A firewall compliance audit compares current firewall configurations against requirements established by regulations, industry standards, and internal policies.
The risk management strategy defines the initial security controls, but firewall configurations can change over time. A firewall compliance audit reviews configurations and rule changes to ensure ongoing conformance.
Often, you need to engage in internal audits then bring in an independent third-party auditor to review your conformance to network security requirements. For example, you may need to have an external audit to achieve compliance with the following data protection regulations and industry standards:
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PCI DSS
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NERC CIP
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NIST 800-53
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ISO 27001
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GDPR
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SOX
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HIPAA
As you build out your firewall compliance program, you can use this checklist’s best practices across firewall audit processes and phases.
Planning
In dynamic environments, continuous compliance monitoring is critical. Before engaging in the compliance audit, you need to have a foundation for implementing security controls.
You should engage in a risk analysis, including:
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Data types and risks
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Network devices, including routers, switches, and firewalls
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Security mechanisms, including VPNs, SASE and other network access controls
Before contacting the internal or external auditor, you should:
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Identify responsible parties across IT, network security, and applications
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Document network topologies, including network segments containing critical assets
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Update network security policies and procedures
Gathering Documentation
For most organizations, documentation gathering is time-consuming. To prepare for your firewall compliance audit, you should gather documentation across the following categories.
Firewall Rulebase
You should prepare the following documentation:
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Firewall rulesets: Allowed source IP address, destination IP address, destination port, and allowed protocols (TCP, ICMP, or UDP)
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Network objects: Physical (machines, servers) and logical representations of network entities (IP addresses, subnets, networks)
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Ruleset reviews: Firewall configurations like rule order, risky rules, overly permissive rules
Access Controls
You should prepare the following documentation:
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Access Control Lists (ACLs): allowed traffic from the public internet to internal networks
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User Access Controls: Using the principle of least privilege with role-based access controls (RBAC) consistently across multi-cloud and hybrid networks, especially as user and network asset IP addresses change
Change Management Process
You should prepare the following documentation:
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Change requests: Business reasons and objectives for changing rulesets
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Risk assessments: Reviews prior to implementing changes showing risks and potential impact
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Remediation: Mitigations reducing risk
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Audit trail: Timelines around making and approving changes
Vulnerabilities
You should prepare vulnerability scanning documentation covering:
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Firewall vendor hardware: Common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) for firmware and operating systems
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Risky rules: Identification of exploitable rules and remediation actions
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Vulnerability remediation: How to prioritize patching based on asset criticality
Internal Firewall Audit Reports
Internally, you engage in regular firewall reviews. You should provide the following documentation:
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Security controls: Security policy compliance across firewalls, routers, SDNs, and hybrid networks
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Ad hoc audits: Proactive identification of firewall rules for violations or exceptions
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Unplanned firewall changes: Approvals and exceptions from on-demand, real-time activities
On-Site Field Work
A third-party auditor engages in real-time reviews to compare written policies and procedures with daily firewall management activities. To prepare for this, you have the following available:
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Responsible parties: Network security, network infrastructure, administrators, application owners, and others involved in creating or monitoring security zones
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Management consoles: Confirmation of firewall configurations and review of change management process automation and workflows
Audit Report
During the firewall audit process, you should have an idea of the final audit report outcome based on auditor questions and internal team responses. While you may not be able to prepare everything in advance, you should have processes or automation that allows you to remediate finding. By implementing real-time firewall changes to improve security posture, you can prove that you have a strong compliance culture that is responsive to cybersecurity risk.
Accelerate Firewall Audit Readiness with Tufin
Tufin provides a unified platform that streamlines firewall management and auditing with vendor-agnostic Unified Security Policies (USPs) so you can create consistent security policies across complex networks. Using the visibility you gain from our network topology maps, you can improve network security and firewall troubleshooting for continuous compliance.
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