Back to All Scenarios
PASSEDnetwork / firewall_rule_blocking
Firewall Rule Blocking Production Traffic
A junior admin pushes a firewall rule that blocks TCP port 443 outbound for the production server VLAN. All HTTPS-dependent services fail — API calls to payment gateways, cloud backups, software license checks, and update services all stop.
Pattern
FIREWALL_RULE_BLOCK
Severity
CRITICAL
Confidence
95%
Remediation
Auto-Heal
Test Results
| Metric | Expected | Actual | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pattern Recognition | FIREWALL_RULE_BLOCK | FIREWALL_RULE_BLOCK | |
| Severity Assessment | CRITICAL | CRITICAL | |
| Incident Correlation | Yes | 19 linked | |
| Cascade Escalation | Yes | Yes | |
| Remediation | — | Auto-Heal — Corax resolves autonomously |
Scenario Conditions
Palo Alto PA-3260. New deny rule inserted at position 5 (above allow rules). Source: 10.10.100.0/24 (server VLAN). Dest: any. Port: 443. Action: deny. 25 production servers affected.
Injected Error Messages (3)
Palo Alto firewall rule blocking production traffic — firewall block on deny rule 'Block-Test' at position 5 denying TCP/443 from 10.10.100.0/24 to any, blocked by policy, traffic log: 12,847 deny sessions in 10 minutes, rule shadowing existing allow rules
Payment gateway API unreachable — blocked by firewall rule, HTTPS connection to api.stripe.com denied by firewall block policy, payment processing halted, e-commerce checkout returning 'payment service unavailable'
Datto cloud backup agent cannot reach cloud — blocked by firewall rule, HTTPS connection to datto.com denied by firewall drop policy, backup sync failed, offsite backup RPO at risk
Neural Engine Root Cause Analysis
A Palo Alto firewall deny rule named 'Block-Test' at position 5 is blocking legitimate production traffic from subnet 10.10.100.0/24 to any destination on TCP port 443. This rule is positioned above existing allow rules, causing rule shadowing where the deny rule takes precedence and blocks 12,847 sessions in 10 minutes. The rule appears to be a test rule that was inadvertently left in production configuration or incorrectly positioned in the rule hierarchy.
Remediation Plan
1. Connect to Palo Alto firewall management interface at 10.0.0.254. 2. Navigate to Policies > Security and locate the 'Block-Test' rule at position 5. 3. Either disable the 'Block-Test' rule or move it below the appropriate allow rules to prevent rule shadowing. 4. Commit the configuration changes to make them active. 5. Monitor traffic logs to confirm production traffic from 10.10.100.0/24 is now flowing normally. 6. Verify the 9 correlated incidents are resolved as they likely stem from this same firewall block.
Tested: 2026-03-30Monitors: 3 | Incidents: 3Test ID: cmncjknwo0285obqek48jimar