Field Notice: FN - 72106 - Email Security Appliance: QuoVadis Root CA 2 Decommission Might Affect Smart Licensing and Other Functionality - Software Upgrade Recommended

Notice

THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.

Revision History

Revision	Publish Date	Comments
2.1	17-Mar-22	Updated the Products Affected and Workaround/Solution Sections and Added the Additional Information Section
2.0	24-Feb-22	Updated the Problem Description, Background, Problem Symptom, and Workaround/Solution Sections
1.0	10-Mar-21	Initial Release

Products Affected

Affected OS Type	Affected Software Product	Affected Release	Affected Release Number	Comments
NON-IOS	AsyncOS for Secure Email	12	12.0.0, 12.1.0, 12.5.0
NON-IOS	AsyncOS for Secure Email	13	13.5.1	AsyncOS 13.5.2 and 13.0.0-13.0.3 versions affected also
NON-IOS	AsyncOS for Secure Email	11	11.0.0, 11.0.3	AsyncOS 11.1.x and 11.5.x versions affected also

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCvx00430	QuoVadis root CA decommission on esa

Problem Description

For affected versions of the Secure Email Gateway (ESA), some Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates issued from the QuoVadis root certificate authority (CA) trust chain before March 31, 2021 can no longer be renewed from this CA. Once those certificates expire or are removed from the Cisco cloud servers, functions such as Smart Licensing, Threat Grid file analysis, and IP Reputation requests communication will fail to establish secure connections to Cisco and might not operate properly.

Background

The QuoVadis Root CA 2 Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) used by the WSA and ESA to issue SSL certificates is subject to an industry-wide issue that affects revocation abilities. Due to this issue, no new QuoVadis Root CA 2 certificates will be issued or renewed by Cisco after March 31, 2021. This affects certificate renewals on devices, Cisco cloud servers, and third-party services.

Certificates issued before the QuoVadis Root CA 2 was decommissioned will continue to be valid. However, the certificates will not renew when they expire on either the device or the Cisco cloud server. This will cause functions such as Smart Licensing to fail to establish secure connections to Cisco cloud servers.

This table shows a summary of the QuoVadis Root CA 2 certificate expiration dates for affected Cisco services.

Cisco Cloud Server	QuoVadis Certificate Expiration Date	Affected Services
smartreceiver.cisco.com	January 26, 2023	Smart Licensing
*.amp.cisco.com panacea.threatgrid.com panacea.threatgrid.eu	July 26, 2022	File Analysis and File Reputation Services
api-sse.cisco.com api.eu.sse.itd.cisco.com est.sco.cisco.com	March 22, 2022 March 22, 2022 June 22, 2022	SecureX / Cisco Threat Response Connectivity
*.talos.cisco.com v2.sds.cisco.com	November 12, 2022 November 5, 2022	Talos SenderBase Reputation Scores (SBRS), Web Reputation Scores (WBRS), Service Delivery Systems (SDS), Sender Domain Reputation (SDR) URL Reputation
aggregator.cisco.com	February 18, 2023	Message Tracking (Click Tracking Service)
res.cisco.com	December 17, 2022	Cisco Registered Envelope Service (CRES)
secure-web.cisco.com	November 4, 2022	Secure URL Portal

Problem Symptom

Expiration of the QuoVadis Root CA 2 certificates affects these services with the associated symptoms.

Affected Services	Symptoms for Affected Services
Smart Licensing	Failure to connect to the server (Details are provided in this section)
Threat Grid / AMP Cloud	Failure to perform file reputation checks and to upload files for file analysis
SecureX / Cisco Threat Response	Failure to communicate to SecureX and Cisco Threat Response Cloud Services
Talos Cloud Reputation	Failure to perform reputation checks; ESA appliances work queue will commence to back up
Message Tracking (Click Tracking Service)	Failure to upload individual tracking events to the Cisco URL click tracking cloud service
CRES	Failure to encrypt new messages as well as receive decrypted messages from CRES
Cisco Secure URL Portal	Failure to perform URL rewrite functionality

 

For ESA, affected devices will be unable to connect to the Smart Licensing services hosted by Cisco. Smart licenses might fail entitlement and reflect an Out of Compliance status.

The features that use Smart Licensing will continue to function for 90 days after the last successful secure connection. Some Smart Licensing symptoms are:

• The device might indicate a failure to communicate with the Smart Licensing server within 30 days from the last successful connection.
• The device will show the "Authorization Expired" state if there is no communication with the Smart Licensing server within 90 days.
• The device will show the "Unregistered" state if there is no communication with the Smart Licensing server after one year and the licensed features usage become suspended.

Note: Offline licensing, such as Permanent License Reservation (PLR) and Specific License Reservation (SLR), is not affected by the certificate change on the Smart Licensing server.

For additional information, refer to the Cisco Smart Licensing Guide and Smart Licensing Overview and Best Practices for Cisco Email and Web Security (ESA, WSA, SMA).

Workaround/Solution

Cisco has migrated from the QuoVadis Root CA 2 to the IdenTrust Commercial Root CA 1 for SSL certificates. Cisco recommends to upgrade AsyncOS to one of these versions in order to add the new IdenTrust Commercial Root CA 1 certificate.

Affected Version	Fixed Version	Comment
11.0.x	12.5.3-035 or later	-
11.1.x	12.5.3-035 or later	-
11.5.x	12.5.3-035 or later	-
12.0.x	12.5.3-035 or later	-
12.1.x	12.5.3-035 or later	-
12.5.2	12.5.3-035 or later	-
13.0.0 13.0.1	13.5.3-010 or later	-
13.0.2	13.5.4-020 or later	-
13.0.3	13.0.4-007	If Common Criteria is required
13.5.1 13.5.2	13.5.3-010 or later	-
Other versions	12.5.3-035, 13.5.3 or later	-

Additional Information

Cisco has created a web page to provide customers and partners with additional information on this issue. Consult the QuoVadis Root CA 2 Decommission page for a full list of products affected, associated Field Notices, and frequently asked questions.

For More Information

If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:

• Open a service request on Cisco.com
• By email or telephone

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