Step by step guide for penalty box R82 and R81.20

Lesley — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:29:03 GMT

Penalty box for R81.20

R81.20 reference guide:

https://sc1.checkpoint.com/documents/R81.20/WebAdminGuides/EN/CP_R81.20_CLI_ReferenceGuide/Content/Topics-CLIG/PTG/SecureXL/fwaccel-dos-pbox.htm

Important SK for R81.20: https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk112454

fwaccel dos pbox allow -a 10.0.0.0/8

Add the ranges you wish that will not be blocked by the pbox. This should always be the first step.

fwaccel dos pbox allow -s

Check if the whitelist is correct. Make sure all IP ranges that you want to whitelist from this feature are on this list.

fwaccel dos pbox -M on

With this you enable the monitor only mode (no drops). If you set -M off it will change to drop mode depending if pbox is enabled (see command below)

I advise to start couple days in monitor mode and keep a close eye on traffic logs. Make sure to enable the pbox and before that set in -M on mode then only pbox is active in monitor mode.

fwaccel dos config set --enable-pbox

Enable the pbox

fwaccel dos config set --enable-log-pbox

Enable pbox logs.

fwaccel dos config set --pbox-rate 1000

You can change the default value from 500 to 1000.

fwaccel dos config set --pbox-tmo 300

Configure how long a bad IP will be on the pbox timeout bench

fwaccel dos config set --notif-rate 10

Change the default value of 100 to 10. Penalty box will log maximum 10 log entries per second.

fwaccel dos config get

Check the config after the changes are done

fwaccel tab -t dos_pbox -f

Check what IP’s are in the pbox

fwaccel tab -t dos_pbox_violating_ips -f

Here you can see all the IP’s that the firewall keeps track if they will reach the --pbox-rate 1000 value

Example of above command:
Table: dos_pbox_violating_ips
Total number of entries: 1453
47.84.X.X, Violations/Second: 18
91.196.X.X, Violations/Second: 12
69.5.X.X, Violations/Second: 1

fwaccel dos stats get
Firewall Instances in Aggregate:

    Memory Usage:                     
    Total Active Connections:  (FW connection limiting inactive)
    New Connections/Second:    (FW connection limiting inactive)
    Number of Elements in Tables:
        Penalty Box Violating IPs:                  1914
        Rate Limit Source Only Tracks:                 0
        Rate Limit Source and Service Tracks:          0
        Rate Limit Dest Only Tracks:                   0
        Rate Limit Dest and Service Tracks:            0
SecureXL:
    Memory Usage:                     
    Packets/Second:                    (rate limiting inactive)
    Bytes/Second:                      (rate limiting inactive)
    Reasons Packets Dropped:                  Monitored Only:
        IP Fragment:                0                               0
        IP Option:                  0                               0
        Penalty Box:        311092570                       886119016
        Deny List:          0                               0
        IOC Deny List:              0                               0
        Rate Limit:                 0                               0
    Number of Elements in Tables:
        Penalty Box IPs:                               2
        Deny List IPs:                                 0
        IOC Deny List IPs:                             0
        IOC Monitor-Only IPs:                          0
        IOC External Deny List IPs:                    0
        IOC External Monitor-Only IPs:                 0
        Rate Limit Matches:                            0
        Rate Limit Source Only Tracks:                 0
        Rate Limit Source and Service Tracks:          0
        Rate Limit Dest Only Tracks:                   0
        Rate Limit Dest and Service Tracks:            0

Some numbers what the pbox is doing etc

Make sure if file below is active to make sure changes are reboot proof! (only R81)

vi $FWDIR/conf/pbox-allow-list-v4.conf

User VI editor and add the ranges 10.0.0.0/8

chmod +x $FWDIR/conf/pbox-allow-list-v4.conf

Same for the config file! Also check if all changes are in this file. Firewall will check this file after reboot.

vi $FWDIR/conf/fwaccel_dos_rate_on_install

Example config

[Expert FW:0]# fwaccel dos config get
  rate limit: enabled (without policy)
    rule cache: disabled
          pbox: enabled
     deny list: disabled (without policy)
    drop frags: disabled
     drop opts: disabled
      internal: disabled
       monitor: disabled
     log drops: disabled
      log pbox: enabled
    notif rate: 10 notifications/second
     pbox rate: 500 packets/second
      pbox tmo: 300 seconds

How to search for PBOX drops in SmartConsole.

In config you can see 2 lines that can be adjusted for logging:

log drops: disabled
log pbox: enabled

log pbox is the first SmartConsole log entry that is made after the first the an IP is added to a PBOX.

The log pbox shows all logs that occur after IP is added to pbox. notif rate parameter changes thi

Screenshot how it looks in Smart Console:

Log drops:

Pbox drops: (are difficult to find, but they are there, I use these filters:

Penalty box for R82

R82 reference guide: https://sc1.checkpoint.com/documents/R82/WebAdminGuides/EN/CP_R82_CLI_ReferenceGuide/Content/Topics

Important SK for R82: https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk182350

For R82, config is a bit different. I pasted example config below. Also the reboot proof items you do not need to check anymore.

fwaccel dos pbox allow -a 10.0.0.0/8

Add 10/8 to whitelist

fwaccel dos pbox allow -s

Check if above whitelist changes are done correctly

fwaccel dos pbox -M on

Enable pbox in monitor mode

fwaccel dos pbox -c

Check if all config is set correctly

fwaccel dos pbox -E on

Enable pbox feature

fwaccel dos pbox -G on

Enable pbox logs

fwaccel dos pbox -P 1000

Change from default 500 packets to 1000

fwaccel tab -t dos_pbox_violating_ips

Extra R82 command:

fwaccel tab -t dos_ip_deny_lists

Note this one does not work for R82: fwaccel tab -t dos_pbox -f

R82 config example:

[Expert@]# fwaccel dos pbox -c
Penalty Box:
    Status                            on
    Internal Interfaces               off
    Monitor-Only                      off
    Log Drops                         on
    Max Notifications Per-Second      1 logs/second
    Send TCP Reset                    off
    Timeout for Blocked IPs           360 seconds
    Has Blocked IPs                   yes
    Log when a new IP is blocked      on
    Drop rate to trigger on           500 packets/second

Re: Step by step guide for penalty box R82 and R81.20

_Val_ — Wed, 06 May 2026 19:52:06 GMT

@Lesley, great job!

Re: Step by step guide for penalty box R82 and R81.20

sjni01 — Thu, 07 May 2026 06:18:22 GMT

Wow, Excellent Information!

Re: Step by step guide for penalty box R82 and R81.20

Danny — Thu, 07 May 2026 22:32:29 GMT

I created a Penalty Box SmartConsole Extension for R82+

topic Re: Step by step guide for penalty box R82 and R81.20 in Firewall and Security Management

Step by step guide for penalty box R82 and R81.20

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Re: Step by step guide for penalty box R82 and R81.20

Re: Step by step guide for penalty box R82 and R81.20