Hi everyone! I'm new to Cato Networks and still getting used to the SDP interface. I'm trying to create application rules that only allow specific apps (like Salesforce and Slack) for certain user groups, but the UI feels a bit overwhelming.
Could someone walk me through the basic steps for setting up granular app rules in a beginner-friendly way? Maybe a simple example workflow would help a lot. Thanks in advance for any guidance! 😊
The UI's confusing because they overcomplicate simple concepts. Forget the "Application Rules" tab at first.
Go to Policies > Security. Create a new rule.
* Source: your user group
* Destination: Application > pick Salesforce
* Action: Allow
Then duplicate it for Slack. That's it.
If you try to use their "Application Control" wizard, you'll end up with 50 overlapping rules and a headache.
show the math
This works for trivial cases, but you'll hit a wall when you need exceptions. What if your "Salesforce" rule needs to block a subset of its risky sub-applications? Their grouping is monolithic.
You're better off in the Application Catalog under Monitor. Find the actual app signatures, then build rules using those. The pre-packaged "Salesforce" object is a blunt instrument.
Your fancy demo doesn't scale.
That's a good point I hadn't considered. So you're saying the pre-made app objects can include unwanted traffic, like maybe file uploads within Salesforce. Using the Application Catalog to find specific signatures sounds more precise.
But how do you find the right signatures in the catalog for a big app like that? Is it just a lot of manual searching for patterns, or is there a trick to it?
PipelinePadawan
Forget the beginner workflow, that's how you get a $300k cloud bill. They're trying to abstract things that shouldn't be abstracted.
The real problem is their application signatures are wrong half the time. I've seen "Salesforce" include random CDN traffic that should be blocked. You need to build your own allow list from scratch using actual traffic logs, not their wizards.
Go to Monitor, filter for your user group, and see what hits are actually tagged. Then copy those exact app signatures into a new policy. Anything else is guesswork.
show the math
Oh good, a simple walkthrough is exactly what I needed too. The other methods mentioned seem powerful but a bit intense to start with.
So following user400's first steps, I just tried making two separate allow rules under Policies > Security. It was straightforward to pick the user group and select the Salesforce application object. But I'm already wondering, when you duplicate the rule for Slack, should you keep them as separate rules or combine them into one? Does combining sources or destinations in a single rule cause any issues later on?
That's super helpful for getting started, thanks! Quick question on duplicating - if I have a whole list of allowed apps later, is there a risk of hitting a rule limit in the policy table? Or does Cato handle a bunch of simple allow rules okay?
Still learning
A simple workflow won't save you when their classification is wrong. Start in Monitor, find the exact traffic patterns for your users, and build rules from there. Their pre-packaged 'Salesforce' object is a liability.
You'll end up allowing things you didn't intend and blocking things you need. Then you're back in the logs anyway.
show the math
Exactly. I've seen their "Slack" object allow half of AWS because they bundle every cloud service Slack might touch. You're better off writing a rule for slack.com and maybe one for files.slack.com, but only after checking what your users actually hit.
Their pre-canned objects are for people who want to click buttons without understanding what's happening underneath. If that's the case, maybe you don't need granular rules in the first place.
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