Meltdown and Spectre - No Risk to SonicWall Products

The two processor vulnerabilities Meltdown and Spectre are known to affect many modern processors, including some processors by Intel, AMD and RM.

SonicWall have evaluated the vulnerabilities and can confirm that Meltdown and Spectre pose zero risk to SonicWall products.

Firewalls from SonicWall use custom high-performance security processors, protecting against known and unknown malware. Network based exploits against Meltdown and Spectre have artefacts that can be identified and therefore prevented.

The operating system (SonicOS) on TZ Series, NSA Series and SuperMassive firewalls is designed for security. SonicOS is not a vulnerable operating system and does not run arbitrary code which is a requirement for a successful attack of Meltdown or Spectre.  

All other SonicWall products including Secure Remote Access, Global Management System and Email Security are hardened and do not run third-party code so are also not affected.

SonicWall have released signatures for Gateway Anti-Virus and Intrusion Prevention System to identify and defend networks. Each signature is automatically applied to licensed firewalls that have GAV ad IPS enabled.

The following actions have been recommended by SonicWall to reduce the possible impact of these vulnerabilities:

• Patch all Windows, Linux, Android, iOS and Mac OS clients with the latest updates from client vendors
• Enable SonicWall Capture ATP Service, Intrusion Prevention Service and the anti-malware protection on your SonicWall firewall

Click here to read the SonicWall article on Meltdown and Spectre.