SonicWall has released a temporary fix for recovering next-generation firewalls running SonicOS 7.0 caught in a reboot sequence, amid a rush of customer reports that began yesterday evening. SonicWall’s Gen7 firewalls are the latest and most advanced firewalls, offering encrypted traffic inspection, malware analysis, and cloud app protection to consumers.

TZ series firewalls for small businesses and subsidiaries, NSa series firewalls for mid-sized businesses, NSsp series firewalls for major corporations, data centers, and service providers, and NSv series virtual firewalls are among the Gen7 types. “If you’ve observed, the firewall has been locked in a reboot loop since 9:30 p.m. EST on January 20, 2022,” SonicWall claimed in a statement released yesterday. According to administrator reports posted online, the problem is extensive and impacts all Gen7 firewall series equipment.

SonicWall has released a temporary remedy that necessitates administrators to stop incremental updates to the IDP, GAV, and SPY signature databases from the internal Diag menu until an update is available to resolve this flaw. To prevent impacted SonicWall firewalls from restarting indefinitely, perform the following steps:

• Disconnect the WAN cable. (If you’re having trouble logging in to the firewall)
• From the LAN, log in to the firewall.
• Go to the Diag page. This can be accessed by entering SonicWall’s LAN IP in the browser, followed by IP/sonicui/7/m/mgmt/settings/diag. (EXAMPLE: 192.168.168.168/sonicui/7/m/mgmt/settings/diag 192.168.168.168/sonicui/7/m/mgmt/settings/diag 192.168.168.168/sonicui/7/
• To get to the internal settings page or the diag page, click on internal settings. Please look for the option “Enable incremental updates to the IDP, GAV, and SPY signature databases” in the options menu. Select ACCEPT after disabling (unchecking) this setting. Accept must be selected for the setting to take effect.
• Restart the firewall after plugging in the WAN connection.
• If this resolves the issue, keep an eye on the firewall; otherwise, contact the support team for more advice.

While SonicWall hasn’t explained what’s causing the problem, administrators who have had to deal with it believe it’s something to do with “security service licensing, being unable to phone home or anything as long as the WAN is plugged in.”

SonicWall acknowledged earlier this month that the Y2K22 problem has affected some of its Email Security and firewall solutions, causing message log updates and trash box problems beginning January 1, 2022.