Technical Tip: How to block by country or geolocation

[evejar]

Description

This article shows the configuration to protect a server from attacks from countries the user has no business with.

Scope

FortiGate.

Solution

First, create an address object:

Go to Policy & Object -> Addresses. and then in the 'address' label, select 'create new'.

• Name: Choose a name.
• Type: Select 'Geography'.
• Country: Select the country to block.
  

Do this for all the countries to block.
 
Then, create a group for these countries that need to be blocked.

Select 'create' and 'new address group'.

The last thing to do is to create a policy.
Go to Policy & Object -> IPv4 Policy.

Create a policy that blocks the traffic from the countries to the resources (like servers in the DMZ) that need to be protected.

Once this rule is created, the traffic from those countries will be blocked (this is to protect the server only, it does not block the internet).

If there is even 1 VIP policy on the FortiGate then this policy will not work as expected. To make this work ensure that in the policy itself add a command to match it to the VIP or add the destination as all The VIPs present in the destination instead of 'all'.

Option 1: Enable match-vip in the block geolocation Policy:

config firewall policy

    edit <policy-id>  <----- Here the policy ID would be of the 'Block Geolocation Traffic' as seen in the screenshot above.

           set match-vip enable

end

Option 2: Add all the VIPs that are used in the FortiGate:

Geolocation also contains the Reserved option (ZZ) which denotes the addresses that are not assigned publicly.

Note:

• To restrict/allow access from specific countries through an SSL VPN tunnel, the following document can be referred to:
  Technical Tip: Restricting/allowing SSL VPN access from specific countries using sslvpn settings via...
  
• The match-vip option is disabled by default until v7.2.3. In versions after 7.2.3, the option is enabled by default.
• The 'set match-vip' option is only available if the policy action is set to 'deny'. 

Related documents:

• Identity-based-route
• Technical Tip: How FortiGate can block Duolingo in different ways. Blocks web application.
• Technical Tip: Disconnecting a member from a cluster
• Technical Tip: Commands to verify GeoIP information and troubleshoot GeoIP database 
• Technical Tip: Blocking Inbound Access from Specific Country IP Ranges on FortiGate
• Technical Tip: How to block VIP access using GEO Location