NetSec-Pro Palo Alto Networks Network Security Professional Questions and Answers

The best practice for Prisma Access data plane upgrades involvesbacking up configurations, scheduling upgrades during off-peak hours, and using a phased approachto minimize disruption and maintain continuity. As per the Palo Alto Networks documentation:

“To minimize disruptions, it is recommended to perform Prisma Access upgrades during non-business hours and in a phased manner, starting with less critical sites to validate the process before moving to critical locations. Backup configurations and validate the system’s readiness to avoid data loss and maintain service continuity.”

(Source: Prisma Access Best Practices)

Advanced WildFiresupports direct integrations into third-party security tools through theWildFire API, enabling automated threat intelligence sharing and real-time verdict dissemination.

“WildFire exposes a RESTful API that third-party applications can leverage to integrate WildFire’s analysis results and threat intelligence seamlessly into their own security workflows.”

(Source: WildFire API Guide)

The API provides:

Verdict retrieval

Sample submission

Report retrieval

“Use the WildFire API to submit samples, retrieve verdicts, and obtain detailed analysis reports for integration with your existing security infrastructure.”

(Source: WildFire API Use Cases)

Enterprise DLPuses cloud analysis to inspect and classify sensitive data innon-file-based formats(e.g., in-line data streams, SaaS communications).

“Enterprise DLP inspects data in non-file-based traffic flows, forwarding suspicious data patterns to the cloud for classification and verdicts.”

(Source: Enterprise DLP Overview)

The other services focus on file-based scanning (WildFire), URL access control (Advanced URL Filtering), or inline SaaS application controls (SaaS Security Inline).

Negated source addressesexclude traffic from the specified region. To avoid accidental connectivity loss for trafficfrom that region, create a separate Security policy toexplicitly permit it.

“When you use a negated region in a Security policy rule, ensure to create an additional Security policy to permit traffic from the excluded (negated) region to avoid unintentional drops.”

(Source: Prisma Access Policy Best Practices)

This ensuresexplicit inclusivity for the excluded region, maintaining reliable connectivity.

To fully manage a firewall from Strata Cloud Manager (SCM), it’s essential to establish trust and ensure reliable connectivity:

Configure NTP and DNS servers

The firewall must have accurate time (NTP) and name resolution (DNS) to securely communicate with SCM and related cloud services.

“To ensure successful management, configure the firewall’s NTP and DNS settings to synchronize time and resolve domain names such as stratacloudmanager.paloaltonetworks.com.”

(Source: SCM Onboarding Requirements)

Install a device certificate

A device certificate authenticates the firewall’s identity when connecting to SCM.

“The device certificate authenticates the firewall to Palo Alto Networks cloud services, including SCM. It’s a fundamental requirement to establish secure connectivity.”

(Source: Device Certificates)

These steps ensuretrust, secure communication, and successful onboarding into SCM.

Device grouping rulesin SCM allow administrators toorganize firewalls into logical groupsand collectively manage updates or configuration pushes across those groups.

“SCM allows you to create device group rules, enabling streamlined management and collective updates of multiple NGFW instances.”

(Source: SCM Device Grouping)

This approach ensures consistency in software versions and configuration baselines across large deployments.

Blocking non-compliant SSH versionsandfailing certificate validationsare fundamental security measures:

Block sessions when certificate validation fails

“The SSH Proxy profile should block sessions that fail certificate validation to ensure that only trusted hosts are allowed.”

(Source: SSH Proxy Decryption Best Practices)

Block connections using non-compliant SSH versions

Older SSH versions may have vulnerabilities or lack modern encryption algorithms.

“To enforce stronger security, block SSH sessions that use older or deprecated versions of the SSH protocol that do not comply with your security posture.”

(Source: SSH Decryption and Best Practices)

Together, these measuresminimize the risk of MITM attacksand secure SSH traffic.

Threat logs for Prisma Access mobile users can be reviewed in bothStrata Cloud Manager (SCM)andStrata Logging Service. Prisma Cloud and service connection firewalls are not directly tied to mobile user traffic logs.

“Prisma Access logs are available in the Strata Cloud Manager and can also be sent to the Strata Logging Service for detailed analysis and threat visibility.”

(Source: Prisma Access Administration Guide)

A centralized certificate automation approach reduces management overhead and security risks by standardizing processes, automating renewals, and continuously monitoring the certificate lifecycle.

“Implementing a centralized certificate management approach with automation and continuous monitoring ensures optimal security while reducing operational complexity in hybrid environments.”

(Source: Best Practices for Certificate Management)

Adecryption policyallows the firewall to inspect encrypted traffic and apply security controls toPost-quantum Cryptography (PQC)usage, as PQC algorithms are typically implemented within encrypted sessions.

“Decryption policies enable the firewall to see and control encrypted traffic. This visibility and control extend to new cryptographic algorithms, including PQC, to ensure that security measures are applied consistently.”

(Source: Palo Alto Networks Decryption Overview)

By decrypting sessions, you ensure that even PQC traffic can be inspected, logged, and subject to security profiles for visibility and policy enforcement.

To preventSYN flood attacks, the NGFW usesSYN cookiesto validate legitimate session establishment.

“SYN cookies allow the firewall to verify the legitimacy of new session requests without allocating resources until the handshake is completed. This prevents SYN flood attacks from exhausting system resources.”

(Source: Flood Protection Best Practices)

SYN cookies mitigate resource exhaustion by ensuring only legitimate connections are established.

Virtual systems providelogical separationin a single physical firewall, allowing different customers (or tenants) to have isolatedcontrolandsecurity policies.

“Virtual systems enable service providers to offer logically separated, independent environments on a single firewall. Each virtual system can have its own security policies, interfaces, and administrators.”

(Source: Virtual Systems)

This ensures secure, tenant-specific segmentation within multi-tenant environments.

Dynamic path selectionis the foundation of SD-WAN, leveraging real-time performance data to dynamically route traffic over the best available path.

“Dynamic path selection continuously monitors performance metrics (loss, latency, jitter) and makes real-time routing decisions to ensure application SLAs are met across the WAN.”

(Source: Prisma SD-WAN Dynamic Path Selection)

Establishing dynamic path selection first ensures the rest of the SD-WAN optimizations (e.g., failover, QoS) work effectively.

To create custom Prisma Access reports withinSCM, you first configure adashboardthat aggregates the relevant logs and analytics. This allows you to define the data points you want to include.

“Dashboards in SCM can be customized to include Prisma Access data sources, enabling you to create and generate reports that meet specific business and security requirements.”

(Source: SCM Dashboards and Reporting)

Once configured, you can export the dashboard as acustom report.

“Use the dashboard’s data visualization to create custom reports for Prisma Access, which can be exported as PDFs for distribution.”

(Source: SCM Report Customization)

CASB integration should focus on comprehensive data protection, which includesencryption for data-at-rest and in transit, frequentkey updates, and usingstrong encryption algorithmsto ensure confidentiality and data integrity.

“CASB solutions should enforce encryption for data-at-rest and in transit, implement key rotation policies, and leverage robust encryption algorithms to protect sensitive SaaS application data.”

(Source: CASB Deployment Best Practices)