Juniper SRX Tips :: Altering Default-Deny Behavior

In our previous article, we looked at using apply-groups to alter all the security policies uniformly on an SRX device such that they would all have an implicit logging statement. And while this is fine for all existing policies, it doesn't log traffic which doesn't match any explicitly defined security policy.

The reason for this is due to the fact that in Junos, traffic which doesn't match an explicitly defined security policy matches against the default-deny policy.  However, given the fact that the default-deny policy is implicitly defined, apply-group configurations are of little benefit as apply-groups can only be inherited by those elements which have been explicitly defined.

Often in these cases, administrators will simply choose to create their own deny policies with the desired options and place this deny policy as the last policy for traffic going from one zone to another. However, in instances where there are many zones, it might prove too cumbersome and time consuming to manually configure this to accommodate all zones.

Clearly it would be more beneficial to have something akin to the Global Zone in ScreenOS which can be used to match on all traffic which doesn't match against any of Continue reading

Juniper SRX Tips :: Uniform Security Policy Modification

Often there are instances where we want to affect all security policies configured on an SRX device.  For example, let's say that we have thousands of policies configured on our firewall, and we want to enable logging for every single policy.  Obviously this would take some time if we were to do this manually on each and every individual policy, so an easier way is desired.

In ScreenOS we have the concept of a Global zone which acts as a container encompassing all zones, but to date, Junos does not support a similar functionality on the SRX. Furthermore, the Global zone doesn't affect existing policies but rather is way to apply a consistent policy to all Inter-zone and Intra-zone traffic that doesn't match any of the existing policies.

However, despite all of this, there is in fact a methodology we can use to uniformly modify all of the existing security policies on our box, in a manner that is actually much more powerful than what is accomplished in ScreenOS with the Global zone.

Let's take a look.  First, let's say we have some policies that we would like to enable logging on:

root@ce-1# show security policies
 Continue reading

A Primer on IP/IPv6 Mobility

At the end of my Senior Design sequence, a professor asked if I had time to look into IPv6 Mobility. At the time, I had to tell him no, since it was considered to be out of scope for the project. It’s a shame really - the concept of IP Mobility in general is extremely fascinating. I’d like to point out that IP Mobility is well-documented technology - and I’d rather not spend a lot of time explaining it, since I’m sure there are articles out there that do a much better job.

A Primer on IP/IPv6 Mobility

At the end of my Senior Design sequence, a professor asked if I had time to look into IPv6 Mobility. At the time, I had to tell him no, since it was considered to be out of scope for the project. It’s a shame really - the concept of IP Mobility in general is extremely fascinating. I’d like to point out that IP Mobility is well-documented technology - and I’d rather not spend a lot of time explaining it, since I’m sure there are articles out there that do a much better job.

What Does The Cloud Mean To Your Network?

If you're an IT professional you've probably been hearing a lot about cloud computing lately. I know I've sat through a number of seminars and sales pitches where people have been touting public cloud services on the merits of lower cost, reducing infrastructure and quicker implementation of services. However, I've noticed that almost none of these presentations discuss the increased reliance on Internet connectivity. With all the focus on the benefits of cloud computing, it's easy to forget that there has to be a trade-off. In order to offer reliable, quality access to public cloud services, your Internet connectivity likely needs some tuning.

JNCIE Tips from the Field :: Summarization Made Easy

Today we'll start with a series of articles covering tips and techniques that might be utilized by JNCIE candidates, whether pursuing the JNCIE-SP, JNCIE-ENT, or even the JNCIE-SEC.  The tips and techniques I will be covering might prove to be useful during a lab attempt but could also be used in real-world scenarios to save time and minimize configuration burden in addition to eliminating mistakes that might otherwise be made.  I want everyone to understand that what I am about to write is simply a technique.  I am not divulging any materials or topics which are covered under NDA.

NOTE: For full disclosure, I must reveal that I am an employee of Juniper Networks in their Education Services department.  As such, I take the responsibility of protecting the content and integrity of the exam as well as the certification credentials very seriously.  I would never reveal anything which would allow a candidate to have in-depth knowledge of any specific topics or questions that may appear on the exam.  Not only that, I worked REALLY, REALLY hard to achieve my JNCIE certifications, and I believe everyone else should too! It's certainly more rewarding that way too don't you think?!

So Continue reading

Day One Guide: Junos Tips, Techniques, and Templates 2011

small-junos-tips-2011I am happy to announce that Juniper has just released a new Day One Guide entitled "Junos Tips, Techniques, and Templates 2011". For this particular Day One Guide, Juniper Networks Books and J-Net joined forces and requested the best and brightest Junos tips and techniques from the Junos user community.  In fact, the book was created after a thorough selection process which included reviewing over 300 submitted tips by over 100 individuals on the J-Net community boards at forums.juniper.net.

I am honored that Juniper accepted my contributions and decided to include them in this guide.  My contribution "Automatically Allow Configured BGP Peers in a Loopback Firewall Filter" covers how to configure a Junos prefix-list in conjunction with the apply-path features to parse a configuration and then dynamically build a list of matching prefixes for use in a firewall filter.

Outside of my meager contribution, this guide is chock full of dozens of useful tips and techniques and is an indispensable guide for anyone involved in managing Juniper platforms on a daily basis.

Junos Tips, Techniques, and Templates 2011 can be ordered on Amazon in hardcopy or Kindle edition, and is also available as a free download in PDF format. Enjoy!

Post to Twitter Post to Delicious Post to Digg Post to Facebook Post to Google Buzz Send Gmail Post to LinkedIn Post to Slashdot Post to Technorati

Securely Wipe Your Hard Drive the Quick and Dirty Way

We’ve all heard about tools like Darik’s Boot and Nuke for performing secure hard drive wipes suitable for even the most paranoid. However, in a pinch, there’s an alternative that often goes overlooked, but is able to erase data at a level comparable to all the usual standards like DoD (or even the incredibly obnoxious 35-pass Guttmann method) The ‘shred’ utility exists on nearly every popular Linux live CD/DVD and can be executed in a live environment to do the job when it’s all you have.

Securely Wipe Your Hard Drive the Quick and Dirty Way

We’ve all heard about tools like Darik’s Boot and Nuke for performing secure hard drive wipes suitable for even the most paranoid. However, in a pinch, there’s an alternative that often goes overlooked, but is able to erase data at a level comparable to all the usual standards like DoD (or even the incredibly obnoxious 35-pass Guttmann method) The ‘shred’ utility exists on nearly every popular Linux live CD/DVD and can be executed in a live environment to do the job when it’s all you have.

Network 2.0: Virtualization without Limits

So the theme of the day is Network Virtualization, Software defined networks and taking virtualization to its logical conclusion i.e. server, storage and network in a giant resource pool that can be allocated/assigned any which way. Although its easier said then done. Server and Storage virtualization were a bit simpler since we were dealing with one OS that needed to provide the right abstraction layer. The H/W resource pool (disk, cpu, network, memory, etc) was managed by the single OS so provisioning it between various virtual machines or storage pool was a bit simpler. The network by definition is useful only when multiple devices are connected and trying to treat them as a single resource pool is harder. A virtual networks has to deal with not just links, bandwidth, latency and queues but also
higher level functionality like routing, load balancing, firewalling, DNS, DHCP, VPN, etc. etc. And we haven’t even talked about how this all will hook up together along with virtual machines and virtual storage pool in a easy manner. Now before you argue that every component is already virtualized (which is very true), one could argue that it still doesn’t give me a virtual network. It Continue reading

Net-SNMP 5.6.1 Missing hrSystemProcesses OID

I just upgraded a couple of machines to OpenBSD 4.9 and noticed the hrSystemProcesses OID was not being returned by Net-SNMP 5.6.1 (from the 4.9 ports/packages collection) . joel@theta:~% snmpwalk -v2c -c public theta .1.3.6.1.2.1.25.1.6.0 SNMPv2-SMI::mib-2.25.1.6.0 = No Such Instance currently exists at this OID I know for sure this worked on OpenBSD 4.8/Net-SNMP 5.4.2.1. Turns out there is a bug in Net-SNMP 5.6.1 (bug 3166568) that's causing this. It's been fixed in their SVN tree.

Introduction to OpenFlow

Ah - I can finally breathe a sigh of relief, for I am finally done with my Senior Design sequence, as well as my undergraduate education. I’ve been feeling a little out of place, actually, since I’ve been in research mode for the last 9 months for my IPv6 project. So, after a short break, I decided to get back into things that I was just getting started with before all of that started.

Introduction to OpenFlow

Ah - I can finally breathe a sigh of relief, for I am finally done with my Senior Design sequence, as well as my undergraduate education. I’ve been feeling a little out of place, actually, since I’ve been in research mode for the last 9 months for my IPv6 project. So, after a short break, I decided to get back into things that I was just getting started with before all of that started.

Next Generation Mesh Networks

 

The proper design of a network infrastructure should allow for a number of key traits that are very desirable in an overall network design. First, the infrastructure needs to provide redundancy and resiliency without a single point of failure. Second, the infrastructure must be scalable in both geographic reach as well as bandwidth and throughput capacity.

Ideally, as one facet of the network is improved, such as resiliency; it should also improve on bandwidth and throughput capacity as well. Certain technologies work on the premise of an active/standby method. In this manner, there is one primary active link – all other links are in a standby state that will only become active upon the primary links failure. Examples of this kind of approach are 802.1d spanning tree and its descendants rapid and multiple spanning trees in the layer 2 domain and non-equal cost distance vector routing technologies such as RIP.

While these technologies do provide resiliency and redundancy they do so at the assumption that half of the network infrastructure is unusable and that a state of failure needs to occur in order to leverage those resources. As a result, it becomes highly desirable to implement active/active resiliency Continue reading

The Importance of Networking

Networking is constantly being promoted throughout a huge range of industries, and is generally being seen as more valuable than ever before. However, all too often, it can be swept under the carpet. Those of us who work with technical industries can be particularly prone to not making the most of our networking opportunities. However, […]
Related posts:
  1. Cisco or Juniper, Which one should I choose?
  2. The Ongoing Internet Core Routing Race
  3. How to select your core routers?
YARPP powered by AdBistro
Powered by
1 … 3,848 3,849 3,850 3,851 3,852 … 3,858