FortiProxy, FortiGate & WCCP

By Manny Fernandez

February 19, 2020

FortiProxy, FortiGate & WCCP

Explicit Proxy has been included on the Fortigate since early on. However because of competitive reason, Fortinet spun off the Explicit Proxy features into a stand-alone platform. Although Proxy services are still available. I believe, and this is my opinion, that Fortinet was unable to compete with the likes of competitors such as Blue Coat (Now part of Symantec). Although the Fortigate had many of the features, Gardner categorized it as either a UTM or Enterprise Firewall. Now the FortiProxy has its own development team and today it is a full stand-alone product. Enough of that though.

Credit: I want to give credit to Kevin Tracy, CSE at Fortinet and Alex Saija, SLED SE at Fortinet. They both offered their help on configuring this at a customer location.

WCCP

Web Cache Communication Protocol (WCCP), was developed by Cisco Systems. It was developed to redirect traffic transparently and with redundancy to a web-cache or proxy platform. Cisco has their own proxy solution that competes with FortiProxy and Blue Coat, although I do not run into it often. Not sure about the longevity of the product. Cisco has been known to acquire products quickly but can also cut their losses even quicker and dump the products. However credit should be given to Cisco for WCCP.

Explicit Proxy

In explicit proxy, the browser is specifically (or explicitly) defined with the proxy server’s IP address. When the device tries to connect to a website (http, https or SOCKS), the connection is intercepted by the proxy server and the server will make the connection for you.

Transparent Proxy

With Transparent Proxy you have the same basic function as Explicit Proxy but does not require you to configure the browser. Typically, the gateway will intercept the connection and process it.

Here is my scenario

Workstation will attempt to connect to the Internet
The FortiGate will receive the packet and forward using WCCP to the FortiProxy.
FortiProxy will cache the connections, CAN enforce Web Content, IPS, Application control, etc.
FortiProxy send the traffic back to the Fortigate and then out to the Internet.

10.10.10.200 - FortiProxy (3)
10.10.10.254 - FortiGate (2)

On the FortiProxy

Enabling WCCP Cache Engine

On the FortiProxy, you will need to enable WCCP

config system settings
     set wccp-cache-engine enable
end

Configuring the WCCP Service Group

Next thing will be to configure the WCCP Service Group. A service group consists of one or more FortiProxy units configured as WCCP servers (or routers) and one or more FortiProxy WCCP clients working together to cache a specific type of traffic.

config system wccp
      edit "90"
         set cache-id 10.10.10.200
         set router-list "10.10.10.254" 
         set ports-defined destination
         set ports 80 443 
         set primary-hash src-port
         set protocol 6
     next
end

Enabling WCCP on the Interface

Now we will need to enable WCCP on the interface that will communicate over WCCP.

config system interface
     edit "port1"
        set ip 10.10.10.200 255.255.255.0 
        set allowaccess ping https ssh http 
        set type physical
        set explicit-web-proxy enable
        set explicit-ftp-proxy enable 
        set snmp-index 1
        set wccp enable
       next 
    end

Validating

Displaying the WCCP Stats.

diagnose test application wccp 2

vdom-root: work mode:cache working NAT first_phy_id=6
  interface list:
    intf=port2, gid=6 phy_id=6
  service list:
    service: 90, cache_id=10.10.10.200, group=0.0.0.0, auth(no)
       forward=1, return=1, cache_engine=1 assign=1.
    router list: 
      10.10.10.254
    port list: 
      80 443 
    ecache_id=10.10.10.200

Displaying the cache status

diagnose test application wccp 6

service-90 in vdom-root
erouter_list: 1 routers in total
    0. 10.10.10.254
    receive_id:1391 change_number:1
    cache servers seen by this router:
            0. 10.10.10.200 weight:0 (*Designated Web Cache)

Here are the options that were used above.

(1) Display WCCP stats
(2) Display WCCP config
(3) Display WCCP cache servers
(4) Display WCCP services
(5) Display WCCP assignment
(6) Display WCCP cache status

As you can see in the output, we used the (2) to validate the status and (6) to validate the cache status.

Creating a Transparent Proxy Policy

Next we will need to create a Transparent Policy on the FortiProxy. Ensure that the Incoming Interface is w.rootand the Outgoing Interface is the port that is facing the FortiGate. As you can see in the screenshot above, you can configure the Security Profiles as you would on the FortiGate.

NAT

On the FortiProxy, you will need to configure a NAT. Go to Central NAT section and create an entry where Source Interface is any and the Destination Interface as the port connected to the FortiGate.

On the FortiGate

Now on to the FortiGate. Lets start with configuring WCCP on the FortiGate.

Configuring WCCP on FortiGate

config system wccp
    edit "90"
       set router-id 10.10.10.254
       set server-list 10.10.10.0 255.255.255.0
    next
end

Enabling WCCP on FortiGate Interface

Next you need to enable WCCP on the interface

config system interface
    edit "port10"
       set vdom "root"
       set ip 10.10.10.254 255.255.255.0
       set allowaccess ping https ssh snmp http fgfm
       set type physical
       set device-identification enable
       set device-identification-active-scan enable
       set role lan
       set wccp enable
    next
end

Creating a WCCP Policy on FortiGate

Lets create a new policy on the Fortigate

Here you can see the Incoming and Outgoing Interfaces and in my case, I used a single workstation to test named Dummy-Address1 . As you can see we are choosing HTTP and HTTPS.

Enabling WCCP on the Policy

Prior to 6.2.3, you will need to enable WCCP via the CLI. This is easily done by right clicking on the policy and choosing Edit in CLI

Once you are in the CLI, you can enable WCCP by entering set wccp enable

config firewall policy
    edit 16
        set name "Dummy Test WCCP"
        set srcintf "port10"
        set dstintf "port9"
        set srcaddr "Dummy-Address1"
        set dstaddr "all"
        set action accept
        set status disable
        set schedule "always"
        set service "HTTP" "HTTPS"
        set logtraffic all
        set wccp enable
        set fsso disable
     next
end

If you are running 6.2.3 and above, you should be able to turn on Policy Advanced Options I recently wrote an article on how to enable this.

When you follow the article, you can enable WCCP from the GUI.

NOTE: Remember to install your subordinate CA certificate and the corresponding certificate chain if applicable. This will be used to perform SSL decryption on the FortiProxy.

And there you have it. Hope this helps.

FortiProxy, FortiGate & WCCP

WCCP

Explicit Proxy

Transparent Proxy

On the FortiProxy

Enabling WCCP Cache Engine

Configuring the WCCP Service Group

Enabling WCCP on the Interface

Validating

Creating a Transparent Proxy Policy

NAT

On the FortiGate

Configuring WCCP on FortiGate

Enabling WCCP on FortiGate Interface

Creating a WCCP Policy on FortiGate

Enabling WCCP on the Policy

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