Amaranten Firewall Changes from v8.40.04 to v8.40.05

Release date: 2004-02-22 [ISO]

Version 8.40.05 contains bug fixes to the Firewall Core and the Firewall Manager. This document outlines bug fixes as well as improvements for each component.

The upgrade procedures in this document refers to upgrades from earlier v8.0x installations.

· New files installed by v8.40.05
· How to upgrade earlier v8.0x firewalls to v8.40.05
· HA upgrade procedure
· Firewall Manager	[Changes]	[Bug Fixes]	[Known Bugs / Problems]
· Firewall Core	[Changes]	[Bug Fixes]	[Known Bugs / Problems]
· Firewall Core - VPN specific	[Changes]	[Bug Fixes]	[Known Bugs / Problems]
· Firewall Core - HA specific	[Changes]	[Bug Fixes]	[Known Bugs / Problems]

For future reference: This document is stored in the "Docs" sub-folder of your Firewall Manager install folder.

Change logs / release notes for earlier versions of Amaranten Firewall are available in the release notes section of www.Amaranten.com/support.

 Summary of changes and bug fixes

All changes and bug fixes affecting the standard firewall core also affect VPN and HA cores, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Firewall Manager

Bug fix:

Firewalls set as DNS names could not revert back to numeric IP address

Firewall Core

Change:	FTP ALG list of known and disallowed commands updated
Change:	DHCP client will now include options 12, 60 and 61 in requests
Bug fix:	HTTP ALG problems with Microsoft Windows Update and some other sites
Bug fix:	FTP ALG problems with PBR
Bug fix:	User authentication timeouts not reset by traffic passing through FwdFast rules
Bug fix:	Crash if DNS client was making a query during a config re-read
Bug fix:	Deselecting an ALG from a service would require a reboot

Firewall Core - VPN specific

Bug fix:	Automatic IPsec keepalives would not work with 0.0.0.0/0 as local or remote net
Bug fix:	Auto-adding routes would fail intermittently
Bug fix:	IPsec data lifetimes higher than 4194304KB (4GB) would be misinterpreted
Bug fix:	DSA certificates would not work in IPsec

Firewall Core - HA specific

Bug fix:	Incorrect behavior of Route Local IPs on inactive node
Known problem:	No state synchronization for ALGs

New files installed by v8.40.05

This is a list of the files that are new to the v8.40.05 release. All paths are relative to your Firewall Manager install folder.

»	Cores/fwc-8.40.05-full.cfx This is the v8.40.05 full firewall core. Upload it to your existing firewall, or create new boot media with it. It contains VPN as well as HA functionality.
»	Cores/fwc-8.40.05-novpn.cfx This is a version of the v8.40.05 core without VPN support. It is roughly half the size of the full version.
»	Cores/fwcoreup8.exe This is the core used to remotely upgrade v7.0x and earlier firewalls. It will install a "8.00.02-full" core.
»	Docs/Changes-8.40.04-to-8.40.05.html This document.
»	FWMgr8.exe This is the v8.40.05 Firewall Manager. Earlier version 8 Firewall Managers will be overwritten. Version 7 Firewall Managers (if installed) will not be overwritten, as they are named "FWMgr7.exe", and are also typically installed in a different directory.

How to upgrade earlier v8.0x firewalls to v8.40.05

Upgrading a previous v8.0x firewall to v8.40.05 is completely straightforward.
Simply upload the new core, "fwc-8.40.05-full.cfx", to your firewall and restart it.
(Alternatively, upload the "-novpn" version if you do not wish VPN functionality.)

HA upgrade procedure

There are no incompatibilities in the HA synchronization protocol between 8.40.05 HA cores and earlier v8.0x HA cores. No special procedures are required.

Simply upload the new firewall core file to the firewalls in your cluster and make sure that the first upload and restart is successful before uploading to the second firewall.

We recommend beginning with the firewall that is currently active, even though this will necessitate two failovers. The reason for this is that ALG sessions are not synchronized.

The "immediate availability" method

• Upload the core to the currently active firewall ("firewall A") and restart it.
• Issue a 'reconfigure' on the firewall B to rapidly fail back to the now upgraded firewall A. Make sure firewall A functions properly.
• Upload the core to firewall B and restart it.
• End result: Firewall A is now the active node, just as it was before the upgrade procedure.

Note that this leaves the second firewall untested, even though it most likely will work just as well as the first firewall. If you want to specifically test the second firewall, you can:
1) cause two failovers manually,   or
2) connect to it via e.g. the remote console just to make sure it's running,   or
3) if ALG synchronization is not a concern, follow this procedure:

The "long-term safe" procedure:

• Upload the core to the currently inactive firewall ("firewall B") and restart it.
• Issue a 'reconfigure' on firewall A. This causes failover to firewall B. Make sure firewall B functions properly.
• Upload the core to firewall A and restart it.
• Issue a 'reconfigure' on firewall B to fall back to firewall A. Make sure firewall A functions properly.
• End result: Firewall A is now the active node, just as it was before the upgrade procedure.

Again, note that the "availability" issues only affect ALGs. All other states are, as usual, fully synchronized and not affected in either procedure.

Firewall Manager Bug Fixes

Firewalls set as DNS names could not revert back to numeric IP address
Issue:	In order to facilitate remote management of firewalls without fixed IP addresses, the Firewall Manager may be told to connect to the firewall using a DNS hostname.
Problem:	Reverting to using a numeric IP address would not work. The firewall manager would keep trying to resolve the previously given DNS name.
Results:	If the DNS name would not resolve, or would resolve to the wrong IP address, remote management of the firewall would be impossible.
Affects:	Firewall Manager v8.00.00 and up.
Fix:	Fixed in v8.40.05 and v8.50.00.

Firewall Core Changes