Force Strict Safe Search (PAN-OS & Panorama)

Table of Contents

Force Strict Safe Search (PAN-OS & Panorama)

Configure the strictest Bing and Yahoo SafeSearch settings for end users without requiring manual adjustment of the search engine settings.

Make sure the firewall is running Content Release version 475 or later.
1. Select DeviceDynamic Updates.
2. Check the Applications and Threats section to determine what update is currently running.
3. If the firewall is not running the required update or later, click Check Now to retrieve a list of available updates.
4. Locate the required update and click Download.
5. After the download completes, click Install.
Enable Safe Search Enforcement in a URL Filtering profile.
1. Select ObjectsSecurity ProfilesURL Filtering.
2. Select an existing profile to modify or clone the default profile to create a new profile.
3. On the URL Filtering Settings tab, select Safe Search Enforcement.
(Optional) Restrict the search engines that end users can access in the same URL Filtering profile.
1. On the Categories tab, Search (
  
  ) for the search-engines category.
2. Set Site Access for the search-engines category to block.
  In a later step, you’ll create a custom URL category (URL List type) with the search engines you want to allow.
3. Click OK to save the profile.
Apply the URL Filtering profile to Security policy rules that allow traffic from clients in the trust zone to the internet.
1. Select PoliciesSecurity. Then, click the rule to which you want to apply the URL Filtering profile.
2. On the Actions tab, find Profile Setting. For Profile Type, select Profiles. A list of profiles appears.
3. For the URL Filtering profile, select the profile you created earlier.
4. Click OK to save the Security policy rule.

Edit the URL filtering safe search block page, replacing the existing code with JavaScript for rewriting search query URLs.

Select DeviceResponse PagesURL Filtering Safe Search Block Page.
Select Predefined and then click Export to save the file locally.

Use an HTML editor and replace all of the existing block page text with the following text. Then, save the file.

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Search Blocked</title>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
    <meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache">
    <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0">
    <style>
      #content {
      border:3px solid#aaa;
      background-color:#fff;
      margin:1.5em;
      padding:1.5em;
      font-family:Tahoma,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;
      font-size:1em;
      }
      h1 {
      font-size:1.3em;
      font-weight:bold;
      color:#196390;
      }
      b {
      font-weight:normal;
      color:#196390;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body bgcolor="#e7e8e9">
    <div id="content">
      <h1>Search Blocked</h1>
      <p>
        <b>User:</b> 
        <user/>
      </p>
      <p>Your search results have been blocked because your search settings are not in accordance with company policy.  In order to continue, please update your search settings so that Safe Search is set to the strictest setting. If you are currently logged into your account, please also lock Safe Search and try your search again.</p>
      <p>
        For more information, please refer to: 
        <a href="<ssurl/>">
          <ssurl/>
        </a>
      </p>
      <p id="java_off"> Please enable JavaScript in your browser.<br></p>
      <p><b>Please contact your system administrator if you believe this message is in error.</b></p>
    </div>
  </body>
  <script>
    // Grab the URL that's in the browser.
    var s_u = location.href;
    //bing
    // Matches the forward slashes in the beginning, anything, then ".bing." then anything followed by a non greedy slash. Hopefully the first forward slash.
    var b_a = /^.*\/\/(.+\.bing\..+?)\//.exec(s_u);
    if (b_a) {
       s_u = s_u + "&adlt=strict";
        window.location.replace(s_u);
        document.getElementById("java_off").innerHTML = 'You are being redirected to a safer search!';
    }
    //yahoo   
    // Matches the forward slashes in the beginning, anything, then ".yahoo."" then anything followed by a non greedy slash. Hopefully the first forward slash.   
    var y_a = /^.*\/\/(.+\.yahoo\..+?)\//.exec(s_u);    
    if (y_a) {
        s_u = s_u.replace(/&vm=p/ig,"");
        s_u = s_u + "&vm=r";
        window.location.replace(s_u);
        document.getElementById("java_off").innerHTML = 'You are being redirected to a safer search!';
    }   
    document.getElementById("java_off").innerHTML = ' ';
  </script>
</html>

Import the edited URL filtering safe search block page onto the firewall.
1. Select DeviceResponse PagesURL Filtering Safe Search Block Page.
2. Click Import. Then, Browse for the block page file or enter the path and filename in the Import File field.
3. (Optional) For Destination, select either the virtual system on which the login page will be used or shared to make it available to all virtual systems.
4. Click OK to import the file.
Create a custom URL category for the supported search engines.
In the next step, you’ll configure the firewall to decrypt traffic to this custom category.
1. Select ObjectsCustom ObjectsURL Category and Add a custom category.
2. Enter a Name for the category, such as SearchEngineDecryption.
3. Add the following entries to the Sites list:
  www.bing.*
  search.yahoo.*
  yandex.com.*
4. Click OK to save the custom URL category.
Configure SSL Forward Proxy decryption.
Because most search engines encrypt their search results, you must enable SSL Forward Proxy decryption so the firewall can inspect the search traffic and detect the safe search settings.
On the Service/URL Category tab of the Decryption policy rule, Add the custom URL category you created earlier. Then, click OK.
Commit your changes.
Verify the Safe Search Enforcement configuration.
From a computer behind a firewall, open a browser and perform a search using Bing or Yahoo. Then, use one of the following methods to verify your configuration works as intended:
- Examine the query string of the URL for safe search parameters. Safe Search Settings for Search Providers lists the safe search parameter appended to each search query URL.
- Go to the Safe Search settings for the search engine and verify that the selected SafeSearch preference is the strictest level (Strict in the case of Bing).

Advanced URL Filtering

Force Strict Safe Search (PAN-OS & Panorama)

Advanced URL Filtering

Force Strict Safe Search (PAN-OS & Panorama)

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