After installing/upgrading to Symantec Web Gateway version 5.1.1 some websites are not accessible.

Products

• Web Gateway

Issue/Introduction

 After installing or upgrading to Symantec Web Gateway (SWG) version 5.1.1 some websites are not accessible while using SWG as an explicit proxy server.

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Symantec Web Gateway

Error
The requested URL could not be retrieved
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While trying to retrieve the URL: <url>
The following error was encountered:

  * Read Timeout

The system returned:

  [No Error]

A Timeout occured while waiting to read data from the network. The network or server may be down or congested. Please retry your request.

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 Alternatively, you may see a similar error:

"Read Error (104) Connection reset by peer."

Cause

In previous version the X-Forwarded_for exposed the internal IP address of clients to external server:

X-Forwarded_for: W.X.Y.Z

To address security concerns about exposing the internal client IP address to external sites the "X-Forwarded_for" was configured to hide the internal IP address:

X-Forwarded_for: unknown

 

Despite this header being a "X-" header, and by definition not constrained in value, some sites are unable to process requests with the "X-Forwarded_for" header set to "unknown".

For further information regarding the previous SWG behavior, please see: 

Title: TECH203619 - How to see originating IP addresses of connections coming through SWG proxy
URL: http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH203619

Resolution

Upgrade to SWG software version 5.2.0.

Beginning with SWG version 5.2.0, the Proxy component of SWG no longer transmits an X-Forwarded_for: header during its communications to external servers.

 

 

Applies To

• Product: Symantec Web Gateway
• Version: 5.1.1
• Operating mode: Proxy only / Inline + Proxy
• Browser configured to use the Symantec Web Gateway as an explicit proxy