Sentinel 8.5 Patch Update 1 Release Notes

January 2022

Sentinel 8.5.0.1 resolves several previous issues and also adds a few new features.

Many of these improvements were made in direct response to suggestions from our customers. We thank you for your time and valuable input. We hope you continue to help us ensure that our products meet all your needs. You can post feedback in the Sentinel forum, our online community that also includes product information, blogs, and links to helpful resources. You can also share your ideas for improving the product in the Ideas Portal.

The documentation for this product is available in HTML and PDF formats on a page that does not require you to log in. If you have suggestions for documentation improvements, click the comment icon on any page in the HTML version of the documentation posted at the Sentinel Documentation page. To download this product, see the Product Download website.

1.0 What’s New?

The following sections outline the key features provided by this version, as well as issues resolved in this release:

1.1 Log4j Vulnerability Fix

The Log4j vulnerability allows malicious attackers to execute code remotely on any targeted system.

Log4j vulnerabilities are addressed as follows:

  • A series of high severity vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-44228), (CVE-2021-45105), (CVE-2021-45046), and (CVE-2021-44832) for new Apache Log4j 2 version 2.14.1 are disclosed publicly and this has been addressed in this release by upgrading log4j to latest version 2.17.1

  • A series of high severity vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-4104) and (CVE-2019-17571) for older Apache log4j version log4j-1.2.17.jar are disclosed publicly and it has been mitigated by removing vulnerable classes.

  • The vulnerable class is removed from the Elasticsearch bundled log4j-core-2.11.1.jar used in Sentinel.

2.0 System Requirements

For more information about hardware requirements, supported operating systems, and browsers, see the Sentinel System Requirements.

3.0 License and Purchasing Information

To purchase an enterprise license or upgrade your existing license, call 1-800-529-3400, email info@microfocus.com or visit https://www.microfocus.com/en-us/products/netiq-sentinel/contact.

4.0 Installing Sentinel 8.5.0.1

For information about installing Sentinel 8.5.0.1, see the Sentinel Installation and Configuration Guide.

NOTE:All the hosts used for the Sentinel server and its components must be set up in two way DNS resolvable environment (Hostname to IP and IP to Hostname).

NOTE:Fresh installation of 8.5.0.1 is only supported for traditional setup but not for appliance.

5.0 Upgrading to Sentinel 8.5.0.1

You can upgrade to Sentinel 8.5.0.1 from any prior versions of Sentinel (from Sentinel 8.2 and later).

IMPORTANT:Because of the latest JDK upgrade, for configuring LDAPS and SDK, the user needs to use hostname instead of IP address, and also it must be resolvable.

IMPORTANT:There is a change in the upgrade procedure of Traditional and Appliance installation. Refer to Settings in Elasticsearch for Secure Cluster Communication section in Sentinel Installation and Configuration Guide and follow the steps. This is only applicable if you are upgrading Sentinel to the latest versions from 8.3.1 and prior.

IMPORTANT:You can perform an offline update by downloading Offline Patch ISO for each appliance. For more information, refer to Performing Offline Updates section in Sentinel Installation and Configuration Guide.

IMPORTANT:For appliance, only you can upgrade either through channel update or using Offline Patch ISO.

IMPORTANT:For appliance, If you are upgrading from Sentinel 8.3 and prior versions, you must first upgrade to Sentinel 8.3.1.0 by using Offline Patch ISO, then only you can upgrade to Sentinel 8.5.0.1 either through channel update or using Offline Patch ISO.

WARNING:If you are upgrading from versions prior to Sentinel 8.3, you must manually assign the Send events and attachments permission to non-administrator users who send events or attachments to Sentinel. Unless you assign this permission, Sentinel will no longer receive events and attachments from Change Guardian and Secure Configuration Manager.

For Traditional installation, refer to Upgrading the Operating System section in Sentinel Installation and Configuration Guide.

6.0 Known Issues

Micro Focus strives to ensure our products provide quality solutions for your enterprise software needs. The following known issues are currently being researched. If you need further assistance with any issue, contact Technical Support.

The Java 8 update included in Sentinel might impact the following plug-ins:

  • Cisco SDEE Connector

  • SAP (XAL) Connector

  • Remedy Integrator

For any issues with these plug-ins, we will prioritize and fix the issues according to standard defect-handling policies. For more information about support polices, see Support Policies.

6.1 Unable to View Storage Capacity Forecasting Chart

Issue: In Sentinel Main > Storage > Health, the Storage Capacity Forecasting chart is not available. This is because Zulu OpenJDK does not include the necessary fonts.

Workaround: Use the following commands to install the fonts:

  • yum install fontconfig

  • yum install dejavu

6.2 Error When Launching a Kibana Dashboard After Upgrading Sentinel

Issue: Launching a Kibana dashboard displays the following message: No default index pattern. You must select or create one to continue.

Workaround: To set a Kibana index pattern as the default index pattern:

  1. Select any of the following:

    • alerts.alerts

    • security.events.normalized_*

  2. Click Set as Default.

6.3 Cannot Copy the Alert Links of All the Alerts in an Alert View in Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge

Issue: The Select All <number of alerts> Alerts > Copy Alert Link option does not work in Firefox and Edge.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

  1. Manually select all the alerts on each page of the alert view using the check box that allows you to select all the alerts.

  2. Click Copy Alert Link.

  3. Paste it in the desired application.

6.4 Installing Sentinel, Collector Manager, and Correlation Engine as an OVF Appliance Image Does Not Display the Login Screen

Issue: The installer halts at the installation in progress screen and does not display the login screen even though the installation is complete.

Workaround: Reboot the virtual machine and launch Sentinel, Collector Manager, or Correlation Engine.

6.5 Sentinel 8.2 Appliance in Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 Does Not Start When You Reboot

Issue: In Hyper-V Server 2016, Sentinel appliance does not start when you reboot it and displays the following message:

A start job is running for dev-disk-by\..

This issue occurs because the operating system modifies the disk UUID during installation. Therefore, during reboot it cannot find the disk.

Workaround: Manually modify the disk UUID. For more information, see Knowledge Base Article 7023143.

6.6 Error When Upgrading to Sentinel 8.2 HA Appliance

Issue: When you upgrade to Sentinel 8.2 HA appliance, Sentinel displays the following error:

Installation of novell-SentinelSI-db-8.2.0.0-<version> failed:
with --nodeps --force) Error: Subprocess failed. Error: RPM failed: Command exited with status 1.
Abort, retry, ignore? [a/r/i] (a): 

Workaround: Before you respond to the above prompt, perform the following:

  1. Start another session using PuTTY or similar software to the host where you are running the upgrade.

  2. Add the following entry in the /etc/csync2/csync2.cfg file:

    /etc/opt/novell/sentinel/config/configuration.properties

  3. Remove the sentinel folder from /var/opt/novell:

    rm -rf /var/opt/novell/sentinel

  4. Return to the session where you had initiated the upgrade and enter r to proceed with the upgrade.

6.7 Installation of Collector Manager and Correlation Engine Appliance Fails in Languages Other than English in MFA Mode

Issue: Installation of Collector Manager and Correlation Engine appliance fails in MFA mode if the operating system language is other than English.

Workaround: Install Collector Manager and Correlation Engine appliances in English. After the installation is complete, change the language as needed.

6.8 Usability Issues in the Appliance Installation Screens

Issue: The Next and Back buttons in the appliance installation screens do not appear or are disabled in some cases, such as the following:

  • When you click Back from the Sentinel precheck screen to edit or review the information in the Sentinel Server Appliance Network Settings screen, there is no Next button to proceed with the installation. The Configure button allows you to only edit the specified information.

  • If you have specified incorrect network settings, the Sentinel Precheck screen indicates that you cannot proceed with the installation due to incorrect network information. There is no Back button to go to the previous screen to modify the network settings.

Workaround: Restart the appliance installation.

6.9 Collector Manager Runs Out of Memory if Time Synchronization is Enabled in Open-vm-tools

Issue: If you manually install and enable time synchronization in open-vm-tools, they periodically synchronize time between the Sentinel appliance (guest) and the VMware ESX server (host). These time synchronizations can result in moving the guest clock either behind or ahead of the ESX server time. Until the time is synchronized between the Sentinel appliance (guest) and the ESX server (host), Sentinel does not process events. As a result, a large number of events are queued up in the Collector Manager, which may eventually drop events once it reaches its threshold. To avoid this issue, Sentinel disables time synchronization by default in the open-vm-tools version available in Sentinel.

Workaround: Disable time synchronization. For more information about disabling time synchronization, see Disabling Time Synchronization.

6.10 Agent Manager Requires SQL Authentication When FIPS 140-2 Mode is Enabled

Issue: When FIPS 140-2 mode is enabled in Sentinel, using Windows authentication for Agent Manager causes synchronization with the Agent Manager database to fail.

Workaround: Use SQL authentication for Agent Manager.

6.11 Sentinel High Availability Installation in Non-FIPS 140-2 Mode Displays an Error

Issue: The Sentinel High Availability installation in non-FIPS 140-2 mode completes successfully but displays the following error twice:

/opt/novell/sentinel/setup/configure.sh: line 1045: [: too many arguments 

Workaround: The error is expected and you can safely ignore it. Although the installer displays the error, the Sentinel High Availability configuration works successfully in non-FIPS 140-2 mode.

6.12 Keytool Command Displays a Warning

Issue: While using Keytool command, the following warning is displayed:

The JKS keystore uses a proprietary format. It is recommended to migrate to PKCS12which is an 
industry standard format using "keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore
 /<sentinel_installation_path>/etc/opt/novell/sentinel/config/.webserverkeystore.jks -destkeystore
 /<sentinel_installation_path>/etc/opt/novell/sentinel/config/.webserverkeystore.jks -deststoretype pkcs12".

Workaround: The warning is expected and you can safely ignore it. Although the warning is displayed, Keytool command works as expected.

6.13 Sentinel Does Not Process Threat Intelligence Feeds In FIPS Mode

Issue: In FIPS mode, when processing out-of-the-box threat Intelligence feeds from URLs, Sentinel displays the following error: Received fatal alert: protocol_version. This issue occurs because the out-of-the-box threat feeds now support only TLS 1.2, which does not work in FIPS mode.

Workaround: Perform the following:

  1. Click Sentinel Main > Integration > Threat Intelligence Sources.

  2. Edit each URL to change the protocol from http to https.

6.14 Logging Out From Sentinel Main Does Not Log You Out of Dashboards And Vice Versa in Multi-factor Authentication mode

Issue: In multi-factor authentication mode, if you log out of Sentinel Main you do not get logged out of Sentinel dashboards and vice versa. This is due to an issue in the Advanced Authentication Framework.

Workaround: Until a fix is available in the Advanced Authentication Framework, refresh the screen to view the login screen.

6.15 The Kibana Custom Dashboard is not Displayed After Upgrading to Sentinel 8.3.1

Issue: The Kibana custom dashboard is not displayed when you upgrade from Sentinel 8.3 or earlier to Sentinel 8.3.1.

Workaround: Ensure that you re-create the custom dashboard after upgrading Sentinel.

6.16 When you Launch Kibana the Conflict Error Message is Displayed

Issue: After installing or upgrading Sentinel and when you launch Kibana for the first time, the conflict error message is displayed.

Workaround: Ignore the conflict error message as there is no functionality impact.

6.17 When you Reboot OS Redhat 8.1 and 8.2, Sentinel is not Started Automatically

Issue: After installing Sentinel on OS Redhat 8.1 and 8.2, Sentinel (Server, RCM, or RCE) is not started automatically after reboot.

Workaround: Change the SELINUX value to SELINUX=disabled in the file /etc/selinux/config.

6.18 When you Open Sentinel Appliance Management Console an Error Message is Displayed

Issue: After upgrading to Sentinel 8.3, when you try to open Sentinel Appliance Management Console of the CE (Correlation Engine) or CM (Collector Manager) of HA (High Availability) servers, an error message Error 404 - Not found is displayed.

Workaround: For more information, refer to Micro Focus Knowledge Base document.

6.19 Users with Hide Management Permission of Visualization, Still Can See the Management Tab in the Kibana Page

Issue: After upgrading to Sentinel 8.4, users with hide management permission of visualization still can see the Management tab on the Kibana page, but cannot access the features of the Management tab.

6.20 When Admin Changes User Role of Alerts, Immediately Changes are not Updated in the Kibana Page

Issue: Existing users unable to see any alerts on the Kibana page immediately, although permission is updated by the admin to see the alerts.

Workaround: You need to logout and login again when the user permission is updated.

6.21 When you Launch the Visualization Dashboard as a Tenant User, an Error Message is Displayed

Issue: When a non-default tenant user launches the visualization dashboard, an error message Forbidden is displayed. This error message is displayed, whenever the dashboard is launched by the non-default tenant user who has View-only permission for the Management option and there is no user with Edit permission for the Management option under that tenant.

Workaround: Ignore the error message as there is no functionality impact.

6.22 In RHEL, RCM and RCE are not Connecting to the Server When CRL is Enabled

Issue: Remote Collector Manager (RCM) and Remote Correlation Engine (RCE) not able to connect to the server when CRL is enabled, in RHEL.

Workaround: Upgrade the cURL version on the machine to 7.60 or above.

6.23 RCM is not Forwarding the Events to the Sentinel Server When Event Visualization, FIPS, and CRL are Enabled

Issue: In the fresh installation of distributed setup, after enabling the Event Visualization, the FIPS, and the CRL services, the Remote Collector Manager (RCM) is not forwarding the events to the Sentinel Server.

Workaround: If either the Event Visualization and FIPS or the Event Visualization and CRL are enabled, then RCM forwards the events to the Sentinel server.

6.24 Incident Reports are Failing with Exceptions After Upgrading the OS from any Older Version to Latest Version

Issue: When you are upgrading the Operating System, from an older version to the latest version, incident reports fail with exceptions.

6.25 Exception is Logged while Trying to Re-index for the First Time

Issue: An exception is being logged when the re-index operation runs for the first time.

6.26 Error while Running convert_to_fips.sh in Sentinel 8.5 RCM/RCE Appliance Build

Issue: When the system administrator runs convert_to_fips.sh in Sentinel 8.5 RCM/RCE appliance build, after providing correct credentials of the users in a continuous loop, the following error message is displayed:

ERROR: Failed to connect to <Sentinel server IP>:
Failed to retrieve token for communication channel.

Workaround: Perform the following steps:

  1. Exit from the script execution.

  2. Go to <Sentinel RCM/RCE installation>/etc/opt/novell/sentinel/config/configuration.properties

  3. Set the value of rest.endpoint.port to corresponding webserver port.

    For example, rest.endpoint.port=8443

  4. Rerun the convert_to_fips.sh

7.0 Contacting Micro Focus

For specific product issues, contact Micro Focus Support at https://www.microfocus.com/support-and-services/.

Additional technical information or advice is available from several sources: