Content-IDis the core of Palo Alto Networks' prevention architecture, providingsingle-pass application layer inspectionto deliver real-time threat prevention across all traffic.

“Content-ID uses a single-pass architecture to perform application-layer (Layer 7) traffic inspection and real-time threat prevention. Unlike traditional firewalls that rely on multiple scans, Content-ID inspects traffic once to enforce multiple security controls simultaneously.”

(Source: Content-ID Overview)

By consolidating security functions in a single pass, it ensures both efficiency and comprehensive security.

TheSP3 architectureof Palo Alto NGFWs ensures that additional security services (CDSS) only cause aminor reduction in performance, as traffic is inspected once in a single pass.

“The single-pass parallel processing (SP3) architecture performs application identification and security enforcement simultaneously in one pass, resulting in only minor performance impacts when enabling multiple security services.”

(Source: SP3 Architecture)

Unlike traditional multi-pass engines, SP3 architecture optimizes performance while delivering comprehensive security.

The firewall must be running a PAN-OS version that is supported by Panorama. This means thatPanorama must be running the same or a newer PAN-OS versionas the one being installed on the firewalls to maintain compatibility.

“Before you upgrade the firewall, ensure that Panorama is running the same or a later PAN-OS version than the firewall. Panorama must always be at the same or a higher version to maintain compatibility.”

(Source: Panorama Admin Guide – Upgrade Process)

TheAnti-spyware profileincludes DNS-based protections like sinkholing and detection of DNS queries to malicious domains, offering real-time protection against attacks that exploit DNS misconfigurations.

“The Anti-Spyware profile protects against DNS-based threats by sinkholing DNS queries to malicious domains and detecting suspicious DNS activity, thus blocking data exfiltration and C2 communication.”

(Source: Anti-Spyware Profiles)

Advanced DNS Securityuses a signature policy tosinkholemalicious DNS queries and prevent them from resolving.

“The DNS Security service integrates with Anti-Spyware profiles, and you must configure signature policy settings to sinkhole malicious queries. This proactively stops traffic to known malicious domains.”

(Source: Configure DNS Security)

Sinkholing ensures that DNS queries to malicious FQDNs are redirected to a safe IP, preventing compromise.

SD-WANsolutionsoptimize application experienceand provide secure, dynamic connectivity across distributed locations by leveraging real-time path metrics (latency, jitter, loss).

“By implementing SD-WAN, traffic is routed intelligently based on real-time network performance metrics. Zone protection profiles ensure security while maximizing application performance.”

(Source: SD-WAN Architecture)

Key advantage:

Secure connectivity and best user experience across campuses and branches.

To preventSYN flood attacks, the NGFW usesSYN cookiesto validate legitimate session establishment.

“SYN cookies allow the firewall to verify the legitimacy of new session requests without allocating resources until the handshake is completed. This prevents SYN flood attacks from exhausting system resources.”

(Source: Flood Protection Best Practices)

SYN cookies mitigate resource exhaustion by ensuring only legitimate connections are established.

GlobalProtect logs

These logs provide detailed insights into the user’s connectivity, tunnel status, and authentication events.

“GlobalProtect logs include detailed information about connection establishment, tunnel negotiation, and any errors that can prevent mobile users from accessing applications.”

(Source: GlobalProtect Troubleshooting)

Autonomous Digital Experience Management (ADEM)

ADEM helps visualize end-to-end performance and identifies network issues affecting SaaS app access for mobile users.

“ADEM provides real-time and historical visibility into user experience, enabling quick identification and resolution of connectivity or performance issues for SaaS applications.”

(Source: ADEM for Prisma Access)

For large lists of specific URLs, creating acustom URL categoryand importing the list is the most efficient approach for granular URL filtering.

“You can create custom URL categories to define specific URLs or patterns and enforce policies for these categories. This is the most efficient way to handle large sets of URLs.”

(Source: Custom URL Categories)

This approach saves time compared to manual rule creation or using generic application filters.

To fully manage a firewall from Strata Cloud Manager (SCM), it’s essential to establish trust and ensure reliable connectivity:

Configure NTP and DNS servers

The firewall must have accurate time (NTP) and name resolution (DNS) to securely communicate with SCM and related cloud services.

“To ensure successful management, configure the firewall’s NTP and DNS settings to synchronize time and resolve domain names such as stratacloudmanager.paloaltonetworks.com.”

(Source: SCM Onboarding Requirements)

Install a device certificate

A device certificate authenticates the firewall’s identity when connecting to SCM.

“The device certificate authenticates the firewall to Palo Alto Networks cloud services, including SCM. It’s a fundamental requirement to establish secure connectivity.”

(Source: Device Certificates)

These steps ensuretrust, secure communication, and successful onboarding into SCM.

A security profile group named“default”is automatically applied to all new security rules unless a specific profile group is explicitly configured.

“If a security profile group named ‘default’ exists, it will be automatically applied to any newly created security policy rules to ensure consistent protection.”

(Source: Security Profile Groups)

This behavior ensures that newly created policies are always protected by default security profiles, minimizing human error.

When implementing SSL Forward Proxy decryption for outbound traffic, two key challenges that must be evaluated are:

Incomplete certificate chains: This occurs when the firewall cannot validate the entire certificate chain for a site, which may cause decryption failures.

Certificate pinning: Applications like banking apps may use certificate pinning to prevent MITM (man-in-the-middle) attacks, and these applications will break if SSL Forward Proxy is used.

“When decrypting outbound SSL traffic, you must consider incomplete certificate chains, which can cause decryption to fail if the firewall cannot validate the entire chain. Also, be aware of certificate pinning in applications that prevents decryption by rejecting forged certificates.”

(Source: Palo Alto Networks Decryption Concepts)

To inspect SaaS app traffic (often encrypted), you must configure:

SSL Forward Proxy

“The SSL Forward Proxy decryption profile enables the firewall to decrypt outbound SSL traffic, essential for visibility into SaaS app usage.”

(Source: SSL Forward Proxy Overview)

Validate certificates

“Validating and deploying the appropriate root and intermediate CA certificates is critical for establishing trust and preventing SSL errors during decryption.”

(Source: Certificate Deployment and Validation)

Without these steps, SaaS decryption and policy enforcement would be incomplete.

When migrating from aperpetual VM-Series firewall license to a flexible VM licensing model, two critical steps are needed:

Allocate same number of vCPUs– This ensures that the VM-Series capacity remains consistent and avoids resource bottlenecks.

“When migrating perpetual VM-Series licenses to flexible VM licensing, allocate the same vCPU and memory resources to ensure equivalent performance.”

(Source: VM-Series Flexible Licensing Migration)

Limit to same security services– Flexible licensing requires maintaining the same security services to preserve licensing compliance.

“Ensure that you allow only the same security services on the flexible VM instance as were licensed on the perpetual VM.”

(Source: Flexible Licensing and Service Subscriptions)

Protecting againstmaliciousandmisconfigured domainsrequires two critical services:

Advanced Threat Prevention

Provides signature-based and advanced analysis to identify threats, including DNS-based attacks.

“Advanced Threat Prevention enables the NGFW to detect and prevent exploits and malware-based communications, including those leveraging DNS.”

(Source: Advanced Threat Prevention)

Advanced DNS Security

Specifically designed to detect and sinkhole malicious and misconfigured DNS queries.

“DNS Security uses real-time intelligence to block DNS-based threats, protect against data exfiltration, and automatically sinkhole suspicious domain lookups.”

(Source: DNS Security)

Bycombiningthese services in security policies, NGFWs ensure robust protection against domain-based threats and misconfigurations.