Introduction
The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol and its successor, Transport Layer Security (TLS), are being widely adopted by organizations to secure IP communications. While SSL/TLS provides data privacy and secure communications, it also creates challenges to inspection devices in the security stack. What if attackers are hiding malware inside the encrypted traffic?
An integrated F5 and Fortinet FortiGate solution solves the SSL/TLS challenges. F5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator centralizes SSL/TLS inspection. The decrypted traffic is then inspected by one or more Fortinet FortiGate VMs, which can block previously hidden threats. This solution eliminates the blind spots introduced by SSL/TLS.
Prerequisites
This article assumes you have SSL Orchestrator configured with a Topology and Service Chain
F5 BIG-IP version 17.1
F5 SSL Orchestrator version 11.0
Fortinet FortiGate Virtual Appliance
Fortinet FortiGate version 7.2.4
Deployed on VMWare ESXi version 6.7
Fortinet FortiGate will be configured as an Explicit Proxy
Additional Help
If setting up SSL Orchestrator for the first time refer to the Deployment Guide available HERE
For information on SSL Certificate considerations and trust, click HERE
Demo video:
Fortinet FortiGate Virtual Edition Configuration
ESX Virtual Hardware Configuration
The Network Adapters should be configured like the following:
Network Adapter 1 is used for Management and corresponds to the “mgmt” interface on the FortiGate.
Network Adapter 3 is used for Explicit Proxy connections and corresponds to the “port2” interface on the FortiGate.
The other Network Adapters are not used.
Create a Port Group for BIG-IP to connect to the port2 interface (Network Adapter 3) of the FortiGate. The ESX vSwitch topology should be configured as follows:
Fortinet FortiGate Configuration
Enable the Explicit Proxy feature.
Configure the Explicit Web Proxy as follows
Configure a Network Interface as follows
Double click on Port2 to configure it
Specify the IP address and mask to be used, 10.0.0.49 255.255.255.0 in this example.
Enable the Explicit web proxy and click OK.
A Static Route is needed for the Explicit Proxy connection. Configure it as follows:
F5 BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator VMWare ESXi Configuration
Configure the Virtual Machine Network Adapters as follows:
Network Adapter 1 is used for Management and corresponds to the management interface on the BIG-IP.
Network Adapter 2 is used for Explicit Proxy connections to/from the FortiGate.
Network Adapter 3 is used for network connectivity from the BIG-IP to the North.
Network Adapter 4 is used for network connectivity from the BIG-IP to the South.
BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator Network Configuration
The BIG-IP VLAN settings should look like the following:
Network_North is used for network connectivity from the BIG-IP to the North.
Network_South is used for network connectivity from the BIG-IP to the South.
The BIG-IP Self IPs setting should look like the following:
10.0.0.1 will be used for Explicit Proxy connections to the FortiGate.
Note: in this example SSL Orchestrator is deployed with an L3 Inbound Topology. That’s what the other two Self IPs are for. Your configuration will look different if using an L2 Topology.
BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator Configuration
This article assumes you have SSL Orchestrator configured with a Topology and Service Chain.
Navigate to SSL Orchestrator > Configuration.
Create the Fortinet FortiGate Service
Under Services, click Add.
In the Service Catalog select the Inline HTTP tab then double click on Fortinet Secure Web Gateway HTTP Proxy.
Give it a name, FortiGate in this example. Under Service Definition unselect the option to Auto Manage Addresses.
For the To Service VLAN select 10.0.0.1 (VLAN FortiGate_Egress).
Click Add for HTTP Proxy Devices.
Enter the FortiGate IP address, 10.0.0.49 in this example. Set the port to 8080. Click Done.
For the From Service VLAN select 10.0.0.1 (VLAN FortiGate_Egress).
Click Save & Next at the bottom.
Click the name of the Service Chain.
Select the FortiGate Service from the left and click the arrow to move it to the right. Click Save.
Click OK
Click Save & Next at the bottom.
Click Deploy
Click OK to the Success message.
When done it should look like the following:
From the Services screen if you expand the Pool Member Status you should see the FortiGate VM.
Testing the Configuration
In this example there is a Windows client that connects through the SSL Orchestrator to a Windows server running the following web site:
Test this connection now and it should look like the following:
In this example the FortiGate VM is configured with a Custom Category to block connections to http://192.168.0.99. When attempting to connect to this site with a web browser you should see a block page like the following:
Note: in the block page you can see FortiGate VM has identified this site as HTTP and not HTTPS. This is because SSL Orchestrator has decrypted the HTTPS and sent the content to FortiGate as HTTP.
Check the Security Dashboard on the FortiGate VM and you should see something like the following:
Here you can see the attempt to access 192.168.0.99 is logged as a High Threat Level.
Conclusion
This completes configuration of BIG-IP SSL Orchestrator with Fortinet FortiGate Virtual Edition. At this point traffic that flows through SSL Orchestrator will be decrypted and sent to the Fortinet FortiGate Service and inspected for malicious payloads or policy violations.