Enter a profile name (up to 31 characters). This name appears in the list of Anti-Spyware profiles when defining security rules. The name is case-sensitive and must be unique. Use only letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens, periods, and underscores.

Enter a description for the profile (up to 255 characters).

Specify the rule name.

Enter any to match all signatures, or enter text to match any signature containing the entered text as part of the signature name.

Choose an action for each threat.

The Default action is based on the predefined action that is part of each signature provided by Palo Alto Networks.

Select this option if you want to capture identified packets.

Select single-packet to capture one packet when a threat is detected, or select the extended-capture option to capture from 1 to 50 packets (default is 5 packets). Extended-capture provides more context about the threat when analyzing the Threat logs.

If the action for a given threat is allow, your configuration does not trigger a Threat log and does not capture packets. If the action is alert, you can set the packet capture to single-packet or extended-capture. All blocking actions (drop, block, and reset actions) capture a single packet. The content package on the device determines the default action.

Choose a severity level (critical, high, medium, low, or informational).

Add Override and Enable each threat for which you want to assign an action or select All to respond to all listed threats. The list depends on the selected host, category, and severity. If the list is empty, there are no threats for the current selections.

Click into the IP Address section to Add (+) IP address filters to a threat exception. If IP addresses are added to a threat exception, the threat exception action for that signature overrides the action for a rule only when the signature is triggered by a session with a source or destination IP address that matches an IP address in the exception. You can add up to 100 IP addresses per signature. With this option, you don't have to create a new security rule and a new vulnerability profile to create an exception for a specific IP address.

For each available analysis engine representing a threat category, you can select one of the following actions that you want your configuration to enforce when a corresponding threat is detected:

Enter a profile name (up to 31 characters). This name appears in the list of Anti-Spyware profiles when defining Security rules. The name is case-sensitive and must be unique. Use only letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens, periods, and underscores.

Enter a description for the profile (up to 255 characters).

Select this option if you want the profile to be available to:

Select this option to prevent administrators from overriding the settings of this Anti-Spyware profile in device groups that inherit the profile. This selection is cleared by default, which means administrators can override the settings for any device group that inherits the profile.

Specify the rule name.

Enter any to match all signatures, or enter text to match any signature containing the entered text as part of the signature name.

Choose an action for each threat.

The Default action is based on the predefined action that is part of each signature provided by Palo Alto Networks. To view the default action for a signature, select ObjectsSecurity ProfilesAnti-Spyware and Add or select an existing profile. Click the Exceptions tab and then click Show all signatures to see a list of all signatures and the associated Action.

Select this option if you want to capture identified packets.

Select single-packet to capture one packet when a threat is detected, or select the extended-capture option to capture from 1 to 50 packets (default is 5 packets). Extended-capture provides more context about the threat when analyzing the Threat logs. To view the packet capture, select MonitorLogsThreat, locate the log entry you're interested in, and then click the green down arrow in the second column. To define the number of packets to capture, select DeviceSetupContent-ID and then edit the Content-ID Settings.

If the action for a given threat is allow, the firewall does not trigger a Threat log and does not capture packets. If the action is alert, you can set the packet capture to single-packet or extended-capture. All blocking actions (drop, block, and reset actions) capture a single packet. The content package on the device determines the default action.

Choose a severity level (critical, high, medium, low, or informational).

Enable each threat for which you want to assign an action or select All to respond to all listed threats. The list depends on the selected host, category, and severity. If the list is empty, there are no threats for the current selections.

Use IP Address Exemptions to add IP address filters to a threat exception. If IP addresses are added to a threat exception, the threat exception action for that signature overrides the action for a rule only when the signature is triggered by a session with a source or destination IP address that matches an IP address in the exception. You can add up to 100 IP addresses per signature. With this option, you don't have to create a new security rule and a new vulnerability profile to create an exception for a specific IP address.

Allows you to select the lists for which you want to enforce an action when a DNS query occurs. There are two default DNS signature policy options:

By default, the locally-accessed Palo Alto Networks Content DNS signatures are sinkholed, while the cloud-based DNS Security is set to allow. If you want to enable sinkholing using DNS Security, you must configure the action on DNS queries to sinkhole. The default address used for sinkholing belongs to Palo Alto Networks (sinkhole.paloaltonetworks.com). This address isn't static and can be modified through content updates on the firewall or Panorama.

Add a new list and select the External Dynamic List of type Domain that you created.

Allows you to specify the log severity level that is recorded when the firewall detects a domain matching a DNS signature.

Choose an action to take when DNS lookups are made to known malware sites. The options are alert, allow, block, or sinkhole. The default action for Palo Alto Networks DNS signatures is sinkhole.

The DNS sinkhole action provides administrators with a method of identifying infected hosts on the network using DNS traffic, even when the firewall is north of a local DNS server (for example, the firewall can't see the originator of the DNS query). When a threat prevention license is installed and an Anti-Spyware profile is enabled in a Security Profile, the DNS-based signatures trigger on DNS queries directed at malware domains. In a typical deployment where the firewall is north of the local DNS server, the Threat log identifies the local DNS resolver as the source of the traffic rather than the actual infected host. Sinkholing malware DNS queries solves this visibility problem by forging responses to the queries directed at malicious domains, so that clients attempting to connect to malicious domains (for command-and-control, for example) instead attempt connections to an IP address specified by the administrator. Infected hosts can then be easily identified in the Traffic logs because any host that attempts to connect to the sinkhole IP is most likely infected with malware.

Select this option for a given source if you want to capture identified packets.

After sinkhole action is defined for a DNS signature source, specify an IPv4 and/or IPv6 address that will be used for sinkholing. By default, the sinkhole IP address is set to a Palo Alto Networks server. You can then use the Traffic logs or build a custom report that filters on the sinkhole IP address and identify infected clients.

The following is the sequence of events that will occur when a DNS request is sinkholed:

Malicious software on an infected client computer sends a DNS query to resolve a malicious host on the internet.

The client's DNS query is sent to an internal DNS server, which then queries a public DNS server on the other side of the firewall.

The DNS query matches a DNS entry in the specified DNS signature database source, so the sinkhole action will be performed on the query.

The infected client then attempts to start a session with the host, but uses the forged IP address instead. The forged IP address is the address defined in the Anti-Spyware profile DNS signatures tab when the sinkhole action is selected.

The administrator is alerted of a malicious DNS query in the Threat log, and can then search the Traffic logs for the sinkhole IP address and can easily locate the client IP address that’s trying to start a session with the sinkhole IP address.

Select the DNS resource record types used by encrypted DNS queries that you want to block. This prevents the client from encrypting the client hello during the DNS resolution process, thereby blocking the exchange of any keying information.

Options include SVCB (type 64), HTTPS (type 65), and ANY (type 255).

For each available analysis engine representing a threat category, you can select one of the following actions that you want the firewall to enforce when a corresponding threat is detected: