Layer 3 Firewall Rules Configuration

Dashboard Location: Security and SD-WAN > Configure > Firewall > Layer 3 firewall rules

Network Layer Security Management

Layer 3 firewall rules configuration in Meraki appliances provides comprehensive IP-based access control for network traffic, enabling administrators to define granular security policies based on source and destination IP addresses, protocols, and ports. This functionality allows for sophisticated network segmentation, application control, and security enforcement at the network layer, supporting both allow and deny policies with detailed logging capabilities. L3 firewall rules are essential for implementing zero-trust security models, controlling inter-VLAN communication, and protecting critical network resources from unauthorized access.

Diagram

Classes

meraki

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
domains	List	domains	No

domains (meraki)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
organizations	List	organizations	Yes

organizations (meraki.domains)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
networks	List	networks	No

networks (meraki.domains.organizations)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
appliance	Class	appliance	No

appliance (meraki.domains.organizations.networks)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
firewall	Class	firewall	No

firewall (meraki.domains.organizations.networks.appliance)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
l3_firewall_rules	Class	l3_firewall_rules	No

l3_firewall_rules (meraki.domains.organizations.networks.appliance.firewall)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
rules	List	rules	No
syslog_default_rule	Boolean	true, false	No

rules (meraki.domains.organizations.networks.appliance.firewall.l3_firewall_rules)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
comment	String	min: 1, max: 127	No
policy	Choice	allow, deny	Yes
protocol	Choice	any, icmp, icmp6, tcp, udp	Yes
source_port	Any	Integer[min: 0, max: 65535] or String[matches: `(?:[1-9][0-9]3	[1-5][0-9]4	6[0-4][0-9]3
source_cidr	String	Regex: ^(?i:any|(\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}(\/\d{1,2})?|VLAN\((?:[1-9]|[1-9]\d|[1-9]\d{2}|[1-3]\d{3}|40[0-8]\d|409[0-4])\)\.(?:\*|[1-9]|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))(,(any|(\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}(\/\d{1,2})?|VLAN\((?:[1-9]|[1-9]\d|[1-9]\d{2}|[1-3]\d{3}|40[0-8]\d|409[0-4])\)\.(?:\*|[1-9]|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4])))*$	No
destination_port	Any	Integer[min: 0, max: 65535] or String[matches: `(?:[1-9][0-9]3	[1-5][0-9]4	6[0-4][0-9]3
destination_cidr	String	Regex: ^(?i:any|(\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}(\/\d{1,2})?|VLAN\((?:[1-9]|[1-9]\d|[1-9]\d{2}|[1-3]\d{3}|40[0-8]\d|409[0-4])\)\.(?:\*|[1-9]|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))(,(any|(\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}(\/\d{1,2})?|VLAN\((?:[1-9]|[1-9]\d|[1-9]\d{2}|[1-3]\d{3}|40[0-8]\d|409[0-4])\)\.(?:\*|[1-9]|[1-9]\d|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4])))*$	No
source_policy_objects	List	String[min: 1, max: 127]	No
source_policy_object_groups	List	String[min: 1, max: 127]	No
destination_policy_objects	List	String[min: 1, max: 127]	No
destination_policy_object_groups	List	String[min: 1, max: 127]	No
source_vlans	List	source_vlans	No
destination_vlans	List	destination_vlans	No
syslog	Boolean	true, false	No

source_vlans (meraki.domains.organizations.networks.appliance.firewall.l3_firewall_rules.rules)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
vlan_id	Any	Integer[min: 1, max: 4094] or String[matches: `(?:[1-9]	[1-9][0-9]	[1-9][0-9]2
ipv4_offset	Integer	min: 1, max: 254	No
ipv6_offset	IP		No

destination_vlans (meraki.domains.organizations.networks.appliance.firewall.l3_firewall_rules.rules)

Name	Type	Constraint	Mandatory	Default Value
vlan_id	Any	Integer[min: 1, max: 4094] or String[matches: `(?:[1-9]	[1-9][0-9]	[1-9][0-9]2
ipv4_offset	Integer	min: 1, max: 254	No
ipv6_offset	IP		No

Examples

Example-1: The example below demonstrates Layer 3 firewall rule configuration.

This configuration implements granular security policies for network segmentation and application control. The rules support zero-trust security models and inter-VLAN communication management through policy actions (allow/deny), protocol specifications (tcp/udp/icmp/any), source/destination addressing with CIDR notation, and port ranges.

This configuration creates two comprehensive Layer 3 firewall rules for network security enforcement.

The first rule, “Block Bad Traffic”, denies UDP traffic on port 1433 originating from the subnet 10.10.10.0/24, any device in VLAN(10), and host .5 in VLAN(20) to any destination on port 1433, effectively blocking potentially malicious SQL-related traffic. The second rule, “Block SSH”, denies TCP traffic on port 22 from any source to any destination, preventing unauthorized SSH access across the network. Optional syslog settings are available to log matched traffic for monitoring and auditing purposes.

meraki:
  domains:
    - name: !env domain
      administrator:
        name: !env org_admin
      organizations:
        - name: !env org
          networks:
            - name: !env network_name
              product_types:
                - appliance
                - switch
                - wireless
                - camera
                - sensor
                - cellularGateway
              appliance:
                firewall:
                  l3_firewall_rules:
                    rules:
                      - comment: "Block Bad Traffic"
                        policy: deny
                        protocol: udp
                        source_port: 1433
                        source_cidr: 10.10.10.0/24,VLAN(10).*,VLAN(20).5
                        destination_port: 1433
                        destination_cidr: Any
                        # syslog: true
                      - comment: "Block SSH"
                        policy: deny
                        protocol: tcp
                        source_port: 22
                        source_cidr: Any
                        destination_port: 22
                        destination_cidr: Any
                        # syslog: true
                    # syslog_default_rule: true

Example-2: The example below demonstrates Layer 3 firewall rule configuration using policy objects, policy object groups, and VLANs as source and destination.

The source_cidr and destination_cidr fields accept a comma-separated list of IPv4 and IPv6 CIDRs. VLAN-based sources and destinations should be specified using source_vlans and destination_vlans respectively, where each entry contains a vlan_id and optionally an ipv4_offset (e.g. VLAN(10).5) or ipv6_offset (e.g. VLAN(11)::12a). Omitting both offsets produces a wildcard match VLAN(<id>).*. Named policy objects and policy object groups should be specified in source_policy_objects, source_policy_object_groups, destination_policy_objects, and destination_policy_object_groups respectively. All these fields are assembled into a single comma-separated srcCidr/destCidr string sent to the Meraki API. The source_cidr and destination_cidr fields will still accept a comma-separated list of plain CIDRs and VLAN(<id>) format tokens directly if preferred.

meraki:
  domains:
    - name: !env domain
      administrator:
        name: !env org_admin
      organizations:
        - name: !env org
          networks:
            - name: !env network_name
              product_types:
                - appliance
                - switch
                - wireless
                - camera
                - sensor
                - cellularGateway
              appliance:
                firewall:
                  l3_firewall_rules:
                    rules:
                      - comment: "Block mixed sources to mixed destinations"
                        policy: deny
                        protocol: udp
                        source_port: Any
                        source_cidr: 10.0.0.0/24,10.32.0.0/25
                        source_policy_objects:
                          - my_host_object
                        source_policy_object_groups:
                          - my_network_group
                        source_vlans:
                          - vlan_id: 10
                            ipv4_offset: "5"      # results in VLAN(10).5
                          - vlan_id: 11
                            ipv6_offset: "::12a"  # results in VLAN(11)::12a
                          - vlan_id: 20           # results in VLAN(20).* (wildcard)
                        destination_port: Any
                        destination_cidr: 192.168.0.0/24
                        destination_vlans:
                          - vlan_id: 30
                            ipv4_offset: "1"      # results in VLAN(30).1
                    # syslog_default_rule: true