VPN Features

Add subdomains to webVPN HSTS

Allows domain owners to submit what domains should be included in the HSTS preload list for web browsers.

New/Modified screens:

Configuration > Remote Access VPN > Clientless SSL VPN Access > Advanced > Proxies > Enable HSTS Subdomainsfield

Also in 9.12(1).

Administrative Features

Allow non-browser-based HTTPS clients to access the ASA

You can allow non-browser-based HTTPS clients to access HTTPS services on the ASA. By default, ASDM, CSM, and REST API are allowed. Many specialty clients (for example, python libraries, curl, and wget) do not support Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) token-based authentication, so you need to specifically allow these clients to use the ASA basic authentication method. For security purposes, you should only allow required clients.

New/Modified screens.

Configuration > Device Management > Management Access > HTTP Non-Browser Client Support

Also in 9.12(1).

show tech-support includes additional output

The output of the show tech-support is enhanced to display the output of the following:

• show ipv6 interface

• show aaa-server

• show fragment

New/Modified commands: show tech-support

Also in 9.12(1).

Support to enable and disable the results for free memory and used memory statistics during SNMP walk operations

To avoid overutilization of CPU resources, you can enable and disable the query of free memory and used memory statistics collected through SNMP walk operations.

New or modified screen: Configuration > Device Management > Management Access > SNMP

Also in 9.10(1).

Platform Features

Firepower 2100 Active LED now lights amber when in standby mode

Formerly, the Active LED was unlit in standby mode.

Firewall Features

Support for removing the logout button from the cut-through proxy login page.

If you configure the cut-through proxy to obtain user identity information (the AAA authentication listener), you can now remove the logout button from the page. This is useful in case where users connect from behind a NAT device and cannot be distinguished by IP address. When one user logs out, it logs out all users of the IP address.

New/Modified commands: aaa authentication listener no-logout-button .

No ASDM support.

Trustsec SXP connection configurable delete hold down timer

The default SXP connection hold down timer is 120 seconds. You can now configure this timer, between 120 to 64000 seconds.

New/Modified commands: cts sxp delete-hold-down period , show cts sxp connection brief , show cts sxp connections

No ASDM support.

VPN Features

Support for legacy SAML authentication

If you deploy an ASA with the fix for CSCvg65072, then the default SAML behavior is to use the embedded browser, which is not supported on AnyConnect 4.4 or 4.5. Therefore, to continue to use AnyConnect 4.4 or 4.5, you must enable the legacy external browser SAML authentication method. Because of security limitations, use this option only as part of a temporary plan to migrate to AnyConnect 4.6. This option will be deprecated in the near future.

New/Modified screens:

Configuration > Remote Access VPN > Network (Client) Access > AnyConnect Connection Profiles page > Connection Profiles area > Add button > Add AnyConnect Connection Profile dialog box

Configuration > Remote Access VPN > Clientless SSL VPN Access > Connection Profiles > page > Connection Profiles area > Add button > Add Clientless SSL VPN Connection Profile dialog box

New/Modified options: SAML External Browser check box

Interface Features

Unique MAC address generation for single context mode

You can now enable unique MAC address generation for VLAN subinterfaces in single context mode. Normally, subinterfaces share the same MAC address with the main interface. Because IPv6 link-local addresses are generated based on the MAC address, this feature allows for unique IPv6 link-local addresses.

New or modified command: mac-address auto

No ASDM support.

Also in 9.9(2) and later.

Firewall Features

Ethertype access control list changes

EtherType access control lists now support Ethernet II IPX (EII IPX). In addition, new keywords are added to the DSAP keyword to support common DSAP values: BPDU (0x42), IPX (0xE0), Raw IPX (0xFF), and ISIS (0xFE). Consequently, existing EtherType access contol entries that use the BPDU or ISIS keywords will be converted automatically to use the DSAP specification, and rules for IPX will be converted to 3 rules (DSAP IPX, DSAP Raw IPX, and EII IPX). In addition, packet capture that uses IPX as an EtherType value has been deprecated, because IPX corresponds to 3 separate EtherTypes.

This feature is supported in 9.8(2.9) and other interim releases. For more information, see CSCvf57908.

We modified the following screens: Configuration > Firewall > Ethertype Rules.

Platform Features

ASA for the Firepower 2100 series

We introduced the ASA for the Firepower 2110, 2120, 2130, and 2140. Similar to the Firepower 4100 and 9300, the Firepower 2100 runs the base FXOS operating system and then the ASA operating system as an application. The Firepower 2100 implementation couples FXOS more closely with the ASA than the Firepower 4100 and 9300 do (pared down FXOS functions, single device image bundle, easy management access for both ASA and FXOS).

FXOS owns configuring hardware settings for interfaces, including creating EtherChannels, as well as NTP services, hardware monitoring, and other basic functions. You can use the Firepower Chassis Manager or the FXOS CLI for this configuration. The ASA owns all other functionality, including Smart Licensing (unlike the Firepower 4100 and 9300). The ASA and FXOS each have their own IP address on the Management 1/1 interface, and you can configure management of both the ASA and FXOS instances from any data interface.

We introduced the following screens:

Configuration > Device Management > Management Access > FXOS Remote Management

Department of Defense Unified Capabilities Approved Products List

The ASA was updated to comply with the Unified Capabilities Approved Products List (UC APL) requirements. In this release, when you enter the fips enable command, the ASA will reload. Both failover peers must be in the same FIPS mode before you enable failover.

We modified the following command: fips enable

ASAv for Amazon Web Services M4 instance support

You can now deploy the ASAv as an M4 instance.

We did not modify any screens.

ASAv5 1.5 GB RAM capability

Starting in Version 9.7(1), the ASAv5 may experience memory exhaustion where certain functions such as enabling AnyConnect or downloading files to the ASAv fail. You can now assign 1.5 GB (up from 1 GB) of RAM to the ASAv5.

We did not modify any screens.

VPN Features

HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) header support

HSTS protects websites against protocol downgrade attacks and cookie hijacking on clientless SSL VPN. It lets web servers declare that web browsers (or other complying user agents) should only interact with it using secure HTTPS connections, and never via the insecure HTTP protocol. HSTS is an IETF standards track protocol and is specified in RFC 6797.

We modified the following screens: Configuration > Remote Access VPN > Clientless SSL VPN Access > Advanced > Proxies

Interface Features

VLAN support for the ASAv50

The ASAv50 now supports VLANs on the ixgbe-vf vNIC for SR-IOV interfaces.

We did not modify any screens.

High Availability and Scalability Features

Active/Backup High Availability for ASAv on Microsoft Azure

A stateless Active/Backup solution that allows for a failure of the active ASAv to trigger an automatic failover of the system to the backup ASAv in the Microsoft Azure public cloud.

We introduced the following commands: failover cloud

No ASDM support.

Platform Features

ASAv50 platform

The ASAv platform has added a high-end performance ASAv50 platform that provides 10 Gbps Firewall throughput levels. The ASAv50 requires ixgbe-vf vNICs, which are supported on VMware and KVM only.

SR-IOV on the ASAv platform

The ASAv platform supports Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) interfaces, which allows multiple VMs to share a single PCIe network adapter inside a host. ASAv SR-IOV support is available on VMware, KVM, and AWS only.

Automatic ASP load balancing now supported for the ASAv

Formerly, you could only manually enable and disable ASP load balancing.

We modified the following screen: Configuration > Device Management > Advanced > ASP Load Balancing

Firewall Features

Support for setting the TLS proxy server SSL cipher suite

You can now set the SSL cipher suite when the ASA acts as a TLS proxy server. Formerly, you could only set global settings for the ASA on the Configuration > Device Management > Advanced > SSL Settings > Encryption page.

We modified the following screen: Configuration > Firewall > Unified Communications > TLS Proxy, Add/Edit dialog boxes, Server Configuration page.

Global timeout for ICMP errors

You can now set the idle time before the ASA removes an ICMP connection after receiving an ICMP echo-reply packet. When this timeout is disabled (the default), and you enable ICMP inspection, then the ASA removes the ICMP connection as soon as an echo-reply is received; thus any ICMP errors that are generated for the (now closed) connection are dropped. This timeout delays the removal of ICMP connections so you can receive important ICMP errors.

We modified the following screen: Configuration > Firewall > Advanced > Global Timeouts.

High Availability and Scalability Features

Improved cluster unit health-check failure detection

You can now configure a lower holdtime for the unit health check: .3 seconds minimum. The previous minimum was .8 seconds. This feature changes the unit health check messaging scheme to heartbeats in the data plane from keepalives in the control plane. Using heartbeats improves the reliability and the responsiveness of clustering by not being susceptible to control plane CPU hogging and scheduling delays. Note that configuring a lower holdtime increases cluster control link messaging activity. We suggest that you analyze your network before you configure a low holdtime; for example, make sure a ping from one unit to another over the cluster control link returns within the holdtime/3, because there will be three heartbeat messages during one holdtime interval. If you downgrade your ASA software after setting the hold time to .3 - .7, this setting will revert to the default of 3 seconds because the new setting is unsupported.

We modified the following screen: Configuration > Device Management > High Availability and Scalability > ASA Cluster

Configurable debounce time to mark an interface as failed for the Firepower 4100/9300 chassis

You can now configure the debounce time before the ASA considers an interface to be failed, and the unit is removed from the cluster. This feature allows for faster detection of interface failures. Note that configuring a lower debounce time increases the chances of false-positives. When an interface status update occurs, the ASA waits the number of milliseconds specified before marking the interface as failed and the unit is removed from the cluster. The default debounce time is 500 ms, with a range of 300 ms to 9 seconds.

New or modified screen: Configuration > Device Management > High Availability and Scalability > ASA Cluster

VPN Features

Virtual Tunnel Interface (VTI) now supports BGP (static VTI). You can now use IKEv2 in standalone and high availability modes. You can use certificate based authentication by setting up a trustpoint in the IPsec profile. You can also apply access lists on VTI using access-group commands to filter ingress traffic.

We introduced options to select the trustpoint for certificate based authentication in the following screen:

Configuration > Site-to-Site VPN > Advanced > IPsec Proposals (Transform Sets) > IPsec Profile > Add

Mobile IKEv2 (MobIKE) is enabled by default

Mobile devices operating as remote access clients require transparent IP address changes while moving. Supporting MobIKE on ASA allows a current IKE security association (SA) to be updated without deleting the current SA. MobIKE is “always on.”

SAML 2.0 SSO Updates

The default signing method for a signature in a SAML request changed from SHA1 to SHA2, and you can configure which signing method you prefer: rsa-sha1, rsa-sha256, rsa-sha384, or rsa-sha512.

We introduced changes to the following screen: Configuration > Remote Access VPN > Clientless SSL VPN Access > Advanced > Single Sign On Servers > Add.

We changed the pre-fill-username and secondary-pre-fill-username value from ssl-client to client .

AAA Features

Login history

By default, the login history is saved for 90 days. You can disable this feature or change the duration, up to 365 days. This feature only applies to usernames in the local database when you enable local AAA authentication for one or more of the management methods (SSH, ASDM, Telnet, and so on).

We introduced the following screen: Configuration > Device Management > Users/AAA > Login History

Password policy enforcement to prohibit the reuse of passwords, and prohibit use of a password matching a username

You can now prohibit the reuse of previous passwords for up to 7 generations, and you can also prohibit the use of a password that matches a username.

We modified the following screen: Configuration > Device Management > Users/AAA > Password Policy

Separate authentication for users with SSH public key authentication and users with passwords

In releases prior to 9.6(2), you could enable SSH public key authentication (ssh authentication ) without also explicitly enabling AAA SSH authentication with the Local user database (aaa authentication ssh console LOCAL ). In 9.6(2), the ASA required you to explicitly enable AAA SSH authentication. In this release, you no longer have to explicitly enable AAA SSH authentication; when you configure the ssh authentication command for a user, local authentication is enabled by default for users with this type of authentication. Moreover, when you explicitly configure AAA SSH authentication, this configuration only applies for usernames with passwords, and you can use any AAA server type (aaa authentication ssh console radius_1 , for example). For example, some users can use public key authentication using the local database, and other users can use passwords with RADIUS.

We did not modify any screens.

Also in Version 9.6(3).

Monitoring and Troubleshooting Features

Saving currently-running packet captures when the ASA crashes

Formerly, active packet captures were lost if the ASA crashed. Now, packet captures are saved to disk 0 at the time of the crash with the filename [context_name.]capture_name.pcap.

We did not modify any screens.