Abstract: A policy management server manages a segmentation policy and automatically configures an enclave protection device consistently with the segmentation policy so that that the segmentation policy can be enforced with respect to workloads within a secure enclave protected by the enclave protection device. The policy management server identifies protected workloads that are members of a secure enclave and external workloads that are external to the secure enclave. The policy management server identifies cross-boundary rules of the segmentation policy affecting traffic between the protected workloads and external workloads. The policy management server generates and distributes a configuration of the enclave protection device to enable enforcement of the cross-boundary rules pertaining to traffic passing through the enclave protection device.

Abstract: A computing device (e.g., a policy management server) obtains a segmentation policy that includes a set of rules for controlling network traffic between workloads. The computing device also receives infrastructure feedback regarding configuration of third-party network infrastructure. The computing device uses the infrastructure feedback to identify a discrepancy between the segmentation policy and the configuration of the third-party network infrastructure and triggers a corrective action in response. The corrective action may include providing a notification or suggestive remedy for the discrepancy to the user or automatically remedying the discrepancy.

Abstract: A segmentation firewall executing on a host enforces a segmentation policy. In a co-existence mode, the segmentation firewall operates in co-existence with a system firewall that enforces a security policy. The segmentation firewall is configured to either drop packets that do not match any permissive rule or pass packets that match a permissive rule to the system firewall to enable the system firewall to determine whether to drop or accept the passed packets. To enable efficient operation of the segmentation firewall when operating in co-existence with the system firewall, the segmentation firewall may include a plurality of rule chains and may be configured to exit a chain and bypass remaining rule chains upon an input packet matching a permissive rule of the segmentation policy.

Abstract: A segmentation server updates enforcement of a segmentation policy based on detection of core services. The segmentation server obtains characteristics of workloads and identifies workloads that provide core services using port matching, supervised learning based classification, semi supervised learning based classification, or a combination thereof. The segmentations server applies labels to workloads identified as core service providers indicative of the detection. Rules of the segmentation are distributed to enforcement modules based on the label sets of associated workloads to enable the enforcement modules to enforce the segmentation policy. Detection of core services reduces the likelihood of administrator inadvertently enforcing a policy that blocks essential core services.

Abstract: A segmentation server generates vulnerability exposure scores associated with workloads operating in a segmented computing environment. The segmentation server may automatically aggregate the vulnerability exposure scores in various ways to generate vulnerability exposure information representative of workloads in an administrative domain controlled by the segmentation server. The aggregated vulnerability exposure information may be presented in a manner that enables an administrator to easily evaluate different segmentation strategies and assess the risks associated with each of them. Moreover, the segmentation server can automatically generate a segmentation policy that modifies a configured segmentation strategy based on the vulnerability exposure scores to reduce exposure to certain vulnerabilities without impeding operation of the workloads.

Abstract: A segmentation server generates vulnerability exposure scores associated with workloads operating in a segmented computing environment. The segmentation server may automatically aggregate the vulnerability exposure scores in various ways to generate vulnerability exposure information representative of workloads in an administrative domain controlled by the segmentation server. The aggregated vulnerability exposure information may be presented in a manner that enables an administrator to easily evaluate different segmentation strategies and assess the risks associated with each of them. Moreover, the segmentation server can automatically generate a segmentation policy that modifies a configured segmentation strategy based on the vulnerability exposure scores to reduce exposure to certain vulnerabilities without impeding operation of the workloads.

Abstract: A segmentation server defines a segmentation policy and distributes the segmentation policy to be enforced by a plurality of operating system (OS) instances. The segmentation policy includes rules controlling which workloads executing on the OS instances can communicate with other workloads and controlling how the workloads may communicate. When a connection between two OS instances is requested, each OS instance provides an identity and a cryptographic proof of the identity. The OS instances each authenticate the identity received from the other OS instance, and once authenticated, determines based on the authenticated identities if the rules permit the communication. If the rules permit the communication, the OS instances obtain session parameters that enable the OS instances to validate integrity of the messages communicated between the workloads and optionally encrypt the messages.

Abstract: A policy management server manages a segmentation policy and policy constraints. The segmentation policy comprises a set of segmentation rules that each permit connections between specified groups of workloads that provide or consume network-based services. The policy constraints comprise a set of constraint rules that determine compliance of the segmentation rules. A workflow process may be initiated to resolve non-compliant rules by enabling an administrator to approve or deny the rule. In a large enterprise managing significant numbers of workloads, the policy constraints may be employed to ensure that overly permissive segmentation rules are not being created. This facilitates creation of a robust and narrowly tailored segmentation policy that reduces exposure of the enterprise to network-based security threats.

Abstract: A traffic control and monitoring module includes a firewall operating in a container namespace that is configured to control and monitor traffic to and from a container in the container namespace. The traffic control and monitoring module reports detected traffic to a traffic flow reporting module operating in a host namespace of the host operating system. The traffic control and monitoring module obtains traffic flows associated with a plurality of containers in different container namespaces and reports the traffic flows to a segmentation policy. Based on the reported traffic flows, the segmentation server may update a segmentation policy to improve network security.

Abstract: A segmentation server configures and distributes rules for enforcing a segmentation policy that includes one or more virtual patches. The rules including the virtual patches are enforced by distributed enforcement modules that may execute on host devices or on network devices upstream from the host devices. An enforcement module enforces the rules using traffic filters that filter traffic based on network layer data. To implement a virtual patch, the traffic filters are configured to redirect traffic to or from an application being patched to a transparent application proxy. The transparent application proxy implements an application layer filter that filters traffic based on application layer data to block specific types of traffic associated with a vulnerability addressed by the virtual patch.

Abstract: A managed server (MS) within an administrative domain is quarantined. The administrative domain includes multiple MSs that use management instructions to configure management modules so that the configured management modules implement an administrative domain-wide management policy that comprises a set of one or more rules. The quarantined MS is isolated from other MSs. A description of the MS is modified to indicate that the MS is quarantined, thereby specifying a description of the quarantined MS. Cached actor-sets are updated to indicate the quarantined MS's changed state, thereby specifying updated actor-sets. A determination is made regarding which updated actor-sets are relevant to an other MS, thereby specifying currently-relevant updated actor-sets. A determination is made regarding whether the currently-relevant updated actor-sets differ from actor-sets previously sent to the other MS.

Abstract: An enforcement module receives management instructions from a segmentation server for enforcing a segmentation policy. The management instructions include one or more rules specifying one or more groups of workloads that a workload executing on the operating system instance is permitted to communicate with according to certain communication constraints, and membership information specifying workload identifiers for workloads in each of the groups. An optimization module processes the management instructions to reduce the number of rules and the number of workload groups to which the rules apply, thereby simplifying the firewall configuration. The enforcement module then configures a firewall according to the optimized rules to enforce the segmentation policy. The optimization process beneficially improves performance of the firewall and thereby enables more efficient enforcement of the segmentation policy utilizing fewer computing resources.

Abstract: A policy management server enables selective enforcement of a segmentation policy. The policy management server manages a segmentation policy that specifies a set of segmentation rules specifying permitted communications between workloads. The policy management server separately manages an enforcement policy that controls whether or not the segmentation policy is enforced for different services provided by the workloads. For services that are enforced, the policy management server distributes instructions to distributed enforcement modules that configure traffic filters to block traffic pertaining to enforced services that does not meet the segmentation rules. For non-enforced services, the policy management server obtains traffic data from the distributed enforcement modules without enforcing the segmentation policy to enable an administrator to build and/or test the segmentation policy.

Abstract: In a segmented network environment, a traffic flow graph provides visibility into the connections between workloads or groups of workloads under management of a segmentation policy. Squelching rules may be applied to hide traffic in the traffic flow graph that meets specified criteria. The squelching rules may be label-based rules that enable configuration of squelching rules that apply to group of workloads and enable configurations to be rapidly updated as workloads or added or dropped from the network or as their configurations change. Additionally, squelching rules may be applied based on characteristics of the traffic data or based on an identity of an administrator viewing the traffic flow graph.

Abstract: State information is received from a server indicating an identity of a user logged into the server. An administrative domain wide policy is determined that specifies a relationship between user a group and services or servers accessible to users belonging to the user group. Relevant servers are sent updated management instructions corresponding to rules of the administrative domain wide policy. Such rules provide access to a service or server to users belonging to user groups related to the service. As a result, the servers allow communications that provide access to users based on the specified relationships.

Abstract: A segmentation server enables user-based management of a segmentation policy. Administrators belonging to different user groups may have different limited visibility into traffic flows controlled by the segmentation policy and may be assigned different privileges with respect to viewing, creating, and modifying rules of the segmentation policy. Thus, the burden of administering the segmentation policy may be distributed between administrators associated with different user groups that each may have responsibility for a different segment.

Abstract: A policy management server manages a segmentation policy for segmenting a network and a deception policy for implementing deception services. The policy management server distributes segmentation rules and deception rules to distributed enforcement modules that configure respective traffic filters to enforce the policies. The deception rule may be enforced directly by the traffic filter acting as a deception service, or the traffic filter may act as a proxy to an external deception service. The deception service can behave similarly to a real service to obtain information about the malicious actor that is reported to the policy management server to enable the policy management server to take a remedial action. Furthermore, the policy management server may automatically generate the deception policy based on the segmentation policy such that connection requests that are not allowed by the segmentation policy are automatically sent to a deception service.

Abstract: A segmentation firewall executing on a host enforces a segmentation policy. In a co-existence mode, the segmentation firewall operates in co-existence with a system firewall that enforces a security policy. The segmentation firewall is configured to either drop packets that do not match any permissive rule or pass packets that match a permissive rule to the system firewall to enable the system firewall to determine whether to drop or accept the passed packets. To enable efficient operation of the segmentation firewall when operating in co-existence with the system firewall, the segmentation firewall may include a plurality of rule chains and may be configured to exit a chain and bypass remaining rule chains upon an input packet matching a permissive rule of the segmentation policy.

Abstract: An enforcement module receives a DNS-based rule of a segmentation policy that controls access of a managed workload to workloads in a DNS domain in which the IP addresses of the workloads associated with a domain name are resolved by a DNS server. When the managed workload makes a connection request to the workload associated with the domain name, the enforcement module snoops on a DNS response from the DNS server to learn the IP address of the workload associated with the domain name. If a domain name of the DNS domain is in a whitelist of domain names permitted by the DNS-based rule, the enforcement module adds the learned IP address to a whitelist of IP addresses and configures a firewall associated with the managed workload to permit connections to the IP addresses in the whitelist.

Abstract: A policy management server detects attack patterns in traffic flows reported by distributed enforcement modules enforcing the segmentation policy. The policy management server generates a traffic flow graph representing traffic flows between workloads or groups of workloads. Traffic flows matching one or more traffic flow patterns may be tagged in the traffic flow graph. For example, if an attack pattern is present in a connection that is blocked under the segmentation policy, the policy management server may block updates to the segmentation policy that attempt to enable the connection or may alert an administrator prior to enabling the update. If an attack pattern is present in a connection that is allowed under the segmentation policy, the segmentation policy may be updated to block the connection, alert an administrator, redirect traffic to a deception service, or take other remedial action.