CheckPoint 156-315.81.20 - Questions & Answers

The Check Point TE appliance in Recommended Mode includes 2(OS) images. One image is used for running the appliance, and the other image is used for backup and recovery purposes. The images are not chosen by the administrator during installation, nor based on the license or the latest version.

References:
[Check Point R81 Threat Emulation Administration Guide]

The cphaprob -a if command displays the interface status of all cluster members, including the interface name, IP address, state, monitor mode, and sync status.

References:
cphaprob - Check Point Support Center

The statement that is correct about the Sticky Decision Function is It is not supported with either the Performance pack of a hardware based accelerator card. The Sticky Decision Function (SDF) is a feature that ensures that packets from the same connection are handled by the same cluster member in a Load Sharing configuration. However, SDF is not compatible with SecureXL acceleration, which is enabled by default or by using a Performance pack or a hardware based accelerator card 4. The other statements are either incorrect or outdated about SDF.

References:
Check Point R81 ClusterXL Administration Guide, Sticky Decision Function - Check Point CheckMates

Detecting and blocking malware by correlating multiple detection engines before users are affected is not a feature associated with the Check Point URL Filtering and Application Control Blade. This feature is part of the Check Point SandBlast Network solution, which uses Threat Emulation and Threat Extraction technologies to prevent zero-day attacks. The other features are part of the URL Filtering and Application Control Blade, which allows you to control access to web applications and sites based on various criteria.

References:
URL Filtering and Application Control Administration Guide

On R81.20, when configuring Third-Party devices to read the logs using the LEA (Log Export API), the default Log Server uses port 18184. This port can be changed using the lea_server command in expert mode. The other ports are either not related to LEA, or used for different purposes, such as 18210 for CPMI, 257 for FW1_log, and 18191 for SIC.

References:
[Check Point R81 Logging and Monitoring Administration Guide], [Check Point Ports Used for Communication by Various Check Point Modules]

Dynamic Dispatcher is a feature that optimizes the performance of Security Gateways with multiple CPU cores by dynamically allocating traffic to different cores based on their load and priority. Firewall Priority Queues is a feature that prioritizes traffic based on its type and importance by assigning it to different queues with different weights and limits. To fully enable Dynamic Dispatcher with Firewall Priority Queues on a Security Gateway, you need to run the following command in Expert mode then reboot:

This command sets the multi-core mode to 9, which means that Dynamic Dispatcher is enabled with Firewall Priority Queues. The other commands are not valid or do not enable both features.

References:
R81 Performance Tuning Administration Guide

Sticky Decision Function (SDF) is a feature that ensures that VPN traffic is handled by the same core on a Security Gateway with multiple CPU cores. This improves the performance and stability of VPN tunnels by avoiding out-of-order packets and reducing encryption overhead. However, the limitation of employing SDF is that acceleration technologies, such as SecureXL and CoreXL are disabled when activating SDF. This means that SDF may reduce the overall throughput and scalability of the Security Gateway. Therefore, SDF should be used only when necessary and only on gateways that are dedicated to VPN traffic.

References:
R81 Performance Tuning Administration Guide

Anti-Bot is a post-infection malware protection that detects and blocks botnet communications from infected hosts to Command & Control servers. It is different from other Threat Prevention mechanisms that prevent malware from entering the network or executing on the hosts.

References:
Anti-Bot Software Blade

Gateway API is NOT an example of a Check Point API. Check Point API is a general term that refers to various application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow external applications to interact with Check Point products and services using standard methods such as HTTP(S) requests and JSON objects. There are several types of Check Point APIs, such as Management API, Threat Prevention API, OPSEC SDK, etc. Management API is an API that allows external applications to configure, manage, and monitor Check Point management server using web services. Threat Prevention API is an API that allows external applications to send files or URLs to Check Point Threat Prevention products for scanning and analysis using web services. OPSEC SDK is an API that allows external applications to integrate with Check Point OPSEC products using C/C++ libraries and protocols. Gateway API is not a valid or existing type of Check Point API.