FCSS_EFW_AD-7.4 FCSS - Enterprise Firewall 7.4 Administrator Questions and Answers

Since Core1 and Core2 are not designated as management VDOMs, they rely on the root VDOM for connectivity to external resources such as FortiGuard updates. If the root VDOM lacks a VDOM link to these VDOMs or cannot reach FortiGuard services, security features like web filtering will stop working.

InBGP (Border Gateway Protocol), aneighbor (peer) configurationis required to establish a connection between two BGP routers. SinceFortiGate A is connecting to the ISP (Autonomous System 10) from AS 30, the administrator must define theISP's BGP router as a neighbor.

Theconfig neighborcommand is used to:

●Define the ISP's IP address as a BGP peer

●Specify the remote AS (AS 10 in this case)

●Allow BGP route exchanges between FortiGate A and the ISP

To minimizeCPU and RAM usagewhile still enforcingsecurity features like web filtering and application control,SSL certificate inspection modeis the best choice.

●SSL certificate inspectionallows FortiGate to inspectonly the SSL/TLS handshake, including theServer Name Indication (SNI) and certificate details, without decrypting the full encrypted payload.

● This enables features likeweb filtering and application controlbecause FortiGate can determine thedestination website or applicationbased onSNI and certificate information.

● Itsignificantly reduces system loadcompared tofull SSL inspection, which requires full decryption and re-encryption of traffic.

The issue occurs because FortiGate enforces the "do not fragment" (DF) bit in the packet, and the packet size exceeds the MTU of the network path. When the Windows PC1 (with an MTU of 1500 bytes) attempts to send a 1400-byte packet, the FortiGate interface (with an MTU of 1000 bytes) needs to fragment it. However, since the DF bit is set, FortiGate drops the packet instead of fragmenting it.

To resolve this, the user should adjust the ping packet size to fit within the path MTU. In this case, reducing the packet size to972 bytes(1000 bytes MTU minus 28 bytes for the IP and ICMP headers) should allow successful transmission.

TheFortinet FGSP (FortiGate Session Life Support Protocol) clusterallows session synchronization betweentwo FortiGate devicesto provide seamless failover. However,ICMP (ping) is a connectionless protocol, and by default, FortiGate does not synchronize connectionless sessions unless explicitly enabled.

In the exhibit:

● The commandget system session list | grep icmponFortiGate_Breturnsno output, meaning that ICMP sessions arenot being synchronizedfrom FortiGate_A.

● Ifsession-pickup-connectionlessis disabled,FortiGate_B will not receive ICMP sessions, causingpacket lossduring failover.

In atransparent mode Virtual Domain (VDOM)configuration, FortiGate operates as aLayer 2 bridgerather than performing Layer 3 routing. Theset forward-domain <domain_ID>command is used to control how traffic is forwarded between interfaces within the sametransparent VDOM.

Aforward-domainacts as abroadcast domain, meaning only interfaces with thesame forward-domain IDcan exchange traffic. This setting is commonly used toseparate different VLANs or network segmentswithin the transparent VDOM while still allowing FortiGate to apply security policies.

InFortiManager,pre-run CLI templatesare used inZero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP)andLow-Touch Provisioning (LTP)to configure a FortiGate devicebeforeit is fully managed by FortiManager.

These templatesapply configurationswhen a device is initially provisioned.Once the pre-run CLI template is executed, FortiManagerautomatically unassignsit from the device because it isnot meant to persistlike other policy configurations. This prevents conflicts and ensures that the FortiGate configuration isnot repeatedly appliedafter the initial setup.

Whenadding an additional FortiGateto an enterprise network that is already reaching itsresource limits, the goal is to distribute traffic efficiently and ensurehigh availability.

FGSP (FortiGate Session Life Support Protocol) with external load balancers

FGSP allowssession-aware load balancingbetween multiple FortiGate units without requiring them to be in an HA (High Availability) cluster.

Withexternal load balancers, incoming traffic isevenly distributedacross multiple FortiGate devices.

This approach is useful forscaling outtraffic handling capacity while ensuring that sessions remainsynchronizedbetween firewalls.

FGSP is effectivewhen stateful failover is requiredbut without the constraints of traditional HA.

FGCP (FortiGate Clustering Protocol) in active-active mode and with switches

FGCPactive-active modeenables multiple FortiGate devices toshare traffic loads, increasing throughput and efficiency.

Active-active mode is suitable forbalancing UTM processingacross multiple FortiGates, making it ideal whenresource limits are a concern.

Usingswitchesensures redundancy and avoids single points of failure in the network.

This mode is commonly used inenterprise networkswhere bothscalability and redundancyare required.

The exhibit shows anactive-passive HA (high availability) clusterwith two virtual clusters, where FortiGate_A is the primary device for both Core1 and Core2. If the goal is to haveFortiGate_B take over Core2 traffic, itspriority must be higherthan FortiGate_A forVirtual Cluster 2.

Currently, FortiGate_A has a priority of150for Core2, while FortiGate_B has128. IncreasingFortiGate_B’s priority to 200ensures it becomes theprimary for Virtual Cluster 2, taking over the Core2 VDOM traffic while keeping Core1 traffic on FortiGate_A.

Disabling override would prevent forced failovers but wouldn’t change the role distribution. Adjusting the load-balancing method is irrelevant in anactive-passive setup, as it only applies to active-active configurations.

Thebest way to automate a firewall policyusing a daily updated list ofIP addressesis by using anexternal connector from Threat Feeds. This allows FortiGate to dynamically retrievereal-time threat intelligencefrom external sources and apply it directly to security policies.

By configuringThreat Feeds, the administrator can:

●Automatically updatefirewall policies with the latest malicious IPs daily.

●Block trafficfrom those IPs in real-time without manual intervention.

●Integrate with FortiGuard, third-party threat intelligence sources, or custom feeds (CSV, STIX/TAXII, etc.).

In thisADVPN (Auto-Discovery VPN) network, there are two hubs (Hub A and Hub B) connected viaEBGP, whileIBGPis used within each overlay. To ensure proper BGP routing between the overlays, the administrator must configure specific BGP options..

set ebgp-enforce-multihop enable

By default, EBGP requires directly connected neighbors. Since Hub A and Hub B are not directly connected but reach each other over an IPsec tunnel, multihop must be enabled for EBGP sessions to work.

set next-hop-self enable

In IBGP, the next-hop attribute does not change by default. When an IBGP route is advertised from a spoke to another hub or spoke, the next-hop needs to be updated to ensure proper reachability. Enabling next-hop-self forces the BGP speaker to advertise itself as the next-hop, ensuring that all spokes properly reach routes across the overlays.

False positives inIntrusion Prevention System (IPS)analysis can disrupt legitimate traffic and negatively impact user experience. To reduce false positives while maintaining security, administrators can:

●Use IPS profile extensions to fine-tune the settings based on the organization's environment.

●Select the correct operating system, protocol, and application typesto ensure that IPS signatures match the network's actual traffic patterns, reducing false positives.

●Customize signature selectionbased on the network’s specific services, filtering out unnecessary or irrelevant signatures.

When FortiGate processes the first packets of a session, it follows a sequence of steps to determine how the traffic should be handled before establishing a session. The initial step involves:

● Access Control List (ACL) checks: Determines if the traffic should be allowed or blocked based on predefined security rules.

● Hardware Packet Engine (HPE) inspections: Ensures that packet headers are valid and comply with protocol standards.

● IP Integrity Header Checking: Verifies if the IP headers are intact and not malformed or spoofed.

Once these security inspections are completed and the session is validated, FortiGate then installs the session in hardware (if offloading is enabled) or processes it in software.

When multiple remote sites connect to thesame hubusingoverlapping subnets, FortiGate needs to determine which route should be used for traffic forwarding. Theroute-overlapsetting in IPsec Phase 2 allows FortiGate to handle this scenario by deciding whether to keep theexisting route(use-old) or replace it with anew route(use-new).

In anECMP (Equal-Cost Multi-Path) routing setup,both routes should be retained and balanced, but FortiGate does not supportECMP directly over overlapping routesin IPsec Phase 2. Instead, an administrator must decide which connection takes precedence usingroute-overlapsettings.