Firewall Rule Review Template (PCI DSS 1.2.7)

Periodic network rule review: scope and cadence, review criteria, rule register with owner, justification, hits and expiry, results, actions, process findings

Kỹ thuật bảo mậtChuẩnPCI DSS v4.0.1 Req. 1.2.7 (cited only); NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SC-7(4), SC-7(5)firewall rule reviewCập nhật 29 thg 10, 2026

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Cách dùng: Use it every review cycle for firewalls, cloud security groups and network policies. Freeze the rule export and get owners to confirm their rules before the meeting. The main pitfall is rubber-stamping rules as still needed without checking hit counts or whether the application still exists.

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Firewall Rule Review: [Rule set or device group] [Review period]

Periodic review record for network security control rule sets (firewalls, cloud security groups, network ACLs, Kubernetes network policies): every rule has an owner, a business justification, a decision and, where temporary, an expiry. Aligned with PCI DSS v4.0.1 Requirement 1.2.7 (review of network security control configurations at least once every six months, cited by number only), NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 (Release 5.2.0) SC-7(4) and SC-7(5), and NIST SP 800-41 Rev. 1. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

Document control

Field	Value
Review ID	[FWR-YYYY-NN]
Version	[0.1]
Status	[Planned / In review / Actions open / Complete]
Owner (network security)	[@network-security-lead]
Reviewers	[@app-owner-1], [@app-owner-2], [@security-assessor]
Scope	[Device group, cloud account, cluster]
In PCI DSS scope?	[Yes: CDE / connected / No]
Review cycle	[Every six months / quarterly]
Previous review completed	YYYY-MM-DD
This review completed	YYYY-MM-DD
Rule export file and SHA-256	[file name, hash]
Classification	[Confidential]

Approvals

Role	Name	Decision	Date
Network security lead	[@name]	[Approve results]	YYYY-MM-DD
Information security manager	[@name]	[Approve results]	YYYY-MM-DD

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change summary
0.1	YYYY-MM-DD	[@name]	Export taken, rule list prepared
1.0	YYYY-MM-DD	[@name]	Example: Review decisions recorded
1.1	YYYY-MM-DD	[@name]	Example: All removals implemented and verified

1. Scope and cadence

Item	Value
Devices or rule sets	Example: `edge-fw-a/b` (perimeter pair), `dc-core-fw` (internal), cloud security groups in account `prod-payments`
Rule export date	Example: 2026-10-01
Previous review completed	Example: 2026-04-15
This review completed	Example: 2026-10-14 (182 days after the previous one)
Basis for cycle	Example: PCI DSS v4.0.1 Requirement 1.2.7 for in-scope devices; internal standard NSS-3 for the rest
Out of scope and why	Example: Lab network, isolated and covered by its own quarterly review

2. Review criteria

Ask these questions for every rule:

Does the rule have a named owner who confirmed it in this cycle?
Is the business justification still true, and does the application or partner still exist?
Is the rule as narrow as it can be (source, destination, port, protocol, direction)?
Does it allow an insecure protocol, and if so is there a documented security feature or compensating control (PCI DSS v4.0.1 Requirement 1.2.6 covers this)?
Has the rule been hit since the previous review? Zero hits is a strong removal signal, not proof.
Is it temporary, and if so has its expiry date passed?
Is it shadowed or duplicated by another rule?
Does the rule set still end in an explicit deny-all?

3. Rule review register

Rule ID	Source	Destination	Service	Owner	Justification	Hits since last review	Expiry	Decision
FW-EDGE-0012 (Example)	Any	Web load balancer VIP	TCP 443	[@web-owner]	Public storefront	41,882,120	None	Keep
FW-EDGE-0047 (Example)	Partner range 198.51.100.0/24	SFTP gateway	TCP 22	[@integration-owner]	Daily settlement files from acquirer	182	None	Modify: restrict to two partner hosts
FW-CORE-0310 (Example)	App subnet	Legacy reporting DB	TCP 1433	[@reporting-owner]	Old reporting tool	0	None	Remove: tool retired 2026-06
FW-CORE-0388 (Example)	Vendor VPN pool	Payment API hosts	TCP 8443	[@payments-owner]	Vendor support for go-live	1,204	2026-08-31	Remove: temporary rule expired
SG-PAY-0021 (Example)	0.0.0.0/0	Bastion host	TCP 22	None found	Unknown	3,910	None	Escalate: no owner

4. Results summary

Decision	Rules	Share of total
Keep (Example)	318	77.2%
Modify (Example)	41	10.0%
Remove, no longer needed (Example)	37	9.0%
Remove, expired temporary rule (Example)	9	2.2%
Escalate, no owner (Example)	7	1.7%
Total in export (Example)	412	100%

Example: 46 rules (11.2% of the export) are marked for removal. Shares are rounded to one decimal, so they add to 100.1%. The previous review removed 19.

5. Actions

Action ID	Rules	Action	Change ref	Owner	Due	Verified
FWA-01 (Example)	FW-CORE-0310 and 36 others	Remove unused rules	CHG-2026-1180	[@network-engineer]	2026-10-28	YYYY-MM-DD
FWA-02 (Example)	FW-CORE-0388 and 8 others	Remove expired temporary rules	CHG-2026-1181	[@network-engineer]	2026-10-21	YYYY-MM-DD
FWA-03 (Example)	FW-EDGE-0047 and 40 others	Narrow source, destination or port	CHG-2026-1185	[@network-engineer]	2026-11-11	YYYY-MM-DD
FWA-04 (Example)	SG-PAY-0021 and 6 others	Find owner within 10 working days or remove	Not yet raised	[@security-manager]	2026-10-28	YYYY-MM-DD

6. Process findings

Finding ID	Finding	Root cause	Improvement	Owner
FWF-01 (Example)	Nine temporary rules outlived their expiry	Expiry stored only in the change ticket, not on the rule	Add expiry tag to rule comments and alert 14 days before	[@network-security-lead]
FWF-02 (Example)	Seven rules had no owner	Owner field optional in the request form	Make owner and justification mandatory fields	[@itsm-owner]

7. Glossary and references

Term	Meaning
Network security control (NSC)	PCI DSS term for firewalls and other technologies that control traffic between network segments
Shadowed rule	Rule that never matches because an earlier rule handles all its traffic
Hit count	Number of times a rule matched traffic in a period
Deny by default	Rule set allows only listed traffic and blocks everything else
CDE	Cardholder data environment

References (check the current official versions):

PCI DSS v4.0.1 (PCI Security Standards Council, June 2024), Requirements 1.2.5, 1.2.6 and 1.2.7. Official text: PCI Security Standards Council, free download under the PCI SSC licence agreement: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/document_library/
NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, Release 5.2.0: SC-7 Boundary Protection with enhancements (4) and (5), CM-7 Least Functionality, CA-9 Internal System Connections: https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/53/r5/upd1/final
NIST SP 800-41 Rev. 1, Guidelines on Firewalls and Firewall Policy (September 2009): https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/41/r1/final
Related templates: compliance/pci-dss-scoping-segmentation, security/zero-trust-architecture, ops/change-request, ops/change-enablement-policy, ops/access-review, security/security-exception-request

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with PCI DSS v4.0.1 Requirements 1.2.5 to 1.2.7, cited by requirement number only; no requirement or testing procedure text is reproduced. Official text: PCI Security Standards Council, licensed access at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/document_library/. Based on NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 (Release 5.2.0) and NIST SP 800-41 Rev. 1, US government publications. The template text and examples are original; all organisations, rules and figures are fictional, and the example addresses use documentation ranges. Check the current official versions before use. Template licence: MIT.

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