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Traditional Anti-Virus inspection uses these detection modes:
The POP3 and FTP protocols work only in Proactive mode. You can configure the SMTP and HTTP protocols to work in Proactive or Stream mode. Anti-Virus scanning is applied only to accepted traffic that was allowed by the security policy.
Use the instructions in this section to configure Traditional Anti-Virus in your system.
The following kinds of database updates are available:
Download updates from a Check Point server prior to downloading signature updates. First verify that:
The following signature update methods are available (the default update interval is 120 minutes for all methods):
Scan by File Direction and Scan by IPs are two file scanning methods used by Content Inspection. Traditional Anti-Virus scanning is performed only on traffic that is allowed by the Security Rule Base.
Scan by File Direction scans all files passing in one direction, either to or from the external, internal and/or DMZ networks. Using this method (the default) is fairly intuitive and does not require the specification of hosts or networks. This method also enables you to define exceptions, for example, locations to or from which files are not scanned.
Scan by IPs lets you define the traffic to be scanned. For example, if all incoming traffic from external networks reaches the DMZ using Scan by IPs, you can configure Traditional Anti-Virus to scan only traffic to the FTP, SMTP, HTTP and POP3 servers. Conversely, Scan by File Direction scans all traffic to the DMZ.
When using Scan by IPs, use a Rule Base to specify the source and destination of the data to be scanned. For FTP, for each rule, you can scan either the GET or the PUT methods, or both. For HTTP, for each rule, you can scan either the HTTP Request, the HTTP Response or both.
Scan by File Direction enables you to set file scanning according to the file's (and not necessarily the connection's) origin and destination.
Scan by IPs enables you to set file scanning according to the connection they are sent through and the protocol phase/command (where applicable).
If you want most or all files in a given direction to be scanned, select Scan by File Direction.
If you want a connection or part of a connection's source or destination to be scanned, select Scan by IPs.
When using Scan by File Direction, you must select the direction of the data to scan, which depends on whether you want to scan files to or from the internal networks and the DMZ.
The DMZ (demilitarized zone) is an internal network with an intermediate level of security. Its security level lies between trusted internal networks, such as a corporate LAN, and non-trusted external networks, such as the Internet.
Typically, the DMZ contains devices accessible to Internet traffic, for example, Web (HTTP), FTP, SMTP (email), DNS and POP3 servers.
Scan By File Direction enables you to define a level of Traditional Anti-Virus scanning that is specific to the DMZ. For example, you can decide not to scan traffic passing from external networks to the DMZ, but to still scan traffic passing from the DMZ to internal networks and from the external to internal networks.
Traditional Anti-Virus scanning can be enabled in either the proactive or stream detection mode.
This mode uses sandboxes and heuristics to detect malicious code throughout the traffic as opposed to passive signature based detection. Scanned data is either allowed or blocked based on the response of the state-of-the-art Traditional Anti-Virus engine.
Proactive detection provides a high level of protection but has an impact on performance. The FTP and POP3 protocols only work in Proactive mode.
This mode is not available for Virtual System gateways.
This mode is based on state-of-the-art virus signatures that are frequently updated in order to detect recent Malware outbreaks.
In newly installed systems, stream mode is activated by default.
In upgraded systems, the detection mode that is activated by default is dependent upon whether the Traditional Anti-Virus feature was previously activated or not.
You can configure which detection mode to use from SmartConsole for the SMTP and HTTP protocols.
The Traditional Anti-Virus engine acts as a proxy which caches the scanned file before delivering it to the client for files that need to be scanned.
When scanning large files, if the whole file is scanned before being made available, the user may experience a long delay before the file is delivered. A similar problem may arise when using client applications with short timeout periods (for example, certain FTP clients) to download large files. If the whole file is cached and scanned before being delivered, the client applications may time out while waiting.
To address this problem, Continuous Download starts sending information to the client while Traditional Anti-Virus scanning is still taking place. If a virus is found during the scan, file delivery to the client is terminated.
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Note - Continuous Download is only relevant if you have selected to use the Activate proactive detection option. |
You can specify the file types for which you do not want Continuous Download to occur. Some file types (for example, Adobe Acrobat PDF and Microsoft Power Point files) can open on a client computer before the whole file has been downloaded. If Continuous Download is allowed for those file types, and a virus is present in the opened part of the file, it could infect the client computer.
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Note - The SMTP and POP3 protocols support Continuous Download for the entire email message. |
IPS has a built-in File Type recognition engine, which identifies the types of files passed as part of the connection and enables you to define a per-type policy for handling files of a given type.
You can specify safe file types that are allowed to pass through IPS without being scanned for viruses. It is also possible to configure file types to be scanned or blocked.
The following file types can be configured:
File types are considered to be safe if they are not known to contain viruses, for example, some picture and video files are considered safe. Other formats are considered to be safe because they are relatively hard to tamper with. What is considered to be safe changes according to published threats and depends on how the administrator balances security versus performance considerations.
IPS reliably identifies binary file types by examining the file type signatures (magic numbers). IPS does not rely on the file extension (such as *.GIF), which can be spoofed. It also does not use the MIME headers (such as image/gif) in HTTP and mail protocols, which can also be spoofed.
For detailed explanations regarding the options described in the procedures in this section, see Understanding Traditional Anti-Virus Scanning Options.
The Mail Traditional Anti-Virus policy prevents email from being used as a virus delivery mechanism.
By proactively scanning the Internet, the Data Center identifies massive virus outbreaks as soon as they occur. This Zero-Hour solution provides protection during the critical time it takes to discover a new virus outbreak and assign it a signature.
SMTP and POP3 traffic can be scanned according to direction or by IPs.
See Continuous Download for further information.
You can set an action to take place when a file of a specified type passes through the gateway, so that it is not scanned for viruses. For example, picture and video files are normally considered safe. Other formats can be considered safe because they are relatively hard to tamper with. Update the list as necessary.
In this window, you can also configure Continuous Download options. Continuous Download options are only relevant if the scan is set to Proactive Detection. See Continuous Download for more information.
In Traditional Anti-Virus tab, click Traditional Anti-Virus > Security Gateway > Mail Protocols > Settings. You can configure Scan Failure settings and Proactive Scan Settings (File Handling and Archive File Handling).
These scan failure options are available:
The following file handling options are available:
These file handling archiving options are available:
Traditional Anti-Virus logging and monitoring options are available in the Logs & Monitor tab in SmartConsole.
Logs derived from Traditional Anti-Virus scanning are sent to Security Management Server, and show in the Logs & Monitor > Logs tab. In the Logs & Monitor tab, you can see detailed views and reports of the Traditional Anti-Virus activity, customize these views and reports, or generate new ones.
You can now enable Traditional Anti-Virus protection within UTM-1 Edge. When you select the Enable Traditional Anti-Virus option, the Traditional Anti-Virus protection is installed and updates are sent to the specified gateway.
With UTM-1 Edge Traditional Anti-Virus, you can define the maximum archive file sizes for UTM-1 Edge machines that are scanned, and configure procedures for when these limits are exceeded and/or the scan fails.
The UTM-1 Edge Traditional Anti-Virus feature enables you to automatically or manually update virus signatures for UTM-1 Edge machines and provides you with the tools to configure how UTM-1 Edge traffic is scanned.
Note - It is important to configure a valid DNS server address on your management and gateway in order for the signature update to work.
The UTM-1 Edge Traditional Anti-Virus scanning policy enables you to select the service(s) to and from which a source or destination is scanned. Files set for scanning are defined in the classic Rule Base, which defines the source and destination of the connection to be scanned.
Best Practice - use this method if you want to define exactly which traffic to scan. For example, if all incoming traffic from external networks reaches the DMZ, you can specify that only traffic to the Traditional Anti-Virus servers is scanned.
To enable and configure Traditional Anti-Virus protection:
