NAME

Device::Firewall::PaloAlto - Interact with the Palo Alto firwall API

VERSION

version 0.1.5

SYNOPSIS

use Device::Firewall::PaloAlto;

# Constructon doesn't initiate any comms with the firewall.    
my $fw = Device::Firewall::PaloAlto->new(
    uri => 'https://pa.localdomain',
    username => 'user11',
    password => 'a_password'
);

# Auth is required before performing any actions
$fw->auth or die "Could not authenticate";

# Calls can be chained together
my $proto = $fw
    ->op
    ->virtual_router('default')
    ->route('0.0.0.0/0)
    ->protocol

# Collection objects (interfaces, virtual router, etc) can be 
# directly converted to an array of objects.
say $_->name foreach $fw->op->interfaces->to_array;

DESCRIPTION

This module provides an interface to the Palo Alto firewall API.

DETAILS

METHODS

new

my $fw = Device::Firewall::PaloAlto(
    uri => 'https://pa.localdomain',
    username => 'user',
    password => 'pass',
    verify_hostname => 1
);

The new() method creates a new Device::Firewall::PaloAlto object. The uri, username and password can be passed in using the environment variables 'PA_FW_URI', PA_FW_USERNAME and PA_FW_PASSWORD. If no environment variables are set, the username and password both default to 'admin'.

auth

my $fw = $fw->auth;

This function authenticates the credentials passed to new against the firewall.

If successful, it returns the object itself to all method calls to be chains. If unsuccessful, it returns a Class::Error object.

vsys

Sets the virtual system (vsys) ID to which calls will be applied. By default vsys 1 is used.

op

Returns a Device::Firewall::PaloAlto::Op object. This object has methods to perform operational tasks on the firewall.

 my $fw_op = $fw->auth->op();

 # Return the firewall's interfaces
 my $interfaces = $fw_op->interfaces();

 # Return the ARP table
 my $arp_table = $fw->op->arp_table();

 # Returns the routes in the guest_vr virtual router
 my $routes = $fw->op->virtual_router('guest_vr');

user_id

Provides access to the Device::Firewall::PaloAlto::UserID module. This module contains subroutines to add and remove dynamic IP to user mappings:

# Add a mapping
$fw->user_id->add_ip_mapping('192.0.2.1', 'localdomain\greg.foletta');

# Remove a mapping
$fw->user_id->rm_ip_mapping('192.0.2.1', 'localdomain\greg.foletta');

Refer to the module documentation for more information.

Errors

Errors are handled differently depending on whether the script is running from a file, or from a 'one-liner'.

File Errors

In the event of an error, a Class::Error object is returned. The module's documentation provides the best information, but essentially it slurps up any method calls, evaluates to false in a boolean context, and contains an error string and code.

This allows you to chain together method calls and the error is propagated all the way through. A suggested way of checking for errors would be:

my $state = $fw->auth->op->interfaces->interface('ethernet1/1')->state or die $state->error();

One-liner Errors

If the code is being run from a one-liner, the error is immeidately croaked rather than being returned as a Class::Error object. This saves the user from having to add the explicit croak at the end of the call on what it likely an already crowded shell line. An example:

bash# perl -MDevice::Firewall::PaloAlto -E 'Device::Firewall::PaloAlto->new->auth->op->system_info->to_json'         
HTTP Error: 500 Can't connect to pa.localdomain:443 (certificate verify failed) - 500 at -e line 1.

Environment Variables

The module uses the environment variables PA_FW_URI, PA_FW_USERNAME and PA_FW_PASSWORD. These map to the uri, username and password arguments to the new constructor. If any of these arguments are not present, the environment variable (if defined) is used.

The purpose of these is to reduce the clutter when using the module in a one-liner:

bash# export PA_FW_URI=https://pa.localdomain
bash# export PA_FW_USERNAME=greg.foletta
bash# export PA_FW_PASSWORD=a_complex_password
bash# perl -IDevice::Firewall::PaloAlto -E 'say Device::Firewall::PaloAlto->new->auth->op->interfaces->to_json'

JSON

Almost all of the objects have a to_json method which returns a JSON representation of the object. There are two ways to use this method:

# Outputs the json to STDOUT
$fw->op->system_info->to_json;

# Outputs the json the file 'firewall_info.json' in the current working directory
$fw->op->system_info->to_json('firewall_info.json');

AUTHOR

Greg Foletta greg@foletta.org

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2019 by Greg Foletta.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.