Cyberoam Best Practices

Cyberoam Best Practices

Deployment
1. Always connect Cyberoam WAN interface with a Router via a switch and NOT with cross over
cable to avoid auto negotiation problem between Cyberoam WAN interface and Router
2. By default, Cyberoam sends periodic Ping requests to its default gateway to check
connectivity to Internet. It is recommended to change this setting so that Cyberoam sends
Ping requests to a host on the Internet that is permanently running or most reliable, like
8.8.8.8 or 4.2.2.2.
3. If users have browser based proxy settings, make sure configured HTTP proxy port is same
in both Cyberoam and desktop browser. By default, Cyberoam is configured for port 3128.
4. For security purposes, Gateway mode is preferred because it uses NAT Policies to secure
private addresses of internal or DMZ networks.
5. If Cyberoam is deployed in Bridge Mode:
o
o

Do not configure Cyberoam IP address as Gateway IP address. If this happens, users will
not be able to access the Internet.
Do not terminate both ports in the same L2 switch. The switch would become instable if it
receives packets of same MAC address from more than one switch ports.

6. It is recommended to use the High Availability feature of Cyberoam for maximum network
uptime.
Note:
This feature is not available in models CR15i, CR15wi, CR25wi, CR35wi, CR15iNG,
CR15wiNG, CR25wiNG/6P and CR35wiNG.
7. In case of wireless networks, ensure maximum security by using WPA or WPA2 protocols
rather than WEP.
8. Do not broadcast the SSID of your wireless networks to avoid unauthorized users from
entering into the network.

Administration
1. Access to Cyberoam should be carefully monitored and protected. This can be done by
changing the default administration settings like:
o
o
o

Administrator Passwords
Port used to access Appliance
Access Protocols (Use secure protocols like SSH and HTTPS)

Cyberoam Best Practices

2. Create multiple administrator profiles for special-purpose administrators like VPN

Administrator, Security Administrator, Audit Administrator, etc. Each administrator should be
assigned only the required permissions according to his role in the organization.
3. It is recommended to disable administrative access to Cyberoam from all zones except the
internal LAN zone or management zone. Even from LAN or management zone, use secured
protocols like HTTPS and SSH for GUI and CLI access.
4. Check regularly for firmware releases and upgrade Cyberoam to the latest firmware available.
5. Take regular backup of Cyberoam. Also, make sure you take a backup before any changes
are to be made in the configuration of the appliance.
6. Test your firewall rules and policies regularly.
7. Conduct internal audits to check the health of the appliance.
8. Enable Login security in terms of:
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Enabling password complexity for the administrator.

Restricting number of login attempts to prevent brute force attack.

Firewall
1. Create Firewall rule for DNS IP Address if desktops are configured with a public DNS IP
address.
2.

Create firewall rule to allow required and critical traffic across each zone because, by default,
complete traffic across each zone is dropped by Cyberoam, except for LAN to WAN traffic.
This will be applicable in both bridge and gateway mode.
For example, if Mail server is placed in the DMZ zone, then Cyberoam will not allow access of
Mail server from LAN and WAN zone.
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To access specific applications running on mail server, create necessary firewall rule from
each zone.
Create firewall rule to give external world access to the Mail server.

3. Create Firewall rule to allow access to and from applications running on DMZ as, by default,
entire traffic from LAN to DMZ is dropped.
4. If Cyberoam is configured in Bridge mode and DHCP server is running in WAN zone of
Cyberoam then create firewall rule to allow packets from DHCP server to LAN to lease IP
addresses on desktop.
5. If MX IP is bound to the WAN port of Cyberoam, create NAT and Virtual Host rules to map the
private IP address of mail server with the MX IP.

6. If the LAN zone has Routed Networks, then create static routes in Cyberoam to forward
requests to and from the Routed Networks over the Internet.

Cyberoam Best Practices

7. If Cyberoam is configured for multiple Internet Service Providers i.e. multiple gateways then:
o

To improve browsing speed and reduce latency, create a firewall rule to route the DNS IP
address requests through a specific Gateway. For example, if DNS IP address is from
ISP1 and DNS request is going from ISP2 then latency will increase and time taken to
resolve the site name will also increase.

If access to certain application like VPN application, SAP or ERP application is allowed
from specific IP address, create firewall rule to route the application request from the
specific IP address only.

Create a NAT policy to bind the Mail Server IP Address with MX IP. This will establish
connection as well as reduce chances of return MX check problem.

8. It is recommended to bypass DoS screening for traffic-intensive servers like VOIP and FTP to
avoid dropping of legitimate traffic.
9. Disable NAT policies for WAN to LAN rule for Mail Server to avoid making it an open relay.

Authentication
1. If Cyberoam is integrated with one or more external authentication servers, make sure the
servers are selected for firewall authentication and are in the order of preference.
2. In case of AD integration with Single Sign On enabled, create clientless users for servers like
VOIP server, MFDs, etc. whose manual authentication is not feasible.
3. After importing groups from AD, modify the order of the groups according to preference. Any
user, who is a part of multiple groups, will be mapped to the first matching group on
Cyberoam.
IPS
1. Create custom IPS policies with relevant signatures to decrease packet latency and

improve performance.
2. It is recommended to apply IPS policy in WAN to LAN firewall rules for servers hosted in the
network to protect them against known and unknown attacks.
3. IPS policy is not recommended for LAN to WAN traffic, unless it is used to control applications
using custom signatures.
VPN
1. Create VPN to LAN firewall rules to enable Threat Free Tunnelling, i.e., protect the network
from malicious traffic through the VPN tunnel. In these rules, NAT policies should be disabled
to allow access to internal resources.
2. For additional security, use CHAP and MSCHAP Handshaking Protocols for PPTP remote
access VPN.

Cyberoam Best Practices

3. If VPN connectivity is to be configured between a Head Office and multiple Branch Offices,
create a Hub and Spoke VPN configuration, i.e., create virtual tunnels from each Branch
Office directly to the Head Office.
Antivirus
1. For scanning of HTTP and HTTPS traffic, configure the Scan Mode as Real Time rather
than Batch. The Real Time scan mode allows virus scanning of files as soon as their
download starts while Batch scan mode waits for download of the complete file before
scanning.
2. Configure Cyberoam to disallow access to HTTPS websites with invalid certificates.

Antispam
1. Configure Cyberoam to Accept oversized emails to avoid dropping of emails that might be
useful.
2. Enable Spam Digest to allow end users to manage quarantined mails by themselves.
3. Configure Cyberoam to verify IP Reputation of senders of all emails to improve Antispam
performance.

QoS
1. Create appropriate QoS policies for mission critical applications.
2. Assign highest priority to real time traffic like VOIP and lowest priority to bulky protocols like
FTP or P2P file transfer for better managed bandwidth.

Document Version: 1.3 20 January, 2014