> Source: [sk184827](https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk184827)

# sk184827 - Intermittent blocking of Google Maps by Application Control and URL Filtering

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| Solution ID | sk184827 |
| Date Created | 2026-03-23 |
| Last Modified | 2026-04-09 |
| Technical Level | Advanced |
| Products | Security Gateway |
| Versions | R82.10, R82, R81.20 |
| OS | Gaia |

## Symptoms

- * Access to https://www.google.com/maps is intermittently blocked by the Application Control (APPI) and URL Filtering (URLF) policy, while other Google services remain accessible.

* In SmartConsole logs, the same Google Maps traffic alternates between:  

  `Risk: Low Risk, Category: Search Engines / Portals`  
  `
  Risk: Unknown Risk, Category: Unknown`

* When the URL Filtering cache is cleared (as per [sk64280](https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk64280)), the first access to Google Maps (for example, from Microsoft Edge) succeeds, but subsequent accesses from Chrome, Firefox, and Edge are blocked again and redirected to the UserCheck portal with risk: Unknown Risk.

* Kernel debugs for Application Control and URL Filtering (according to [sk183416](https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk183416) and [sk92743](https://support.checkpoint.com/results/sk/sk92743)) show that the categorization engine (rad) sometimes returns a risk profile for www.google.com/maps that includes both Low Risk and Unknown Risk.

## Cause

The Security Gateway used inconsistent or stale categorization results for the same URL across different lookups and cache states.

## Solution

This solution requires authentication. Please log in to view the full solution.

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