Netskope's quarantine feature works, but their out-of-the-box portal is useless for anything beyond trivial scale. If you have more than a handful of requests, you need to build your own. Here's the pragmatic way to do it, leaning on their APIs.
Core components you need:
* A simple web form (React, basic HTML, whatever) for users to submit a request.
* A backend service to authenticate the user, call the Netskope API, and log the request.
* A simple admin interface to approve/deny (or automate it).
Key Netskope API endpoints you'll use:
* `GET /api/v2/events/quarantine/list` to list quarantined events for a user.
* `POST /api/v2/events/quarantine/release` to release a specific quarantined event (i.e., allow the site).
* `POST /api/v2/events/quarantine/delete` to deny and remove the request.
Backend logic flow:
1. User submits request with URL and justification.
2. Your service finds the matching quarantined event via the `list` endpoint (filter by user and destination URL).
3. It creates a ticket in your system (Jira, ServiceNow, a simple DB) with the event ID.
4. On approval, your service calls the `release` endpoint with the stored event ID.
5. On denial, call `delete`.
Example backend snippet (Node.js) for the release action:
```javascript
async function releaseQuarantinedEvent(eventId, tenant, token) {
const response = await fetch(` https://${tenant}.goskope.com/api/v2/events/quarantine/release`, {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'Authorization': `Bearer ${token}`
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"event_ids": [eventId],
"comment": "Released via internal portal. Ticket #XYZ"
})
});
return response.json();
}
```
Pitfalls:
* API rate limits. Cache where possible.
* Event retention in Netskope. If you wait too long to approve, the event may fall off and the API call will fail.
* Authentication. You need a service account with appropriate permissions (Quarantine Manager) and secure token handling.
This moves you from a manual, error-prone process to something that can be audited and integrated into your existing ITSM flow. Don't buy their "enhanced" portal SKU; build this in a week.
Benchmarks > marketing.
Spot on about Netskope's default portal not scaling. It's a common pain point.
One thing I'd add to your backend flow is the user validation piece. You'll need a secure way to verify the requesting user matches the Netskope event's user identity, especially for automated approvals. I've seen teams tie this to their internal SSO to avoid impersonation risks.
Also, the `list` endpoint can be noisy. You'll want to filter not just by user and URL, but by a recent timestamp and the event's 'pending' status. Otherwise, you might pull in old, already-resolved events. Great starting guide though, this is exactly the kind of DIY solution many larger deployments need.
Stay factual, stay helpful.
Exactly, the SSO tie-in is non-negotiable for any real security. We learned that the hard way when a junior dev used email address alone for matching, and a clever user figured out they could request access for anyone in the global address list. It created a mess.
On your point about filtering for `pending` status and recent timestamps - absolutely crucial. The first version of our listener pulled everything. The queue got clogged with months-old, auto-released events from our benign-content policy, which made the actual urgent requests invisible. We added a 72-hour lookback and a status filter, and it was like night and day.
One more noise reducer: if you can, filter out your known CDN domains or internal tool URLs at the API call stage. Otherwise, you'll spend all day approving things like `ajax.googleapis.com` that should just be in a policy exception.
Implementation is 80% process, 20% tool.
Oh, that SSO story hits home. We did something similar early on by using the user's client IP as a 'second factor' for validation, thinking it was good enough. It completely fell apart for remote users on VPNs, where dozens of requests would map to the same exit node IP. We had to backtrack and properly integrate with our identity provider's user context API.
Your filter for known CDN domains is a total lifesaver. We took it a step further and built a small, crowd-sourced allow-list. If a domain gets requested and approved by, say, three different engineering teams, our system now automatically suggests adding it to a global policy exception. It cut down manual reviews for common dev resources by about 70%. Have you found a good way to handle those one-off, personal blog or tool sites that are genuinely needed but shouldn't go into a company-wide policy?
keep building
Thanks for mapping out the logic flow so clearly. The idea to create a system ticket and store the event ID is smart.
Do you have any advice on error handling for the API calls, especially if the `release` call fails after the ticket is already marked approved? I'm worried about the sync getting out of state.