NetScaler Times newsletter for Week 7 - 2025
13.1 firmware updates for NetScaler & NetScaler Console. Plus a signature update!
Hello Everyone
It’s Andrew again over at Cloud Software Group. This NetScaler Times update aims to keep you up-to-date! 🚀 Why read this? The idea is to pull together events, firmware releases, support articles, and anything else I think is relevant into a single email. Some say email is the future, others tell the truth!
High-level agenda according to Gemini, other AI tools are available too:-)
The NetScaler Times newsletter provides updates on NetScaler, including configuration documentation, firmware releases, and security bulletins.
NetScaler 13.1-57.26 now supports binary signing and verification and has a new GLIBC version requirement for installing weblog binaries on Linux.
The newsletter also includes information on End of Sale and End of Life appliances, as well as the latest security bulletin and NCSC network security guidance.
Feedback is welcomed by the author.
1. NetScaler updates from the last week:
Configure analytics on virtual servers - Product Documentation
4 days ago — The supported virtual servers to enable analytics are Load Balancing, Content Switching, and NetScaler Gateway. Select the virtual servers and then click Enable ...
Select the Citrix Secure Access client for users
4 days ago — When users log on to NetScaler Gateway, they download and install the Citrix Secure Access client on the user's device.
How does NetScaler talk to servers?
6 days ago — Wondering how a #NetScaler appliance communicates with clients and servers? This is a great breakdown of everything you need to know.
Annotations | NetScaler ingress controller
5 days ago — Smart annotations for services configure NetScaler with custom values for NetScaler configuration parameters. The annotations are used for services ...
2. The latest firmware builds.
The details for the various builds have been listed below, as this helps plan for new releases in your environment. This support document has a lot more information on the different release cycles.
The NetScaler has multiple form factors to support different environments. NetScaler is built on a single operating system with a software-based architecture, so the behavior will be the same regardless of which is used — hardware, virtual machine, bare metal, or container. Pick one that works for you…
Latest Build Versions:
Here is a timeline for the 14.1 and 13.1 builds to show where they are within their respective release lifecycle.
Here are all the firmware builds in a table:
NetScaler 13.1-57.26 update, what is new?
Support for binary signing and verification to enhance security
NetScaler now supports binary signing and verification (BSV) on all FreeBSD-based platforms. This feature enhances security monitoring by registering and verifying NetScaler executables with the operating system.
GLIBC version requirement for installing weblog binaries on Linux
To install the weblog binaries on a Linux machine, GNU C Library (GLIBC) version 2.31 or higher is required.
General Availability (GA) of NetScaler Next-Gen API
NetScaler Next-Gen API is now available for general use. For more information, see NetScaler Next-Gen API getting started guide.
Release notes for all the fixes follow this: LINK
NetScaler Console 13.1-57.26 update
Removal of telemetry analytics profile from the managed NetScaler instances
The following telemetry metrics profile configuration is no longer required for telemetry collection:
add analytics profile telemetry_metrics_profile -type timeseries -outputMode prometheus -metrics ENABLED -serveMode Pull -schemaFile "./telemetry_collect_ns_metrics_schema.json" -metricsExportFrequency...
Release notes for the fixes follow this LINK
Which release should I use?
The release families are designed such that 14.1 has more elements changing with each update, hence the feature phase designation. There will be fewer changes in 13.1, so unless you need a capability that is only available in the 14.1 release, the advice is to choose 13.1 for most production deployments.
End Of Sale Appliances
These appliances are End of Sale (unavailable to buy new now), they will live and run for 5 more years from 2024.
EOL Appliances
Here is a table showing the significant EOL appliance events for the next 12 months. April looks to have a few appliances that will reach their end of life.
3. Recent security bulletin
No new security bulletins. Here is the last one from Nov 2024. NetScaler ADC and NetScaler Gateway Security Bulletin for CVE-2024-8534 and CVE-2024-8535.
CTX Number: CTX691608
Article Type: Security Bulletin: Created Date: 12/Nov/2024
Last Modified Date: 14/Nov/2024: Severity: High
NetScaler WAF Signatures Update v145 updated on the 6th Feb
The latest version of its integrated Web App Firewall signatures helps customers mitigate several CVEs with varying CVSS scores. Link to details
4. NCSC Network security fundamentals
How to design, use, and maintain secure networks.
Networks are fundamental to the operation, security, and resilience of many organizations. This guidance provides an introduction to the key topics to consider when designing, maintaining, or using networks that need to be secure and resilient. It will also help you apply the NCSC’s Cyber security design principles to networks. More technical information is provided in the ‘further reading’ sections.
Read more here
5. Feedback for this newsletter
Naturally, if something you feel should be added/removed or called out, drop me a note; Andrew.Scott@cloud.com. All mistakes are mine.
You can get all the previous newsletters plus other articles here:
Have a great week!