Report: Study and Implementation of Advance Intrusion Detection and Prevention System Based on Security Onion

Chapter-1

INTRODUCTION
Intrusion detection is the process of monitoring the events occurring in a computer system
or network and analyzing them for signs of possible incidents, which are violations or
imminent threats of violation of computer security policies, acceptable use policies, or
standard security practices. An intrusion detection system (IDS) is software that
automates the intrusion detection process . Network-Based IDS (NIDS) monitors network
traffic for particular network segments or devices and analyzes the network and
application protocol activity to identify suspicious activity . Security Log Analysis
Systems are also known as Log-based Intrusion Detection Systems (LIDS). Log Analysis
For Intrusion Detection is the process or techniques used to detect attacks on a specific
environment using logs as the primary source of information .
1.1. Outline
This Report describes how to build a system that combines Network Based Intrusion
Detection with Log Based Intrusion Detection to create a comprehensive security
monitoring platform. Chapter 2 provides an overview of essential terminology in the field
of Security Information Event Monitoring and Log Management. Chapter 3 builds on the
terminology by proposing a technical architecture and by providing configuration
guidance. Chapter 4 discusses Log Analysis and Correlation and the paper concludes by
discussing Alerting and Reporting in Chapter 5. This paper describes a fictional scenario
in which an intrusion is detected using NIDS and LIDS alerts on the monitor console. The
example demonstrates the value of this approach by following an intruder performing a
network scan, connect to a system and control gain, followed by privilege escalation on
the target system.
1.2. Problem Addressed
In an organization, there are many possible signs of incidents which may go unnoticed
each day. These events can be studied mainly by analyzing network behavior or by
reviewing computer security event logs. In order to avoid or minimize the losses from an
incident outcome, the events need to be analyzed as close to real-time as possible.

Chapter-2

Log Management and SIEM Overview
The NIST Guide to Computer Security Log Management states that information
regarding an incident may be recorded in several places, such as firewalls, routers,
network IDS, host IDS, and application logs. Organizations should deploy one or more
centralized logging servers and configure logging devices throughout the organization to
send duplicates of their log entries to the centralized logging servers. A log management
infrastructure consists of the hardware, software, networks and media used to generate,
transmit, store, analyze, and dispose of log data. This section describes the typical
architecture and functions of a log management.
2.1. Log Management Architecture
The NIST Guide to Computer Security Log Management

explains that a log

management infrastructure typically comprises of three tiers: log generation, log analysis
and storage, and log monitoring. The log generation tier involves hosts making their logs
available to log servers in the second tier. This is performed in two different ways. The
exact method depends on the log type, and, on the host and network controls. In one way
hosts run some services to send their log data over the network to log collection servers.
Alternatively, hosts allow the log servers to pull the log data from them. The logs are
often transferred to the log receivers either in a real-time or near-real-time manner, or in
occasional batches based on a schedule. The log analysis and storage tier is composed of
one or more log servers receiving log data from the hosts. These log receivers are also
called collectors or aggregators. To facilitate log analysis, automated methods of
converting logs from multiple formats to a single standard format needs to be
implemented. Syslog format of logging is often used for this purpose. The log monitoring
tier contains consoles that are used for monitoring and reviewing of log data and the
results of automated analysis.
2.2. Log Management Functions
Log management infrastructures typically perform several functions that assist in the
storage, analysis, and disposal of log data. These functions are normally performed in

2

such a way that they do not alter the original logs . General functions of log management
infrastructure include log parsing, event filtering and event aggregation.
2.3. SIEM
Security information and event management (SIEM) software provides the log
management infrastructure encompassing log analysis, log storage and log monitoring
tiers. What sets SIEM products apart from traditional log management software is the
ability to perform event correlation, alerting, incident management, reporting and forensic
investigation based on event analysis.
2.4. Log Management Benefits
Log events are the primary records of system and network activity. In the SANS Log
Management Survey, Shank (2010) provides an overview of typical reasons why log
management is used in an organization. In the order of importance:
• Detect/Prevent Unauthorized Access and insider Abuse
• Meet Regulatory Requirement
• Forensic Analysis and Correlation
• Ensure Regulatory Compliance
• Track Suspicious Behavior
• IT Troubleshooting and Network Operation
• Monitor User Activity
• Best Practices/Frameworks such as COBIT, ISO, ITIL, etc.
• Deliver Reports to Departments
• Measure Application Performance

3

Chapter-3

Proposed Architecture
Organizations should establish logging standards and procedures to ensure that adequate
information is collected by logs and security software and that the data is reviewed
regularly. This project uses the Security Onion (SO) live CD for setting up of the logging
and monitoring system. Snort is used as the intrusion detection engine from the two
different kinds of intrusion detection engines, Snort and Suricata , available on SO. Sguil,
Squert and Snorby provide the management console to view and classify sensor alerts.
OSSEC’s ability for log analysis, integrity checking, rootkit detection, real-time alerting
and active response across platforms makes it an excellent choice for host based intrusion
detection.
3.1. Security Onion
Security Onion (SO) is a Linux distribution for IDS (Intrusion Detection) and NSM
(Network Security Monitoring). It is based on Xubuntu 10.04 and contains Snort®,
Suricata, Sguil, Snorby , Squert , tcpreplay,

hping , and many other security tools.

Some of the major components of SO used in this document are described here.
3.1.1. Sguil
Sguil (pronounced sgweel) is probably best described as an aggregation system for
network security monitoring tools. Sguil's main component is an intuitive GUI that
provides access to real-time events, session data, and raw packet captures. When an alert
that needs more investigation has been identified, the Sguil client provides seamless
access to the data that is needed to make a decision as how to handle the situation. Sguil
uses a database backend for most of its data, which allows users to perform SQL queries
against several different types of security events .
3.1.2. Squert
Squert is a web application that is used to query and view event data stored in a Sguil
database

Squert is a visual tool that attempts to provide additional context to events

through the use of metadata, time series representations and weighted and logically
grouped result sets .

4

3.1.3. Snort
Snort is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system (IDS/IPS)
developed by Sourcefire. Combining the benefits of signature, protocol, and anomalybased inspection, it is the most widely deployed IDS/IPS technology .
3.1.4. Snorby
Snorby is a front end web application (scripted in Ruby on Rails) for any application that
logs events in the unified2 binary output format. Snorby integrates with intrusion
detection systems like Snort, Suricata and Sagan . The basic fundamental concepts behind
Snorby are simplicity and power.
3.1.5. OSSEC
OSSEC is an Open Source Host-based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS). It performs
log analysis, integrity checking, Windows registry monitoring, rootkit detection, real-time
alerting and active response.
3.1.6. ELSA
Enterprise Log Search and Archive (ELSA) is a centralized syslog framework built on
Syslog-NG, MySQL, and Sphinx full-text search. It provides a fully asynchronous webbased query interface that normalizes logs and makes searching billions of them for
arbitrary strings as easy as searching the web .

3.2. Security Monitoring Architecture with Security Onion
The Security Onion Live Distribution enables a monitoring system to be set up and
provides a convenient setup shortcut on the screen to configure the NSM infrastructure.
Hardware sizing of the monitoring system mainly depends on the network throughput of
the monitored links, number of sensors, types of rules, number of rules, pre processor
configuration and output plug-ins. For the network throughput of 200 Mbps or slower, we
were able to use server virtual platform with dual core, 2 GHz processor, 4 GB ram for
the dual sensor approach. Storage requirements also vary based on the network traffic,
amount of logging and archival needs of the environment. The deployment model
presented in this section follows a two sensor deployment strategy on the same monitor.
OSSEC’s ossec-log collector process is enables as syslog collector on the monitor.

5

Rsyslog or another tool such as syslog-ng can be used as syslog collector on SO, if
OSSEC log collector is required to run in secure mode to collect logs for the OSSEC
agents. Sensor can utilize OSSEC or Snort based rules based on the log type and rules to
detect the events of interest Sensor generated alerts are stored in the Sguil MySQL
database which is viewed using Sguil GUI or Squert web based UI. Sensor alerts are also
stored in the Snorby MySQL database which is accessed with Snorby web interface.
Sguil, Squert and Snorby data can be accessed remotely from different system.
3.3. Distributed sensors for complex environments
Security Onion allows deployment in a master / slave distributed sensor architecture for
large environments. Sensor deployment architecture depends on the network design,
network throughput and additional custom requirements. A Sguil system is composed of a
single Sguil server and of an arbitrary number of Sguil network sensors. The sensors
perform all the security monitoring tasks and feed information back to the server on a
regular basis. The server coordinates this information, stores it in a database and
communicates with Sguil clients running on administrator desktops. It can also issue
requests for specific information from the sensors. Each sensor monitors a single network
link although multiple sensors can be present on one physical machine.
3.4. Configuring Security Onion for Monitoring
Security Onion contains several network security monitoring tools and applications
integrated together which helps with the download, compile and installation of these
applications. When not in use, tools like Bro, or Suricata can either be disabled or
removed. The NSM infrastructure setup is done by clicking on setup icon .

6

3.4.1. Configuring OSSEC as Log Collector

OSSEC HIDS agent monitors host activities based on the rules defined for anomalous
event such as rootkit detection, integrity checking etc. These agents can also forward the
logged events or intrusion activities to the OSSEC management system. In this section,
OSSEC is configured on the SO monitor as a log collector to receive the logs from other
hosts. OSSEC remote configuration option makes the OSSEC agent run as a management
system that listens for agent traffic on the specified port.
3.4.2. Configuring NIDS Sguil/Snort Sensor
Snort is configured to monitor network traffic in the NIDS mode using switch spanning
port in this section. Custom Snort configuration is created for this interface in the file
located

under

respective

interface

folder

at

/etc/nsm/HOSTNAME-

INTERFACE1/snort.conf. Network variables, dynamic loaded libraries and pre
processors are configured to match the custom environment in the Snort configuration
file. Global Snort custom rules and rule classifications are added to local.rules and
classifications.config respectively located at /etc/nsm/rules/. Specific sensor custom rules
are added to respective sensor /etc/nsm/HOSTNAME-INTERFACE1/rules/ local.rules
rule

configuration.

Custom

classifications

are

defined

to

the

config

file

/etc/nsm/HOSTNAME-INTERFACE1/classifications.config. Sensor data is collected into
the directory /nsm/sensor_data/HOSTNAME-NIC1 .
3.4.3. Configuring Sguil Server
The Sguil database is created when NSM setup wizard is first run. Sguil configuration file
/etc/sguild/server.conf allows customization of the Sguil database and other environment
settings to suit the custom environment .The DAYSTOKEEP variable in the
configuration file /etc/nsm/securityonion.conf allows setting a retention period for the
alerts in the Sguil database. The NSM infrastructure service is started with the nsm script
provided on Security Onion.
user@orionvm:~$ sudo service nsm start
Starting: securityonion
* starting: sguil server [ OK ]

10

Starting: orionvm-eth0
* starting: pcap_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
* starting: sancp_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
* starting: snort_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
* starting: snort (alert data) [ OK ]
* starting: barnyard2 (spooler, unified2 format) [ OK ]
* starting: sancp (session data) [ OK ]
* starting: pads (asset info) [ OK ]
* starting: pads_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
* starting: daemonlogger (full packet data) [ OK ]
* starting: argus [ OK ]
* starting: httpry [ OK ]
* starting: httpry_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
Starting: orionvm-eth1
* starting: pcap_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
* starting: sancp_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
* starting: snort_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
* starting: snort (alert data) [ OK ]

11

* starting: barnyard2 (spooler, unified2 format) [ OK ]
* starting: sancp (session data) [ OK ]
* starting: pads (asset info) [ OK ]
* starting: pads_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
* starting: daemonlogger (full packet data) [ OK ]
* starting: argus [ OK ]
* starting: httpry [ OK ]
* starting: httpry_agent (sguil) [ OK ]
Starting: HIDS
* starting: ossec_agent (sguil) [ OK ]

After all services are started, the Sguil client can be launched. Sguil then allows selecting
which networks to monitor (eth0, eth1 and ossec). Clicking the Select All button shows
alerts from all sensors in the Sguil client.
3.5. Rules
Snort and OSSEC have a large number of rule sets available to choose from. Large
numbers of anomalies are detected right from the start using these rulesets. These rulesets
needs to be tuned to reduce the number of false positives. NIDS sensor works with Snort
rules to alert on a network event of interest. Writing rules becomes most important and
arguably most difficult part of the network security monitoring.
3.5.1. Snort Rule
Snort rules are powerful, flexible and relatively easy to write. All Snort rules follow a
very simple format and define what Snort should watch for as it inspects packet header,
payload or both. Snort rules are divided into two logical sections, the rule header and the
rule body. The optional rule body follows the rule header and is surrounded by
parentheses. Snort rules based on content inspection look for raw text, hex data
("!9090!"), or a mix of both. That makes it easy to write a rule to look for the known
patterns and detect a log based event. Here is a rule writing example to alert for a
Windows security log event id 540 associated with anonymous logon.

12

alert udp any any -> $central-log-server 514 (msg:"WindowsAnonymous Network
Logon";content:"Security,540,";nocase;content:"anonymous";nocase;reference:bugtraq,5
40;reference:url,http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/securitylog/encyclopedia/even
t.aspx?eventid=540; classtype:attempted-user;priority:2; sid:505401; rev:1;)
In the example above, the first part of the rule header before “(“describes the rule to alert
an event for the UDP traffic flowing from any IP address, any source port to the central
log server on port 514. The second part of the rule body looks in the payload for the
content “Security,540, ” unique to the Windows successful network logon and then
content “anonymous” for anonymous user logon. It assigns an id “505401”, revision level
“1”, priority “2” and a rule message “Windows Anonymous Network Logon" to identify
the rule.

13

Chapter-4.

Log Analysis & Correlation
Log analysis is an art and is geared towards narrowing down to the events of interest.
Analyst needs to focus on recent changes, failures, errors, status changes, access and
administration events, and other events unusual for your environment. Hence, it is
important to minimize noise by removing routine, repetitive log entries from the view
after confirming that they are benign.
4.1. Event Analysis
Analysis typically begins with Snort or OSSEC alerts displayed on the Sguil console in
near real time. Analysts can then categorize the alert based on type of activity or escalate
the alert to a more senior analyst for further analysis. Analyst highlight the alert and press
the appropriate function key associated with the event classification or right click on the
alert and select the appropriate event status. Optional comments (about the action and
why the action is taken) to the alerts can be added. Alerts are still available for reporting
or further analysis at a later date from the database. Sguil provides full logging and audit
trail of alert activity i.e. who took the action, when action was taken etc. This figure
shows the default categories available to classify an alert. We see the Sguil console in the
next screen with some alerts. These alerts are combination of Snort NIDS alerts, custom
Snort Windows log alerts and OSSEC alerts. In the first two alerts, a reconnaissance scan
is performed for services on RPC port 135 and SMB port 445 to network 192.168.1.0.
Following the scan, there are Windows Logon events to address 192.168.1.33 from the
intruder or compromised machine with address 192.168.100.2 Highlighting the alert
shows the alert data and the rule that triggered this event if the respective checkboxes are
selected. Wire shark Can be used for the further pcap analysis.
4.2. Database Query
Sguil database alerts searches are initiated using different templates. For a blank template,
the Query->Event Query may be used. Once selected, a query builder pops up to edit the
query. Only the WHERE statement can be edited. Other templates are available by
selecting an event and right clicking on the src/dst ip columns.

To create a standard

query for global use, edit the sguild.queries file on your sguild server.

14

4.3. Event Correlation
It becomes easier to correlate events by having multiple sensors feeding different types of
events into the same analysis console. Correlating activities across different logs provides
a comprehensive picture of the chain of events. Analysts need to develop theories about
what occurred and explore logs to confirm or disprove those theories. It is important for
the analyst to rely on the time stamps contained in logs, especially when time zone
differences are considered. Event correlation becomes more difficult if the devices
reporting events have inconsistent clock settings. The chain of events in the followed
example show that an initial service scan, followed by an administrator account log on,
account creation and account membership change events were all part of the same
organized incident
4.4. Auto Categorization
Sguil can

automatically categorize

events

by editing

the

autocat.conf

file

at/etc/nsm/securityonion/ on the Sguil server. These event will have a status automatically
assigned to them and will not appear in any analyst's console

16

Chapter-5

Log Alerting & Reporting
The sensor alerts on Security Onion are sent to both the Snorby and Sguil MySQL
databases on the master server. Therefore, there are two different ways to perform
analysis and reporting based on the database source. Alert notifications can be produced
in different ways as well. Analyst can decide what works best for their custom
environment to suit their alerting requirement.
5.1. Alert Classification and Prioritization
Real-time alerting with Snort is highly customizable. Alerts that need to result in real time
notification can be chosen by assigning a priority to each rule, and by rule classifications.
Each rule can have an individual priority attached to it, and every rule can be included in
a classification of rules that has a priority attached to it. Rules can be prioritized as such
that one priority of rule can be sent to one person while a different priority is sent to
another. These different rules alerts can also be notified in different manners. One priority
of rules can be sent to an email address that notifies via pager while another can simply
send an email. The priority levels for rule categories are edited in the classification.config
file located at /etc/nsm/HOSTNAME-INTERFACE/.
5.2. Email Alert with Sguil
Sguil’s

email

alerting

configuration

is

in

the

file

sguild.email

located

at/etc/nsm/securityonion/ and it contains email related information such as smtp server,
from to email ids etc. Alerts can be notified based on the alert classes, alert SIDs and
priorities in a space delimited manner configured in the above file. Any particular alert
SID(s) can also be disabled to stop sending email about that alert. Restart the Sguil
daemon on the master server to take it into effect.
$sudo nsm_server_ps-restart
5.3. Email Alert with OSSEC
The email address and host related information is configured inside the <global> section
of the OSSEC configuration file at /var/ossec/etc/ossec.conf.
<global>

17

<email_notification>yes</email_notification>
<email_to>admin@myorg.com</email_to>
<smtp_server>smtp.myorg.com</smtp_server>
<email_from>ossec@myorg.com</email_from>
</global>
The email_alert_level option set inside the <alerts> section of the ossec.conf file specifies
the minimum alert level to send email notifications. Then restart the OSSEC:
$sudo service ossec restart.
5.5. Sguil Reporting
Sguil offers few basic reporting but lacks the mechanism to schedule reports, and reports
with charts and graphs. Plain text or email reports are created by selecting the events to
report and choosing appropriate report type from the report menu. Summary reports
contain the full packet headers while detail reports add the payloads as well.
5.6. Snorby Reporting
Snorby brings network security monitoring data to life with a suite of beautiful, relevant
and actionable metrics. Snorby is also very configurable. It can add custom severities or
classifications, manage email notifications, and even extend functionality with third party
products from an intuitive administration menu. It allows sharing data reports like sensor
activity comparisons or most active signatures with daily, weekly, monthly, and ad-hoc
PDF reports .

18

Chapter-6

Conclusion
This project shows the importance of log managements and network monitoring for the
effective security monitoring and compliance of an organization. It provides an open
source solution to a complex and very common challenge of log management and
network monitoring. The solution is based on a framework provided by the Security
Onion Linux Distribution, which makes it possible to integrate necessary applications on
one platform. It tries to provide a cost effective logging, alerting and monitoring solution
alternative to the organizations that cannot afford commercially available SIEM (Security
Information and Event Management) solutions. This

highlights the necessary

components in the logging process and how each plays a key role to stay on top of
security monitoring. We show, how not only network traffic but log traffic can also be
monitored to detect, log and report different activities using same techniques.

20

Chapter-7

References
Bianco, David J. (2012). Open Source Network Security Monitoring With Sguil.
Retrieved from http://www.vorant.com/files/nsm_with_sguil.pdf Burks, Doug (2012).
Security Onion. Retrieved from http://securityonion.blogspot.com/ Chuvakin, A &
Zeltser, L. (2012). Critical Log Review Checklist for Security Incidents. Retrieved from
http://zeltser.com/log-management/security-incident-log-reviewchecklist. html Cid,
Daniel

B.

(2007).

Log

Analysis

using

OSSEC.

Retrieved

from

http://www.ossec.net/ossecdocs/ auscert-2007-dcid.pdf Holste, M. (2012). Enterprise-logsearch-and-archive. Retrieved from http://code.google.com/p/enterprise-log-search-andarchive/
K. & Souppaya, M. (2006). Guide to Computer Security Log Management. National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Publication 800-92. Retrieved from
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-92/SP800-9

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