Free Fortinet NSE7_SSE_AD-25 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers

To meet the requirement of inspecting all endpoint internet traffic on FortiSASE while excluding Google Maps traffic from the FortiSASE VPN tunnel and redirecting it to the endpoint's physical interface, you should configure split tunneling. Split tunneling allows specific traffic to bypass the VPN tunnel and be routed directly through the endpoint's local interface.

Split Tunneling Configuration:

Split tunneling enables selective traffic to be routed outside the VPN tunnel.

By configuring the Google Maps Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) as a split tunneling destination, you ensure that traffic to Google Maps bypasses the VPN tunnel and uses the endpoint's local interface instead.

Implementation Steps:

Access the FortiSASE endpoint profile configuration.

Add the Google Maps FQDN to the split tunneling destinations list.

This configuration directs traffic intended for Google Maps to bypass the VPN tunnel and be routed directly through the endpoint's physical network interface.

IP Address Management (IPAM) in FortiSASE is responsible for automatically allocating subnets to various services, including VPN tunnels and Edge devices. When an administrator modifies the default IPAM configuration, they must adhere to specific architectural scaling requirements.

Subnet Requirements per PoP: FortiSASE architecture requires a minimum amount of address space to be available for each provisioned Security Point of Presence (PoP) to handle internal routing and endpoint assignments. For the IPAM engine to function correctly and distribute unique subnets across the global infrastructure, the pool must provide at least one /20 subnet per security PoP. If the available space is smaller than this per-PoP requirement, the allocation logic may fail or produce unpredictable routing behavior.

Impact of Excessive Exclusions: In the exhibit (image_578940.png), the customer has defined a large summary pool of 172.16.0.0/12. However, they have configured eight separate /15 excluded subnets: 172.16.0.0/15, 172.18.0.0/15, 172.20.0.0/15, 172.22.0.0/15, 172.24.0.0/15, 172.26.0.0/15, 172.28.0.0/15, and 172.30.0.0/15.

Calculating the Exhaustion: A /12 network contains exactly eight /15 blocks. By excluding all eight /15 ranges listed in the exhibit, the customer has effectively excluded 100% of the available addresses from the primary 172.16.0.0/12 pool.

Connectivity Problems: When the IPAM pool is exhausted or overly restricted, FortiSASE cannot assign valid, non-overlapping subnets to the PoPs. This leads to connectivity problems for remote users and can cause the system to "fall back" to ranges it believes are available, even if they were intended to be excluded, or simply fail to establish tunnels entirely.

To resolve this, the administrator must ensure that the excluded subnets do not consume the entire pool and that the remaining unexcluded space is large enough to provide a /20 block for every active PoP in their subscription.

Integrating FortiManager with FortiSASE allows for central management of configuration objects like addresses and5 security 6profiles. For this integration to function correctly, the following key prerequisites must be met:

Same FortiCloud Account: A fundamental requirement for the integration is that both 10the FortiSASE instance and the FortiManager (whether physical, VM, or Cloud) must be registered under the same FortiCloud (FortiCare) account. This common identity allows the platforms to securely discover and authorize each other for synchronization.

Supported Firmware Version: The FortiManager must run a firmware version that is compatible with the FortiSASE release. According to the FortiSASE 25 Enterprise Administrator Study Guide, FortiManager version 7.4.4 or later is generally required to support the specific API connectors and object synchronization logic used by current FortiSASE environments. Using an unsupported version may result in synchronization failures or missing configuration features.

Management Logic: Once these prerequisites are met, the administrator can enable "Central Management" in the FortiSASE portal. This creates a one-way synchronization where FortiManager acts as the source of truth for objects like Security Profile Groups, ensuring consistent security posture across both the SASE cloud and on-premises FortiGates.

To restrict endpoints from certain countries from connecting to FortiSASE, the administrator should configure Geofencing. This feature provides granular control over which geographic locations are permitted or denied access to the SASE infrastructure.

Geofencing in FortiSASE

Geofencing is the primary mechanism for controlling remote user connectivity based on their origin.

Functionality: It uses a geography-to-IP mapping database to identify the location of incoming connection requests.

Access Modes: Administrators can choose between two main modes:

Allow: Only users from specified countries can connect; all others are blocked.

Deny: Users from specified countries are blocked; all others are allowed.

Configuration Path: In the FortiSASE GUI, navigate to Configuration > Geofencing to enable the feature and add the relevant countries.

Enforcement: Once enabled, the system automatically creates "local-in" policies to drop or permit traffic at the edge of the SASE PoPs before it can consume resources or attempt authentication.

The core of this issue lies in the difference between Certificate Inspection and Deep SSL Inspection within the FortiSASE security framework.

The Limitation of Certificate Inspection: When "Force Certificate Inspection" is enabled in a FortiSASE firewall policy, the system only inspects the SSL handshake—specifically the SNI (Server Name Indication) and certificate headers. It does not decrypt the actual data payload of the HTTPS session.

Antivirus Scanning Requirements: To detect and block malicious files like the EICAR test file when they are downloaded over an encrypted HTTPS connection (such as https://eicar.org), the FortiSASE antivirus engine must be able to "see" inside the encrypted tunnel. This requires Deep Inspection (Full SSL Inspection), where FortiSASE acts as a "man-in-the-middle" to decrypt, scan, and then re-encrypt the traffic.

Exhibit Analysis: The Secure Internet Access policy exhibit clearly shows the toggle for Force Certificate Inspection is enabled (set to "ON"). As specified in the Fortinet technical documentation, enabling this option forces the policy to use Certificate Inspection only, overriding any Deep Inspection settings that might be defined in the Profile Group.

Conclusion: Because the traffic is only undergoing certificate-level inspection, the antivirus engine cannot analyze the encrypted eicar.com-zip file payload, allowing the download to proceed even though an antivirus profile is active in the group.

In FortiSASE, Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) tags—also known as security posture tags—are used to dynamically grant or deny access based on the real-time security state of an endpoint. This mechanism ensures that only devices meeting specific compliance requirements can access protected resources or the internet.

Endpoint Analysis: The Managed Endpoints exhibit shows that while Jumpbox only has the FortiSASE-Compliant tag, the Windows-AD endpoint has been assigned both FortiSASE-Compliant and FortiSASE-Non-Compliant tags. This indicates that a security posture check on the Windows-AD device has failed, triggering a rule that applies the non-compliant tag.

Policy Evaluation: The Secure Internet Access Policy table shows two custom policies. The first policy, named Non-compliant, uses the FortiSASE-Non-Compliant tag as its source and has the action set to Deny. The second policy, Web Traffic, allows access for FortiSASE-Compliant users.

Root Cause of Outage: Because FortiSASE (powered by FortiOS) processes security policies in a top-down sequence, the "Non-compliant" policy is evaluated first. Since Windows-AD matches the source criteria for this "Deny" policy, its traffic is blocked before it can reach the "Accept" policy.

Although the exhibit shows a warning icon for the FortiClient version on Windows-AD, the direct cause of the internet outage is the explicit Deny policy triggered by the change in the device's security posture (the application of the Non-Compliant tag).

To ensure that organizational SaaS applications (such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce, or AWS Console) are only accessible to users who are currently connected and protected by FortiSASE, administrators utilize Source IP Anchoring and IP-based access control.

Consistent Egress IPs: Every FortiSASE instance is assigned a set of dedicated public IP addresses (egress IPs) for each Security Point of Presence (PoP). Regardless of where a remote user is physically located, when they connect to a specific FortiSASE PoP, all their traffic destined for the internet or SaaS applications will appear to originate from that PoP's dedicated egress IP.

Whitelisting and Conditional Access: Administrators can retrieve the list of these dedicated egress IPs from the FortiSASE portal (typically found under the Support or Region IP list). These IPs are then configured as "Trusted Locations" or "Named Locations" within the SaaS provider's security settings (e.g., Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access).

Enforcement Mechanism: Once the SaaS portal is configured to only permit logins from the FortiSASE egress IP ranges, any user attempting to access the application without being connected to the FortiSASE VPN will be denied access because their source IP will be their local ISP address rather than the trusted SASE IP. This effectively mandates the use of the SASE security stack for all corporate SaaS interactions.

Analysis of Incorrect Options:

Option A: CNAPP (Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform) is used for securing cloud-native applications and infrastructure, not for managing egress IP whitelisting for external SaaS providers.

Option B: While ZTNA is a secure access method, it is primarily used for Private Applications hosted by the organization, not for third-party public SaaS portals which rely on standard IP or identity-based conditional access.

Option C: SPA hubs are designed for Secure Private Access (connecting to a corporate data center), not for managing access to public SaaS applications.

FortiSASE supports zero trust network access (ZTNA) principles by identifying attributes on the endpoint for security posture checks. ZTNA principles require continuous verification of user and device credentials, as well as their security posture, before granting access to network resources.

Security Posture Check:

FortiSASE can evaluate the security posture of endpoints by checking for compliance with security policies, such as antivirus status, patch levels, and configuration settings.

This ensures that only compliant and secure devices are granted access to the network.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA):

ZTNA is based on the principle of "never trust, always verify," which requires continuous assessment of user and device trustworthiness.

FortiSASE plays a crucial role in implementing ZTNA by performing these security posture checks and enforcing access control policies.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is the FortiSASE feature that ensures least-privileged user access to all applications. ZTNA operates on the principle of "never trust, always verify," providing secure access based on the identity of users and devices, regardless of their location.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA):

ZTNA ensures that only authenticated and authorized users and devices can access applications.

It applies the principle of least privilege by granting access only to the resources required by the user, minimizing the potential for unauthorized access.

Implementation:

ZTNA continuously verifies user and device trustworthiness and enforces granular access control policies.

This approach enhances security by reducing the attack surface and limiting lateral movement within the network.

The distinction between SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) and SSE (Security Service Edge) is a fundamental architectural concept in modern networking and security.

SASE Definition: SASE is a comprehensive framework that converges networking capabilities (specifically SD-WAN) with cloud-native security services (SSE) into a single, unified service model.

SSE Definition: SSE represents the security-focused subset of SASE.4 It encompasses the core security pillars required for secure access, including Secure Web Gateway (SWG), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).

The Key Differentiator: While both solutions share the same security stack (SWG, CASB, ZTNA), SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) is the specific networking component that exists in a full SASE solution to provide intelligent path selection and optimized connectivity. SSE intentionally excludes these wide-area networking functions, focusing purely on the security service delivery layer.

According to the FortiSASE 25 Enterprise Administrator Study Guide, organizations that already have a robust networking infrastructure and only require a cloud-delivered security overlay would opt for SSE, whereas those seeking a complete transformation of both network and security would deploy a full SASE solution that includes SD-WAN.