Cisco FirePOWER SSL1500 - security appliance

Cisco SSL Appliances decrypt SSL traffic so that inspection technologies such as Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services can analyze and block attacks that would otherwise be obscured in the encrypted stream. Sales of Cisco SSL Appliances usually require that the customer has Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services appliances installed already or that the purchase is part of an opportunity that includes Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services. When Cisco SSL Appliances are used, inline traffic is decrypted, inspected by the NGFW, and then reencrypted and forwarded back to the network. This process is transparent to the user. Dedicated SSL appliances avoid this scenario and are superior for meeting high-throughput requirements. Network appliances that perform both SSL decryption and NGFW functions at the same time can introduce significant performance concerns.

You can deploy Cisco SSL Appliances as transparent proxies to detect SSL sessions on all ports, not just port 443. Because the appliance can be deployed transparently on the network as a Layer 2 bridge (a "bump on the wire"), the appliance does not require significant network reconfiguration, IP address changes, topology changes, or modification to client IP and web browsers. Additionally, transparent SSL proxies see all network traffic, not just SSL traffic, and can cut through non-SSL flows without introducing any significant latency. Cisco SSL Appliances support both passive and inline configuration. In this scenario, the appliance sends traffic for inspection to a Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services appliance. Cisco SSL Appliances are versatile and can inspect both inbound and outbound SSL traffic. With inbound SSL inspection, the appliance inspects traffic destined for an enterprise's web servers hosting SSL applications. With outbound SSL inspection, the appliance inspects SSL application traffic outside the enterprise.