1. A method comprising: in a computer-implemented integrated development environment: preprocessing a configuration file including security rules, each security rule including multiple security rule parameters to cause a network security device to apply a network access control, including either a block access or an allow access, when a source attempts to access a destination, at least one of the destination or the source in some of the security rules represented as a respective object name, each object name associated with an object value defined in an object definition in the configuration file, wherein each of the source, the destination, and the object value is associated with a network address or a range of network addresses, the preprocessing including: mapping each object name to the associated object value based on the object definition for that object name; and classifying the security rules into (i) one or more identical classifications each including security rules that are identical to each other, and (ii) one or more similar classifications each including security rules that are similar but not identical to each other, and storing for each classification an index to access the classification, file locations of the security rules in the classification, and either an identical indicator or a similar indicator for the classification; responsive to the configuration file being opened in an editor configured to interact with the security rules, providing the editor with access to preprocessing results; searching each security rule in the opened configuration file for object names therein; linking each object name found in the searching to the associated object value mapped thereto by the mapping performed during the preprocessing; and receiving a selection of a particular object name in a security rule of the opened configuration file and generating for display the associated object value linked to the selected object name.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: comparing the security rule parameters of each security rule in the opened configuration file to a dictionary of prohibited or potentially dangerous security rule parameters; and if the comparing indicates a match between a first security rule parameter in a given security rule and one of the prohibited or potentially dangerous security rule parameters of the dictionary, generating for display a warning associated with the given security rule.