SonicWall NSa 4600 Network Security Appliance
Comprehensive Mid Range Next-Generation Firewall

Network Security Appliance Series Overview:

The SonicWall Network Security Appliance (NSA) series provides midsized networks, branch offices and distributed enterprises with advanced threat prevention in a high-performance security platform. Combining nextgeneration firewall technology with our patented* Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) engine on a multi-core architecture, the NSa series offers the security, performance and control organizations require.

Benefits:

Superior threat prevention and performance

NSa series next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) integrate a series of advanced security technologies to deliver a superior level of threat prevention. Our patented single-pass RFDPI threat prevention engine examines every byte of every packet, inspecting both inbound and outbound traffic simultaneously. The NSa series leverages on-box capabilities including intrusion prevention, anti-malware and web/URL filtering in addition to cloud-based services such as CloudAV and SonicWall Capture multi-engine sandboxing to block zero-day threats at the gateway. Unlike other security products that cannot inspect large files for hidden threats, NSa firewalls scan files of any size across all ports and protocols. The security architecture in SonicWall NGFWs has been validated as one of the industry’s best for security effectiveness by NSS Labs which awarded SonicWall its “Recommended” rating for the fourth consecutive year.

Going beyond intrusion prevention, anti-malware and web filtering, SonicWall NGFWs provide a further level of protection by performing full decryption and inspection of TLS/SSL and SSH encrypted traffic as well as non-proxyable applications, enabling complete protection regardless of transport or protocol. It looks deep inside every packets (the header and data part) searching for protocol non-compliance, threats, zero-days, intrusions, and even defined criteria to detect and prevent hidden attacks that leverage cryptography, block encrypted malware downloads, cease the spread of infections, and thwart command and control (C&C) communications and data exfiltration. Inclusion and exclusion rules allow total control to customize which traffic is subjected to decryption and inspection based on specific organizational compliance and/ or legal requirements.

When organizations activate deep packet inspection functions such as intrusion prevention, anti-virus, anti spyware, TLS/SSL decryption/inspection and others on their firewalls network performance often slows down, sometimes dramatically. NSa series firewalls feature a multi-core hardware architecture that utilizes specialized security microprocessors. Combined with our RFDPI engine, this unique design eliminates the performance degradation networks experience with other firewalls.

In today’s security environment, it’s not enough to rely on solely on outside parties for threat information. That’s why SonicWall formed its own in-house threat research team more than 15 years ago. This dedicated team gathers, analyzes and vets data from over one million sensors in its GRID network. SonicWall also participates in industry collaboration efforts and engages with threat research communities to gather and share samples of attacks and vulnerabilities. This shared threat intelligence is used to develop real-time countermeasures that are automatically deployed to our customers’ firewalls.

Network control and flexibility

At the core of the NSa series is SonicOS, SonicWall’s feature-rich operating system. SonicOS provides organizations with the network control and flexibility they require through application intelligence and control, real-time visualization, an intrusion prevention system (IPS) featuring sophisticated antievasion technology, high-speed virtual private networking (VPN) and other robust security features.

Using application intelligence and control, network administrators can identify and categorize productive applications from those that are unproductive or potentially dangerous, and control that traffic through powerful application-level policies on both a peruser and a per-group basis (along with schedules and exception lists). Businesscritical applications can be prioritized and allocated more bandwidth while non-essential applications are bandwidth-limited. Real-time monitoring and visualization provides a graphical representation of applications, users and bandwidth usage for granular insight into traffic across the network.

For organizations that require advanced flexibility in their network design, SonicOS offers the tools to securely segment the network through the use of virtual LANs (VLANs) which enable network administrators to create a virtual LAN interface that allows for network separation into one or more logical groups. Administrators create rules that determine the level of communication with devices on other VLANs.

Built into every NSa series firewall is a wireless access controller that enables organizations to extend the network perimeter securely through the use of wireless technology. Together, SonicWall firewalls and SonicPoint 802.11ac wireless access points create a wireless network security solution that combines industry-leading next-generation firewall technology with high-speed wireless for enterprise-class network security and performance across the wireless network.

Easy deployment, setup and ongoing management

Like all SonicWall firewalls, the NSa series tightly integrates key security, connectivity and flexibility technologies into a single, comprehensive solution. This includes SonicPoint wireless access points and the SonicWall WAN Acceleration Appliance (WXA) series, both of which are automatically detected and provisioned by the managing NSa firewall. Consolidating multiple capabilities eliminates the need to purchase and install point products that don’t always work well together. This reduces the effort it takes to deploy the solution into the network and configure it, saving both time and money.

Ongoing management and monitoring of network security are handled centrally through the firewall or through the SonicWall Global Management System (GMS), providing network administrators with a single pane of glass from which to manage all aspects of the network. Together, the simplified deployment and setup along with the ease of management enable organizations to lower their total cost of ownership and realize a high return on investment.

Network Security Appliance Features:

• Best in-class protection
• Multi-core architecture
• Ultra high performance
• Intrusion prevention
• Network-based anti-malware
• Secure remote access
• Secure wireless
• URL filtering
• Gateway anti-spam
• Application control
• Centralized management

The SonicWall NSa Series next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) utilize the latest multi-core hardware design and Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection to protect the network from internal and external attacks without compromising performance. The NSa Series combines intrusion prevention, content and URL inspection, application intelligence and control, high availability and other advanced networking features.

• The SonicWall NSa 6600 is ideal for large distributed and corporate central site environments requiring high throughput capacity and performance.
• The SonicWall NSa 5600 is ideal for distributed, branch office and corporate environments needing significant throughput.
• The SonicWall NSa 3600/4600 is ideal for branch office and small- to medium-sized corporate environments concerned about throughput capacity and performance.
• The SonicWall NSa 2650 delivers high-speed threat prevention over thousands of encrypted and even more unencrypted connections to mid-sized organizations and distributed enterprises.
• The SonicWall NSa 2600 is designed to address the needs of growing small organizations, branch offices and school campuses.

*U.S. Patents 7,310,815; 7,600,257; 7,738,380; 7,835,361; 7,991,723

Features & Benefits:

SonicOS Feature Summary

¹ Requires added subscription.

Additional Features:

Achieve deeper network security

SonicWall NSa Series firewalls are capable of providing organizations of any size with a deeper level of network security because they are designed using a scalable, multi-core hardware architecture and a patented, single-pass, low-latency, Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) engine that can scan every byte of every packet while maintaining high performance. The SonicWall NSa Series goes deeper than other firewalls with an RFDPI engine that combines real-time SSL decryption and inspection, an intrusion prevention system (IPS) that features sophisticated anti-evasion technology and a network-based malware protection system that leverages the power of the cloud. Now organizations can block daily new threats as they appear.

It is estimated that organizations are blind to approximately one third of their network traffic due to SSL encryption. SSL Decryption and Inspection technology available on the SonicWall NSa Series enables the RFDPI engine to decrypt and inspect all of network traffic on every port.

Every hour new variants of malware are developed. The SonicWall NSa Series keeps you abreast of these threats with network-based malware protection that leverages a cloud database which is updated continually and currently contains more than 13 million variants of malware.

The SonicWall Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS) protects against an array of network-based application vulnerabilities and exploits. New application vulnerabilities are discovered every day making ongoing IPS updates critical in keeping protection up to date from emerging threats. SonicWall goes a step beyond traditional solutions with an intrusion prevention system that features sophisticated anti-evasion technology. It scans all network traffic for worms, Trojans, software vulnerabilities, backdoor exploits, and other types of malicious attacks. Cybercriminals often try to circumvent the IPS by using complex algorithms to evade detection. SonicWall NGFWs feature advanced threat protection to decode hidden attacks before they can harm your organization. By focusing on known malicious traffic, SonicWall IPS filters out false positives while increasing network reliability and performance. Designed to protect against both internal and external threats, SonicWall IPS monitors network traffic for malicious or anomalous behavior, then blocks or logs traffic based on predefined policy.

Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection engine

The SonicWall Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) engine provides superior threat protection and application control without compromising performance. It relies on streaming traffic payload inspection to detect threats at Layers 3-7, and takes network streams through extensive and repeated normalization and decryption in order to neutralize advanced evasion techniques that seek to confuse detection engines and sneak malicious code into the network.

Once a packet undergoes the necessary pre-processing, including SSL decryption, it is analyzed against a single, proprietary memory representation of three signature databases: intrusion attacks, malware and applications. The connection state is then advanced to represent the position of the stream relative to these databases until it encounters a state of attack, or other “match” event, at which point a pre-set action is taken.

In most cases, the connection is terminated and proper logging and notification events are created. However, the engine can also be configured for inspection only or, in case of application detection, to provide Layer 7 bandwidth management services for the remainder of the application stream as soon as the application is identified.

Security and protection

The dedicated, in-house SonicWall Capture Labs threat research team researches and develops countermeasures to deploy to customer firewalls for up-to-date protection. The team gathers data on potential threats from several sources including our awardwinning network sandboxing service, Capture Advanced Threat Protection, as well as more than 1 million SonicWall sensors located around the globe that monitor traffic for emerging threats. It is analyzed via machine learning using SonicWall's Deep Learning Algorithms to extract the DNA from the code to see if it is related to any known forms of malicious code.

SonicWall NGFW customers benefit from continuously updated threat protection around the clock. New updates take effect immediately without reboots or interruptions. The signatures resident on the appliances are designed to protect against wide classes of attacks, covering tens of thousands of individual threats with a single signature.

In addition to the countermeasures on the appliance, NSa appliances also have access to SonicWall CloudAV, which extends the onboard signature intelligence with over 20 million signatures. This CloudAV database is accessed by the firewall via a proprietary, light-weight protocol to augment the inspection done on the appliance. With Capture Advanced Threat Protection, a cloud-based multi-engine sandbox, organizations can examine suspicious files and code in an isolated environment to stop advanced threats such as zeroday attacks.

Application intelligence and control

SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service is a cloud-based multi-engine sandbox that extends firewall threat protection to detect and prevent zero-day threats. Suspicious files are sent to the cloud for analysis with the option to hold them at the gateway until a verdict is determined. The multi-engine sandbox platform, which includes virtualized sandboxing, full system emulation and hypervisor level analysis technology, executes suspicious code and analyzes behavior. When a file is identified as malicious, a hash is immediately created within Capture and later a signature is sent to firewalls to prevent follow-on attacks.

The service analyzes a broad range of operating systems and file types, including executable programs, DLL, PDFs, MS Office documents, archives, JAR and APK.

Capture provides an at-a-glance threat analysis dashboard and reports, which detail the analysis results for files sent to the service, including source, destination and a summary plus details of malware action once detonated.

Global management and reporting

For highly regulated organizations wanting to achieve a fully coordinated security governance, compliance and risk management strategy, the optional SonicWall Global Management System (GMS) provides administrators a unified, secure and extensible platform to manage SonicWall firewalls, wireless access points and switches through a correlated and auditable workstream process. GMS enables enterprises to easily consolidate the management of security appliances, reduce administrative and troubleshooting complexities, and govern all operational aspects of the security infrastructure, including centralized policy management and enforcement; realtime event monitoring; user activities; application identifications; flow analytics and forensics; compliance and audit reporting; and more. GMS also meets the firewall’s change management requirements of enterprises through a workflow automation feature. With GMS workflow automation, all enterprises will gain agility and confidence in deploying the right firewall policies, at the right time and in conformance to compliance regulations. GMS provides a coherent way to manage network security by business processes and service levels, dramatically simplifying lifecycle management of your overall security environments as compared to managing on a device-by-device basis.

Flexible, Customizable Deployment Options:

NSa series at-a-glance

Every SonicWall NSa appliance utilizes a breakthrough, multi-core hardware design and RFDPI for internal and external network protection without compromising network performance. The NSa series NGFWs combine high-speed intrusion prevention, file and content inspection, and powerful application intelligence and control with an extensive array of advanced networking and flexible configuration features. The NSa series offers an affordable platform that is easy to deploy and manage in a wide variety of large, branch office and distributed network environments.

Specifications:

Notes:
¹ Testing Methodologies: Maximum performance based on RFC 2544 (for firewall). Actual performance may vary depending on network conditions and activated services.
² Full DPI/GatewayAV/Anti- Spyware/IPS throughput measured using industry standard Spirent WebAvalanche HTTP performance test and Ixia test tools. Testing done with multiple flows through multiple port pairs.
³ VPN throughput measured using UDP traffic at 1280 byte packet size adhering to RFC 2544. All specifications, features and availability are subject to change.
⁴ For every 125,000 DPI connections reduced, the number of available DPI SSL connections increases by 750.
All specifications, features and availability are subject to change.
*Future use.

Services & Add-Ons:

Advanced Gateway Security Suite (AGSS)

Leverage SonicWall Advanced Gateway Security Suite (AGSS) to deliver a multi-engine sandbox, powerful anti‐virus, anti‐spyware, intrusion prevention, content filtering, as well as application intelligence and control services. An upgrade over CGSS, this package features Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), a multi-engine sandbox that runs and inspects suspicious files, programs and code in an isolated cloud-based environment.

Comprehensive Gateway Security Suite (CGSS)

Get the most from your deep packet inspection firewall with the SonicWall Comprehensive Security Suite (CGSS) subscription. CGSS includes gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention, application intelligence and control service, content/URL filtering and 24x7 support. Combine security, productivity and support in a single, bundled solution that lowers TCO.

Gateway Security Services

Enable your business firewall to provide real-time network threat prevention with SonicWall gateway anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention and application intelligence and control. Block the latest blended threats — including viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, software vulnerabilities and other malicious code. Guarantee bandwidth prioritization and ensure maximum network security and productivity with granular policies for both groups and users.

Capture Advanced Threat Protection

The cloud-based SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection Service scans a broad range of files to detect advanced threats, analyzes them in a multi-engine sandbox, blocks them prior to a security verdict, and rapidly deploys remediation signatures. The result is higher security effectiveness, faster response times and a lower total cost of ownership.

Content Filtering Services

Gain a cost-effective, easy-to-manage way to enforce protection and productivity policies, and block inappropriate, unproductive and dangerous web content in educational, business or government environments. SonicWall Content Filtering Service lets you control access to websites based on rating, IP address, URL and more. You get the ideal combination of control and flexibility to ensure the highest levels of protection and productivity, which you can configure and control from your network security appliance, eliminating the need for a costly, dedicated filtering solution. Extend enforcement of your internal policies to devices located outside the firewall perimeter by blocking unwanted internet content with the content filtering client.

Content Filtering Client

Extend the enforcement of web policies in IT-issued devices outside the network perimeter. Although it doesn't require a firewall, it can be optionally coupled with SonicWall Content Filtering Service as an ideal combination to keep students and employees off of dangerous or non-productive websites by switching to cloud-enforced policies even when they are using roaming devices.

Support Services

Benefit from advanced technical assistance and ongoing software and firmware updates with SonicWall Dynamic Support. The service includes:

• Telephone and web-based support 24x7
• Direct access to highly-trained senior support engineers
• Advance exchange hardware replacement in the event of a failure
• Access to electronic support tools

TotalSecure Hardware & Services Bundle

Enjoy the convenience and affordability of deploying your firewall as a SonicWall TotalSecure solution. This combines the hardware and services needed for comprehensive network protection from viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, key loggers and more — without the complexity of building your own security package.

Comprehensive Anti-Spam Service

Block threats from your email server and stop spam at the gateway by adding SonicWall Comprehensive Anti-Spam Service (CASS) to your SonicWall firewall. Rapidly deploy your spam firewall software with one-click activation of up to 250 users.

Enforced Client Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware Software

Execute an innovative, multi-layered, anti-virus internet security strategy with SonicWall firewalls and Enforced Client Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software. You get SonicWall Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection anti-malware at the gateway, and enforced anti-virus protection at the endpoints. You can redirect any user with a non-compliant endpoint to a web page to install the latest Enforced Client Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software. Provide automatically updated security definitions to the endpoint as soon as they become available. Plus, you can automate enforcement to minimize administrative overhead.

Documentation:

Download the SonicWall NSa Series Datasheet (.PDF)