The FwChange Methodology

FwChange connects to 33 firewall vendor APIs and normalizes rule syntax into a vendor-agnostic intermediate format. This eliminates the manual export-parse-reformat cycle that typically consumes the first 2-4 weeks of any migration project.

• 33 vendor-specific API drivers (PAN-OS XML, FortiOS REST, Check Point R80+, Cisco ASA REST, and 29 more)
• Vendor-agnostic rule normalization preserving source/destination/service/action/logging semantics
• Automatic object resolution: address groups, service groups, and nested references
• Bulk import capability: 10,000+ rules ingested in under 60 seconds

Once rules are normalized, FwChange runs 18 automated security checks to identify shadow rules, conflicts, redundancies, and policy violations that manual review consistently misses. The AI analysis engine processes the full rule hierarchy, not just individual rules in isolation.

• Shadow rule detection: identifies rules that never match due to earlier rules in the processing order
• Conflict identification: same source/destination/service criteria with contradictory allow/deny actions
• Redundancy analysis: duplicate and near-duplicate rules inflating rule count without security benefit
• Permissiveness scoring: flags any-any, any-source, any-destination, and overly broad CIDR ranges
• Hygiene checks: expired rules, disabled-but-present rules, rules missing logging or descriptions

FwChange performs intelligent rule translation between vendor syntaxes, handling the semantic differences that cause migration failures. This is not string replacement. The translation engine understands vendor-specific constructs (Palo Alto application-based rules, Fortinet virtual domains, Check Point policy layers) and maps them to the target platform's equivalent constructs.

• Bidirectional translation: Palo Alto <-> Fortinet <-> Check Point <-> Cisco and 29 additional vendor combinations
• Application-aware mapping: translates App-ID (Palo Alto) to application signatures (Fortinet) to custom applications (Check Point)
• Object translation: address objects, service objects, and group hierarchies mapped with name collision detection
• NAT rule translation: source NAT, destination NAT, and bidirectional NAT across vendor syntaxes

Before any rule reaches a production firewall, FwChange validates the translated configuration against 8 compliance frameworks. The validation engine checks every rule against regulatory requirements and organizational policies, generating audit-ready documentation automatically.

• PCI-DSS 4.0: Requirements 1.1.1 through 1.2.8 with automated evidence generation
• ISO 27001: Annex A.13 network security controls documentation
• NIS2 Directive: Articles 21, 23, 24 incident response and change control validation
• KRITIS / BSI: IT-Sicherheitsgesetz 2.0 critical infrastructure compliance
• Additional: TISAX, SOX, VAIT/BAIT, GDPR data flow validation
• 4 threat intelligence feeds cross-referenced pre-deployment: AbuseIPDB, Emerging Threats, Feodo Tracker, AlienVault OTX