Configure network edge security policies

Network edge security policies let you configure rules to allow or block traffic at the edge of Google's network. You can configure network edge security policies for the following frontend types:

  • External passthrough Network Load Balancers
  • Protocol forwarding
  • VMs with public IP addresses

You can use network edge security policies to filter by source and destination IP address ranges similarly to Cloud Next Generation Firewall but without consuming your resources. In addition, a network edge security policy is the only security policy type with support for byte offset filtering.

Configure custom rules for network edge security policies

Like backend and edge security policies, you can configure custom rules for network edge security policies. In the following example, you create a network edge security policy, configure a custom rule to allow traffic from only a given source IP address range, and attach the policy to your backend service.

Network edge security policies support several Google Cloud Armor filters, including unique filters like byte-offset filtering. For more information about what features network edge security policies support, see the security policy overview. In addition, you can deploy network edge security policies in preview mode.

Before you proceed, you must enroll in Google Cloud Armor Enterprise and configure advanced network DDoS protection. You cannot use custom rules for network edge security policies without an active Cloud Armor Enterprise subscription and advanced network DDoS protection.

To configure custom rules, follow these steps:

  1. Create a new network edge security policy with the name POLICY_NAME in the region REGION. Don't use the same security policy that you used when you enabled advanced network DDoS protection.

    gcloud compute security-policies create POLICY_NAME \
   --type=CLOUD_ARMOR_NETWORK \
   --region=REGION

  2. Change your policy's default rule from allow to deny to block traffic that is not explicitly allowed by other rules.

    gcloud compute security-policies rules update 2147483647 \
   --security-policy=POLICY_NAME \
   --action=deny \
   --region=REGION

  3. In the same security policy, add a rule at priority RULE_PRIORITY that allows requests in the source IP address range RANGE.

    gcloud compute security-policies rules create RULE_PRIORITY \
   --security-policy=POLICY_NAME \
   --network-src-ip-ranges=RANGE \
   --action=allow \
   --region=REGION

  4. Associate the security policy with your backend service BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME.

    gcloud compute backend-services update BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \
   --security-policy=POLICY_NAME \
   --region=REGION

    Alternatively, you can associate the security policy with a single VM instance by using the following command:

    gcloud beta compute instances network-interfaces update VM_NAME \
   --security-policy=POLICY_NAME \
   --security-policy-region=REGION \
   --network-interface=NETWORK_INTERFACE \
   --zone=ZONE_NAME

  5. Optional: You can verify that the security policy is attached by using the following command. If successful, the securityPolicy field in the output has a link to your security policy resource.

    gcloud compute instances describe VM_NAME --zone=ZONE_NAME

After you create the preceding example, you can continue to add rules to your network edge security policy by using the security-policies rules update command. The supported fields for network edge security policies are as follows:

Field Flag Description
Source IP address --network-src-ip-ranges Source IPv4/6 addresses or CIDR prefixes, in standard text format.
Source ports --network-src-ports Source port numbers for TCP/UDP/SCTP. Each element can be a (16-bit) number (like "80") or range (like "0-1023").
Source region codes --network-src-region-codes Two-letter country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).
Source ASNs --network-src-asns BGP Autonomous System Number of the source IP address.
Destination IP address ranges --network-dest-ip-ranges Destination IPv4/6 addresses or CIDR prefixes, in standard text format.
Destination ports --network-dest-ports Destination port numbers for TCP/UDP/SCTP. Each element can be a (16-bit) number (like "80") or range (like "0-1023").
IP address protocols --network-ip-protocols IPv4 protocol / IPv6 next header (after extension headers). Each element can be an 8-bit number (like "6"), range (like "253-254"), or one of the following protocol names:
  • tcp
  • udp
  • icmp
  • esp
  • ah
  • ipip
  • sctp
Byte-offset filtering N/A See the following section.

When you use the --network-src-region-codes flag with a network edge security policy, you can use region codes for the following territories subject to comprehensive US sanctions:

Territories Assigned code
Crimea XC
The so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), and
the so-called Luhansk People's Republic (LNR)		 XD

Configure byte-offset filtering

If you use external passthrough Network Load Balancers, protocol forwarding, or VMs with public IP addresses, Google Cloud Armor can perform deep packet inspection on ingressed traffic. You can configure a security policy rule that matches on a specific TCP/UDP byte offset value. You can configure the rule to apply the rule action when the configured value is present, or alternatively when it is absent.

The following example allows traffic when the value is present, and denies all other traffic:

  1. Create a new network edge security policy. You can skip this step if you have an existing network edge security policy.

    gcloud compute security-policies create POLICY_NAME \
   --type=CLOUD_ARMOR_NETWORK \
   --region=REGION_NAME

  2. Update your network edge security policy to add user-defined fields by using the following parameters:

    • Base: value can be IPv4, IPv6, TCP, or UDP
    • Offset: offset of the field from the base in bytes
    • Size: size of the field in bytes (maximum value is 4)
    • Mask: the mask for the bits in the field to be matched

    You can use up to eight user-defined fields per policy. In the following example, you create two user defined fields.

    gcloud compute security-policies add-user-defined-field POLICY_NAME \
   --user-defined-field-name=USER_DEFINED_FIELD_NAME_TCP \
   --base=TCP \
   --offset=OFFSET \
   --size=SIZE \
   --mask=MASK \
   --region=REGION_NAME

    gcloud compute security-policies add-user-defined-field POLICY_NAME \
   --user-defined-field-name=USER_DEFINED_FIELD_NAME_UDP \
   --base=UDP \
   --offset=OFFSET \
   --size=SIZE \
   --mask=MASK \
   --region=REGION_NAME

  3. In your network edge security policy, add a rule with the same custom field name that you used in the previous example. Replace VALUE1 and VALUE2 with values that match traffic that you want to allow.

    gcloud compute security-policies rules create RULE_PRIORITY \
   --security-policy=POLICY_NAME \
   --network-user-defined-fields="USER_DEFINED_FIELD_NAME_TCP;VALUE1:VALUE2,USER_DEFINED_FIELD_NAME_UDP;VALUE1:VALUE2,USER_DEFINED_FIELD_NAME_UDP;VALUE1,VALUE2" \
   --action=allow \
   --region=REGION_NAME

  4. Set the default rule in your network edge security policy to be a deny rule. You can skip this step if the default rule in your security policy is already a deny rule.

    gcloud compute security-policies rules update 2147483647 \
   --security-policy=POLICY_NAME \
   --action=deny \
   --region=REGION_NAME

  5. Associate your network edge security policy with your external passthrough Network Load Balancer's backend service.

    gcloud compute backend-services update BACKEND_SERVICE_NAME \
   --security-policy=POLICY_NAME \
   --region=REGION_NAME

Monitoring

Google Cloud Armor exports the following metrics to Cloud Monitoring for each of your network edge security policy rules:

  • packet_count
    • Blocked: a boolean value representing the result of an allow or deny
      rule action
    • Count: the value of packet_count incremented once for each 10,000 packets—for example, a packet_count value of 5 means that at least 50,000 packets have matched your rule
  • preview_packet_count: the same as packet_count, used for rules in preview mode

To view metrics for network edge security policies, you must first enable the Network Security API (networksecurity.googleapis.com). This permission is included in the Compute Security Admin role (roles/compute.securityAdmin). After you enable the Network Security API, you can view the metrics in Monitoring in the Google Cloud console.

Go to Monitoring