topic Re: SK: "Please read for an important update from Check Point." in General Topics

SK: "Please read for an important update from Check Point."

Timothy_Hall — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 23:05:15 GMT

So looking at sk180437 I'm being urged to view an important message from Check Point:

Um, sure I'd love to but there is nothing clickable in that region that takes me to the supposed message. What is this trying to indicate? At first I thought it was a link to my thread below asking about the USFW Thread Blocker (which I still haven't gotten an answer for BTW). I have Check Point Partner Access if that matters here. I brought up a bunch of other SKs and no other ones that I could find have this indication present. What is this?

USFW Thread Blocker Details?

Re: SK: "Please read for an important update from Check Point."

PhoneBoy — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 23:11:45 GMT

I believe it is because this SK is marked as a Product Alert.
SKs in this list will have a similar tag: https://support.checkpoint.com/product-alerts#aq=%40source%3D%3D(%22SecureKnowledge%22)%20AND%20NOT%20(%40severity%20%3D%3D%20(%220%22))%20AND%20(%40category%20%3D%3D%20(%22Alert%22)%20OR%20%40category%20%3D%3D%20(%22Product%20Alert%22))

Re: SK: "Please read for an important update from Check Point."

Timothy_Hall — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 23:16:34 GMT

"Please read below for an important update from Check Point" might help avoid confusion.

OK so the SK documents the symptoms and workarounds well, but can we get a little more detail about exactly why we might need to disable the Thread Blocker? "potentially lead to problems in certain environments" is a bit vague.

Re: SK: "Please read for an important update from Check Point."

the_rock — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 23:17:25 GMT

Thats odd...I tried multiple browsers, that message never comes up when I log in to check that sk.

Andy

Re: SK: "Please read for an important update from Check Point."

PhoneBoy — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 23:43:12 GMT

The details I can see from looking at the related TAC SRs suggest it's related to policy installation or loading Threat Prevention signatures.
In some instances, the Thread Blocker will be triggered, but will take a while to complete since a busy firewall thread is being asked to do even more work in the process.
This makes things slower...and triggers more threads to be blocked.

The SK mentions disabling Thread Blocker as a workaround for this.
However, there also appears to be a hotfix for this available from the TAC as well.

Re: SK: "Please read for an important update from Check Point."

Timothy_Hall — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 23:54:48 GMT

OK that helps a lot, thanks.

Re: SK: "Please read for an important update from Check Point."

RamGuy239 — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 21:12:10 GMT

This particular SK is somewhat confusing. I have dealt with it on several occasions. The SK is marked for R81.10 and R81.20, and the content makes it seem like the FWK Thread Blocker is enabled by default on both R81.10 and R81.20, which is not the case. It's enabled by default on R81.10. The feature has been disabled on R81.20. I have ended up following the SK needlessly on several installations as a result of this.

I have verified this on multiple installations.