Technical Tip: How to block downloading files through Torrent applications on FortiGate

[jiahoong112]

Description	This article describes how to block downloading files through Torrent applications on FortiGate. Torrent applications such as Utorrent, BitTorrent, etc.
Scope	FortiGate firmware versions that are not End of Support.
Solution	To block the downloading of files through torrent applications such as Utorrent, BitTorrent etc, the Application Control security profile is required. On top of that, Deep Packet Inspection must be used on the firewall policy. Configure the Application Control Security Profile. It is possible to choose to Block the entire P2P category or select the torrent desired to be blocked using the application signature. Or: Apply the Application Control profile to the internet-facing firewall policy. This will work on either flow or proxy-based firewall policy. The default deep-inspection profile can be used. This will not work if Deep Packet Inspection is not used. If regular certificate inspection is used, the torrent download will still work. Result: When downloading a file through the torrent application, the download will not start and will stay stuck at ‘Connecting to peers’ as shown: In Log & Report -> Security Events -> Application Control logs, it is possible to see the peer connection attempts being Blocked: