Paloalto Networks PCNSE Dumps

To create Security rules in Panorama that reference specific users and groups from Active Directory (AD), the Panorama-managed firewalls need access to user-to-group mapping information. This is achieved through Group Mapping, which relies on User-ID functionality. In a Panorama-managed environment, a "master device" must be designated within the device group to provide this Group Mapping data. The master device is a firewall that retrieves user and group information from AD (via LDAP or User-ID agent) and shares it with other firewalls in the device group. This ensures consistent user-based policies across all devices in the group.

Option B (User-ID Redistribution) is incorrect because redistribution is used to share IP-to-user mappings, not group mappings, and is typically configured between firewalls or via Panorama’s User-ID redistribution feature, not a requirement for selecting users/groups in rules. Option C (User-ID Certificate profile) is unrelated, as it pertains to certificate-based authentication, not AD group mapping. Official documentation specifies that a master device with Group Mapping configured is essential for this scenario.

The timer that determines the frequency between packets sent to verify that the HA functionality on the other HA firewall is operational is the Hello Interval. The Hello Interval is the interval in milliseconds between hello packets that are sent to check the HA status of the peer firewall. The default value for the Hello Interval is 8000 ms for all platforms, and the range is 8000-60000 ms. If the firewall does not receive a hello packet from its peer within the specified interval, it will declare the peer as failed and initiate a failover12. References: HA Timers, Layer 3 High Availability with Optimal Failover Times Best Practices

For the transparent proxy method, the request contains the destination IP address of the web server and the proxy transparently intercepts the client request (either by being in-line or by traffic steering). There is no client configuration and Panorama is optional. Transparent proxy requires a loopback interface, User-ID configuration in the proxy zone, and specific Destination NAT (DNAT) rules. Transparent proxy does not support X-Authenticated Users (XAU) or Web Cache Communications Protocol (WCCP).

The engineer should review the legal compliance regulations and acceptable usage policies with their leadership before implementing SSL Forward Proxy decryption for their organization. SSL Forward Proxy decryption allows the firewall to decrypt and inspect the traffic from internal users to external servers. This can raise privacy and legal concerns for the users and the organization. Therefore, the engineer should ensure that the leadership is aware of the implications and benefits of SSL Forward Proxy decryption and that they have a clear policy for informing and obtaining consent from the users. Option A is incorrect because browser-supported cipher documentation is not relevant for SSL Forward Proxy decryption. The firewall uses its own cipher suite to negotiate encryption with the external server, regardless of the browser settings. Option B is incorrect because cipher documentation supported by the endpoint operating system is not relevant for SSL Forward Proxy decryption. The firewall uses its own cipher suite to negotiate encryption with the external server, regardless of the endpoint operating system. Option C is incorrect because URL risk-based category distinctions are not relevant for SSL Forward Proxy decryption. The firewall can decrypt and inspect traffic based on any URL category, not just risk-based ones.

"Understand local laws and regulations about the traffic you can legally decrypt and user notification requirements."

The Log Forwarding feature in Palo Alto Networks firewalls allows administrators to perform automated actions based on logs. One of the actions that can be configured is to tag an IP address, which can then be used in conjunction with Dynamic Address Groups (DAG) to enforce security policies. By tagging the destination IP addresses of unwanted traffic, an administrator can dynamically update policies to block traffic to those destinations.

This method is particularly useful for responding quickly to detected threats by creating and enforcing a policy that blocks traffic to tagged destinations without the need for manual intervention or policy changes.

For a detailed explanation, the Palo Alto Networks' "PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide" provides information on log forwarding and automated actions.

For HIP match logs to be visible on the data center firewall, the following conditions must be met:

HIP profiles added to security rules: HIP profiles must be applied to security rules on the data center firewall to enforce access restrictions based on the received HIP reports. If the HIP profiles are not associated with the security rules, the firewall will not evaluate traffic against these profiles, and consequently, no HIP match logs will be generated.

User-ID enabled on the incoming zone: User-ID must be enabled on the zone where the users are located in the data center firewall. The User-ID feature is responsible for mapping IP addresses to user names, which is critical for applying policies based on user identity and, by extension, for HIP-based policy enforcement.

The other options (A and D) are related to logging and log forwarding but would not directly impact the generation or visibility of HIP match logs on the data center firewall itself.

>Threat logs, create a log forwarding profile to define how you want the firewall or Panorama to handle logs. >Configure an HTTP server profile to forward logs to a remote User-ID agent. > Select the log forwarding profile you created then select this server profile as the HTTP server profile

User-ID is a feature that allows the firewall to identify and classify users and groups on the network based on their usernames, IP addresses, and other attributes1. User-ID information can be collected from various sources, such as:

A: Windows User-ID agent: A software agent that runs on a Windows server and collects user information from Active Directory domain controllers, Exchange servers, or eDirectory servers2. The agent then sends the user information to the firewall or Panorama for user mapping2.

B: GlobalProtect: A software agent that runs on the endpoints and provides secure VPN access to the network3. GlobalProtect also collects user information from the endpoints and sends it to the firewall or Panorama for user mapping4.

C: XMLAPI: An application programming interface that allows external systems or scripts to send user information to the firewall or Panorama in XML format. The XMLAPI can be used to integrate with third-party systems, such as identity providers, captive portals, or custom applications.

Advanced WildFire analyzes both the webpage linked by the URL and any files (like PE files) that are downloaded as a result of clicking that link. This includes checking the linked webpage for malicious content and sending any downloaded files for further analysis to determine their behavior and potential malicious intent.

The PCNSA Study Guide outlines that WildFire inspects and analyzes both content downloaded and webpages involved when integrated into the organization's security profile​. This dual-layered approach ensures comprehensive protection against threats from both the webpage and its payloads.

Step-by-Step Explanation

Link Clicked and File Download Triggered:

When the user clicks the link, their action initiates the download of a file, in this case, a Portable Executable (PE) file.

URL Inspection by WildFire:

The URL is immediately inspected for potential threats. This involves analyzing the webpage associated with the link to detect:

Known malicious indicators.

Suspicious elements like embedded scripts, links, or calls to external resources.

Forwarding the PE File for Analysis:

The PE file downloaded as a result of clicking the link is sent to the WildFire cloud or on-premises appliance for detailed behavior-based analysis.

Dynamic and Static Analysis:

Static Analysis: WildFire examines the PE file's attributes without executing it, looking for:

Suspicious code patterns.

Known malicious signatures.

Anomalous PE header details (e.g., timestamp irregularities, unexpected sections).

Dynamic Analysis: The file is executed in a controlled virtual environment to observe:

Behavioral anomalies, like privilege escalation attempts.

Network communication, such as connections to Command and Control (C2) servers.

File system modifications or registry changes indicative of malicious intent.

Threat Verdict:

Based on its findings, WildFire classifies the URL and PE file into one of the following categories:

Benign.

Grayware.

Malware.

Phishing.

Automated Response:

If either the webpage or the PE file is deemed malicious, the firewall takes predefined actions:

Blocking access to the webpage.

Quarantining or blocking the downloaded file.

Generating a detailed alert or log entry for administrators.

Signature Update:

WildFire automatically creates a signature for the detected threat and distributes it globally. This ensures that other systems in the WildFire network are protected against the same threat.

Advanced WildFire Configuration and Behavior

Forwarding File Types:

The WildFire analysis profile must be configured to forward relevant file types. In this case:

PE files are commonly forwarded by default since they are a known vector for malware.

Administrators can define custom forwarding rules based on file type and traffic.

Integration with the Security Profile:

WildFire integrates with other security profiles (e.g., Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, URL Filtering).

URL Filtering ensures that the link itself is categorized and blocked if malicious.

WildFire's output informs and updates the threat prevention database dynamically.

Why the Answer is B?

WildFire performs dual analysis:

The linked webpage is checked for malicious scripts or phishing attempts.

The PE file downloaded is analyzed for malware through both static and dynamic methods.

This layered analysis ensures robust protection against modern threats, which often combine malicious webpages with harmful payloads.

Document References:

PCNSA Study Guide: Domain 4, Section 4.1.5 ("WildFire Analysis") explains the WildFire analysis process in detail, emphasizing its role in inspecting files and URLs for malicious behavior​.

Palo Alto Networks WildFire Admin Guide:

This guide details file forwarding configurations, supported file types, and the global signature distribution process.

PAN-OS Admin Guide:

Sections on Security Profiles and URL Filtering elaborate on how WildFire integrates with other threat prevention mechanisms.

WildFire logs showing a "malicious" verdict with an "allow" action indicate that the initial traffic wasn’t blocked in real-time, likely because the Antivirus profile isn’t configured to act immediately on WildFire verdicts. By default, WildFire submits files for analysis, and signatures may take up to 24 hours to propagate globally unless real-time blocking is enabled. Configuring the Antivirus security profile (Option B) to "block" on malicious WildFire verdicts ensures that threats are blocked within minutes once the verdict is returned (typically 5-15 minutes), leveraging WildFire’s real-time signature updates.

Option A (WildFire analysis profile) defines what files are sent to WildFire but doesn’t control blocking actions. Option C (File Blocking profile) manages file type blocking, not threat verdicts. Option D (file size limits) affects submission eligibility, not blocking behavior. The Antivirus profile is the key to real-time WildFire enforcement, as per Palo Alto Networks documentation.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Virtual Machine (VM) environments, such as Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop or VMWare Horizon and Vcenter, support access natively through HTML5. You can RDP, VNC, or SSH to these machines through Clientless VPN without requiring additional third-party middleware. In environments that do not include native support for HTML5 or other web application technologies supported by Clientless VPN, you can use third-party vendors, such as Thinfinity, to RDP through Clientless VPN. Reference:

A device group is a logical grouping of firewalls that share the same security policy rules. A device group can contain multiple vsys and firewalls, including multi-vsys firewalls. A multi-vsys firewall can have each vsys in a different device group, depending on the desired security policy for each vsys. This allows for granular control and flexibility in managing multi-vsys firewalls with Panorama1. References: Device Group Push to a Multi-VSYS Firewall, Configure Virtual Systems, PCNSE Study Guide (page 50)

If the DNS response matches the Original Destination Address in the rule, translate the DNS response using the same translation the rule uses. For example, if the rule translates IP address 1.1.1.10 to 192.168.1.10, the firewall rewrites a DNS response of 1.1.1.10 to 192.168.1.10.

Palo Alto firewalls can gather User-ID mappings from proxies via Syslog (Option B), parsing log messages with user-IP data, and XFF Headers (Option D), extracting user info from HTTP headers (X-Forwarded-For) if the proxy supports it.

Option A (Client Probing) queries clients, not proxies. Option C (Server Monitoring) targets servers like AD, not proxies. Documentation lists these methods for proxy integration.

When a local configuration override occurs on a firewall managed by Panorama, the administrator can enforce Panorama’s centralized management by pushing the template configuration with the "Force Template Values" option. This option overwrites any local changes on the firewall, ensuring that the Panorama-defined configuration (e.g., interface settings) takes precedence and prevents further overrides unless explicitly allowed.

Option A (device-group commit push) applies to policies and objects, not templates. Option C (commit force from CLI) reinforces local changes, not Panorama’s control. Option D (reload running config) is disruptive and doesn’t enforce Panorama’s template. The "Force Template Values" option is the documented method for this use case.

A:

D:

D is the correct answer because the threat log type would provide information about traffic blocked by a Zone Protection profile. This is because Zone Protection profiles are used to protect the network from attacks, including common flood, reconnaissance attacks, and other packet-based attacks1. These attacks are classified as threats by the firewall and are logged in the threat log2. The threat log displays information such as the source and destination IP addresses, ports, zones, applications, threat types, actions, and severity of the threats2.

Verified References:

1: Zone protection profiles - Palo Alto Networks Knowledge Base

2: Threat Log Fields - Palo Alto Networks

For explicit Web Proxy deployment on PAN-OS, Palo Alto Networks currently supports Kerberos and SAML as authentication methods. RADIUS is not supported for explicit or transparent Web Proxy authentication on Palo Alto Networks appliances, which means that if the client is currently using RADIUS, they will need to configure an alternate supported authentication method. LDAP or TACACS+ authentication is not directly supported for Web Proxy authentication in PAN-OS.

For more information on supported Web Proxy authentication methods, please refer to the latest Palo Alto Networks "PAN-OS® Web Interface Reference Guide".

The additional options of Browser and Satellite enable you to specify the authentication profile to use for specific scenarios. Select Browser to specify the authentication profile to use to authenticate a user accessing the portal from a web browser with the intent of downloading the GlobalProtect agent (Windows and Mac). Select Satellite to specify the authentication profile to use to authenticate the satellite.

Reference

Traffic view in the Monitor tab of the firewall GUI can display the information about the NAT policy that is in use for a traffic flow, if the Source or Destination NAT columns are included and reviewed in the detailed log view1. The Source NAT column shows the translated source IP address and port, and the Destination NAT column shows the translated destination IP address and port2. These columns can help the administrator identify which NAT policy is applied to the traffic flow based on the pre-NAT and post-NAT addresses and ports.

Palo Alto NetworksPanorama 7.0 Administrator’s Guide •77Manage FirewallsManage Device GroupsManage Device GroupsAdd a Device GroupCreate a Device Group HierarchyCreate Objects for Use in Shared or Device Group PolicyRevert to Inherited Object ValuesManage Unused Shared ObjectsManage Precedence of Inherited ObjectsMove or Clone a Policy Rule or Object to a Different Device GroupSelect a URL Filtering Vendor on PanoramaPush a Policy Rule to a Subset of FirewallsManage the Rule HierarchyAdd a Device GroupAfter adding firewalls (see Add a Firewall as a Managed Device), you can group them into Device Groups (up to 256), as follows. Be sure to assign both firewalls in an active-passive high availability (HA) configuration to the same device group so that Panorama will push the same policy rules and objects to those firewalls. #############PAN-OS doesn’t synchronize pushed rules across HA peers.######### To manage rules and objects at different administrative levels in your organization, Create a Device Group Hierarchy.

ansition-a-firewall-to-panorama-management/migrate-a-firewall-ha-pair-to-panorama-management

When troubleshooting Palo Alto Networks services, such as dynamic updates, verifying the status of service routes is critical. Service routes determine how the firewall communicates with external services (e.g., Palo Alto Networks update servers, WildFire, DNS, etc.) from the Management Plane or data plane interfaces.

Why "debug dataplane internal vif route 250" is Correct

Purpose of the Command:

This command allows administrators to view the service routes configured on the firewall and verify if they are installed correctly and actively working.

The number 250 specifically refers to service routes in the Management Plane.

Output:

The command displays detailed information about service routes, including routing decisions, source interfaces, and next-hop IPs.

Helps identify issues such as:

Incorrect interface configuration.

Invalid next-hop IPs.

Missing routes for specific services.

Analysis of Other Options

debug dataplane internal vif route 255

Incorrect:

The number 255 does not correspond to service routes but is used for internal route debugging unrelated to management plane service routes.

show routing route type management

Incorrect:

This command does not exist in PAN-OS CLI. It might be a misrepresentation of another command.

debug dataplane internal vif route 250

Correct:

As explained above, this is the correct command for verifying service routes in the Management Plane.

show routing route type service-route

Incorrect:

This is not a valid PAN-OS CLI command.

PAN-OS Documentation Reference

Service Routes in PAN-OS 11.0:

The configuration and verification of service routes are covered under the Device > Setup > Services section of the GUI.

For CLI, the debug dataplane internal vif route 250 command is specifically used for troubleshooting service routes in the Management Plane.

For more details, refer to:

PAN-OS 11.0 CLI Guide: Covers debugging tools and service route verification.

PCNSA Study Guide: Domain 1 includes service route configurations and their importance in maintaining connectivity for management services.

The Exceptions settings allows you to change the response to a specific signature. For example, you can block all packets that match a signature, except for the selected one, which generates an alert. The Exception tab supports filtering functions.

If you not believed, then login the firewall go to Vulnerability > Exceptions and select "Show all signatures". From there you will see all threat information including specific actions.

More detail:

In a situation where Panorama and its managed firewalls lack internet access, updating PAN-OS requires a manual upload of the downloaded PAN-OS images. The process involves:

D. Upload the image to Panorama > Device Deployment > Software menu, and deploy it to the firewalls:

The engineer first uploads the downloaded PAN-OS images to Panorama. This is done through the "Device Deployment" section, specifically under the "Software" menu. This area of Panorama's interface is designed for managing PAN-OS versions and software updates for the managed devices.

Once the PAN-OS images are uploaded to Panorama, the engineer can then deploy these images to the firewalls directly from Panorama. This process allows for centralized management of software updates, ensuring that all firewalls can be updated to the latest PAN-OS version in a consistent and controlled manner, even without direct internet access.

This method streamlines the update process for environments with strict security requirements, allowing for the efficient deployment of necessary PAN-OS updates to maintain security and functionality.

Set the Action to take when matching a packet:

Forward—Directs the packet to the specified Egress Interface.

Forward to VSYS (On a firewall enabled for multiple virtual systems)—Select the virtual system to which to forward the packet.

Discard—Drops the packet.

No PBF—Excludes packets that match the criteria for source, destination, application, or service defined in the rule. Matching packets use the route table instead of PBF; the firewall uses the route table to exclude the matched traffic from the redirected port.

To protect against DNS misconfigurations, Advanced DNS Security and Advanced URL Filtering licenses (Option C) enable DNS sinkholing and domain monitoring. In an Anti-Spyware profile (Option D), the DNS Policies section allows adding specific domains to detect and block misconfigured records pointing to third-party sources.

Option A (Threat Prevention) lacks DNS-specific features for this use case. Option B (Vulnerability Protection) doesn’t include DNS misconfiguration settings. Documentation confirms Anti-Spyware with DNS Security for this purpose.

The three authentication types that can be used to authenticate users are:

A: Local database authentication. This is the authentication type that uses the local user database on the firewall or Panorama to store and verify user credentials1.

C: Cloud authentication service. This is the authentication type that uses a cloud-based identity provider, such as Okta, PingOne, or PingFederate, to authenticate users and provide SAML assertions to the firewall or Panorama2.

E: Kerberos single sign-on. This is the authentication type that uses the Kerberos protocol to authenticate users who are logged in to a Windows domain and provide them with seamless access to resources on the firewall or Panorama3.

Based on PAN-OS 11.0 documentation, the forwarding configuration for specific log types in Device > Log Settings involves selecting log types for system-level logs, which include HIP Match and Configuration logs.

Explanation for Each Option

A. Threat

Threat logs record detected security threats such as malware, viruses, and vulnerabilities.

Forwarding of Threat logs is not configured in Device > Log Settings. Instead, Threat logs are forwarded using Log Forwarding Profiles applied to Security Policies.

Verdict: Incorrect.

B. HIP Match

HIP Match logs capture information about endpoint compliance reported by GlobalProtect clients.

These logs can be configured for forwarding in Device > Log Settings for monitoring and compliance purposes.

Verdict: Correct.

C. Traffic

Traffic logs provide details about allowed or denied network traffic.

Forwarding of Traffic logs is configured using Log Forwarding Profiles applied to Security Policies, not in Device > Log Settings.

Verdict: Incorrect.

D. Configuration

Configuration logs track administrative changes to the firewall, such as updates to policies, settings, and objects.

These logs can be forwarded from Device > Log Settings for auditing purposes.

Verdict: Correct.

Correct Answer

B. HIP Match

D. Configuration

Key Points from PAN-OS 11.0 Documentation

Device > Log Settings is specifically for system-related logs like HIP Match and Configuration.

Logs like Threat and Traffic are handled through Log Forwarding Profiles applied to Security or NAT policies.

Documentation Reference

For further details, refer to the official Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS 11.0 Admin Guide under Device > Log Settings. This section outlines which log types can be forwarded from this menu.

In an active/active high availability (HA) firewall pair, when a firewall experiences a failure of a monitored path, it enters the “Tentative” state1. This state indicates that the firewall is synchronizing sessions and configurations from its peer due to a failure or a change in monitored objects such as a link or path. The firewall in this state is not fully functional but is working towards resuming normal operations by syncing with its peer. Therefore, the correct answer is B. Tentative.

These are the two links that can be used to configure an active/active high availability pair. An active/active high availability pair consists of two firewalls that are both active and share the traffic load between them1. To configure an active/active high availability pair, the following links are required2:

HA1: This is the control link that is used for exchanging heartbeat messages and configuration synchronization between the firewalls. It can be a dedicated interface or a subinterface. It can also have a backup link for redundancy.

HA2: This is the data link that is used for forwarding sessions from one firewall to another in case of failover or load balancing. It can be a dedicated interface or a subinterface. It can also have a backup link for redundancy.

HA3: This is the session owner synchronization link that is used for synchronizing session information between the firewalls in different virtual systems. It can be a dedicated interface or a subinterface. It is only required for active/active high availability pairs, not for active/passive pairs.

● Ping Interval—Specify the interval between pings that are sent to the destination IP address (range is 200 to 60,000ms; default is 200ms).

● Ping Count—Specify the number of failed pings before declaring a failure (range is 3 to 10; default is 10).

In Palo Alto Networks firewalls, when multiple static routes exist for the same destination, the firewall uses the administrative distance (AD) to determine route priority. The AD is a metric that indicates the trustworthiness of a route, with lower values indicating higher priority. For static routes, the default AD is 10, but this can be manually adjusted. The route with the lowest AD is preferred and added to the routing table. If AD values are equal, the firewall then considers the metric (default 10), but AD is the primary differentiator.

Option A (first route installed) is incorrect, as route installation order does not determine priority. Option C (Bidirectional Forwarding Detection) is a protocol for detecting link failures, not route priority. Option D (highest AD) is the opposite of the correct behavior. This aligns with standard routing principles and Palo Alto’s implementation.

A, C, and D are the correct answers because they are the parts of a template that an engineer can configure in Panorama. A template is a collection of device and network settings that can be pushed to multiple firewalls from Panorama1. A template can contain settings such as2:

A: NTP Server Address: This is the address of the Network Time Protocol server that synchronizes the time on the firewall.

C: Authentication Profile: This is the profile that defines how the firewall authenticates users and administrators.

D: Service Route Configuration: This is the configuration that specifies which interface and source IP address the firewall uses to access external services, such as DNS, email, syslog, etc.

To override a device and network setting applied by a template, you can either configure the setting locally on the firewall or override the setting on the template stack. Configuring the setting locally on the firewall will copy the setting to the local configuration of the device and will no longer be controlled by the template. Overriding the setting on the template stack will apply the setting to all the firewalls that are assigned to the template stack, unless the setting is also overridden locally on a firewall. Changing the setting on the global template will affect all the firewalls that inherit the setting from the template, which is not desirable in this scenario. Configuring a service route for DNS on a different interface will not change the DNS server address, but only the interface that the firewall uses to reach the DNS server. References:

Override a Template Setting

How to override panorama pushed template configuration on the local firewall

Overriding Panorama Template settings

Hover over an attribute in the table below the chart and click the arrow icon to the right of the attribute.

An authentication portal is a feature that can be used to identify guests and BYOD users, instruct them how to download and install the CA certificate, and clearly notify them that their traffic will be decrypted. An authentication portal is a web page that the firewall displays to users who need to authenticate before accessing the network or the internet. The authentication portal can be customized to include a welcome message, a login prompt, a disclaimer, a certificate download link, and a logout button. The authentication portal can also be configured to use different authentication methods, such as local database, RADIUS, LDAP, Kerberos, or SAML1. By using an authentication portal, the firewall can redirect BYOD users to a web page where they can learn about the decryption policy, download and install the CA certificate, and agree to the terms of use before accessing the network or the internet2.

An SSL decryption profile is not a feature that can be used to identify guests and BYOD users, instruct them how to download and install the CA certificate, and clearly notify them that their traffic will be decrypted. An SSL decryption profile is a set of options that define how the firewall handles SSL/TLS traffic that it decrypts. An SSL decryption profile can include settings such as certificate verification, unsupported protocol handling, session caching, session resumption, algorithm selection, etc3. An SSL decryption profile does not provide any user identification or notification functions.

An SSL decryption policy is not a feature that can be used to identify guests and BYOD users, instruct them how to download and install the CA certificate, and clearly notify them that their traffic will be decrypted. An SSL decryption policy is a set of rules that determine which traffic the firewall decrypts based on various criteria, such as source and destination zones, addresses, users, applications, services, etc. An SSL decryption policy can also specify which type of decryption to apply to the traffic, such as SSL Forward Proxy, SSL Inbound Inspection, or SSH Proxy4. An SSL decryption policy does not provide any user identification or notification functions.

Comfort pages are not a feature that can be used to identify guests and BYOD users, instruct them how to download and install the CA certificate, and clearly notify them that their traffic will be decrypted. Comfort pages are web pages that the firewall displays to users when it blocks or fails to decrypt certain traffic due to security policy or technical reasons. Comfort pages can include information such as the reason for blocking or failing to decrypt the traffic, the URL of the original site, the firewall serial number, etc5. Comfort pages do not provide any user identification or notification functions before decrypting the traffic.

 Configure an Authentication Portal, Redirect Users Through an Authentication Portal, SSL Decryption Profile, Decryption Policy, Comfort Pages

traffic log would list an application as “not-applicable” if the firewall denied the traffic before the application match could be performed. This can happen if the traffic matches a security rule that is set to deny based on any parameter other than the application, such as source, destination, port, service, etc1. In this case, the firewall does not inspect the application data and discards the traffic, resulting in a “not-applicable” entry in the application field of the traffic log1.

practices-for-application-and-threat-content-updates#

 The correct packet-flow sequence is C. PBF > Static route > Security policy enforcement. This sequence describes the order of operations that the firewall performs when processing a packet. PBF stands for Policy-Based Forwarding, which is a feature that allows the firewall to override the routing table and forward traffic based on the source and destination addresses, application, user, or service. PBF is evaluated before the static route lookup, which is the default method of forwarding traffic based on the destination address and the longest prefix match. Security policy enforcement is the stage where the firewall applies the security policy rules to allow or block traffic based on various criteria, such as zone, address, port, user, application, etc12. References: Policy-Based Forwarding, Packet Flow Sequence in PAN-OS

page 83

The standalone User-ID agent (Option C) offloads user-to-IP mapping to an external server, reducing the firewall’s management CPU usage compared to the integrated agent, which runs on the firewall. Option A is false; neither requires domain membership. Option B is incorrect; the integrated agent uses more resources. Option D is false; the standalone agent can run on any server. The original answer (B) was incorrect, contributing to the 83% Core Concepts score.

The VPN peer on one end is using policy-based VPN. You must configure a Proxy ID on the Palo Alto Networks firewall.

In Panorama, zones defined in a template must be linked to a device group for visibility in policy creation. Adding the template as a reference template in the device group (Option B) ensures its zones are available in the policy editor’s drop-down list.

Option A (master device) affects User-ID, not zones. Option C (add firewall) is a prerequisite, not a fix. Option D (share objects) is unrelated to zones. Documentation specifies reference templates for this issue.

High Availability (HA) timer settings in PAN-OS control failover speed and stability. The Recommended profile (Option D) is the default and provides balanced timers (e.g., 1000ms heartbeat interval) suitable for typical deployments, ensuring reliable failover without excessive sensitivity.

Option A (Critical profile) uses faster timers (e.g., 100ms) for critical environments, not typical ones. Option B (Moderate) isn’t a predefined profile. Option C (Aggressive) uses fast timers (e.g., 200ms), not slower ones. Documentation specifies "Recommended" for standard use.

When managing firewalls with Panorama, configurations can be pushed from Panorama templates to managed firewalls. However, there are scenarios where specific settings need to be overridden on the local firewall level due to unique requirements or exceptions.

B. The modification will not be visible in Panorama:

When an override is made directly on the firewall, this change is not automatically reflected back in Panorama's templates or device groups. The local configuration on the firewall will take precedence over the Panorama pushed configuration for the overridden settings, but these local changes will not be visible in the Panorama interface. This means that while Panorama maintains central control and visibility over the bulk of the configuration, it does not have visibility into local overrides made directly on the firewalls.

This distinction is crucial for auditors and administrators to understand, as it impacts how configurations are managed and synchronized between Panorama and the individual firewalls. Local overrides provide flexibility but require careful management to ensure consistency and compliance with security policies.

The two attributes that a forward trust certificate should have for SSL Forward Proxy decryption are:

B: A private key. This is the key that the firewall uses to sign the certificates that it generates for the decrypted sessions. The private key must be securely stored on the firewall and not shared with anyone1.

D: A certificate authority (CA) certificate. This is the certificate that the firewall uses to issue the certificates for the decrypted sessions. The CA certificate must be trusted by the client browsers and devices that receive the certificates from the firewall1.