Sophos NAC: Signature file dates appear to be out-of-date

Problem/Issue

The signature file dates for anti-virus or anti-spyware applications may appear to be out-of-date in the Server Task Status control if the latest signature file has not been retrieved by the Current Definition Loader task. If Current Definition Loader errors are also displaying in the NAC server Event Log, the NAC server may not have internet access.

Sophos product and version

Sophos NAC for Endpoint Security and Control

Actions/What to do

Using the Server Task Status control on the NAC Manager home page, verify that the Current Definition Loader has failed and view the reason for the failure. The most likely causes of the failure are that the NAC server does not have outbound access to the internet (which is required by Current Definition Loader), or that the proxy server is not configured or is configured incorrectly.

Ensure that the NAC server has internet access by running the Current Definition Loader task on the NAC server to download and update the signature date information. To check for internet access, open the CurrentDefsLoader.exe.config file from the Program Files\Sophos\NAC\CurrentDefsLoader\ directory, locate each of the following key, copy the addresses, and paste them in the web browser to test: <add key="SourceURI" value=<relevant url> and <add key="SourceURI" value=http://es-web-2.sophos.com/update/" />.

Note: There is no easy way to manually update the Current Definition Loader when the NAC server does not have Internet access. This file is updated hourly and data becomes out-of-date very quickly. This file contains the latest dates for the current signatures for Sophos anti-virus and anti-spyware applications.