Create a Reference System Whitelist Policy

What's Covered

Create a Resource Target

Create a File Scan Policy

Create a File Parameter Selection

This document shows you how to create a whitelist policy for your reference system that targets a collection of computers, searches for Windows executables, and then adds any Windows executables to a whitelist.

Create a Resource Target

First you will need to create a resource target that contains the desired reference system(s). To create a resource target, do the following steps:

1. In the Security Manager Console, click the Resources tab.
2. In the left pane, click Resource Filters.
3. Right-click the Resource Target folder.
4. Click New > Resource Targets > Resource Target.
   
5. Enter a name and description.
6. Click OK.
   
7. In the right pane under Filtering Rules, click the Add rule button.
    
8. In the Then menu, "excludes computers not in" will be the default. 
9. In the menu just to the right of the Then menu, choose Computer List.
10. Then click Select.
     
11. In the Select Item window that opens, click the computer resources that represent your reference system(s).
12. Click OK.
    
     

Create a File Scan Policy

Now that you have your targeting established you can create a file scan policy to add files to your whitelist.

1. In the Security Manager Console, click the Policies tab.
2. In the left pane, navigate to the Arellia Solutions > File Inventory > Policies folder.
3. Right-click the Policies folder and click New > General Scheduled Client Task.
    
4. In the Create Item dialog box, give the task a name and description.
5. Under Client Command, click the Select link.
   
    
    
6. In the Client Command dialog box, click File Scan Command.
7. Click OK.
   
    
    
8. Under Resource Targets, click the All Managed Computers (Target) link.
9. In the Resource Targets dialog box, choose the endpoints you want to include in the policy.
10. In the Create Item dialog box, click OK.
11. Configure the new policy settings as follows:
    1. Turn on the new policy.
    2. Under File Specifications choose Executables in Windows Directories.
    3. Under Reporting Specifications choose Executions in Windows Directories not present in Security Catalogs.
    4. Configure the schedule interval for how often the file scan will execute.
       
       Note: During the initial testing phase the file scan can be started manually using Windows Task Scheduler on the reference system.
       
       
       
       
12. Click Save.

Create a File Parameter Collection

Once the file scan has run on the reference system(s) you will have a list of all executables in the Windows directories that are not contained in a security catalog.

You can create a file parameter collection that contains this list of files which can then be used in a whitelist policy.

Create a file parameter collection by doing the following steps:

1. In the Security Manager Console, click the Policies tab.
2. In the left pane, navigate to the Arellia Solutions > Application Control > Filters > Inventory Filters
3. Right-click the Inventory Filters folder.
4. Click New > File Scan Results Filter (Policy).
   
5. Give the filter a name and optional description.
6. Click OK.
   
   
   
   
7. Configure the parameters to reflect the File Scan policy settings
   1. Set the File Scan Policy to the policy created in the above steps
   2. Set the Reporting Filter to the same one that was configured in the above steps
   3. Set the Results to be Included
   4. Click Save
   
   
   

Whitelist Policy

Once all of the above steps have been completed you are able to put them all into a Reference System Whitelist Policy.

1. Open the Policies tab 
2. Right click on the Arellia Solutions > Application Control > Policies > Whitelisting folder and create a new Blank Application Control Policy
3. Give the policy a name and optional description
4. Set the Applications to the file parameter collection created above
5. Under Policy Enforcement
   1. Set the Policy priority to be a number that is lower than your orange list / deny policy priorities
   2. Ensure that Continue enforcing policies after enforcing this policy is unchecked
6. Click Save

You now have a working reference system whitelist policy configured.