ZyXEL Communications USG 2000 User Manual

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Chapter 32 Application Patrol
ZyWALL USG 2000 User’s Guide
522
32.1.2   What You Need to Know
If you want to use a service, make sure both the firewall and application patrol 
allow the service’s packets to go through the ZyWALL.
Note: The ZyWALL checks firewall rules before it checks application patrol rules for 
traffic going through the ZyWALL.
Application patrol examines every TCP and UDP connection passing through the 
ZyWALL and identifies what application is using the connection. Then, you can 
specify, by application, whether or not the ZyWALL continues to route the 
connection.
Configurable Application Policies
The ZyWALL has policies for individual applications. For each policy, you can 
specify the default action the ZyWALL takes once it identifies one of the service’s 
connections.
You can also specify custom policies that have the ZyWALL forward, drop, or reject 
a service’s connections based on criteria that you specify (like the source zone, 
destination zone, original destination port of the connection, schedule, user, 
source, and destination information). Your custom policies take priority over the 
policy’s default settings.
Classification of Applications
There are two ways the ZyWALL can identify the application. The first is called 
auto. The ZyWALL looks at the IP payload (OSI level-7 inspection) and attempts to 
match it with known patterns for specific applications. Usually, this occurs at the 
beginning of a connection, when the payload is more consistent across 
connections, and the ZyWALL examines several packets to make sure the match is 
correct.
Note: The ZyWALL allows the first eight packets to go through the firewall, regardless 
of the application patrol policy for the application. The ZyWALL examines these 
first eight packets to identify the application.
The second approach is called service ports. The ZyWALL uses only OSI level-4 
information, such as ports, to identify what application is using the connection. 
This approach is available in case the ZyWALL identifies a lot of “false positives” 
for a particular application.
Custom Ports for SIP and the SIP ALG
Configuring application patrol to use custom port numbers for SIP traffic also 
configures the SIP ALG (see 
) to use the same port