Ganesh Kumar J
Starting with PAN-OS 6.0, DNS sinkhole is an action that can be enabled in Anti-Spyware profiles. A DNS sinkhole can be used to identify infected hosts on a protected network using DNS traffic in environments where the firewall can see the DNS query to a malicious URL.
The DNS sinkhole enables the Palo Alto Networks device to forge a response to a DNS query for a known malicious domain/URL and causes the malicious domain name to resolve to a definable IP address (fake IP) that is given to the client. If the client attempts to access the fake IP address and there is a security rule in place that blocks traffic to this IP, the information is recorded in the logs.
Sample Flow
We need to keep the following in mind before assigning an IP address to DNS sinkhole configuration.
When choosing a “fake IP”, make sure that the IP address is a fictitious IP address that does not exist anywhere inside the network. DNS and HTTP traffic must pass through the Palo Alto Networks firewall for the malicious URL to be detected and for the access to the fake IP to be stopped. If the fake IP is routed to a different location, and not through the firewall, this will not work properly.
Steps:
- Make sure the latest Antivirus updates are installed on the Palo Alto Networks device. From the WebUI, go to Device > Dynamic Updates on the left. Click “Check Now” in the lower left, and make sure that the Anti-Virus updates are current. If they are not, please do that before proceeding. The Automatic Updates can be configured if they are not setup.
Fig1.1
Note: A paid Threat Prevention subscription for the DNS sinkhole is required to function properly.
- Configure the DNS Sinkhole Protection inside an Anti-Spyware profile. Click on the Objects > Anti-Spyware under Security Profiles on the left.
Use either an existing profile or create a new profile. In the example below the “alert-all” is being used:
Fig1.2:
Click the name of the profile – alert-all, click on the DNS Signatures tab.
Fig1.3:
Change the “Action on DNS queries” to ‘sinkhole’ if it is not already set to sinkhole.
Click on the Sinkhole IPv4 field, either select the default Palo Alto Networks Sinkhole IP (72.5.65.111) or a different IP of your choosing. If you opt to use your own IP, ensure the IP is not used inside your network and preferably not routable over the internet (RFC1918).
Click on Sinkhole IPv6 and enter a fake IPv6 IP. Even if IPv6 is not used, something still needs to be entered. The example shows ::1. Click OK.
Note: If nothing is entered for the Sinkhole IPv6 field, OK will remain grayed out.
- Apply the Anti-Spyware profile on the security policy that allows DNS traffic from the internal network (or internal DNS server) to the internet. Click on Policies> Security on the left side. Inside the rules, locate the rule that allows DNS traffic outbound, click on the name, go to the Actions tab, and make sure that the proper Anti-Spyware profile is selected. Click OK..
Fig1.4:
- The last thing needed is to have a security rule that will block all web-browsing and SSL access to the fake IP 72.5.65.111 and also :1 if using IPv6. This will ensure to deny traffic to the fake IP from any infected machines.
Fig1.5:
- Commit the configuration
Fig1.6:
(To be continued…)
References:
- https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000ClGECA0
- https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000Clk2
- https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/9-1/pan-os-admin/threat-prevention/use-dns-queries-to-identify-infected-hosts-on-the-network/dns-sinkholing
About the Author –
Ganesh is currently managing Network, Security and engineering team for a large US based customer. He has been associated with the Network & Security domain for more than 15 years.