Troubleshooting

This chapter covers the following sections:

Troubleshoot a Secure Device Connector

Use these topics to troubleshoot an on-premises Secure Device Connector (SDC).

If none of these scenarios match yours, open a case with Cisco Technical Assistance Center.

SDC is Unreachable

An SDC is in the state "Unreachable" if it has failed to respond to two heartbeat requests from Security Cloud Control in a row. If your SDC is unreachable, your tenant will not be able to communicate with any of the devices you have onboarded.

Security Cloud Control indicates that an SDC is unreachable in these ways:

  • You see the message, “Some Secure Device Connectors (SDC) are unreachable. You will not be able to communicate with devices associated with these SDCs.” on the Security Cloud Control home page.

  • The SDC's status in the Services page is "Unreachable."

Frist, attempt to reconnect the SDC to your tenant to resolve this issue:

  1. Check that the SDC virtual machine is running and can reach a Security Cloud Control IP address in your region. See Connect Security Cloud Control to your Managed Devices.

  2. Attempt to reconnect Security Cloud Control and the SDC by requesting a heartbeat manually. If the SDC responds to a heartbeat request, it will return to "Active" status. To request a heartbeat manually:

    1. In the left pane, choose Tools & Services > Secure Connectors.

    2. Click the SDC that is unreachable.

    3. In the Actions pane, click Request Heartbeat.

    4. Click Reconnect.

  3. If the SDC does not return to the Active status after manually attempting to reconnect it to your tenant, follow the instructions in SDC Status not Active on Security Cloud Control after Deployment.

    .

SDC Status not Active on Security Cloud Control after Deployment

If Security Cloud Control does not indicate that your SDC is active in about 10 minutes after deployment, connect to the SDC VM using SSH using the Security Cloud Control user and password you created when you deployed the SDC.

Procedure

Step 1

Review /opt/cdo/configure.log. It shows you the configuration settings you entered for the SDC and if they were applied successfully. If there were any failures in the setup process or if the values weren't entered correctly, run the sdc-onboard setup again:

  1. At the prompt entersudo sdc-onboard setup.

  2. Enter the password for the cdo user.

  3. Follow the prompts. The setup script guides you through all the configuration steps you took in the setup wizard and gives you an opportunity to make changes to the values you entered.

Step 2

If after reviewing the log and running sudo sdc-onboard setup, Security Cloud Control still does not indicate that the SDC is Active, contact Security Cloud Control support.

Changed IP Address of the SDC is not Reflected in Security Cloud Control

If you changed the IP address of the SDC, it will not be reflected in Security Cloud Control until after 3:00 AM GMT.

Troubleshoot Device Connectivity with the SDC

Use this tool to test connectivity from Security Cloud Control, through the Secure Device Connector (SDC) to your device. You may want to test this connectivity if your device fails to onboard or if you want to determine, before on-boarding, if Security Cloud Control can reach your device.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Administration > Firewall Management Center, and click the Secure Connectors tab.

Step 2

Select the SDC.

Step 3

In the Troubleshooting pane on the right, click Device Connectivity.

Step 4

Enter a valid IP address or FQDN and port number of the device you are attempting to troubleshoot, or attempting to connect to, and click Go. Security Cloud Control performs the following verifications:

  1. DNS Resolution - If you provide a FQDN instead of an IP address, this verifies the SDC can resolve the domain name and acquires the IP address.

  2. Connection Test - Verifies the device is reachable.

  3. TLS Support - Detects the TLS versions and ciphers that both the device and the SDC support.

    • Unsupported Cipher - If there are no TLS version that are supported by both the device and the SDC, Security Cloud Control also tests for TLS versions and ciphers that are supported by the device, but not the SDC.

  4. SSL Certificate - The troubleshoot provides certificate information.

Step 5

If you continue to have issues onboarding or connecting to the device, contact Security Cloud Control support.

Intermittent or No Connectivity with SDC

The solution discussed in this section applies only to an on-premise Secure Device Connector (SDC).

Symptom: Intermittent or no connectivity with SDC.

Diagnosis: This problem may occur if the disk space is almost full (above 80%).

Perform the following steps to check the disk space usage.

  1. Open the console for your Secure Device Connector (SDC) VM.

  2. Log in with the username cdo.

  3. Enter the password created during the initial login.

  4. First, check the amount of free disk space by typing df -h to confirm that there is no free disk space available.

    You can confirm that the disk space was consumed by the Docker. The normal disk usage is expected to be under 2 Gigabytes.

  5. To see the disk usage of the Docker folder,

    execute sudo du -h /var/lib/docker | sort -h.

    You can see the disk space usage of the Docker folder.

Procedure

If the disk space usage of the Docker folder is almost full, define the following in the docker config file:

  • Max-size: To force a log rotation once the current file reaches the maximum size.

  • Max-file: To delete excess rotated log files when the maximum limit it reached.

Perform the following:

  1. Execute sudo vi /etc/docker/daemon.json.

  2. Insert the following lines to the file.

    {

    "log-driver": "json-file",

    "log-opts": {"max-size": "100m", "max-file": "5" }

    }

  3. Press ESC and then type :wq! to write the changes and close the file.


    Note

    You can execute sudo cat /etc/docker/daemon.json to verify the changes made to the file.

  4. Execute sudo systemctl restart docker to restart the docker file.

    It will take a few minutes for the changes to take effect. You can execute sudo du -h /var/lib/docker | sort -h to see the updated disk usage of the docker folder.

  5. Execute df -h to verify that the free disk size has increased.

  6. Before your SDC status can change from Unreachable to Active, you must go to the Secure Connectors tab which you can navigate to from Administration > Firewall Management Center and click Request Reconnect from the Actions menu.

Container Privilege Escalation Vulnerability Affecting Secure Device Connector: cisco-sa-20190215-runc

The Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) published the security advisory cisco-sa-20190215-runc which describes a high-severity vulnerability in Docker. Read the entire PSIRT team advisory for a full explanation of the vulnerability.

This vulnerability impacts all Security Cloud Control customers:

  • Customers using Security Cloud Control's cloud-deployed Secure Device Connector (SDC) do not need to do anything as the remediation steps have already been performed by the Security Cloud Control Operations Team.

  • Customers using an SDC deployed on-premise need to upgrade their SDC host to use the latest Docker version. They can do so by using the following instructions:

Updating a Security Cloud Control-Standard SDC Host

Use these instructions if you deployed an SDC using the Security Cloud Control image.

Procedure

Step 1

Connect to your SDC host using SSH or the hypervisor console.

Step 2

Check the version of your Docker service by running this command:

docker version

Step 3

If you are running one of the latest virtual machines (VMs) you should see output like this:

 > docker version
Client:
     Version: 18.06.1-ce
     API version: 1.38
     Go version: go1.10.3
     Git commit: e68fc7a
     Built: Tue Aug 21 17:23:03 2018
     OS/Arch: linux/amd64
     Experimental: false
It's possible you may see an older version here.

Step 4

Run the following commands to update Docker and restart the service:

> sudo yum update docker-ce
> sudo service docker restart

Note

 

There will be a brief connectivity outage between Security Cloud Control and your devices while the docker service restarts.

Step 5

Run the docker version command again. You should see this output:

> docker version
Client:
    Version: 18.09.2
    API version: 1.39
    Go version: go1.10.6
    Git commit: 6247962
    Built: Sun Feb XX 04:13:27 2019
    OS/Arch: linux/amd64
    Experimental: false

Step 6

You are done. You have now upgraded to the latest, and patched, version of Docker.

Updating a Custom SDC Host

If you have created your own SDC host you will need to follow the instructions to update based on how you installed Docker. If you used CentOS, yum and Docker-ce (the community edition) the preceding procedure will work.

If you have installed Docker-ee (the enterprise edtion) or used an alternate method to install Docker, the fixed versions of Docker may be different. You can check the Docker page to determine the correct versions to install: Docker Security Update and Container Security Best Practices.

Bug Tracking

Cisco is continuing to evaluate this vulnerability and will update the advisory as additional information becomes available. After the advisory is marked Final, you can refer to the associated Cisco bug for further details:

CSCvo33929-CVE-2019-5736: runc container breakout

Invalid System Time

Security Cloud Control is adapting a new way of communicating with the Secure Device Connector (SDC). To facilitate this, Security Cloud Control must migrate your existing SDC to the new communication method by February 1, 2024.


Note

If your SDC is not migrated by February 1, 2024, Security Cloud Control will no longer be able to communicate with your devices through the SDC.

Security Cloud Control's operations team attempted to migrate your SDC but was unsuccessful because your SDC system time was 15 minutes ahead or behind the AWS system time.

Please follow the steps below to correct the system time issue. Once this problem is resolved, we will be able to proceed with the migration.

Procedure

Step 1

Login to your SDC VM throught the VM terminal or by making an SSH connection.

Step 2

At the prompt, enter sudo sdc-onboard setup and authenticate.

Step 3

You are now going to respond to the SDC setup questions as if you are were setting up the SDC for the first time. Re-enter all the same passwords and network information as you had before, except take special note of the NTP server address:

  1. Reset the root and Security Cloud Control user passwords with the same passowrds you used to setup the SDC.

  2. When prompted, enter y to re-configure the network.

  3. Enter the value for IP address/CIDR as you had before.

  4. Enter the value for the network gateway as you had before.

  5. Enter the value for the DNS Server as you had before.

  6. When prompted for the NTP server, be sure to provide a valid NTP server address, such as time.aws.com.

  7. Review the values you provided and enter y if they are correct.

Step 4

Validate that your time server is reachable and synchronized with your SDC by entering date at the prompt. The UTC date and time are displayed and you can compare it to your SDC time.

What to do next

Contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) once you have completed these steps, or in case you encounter any errors. Once you have successfully completed these steps, the Security Cloud Control operations team can complete your SDC migration to the new communication method.

SDC version is lower than 202311****

Security Cloud Control is adapting a new way of communicating with the Secure Device Connector (SDC). To facilitate this, Security Cloud Control must migrate your existing SDC to the new communication method by February 1, 2024.


Note

If your SDC is not migrated by February 1, 2024, Security Cloud Control will no longer be able to communicate with your devices through the SDC.

Security Cloud Control's operations team attempted to migrate your SDC but was unsuccessful because your tenant is running a version lower than 202311****.

The current version of your SDC is listed on the Secure Connectors page by navigating from the Security Cloud Control menu bar, Tools & Services > Secure Connectors. After selecting your SDC, its version number is found in the Details pane on the right of the screen.

Please follow the steps below to upgrade the SDC version. Once this problem is resolved, Security Cloud Control operations will be able to run the migration process again.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to the SDC VM and authenticate.

Step 2

At the prompt, enter sudo su - sdc and authenticate.

Step 3

At the prompt, enter crontab -r.

If you receive the message no crontab for sdc you can ignore it and move to the next step.

Step 4

At the prompt, enter ./toolkit/toolkit.sh upgrade. Security Cloud Control will determine if you need an upgrade and upgrade the toolkit. Ensure that no errors were reported in the console.

Step 5

Verify the new version of the SDC:

  1. Log in to Security Cloud Control.

  2. Navigate to the Secure Connectors page by navigating from the Security Cloud Control menu bar, Tools & Services > Secure Connectors.

  3. Select your SDC and click Request Heartbeat in the Actions pane.

  4. Validate that the SDC version is 202311**** or later.

What to do next

Contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) once you have completed these steps, or in case you encounter any errors. Once you have successfully completed these steps, the Security Cloud Control operations team can run the migration process again.

Certificate or Connection errors with AWS servers

Security Cloud Control is adapting a new way of communicating with the Secure Device Connector (SDC). To facilitate this, Security Cloud Control must migrate your existing SDC to the new communication method by February 1, 2024.


Note

If your SDC is not migrated by February 1, 2024, Security Cloud Control will no longer be able to communicate with your devices through the SDC.

Security Cloud Control's operations team attempted to migrate your SDC but was unsuccessful because they experienced a connection issue.

Please follow the steps below to correct the connection issue. Once this problem is resolved, we will be able to proceed with the migration.

Procedure

Step 1

Create firewall rules that allow outbound proxy connections, on port 443, to the domains in your region:

  • Production tenants in the Australia region:

    • cognito-identity.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com

    • cognito-idp.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com

    • sns.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com

    • sqs.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com

  • Production tenants in the India region:

    • cognito-identity.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com

    • cognito-idp.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com

    • sns.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com

    • sqs.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com

  • Production tenants in the US region:

    • cognito-identity.us-west-2.amazonaws.com

    • cognito-idp.us-west-2.amazonaws.com

    • sns.us-west-2.amazonaws.com

    • sqs.us-west-2.amazonaws.com

  • Production tenants in the EU region:

    • cognito-identity.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com

    • cognito-idp.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com

    • sns.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com

    • sqs.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com

  • Production tenants in the APJ region:

    • cognito-identity.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com

    • cognito-idp.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com

    • sqs.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com

    • sns.ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com

Step 2

You can determine the full list of IP addresses you need to add to your firewall's "allow list" by using one of the commands below.

Note

 

The commands below are for users that have jq installed. The IP addresses will be displayed in a single list.

  • Production tenants in the US region: 
    curl -s https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json | jq -r '.prefixes[] | select( (.service == "AMAZON" ) and .region == "us-west-2") | .ip_prefix'
  • Production tenants in the EU region: 
    curl -s https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json | jq -r '.prefixes[] | select( (.service == "AMAZON" ) and .region == "eu-central-1") | .ip_prefix'
  • Production tenants in the APJ region: 
    curl -s https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json | jq -r '.prefixes[] | select( (.service == "AMAZON" ) and .region == "ap-northeast-1") | .ip_prefix'

Note

 
If you don't have jq installed, you can use this shortened version of the command:
curl -s https://ip-ranges.amazonaws.com/ip-ranges.json

What to do next

Contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) once you have completed these steps, or in case you encounter any errors. Once you have successfully completed these steps, the Security Cloud Control operations team can complete your SDC migration to the new communication method.

Troubleshoot Security Cloud Control

Troubleshooting Login Failures

Login Fails Because You are Inadvertently Logging in to the Wrong Security Cloud Control Region

Make sure you are logging into the appropriate Security Cloud Control region. After you log into https://sign-on.security.cisco.com, you will be given a choice of what region to access.

See Signing in to Security Cloud Control in Different Regions for information about which region you shoud sign into.

Troubleshooting Login Failures after Migration

Login to Security Cloud Control Fails Because of Incorrect Username or Password

Solution If you try to log in to Security Cloud Control and you know you are using the correct username and password and your login is failing, or you try "forgot password" cannot recover a viable password, you may have tried to login without creating a new Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account, you need to sign up for a new Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account by following the instructions in Create a New Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account and Configure Duo Multi-factor Authentication.

Login to the Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Dashboard Succeeds but You Can't Launch Security Cloud Control

Solution You may have created a Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account with a different username than your Security Cloud Control tenant. Contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to standardize your user information between Security Cloud Control and Cisco Secure Sign-On.

Login Fails Using a Saved Bookmark

Solution You may be attempting to log in using an old bookmark you saved in your browser. The bookmark could be pointing to https://cdo.onelogin.com.

Solution Log in to https://sign-on.security.cisco.com.

  • Solution If you have not yet created a Cisco Secure Sign-On account, create an account.

  • Solution If you have created your new secure sign-on account, click the Security Cloud Control tile on the dashboard that corresponds to the region in which your tenant was created:

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control APJ

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control Australia

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control EU

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control India

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control US

  • Solution Update your bookmark to point to https://sign-on.security.cisco.com.

Troubleshooting Access and Certificates

Resolve New Fingerprint Detected State

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device in the New Fingerprint Detected state.

Step 5

Click Review Fingerprint in the New Fingerprint Detected pane.

Step 6

When prompted to review and accept the fingerprint:

  1. Click Download Fingerprint and review it.

  2. If you are satisfied with the fingerprint, click Accept. If you are not, click Cancel.

Step 7

After you resolve the new fingerprint issue, the connectivity state of the device may show Online and the Configuration Status may show "Not Synced" or "Conflict Detected." Review Resolve Configuration Conflicts to review and resolve configuration differences between Security Cloud Control and the device.

Troubleshooting Network Problems Using Security and Analytics Logging Events

Here is a basic framework you can use to troubleshoot network problems using the Events Viewer.

This scenario assumes that your network operations team has had a report that a user can't access a resource on the network. Based on the user reporting the issue and their location, the network operations team has a reasonable idea of which firewall controls their access to resources.


Note

This scenario also assumes that an FDM-managed device is the firewall managing the network traffic. Security Analytics and Logging does not collect logging information from other device types.

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Events & Logs > Events.

Step 2

Click the Historical tab.

Step 3

Start filtering events by Time Range. By default, the Historical tab shows the last hour of events. If that is the correct time range, enter the current date and time as the End time. If that is not the correct time range, enter a start and end time encompassing the time of the reported issue.

Step 4

Enter the IP address of the firewall that you suspect is controlling the user's access in the Sensor ID field. If it could be more than one firewall, filter events using attribute:value pairs in the search bar. Make two entries and combine them with an OR statement. For example: SensorID:192.168.10.2 OR SensorID:192.168.20.2.

Step 5

Enter the user's IP address in the Source IP field in the Events filter bar.

Step 6

If the user can't access a resource, try entering that resource's IP address in the Destination IP field.

Step 7

Expand the events in the results and look at their details. Here are some details to look at:

  • AC_RuleAction - The action taken (Allow, Trust, Block) when the rule was triggered.

  • FirewallPolicy - The policy in which the rule that triggered the event resides.

  • FirewallRule - The name of the rule that triggered the event. If the value is Default Action then it was the default action of the policy that triggered the event and not one of the rules in the policy.

  • UserName - The user associated with the initiator IP address. The Initiator IP address is the same as the Source IP address.

Step 8

If the rule action is preventing access, look at the FirewallRule and FirewallPolicy fields to identify the rule in the policy that is blocking access.

Troubleshooting SSL Decryption Issues

Handling Web Sites Where Decrypt Re-sign Works for a Browser but not an App (SSL or Certificate Authority Pinning)

Some apps for smart phones and other devices use a technique called SSL (or Certificate Authority) pinning. The SSL pinning technique embeds the hash of the original server certificate inside the app itself. As a result, when the app receives the resigned certificate from the Firepower Threat Defense device, the hash validation fails and the connection is aborted.

The primary symptom is that users cannot connect to the web site using the site's app, but they can connect using the web browser, even when using the browser on the same device where the app fails. For example, users cannot use the Facebook iOS or Android app, but they can point Safari or Chrome at [/bookmap/topic/concept/reference/concept/conbody/section/p/xref {"link-https"}) https://www.facebook.com (xref] and make a successful connection.

Because SSL pinning is specifically used to avoid man-in-the-middle attacks, there is no workaround. You must choose between the following options:

More Details

If a site works in a browser but not in an app on the same device, you are almost certainly looking at an instance of SSL pinning. However, if you want to delve deeper, you can use connection events to identify SSL pinning in addition to the browser test.

There are two ways an app might deal with hash validation failures:

  • Group 1 apps, such as Facebook, send an SSL ALERT Message as soon as it receives the SH, CERT, SHD message from the server. The Alert is usually an "Unknown CA (48)" alert indicating SSL Pinning. A TCP Reset is sent following the Alert message. You should see the following symptoms in the event details:

    • SSL Flow Flags include ALERT_SEEN.

    • SSL Flow Flags do not include APP_DATA_C2S or APP_DATA_S2C.

    • SSL Flow Messages typically are: CLIENT_HELLO, SERVER_HELLO, SERVER_CERTIFICATE, SERVER_KEY_EXCHANGE, SERVER_HELLO_DONE.

  • Group 2 apps, such as Dropbox, do not send any alerts. Instead they wait until the handshake is done and then send a TCP Reset. You should see the following symptoms in the event:

    • SSL Flow Flags do not include ALERT_SEEN, APP_DATA_C2S, or APP_DATA_S2C.

    • SSL Flow Messages typically are: CLIENT_HELLO, SERVER_HELLO, SERVER_CERTIFICATE, SERVER_KEY_EXCHANGE, SERVER_HELLO_DONE, CLIENT_KEY_EXCHANGE, CLIENT_CHANGE_CIPHER_SPEC, CLIENT_FINISHED, SERVER_CHANGE_CIPHER_SPEC, SERVER_FINISHED.

Troubleshooting Login Failures after Migration

Login to Security Cloud Control Fails Because of Incorrect Username or Password

Solution If you try to log in to Security Cloud Control and you know you are using the correct username and password and your login is failing, or you try "forgot password" cannot recover a viable password, you may have tried to login without creating a new Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account, you need to sign up for a new Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account by following the instructions in Create a New Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Account and Configure Duo Multi-factor Authentication.

Login to the Cisco Security Cloud Sign On Dashboard Succeeds but You Can't Launch Security Cloud Control

Solution You may have created a Cisco Security Cloud Sign On account with a different username than your Security Cloud Control tenant. Contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) to standardize your user information between Security Cloud Control and Cisco Secure Sign-On.

Login Fails Using a Saved Bookmark

Solution You may be attempting to log in using an old bookmark you saved in your browser. The bookmark could be pointing to https://cdo.onelogin.com.

Solution Log in to https://sign-on.security.cisco.com.

  • Solution If you have not yet created a Cisco Secure Sign-On account, create an account.

  • Solution If you have created your new secure sign-on account, click the Security Cloud Control tile on the dashboard that corresponds to the region in which your tenant was created:

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control APJ

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control Australia

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control EU

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control India

    • Solution Cisco Security Cloud Control US

  • Solution Update your bookmark to point to https://sign-on.security.cisco.com.

Troubleshooting Objects

Resolve Duplicate Object Issues

Duplicate objects are two or more objects on the same device with different names but the same values. These objects are usually created accidentally, serve similar purposes, and are used by different policies. After resolving duplicate object issues, Security Cloud Control updates all affected object references with the retained object name.

To resolve duplicate object issues:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects and choose an option.

Step 2

Then filter the objects to find duplicate object issues.

Step 3

Select one of the results. In the objects details panel, you will see the DUPLICATE field with the number of duplicates affected:

Step 4

Click Resolve. Security Cloud Control displays the duplicate objects for you to compare.

Step 5

Select two of the objects to compare.

Step 6

You now have these options:

  • If you want to replace one of the objects with the other, click Pick for the object you to keep, click Resolve to see what devices and network policies will be affected, and then click Confirm if you are satisfied with the changes. Security Cloud Control keeps the object you selected as the replacement and deletes the duplicate.

  • If you have an object in the list that you want to ignore, click Ignore. If you ignore an object, it will be removed from the list of duplicate objects that Security Cloud Control shows you.

  • Click Ignore All if you want to keep the object but do not want Security Cloud Control to find it in a search for duplicate objects.

Step 7

Once the duplicate object issue has been resolved review and deploy the changes you made now, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Resolve Unused Object Issues

Unused objects are objects that exist in a device configuration but are not referenced by another object, an access-list, or a NAT rule.

Resolve an Unused Object Issue
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects and choose an option.

Step 2

Then filter the objects to find unused object issues.

Step 3

Select one or more unused objects.

Step 4

You now have these options:

  • In the Actions pane, click Remove to remove the unused object from Security Cloud Control.

  • In the Issues pane, click Ignore. If you ignore an object, Security Cloud Control will stop displaying it among the results of unused objects objects.

Step 5

If you removed the unused object, Preview and Deploy Configuration Changes for All Devices the changes you made now, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Note

 

To resolve unused object issues in bulk, see Resolve Object Issues in Bulk.

Remove Unused Objects in Bulk
Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects and choose an option.

Step 2

Then filter the objects to find unused object issues.

Step 3

Select the unused objects you want to delete:

  • Click the checkbox in the object table header row to select all the objects on the page.

  • Select individual unused objects in the object table.

Step 4

In the Actions pane on the right, click Remove to remove all the unused objects you selected in Security Cloud Control. You can remove 99 objects at a time.

Step 5

Click OK to confirm you want to delete the unused objects.

Step 6

You have two choices to deploy these changes:

  • Review and deploy the changes you made now, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

  • Open the Security Devices page and find the devices that were affected by the change. Select all the devices affected by the change and, in the Management pane, click Deploy All . Read the warning and take the appropriate action.

Resolve Inconsistent Object Issues

Inconsistent objects are objects with the same name, but different values, on two or more devices. Sometimes users create objects in different configurations with the same name and content, but over time the values of these objects diverge, which creates the inconsistency.

Note: To resolve inconsistent object issues in bulk, see Resolve Object Issues in Bulk.

You can perform the following on inconsistent objects:

  • Ignore: Security Cloud Control ignores the inconsistency between objects and retains their values. The objects will no longer be listed under the inconsistency category.

  • Merge: Security Cloud Control combines all selected objects and their values into a single object group.

  • Rename: Security Cloud Control allows you to rename one of the inconsistent objects and give it a new name.

  • Convert Shared Network Objects to Overrides: Security Cloud Control allows you to combine inconsistent shared objects (with or without overrides) into a single shared object with overrides. The most common default value from the inconsistent objects is set as a default in the newly formed object.


    Note

    If there are multiple common default values, one of them is selected as the default. The remaining default values and override values are set as overrides of that object.

  • Convert Shared Network Group to Additional Values: - Security Cloud Control allows you to combine inconsistent shared network groups into a single shared network group with additional values. The criteria for this functionality is that the inconsistent network groups to be converted must have a minimum of one common object with the same value. All default values that match this criterion becomes the default values, and the remaining objects are assigned as additional values of the newly formed network group.

    For example, consider two inconsistent shared network groups. The first network group 'shared_network_group' is formed with 'object_1' (192.0.2.x) and 'object_2' (192.0.2.y). It also contains additional value 'object_3' (192.0.2.a). The second network group 'shared_network_group' is formed with 'object_1' (192.0.2.x) and additional value 'object_4' (192.0.2.b). On converting the shared network group to additional values, the newly formed group 'shared_network_group' contain 'object_1' (192.0.2.x) and 'object_2' (192.0.2.y)' as default values and 'object_3' (192.0.2.a) and 'object_4' (192.0.2.b) as additional values.


    Note

    When you create a new network object, Security Cloud Control auto assigns its value as an override to an existing shared network object with the same name. This is also applicable when a new device is onboarded to Security Cloud Control.

The auto-assignment happens only when the following criteria are met:

  1. The new network object must be assigned to a device.

  2. Only one shared object with the same name and type must be existing in the tenant.

  3. The shared object must already contain overrides.

To resolve inconsistent object issues:

Procedure

Step 1

In the Security Cloud Control navigation bar on the left, click Objects and choose an option.

Step 2

Then filter the objects to find inconsistent object issues.

Step 3

Select an inconsistent object. In the objects details panel, you will see the INCONSISTENT field with the number of objects affected:

Step 4

Click Resolve. Security Cloud Control displays inconsistent objects for you to compare.

Step 5

You now have these options:

  • Ignore All:

    1. Compare the objects presented to you and on one of the objects, click Ignore. Or, to ignore all objects, click Ignore All.

    2. Click OK to confirm.

  • Resolve by merging objects:

    1. Click Resolve by Merging X Objects.

    2. Click Confirm.

  • Rename:

    1. Click Rename.

    2. Save your changes to affected network policies and devices and click Confirm.

  • Convert to Overrides (for inconsistent shared objects): When comparing shared objects with overrides, the comparison panel shows only the default values in the Inconsistent Values field.

    1. Click Convert to Overrides. All inconsistent objects will be converted to a single shared object with overrides.

    2. Click Confirm. You can click Edit Shared Object to view the details of the newly formed object. You can use up and down arrows to move the values between default and override.

  • Convert to Additional Values (for inconsistent network groups):

    1. Click Convert to Additional Values. All inconsistent objects will be converted to a single shared object with additional values.

    2. Save your changes to affected network policies and devices and click Confirm.

Step 6

After resolving the inconsistencies, review and deploy now the changes you made, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

Resolve Object Issues in Bulk

One way to resolve objects with unused, duplicate, or Resolve Inconsistent Object Issues issues is to ignore them. You can select and ignore multiple objects, even if objects exhibit more than one issue. For example, if an object is both inconsistent and unused, you can only ignore one issue type at a time.


Important

If the object becomes associated with another issue type at a later time, the ignore action you committed only affects the issues you selected at that time. For example, if you ignored an object because it was a duplicate and the object is later marked inconsistent, ignoring it as a duplicate object does not mean it will be ignored as an inconsistent object.

To ignore issues in bulk, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Objects and choose an option.

Step 2

To narrow your search, you can filter object issues.

Step 3

In the Object table, select all the applicable objects you want to ignore. The Issues pane groups objects by issue type.

Step 4

Click Ignore to ignore issues by type. You must Ignore each issue type separately.

Step 5

Click OK to confirm you want to ignore those objects.

Device Connectivity States

You can view the connectivity states of the devices onboarded in your Security Cloud Control tenant. This topic helps you understand the various connectivity states. On the Security Devices page, the Connectivity column displays the device connectivity states.

When the device connectivity state is 'Online' it means that the device is powered on and connected to Security Cloud Control. The other states described in the table below usually occur when the device is running into problems for various reasons. The table provides the method to recover from such problems. It may be that there is more than one problem causing the connection failure. When you attempt to reconnect, Security Cloud Control will prompt you to fix all of these problems first before performing the reconnect.

Device Connectivity State

Possible Reasons

Resolution

Online

Device is powered on and connected to Security Cloud Control.

NA

Offline

Device is powered down or lost network connectivity.

Check whether the device is offline.

Insufficient licenses

Device doesn't have sufficient licenses.

Troubleshoot Insufficient Licenses

Invalid credentials

Username and password combination used by Security Cloud Control to connect to the device is incorrect.

Troubleshoot Invalid Credentials
Onboarding Device onboarding is initiated but is not complete. Check you device's connectivity and ensure you complete the device registration.

New Certificate Detected

Certificate on the device has changed. If the device uses a self-signed certificate, then this could have happened due to the device being power cycled.

Troubleshoot New Certificate Issues

Onboarding Error

Security Cloud Control may have lost connectivity with the device when onboarding it.

Troubleshoot Onboarding Error

Troubleshoot Insufficient Licenses

If the device connectivity status shows "Insufficient License", do the following:

  • Wait for some time until the device attains the license. Typically it takes some time for Cisco Smart Software Manager to apply a new license to the device.

  • If the device status doesn't change, refresh the Security Cloud Control portal by signing out from Security Cloud Control and signing back to resolve any network communication glitch between license server and device.

  • If the portal refresh doesn't change the device status, perform the following:

Procedure

Step 1

Generate a new token from Cisco Smart Software Manager and copy it. You can watch the Generate Smart Licensing video for more information.

Step 2

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 3

Click the Devices tab.

Step 4

Click the appropriate device type tab and select the device with the Insufficient License state.

Step 5

In the Device Details pane, click Manage Licenses appearing in Insufficient Licenses. The Manage Licenses window appears.

Step 6

In the Activate field, paste the new token and click Register Device.

Once the token is applied successfully to the device, its connectivity state turns to Online.

Troubleshoot Invalid Credentials

Perform the following to resolve device disconnection due to invalid credentials:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab and select the device with the Invalid Credentials state.

Step 4

In the Device Details pane, click Reconnect appearing in Invalid Credentials. Security Cloud Control attempts to reconnect with your device.

Step 5

When prompted enter the new username and password for the device.

Step 6

Click Continue.

Step 7

After the device is online and ready to use, click Close.

Step 8

It is likely that because Security Cloud Control attempted to use the wrong credentials to connect to the device, the username and password combination Security Cloud Control should use to connect to the device was changed directly on the device. You may now see that the device is "Online" but the configuration state is "Conflict Detected." Use Resolve Configuration Conflicts to review and resolve configuration differences between Security Cloud Control and the device.

Troubleshoot New Certificate Issues

Security Cloud Control's Use of Certificates

Security Cloud Control checks the validity of certificates when connecting to devices. Specifically, Security Cloud Control requires that:

  1. The device uses a TLS version equal to or greater than 1.0.

  2. The certificate presented by the device is not expired, and its issuance date is in the past (i.e. it is already valid, not scheduled to become valid at a later date).

  3. The certificate must be a SHA-256 certificate. SHA-1 certificates will not be accepted.

  4. One of these conditions is true:

    • The device uses a self-signed certificate, and it is the same as the most recent one trusted by an authorized user.

    • The device uses a certificate signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA), and provides a certificate chain linking the presented leaf certificate to the relevant CA.

These are the ways Security Cloud Control uses certificates differently than browsers:

  • In the case of self-signed certificates, Security Cloud Control overrides the domain name check, instead checking that the certificate exactly matches the one trusted by an authorized user during device onboarding or reconnection.

  • Security Cloud Control does not yet support internal CAs. There is currently no way to check a certificate signed by an internal CA.

    It is possible to disable certificate checking for ASA devices on a per-device basis. When an ASA's certificate cannot be trusted by Security Cloud Control, you will have the option of disabling certificate checking for that device. If you have attempted to disable certificate checking for the device and you are still unable to onboard it, it is likely that the IP address and port you specified for the device is incorrect or unreachable. There is no way to disable certificate checking globally, or to disable certificate checking for a device with a supported certificate. There is no way to disable certificate checking for non-ASA devices.

    When you disable certificate checking for a device, Security Cloud Control will still use TLS to connect to the device, but it will not validate the certificate used to establish the connection. This means that a passive man-in-the-middle attacker will not be able to eavesdrop on the connection, but an active man-in-the-middle could intercept the connection by supplying Security Cloud Control with an invalid certificate.

Identifying Certificate Issues

There are several reasons that Security Cloud Control may not be able to onboard a device. When the UI shows a message that "Security Cloud Control cannot connect to the device using the certificate presented," there is a problem with the certificate. When the UI does not show this message, the problem is more likely related to connectivity problems (the device is unreachable) or other network errors.

To determine why Security Cloud Control rejects a given certificate, you can use the openssl command-line tool on the SDC host or another host that can reach the relevant device. Use the following command to create a file showing the certificates presented by the device: 

openssl s_client -showcerts -connect <host>:<port> &> <filename>.txt

This command will start an interactive session, so you will need to use Ctrl-c to exit after a couple of seconds.

You should now have a file containing output like the following:

depth=2 C = US, O = GeoTrust Inc., CN = GeoTrust Global CA 
verify return:1
depth=1 C = US, O = Google Inc, CN = Google Internet Authority G2 
verify return:1 
depth=0 C = US, ST = California, L = Mountain View, O = Google Inc, CN = *.google.com 
verify return:1 CONNECTED(00000003)
---
Certificate chain
0 s:/C=US/ST=California/L=Mountain View/O=Google Inc/CN=*.google.com 
  i:/C=US/O=Google Inc/CN=Google Internet Authority G2
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
MIIH0DCCBrigAwIBAgIIUOMfH+8ftN8wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQAwSTELMAkGA1UE 
....lots of base64... 
tzw9TylimhJpZcl4qihFVTgFM7rMU2VHulpJgA59gdbaO/Bf
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
1 s:/C=US/O=Google Inc/CN=Google Internet Authority G2 
  i:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=GeoTrust Global CA 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
MIID8DCCAtigAwIBAgIDAjqSMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMEIxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVT 
....lots of base64... 
tzw9TylimhJpZcl4qihFVTgFM7rMU2VHulpJgA59gdbaO/Bf 
-----END CERTIFICATE----- 
2 s:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=GeoTrust Global CA 
  i:/C=US/O=Equifax/OU=Equifax Secure Certificate Authority 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
MIIDfTCCAuagAwIBAgIDErvmMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAME4xCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVT 
....lots of base64... 
b8ravHNjkOR/ez4iyz0H7V84dJzjA1BOoa+Y7mHyhD8S 
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
--- 
Server certificate 
subject=/C=US/ST=California/L=Mountain View/O=Google Inc/CN=*.google.com 
issuer=/C=US/O=Google Inc/CN=Google Internet Authority G2 
---
No client certificate CA names sent 
Peer signing digest: SHA512 
Server Temp Key: ECDH, P-256, 256 bits

--- 
SSL handshake has read 4575 bytes and written 434 bytes 
--- 
New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 
Server public key is 2048 bit Secure Renegotiation IS supported 
Compression: NONE 
Expansion: NONE 
No ALPN negotiated 
SSL-Session:    
    Protocol : TLSv1.2 
    Cipher : ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 
    Session-ID: 48F046F3360225D51BE3362B50CE4FE8DB6D6B80B871C2A6DD5461850C4CF5AB 
    Session-ID-ctx: 
    Master-Key: 9A9CCBAA4F5A25B95C37EF7C6870F8C5DD3755A9A7B4CCE4535190B793DEFF53F94203AB0A62F9F70B9099FBFEBAB1B6 
    Key-Arg : None 
    PSK identity: None 
    PSK identity hint: None 
    SRP username: None 
    TLS session ticket lifetime hint: 100800 (seconds) 
    TLS session ticket: 
    0000 - 7a eb 54 dd ac 48 7e 76-30 73 b2 97 95 40 5b de z.T..H~v0s...@[. 
    0010 - f3 53 bf c8 41 36 66 3e-5b 35 a3 03 85 6f 7d 0c .S..A6f>[5...o}. 
    0020 - 4b a6 90 6f 95 e2 ec 03-31 5b 08 ca 65 6f 8f a6 K..o....1[..eo.. 
    0030 - 71 3d c1 53 b1 29 41 fc-d3 cb 03 bc a4 a9 33 28 q=.S.)A.......3( 
    0040 - f8 c8 6e 0a dc b3 e1 63-0e 8f f2 63 e6 64 0a 36 ..n....c...c.d.6 
    0050 - 22 cb 00 3a 59 1d 8d b2-5c 21 be 02 52 28 45 9d "..:Y...\!..R(E. 
    0060 - 72 e3 84 23 b6 f0 e2 7c-8a a3 e8 00 2b fd 42 1d r..#...|....+.B. 
    0070 - 23 35 6d f7 7d 85 39 1c-ad cd 49 f1 fd dd 15 de #5m.}.9...I..... 
    0080 - f6 9c ff 5e 45 9c 7c eb-6b 85 78 b5 49 ea c4 45 ...^E.|.k.x.I..E 
    0090 - 6e 02 24 1b 45 fc 41 a2-87 dd 17 4a 04 36 e6 63 n.$.E.A....J.6.c 
    00a0 - 72 a4 ad 
    00a4 - <SPACES/NULS> Start Time: 1476476711 Timeout : 300 (sec)
Verify return code: 0 (ok)
---

The first thing to note in this output is the last line, where you see the Verify return code. If there is a certificate issue, the return code will be non-zero and there will be a description of the error.

Expand this list of certificate error code to see common errors and how to remediate them

0 X509_V_OK The operation was successful.

2 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT The issuer certificate of an untrusted certificate could not be found.

3 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_CRL The CRL of a certificate could not be found.

4 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECRYPT_CERT_SIGNATURE The certificate signature could not be decrypted. This means that the actual signature value could not be determined rather than it not matching the expected value. This is only meaningful for RSA keys.

5 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECRYPT_CRL_SIGNATURE The CRL signature could not be decrypted. This means that the actual signature value could not be determined rather than it not matching the expected value. Unused.

6 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_DECODE_ISSUER_PUBLIC_KEY The public key in the certificate SubjectPublicKeyInfo could not be read.

7 X509_V_ERR_CERT_SIGNATURE_FAILURE The signature of the certificate is invalid.

8 X509_V_ERR_CRL_SIGNATURE_FAILURE The signature of the certificate is invalid.

9 X509_V_ERR_CERT_NOT_YET_VALID The certificate is not yet valid: the notBefore date is after the current time. See Verify return code: 9 (certificate is not yet valid) below for more information.

10 X509_V_ERR_CERT_HAS_EXPIRED The certificate has expired; that is, the notAfter date is before the current time. See Verify return code: 10 (certificate has expired) below for more information.

11 X509_V_ERR_CRL_NOT_YET_VALID The CRL is not yet valid.

12 X509_V_ERR_CRL_HAS_EXPIRED The CRL has expired.

13 X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CERT_NOT_BEFORE_FIELD The certificate notBefore field contains an invalid time.

14 X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CERT_NOT_AFTER_FIELD The certificate notAfter field contains an invalid time.

15 X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CRL_LAST_UPDATE_FIELD The CRL lastUpdate field contains an invalid time.

16 X509_V_ERR_ERROR_IN_CRL_NEXT_UPDATE_FIELD The CRL nextUpdate field contains an invalid time.

17 X509_V_ERR_OUT_OF_MEM An error occurred trying to allocate memory. This should never happen.

18 X509_V_ERR_DEPTH_ZERO_SELF_SIGNED_CERT The passed certificate is self-signed and the same certificate cannot be found in the list of trusted certificates.

19 X509_V_ERR_SELF_SIGNED_CERT_IN_CHAIN The certificate chain could be built up using the untrusted certificates but the root could not be found locally.

20 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_GET_ISSUER_CERT_LOCALLY The issuer certificate of a locally looked up certificate could not be found. This normally means the list of trusted certificates is not complete.

21 X509_V_ERR_UNABLE_TO_VERIFY_LEAF_SIGNATURE No signatures could be verified because the chain contains only one certificate and it is not self-signed. See "Verify return code: 21 (unable to verify the first certificate)" below for more information. Verify return code: 21 (unable to verify the first certificate) below for more information.

22 X509_V_ERR_CERT_CHAIN_TOO_LONG The certificate chain length is greater than the supplied maximum depth. Unused.

23 X509_V_ERR_CERT_REVOKED The certificate has been revoked.

24 X509_V_ERR_INVALID_CA A CA certificate is invalid. Either it is not a CA or its extensions are not consistent with the supplied purpose.

25 X509_V_ERR_PATH_LENGTH_EXCEEDED The basicConstraints pathlength parameter has been exceeded.

26 X509_V_ERR_INVALID_PURPOSE The supplied certificate cannot be used for the specified purpose.

27 X509_V_ERR_CERT_UNTRUSTED The root CA is not marked as trusted for the specified purpose.

28 X509_V_ERR_CERT_REJECTED The root CA is marked to reject the specified purpose.

29 X509_V_ERR_SUBJECT_ISSUER_MISMATCH The current candidate issuer certificate was rejected because its subject name did not match the issuer name of the current certificate. Only displayed when the -issuer_checks option is set.

30 X509_V_ERR_AKID_SKID_MISMATCH The current candidate issuer certificate was rejected because its subject key identifier was present and did not match the authority key identifier current certificate. Only displayed when the -issuer_checks option is set.

31 X509_V_ERR_AKID_ISSUER_SERIAL_MISMATCH The current candidate issuer certificate was rejected because its issuer name and serial number were present and did not match the authority key identifier of the current certificate. Only displayed when the -issuer_checks option is set.

32 X509_V_ERR_KEYUSAGE_NO_CERTSIGN The current candidate issuer certificate was rejected because its keyUsage extension does not permit certificate signing.

50 X509_V_ERR_APPLICATION_VERIFICATION An application specific error. Unused.

New Certificate Detected

If you upgrade a device that has a self-signed certificate and a new certificate is generated after the upgrade process, Security Cloud Control may generate a "New Certificate Detected" message as both a Configuration Status and Connectivity status. You must manually confirm and resolve this issue before you can continue managing it from Security Cloud Control. Once the certificate is synchronized and the device is in a healthy state, you can manage the device.


Note

When you bulk reconnect more than one managed device to Security Cloud Control at the same time, Security Cloud Control automatically reviews and accepts the new certificates on the devices and continues to reconnect with them.

Use the following procedure to resolve a new certificate:

  1. In the left pane, click Security Devices.

  2. Use the filter to display devices with a New Certificate Detected connectivity or configuration status and select the desired device.

  3. In the action pane, click Review Certificate. Security Cloud Control allows you to download the certificate for review and accept the new certificate.

  4. In the Device Sync window, click Accept or in the Reconnecting to Device window, click Continue.

    Security Cloud Control automatically synchronizes the device with the new self-signed certificate. You may have to manually refresh the page to see the device once it's synced.

Certificate Error Codes

Verify return code: 0 (ok) but Security Cloud Control returns certificate error

Once Security Cloud Control has the certificate, it attempts to connect to the URL of the device by making a GET call to "https://<device_ip>:<port>". If this does not work, Security Cloud Control will display a certificate error. If you find that the certificate is valid (openssl returns 0 ok) the problem may be that a different service is listening on the port you're trying to connect to. You can use the command: 

 curl -k -u <username>:<password> https://<device_id>:<device_port>/admin/exec/show%20version

to determine whether you are definitely talking to an ASA and check if HTTPS server running on the correct port on the ASA:

 # show asp table socket
Protocol         Socket         State         Local Address             Foreign Address 
SSL             00019b98         LISTEN        192.168.1.5:443             0.0.0.0:* 
SSL             00029e18         LISTEN        192.168.2.5:443             0.0.0.0:* 
TCP             00032208         LISTEN        192.168.1.5:22              0.0.0.0:*

Verify return code: 9 (certificate is not yet valid)

This error means that the issuance date of the certificate provided is in the future, so clients will not treat it as valid. This can be caused by a poorly-constructed certificate, or in the case of a self-signed certificate it can be cause by the device time being wrong when it generated the certificate.

You should see a line in the error including the notBefore date of the certificate:

depth=0 CN = ASA Temporary Self Signed Certificate 
verify error:num=18:self signed certificate 
verify return:1 
depth=0 CN = ASA Temporary Self Signed Certificate 
verify error:num=9:certificate is not yet valid
notBefore=Oct 21 19:43:15 2016 GMT 
verify return:1 
depth=0 CN = ASA Temporary Self Signed Certificate 
notBefore=Oct 21 19:43:15 2016 GMT

From this error, you can determine when the certificate will become valid.

Remediation

The notBefore date of the certificate needs to be in the past. You can reissue the certificate with an earlier notBefore date. This issue can also arise when the time is not set correctly either on the client or issuing device.

Verify return code: 10 (certificate has expired)

This error means that at least one of the certificates provided has expired. You should see a line in the error including the notBefore date of the certificate: 

 error 10 at 0 depth lookup:certificate has expired

The expiration date is located in the certificate body.

Remediation

If the certificate is truly expired, the only remediation is to get another certificate. If the certificate's expiration is still in the future, but openssl claims that it is expired, check the time and date on your computer. For instance, if a certificate is set to expire in the year 2020, but the date on your computer is in 2021, your computer will treat that certificate as expired.

Verify return code: 21 (unable to verify the first certificate)

This error indicates that there is a problem with the certificate chain, and openssl cannot verify that the certificate presented by the device should be trusted. Let's look at the certificate chain from the example above to see how certificate chains should work: 

--- 
Certificate chain 
0 s:/C=US/ST=California/L=Mountain View/O=Google Inc/CN=*.google.com 
i:/C=US/O=Google Inc/CN=Google Internet Authority G2

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
MIIH0DCCBrigAwIBAgIIUOMfH+8ftN8wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQAwSTELMAkGA1UE 
....lots of base64... 
tzw9TylimhJpZcl4qihFVTgFM7rMU2VHulpJgA59gdbaO/Bf 
-----END CERTIFICATE----- 

1 s:/C=US/O=Google Inc/CN=Google Internet Authority G2 
i:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=GeoTrust Global CA 

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
MIID8DCCAtigAwIBAgIDAjqSMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMEIxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVT 
....lots of base64... 
tzw9TylimhJpZcl4qihFVTgFM7rMU2VHulpJgA59gdbaO/Bf 
-----END CERTIFICATE----- 

2 s:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=GeoTrust Global CA 
i:/C=US/O=Equifax/OU=Equifax Secure Certificate Authority 

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
MIIDfTCCAuagAwIBAgIDErvmMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAME4xCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVT 
....lots of base64... 
b8ravHNjkOR/ez4iyz0H7V84dJzjA1BOoa+Y7mHyhD8S 
-----END CERTIFICATE----- ---

The certificate chain is a list of certificates presented by the server, beginning with the server's own certificate and then including increasingly higher-level intermediate certificates linking the server's certificate with a Certificate Authority's top-level certificate. Each certificate lists its Subject (the line starting with 's:' and its Issuer (the line starting with 'i').

The Subject is the entity identified by the certificate. It includes the Organization name and sometimes the Common Name of the entity for which the certificate was issued.

The Issuer is the entity that issued the certificate. It also includes an Organization field and sometimes a Common Name.

If a server had a certificate issued directly by a trusted Certificate Authority, it would not need to include any other certificates in its certificate chain. It would present one certificate that looked like: 

--- Certificate chain 0 s:/C=US/ST=California/L=Anytown/O=ExampleCo/CN=*.example.com i:/C=US/O=Trusted Authority/CN=Trusted Authority 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- 
MIIH0DCCBrigAwIBAgIIUOMfH+8ftN8wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQELBQAwSTELMAkGA1UE 
....lots of base64... 
tzw9TylimhJpZcl4qihFVTgFM7rMU2VHulpJgA59gdbaO/Bf 
-----END CERTIFICATE----- ---

Given this certificate, openssl would verify that the ExampleCo certificate for *.example.com was correctly signed by the Trusted Authority certificate, which would be present in openssl's built-in trust store. After that verification, openssl would successfully connect to the device.

However, most servers do not have certificates signed directly by a trusted CA. Instead, as in the first example, the server's certificate is signed by one or more intermediates, and the highest-level intermediate has a certificate signed by the trusted CA. OpenSSL does not trust these intermediate CAs by default, and can only verify them if it is given a complete certificate chain ending in a trusted CA.

It is critically important that servers whose certificates are signed by intermediate authorities supply ALL the certificates linking them to a trusted CA, including all of the intermediate certificates. If they don't supply this entire chain, the output from openssl will look something like this: 

depth=0 OU = Example Unit, CN = example.com 
verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate 
verify return:1 

depth=0 OU = Example Unit, CN = example.com 
verify error:num=27:certificate not trusted 
verify return:1 

depth=0 OU = Example Unit, CN = example.com 
verify error:num=21:unable to verify the first certificate 
verify return:1

CONNECTED(00000003)

--- 
Certificate chain 
0 s:/OU=Example Unit/CN=example.com 
i:/C=US/ST=Massachusetts/L=Cambridge/O=Intermediate Authority/OU=http://certificates.intermediateauth...N=Intermediate Certification Authority/sn=675637734 
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...lots of b64...
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
--- 
Server certificate 
subject=/OU=Example Unit/CN=example.com 
issuer=/C=US/ST=Massachusetts/L=Cambridge/O=Intermediate Authority/OU=http://certificates.intermediateauth...N=Intermediate Certification Authority/sn=675637734 
--- 
No client certificate CA names sent 
--- 
SSL handshake has read 1509 bytes and written 573 bytes
---
New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is AES256-SHA 
Server public key is 2048 bit 
Secure Renegotiation IS NOT supported 
Compression: NONE 
Expansion: NONE 
SSL-Session: 
Protocol : TLSv1 
Cipher : AES256-SHA 
Session-ID: 24B45B2D5492A6C5D2D5AC470E42896F9D2DDDD54EF6E3363B7FDA28AB32414B 
Session-ID-ctx: 
Master-Key: 21BAF9D2E1525A5B935BF107DA3CAF691C1E499286CBEA987F64AE5F603AAF8E65999BD21B06B116FE9968FB7C62EF7C 
Key-Arg : None 
Krb5 Principal: None 
PSK identity: None 
PSK identity hint: None 
Start Time: 1476711760 
Timeout : 300 (sec) 
Verify return code: 21 (unable to verify the first certificate) 
---

This output shows that the server only provided one certificate, and the provided certificate was signed by an intermediate authority, not a trusted root. The output also shows the characteristic verification errors.

Remediation

This problem is caused by a misconfigured certificate presented by the device. The only way to fix this so that Security Cloud Control or any other program can securely connect to the device is to load the correct certificate chain onto the device, so that it will present a complete certificate chain to connecting clients.

To include the intermediate CA to the trustpoint follow one of the links below (depending on your case - if CSR was generated on the ASA or not):

New Certificate Detected

If you upgrade a device that has a self-signed certificate and a new certificate is generated after the upgrade process, Security Cloud Control may generate a "New Certificate Detected" message as both a Configuration Status and Connectivity status. You must manually confirm and resolve this issue before you can continue managing it from Security Cloud Control. Once the certificate is synchronized and the device is in a healthy state, you can manage the device.


Note

When you bulk reconnect devices more than one managed device to Security Cloud Control at the same time, Security Cloud Control automatically reviews and accepts the new certificates on the devices and continues to reconnect with them.

Use the following procedure to resolve a new certificate:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Use the filter to display devices with a New Certificate Detected connectivity or configuration status and select the desired device.

Step 5

In the action pane, click Review Certificate. Security Cloud Control allows you to download the certificate for review and accept the new certificate.

Step 6

In the Device Sync window, click Accept or in the Reconnecting to Device window, click Continue.

Security Cloud Control automatically synchronizes the device with the new self-signed certificate. You may have to manually refresh the page to see the device once it's synced.

Troubleshoot Onboarding Error

The device onboarding error can occur for various reasons.

You can take the following actions:

Procedure

Step 1

In the left pane, click Security Devices.

Step 2

Click the appropriate device type tab and select the device running into this error. In some cases, you will see the error description on the right. Take the necessary actions mentioned in the description.

Or

Step 3

Remove the device instance from Security Cloud Control and try onboarding the device again.

Resolve the Conflict Detected Status

Security Cloud Control allows you to enable or disable conflict detection on each live device. If Conflict Detection is enabled and there was a change made to the device's configuration without using Security Cloud Control, the device's configuration status will show Conflict Detected.

To resolve a "Conflict Detected" status, follow this procedure:

Procedure

Step 1

In the navigation bar, click Security Devices.

Note

 

For an On-Premises Firewall Management Center, click Administration > Firewall Management Center and select the FMC that is in Not Synced state and continue from Step 5.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate your device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device reporting the conflict and click Review Conflict in the details pane on the right.

Step 5

In the Device Sync page, compare the two configurations by reviewing the highlighted differences.

  • The panel labeled "Last Known Device Configuration" is the device configuration stored on Security Cloud Control.

  • The panel labeled "Found on Device" is the configuration stored in the running configuration on the ASA.

Step 6

Resolve the conflict by selecting one of the following:

  • Accept Device changes: This will overwrite the configuration and any pending changes stored on Security Cloud Control with the device's running configuration.

    Note

     

    As Security Cloud Control does not support deploying changes to the Cisco IOS devices outside of the command line interface, your only choice for a Cisco IOS device will be to select Accept Without Review when resolving the conflict.

  • Reject Device Changes: This will overwrite the configuration stored on the device with the configuration stored on Security Cloud Control.

Note

 

All configuration changes, rejected or accepted, are recorded in the change log.

Resolve the Not Synced Status

Use the following procedure to resolve a device with a "Not Synced" Configuration Status:

Procedure

Step 1

In the navigation bar, click Security Devices.

Note

 

For an On-Premises Firewall Management Center, click Administration > Firewall Management Center and select the FMC that is in Not Synced state and continue from Step 5.

Step 2

Click the Devices tab to locate the device or the Templates tab to locate the model device.

Step 3

Click the appropriate device type tab.

Step 4

Select the device reported as Not Synced.

Step 5

In the Not synced panel to the right, select either of the following:

  • Preview and Deploy... -If you want to push the configuration change from Security Cloud Control to the device, preview and deploy the changes you made now, or wait and deploy multiple changes at once.

  • Discard Changes -If you do not want to push the configuration change from Security Cloud Control to the device, or you want to "undo" the configuration changes you started making on Security Cloud Control. This option overwrites the configuration stored in Security Cloud Control with the running configuration stored on the device.