Directional VPN Enforcement

Overview of Directional VPN

When a VPN community is selected in the VPN column of the Security Policy Collection of rules that control network traffic and enforce organization guidelines for data protection and access to resources with packet inspection. Rule Base All rules configured in a given Security Policy. Synonym: Rulebase., the source and destination IP addresses can belong to any of the Security Gateways in the community. In other words, the traffic is bidirectional; any of the Security Gateways can be the source of a connection, any of the Security Gateways can be the destination endpoint. But what if the administrator (in line with the company's security policy) wished to enforce traffic in one direction only? Or to allow encrypted traffic to or from Security Gateways not included in the VPN community? To enable enforcement within VPN communities, VPN implements Directional VPN.

Directional VPN specifies where the source address must be, and where the destination address must be. In this way, enforcement can take place:

Within a single VPN community
Between VPN communities

Directional Enforcement within a Community

The example figure below shows a simple meshed VPN community called MyIntranet.

VPN traffic within the MyIntranet Mesh is bidirectional. Meaning, either of the Security Gateways (or the hosts behind the Security Gateways in the VPN domains) can be the source or destination address for a connection.

Source	Destination	VPN	Service	Action	Track
`*Any`	`*Any`	`MyIntranet => MyIntranet` `MyIntranet =>internal_clear` `internal_clear => MyIntranet`	`telnet`	`Accept`	`Log`
`*Any`	`*Any`	`MyIntranet`	`telnet`	`Accept`	`Log`

The match conditions are represented by a series of compound objects. The match conditions enforce traffic in the following directions:

To and from the VPN Community A named collection of VPN domains, each protected by a VPN gateway. via VPN routing (MyIntranet => MyIntranet)
From the Community to the local VPN domains (MyIntranet =>internal_clear)
From the local VPN domains to the VPN community (internal_clear => MyIntranet)

Configurable Objects in a Direction

The table below shows all the objects that can be configured in a direction, including three new objects created for Directional VPN:

Name of Object	Description
Remote Access	Remote Access VPN An encrypted tunnel between remote access clients (such as Endpoint Security VPN) and a Security Gateway. community
Site to Site VPN	Regular Star or Mesh VPN community
Any Traffic	Any traffic
All_GwToGw	All Site to Site VPN An encrypted tunnel between two or more Security Gateways. Synonym: Site-to-Site VPN. Contractions: S2S VPN, S-to-S VPN. communities
All_Communities	All Site to Site and Remote Access VPN communities
External_clear	For traffic outside the VPN community
Internal_clear	For traffic between local domains within the VPN community

Note - Clear text connections originating from these objects are not subject to enforcement:

Any Traffic
External_clear
Internal_clear

There is no limit to the number of VPN directions that you can configure in a single rule Set of traffic parameters and other conditions in a Rule Base (Security Policy) that cause specified actions to be taken for a communication session.. In general, if you have many directional enforcements, consider replacing them with a standard bidirectional condition.

Directional Enforcement between Communities

VPN Directional Enforcement can take place between two VPN communities. In this case, one Security Gateway Dedicated Check Point server that runs Check Point software to inspect traffic and enforce Security Policies for connected network resources. must be configured as a member of both communities and the enforcement point between them. Every other peer Security Gateway in both communities must have a route entry to the enforcement point Security Gateway in its $FWDIR/conf/vpn_route.conf file.

To add a route entry to the enforcement point Security Gateway:

On the management module of each Security Gateway in the community (except for the enforcement point Security Gateway), add an entry in the $FWDIR/conf/vpn_route.conf file:

Destination	Next hop router interface	Install on
<`destination_community_obj`>	<`enforcement_point_gw`>	<`managed_FW_object`>

These are the variables in the entry:

destination_community_obj - a network object for the combined encryption domain of the community
enforcement_point_gw - the Security Gateway that is a member of both communities and transfers the encrypted traffic between them
managed_FW_object - all community members that are managed by the management module

In the example below, Washington is a Mesh community, and London is a VPN Star.

The directional VPN rule below must be configured for the enforcement point Security Gateway in the Access Control Policy Rule Base:

Source	Destination	VPN	Services & Applications	Action
`*Any`	`*Any`	Washington => London	`*Any`	`Accept`

The rule is applied to all VPN traffic that passes through the enforcement point Security Gateway between the Washington and London communities. If a connection is opened from a source in the Washington Mesh, and the destination is in the London Star, the connection is allowed. Otherwise, the connection is denied.

Note - The Directional Enforcement applies only to the first packet of a connection. If the connection is permitted, the following packets of this connection are also permitted, including the packets in the opposite direction.

Configuring Directional VPN Within a Community

To configure Directional VPN within a community:

In SmartConsole Check Point GUI application used to manage a Check Point environment - configure Security Policies, configure devices, monitor products and events, install updates, and so on., click Menu > Global properties > VPN > Advanced.
Select Enable VPN Directional Match in VPN Column.
Click OK.
In SmartConsole, from the left navigation panel, click Security Policies.
In the Access Control section, click in the applicable rule.
In the VPN column of this rule, select Directional Match Condition.

The New Directional Match Condition window opens.
In the Traffic reaching from drop-down box, select the object for Internal_clear (the source).
In the Traffic leaving to drop-down box, select the applicable VPN community object (the destination).
Add another directional match, in which the applicable VPN community object is both the source and destination.

This allows traffic from the local domain to the community, and within the community.
Click OK.
Install the Access Control Policy.

Configuring Directional VPN Between Communities

To configure Directional VPN between communities:

In SmartConsole, click Menu > Global properties > VPN > Advanced.
Select Enable VPN Directional Match in VPN Column.
Click OK.
In SmartConsole, from the left navigation panel, click Security Policies.
In the Access Control section, click in the applicable rule.
In the VPN column of this rule, select Directional Match Condition.

The New Directional Match Condition window opens.
In the Traffic reaching from drop-down box, select the source of the connection.
In the Traffic leaving to drop-down box, select the destination of the connection
Click OK.
Install the Access Control Policy.