Configure HIP-Based Policy Enforcement

Verify proper licensing for HIP checks.



To use the HIP feature, you must purchase and install a GlobalProtect subscription license on each gateway that will perform HIP checks. To verify the status of your licenses on each portal and gateway, select

Device

Licenses

.

Contact your Palo Alto Networks Sales Engineer or Reseller if you do not have the required licenses. For more information on licensing, see About GlobalProtect Licenses.

(

Optional

) Define any custom host information that you want the app to collect. For example, if you have any required applications that are not included in the Vendor and/or Product lists for creating HIP objects, you could create a custom check that allows you to determine whether that application is installed (has a corresponding registry or plist key) or is running (has a corresponding running process).

Step 2 and 3 assume that you have already configured a GlobalProtect portal. If you have not yet configured your portal, see Set Up Access to the GlobalProtect Portal for instructions.



On the firewall hosting your GlobalProtect portal, select
Network
GlobalProtect
Portals
.
Select the portal configuration that you want to modify.
On the
Agent
tab, select the agent configuration to which you want to add a custom HIP check, or
Add
a new one.
Select
Data Collection
, and then enable the option to
Collect HIP Data
.
Under
Custom Checks
, define the following data that you want to collect from hosts running this agent configuration:
To collect information about specific registry keys
: On the
Windows
tab,
Add
the name of a
Registry Key
for which to collect data in the
Registry Key
area. To restrict data collection to a specific
Registry Value
,
Add
and then define the specific registry value(s). Click
OK
to save the settings.
To collect information about running processes
: Select the appropriate tab (
Windows
or
Mac
) and then
Add
a process to the
Process List
. Enter the name of the process that you want the app to collect information about.
To collect information about specific property lists
: On the
Mac
tab,
Add
the
Plist
for which to collect data. To restrict the data collection to specific key values,
Add
the
Key
values. Click
OK
to save the settings.
If this is a new agent configuration, Define the GlobalProtect Agent Configurations as desired.
Click
OK
to save the configuration.
Commit
the changes.

(

Optional

) Exclude categories from collection.

On the firewall that is hosting your GlobalProtect portal, select
Network
GlobalProtect
Portals
.
Select the portal configuration that you want to modify.
On the
Agent
tab, select the agent configuration from which to exclude categories, or
Add
a new one.
Select
Data Collection
, and then verify that
Collect HIP Data
is enabled.
Under
Exclude Categories
,
Add
a new exclude category.
Select the
Category
you want to exclude from the drop-down.
(
Optional
) If you want to exclude specific vendors and/or products within the selected category rather than excluding the entire category, click
Add
. On the Edit Vendor dialog, select the
Vendor
that you want to exclude, and then click
Add
to exclude specific products from that vendor. When you are done defining that vendor, click
OK
. You can add multiple vendors and products to the exclude list.
Repeat steps 5-7 for each category that you want to exclude.
If this is a new agent configuration, Define the GlobalProtect Agent Configurations as desired.
Click
OK
to save the configuration.
Commit
the changes.

Create the HIP objects to filter the raw host data collected by the app.

The best way to determine what HIP objects you need is to determine how you will use the host information you collect to enforce policy. Keep in mind that the HIP objects themselves are merely building blocks that allow you to create the HIP profiles that are used in your security policies. Therefore, you may want to keep your objects simple, matching on one item, such as the presence of a particular type of required software, membership in a specific domain, or the presence of a specific OS. By doing this, you will have the flexibility to create a very granular (and very powerful) HIP-augmented policy.

For details on a specific HIP category or field, refer to the online help.

On the firewall that is hosting your GlobalProtect gateway(s) (or on Panorama if you plan to share the HIP objects among multiple gateways), select
Objects
GlobalProtect
HIP Objects
, and then
Add
a new HIP object.
Enter a
Name
for the object.
Select the tab that corresponds to the category of host information you are interested in matching against, and then select the check box to enable the object to match against the category. For example, to create an object that looks for information about antivirus or anti-spyware software, select the
Anti-Malware
tab, and then select the
Anti-Malware
check box to enable the corresponding fields. Complete the fields to define the desired matching criteria. For example, the following image shows how to create a HIP object that matches if the endpoint has the AVAST Free Antivirus software application installed, has
Real Time Protection
enabled, and has virus definitions that have been updated within the last 5 days.

Repeat this step for each category you want to match against in this object. For more information, see Table: Data Collection Categories.
(
Optional
) Configure tags to match against the ownership category or compliance status of the endpoint.
For example, you can create a tag to match against employee-owned endpoints so that you can prevent users from accessing sensitive network resources on their personal endpoints.
The User-ID agent for Windows queries the MDM server for the following information:
Mobile device compliance status.
Smart group (ownership category) to which the mobile device belongs.
The User-ID agent converts this information into tags that are incorporated into the HIP report. You can create HIP objects based on these tag values to enforce HIP-based security policies for the endpoints in your network. For more information, see Configure Windows User-ID Agent to Collect Host Information.
Select the
Mobile Device
check box to enable configuration of the
Mobile Device
settings.
On the
Device
tab, select a match operator (such as
Contains
or
Is Not
) from the
Tag
drop-down.
(
Optional
) When prompted, enter one of the following ownership category values:
The ownership category indicates who owns the endpoint.
Employee Owned
Corporate-Dedicated
Corporate-Shared
(
Optional
) When prompted, enter one of the following compliance status values:
The compliance status indicates whether the endpoint is compliant with the security policies you have defined.
Compliant
NonCompliant
NotAvailable

Click
OK
to save the HIP object.
Repeat these steps to create each additional HIP object you require.
Commit
the changes.

Create the HIP profiles that you plan to use in your policies.

When you create your HIP profiles, you can combine the HIP objects you previously created (as well as other HIP profiles) using Boolean logic, such that when a traffic flow is evaluated against the resulting HIP profile, it will either match or not match. If there is a match, the corresponding policy rule is enforced; if there is not a match, the flow is evaluated against the next rule, as with any other policy matching criteria.

On the firewall that is hosting your GlobalProtect gateway(s) (or on Panorama if you plan to share the HIP profiles among multiple gateways), select
Objects
GlobalProtect
HIP Profiles
, and then
Add
a new HIP profile.
Enter a
Name
and
Description
to identify the profile.
Click
Add Match Criteria
to open the HIP Object/Profiles Builder.
Select the HIP object or profile that you want to use as match criteria, and then click the add icon ( ) to move it to the
Match
text box on the HIP Profile dialog. If you want the HIP profile to evaluate the object as a match only when the criteria in the object is not true for a flow, select the
NOT
check box before adding the object.

Continue adding match criteria for the profile that you are building, making sure to select the appropriate Boolean operator radio button (
AND
or
OR
) between each addition (and, again, using the
NOT
check box when appropriate). The HIP profile can be up to 2048 characters in length.
If you are creating a complex Boolean expression, you must manually add the parenthesis in the proper places in the
Match
text box to ensure that the HIP profile is evaluated using the logic you intend. For example, the following HIP profile matches traffic from a host that has either FileVault disk encryption (for macOS systems) or TrueCrypt disk encryption (for Windows systems), belongs to the required Domain, and has a Symantec antivirus client installed:

After you add all your match criteria, click
OK
to save the profile.
Repeat these steps to create each additional HIP profile you require.
Commit
the changes.

Verify that the HIP objects and HIP profiles you created match your GlobalProtect traffic as expected.

Consider monitoring HIP objects and profiles as a means to monitor the security state and activity of your host endpoints. By monitoring the host information over time, you can better understand where your security and compliance issues are, which can guide you in creating useful policy. For more details, see How Do I Get Visibility into the State of the Endpoints?

On the gateway(s) to which your GlobalProtect users are connecting, select

Monitor

Logs

HIP Match

. This log shows all of the matches identified by the gateway when evaluating the raw HIP data reported by the app against the defined HIP objects and HIP profiles. Unlike other logs, a HIP match does not require a security policy match in order to be logged.



Enable User-ID on the source zones containing the GlobalProtect users that send requests requiring HIP-based access controls. You must enable User-ID even if you do not plan on using the user identification feature, otherwise the firewall cannot generate any HIP Match logs entries.

Select

Network

Zones

.

Click the

Name

of the zone on which you want to enable User-ID.

Enable User Identification

, and then click

OK

.



Create the HIP-enabled security rules on your gateway(s).

As a best practice, you should create your security rules and test that they match the expected flows (based on the source and destination criteria) before adding your HIP profiles. By doing this, you can better determine the proper placement of the HIP-enabled rules within the policy.

Select

Policies

Security

, and the select the rule to which you want to add a HIP profile.

On the

Source

tab, make sure the

Source Zone

is a zone for which you enabled User-ID.

On the

User

tab,

Add

the

HIP Profiles

used to identify users (you can add up to 63 HIP profiles to a rule).

Click

OK

to save the rule.

Commit

the changes.



Define the notification messages end-users see when a security rule with a HIP profile is enforced.

The decision as to when you want to display a notification message (that is, whether to display it when the user’s configuration matches a HIP profile in the policy or when it doesn’t match), depends largely on your policy and what a HIP match (or non-match) means for the user. That is, does a match mean they are granted full access to your network resources? Or does it mean they have limited access due to a non-compliance issue?

For example, suppose you create a HIP profile that matches if the required corporate antivirus and anti-spyware software packages are not installed. In this case, you might want to create a HIP notification message for users who match the HIP profile, informing them that they need to install the software. Alternatively, if your HIP profile matches when those same applications are installed, you might want to create the message for users who do not match the profile.

On the firewall hosting your GlobalProtect gateway(s), select
Network
GlobalProtect
Gateways
.
Select the gateway configuration for which you want to add HIP notification messages.
Select
Agent
HIP Notification
, and then click
Add
.
Select the HIP profile to which this message applies from the
Host Information
drop-down.
Depending on whether you want to display the message when the corresponding HIP profile is matched or not matched, select
Match Message
or
Not Match Message
. In some cases, you might want to create messages for both a match and a non-match, depending on what objects you are matching and what your objectives are for the policy.
Enable
the
Match Message
or
Not Match Message
, and then select whether you want to display the message as a
Pop Up Message
or a
System Tray Balloon
.
Enter your message text in the
Template
text box, and then click
OK
. The text box provides both a WYSIWYG view of the text and an HTML source view, which you can toggle between using the
Source Edit
icon. The toolbar also provides various options for formatting your text and creating hyperlinks to external documents (for example, linking users directly to the download URL for a required software program).

Repeat this procedure for each message that you want to define.
Commit
the changes.

Verify that your HIP profiles are working as expected.

You can monitor the traffic that is hitting your HIP-enabled policies using the

Traffic

log:

On the firewall that is hosting your gateway, select

Monitor

Logs

Traffic

.

Filter the log to display only the traffic that matches the rule with the HIP profile you are interested in monitoring. For example, to search for traffic that matches a security rule named “iOS Apps” you would enter

( rule eq 'iOS Apps' )

in the filter text box as follows: