Incorrect URL categorization for cannabis related websites

Incorrect URL categorization for cannabis related websites

10934
Created On 07/30/21 15:15 PM - Last Modified 07/11/25 19:56 PM


Symptom


  • URL Filtering categorizing Cannabis sell and promote related websites as both 'Abused-drugs' and 'Health and Medicine'
  • URL filtering profiles blocking 'Abused-drugs' category traffic might affect the access to those websites, even if Cannabis is legal in some states or nations

Environment


  • Any PAN-OS
  • Any Hardware series
  • Any VM series

Cause


  • It is not possible to remove the "abused-drugs" category as per company policy the websites related to medical / recreational cannabis should be classified with the primary category of "abused-drugs" and secondary category of "health-and-medicine".
  • This separates the sites that offer non-cannabis drugs (only classified as 'abused-drugs') from cannabis only sites and gives the customers the ability to allow these type of websites on their firewall by setting up the appropriate rules.\
  • Additionally, URLs must have a risk associated with them, with low-risk being the lowest/safest. So it would seem the categories applied to the URL are accurate and as safe as they can be within Palo Alto Networks system.
     

Resolution


  1. Create a Custom URL Category
  2. Add the websites to the URL Category
  3. Apply the URL category to the URL Filtering profile and allow the traffic
  4. Link that URL Filtering profile to the Security Policy accordingly

Additional Information


  • PAN-OS 9.0 introduced the concept of multi-categorization, where URLs can be categorized in multiple categories. Further reading and how it can be applied as a potential solution as follows:
  • Further links:
Other users also viewed:
Actions
  • Print
  • Copy Link

    https://knowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com/KCSArticleDetail?id=kA14u0000001W0JCAU&lang=en_US&refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fknowledgebase.paloaltonetworks.com%2FKCSArticleDetail

Choose Language