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Meraki MX HTTPS Inspection

Bobcheese2
Level 1
Level 1

Just wondering if anyone had done any testing with HTTPS inspection on MX? Interested in knowing how it impacted performance as well as any other gotcha's.

https://documentation.meraki.com/SASE_and_SD-WAN/MX/Operate_and_Maintain/Content_Filtering_and_Threat_Protection/HTTPS_Inspection

Appreciate any replies in advance

 

 

7 Replies 7

@Bobcheese2 hi,

There is definite performance drop if the hardware box dont have enough resources. also you may need certificate installation on user PCs for root cert or use public certificate for the enc/decrypt. its recommend to select correct device model using below values. 

KasunBandara_0-1788779612333.png

https://documentation.meraki.com/?title=SASE_and_SD-WAN%2FMX%2FDesign_and_Configure%2FArchitectures_and_Best_Practices%2FMX_Sizing_Guide_%26_Principles

NGFW Throughput
(Advanced Security - Prevention)

EMIX

 

 

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Good luck
KB

Philip D'Ath
Meraki Community All-Star
Meraki Community All-Star

I tested this a while ago, and it had a 90% performance impact.  It reduced the performance of an MX that could do 1000 Mb/s to 100 Mb/s.

Since then, I have been going down the Cisco Secure Access route.

JamesT91
Meraki Community All-Star
Meraki Community All-Star

Wow. No wonder they aren't publishing those numbers anywhere! 

Thanks, wondering if the C8xxx have more processor headroom for things like this? Seems a bad decision to add as a feature if it has such an impact on performance (i'm aware of performance hits on other vendor equipment but at least the quote the expected throughput on their DS's). Feels almost like a box ticking exercise? 

Philip D'Ath
Meraki Community All-Star
Meraki Community All-Star

>Seems a bad decision to add as a feature if it has such an impact on performance

Cisco Meraki actually dropped support for this feature.  We were all surprised because of the sudden comeback.

I think you are correct.  Some contract required that feature, so they bought it back from the dead.

davidwarner11tt
Level 1
Level 1

There can be a pretty noticeable performance hit with MX HTTPS inspection, especially on higher-throughput links. Cisco rates on-box TLS decryption as a high performance-impact feature, and certificate trust plus certificate-pinned applications are common gotchas.

Joseph W. Doherty
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Regarding other gotchas, don't overlook (from OP reference):

What traffic should be bypassed? 

Administrators should consider bypassing business-critical applications that use certificate pinning, destinations that fail during inspection, and any traffic excluded for privacy, regulatory, or operational reasons.

Rember, this is basically a man-in-the-middle "attack".

Nor:

Supported TLS 1.3 traffic can be inspected, but TLS 1.3 sessions using Encrypted ClientHello (ECH) are bypassed rather than decrypted.

Basically, your going down the path, somewhat, like recording all phone communications or placing cameras in company provided rest rooms.  I.e. sometimes you need to consider legalities beyond what's possible technically.

From a security viewpoint, if you're concerned about what might be exchanged via HTTPS, what about flash drives and personal cell phones?

BTW, I'm not discounting the issue, just sometimes folk don't appreciate the full picture nor considerations beyond the technical.

As engineers, further recognize your employer may tell to do something that's actually illegal and the fact you, or your employer, are unaware of that, doesn't necessarily protect you.

Over the years, I've been in companies presented with devices to "inspect" encrypted data communications, and whenever I asked for further validation of its legality, the project was dropped.

Again, not saying this should never be done nor it's always illegal, but proceed with care.  If nothing else, it can cause bad will with employees.  So, just a possible "gotcha" besides concern about performance impact.