Imagine a scenario where your boss gives you a PIX firewall and it is not configured. He wants it to get configured with a few basic IP addresses, firewall rules, and security. You have never used the PIX firewall. How could you perform such a configuration? After going to this article, it will be simple to learn the IPIX network. Let us check out how.
PIX Firewall Features
PIX firewalls gather many different robust features that will make this PIX series the best option in an appliance firewall market. Adaptive Security Algorithm, URL filtering control, rooted operating system, proxy, VPN support, and standby failover abilities are some important that make this firewall the best choices among businesses across the world.
Highest Standard of Security
The Cisco PIX network firewall offers the best security level just by using the ASA or adaptive security algorithm & stateful inspection. Unlike the packet filters & access control lists, which should analyze each packet, the stateful engine is used for discovering and recognizing the TCP flows.
Simple configuration
Installing, maintaining, and updating connections with the Microsoft products is very simple that anybody with a mouse will be able to configure the Microsoft Proxy & IIS Server for security. If it is a case, why do small & large businesses have plenty of NT administrators? One must be enough?
Adaptive Security
The adaptive security feature of the PIX network applies to its dynamic translation slots & applied to the static translation slots through its static command. This Adaptive Security algorithm will be a stateful approach to security. Each inbound packet will be checked thoroughly against any Adaptive Security algorithm & against the connection state information. The stateful approach is regarded as more secure than the stateless packet approach in the industry.
How Does Data Move on the Firewall?
When the outbound packet comes at the PIX Firewall security level interface, the PIX network checks if that packet is valid as per Adaptive Security Algorithm, then if earlier packets have ever come from that particular host. Any information that the PIX Firewall gathers in its translation slot includes inside IP address & unique IP address that is assigned by the Network Address Translation, Port Address Translation, and Identity. The PIX network then changes this packet’s IP address source to its globally unique address, and modifies any checksum or other fields, and forwards this packet to a lower security interface.
Adaptive Security follows the given rules:
- Ensure if the FTP data connection gets initiated to the translation slot, there’s already the FTP control link between this translation slot & remote host. In case not, drop & log your attempt and initiate the FTP data connection.
- Allow TCP connections, which originate from an inside network.
- Drop & log source-routed packets sent to translation slot on a PIX Firewall.
- Drop & log attempts for initiating the TCP connections to the translation slot from outside.
- Drop ping requests silently to the dynamic translation slots.
- Answer ping requests that are directed to the static translation slots.
You may protect the static translation slots by Adaptive Security, also you can have the exceptions (named conduits) to your previously described rules that you make with conduit command. The multiple exceptions will be applied to the single static slot (through multiple conduit commands). It allows you to permit access from the arbitrary machine, or another host on the Internet to an inside host that is defined by a static translation slot. The PIX network handles the UDP transfers in the same way as TCP. The special handling enables DNS service to work safely.
Cisco PIX network creates the UDP connection state info when the UDP packet goes from an inside network. The response packets that result from the traffic will be accepted if they ever match this connection state information. This connection state information will be deleted after a short time of inactivity.
The modern environments completely depend on the firewalls, and thus, the PIX network offers high resiliency through the failover mechanism. Such a mechanism offers a hot spare—the second PIX with the equivalent configuration that automatically presses in the service if any primary device fails. Cisco PIX network supports various configuration management technologies and configuration will be written to flash and out to TFTP servers. As these configurations are textual, they will be read and manipulated outside its PIX same to any file.
Final Words
The Cisco PIX offering is useful in all shapes and sizes of the networks. You only need to know your business requirements, and Cisco PIX will meet them in the right way. Suppose you decide you don’t need DMZ, then running the PAT that uses just a real IP address & keeps proper track of the sessions between the hosts and TCP port numbers, will be very useful.
