Free Paloalto Networks PSE-Strata Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 2

The SIA (Scan It All) Processing Engine in a Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) is responsible for handling multiple security functions such as file proxy solutions, virus and spyware scanning, vulnerability scanning, and HTTP decoding for URL filtering. This engine ensures comprehensive security coverage by performing deep inspection and analysis of network traffic to detect and mitigate various types of threats, ensuring robust protection for the network.

In PAN-OS 9, the WF-500 appliance added support for new file types, including ELF (Executable and Linkable Format) and 7-Zip files. This expansion enables broader malware detection capabilities by analyzing additional file formats commonly used in various operating systems and compression utilities​ (LIVEcommunity | Palo Alto Networks)​​ (LIVEcommunity | Palo Alto Networks)​.

To activate or retrieve a Device Management License on the M-100 Appliance after the authorization codes have been activated on the Palo Alto Networks Support Site, you need to navigate to Panorama > Licenses. From there, you can click on "Activate feature using authorization code". This option allows you to input the necessary authorization code to activate the desired license feature directly through the Panorama interface. This process is designed to streamline license management and ensure that all activated features are correctly applied to your device.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Administrator's Guide

Palo Alto Networks Licensing Documentation

When there are different Master Keys on Panorama and managed firewalls, the push operation of configurations from Panorama to the managed firewalls will succeed provided there is no error within the configuration itself. The Master Key differences do not interfere with the configuration push process as long as the configurations are valid and free of errors.

References: Palo Alto Networks Panorama Administration Guide.

Palo Alto Networks NGFW provides several mechanisms for user mapping, which helps in identifying and applying policies based on user identity rather than just IP addresses.

Captive Portal: This method redirects users to a portal where they must authenticate before accessing the network. It captures user credentials and maps them to their IP addresses.

Domain server monitoring: This involves monitoring Active Directory (AD) domain controllers to map users to their respective IP addresses based on login events.

Client probing: This mechanism involves directly querying devices on the network to determine the logged-in user. It's useful for mapping IP addresses to usernames dynamically.

The Vulnerability Protection profile on Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall includes signatures to protect against a variety of threats, including brute force attacks.

Vulnerability Protection Profile:

This profile contains specific signatures designed to detect and block attempts to exploit vulnerabilities, including those used in brute force attacks.

When generating an SLR (Security Lifecycle Review) report for a school concerned about students accessing inappropriate websites, the SE should:

Remove unwanted categories listed under 'High Risk' and focus on categories that are relevant to the school's concerns. This approach allows the SE to tailor the report to highlight specific URL categories that the school is worried about, such as adult content, violence, or other inappropriate material.

By customizing the report to emphasize these categories, the SE can effectively demonstrate the firewall's capability to detect and block access to inappropriate websites, addressing the school's specific concerns directly.

This customization ensures that the SLR report is relevant and useful for the customer's needs, showcasing the firewall's strengths in URL filtering and content control.

Palo Alto Networks Single Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) architecture is designed to handle traffic efficiently and securely. The key aspect of SP3 is:

Single Pass Processing (C): This means that all traffic is processed in a single pass through the firewall, regardless of the number of security features enabled. There is no additional performance impact for each feature because the firewall processes all security functions (such as threat prevention, URL filtering, and application control) simultaneously in a single pass. This architecture ensures high performance and low latency while maintaining robust security.

References:

Palo Alto Networks, Single Pass Parallel Processing (SP3) Whitepaper.

Palo Alto Networks, Firewall Performance and Architecture Documentation.

DNS Sinkholing is a powerful feature in network security that offers several advantages:

Forging DNS replies to known malicious domains: This technique redirects malicious domain queries to a designated IP address (sinkhole), effectively preventing the malware from communicating with its command and control servers, thereby neutralizing its threat.

Working upstream from the internal DNS server: DNS Sinkholing can be implemented upstream, meaning it intercepts and manipulates DNS queries before they reach the internal DNS server. This preemptive action helps in blocking threats early in the DNS resolution process, providing an additional security layer​ (Palo Alto Networks)​​ (Palo Alto Networks)​.

Using a virtual wire (vWire) interface configuration can enhance the security of a production online system while minimizing the impact on the existing network.

Virtual Wire:

A vWire interface operates transparently at Layer 2, allowing the firewall to inspect traffic without making changes to the existing network topology.

This mode is ideal for inline deployments where minimal changes to the network configuration are desired.