The new docs.trellix.com features a modernized UI and AI-powered conversational search. Content is currently available in English, with additional languages expected in early November 2026. We hope you enjoy the updated experience.

Add an inspection options policy

Prev Next

This page can be used to customize the policies as well as to configure the inspection options at the interface level. Inbound refers to any traffic destined for the internal network from an external source. Outbound refers to any traffic that originated from your internal network.

Note

Each window has either a Save or a Cancel button. Clicking Save saves the information to the database and closes all policy configuration actions. Clicking Cancel ends any operation and closes the window. If you want to continue creating or modifying a policy, do not click Save until you have completed every tab, step, or action available in the window.

Task

  1. In the Manager, click Policy and select the required Domain.
  2. Select Intrusion Prevention → Policy Types → Inspection Options.
    The Inspection Options page is displayed.
    Inspection Options Policies page


    The following are the available default inspection options policies:
    • Default Client Inspection — To inspect traffic from internal endpoints as they access the Internet
    • Default Server Inspection — To inspect traffic to exposed Web and mail servers
    • Default Client and Server Inspection — To inspect traffic both from internal endpoints and to exposed Web and mail servers
  3. Click .
    The New Policy window opens with the Properties tab selected.
  4. Update the following fields:
    Option Definition
    Name Enter a unique name to easily identify the policy.
    Description Describe the policy for other users to identify its purpose.
    Owner Displays the admin domain to which the policy belongs
    Visibility When selected, makes the policy available to the corresponding child admin domains. However, the policy cannot be edited or deleted from the child admin domains.

    From the drop-down list, select the option for the visibility level of the rule object.

    Available options are Owner and child domains and Owner domain only.

    Editable here The status Yes indicates that the policy is owned by the current admin domain. This field is uneditable.
    Statistics
    Lasted Updated Displays the time stamp when the policy was last modified. This field is uneditable.
    Last Updated By Displays the user who last modified the policy. This field is uneditable.
    Assignments Indicates the number of inline ports to which the policy is assigned
    Prompt for assignment after save If you deselect this option you can save the policy now and assign it to the Sensor resources as explained in the following section. If you select this option, the Assignments window opens automatically when you save the policy and you can assign the policy to the required Sensor resources.
    Cancel Reverts to the last saved configuration
  5. Click Next.
    The Inspection Options tab is displayed. By default, the Traffic Inspection tab within the Inspection Options tab is displayed.
    Traffic Inspection


    Option Definition
    HTTP Response Traffic Scanning Enabling this option instructs the Sensor to inspect HTTP response headers and payload for attacks.

    The HTTP Response Traffic Scanning option is disabled by default because scanning response traffic requires extra system resources. To minimize the impact on performance, we recommend enabling this option only where necessary.

    When you enable the HTTP Response Traffic Scanning option a warning message is displayed.



    HTTP Response Decompression

    HTTP response traffic is commonly compressed in gzip format to improve performance. This format reduces transfer time and bandwidth consumption. However, attackers use it to evade detection of malicious payload. Enabling this option instructs the Sensor to decompress compressed HTTP response traffic for inspection.

    Note

    The HTTP Response Decompression option is disabled if the HTTP Response Traffic Scanning option is selected as disabled.

    When you enable the HTTP Response Decompression option a warning message is displayed. Review the warning message and click OK to proceed.



    Note the following if you use this option:

    • HTTP response decompression is supported for gzip compressed files only.
    • Advanced malware inspection of decompressed files is not supported.
    • This feature is not supported on M-series Sensors.
    Chunked HTTP Response Decoding Chunked transfer encoding is a data transfer mechanism of HTTP. The web server breaks the HTTP response content into chunks. Chunked transfer encoding uses the HTTP response header in place of the content-length header, which the protocol would otherwise require.

    Enabling this option instructs the IPS Sensor to decode chunked HTTP response traffic for inspection.

    Note

    Chunked HTTP Response Decoding field is disabled if the HTTP Response Traffic Scanning field option is selected as disabled.

    HTML-Encoded HTTP Response Decoding HTTP response traffic can be sent using HTML encoding, and attackers can use this encoding mechanism to evade detection of malicious payload. Enable this for the Sensor to decode such traffic for inspection. Some of the encoding techniques used are:
    • Deflate — This compression technique is used mainly to compress data in PDF file formats. PDF documents support using “deflate” encoding in parts of the document.
    • HTML encoding — The HTML response data is encoded using the "&#" encoding technique. The encoding can be in decimal or hexadecimal format.
    • Base64 — Base64 encoding is used to encode binary data that is to be stored and transferred over media that are designed to deal with textual data. This encoding technique ensures that the data remains intact without modification during transport.

      Enabling this option instructs the IPS Sensor to decode HTML-encoded HTTP response traffic for inspection.

    Note

    HTML-Encoded HTTP Response Decoding is disabled when Response Scanning is disabled.

    Microsoft Office Deep File Inspection Microsoft Office version 2007 and later uses Office Open XML format, a zipped XML based file format. The zipped file contains multiple files upon extraction. Enabling this option instructs the Sensor to decompress compressed Office files for inspection.

    Note

    MS Office Deep File Inspection field is disabled if the HTTP Response Traffic Scanning field option is selected as disabled.

    When you enable the MS Office Deep File Inspection option a warning message is displayed. Review the warning message and click OK to proceed.

    For more information on Microsoft Office Deep File Inspection, see Microsoft Office Deep File Inspection.

    X-Forwarded-For (XFF) Header Parsing Enabling this option allows the Manager to indicate when a connection has been proxied and report both the proxy server IP address and the true endpoint IP address.
    Base64 SMTP Decoding Enabling this option instructs the IPS Sensor to decode Base64-encoded SMTP for inspection.
    Quoted-Printable SMTP Decoding The SMTP protocol specification uses MIME content transfer encoding to transport binary data. Since SMTP protocol can handle only 7-bit ASCII data, each 3-byte group of binary data is converted to 6-bit number and replaced with an ASCII character.

    Quoted-printable and Base64 are the two basic MIME content transfer encodings. Quoted-printable encoding uses printable ASCII characters, such as alphanumeric and the equals sign (=), to transmit 8-bit data over a 7-bit data path.

    Enabling this option instructs the IPS Sensor to decode quoted-printable encoded SMTP for inspection.
    MS RPC/SMB Fragment Reassembly SMB is a network file sharing protocol. MS-RPC provides a framework for interprocess communication mechanism to exchange data between two processes residing on the same system or on two remote systems accessible over a network. MS-RPC's transport layer could be TCP, UDP, HTTP, or SMB. SMB protocol supports segmentation of its data.

    Also, MS-RPC protocol supports fragmentation of its payload. Since MS-RPC can be carried within SMB protocol data, either fragmentation or segmentation or a combination of both can be used to evade any network packet inspection device.

    Enabling this option instructs the IPS Sensor to reassemble MS RPC/SMB fragments for inspection.
    Layer 7 Data Collection Enabling this option instructs the Sensor to include Layer 7 information, such as HTTP URLs, SMTP email addresses, and FTP logon names, in alerts and to export them to NTBA appliances for analysis. The following options are available in this field:
    • Disabled
    • Inbound Only
    • Outbound Only
    • Inbound and Outbound Only
    By default, the option Disabled is selected.
    Passive Device Profiling Enabling this option instructs the Sensor to parse DHCP, TCP, and HTTP packets to identify the device type and operating system, and to make that information available for display for attack relevance analysis.
    Simulated Blocking Enabling this option instructs the Sensor to merely simulate blocking, sending a TCP reset, and ICMP host unreachable message. Simulation applies to signature-based attack definitions only. The following options are available in this field:
    • Enabled
    • Disabled
    Prompt for assignment after save When selected, you are automatically prompted to select the Sensor resources to which you want to assign the policy.
    Save Click Save to save the changes
    Cancel Reverts to the last saved configuration
    All fields except Simulated Blocking have the following 4 options:
    • Disabled
    • Inbound only
    • Outbound only
    • Inbound and Outbound
  6. Click the Advanced Callback Detection tab.
    Advanced Callback Detection


    The Advanced Callback Detection tab displays the following fields:

    Option Definition
    Callback Detectors and Heuristic Callback Discovery Select any of the following options:
    • Disabled
    • Inbound only
    • Outbound only
    • Inbound and Outbound

    Note

    If you wish to disable Layer 7 Data Collection option in Traffic Inspection ensure that Callback Detectors and Heuristic Callback Discovery option is also disabled.

    Heuristic Sensitivity The sensitivity level determines the level of confidence the heuristic engine must have for the analysis. For example, when a low sensitivity level (default) is selected, the engine must have high confidence that it has detected a Bot before raising an alert. Select the following sensitivity level options:
    • High
    • Medium
    • Low
    DNS Sinkholing Select any of the following options:
    • Enabled
    • Disabled
    Fast Flux Detection Select any of the following options:
    • Disabled
    • Inbound only
    • Outbound only
    • Inbound and Outbound
    Domain Generation Algorithm Detection Select any of the following options:
    • Disabled
    • Inbound only
    • Outbound only
    • Inbound and Outbound
    Domain Name Exclusion List Processing Select any of the following options:
    • Enabled
    • Disabled
    Export Traffic to NTBA for Additional Callback Analysis Enable this option to send the Botnet events to NTBA for further analysis.
    CIDRs Excluded from Advanced Callback Detection
    New CIDR Enter the new CIDR and click Add to add to the CIDR list to be excluded.

    Click to remove the CIDR from the list.

    Prompt for assignment after save When selected, you are automatically prompted to select the Sensor resources to which you want to assign the policy.
    Save Click Save to save the changes.
    Cancel Reverts to the last saved configuration
  7. Click the GTI Reputation Services tab.

    1. Endpoint Reputation Analysis


      The Endpoint sub-tab in the GTI Reputation Services tab displays the following fields:
      Option Definition
      Endpoint Reputation Analysis Select any of the following options:
      • Disabled
      • Inbound only
      • Outbound only
      • Inbound and Outbound

      Note

      Make sure Layer 7 Data Collection is enabled in Traffic Inspection tab to detect the GTI risky URL attacks.

      Use Endpoint Reputation to Influence SmartBlocking Select Enabled to enable endpoint reputation to Influence SmartBlocking. Select Disabled to disable the option.
      Exclude Internal Endpoints from GTI Lookups Select Enabled to exclude internal endpoints from Trellix GTI Lookups. Select Disabled to disable the option.
      CIDRs Excluded from Endpoint Reputation Lookups
      New CIDR Enter the new CIDR and click Add to add to the CIDR list to be excluded.

      Click to remove the CIDR from the list.

      Note

      The CIDR exclusion list is shared by Advanced Callback Detection and Endpoint Reputation Analysis

      Protocols Excluded from Endpoint Reputation Lookups In the drop-down list, select the protocol to be excluded from Trellix GTI Lookups and click Add. The selected protocol is displayed in the field below.

      Click to remove the protocol from the list.

      Prompt for assignment after save When selected, you are automatically prompted to select the Sensor resources to which you want to assign the policy.
      Save Click Save to save the changes.
      Cancel Reverts to the last saved configuration
    2. The URL sub-tab in the GTI Reputation Services tab displays the following fields:
      Option Definition
      URL Reputation Analysis Select any of the following options:
      • Disabled
      • Inbound only
      • Outbound only
      • Inbound and Outbound
      Minimal Risk URL Select any of the following options:
      • Medium
      • High
      Prompt for assignment after save When selected, you are automatically prompted to select the Sensor resources to which you want to assign the policy.
      Save Click Save to save the changes.
      Cancel Reverts to the last saved configuration
  8. Click the Web Server- Heuristic Analysis tab. In the Web Server- Heuristic Analysis, you can enable behavior-based detection of attacks against your web servers. You can also optionally add blocked text, such as the name of a stored procedure that is treated as an attack.
    Web Server- Heuristic Analysis


    The Web Server- Heuristic Analysis tab displays the following fields:

    Option Definition
    Heuristic Analysis Select any of the following options:
    • Disabled
    • Inbound only
    • Outbound only
    • Inbound and Outbound
    Website Paths to Protect Select All to protect all website paths or select Specific to protect specific website paths.
    Website Paths to Protect
    New Website Path Enter the website paths that you want to protect and click Add. The website path is displayed in the field below.

    Click to remove the website path from the list.

    Note

    This field is displayed only when you select the option Specific in field Website Paths to Protect

    Blocked Text
    New Text Enter the blocked text which is treated as an attack and click Add.The blocked text is displayed in the field below.

    Click to remove the blocked text from the list.

    Prompt for assignment after save When selected, you are automatically prompted to select the Sensor resources to which you want to assign the policy.
    Save Click Save to save the changes.
    Cancel Reverts to the last saved configuration
  9. Click the Web Server - Denial-of-Service tab. In Web Server - Denial-of-Service, you can configure to prevent denial-of-service attacks.
    Web Server - Denial-of-Service Prevention


    The Web Server - Denial-of-Service Prevention tab displays the following fields:

    Option Definition
    Denial-of-Service Prevention Select any of the following options:
    • Disabled
    • Inbound only
    • Outbound only
    • Inbound and Outbound
    Maximum Simultaneous Connections Allowed to All Web Servers Specify the threshold for maximum connections allowed to all web servers.
    Slow-Connection Attack Prevention Select the option Enabled to close 10 percent of the oldest slow open connections. This option is Disabled by default.
    Maximum HTTP Requests/Second Allowed to Any Website Path Specify the maximum HTTP requests/second that should be allowed to any website path.
    Client Browser detection Select the option Enabled or Disabled.
    Browser Detection Method The detection methods use the challenge/response mechanism to detect a valid client browser. The options are HTML Challenge and JavaScript Challenge

    Note

    This field is displayed only when you select the option Enabled in field Client Browser detection

    Website Paths to Protect Select All to protect all website paths or select Specific to protect specific website paths.
    Website Paths to Protect
    New Website Path In the first text field, enter the website paths that you want to protect and in the second text field, enter the maximum number of requests per second to any website. click Add. The website path and the maximum requests per second is displayed in the field below.

    Click to remove the website path and requests per second from the list.

    Note

    This field is displayed only when you select the option Specific in the field Website Paths to Protect

    Prompt for assignment after save When selected, you are automatically prompted to select the Sensor resources to which you want to assign the policy.
    Save Click Save to save the changes.
    Cancel Reverts to the last saved configuration