index int64 0 4.08k | text stringlengths 34 4.9k ⌀ | url stringclasses 38
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691 | Monitoring
Object Group Description
tunnels, aggregate groups, Layer 2 subinterfaces, Layer 3 subinterfaces,
loopback interfaces, and VLAN interfaces.
RFC 1213 defines this MIB.
IF-MIB
IF-MIB supports interface types (physical and logical) and larger counters (64K) beyond those
defined in MIB-II. Use this MIB to monitor interface statistics in addition to those that MIBII provides. For example, to monitor the current bandwidth of high-speed interfaces (greater
than 2.2Gps) such as the 10G interfaces of the PA-5200 Series firewalls, you must check the
ifHighSpeed object in IF-MIB instead of the ifSpeed object in MIB-II. IF-MIB statistics can be
useful when evaluating the capacity of your network.
Palo Alto Networks firewalls, Panorama, and WF-500 appliances support only the ifXTable in IFMIB, which provides interface information such as the number of multicast and broadcast packets
transmitted and received, whether an interface is in promiscuous mode, and whether an interface
has a physical connector.
RFC 2863 defines this MIB.
HOST-RESOURCES-MIB
HOST-RESOURCES-MIB provides information for host computer resources. Use this MIB
to monitor CPU and memory usage statistics. For example, checking the current CPU load
(hrProcessorLoad object) can help you troubleshoot performance issues on the firewall.
Palo Alto Networks firewalls, Panorama, and WF-500 appliances support portions of the following
object groups:
Object Group Description
hrDevice Provides information such as CPU load, storage capacity, and
partition size. The hrProcessorLoad OIDs provide an average of the
cores that process packets.
For the PA-7000 and PA-5200 Series firewalls, which have multiple
dataplanes (DPs), you can monitor individual dataplane processor
utilization. Set alerts when utilization reaches a specific threshold for
each DP processor to avoid service availability issues.
hrSystem Provides information such as system uptime, number of current user
sessions, and number of current processes.
hrStorage Provides information such as the amount of used storage.
RFC 2790 defines this MIB.
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ENTITY-MIB
ENTITY-MIB provides OIDs for multiple logical and physical components. Use this MIB to
determine what physical components are loaded on a system (for example, fans and temperature
sensors) and see related information such as models and serial numbers. You can also use the
index numbers for these components to determine their operational status in the ENTITYSENSOR-MIB and ENTITY-STATE-MIB.
Palo Alto Networks firewalls, Panorama, and WF-500 appliances support only portions of the
entPhysicalTable group:
Object Description
entPhysicalIndex A single namespace that includes disk slots and disk drives.
entPhysicalDescr The component description.
entPhysicalVendorTypeThe sysObjectID (see PAN-PRODUCT-MIB.my) when it is available
(chassis and module objects).
entPhysicalContainedInThe value of entPhysicalIndex for the component that contains this
component.
entPhysicalClass Chassis (3), container (5) for a slot, power supply (6), fan (7), sensor (8)
for each temperature or other environmental, and module (9) for each
line card.
entPhysicalParentRelPosThe relative position of this child component among its sibling
components. Sibling components are defined as entPhysicalEntry
components that share the same instance values of each of the
entPhysicalContainedIn and entPhysicalClass objects.
entPhysicalName Supported only if the management (MGT) interface allows for naming
the line card.
entPhysicalHardwareRevThe vendor-specific hardware revision of the component.
entPhysicalFirwareRev The vendor-specific firmware revision of the component.
entPhysicalSoftwareRevThe vendor-specific software revision of the component.
entPhysicalSerialNum The vendor-specific serial number of the component.
entPhysicalMfgName The name of the manufacturer of the component.
entPhysicalMfgDate The date when the component was manufactured.
entPhysicalModelNameThe disk model number.
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Object Description
entPhysicalAlias An alias that the network manager specified for the component.
entPhysicalAssetID A user-assigned asset tracking identifier that the network manager
specified for the component.
entPhysicalIsFRU Indicates whether the component is a field replaceable unit (FRU).
entPhysicalUris The Common Language Equipment Identifier (CLEI) number of the
component (for example, URN:CLEI:CNME120ARA).
RFC 4133 defines this MIB.
ENTITY-SENSOR-MIB
ENTITY-SENSOR-MIB adds support for physical sensors of networking equipment beyond what
ENTITY-MIB defines. Use this MIB in tandem with the ENTITY-MIB to monitor the operational
status of the physical components of a system (for example, fans and temperature sensors). For
example, to troubleshoot issues that might result from environmental conditions, you can map
the entity indexes from the ENTITY-MIB (entPhysicalDescr object) to operational status values
(entPhysSensorOperStatus object) in the ENTITY-SENSOR-MIB. In the following example, all the
fans and temperature sensors for a PA-3020 firewall are working:
The same OID might refer to different sensors on different platforms. Use the ENTITY-MIB
for the targeted platform to match the value to the description.
Palo Alto Networks firewalls, Panorama, and WF-500 appliances support only portions of the
entPhySensorTable group. The supported portions vary by platform and include only thermal
(temperature in Celsius) and fan (in RPM) sensors.
RFC 3433 defines the ENTITY-SENSOR-MIB.
ENTITY-STATE-MIB
ENTITY-STATE-MIB provides information about the state of physical components beyond what
ENTITY-MIB defines, including the administrative and operational state of components in chassisbased platforms. Use this MIB in tandem with the ENTITY-MIB to monitor the operational state
of the components of a PA-7000 Series or PA-5450 firewall (for example, line cards, fan trays,
and power supplies). For example, to troubleshoot log forwarding issues for Threat logs, you
can map the log processing card (LPC) indexes from the ENTITY-MIB (entPhysicalDescr object)
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to operational state values (entStateOper object) in the ENTITY-STATE-MIB. The operational
state values use numbers to indicate state: 1 for unknown, 2 for disabled, 3 for enabled, and 4 for
testing. The PA-7000 Series and PA-5450 firewall are the only Palo Alto Networks firewalls that
support this MIB.
RFC 4268 defines the ENTITY-STATE-MIB.
IEEE 802.3 LAG MIB
Use the IEEE 802.3 LAG MIB to monitor the status of aggregate groups that have Link
Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP in an Aggregate Interface Group) enabled. When the firewall
logs LACP events, it also generates traps that are useful for troubleshooting. For example, the
traps can tell you whether traffic interruptions between the firewall and an LACP peer resulted
from lost connectivity or from mismatched interface speed and duplex values.
PAN-OS implements the following SNMP tables for LACP.
The dot3adTablesLastChanged object indicates the time of the most recent change to
dot3adAggTable, dot3adAggPortListTable, and dot3adAggPortTable.
Table Description
Aggregator
Configuration Table
(dot3adAggTable)
This table contains information about every aggregate group that is
associated with a firewall. Each aggregate group has one entry.
Some table objects have restrictions, which the dot3adAggIndex
object describes. This index is the unique identifier that the local
system assigns to the aggregate group. It identifies an aggregate
group instance among the subordinate managed objects of the
containing object. The identifier is read-only.
The ifTable MIB (a list of interface entries) does not
support logical interfaces and therefore does not have an
entry for the aggregate group.
Aggregation
Port List Table
(dot3adAggPortListTable)
This table lists the ports associated with each aggregate group in a
firewall. Each aggregate group has one entry.
The dot3adAggPortListPorts attribute lists the complete set of ports
associated with an aggregate group. Each bit set in the list represents
a port member. For non-chassis platforms, this is a 64-bit value. For
chassis platforms, the value is an array of eight 64-bit entries.
Aggregation
Port Table
(dot3adAggPortTable)
This table contains LACP configuration information about every port
associated with an aggregate group in a firewall. Each port has one
entry. The table has no entries for ports that are not associated with
an aggregate group.
LACP Statistics Table
(dot3adAggPortStatsTable)
This table contains link aggregation information about every port
associated with an aggregate group in a firewall. Each port has one
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Table Description
row. The table has no entries for ports that are not associated with an
aggregate group.
The IEEE 802.3 LAG MIB includes the following LACP-related traps:
Trap Name Description
panLACPLostConnectivityTrapThe peer lost connectivity to the firewall.
panLACPUnresponsiveTrap The peer does not respond to the firewall.
panLACPNegoFailTrap LACP negotiation with the peer failed.
panLACPSpeedDuplexTrap The link speed and duplex settings on the firewall and peer do not
match.
panLACPLinkDownTrap An interface in the aggregate group is down.
panLACPLacpDownTrap An interface was removed from the aggregate group.
panLACPLacpUpTrap An interface was added to the aggregate group.
For the MIB definitions, refer to IEEE 802.3 LAG MIB.
LLDP-V2-MIB.my
Use the LLDP-V2-MIB to monitor Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) events. For example,
you can check the lldpV2StatsRxPortFramesDiscardedTotal object to see the number of LLDP
frames that were discarded for any reason. The Palo Alto Networks firewall uses LLDP to discover
neighboring devices and their capabilities. LLDP makes troubleshooting easier, especially for
virtual wire deployments where the ping or traceroute utilities won’t detect the firewall.
Palo Alto Networks firewalls support all the LLDP-V2-MIB objects except:
• The following lldpV2Statistics objects:
• lldpV2StatsRemTablesLastChangeTime
• lldpV2StatsRemTablesInserts
• lldpV2StatsRemTablesDeletes
• lldpV2StatsRemTablesDrops
• lldpV2StatsRemTablesAgeouts
• The following lldpV2RemoteSystemsData objects:
• The lldpV2RemOrgDefInfoTable table
• In the lldpV2RemTable table: lldpV2RemTimeMark
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RFC 4957 defines this MIB.
BFD-STD-MIB
Use the Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) MIB to monitor and receive failure alerts for
the bidirectional path between two forwarding engines, such as interfaces, data links, or the actual
engines. For example, you can check the bfdSessState object to see the state of a BFD session
between forwarding engines. In the Palo Alto Networks implementation, one of the forwarding
engines is a firewall interface and the other is an adjacent configured BFD peer.
RFC 7331 defines this MIB.
PAN-COMMON-MIB.my
Use the PAN-COMMON-MIB to monitor the following information for Palo Alto Networks
firewalls, Panorama, and WF-500 appliances:
Object Group Description
panSys Contains such objects as system software/hardware versions, dynamic
content versions, serial number, HA mode/state, and global counters.
The global counters include those related to Denial of Service (DoS),
IP fragmentation, TCP state, and dropped packets. Tracking these
counters enables you to monitor traffic irregularities that result from
DoS attacks, system or connection faults, or resource limitations. PANCOMMON-MIB supports global counters for firewalls but not for
Panorama.
panChassis Chassis type and M-Series appliance mode (Panorama or Log
Collector).
panSession Session utilization information. For example, the total number of active
sessions on the firewall or a specific virtual system.
panMgmt Status of the connection from the firewall to the Panorama
management server.
panGlobalProtect GlobalProtect gateway utilization as a percentage, maximum tunnels
allowed, and number of active tunnels.
panLogCollector Logging statistics for each Log Collector, including logging rate, log
quotas, disk usage, retention periods, log redundancy (enabled or
disabled), the forwarding status from firewalls to Log Collectors, the
forwarding status from Log Collectors to external services, and the
status of firewall-to-Log Collector connections.
panDeviceLogging Logging statistics for each firewall, including logging rate, disk usage,
retention periods, the forwarding status from individual firewalls
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Object Group Description
to Panorama and external servers, and the status of firewall-to-Log
Collector connections.
PAN-GLOBAL-REG-MIB.my
PAN-GLOBAL-REG-MIB.my contains global, top-level OID definitions for various sub-trees of
Palo Alto Networks enterprise MIB modules. This MIB doesn’t contain objects for you to monitor;
it is required only for referencing by other MIBs.
PAN-GLOBAL-TC-MIB.my
PAN-GLOBAL-TC-MIB.my defines conventions (for example, character length and allowed
characters) for the text values of objects in Palo Alto Networks enterprise MIB modules. All Palo
Alto Networks products use these conventions. This MIB doesn’t contain objects for you to
monitor; it is required only for referencing by other MIBs.
PAN-LC-MIB.my
PAN-LC-MIB.my contains definitions of managed objects that Log Collectors (M-Series appliances
in Log Collector mode) implement. Use this MIB to monitor the logging rate, log database storage
duration (in days), and disk usage (in MB) of each logical disk (up to four) on a Log Collector. For
example, you can use this information to determine whether you should add more Log Collectors
or forward logs to an external server (for example, a syslog server) for archiving.
PAN-PRODUCT-MIB.my
PAN-PRODUCT-MIB.my defines sysObjectID OIDs for all Palo Alto Networks products. This MIB
doesn’t contain objects for you to monitor; it is required only for referencing by other MIBs.
PAN-ENTITY-EXT-MIB.my
Use PAN-ENTITY-EXT-MIB.my in tandem with the ENTITY-MIB to monitor power usage for the
physical components of a PA-7000 Series or PA-5450 firewall (for example, fan trays, and power
supplies), which are the only two Palo Alto Networks firewalls that support this MIB. For example,
when troubleshooting log forwarding issues, you might want to check the power usage of the log
processing cards (LPCs): you can map the LPC indexes from the ENTITY-MIB (entPhysicalDescr
object) to values in the PAN-ENTITY-EXT-MIB (panEntryFRUModelPowerUsed object).
PAN-TRAPS.my
Use PAN-TRAPS.my to see a complete listing of all the generated traps and information about
them (for example, a description). For a list of traps that Palo Alto Networks firewalls, Panorama,
and WF-500 appliances support, refer to the PAN-COMMON-MIB.my panCommonEvents >
panCommonEventsEvents > panCommonEventEventsV2 object.
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Forward Logs to an HTTP/S Destination
The firewall and Panorama™ can forward logs to an HTTP/S server. You can choose to forward
all logs or specific logs to trigger an action on an external HTTP-based service when an event
occurs. When forwarding logs to an HTTP server, configure the firewall to send an HTTP-based
API request directly to a third-party service to trigger an action that is based on the attributes in a
firewall log. You can configure the firewall to work with any HTTP-based service that exposes an
API and you can modify the URL, HTTP header, parameters, and the payload in the HTTP request
to meet your integration needs.
Log forwarding to an HTTP server is designed for log forwarding at low frequencies
and is not recommend for deployments with a high volume of log forwarding. You may
experience log loss when forwarding to an HTTP server if your deployment generate a high
volume of logs that need to be forwarded.
See Configure Log Forwarding for additional log forwarding options.
STEP 1 | Create an HTTP server profile to forward logs to an HTTP/S destination.
The HTTP server profile allows you to specify how to access the server and define the
format in which to forward logs to the HTTP/S destination. By default, the firewall uses the
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management port to forward these logs. However, you can assign a different source interface
and IP address in Device > Setup > Services > Service Route Configuration.
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > HTTP and Add a new profile.
2. Specify a Name for the server profile, and select the Location. The profile can be Shared
across all virtual systems or can belong to a specific virtual system.
3. Add the details for each server. Each profile can have a maximum of four servers.
4. Enter a Name and IP Address.
5. Select the Protocol (HTTP or HTTPS). The default Port is 80 or 443 respectively but you
can modify the port number to match the port on which your HTTP server listens.
6. Select the TLS Version supported on the server—1.0, 1.1, or 1.2 (default).
7. Select the Certificate Profile to use for the TLS connection with the server.
8. Select the HTTP Method that the third-party service supports—DELETE,GET, POST
(default), or PUT.
9. (Optional) Enter the Username and Password for authenticating to the server, if needed.
10. (Optional) Select Test Server Connection to verify network connectivity between the
firewall and the HTTP/S server.
STEP 2 | Select the Payload Format for the HTTP request.
1. Select the Log Type link for each log type for which you want to define the HTTP
request format.
2. Select the Pre-defined Formats (available through content updates) or create a custom
format.
If you create a custom format, the URI is the resource endpoint on the HTTP service.
The firewall appends the URI to the IP address you defined earlier to construct the URL
for the HTTP request. Ensure that the URI and payload format matches the syntax that
your third-party vendor requires. You can use any attribute supported on the selected
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log type within the HTTP Header, the Parameter and Value pairs, and in the request
payload.
3. Send Test Log to verify that the HTTP server receives the request. When you
interactively send a test log, the firewall uses the format as is and does not replace
the variable with a value from a firewall log. If your HTTP server sends a 404
response, provide values for the parameters so that the server can process the request
successfully.
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STEP 3 | Define the match criteria for when the firewall will forward logs to the HTTP server and
attach the HTTP server profile you will use.
1. Select the log types for which you want to trigger a workflow:
• Add a Log Forwarding Profile (Objects > Log Forwarding) for logs that pertain to user
activity (for example, Traffic, Threat, or Authentication logs).
• Select Device > Log Settings for logs that pertain to system events, such as
Configuration or System logs.
2. Select the Log Type and use the new Filter Builder to define the match criteria.
3. Add the HTTP server profile for forwarding logs to the HTTP destination.
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NetFlow Monitoring
NetFlow is an industry-standard protocol that the firewall can use to export statistics about
the IP traffic ingressing its interfaces. The firewall exports the statistics as NetFlow fields to
a NetFlow collector. The NetFlow collector is a server you use to analyze network traffic for
security, administration, accounting and troubleshooting. All Palo Alto Networks firewalls support
NetFlow Version 9. The firewalls support only unidirectional NetFlow, not bidirectional. The
firewalls perform NetFlow processing on all IP packets on the interfaces and do not support
sampled NetFlow. You can export NetFlow records for Layer 3, Layer 2, virtual wire, tap, VLAN,
loopback, and tunnel interfaces. For aggregate Ethernet sub-interfaces, you can export records
for the individual sub-interfaces that data flows through within the group. To identify firewall
interfaces in a NetFlow collector, see Firewall Interface Identifiers in SNMP Managers and
NetFlow Collectors. The firewalls support standard and enterprise (PAN-OS specific) NetFlow
Templates, which NetFlow collectors use to decipher the NetFlow fields.
• Configure NetFlow Exports
• NetFlow Templates
Configure NetFlow Exports
To use a NetFlow collector for analyzing the network traffic ingressing firewall interfaces, perform
the following steps to configure NetFlow record exports.
STEP 1 | Create a NetFlow server profile.
The profile defines which NetFlow collectors will receive the exported records and specifies
export parameters.
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > NetFlow and Add a profile.
2. Enter a Name to identify the profile.
3. Specify the rate at which the firewall refreshes NetFlow Templates in Minutes (default is
30) and Packets (exported records—default is 20), according to the requirements of your
NetFlow collector. The firewall refreshes the templates after either threshold is passed.
4. Specify the Active Timeout, which is the frequency in minutes at which the firewall
exports records (default is 5).
5. Select PAN-OS Field Types if you want the firewall to export App-ID and User-ID fields.
6. Add each NetFlow collector (up to two per profile) that will receive records. For each
collector, specify the following:
• Name to identify the collector.
• NetFlow Server hostname or IP address.
• Access Port (default 2055).
7. Click OK to save the profile.
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STEP 2 | Assign the NetFlow server profile to the firewall interfaces where traffic you want to analyze
is ingressing.
In this example, you assign the profile to an existing Ethernet interface.
1. Select Network > Interfaces > Ethernet and click an interface name to edit it.
You can export NetFlow records for Layer 3, Layer 2, virtual wire, tap, VLAN,
loopback, and tunnel interfaces. For aggregate Ethernet interfaces, you can
export records for the individual sub-interfaces that data flows through within
the group.
2. Select the NetFlow server profile (NetFlow Profile) you configured and click OK.
STEP 3 | (Required for PA-7000 Series, PA-5400 Series, and PA-5200 Series firewalls) Configure a
service route for the interface that the firewall will use to send NetFlow records.
You cannot use the management (MGT) interface to send NetFlow records from the PA-7000
Series, PA-5400 Series, and PA-5200 Series firewalls. For other firewall models, a service route
is optional. For all firewalls, the interface that sends NetFlow records does not have to be the
same as the interface for which the firewall collects the records.
1. Select Device > Setup > Services.
2. (Firewall with multiple virtual systems) Select one of the following:
• Global—Select this option if the service route applies to all virtual systems on the
firewall.
• Virtual Systems—Select this option if the service route applies to a specific virtual
system. Set the Location to the virtual system.
3. Select Service Route Configuration and Customize.
4. Select the protocol (IPv4 or IPv6) that the interface uses. You can configure the service
route for both protocols if necessary.
5. Click Netflow in the Service column.
6. Select the Source Interface.
Any, Use default, and MGT are not valid interface options for sending NetFlow records
from PA-7000 Series, PA-5400 Series, or PA-5200 Series firewalls.
7. Select a Source Address (IP address).
8. Click OK twice to save your changes.
STEP 4 | Commit your changes.
STEP 5 | Monitor the firewall traffic in a NetFlow collector.
Refer to your NetFlow collector documentation.
When monitoring statistics, you must match the interface indexes in the NetFlow
collector with interface names in the firewall web interface. For details, see Firewall
Interface Identifiers in SNMP Managers and NetFlow Collectors.
To troubleshoot NetFlow delivery issues, use the operational CLI command debug logreceiver netflow statistics.
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NetFlow Templates
NetFlow collectors use templates to decipher the fields that the firewall exports. The firewall
selects a template based on the type of exported data: IPv4 or IPv6 traffic, with or without
NAT, and with standard or enterprise-specific (PAN-OS specific) fields. The firewall periodically
refreshes templates to re-evaluate which one to use (in case the type of exported data changes)
and to apply any changes to the fields in the selected template. When you Configure NetFlow
Exports, set the refresh rate based on a time interval and a number of exported records according
to the requirements of your NetFlow collector. The firewall refreshes the templates after either
threshold is passed.
The Palo Alto Networks firewall supports the following NetFlow templates:
Template ID
IPv4 Standard 256
IPv4 Enterprise 257
IPv6 Standard 258
IPv6 Enterprise 259
IPv4 with NAT Standard 260
IPv4 with NAT Enterprise 261
IPv6 with NAT Standard 262
IPv6 with NAT Enterprise 263
The following table lists the NetFlow fields that the firewall can send, along with the templates
that define them:
ValueField Description Templates
1 IN_BYTES Incoming counter with length N
* 8 bits for the number of bytes
associated with an IP flow. By
default, N is 4.
All templates
2 IN_PKTS Incoming counter with length N *
8 bits for the number of packets
associated with an IP glow. By
default, N is 4.
All templates
4 PROTOCOL IP protocol byte. All templates
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ValueField Description Templates
5 TOS Type of Service byte setting when
entering the ingress interface.
All templates
6 TCP_FLAGS Total of all the TCP flags in this
flow.
All templates
7 L4_SRC_PORT TCP/UDP source port number
(for example, FTP, Telnet, or
equivalent).
All templates
8 IPV4_SRC_ADDR IPv4 source address. IPv4 standard
IPv4 enterprise
IPv4 with NAT
standard
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
10 INPUT_SNMP Input interface index. The value
length is 2 bytes by default, but
higher values are possible. For
details on how Palo Alto Networks
firewalls generate interface
indexes, see Firewall Interface
Identifiers in SNMP Managers and
NetFlow Collectors.
All templates
11 L4_DST_PORT TCP/UDP destination port number
(for example, FTP, Telnet, or
equivalent).
All templates
12 IPV4_DST_ADDR IPv4 destination address. IPv4 standard
IPv4 enterprise
IPv4 with NAT
standard
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
14 OUTPUT_SNMP Output interface index. The value
length is 2 bytes by default, but
higher values are possible. For
details on how Palo Alto Networks
firewalls generate interface
indexes, see Firewall Interface
All templates
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ValueField Description Templates
Identifiers in SNMP Managers and
NetFlow Collectors.
21 LAST_SWITCHED System uptime in milliseconds
when the last packet of this flow
was switched.
All templates
22 FIRST_SWITCHED System uptime in milliseconds
when the first packet of this flow
was switched.
All templates
27 IPV6_SRC_ADDR IPv6 source address. IPv6 standard
IPv6 enterprise
IPv6 with NAT
standard
IPv6 with NAT
enterprise
28 IPV6_DST_ADDR IPv6 destination address. IPv6 standard
IPv6 enterprise
IPv6 with NAT
standard
IPv6 with NAT
enterprise
32 ICMP_TYPE Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP) packet type. This is
reported as:
ICMP Type * 256 + ICMP code
All templates
61 DIRECTION Flow direction:
• 0 = ingress
• 1 = egress
All templates
148 flowId An identifier of a flow that is
unique within an observation
domain. You can use this
information element to distinguish
between different flows if flow
keys such as IP addresses and port
numbers are not reported or are
reported in separate records. The
All templates
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707 | Monitoring
ValueField Description Templates
flowID corresponds to the session
ID field in Traffic and Threat logs.
233 firewallEvent Indicates a firewall event:
• 0 = Ignore (invalid)—Not used.
• 1 = Flow created—The NetFlow
data record is for a new flow.
• 2 = Flow deleted—The NetFlow
data record is for the end of a
flow.
• 3 = Flow denied—The NetFlow
data record indicates a flow
that firewall policy denied.
• 4 = Flow alert—Not used.
• 5 = Flow update—The NetFlow
data record is sent for a longlasting flow, which is a flow that
lasts longer than the Active
Timeout period configured in
the NetFlow server profile.
All templates
225 postNATSourceIPv4Address The definition of this information
element is identical to that of
sourceIPv4Address, except that
it reports a modified value that
the firewall produced during
network address translation after
the packet traversed the interface.
IPv4 with NAT
standard
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
226 postNATDestinationIPv4AddressThe definition of this information
element is identical to that of
destinationIPv4Address, except
that it reports a modified value
that the firewall produced during
network address translation after
the packet traversed the interface.
IPv4 with NAT
standard
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
227 postNAPTSourceTransportPort The definition of this information
element is identical to that of
sourceTransportPort, except that
it reports a modified value that the
firewall produced during network
address port translation after the
packet traversed the interface.
IPv4 with NAT
standard
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
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708 | Monitoring
ValueField Description Templates
228 postNAPTDestinationTransportPort The definition of this information
element is identical to that of
destinationTransportPort, except
that it reports a modified value
that the firewall produced during
network address port translation
after the packet traversed the
interface.
IPv4 with NAT
standard
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
281 postNATSourceIPv6Address The definition of this information
element is identical to the
definition of information element
sourceIPv6Address, except that it
reports a modified value that the
firewall produced during NAT64
network address translation after
the packet traversed the interface.
See RFC 2460 for the definition
of the source address field in the
IPv6 header. See RFC 6146 for
NAT64 specification.
IPv6 with NAT
standard
IPv6 with NAT
enterprise
282 postNATDestinationIPv6AddressThe definition of this information
element is identical to the
definition of information element
destinationIPv6Address, except
that it reports a modified value
that the firewall produced
during NAT64 network address
translation after the packet
traversed the interface. See RFC
2460 for the definition of the
destination address field in the
IPv6 header. See RFC 6146 for
NAT64 specification.
IPv6 with NAT
standard
IPv6 with NAT
enterprise
346 privateEnterpriseNumber This is a unique private enterprise
number that identifies Palo Alto
Networks: 25461.
IPv4 enterprise
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
IPv6 enterprise
IPv6 with NAT
enterprise
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709 | Monitoring
ValueField Description Templates
56701App-ID The name of an application that
App-ID identified. The name can
be up to 32 bytes.
IPv4 enterprise
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
IPv6 enterprise
IPv6 with NAT
enterprise
56702User-ID A username that User-ID
identified. The name can be up to
64 bytes.
IPv4 enterprise
IPv4 with NAT
enterprise
IPv6 enterprise
IPv6 with NAT
enterprise
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710 | Monitoring
Firewall Interface Identifiers in SNMP Managers and
NetFlow Collectors
When you use a NetFlow collector (see NetFlow Monitoring) or SNMP manager (see SNMP
Monitoring and Traps) to monitor the Palo Alto Networks firewall, an interface index (SNMP
ifindex object) identifies the interface that carried a particular flow (see Interface Indexes in an
SNMP Manager). In contrast, the firewall web interface uses interface names as identifiers (for
example, ethernet1/1), not indexes. To understand which statistics that you see in a NetFlow
collector or SNMP manager apply to which firewall interface, you must be able to match the
interface indexes with interface names.
Figure 3: Interface Indexes in an SNMP Manager
You can match the indexes with names by understanding the formulas that the firewall uses to
calculate indexes. The formulas vary by platform and interface type: physical or logical.
Physical interface indexes have a range of 1-9999, which the firewall calculates as follows:
Firewall Platform Calculation Example Interface Index
VM-Series Number of management ports +
physical port offset
• Number of management
ports—This is a constant of 1.
• Physical port offset—This is
the physical port number.
VM-100 firewall, Eth1/4 =
1 (number of management
ports) + 4 (physical port) = 5
PA-220, PA-220R,
PA-800 Series
Number of management ports +
physical port offset
• Number of management
ports—This is a constant of 5.
• Physical port offset—This is
the physical port number.
PA-5200 Series firewall,
Eth1/4 =
5 (number of management
ports) + 4 (physical port) = 9
PA-3200 Series,
PA-5200 Series
Number of management ports +
physical port offset
• Number of management
ports—This is a constant of 4.
PA-5200 Series firewall,
Eth1/4 =
4 (number of management
ports) + 4 (physical port) = 8
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711 | Monitoring
Firewall Platform Calculation Example Interface Index
• Physical port offset—This is
the physical port number.
PA-7000 Series (Max. ports * slot) + physical port
offset + number of management
ports
• Maximum ports—This is a
constant of 64.
• Slot—This is the chassis
slot number of the network
interface card.
• Physical port offset—This is
the physical port number.
• Number of management
ports—This is a constant of 5.
PA-7000 Series firewall,
Eth3/9 =
[64 (max. ports) * 3 (slot)] + 9
(physical port) + 5 (number of
management ports) = 206
Logical interface indexes for all platforms are nine-digit numbers that the firewall calculates as
follows:
Interface
Type
Range Digit
9
Digits
7-8
Digits
5-6
Digits 1-4 Example Interface Index
Layer
3
subinterface
101010001-199999999 Type:
1
Interface
slot:
1-9
(01-09)
Interface
port:
1-9
(01-09)
Subinterface:
suffix
1-9999
(0001-9999)
Eth1/5.22 =
100000000 (type) +
100000 (slot) + 50000
(port) + 22 (suffix) =
101050022
Layer
2
subinterface
101010001-199999999 Type:
1
Interface
slot:
1-9
(01-09)
Interface
port:
1-9
(01-09)
Subinterface:
suffix
1-9999
(0001-9999)
Eth2/3.6 = 100000000
(type) + 200000 (slot) +
30000 (port) + 6 (suffix)
= 102030006
Vwire
subinterface
101010001-199999999 Type:
1
Interface
slot:
1-9
(01-09)
Interface
port:
1-9
(01-09)
Subinterface:
suffix
1-9999
(0001-9999)
Eth4/2.312 =
100000000 (type) +
400000 (slot) + 20000
(port) + 312 (suffix) =
104020312
VLAN 200000001-200009999 Type:
2
00 00 VLAN
suffix:
1-9999
(0001-9999)
VLAN.55 = 200000000
(type) + 55 (suffix) =
200000055
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712 | Monitoring
Interface
Type
Range Digit
9
Digits
7-8
Digits
5-6
Digits 1-4 Example Interface Index
Loopback300000001-300009999 Type:
3
00 00 Loopback
suffix:
1-9999
(0001-9999)
Loopback.55 =
300000000 (type) + 55
(suffix) = 300000055
Tunnel 400000001-400009999 Type:
4
00 00 Tunnel
suffix:
1-9999
(0001-9999)
Tunnel.55 =
400000000 (type) + 55
(suffix) = 400000055
Aggregate
group
500010001-500089999 Type:
5
00 AE
suffix:
1-8
(01-08)
Subinterface:
suffix
1-9999
(0001-9999)
AE5.99 = 500000000
(type) + 50000 (AE
Suffix) + 99 (suffix) =
500050099
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713 | Monitoring
Monitor Transceivers
You can monitor the status of transceivers in your physical appliance or device to enable easier
installation and troubleshooting. Through transceiver monitoring, also known as digital optical
monitoring (DOM), you can view diagnostics like transmitted bias current, transmitted power,
received power, transceiver temperature, and power supply voltage. See below for a list of
devices that support transceiver monitoring.
• PA-800 Series
• PA-3200 Series
• PA-3400 Series
• PA-5200 Series
• PA-5400 Series
• PA-7000 Series
Use the Command Line Interface to run transceiver monitoring. See the following table for all
available CLI commands.
If you run commands on an incompatible transceiver, the CLI will return 'n/a' for any
diagnostic information it cannot read.
CLI Definition
show transceiver <interface nam
e>
View a summary of the specified transceiver
with values for each diagnostic.
Example:
admin@PA-7080> show transceiver
ethernet11/25
The CLI will return values for Temperature,
Voltage, Current, Tx Power, and Rx Power.
show transceiver-detail <interfa
ce name>
Receive more detailed transceiver
specifications, including vendor information
and link lengths. The CLI will also provide
more detailed diagnostic information.
show transceiver all
View a list of all active transceivers as well as
a summary of each of their diagnostics.
show transceiver-detail all
Get comprehensive details on each
transceiver in the device.
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714 | User-ID
The user identity, as opposed to an IP address, is an integral component of an effective security
infrastructure. Knowing who is using each of the applications on your network, and who may have
transmitted a threat or is transferring files, can strengthen security policies and reduce incident
response times. User-ID™, a standard feature on the Palo Alto Networks firewall, enables you
to leverage user information stored in a wide range of repositories. The following topics provide
more details about User-ID and how to configure it:
• User-ID Overview
• User-ID Concepts
• Enable User-ID
• Map Users to Groups
• Map IP Addresses to Users
• Enable User- and Group-Based Policy
• Enable Policy for Users with Multiple Accounts
• Verify the User-ID Configuration
• Deploy User-ID in a Large-Scale Network
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715 | User-ID
User-ID Overview
User-ID™ enables you to identify all users on your network using a variety of techniques to
ensure that you can identify users in all locations using a variety of access methods and operating
systems, including Microsoft Windows, Apple iOS, Mac OS, Android, and Linux®/UNIX. Knowing
who your users are instead of just their IP addresses enables:
• Visibility—Improved visibility into application usage based on users gives you a more relevant
picture of network activity. The power of User-ID becomes evident when you notice a
strange or unfamiliar application on your network. Using either ACC or the log viewer, your
security team can discern what the application is, who the user is, the bandwidth and session
consumption, along with the source and destination of the application traffic, as well as any
associated threats.
• Policy control—Tying user information to Security policy rules improves safe enablement of
applications traversing the network and ensures that only those users who have a business
need for an application have access. For example, some applications, such as SaaS applications
that enable access to Human Resources services (such as Workday or Service Now) must be
available to any known user on your network. However, for more sensitive applications you
can reduce your attack surface by ensuring that only users who need these applications can
access them. For example, while IT support personnel may legitimately need access to remote
desktop applications, the majority of your users do not.
• Logging, reporting, forensics—If a security incident occurs, forensics analysis and reporting
based on user information rather than just IP addresses provides a more complete picture of
the incident. For example, you can use the pre-defined User/Group Activity to see a summary
of the web activity of individual users or user groups, or the SaaS Application Usage report to
see which users are transferring the most data over unsanctioned SaaS applications.
To enforce user- and group-based policies, the firewall must be able to map the IP addresses in
the packets it receives to usernames. User-ID provides many mechanisms to collect this User
Mapping information. For example, the User-ID agent monitors server logs for login events and
listens for syslog messages from authenticating services. To identify mappings for IP addresses
that the agent didn’t map, you can configure Authentication Policy to redirect HTTP requests
to an Authentication Portal login. You can tailor the user mapping mechanisms to suit your
environment, and even use different mechanisms at different sites to ensure that you are safely
enabling access to applications for all users, in all locations, all the time.
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716 | User-ID
Figure 4: User-ID
To enable user- and group-based policy enforcement, the firewall requires a list of all available
users and their corresponding group memberships so that you can select groups when defining
your policy rules. The firewall collects Group Mapping information by connecting directly to your
LDAP directory server, or using XML API integration with your directory server.
See User-ID Concepts for information on how User-ID works and Enable User-ID for instructions
on setting up User-ID.
User-ID does not work in environments where the source IP addresses of users are subject
to NAT translation before the firewall maps the IP addresses to usernames.
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717 | User-ID
User-ID Concepts
• Group Mapping
• User Mapping
Group Mapping
To define policy rules based on user or group, first you create an LDAP server profile that defines
how the firewall connects and authenticates to your directory server. The firewall supports a
variety of directory servers, including Microsoft Active Directory (AD), Novell eDirectory, and
Sun ONE Directory Server. The server profile also defines how the firewall searches the directory
to retrieve the list of groups and the corresponding list of members. If you are using a directory
server that is not natively supported by the firewall, you can integrate the group mapping function
using the XML API. You can then create a group mapping configuration to Map Users to Groups
and Enable User- and Group-Based Policy.
Defining policy rules based on group membership rather than on individual users simplifies
administration because you don’t have to update the rules whenever new users are added
to a group. When configuring group mapping, you can limit which groups will be available
in policy rules. You can specify groups that already exist in your directory service or define
custom groups based on LDAP filters. Defining custom groups can be quicker than creating new
groups or changing existing ones on an LDAP server, and doesn’t require an LDAP administrator
to intervene. User-ID maps all the LDAP directory users who match the filter to the custom
group. For example, you might want a security policy that allows contractors in the Marketing
Department to access social networking sites. If no Active Directory group exists for that
department, you can configure an LDAP filter that matches users for whom the LDAP attribute
Department is set to Marketing. Log queries and reports that are based on user groups will
include custom groups.
User Mapping
Knowing user and groups names is only one piece of the puzzle. The firewall also needs to know
which IP addresses map to which users so that security rules can be enforced appropriately.
User-ID Overview illustrates the different methods that are used to identify users and groups on
your network and shows how user mapping and group mapping work together to enable userand group-based security enforcement and visibility. The following topics describe the different
methods of user mapping:
• Server Monitoring
• Port Mapping
• Syslog
• XFF Headers
• Username Header Insertion
• Authentication Policy and Authentication Portal
• GlobalProtect
• XML API
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718 | User-ID
• Client Probing
Server Monitoring
With server monitoring a User-ID agent—either a Windows-based agent running on a domain
server in your network, or the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent running on the firewall—
monitors the security event logs for specified Microsoft Exchange Servers, Domain Controllers,
or Novell eDirectory servers for login events. For example, in an AD environment, you can
configure the User-ID agent to monitor the security logs for Kerberos ticket grants or renewals,
Exchange server access (if configured), and file and print service connections. For these events to
be recorded in the security log, the AD domain must be configured to log successful account login
events. In addition, because users can log in to any of the servers in the domain, you must set
up server monitoring for all servers to capture all user login events. See Configure User Mapping
Using the Windows User-ID Agent or Configure User Mapping Using the PAN-OS Integrated
User-ID Agent for details.
Port Mapping
In environments with multi-user systems—such as Microsoft Terminal Server or Citrix
environments—many users share the same IP address. In this case, the user-to-IP address mapping
process requires knowledge of the source port of each client. To perform this type of mapping,
you must install the Palo Alto Networks Terminal Server Agent on the Windows/Citrix terminal
server itself to intermediate the assignment of source ports to the various user processes. For
terminal servers that do not support the Terminal Server agent, such as Linux terminal servers,
you can use the XML API to send user mapping information from login and logout events to UserID. See Configure User Mapping for Terminal Server Users for configuration details.
XFF Headers
If you have a proxy server deployed between the users on your network and the firewall, the
firewall might see the proxy server IP address as the source IP address in HTTP/HTTPS traffic
that the proxy forwards rather than the IP address of the client that requested the content.
In many cases, the proxy server adds an X-Forwarded-For (XFF) header to traffic packets that
includes the actual IPv4 or IPv6 address of the client that requested the content or from whom
the request originated. In such cases, you can configure the firewall to extract the end user IP
address from the XFF so that User-ID can map the IP address to a username. This enables you to
Use XFF Values for Policies and Logging Source Users so that you can enforce user-based policy
to safely enable access to web-based for your users behind a proxy server.
Username Header Insertion
When you configure a secondary enforcement device with your Palo Alto Networks firewall
to enforce user-based policy, the secondary device may not have the IP address-to-username
mapping from the firewall. Transmitting the user’s identity to downstream devices may require
deployment of additional devices such as proxies or negatively impact the user’s experience (for
example, users having to log in multiple times). You can dynamically add the domain and username
to the HTTP header of the user’s outgoing traffic, allowing any secondary devices that you use
with your Palo Alto Networks firewall to receive the user’s information and enforce user-based
policy. Including the user's identity by inserting the username and domain in the traffic headers
enables enforcement of user-based policy without negatively impacting the user's experience or
deployment of additional infrastructure.
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719 | User-ID
Authentication Policy and Authentication Portal
In some cases, the User-ID agent can’t map an IP address to a username using server monitoring
or other methods—for example, if the user isn’t logged in or uses an operating system such
as Linux that your domain servers don’t support. In other cases, you might want users to
authenticate when accessing sensitive applications regardless of which methods the UserID agent uses to perform user mapping. For all these cases, you can configure Configure
Authentication Policy and Map IP Addresses to Usernames Using Authentication Portal. Any
web traffic (HTTP or HTTPS) that matches an Authentication policy rule prompts the user to
authenticate through Authentication Portal. You can use the following Authentication Portal
Authentication Methods:
• Browser challenge—Use Kerberos single sign-on if you want to reduce the number of login
prompts that users must respond to.
• Web form—Use Multi-Factor Authentication, SAML single sign-on, Kerberos, TACACS+,
RADIUS, LDAP, or Local Authentication.
• Client Certificate Authentication.
Syslog
Your environment might have existing network services that authenticate users. These services
include wireless controllers, 802.1x devices, Apple Open Directory servers, proxy servers, and
other Network Access Control (NAC) mechanisms. You can configure these services to send
syslog messages that contain information about login and logout events and configure the UserID agent to parse those messages. The User-ID agent parses for login events to map IP addresses
to usernames and parses for logout events to delete outdated mappings. Deleting outdated
mappings is particularly useful in environments where IP address assignments change often.
Both the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent and Windows-based User-ID agent use Syslog Parse
profiles to parse syslog messages. In environments where services send the messages in different
formats, you can create a custom profile for each format and associate multiple profiles with
each syslog sender. If you use the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent, you can also use predefined
Syslog Parse profiles that Palo Alto Networks provides through Applications content updates.
Syslog messages must meet the following criteria for a User-ID agent to parse them:
• Each message must be a single-line text string. The allowed delimiters for line breaks are a new
line (\n) or a carriage return plus a new line (\r\n).
• The maximum size for individual messages is 8,000 bytes.
• Messages sent over UDP must be contained in a single packet; messages sent over SSL can
span multiple packets. A single packet might contain multiple messages.
See Configure User-ID to Monitor Syslog Senders for User Mapping for configuration details.
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720 | User-ID
Figure 5: User-ID Integration with Syslog
GlobalProtect
For mobile or roaming users, the GlobalProtect endpoint provides the user mapping information
to the firewall directly. In this case, every GlobalProtect user has an app running on the endpoint
that requires the user to enter login credentials for VPN access to the firewall. This login
information is then added to the User-ID user mapping table on the firewall for visibility and
user-based security policy enforcement. Because GlobalProtect users must authenticate to gain
access to the network, the IP address-to-username mapping is explicitly known. This is the best
solution in sensitive environments where you must be certain of who a user is in order to allow
access to an application or service. For more information on setting up GlobalProtect, refer to the
GlobalProtect Administrator’s Guide.
XML API
Authentication Portal and the other standard user mapping methods might not work for
certain types of user access. For example, the standard methods cannot add mappings of users
connecting from a third-party VPN solution or users connecting to a 802.1x-enabled wireless
network. For such cases, you can use the PAN-OS XML API to capture login events and send
them to the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent. See Send User Mappings to User-ID Using the
XML API for details.
Client Probing
Palo Alto Networks strongly recommends disabling client probing because it is not a
recommended method of obtaining User-ID information in a high-security network.
Palo Alto Networks does not recommend using client probing due to the following potential risks:
• Because client probing trusts data reported back from the endpoint, it can expose you to
security risks when misconfigured. If you enable it on external, untrusted interfaces, this
would cause the agent to send client probes containing sensitive information such as the
username, domain name, and password hash of the User-ID agent service account outside
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721 | User-ID
of your network. If you do not configure the service account correctly, the credentials could
potentially be exploited by an attacker to penetrate the network to gain further access.
• Client probing was designed for legacy networks where most users were on Windows
workstations on the internal network, but is not ideal for today’s more modern networks that
support a roaming and mobile user base on a variety of devices and operating systems.
• Client probing can generate a large amount of network traffic (based on the total number of
mapped IP addresses).
Instead, Palo Alto Networks strongly recommends using the following alternate methods for user
mapping:
• Using more isolated and trusted sources, such as domain controllers and integrations with
Syslog or the XML API, to safely capture user mapping information from any device type or
operating system.
• Configuring Authentication Policy and Authentication Portal to ensure that you only allow
access to authorized users.
The User-ID agent supports two types of client probing:
• NetBIOS probing, which uses the Windows User-ID agent.
• WMI probing, which uses either the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent or the Windows UserID agent.
Client probing is not recommended as a user mapping method, but if you plan to
enable it, Palo Alto Networks strongly recommends using WMI probing over NetBIOS
probing.
In a Microsoft Windows environment, you can configure the User-ID agent to probe client
systems using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) or NetBIOS probing at regular
intervals to verify that an existing user mapping is still valid or to obtain the username for an IP
address that is not yet mapped.
If you do choose to enable probing in your trusted zones, the agent will probe each learned IP
address periodically (every 20 minutes by default, but this is configurable) to verify that the same
user is still logged in. In addition, when the firewall encounters an IP address for which it has no
user mapping, it will send the address to the agent for an immediate probe.
See Configure User Mapping Using the Windows User-ID Agent or Configure User Mapping
Using the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent for details.
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722 | User-ID
Enable User-ID
The user identity, as opposed to an IP address, is an integral component of an effective security
infrastructure. Knowing who is using each of the applications on your network, and who may
have transmitted a threat or is transferring files, can strengthen your security policy and reduce
incident response times. User-ID enables you to leverage user information stored in a wide range
of repositories for visibility, user- and group-based policy control, and improved logging, reporting,
and forensics:
STEP 1 | Enable User-ID on the source zones that contain the users who will send requests that
require user-based access controls.
Enable User-ID on trusted zones only. If you enable User-ID and client probing on
an external untrusted zone (such as the internet), probes could be sent outside your
protected network, resulting in an information disclosure of the User-ID agent service
account name, domain name, and encrypted password hash, which could allow an
attacker to gain unauthorized access to protected services and applications.
1. Select Network > Zones and click the Name of the zone.
2. Enable User Identification and click OK.
STEP 2 | Create a Dedicated Service Account for the User-ID Agent.
As a best practice, create a service account with the minimum set of permissions
required to support the User-ID options you enable to reduce your attack surface in
the event that the service account is compromised.
This is required if you plan to use the Windows-based User-ID agent or the PAN-OS
integrated User-ID agent to monitor domain controllers, Microsoft Exchange servers, or
Windows clients for user login and logout events.
STEP 3 | Map Users to Groups.
This enables the firewall to connect to your LDAP directory and retrieve Group Mapping
information so that you will be able to select usernames and group names when creating
policy.
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STEP 4 | Map IP Addresses to Users.
As a best practice, do not enable client probing as a user mapping method on highsecurity networks. Client probing can generate a large amount of network traffic and
can pose a security threat when misconfigured.
The way you do this depends on where your users are located and what types of systems they
are using, and what systems on your network are collecting login and logout events for your
users. You must configure one or more User-ID agents to enable User Mapping:
• Configure User Mapping Using the Windows User-ID Agent.
• Configure User Mapping Using the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent.
• Configure User-ID to Monitor Syslog Senders for User Mapping.
• Configure User Mapping for Terminal Server Users.
• Send User Mappings to User-ID Using the XML API.
• Insert Username in HTTP Headers.
STEP 5 | Specify the networks to include and exclude from user mapping.
As a best practice, always specify which networks to include and exclude from User-ID.
This allows you to ensure that only your trusted assets are probed and that unwanted
user mappings are not created unexpectedly.
The way you specify which networks to include and exclude depends on whether you are
using the Windows-based User-ID agent or the PAN-OSintegrated User-ID agent.
STEP 6 | Configure Authentication Policy and Authentication Portal.
The firewall uses Authentication Portal to authenticate end users when they request services,
applications, or URL categories that match Authentication Policy rules. Based on user
information collected during authentication, the firewall creates new user mappings or
updates existing mappings. The mapping information collected during authentication overrides
information collected through other User-ID methods.
1. Configure Authentication Portal.
2. Configure Authentication Policy.
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STEP 7 | Enable user- and group-based policy enforcement.
Create rules based on group rather than user whenever possible. This prevents you
from having to continually update your rules (which requires a commit) whenever your
user base changes.
After configuring User-ID, you will be able to choose a username or group name when defining
the source or destination of a security rule:
1. Select Policies > Security and Add a new rule or click an existing rule name to edit.
2. Select User and specify which users and groups to match in the rule in one of the
following ways:
• If you want to select specific users or groups as matching criteria, click Add in the
Source User section to display a list of users and groups discovered by the firewall
group mapping function. Select the users or groups to add to the rule.
• If you want to match any user who has or has not authenticated and you don’t need
to know the specific user or group name, select known-user or unknown from the
drop-down above the Source User list.
3. Configure the rest of the rule as appropriate and then click OK to save it. For details on
other fields in the security rule, see Set Up a Basic Security Policy.
STEP 8 | Create the Security policy rules to safely enable User-ID within your trusted zones and
prevent User-ID traffic from egressing your network.
Follow the Best Practice Internet Gateway Security Policy to ensure that the User-ID
application (paloalto-userid-agent) is only allowed in the zones where your agents
(both your Windows agents and your PAN-OS integrated agents) are monitoring services and
distributing mappings to firewalls. Specifically:
• Allow the paloalto-userid-agent application between the zones where your agents
reside and the zones where the monitored servers reside (or even better, between the
specific systems that host the agent and the monitored servers).
• Allow the paloalto-userid-agent application between the agents and the firewalls
that need the user mappings and between firewalls that are redistributing user mappings
and the firewalls they are redistributing the information to.
• Deny the paloalto-userid-agent application to any external zone, such as your
internet zone.
STEP 9 | Configure the firewall to obtain user IP addresses from X-Forwarded-For (XFF) headers.
When the firewall is between the Internet and a proxy server, the IP addresses in the packets
that the firewall sees are for the proxy server rather than users. To enable visibility of user IP
addresses instead, configure the firewall to use the XFF headers for user mapping. With this
option enabled, the firewall matches the IP addresses with usernames referenced in policy to
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enable control and visibility for the associated users and groups. For details, see Identify Users
Connected through a Proxy Server.
1. Select Device > Setup > Content-ID and edit the X-Forwarded-For Headers settings.
2. Select X-Forwarded-For Header in User-ID.
Selecting Strip-X-Forwarded-For Header doesn’t disable the use of XFF headers
for user attribution in policy rules; the firewall zeroes out the XFF value only
after using it for user attribution.
3. Click OK to save your changes.
STEP 10 | If you use a high availability (HA) configuration, enable synchronization.
As a best practice, always enable the Enable Config Sync option for an HA
configuration to ensure that the group mappings and user mappings are synchronized
between the active and passive firewall.
1. Select Device > High Availability > General and edit the Setup section.
2. Select Enable HA.
3. Select Enable Config Sync.
4. Enter the Peer HA1 IP Address, which is the IP address of the HA1 control link on the
peer firewall.
5. (Optional) Enter a Backup Peer HA1 IP Address, which is the IP address of the backup
control link on the peer firewall.
6. Click OK.
STEP 11 | Commit your changes.
Commit your changes to activate them.
STEP 12 | Verify the User-ID Configuration.
After you configure user mapping and group mapping, verify that the configuration
works properly and that you can safely enable and monitor user and group access to your
applications and services.
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Map Users to Groups
Defining policy rules based on user group membership rather than individual users simplifies
administration because you don’t have to update the rules whenever group membership changes.
The number of distinct user groups that each firewall or Panorama can reference across all
policies varies by model. For more information, refer to the Compatibility Matrix.
For User-ID to successfully map users and for the firewall to enforce the policy, all users
must be a member of at least one group that the firewall can map and configured in a
group-based policy. To confirm if a user is a member of a group, use the show user
group list command.
Use the following procedure to enable the firewall to connect to your LDAP directory and retrieve
Group Mapping information. You can then Enable User- and Group-Based Policy.
The following are best practices for group mapping in an Active Directory (AD)
environment:
• If you have a single domain, you need only one group mapping configuration with an
LDAP server profile that connects the firewall to the domain controller with the best
connectivity. You can add up to four domain controllers to the LDAP server profile
for redundancy. Note that you cannot increase redundancy beyond four domain
controllers for a single domain by adding multiple group mapping configurations for
that domain.
• If you have multiple domains and/or multiple forests, you must create a group mapping
configuration with an LDAP server profile that connects the firewall to a domain server
in each domain/forest. Take steps to ensure unique usernames in separate forests.
• If you have Universal Groups, create an LDAP server profile to connect to the root
domain of the Global Catalog server on port 3268 or 3269 for SSL, then create another
LDAP server profile to connect to the root domain controllers on port 389. This helps
ensure that users and group information is available for all domains and subdomains.
• Before using group mapping, configure a Primary Username for user-based security
policies, since this attribute will identify users in the policy configuration, logs, and
reports.
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STEP 1 | Add an LDAP server profile.
The profile defines how the firewall connects to the directory servers from which it collects
group mapping information.
If you create multiple group mapping configurations that use the same base
distinguished name (DN) or LDAP server, the group mapping configurations cannot
contain overlapping groups (for example, the Include list for one group mapping
configuration cannot contain a group that is also in a different group mapping
configuration).
1. Select Device > Server Profiles > LDAP and Add a server profile.
2. Enter a Profile Name to identify the server profile.
3. Add the LDAP servers. You can add up to four servers to the profile but they must be
the same Type. For each server, enter a Name (to identify the server), LDAP Server IP
address or FQDN, and server Port (default 389).
4. Select the server Type.
Based on your selection (such as active-directory), the firewall automatically populates
the correct LDAP attributes in the group mapping settings. However, if you customized
your LDAP schema, you might need to modify the default settings.
5. For the Base DN, enter the Distinguished Name (DN) of the LDAP tree location where
you want the firewall to start searching for user and group information.
6. For the Bind DN, Password and Confirm Password, enter the authentication credentials
for binding to the LDAP tree.
The Bind DN can be a fully qualified LDAP name (such as
cn=administrator,cn=users,dc=acme,dc=local) or a user principal name (such
as administrator@acme.local).
7. Enter the Bind Timeout and Search Timeout in seconds (default is 30 for both).
8. Click OK to save the server profile.
STEP 2 | Configure the server settings in a group mapping configuration.
1. Select Device > User Identification > Group Mapping Settings.
2. Add the group mapping configuration.
3. Enter a unique Name to identify the group mapping configuration.
4. Select the LDAP Server Profile you just created.
5. (Optional) Specify the Update Interval (in seconds). Enter a value (range is 60—86400,
default is 3600) based on how often the firewall should be check the LDAP source for
updates to the group mapping configuration. If the LDAP source contains many groups, a
value that is too low may not allow enough time to map all the groups.
6. (Optional) By default, the User Domain field is blank: the firewall automatically detects
the domain names for Active Directory (AD) servers. If you enter a value, it overrides any
domain names that the firewall retrieves from the LDAP source. For most configurations,
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if you need to enter a value, enter the NetBIOS domain name (for example, example
not example.com).
If you use Global Catalog, entering a value replaces the domain name for all users and
groups from this server, including those from other domains.
7. (Optional) To filter the groups that the firewall tracks for group mapping, in the Group
Objects section, enter a Search Filter (LDAP query) and Object Class (group definition).
8. (Optional) To filter the users that the firewall tracks for group mapping, in the User
Objects section, enter a Search Filter (LDAP query), and Object Class (user definition).
9. Make sure the group mapping configuration is Enabled (default is enabled).
STEP 3 | (Optional) Define User and Group Attributes to collect for user and group mapping. This step
is required if you want to map users based on directory attributes other than the domain.
1. If your User-ID sources only send the username and the username is unique across the
organization, select Device > User Identification > User Mapping > Setup and Edit the
Setup section to Allow matching usernames without domains to allow the firewall to
check if unique usernames collected from the LDAP server during group mapping match
the users associated with a policy and avoid overwriting the domain in your source
profile.
Before enabling this option, configure group mapping for the LDAP group
containing the User-ID source (such as GlobalProtect or Authentication Portal)
that collects the mappings. After you commit the changes, the User-ID source
populates the usernames without domains. Only usernames collected during
group mapping can be matched without a domain. If your User-ID sources send
user information in multiple formats and you enable this option, verify that the
attributes collected by the firewall have a unique prefix. To ensure users are
identified correctly if you enable this option, all attributes for group mapping
should be unique. If the username is not unique, the firewall logs an error in the
Debug logs.
2. Select Device > User Identification > Group Mapping Settings > Add > User and Group
Attributes > User Attributes and enter the Directory Attribute you want to collect for
user identification. Specify a Primary Username to identify the user on the firewall and
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to represent the user in reports and logs that will override any other format the firewall
receives from the User-ID source.
When you select the Server Profile Type, the firewall auto-populates the values for the
user and group attributes. Based on the user information that your User-ID sources
send, you may need to configure the correct attributes:
• User Principal Name (UPN): userPrincipalName
• NetBios Name: sAMAccountName
• Email ID: Directory attribute for that email
• Multiple formats: Retrieve the user mapping attributes from the user directory before
enabling your User-ID sources.
If you do not specify a primary username, the firewall uses the following default values
for each server profile type:
Attribute Active Directory Novell eDirectory or Sun ONE
Directory Server
Primary Username sAMAccountName uid
E-Mail mail mail
Alternate Username 1 userPrincipalName None.
Group Name name cn
Group Member member member
3. (Optional) Specify an E-Mail address format and up to three Alternate Username
formats.
4. Select Device > User Identification > Group Mapping Settings > Add > User and Group
Attributes > Group Attributes and specify the Group Name, Group Member, and E-Mail
address formats.
You must commit before the firewall collects the directory attributes from the LDAP
server.
STEP 4 | Limit which groups will be available in policy rules.
Required only if you want to limit policy rules to specific groups. The combined maximum for
the Group Include List and Custom Group list is 640 entries per group mapping configuration.
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Each entry can be a single group or a list of groups. By default, if you don’t specify groups, all
groups are available in policy rules.
Any custom groups you create will also be available in the Allow List of authentication
profiles (Configure an Authentication Profile and Sequence).
1. Add existing groups from the directory service:
1. Select Group Include List.
2. Select the Available Groups you want to appear in policy rules and add ( ) them to
the Included Groups.
2. If you want to base policy rules on user attributes that don’t match existing user groups,
create custom groups based on LDAP filters:
1. Select Custom Group and Add the group.
2. Enter a group Name that is unique in the group mapping configuration for the current
firewall or virtual system.
If the Name has the same value as the Distinguished Name (DN) of an existing AD
group domain, the firewall uses the custom group in all references to that name (such
as in policies and logs).
3. Specify an LDAP Filter of up to 2,048 UTF-8 characters and click OK.
The firewall doesn’t validate LDAP filters, so it’s up to you to ensure they are
accurate.
To minimize the performance impact on the LDAP directory server, use only
indexed attributes in the filter.
3. Click OK to save your changes.
You must commit before custom groups will be available in policies and objects.
STEP 5 | Commit your changes.
You must commit before you can use custom groups in policies and objects and before the
firewall can collect the attributes from the LDAP server.
After configuring the firewall to retrieve group mapping information from an LDAP
server, but before configuring policies based on the groups it retrieves, the best
practice is to either wait for the firewall to refresh its group mappings cache or refresh
the cache manually. To verify which groups you can currently use in policies, access
the firewall CLI and run the show user group command. To determine when the
firewall will next refresh the group mappings cache, run the show user groupmapping statistics command and check the Next Action. To manually
refresh the cache, run the debug user-id refresh group-mapping all
command.
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STEP 6 | Verify that the user and group mapping has correctly identified users.
1. Select Device > User Identification > Group Mapping > Group Include List to confirm
the firewall has fetched all of the groups.
2. To verify that all of the user attributes have been correctly captured, use the following
CLI command:
show user user-attributes user all
The normalized format for the User Principal Name (UPN), primary username, email
attributes, and any configured alternate usernames display for all users:
admin@PA-VM-8.1> show user user-attributes user all
Primary: nam\sam-user Email: sam-user@nam.com
Alt User Names:1) nam.com\sam-user
2) nam\sam-user-upn
3) sam-user-upn@nam.local
4) sam-user@nam.com
3. Verify that the usernames are correctly displayed in the Source User column under
Monitor > Logs > Traffic.
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4. Verify that the users are mapped to the correct usernames in the User Provided by
Source column under Monitor > Logs > User-ID.
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Map IP Addresses to Users
User-ID provides many different methods for mapping IP addresses to usernames. Before you
begin configuring user mapping, consider where your users are logging in from, what services
they are accessing, and what applications and data you need to control access to. This will inform
which types of agents or integrations would best allow you to identify your users.
Once you have your plan, you can begin configuring user mapping using one or more of the
following methods as needed to enable user-based access and visibility to applications and
resources:
If you have users with client systems that aren’t logged in to your domain servers—for example,
users running Linux clients that don’t log in to the domain—you can Map IP Addresses to
Usernames Using Authentication Portal. Using Authentication Portal in conjunction with
Authentication Policy also ensures that all users authenticate to access your most sensitive
applications and data.
To map users as they log in to your Exchange servers, domain controllers, eDirectory servers,
or Windows clients you must configure a User-ID agent:
• Configure User Mapping Using the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent
• Configure User Mapping Using the Windows User-ID Agent
If you have clients running multi-user systems in a Windows environment, such as Microsoft
Terminal Server or Citrix Metaframe Presentation Server or XenApp, Configure the Palo Alto
Networks Terminal Server (TS) Agent for User Mapping. For a multi-user system that doesn’t
run on Windows, you can Retrieve User Mappings from a Terminal Server Using the PAN-OS
XML API.
To obtain user mappings from existing network services that authenticate users—such as
wireless controllers, 802.1x devices, Apple Open Directory servers, proxy servers, or other
Network Access Control (NAC) mechanisms—Configure User-ID to Monitor Syslog Senders for
User Mapping.
While you can configure either the Windows agent or the PAN-OS integrated UserID agent on the firewall to listen for authentication syslog messages from the network
services, because only the PAN-OS integrated agent supports syslog listening over TLS,
it is the preferred configuration.
To include the username and domain in the headers for outgoing traffic so other devices in
your network can identify the user and enforce user-based policy, you can Insert Username in
HTTP Headers.
To Share User-ID Mappings Across Virtual Systems, you can configure a virtual system as a
User-ID hub.
For other clients that you can’t map using the other methods, you can Send User Mappings to
User-ID Using the XML API.
A large-scale network can have hundreds of information sources that firewalls query for
user and group mapping and can have numerous firewalls that enforce policies based on
the mapping information. You can simplify User-ID administration for such a network by
aggregating the mapping information before the User-ID agents collect it. You can also reduce
the resources that the firewalls and information sources use in the querying process by
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configuring some firewalls to redistribute the mapping information. For details, see Deploy
User-ID in a Large-Scale Network.
Create a Dedicated Service Account for the User-ID Agent
To use the Windows-based User-ID agent or the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent to map users
as they log in to your Exchange servers, domain controllers, eDirectory servers, or Windows
clients, create a dedicated service account for the User-ID agent on a domain controller in each
domain that the agent will monitor.
The User-ID agent maps users based on logs for security events. To ensure that the User-ID agent
can successfully map users, verify that the source for your mappings generates logs for Audit
Logon, Audit Kerberos Authentication Service, and Audit Kerberos Service Ticket Operations
events. At a minimum, the source must generate logs for the following events:
• Logon Success (4624)
• Authentication Ticket Granted (4768)
• Service Ticket Granted (4769)
• Ticket Granted Renewed (4770)
The required permissions for the service account depend on the user mapping methods and
settings you plan to use. For example, if you are using the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent, the
service account requires Server Operator privileges to monitor user sessions. If you are using the
Windows-based User-ID agent, the service account does not require Server Operator privileges
to monitor user sessions. To reduce the risk of compromising the User-ID service account, always
configure the account with the minimum set of permissions necessary for the agent.
• If you are installing the Windows-based User-ID agent on a supported Windows server,
Configure a Service Account for the Windows User-ID Agent.
• If you are using the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent on the firewall, Configure a Service
Account for the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent.
User-ID provides many methods for safely collecting user mapping information. Some
legacy features designed for environments that only required user mapping on Windows
desktops attached to the local network require privileged service accounts. If the
privileged service account is compromised, this would open your network to attack. As a
best practice, avoid using legacy features that require privileges that would pose a threat
if compromised, such as client probing and session monitoring.
Configure a Service Account for the Windows User-ID Agent
Create a dedicated Active Directory (AD) service account for the Windows User-ID agent to
access the services and hosts it will monitor to collect user mappings. You must create a service
account in each domain the agent will monitor. After you enable the required permissions for the
service account, Configure User Mapping Using the Windows User-ID Agent.
The following workflow details all required privileges and provides guidance for the UserID features which require privileges that could pose a threat so that you can decide how to
best identify users without compromising your overall security posture.
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STEP 1 | Create an AD service account for the User-ID agent.
You must create a service account in each domain the agent will monitor.
1. Log in to the domain controller.
2. Right-click the Windows icon ( ), Search for Active Directory Users and
Computers, and launch the application.
3. In the navigation pane, open the domain tree, right-click Managed Service Accounts and
select New > User.
4. Enter the First Name, Last Name, and User logon name of the user and click Next.
5. Enter the Password and Confirm Password, then click Next and Finish.
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STEP 2 | Configure either local or group policy to allow the service account to log on as a service.
The permission to log on as a service is only needed locally on the Windows server that is the
agent host.
• To assign permissions locally:
1. select Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.
2.
3. Select Local Policies > User Rights Assignment > Log on as a service.
4. Add User or Group to add the service account.
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5. Enter the object names to select (the service account name) in domain\username
format and click OK.
• To configure group policy if you are installing Windows User-ID agents on multiple servers,
use the Group Policy Management Editor.
1. Select Start > Group Policy Management > <your domain> > Default Domain Policy >
Action > Edit for the Windows server that is the agent host.
2. Select Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings >
Local Policies > User Rights Assignment.
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3. Right-click Log on as a service, then select Properties.
4. Add User or Group to add the service account username or builtin group, then click OK
twice.
Administrators have this privilege by default.
STEP 3 | If you want to use WMI to collect user data, assign DCOM privileges to the service account
so that it can use WMI queries on monitored servers.
1. Select Active Directory Users and Computers > <your domain> > Builtin > Distributed
COM Users.
2. Right-click Properties > Members > Add and enter the service account name.
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STEP 4 | If you plan to use WMI probing, enable the account to read the CIMV2 namespace and
assign the required permissions on the client systems to be probed.
Do not enable client probing on high-security networks. Client probing can generate
a large amount of network traffic and can pose a security threat when misconfigured.
Instead collect user mapping information from more isolated and trusted sources, such
as domain controllers and through integrations with Syslog or the XML API, which
have the added benefit of allowing you to safely capture user mapping information
from any device type or operating system, instead of just Windows clients.
Perform this task on each client system that the User-ID agent will probe for user mapping
information:
1. Right-click the Windows icon ( ), Search for wmimgmt.msc, and launch the WMI
Management Console.
2. In the console tree, right-click WMI Control and select Properties.
3. Select the Security tab, then select Root > CIMV2, and click the Security button.
4. Add the name of the service account you created, Check Names to verify your entry,
and click OK.
You might have to change the Locations or click Advanced to query for account
names. See the dialog help for details.
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5. In the Permissions for <Username> section, Allow the Enable Account and Remote
Enable permissions.
6. Click OK twice.
7. Use the Local Users and Groups MMC snap-in (lusrmgr.msc) to add the service account
to the local Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) Users and Remote Desktop
Users groups on the system that will be probed.
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STEP 5 | If you want to use Server Monitoring to identify users, add the service account to the Event
Log Reader builtin group to allow the service account to read the security log events.
1. On the domain controller or Exchange server that contains the logs you want the UserID agent to read, or on the member server that receives events from Windows log
forwarding, select Start > Run, enter MMC.
2. Select File > Add/Remove Snap-in > Active Directory Users and Computers > Add, then
click OK to run the MMC and launch the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.
3. Navigate to the Builtin folder for the domain, right-click the Event Log Readers group,
and select Properties > Members.
4. Add the service account then click Check Names to validate that you have the proper
object name.
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5. Click OK twice to save the settings.
6. Confirm that the builtin Event Log Reader group lists the service account as a member
(Event Log Readers > Properties > Members).
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STEP 6 | Assign account permissions to the installation folder to allow the service account to access
the agent’s installation folder to read the configuration and write logs.
You only need to perform this step if the service account you configured for the User-ID agent
is not either a domain administrator or a local administrator on the User-ID agent server host.
1. From the Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files(x86)\Palo Alto
Networks, right-click the folder, and select Properties.
2. On the Security tab, click Edit.
3. Add the User-ID agent service account and Allow permissions to Modify, Read &
execute, List folder contents, Read, and Write, and then click OK to save the account
settings.
If you do not want to configure individual permissions, you can Allow the Full
Control permission instead.
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STEP 7 | To allow the agent to make configuration changes (for example, if you select a different
logging level), give the service account permissions to the User-ID agent registry sub-tree.
1. Select Start > Run and enter regedt32 and navigate to the Palo Alto Networks sub-tree
in one of the following locations:
• 32-bit systems—HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Palo Alto Networks
• 64-bit systems—HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\WOW6432Node\PaloAlto
Networks
2. Right-click the Palo Alto Networks node and select Permissions.
3. Assign the User-ID service account Full Control and then click OK to save the setting.
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STEP 8 | Disable service account privileges that are not required.
By ensuring that the User-ID service account has the minimum set of account privileges, you
can reduce the attack surface should the account be compromised.
To ensure that the User-ID account has the minimum privileges necessary, deny the following
privileges on the account.
• Deny interactive logon for the User-ID service account—While the User-ID service account
does need permission to read and parse Active Directory security event logs, it does not
require the ability to logon to servers or domain systems interactively. You can restrict this
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privilege using Group Policies or by using a Managed Service account (refer to Microsoft
TechNet for more information).
1. Select Group Policy Management Editor > Default Domain Policy > Computer
Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > User Rights
Assignment.
2. For Deny log on as a batch job, Deny log on locally, and Deny log on through Remote
Desktop Services, right-click Properties.
3. Select Define these policy settings > Add User or Group and add the service account
name, then click OK.
• Deny remote access for the User-ID service account—This prevents an attacker from using
the account to access your network from the outside the network.
1. Select Start > Run, enter MMC, and select File > Add/Remove Snap-in > Active Directory
Users and Computers > Users.
2. Right-click the service account name, then select Properties.
3. Select Dial-in, then Deny the Network Access Permission.
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STEP 9 | As a next step, Configure User Mapping Using the Windows User-ID Agent.
Configure a Service Account for the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent
Create a dedicated Active Directory (AD) service account for the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID
agent to access the services and hosts it will monitor to collect user mappings.You must create a
service account in each domain the agent will monitor. After you enable the required permissions
for the service account, Configure User Mapping Using the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent.
The following workflow details all required privileges and provides guidance for the UserID features which require privileges that could pose a threat so that you can decide how to
best identify users without compromising your overall security posture.
STEP 1 | Create an AD service account for the User-ID agent.
You must create a service account in each domain the agent will monitor.
1. Log in to the domain controller.
2. Right-click the Windows icon ( ), Search for Active Directory Users and
Computers, and launch the application.
3. In the navigation pane, open the domain tree, right-click Managed Service Accounts and
select New > User.
4. Enter the First Name, Last Name, and User logon name of the user and click Next.
5. Enter the Password and Confirm Password, then click Next and Finish.
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STEP 2 | If you want to use Server Monitoring to identify users, add the service account to the Event
Log Reader builtin group to allow the service account to read the security log events.
1. On the domain controller or Exchange server that contains the logs you want the UserID agent to read, or on the member server that receives events from Windows log
forwarding, select Start > Run, enter MMC.
2. Select File > Add/Remove Snap-in > Active Directory Users and Computers > Add, then
click OK to run the MMC and launch the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in.
3. Navigate to the Builtin folder for the domain, right-click the Event Log Readers group,
and select Properties > Members.
4. Add the service account then click Check Names to validate that you have the proper
object name.
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5. Click OK twice to save the settings.
6. Confirm that the builtin Event Log Reader group lists the service account as a member
(Event Log Readers > Properties > Members).
STEP 3 | If you want to use WMI to collect user data, assign DCOM privileges to the service account
so that it can use WMI queries on monitored servers.
1. Select Active Directory Users and Computers > <your domain> > Builtin > Distributed
COM Users.
2. Right-click Properties > Members > Add and enter the service account name.
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STEP 4 | If you plan to use WMI probing, enable the service account to read the CIMV2 namespace
on the domain controllers you want to monitor and assign the required permissions on the
client systems to be probed.
Do not enable client probing on high-security networks. Client probing can generate
a large amount of network traffic and can pose a security threat when misconfigured.
Instead collect user mapping information from more isolated and trusted sources, such
as domain controllers and through integrations with Syslog or the XML API, which
have the added benefit of allowing you to safely capture user mapping information
from any device type or operating system, instead of just Windows clients.
Perform this task on each client system that the User-ID agent will probe for user mapping
information:
1. Right-click the Windows icon ( ), Search for wmimgmt.msc, and launch the WMI
Management Console.
2. In the console tree, right-click WMI Control and select Properties.
3. Select the Security tab, then select Root > CIMV2, and click the Security button.
4. Add the name of the service account you created, Check Names to verify your entry,
and click OK.
You might have to change the Locations or click Advanced to query for account
names. See the dialog help for details.
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5. In the Permissions for <Username> section, Allow the Enable Account and Remote
Enable permissions.
6. Click OK twice.
7. Use the Local Users and Groups MMC snap-in (lusrmgr.msc) to add the service account
to the local Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) Users and Remote Desktop
Users groups on the system that will be probed.
STEP 5 | (Not Recommended) To allow the agent to monitor user sessions to poll Windows servers
for user mapping information, assign Server Operator privileges to the service account.
Because this group also has privileges for shutting down and restarting servers, only
assign the account to this group if monitoring user sessions is very important.
1. Select Active Directory Users and Computers > <your domain> > Builtin > Server
Operators Group.
2. Right-click Properties > Members > Add add service account name
STEP 6 | Disable service account privileges that are not required.
By ensuring that the User-ID service account has the minimum set of account privileges, you
can reduce the attack surface should the account be compromised.
To ensure that the User-ID account has the minimum privileges necessary, deny the following
privileges on the account:
• Deny interactive logon for the User-ID service account—While the User-ID service account
does need permission to read and parse Active Directory security event logs, it does not
require the ability to logon to servers or domain systems interactively. You can restrict this
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privilege using Group Policies or by using a Managed Service account (refer to Microsoft
TechNet for more information).
1. Select Group Policy Management Editor > Default Domain Policy > Computer
Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > User Rights
Assignment.
2. For Deny log on as a batch job, Deny log on locally, and Deny log on through Remote
Desktop Services, right-click Properties, then select Define these policy settings > Add
User or Group and add the service account name, then click OK.
• Deny remote access for the User-ID service account—This prevents an attacker from using
the account to access your network from the outside the network.
1. Start > Run, enter MMC, and select File > Add/Remove Snap-in > Active Directory Users
and Computers > Users.
2. Right-click the service account name, then select Properties.
3. Select Dial-in, then Deny the Network Access Permission.
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STEP 7 | As a next step, Configure User Mapping Using the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent.
Configure User Mapping Using the Windows User-ID Agent
In most cases, the majority of your network users will have logins to your monitored domain
services. For these users, the Palo Alto Networks User-ID agent monitors the servers for login
events and performs the IP address to username mapping. The way you configure the User-ID
agent depends on the size of your environment and the location of your domain servers. As a
best practice, locate your User-ID agents near the servers it will monitor (that is, the monitored
servers and the Windows User-ID agent should not be across a WAN link from each other). This is
because most of the traffic for user mapping occurs between the agent and the monitored server,
with only a small amount of traffic—the delta of user mappings since the last update—from the
agent to the firewall.
The following topics describe how to install and configure the User-ID Agent and how to
configure the firewall to retrieve user mapping information from the agent:
• Install the Windows-Based User-ID Agent
• Configure the Windows User-ID Agent for User Mapping
Install the Windows-Based User-ID Agent
The following procedure shows how to install the User-ID agent on a member server in the
domain and set up the service account with the required permissions. If you are upgrading, the
installer will automatically remove the older version; however, it is a good idea to back up the
config.xml file before running the installer.
For information about the system requirements for installing the Windows-based UserID agent and for information on supported server OS versions, refer to the User-ID agent
release notes and the Palo Alto Networks Compatibility Matrix.
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STEP 1 | Create a dedicated Active Directory service account for the User-ID agent to access the
services and hosts it will monitor to collect user mappings.
Create a Dedicated Service Account for the User-ID Agent and grant the necessary
permissions for the Windows User-ID agent.
1. Enable the service account to log on as a service by configuring either local or group
policy.
1. To configure the group policy if you are installing Windows-based User-ID agents
on multiple servers, select Group Policy Management > Default Domain Policy >
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Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local
Policies > User Rights Assignment for the Windows server that is the agent host.
2. Right-click Log on as a service, then select Properties.
3. Add the service account username or builtin group (Administrators have this privilege
by default).
The permission to log on as a service is only needed locally on the Windows
server that is the agent host. If you are using only one User-ID agent, you can
grant the permissions locally on the agent host using the following instructions.
1. To assign permissions locally, select Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local
Security Policy.
2. Select Local Policies > User Rights Assignment > Log on as a service.
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3. Add User or Group to add the service account.
4. Enter the service account name in domain\username format in the Enter the object
names to select entry field and click OK.
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To confirm the service account name is valid, Check Names.
2. If you want to use server monitoring to identify users, add the service account to the
Event Log Reader builtin group to enable privileges for reading the security log events.
1. On the domain controller or Exchange server that contains the logs you want the
User-ID agent to read, or on the member server that receives events from Windows
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log forwarding, run the MMC and launch the Active Directory Users and Computers
snap-in.
2. Navigate to the Builtin folder for the domain, right-click the Event Log Reader group
and select Add to Group to open the properties dialog.
3. Click Add and enter the name of the service account that you configured the UserID service to use and then click Check Names to validate that you have the proper
object name.
4. Click OK twice to save the settings.
5. Confirm that the builtin Event Log Reader group lists the service account as a
member.
3. Assign account permissions to the installation folder to allow the service account to
access the agent’s installation folder to read the configuration and write logs.
You only need to perform this step if the service account you configured for the User-ID
agent is not either a domain administrator or a local administrator on the User-ID agent
server host.
1. From the Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files(x86)\Palo Alto
Networks for 32-bit systems, right-click the folder, and select Properties.
2. On the Security tab, click Edit.
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3. Add the User-ID agent service account and assign it permissions to Modify, Read &
execute, List folder contents, Read, and Write, and then click OK to save the account
settings.
If you want to allow the service account to access the User-ID agent’s registry
keys, Allow the Full Control permission.
4. Give the service account permissions to the User-ID Agent registry sub-tree:
1. Run regedt32 and navigate to the Palo Alto Networks sub-tree in the following
location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Palo Alto Networks.
2. Right-click the Palo Alto Networks node and select Permissions.
3. Assign the User-ID service account Full Control and then click OK to save the setting.
STEP 2 | Decide where to install the User-ID agent.
The User-ID agent queries the Domain Controller and Exchange server logs using Microsoft
Remote Procedure Calls (MSRPCs). During the initial connection, the agent transfers the
most recent 50,000 events from the log to map users. On each subsequent connection, the
agent transfers events with a timestamp later than the last communication with the domain
controller. Therefore, always install one or more User-ID agents at each site that has servers to
be monitored.
• You must install the User-ID agent on a system running one of the supported OS versions:
see “Operating System (OS) Compatibility User-ID Agent” in the Compatibility Matrix. The
system must also meet the minimum requirements (see the User-ID agent release notes).
• Make sure the system that will host the User-ID agent is a member of the same domain as
the servers it will monitor.
• As a best practice, install the User-ID agent close to the servers it will be monitoring: there
is more traffic between the User-ID agent and the monitored servers than there is between
the User-ID agent and the firewall, so locating the agent close to the monitored servers
optimizes bandwidth usage.
• To ensure the most comprehensive mapping of users, you must monitor all domain
controllers that process authentication for users you want to map. You might need to install
multiple User-ID agents to efficiently monitor all of your resources.
• If you are using the User-ID agent for credential detection, you must install it on the readonly domain controller (RODC). As a best practice deploy a separate agent for this purpose.
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Do not use the User-ID agent installed on the RODC to map IP addresses to users. The
User-ID agent installer for credential detection is named UaCredInstall64-x.x.x.msi.
STEP 3 | Download the User-ID agent installer.
Install the User-ID agent version that is the same as the PAN-OS version running on
the firewalls. If there is not a User-ID agent version that matches the PAN-OS version,
install the latest version that is closest to the PAN-OS version.
1. Log in to the Palo Alto Networks Customer Support Portal.
2. Select Updates > Software Updates.
3. Set Filter By to User Identification Agent and select the version of the User-ID agent
you want to install from the corresponding Download column. The file name uses
the following format: UaInstall-x.x.x.msi (where x represents the version
number). For example, to download the 10.0 version of the User-ID agent, select
UaInstall-10.0.0-0.msi.
If you are using the User-ID agent for Credential Detection, download the
UaCredInstall64-x.x.x.msi file instead. Only download and install the
UaCredInstall64-x.x.x.msi if you are using the User-ID for credential detection.
4. Save the file on the systems where you plan to install the agent.
STEP 4 | Run the installer as an administrator.
1. Open the Windows Start menu, right-click the Command Prompt program, and select
Run as administrator.
2. From the command line, run the .msi file you downloaded. For example, if you saved
the .msi file to the Desktop, enter the following:
C:\Users\administrator.acme>cd Desktop
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C:\Users\administrator.acme\Desktop>UaInstall-6.0.0-1.msi
3. Follow the setup prompts to install the agent using the default settings. By default, the
agent gets installed to C:\Program Files(x86)\Palo Alto Networks, but you
can Browse to a different location.
4. When the installation completes, Close the setup window.
STEP 5 | Launch the User-ID Agent application as an administrator.
Open the Windows Start menu, right-click the User-ID Agent program, and select Run as
administrator.
You must run the User-ID Agent application as an administrator to install the
application, commit configuration changes, or uninstall the application.
STEP 6 | (Optional) Change the service account that the User-ID agent uses to log in.
By default, the agent uses the administrator account used to install the .msi file. To change the
account to a restricted account:
1. Select User Identification > Setup and click Edit.
2. Select the Authentication tab and enter the service account name that you want the
User-ID agent to use in the User name for Active Directory field.
3. Enter the Password for the specified account.
4. Commit the changes to the User-ID agent configuration to restart the service using the
service account credentials.
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STEP 7 | (Optional) Assign your own certificates for mutual authentication between the Windows
User-ID agent and the firewall.
1. Obtain your certificate for the Windows User-ID agent using one of the following
methods. Upload the server certificate in Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) format and the
server certificate’s encrypted key.
• Generate a Certificate and export it for upload to the Windows User-ID agent.
• Export a certificate from your enterprise certificate authority (CA) and the upload it to
the Windows User-ID agent.
2. Add a server certificate to Windows User-ID agent.
1. On the Windows User-ID agent, select Server Certificate and click Add.
2. Enter the path and name of the certificate file received from the CA or browse to the
certificate file.
3. Enter the private key passphrase.
4. Click OK and then Commit.
3. Upload a certificate to the firewall to validate the Windows User-ID agent’s identity.
4. Configure the certificate profile for the client device (firewall or Panorama).
1. Select Device > Certificate Management > Certificate Profile.
2. Configure a Certificate Profile.
You can only assign one certificate profile for Windows User-ID agents and
Terminal Server (TS) agents. Therefore, your certificate profile must include
all certificate authorities that issued certificates uploaded to connected UserID and TS agents.
5. Assign the certificate profile on the firewall.
1. Select Device > User Identification > Connection Security and click the edit button.
2. Select the User-ID Certificate Profile you configured in the previous step.
3. Click OK.
6. Commit your changes.
STEP 8 | Configure Credential Detection with the Windows-based User-ID Agent.
To use the Windows-based User-ID agent to detect credential submissions and Prevent
Credential Phishing, you must install the User-ID credential service on the Windows-based
User-ID agent. You can only install this add-on on a read-only domain controller (RODC).
Configure the Windows User-ID Agent for User Mapping
The Palo Alto Networks Windows User-ID agent is a Windows service that connects to servers
on your network—for example, Active Directory servers, Microsoft Exchange servers, and Novell
eDirectory servers—and monitors the logs for login events. The agent uses this information to
map IP addresses to usernames. Palo Alto Networks firewalls connect to the User-ID agent to
retrieve this user mapping information, enabling visibility into user activity by username rather
than IP address and enables user- and group-based security enforcement.
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For information about the server OS versions supported by the User-ID agent, refer to
“Operating System (OS) Compatibility User-ID Agent” in the User-ID Agent Release
Notes.
STEP 1 | Define the servers the User-ID agent will monitor to collect IP address to user mapping
information.
The User-ID agent can monitor up to 100 servers, of which up to 50 can be syslog senders.
To collect all of the required mappings, the User-ID agent must connect to all servers
that your users log in to in order to monitor the security log files on all servers that
contain login events.
1. Open the Windows Start menu and select User-ID Agent.
2. Select User Identification > Discovery.
3. In the Servers section of the screen, click Add.
4. Enter a Name and Server Address for the server to be monitored. The network address
can be a FQDN or an IP address.
5. Select the Server Type (Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Novell
eDirectory, or Syslog Sender) and then click OK to save the server entry. Repeat this
step for each server to be monitored.
6. (Optional) To enable the Windows User-ID agent to automatically discover domain
controllers on your network using DNS lookups, click Auto Discover. If you have new
domain controllers that you want the Windows User-ID agent to discover, click Auto
Discover each time you want to discover the new domain controllers.
Auto-discovery locates domain controllers in the local domain only; you must
manually add Exchange servers, eDirectory servers, and syslog senders.
7. (Optional) To tune the frequency at which the firewall polls configured servers for
mapping information, select User Identification > Setup and Edit the Setup section. On
the Server Monitor tab, modify the value in the Server Log Monitor Frequency (seconds)
field. Increase the value in this field to 5 seconds in environments with older Domain
Controllers or high-latency links.
Ensure that the Enable Server Session Read setting is not selected. This setting
requires that the User-ID agent have an Active Directory account with Server
Operator privileges so that it can read all user sessions. Instead, use a syslog or
XML API integration to monitor sources that capture login and logout events
for all device types and operating systems (instead of just Windows), such as
wireless controllers and Network Access Controllers (NACs).
8. Click OK to save the settings.
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STEP 2 | Specify the subnetworks the Windows User-ID agent should include in or exclude from
User-ID.
By default, the User-ID maps all users accessing the servers you are monitoring.
As a best practice, always specify which networks to include and exclude from UserID to ensure that the agent is only communicating with internal resources and to
prevent unauthorized users from being mapped. You should only enable User-ID on the
subnetworks where users internal to your organization are logging in.
1. Select User Identification > Discovery.
2. Add an entry to the Include/Exclude list of configured networks and enter a Name for
the entry and enter the IP address range of the subnetwork in as the Network Address.
3. Select whether to include or exclude the network:
• Include specified network—Select this option if you want to limit user mapping
to users logged in to the specified subnetwork only. For example, if you include
10.0.0.0/8, the agent maps the users on that subnetwork and excludes all others. If
you want the agent to map users in other subnetworks, you must repeat these steps
to add additional networks to the list.
• Exclude specified network—Select this option only if you want the agent to exclude
a subset of the subnetworks you added for inclusion. For example, if you include
10.0.0.0/8 and exclude 10.2.50.0/22, the agent will map users on all the subnetworks
of 10.0.0.0/8 except 10.2.50.0/22, and will exclude all subnetworks outside of
10.0.0.0/8.
If you add Exclude profiles without adding any Include profiles, the User-ID
agent excludes all subnetworks, not just the ones you added.
4. Click OK.
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STEP 3 | (Optional) If you configured the agent to connect to a Novell eDirectory server, you must
specify how the agent should search the directory.
1. Select User Identification > Setup and click Edit in the Setup section of the window.
2. Select the eDirectory tab and then complete the following fields:
• Search Base—The starting point or root context for agent queries, for example:
dc=domain1,dc=example, dc=com.
• Bind Distinguished Name—The account to use to bind to the directory, for example:
cn=admin,ou=IT, dc=domain1, dc=example, dc=com.
• Bind Password—The bind account password. The agent saves the encrypted
password in the configuration file.
• Search Filter—The search query for user entries (default is objectClass=Person).
• Server Domain Prefix—A prefix to uniquely identify the user. This is only required if
there are overlapping name spaces, such as different users with the same name from
two different directories.
• Use SSL—Select the check box to use SSL for eDirectory binding.
• Verify Server Certificate—Select the check box to verify the eDirectory server
certificate when using SSL.
STEP 4 | (Strongly recommended) Disable client probing.
Palo Alto Networks strongly recommends disabling client probing on high-security
networks. Client probing can pose a security threat if not correctly configured. For
more information, see client probing.
1. On the Client Probing tab, deselect the Enable WMI Probing check box if it is enabled.
2. Deselect the Enable NetBIOS Probing check box if it is enabled.
Palo Alto Network strongly recommends that you collect user mapping
information from isolated and trusted sources, such as domain controllers
or integrations with Syslog or the XML API, to safely capture user mapping
information from any device type or operating system.
If you must enable client probing, select the Enable WMI Probing check box and
on the Client Probing tab. Due to the potential security risks of this method,
only select the Enable NetBIOS Probing check box if the firewall cannot obtain
user mappings using any other method. Then add a remote administration
exception to the Windows firewall for each probed client to ensure the Windows
firewall will allow client probing. Each probed client PC must allow port 139
in the Windows firewall and must also have file and printer sharing services
enabled.
STEP 5 | Save the configuration.
Click OK to save the User-ID agent setup settings and then click Commit to restart the UserID agent and load the new settings.
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STEP 6 | (Optional) Define the set of users for which you do not need to provide IP address-tousername mappings, such as kiosk accounts.
Save the ignore-user list as a text document on the agent host using the title
ignore_user_list and use the .txt file extension to save it to the User-ID Agent folder on
the domain server where the agent is installed.
List the user accounts to ignore; there is no limit to the number of accounts you can add to the
list. Each user account name must be on a separate line. For example:
SPAdmin
SPInstall
TFSReport
You can use an asterisk as a wildcard character to match multiple usernames, but only as
the last character in the entry. For example, corpdomain\it-admin* would match all
administrators in the corpdomain domain whose usernames start with the string it‑admin.
You can also use the ignore-user list to identify users whom you want to force to
authenticate using Authentication Portal.
After adding entries to the Ignore User list, you must stop and restart the connection
to the service.
STEP 7 | Configure the firewall to connect to the User-ID agent.
The firewall can connect to only one Windows-based User-ID agent that is using the
User-ID credential service add-on to detect corporate credential submissions. See
Configure Credential Detection with the Windows-based User-ID Agent for more
details on how to use this service for credential phishing prevention.
Complete the following steps on each firewall you want to connect to the User-ID agent to
receive user mappings:
1. Select Device > Data Redistribution > Agents and click Add.
2. Enter a Name for the agent.
3. Add an Agent Using the Host and Port.
4. Enter the IP address of the Windows Host on which the User-ID Agent is installed.
5. Enter the Port number (1-65535) on which the agent will listen for user mapping
requests. This value must match the value configured on the User-ID agent. By default,
the port is set to 5007 on the firewall and on newer versions of the User-ID agent.
However, some older User-ID agent versions use port 2010 as the default.
6. Select IP User Mappings as the Data type.
7. Make sure that the configuration is Enabled, then click OK.
8. Commit the changes.
9. Verify that the Connected status displays as connected (a green light).
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STEP 8 | Verify that the User-ID agent is successfully mapping IP addresses to usernames and that the
firewalls can connect to the agent.
1. Launch the User-ID agent and select User Identification.
2. Verify that the agent status shows Agent is running. If the Agent is not running, click
Start.
3. To verify that the User-ID agent can connect to monitored servers, make sure the Status
for each Server is Connected.
4. To verify that the firewalls can connect to the User-ID agent, make sure the Status for
each of the Connected Devices is Connected.
5. To verify that the User-ID agent is mapping IP addresses to usernames, select
Monitoring and make sure that the mapping table is populated. You can also Search for
specific users, or Delete user mappings from the list.
Configure User Mapping Using the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID
Agent
The following procedure describes how to configure the PAN-OS® integrated User-ID™ agent
on the firewall for IP address-to-username mapping. The integrated User-ID agent performs the
same tasks as the Windows-based agent with the exception of NetBIOS client probing (WMI
probing is supported).
STEP 1 | Create an Active Directory service account for the User-ID agent to access the services and
hosts that the firewall will monitor for collecting user mapping information.
Create a Dedicated Service Account for the User-ID Agent.
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STEP 2 | Define the servers that the firewall will monitor to collect user mapping information.
Within the total maximum of 100 monitored servers per firewall, you can define no more than
50 syslog senders for any single virtual system.
To collect all the required mappings, the firewall must connect to all servers that your
users log in to so that the firewall can monitor the Security log files on all servers that
contain login events.
1. Select Device > User Identification > User Mapping.
2. Add a server (Server Monitoring section).
3. Enter a Name to identify the server.
4. Select the Type of server.
• Microsoft Active Directory
• Microsoft Exchange
• Novell eDirectory
• Syslog Sender
5. (Microsoft Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange only) Select the Transport Protocol
you want to use to monitor security logs and session information on the server.
• WMI—The firewall and the monitored servers use Windows Management
Instrumentation (WMI) to communicate.
• WinRM-HTTP—The firewall and the monitored servers use Kerberos for mutual
authentication and the monitored server encrypts the communication with the
firewall using a negotiated Kerberos session key.
• WinRM-HTTPS—The firewall and the monitored servers use HTTPS to communicate
and use basic authentication or Kerberos for mutual authentication.
If you select a Windows Remote Management (WinRM) option, you must Configure
Server Monitoring Using WinRM.
6. (Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell eDirectory only) Enter the
Network Address of the server.
If you are using WinRM with Kerberos, you must enter a fully qualified domain
name (FDQN). If you want to use WinRM with basic authentication or use
WMI to monitor the server, you can enter an IP address or FQDN.
To monitor servers using WMI, specify an IP address, the service account name
(if all server monitoring is in the same domain), or a fully qualified domain
name (FQDN). If you specify an FQDN, use the down-level logon name in the
(DLN)\sAMAccountName format instead of the FQDN\sAMAccountName
format. For example, use example\user.services not example.com
\user.services. If you specify an FQDN, the firewall will attempt to
authenticate using Kerberos, which does not support WMI.
7. (Syslog Sender only) If you select Syslog Sender as the server Type, Configure the PANOS Integrated User-ID Agent as a Syslog Listener.
8. (Novell eDirectory only) Make sure the Server Profile you select is Enabled and click OK.
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9. (Optional) Configure the firewall to automatically Discover domain controllers on your
network using DNS lookups.
The auto-discovery feature is for domain controllers only; you must manually
add any Exchange servers or eDirectory servers you want to monitor.
STEP 3 | (Optional) Specify the frequency at which the firewall polls Windows servers for mapping
information. This is the interval between the end of the last query and the start of the next
query.
If the domain controller is processing many requests, delays between queries may
exceed the specified value.
1. Edit the Palo Alto Networks User ID Agent Setup.
2. Select the Server Monitor tab and specify the Server Log Monitor Frequency in seconds
(range is 1 to 3,600; default is 2). In environments with older domain controllers or highlatency links, set this frequency to a minimum of five seconds.
Ensure that the Enable Session option is not enabled. This option requires that
the User-ID agent have an Active Directory account with Server Operator
privileges so that it can read all user sessions. Instead, use a Syslog or XML
API integration to monitor sources that capture login and logout events for all
device types and operating systems (instead of just Windows), such as wireless
controllers and network access control (NAC) devices.
3. Click OK to save your changes.
STEP 4 | Specify the subnetworks that the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent should include in or
exclude from user mapping.
By default, the User-ID maps all users accessing the servers you are monitoring.
As a best practice, always specify which networks to include and, optionally, which
networks to exclude from User-ID to ensure that the agent is communicating only
with internal resources and to prevent unauthorized users from being mapped. You
should enable user mapping only on the subnetworks where users internal to your
organization are logging in.
1. Select Device > User Identification > User Mapping.
2. Add an entry to the Include/Exclude Networks and enter a Name for the entry. Ensure
that the entry is Enabled.
3. Enter the Network Address and then select whether to include or exclude it:
• Include—Select this option to limit user mapping to only users logged in to the
specified subnetwork. For example, if you include 10.0.0.0/8, the agent maps the
users on that subnetwork and excludes all others. If you want the agent to map users
in other subnetworks, you must repeat these steps to add additional networks to the
list.
• Exclude—Select this option to configure the agent to exclude a subset of the
subnetworks you added for inclusion. For example, if you include 10.0.0.0/8 and
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exclude 10.2.50.0/22, the agent will map users on all the subnetworks of 10.0.0.0/8
except 10.2.50.0/22 and will exclude all subnetworks outside of 10.0.0.0/8.
If you add Exclude profiles without adding any Include profiles, the User-ID
agent excludes all subnetworks, not just the ones you added.
4. Click OK.
STEP 5 | Set the domain credentials for the account that the firewall will use to access Windows
resources. This is required for monitoring Exchange servers and domain controllers as well as
for WMI probing.
1. Edit the Palo Alto Networks User-ID Agent Setup.
2. Select the Server Monitor Account tab and enter the User Name and Password for the
service account that the User-ID agent will use to probe the clients and monitor servers.
Enter the username using the domain\username syntax.
3. If you are using WinRM to monitor servers, configure the firewall to authenticate with
the server you are monitoring.
• If you want to use WinRM with basic authentication, enable WinRM on the server,
configure basic authentication, and specify the service account Domain’s DNS Name.
• If you want to use WinRM with Kerberos, Configure a Kerberos server profile if you
have not already done so and then select the Kerberos Server Profile.
STEP 6 | (Optional, not recommended) Configure WMI probing (the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent
does not support NetBIOS probing).
Do not enable WMI probing on high-security networks. Client probing can generate a
large amount of network traffic and can pose a security threat when misconfigured.
1. On the Client Probing tab, Enable Probing.
2. (Optional) Specify the Probe Interval to define the interval (in minutes) between the end
of the last probe request and the start of the next request.
If necessary, increase the value to ensure the User-ID agent has sufficient time to probe
all the learned IP addresses (range is 1 to 1440; default is 20).
If the request load is high, the observed delay between requests might
significantly exceed the specified interval.
3. Click OK.
4. Make sure the Windows firewall will allow client probing by adding a remote
administration exception to the Windows firewall for each probed client.
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STEP 7 | (Optional) Define the set of user accounts that don’t require IP address-to-username
mappings, such as kiosk accounts.
Define the ignore user list on the firewall that is the User-ID agent, not the client. If
you define the ignore user list on the client firewall, the users in the list are still mapped
during redistribution.
On the Ignore User List tab, Add each username you want to exclude from user mapping. You
can also use the ignore user list to identify the users you want to force to use Authentication
Portal to authenticate. You can use an asterisk as a wildcard character to match multiple
usernames but only as the last character in the entry. For example, corpdomain\it-admin*
would match all administrators in the corpdomain domain whose usernames start with the
string it‑admin. You can add up to 5,000 entries to exclude from user mapping.
STEP 8 | Activate your configuration changes.
Click OK and Commit.
STEP 9 | Verify the configuration.
1. Access the firewall CLI.
2. Enter the following operational command:
> show user server-monitor state all
3. On the Device > User Identification > User Mapping tab in the web interface, verify that
the Status of each server you configured for server monitoring is Connected.
Configure Server Monitoring Using WinRM
You can configure the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent to monitor servers using Windows
Remote Management (WinRM). Using the WinRM protocol improves speed, efficiency, and
security when monitoring server events to map user events to IP addresses. The PAN-OS
integrated User-ID agent supports the WinRM protocol on Windows Server 2012 Active
Directory and Microsoft Exchange Server 2012 or later versions of both.
There are three ways to configure server monitoring using WinRM:
• Configure WinRM over HTTPS with Basic Authentication—The firewall authenticates to the
monitored server using the username and password of the service account for the User-ID
agent and the firewall authenticates the monitored server using the User-ID certificate profile.
• Configure WinRM over HTTP with Kerberos—The firewall and the monitored servers use
Kerberos for mutual authentication and the monitored server encrypts the communication with
the firewall using a negotiated Kerberos session key.
• Configure WinRM over HTTPS with Kerberos—The firewall and the monitored server use
HTTPS to communicate and use Kerberos for mutual authentication.
Configure WinRM over HTTPS with Basic Authentication
When you configure WinRM to use HTTPS with basic authentication, the firewall transfers the
credentials for the service account in a secure tunnel using SSL.
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STEP 1 | Configure the service account with Remote Management User and CIMV2 privileges for the
server you want to monitor.
STEP 2 | On the Windows server you are monitoring, obtain the thumbprint from the certificate for
the Windows server to use with WinRM and enable WinRM.
Ensure that you use an account with administrator privileges to configure WinRM on
the server you want to monitor. As a best practice for security, this account should not
be the same account as the service account in Step 1.
1. Verify the certificate is installed in the Local Computer certificate store (Certificates
(Local Computer) > Personal > Certificates).
If you do not see the Local Computer certificate store, launch the Microsoft
Management Console (Start > Run > MMC) and add the Certificates snap-in (File > Add/
Remove Snap-in > Certificates > Add > Computer account > Next > Finish).
2. Open the certificate and select General > Details > Show: <All>.
3. Select the Thumbprint and copy it.
4. To enable the firewall to connect to the Windows server using WinRM, enter the
following command: winrm quickconfig.
5. Enter y to confirm the changes and then confirm the output displays WinRM service
started.
If WinRM is enabled, the output displays WinRM service is already running
on this machine. You will be prompted to confirm any additional required
configuration changes.
6. To verify that WinRM is communicating using HTTPS, enter the following command:
winrm enumerate winrm/config/listener and confirm that the output displays
Transport = HTTPS.
By default, WinRM/HTTPS uses port 5986.
7. From the Windows server command prompt, enter the following command:
winrm create winrm/config/Listener?Address=*+Transport=HTTPS
@{Hostname=”<hostname>";CertificateThumbprint=”Certificate
Thumbprint"}, where hostname is the hostname of the Windows server and Certificate
Thumbprint is the value you copied from the certificate.
Use the command prompt (not Powershell) and remove any spaces in the
Certificate Thumbprint to ensure that WinRM can validate the certificate.
8. From the Windows server command prompt, enter the following command:
c:\> winrm set winrm/config/client/auth @{Basic="true"}
9. Enter the following command: winrm get winrm/config/service/Auth and
confirm that Basic = true.
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STEP 3 | Enable Basic Authentication between the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent and the
monitored servers.
1. Select Device > User Identification > User Mapping > Palo Alto Networks User-ID
Agent Setup > Server Monitor Account.
2. In domain\username format, enter the User Name for the service account that the
User-ID agent will use to monitor servers.
3. Enter the Domain’s DNS Name of the server monitor account.
4. Enter the Password and Confirm Password for the service account.
5. Click OK
STEP 4 | Configure server monitoring for the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent.
1. Select the Microsoft server Type (Microsoft Active Directory or Microsoft Exchange).
2. Select Win-RM-HTTPS as the Transport Protocol to use Windows Remote Management
(WinRM) over HTTPS to monitor the server security logs and session information.
3. Enter the IP address or FQDN Network Address of the server.
STEP 5 | To enable the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent to communicate with the monitored servers
using WinRM-HTTPS, verify that you successfully imported the root certificate for the
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service certificates that the Windows server uses for WinRM on to the firewall and associate
the certificate with the User-ID Certificate Profile.
1. Select Device > User Identification > Connection Security.
2. Click Edit.
3. Select the Windows server certificate to use for the User-ID Certificate Profile.
4. Click OK.
STEP 6 | Commit your changes.
STEP 7 | Verify that the status of each monitored server is Connected (Device > User Identification >
User Mapping).
Configure WinRM over HTTP with Kerberos
When you configure WinRM over HTTP with Kerberos, the firewall and the monitored servers
use Kerberos for mutual authentication and the monitored server encrypts the communication
with the firewall using a negotiated Kerberos session key.
WinRM with Kerberos supports the aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96 and aes256-cts-hmacsha1-96 ciphers. If the server you want to monitor uses RC4, you must download the
Windows update and disable RC4 for Kerberos in the registry settings of the server you
want to monitor.
STEP 1 | Configure the service account with Remote Management User and CIMV2 privileges for the
server you want to monitor.
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STEP 2 | Confirm that WinRM is enabled on the Windows server you are monitoring.
Ensure that you use an account with administrator privileges to configure WinRM on
the server you want to monitor. As a best practice for security, this account should not
be the same account as the service account in Step 1.
1. To enable the firewall to connect to the Windows server using WinRM, enter the
following command: winrm quickconfig.
2. Enter y to confirm the changes and then confirm the output displays WinRM service
started.
If WinRM is enabled, the output displays WinRM service is already running
on this machine. You will be prompted to confirm any additional required
configuration changes.
3. To verify that WinRM is communicating using HTTP, enter the following command:
winrm enumerate winrm/config/listener and confirm that the output displays
Transport = HTTP.
By default, WinRM/HTTP uses port 5985.
4. Enter the following command: winrm get winrm/config/service/Auth and
confirm that Kerberos = true.
STEP 3 | Enable the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent and the monitored servers to authenticate
using Kerberos.
1. If you did not do so during the initial configuration, configure date and time (NTP)
settings to ensure successful Kerberos negotiation.
2. Configure a Kerberos server profile on the firewall to authenticate with the server to
monitor the security logs and session information.
3. Select Device > User Identification > User Mapping > Palo Alto Networks User-ID
Agent Setup > Server Monitor Account.
4. In domain\username format, enter the User Name for the service account that the
User-ID agent will use to monitor servers.
5. Enter the Domain’s DNS Name of the server monitor account.
Kerberos uses the domain name to locate the service account.
6. Enter the Password and Confirm Password for the service account.
7. Select the Kerberos Server Profile you configured in Step 3.2.
8. Click OK.
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STEP 4 | Configure server monitoring for the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent.
1. Configure the Microsoft server type (Microsoft Active Directory or Microsoft
Exchange).
2. Select WinRM-HTTP as the Transport Protocol to use Windows Remote Management
(WinRM) over HTTP to monitor the server security logs and session information.
3. Enter the FQDN Network Address of the server.
If you are using Kerberos, the network address must be a fully qualified domain name
(FDQN).
STEP 5 | Commit your changes.
STEP 6 | Verify that the status of each monitored server is Connected (Device > User Identification >
User Mapping).
Configure WinRM over HTTPS with Kerberos
When you configure WinRM over HTTPS with Kerberos, the firewall and the monitored server
use HTTPS to communicate and use Kerberos for mutual authentication.
WinRM with Kerberos supports the aes128-cts-hmac-sha1-96 and aes256-cts-hmacsha1-96 ciphers. If the server you want to monitor uses RC4, you must download the
Windows update and disable RC4 for Kerberos in the registry settings of the server you
want to monitor.
STEP 1 | Configure the service account with Remote Management User and CIMV2 privileges for the
server you want to monitor.
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STEP 2 | On the Windows server you are monitoring, obtain the thumbprint from the certificate for
the Windows server to use with WinRM and enable WinRM.
Ensure that you use an account with administrator privileges to configure WinRM on
the server you want to monitor. As a best practice for security, this account should not
be the same account as the service account in Step 1.
1. Verify the certificate is installed in the Local Computer certificate store (Certificates
(Local Computer) > Personal > Certificates).
If you do not see the Local Computer certificate store, launch the Microsoft
Management Console (Start > Run > MMC) and add the Certificates snap-in (File > Add/
Remove Snap-in > Certificates > Add > Computer account > Next > Finish).
2. Open the certificate and select General > Details > Show: <All>.
3. Select the Thumbprint and copy it.
4. To enable the firewall to connect to the Windows server using WinRM, enter the
following command: winrm quickconfig.
5. Enter y to confirm the changes and then confirm the output displays WinRM service
started.
If WinRM is enabled, the output displays WinRM service is already running
on this machine. You will be prompted to confirm any additional required
configuration changes.
6. To verify that WinRM is communicating using HTTPS, enter the following command:
winrm enumerate winrm/config/listener. Then confirm that the output
displays Transport = HTTPS.
By default, WinRM/HTTPS uses 5986.
7. From the Windows server command prompt, enter the following command:
winrm create winrm/config/Listener?Address=*+Transport=HTTPS
@{Hostname=”<hostname>";CertificateThumbprint=”Certificate
Thumbprint"}, where hostname is the hostname of the Windows server and Certificate
Thumbprint is the value you copied from the certificate.
Use the command prompt (not Powershell) and remove any spaces in the
Certificate Thumbprint to ensure that WinRM can validate the certificate.
8. Enter the following command: winrm get winrm/config/service/Auth and
confirm that Basic = false and Kerberos= true.
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STEP 3 | Enable the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent and the monitored servers to authenticate
using Kerberos.
1. If you did not do so during the initial configuration, configure date and time (NTP)
settings to ensure successful Kerberos negotiation.
2. Configure a Kerberos server profile on the firewall to authenticate with the server to
monitor the security logs and session information.
3. Select Device > User Identification > User Mapping > Palo Alto Networks User-ID
Agent Setup > Server Monitor Account.
4. In domain\username format, enter the User Name for the service account that the
User-ID agent will use to monitor servers.
5. Enter the Domain’s DNS Name of the server monitor account.
Kerberos uses the domain name to locate the service account.
6. Enter the Password and Confirm Password for the service account.
7. Select the Kerberos Server Profile you created in Step 3.2.
8. Click OK.
STEP 4 | Configure server monitoring for the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent.
1. Configure the Microsoft server type (Microsoft Active Directory or Microsoft
Exchange).
2. Select Win-RM-HTTPS as the Transport Protocol to use Windows Remote Management
(WinRM) over HTTPS to monitor the server security logs and session information.
3. Enter the FQDN Network Address of the server.
If you are using Kerberos, the network address must be a fully qualified domain name
(FDQN).
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779 | User-ID
STEP 5 | To enable the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent to communicate with the monitored servers
using WinRM-HTTPS, verify that you successfully imported the root certificate for the
service certificates that the Windows server uses for WinRM on to the firewall and associate
the certificate with the User-ID Certificate Profile.
The firewall uses the same certificate to authenticate with all monitored servers.
1. Select Device > User Identification > Connection Security.
2. Click Edit.
3. Select the Windows server certificate to use for the User-ID Certificate Profile.
4. Click OK.
5. Commit your changes.
STEP 6 | Verify that the status of each monitored server is Connected (Device > User Identification >
User Mapping).
Configure User-ID to Monitor Syslog Senders for User Mapping
To obtain IP address-to-username mappings from existing network services that authenticate
users, you can configure the PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent or Windows-based User-ID
agent to parse Syslog messages from those services. To keep user mappings up to date, you can
also configure the User-ID agent to parse syslog messages for logout events so that the firewall
automatically deletes outdated mappings.
• Configure the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent as a Syslog Listener
• Configure the Windows User-ID Agent as a Syslog Listener
Configure the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID Agent as a Syslog Listener
To configure the PAN-OS Integrated User-ID agent to create new user mappings and remove
outdated mappings through syslog monitoring, start by defining Syslog Parse profiles. The User-ID
agent uses the profiles to find login and logout events in syslog messages. In environments where
syslog senders (the network services that authenticate users) deliver syslog messages in different
formats, configure a profile for each syslog format. Syslog messages must meet certain criteria
for a User-ID agent to parse them (see Syslog). This procedure uses examples with the following
formats:
• Login events—[Tue Jul 5 13:15:04 2016 CDT] Administratorauthentication
success User:johndoe1 Source:192.168.3.212
• Logout events—[Tue Jul 5 13:18:05 2016CDT] User logout successful
User:johndoe1 Source:192.168.3.212
After configuring the Syslog Parse profiles, you specify syslog senders for the User-ID agent to
monitor.
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STEP 1 | Determine whether there is a predefined Syslog Parse profile for your particular syslog
senders.
Palo Alto Networks provides several predefined profiles through Application content updates.
The predefined profiles are global to the firewall, whereas custom profiles apply to a single
virtual system only.
Any new Syslog Parse profiles in a given content release is documented in the
corresponding release note along with the specific regex used to define the filter.
1. Install the latest Applications or Applications and Threats update:
1. Select Device > Dynamic Updates and Check Now.
2. Download and Install any new update.
2. Determine which predefined Syslog Parse profiles are available:
1. Select Device > User Identification > User Mapping and click Add in the Server
Monitoring section.
2. Set the Type to Syslog Sender and click Add in the Filter section. If the Syslog Parse
profile you need is available, skip the steps for defining custom profiles.
STEP 2 | Define custom Syslog Parse profiles to create and delete user mappings.
Each profile filters syslog messages to identify either login events (to create user mappings) or
logout events (to delete mappings), but no single profile can do both.
1. Review the syslog messages that the syslog sender generates to identify the syntax for
login and logout events. This enables you to define the matching patterns when creating
Syslog Parse profiles.
While reviewing syslog messages, also determine whether they include the
domain name. If they don’t, and your user mappings require domain names,
enter the Default Domain Name when defining the syslog senders that the UserID agent monitors (later in this procedure).
2. Select Device > User Identification > User Mapping and edit the Palo Alto Networks
User-ID Agent Setup.
3. Select Syslog Filters and Add a Syslog Parse profile.
4. Enter a name to identify the Syslog Parse Profile.
5. Select the Type of parsing to find login or logout events in syslog messages:
• Regex Identifier—Regular expressions.
• Field Identifier—Text strings.
The following steps describe how to configure these parsing types.
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STEP 3 | (Regex Identifier parsing only) Define the regex matching patterns.
If the syslog message contains a standalone space or tab as a delimiter, use \s for a
space and \t for a tab.
1. Enter the Event Regex for the type of events you want to find:
• Login events—For the example message, the regex (authentication\ success)
{1} extracts the first {1} instance of the string authenticationsuccess.
• Logout events—For the example message, the regex (logout\ successful){1}
extracts the first {1} instance of the string logoutsuccessful.
The backslash (\) before the space is a standard regex escape character that instructs the
regex engine not to treat the space as a special character.
2. Enter the Username Regex to identify the start of the username.
In the example message, the regex User:([a-zA-Z0-9\\\._]+) matches the string
User:johndoe1 and identifies johndoe1 as the username.
3. Enter the Address Regex to identify the IP address portion of syslog messages.
In the example message, the regular expression Source:([0-9]{1,3}\.
[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}) matches the IPv4 address
Source:192.168.3.212.
The following is an example of a completed Syslog Parse profile that uses regex to
identify login events:
4. Click OK twice to save the profile.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 782 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
782 | User-ID
STEP 4 | (Field Identifier parsing only) Define string matching patterns.
1. Enter an Event String to identify the type of events you want to find.
• Login events—For the example message, the string authentication success
identifies login events.
• Logout events—For the example message, the string logoutsuccessful identifies
logout events.
2. Enter a Username Prefix to identify the start of the username field in syslog messages.
The field does not support regex expressions such as \s (for a space) or \t (for a tab).
In the example messages, User: identifies the start of the username field.
3. Enter the Username Delimiter that indicates the end of the username field in syslog
messages. Use \s to indicate a standalone space (as in the sample message) and \t to
indicate a tab.
4. Enter an Address Prefix to identify the start of the IP address field in syslog messages.
The field does not support regex expressions such as \s (for a space) or \t (for a tab).
In the example messages, Source: identifies the start of the address field.
5. Enter the Address Delimiter that indicates the end of the IP address field in syslog
messages.
For example, enter \n to indicate the delimiter is a line break.
The following is an example of a completed Syslog Parse profile that uses string
matching to identify login events:
6. Click OK twice to save the profile.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 783 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
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STEP 5 | Specify the syslog senders that the firewall monitors.
Within the total maximum of 100 monitored servers per firewall, you can define no more than
50 syslog senders for any single virtual system.
The firewall discards any syslog messages received from senders that are not on this list.
1. Select Device > User Identification > User Mapping and Add an entry to the Server
Monitoring list.
2. Enter a Name to identify the sender.
3. Make sure the sender profile is Enabled (default is enabled).
4. Set the Type to Syslog Sender.
5. Enter the Network Address (IP address) of the syslog sender.
6. Select SSL (default) or UDP as the Connection Type.
To select the TLS certificate that the firewall uses to receive syslog messages,
select Device > User Identification > User Mapping > Palo Alto Networks UserID Agent Setup. Edit the settings and select Server Monitor, then select the
Syslog Service Profile that contains the TLS certificate you want to the firewall
to use to receive syslog messages.
The PAN-OS integrated User-ID agent accepts syslogs over SSL and UDP only.
However, you must use caution when using UDP to receive syslog messages
because it is an unreliable protocol and as such there is no way to verify that
a message was sent from a trusted syslog sender. Although you can restrict
syslog messages to specific source IP addresses, an attacker can still spoof the IP
address, potentially allowing the injection of unauthorized syslog messages into
the firewall.
Always use SSL to listen for syslog messages because the traffic is encrypted
(UDP sends the traffic in cleartext). If you must use UDP, make sure that the
syslog sender and client are both on a dedicated, secure network to prevent
untrusted hosts from sending UDP traffic to the firewall.
A syslog sender using SSL to connect will show a Status of Connected only when there is
an active SSL connection. Syslog senders using UDP will not show a Status value.
7. For each syslog format that the sender supports, Add a Syslog Parse profile to the Filter
list. Select the Event Type that each profile is configured to identify: login (default) or
logout.
8. (Optional) If the syslog messages don’t contain domain information and your user
mappings require domain names, enter a Default Domain Name to append to the
mappings.
9. Click OK to save the settings.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 784 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
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STEP 6 | Enable syslog listener services on the interface that the firewall uses to collect user
mappings.
1. Select Network > Network Profiles > Interface Mgmt and edit an existing Interface
Management profile or Add a new profile.
2. Select User-ID Syslog Listener-SSL or User-ID Syslog Listener-UDP or both, based on
the protocols you defined for the syslog senders in the Server Monitoring list.
The listening ports (514 for UDP and 6514 for SSL) are not configurable; they
are enabled through the management service only.
3. Click OK to save the interface management profile.
Even after enabling the User-ID Syslog Listener service on the interface,
the interface only accepts syslog connections from senders that have a
corresponding entry in the User-ID monitored servers configuration. The firewall
discards connections or messages from senders that are not on the list.
4. Assign the Interface Management profile to the interface that the firewall uses to collect
user mappings:
1. Select Network > Interfaces and edit the interface.
2. Select Advanced > Other info, select the Interface Management Profile you just
added, and click OK.
5. Commit your changes.
STEP 7 | Verify that the firewall adds and deletes user mappings when users log in and out.
You can use CLI commands to see additional information about syslog senders, syslog
messages, and user mappings.
1. Log in to a client system for which a monitored syslog sender generates login and logout
event messages.
2. Log in to the firewall CLI.
3. Verify that the firewall mapped the login username to the client IP address:
> show user ip-user-mapping ip <ip-address>
IP address: 192.0.2.1 (vsys1)
User: localdomain\username
From: SYSLOG
4. Log out of the client system.
5. Verify that the firewall deleted the user mapping:
> show user ip-user-mapping ip <ip-address>
No matched record
Configure the Windows User-ID Agent as a Syslog Listener
To configure the Windows-based User-ID agent to create new user mappings and remove
outdated mappings through syslog monitoring, start by defining Syslog Parse profiles. The User-ID
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 785 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
785 | User-ID
agent uses the profiles to find login and logout events in syslog messages. In environments where
syslog senders (the network services that authenticate users) deliver syslog messages in different
formats, configure a profile for each syslog format. Syslog messages must meet certain criteria
for a User-ID agent to parse them (see Syslog). This procedure uses examples with the following
formats:
• Login events—[Tue Jul 5 13:15:04 2016 CDT] Administrator authentication
success User:johndoe1 Source:192.168.3.212
• Logout events—[Tue Jul 5 13:18:05 2016 CDT] User logout successful
User:johndoe1 Source:192.168.3.212
After configuring the Syslog Parse profiles, you specify the syslog senders that the User-ID agent
monitors.
The Windows User-ID agent accepts syslogs over TCP and UDP only. However,
you must use caution when using UDP to receive syslog messages because it is an
unreliable protocol and as such there is no way to verify that a message was sent from
a trusted syslog sender. Although you can restrict syslog messages to specific source IP
addresses, an attacker can still spoof the IP address, potentially allowing the injection
of unauthorized syslog messages into the firewall. As a best practice, use TCP instead of
UDP. In either case, make sure that the syslog sender and client are both on a dedicated,
secure VLAN to prevent untrusted hosts from sending syslogs to the User-ID agent.
STEP 1 | Deploy the Windows-based User-ID agents if you haven’t already.
1. Install the Windows-Based User-ID Agent.
2. Configure the firewall to connect to the User-ID agent.
STEP 2 | Define custom Syslog Parse profiles to create and delete user mappings.
Each profile filters syslog messages to identify either login events (to create user mappings) or
logout events (to delete mappings), but no single profile can do both.
1. Review the syslog messages that the syslog sender generates to identify the syntax for
login and logout events. This enables you to define the matching patterns when creating
Syslog Parse profiles.
While reviewing syslog messages, also determine whether they include the
domain name. If they don’t, and your user mappings require domain names,
enter the Default Domain Name when defining the syslog senders that the UserID agent monitors (later in this procedure).
2. Open the Windows Start menu and select User-ID Agent.
3. Select User Identification > Setup and Edit the Setup.
4. Select Syslog, Enable Syslog Service, and Add a Syslog Parse profile.
5. Enter a Profile Name and Description.
6. Select the Type of parsing to find login and logout events in syslog messages:
• Regex—Regular expressions.
• Field—Text strings.
The following steps describe how to configure these parsing types.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 786 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
786 | User-ID
STEP 3 | (Regex parsing only) Define the regex matching patterns.
If the syslog message contains a standalone space or tab as a delimiter, use \s for a space and
\t for a tab.
1. Enter the Event Regex for the type of events you want to find:
• Login events—For the example message, the regex (authentication\ success)
{1} extracts the first {1} instance of the string authentication success.
• Logout events—For the example message, the regex (logout\ successful){1}
extracts the first {1} instance of the string logout successful.
The backslash before the space is a standard regex escape character that instructs the
regex engine not to treat the space as a special character.
2. Enter the Username Regex to identify the start of the username.
In the example message, the regex User:([a-zA-Z0-9\\\._]+) matches the string
User:johndoe1 and identifies johndoe1 as the username.
3. Enter the Address Regex to identify the IP address portion of syslog messages.
In the example message, the regular expression Source:([0-9]{1,3}\.
[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}) matches the IPv4 address
Source:192.168.3.212.
The following is an example of a completed Syslog Parse profile that uses regex to
identify login events:
4. Click OK twice to save the profile.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 787 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
787 | User-ID
STEP 4 | (Field Identifier parsing only) Define string matching patterns.
1. Enter an Event String to identify the type of events you want to find.
• Login events—For the example message, the string authentication success
identifies login events.
• Logout events—For the example message, the string logout successful identifies
logout events.
2. Enter a Username Prefix to identify the start of the username field in syslog messages.
The field does not support regex expressions such as \s (for a space) or \t (for a tab).
In the example messages, User: identifies the start of the username field.
3. Enter the Username Delimiter that indicates the end of the username field in syslog
messages. Use \s to indicate a standalone space (as in the sample message) and \t to
indicate a tab.
4. Enter an Address Prefix to identify the start of the IP address field in syslog messages.
The field does not support regex expressions such as \s (for a space) or \t (for a tab).
In the example messages, Source: identifies the start of the address field.
5. Enter the Address Delimiter that indicates the end of the IP address field in syslog
messages.
For example, enter \n to indicate the delimiter is a line break.
The following is an example of a completed Syslog Parse profile that uses string
matching to identify login events:
6. Click OK twice to save the profile.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 788 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
788 | User-ID
STEP 5 | Specify the syslog senders that the User-ID agent monitors.
Within the total maximum of 100 servers of all types that the User-ID agent can monitor, up to
50 can be syslog senders.
The User-ID agent discards any syslog messages received from senders that are not on this list.
1. Select User Identification > Discovery and Add an entry to the Servers list.
2. Enter a Name to identify the sender.
3. Enter the Server Address of the syslog sender (IP address or FQDN).
4. Set the Server Type to Syslog Sender.
5. (Optional) If you want to override the current domain in the username of your syslog
message or prepend the domain to the username if your syslog message doesn’t contain
a domain, enter a Default Domain Name.
6. For each syslog format that the sender supports, Add a Syslog Parse profile to the Filter
list. Select the Event Type that you configured each profile to identify—login (default) or
logout—and then click OK.
7. Click OK to save the settings.
8. Commit your changes to the User-ID agent configuration.
STEP 6 | Verify that the User-ID agent adds and deletes user mappings when users log in and out.
You can use CLI commands to see additional information about syslog senders, syslog
messages, and user mappings.
1. Log in to a client system for which a monitored syslog sender generates login and logout
event messages.
2. Verify that the User-ID agent mapped the login username to the client IP address:
1. In the User-ID agent, select Monitoring.
2. Enter the username or IP address in the filter field, Search, and verify that the list
displays the mapping.
3. Verify that the firewall received the user mapping from the User-ID agent:
1. Log in to the firewall CLI.
2. Run the following command:
> show user ip-user-mapping ip <ip-address>
If the firewall received the user mapping, the output resembles the following:
IP address: 192.0.2.1 (vsys1)
User: localdomain\username
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 789 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
789 | User-ID
From: SYSLOG
4. Log out of the client system.
5. Verify that the User-ID agent removed the user mapping:
1. In the User-ID agent, select Monitoring.
2. Enter the username or IP address in the filter field, Search, and verify that the list
does not display the mapping.
6. Verify that the firewall deleted the user mapping:
1. Access the firewall CLI.
2. Run the following command:
> show user ip-user-mapping ip <ip-address>
If the firewall deleted the user mapping, the output displays:
No matched record
Map IP Addresses to Usernames Using Authentication Portal
When a user initiates web traffic (HTTP or HTTPS) that matches an Authentication Policy rule,
the firewall prompts the user to authenticate through Authentication Portal. This ensures that
you know exactly who is accessing your most sensitive applications and data. Based on user
information collected during authentication, the firewall creates a new IP address-to-username
mapping or updates the existing mapping for that user. This method of user mapping is useful
in environments where the firewall cannot learn mappings through other methods such as
monitoring servers. For example, you might have users who are not logged in to your monitored
domain servers, such as users on Linux clients.
• Authentication Portal Authentication Methods
• Authentication Portal Modes
• Configure Authentication Portal
Authentication Portal Authentication Methods
Authentication Portal uses the following methods to authenticate users whose web requests
match Authentication Policy rules:
Authentication Method Description
Kerberos SSO The firewall uses Kerberos single sign-on (SSO) to transparently
obtain user credentials from the browser. To use this method,
your network requires a Kerberos infrastructure, including a
key distribution center (KDC) with an authentication server
and ticket granting service. The firewall must have a Kerberos
account.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 790 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
790 | User-ID
Authentication Method Description
If Kerberos SSO authentication fails, the firewall falls back to
web form or client certificate authentication, depending on your
Authentication policy and Authentication Portal configuration.
Web Form The firewall redirects web requests to a web form for
authentication. For this method, you can configure
Authentication policy to use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA),
SAML, Kerberos, TACACS+, RADIUS, or LDAP authentication.
Although users have to manually enter their login credentials,
this method works with all browsers and operating systems.
Client Certificate
Authentication
The firewall prompts the browser to present a valid client
certificate to authenticate the user. To use this method, you
must provision client certificates on each user system and install
the trusted certificate authority (CA) certificate used to issue
those certificates on the firewall.
Authentication Portal Modes
The Authentication Portal mode defines how the firewall captures web requests for
authentication:
Mode Description
Transparent The firewall intercepts the browser traffic per the
Authentication policy rule and impersonates the original
destination URL, issuing an HTTP 401 to invoke authentication.
However, because the firewall does not have the real certificate
for the destination URL, the browser displays a certificate error
to users attempting to access a secure site. Therefore, use this
mode only when absolutely necessary, such as in Layer 2 or
virtual wire deployments.
Redirect The firewall intercepts unknown HTTP or HTTPS sessions
and redirects them to a Layer 3 interface on the firewall
using an HTTP 302 redirect to perform authentication. This
is the preferred mode because it provides a better end-user
experience (no certificate errors). However, it does require
additional Layer 3 configuration. Another benefit of the
Redirect mode is that it provides for the use of session cookies,
which enable the user to continue browsing to authenticated
sites without requiring re-mapping each time the timeouts
expire. This is especially useful for users who roam from one IP
address to another (for example, from the corporate LAN to the
wireless network) because they won’t need to re-authenticate
when the IP address changes as long as the session stays open.
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide Version 10.2 791 ©2025 Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/techdocs/en_US/pdf/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/pan-os-admin.pdf |
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