Tag Archives: Juniper ScreenOS

Firewall IPv6 Capabilities: Cisco, Forti, Juniper, Palo

Since IPv6 gets more and more important, I am using it by default on all my test firewalls, which of course support IPv6. However, when comparing the different functions and administration capabilities, they vary significantly.

Here comes my short evaluation of the IPv6 functions on the following four firewalls: Cisco ASA, Fortinet FortiGate, Juniper SSG, and Palo Alto.

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Site-to-Site VPNs with Diffie-Hellman Groups 19 & 20 (Elliptic Curve)

Similar to my test with Diffie-Hellman group 14 shown here I tested a VPN connection with elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman groups 19 and 20. The considerations why to use these DH groups are listed in the just mentioned post – mainly because of the higher security level they offer. I tested the site-to-site IPsec connections with a Juniper ScreenOS firewall and a Fortinet FortiGate firewall. (Currently, neither Palo Alto Networks nor Cisco ASA support these groups.)

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MRTG/Routers2: Template Juniper SSG

Finally, this is how I am monitoring my Juniper ScreenOS SSG firewalls with MRTG/Routers2. Beside the interfaces (that can be built with cfgmaker) I am using my template in order to monitor the CPU & memory, count of sessions & VPNs, count of different kind of attacks, etc.

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VoIP von FRITZ!Box über Juniper SSG Firewall

Ich habe bei mir zu Hause die AVM FRITZ!Box als alleinigen Router abgelöst und durch eine Juniper SSG 5 Firewall ersetzt. Die FRITZ!Box ist trotzdem noch vorhanden und steht als IP-Client hinter der Firewall, primär um die Internettelefonie zu 1&1 bereitzustellen. Leider hat es etwas gedauert, bis ich die richtigen Einstellungen herausgefunden hatte, damit die Telefonie auch wirklich in beide Richtungen funktionierte.

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OSPF for IPv4 Test Lab: Cisco Router & ASA, Juniper SSG & Palo Alto

I tested OSPF for IPv4 in my lab: I configured OSPF inside a single broadcast domain with five devices: 2x Cisco Router, Cisco ASA, Juniper SSG, and Palo Alto PA. It works perfectly though these are a few different vendors.

I will show my lab and will list all the configuration commands/screenshots I used on the devices. I won’t go into detail but maybe these listings help for a basic understanding of the OSPF processes on these devices.

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Juniper ScreenOS DHCP Relay: “Use Interface as Source IP for VPN”

I had strange looking DHCP packets in my network as I tested around with DHCP relays on the Juniper SSG firewall. Some packets were blocked and I didn’t know why. After some troubleshooting, it was clear that the checkmark “Use xy Zone Interface as Source IP for VPN” has a big impact in all environments even without the usage of a VPN!

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Juniper ScreenOS NSRP: Configuration via GUI, NSM, and CLI

Short step-by-step screenshot guide for an initial configuration of NSRP on two Juniper ScreenOS firewalls, such as the SSGs. One screenshot pack for the https GUI and another one for the Network and Security Manager (NSM) since I am always searching for the positions of the commands on it. Finally, I am listing the appropriate CLI commands.

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Juniper ScreenOS Firewall autocorrects Route Entries

I was a bit confused today as I saw a “wrong” route entry in the config of an SSG firewall. The route had not the correct “network/netmask” notation but a “host-address/netmask-of-the-network” notation. However, the SSG autocorrected this false route entry to the correct subnet id in its routing table.

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IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Juniper ScreenOS <-> Cisco Router w/ VTI

And finally: A route-based VPN between a Juniper ScreenOS SSG firewall and a Cisco router with a virtual tunnel interface (VTI). Both sides with tunnel interfaces and IPv4 addresses. Both sides with a real routing entry in the routing table. Great. ;)

(The VPN between those two parties without a tunnel interface on the Cisco router is documented here. However, use the route-based VPN where you can. It is easier and more flexible. Routing decisions based on the routing table. This is how it should be.)

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Juniper NSM: Exclamation Mark due to Attack Database Version Mismatch

Short and very specific notice: How to remove the exclamation marks on the Juniper NSM device list for firewalls that have an outdated attack database version. This happens if the license for the deep inspection expires and the device still has an old sigpack version. Since the NSM later on has newer ones, it marks the firewall with a yellow symbol. To have a consistent “green” view of all firewalls, the following steps can be done to remove the exclamation mark.

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IPsec Site-to-Site VPN Juniper ScreenOS <-> Cisco Router

Similar to all my other site-to-site VPN articles, here are the configurations for a VPN tunnel between a Juniper ScreenOS SSG firewall and a Cisco IOS router. Due to the VPN Monitor of the SSG firewall, the tunnel is established directly after the configuration and stays active all the time without the need of “real” traffic.

I am using the policy-based VPN solution on the Cisco router and not the virtual tunnel interface (VTI) approach. That is: No route is needed on the router while the Proxy IDs must be set on the Juniper firewall. (However, I also documented the route-based VPN solution between a ScreenOS firewall and a Cisco router here.)

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Site-to-Site VPNs with Diffie-Hellman Group 14

When talking about VPNs it is almost always clear that they are encrypted. However, it is not so clear on which security level a VPN is established. Since the Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) values of “DH group 5” etc. do not clearly specify the “bits of security”, it is a misleading assumption that the security is 256 bits due to the symmetric AES-256 cipher. It is not! Diffie-Hellman group 5 has only about 89 bits of security…

Therefore, common firewalls implement DH group 14 which has a least a security level of approximately 103 bits. I tested such a site-to-site VPN tunnel between a Palo Alto and a Juniper ScreenOS firewall which worked without any problems.

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Policy-Based Routing (PBR) on a Juniper ScreenOS Firewall

Here comes an example on how to configure policy-based routing (PBR) on a Juniper ScreenOS firewall. The requirement at the customers site was to forward all http and https connections through a cheap but fast DSL Internet connection while the business relevant applications (mail, VoIP, ftp, …) should rely on the reliable ISP connection with static IPv4 addresses. I am showing the five relevant menus to configure PBR on the ScreenOS GUI.

[UPDATE] I later on wrote an article with policy-based routing with two different virtual routers. See it here.[/UPDATE]

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