Sophos has rolled out Sophos Firewall v22, a major update that sharpens its Secure by Design commitment with deeper visibility, stronger defenses, and smarter threat detection built directly into the platform.
At the center of the release is a new Health Check feature that continuously evaluates firewall configurations against CIS benchmarks and established security best practices. By automatically scanning dozens of settings, the tool gives administrators immediate, actionable insight into potential weaknesses—before attackers can exploit them.
Sophos Firewall v22 is also powered by a newly hardened kernel under its next-generation Xstream Architecture. Built on kernel version 6.6 and above, the update delivers improved performance, scalability, and resilience, ensuring the firewall is ready for both current and future hardware demands.
Security monitoring takes another step forward with remote integrity monitoring, enabled through the Sophos XDR Linux Sensor. This allows real-time detection of suspicious activity such as unauthorized configuration changes, malicious execution attempts, file tampering, and improper rule exports—providing early warning signs of compromise.
The update further strengthens defense-in-depth through improved workload isolation. A newly re-architected control plane introduces modularization, service isolation, and containerization, reducing attack surfaces while improving system stability and scalability.
Completing the upgrade is an enhanced anti-malware engine that integrates Sophos’ latest threat detection capabilities. Leveraging global reputation lookups, the engine delivers faster, real-time protection against zero-day and emerging threats.
Sophos Chief Information Security Officer Ross McKerchar said the release reflects years of sustained investment in Secure by Design principles, noting that v22 represents a significant leap in hardening, patchability, and attack visibility for customers.
Sophos Firewall v22 is available as a free upgrade for customers with Enhanced or Enhanced Plus Support and is recommended for immediate deployment across all supported firewall devices. More details are available through Sophos’ official channels at sophos.com.