AlienApp for Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS Actions

The AlienApp for Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS provides a set of orchestration actions that you can use to quickly send IP addresses to the firewall Virtual or physical device designed to defend against unauthorized access to data, resources, or a private network. A firewall’s primary purpose is to create segregation between two or more network resources, blocking undesirable traffic between them. as a response to threats identified by USM Anywhere. You can also send IP addresses to Palo Alto Dynamic Address Groups. The AlienApp sends standard HTTP requests to the Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS APIs to register tags. Each such tag contains the source or destination address (or the fully qualified domain name [FQDN]) of the event or alarm that triggered the action or orchestration rule.

Important: Using the AlienApp for Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS orchestration actions requires that the AlienApp is enabled on a deployed USM Anywhere Sensor with configured integration to your Palo Alto Networks product. See Configuring the AlienApp for Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS for more information.

As USM Anywhere surfaces events Any traffic or data exchange detected by AT&T Cybersecurity products through a sensor or external devices such as a firewall. and alarms Alarms provide notification of an event or sequence of events that require attention or investigation., your team determines which items require a response action. Rather than manually tagging source and destination hosts in the Palo Alto Networks firewall for enforcement purposes, you can use the AlienApp for Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS orchestration actions to enforce protection based on the information associated with the event or alarm. The following table lists the available actions from the AlienApp.

Actions for AlienApp for Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS
Action Description
Tag Source IP Address from Event Run this action to tag a source IP address to a dynamic address group from an event

Tag Source IP Address from Rule

Run this action to tag source IP address and add it to a Dynamic Address Group in the connected Palo Alto Networks device from a rule
Tag Source IP Address from Alarm Run this action to tag a source IP address to a dynamic address group from an alarm
Tag Source Address from Rule Run this action to tag a source address from a rule
Tag Destination IP Address from Event Run this action to tag a destination IP address to a dynamic address group from an event

Tag Destination IP Address from Rule

Run this action to tag destination IP Address and add it to a Dynamic Address Group in the connected Palo Alto Networks device from a rule
Tag Destination IP Address from Alarm Run this action to tag a destination IP address to a dynamic group address from an alarm
Tag Destination Address from Rule Run this action to tag a destination address from a rule
Remove Tag from Source Address Run this action to remove a tag from the source address
Remove Tag from Address Group Run this action to remove a tag from the address group
Remove Tag from Destination Address Run this action to remove a tag from a destination address
Add Tag to Address Group Run this action to add a tag to an address group
Add Tag to Destination Address Run this action to add a tag to a destination address
Add Tag to Source Address Run this action to add a tag to a source address

Upon launch of the action, USM Anywhere sends a request to the Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS API to add one of the following identifiers to its Object database and to tag it according to the value specified in the action or rule.

  • IPv4 address
  • IPv6 address
  • FQDN

Important: By default, changes affecting PAN-OS firewall configurations require activation through a commit. The object (host) tag requests sent by AlienApp for Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS are not activated until you or another Palo Alto administrator commits them. In the PAN-OS web UI, you can filter pending changes by user account or location and then preview, validate, or commit only those changes. For more information about committing these changes, refer to the PAN-OS documentation.

If a specified tag does not already exist in the Palo Alto Networks device, the action also creates the new tag. The tag creation does not require a commit in the Palo Alto Networks environment.

To view information about these actions in USM Anywhere

  1. In USM Anywhere, go to Data Sources > AlienApps.
  2. Click the Available Apps tab.
  3. Search for the AlienApp, and then click the tile.

  4. Click the Actions tab to display information for the supported actions.

    Note: To use the Dynamic Address Group actions, you first need to configure Dynamic Address Groups in your policy within PAN-OS.

  5. Click the History tab to display information about the executed orchestration actions.

    View the history of executed Palo Alto orchestration actions

Launch Actions from USM Anywhere

You can launch an action directly from alarms or events. If you want to apply an action to similar events that occur in the future, you can also create orchestration rules directly from the action applied to an alarm or event.

Note: All Group and Tag names will default to lowercase in USM Anywhere to avoid any potential confusion over letter casing.

To launch a Palo Alto Networks orchestration action for an alarm

  1. Go to Activity > Alarms or Activity > Events.
  2. Click the alarm or event to open the details.

  3. Click Select Action.

    Click Select Action in the alarm details

  4. In the Select Action dialog box, select the Palo Alto tile.

    Select the Palo Alto Networks response action

  5. For the App Action, select the action you want to launch.

    Additional fields will be populated based on the action you've selected. Fill out the necessary fields for the app action.

    You can launch an action to tag the alarm destination host or source host.

  6. Enter the Palo Alto Networks Tag Name that you want to apply to the host.

    Set options to launch the Palo Alto Networks response action

  7. Click Run.

    After USM Anywhere initiates the action, it displays a confirmation dialog box.

    You can create a rule to launch a Palo Alto response action for similar alarms

    If you want to create a rule to apply the action to similar items that occur in the future, click Create rule for similar alarms or Create rule for similar events and define the new rule. If not, click OK.