Security, Internet Access, and Communication Ports

The following topics provide information on system security, internet access, and communication ports:

Security Requirements

To safeguard the Secure Firewall Management Center, you should install it on a protected internal network. Although the management center is configured to have only the necessary services and ports available, you must make sure that attacks cannot reach it (or any managed devices) from outside the firewall.

If the management center and its managed devices reside on the same network, you can connect the management interfaces on the devices to the same protected internal network as the management center. This allows you to securely control the devices from the management center. You can also configure multiple management interfaces to allow the management center to manage and isolate traffic from devices on other networks.

Regardless of how you deploy your appliances, inter-appliance communication is encrypted. However, you must still take steps to ensure that communications between appliances cannot be interrupted, blocked, or tampered with; for example, with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) or man-in-the-middle attack.

Cisco Clouds

The management center communicates with resources in the Cisco cloud for the following features:

Internet Access Requirements

By default, the system is configured to connect to the internet on ports 443/tcp (HTTPS) and 80/tcp (HTTP). If you do not want your appliances to have direct access to the internet, you can configure a proxy server. For many features, your location can determine which resources the system can access.

In most cases, it is the management center that accesses the internet. Both management centers in a high availability pair should have internet access. Depending on the feature, sometimes both peers access the internet, and sometimes only the active peer does.

Sometimes, managed devices also access the internet. For example, if your malware protection configuration uses dynamic analysis, managed devices submit files directly to the Secure Malware Analytics cloud. Or, you may synchronize a device to an external NTP server.

Additionally, unless you disable web analytics tracking, your browser may contact Google (google.com) or Amplitude (amplitude.com) web analytics servers to provide non-personally-identifiable usage data to Cisco.

Table 1. Internet Access Requirements

Feature

Reason

Management Center High Availability

Resource

Malware defense

Malware cloud lookups.

Both peers perform lookups.

See Required Server Addresses for Proper Cisco Secure Endpoint & Malware Analytics Operations.

Download signature updates for file preclassification and local malware analysis.

Active peer downloads, syncs to standby.

updates.vrt.sourcefire.com

amp.updates.vrt.sourcefire.com

Submit files for dynamic analysis (managed devices).

Query for dynamic analysis results (management center).

Both peers query for dynamic analysis reports.

fmc.api.threatgrid.com

fmc.api.threatgrid.eu

AMP for Endpoints

Receive malware events detected by AMP for Endpoints from the AMP cloud.

Display malware events detected by the system in AMP for Endpoints.

Use centralized file Block and Allow lists created in AMP for Endpoints to override dispositions from the AMP cloud.

Both peers receive events.

You must also configure the cloud connection on both peers (configuration is not synced).

See Required Server Addresses for Proper Cisco Secure Endpoint & Malware Analytics Operations.

Security intelligence

Download security intelligence feeds.

Active peer downloads, syncs to standby.

intelligence.sourcefire.com

URL filtering

Download URL category and reputation data.

Manually query (look up) URL category and reputation data.

Query for uncategorized URLs.

Active peer downloads, syncs to standby.

URLs:

  • regsvc.sco.cisco.com

  • est.sco.cisco.com

  • updates-talos.sco.cisco.com

  • updates.ironport.com

IPv4 blocks:

  • 146.112.62.0/24

  • 146.112.63.0/24

  • 146.112.255.0/24

  • 146.112.59.0/24

IPv6 blocks:

  • 2a04:e4c7:ffff::/48

  • 2a04:e4c7:fffe::/48

Cisco Secure Dynamic Attributes Connector

Get packages from the Amazon Elastic Container Registry (Amazon ECR)

Active and standby peers get field images.

https://public.ecr.aws

https://csdac-cosign.s3.us-west-1. amazonaws.com

Cisco Smart Licensing

Communicate with the Cisco Smart Software Manager.

Active peer communicates.

smartreceiver.cisco.com

www.cisco.com

Cisco Success Network

Transmit usage information and statistics.

Active peer communicates.

api-sse.cisco.com:8989

dex.sse.itd.cisco.com

dex.eu.sse.itd.cisco.com

Cisco Support Diagnostics

Accepts authorized requests and transmits usage information and statistics.

Active peer communicates.

api-sse.cisco.com:8989

System updates

Download updates directly from Cisco to the management center:

  • System software

  • Intrusion rules (SRU/LSP)

  • Vulnerability database (VDB)

  • Geolocation database (GeoDB)

Update intrusion rules, the VDB, and the GeoDB on the active peer, which then syncs to the standby.

Upgrade the system software independently on each peer.

amazonaws.com

cisco.com

SecureX threat response integration

See the appropriate integration guide.

Time synchronization

Synchronize time in your deployment.

Not supported with a proxy server.

Any appliance using an external NTP server must have internet access.

time.cisco.com

RSS feeds

Display the Cisco Threat Research Blog on the dashboard.

Any appliance displaying RSS feeds must have internet access.

blog.talosintelligence.com

Whois

Request whois information for an external host.

Not supported with a proxy server.

Any appliance requesting whois information must have internet access.

The whois client tries to guess the right server to query. If it cannot guess, it uses:

  • NIC handles: whois.networksolutions.com

  • IPv4 addresses and network names: whois.arin.net

Communication Port Requirements

The management center communicates with managed devices using a two-way, SSL-encrypted communication channel on port 8305/tcp. This port must remain open for basic communication. Other ports allow secure management, as well as access to external resources required by specific features. In general, feature-related ports remain closed until you enable or configure the associated feature. Do not change or close an open port until you understand how this action will affect your deployment.

For information on internet resources the system may contact over these ports, see Internet Access Requirements.

Ports for Management Center

Table 2. Inbound Ports for Management Center

Inbound Port

Protocol/Feature

Details

22/tcp

SSH

Secure remote connections to the appliance.

161/udp

SNMP

Allow access to MIBs via SNMP polling.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Access the web interface.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Onboard an on-prem management center to CDO with Secure Device Connector (on-prem).

443/tcp

HTTPS

Submit queries to Cisco Security Packet Analyzer.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Communicate with integrated and third-party products using the REST API.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Integrate with AMP for Endpoints. Outbound also required.

623/udp

SOL/LOM

Lights-Out Management (LOM) using a Serial Over LAN (SOL) connection.

1500/tcp

2000/tcp

Database access

Allow read-only access to the event database by a third-party client.

8302/tcp

eStreamer

Communicate with an eStreamer client.

8305/tcp

Appliance communications

Securely communicate between appliances in a deployment. Outbound also required.

Configurable. If you change this port, you must change it for all appliances in the deployment. We recommend you keep the default.

8307/tcp

Host input client

Communicate with a host input client.

8989/tcp

Cisco Support Diagnostics

Accepts authorized requests and transmits usage information and statistics. Outbound also required.

Table 3. Outbound Ports for Management Center

Outbound Port

Protocol/Feature

Details

7/udp

514/udp

6514/tcp

Syslog (audit logging)

Verify connectivity with the syslog server when configuring audit logging (7/udp).

Send audit logs to a remote syslog server, when TLS is not configured (514/udp).

Send audit logs to a remote syslog server, when TLS is configured (6514/tcp).

25/tcp

SMTP

Send email notices and alerts.

53/tcp

53/udp

DNS

DNS

67/udp

68/udp

DHCP

DHCP

80/tcp

HTTP

Download custom Security Intelligence feeds over HTTP.

80/tcp

HTTP

Download or query URL category and reputation data. Outbound 443/tcp also required.

80/tcp

HTTP

Display RSS feeds in the dashboard.

123/udp

NTP

Synchronize time.

162/udp

SNMP

Send SNMP alerts to a remote trap server.

389/tcp

636/tcp

LDAP

Communicate with an LDAP server for external authentication.

Obtain metadata for detected LDAP users.

Configurable.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Communicate with the Secure Malware Analytics Cloud (public or private).

443/tcp

HTTPS

Send and receive data from the internet.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Integrate with AMP for Endpoints. Inbound also required.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Onboard an on-prem management center to CDO with Cisco Security Cloud or Secure Device Connector (cloud).

1812/udp

1813/udp

RADIUS

Communicate with a RADIUS server for external authentication and accounting.

Configurable.

5222/tcp

ISE

Communicate with an ISE identity source.

8305/tcp

Appliance communications

Securely communicate between appliances in a deployment. Inbound also required.

Configurable. If you change this port, you must change it for all appliances in the deployment. We recommend you keep the default.

8989/tcp

Cisco Support Diagnostics

Accepts authorized requests and transmits usage information and statistics. Inbound also required.

8989/tcp

Cisco Success Network

Transmit usage information and statistics.

Ports for Managed Devices

Table 4. Inbound Ports for Managed Devices

Inbound Port

Protocol/Feature

Details

22/tcp

SSH

Secure remote connections to the appliance.

161/udp

SNMP

Allow access to MIBs via SNMP polling.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Communicate with integrated and third-party products using the REST API.

443/tcp

Remote access VPN (SSL/IPSec)

Allow secure VPN connections to your network from remote users.

500/udp

4500/udp

Remote access VPN (IKEv2)

Allow secure VPN connections to your network from remote users.

885/tcp

Captive portal

Communicate with a captive portal identity source.

8305/tcp

Appliance communications

Securely communicate between appliances in a deployment. Outbound also required.

Configurable. If you change this port, you must change it for all appliances in the deployment. We recommend you keep the default.

8989/tcp

Cisco Support Diagnostics

Accepts authorized requests and transmits usage information and statistics. Outbound also required.

Table 5. Outbound Ports for Managed Devices

Outbound Port

Protocol/Feature

Details

53/tcp

53/udp

DNS

DNS

67/udp

68/udp

DHCP

DHCP

123/udp

NTP

Synchronize time.

162/udp

SNMP

Send SNMP alerts to a remote trap server.

1812/udp

1813/udp

RADIUS

Communicate with a RADIUS server for external authentication and accounting.

Configurable.

389/tcp

636/tcp

LDAP

Communicate with an LDAP server for external authentication.

Configurable.

443/tcp

HTTPS

Send and receive data from the internet.

514/udp

Syslog (audit logging)

Send audit logs to a remote syslog server, when TLS is not configured.

8305/tcp

Appliance communications

Securely communicate between appliances in a deployment. Inbound also required.

Configurable. If you change this port, you must change it for all appliances in the deployment. We recommend you keep the default.

8514/UDP

Secure Network Analytics Manager

Send syslog messages to Secure Network Analytics using Security Analytics and Logging (On Premises)

8989/tcp

Cisco Support Diagnostics

Accepts authorized requests and transmits usage information and statistics. Inbound also required.