Blocking Outbrain and other clickbait ads for your entire network using the Barracuda NGFW

So I recently got tricked in to clicking on a Outbrain article clickbait scam ad.

Headline looked innocent enough, but when I clicked thru it quickly became apparent that it was one of those aweful “You won’t believe what happened next! Click here to find out!” bullshit ads.

Ya, I could have just tweaked Adblock, but then I’d have to spend a bunch of time touching every PC and phone in the house. Why do that when I can simply do a quick config change on the firewall and block the whole crap-ass domain.

You won’t believe what I did next!

Start up NGAdmin and connect to your fw or the cc.
Go to your virtual server – Firewall service – Forwarding Rules
You should start in Access Rules, so go there in case you didn’t.
Doublecheck that AppControl is enabled – We’ll be using Appcontrol, not the URL filter, so we’ll need that enabled.
Ok, now the fun part. Go to Application Rules now
Right click in the main section, and click New-Rule
Double click on the new rule’s number to open it up for editing.
I named mine “BlockShit” but you can call it whatever you want.
Set it to “Deny” obvs.
In the Object Viewer, to the right of the rule settings, click on the “Applications” tab
Right click in the Objects Viewer and select New – Custom Application
Select “Web Application” from the popup and click OK
Now the Custom Application window will open. Make sure you set a category, risk, and Properties, too.
Now click the little green plus sign above the “URL Host:” list and add the following starter URLs: (I’m sure there are hundreds more, but this is a good start)
- *.adsnative.com
- *.content.ad
- *.adrizer.com
- *.taboola.com
- *.postrelease.com
- *.
- and of course, *.outbrain.com
Now click Save, and drag the resulting object in to the “Application” section of your Edit Rule Window
Click OK to close the Edit Rule window
Ensure the new BlockShit rule is above the default rule
Now send the changes, apply, and you’re golden!