TECHNICAL NOTE

FortiGate™ Best Practices

Version 1

www.fortinet.com
FortiGate™ Best Practices Technical Note
Version 1
20 May 2005
00-28000-0204-20050520

© Copyright 2005 Fortinet, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this

publication including text, examples, diagrams or illustrations may be
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without prior written permission of Fortinet, Inc.

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FortiGate, FortiGuard, FortiGuard-Antispam, FortiGuard-Antivirus,
FortiGuard-Intrusion, FortiGuard-Web, FortiLog, FortiManager, Fortinet,
FortiOS, FortiPartner, FortiProtect, FortiReporter, FortiResponse,
FortiShield, FortiVoIP, and FortiWiFi are trademarks of Fortinet, Inc. in the
United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and
products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective
owners.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents
About the FortiGate Antivirus Firewall ............................................................ 5
About this document......................................................................................... 5
FortiGate documentation .................................................................................. 6
Related documentation ..................................................................................... 7
FortiManager documentation ........................................................................ 7
FortiClient documentation ............................................................................. 7
FortiMail documentation ................................................................................ 7
FortiLog documentation ................................................................................ 7
Fortinet Knowledge Center ........................................................................... 8
Comments on Fortinet technical documentation ........................................... 8
Customer service and technical support ........................................................ 8
Overview............................................................................................................. 9
General Considerations .................................................................................... 9
Network hardware connectivity........................................................................ 9
Wireless connectivity................................................................................... 10
System settings ............................................................................................... 10
Backup ........................................................................................................ 10
Administration ............................................................................................. 10
Antivirus and IPS definitions updates.......................................................... 10
Firewall ............................................................................................................. 11
Intrusion Protection System........................................................................... 11
Antivirus ........................................................................................................... 12
VPN ................................................................................................................... 12
High Availability............................................................................................... 13

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 Table of Contents

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Introduction About the FortiGate Antivirus Firewall

Introduction
This chapter introduces you to FortiGate Best Practices and the following topics:
• About the FortiGate Antivirus Firewall
• About this document
• FortiGate documentation
• Related documentation
• Customer service and technical support

About the FortiGate Antivirus Firewall

The FortiGate Antivirus Firewall supports network-based deployment of
application-level services, including virus protection and full-scan content filtering.
FortiGate units improve network security, reduce network misuse and abuse, and
help you use communications resources more efficiently without compromising
the performance of your network.
The FortiGate unit is a dedicated easily managed security device that delivers a
full suite of capabilities that include:
• application-level services such as virus protection and content filtering,
• network-level services such as firewall, intrusion detection, VPN, and traffic
shaping.
The FortiGate unit employs Fortinet’s Accelerated Behavior and Content Analysis
System (ABACAS™) technology, which leverages breakthroughs in chip design,
networking, security, and content analysis. The unique ASIC-based architecture
analyzes content and behavior in real-time, enabling key applications to be
deployed right at the network edge where they are most effective at protecting
your networks. The FortiGate series complements existing solutions, such as
host-based antivirus protection, and enables new applications and services while
greatly lowering costs for equipment, administration, and maintenance.

About this document

This document is a collection of operating guidelines to ensure the most effective
and secure operation of your FortiGate unit.
This document contains the following chapters:
• FortiGate best practices

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FortiGate documentation Introduction

FortiGate documentation
Information about FortiGate products is available from the following guides:
• FortiGate QuickStart Guide
Provides basic information about connecting and installing a FortiGate unit.
• FortiGate Installation Guide
Describes how to install a FortiGate unit. Includes a hardware reference,
default configuration information, installation procedures, connection
procedures, and basic configuration procedures. Choose the guide for your
product model number.
• FortiGate Administration Guide
Provides basic information about how to configure a FortiGate unit, including
how to define FortiGate protection profiles and firewall policies; how to apply
intrusion prevention, antivirus protection, web content filtering, and spam
filtering; and how to configure a VPN.
• FortiGate online help
Provides a context-sensitive and searchable version of the Administration
Guide in HTML format. You can access online help from the web-based
manager as you work.
• FortiGate CLI Reference
Describes how to use the FortiGate CLI and contains a reference to all
FortiGate CLI commands.
• FortiGate Log Message Reference
Describes the structure of FortiGate log messages and provides information
about the log messages that are generated by FortiGate units.
• FortiGate High Availability User Guide
Contains in-depth information about the FortiGate high availability feature and
the FortiGate clustering protocol.
• FortiGate IPS User Guide
Describes how to configure the FortiGate Intrusion Prevention System settings
and how the FortiGate IPS deals with some common attacks.
• FortiGate IPSec VPN User Guide
Provides step-by-step instructions for configuring IPSec VPNs using the web-
based manager.
• FortiGate PPTP VPN User Guide
Explains how to configure a PPTP VPN using the web-based manager.
• FortiGate Certificate Management User Guide
Contains procedures for managing digital certificates including generating
certificate requests, installing signed certificates, importing CA root certificates
and certificate revocation lists, and backing up and restoring installed
certificates and private keys.
• FortiGate VLANs and VDOMs User Guide
Describes how to configure VLANs and VDOMS in both NAT/Route and
Transparent mode. Includes detailed examples.

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Introduction Related documentation

Related documentation
Additional information about Fortinet products is available from the following
related documentation.

FortiManager documentation
• FortiManager QuickStart Guide
Explains how to install the FortiManager Console, set up the FortiManager
Server, and configure basic settings.
• FortiManager System Administration Guide
Describes how to use the FortiManager System to manage FortiGate devices.
• FortiManager System online help
Provides a searchable version of the Administration Guide in HTML format.
You can access online help from the FortiManager Console as you work.

FortiClient documentation
• FortiClient Host Security User Guide
Describes how to use FortiClient Host Security software to set up a VPN
connection from your computer to remote networks, scan your computer for
viruses, and restrict access to your computer and applications by setting up
firewall policies.
• FortiClient Host Security online help
Provides information and procedures for using and configuring the FortiClient
software.

FortiMail documentation
• FortiMail Administration Guide
Describes how to install, configure, and manage a FortiMail unit in gateway
mode and server mode, including how to configure the unit; create profiles and
policies; configure antispam and antivirus filters; create user accounts; and set
up logging and reporting.
• FortiMail online help
Provides a searchable version of the Administration Guide in HTML format.
You can access online help from the web-based manager as you work.
• FortiMail Web Mail Online Help
Describes how to use the FortiMail web-based email client, including how to
send and receive email; how to add, import, and export addresses; and how to
configure message display preferences.

FortiLog documentation
• FortiLog Administration Guide
Describes how to install and configure a FortiLog unit to collect FortiGate and
FortiMail log files. It also describes how to view FortiGate and FortiMail log
files, generate and view log reports, and use the FortiLog unit as a NAS server.
• FortiLog online help
Provides a searchable version of the Administration Guide in HTML format.
You can access online help from the web-based manager as you work.

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Customer service and technical support Introduction

Fortinet Knowledge Center

The most recent Fortinet technical documentation is available from the Fortinet
Knowledge Center. The knowledge center contains short how-to articles, FAQs,
technical notes, product and feature guides, and much more. Visit the Fortinet
Knowledge Center at http://kc.forticare.com.

Comments on Fortinet technical documentation

Please send information about any errors or omissions in this document, or any
Fortinet technical documentation, to [email protected].

Customer service and technical support

For antivirus and attack definition updates, firmware updates, updated product
documentation, technical support information, and other resources, please visit
the Fortinet Technical Support web site at http://support.fortinet.com.
You can also register Fortinet products and service contracts from
http://support.fortinet.com and change your registration information at any time.
Technical support is available through email from any of the following addresses.
Choose the email address for your region:

[email protected] For customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Latin

America and South America.
[email protected] For customers in Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Malaysia, all other Asian countries, and
Australia.
[email protected] For customers in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia,
Mainland Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

For information about our priority support hotline (live support), see
http://support.fortinet.com.
When requesting technical support, please provide the following information:
• your name
• your company’s name and location
• your email address
• your telephone number
• your support contract number (if applicable)
• the product name and model number
• the product serial number (if applicable)
• the software or firmware version number
• a detailed description of the problem

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FortiGate best practices Overview

FortiGate best practices

Overview
The FortiGate Best Practices is a collection of guidelines to ensure the most
secure and reliable operation of FortiGate units in a customer environment. It is
updated periodically as new issues are identified.

General Considerations
1 For security purposes, NAT mode is preferred because all the internal or DMZ
networks can have secure private addresses. NAT mode policies use network
address translation to hide the addresses in a more secure zone from users in a
less secure zone.
2 Use virtual domains (VDOMs) to group related interfaces or VLAN subinterfaces.
Using VDOMs segments networks and creates added security by limiting the
scope of threats.
3 Use Transparent mode when a network is complex and does not allow for
changes in the IP addressing scheme.
4 On units running FortiOS v2.80 firmware prior to MR9, the option to automatically
adjust the system for Daylight Savings Time should be disabled. A software
anomaly in these versions of the firmware can cause instability. Time zones that
do not observe Daylight Savings Time are not affected.

Network hardware connectivity

1 Make sure that there is no “back door” access to the protected network. For
example, if there is a wireless access point, it must be appropriately protected
with password and encryption.
2 When you are running the FortiGate unit in Transparent mode, do not connect two
ports to the same VLAN on a switch or to the same hub. Some Layer 2 switches
become unstable when they detect the same MAC address originating on more
than one switch interface or from more than one VLAN.
3 If you operate multiple VLANs on your FortiGate unit in Transparent mode,
configure a separate virtual domain for each VLAN and do not configure any of
your VLANs in the root domain. ARP packets are not forwarded between virtual
domains. As a result, switches do not receive multiple ARP packets with the same
source MAC but different VLAN IDs, which can cause instability.

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System settings FortiGate best practices

Wireless connectivity
1 Always enable the strongest data security that your clients support. WPA security
is stronger than WEP. WEP 128-bit encryption is stronger than WEP 64-bit
encryption.
2 Do not enable broadcast of your wireless network ID (SSID). This makes it more
difficult for unauthorized users to discover your network.
3 If possible, reduce the transmitter power of your wireless access point so that the
signal is not available beyond the areas where it is needed.

System settings
Backup
1 Always back up the complete FortiGate unit configuration, including VPN
certificates and IPS signatures, before upgrading or downgrading the firmware.

Administration
1 Allow management access to the FortiGate unit from trusted networks only. Better
yet, allow connections for administration from specific IP addresses only using the
trusted hosts feature.
2 When you create additional administrators, use access profiles to limit their
access to the parts of the FortiGate unit configuration required for their roles.
3 Make sure that administrator passwords are at least six characters long and use
both alphabetic and numeric characters.
4 Disable all management access to the public interface of the FortiGate unit unless
for troubleshooting.
5 Do not change the administrator idle timeout from the default of five minutes.
6 Make sure that the system time and time zone are correct.
7 If your FortiGate unit has an LCD panel, restrict access to the control buttons and
LCD by requiring a PIN.
8 Use a different host name on each FortiGate unit when managing multiple
FortiGate units of the same model or when configuring an HA cluster.

Antivirus and IPS definitions updates

1 Configure the FortiGate unit to accept scheduled and push updates of antivirus
and attack definitions. To receive scheduled updates and push updates, you must
register the FortiGate unit on the Fortinet support web page.
2 To receive scheduled FortiGuard updates and to send alert email, the FortiGate
unit requires access to a valid DNS server.

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FortiGate best practices Firewall

Firewall
1 Be careful when disabling or deleting firewall settings. Changes that you make to
the firewall configuration using the GUI or CLI are saved and activated
immediately.
2 Arrange firewall policies in the policy list from more specific to more general. The
firewall searches for a matching policy starting at the top of the policy list. For
example, a very general policy matches all connection attempts. When you create
exceptions to a general policy, you must add them to the policy list above the
general policy.
3 If you remove all policies from the firewall there are no policy matches and all
connections are dropped.
4 You must add a valid user group to activate the authentication check box on the
firewall policy configuration page.
5 Users can authenticate with the firewall using HTTP, Telnet, or FTP. For users to
be able to authenticate, you must add an HTTP, Telnet, or FTP policy that is
configured for authentication.
6 The settings for a firewall policy should be as specific as possible. Do not use
0.0.0.0 as an address. Do not use Any as a service. Use subnets or specific IP
addresses for source and destination addresses and use individual services or
service groups.
7 Use a 32-bit subnet mask when creating a single host address, for example,
255.255.255.255.
8 Make sure to select the correct external interface when creating a new virtual IP
(VIP). The external interface should be set to the interface at which the FortiGate
unit receives connection requests from external networks.
9 Use the external IP of 0.0.0.0 when creating a VIP for a FortiGate unit where the
external interface IP address is dynamically assigned.
10 Do not enable NAT for inbound traffic unless it is required by an application. If, for
example, NAT is enabled for inbound SMTP traffic, the SMTP server might act as
an open relay.
11 Traffic shaping bandwidth management is in kilobytes. You must multiply by 8 to
calculate the kilobits.

Intrusion Protection System

1 Disabling unnecessary IPS attack signatures can improve system performance
and reduce the number of IPS log messages and alert emails. For example, if
your network does not contain IIS web servers, you can disable the IIS signatures.
2 Administrators can change the threshold value for some attack prevention
signatures such as SynFlood. Be careful to set thresholds appropriately to allow
legitimate traffic. For example, with regard to ICMP flood prevention, if the
administrator sets the ICMP threshold too low, normal ping traffic is blocked.

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Antivirus FortiGate best practices

Antivirus
1 There are 17 file types in the default antivirus file block list. Blocking all these file
types is enabled by default when you enable file blocking. Be careful to confirm
that you need all these file types blocked. For instance, .doc files are blocked by
default. If .doc files are sent and received as a normal part of your network traffic
you can disable the blocking of .doc files.
2 FortiGate units support the quarantine of infected files on an internal hard disk, if
the unit has one, or to a FortiLog unit.
3 You can configure the FortiGate unit to buffer 1 to 15 percent of available memory
to store oversized files and email. The FortiGate unit then blocks a file or email
that exceeds this limit instead of bypassing antivirus scanning and sending the file
or email directly to the server or receiver. The FortiGate unit sends a replacement
message for an oversized file or email attachment to the HTTP or email proxy
client.
4 Administrators can block oversized files by selecting block for Oversized
File/Email on the Content Profile tab.
5 Consider reducing the Oversize Threshold memory settings if the FortiGate unit
shows persistently high memory usage.

VPN
1 Create separate user groups for each PPTP or L2TP VPN, and for each IPSec
VPN with dialup clients.
2 For PPTP and L2TP VPNs, assign VIP addresses in the subnet that clients need
to access. This makes it appear as if the clients are directly connected to the
target network.
3 Configure protection profiles for PPTP, L2TP, or IPSec user access. Enable the
required profile in the firewall policy for each user group.
4 Firewall encryption policies for traffic that passes through an IPSec VPN tunnel
should always be placed above policies with similar source and destination
addresses.
5 Do not enable inbound NAT or outbound NAT for an IPSec policy unless a NAT
device exists between the VPN peers.
6 Use Microsoft Point-to-Point Encryption (MPPE) to secure communications on
PPTP VPNs.
7 For a multi-site IPSec VPN, use a hub-and-spoke configuration instead of a fully-
meshed or partially-meshed topology.

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FortiGate best practices High Availability

High Availability
1 Use active-passive HA for a more resilient session failover environment than
active-active HA. In active-passive HA, session failover occurs for all traffic.
Active-active HA does not provide session failover for virus scanning traffic.
2 Use Active-Active HA to distribute TCP and virus scanning among multiple cluster
units. An active-active cluster may have higher throughout than a standalone
FortiGate unit or than an active-passive cluster.
3 Isolate HA heartbeat interfaces from your user networks. Heartbeat packets
contain sensitive cluster configuration information and can consume a
considerable amount of network bandwidth. If the cluster consists of two FortiGate
units, connect the heartbeat interfaces directly using a crossover cable. For larger
clusters, connect the heartbeat interfaces to a separate switch that is not
connected to any network.
4 Configure and connect multiple heartbeat devices so that if one heartbeat device
fails, HA heartbeat traffic can continue to be transmitted using the backup
heartbeat device.
5 If heartbeat traffic cannot be isolated from user networks, enable heartbeat
message encryption to protect cluster information.
6 Wait until a cluster is up and running and all interfaces are connected before
enabling HA monitor priorities. A monitored interface can easily become
disconnected and cause failovers to occur before the cluster is fully configured
and tested.
7 Monitor interfaces connected to networks that process high priority traffic so that
the cluster maintains connections to these networks if a failure occurs.
8 Use SNMP, syslog, or email alerts to monitor a cluster for failover messages. Alert
messages about cluster failovers may help find and diagnose network problems
quickly and efficiently.

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High Availability FortiGate best practices

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