This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
The audit tool reads a policy you paste. It does not log in and it does not install. One finding: an any-to-any rule, a cleanup you cannot explain, or a secret in the export. Install is the apply. This page does not install.
Keep the package revision. Redact secrets and rotate them. This is not a certification. One policy, not every gateway.
A gateway you do not administer is out of scope.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Paste a policy you may hold.
- Pick one finding.
- Name the revision.
- Redact secrets.
- Do not install.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Check Point Hardening Checklist goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- An install from the reading.
- Any-to-any left as the plan.
- The revision discarded.
- A secret retained.
- Every gateway selected.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Check Point Hardening Checklist: The policy is yours. One gap is named. The revision exists. Nothing was installed. And secrets are gone.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The policy is named. The gap is written. The revision is named. No secret remains. And no gateway was installed. If one of those fails, stop.
Before you leave the device
Check Point Hardening Checklist ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.
- Pillar: Network Device Hardening Guide
- Checklist: Cisco NX-OS Hardening Checklist
- Checklist: Cisco IOS Hardening Checklist
- Checklist: FortiGate Hardening Checklist
Companion: Security: Server Hardening Guide.