analysis policy web interface.
Note In order to get the performance benefits of disabling a preprocessor, you must make sure that none of your
intrusion policies have enabled rules that require that preprocessor.
An additional challenge arises if you use multiple custom network analysis policies. For advanced users with
complex deployments, you can tailor preprocessing to specific security zones, networks, and VLANs by
assigning custom network analysis policies to preprocess matching traffic. (Note that ASA FirePOWER cannot
restrict preprocessing by VLAN.) To accomplish this, you add custom network analysis rules to your access
control policy. Each rule has an associated network analysis policy that governs the preprocessing of traffic
that matches the rule.
Tip You configure network analysis rules as an advanced setting in an access control policy. Unlike other types
of rules in the Firepower System, network analysis rules invoke—rather than being contained by—network
analysis policies.
The system matches packets to any configured network analysis rules in top-down order by rule number.
Traffic that does not match any network analysis rule is preprocessed by the default network analysis policy.
While this allows you a great deal of flexibility in preprocessing traffic, keep in mind that all packets, regardless
of which network analysis policy preprocessed them, are subsequently matched to access control rules—and
thus to potential inspection by intrusion policies—in their own process. In other words, preprocessing a packet

1549
with a particular network analysis policy does not guarantee that the packet will be examined with any
particular intrusion policy. You must carefully configure your access control policy so it invokes the correct
network analysis and intrusion policies to evaluate a particular packet.
The following diagram shows in focused detail how the network analysis policy (preprocessing) selection
phase occurs before and separately from the intrusion prevention (rules) phase. For simplicity, the diagram
eliminates the discovery and file/malware inspection phases. It also highlights the default network analysis
and default-action intrusion policies.
In this scenario, an access control policy is configured with two network analysis rules and a default network
analysis policy:
• Network Analysis Rule A preprocesses matching traffic with Network Analysis Policy A. Later, you
want this traffic to be inspected by Intrusion Policy A.
• Network Analysis Rule B preprocesses matching traffic with Network Analysis Policy B. Later, you
want this traffic to be inspected by Intrusion Policy B.
• All remaining traffic is preprocessed with the default network analysis policy. Later, you want this traffic
to be inspected by the intrusion policy associated with the access control policy’s default action.
After the system preprocesses traffic, it can examine the traffic for intrusions. The diagram shows an access
control policy with two access control rules and a default action:
• Access Control Rule A allows matching traffic. The traffic is then inspected by Intrusion Policy A.
• Access Control Rule B allows matching traffic. The traffic is then inspected by Intrusion Policy B.
• The access control policy’s default action allows matching traffic. The traffic is then inspected by the
default action’s intrusion policy.
Each packet’s handling is governed by a network analysis policy and intrusion policy pair, but the system
does not coordinate the pair for you. Consider a scenario where you misconfigure your access control policy
so that Network Analysis Rule A and Access Control Rule A do not process the same traffic. For example,
you could intend the paired policies to govern the handling of traffic on a particular security zone, but you
mistakenly use different zones in the two rules’ conditions. This could cause traffic to be incorrectly
preprocessed. For this reason, tailoring preprocessing using network analysis rules and custom policies is an
advanced task.

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The Navigation Panel: Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies
Note that for a single connection, although the system selects a network analysis policy before an access
control rule, some preprocessing (notably application layer preprocessing) occurs after access control rule
selection. This does not affect how you configure preprocessing in custom network analysis policies.
The Navigation Panel: Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies

Network analysis and intrusion policies use similar web interfaces to edit and save changes to their
configurations.
A navigation panel appears on the left side of the web interface when you are editing either type of policy.
The following graphic shows the navigation panel for the network analysis policy (left) and the intrusion
policy (right).
A dividing line separates the navigation panel into links to policy settings you can configure with (below) or
without (above) direct interaction with policy layers. To navigate to any settings page, click its name in the
navigation panel. Dark shading of an item in the navigation panel highlights your current settings page. For
example, in the illustration above the Policy Information page would be displayed to the right of the navigation
panel.
Policy Information
The Policy Information page provides configuration options for commonly used settings. As shown in the
illustration for the network analysis policy panel above, a policy change icon ( ) appears next to Policy
Information in the navigation panel when the policy contains unsaved changes. The icon disappears when
you save your changes.
Rules (intrusion policy only)

The Rules page in an intrusion policy allows you to configure rule states and other settings for shared object
rules, standard text rules, and preprocessor rules.
Firepower Recommendations (intrusion policy only)

The Firepower Recommendations page in an intrusion policy allows you to associate the operating systems,
servers, and client application protocols detected on your network with intrusion rules specifically written to

1551
Conflicts and Changes: Network Analysis and Intrusion Policies
protect those assets. This allows you to tailor your intrusion policy to the specific needs of your monitored
network.
Settings (network analysis policy) and Advanced Settings (intrusion policy)

The Settings page in a network analysis policy allows you to enable or disable preprocessors and access
preprocessor configuration pages. Expanding the Settings link displays sublinks to individual configuration
pages for all enabled preprocessors in the policy.
The Advanced Settings page in an intrusion policy allows you to enable or disable advanced settings and
access configuration pages for those advanced settings. Expanding the Advanced Settings link displays
sublinks to individual configuration pages for all enabled advanced settings in the policy.
Policy Layers
The Policy Layers page displays a summary of the layers that comprise your network analysis or intrusion
policy. Expanding the Policy Layers link displays sublinks to summary pages for the layers in your policy.
Expanding each layer sublink displays further sublinks to the configuration pages for all rules, preprocessors,
or advanced settings that are enabled in the layer.
ConflictsandChanges:NetworkAnalysisandIntrusionPolicies
When you edit a network analysis or intrusion policy, a policy change icon ( ) appears next to Policy
Information in the navigation panel to indicate that the policy contains unsaved changes. You must save (or
commit) your changes before the system recognizes them.
Note After you save, you must deploy the network analysis or intrusion policy for your changes to take effect. If
you deploy a policy without saving, the system uses the most recently saved configuration.
Resolving Editing Conflicts

The Network Analysis Policy page (Policies > Access Control, then click Network Analysis Policy or
Policies > Access Control > Intrusion, then click Network Analysis Policy) and Intrusion Policy page
(Policies > Access Control > Intrusion) display whether each policy has unsaved changes, as well as
information about who is currently editing the policy. Cisco recommends that only one person edit a policy
at a time. If you are performing simultaneous editing, the consequences are as follows:
• If you are editing a network analysis or intrusion policy at the same time another user is editing the same
policy, and the other user saves their changes to the policy, you are warned when you commit the policy
that you will overwrite the other user’s changes.
• If you are editing the same network analysis or intrusion policy via multiple web interface instances as
the same user, and you save your changes for one instance, you cannot save your changes for the other
instance.
Resolving Configuration Dependencies

To perform their particular analysis, many preprocessors and intrusion rules require that traffic first be decoded
or preprocessed in a certain way, or have other dependencies. When you save a network analysis or intrusion

1552
Exiting a Network Analysis or Intrusion Policy
policy, the system either automatically enables required settings, or warns you that disabled settings will have
no effect on traffic, as follows:
• You cannot save an intrusion policy if you added an SNMP rule alert but did not configure SNMP alerting.
You must either configure SNMP alerting or disable the rule alert, then save again.
• You cannot save an intrusion policy if it includes enabled sensitive data rules but you have not enabled
the sensitive data preprocessor. You must either allow the system to enable the preprocessor and save
the policy, or disable the rules and save again.
• If you disable a required preprocessor in a network analysis policy, you can still save the policy. However,
the system automatically uses the disabled preprocessor with its current settings, even though the
preprocessor remains disabled in the web interface.
• If you disable inline mode in a network analysis policy but enable the Inline Normalization preprocessor,
you can still save the policy. However, the system warns you that normalization settings will be ignored.
Disabling inline mode also causes the system to ignore other settings that allow preprocessors to modify
or block traffic, including checksum verification and rate-based attack prevention.
Committing, Discarding, and Caching Policy Changes

While editing a network analysis or intrusion policy, if you exit the policy editor without saving your changes,
the system caches those changes. Your changes are cached even when you log out of the system or experience
a system crash. The system cache can store unsaved changes for one network analysis and one intrusion policy
per user; you must commit or discard your changes before editing another policy of the same type. The system
discards the cached changes when you edit another policy without saving your changes to the first policy, or
when you import an intrusion rule update.
You can commit or discard policy changes on the Policy Information page of either the network analysis or
intrusion policy editor.
In the Firepower Management Center configuration, you can control:
• whether you are prompted (or required) to comment on your network analysis or intrusion policy changes
when you commit them
• whether changes and comments are recorded in the audit log
Related Topics
Configuring Network Analysis Policy Preferences
Configuring Intrusion Policy Preferences

Threat Protection Any Any Admin/Intrusion

Admin
Procedure
If you want to exit the network analysis or intrusion policy advanced editor, you have the following choices:

1553
• Cache — To exit the policy and cache changes, choose any menu or other path to another page. On
exiting, click Leave page when prompted, or click Stay on page to remain in the advanced editor.
• Discard — To discard unsaved changes, click Discard Changes on the Policy Information page, then
click OK.
• Save — To save changes to the policy, click Commit Changes on the Policy Information page. If
prompted, enter a comment, and then click OK.

1554
CHAPTER 80
Layers in Intrusion and Network Analysis
Policies
The following topics explain how to use layers in intrusion and network analysis policies:
• Layer Basics, on page 1555
• The Layer Stack, on page 1555
• Layer Management, on page 1560
Layer Basics
Larger organizations with many managed devices may have many intrusion policies and network analysis
policies to support the unique needs of different departments, business units or, in some instances, different
companies. Configurations in both policy types are contained in building blocks called layers, which you can
use to efficiently manage multiple policies.
Layers in intrusion and network analysis policies work in essentially the same way. You can create and edit
either policy type without consciously using layers. You can modify your policy configurations and, if you
have not added user layers to your policy, the system automatically includes your changes in a single
configurable layer that is initially named My Changes. You can also add up to 200 layers where you can
configure any combination of settings. You can copy, merge, move, and delete user layers and, most important,
share individual user layers with other policies of the same type.
The Layer Stack

Layer stacks are composed of the following:
User Layers
User-configurable layers. You can copy, merge, move, or delete any user-configurable layer and set any
user-configurable layer to be shared by other policies of the same type. This layer includes the
automatically-generated layer initially named My Changes.
Built-in Layers
The read-only base policy layer. The policy in this layer can be either a system-provided policy or a
custom policy you created.

1555
The Base Layer
By default, a network analysis or intrusion policy includes a base policy layer and a My Changes layer. You
can add user layers as necessary.
Each policy layer contains complete configurations for either all preprocessors in a network analysis policy
or all intrusion rules and advanced settings in an intrusion policy. The lowest, base policy layer includes all
the settings from the base policy you selected when you created the policy. A setting in a higher layer takes
precedence over the same setting in a lower layer. Features not explicitly set in a layer inherit their settings
from the next highest layer where they are explicitly set. The system flattens the layers, that is, it applies only
the cumulative effect of all settings, when it handles network traffic.
Tip You can create an intrusion or network analysis policy based solely on the default settings in the base policy.
In the case of an intrusion policy, you can also use Firepower rule state recommendations if you want to tailor
your intrusion policy to the specific needs of your monitored network.
The following figure shows an example layer stack that, in addition to the base policy layer and the initial My
Changes layer, also includes two additional user-configurable layers, User Layer 1 and User Layer 2. Note
in the figure that each user-configurable layer that you add is initially positioned as the highest layer in the
stack; thus, User Layer 2 in the figure was added last and is highest in the stack.
Regardless of whether you allow rule updates to modify your policy, changes in a rule update never override
changes you make in a layer. This is because changes in a rule update are made in the base policy, which
determines the default settings in your base policy layer; your changes are always made in a higher layer, so
they override any changes that a rule update makes to your base policy.
The Base Layer

The base layer, also referred to as the base policy, of an intrusion or network analysis policy defines the default
settings for all configurations in the policy, and is the lowest layer in the policy. When you create a new policy
and change a setting without adding new layers, the change is stored in the My Changes layer, and
overrides—but does not change—the setting in the base policy.
System-Provided Base Policies

The Firepower System provides several pairs of network analysis and intrusion policies. By using
system-provided network analysis and intrusion policies, you can take advantage of the experience of the
Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group (Talos). For these policies, Talos sets intrusion and
preprocessor rule states, as well as provides the initial configurations for preprocessors and other advanced
settings. You can use these system-provided policies as-is, or you can use them as the base for custom policies.
If you use a system-provided policy as your base, importing rule updates may modify settings in your base
policy. However, you can configure a custom policy so that the system does not automatically make these
changes to its system-provided base policy. This allows you to update system-provided base policies manually,
on a schedule independent of rule updates. In either case, changes that a rule update makes to your base policy
do not change or override settings in your My Changes or any other layer.

1556
Custom Base Policies
System-provided intrusion and network analysis policies are similarly named but contain different
configurations. For example, the Balanced Security and Connectivity network analysis policy and the Balanced
Security and Connectivity intrusion policy work together and can both be updated in intrusion rule updates.
Custom Base Policies

You can use a custom policy as your base. You can tune settings in custom policies to inspect traffic in ways
that matter most to you so you can improve both the performance of your managed devices and your ability
to respond effectively to the events they generate.
If you change the custom policy that you use as the base for another policy, those changes are automatically
used as the default settings of the policy that uses the base.
In addition, a rule update may affect your policy even if you use a custom base policy, because all policies
have a system-provided policy as the eventual base in a policy chain. If the first custom policy in a chain (the
one that uses the system-provided policy as its base) allows rule updates to modify its base policy, your policy
may be affected.
Regardless of how changes are made to your base policy—whether by a rule update or when you modify a
custom policy that you use as a base policy—they do not change or override settings in your My Changes or
any other layer.
The Effect of Rule Updates on Base Policies

When you import rule updates, the system modifies system-provided intrusion, access control, and network
analysis policies. Rule updates can include:
• modified network analysis preprocessor settings
• modified advanced settings in intrusion and access control policies
• new and updated intrusion rules
• modified states for existing rules
• new rule categories and default variables
Rule updates can also delete existing rules from system-provided policies.
Changes to default variables and rule categories are handled at the system level.
When you use a system-provided policy as your intrusion or network analysis base policy, you can allow rule
updates to modify your base policy which, in this case, is a copy of the system-provided policy. If you allow
rule updates to update your base policy, a new rule update makes the same changes in your base policy that
it makes to the system-provided policy that you use as your base policy. If you have not modified the
corresponding setting, a setting in your base policy determines the setting in your policy. However, rule
updates do not override changes you make in your policy.
If you do not allow rule updates to modify your base policy, you can manually update your base policy after
importing one or more rule updates.
Rule updates always delete intrusion rules that Talos deletes, regardless of the rule state in your intrusion
policy or whether you allow rule updates to modify your base intrusion policy.
Until you re-deploy your changes to network traffic, rules in your currently deployed intrusion policies behave
as follows:
• Disabled intrusion rules remain disabled.

1557
Changing the Base Policy
• Rules set to Generate Events continue to generate events when triggered.

• Rules set to Drop and Generate Events continue to generate events and drop offending packets when
triggered.
Rule updates do not modify a custom base policy unless both of the following conditions are met:
• You allow rule updates to modify the system-provided base policy of the parent policy, that is, the policy
that originated the custom base policy.
• You have not made changes in the parent policy that override the corresponding settings in the parent’s
base policy.
When both conditions are met, changes in the rule update are passed to the child policy, that is, the policy
using the custom base policy, when you save the parent policy.
For example, if a rule update enables a previously disabled intrusion rule, and you have not modified the
rule’s state in the parent intrusion policy, the modified rule state is passed to the base policy when you save
the parent policy.
Likewise, if a rule update modifies a default preprocessor setting and you have not modified the setting in the
parent network analysis policy, the modified setting is passed to the base policy when you save the parent
policy.
Changing the Base Policy


Admin
You can choose a different system-provided or custom policy as your base policy.
You can chain up to five custom policies, with four of the five using one of the other four previously created
policies as its base policy; the fifth must use a system-provided policy as its base.
Procedure
Step 1 While editing your policy, click Policy Information in the navigation panel.
Step 2 You can configure the following choices:
• Choose a base policy — Choose from the Base Policy drop-down list.
• Allow rule updates to modify the base policy — Click Manage Base Policy, then check the Update
when a new Rule Update is installed check box.
Tip When you save your policy with the check box cleared and then import a rule update, an Update
Now button appears on the Base Policy summary page and the status message on the page
updates to inform you that the policy is out of date. If you want to update your base policy
with the changes in the most recently imported rule update, click Update Now.
Step 3 To save changes you made in this policy since the last policy commit, click Policy Information, then click
Commit Changes.

1558
The Firepower Recommendations Layer
If you leave the policy without committing changes, changes since the last commit are discarded if you edit
a different policy.
What to do next
Related Topics
The Firepower Recommendations Layer

When you generate rule state recommendations in an intrusion policy, you can choose whether to automatically
modify rule states based on the recommendations.
As seen in the following figure, using recommended rule states inserts a read-only, built-in Firepower
Recommendations layer immediately above the base layer.
Note that this layer is unique to intrusion policies.

If you subsequently choose not to use recommended rule states, the system removes the Firepower
Recommendations layer. You cannot manually delete this layer, but you can add and remove it by choosing
to use or not use recommended rule states.
Adding the Firepower Recommendations layer adds a Firepower Recommendations link under Policy Layers
in the navigation panel. This link leads you to a read-only view of the Firepower Recommendations layer
page where you can access a recommendation-filtered view of the Rules page in read-only mode.
Using recommended rule states also adds a Rules sublink beneath the Firepower Recommendations link in
the navigation panel. The Rules sublink provides access to a read-only display of the Rules page in the
Firepower Recommendations layer. Note the following in this view:
• When there is no rule state icon in the state column, the state is inherited from the base policy.
• When there is no rule state icon in the Firepower Recommendation column in this or other Rules page
views, there is no recommendation for this rule.
Related Topics
Tailoring Intrusion Protection to Your Network Assets, on page 1607

1559
Layer Management
Layer Management
The Policy Layers page provides a single-page summary of the complete layer stack for your network analysis
or intrusion policy. On this page you can add shared and unshared layers, copy, merge, move, and delete
layers, access the summary page for each layer, and access configuration pages for enabled, disabled, and
overridden configurations within each layer.
For each layer, you can view the following information:
• whether the layer is a built-in, shared user, or unshared user layer
• which layers contain the highest, that is the effective, preprocessor or advanced setting configurations,
by feature name
• in an intrusion policy, the number of intrusion rules whose states are set in the layer, and the number of
rules set to each rule state.
The Policy Layers page also provides a summary of the net effect of all enabled preprocessors (network
analysis) or advanced settings (intrusion) and, for intrusion policies, intrusion rules.
The feature name in the summary for each layer indicates which configurations are enabled, disabled,
overridden, or inherited in the layer, as follows:
When the feature is... The feature name is...
enabled in the layer written in plain text
disabled in the layer struck out
overridden by the configuration in a higher layer written in italic text
inherited from a lower layer not present
You can add up to 200 layers to a network analysis or intrusion policy. When you add a layer, it appears as
the highest layer in your policy. The initial state is Inherit for all features and, in an intrusion policy, no event
filtering, dynamic state, or alerting rule actions are set.
You give a user-configurable layer a unique name when you add the layer to your policy. Later, you can
change the name and, optionally, add or modify a description that is visible when you edit the layer.
You can copy a layer, move a layer up or down within the User Layers page area, or delete a user layer,
including the initial My Changes layer. Note the following considerations:
• When you copy a layer, the copy appears as the highest layer.
• Copying a shared layer creates a layer that is initially unshared and which you can then share if you
choose.
• You cannot delete a shared layer; a layer with sharing enabled that you have not shared with another
policy is not a shared layer.
You can merge a user-configurable layer with another user-configurable layer immediately beneath it. A
merged layer retains all settings that were unique to either layer, and accepts the settings from the higher layer
if both layers included settings for the same preprocessor, intrusion rule, or advanced setting. The merged
layer retains the name of the lower layer. In the policy where you create a sharable layer that you can add to

1560
Shared Layers
other policies, you can merge an unshared layer immediately above the sharable layer with the sharable layer,
but you cannot merge the sharable layer with an unshared layer beneath it. In a policy where you add a shared
layer that you created in another policy, you can merge the shared layer into an unshared layer immediately
beneath it and the resulting layer is no longer shared; you cannot merge an unshared layer into a shared layer
beneath it.
Shared Layers
A shared layer is a layer you add to your policy after creating the layer in another policy where you allow it
to be shared. A sharable layer is a layer you allow to be shared.
The following figure shows an example master policy where you create the company-wide layer and site-specific
layers for sites A and B, and allow these to be shared. You then add these as shared layers to the policies for
sites A and B.
The company-wide layer in the master policy includes settings applicable to sites A and B. The site-specific
layers include settings specific to each site. For example, in the case of a network analysis policy Site A might
not have web servers on the monitored network and would not require the protection or processing overhead
of the HTTP Inspect preprocessor, but both sites would likely require TCP stream preprocessing. You could
enable TCP stream processing in the company-wide layer that you share with both sites, disable the HTTP
Inspect preprocessor in the site-specific layer that you share with Site A, and enable the HTTP Inspect
preprocessor in the site-specific layer that you share with Site B. By editing configurations in a higher layer
in the site-specific policies, you could also further tune the policy for each site if necessary with any
configuration adjustments.
It is unlikely that the flattened net settings in the example master policy would be useful for monitoring traffic,
but the time saved in configuring and updating the site-specific policies makes this a useful application of
policy layers.
Many other layer configurations are possible. For example, you could define policy layers by company, by
department, by network, or even by user. In the case of an intrusion policy, you could also include advanced
settings in one layer and rule settings in another.
You can allow a user-configurable layer to be shared with other policies of the same type (intrusion or network
analysis). When you modify a configuration within a sharable layer and then commit your changes, the system
updates all policies that share the layer and provides you with a list of all affected policies. You can only
change feature configurations in the policy where you created the layer.
You cannot disable sharing for a layer that you have added to another policy; you must first delete the layer
from the other policy or delete the other policy.
You cannot add a shared layer to a policy when your base policy is a custom policy where the layer you want
to share was created. To do so would give the policy a circular dependency.
In a multidomain deployment, you can add shared layers from ancestor policies to policies in descendant
domains.

1561
Managing Layers
Managing Layers

Admin
Procedure
Step 1 While editing your policy, click Policy Layers in the navigation panel.
Step 2 You can take any of the following management actions on the Policy Layers page:
• Add a shared layer from another policy — Click the add shared layer icon ( ) next to User Layers,
choose the layer from the Add Shared Layer drop-down list, then click OK.
• Add an unshared layer — Click the add layer icon ( ) next to User Layers, enter a Name, and click
OK.
• Add or change the layer description — Click the edit icon ( ) next to the layer, then add or change the
Description.
• Allow a layer to be shared with another policy — Click the edit icon ( ) next to the layer, then clear
the Sharing check box.
• Change the layer name — Click the edit icon ( ) next to the layer, then change the Name.
• Copy a layer — Click the copy icon ( ) for the layer.
• Delete a layer — Click the delete icon ( ) for the layer, then click OK.
• Merge two layers — Click the merge icon ( ) for the upper of the two layers, then click OK.
• Move a layer — Click any open area in the layer summary and drag until the position arrow ( ) points
to a line above or below a layer where you want to move the layer.
Commit Changes.
a different policy.
What to do next
Related Topics

1562
Navigating Layers
Navigating Layers

Admin
Procedure
Step 1 While editing your policy, click Policy Layers in the navigation panel.
Step 2 You can take any of the following actions to navigate through your layers:
• Access a preprocessor or advanced settings page — If you want to access a layer-level preprocessor or
advanced setting configuration page, click the feature name in the row for the layer. Configuration pages
are read-only in the base policy and in shared layers.
• Access a rule page — If you want to access a layer-level rule configuration page filtered by rule state
type, click the icon for drop and generate events ( ), generate events ( ), or disabled ( ) in the
summary for the layer. No rules are displayed if the layer contains no rules set to the selected rule state.
• Display the Policy Information page — If you want to display the Policy Information page, click Policy
Summary in the navigation panel.
• Display a layer summary page — If you want to display the summary page for a layer, click the layer
name in the row for the layer or, alternately, click the edit icon ( ) next to a user layer. You can also
click the view icon ( ) to access the read-only summary page for a shared layer.
Commit Changes.
a different policy.
What to do next
Related Topics
Intrusion Rules in Layers

You can view individual layer settings on the Rules page for the layer, or view the net effect of all settings
on the policy view of the Rules page. When you modify rule settings on the policy view of the Rules page,
you are modifying the highest user-configurable layer in the policy. You can switch to another layer using
the layer drop-down list on any Rules page.
The following table describes the effects of configuring the same type of setting in multiple layers.

1563
Intrusion Rules in Layers
Table 113: Layer Rule Settings
You can set... Of this setting type... To...
one rule state override a rule state set for the rule in a
lower layer, and ignore all thresholds,
suppressions, rate-based rule states, and
alerts for that rule configured in lower
layers.
If you want a rule to inherit its state from
the base policy or a lower layer, set the rule
state to Inherit. Note that when you are
working on the intrusion policy Rules page,
you cannot set a rule state to Inherit because
the intrusion policy Rules page is a
composite view of the net effect of all rule
settings.
one threshold SNMP alert override a setting of the same type for the
rule in a lower layer. Note that setting a
threshold overwrites any existing threshold
for the rule in the layer.
one or more suppression rate-based rule state cumulatively combine settings of the same
type for each selected rule down to the first
layer where a rule state is set for the rule.
Settings below the layer where a rule state
is set are ignored.
one or more comment add a comment to a rule. Comments are

rule-specific, not policy- or layer-specific.
You can add one or more comments to a
rule in any layer.
For example, if you set a rule state to Drop and Generate Events in one layer and to Disabled in a higher layer,
the intrusion policy Rules page shows that the rule is disabled.
In another example, if you set a source-based suppression for a rule to 192.168.1.1 in one layer, and you also
set a destination-based suppression for the rule to 192.168.1.2 in another layer, the Rules page shows that the
cumulative effect is to suppress events for the source address 192.168.1.1 and the destination address
192.168.1.2. Note that suppression and rate-based rule state settings cumulatively combine settings of the
same type for each selected rule down to the first layer where a rule state is set for the rule. Settings below
the layer where a rule state is set are ignored.
Color-coding on each Rules page for a specific layer indicates whether the effective state is in a higher, lower,
or the current layer, as follows:
• red—the effective state is in a higher layer
• yellow—the effective state is in a lower layer
• unshaded—the effective state is in the current layer

1564
Configuring Intrusion Rules in Layers
Because the intrusion policy Rules page is a composite view of the net effect of all rule settings, rule states
are not color-coded on this page.
Configuring Intrusion Rules in Layers


Admin
In an intrusion policy, you can set the rule state, event filtering, dynamic state, alerting, and rule comments
for a rule in any user-configurable layer. After accessing the layer where you want to make your changes,
you add settings on the Rules page for the layer the same as you would on the intrusion policy Rules page.
Procedure
Step 1 While editing your intrusion policy, expand Policy Layers in the navigation panel.
Step 2 Expand the policy layer you want to modify.
Step 3 Click Rules immediately beneath the policy layer you want to modify.
Step 4 Modify any of the settings described in Tuning Intrusion Policies Using Rules, on page 1579.
Tip To delete an individual setting from an editable layer, double-click the rule message on the Rules
page for the layer to display rule details. Click Delete next to the setting you want to delete, then
click OK twice.
Commit Changes.
a different policy.
What to do next
Related Topics
Removing Rule Settings from Multiple Layers


Admin
You can simultaneously remove a specific type of event filter, dynamic state, or alerting from multiple layers
in your intrusion policy. The system removes the selected setting and copies the remaining settings for the
rule to the highest editable layer in the policy.

1565
Removing Rule Settings from Multiple Layers
The system removes the setting type downward through each layer where it is set until it removes all the
settings or encounters a layer where a rule state is set for the rule. In the latter case, it removes the setting
from that layer and stops removing the setting type.
When the system encounters the setting type in a shared layer or in the base policy, and if the highest layer
in the policy is editable, the system copies the remaining settings and rule state for the rule to that editable
layer. Otherwise, if the highest layer in the policy is a shared layer, the system creates a new editable layer
above the shared layer and copies the remaining settings and rule state for the rule to that editable layer.
Note Removing rule settings derived from a shared layer or the base policy causes any changes to this rule from
lower layers or the base policy to be ignored. To stop ignoring changes from lower layers or the base policy,
set the rule state to Inherit on the summary page for the topmost layer.
Procedure
Step 1 While editing your intrusion policy, click Rules immediately beneath Policy Information in the navigation
panel.
Tip You can also choose Policy from the layer drop-down list on the Rules page for any layer, or click
Manage Rules on the Policy Information page.
Step 2 Choose the rule or rules from which you want to remove multiple settings:
• Choose specific — If you want to choose specific rules, check the check box next to each rule.
• Choose all — If you want to choose all the rules in the current list, check the check box at the top of the
column.
Step 3 Choose one of the following options:

• Event Filtering > Remove Thresholds
• Event Filtering > Remove Suppressions
• Dynamic State > Remove Rate-Based Rule States
• Alerting > Remove SNMP Alerts
Note Removing rule settings derived from a shared layer or the base policy causes any changes to
this rule from lower layers or the base policy to be ignored. To stop ignoring changes from
lower layers or the base policy, set the rule state to Inherit on the summary page for the topmost
layer.
Step 4 Click OK.

Commit Changes.
a different policy.

1566
Accepting Rule Changes from a Custom Base Policy
What to do next
Related Topics
Accepting Rule Changes from a Custom Base Policy


Admin
When a custom network analysis or intrusion policy where you have not added layers uses another custom
policy as its base policy, you must set a rule to inherit its rule state if:
• you delete an event filter, dynamic state, or SNMP alert that is set for the rule in the base policy, and
• you want the rule to accept subsequent changes that you make to it in the other custom policy that you
use as your base policy
Procedure
Step 1 While editing your intrusion policy, expand Policy Layers in the navigation panel.
Step 2 Expand My Changes.
Step 3 Click the Rules link immediately beneath My Changes.
Step 4 Choose the rule or rules whose settings you want to accept. You have the following choices:
• Choose specific rules — If you want to choose specific rules, check the check box next to each rule.
• Choose all rules — If you want to choose all the rules in the current list, check the check box at the top
of the column.
Step 5 Choose Inherit from the Rule State drop-down list.

Commit Changes.
a different policy.
What to do next
Related Topics

1567
Preprocessors and Advanced Settings in Layers
Preprocessors and Advanced Settings in Layers

You use similar mechanisms to configure preprocessors in a network analysis policy and advanced settings
in an intrusion policy. You can enable and disable preprocessors on the network analysis Settings page and
intrusion policy advanced settings on the intrusion policy Advanced Settings page. These pages also provide
summaries of th

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Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.

CHAPTER 1 Getting Started With Firepower 1

PART I Your User Account 15

CHAPTER 2 Logging into the Firepower System 17

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

CHAPTER 3 Specifying User Preferences 31

CHAPTER 4 User Accounts for Management Access 39

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Add an Internal User Account 43

Add a RADIUS External Authentication Object 56

PART II Firepower System Management 71

CHAPTER 5 Licensing the Firepower System 73

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Smart Software Manager 78

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

CHAPTER 6 System Software Updates 117

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Configure Recurring Intrusion Rule Updates 126

CHAPTER 7 Backup and Restore 133

CHAPTER 8 Configuration Import and Export 143

CHAPTER 9 Task Scheduling 149

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Automating 7000 & 8000 Series Device Backups 151

CHAPTER 10 FMC Database Purge 169

CHAPTER 11 Firepower Management Center High Availability 171

Hardware Requirements 172

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

AMP Cloud Connections and Malware Information 174

CHAPTER 12 Device Management Basics 191

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Deleting Devices from the Firepower Management Center 199

Creating an SNMP Trap for Firepower 2100 214

Creating an SNMP User for Firepower 2100 215

PART III System Monitoring and Troubleshooting 217

CHAPTER 13 Dashboards 219

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

The Appliance Information Widget 222

CHAPTER 14 Health Monitoring 241

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Creating Health Policies 249

CHAPTER 15 Monitoring the System 269

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Executables and System Utilities 274

CHAPTER 16 Troubleshooting the System 281

PART IV Deployment Management 297

CHAPTER 17 Domain Management 299

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Creating New Domains 303

CHAPTER 18 Policy Management 307

CHAPTER 19 Rule Management: Common Characteristics 325

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

VLAN Conditions 335

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Guidelines for Avoiding Intrusion Policy Proliferation 361

CHAPTER 20 Reusable Objects 365

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Creating Time Range Objects 384

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Editing SHA-256 Values in File Lists 414

Firepower Management Center Configuration Guide, Version 6.2.3

Configure IPv4 Prefix List 437

FTD IPsec Proposals 450

CHAPTER 21 Firepower Threat Defense Certificate-Based Authentication 465