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SphireOS Release Notes

Updated

SphireOS 271.21 (January 2026)

EA: US 28 January | ANZ 11 February | GA: US 4 February | ANZ 18 February 2026

What’s New

  • We fixed a bug that caused users to lose access when they had the same username across multiple directories.
  • We improved authentication and security enforcement for using multiple directories with Linewize Filter.

SphireOS 271 (November 2025)

Beta: 24 November | EA: 1 December | GA: 8 December 2025

What’s New

  • We added native firewall bypass rules to allow large deployments to persist custom rules without scripts during upgrades.
  • We enforced secure IPMI credentials to strengthen platform security.
  • We removed legacy MITM code to streamline the backend and improve security.
  • We added the ability to generate and download diagnostic logs directly from the System Management UI (SMUI).
  • We fixed an intermittent issue where network interfaces didn't always match assigned names.
  • We added safeguards to prevent system crashes caused by blank hostnames or empty criteria objects.

 

SphireOS 270.17 (July 2025)

Beta: 21 July | EA: 28 July | GA: 4 Aug 2025

What’s New

  • We improved the Linewize Connect bypass logic only to apply when an active authentication session is present.
  • We now keep connection and statistics data in the event of a Linewize cloud outage.
  • We fixed an issue with incorrect memory usage metrics.
  • We upgraded the GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) version to improve performance and compatibility.

 

SphireOS 269.16 (June 2025)

Beta: 16 June | EA: 23 June | GA: 30 June 2025

What’s New

  • We added support for RADIUS configurations that include multiple user attributes.
  • We improved the CLI with enhanced help output, tab completion, improved navigation, and clearer error messages.
  • We updated the CLI config reset command to drop persistent interface rules.
  • We made SSH host keys persist across upgrades to maintain secure remote access.
  • We updated OpenSSH to version 9.9p2 to include the latest security fixes.
  • We fixed an issue where firewall rules were not saved if a misconfiguration was detected when parsing them.

 

SphireOS 268.16 (March 2025)

Beta: 20th March | EA: 14th April | GA: 28th April 2025

What’s New

  • We improved LDAP syncs to enhance error handling and sync success...
  • We added rate limiting to SSH access on Linewize Appliances.
  • We updated PPPoE authentication...
  • We restricted USB access...
  • We fixed an issue where users with a comma in their display name were not synced to their OU group.
  • We fixed an issue with time-zone configuration.
  • We fixed an issue where WMI cron ran when WMI was off.
  • We fixed an issue where bad data caused misclassification as VPNs.
  • We fixed an issue where the RADIUS listener started before config load.

 

Older Release Notes (2024)

Older Release Notes (2024)

SphireOS 267.18 (December 2024)

Beta: 12th December | EA: 16th December | GA: 19th December 2024

What’s New

 

SphireOS 266.18 (November 2024)

Beta: 14th November | EA: 18th November | GA: 25th November 2024

What’s New

  • We updated the SphireOS kernel version.
  • We added support for new network drivers.

 

SphireOS 265.16 (August 2024)

Beta: 12th August | EA: 12th August | GA: 15th August 2024

What’s New

  • We added two Performance metrics...
  • We added TLS v1.3 support for Windows BYO with Chrome.
  • We improved signature assignment performance...
  • We improved agent config change handling...

 

SphireOS 264.14 (June 2024)

Beta: 27th May | EA: 3rd June 2024 | GA: 10th June 2024

What’s New

  • We added a new Performance metric for packet processing time.
  • We improved performance to reduce latency.

 

SphireOS 262.18 (January 2024)

Beta: 18th January | EA: 25th January | GA: 1st February 2024

What’s New

  • We fixed Walled Garden functionality.
  • We resolved corrupted packet capture issue.
  • We fixed VoIP phone issue with Captive Portal.
  • We improved blocked UDP Advanced Search reporting.
  • We improved Quarantine stability.

Older Release Notes (2023)

Older Release Notes (2023)

SphireOS 261.18 (October 2023)

GA: 19th October 2023

What's New

  • We added a new feature that allows full agent bypass. This means that when full agent bypass is enabled, SphireOS will not process any Connect application or extension traffic, improving appliance performance.
  • We added Intel’s Out-Of-Tree igb driver into SphireOS.
  • We expanded support in SphireOS for the Connect agent companion mode's default filtering mode.

 

SphireOS 260.13 (July 2023)

GA: 26th July 2023

What's New

  • We added a new feature that allows for the inclusion of a group in an On network bypass list. This means that when agent filtering on the network is enabled, and the group device is connected to the school network, SphireOS will filter the device instead of relying on the Agents.
  • We made updates to the Prerouting and Postrouting advanced configuration settings. As a result, SphireOS will now dynamically enable these options for an Appliance when necessary, based on your School Manager configuration.
  • We updated the default Advanced Configuration values to help streamline the Linewize Appliance build process.

 

SphireOS 259.14 (April 2023)

GA: 1st May 2023

Summary

  • We added support for our new Bypass cards.
  • We fixed an issue where a Windows agent could unsuccessfully enrol when behind a SphireOS appliance.
  • We resolved an issue where SphireOS would inadvertently apply filtering to its own locally generated traffic.

 

SphireOS 258.18 (February 2023)

GA: 13th February 2023

What's New

  • We upgraded the SphireOS Linux kernel version from 5.4.114 to 5.4.225. This significant upgrade aims to address the loss of data flow issue that can intermittently occur on Linewize appliances.

 

SphireOS 257.36 (January 2023)

GA: 30th January 2023

What's New

  • We improved the appendix signatures by allowing them to exclude themselves from quarantine. This improvement helps Apple devices that use iCloud private relay.
  • We have added Ethtool to SphireOS. This is a valuable tool to help troubleshoot complex network issues.
  • We made HTTPS direct IP filtering enabled by default.
  • We resolved an issue where appliances with abnormally large zoom records could get stuck in reboot loops during startup.
  • We fixed some major memory leaks within the SphireOS group and LDAP modules.
  • We resolved an issue where SphireOS would not validate the SSL certificate when HTTPS inspection was enabled.
  • We fixed a bug in the SphireOS Config Wizard under the network configuration settings.
  • We resolved some issues that have caused various crashes.

 

Older Release Notes (2022)

Older Release Notes (2022)

SphireOS 256.44 (November 2022)

GA: 24th November 2022

What's New

  • We made significant improvements to the backend to support more throughput, while increasing the platform's stability. Our goal is to have zero unplanned downtime with your Linewize Gateway.
  • We added a Restrictive Mode in the Captive Portal that will prevent students from using VPNs to bypass filtering.
  • We fixed an issue that prevented devices with bonded interfaces from updating to the latest version.

 

SphireOS 255.28 (October 2022)

GA: 24th October 2022

What's New

SphireOS will now log when a restart is initiated from one of the following events:

  • Reboot initiated by cloud API.
  • Reboot initiated by SphireOS CLI.
  • Shutdown initiated by SphireOS CLI.

 

SphireOS 255.22 (May 2022)

GA: 13th June 2022

What's New

  • We fixed an issue that caused DCOM errors and WMI to not authenticate users reliably.
  • We resolved some bugs that could cause SphireOS to crash and restart.
  • We fixed an issue that could cause Sphirewall to crash in certain Walled Garden or static IP configurations.

 

SphireOS 255.16 (April 2022)

GA: 6th April 2022

What's New

  • We removed the PPE1 code from SphireOS.
  • We added the average download and upload rates of the firewall in School Manager (Debugging Diagnostics Performance Metrics).
  • We resolved an issue that caused errors when retrieving Netlink log entries.
  • We fixed an issue where hostnames were not being extracted from HTTP requests correctly.

 

SphireOS 255.15 (March 2022)

GA: 10th March 2022

What's New

  • We removed the PPE1 code from SphireOS.
  • We added the average download and upload rates of the firewall in School Manager (Debugging Diagnostics Performance Metrics).
  • We resolved an issue that caused errors when retrieving Netlink log entries.
  • We fixed an issue where hostnames were not being extracted from HTTP requests correctly.
  • We resolved an issue that caused DHCP errors.

 

SphireOS 254.16 (February 2022)

GA: 24th February 2022

What's New

  • We migrated our Packet Pipeline Engine 1 (PPE1) customers to Packet Pipeline Engine 2 (PPE2). These changes will allow for faster, more responsive user experience for HTTPS Inspection features.
  • We fixed an issue that allowed users to bypass filtering rules by using HTTP in front of the IP address.
  • We fixed an issue that could crash Sphirewall by using an invalid IP address.
  • We fixed an issue that caused DCOM errors with the latest Windows update.
  • We improved the way we collect logs when SphireOS restarts due to memory exhaustion.

 

SphireOS 254.13 (February 2022)

GA: 18th February 2022

What's New

  • We migrated our Packet Pipeline Engine 1 (PPE1) customers to Packet Pipeline Engine 2 (PPE2). These changes will allow for faster, more responsive user experience for HTTPS Inspection features.
  • We fixed an issue that allowed users to bypass filtering rules by using HTTP in front of the IP address.
  • We fixed an issue that could crash Sphirewall by using an invalid IP address.
  • We fixed an issue that caused DCOM errors with the latest Windows update.
  • We improved the way we collect logs when SphireOS restarts due to memory exhaustion.

 

SphireOS 252.19 (January 2022)

GA: 25th January 2022

What's New

  • We fixed an issue that could cause a buffer overflow and crash SphireOS.
  • We improved the way we capture and log radius accounting packets. This should result in better and more detailed error logs.
  • We improved the way we collect statistics on packets.
  • The transparent proxy service in SphireOS won’t crash HTTPS inspection is enabled.
  • Sphirewall won’t keep trying to send DHCP requests if the link is down. Creating a rule with empty or missing criteria won’t cause SphireOS to crash.
  • SphireOS no longer cares about letter cases in group names when you’re creating and applying filtering rules.
  • We found and fixed a rare case where SphireOS wouldn’t process all LDAP records, resulting in users incorrectly being set as archived.
  • SphireOS won’t apply HTTPs inspection to additional subnet ranges if subnets were specified in IP/Subnet notation. SphireOS won’t crash if you update user or group configuration while HTTPS Inspection is enabled.