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Customizing your blocking message in the new CyBlock UI

Category: Administration, Filtering

You can now easily customize your blocking message using a Message Editor embedded in the new interface (versions 9.0.5 and later). Previously, your HTML file would have to be modified outside the product (CyBlock Software), or you used the default blocking message (CyBlock Appliance).

You can use the Toolbar buttons in the Message Editor to change the formatting of the text and to add the necessary tokens in the blocking message. Or, you can enter a URL that the user will be redirected to when he or she tries to access a blocked site.

  1. Go to Web Management – Filter – Message.

blockingmessagetokens

  1. Select Custom or Redirect to configure your blocking message.
  2. If you selected Custom, the Wavecrest default blocking message is displayed in the Message Editor. Customize the blocking message to suit your needs using the Toolbar buttons to change formatting and the Tokens drop down to add the necessary tokens in the blocking message.
  3. If you selected Redirect, type the URL for the blocking message in the Redirect To field. The URL must include the protocol such as http://.

BlockingMessageRedirect

  1. Click Submit to apply your settings.
  2. If for some reason you need to revert to the Wavecrest default blocking message, click Restore Default.

For additional assistance, please contact Technical Support at (321) 953-5351, Ext. 4 or support@wavecrest.net.

User IDs are automatically added to Groups and IDs

Category: Administration

If users are directed through the proxy before their credentials have been added to Groups and IDs (either within the product or via an Active Directory import), the IDs are added to Ungrouped IDs.

To ensure proper grouping and filter credentials, perform an AD import prior to configuring user proxy settings:

For version 9.1.0 and later:

  1. Go to User Management – Import Users – Manage and ensure users are managed Outside the Product.
  2. Go to User Management – Import Users – Active Directory – Setup.
    • Follow the steps to connect to Active Directory.
  3. Go to Active Directory – Import to manually import users from AD, and to set up an automatic sync with AD.

 

For version 6.8.3a/8.8.3a and earlier:

  1. Go to Advanced Settings – Groups and IDs – Import – Setup and ensure users are set to be managed Outside the Product.
  2. Go to Advanced Settings – Groups and IDs – Import – Active Directory – Setup.
    • Follow the steps to connect to Active Directory.
  3. Go to Advanced Settings – Groups and IDs – Import –

    • Manual – to manually import users from AD.
    • Schedule – to schedule an automatic sync with AD.

 

IDs can be manually configured within the product by navigating to the following pages:

  • For version 9.1.0 and later: User Management – Edit Users – Add
  • For version 6.8.3a and earlier: Advanced Settings – Groups and IDs – Edit – Add

Changing the proxy server communication port

Category: Administration

In CyBlock, the default proxy communication port is 8080. You can change this by editing the cbs.cfg file.

  1. Stop the CyBlock service.
  2. Open …/Wavecrest/CyBlock/wc/cyblock/db/cbs.cfg.
  3. Look for the following line:
    • SAP_COMMUNICATION_PORT=8080
  4. Change 8080 to the desired port.
  5. Restart the CyBlock service.

 

Preventing a sync from occurring with CyBlock Client

Category: Administration

You can prevent certain installations of CyBlock Client from receiving any synced data. This is done through a registry edit on the client machine.

  1. Go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Wavecrest\LayeredServiceProvider” in regedit.
  2. Click the name of “AnnounceStatus.”
  3. Set “value data” to hex value of “0” = no sync for CyBlock client.

To reverse this:

Set “value data” to hex value of “10” = sync is allowed for client.

Configuring Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Category: Administration, Proxy Settings

Configuring Windows Server 2012 and 2008 R2 to push out a group policy to all users can be challenging with Microsoft’s introduction of Group Policy Preferences. These preferences provide more than 20 Group Policy extensions that increase the number of configurable settings in a Group Policy object (GPO). Within most preference items, the configuration interface looks similar to the applicable user interface for configuring settings so the layout will be familiar. The guidelines to set up users’ browsers with a proxy configuration are alike for Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, and 10, and the following instructions are for Internet Explorer 10.

  1. Go to Group Policy Management, and select the GPO to which you want to add the Internet Explorer 10 settings.
  2. Edit the GPO.
  3. In the Group Policy Management Editor, go to User Configuration, Preferences, Control Panel Settings, and then Internet Settings. If you have already created settings for Internet Explorer 7, 8, and 9, they will be displayed here.
  4. Right-click in the right-hand pane, select “New,” and then select “Internet Explorer 10.”
  5. In the New Internet Explorer 10 Properties dialog box, click the Connections tab, and then click LAN Settings.
  6. Under Proxy server, select the check box to enable the “Use a proxy server…” option.
  7. In the Address field, enter the IP address of your proxy server, and in the Port field, enter the port number.
  8. Now you need to enable the settings and apply them to all users. You can individually enable and disable underlined settings or settings preceded by a circle within a preference item. The underlining or circle of the setting indicates whether it is currently enabled or disabled.
    • A setting with a solid green underline or a green circle is enabled. The preference extension applies this setting’s value to the user or computer.
    • A setting with a dashed red underline or red circle with a slash is disabled. The preference extension does not apply this setting’s value to the user or computer.
  9. Press the following function keys to enable or disable the settings within a preference item. To select a setting, click the actual text of the setting or its text field.

    • F5 – Enable all settings on the current tab.
    • F6 – Enable the currently selected setting.
    • F7 – Disable the currently selected setting.
    • F8 – Disable all settings on the current tab.
  10. After enabling the settings, select the check box to enable the “Bypass proxy server…” option.
  11. Click OK, Apply, and then OK to save the changes. You will see the Internet Settings entry for Internet Explorer 10 along with Internet Explorer 7, 8, and 9, if they were previously created.

Configuring proxy settings in IE 10 and 11 with registry settings

For IE 10 and 11, the alternative way of configuring proxy settings is deploying the registry keys directly.

Key path/location for the registry keys: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

  • Automatically detect settings

Registry key: “AutoDetect”
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data:
0 = Disable
1 = Enable

The key AutoDetect is only visible before you start IE 10 (or IE 11) on the machine, as IE will interpret it immediately and then delete the key right after.

  • Use automatic configuration script

Registry Key: “AutoConfigURL”
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: “http://<servername|host>/my_proxy.pac”

  • Proxy server

To configure this, you may need up to 3 registry keys:

“ProxyEnable” check box for “Use a proxy server for your LAN (these settings will not apply to dial-up or VPN connection)”
Value Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data:
0 = Disable
1 = Enable

“ProxyServer”
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: “ProxyServerName:Port”

“ProxyOverride”
Value Type: REG_SZ
Value Data: “list_of_exclusion”

Value Data: “list_of_exclusion;<local>”
<local> value represents the check: “Bypass proxy server for local addresses”
The value is added automatically when enabling the check box in the GPP User Interface (UI) when deploying through the registry key is required.

Deploying the registry keys via GPP registry item

There are different ways to deploy the registry keys, and it is important to correctly deploy the registry keys provided above.

Location of the policy: User Configuration / Preferences / Windows Settings / Registry / Right Click + New + Registry Item

REGISTRY AND SETTING CONFIGURATIONS
  • Automatically detect settings

Action: Replace

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key Path: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

Value Name: “AutoDetect”

Value Type: “REG_DWORD”

Value Data: “0” or “1”

0 = Disable

1 = Enable

  • Use automatic configuration script

Action: Replace

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key Path: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

Value Name: “AutoConfigURL”

Value Type: “REG_SZ”

Value Data: “http://<servername>/my_proxy.pac”

  • Use a proxy server for your LAN (These settings will not apply to dial-up for VPN connections)

Action : Replace

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key Path: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

Value Name: “ProxyEnable”

Value Type: “REG_DWORD”

Value Data: “0” or “1”

0 = Disable

1 = Enable

  • Proxy Server : ProxyServerName:Port

Action: Replace

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key Path: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

Value Name: “ProxyServer”

Value Type: REG_SZ

Value Data: “ProxyServerName:Port”

  • ProxyOverride

Action: Replace

Hive: HKEY_CURRENT_USER

Key Path: Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

Value Name: “ProxyOverride”

Value Type: “REG_SZ”

Value Data: “192.168.1.*;*.domain.com;<local>”

  • Bypass proxy Server for local addresses

The option is represented by the entry “<local>” added in ProxyOverride setting value data.

See https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/askie/2015/10/12/how-to-configure-proxy-settings-for-ie10-and-ie11-as-iem-is-not-available/, Case 2, Step 2 for more information.

Allowing specific YouTube videos

Category: Administration

A new feature has been added to CyBlock version 9.1.0 that will allow specific YouTube videos, but continue to block the rest of the domain.

  1. Go to Web Management – Application Controls.
  2. Select the policy for which the YouTube video will be allowed.¹
  3. Enter the URL for the video in the New Video ID field and click green button.²
  4. The Video ID will be stripped from the URL and shown in the field below.

 

¹ The TV/Video Streaming category must already be blocked in the selected category.

² Use Ctrl+V to paste it in the field. Do not right-click and paste.

Automatic service start in a Linux environment

Category: Administration, General

In order to automate the start of any Wavecrest process in a Linux environment, please perform the following steps:

  1. Install the Wavecrest product.
  2. Copy the file …/wc/service/cyfin.init (or cyblock.init).
  3. Paste the file into the /etc/rc.d/init.d directory.
  4. Open the file in an editor.
  5. Locate the three instances of:
    • $USER_INSTALL_DIR$
  6. Replace each line with the appropriate install path:
    • /root/Wavecrest/CyBlock
    • /root/Wavecrest/Cyfin
  7. Save the file as “CyBlock” or “Cyfin.”
  8. Run one of the following commands:
    • chkconfig –level 2345 CyBlock
    • chkconfig –level 2345 Cyfin
  9. systemctl enable CyBlock.service

 

 

 

Enabling X11 upstream forwarding

Category: Administration, General, Network Configuration

Forwarding of X11 source IP information can be enabled by editing the proxy.cfg file.

  1. Navigate to C:\Wavecrest\CyBlock\wc\cyblock\db.
  2. Stop the CyBlock service.
  3. Open proxy.cfg in an editor such as NotePad.
  4. Between the  <TOP> and </TOP> entires, add the following line:
    • <param keyword=”xforward_enabled” value=”true” />
  5. Restart the CyBlock service.