SonicOS Platform
The SonicOS architecture is at the core of every SonicWall Memory Inspection™ (RTDMI) technologies to deliver
physical and virtual firewall including the TZ, NSa, NSv and industry-validated high security effectiveness, SD-WAN,
SuperMassive Series. SonicOS leverages our patented*, real-time visualization, high-speed virtual private networking
single-pass, low-latency, Reassembly-Free Deep Packet (VPN) and other robust security features.
Inspection® (RFDPI) and patent-pending Real-Time Deep
Firewall features
REASSEMBLY-FREE DEEP PACKET INSPECTION (RFDPI) ENGINE
Feature Description
Reassembly-Free Deep Packet This high-performance, proprietary and patented inspection engine performs stream-based, bi-directional
Inspection (RFDPI) traffic analysis, without proxying or buffering, to uncover intrusion attempts and malware and to identify
application traffic regardless of port.
Bi-directional inspection Scans for threats in both inbound and outbound traffic simultaneously to ensure that the network is not
used to distribute malware and does not become a launch platform for attacks in case an infected machine is
brought inside.
Stream-based inspection Proxy-less and non-buffering inspection technology provides ultra-low latency performance for DPI of
millions of simultaneous network streams without introducing file and stream size limitations, and can be
applied on common protocols as well as raw TCP streams.
Highly parallel and scalable The unique design of the RFDPI engine works with the multi-core architecture to provide high DPI throughput
and extremely high new session establishment rates to deal with traffic spikes in demanding networks.
Single-pass inspection A single-pass DPI architecture simultaneously scans for malware, intrusions and application identification,
drastically reducing DPI latency and ensuring that all threat information is correlated in a single architecture.
FIREWALL AND NETWORKING
Feature Description
Secure SD-WAN An alternative to more expensive technologies such as MPLS, Secure SD-WAN enables distributed enterprise
organizations to build, operate and manage secure, high-performance networks across remote sites for the
purpose of sharing data, applications and services using readily-available, low-cost public internet services.
REST API Allows the firewall to receive and leverage any and all proprietary, original equipment manufacturer and
third-party intelligence feeds to combat advanced threats such as zero-day, malicious insider, compromised
credentials, ransomware and advanced persistent threats.
Stateful packet inspection All network traffic is inspected, analyzed and brought into compliance with firewall access policies.
High availability/clustering Supports Active/Passive (A/P) with state synchronization, Active/Active (A/A) DPI2 and Active/Active
clustering high availability modes.2 Active/Active DPI offloads the deep packet inspection load to passive
appliance to boost throughput.
DDoS/DoS attack protection SYN flood protection provides a defense against DOS attacks using both Layer 3 SYN proxy and Layer 2 SYN
blacklisting technologies. Additionally, it protects against DOS/DDoS through UDP/ICMP flood protection and
connection rate limiting.
Flexible deployment options The firewall can be deployed in wire, network tap NAT or Layer 2 bridge2 modes.
FIREWALL AND NETWORKING (CONTINUED)
Feature Description
WAN load balancing Load-balances multiple WAN interfaces using Round Robin, Spillover or Percentage methods. Policy-based
routing Creates routes based on protocol to direct traffic to a preferred WAN connection with the ability to fail
back to a secondary WAN in the event of an outage.
Advanced quality of service (QoS) Guarantees critical communications with 802.1p, DSCP tagging and remapping of VoIP traffic on the network.
H.323 gatekeeper and SIP Blocks spam calls by requiring that all incoming calls are authorized and authenticated by H.323 gatekeeper or
proxy support SIP proxy.
Single and cascaded Dell N-Series Manage security settings of additional ports, including Portshield, HA, PoE and PoE+, under a single pane of
and X-Series switch management2 glass using the firewall management dashboard for Dell's N-Series and X-Series network switches.
Biometric authentication Supports mobile device authentication such as fingerprint recognition that cannot be easily duplicated or
shared to securely authenticate the user identity for network access.
Open authentication and social login Enable guest users to use their credential from social networking service such as Facebook, Twitter, or
Google+ to sign in and access the Internet and other guest services through a host's wireless, LAN or DMZ
zones using pass-through authentication.
Multi-domain authentication Provides a simple and fast way to administer security polices across all network domains. Manage individual
policy to a single domain or group of domains.
MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING
Feature Description
Cloud-based and on-premises Configuration and management of SonicWall appliances is available via the cloud through the SonicWall
management Capture Security Center and on-premises using SonicWall Global Management System (GMS).
Powerful single device management An intuitive web-based interface allows quick and convenient configuration, in addition to a comprehensive
command-line interface and support for SNMPv2/3.
IPFIX/NetFlow application Exports application traffic analytics and usage data through IPFIX or NetFlow protocols for real-time and
flow reporting historical monitoring and reporting with tools such as SonicWall Analytics or other tools that support IPFIX
and NetFlow with extensions.
VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKING (VPN)
Feature Description
Auto-provision VPN Simplifies and reduces complex distributed firewall deployment down to a trivial effort by automating the
initial site-to-site VPN gateway provisioning between SonicWall firewalls while security and connectivity
occurs instantly and automatically.
IPSec VPN for site-to-site High-performance IPSec VPN allows the firewall to act as a VPN concentrator for thousands of other large
connectivity sites, branch offices or home offices.
SSL VPN or IPSec client Utilizes clientless SSL VPN technology or an easy-to-manage IPSec client for easy access to email, files,
remote access computers, intranet sites and applications from a variety of platforms.
Redundant VPN gateway When using multiple WANs, a primary and secondary VPN can be configured to allow seamless, automatic
failover and failback of
Route-based VPN The ability to perform dynamic routing over VPN links ensures continuous uptime in the event of a temporary
VPN tunnel failure, by seamlessly re-routing traffic between endpoints through alternate routes.
CONTENT/CONTEXT AWARENESS
Feature Description
User activity tracking User identification and activity are made available through seamless AD/LDAP/Citrix/Terminal Services SSO
integration combined with extensive information obtained through DPI.
GeoIP country traffic identification Identifies and controls network traffic going to or coming from specific countries to either protect against
attacks from known or suspected origins of threat activity, or to investigate suspicious traffic originating from
the network. Ability to create custom country and Botnet lists to override an incorrect country or Botnet tag
associated with an IP address. Eliminates unwanted filtering of IP addresses due to misclassification.
Regular expression matching Prevents data leakage by identifying and controlling content crossing the network through regular
and filtering expression matching.
2
Breach prevention subscription services
CAPTURE ADVANCED THREAT PROTECTION1
Feature Description
Multi-engine sandboxing The multi-engine sandbox platform, which includes virtualized sandboxing, full system emulation
and hypervisor level analysis technology, executes suspicious code and analyzes behavior, providing
comprehensive visibility to malicious activity.
Block until verdict To prevent potentially malicious files from entering the network, files sent to the cloud for analysis can be held
at the gateway until a verdict is determined.
Broad file type analysis Supports analysis of a broad range of file types, including executable programs (PE), DLL, PDFs, MS Office
documents, archives, JAR and APK plus multiple operating systems including Windows, Android, Mac OS and
multi-browser environments.
Rapid deployment of signatures When a file is identified as malicious, a signature is immediately deployed to firewalls with SonicWALL
Capture subscriptions and Gateway Anti-Virus and IPS signature databases and the URL, IP and domain
reputation databases within 48 hours.
Capture Client Capture Client uses a static artificial intelligence (AI) engine to determine threats before they can execute and
rollback to a previous uninfected state.
ENCRYPTED THREAT PREVENTION
Feature Description
TLS/SSL decryption and inspection Decrypts and inspects TLS/SSL encrypted traffic on the fly, without proxying, for malware, intrusions and
data leakage, and applies application, URL and content control policies in order to protect against threats
hidden inside of encrypted traffic. Included with security subscriptions for all models except SOHO. Sold as a
separate license on SOHO.
SSH inspection Deep packet inspection of SSH (DPI-SSH) decrypts and inspects data traversing over SSH tunnels to prevent
attacks that leverage SSH.
INTRUSION PREVENTION1
Feature Description
Countermeasure-based protection Tightly integrated intrusion prevention system (IPS) leverages signatures and other countermeasures to scan
packet payloads for vulnerabilities and exploits, covering a broad spectrum of attacks and vulnerabilities.
Automatic signature updates The SonicWall Threat Research Team continuously researches and deploys updates to an extensive list of IPS
countermeasures that covers more than 50 attack categories. The new updates take immediate effect without
any reboot or service interruption required.
Intra-zone IPS protection Bolsters internal security by segmenting the network into multiple security zones with intrusion prevention,
preventing threats from propagating across the zone boundaries.
Botnet command and control (CnC) Identifies and blocks command and control traffic originating from bots on the local network to IPs and
detection and blocking domains that are identified as propagating malware or are known CnC points.
Protocol abuse/anomaly Identifies and blocks attacks that abuse protocols as they attempt to sneak past the IPS.
Zero-day protection Protects the network against zero-day attacks with constant updates against the latest exploit methods and
techniques that cover thousands of individual exploits.
Anti-evasion technology Extensive stream normalization, decoding and other techniques ensure that threats do not enter the network
undetected by utilizing evasion techniques in Layers 2-7.
THREAT PREVENTION1
Feature Description
Gateway anti-malware The RFDPI engine scans all inbound, outbound and intra-zone traffic for viruses, Trojans, key loggers and
other malware in files of unlimited length and size across all ports and TCP streams.
Capture Cloud malware protection A continuously updated database of tens of millions of threat signatures resides in the SonicWall cloud servers
and is referenced to augment the capabilities of the onboard signature database, providing RFDPI with
extensive coverage of threats.
Around-the-clock security updates New threat updates are automatically pushed to firewalls in the field with active security services, and take
effect immediately without reboots or interruptions.
Bi-directional raw TCP inspection The RFDPI engine scans raw TCP streams on any port and bi-directionally to detect and prevent both inbound
and outbond threats.
Extensive protocol support Identifies common protocols such as HTTP/S, FTP, SMTP, SMBv1/v2 and others, which do not send data in
raw TCP. Decodes payloads for malware inspection, even if they do not run on standard, well-known ports.
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APPLICATION INTELLIGENCE AND CONTROL1
Feature Description
Application control Controls applications, or individual application features that are identified by the RFDPI engine against a
continuously expanding database of over thousands of application signatures. This increases network security
and enhances network productivity.
Custom application identification Controls custom applications by creating signatures based on specific parameters or patterns unique to an
application in its network communications. This helps gain further control over the network.
Application bandwidth management Application bandwidth management granularly allocates and regulates available bandwidth for critical
applications (or application categories), while inhibiting nonessential application traffic.
Granular control Controls applications (or specific components of an application) based on schedules, user groups, exclusion lists
and a range of actions with full SSO user identification through LDAP/AD/Terminal Services/Citrix integration.
CONTENT FILTERING1
Feature Description
Inside/outside content filtering Enforce acceptable use policies and block access to HTTP/HTTPS websites containing information or images
that are objectionable or unproductive with Content Filtering Service and Content Filtering Client.
Enforced content filtering client Extends policy enforcement to block internet content for Windows, Mac OS, Android and Chrome devices
located outside the firewall perimeter.
Granular controls Blocks content using any combination of categories. Filtering can be scheduled by time of day, such as during
school or business hours, and applied to individual users or groups.
Web caching URL ratings are cached locally on the SonicWall firewall so that the response time for subsequent access to
frequently visited sites is only a fraction of a second.
Local CFS Responder Local CFS Responder can be deployed as a virtual appliance in private clouds based on VMWare or Microsoft
Hyper-V. This provides deployment flexibility option (Light weight VM) of CFS ratings database in various
customer network use cases that require a dedicated on premise solution that speeds up CFS ratings request
and response times, supports large number of allowed/blocked URL list (+100K), and adds up to 1000
SonicWall firewalls for CFS rating lookups.
ENFORCED ANTI-VIRUS AND ANTI-SPYWARE1
Feature Description
Multi-layered protection Utilizes the firewall capabilities as the first layer of defense at the perimeter, coupled with endpoint protection
to block viruses entering the network through laptops, thumb drives and other unprotected systems.
Automated enforcement option Ensure every computer accessing the network has the appropriate antivirus software and/or DPI-
SSL certificate installed and active, eliminating the costs commonly associated with desktop
antivirus management.
Automated deployment and Machine-by-machine deployment and installation of anti-virus and anti-spyware clients is automatic across
installation option the network, minimizing administrative overhead.
Next-generation antivirus Capture Client uses a static artificial intelligence (AI) engine to determine threats before they can execute and
roll back to a previous uninfected state.
Spyware protection Powerful spyware protection scans and blocks the installation of a comprehensive array of spyware
programs on desktops and laptops before they transmit confidential data, providing greater desktop security
and performance.
1
Requires added subscription
2
Not supported NSv firewall series
4
SonicOS feature summary
Firewall Anti-malware2 • Mobile Connect for iOS, Mac OS X,
Windows, Chrome, Android and
• Stateful packet inspection • Stream-based malware scanning
Kindle Fire
• Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection • Gateway anti-virus
• Route-based VPN (RIP/OSPF/BGP)
• DDoS attack protection • Gateway anti-spyware
Networking
(UDP/ICMP/SYN flood)
• Bi-directional inspection
• PortShield
• IPv4/IPv6 support
• No file size limitation
• Jumbo frames
• Biometric authentication for remote access
• Cloud malware database
• Path MTU discovery
• DNS proxy
Application identification2 • Enhanced logging
• REST APIs
• Application control
• VLAN trunking
TLS/SSL/SSH decryption and • Application bandwidth management
inspection2 • Port mirroring (NSa 2650 and above)
• Custom application signature creation
• Deep packet inspection for TLS/SSL/SSH • Layer-2 QoS
• Data leakage prevention
• Inclusion/exclusion of objects, groups • Port security
or hostnames • Application reporting over NetFlow/IPFIX
• Dynamic routing
• SSL control • Comprehensive application (RIP/OSPF/BGP)
signature database
• Granular DPI SSL controls per zone or rule • SonicWall wireless controller1
Traffic visualization and analytics • Policy-based routing (ToS/metric
Capture advanced threat protection 2
• User activity and ECMP)
• Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection
• Application/bandwidth/threat usage • NAT
• Cloud-based multi-engine analysis
• Cloud-based analytics • DHCP server
• Virtualized sandboxing
HTTP/HTTPS Web content filtering 2 • Bandwidth management
• Hypervisor level analysis
• URL filtering • Link aggregation1 (static and dynamic)
• Full system emulation
• Proxy avoidance • Port redundancy1
• Broad file type examination
• Keyword blocking • A/P high availability with state sync
• Automated & manual submission
• Policy-based filtering (exclusion/inclusion) • A/A clustering1
• Real-time threat intelligence updates
• HTTP header insertion • Inbound/outbound load balancing
• Block until verdict
• Bandwidth manage CFS rating categories • L2 bridge,1 wire/virtual wire mode, tap
• Capture Client mode, NAT mode
• Unified policy model with app control
Intrusion prevention2 • 3G/4G WAN failover1
• Content Filtering Client
• Signature-based scanning • Asymmetric routing
VPN
• Automatic signature updates • Common Access Card (CAC) support
• Secure SD-WAN
• Bi-directional inspection engine VoIP
• Auto-provision VPN
• Granular IPS rule capability • Granular QoS control
• IPSec VPN for site-to-site connectivity
• GeoIP enforcement • Bandwidth management
• SSL VPN and IPSec client remote access
• Botnet filtering with dynamic list • DPI for VoIP traffic
• Redundant VPN gateway
• Regular expression matching • H.323 gatekeeper and SIP proxy support
1
Not supported on NSv Series firewalls
2
Requires added subscription.
5
SonicOS feature summary (continued)
Management and monitoring • Auto-channel selection
• Web GUI • RF spectrum analysis Partner Enabled Services
• Command-line interface (CLI) • Floor plan view
Need help to plan, deploy
• SNMPv2/v3 • Topology view
or optimize your SonicWall
• Centralized management and reporting • Band steering solution? SonicWall Advanced
with SonicWall Global Management • Beamforming Services Partners are
System (GMS)2
• AirTime fairness trained to provide you with
• Logging world class professional
• Bluetooth Low Energy
• Netflow/IPFix exporting services. Learn more at
• MiFi extender [Link]/PES.
• Cloud-based configuration backup
• Guest cyclic quota
• BlueCoat security analytics platform
• LHM guest portal
• Application and bandwidth visualizer
Integrated Wireless
• IPv4 and IPv6 Management
(TZ Series only)
• Off-box reporting (Scrutinizer)
• Dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz)
• LCD management screen1
• 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless standards
• Dell N-Series and X-Series
• Wireless intrusion detection
switch management including
and prevention
cascaded switches1
• Wireless guest services
Wireless1
• Lightweight hotspot messaging
• SonicWave AP cloud management
• Virtual access point segmentation
• WIDS/WIPS
• Captive portal
• Rogue AP prevention
• Cloud ACL
• Fast roaming (802.11k/r/v)
• 802.11s mesh networking
About SonicWall
SonicWall has been fighting the cybercriminal industry for over 27 years defending small and medium businesses, enterprises and
government agencies worldwide. Backed by research from SonicWall Capture Labs, our award- winning, real-time breach detection
and prevention solutions secure more than a million networks, and their emails, applications and data, in over 215 countries and
territories. These organizations run more effectively and fear less about security. For more information, visit [Link] or
follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
© 2019 SonicWall Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. SonicWall is a
6 SonicWall, Inc. trademark or registered trademark of SonicWall Inc. and/or its
1033 McCarthy Boulevard | Milpitas, CA 95035 affiliates in the U.S.A. and/or other countries. All other trademarks and
Refer to our website for additional information. registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
[Link] Datasheet-SonicOSplatform-US-KJ-MKTG5158