What’s new with NetScaler 14.1 ?

Below is a small snippet of the items that were released as part of NetScaler 14.1.

1. TLS Enhancements :

• TLS Handshakes are computationally expensive.
• TLS Handshake Renegotiation occurs when
  •  A session has expired
  • Long life session key is renewed
  • Client certificate mutual authentication

• Bad actors can overwhelm the infrastructure by sending a high volume of renegotiations requests. Prior to the 14.1 version,  option exists to only turn renegotiation on and off, but with the enhancement, renegotiations can be ratelimited, without limiting any other part of the TLS transaction.

2. TLS 1.3 Backend Support Across All Platforms:

• TLS is a cryptographic protocol that provides end-to-end security of data, sent between applications over the internet. It is used for secure web browsing, email, file transfers, video/audio conferencing, instant messaging, DNS, etc.
• Before the 14.1 release, NetScaler supported TLS1.3 only on the frontend, but with 14.1 release, there will be backend support as well. Thus, making it end to end.

3. Improved TCP’s Robustness to Blind In-Window Attacks

• In addition to TCP spoofing attacks such as TCP Reset Attack, TCP SYN Flood Attack, 14.1 is RFC 5961 compliant, which gives NetScaler the following capabilities:
  • Reduces the probability of false data injection attacks
  • Allows imposing a limit on the number of challenge ACK responses sent per second (/s) by the NetScaler

4. One-touch SSL A+ rating workflow in ADM On-Prem:

• With this, customers can upgrade non A+ rated apps to A+ with a single touch and
  • Meet organizational compliance
  • Reduce time and operational overhead to fix SSL Profile deviations
  • Excel at Scale - Upgrade A+ profiles of apps at scale in minutes and not hours

5.  Single Pane Overview Dashboard for ADM On Prem:

• This Dashboard hosts all key metrics and golden signals across
  • Applications
  • Infrastructure
  • Security
  • Gateway

• Segue into drill down dashboards is available. Filters can be applied by admins to narrow the scope to entities or apps of criticality. This dashboard is very popular in ADM Service and now available in ADM on Prem

6. Export ADM On Prem events and system metrics to Splunk with Dashboard

• NetScaler admins can take the advantage of this feature and view:
  • Trend of System performance over time
  • History of events with severity like Critical, Major, Warning
  • Critical and Major events that are currently active

 For more information please refer to the 14.1 release notes and latest 13.1 release notes