PCNSE Sample Questions Answers

For collecting User-ID user mapping information, the most reliable and commonly used source is directory services, with Microsoft Active Directory being the predominant choice in many organizational environments.

C. Microsoft Active Directory:

• Microsoft Active Directory is a directory service used for user authentication and authorization. It provides a comprehensive database of user accounts, groups, and other objects within an organization's network. Palo Alto Networks firewalls can integrate with Active Directory to obtain real-time user mapping information, which is crucial for implementing security policies based on user identity.
• The integration involves monitoring Active Directory domain controllers for security logs that contain user login events, IP address mappings, and other relevant information. This allows the firewall to accurately and dynamically map user identities to IP addresses, enhancing the granularity and effectiveness of security policies.
• Compared to other sources like Syslog Listener, Microsoft Exchange, or GlobalProtect, Active Directory offers direct and comprehensive insights into user activities and is therefore considered the most reliable source for User-ID user mapping in Palo Alto Networks environments.

To troubleshoot SSL Decryption issues and check the details of the Forward Trust certificate, Forward Untrust certificate, and SSL Inbound Inspection certificate, the PAN-OS CLI command debug dataplane show ssl-decrypt ssl-certs is used. This command provides detailed information about the SSL certificates involved in decryption and inspection processes, allowing administrators to verify certificate validity, issuer details, and other critical parameters. Understanding the certificate details is crucial in diagnosing issues related to SSL decryption, such as certificate validation errors or misconfigurations that could lead to decryption failures.

To collect User-ID information from third-party proxies, Palo Alto Networks supports several methods of integrating user information. Syslog parsing allows the firewall to receive syslog messages from external services, parse them, and extract user information. X-Forwarded-For (XFF) headers, which are used in HTTP requests and proxies, can carry the original IP address of a client connecting through a proxy, and this information can be used by the firewall to map the user IDs.

Syslog is commonly used for integrating third-party devices like proxies with User-ID, and XFF headers are specifically mentioned in the context of integrating user mappings from HTTP traffic. Client probing and Server Monitoring are not the correct methods for pulling data from third-party proxies.For further details, refer to the Palo Alto Networks documentation on User-ID integration and the "PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide".

In order to see what is in a template, the device-group needs the template referenced. Even if you add the firewall to both the template and device-group, the device-group will not see what is in the template. The following link has a video that demonstrates that B is the correct answer. https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000PNfeCAG

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. https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/9-1/pan-os-admin/networking/nat/source-nat-and-destination-nat/destination-nat-dns-rewrite-use-cases#id0d85db1b-05b9-4956-a467-f71d558263bb

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.

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

How to Implement SSH Decryption on a Palo Alto Networks Device

If an administrator wants to apply QoS to traffic based on source, they must specify the post-NAT source address in a QoS policy rule. This is because QoS is enforced on traffic as it egresses the firewall, and the firewall applies NAT rules before QoS rules. Therefore, the firewall will match the QoS policy rule based on the translated source address, not the original source address. If the administrator uses the pre-NAT source address in the QoS policy rule, the firewall will not be able to identify the traffic correctly and apply the desired QoS treatment. References:

• QoS Policy
• Configure QoS

To prevent the import from affecting ongoing traffic when you import the configuration of an HA pair into Panorama, you should disable config sync on both firewalls. Config sync is a feature that enables the firewalls in an HA pair to synchronize their configurations and maintain consistency. However, when you import the configuration of an HA pair into Panorama, you want to avoid any changes to the firewall configuration until you verify and commit the imported configuration on Panorama. Therefore, you should disable config sync before importing the configuration, and re-enable it after committing the changes on Panorama12. References: Migrate a Firewall HA Pair to Panorama Management, PCNSE Study Guide (page 50)

Hover over an attribute in the table below the chart and click the arrow icon to the right of the attribute. https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/9-1/pan-os-admin/monitoring/use-the-application-command-center/interact-with-the-acc#id5cc39dae-04cf-4936-9916-1a4b0f3179b9

A: https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-1/pan-os-web-interface-help/network/network-virtual-routers/more-runtime-stats-for-a-logical-router#id5628a5e4-e908-457e-a2fd-270a476ab752

D: https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-cli-quick-start/cli-cheat-sheets/cli-cheat-sheet-networking

When facing high packet buffer utilization due to flood attacks, enabling packet buffer protection is a strategic step. However, simply enabling it globally might not be sufficient. The additional step needed is:

D. Add a Zone Protection profile to the affected zones:Zone Protection profiles provide a set of protections against various flood types, reconnaissance attempts, packet-based attacks, and protocol anomalies. By adding a Zone Protection profile to the zones that are experiencing high packet buffer utilization, the firewall can apply specific thresholds and actions to mitigate flood attacks, thus preventing the packet buffers from being overwhelmed.

It's important to configure the Zone Protection profile with appropriate thresholds and actions for flood protection, taking into consideration the normal traffic patterns and the capacity of the network and firewall. This proactive approach ensures that legitimate traffic is allowed while mitigating potential attacks that could consume excessive resources.

For comprehensive instructions on setting up Zone Protection profiles and configuring them for optimal protection against flood and other types of attacks, refer to the Palo Alto Networks knowledge base and official documentation. These resources provide valuable insights into best practices and recommendations for securing your network infrastructure.

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA14u000000oNlUCAU &lang=en_US

The engineer should adjust the TCP maximum segment size (MSS) value on ethernet1/1 to remedy this problem. This is because the MTU on an upstream router interface is set to 1400 bytes, which is causing the return traffic from the web servers to not reach the users behind the firewall. By adjusting the TCP MSS value, the engineer can ensure that the return traffic is able to reach the users without any issues.

The TCP MSS is the maximum amount of data that can be transmitted in a single TCP segment, excluding the TCP and IP headers. The TCP MSS is usually derived from the MTU of the underlying network, which is the maximum packet size that can be transmitted without fragmentation. For example, if the MTU is 1500 bytes, which is the default value for ethernet interfaces, then the TCP MSS is 1460 bytes (1500 - 20 bytes for IP header - 20 bytes for TCP header). However, if there are intermediate devices or networks that have a lower MTU than the end-to-end path, then the TCP MSS may need to be adjusted accordingly to avoid packet loss or fragmentation1.

In this case, the firewall has an MTU of 1500 bytes on ethernet1/1, which is connected to a WAN link. However, an upstream router has an MTU of 1400 bytes on its interface, which means that any packet larger than 1400 bytes will be either dropped or fragmented by the router. This can cause problems for the return traffic from the web servers, which may have a TCP MSS of 1460 bytes or higher, depending on their MTU settings. If these packets have the Don’t Fragment (DF) bit set in their IP header, which is common for TCP packets, then they will be dropped by the router and never reach the firewall or the users behind it. If they do not have the DF bit set, then they will be fragmented by the router and reassembled by the firewall, which can cause performance degradation and overhead2.

To avoid these problems, the engineer should adjust the TCP MSS value on ethernet1/1 to match or be lower than the MTU of the upstream router. This can be done by using the CLI command set network interface ethernet ethernet1/1 tcp-mss , where is an integer between 64 and 15003. For example, if the engineer sets the TCP MSS value to 1360 bytes (1400 - 20 - 20), then this will ensure that any TCP packet sent or received by ethernet1/1 will not exceed 1400 bytes in total size, and thus will not be dropped or fragmented by the router. This will allow the return traffic from the web servers to reach the users behind the firewall without any issues4.

References: TCP Maximum Segment Size (MSS), Configure Session Settings, TCP MSS Adjustments, PCNSE Study Guide (page 59)

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/9-1/pan-os-admin/firewall-administration/manage-firewall-administrators/administrative-authentication#:~:text=The%20administrative%20accounts%20are%20defined,attributes%20on%20the%20SAML%20server .

TIPS & TRICKS: REDUCING MANAGEMENT PLANE LOAD:

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000ClSvCAK

TIPS & TRICKS: REDUCING MANAGEMENT PLANE LOAD—PART 2:

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000ClU4CAK

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.

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/decryption/decryption-concepts "Understand local laws and regulations about the traffic you can legally decrypt and user notification requirements."

Recommended: Use for typical failover timer settings. Unless you’re sure that you need different settings, the best practice is to use the Recommended settings.

Aggressive: Use for faster failover timer settings.

Advanced: Allows you to customize the values to suit your network requirement for each of the following timers:

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.

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/certificate-management/configure-an-ssltls-service-profile

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/11-0/pan-os-admin/virtual-systems/customize-service-routes-for-a-virtual-system/customize-service-routes-to-services-for-virtual-systems

For virtual systems (vSys) on a Palo Alto Networks firewall to communicate with each other, especially when separate virtual routers (VRs) are used for each vSys, the configuration must facilitate proper routing and security policy enforcement. The key aspects to focus on include:

A. External zones with the virtual systems added:

• External zones are special types of zones that are used to facilitate traffic flow between virtual systems within the same physical firewall. By adding virtual systems to an external zone, you enable them to communicate with each other, effectively bypassing the need for traffic to exit and re-enter the firewall.

D. Add a route with next hop next-vr by using the VR configured in the virtual system:

• When using separate VRs for each vSys, it's essential to configure inter-VR routing. This is done by adding routes in each VR with the next hop set to 'next-vr', specifying the VR of the destination vSys. This setup enables traffic to be routed from one virtual system's VR to another, facilitating communication between them.

E. Ensure the virtual systems are visible to one another:

• Visibility between virtual systems is a prerequisite for inter-vSys communication. This involves configuring the virtual systems in a way that they are aware of each other's existence. This is typically managed in the vSys settings, where you can specify which virtual systems can communicate with each other.

By focusing on these configuration details, the network security engineer can ensure that the virtual systems can communicate effectively, maintaining the necessary isolation while allowing the required traffic flow.

When deploying User-ID in environments with diverse directory services, Palo Alto Networks firewalls have the capability to monitor several types of servers to gather user mapping information. Among the options provided:

C. Red Hat Linux, Microsoft Active Directory, and Microsoft Exchange:

• Red Hat Linux: Palo Alto Networks User-ID can monitor Linux systems to gather user information, typically by integrating with services like syslog or by using an agent that reads user login events.
• Microsoft Active Directory: This is one of the most common sources for User-ID, as Active Directory is widely used for user management and authentication. User-ID can directly integrate with Active Directory to read security event logs, capturing user login and logout events.
• Microsoft Exchange: While not directly monitored for user login events, Microsoft Exchange can be a source of IP-to-user mapping information, especially for users accessing email services. This can be achieved by parsing Exchange logs for client access information.

These platforms can provide valuable data for User-ID, enabling the firewall to apply policies based on user identity across diverse network environments.

Policy-Based Forwarding (PBF) on Palo Alto Networks firewalls allows administrators to define forwarding decisions based on criteria other than the destination IP address, such as the application, source address, or user. It can address scenarios like:

A. Routing FTP to a backup ISP link to save bandwidth on the primary ISP link: PBF can be configured to identify FTP traffic and route it through a different ISP, preserving bandwidth on the primary link for other critical applications.

B. Providing application connectivity when the primary circuit fails: PBF can be used for failover purposes, directing traffic to an alternate path if the primary connection goes down, ensuring continuous application availability.

PBF is not designed to bypass Layer 7 inspection or forward traffic based solely on source port, as these tasks are managed through different mechanisms within the firewall's operating system.

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000ClGJCA0

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.

The best description of the Cluster Synchronization Timeout (min) is the maximum time that the local firewall waits before going to Active state when another cluster member is preventing the cluster from fully synchronizing. This is a parameter that can be configured in an HA cluster, which is a group of firewalls that share session state and provide high availability and scalability. The Cluster Synchronization Timeout (min) determines how long the local firewall will wait for the cluster to reach a stable state before it decides to become Active and process traffic. A stable state means that all cluster members are either Active or Passive, and have synchronized their sessions with each other. If there is another cluster member that is in an unknown or unstable state, such as Initializing, Non-functional, or Suspended, then it may prevent the cluster from fully synchronizing and cause a delay in traffic processing. The Cluster Synchronization Timeout (min) can be set to a value between 0 and 30 minutes, with a default of 0. If it is set to 0, then the local firewall will not wait for any other cluster member and will immediately go to Active state. If it is set to a positive value, then the local firewall will wait for that amount of time before going to Active state, unless the cluster reaches a stable state earlier12. References: Configure HA Clustering, PCNSE Study Guide (page 53)

How to Set Session, TCP, and UDP Timeout Values - Palo Alto Networks ...

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/vpns/set-up-site-to-site-vpn/interpret-vpn-error-messages

The VPN peer on one end is using policy-based VPN. You must configure a Proxy ID on the Palo Alto Networks firewall. https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-1/pan-os-admin/vpns/set-up-site-to-site-vpn/interpret-vpn-error-messages.html

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000Cm1OCAS

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000Cm1OCAS

Traffic didnt match any other policies and so landed at the implicit "deny all" policy. If it's deny all, the traffic was dropped before the application could be determined. https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000ClibCAC

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/9-1/pan-os-web-interface-help/policies/policies-application-override

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000PPDrCAO

In a High Availability (HA) configuration, particularly in an active-passive setup, it's crucial that the passive unit is kept up to date with the current state of the active unit. This ensures a seamless transition in the event of a failover. The HA4 interface is dedicated to this synchronization task.

D. Perform synchronization of sessions, forwarding tables, and IPSec security associations between firewalls in an HA pair:

• The HA4 interface is responsible for the synchronization of critical stateful information between the active and passive units in an HA pair. This includes session information, ensuring that the passive unit can continue existing sessions without interruption if it needs to become active.
• In addition to session information, HA4 also synchronizes forwarding tables, which contain information on how to route packets, and IPSec security associations, which are necessary for maintaining secure VPN tunnels.

This synchronization ensures that both units in an HA pair have identical information regarding the current state of the network, sessions, and security associations, enabling a smooth and immediate transition to the passive unit in case the active unit fails.

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/globalprotect/9-1/globalprotect-admin/globalprotect-gateways/split-tunnel-traffic-on-globalprotect-gateways/configure-a-split-tunnel-based-on-the-domain-and-application

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/11-0/pan-os-networking-admin/bfd/bfd-overview/bfd-for-dynamic-routing-protocols

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: https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000Cm4yCAC

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/compatibility-matrix/ipv6-support-by-feature/ipv6- support-by-feature-table

The cause of the unsecured website warnings is that the forward trust certificate has not been signed by the self-signed root CA certificate. The forward trust certificate is used by the firewall to generate a copy of the server certificate for outbound SSL decryption (SSL Forward Proxy). The firewall signs the copy with the forward trust certificate and presents it to the client. The client then verifies the signature using the public key of the CA that issued the forward trust certificate. If the client does not trust the CA, it will display a warning message. Therefore, the forward trust certificate must be signed by a CA that is trusted by the client. In this case, the administrator has installed the self-signed root CA certificate in all client systems, so this CA should be used to sign the forward trust certificate. However, as shown in the screenshot, the forward trust certificate has a different issuer than the self-signed root CA certificate, which means it has not been signed by it. This causes the client to reject the signature and show a warning message. To fix this issue, the administrator should generate a new forward trust certificate and sign it with the self-signed root CA certificate12. References: Keys and Certificates for Decryption Policies, How to Configure SSL Decryption

Schedule content updates so that they download-and-install automatically. Then, set a Threshold that determines the amount of time the firewall waits before installing the latest content. In a security-first network, schedule a six to twelve hour threshold. https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/8-1/pan-os-admin/threat-prevention/best-practices-for-content-and-threat-content-updates/best-practices-security-first.html#id184AH00F06E

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-1/pan-os-upgrade/software-and-content-updates/best-practices-for-app-and-threat-content-updates/best-practices-security-first

When sizing a decryption firewall deployment, two factors that should be considered are the encryption algorithm and the TLS protocol version. These factors affect the amount of resources and processing power that the firewall needs to decrypt and inspect SSL/TLS traffic.

The encryption algorithm is the method that the server and the client use to encrypt and decrypt the data exchanged in an SSL/TLS session. Different encryption algorithms have different levels of security and performance. For example, AES is a symmetric encryption algorithm that is faster and more efficient than RSA, which is an asymmetric encryption algorithm. However, RSA is more secure than AES because it uses public and private keys to encrypt and decrypt data, while AES uses a single shared key. The firewall must support the encryption algorithms that are used by the servers and clients that it decrypts, and it must have enough CPU and memory resources to handle the decryption workload12.

The TLS protocol version is the standard that defines how the server and the client establish and maintain an SSL/TLS session. Different TLS protocol versions have different features and requirements for encryption algorithms, cipher suites, certificates, handshake messages, etc. For example, TLS 1.3 is the latest and most secure version of TLS, which supports only strong encryption algorithms and cipher suites, such as AES-GCM and ChaCha20-Poly1305, and requires elliptic curve certificates. The firewall must support the TLS protocol versions that are used by the servers and clients that it decrypts, and it must have enough hardware acceleration resources to handle the decryption speed34.

The number of security zones in decryption policies and the number of blocked sessions are not relevant factors for sizing a decryption firewall deployment. The number of security zones in decryption policies only affects how the firewall matches traffic to decryption rules based on source and destination zones, but it does not affect the decryption performance or resource consumption. The number of blocked sessions only indicates how many sessions are denied by the firewall based on security policy or decryption policy rules, but it does not affect the decryption capacity or throughput56.

References: Encryption Algorithms, TLS Protocol Versions, Decryption Policy, PCNSE Study Guide (page 60)

The best way for the administrator to meet the requirement of managing all configuration from Panorama and preventing local overrides is B: Perform a template commit push from Panorama using the “Force Template Values” option. This option allows the administrator to overwrite any local configuration on the firewall with the values defined in the template1. This way, the administrator can ensure that the interface configuration and any other

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000ClG2CAK

https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA10g000000ClbXCAS https://live.paloaltonetworks.com/t5/general-topics/phase-2-tunnel-is-not-up/td-p/424789

IP flood thresholds, you can also use DoS Protection profiles to detect and prevent session exhaustion attacks in which a large number of hosts (bots) establish as many sessions as possible to consume a target’s resources. On the profile’s Resources Protection tab, you can set the maximum number of concurrent sessions that the device(s) defined in the DoS Protection policy rule to which you apply the profile can receive. When the number of concurrent sessions reaches its maximum limit, new sessions are dropped. https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-1/pan-os-admin/zone-protection-and-dos-protection/zone-defense/dos-protection-profiles-and-policy-rules/dos-protection-profiles.html

https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/pan-os/10-2/pan-os-admin/zone-protection-and-dos-protection/zone-defense/dos-protection-profiles-and-policy-rules/dos-protection-profiles#ida42d52fa-3366-4695-bb4a-d39ebf3b6a5f

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: https://docs.paloaltonetworks.com/globalprotect/10-1/globalprotect-admin/globalprotect-clientless-vpn/supported-technologies

https://networkwiki.blogspot.com/2017/03/palo-alto-networks-clientless-vpn-and.html

SSL/TLS profile is only the TLS versions, not ciphers. Decryption Profile is for SSL Inbound and Forward Proxy applications, not mgmt of the PANW Firewall. There's also KB articles to strengthen SSH, but I couldn't find any for HTTPS, on the mgmt interface: https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA14u0000004OOQCA2 &lang=en_US%E2%80%A9

The engineer is configuring a DoS Protection profile to defend specific endpoints and resources against malicious activity. A DoS Protection profile is a feature that enables the firewall to detect and prevent denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that attempt to overwhelm network resources or disrupt services. A DoS Protection profile can provide granular defense against targeted flood attacks for specific critical systems that are accessed by users from the internet, such as web servers, DNS servers, or VPN gateways. A DoS Protection profile can be applied to a security policy rule that matches the traffic to and from the protected systems, and can specify the thresholds and actions for different types of flood attacks, such as SYN, UDP, ICMP, or other IP floods12. References: DoS Protection, PCNSE Study Guide (page 58)