Palo Alto How to Block Specific URLs?

Palo Alto How to Block Specific URLs?

When working with Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs), you may come across situations where you need to block specific websites. In this blog post, we'll explore how to block specific sites using a Palo Alto firewall. There are two ways to achieve this, and we'll cover both options.

Palo Alto Allow Access To Certain URLs Matching A Blocked URL Category
If you use URL filtering on your Palo Alto firewalls, you may come across situations where a specific URL category is set to block, but you need to allow certain sites.
Palo Alto How to Block Specific URLs?PacketswitchSuresh Vina
Palo Alto How to Block Specific URLs?

A Quick Recap on URL Filtering

This blog post assumes you have some familiarity with URL filtering. In a typical setup, you create a URL Filtering profile, configure the categories to allow or block, and attach this profile to your security policies.

Depending on your security requirements, you might block entire categories such as gambling, terrorism, or proxy sites. However, there are times when you only need to block specific sites rather than an entire category.

In this blog post, we'll use cnn.com and samsung.com as examples (no hard feelings toward them, these were just the first sites that came to mind, haha 🙂).

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Please Continue reading

New IPv6 Documentation Prefix

After three and a half years of haggling (the IETF draft that became the RFC was written in May 2021; the original discussions go back to 2013), Nick Buraglio & co managed to persuade pontificators bikeshedding in the v6ops working group that we might need an IPv6 documentation prefix larger than the existing 2001:db8::/32.

With the new documentation prefix (3fff::/20) (defined in RFC 9637), there’s absolutely no excuse to use public IPv6 address space in examples anymore.

HN763: You Too Can Say ‘Yes’ to Packet Analysis

Packet capture and packet analysis is incredibly useful for problem-solving and troubleshooting. Analyzing packets is also a difficult skill to master. With the incredible array of network troubleshooting tools at our disposal, including emerging networking models for artificial intelligence, do we still need to fuss around with Wireshark in 2025? Our guest Chris Greer says... Read more »

Weekend Reads 011025


Wi-Fi 8 is coming, but it looks set to focus on greater reliability rather than on pushing the bandwidth ever higher, as the most recent updates to the venerable wireless local network technology have done.


Policymakers need to carefully guide the future consumption of electricity by AI datacenters, according to a report that considers four potential scenarios and suggests a number of guiding principles to prevent it from spiraling out of control.


In one of the quiet announcements that might eventually be a huge deal, the FCC voted to open the entire 6 GHz WiFi frequency band to very low-power devices (VLP – just in case you needed another new acronym to remember).


Gaining a clear view of the DDoS landscape is vital for developing effective countermeasures against this prolific form of attack. A new study, carried out through collaboration between researchers from several institutions, helps bring DDoS into perspective.


Salt Typhoon’s latest victims include Charter, Consolidated, and Windstream, underscoring the widening scope of China’s cyberespionage campaign against critical US infrastructure.

TNO012: From Hardware to Cloud: Evolving Roles for Network Operators

Cloud networking is still networking, but there are differences. In this special collaboration episode between the Total Network Operations and Cloud Gambit podcasts, Scott Robohn, Eyvonne Sharp, and William Collins dive into the contrasts between traditional and cloud networking, and how network engineers raised on hardware and the CLI can flourish in cloudy environments. In... Read more »

Technology Short Take 185

Welcome to Technology Short Take #185, the first of 2025! I’m excited for the opportunity to continue to bring readers articles and links of interest across data center- and cloud-related technologies (along with some original content along the way). I had originally intended for this post to be my last post of 2024, but personal challenges got in the way. Enough of that, though—on to the content!

Networking

Servers/Hardware

Security

Palo Alto Allow Access To Certain URLs Matching A Blocked URL Category

Palo Alto Allow Access To Certain URLs Matching A Blocked URL Category

If you use URL filtering on your Palo Alto firewalls, you may come across situations where a specific URL category is set to block, but you need to allow certain sites. For example, you might block the 'social networking' category but still want to allow access to Facebook. Similarly, you may block 'newly registered domains,' but need immediate access to a site categorized as such. While you can request Palo Alto to re-categorize the site, sometimes you need a quicker solution.

In this blog post, we'll look at how to allow access to specific URLs that match a blocked URL category. There are two ways to achieve this, and I’ll cover both.

A Quick Recap on URL Filtering

This blog post assumes you have some familiarity with URL filtering. In a typical setup, you create a URL Filtering profile, configure the categories to allow or block, and attach this profile to your security policies. For instance, if you block the 'proxy-avoidance' category and try to access a site like expressvpn.com, the traffic will be blocked.

Palo Alto Allow Access To Certain URLs Matching A Blocked URL Category

To demonstrate this, I'll set the 'proxy-avoidance' category to block. This means that if I try to access expressvpn.com, it will be blocked. Continue reading

XtendISE Key Features – Simplifying Cisco ISE Management

XtendISE Key Features - Simplifying Cisco ISE Management

XtendISE is a user-friendly web application integrated with Cisco ISE and designed to simplify daily tasks and common challenges related to 802.1X without requiring extensive training on Cisco ISE. XtendISE helps manage MAC addresses, troubleshoot 802.1X authentication issues, and simplify the management of switch 802.1X configurations. It also validates configurations to ensure they are set up correctly and as intended.

We covered the basics of XtendISE in a previous article linked below. In this blog post, we will explore in detail three key features that XtendISE offers.

  • MAC address management
  • Enhanced Troubleshooting Capabilities
  • Configuration and Auditing of the network access devices
How XtendISE Helps with 802.1X Management in ISE?
XtendISE is a simple web application connected to your Cisco ISE, which helps with everyday routine tasks and common challenges related to 802.1X without the need to train everyone in Cisco ISE.
XtendISE Key Features - Simplifying Cisco ISE ManagementPacketswitchSuresh Vina
XtendISE Key Features - Simplifying Cisco ISE Management
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Disclaimer - XtendISE sponsors my blog, and this is a sponsored post. However, I had the final say on the content and personally liked their product.

Mac Address Management

Typically, when a device doesn’t support 802.1X, we collect its MAC address and add it to a specific group in Continue reading

netlab 1.9.3: MLAG, Static Routes, Node Cloning

netlab release 1.9.3 brings these new features:

Other new features include:

Read more …

N4N008: What Is a Default Gateway?

Today’s topic is the default gateway, essential for routing traffic between networks. We explain its purpose, configuration, and the consequences of incorrect settings. Using home networks as an example, Ethan and Holly illustrate how default gateways enable devices to communicate with external networks. The discussion also covers routing tables, subnet masks, and the differences between... Read more »

Configuring IP Addresses Won’t Make You an Expert

A friend of mine recently wrote a nice post explaining how netlab helped him set up a large network topology in a reasonably short timeframe. As expected, his post attracted a wide variety of comments, from “netlab is a gamechanger” (thank you 😎) to “I prefer traditional labs.” Instead of writing a bunch of replies into a walled-garden ecosystem, I decided to address some of those concerns in a public place.

Let’s start with:

Read more …

How Calico Network Threat Detection Works

In today’s cloud-native environments, network security is more complex than ever, with Kubernetes and containerized workloads introducing unique challenges. Traditional tools struggle to monitor and secure these dynamic, interconnected systems, leaving organizations vulnerable to advanced threats, such as lateral movement, zero-day exploits, ransomware, data exfiltration, and more.

Network threat detection identifies malicious or suspicious activity within network traffic by using rules and analyzing patterns, behaviors, and anomalies. It enables organizations to spot attacks early, respond quickly, and mitigate risks before they escalate. Tools like Calico are specifically designed to address these challenges in Kubernetes, offering visibility, detection, and automated responses to protect workloads from known and emerging threats.

Calico delivers advanced network threat detection for Kubernetes environments, leveraging a variety of techniques to ensure comprehensive protection. Here are the key features of Calico’s network threat detection.

Behavior-based detection

Calico uses machine learning algorithms to establish a baseline of normal network behavior and detect anomalies such as port scans, IP (Internet Protocol) sweeps, and domain generation algorithms (DGA), which are commonly used by malware to evade detection and maintain communication with command and control (C2) servers.

Calico’s anomaly detection capability evaluates traffic flows using machine learning to identify the baseline behavior Continue reading

HW043: Is OFDMA Worth It?

OFDMA, or Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access, was introduced in 802.11ax. This technology allows a radio to split a single channel into multiple sub-carriers, which in turn can be used to send data to multiple devices at the same time. OFDMA is meant to reduce congestion by allowing APs to allocate resource units among, and communicate... Read more »

D2DO262: The Science and Magic of Network Mapping and Measurement

Measuring network speed seems straightforward: send some traffic between two endpoints and see how long it took. But what path did the traffic take? Were wired or wireless networks involved? What intermediary devices stood between your two endpoints? Was there interference? Congestion? Are device limitations affecting your results? The fact is, there’s more to measurement... Read more »

Open source all the way down: Upgrading our developer documentation

At Cloudflare, we treat developer content like a product, where we take the user and their feedback into consideration. We are constantly iterating, testing, analyzing, and refining content. Inspired by agile practices, treating developer content like an open source product means we approach our documentation the same way an open source software project is created and maintained.  Open source documentation empowers the developer community because it allows anyone, anywhere, to contribute content. By making both the content and the framework of the documentation site publicly accessible, we provide developers with the opportunity to not only improve the material itself but also understand and engage with the processes that govern how the documentation is built, approved, and maintained. This transparency fosters collaboration, learning, and innovation, enabling developers to contribute their expertise and learn from others in a shared, open environment. We also provide feedback to other open source products and plugins, giving back to the same community that supports us.

Building the best open source documentation experience

Great documentation empowers users to be successful with a new product as quickly as possible, showing them how to use the product and describing its benefits. Relevant, timely, and accurate content can save Continue reading

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