A firewall is often the first line of defence for many organisations. It’s therefore vital that your network has a firewall configuration review to ensure an attacker will be unable to access areas of the network that do not require external access, or should be locked down within the core of a system.
Making use of firewall configuration review services will help ensure a company’s internal and external infrastructure is free from common security vulnerabilities, which if exploited by cybercriminals would negatively impact companies both from a financial and reputational perspective.
Firewall Configuration Review
What is a firewall penetration test?
Firewall penetration testing (also termed ‘firewall configuration review’) is a comprehensive assessment of a firewall’s rulesets. A penetration tester will use a variation of manual and automated techniques to analyse a firewall’s ingress and egress rules, the assessment focuses on highlighting potential security vulnerabilities from security best practices.
How are firewalls breached?
Since the 600% global increase of cybercrime over the pandemic, firewalls are the bare minimum when it comes to cybersecurity. Many companies pay handsomely for their firewalls, designed by big names who are well-trusted in cybersecurity. However, firewalls can and do fail, which is why firewall penetration testing is so important.
The main ways firewalls are breached are due to misconfigurations, technical issues in the hardware and/or software, malicious external attacks, and a lack of firewall policy.
Why should you perform a firewall review?
Aside from mandatory reasons, such as ISO 27001, numerous security justifications exist for having a firewall rule assessment.
One of the main reasons is that a misconfigured firewall could expose a network to external threats, thus heightening the possibility of a vulnerability or misconfiguration being exploited. This can lead to data breaches, stolen/ransomed IPs, and data loss.
Plus, having an awareness of the points where traffic enters and exits your systems enables you to focus on the network architecture around those points, and highlight any weak spots where an attacker might be able to gain access.
For example, a company may leave NetBios or SMB ports exposed externally, which, if incorrectly configured, could allow an easy avenue for an attacker to access all of a company’s internal network.
How is a firewall penetration test performed?
First, the client will provide access to their firewall rulesets, which can be manually reviewed by the security consultant. The consultant will look for unnecessarily exposed ports, overly permissive rules and other similar common configuration mistakes.
How long does it take to perform a firewall configuration review?
There are numerous factors that influence the scoping of a firewall penetration test, but the main determining factors come down to the number of rules within the firewall system, and the number of firewall devices within the organisation.
How much is a firewall configuration review?
A firewall configuration review cost is calculated by the number of days a penetration tester will take to fulfil the agreed scope. The number of days can be determined by filling out our penetration testing scoping form for a free quote, or by messaging us through our contact form to arrange a scoping call with one of our senior penetration testers.
Here at Aardwolf Security, our team of CREST-accredited penetration testers are trusted experts in the field of penetration testing, with decades of experience performing web application security testing and website security testing. We offer a number of services to help businesses improve their cybersecurity posture and defend their assets against cyber criminals. Get in touch today to find out how we can help empower your business.