Network Passive Sensor Release 1.9 - New Features and Updates
April 11, 2025 (Updated on April 17, 2025)
NPS Support for CAPS Leader Assignment
With this release, we have enhanced the NPS services to provide support for the Cloud Agent as Passive Sensor (CAPS) leader assignment feature.
The CAPS leader assignment feature enables you to choose specific Cloud Agent host(s) to act as CAPS leader(s). This is useful in cases where you want specific hosts, such as servers or assets that are always likely to be present in the network, to sense and report inventory.
You can access this feature in the Cloud Agent application under Configuration > CAPS Configuration > CAPS Leader Assignment.
For more details on CAPS leader assignment, refer to the Cloud Agent Online Help.
Prerequisite
The minimum Cloud Agent Application version required for this NPS support is 2.1.0.
Appliance Release 2.1.0 - New Features and Updates
The Appliance 2.1.0 release include the following new features and security enhancements of NPS Virtual Appliance.
Process Integrity Monitoring (PIM) for OT Network
From this release, the appliance provides continuous monitoring of Siemens S7 and CIP protocols for process events. This feature enables VMDR OT to provide visibility into process-related events and identify potential anomalies. This improves the security posture of your OT networks in addition to the asset inventory and vulnerabilities capabilities provided by VMDR OT. These PIM events will be available in the upcoming VMDR OT release.
Enhanced Dissection Capabilities
With this release, the virtual appliance now supports GTPv1 and Teredo tunnel protocol dissectors.
Auto-Upgrade Support
With this release, appliances now automatically upgrades to newer versions when available. Appliance running on older versions, such as 1.3.8 and 2.0.0, cannot auto-upgrade to version 2.1.0. Currently, if you are using older versions of NPS VM appliances, you need to manually download the 2.1.0 image and set up a new NPS VM.
Appliances upgraded to version 2.1.0 retain asset inventory and network traffic data from older versions 1.3.8 and 2.0.0, even if the old virtual machines are deleted and deregistered.
Security Enhancements
With this release, we have introduced the following security enhancements:
- FIPS 140-2 Compliance: The appliance now has enhanced protection of sensitive data by achieving FIPS 140-2 compliance, a federally recognized standard that defines security requirements for cryptographic algorithms and data protection.
- TLS 1.3 Protocol: The appliance now supports TLS 1.3 protocol for secure communication with the Qualys Cloud Platform. TLS 1.3 provides improved performance and security by supporting the latest, most secure cipher suites for encryption.
Qualys is now deprecating weak cipher suites across all its public-facing URLs. For more information, refer to this Qualys Notification.