Misconfiguration in Firewalls and Network Access Controls: Literature Review

Michael Alicea,Izzat Alsmadi

doi:10.3390/fi13110283

Abstract

Firewalls and network access controls play important roles in security control and protection. Those firewalls may create an incorrect sense or state of protection if they are improperly configured. One of the major configuration problems in firewalls is related to misconfiguration in the access control roles added to the firewall that will control network traffic. In this paper, we evaluated recent research trends and open challenges related to firewalls and access controls in general and misconfiguration problems in particular. With the recent advances in next-generation (NG) firewalls, firewall roles can be auto-generated based on networks and threats. Nonetheless, and due to the large number of roles in any medium to large networks, roles’ misconfiguration may occur for several reasons and will impact the performance of the firewall and overall network and protection efficiency.

Highlights

Network access control is an important topic for virtually every organization today
Network access controls are implemented through devices on the network such as a firewall or an Intrusion Detection/Prevention System (IDS/IPS)
What we focus on is the rule set to these network access control devices, the firewall and the IDS/IPS

Summary

Introduction

It is difficult to find a business that does not in some way utilize computers and other internet-connected devices for day-to-day operations. Both organizations and households keep sensitive information stored on machines in their networks. The purpose of network access controls is to keep those machines and the data stored within them safe. Network access controls are implemented through devices on the network such as a firewall or an Intrusion Detection/Prevention System (IDS/IPS). These devices are often the first line of defense against malicious actors trying to gain access to information or resources in a network. We are not so much interested in flaws in the devices code that the manufacturer has to patch

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Conclusion