: Create the Data Center Best Practice File Blocking Profile
Focus
Focus

Create the Data Center Best Practice File Blocking Profile

Table of Contents
End-of-Life (EoL)

Create the Data Center Best Practice File Blocking Profile

Protect you data center from file types that you don’t use and that don’t belong there.
Use the predefined strict File Blocking profile to block files that are commonly included in malware attack campaigns and that have no real use case for upload/download. Blocking these files reduces the attack surface. The predefined strict profile blocks batch files, DLLs, Java class files, help files, Windows shortcuts (.lnk), BitTorrent files, .rar files, .tar files, encrypted-rar and encrypted-zip files, multi-level encoded files (files encoded or compressed up to four times), .hta files, and Windows Portable Executable (PE) files, which include .exe, .cpl, .dll, .ocx, .sys, .scr, .drv, .efi, .fon, and .pif files. The predefined strict profile alerts on all other file types for visibility into other file transfers so that you can determine if you need to make policy changes.
In some cases, the need to support critical applications may prevent you from blocking all of the strict profile’s file types. Follow the safe transition advice to help determine whether you need to make exceptions in different areas of the network. Review the data filtering logs (MonitorLogsData Filtering) to identify file types used in the data center and talk with business stakeholders about the file types their applications require. Based on this information, if necessary, clone the strict profile and modify it as needed to allow only the other file type(s) that you need to support the critical applications. You can also use the Direction setting to restrict files types from flowing in both directions or block files in one direction but not in the other direction.
The reason to attach the best practice File Blocking profile to all security policy rules that allow traffic is to help prevent attackers from delivering malicious files to the data center through file sharing applications and exploit kits, or by infecting users who access the data center, or on USB sticks.
  • Traffic from users to the data center—Attach the strict File Blocking profile to security policy rules for applications that don’t entail file sharing or collaboration to block dangerous file types that can deliver exploits and malware.
  • Intra data center traffic—Attach the strict File Blocking profile to security policy rules to prevent a compromised server from sharing a malicious file with other servers in the data center. This isolates the infection and prevents the spread of malware through the data center.
  • Traffic from the data center to the internet—Limit file transfers to the file types required by the application in use.
If you don’t block all Windows PE files, send all unknown files to WildFire for analysis. For user accounts, set the Action to continue to help prevent drive-by downloads where malicious web sites, emails, or pop-ups cause users to inadvertently download malicious files. Educate users that a continue prompt for a file transfer they didn’t knowingly initiate may mean they are subject to a malicious download.