Hardware flaws hang Cisco firewalls
Source: CW360
Hardware flaws in some Cisco firewalls for corporate central and branch offices have caused the systems to hang or shut themselves down, forcing the networking giant to replace the affected boxes.
Some Cisco Pix 515, 515-DC and 506 Firewalls have suffered system hangs when traffic on the network becomes too heavy, requiring a manual restart for the firewall manually, Cisco reported on 18 October.
Cisco expects the problem to occur most often in the 515 models, which are designed for corporate central offices, but said it may also happen in 506 units. The 506 is designed for branch offices, which tend to experience lower traffic levels.
The firewalls are typically installed between a company's internal network and the Internet to guard against intrusion. The flaws can cut off an Internet connection that runs through a firewall, but will not cause a connection to become insecure, Cisco said. Officials at the company were not available to comment in detail about the problem.
