Patent ID: 9497162
Filing Date: 2016-11-15
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: causing to be displayed, by a network security appliance, a security rule configuration interface through which a network administrator can specify parameters of a plurality of security rules to be applied to network traffic attempting to traverse the network security appliance through one or more of a plurality of interfaces of the network security appliance; receiving, by the network security appliance via the security rule configuration interface, parameters defining a traffic flow to be controlled by a security rule of the plurality of security rules, wherein the parameters defining the traffic flow include: a set of source interfaces of the plurality of interfaces, representing a proper subset of the plurality of interfaces, from which traffic associated with the traffic flow being defined can be received by the network security appliance; a set of destination interfaces of the plurality of interfaces, representing a proper subset of the plurality of interfaces, through which traffic associated with the traffic flow being defined can be transmitted by the network security appliance if the security rule allows the traffic flow; and wherein at least one of the set of source interfaces and the set of destination interfaces includes multiple interfaces of the plurality of interfaces such that the security rule permits the traffic flow to be defined, at least in terms of multiple source interfaces and multiple destination interfaces; and receiving, by the network security appliance via the security rule configuration interface, information regarding an action to be performed on the network traffic when the network traffic matches the security rule; storing, by the network security appliance, the security rule as part of a ruleset to be applied to the network traffic.