Configuring F5 BIG-IP ASM Connectors

You can connect Stellar Cyber to firewalls so that you can quickly and easily implement firewall rules on those firewalls from within Stellar Cyber, while you are threat hunting. You can configure firewall actions or manually trigger a firewall action from the event display. For either action you must already have your firewall connected.

Connector Overview: F5 BIG-IP ASM

Capabilities

  • Collect: No

  • Respond: Yes

  • Native Alerts Mapped: No

  • Runs on: DP or Sensor

  • Interval: N/A

Collected Data

N/A

Domain

https://<Device IP Address>:<Device Port>

where <Device IP Address> and <Device Port> are variables from the configuration of this connector

Response Actions

Action

Required Fields

Block IP

srcip or dstip

Third Party Native Alert Integration Details

N/A

Required Credentials

  • Device IP Address, Device Port, User Name, Password, and Policy Name

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Adding an F5 BIG-IP ASM Connector

To add a new F5 BIG-IP ASM firewall connector:

  1. Create a policy
  2. Add the connector in Stellar Cyber
  3. Test the connector

Creating a Policy

On your F5 BIG-IP ASM firewall:

  • Create a policy by navigating to Security | Application Security | Security policies.

  • Bind the policy to the application by navigating to Local Traffic | Virtual Servers | Virtual Server List | <server name> | Security | policies.

To view the IP addresses added to the policy, navigate to Security | Application Security | IP Addresses | IP Address Exceptions.

Adding the Connector in Stellar Cyber

To add a new F5 BIG-IP ASM firewall connector in Stellar Cyber:

  1. Log in to Stellar Cyber.

  2. Click System | Integration | Connectors. The Connector Overview appears.

  3. Click Create. The General tab of the Add Connector screen appears. The information on this tab cannot be changed after you add the connector.

    The asterisk (*) indicates a required field.

  4. Choose Firewall from the Category drop-down.

  5. Choose F5 BIG-IP ASM from the Type drop-down.

  6. For this connector, the supported Function is Respond, which is enabled already.

  7. Enter a Name.

    This field does not accept multibyte characters.

  8. Choose a Tenant Name. The Interflow records created by this connector include this tenant name.

  9. Choose the device on which to run the connector.

    • Certain connectors can be run on either a Sensor or a Data Processor. The available devices are displayed in the Run On menu. If you want to associate your collector with a sensor, you must have configured that sensor prior to configuring the connector or you will not be able to select it during initial configuration. If you select Data Processor, you will need to associate the connector with a Data Analyzer profile as a separate step. That step is not required for a sensor, which is configured with only one possible profile.

    • If the device you're connecting to is on premises, we recommend you run on the local sensor. If you're connecting to a cloud service, we recommend you run on the DP.

  10. Click Next. The Configuration tab appears.

    The asterisk (*) indicates a required field.

  11. Enter the Device IP Address. This is the management IP address for the firewall.

  12. Enter the Device Port. This is the API port.

  13. Enter the User Name to log in to the firewall.

  14. Enter the Password to log in to the firewall.

    The password should not include non-ASCII special characters.

  15. Enter the Policy Name. This is the name of the policy to which the blocked IP is associated.

  16. Click Next. The final confirmation tab appears.

  17. Click Submit.

The new firewall connector is immediately active.

Testing the Connector

When you add (or edit) a connector, we recommend that you run a test to validate the connectivity parameters you entered. (The test validates only the authentication / connectivity; it does not validate data flow).

  1. Click System | Integrations | Connectors. The Connector Overview appears.

  2. Locate the connector that you added, or modified, or that you want to test.

  3. Click Test at the right side of that row. The test runs immediately.

    Note that you may run only one test at a time.

Stellar Cyber conducts a basic connectivity test for the connector and reports a success or failure result. A successful test indicates that you entered all of the connector information correctly.

To aid troubleshooting your connector, the dialog remains open until you explicitly close it by using the X button. If the test fails, you can select the  button from the same row to review and correct issues.

The connector status is updated every five (5) minutes. A successful test clears the connector status, but if issues persist, the status reverts to failed after a minute.

Repeat the test as needed.

ClosedDisplay sample messages...

Success !

Failure with summary of issue:

Show More example detail:

If the test fails, the common HTTP status error codes are as follows:

HTTP Error Code HTTP Standard Error Name Explanation Recommendation
400 Bad Request This error occurs when there is an error in the connector configuration.

Did you configure the connector correctly?

401 Unauthorized

This error occurs when an authentication credential is invalid or when a user does not have sufficient privileges to access a specific API.

Did you enter your credentials correctly?

Are your credentials expired?

Are your credentials entitled or licensed for that specific resource?

403 Forbidden This error occurs when the permission or scope is not correct in a valid credential.

Did you enter your credentials correctly?

Do you have the required role or permissions for that credential?

404 Not Found This error occurs when a URL path does not resolve to an entity. Did you enter your API URL correctly?
429 Too Many Requests

This error occurs when the API server receives too much traffic or if a user’s license or entitlement quota is exceeded.

The server or user license/quota will eventually recover. The connector will periodically retry the query.

If this occurs unexpectedly or too often, work with your API provider to investigate the server limits, user licensing, or quotas.

For a full list of codes, refer to HTTP response status codes.