Firewall policy advisor for anomaly discovery and rule editing

Ehab S. Al-Shaer, Hazem H. Hamed

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

197 Scopus citations

Abstract

Firewalls are core elements in network security. However, managing firewall rules, especially for enterprize networks, has become complex and error-prone. Firewall filtering rules have to be carefully written and organized in order to correctly implement the security policy. In addition, inserting or modifying a filtering rule requires thorough analysis of the relationship between this rule and other rules in order to determine the proper order of this rule and commit the updates. In this paper, we present a set of techniques and algorithms that provide (1) automatic discovery of firewall policy anomalies to reveal rule conflicts and potential problems in legacy firewalls, and (2) anomaly-free policy editing for rule insertion, removal and modification. This is implemented in a user-friendly tool called "Firewall Policy Advisor." The Firewall Policy Advisor significantly simplifies the management of any generic firewall policy written as filtering rules, while minimizing network vulnerability due to firewall rule misconfiguration.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationIntegrated Network Management VIII
Subtitle of host publicationManaging It All - IFIP/IEEE 8th International Symposium on Integrated Network Management, IM 2003
PublisherSpringer New York LLC
Pages17-30
Number of pages14
ISBN (Print)9781475755213
DOIs
StatePublished - 2003
Externally publishedYes
EventIFIP/IEEE 8th International Symposium on Integrated Network Management, IM 2003 - Colorado Springs, CO, United States
Duration: 24 Mar 200328 Mar 2003

Publication series

NameIFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology
Volume118
ISSN (Print)1868-4238

Conference

ConferenceIFIP/IEEE 8th International Symposium on Integrated Network Management, IM 2003
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityColorado Springs, CO
Period24/03/0328/03/03

Keywords

  • Firewall
  • Policy conflict
  • Security management
  • Security policy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems and Management

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