| Description | This article illustrates FortiGate behavior when the threat feed list is empty. In some scenarios, a configured external threat feed will be wrongfully edited and the IP addresses will be deleted. |
| Scope | FortiGate. |
| Solution |
To configure the threat feed list, refer to the following document: Threat feeds
For this example, a custom threat feed was configured. It has one IP configured: 8.8.8.8.
diagnose sys external-address-resource list TEST
Two test policies were configured: one that blocks traffic that matches the destination IP addresses from the threat feed (8.8.8.8 in this case), and one that allows all traffic:
config firewall policy
HUB2 # sh firewall policy 3
To test the behavior, traffic towards 8.8.8.8 was generated from a host PC connected to the firewall. As the traffic is matching 8.8.8.8 and the policy has the default action to deny, the traffic is dropped:
id=65308 trace_id=1 func=print_pkt_detail line=5872 msg="vd-root:0 received a packet(proto=1, 10.65.10.32:43->8.8.8.8:2048) tun_id=0.0.0.0 from port2. type=8, c
As the next step, the threat feed was edited, and the 8.8.8.8 IP address was removed.
diagnose sys external-address-resource list TEST
To test the behavior, traffic towards 8.8.8.8 was generated from a host connected to the firewall. As the Threat Feed was empty, traffic matched Firewall Policy 3 and was allowed.
HUB2 # id=65308 trace_id=1 func=print_pkt_detail line=5872 msg="vd-root:0 received a packet(proto=1, 10.65.10.32:43->8.8.8.8:2048) tun_id=0.0.0.0 from port2. type=8, code=0, id=43, seq=4366." |
The Fortinet Security Fabric brings together the concepts of convergence and consolidation to provide comprehensive cybersecurity protection for all users, devices, and applications and across all network edges.
Copyright 2026 Fortinet, Inc. All Rights Reserved.