A firewall is a vital component of an organization’s security infrastructure, and it needs to be protected against exploitation. Firewalls work by blocking incoming and outgoing traffic based on predefined rules. These rules can be based on source IP address, destination IP address, port number, protocol, or application. Firewalls can also block traffic based on content inspection. This means that firewalls can scan data packets for specific keywords or patterns and then block them if they match certain predefined rules.
To secure your firewall, take the following steps:-
To secure your firewall, take the following steps:-
- Disable insecure protocols like telnet and SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).
- Schedule periodic backups of the configuration and database.
- Enable auditing of system changes and send logs via secure syslog or another method to an external, secured, central SIEM server or firewall management solution for forensics and reporting.
- Add a stealth rule in the firewall policy to hide the firewall from network scans.
- Limit management access to specific hosts.
- Firewalls are not immune to vulnerabilities. Check with the vendor to see if there are any known vulnerabilities and security patches that fix the vulnerability.
