Field Notice: FN - 70307 - External URL Category for Office 365 Feed Format Might Fail to Update on Web Security Appliances - Workaround Provided

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Updated:October 23, 2018

Document ID:FN70307

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Notice

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Revision History

Revision	Publish Date	Comments
1.0	02-Oct-18	Initial Release
2.0	23-Oct-18	Updated the Workaround/Solution Section

Products Affected

Affected OS Type	Affected Release	Affected Release Number	Comments
NON-IOS	10	10.0.0, 10.1.0, 10.1.1, 10.1.2, 10.1.3, 10.5.1, 10.5.1_LD, 10.5.2
NON-IOS	11	11.0.0, 11.5.1

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCvi91517	Custom URL Category Feeds - Office 365 XML Feed will cease updates after Oct 2018

Problem Description

The external URL category for the Microsoft Office 365 feed format, which provides Office 365 exemptions, might fail to update after 2018-10-02 due to Microsoft migration from an XML feed to a Web Representational State Transfer (REST) API-based format.

Background

Microsoft will terminate the use of an XML feed to provide URLs and IP addresses used by the Office 365 services. The current XML format will be available until 2018-10-02, whereafter Microsoft will move to a REST API-based format. For more information, see Office 365 URLs and IP address ranges.

Problem Symptom

If the old Office 365 XML feed URL (https://support.content.office.net/en-us/static/O365IPAddresses.xml) has been added in your Web Security Appliance (WSA) as an external live feed category under Web Security Manager > Custom and External URL Categories > Add Category... > Category Type > External Live Feed Category, this external live feed category will not update after 2018-10-02.

A configured Office 365 category will continue to function based on the latest downloaded feed file, but after 2018-10-02 will cease to receive any changes to URLs and IP addresses provided by Microsoft.

Workaround/Solution

The support for REST API-based external URL categories will be included in AsyncOS 10.5.3, which is due the end of October. It will also be included in AsyncOS 11.7, which is due the end of 2018.

Until the resolution is released in the previously mentioned AsyncOS versions, complete these steps in order to continue to use the Office 365 feed:

Download the PowerShell script provided by Microsoft.
Periodically run the PowerShell script from a local Windows client and get the XML feed file.
Open the XML feed file and remove the line “<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>", which is the first line in the file. Save the file.
Host the XML feed file on a web server in your local network. Name the XML feed file "O365IPAddresses.xml".
Log in to the WSA and change the Office 365 feed location from the WSA GUI, as shown in this example:
Web Security Manager > Custom and External URL Categories > External Live Feed
https://<Local_Web_Server_IP_address>/O365IPAddresses.xml

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:

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