Sentinel 7.4.4.1 Release Notes

January 2017

Sentinel 7.4.4.1 includes fix for a security vulnerability and resolves previous issues.

Many of these improvements were made in direct response to suggestions from our customers. We thank you for your time and valuable input. We hope you continue to help us ensure that our products meet all your needs. You can post feedback in the Sentinel forum on NetIQ Communities, our online community that also includes product information, blogs, and links to helpful resources.

The documentation for this product is available on the NetIQ website in HTML and PDF formats on a page that does not require you to log in. If you have suggestions for documentation improvements, click the Comment icon on any page in the HTML version of the documentation posted at the Sentinel NetIQ Documentation page. To download this product, see the Sentinel Product Upgrade website.

For the latest version of this release notes document, see Sentinel 7.4.4.1 Release Notes.

1.0 What’s New?

The following sections outline the key features and enhancements, and also the issues resolved in this release:

1.1 Security Vulnerability Fix

Sentinel 7.4.4.1 provides additional fixes to resolve the CVE-2016-1000031 vulnerability.

1.2 Software Fixes

Sentinel 7.4.4.1 includes the following software fixes:

Sentinel Does Not Retain Collector Manager and Event Source Server Selections When You Log off and Log in

Issue: If you select more than one Collector Manager or Event Source Sever in the Collection > Event Sources page in the Sentinel Web interface, Sentinel does not save these selections when you log off and log in again. (Bug 1006730)

Fix: Sentinel now saves the event source selections correctly.

Anomaly Detection Notification Emails Do Not Display Time in Local Time Zone of the Sentinel Server

Issue: When an anomaly triggers, the notification email that is sent contains the anomaly trigger time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and not in local time zone of the Sentinel server. (Bug 996559)

Fix: Anomaly detection notification emails now contain time in local time zone of the Sentinel server.

2.0 System Requirements

For information about hardware requirements, supported operating systems, and browsers, see the Technical Information for Sentinel page.

3.0 Upgrading to Sentinel 7.4.4.1

You can upgrade to Sentinel 7.4.4.1 from Sentinel 7.2 or later.

Sentinel 7.4 and later versions are compatible with Change Guardian 4.2 and later. If you have a Change Guardian server sending events to Sentinel, before you upgrade Sentinel, you must first upgrade the Change Guardian Server, agents, and the Policy Editor to version 4.2 to ensure that Sentinel continues to receive events from Change Guardian after the upgrade.

Download the Sentinel installer from the NetIQ Download website. For information about upgrading to Sentinel 7.4.4.1, see Upgrading Sentinel in the NetIQ Sentinel Installation and Configuration Guide.

3.1 Upgrading the Sentinel Appliance

You can upgrade Sentinel appliance 7.3 SP2 or later using WebYaST only if you have manually upgraded the NetIQ Change Guardian RPM as mentioned in Upgrading NetIQ Change Guardian RPM in the Sentinel 7.3.2 Release Notes.

To upgrade the appliance from versions prior to Sentinel 7.3 SP2, use the zypper command line utility because user interaction is required to complete the upgrade. WebYaST is not capable of facilitating the required user interaction. For more information about upgrading the appliance using zypper, see Upgrading the Appliance by Using zypper in the NetIQ Sentinel Installation and Configuration Guide.

(Bug 956278)

3.2 Post-Upgrade Configuration

If you are upgrading from Sentinel 7.2 SP2 or an older version, perform the following:

  • Assign the Allow users to manage alerts permission to the Search Proxy User role manually, because the upgrade clears this permission. This permission is necessary for the role to perform remote alert search.

    For more information, see Configuring Roles and Users in the NetIQ Sentinel Administration Guide.

  • For consistency with newer versions of Sentinel and Sentinel documentation, rename the Search Proxy User role to Data Proxy User after the upgrade.

4.0 Known Issues

NetIQ Corporation strives to ensure our products provide quality solutions for your enterprise software needs. The following issues are currently being researched. If you need further assistance with any issue, please contact Technical Support.

The Java 8 update and the security vulnerability fixes included in Sentinel 7.3 SP1 and later might impact the following plug-ins:

  • Cisco SDEE Connector

  • SAP (XAL) Connector

  • Remedy Integrator

For any issues with these plug-ins, NetIQ will prioritize and fix the issues according to standard defect-handling policies. For more information about support polices, see Support Policies.

4.1 Synchronization Needs to be Started Manually in Sentinel High Availability After You Convert the Active Node to FIPS 140-2 Mode

Issue: When you convert the active node to FIPS 140-2 mode in Sentinel HA, the synchronization to convert all the passive nodes to FIPS 140-2 mode is not performed completely. Synchronization needs to be started manually. (Bug 1014472)

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

  1. Log in as the root user on the active node.

  2. Open the /etc/csync2/csync2.cfg file.

  3. Change the following line:

    include /etc/opt/novell/sentinel/3rdparty/nss/*;

    To

    include /etc/opt/novell/sentinel/3rdparty/nss;

  4. Save the csync2.cfg file.

  5. Start the synchronization manually by running the following command:

    csync2 -x -v

4.2 Cannot Receive Events through Sentinel Link Connector

Issue: Sentinel does not receive events through Sentinel Link Connector. (Bug 996775)

Workaround: The Sentinel Link Connector version 2011.1r4 resolves this issue. Until it is officially released on the Sentinel Plug-ins website, you can download the preview version of the Connector from the Previews section.

4.3 Cannot Receive Events from NetIQ eDirectory

Issue: NetIQ eDirectory Instrumentation cannot connect to Audit Connector through Platform Agent. Hence, Sentinel cannot receive events from eDirectory. This issue occurs because eDirectory Instrumentation uses MD5 RSA certificate algorithm, which has been deprecated in Java 8 update 77 that is used in Sentinel 7.4. SP2. (Bug 985312)

Workaround: To enable eDirectory Instrumentation to use a custom certificate, perform the steps mentioned in NetIQ Knowledgebase Article 7017764.

4.4 A Warning Displays When Upgrading Sentinel Appliance to Version 7.4 SP1 and Later

Issue: Sentinel displays the following warning when upgrading the appliance to version 7.4 SP1 and later:

Failed to set encrypted password

(Bug 967764)

Workaround: Ignore the warning. There is no impact to the upgrade.

4.5 Cannot Create Reports by Using Sentinel SDK

Issue: You cannot create reports by using Sentinel SDK. (Bug 966406)

Workaround: To create reports by using Sentinel SDK, perform the steps mentioned in NetIQ Knowledgebase Article 7017293.

4.6 Cannot Receive Events from Sentinel UNIX Agent 7.4 After Upgrading Sentinel to Version 7.3 SP1 and Later

Issue: The security vulnerability fixes included in Sentinel 7.3 SP1 involved changes to the communication mechanism for a secured connection. These changes are not compatible with Sentinel UNIX Agent 7.4. Therefore, Sentinel cannot receive events from Sentinel UNIX Agent 7.4. (Bug 953990)

Workaround: There is no workaround at this time. This issue will be resolved when a compatible version of Sentinel UNIX Agent is made available.

4.7 Error When Configuring the NFS Storage After Upgrading Sentinel Appliance to Version 7.3 SP1 and Later

Issue: Sentinel displays an error when you try to configure NFS as secondary storage location after you Sentinel appliance to version 7.3 SP1 and later. (Bug 934851)

Workaround: After upgrading the Sentinel appliance, restart the SLES operating system using the following command:

init 6

4.8 Exception in the Sentinel Server Log When You Upgrade Sentinel Versions Prior to 7.3 SP1 to Versions 7.3 SP1 and Later

Issue: When you upgrade Sentinel from version 7.3 to version 7.3 SP1 and start the Sentinel server, you might see the following exception in the server log:

Invalid length of data object ......

(Bug 933640)

Workaround: Ignore the exception. There is no impact to Sentinel performance because of this exception.

4.9 Cannot Receive Events from Secure Configuration Manager After Upgrading Sentinel to Version 7.3 SP1 and Later

Issue: Sentinel uses the Diffie-Hellman protocol to communicate with Secure Configuration Manager. As part of fixing the Logjam vulnerability, the certificate key size for the Diffie-Hellman protocol in Sentinel has been increased to 2048. However, Secure Configuration Manager uses the default certificate key size; that is, 1024. Because of this mismatch, Secure Configuration Manager can no longer communicate with Sentinel. (Bug 935987)

Workaround: Upgrade Secure Configuration Manager to version 6.1. For more information, see the NetIQ Secure Configuration Manager 6.1 Release Notes.

Or

Perform the following steps:

WARNING:Performing this workaround overrides the fix for the Logjam vulnerability specified in Security Vulnerability Fixes in the Sentinel 7.3.1 Release Notes.

  1. Log in as the novell user and open the /etc/opt/novell/sentinel/config/configuration.properties file.

  2. Comment out the following line following line by prefixing #:

    jdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048

  3. Restart Sentinel.

4.10 Cannot View Alerts with IPv6 Data in Alert Views

Issue: Sentinel alert views and alert dashboards do not display alerts that have IPv6 addresses in IP address fields. (Bug 924874)

Workaround: To view alerts with IPv6 addresses in Sentinel, perform the steps mentioned in NetIQ Knowledgebase Article 7016555.

4.11 Bar Mitzvah Security Vulnerability in Sentinel Link Connector

Issue: The Bar Mitzvah security vulnerability exists in Sentinel Link Connector. Sentinel Link Connector uses the RC4 algorithm in SSL and TSL protocols, which might allow plaintext recovery attacks against the initial bytes of a stream. For more information, see CVE-2015-2808. (Bug 933741)

Workaround: The Sentinel Link Connector version 2011.1r4 resolves this issue. Until it is officially released on the Sentinel Plug-ins website, you can download the Connector from the Previews section.

4.12 The Agent Manager Connector Does Not Set the Connection Mode Property in Events If the Associated Collector Supports Multiple Connection Modes

Issue: The Agent Manager Connector version 2011.1r3 does not set the CONNECTION_MODE property in the events if the Collector parsing the events supports multiple connection modes. (Bug 880564)

Workaround: The Agent Manager Connector version 2011.1r5 and later resolve this issue. Until it is officially released on the Sentinel Plug-ins website, you can download the Connector from the Previews section.

4.13 Sentinel Agent Manager Does Not Consider the RawDataTapFileSize Configuration

Issue: Sentinel Agent Manager ignores the value specified in RawDataTapFileSize attribute in the SMServiceHost.exe.config file for the raw data file size configuration, and stops writing to the raw data file when the file size reaches 10 MB. (Bug 867954)

Workaround: Manually copy the content of the raw data file into another file and clear it when the file size reaches 10 MB, so that Sentinel Agent Manager can write new data into it.

4.14 Tips Table Search Does Not Return the Complete List of Alert Fields in Upgraded Sentinel Installations

Issue: In upgraded installations of Sentinel, when you search for alert attributes in the Tips table in the Web interface, the search does not return the complete list of alert fields. However, alert fields display correctly in the Tips table if you clear the search. (Bug 914755)

Workaround: There is no workaround at this time.

4.15 Data Synchronization Fails While Synchronizing IPv6 Addresses in Human Readable Format

Issue: Data synchronization fails when you try to synchronize IPv6 address fields in a human readable format to external databases. For information about configuring Sentinel to populate the IP address fields in human readable dot notation format, see Creating a Data Synchronization Policy in the NetIQ Sentinel Administration Guide. (Bug 913014)

Workaround: To fix this issue, manually change the maximum size of the IP address fields to at least 46 characters in the target database, and re-synchronize the database.

4.16 Event Search Does Not Respond if You Do Not Have Any Event Viewing Permissions

Issue: If you run an event search when your role's security filter is blank and your role does not have event viewing permissions, the search does not complete. The search does not display any error message about the invalid event viewing permissions. (Bug 908666)

Workaround: Update the role with one of the following options:

  1. Specify a criteria in the Only events matching the criteria field. If users in the role should not see any events, you can enter NOT sev:[0 TO 5].

  2. Select View system events.

  3. Select View all event data (including raw data and NetFlow data).

4.17 The Event fields Panel is Missing in the Schedule Page When Editing Some Saved Searches

Issue: When editing a saved search upgraded from Sentinel 7.2 to a later version, the Event fields panel, used to specify output fields in the search report CSV, is missing in the schedule page. (Bug 900293)

Workaround: After upgrading Sentinel, recreate and reschedule the search to view the Event fields panel in the schedule page.

4.18 Sentinel Does Not Return Any Correlated Events When You Search for Events for the Deployed Rule with the Default Fire Count Search

Issue: Sentinel does not return any correlated events when you search for all correlated events that were generated after the rule was deployed or enabled, by clicking the icon next to Fire count in the Activity statistics panel in the Correlation Summary page for the rule. (Bug 912820)

Workaround: Change the value in the From field in the Event Search page to a time earlier than the populated time in the field and click Search again.

4.19 New Incoming Alerts Incorrectly Appear to be Selected When You Modify Existing Alerts

Issue: When you click Select All in alerts views to select alerts, deselect a few alerts, and modify them, new incoming alerts are also selected in the refreshed alert views. This results in wrong count of alerts selected for modification, and also it appears as if you are modifying new incoming alerts too. However, only the originally selected alerts are modified. (Bug 904830)

Workaround: No new alerts will appear in the alert view if you create the alert view with a custom time range.

4.20 Loading Historical Security Intelligence Data Takes a Long Time

Issue: Historical Security Intelligence (SI) data takes a long time to load in Sentinel systems that have a high Events Per Second (EPS) load. (Bug 908599)

Workaround: If you are creating a security intelligence dashboard with historical data, plan to deploy the dashboard when the load on your system is lower, if possible. There is no other workaround at this time.

4.21 Security Intelligence Dashboard Displays Invalid Baseline Duration When Regenerating a Baseline

Issue: During Security Intelligence baseline regeneration, the start and finish dates for the baseline are incorrect and display 1/1/1970. (Bug 912009)

Workaround: The correct dates are updated after the baseline regeneration is complete.

4.22 Sentinel Server Shuts Down When Running a Search If There Are Large Number of Events in a Single Partition

Issue: Sentinel server shuts down when you run a search if there are a large number of events indexed in a single partition. (Bug 913599)

Workaround: Create retention policies in such a way that there are at least two partitions open in a day. Having more than one partition open helps reduce the number of events indexed in partitions.

You can create retention policies that filter events based on the estzhour field, which tracks the hour of the day. Therefore, you can create one retention policy with estzhour:[0 TO 11] as the filter and another retention policy with estzhour:[12 TO 23] as the filter.

For more information, see Configuring Data Retention Policies in the NetIQ Sentinel Administration Guide.

4.23 Error While Using the report_dev_setup.sh Script to Configure Sentinel Ports for Firewall Exceptions on Upgraded Sentinel Appliance Installations

Issue: Sentinel displays an error when you use the report_dev_setup.sh script to configure Sentinel ports for firewall exceptions. (Bug 914874)

Workaround: Configure Sentinel ports for firewall exceptions through the following steps:

  1. Open the /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 file.

  2. Change the following line:

    FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP=" 443 8443 4984 22 61616 10013 289 1289 1468 1443 40000:41000 1290 1099 2000 1024 1590"

    to

    FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP=" 443 8443 4984 22 61616 10013 289 1289 1468 1443 40000:41000 1290 1099 2000 1024 1590 5432"

  3. Restart Sentinel.

4.24 Sentinel Generic Collector Performance Degrades When Generic Hostname Resolution Service Collector is Enabled

Issue: Sentinel Generic Collector performance degrades when Generic Hostname Resolution Service Collector is enabled on Microsoft Active Directory and Windows Collector. EPS decreases by 50% when remote Collector Managers send events. (Bug 906715)

Workaround: There is no workaround at this time.

4.25 Sentinel Cannot Access Security Intelligence, Netflow, and Alert Data in FIPS 140-2 Mode

Issue: When you install Sentinel in FIPS 140-2 mode, connector to Security Intelligence database fails to start, and Sentinel cannot access Security Intelligence, Netflow, and alert data. (Bug 915241)

Workaround: Restart Sentinel after installing and configuring in FIPS 140-2 mode.

4.26 Sentinel Does Not Configure the Sentinel Appliance Network Interface By Default

Issue: When installing Sentinel Appliance, the network interface is not configured by default. (Bug 867013)

Workaround: To configure the network Interface:

  1. In the Network Configuration page, click Network Interfaces.

  2. Select the network interface and click Edit.

  3. Select Dynamic Address and then select either DHCP or Static assigned IP Address.

  4. Click Next and then OK.

4.27 The Web Browser Displays an Error When Exporting Search Results in Sentinel

Issue: When exporting search results in Sentinel, the Web browser might display an error if you modify the operating system language settings. (Bug 834874)

Workaround: To export search results properly, perform either of the following:

  • While exporting the search results, remove any special characters (outside the ASCII characters) from the export filename.

  • Enable UTF-8 in the operating system language settings, restart the machine, and then restart the Sentinel server.

4.28 Sentinel Services Might Not Start Automatically After the Installation

Issue: On systems with more than 2 TB disk space, Sentinel might not start automatically after the installation. (Bug 846296)

Workaround: As a one-time activity, start the Sentinel services manually by specifying the following command:

rcsentinel start

4.29 Cannot Enable Kerberos Authentication in Sentinel Appliance Installations

Issue: In Sentinel appliance installations, if you configure Kerberos authentication in the Kerberos module, the console displays a confirmation message that the Kerberos client configuration was successful. When you view the Kerberos module again, however, the Enable Kerberos Authentication option is deselected. (Bug 843623)

Workaround: There is no workaround at this time.

4.30 Unable to View More Than One Report Result at a Time

Issue: While you wait for one report result PDF to open, particularly report results of 1 million events, if you click another report result PDF to view, the report result does not display. (Bug 804683)

Workaround: Click the second report result PDF again to view the report result.

4.31 Agent Manager Requires SQL Authentication When FIPS 140-2 Mode is Enabled

Issue: When FIPS 140-2 mode is enabled in your Sentinel environment, using Windows authentication for Agent Manager causes synchronization with the Agent Manager database to fail. (Bug 814452)

Workaround: Use SQL authentication for Agent Manager when FIPS 140-2 mode is enabled in your Sentinel environment.

4.32 Sentinel High Availability Installation in Non-FIPS 140-2 Mode Displays an Error

Issue: The Sentinel High Availability installation in non-FIPS 140-2 mode completes successfully but displays the following error twice:

/opt/novell/sentinel/setup/configure.sh: line 1045: [: too many arguments 

(Bug 810764)

Workaround: There is no fix or workaround available at this time. Although the installer displays the error, the Sentinel High Availability configuration works successfully in non-FIPS 140-2 mode.

4.33 Appliance Update From Versions Prior to Sentinel 7.2 Fails in WebYaST

Issue: Appliance update from versions prior to Sentinel 7.2 fails because the vendor for the update packages has changed from Novell to NetIQ. (Bug 780969)

Workaround: Use the zypper command to upgrade the appliance. For more information, see Upgrading the Appliance by Using zypper in the NetIQ Sentinel Installation and Configuration Guide.

4.34 Error While Installing Correlation Rules

Issue: Solution Manager does not install correlation rules when a correlation rule with an identical name already exists on the system. A NullPointerException error is logged in the console. (Bug 713962)

Workaround: Ensure that all correlation rules have a unique name.

4.35 Sentinel Link Action Displays Incorrect Message

Issue: When you execute a Sentinel Link action from the Web interface, Sentinel displays a success message even though the Sentinel Link Connector integrator test failed from the Sentinel Control Center. (Bug 710305)

Workaround: There is no workaround at this time.

4.36 Dashboard and Anomaly Definitions with Identical Names

Issue: When a Security Intelligence dashboard and an anomaly definition have identical names, the dashboard link is disabled on the Anomaly Details page. (Bug 715986)

Workaround: Ensure you use unique names when creating dashboards and anomaly definitions.

4.37 Active Search Jobs Duration and Accessed Columns Inaccuracies

Issue: The Sentinel Web interface displays negative numbers in the Active Search Job Duration and Accessed columns when the Sentinel Web interface computer clock is behind the Sentinel server clock. For example, the Duration and Accessed columns display negative numbers when the Sentinel Web interface clock is set to 1:30 PM and the Sentinel server clock is set to 2:30 PM. (Bug 719875)

Workaround: Ensure the time on the computer you use to access the Sentinel Web interface is the same as or later than the time on the Sentinel server computer.

4.38 IssueSAMLToken Audit Event Displays Incorrect Information in the Security Intelligence Dashboard

Issue: When you log in to the security dashboard and perform a search for IssueSAMLToken audit event, the IssueSAMLToken audit event displays incorrect hostname (InitiatorUserName) or (IP address) SourceIP. (Bug 870609)

Workaround: There is no workaround at this time.

4.39 Sentinel Agent Manager Does Not Capture the Windows Insertion String Fields With Null Values

Issue: While collecting event data, Sentinel Agent Manager does not capture the Windows Insertion String fields with null values. (Bug 838825)

Workaround: There is no workaround at this time.

5.0 Contact Information

Our goal is to provide documentation that meets your needs. If you have suggestions for improvements, please email Documentation-Feedback@netiq.com. We value your input and look forward to hearing from you.

For detailed contact information, see the Support Contact Information website.

For general corporate and product information, see the NetIQ Corporate website.

For interactive conversations with your peers and NetIQ experts, become an active member of our community. The NetIQ online community provides product information, useful links to helpful resources, blogs, and social media channels.