: Use Case: Secure the EC2 Instances in the AWS Cloud
Focus
Focus

Use Case: Secure the EC2 Instances in the AWS Cloud

Table of Contents

Use Case: Secure the EC2 Instances in the AWS Cloud

In this example, the VPC is deployed in the 10.0.0.0/16 network with two /24 subnets: 10.0.0.0/24 and 10.0.1.0/24. The VM-Series firewall will be launched in the 10.0.0.0/24 subnet to which the internet gateway is attached. The 10.0.1.0/24 subnet is a private subnet that will host the EC2 instances that need to be secured by the VM-Series firewall; any server on this private subnet uses NAT for a routable IP address (which is an Elastic IP address) to access the internet. Use the Planning Worksheet for the VM-Series in the AWS VPC to plan the design within your VPC; recording the subnet ranges, network interfaces and the associated IP addresses for the EC2 instances, and security groups, will make the setup process easier and more efficient.
The following image depicts the logical flow of traffic to/from the web server to the internet. Traffic to/from the web server is sent to the data interface of the VM-Series firewall that is attached to the private subnet. The firewall applies policy and processes incoming/outgoing traffic from/to the internet gateway of the VPC. The image also shows the security groups to which the data interfaces are attached.
  1. Create a new VPC with a public subnet (or select an existing VPC).
    1. Log in to the AWS console and select the
      VPC
      Dashboard.
    2. Verify that you’ve selected the correct geographic area (AWS region). The VPC will be deployed in the currently selected region.
    3. Select
      Start VPC Wizard
      , and select
      VPC with a Single Public Subnet
      .
      In this example, the IP CIDR block for the VPC is 10.0.0.0/16, the VPC name is Cloud DC, the public subnet is 10.0.0.0/24, and the subnet name is Cloud DC Public subnet. You will create a private subnet after creating the VPC.
    4. Click
      Create VPC
      .
  2. Create a private subnet.
    Select
    Subnets
    , and click
    Create a Subnet
    . Fill in the information.
    In this example, the
    Name tag
    for the subnet is Web/DB Server Subnet, it is created in the Cloud Datacenter VPC and is assigned a CIDR block of 10.0.1.0/24.
  3. Create a new route table for each subnet.
    Although a main route table is automatically created on the VPC, we recommend creating new route tables instead of modifying the default route table.
    To direct outbound traffic from each subnet, you will add routes to the route table associated with each subnet, later in this workflow.
    1. Select
      Route Tables
      Create Route Table
      .
    2. Add a
      Name
      , for example CloudDC-public-subnet-RT, select the
      VPC
      you created in Step 1, and click
      Yes, Create
      .
    3. Select the route table, click
      Subnet Associations
      and select the public subnet.
    4. Select
      Create Route Table
      .
    5. Add a
      Name
      , for example CloudDC-private-subnet-RT, select the
      VPC
      you created in Step 1, and click
      Yes, Create
      .
    6. Select the route table, click
      Subnet Associations
      and select the private subnet.
  4. Create Security Groups to restrict inbound/outbound internet access to the EC2 instances in the VPC.
    By default, AWS disallows communication between interfaces that do not belong to the same security group.
    Select
    Security Groups
    and click the
    Create Security Group
    button. In this example, we create three security groups with the following rules for inbound access:
    • CloudDC-Management that specifies the protocols and source IP addresses that can connect to the management interface of the VM-Series firewall. At a minimum you need SSH, and HTTPS. In this example, we enable SSH, ICMP, HTTP, and HTTPS on the network interfaces that are attached to this security group.
      The management interface (eth 0/0) of the VM-Series firewall will be assigned to CloudDC-management-sg.
    • Public-Server-CloudDC that specifies the source IP addresses that can connect over HTTP, FTP, SSH within the VPC. This group allows traffic from the external network to the firewall.
      The dataplane interface eth1/1 of the VM-Series firewall will be assigned to Public-Server-CloudDC.
    • Private-Server-CloudDC that has very limited access. It only allows other EC2 instances on the same subnet to communicate with each other, and with the VM-Series firewall.
      The dataplane interface eth1/2 of the VM-Series firewall and the application in the private subnet will be attached to this security group.
      The following screenshot shows the security groups for this use case.
  5. Deploy the VM-Series firewall.
    Only the primary network interface that will serve as the management interface will be attached and configured for the firewall during the initial launch. The network interfaces required for handling data traffic will be added in Step 6.
  6. Create and attach virtual network interface(s), referred to as Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs), to the VM-Series firewall. These ENIs are used for handling data traffic to/from the firewall.
    1. On the EC2 Dashboard, select
      Network Interfaces
      , and click
      Create Network Interface
      .
    2. Enter a descriptive name for the interface.
    3. Select the subnet. Use the subnet ID to make sure that you have selected the correct subnet. You can only attach an ENI to an instance in the same subnet.
    4. Enter the
      Private IP
      address that you want to assign to the interface or select
      Auto-assign
      to automatically assign an IP address within the available IP addresses in the selected subnet.
    5. Select the
      Security group
      to control access to the network interface.
    6. Click
      Yes, Create
      .
      In this example, we create two interfaces with the following configuration:
      • For Eth1/1 (VM-Series-Untrust)
        • Subnet: 10.0.0.0/24
        • Private IP:10.0.0.10
        • Security group: Public-Server-CloudDC
      • For Eth1/2 (VM-Series-Trust)
        • Subnet: 10.0.1.0/24
        • Private IP: 10.0.1.10
        • Security group: Private-Server-CloudDC
    7. To attach the ENI to the VM-Series firewall, select the interface you just created, and click
      Attach
      .
    8. Select the
      Instance ID
      of the VM-Series firewall, and click
      Attach
      .
    9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 to attach the other network interface.
  7. Create an Elastic IP address and attach it to the firewall dataplane network interface that requires direct internet access.
    In this example, VM-Series_Untrust is assigned an EIP. The EIP associated with the interface is the publicly accessible IP address for the web server in the private subnet.
    1. Select
      Elastic IPs
      and click
      Allocate New Address
      .
    2. Select
      EC2-VPC
      and click
      Yes, Allocate
      .
    3. Select the newly allocated EIP and click
      Associate Address
      .
    4. Select the
      Network Interface
      and the
      Private IP address
      associated with the interface and click
      Yes, Associate
      .
      In this example, the configuration is:
  8. Disable Source/Destination check on each network interface attached to the VM-Series firewall. Disabling this attribute allows the interface to handle network traffic that is not destined to its IP address.
    1. Select the network interface in the
      Network Interfaces
      tab.
    2. In the
      Action
      drop-down, select
      Change Source/Dest. Check
      .
    3. Click
      Disabled
      and
      Save
      your changes.
    4. Repeat steps 1-3 for additional network interfaces, firewall-1/2 in this example.
  9. In the route table associated with the public subnet (from step 3), add a default route to the internet gateway for the VPC.
    1. From the VPC Dashboard, select
      Route Tables
      and find the route table associated with the public subnet.
    2. Select the route table, select
      Routes
      and click
      Edit
      .
    3. Add a route to forward packets from this subnet to the internet gateway. In this example, 0.0.0.0.0 indicates that all traffic from/to this subnet will use the internet gateway attached to the VPC.
  10. In the route table associated with the private subnet, add a default route to send traffic to the VM-Series firewall.
    Adding this route enables the forwarding of traffic from the EC2 instances in this private subnet to the VM-Series firewall.
    1. From the VPC Dashboard, select
      Route Tables
      and find the route table associated with the private subnet.
    2. Select the route table, select
      Routes
      and click
      Edit
      .
    3. Add a route to forward packets from this subnet to the VM-Series firewall network interface that resides on the same subnet. In this example, 0.0.0.0/0 indicates that all traffic from/to this subnet will use eni-abf355f2 (ethernet 1/2, which is CloudDC-VM-Series-Trust) on the VM-Series firewall.
      For each web or database server deployed on an EC2 instance in the private subnet, you must define a default route to the IP address of the VM-Series firewall so that the firewall is the default gateway for the server.
      Perform steps 11 through 16 on the VM-Series firewall.
  11. Configure a new administrative password for the firewall.
    An SSH tool such as PuTTY is required to access the CLI on the firewall and change the default administrative password. You cannot access the web interface until you SSH and change the default password.
    1. Use the public IP address you configured on the firewall, to SSH into the Command Line Interface (CLI) of the VM-Series firewall.
      You will need the private key that you used or created in Launch the VM-Series Firewall on AWS, steps 3-12 to access the CLI.
    2. Enter the following command to log in to the firewall:
      ssh-i
      <private_key_name>
      admin@
      <public-ip_address>
    3. Configure a new password, using the following command and follow the onscreen prompts:
      configure
      set mgt-config users admin password
      commit
    4. Terminate the SSH session.
  12. Access the web interface of the VM-Series firewall.
    Open a web browser and enter the EIP of the management interface. For example: https://54.183.85.163
  13. Activate the licenses on the VM-Series firewall. This step is only required for the BYOL license; the usage-based licenses are automatically activated.
  14. On the VM-Series firewall, configure the dataplane network interfaces on the firewall as Layer 3 interfaces.
    1. Select
      Network
      Interfaces
      Ethernet
      .
    2. Click the link for
      ethernet 1/1
      and configure as follows:
      • Interface Type
        :
        Layer3
      • Select the
        Config
        tab, assign the interface to the default router.
      • On the
        Config
        tab, expand the
        Security Zone
        drop-down and select New Zone. Define a new zone, for example untrust, and then click OK.
      • Select IPv4, select
        DHCP Client
        ; the private IP address that you assigned to the network interface in the AWS management console will be acquired automatically.
      • On the
        Advanced
        Other Info
        tab, expand the Management Profile drop-down, and select
        New Management Profile
        .
      • Enter a
        Name
        for the profile, such as allow_ping, and select
        Ping
        from the Permitted Services list, then click
        OK
        .
      • To save the interface configuration, click
        OK
        .
    3. Click the link for
      ethernet 1/2
      and configure as follows:
      • Interface Type
        :
        Layer3
      • Select the
        Config
        tab, assign the interface to the default router.
      • On the
        Config
        tab, expand the
        Security Zone
        drop-down and select
        New Zone
        . Define a new zone, for example trust, and then click
        OK
        .
      • Select
        IPv4
        , select
        DHCP Client
        .
      • On the
        IPv4
        tab, clear the
        Automatically create default route to default gateway provided by server
        check box. For an interface that is attached to the private subnet in the VPC, disabling this option ensures that traffic handled by this interface does not flow directly to the IGW on the VPC.
      • On the
        Advanced
        Other Info
        , expand the Management Profile drop-down, and select the allow_ping profile you created earlier.
      • Click
        OK
        to save the interface configuration.
    4. Click
      Commit
      to save the changes. Verify that the Link state for the interface is up .  If the link state is not up, reboot the firewall.
  15. On the VM-Series firewall, create Destination NAT and Source NAT rules to allow inbound/outbound traffic to/from the applications deployed within the VPC.
    1. Select
      Policies
      NAT
      .
    2. Create a Destination NAT rule that steers traffic from the firewall to the web server.
      1. Click
        Add
        , and enter a name for the rule. For example, NAT2WebServer.
      2. In the
        Original Packet
        tab, make the following selections:
        • Source Zone
          : untrust (where the traffic originates)
        • Destination Zone
          : untrust (the zone for the firewall dataplane interface with which the EIP for the web server is associated.)
        • Source Address
          : Any
        • Destination Address
          : 10.0.0.10
        • In the
          Translated Packet
          tab, select the Destination Address Translation check box and set the
          Translated Address
          : to 10.0.1.62, which is the private IP address of the web server.
      3. Click
        OK
        .
    3. Create a Source NAT rule to allow outbound traffic from the web server to the internet.
      1. Click
        Add
        , and enter a name for the rule. For example, NAT2External.
      2. In the
        Original Packet
        tab, make the following selections:
        • Source Zone
          : trust (where the traffic originates)
        • Destination Zone
          : untrust (the zone for the firewall dataplane interface with which the EIP for the web server is associated.)
        • Source Address
          : Any
        • Destination Address
          : Any
      3. In the
        Translated Packet
        tab, make the following selections in the Source Address Translation section:
        • Translation Type
          : Dynamic IP and Port
        • Address Type
          : Translated Address
        • Translated Address
          : 10.0.0.10 (the firewall dataplane interface in the untrust zone.)
      4. Click
        OK
        .
    4. Click
      Commit
      to save the NAT policies.
  16. On the VM-Series firewall, create security policies to manage traffic.
    Instead of entering a static IP address for the web server, use a dynamic address group. Dynamic address groups allow you to create policy that automatically adapts to changes so that you do not need to update the policy when you launch additional web servers in the subnet. For details, see Use Case: Use Dynamic Address Groups to Secure New EC2 Instances within the VPC.
    1. Select
      Policies
      Security
      .
      In this example, we have four rules. A rule that allows management access to the firewall traffic, a rule to allow inbound traffic to the web server, a third rule to allow internet access to the web server, and in the last rule we modify a predefined intrazone-default rule to log all traffic that is denied.
    2. Create a rule to allow management access to the firewall.
      1. Click
        Add
        and enter a
        Name
        for the rule. Verify that the
        Rule Type
        is universal.
      2. In the
        Source
        tab, add untrust as the
        Source Zone
        .
      3. In the
        Destination
        tab, add trust as the
        Destination Zone
        .
      4. In the
        Applications
        tab,
        Add
        ping and ssh.
      5. In the
        Actions
        tab, set the
        Action
        to Allow.
      6. Click
        OK
        .
    3. Create a rule to allow inbound traffic to the web server.
      1. Click
        Add
        and enter a
        Name
        for the rule and verify that the
        Rule Type
        is universal.
      2. In the
        Source
        tab, add untrust as the
        Source Zone
        .
      3. In the
        Destination
        tab, add trust as the
        Destination Zone
        .
      4. In the
        Applications
        tab,
        Add
        web-browsing.
      5. In the
        Service/URL Category
        tab, verify that the service is set to application-default.
      6. In the
        Actions
        tab, set the
        Action
        to Allow.
      7. In the Profile Settings section of the
        Actions
        tab, select
        Profiles
        and then attach the default profiles for antivirus, anti-spyware, and vulnerability protection.
      8. Click
        OK
        .
    4. Create a rule to allow internet access to the web server.
      1. Click
        Add
        and enter a
        Name
        for the rule and verify that the Rule Type is universal.
      2. In the
        Source
        tab, add trust as the
        Source Zone
        .
      3. In the Source Address section of the
        Source
        tab, add 10.0.1.62, the IP address of the web server.
      4. In the
        Destination
        tab, add untrust as the
        Destination Zone
        .
      5. In the
        Service/URL Category
        tab, verify that the service is set to
        application-default
        .
      6. In the
        Actions
        tab, set the
        Action
        to Allow.
      7. In the Profile Settings section of the
        Actions
        tab, select
        Profiles
        and then attach the default profiles for antivirus, anti-spyware, and vulnerability protection.
      8. Click
        OK
        .
    5. Edit the interzone-default rule to log all traffic that is denied. This predefined interzone rule is evaluated when no other rule is explicitly defined to match traffic across different zones.
      1. Select the
        interzone-default
        rule and click
        Override
        .
      2. In the
        Actions
        tab, select
        Log at session end
        .
      3. Click
        OK
        .
    6. Review the complete set of security rules defined on the firewall.
    7. Click
      Commit
      to save the policies.
  17. Verify that the VM-Series firewall is securing traffic.
    1. Launch a web browser and enter the IP address for the web server.
    2. Log in to the web interface of the VM-Series firewall and verify that you can see the traffic logs for the sessions at
      Monitor
      Logs
      Traffic
      .
      • Traffic inbound to the web server (arrives at EC2 instance in the AWS VPC):
      • Traffic outbound from the web server (EC2 instance in the AWS VPC):
      You have successfully deployed the VM-Series firewall as a cloud gateway!

Recommended For You