Manually Create a Reference System Whitelist Policy

Owned by John Murphy (Deactivated)
Last updated: Jul 27, 2015 by Max Pinion (Deactivated)
4 min read

What's Covered

Create a Resource Target

Create a File Scan Policy

Create a File Parameter Selection

Create a Whitelist Policy

 

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

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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

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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

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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. In the Right pane, set the Data Source to the new policy.
  8. Next to Reporting Filter click the Select link and choose the reporting filter you configured in the previous steps.
  9. Under Results click Included.
  10. Click Save.

Create a Whitelist Policy

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When you have completed the previous steps, put them all into a Reference System Whitelist Policy by doing the following steps:

  1. In the Security Manager Console, click the Policies tab.
  2. In the left pane, navigate to Arellia Solutions > Application Control > Policies > Whitelisting.
  3. Right-click the Whitelisting folder.
  4. Click New > Blank Application Control Policy.
  5. Give the policy a name and optional description.
  6. Click OK.


     
  7. In the Applications to Control tab, click the Select Applications to control... link.
  8. In the Select Items dialog box that opens, select the file parameter collection you created previously.
  9. In the Policy Enforcement tab, set the Policy priority at a number lower than your orangelist or deny policy priorities.
  10. Ensure that Continue enforcing policies after enforcing this policy is unchecked.
  11. Click Save.

You now have a working reference system whitelist policy configured.

Whitelisting