In this post, we’ll explore common FortiGuard bypass techniques and, more importantly, how to mitigate them. 1. SSL/TLS Blind Spots (The Most Common Mistake) Many administrators enable web filtering but fail to configure SSL Inspection (often called "Deep Inspection"). If you only filter HTTP traffic or use certificate-based inspection without a full man-in-the-middle (MITM) setup, an attacker can simply use HTTPS.
Published by: Network Security Team Reading time: 5 minutes fortiguard web filtering bypass
A user or attacker can bypass domain reputation checks by using direct IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. They might also edit their local hosts file to map a blocked domain to an allowed IP. In this post, we’ll explore common FortiGuard bypass
Enable Full SSL Inspection on your firewall policies. Deploy the FortiGate CA certificate to all endpoints. Without this, your web filter is essentially blind. 2. IP-Based vs. Domain-Based Access FortiGuard primarily filters by domain name (URL/category). If a malicious server is hosted on a raw IP address (e.g., http://192.0.2.100/malware.exe ), and that IP is not categorized in FortiGuard’s database, the request may sail through. If you only filter HTTP traffic or use