WildFire Appliance Mutual SSL Authentication
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WildFire Appliance Mutual SSL Authentication

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WildFire Appliance Mutual SSL Authentication

You need an SSL/TLS Service Profile, a server Certificate Profile, and a client Certificate Profile to enable mutual authentication using custom certificates between a WildFire appliance and firewalls or Panorama.
Where Can I Use This?
What Do I Need?
  • WildFire Appliance
  • WildFire License
When a firewall or Panorama sends a sample to a WildFire appliance for analysis, the firewall acts as the client and the WildFire appliance acts as the server. To mutually authenticate, each device presents a certificate to identify itself to the other device.
To deploy custom certificates for mutual authentication in your deployment, you need:
  • SSL/TLS Service Profile
    —An SSL/TLS service profile defines the security of the connections by referencing your custom certificate and establishing the SSL/TLS protocol version the server device uses to communicate with client devices.
  • Server Certificate and Profile
    —A WildFire appliance requires a certificate and certificate profile to identify itself to firewalls. You can deploy this certificate from your enterprise public key infrastructure (PKI), purchase one from a trusted third-party CA, or generate a self-signed certificate locally. The server certificate must include the IP address or FQDN of the WildFire appliance’s management interface in the certificate common name (CN) or Subject Alt Name. The firewall matches the CN or Subject Alt Name in the certificate the server presents against the WildFire appliance’s IP address or FQDN to verify the WildFire appliance’s identity.
    Additionally, use the certificate profile to define certificate revocation status (OCSP/CRL) and the actions taken based on the revocation status.
  • Client Certificates and Profile
    —Each firewall requires a client certificate and certificate profile. The client device uses its certificate to identify itself to the server device. You can deploy certificates from your enterprise PKI using Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP), purchase one from a trusted third-party CA, or generate a self-signed certificate locally.
    Custom certificates can be unique to each client device or common across all devices. The unique device certificates uses a hash of the serial number of the managed device and CN. The server matches the CN or the subject alt name against the configured serial numbers of the client devices. For client certificate validation based on the CN to occur, the username must be set to Subject common-name.

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