Sophos Blocking Allowed Category

Question

Good morning Sophos Community, 
 We have weapons as an allowed category in our Sophos Firewall but today - a user tried to go to a site, and it was blocked as weapons. I dug through the Firewall and can't figure out what is configured incorrectly.

alan weir · Accepted Answer

So that settles it then: the website is based in Bulgaria, so it would be blocked if Bulgaria was blocked. I'm still curious about Hey Help Guy's firewall rule ID #3.

Michael Dunn · Answer

The block page that you have the screenshot for is normally a category block, however it is also a default block page for some rarer conditions that may not be related to category. Can you please check the Log Viewer in detailed view, as well as let us know what website they are going to.

Michael Dunn · Answer

If you are trying to track down the cause of web blocking, load the Log Viewer. Change the dropdown from Firewall to Web Filter. On the blocked traffic, however over the icon to get full details. Alternately, click the icon that says "detailed view". This will switch to all log modules. Use the dropdown to only select Web Filter.

Michael Dunn · Answer

So in this case it is hitting firewall rule " Outbound Geo Blocking". The firewall tells the proxy "Here is the connection, but please apply a Deny All policy because they should be blocked. The proxy sees that category Weapons is blocked in a Deny All policy. The proxy returns a Block Page with the category blocked. The underlying block is Geo Blocking. I'm not sure if the corresponding firewall log will give more information. Some GeoIP databases thinks that the IP is in Bulgaria. www.maxmind.com/.../geoip-demo

Michael Dunn · Answer

At this point in time the request was http not https. There are several factors and browser behavior. In he address bar type "example.com". The browser might first assume it is HTTP so it does a request for http://example.com but also (without being told to) does a request for http://example.com/favicon.ico (which it uses as the icon in the tab). Most HTTPS sites also run an HTTP redirector so the request is returned with a 302 and redirecting to load the HTTPS site instead. It happens so quickly that you don't notice. Some browsers are moving to "HTTPS first" and attempting HTTPS before HTTP when not specified. I would assume they also switch he automatic get for favicon to HTTPS but I don't know. The request in the log he gave was favicon on HTTP on port 80. The block comes from the firewall, but because it is web and a block page is friendlier than just dropping the connection, the firewall asks the proxy to block. There is no easy way for the firewall to tell the proxy why it is blocked - geoip, no user, or just hit a block rule.

Sophos Blocking Allowed Category

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