Pass the Paloalto Networks Network Security Administrator NGFW-Engineer Questions and answers with ValidTests

To implement post-quantum cryptography (PQC) in VPNs between Palo Alto Networks NGFWs, you would enable the PQ KEM (Post-Quantum Key Encapsulation Mechanism) in the IKE gateway configuration. This enables the firewall to use quantum-resistant encryption for key exchange, which is an essential part of securing communications against the potential future threats posed by quantum computing.

By selecting IKE v2 Preferred and enabling the PQ KEM option under Advanced Options, you can add specific Rounds for the post-quantum cryptography process, which will help in implementing quantum-resistant key exchange methods.

This option similarly selects IKE v2 and enables PQ KEM while also creating a dedicated IKE Crypto Profile with the necessary Rounds configured for post-quantum cryptography.

NetFlow is a Layer 3 (network layer) protocol that collects and monitors IP traffic flows. It is typically configured on Layer 3 interfaces because it relies on IP information for traffic flow analysis, which is not available on Layer 2 interfaces. Layer 2 interfaces handle frames within the local network, and they don't have IP-related details that NetFlow uses to generate traffic statistics.

In a hybrid authentication model with both certificate-based authentication for pre-logon and SAML-based multi-factor authentication (MFA) for user logon, the GlobalProtect agent processes the flow as follows:

During the pre-logon stage, the agent uses the machine certificate to authenticate and establish the initial VPN tunnel.

Once the user logs in (after the machine is connected), the agent then triggers SAML-based MFA to ensure the user is authenticated with multi-factor authentication, validating both the device and the user identity before granting full access.

This method ensures that both the device and user are properly authenticated and validated in the hybrid authentication model.

When configuring the Log Forwarding profile on a Palo Alto Networks firewall, the forwarding methods available include:

Panorama: For forwarding logs to a Panorama management system.

Syslog: For forwarding logs to a syslog server.

Email: For sending logs via email.

To ensure high availability (HA) across multiple availability zones (AZs) in a cloud service provider (CSP) environment, using a load balancer with health probes is a recommended method. This setup ensures that traffic can be directed to the healthy NGFW instances across multiple availability zones. If one NGFW instance or availability zone goes down, the load balancer can redirect traffic to the available instance(s) in other zones, providing redundancy and maintaining service availability.

In a High Availability (HA) active/passive pair configuration, when setting up an Aggregate Ethernet (AE) interface, enabling the "Enable in HA Passive State" option allows the interface to participate in LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) even when the system is in the passive state. This ensures that the pre-negotiation of the LACP link occurs, allowing the link aggregation to be ready as soon as the firewall becomes active.

When configuring link monitoring for high availability (HA) on a Palo Alto Networks NGFW, the following interface types are supported:

Virtual Wire: Used when you have a transparent mode firewall deployment, where the firewall operates at Layer 2 to monitor traffic between two network segments.

Layer 2: Also used in transparent mode, where the firewall operates as a Layer 2 device and can be configured for link monitoring.

Layer 3: Used in routed mode, where the firewall is involved in routing traffic and can also be configured to monitor links.

When configuring a new firewall virtual system (VSYS) on a Palo Alto Networks firewall, one of the resources that can be assigned is the sessions limit. This setting allows the administrator to control the number of active sessions that can be handled by the VSYS, ensuring that each virtual system has an appropriate allocation of resources based on its needs.

To create SD-WAN interfaces through an API, the correct approach is to use the REST API's "sdwanInterfaces" parameter on a firewall device. This parameter allows you to configure SD-WAN interfaces directly on the firewall devices via API, ensuring that the required interfaces are set up and managed for SD-WAN functionality.

Separate rules must be created for each direction: Palo Alto Networks firewalls enforce security policies based on traffic direction. To allow bidirectional communication through the IPSec tunnel, two separate rules are required - one for incoming and one for outgoing traffic.

IKE negotiation and IPSec/ESP packets are denied by default: Palo Alto Networks firewalls use an interzone default deny policy, meaning that unless an explicit policy allows IKE (UDP 500/4500) and ESP (protocol 50) traffic, the firewall will block these packets, preventing tunnel establishment. Therefore, administrators must create explicit rules permitting IKE and IPSec/ESP traffic to the firewall's external interface.