Field Notice: FN - 72109 - Security Management Appliance: QuoVadis Root CA 2 Decommission Might Affect Smart Licensing and Other Functionality - Software Upgrade Recommended

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Updated:February 25, 2022

Document ID:FN72109

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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
2.0	24-Feb-22	Updated the Problem Description, Background, Problem Symptom, and Workaround/Solution Sections
1.0	25-Mar-21	Initial Release

Products Affected

Affected OS Type	Affected Software Product	Affected Release	Affected Release Number	Comments
NON-IOS	AsyncOS for Content Security Management Appliance (SMA)	12	12.0.0, 12.0.1, 12.5.0

Defect Information

Defect ID	Headline
CSCvx00433	QuoVadis root CA decommission on sma

Problem Description

For affected versions of the Security Management Appliance (SMA), 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, Smart Licensing 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 SMA 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.sourcefire.com .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
aggregator.cisco.com	February 18, 2023	Message Tracking (Click Tracking Service)

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)
TreadGrid / AMP Cloud	Failure to receive retrospective updates
SecureX / Cisco Threat Response	Failure to communicate to SecureX and Cisco Threat Response Cloud service

For SMA, 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 that SMA devices that run AsyncOS Version 12.x or earlier on any physical or virtual model to upgrade to AsyncOS Version 12.8.1 or later, to add the new IdenTrust Commercial Root CA 1 certificate.

For More 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.

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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