Output format for test/url-info-cloud and test/url-info-host

cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Announcements
Please sign in to see details of an important advisory in our Customer Advisories area.
Palo Alto Networks Approved
Palo Alto Networks Approved
Community Expert Verified
Community Expert Verified

Output format for test/url-info-cloud and test/url-info-host

L1 Bithead

So I had a crazy idea and started poking around at the XML API on my firewall.  I wanted to see if there was a generally efficient way to automate a query against PAN-DB.  Seems straightforward enought; either test/url-info-cloud or test/url-info-host (depending on whether I want to check the MP cache or against the cloud... though I'm not sure if there are limitations for the latter, such as what WildFire's API has).  I realize there's a public web interface for this check, but that's not what I'm looking for.  I'm trying to automate a process.

 

What I'm not sure about is the formatting of the response/output.  For example, submitting the following against url-info-cloud for google.com returns an interesting response:

 

<test><url-info-cloud>google.com</url-info-cloud></test>
<response cmd="status" status="success"><result>BM:
google.com,9,5,search-engines
...
BM:
...
</result></response>

(I've limited the output intentionally... not sure about how sensitive PA is to this)

 

And querying the same against url-info-host:

 

<test><url-info-host>google.com</url-info-host></test>
<response cmd="status" status="success"><result>Ancestors info:

BM:
google.com,1,5,search-engines,,

Descendants info:
wallet.google.com,1,5,financial-services,,
...
</result></response>

 

I'm expecting some differences between url-info-cloud and url-info-host due to PAN-DB's design, but I'm not sure what the all of the output means, other than the obvious stuff.  Strings like "BM:" and ",9,5," in url-info-cloud don't appear to have any corresponding documentation to explain their meaning.  The same goes for "Anscestors info:", "Decendants info:", ",1,5,", and the ",," at the end of the individual result.

 

When parsing out this response, should these strings and values mean something?

1 accepted solution

Accepted Solutions

L7 Applicator

BM stands for Best Match, and the first numerical value you see is a Best Match code. The exact meaning of the BM code was not shared with me, but it is only relevant to Palo Alto Networks for debugging purposes.

 

The second numerical value is an expiration code obtained from the cloud meant to tell set the MP/DP cache timeout, The expiration code can range in value from 1 to 5.

 

1 == Never expire

2 == 7 days

3 == 1 day

4 == 1 hour

5 == 30 minutes

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1

L7 Applicator

BM stands for Best Match, and the first numerical value you see is a Best Match code. The exact meaning of the BM code was not shared with me, but it is only relevant to Palo Alto Networks for debugging purposes.

 

The second numerical value is an expiration code obtained from the cloud meant to tell set the MP/DP cache timeout, The expiration code can range in value from 1 to 5.

 

1 == Never expire

2 == 7 days

3 == 1 day

4 == 1 hour

5 == 30 minutes

  • 1 accepted solution
  • 3251 Views
  • 1 replies
  • 1 Likes
Like what you see?

Show your appreciation!

Click Like if a post is helpful to you or if you just want to show your support.

Click Accept as Solution to acknowledge that the answer to your question has been provided.

The button appears next to the replies on topics you’ve started. The member who gave the solution and all future visitors to this topic will appreciate it!

These simple actions take just seconds of your time, but go a long way in showing appreciation for community members and the LIVEcommunity as a whole!

The LIVEcommunity thanks you for your participation!