Counteract Edge: Key Use Cases and Practical Steps for Identification

Forescout’s CounterACT Edge solution focuses on improving visibility and control over network edge devices. It is especially beneficial in contexts with a variety of potentially uncontrolled devices, such as IoT and operational technologies.

Edge Case Scenario Meaning

An edge case is a unique and unexpected use case or user scenario that deviates beyond the bounds set by the product manager and engineers. These scenarios are frequently neglected during the early phases of developing the product requirements document (PRD) and user stories because they do not correspond to typical or expected product usage.

Edge cases are distinguished by their deviation from typical patterns, and they can disclose flaws or unexpected behaviors in the product. These nuances may not become obvious during normal testing or development.

Examples of Edge Cases

To better grasp what edge cases look like in the real world, let’s look at some hypothetical examples:

  • Currency conversion rounding issue: A finance program incorrectly handles rounding issues while changing currencies, resulting in incorrect estimates for specific amounts.
  • Chat error: When sending a message with uncommon or sophisticated emoji or symbols, the chat app may crash.
  • Battery saver mode impact: A mobile game significantly depletes the device’s battery when played in battery saver mode, resulting in unfavorable user feedback.
  • Time zone mismatch: When users cross international date lines, scheduling software displays events in the incorrect time zone, confusing and missing appointments.
  • Long usernames and layout distortion: When someone interacts with a social media platform with an excessively long username, the user interface fails and displays it erroneously.
  • Online shopping: Online shopping software fails to load product photos accurately for consumers with extremely slow internet connections, resulting in a terrible purchasing experience.
  • Failed voice activation: Voice-activated home devices may struggle to respond appropriately to users with certain accents or speech patterns, limiting their effectiveness.
  • Uncommon file format support: A document processing software unexpectedly breaks while attempting to access seldom-used file formats, resulting in data loss and aggravation for users.
  • Special characters in passwords: In a password management program, the product requirements document addresses strong password requirements but ignores the case in which some special characters are not permitted. This omission causes login complications for users who use such characters in their passwords.

Edge Case Testing Example

Edge case testing evaluates a system’s behavior under severe or uncommon settings that would not be encountered in typical use. Here’s an example that shows edge case testing in a software application:

Example: Login Functionality of a Web Application

Scenario: Testing the login mechanism to ensure it can handle strange input successfully.

Edge Cases for Testing:

1. Empty input fields

Test: Try to log in with both the username and password boxes empty.

Expected Result: The system should generate an error message stating that both fields are necessary.

2. Maximum character limit

  • Test: Enter a username and password that contain the maximum number of characters permitted.
  • Expected Result: If the input meets the limit, the system should accept it; otherwise, an appropriate error message should be shown.

3. Special Characters

  • Test: Enter a username or password including special characters (e.g.,!@#$%^&*()).
  • Expected Result: The system should handle these characters correctly, either accepting them or displaying an appropriate error message if they are not authorized.

4. SQL Injection Attempts

  • Test: Type a SQL injection string into the username or password box (e.g., OR ‘1’=’1).
  • Expected Outcome: The system should prevent injection and not execute any malicious requests, instead giving a generic error message.

To test for extreme input length, enter a username that is longer than the maximum limit (e.g., 300 characters).

Practical Steps To Identify Edge Cases

As you can see, addressing edge cases early in the product development lifecycle is critical to ensuring a seamless user experience. Here are five practical ways to help you identify edge cases before they cause unanticipated issues in your product:

1. Thorough requirements gathering

Conduct in-depth interactions with stakeholders and users to identify potential edge cases. Make sure they are included in the product requirements. Organize product review sessions to go over your PRDs and get useful feedback from all stakeholders.

2. Properly produced product requirements documentation (PRDs)

Take your time before submitting your requirements to the engineers and including them in the sprint. Make sure they are reviewed by your engineers. Include your quality engineers and software testers, and use their analytical talents to find minor user scenarios. Make sure to use their full powers to identify these circumstances.

3. Scenario-based testing

Collaborate closely with quality engineers to create test cases for a wide range of scenarios, including edge cases. This is done to validate the product’s performance under diverse conditions. Work with them to develop and brainstorm all test cases.

4. Iterative development

There is no need to address all edge cases at the outset. Use an iterative development method to incorporate lessons from prior releases and increase the product’s durability over time.

Collaborate with your engineers to prioritize and scope newly identified edge situations, resolving them in future sprints to avoid disrupting the process.

5. Beta testing with various users

Involve a wide set of beta testers in simulating real-world circumstances and gathering input on any discovered edge cases.

What Is ForeScout CounterACT?

ForeScout CounterACT is a visibility platform that provides insight into nearly any connected device throughout your whole company and provides a unified view. The platform integrates rapidly into your current environment and rarely requires infrastructure changes, updates, or endpoint reconfiguration. ForeScout’s visibility platform enables See, Control, and Orchestration capabilities.

It pioneered an agentless approach to security, allowing you to identify devices in real-time and then classify, assess, and monitor them. Virtual machines (VMs) in private and public clouds are also visible. In addition, the platform offers agentless control and continuous monitoring of your diverse environment. You can automate actions for notification, control, and remediation.

ForeScout CounterACT Appliance

The CounterACT Appliance is a dedicated device that monitors traffic on your meeting outs network. It closely monitors the network for harmful activity, does thorough NAC sponsorship, allows you to create network security zones, and manages vulnerabilities.

Multiple Appliance Deployments

Multiple counterACT appliances can be deployed to provide maximum guidance while running. Each CounterACT Appliance is configured to tune the appropriate network traffic. To deal with malware and hackers, the appliance must be deployed.

The relationship is narrowing and is surrounded by a protected network location and the network perch. This allows for the close monitoring of a certain network range for infection efforts begun from the network’s start and network sponsorship following infection attempts created from a specified network location (for example, a contractor section, which may be more risky).

Behind the VPN concentrator, encrypted VPN channels are decrypted, allowing hostile traffic to infiltrate your network.

Detached entry servers are where detached entry users enter your network. To implement an admission control policy, the appliance must be installed. Within push domains, preferably mirroring marked ports.

In addition to the virtual firewall, the appliance must be installed:

Between segments or VLANs.

ForeScout CounterACT NAC

When dealing with new customers on network access control deployments, I am frequently asked, “How can servers be secured with minimal network changes?” This is important since numerous departments own the network, and IT may not have complete control over the entire network.

CounterACT can secure internal server traffic quickly and completely while requiring minimal to no network changes. Forescout provides an out-of-band deployment for a switch that can monitor all connections to any IP device. This technique requires only a few things. The first requirement is a mirror port for server traffic.

This can be a mirror of the actual port or the VLAN in which they are placed. Second, CounterACT needs a port to connect to. This enables IT to monitor all traffic via the SPAN port and use a virtual firewall with TCP resets to manage access. Furthermore, if interaction with the switch is available, a dynamic ACL can be used.

Initially, IT will design a segment for CounterACT that contains the server being secured, which may be a group of servers. This segment will be designated as the internal network and will be monitored for inventory. Every port and TCP connection that is established will be detected.

With this configuration, you will be able to do the following quickly:

  • Create a whitelist of all the services hosted by your server.
  • Identify open ports on your server and close them dynamically and automatically using an ACL or virtual firewall.
  • Monitor all TCP connections and confine them to only whitelisted ports and IPs.
  • Adding an extra degree of protection to IP communications by demanding authentication.
  • Send a web portal authentication request to the connecting user. Monitor TCP connections to the server.
  • With CounterACT, security can be swiftly implemented and targeted to the devices that require protection.

FAQs

What is CounterACT in Forescout? 

CounterACT integrates cutting-edge NAC and intrusion protection technologies into a single appliance. CounterACT performs comprehensive endpoint inspection and access control on all network devices while effortlessly integrating with any current IT architecture.

What does a CounterACT agent do?

CounterACT can monitor your network for signs of compromise, assess the severity of the infection, and take policy-based measures to quarantine or remediate infected endpoints. This enables enterprises to limit internal malware proliferation and minimize security breaches.

What is Forescout used for?

The Forescout Platform continually discovers, protects, and assures compliance with all managed and unmanaged cyber assets—IT, IoT, IoMT, and OT—without disrupting corporate operations. It provides extensive capabilities for network security, risk and exposure management, and extended detection and response.

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