Create a network exposure rule - Administrator Guide - Cortex CLOUD

Cortex Cloud Posture Management Documentation

Product
Cortex Cloud Application Security > Cortex CLOUD
License
Cloud Posture Management
Creation date
2025-01-22
Last date published
2026-06-04
Category
Administrator Guide

Network exposure rules detect your assets that are exposed to the Internet.

To create a network exposure rule:

  1. Navigate to Posture ManagementRules & PoliciesRulesCloud Security.

  2. Select Create RuleNetwork Exposure.

  3. In the Overview step, provide the following:

    1. Enter a Rule Name and Description.

    2. Select a Severity. Findings generated by this rule will inherit this severity.

    3. (Optional) Add Labels.

  4. In the Rule Logic step:

    1. In the Select Network Exposure Rule Type step, select Inbound, Outbound, or East-West.

    2. The rule creation process and the attributes that are available differ depending on the asset type. Use the tooltips next to parameter names to get more information about each option and see more information below.

    3. Click on Advanced Settings to access more options.

  5. Click Done to save your rule.

Define network exposure rule logic

When creating network exposure rules, you define the flow of traffic you want to monitor.

On the Rule Logic page, provide the following based on the type of network exposure rules that you would like to create:

Inbound

Provide the following information:

Parameter

Description

Source Network

Define the origin of the traffic. The default is typically Untrusted Internet (all public IPs), but you can specify a specific IP or CIDR range if you are looking for exposure to a specific network.

Destination Asset Type

Select the specific resource type you would like to check for exposure. Supported types include VM Instance, Kubernetes, Managed DB, and Serverless Function.

Cloud Service Provider

Choose the provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

Advanced Settings

Protocol/Port

Specify the protocols and ports that will generate findings if exposed (e.g., tcp/80, tcp/443, tcp/22).

Host State

For VM instances, you can configure the rule to alert on Active (running) workloads or Stopped workloads (which would be exposed upon restart).

Ingress Route (Kubernetes only)

If you selected Kubernetes as the asset type, you can specify a particular ingress route path (e.g., /home) to check for exposure.

Use External Probe Validation

Set this to Yes to actively scan the asset from the outside to confirm it is truly reachable before generating a finding.This reduces false positives caused by hidden security controls (such as external firewalls not visible in the cloud config),

HTTP Response Code

If External Probe Validation is enabled, you can further filter findings based on the HTTP response code returned by the asset (e.g., 200 OK, 403 Forbidden).

Outbound

Provide the following information:

Parameter

Description

Source Asset Type

Select asset type to be evaluated by the rule.

Destination Network

Allow the selection of the destination network that will be evaluated in this rule.

Cloud Service Provider

Choose the provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

Advanced Settings

Protocol/Port

Specify the protocols and ports that will generate findings if exposed (e.g., tcp/80, tcp/443, tcp/22).

Host State

For VM instances, you can configure the rule to alert on Active (running) workloads or Stopped workloads (which would be exposed upon restart).

East-West

Provide the following information:

Parameter

Description

Asset Type

Select asset type to be evaluated by the rule.

Cloud Service Provider

Choose the provider (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

Cloud Account

Select the cloud account where the rule will be executed.

Advanced Settings

Protocol/Port

Specify the protocols and ports that will generate findings if exposed (e.g., tcp/80, tcp/443, tcp/22).

Host State

For VM instances, you can configure the rule to alert on Active (running) workloads or Stopped workloads (which would be exposed upon restart).