Next Generation Network Security Guide -...

Next Generation Network Security Guide

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Deploying network security devices: Tips to avoid failed deployments

Evaluating network security virtualization products

Software-defined networking: Exploring SDN security pros and cons

This expert e-guide explores the latest challenges in network security. First, learn how to deploy network security devices and how to avoid deployment failures. Next, get tips for evaluating network security virtualization products. Finally, explore the pros and cons of software-defined networking. Deploying network security devices: Tips to avoid failed deployments

Deploying network security devices: Tips to avoid failed deployments John Burke, SearchSecurity.com Contributor

The enterprise is exploding! Bits of it are winding up on mobile phones and

tablets and dangling from Internet connections -- used as WAN links -- in the

corner Starbucks and on Amtrak's Acela Express trains.

This concept of the extended enterprise -- in which sensitive and valuable

data often resides outside the traditional network perimeter -- poses an

increasingly vexing problem for IT security organizations. To secure an

organization against multi-modal and low-and-slow adaptive persistent

threats, IT organizations are deploying a dizzying array of new network

security devices: next-generation firewalls; IDS and IPS boxes; security

information event management, or SIEM, systems; and advanced threat-

detection systems. Ideally, these systems are managed in concert, in

accordance with a central security policy, as part of a pervasive protection

strategy.

Common mistakes that organizations make when deploying these devices

can severely hinder their ability to offer pervasive protection, however. This

tip examines what to watch out for when planning the deployment of new

network security devices and how to avoid the problems that can result in

failed defense-in-depth.

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Unlearn assumptions about security appliances The single biggest mistake is to assume that security appliances are

themselves secure. This seems too obvious for words, but it's critical as a

starting point. How secure is that "hardened" OS? How current is it? What

about that "ultra-hardened" Web server it runs?

Before you do anything else, create a test plan to validate that your network

security devices are actually secure. Start with the basics: Are you delivering

timely upgrades, patches and bug fixes to individual devices and to their

supporting network, server and storage infrastructure? Check with

clearinghouses such as the National Vulnerability Database that maintain

current catalogues of known vulnerabilities, and make sure you regularly

upgrade and patch your devices.

Then move on to the harder stuff: regularly assess multi-device

configurations for potential weaknesses. Putting an encryption system and

application delivery optimization (ADO) device in the wrong sequence can

leave data exposed, even when each device is working perfectly. This

process can work in concert with regularly-scheduled penetration (pen) tests.

Evaluate how you work with network security devices For any security device, the management/control channel is the greatest

vulnerability. So pay attention to how you expect to configure and modify the

security device -- and to who is allowed to do the configuration. If you expect

to work with a security system via a Web browser, the security appliance is

running a Web server and allowing Web traffic. Is that traffic encrypted? Is it

on a standard port? Is it on the same port on every device (and, therefore,

guessable by an intruder)? Is it accessible via a regular network connection

(in-band) or a separate management network connection (out-of-band)? If it

is in-band, then any machine that can send traffic across that interface can

attack that appliance. If it is on a management network, at least, you only

have to worry about the other things on that network. (And if it's configured

via a serial port connection and a KVM solution, so much the better.)

Your optimal scenario: Ensure that all configuration changes require

encryption and multifactor authentication, if not direct physical access to the

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device. And tightly track and control credentials for device administration so

that only authorized users can gain admin rights.

Apply standard pen testing tools If you've taken the first two steps, you're off to a good start -- but you're not

home free. Hacks, assaults and threat vectors constantly grow and evolve,

and you need to regularly test your systems to ensure they're protected

against recognized attacks, not just vulnerabilities.

What's the difference between an attack and a vulnerability? An attack is an

organized effort to exploit vulnerabilities. System vulnerabilities make an

attack possible, but the existence of the attack raises the stakes -- the exploit

has moved from the hypothetical to the real.

Pen testing tools and services will tell you if your network security devices

are vulnerable to attacks. Open source tools and frameworks -- Network

Mapper, or Nmap, Nikto, Open Vulnerability Assessment System (OpenVAS)

and Metasploit, for example -- have been around for many years. And, of

course, there are multitudes of commercial tools from the likes of McAfee (an

appliance to scan your appliance!) and Qualys.

These tools are widely used to map out the ports on which a network device

will respond to network traffic; record its responses to standard test packets;

and with OpenVAS and Metasploit, test its vulnerability to common attacks

(more kinds with the commercial versions).

Other pen testing tools specifically focus on Web servers and applications,

such as OWASP Zed Attack Proxy, or ZAP, and Arachni. By applying

standard tools and techniques, and identifying vulnerabilities in security

appliances -- SQL injection attacks via a management Web interface, for

example -- you can build a clear picture of how the network security devices

themselves need to be protected.

Mitigate the risks when deploying network security devices Nothing is perfect and no system is invulnerable. Failing to take the proper

precautions when deploying and configuring new network security devices

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will introduce more risk into the environment. Take appropriate measures to

protect the appliances that will defend the rest of your infrastructure,

including commonsense precautions that often get overlooked:

Change default passwords and account names.

Disable unneeded services and accounts.

Make sure underlying OSes and systems software are patched and

up to date with manufacturer specs.

Restrict access to the administrative interfaces of management

networks; if that's not possible, use ACLs on upstream devices

(switches and routers) to restrict where management sessions can

originate.

Revisit pen testing regularly, as attacks evolve. Tools such as

OpenVAS and Metasploit have advanced to keep up, and the library

of exploits they can use grows steadily.

The bottom line? Having a pervasive protection strategy is just the beginning.

To protect devices and data in today's increasingly perimeter-less world, you

need three things: a pervasive protection strategy, the tools and technologies

to implement the strategy -- and the policies and processes for ensuring

those tools and technologies work in concert to maximize protection. All

policies and processes need to take into account both the vulnerability of the

network security devices themselves (individually and in concert), as well as

the ever-changing landscape of attacks and threat vectors that exploit those

vulnerabilities.

About the author: John Burke is a principal research analyst at Nemertes Research, where he

advises key enterprise and vendor clients, conducts and analyzes primary

research, and writes thought-leadership pieces across a wide variety of

topics. John leads research on virtual enterprise, focusing primarily on the

virtual and mobile desktop, application delivery optimization, and

management and orchestration tools for the virtualized data center and the

cloud.

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Evaluating network security virtualization products Dave Shackleford, SearchSecurity.com Contributor

Along with business units' and IT operations' steady push to virtualize data

center servers and components comes a new conundrum for security

professionals: how best to maintain adequate controls inside the virtual

environment.

Fortunately, there is now a new breed of mature network security options that

encompass virtualization, with enhanced features that rival those of their

physical counterparts. In this tip, we'll review key factors to consider when

evaluating network security virtualization products.

The first step (and arguably the most important one) in the evaluation

process is to determine which security virtualization products would be a

good fit for you and your organization. The following specific points can help

to determine this:

Cost. Cost is primarily a factor when weighing whether to replace

existing network security technology that likely has limited or no

virtualization security capabilities or augment or replace it with new

virtual technology. Many vendors have pricing models for virtual

platforms that license per hypervisor, per a certain number of virtual

machines or per CPU. This may not only result in applying a totally

different formula for evaluating the cost of the product, but also the

incurrence of additional costs as virtualization use increases over

time.

Vendor viability. As with any vendor, make sure you do your

homework. Some suppliers are more viable than others, and you

should talk to their existing customers to see what they think of both

the product and their relationship with the vendor. It's wise to scan

the recent headlines for any news pertaining to vendors' executive

leadership changes, funding announcements or acquisition rumors.

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Native integration with hypervisor platforms. In looking at more

technical considerations, most virtual security vendors focus on

VMware as the market leader, but more technology companies

support Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix, KVM, and other platforms as well.

If your organization has chosen a single virtualization platform

vendor, then the security vendor evaluation process becomes easier;

if several different virtualization platforms exist, then multiplatform

support is a must.

Management capabilities. Consider whether the virtual network

appliance is easy to manage, whether it integrates into existing

security consoles, what type of remote access is available (SSH, for

example) and whether the system provides granular role-based

access.

Performance impact and scalability. How much RAM and other

resources does the virtual network appliance require? What are the

average peak usage scenarios? Vendors should be able to supply

some of this information.

Architecture flexibility. How many virtual NICs/ports can the virtual

firewall support? What kinds of rules are supported and at which

protocol stack layers?

Virtualization-specific features. What features are available to help

control and protect virtual assets, ranging from the hypervisors to

VMs?

Speaking of features, there are a number that are good to look for,

depending on the type of virtual firewall, switch or gateway you are interested

in. One of the most important is API extensibility, allowing integration with

orchestration platforms, automation environments and other vendors'

products. Many virtual firewalls today offer stateful inspection, intrusion

detection capabilities, anti-malware features, and configuration and patch

assessment and monitoring for the virtual infrastructure. Ensure the platform

can perform both intra-VM (internal flows on the hypervisor) and inter-VM

(between virtual machines and external networks) monitoring and filtering.

Deep integration with the hypervisor environment, preferably at the kernel

level, will improve performance and reduce overhead, as well. The ability to

identify, monitor and control virtualization-specific traffic and dynamic VM

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migration operations like vMotion should also be a priority when choosing

one of these solutions.

Many security virtualization options exist today, from both well-known

vendors and startups. Juniper Networks offers its vGW (vGateway) series of

virtual appliances, Cisco Systems has the Nexus 1000v virtual switch and

ASA 1000v virtual firewall, and 5Nine Security Manager for Hyper-V offers

anti-malware and traffic access controls for Microsoft environments. Most

IDS/IPS vendors have virtual models, as well, including Sourcefire, McAfee,

TippingPoint and others.


Software-defined networking: Exploring SDN security pros and cons Matthew Pascucci

In the technology industry, hype is a constant. This is no different with the up-

and-coming technology of software-defined networks. In this case, however,

the hype is justified: SDN could change the network security landscape as

we know it.

Over the past couple of years, software-defined networking (SDN) has

developed from merely an idea to a paradigm that large networking vendors

are not only embracing, but also talking up as their model for future

enterprise network management. This technology adds greater granularity,

dynamics and manageability to networking, but brings up other concerns that

should be seen from a security perspective.

In this tip, we'll explain what SDN is and explore the network security pros

and cons that enterprise networking and security pros need to know.

A definition of software-defined networking To understand a few of the security benefits and downfalls of software-

defined networking, let's take a quick tour of the technology. Software-

defined networking is the ability to split the data plane from the control plane

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in routers and switches. The control plane, which has historically been

proprietary and known only to the vendors that developed them, would be

open and controlled centrally with SDN while having commands and logic

sent back down to the data planes of the hardware (routers or switches).

This provides a view of the entire network and affords the ability to make

changes centrally without a device-centric configuration on each router or

switch. The ability to manage the control planes through open protocols such

as the OpenFlow standard allows for precise changes to networks or devices

that will increase the speed and security of the network.

SDN security benefits Like everything else, there will be both benefits and concerns when

implementing new technology. Let's review some of the benefits of software-

defined networking:

By having the free-moving network of SDN, engineers are able to

change the rules by having a quick, high-level view into all areas of

the network and being able to modify the network.

This freedom and control also allows for better security of your

systems. By having the ability to quickly limit and see inside the

network from a centralized viewpoint, managers can make changes

with efficiency. For example, if there were a malware outbreak within

your network, with SDN and OpenFlow you'd be able to quickly limit

the outbreak from one centralized control plane that would stop the

traffic without having to access multiple routers or switches.

Being able to quickly change things in the network enables

managers to perform traffic shaping and QoS of packets in a more

secure matter. This ability exists now, but the speed and efficiency

doesn't exist and will limit the manager's ability when attempting to

secure the network.

SDN security concerns With innovative new technology come security concerns that could

easily go overlooked. Let's take a look at a few security-related issues to be

aware of when implementing SDN. The majority of software-defined

networking security concerns are going to evolve around the controller itself.

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The controller can be considered the brains of the switching/routing, which

allows the control panel from each system to be centrally managed.

The largest SDN challenge for security managers is securing the controller at

all costs. Now that the brains have been taken out of the routers or switches

and replaced with the new controller, this device needs to be hardened and

secured through the following steps:

Knowing and auditing who has access to the controller and where it

resides on the network is a big security concern. It's important to

remember that access to the controller could potentially give

complete control to an attacker, so it's vital that it is secured.

Verify the security between the controller and end nodes (routers or

switches) -- specifically that they're communicating over SSL to

prevent any malicious intent from accessing the controller. As with

anything else, if security isn't baked in from the start, it must be

added later on, and it's always more difficult and expensive to do it

that way. Make sure the security between the node and controller is

configured properly.

Verify that there is high availability in the controllers. Creating a

business continuity effort for controllers is important because if they

are lost, the ability to manage the network is also lost -- and

consequently, so are all the benefits of SDN and OpenFlow.

Verify that everything that comes out of the system is logged. Since

managers have control over the network centrally, log every change

made and send it to the company's log management solution.

When implementing SDN, verify that the organization's SIEM, IPS

and any other filtering technology that might block or log changes is

updated accordingly. Correlate the logs from the SIEM to alert the

manager of changes. Tracking custom events with the SIEM on the

control, like login failures and policy changes, will assist with the

security of the system.

Verify that the IPS isn't identifying any of this traffic as malicious.

Configure the appropriate rules in the filtering systems to allow the

controller to speak with the nodes when needed.

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In conclusion, software-defined networking is an emerging technology that

can allow for granular security by giving an administrator a complete view of

the enterprise network. However, by giving the SDN controller centralized

management over network nodes to push down changes to these systems, it

becomes imperative that the security around this system is locked down.

This system is the brains of SDN, and without proper security wrapped

around it, the network becomes completely vulnerable to malicious attacks or

accidental changes, both of which can take a network down. Now is the time

for organizations to ensure that security is a primary consideration in the

design, deployment and management of SDNs.

About the author Matthew Pascucci is senior information security engineer at a large retail

company where he leads the threat and vulnerability management program.

He has written for various information security publications and spoken for

many industry companies, and is heavily involved with

his local InfraGard chapter. You can follow him on Twitter

@matthewpascucci or check out his blog at www.frontlinesentinel.com.

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