Decryption Overview
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Decryption Overview

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Decryption Overview

The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Secure Shell (SSH) encryption protocols secure traffic between two entities, such as a web server and a client. SSL and SSH encapsulate traffic, encrypting data so that it is meaningless to entities other than the client and server with the certificates to affirm trust between the devices and the keys to decode the data. Decrypt SSL and SSH traffic to:
  • Prevent malware concealed as encrypted traffic from being introduced into your network. For example, an attacker compromises a website that uses SSL encryption. Employees visit that website and unknowingly download an exploit or malware. The malware then uses the infected employee endpoint to move laterally through the network and compromise other systems.
  • Prevent sensitive information from moving outside the network.
  • Ensure the appropriate applications are running on a secure network.
  • Selectively decrypt traffic; for example, create a Decryption policy and profile to exclude traffic for financial or healthcare sites from decryption.
Palo Alto Networks firewall decryption is policy-based, and can decrypt, inspect, and control inbound and outbound SSL and SSH connections. A Decryption policy enables you to specify traffic to decrypt by destination, source, service, or URL category, and to block, restrict, or forward the specified traffic according to the security settings in the associated Decryption profile. A Decryption profile controls SSL protocols, certificate verification, and failure checks to prevent traffic that uses weak algorithms or unsupported modes from accessing the network. The firewall uses certificates and keys to decrypt traffic to plaintext, and then enforces App-ID and security settings on the plaintext traffic, including Decryption, Antivirus, Vulnerability, Anti-Spyware, URL Filtering, WildFire, and File-Blocking profiles. After decrypting and inspecting traffic, the firewall re-encrypts the plaintext traffic as it exits the firewall to ensure privacy and security.
The firewall provides three types of Decryption policy rules: SSL Forward Proxy to control outbound SSL traffic, SSL Inbound Inspection to control inbound SSL traffic, and SSH Proxy to control tunneled SSH traffic. You can attach a Decryption profile to a policy rule to apply granular access settings to traffic, such as checks for server certificates, unsupported modes, and failures.
SSL decryption (both forward proxy and inbound inspection) requires certificates to establish the firewall as a trusted third party, and to establish trust between a client and a server to secure an SSL/TLS connection. You can also use certificates when excluding servers from SSL decryption for technical reasons (the site breaks decryption for reasons such as certificate pinning, unsupported ciphers, or mutual authentication). SSH decryption does not require certificates.
Use the Decryption Best Practices Checklist to plan, implement, and maintain your decryption deployment.
You can integrate a hardware security module (HSM) with a firewall to enable enhanced security for the private keys used in SSL forward proxy and SSL inbound inspection decryption. To learn more about storing and generating keys using an HSM and integrating an HSM with your firewall, see Secure Keys with a Hardware Security Module.
You can also use Decryption Mirroring to forward decrypted traffic as plaintext to a third party solution for additional analysis and archiving.
If you enable Decryption mirroring, be aware of local laws and regulations about what traffic you can mirror and where and how you can store the traffic, because all mirrored traffic, including sensitive information, is forwarded in cleartext.