This is a small tutorial for configuring a site-to-site IPsec VPN between a Palo Alto and a FortiGate firewall. I am publishing step-by-step screenshots for both firewalls as well as a few troubleshooting CLI commands.
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Palo Alto <-> FortiGate
Pre-shared keys (PSK) are the most common authentication method for site-to-site IPsec VPN tunnels. So what’s to say about the security of PSKs? What is its role for the network security? How complex should PSKs be? Should they be stored additionally? What happens if an attacker catches my PSKs?
I am listing my best practice steps for generating PSKs.
For a beginner, the configuration of a Juniper Secure Access SA/MAG Pulse Connect Secure device is not that simple. There are too many options and links that must be filled in. Though there are quite detailed configuration guides I was missing a “quick start” figure to see which profiles, roles, etc. must be set in order to have a simple login and group membership environment.
Here comes my at-a-glance poster for the Pulse Connect Secure SSL-VPN gateway.
Continue reading Pulse Connect Secure: Easy Deployment Poster
In den Release Notes der neuesten AVM FRITZ!Box Version FRITZ!OS 06.20 stand unter anderem: “VPN-Verbindungen unterstützen jetzt zusätzliche Diffie-Hellman-Gruppen 5, 14 und 15”. Coole Sache, ist doch die Sicherheit bei der Perfect Forward Secrecy mit DH-14 deutlich höher und der heutigen Zeit angemessen. Also habe ich das bei einem meiner VPNs direkt mal eingerichtet und entsprechend getestet. Leider hat sich aber mit der neuen Version die Kompatibilität zu diversen Firewalls/VPN-Gateways deutlich verschlechtert. Es ist also nicht nur Gewinn, die Version 06.20 am laufen zu haben.
And finally: A route-based VPN between a Juniper ScreenOS SSG firewall and a Cisco router with a virtual tunnel interface (VTI). Both sides with tunnel interfaces and IPv4 addresses. Both sides with a real routing entry in the routing table. Great. ;)
(The VPN between those two parties without a tunnel interface on the Cisco router is documented here. However, use the route-based VPN where you can. It is easier and more flexible. Routing decisions based on the routing table. This is how it should be.)
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Juniper ScreenOS <-> Cisco Router w/ VTI
One more VPN article. Even one more between a Palo Alto firewall and a Cisco router. But this time I am using a virtual tunnel interface (VTI) on the Cisco router which makes the whole VPN set a “route-based VPN”. That is: Both devices decide their traffic flow merely based on the routing table and not on access-list entries. In my opinion, this is the best way to build VPNs, because there is a single instance (the routing table) on which a network admin must rely on in order to investigate the traffic flow.
Note that I also wrote a blog post about the “policy-based VPN” between a Cisco router and the Palo Alto firewall. This here is mostly the same on the Palo Alto side while some other commands are issued on the Cisco router.
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Palo Alto <-> Cisco Router w/ VTI
Der Titel sagt eigentlich schon alles: Es geht um das Herstellen eines S2S-Tunnels zwischen einem Cisco Router (statische IPv4) und einer FRITZ!Box (dynamische IP). Ich liste nachfolgend alle Befehle für den IOS Router sowie die Konfigurationsdatei für die FRITZ!Box auf. Für eine etwas detaillierte Beschreibung des VPNs für die FRITZ!Box verweise ich auf diesen Artikel von mir, bei dem ich zwar ein VPN zu einem anderen Produkt hergestellt habe, aber etwas mehr auf die Schritte der Konfiguration eingegangen bin.
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Cisco Router <-> AVM FRITZ!Box
Similar to all my other site-to-site VPN articles, here are the configurations for a VPN tunnel between a Juniper ScreenOS SSG firewall and a Cisco IOS router. Due to the VPN Monitor of the SSG firewall, the tunnel is established directly after the configuration and stays active all the time without the need of “real” traffic.
I am using the policy-based VPN solution on the Cisco router and not the virtual tunnel interface (VTI) approach. That is: No route is needed on the router while the Proxy IDs must be set on the Juniper firewall. (However, I also documented the route-based VPN solution between a ScreenOS firewall and a Cisco router here.)
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Juniper ScreenOS <-> Cisco Router
This time I configured a static S2S VPN between a Palo Alto firewall and a Cisco IOS router. Here comes the tutorial:
I am not using a virtual interface (VTI) on the Cisco router in this scenario, but the classical policy-based VPN solution. That is, no route entry is needed on the Cisco machine. However, the Palo Alto implements all VPNs with tunnel interfaces. Hence, a route to the tunnel and Proxy IDs must be configured. (I also wrote a guide for a route-based VPN between a Cisco router and a Palo Alto firewall here.)
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Palo Alto <-> Cisco Router
When talking about VPNs it is almost always clear that they are encrypted. However, it is not so clear on which security level a VPN is established. Since the Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) values of “DH group 5” etc. do not clearly specify the “bits of security”, it is a misleading assumption that the security is 256 bits due to the symmetric AES-256 cipher. It is not! Diffie-Hellman group 5 has only about 89 bits of security…
Therefore, common firewalls implement DH group 14 which has a least a security level of approximately 103 bits. I tested such a site-to-site VPN tunnel between a Palo Alto and a Juniper ScreenOS firewall which worked without any problems.
Continue reading Site-to-Site VPNs with Diffie-Hellman Group 14
I tested the Palo Alto GlobalProtect app on my iPhone, but also the native IPsec Cisco VPN-Client on iOS which connects to the GlobalProtect Gateway on a Palo Alto firewall, too. Since this variant needs no further licenses from Palo Alto, it is a cheap alternative for a basic VPN connection.
Though not that much exciting, there are a few differences in the logs on the firewall which I will show here on the basis of a few screenshots.
This is a tutorial on how to configure the GlobalProtect Gateway on a Palo Alto firewall in order to connect to it from a Linux computer with vpnc.
Short version: Enable IPsec and X-Auth on the Gateway and define a Group Name and Group Password. With this two values (and the gateway address), add a new VPN profile within vpnc on the Linux machine. Login with the already existing credentials.
Long version with screenshots comes here:
Continue reading Palo Alto GlobalProtect for Linux with vpnc
Mit diesem Beitrag möchte ich zeigen, wie man ein Site-to-Site VPN von der FRITZ!Box zu einer Cisco ASA Firewall aufbaut. Mein Laboraufbau entspricht dabei dem typischen Fall, bei dem die FRITZ!Box hinter einer dynamischen IP hängt (klassisch: DSL-Anschluss), während die ASA eine statische IP geNATet bekommt.
Beide Geräte habe ein policy-based VPN implementiert, so dass das hier endlich mal ein Fall ist, wo man nicht durch den Mix einer route-based VPN-Firewall und einer policy-based VPN-Firewall durcheinander kommt. Man muss bei beiden Geräten einfach das eigene sowie das remote Netzwerk eintragen, ohne weitere Routen zu ändern.
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Cisco ASA <-> AVM FRITZ!Box
This post describes the steps to configure a Site-to-Site VPN between a Juniper ScreenOS firewall and the Cisco ASA firewall. With the correct IKE and IPsec parameters as well as the correct Proxy IDs on both sides, the VPN establishment works without any problems. And since the Juniper firewall can ping an IPv4 address on the remote side through the tunnel (VPN Monitor), the VPN tunnel is established by the firewalls themselves without the need for initial traffic.
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Juniper ScreenOS <-> Cisco ASA
I configured a static Site-to-Site IPsec VPN tunnel between the Cisco ASA firewall and the Palo Alto next-generation firewall. If the same phase 1 & 2 parameters are used and the correct Proxy IDs are entered, the VPN works without any problems though the ASA uses a policy-based VPN while the PA implements a route-based VPN.
I made a few screenshots from the VPN configuration of both firewalls which I will show here. I am also listing a few more hints corresponding to these two firewalls.
Continue reading IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Palo Alto <-> Cisco ASA