Martin Roesch

Sourcefire Inc.

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Topics

• Background
– What is Snort?
• Using Snort
• Snort Architecture
• The Future of Snort and Snort 2.0

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Background – Intrusion
Detection
• Intrusion Detection defined: “the
problem of identifying individuals who
are using a computer system without
authorization”
– Attempts to break in also have to be
identified
• Intrusion detection is NOT intrusion
prevention!
Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved
Background – Policy

• Successful intrusion detection depends

on policy and management as much as
technology
– Security Policy (defining what is acceptable
and what is being defended) is the first
step
– Notification
• Who, how fast?
– Response Coordination

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Intro to Snort

• What is Snort?
– Snort is a multi-mode packet analysis tool
• Sniffer
• Packet Logger
• Forensic Data Analysis tool
• Network Intrusion Detection System
• Where did it come from?
– Developed out of my evolving need to perform
network traffic analysis in both real-time and for
forensic post processing

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort “Metrics”

• Small (~800k source download)

• Portable (Linux, Windows, MacOS X,
Solaris, BSD, IRIX, Tru64, HP-UX, etc)
• Fast (High probability of detection for a
given attack on 100Mbps networks)
• Configurable (Easy rules language,
many reporting/logging options
• Free (GPL/Open Source Software)
Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved
Snort Design

• Packet sniffing “lightweight” network

intrusion detection system
• Libpcap-based sniffing interface
• Rules-based detection engine
• Plug-in system allows endless flexibility

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Detection Engine

• Rules form “signatures”

• Modular detection elements are combined
to form these signatures
• Wide range of detection capabilities
– Stealth scans, OS fingerprinting, buffer
overflows, back doors, CGI exploits, etc.
• Rules system is very flexible, and creation
of new rules is relatively simple

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Plug-Ins

• Preprocessor
– Packets are examined/manipulated before
being handed to the detection engine
• Detection
– Perform single, simple tests on a single
aspect/field of the packet
• Output
– Report results from the other plug-ins

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Uses for Snort

• Standard packet sniffing NIDS

• Policy Enforcement
• Honeypot monitor
• Scan detection/traps

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

 IDS Implementation
Map Honeypot
(Deception System)

Generic Server
(Host-Based ID)
(Snort 2.0)
Internet

Firewall
Filtering (Perimeter
Router Statistical IDS Logs)
(Perimeter Logs) (Snort)

Network IDS
(Snort)

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Using Snort

• Three main operational modes

– Sniffer Mode
– Packet Logger Mode
– NIDS Mode
– (Forensic Data Analysis Mode)
• Operational modes are configured via
command line switches
– Snort automatically tries to go into NIDS mode if
no command line switches are given, looks for
snort.conf configuration file in /etc

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Using Snort – Sniffer
Mode
• Works much like tcpdump
• Decodes packets and dumps them to
stdout
• BPF filtering interface available to
shape displayed network traffic

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

 What Do The Packet
Dumps Look Like?
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

11/09-11:12:02.954779 10.1.1.6:1032 -> 10.1.1.8:23

TCP TTL:128 TOS:0x0 ID:31237 IpLen:20 DgmLen:59 DF
***AP*** Seq: 0x16B6DA Ack: 0x1AF156C2 Win: 0x2217 TcpLen: 20
FF FC 23 FF FC 27 FF FC 24 FF FA 18 00 41 4E 53 ..#..'..$....ANS
49 FF F0 I..

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

11/09-11:12:02.956582 10.1.1.8:23 -> 10.1.1.6:1032

TCP TTL:255 TOS:0x0 ID:49900 IpLen:20 DgmLen:61 DF
***AP*** Seq: 0x1AF156C2 Ack: 0x16B6ED Win: 0x2238 TcpLen: 20
0D 0A 0D 0A 53 75 6E 4F 53 20 35 2E 37 0D 0A 0D ....SunOS 5.7...
00 0D 0A 0D 00 .....

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

How is it different from
tcpdump?

11:16:35.648944 10.1.1.8.23 > 10.1.1.6.1033: P 16:34(18) ack 16 win

8760 (DF) (ttl 255, id 49913)
4500 003a c2f9 4000 ff06 a2b4 0a01 0108
0a01 0106 0017 0409 1cf9 e7f6 001a e050
5018 2238 31c6 0000 fffe 1fff fe23 fffe
27ff fe24 fffa
11:16:35.649457 10.1.1.6.1033 > 10.1.1.8.23: P 16:19(3) ack 34 win 8727
(DF) (ttl 128, id 57861)
4500 002b e205 4000 8006 02b8 0a01 0106
0a01 0108 0409 0017 001a e050 1cf9 e808
5018 2217 6f19 0000 fffc 1f20 2020

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Packet Logger Mode

• Gee, it sure would be nice if I could

save those packets to disk…
• Multi-mode packet logging options
available
– Flat ASCII, tcpdump, XML, database, etc
available
• Log all data and post-process to look
for anomalous activity

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

NIDS Mode

• Uses all phases of Snort + plug-ins to

analyze traffic for both misuse detection
and anomalous activity
• Can perform portscan detection, IP
defragmentation, TCP stream
reassembly, application layer analysis
and normalization, etc

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

NIDS Mode…

• Various output options available

– Database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle,
unixODBC, etc)
– XML (snml DTD from CMU/CERT)
– Tcpdump binary format
– Unified (Snort specific) format
– ASCII, syslog, WinPopup (SMB)
– Etc.
Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved
NIDS Mode…

• Wide variety of rules available for

signature engine (~1300 as of June
2001)
• Multiple detection modes available via
rules and plug-ins
– Rules/signature
– Statistical anomaly
– Protocol verification

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort Architecture

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

 Snort 1.x Data Flow

Snort
Packet Stream

Sniffing Packet Decoder

Data Flow
Preprocessor
(Plug-ins)
Detection Engine
(Plug-ins)
Output Stage Alerts/Logs
(Plug-ins)

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 1.x Architecture

• Snort’s existing architecture for the 1.x series

of code is a study in organic software
development
• Snort’s evolution
– Sniffer->packet logger->NIDS
• Speed by subsystem
– Decode = very fast
– Detection engine = fast
– Output/preprocessor modules = implementation
dependent

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 1.x Detection
Engine
• Implemented as a 3-dimensional linked list
– Dimensions 1 & 2 contain data nodes to be tested
against current packet
– Dimension 3 contains linked lists of function
pointers to test the node’s data against the packet
– Entire engine is walked recursively
– Very fast, very robust
– “First exit” detection strategy
• First detect causes engine to perform rule action & then
go on to next packet

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

 Detection Engine: Rules

Rule Header Rule Options

Alert tcp 1.1.1.1 any -> 2.2.2.2 any (flags: SF; msg: “SYN-FIN Scan”;)
Alert tcp 1.1.1.1 any -> 2.2.2.2 any (flags: S12; msg: “Queso Scan”;)
Alert tcp 1.1.1.1 any -> 2.2.2.2 any (flags: F; msg: “FIN Scan”;)

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Detection Engine:
Internal Representation
Rule Node
Alert tcp 1.1.1.1 any -> 2.2.2.2 any

Option Node
(flags: SF; msg: “SYN-FIN Scan”;)

(flags: S12; msg: “Queso Scan”;)

(flags: F; msg: “FIN Scan”;)

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Detection Engine: Fully
Populated
Rule Rule Rule Rule Rule
Node Node Node Node Node

Option Option Option Option Option

Node Node Node Node Node

Option Option Option Option

Node Node Node Node

Option Option
Node Node

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 1.x Performance
and Flexibility
• Development process lead to very high speed
decoding and stateless intrusion detection
• How fast is it?
– Configuration dependent, but 100Mbps is not too difficult for
Snort to manage
• Flexibility made Snort the platform of choice for a
number of applications in the R&D space
– Govt and University researchers frequently use Snort as a
rapid prototyping platform for new ideas in intrusion
detection

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 1.x Limitations

• Snort is an IP-centric program

• Packet analysis
– IP defragmentation and TCP stream reassembly
are via the preprocessor interface
– Internal data structures don’t scale well for
addition of new protocols
• NOTE: Adding new protocol support is not hard, just a
little clunky
– Application layer is not decoded by packet
decoder
• Left for pattern analysis in detection engine

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 1.x Limitations

• Detection Engine & Preprocessors

– Revelation: Not everyone is as concerned with performance
as I am!
– Not all preprocessors are created equal
– Adding additional protocol support to detection engine is not
well modularized
• Adding “IP” rules support took about 7 lines of code, but
knowing which 7 required me to do it
– Rules description language is limited at the protocol level
• Easy to describe IP/TCP/UDP/ICMP/IGMP/Etc, hard to
describe HTTP, RPC, SMTP, etc

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 1.x Limitations

• Output
– People have a really nasty tendency to write slow
output plug-ins!
– Variable output formats mean performance is
highly variable based on the selected output
modes
– No way to control Snort’s performance effectively,
leading to negative reviews and user e-mail
• “Snort’s eating 90% of the CPU!?!”

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 2.0 Architecture

• Basic goals
– Faster
– More extensible
– Better protocol support
– Better able to analyze the full gestalt of
network intrusion activity

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 2.0 Plug-Ins

• More of them for more flexibility

– Data acquisition
– Traffic decoders
• Full protocol analysis and verification
• Multi-path traffic flows, packet and stream
– Multi-format rules input
• DB, XML, etc
– Pluggable detection engines
• Standard NIDS, Target-based IDS, Statistical IDS, Host-
based IDS

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 2.0
Improvements
• Improved detection & pattern matching
capabilities
– Aho-Corasick/Boyer-Moore implementation
from Silicon Defense
– LANL/RADIANT Team work on set-wise
Boyer-Moore-Horspool algorithm
– ~500% in pattern matching performance
improvement reported in research work!

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 2.0
Improvements
• Spooling output stage
– Write Snort alert/log data to spool files,
have a secondary process (‘barnyard’)
read the spools and reformat for final
output
– Output plug-ins attach to barnyard instead
of being directly linked to Snort main code
• Deterministic performance measurements and
focused performance improvement will be
possible through this method

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 2.0 Detection
Engine
• Far more self-optimizing than 1.x
– Rules will be “treed” to a greater extent
– Most tests will be performed only once
• More rules can be loaded with less impact on
the overall performance of the program
• Speed and structure of engine will allow
“last-exit” detection strategy to be used

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 2.0 Detection
Engine Comparison – V
1.x alert

tcp

Sip: 1.1.1.1
Dip: 2.2.2.2
Dp: 80

(flags: A+; content: “”foo”;)

(flags: A+; content: “bar”;)

(flags: A+; content: “baz”;)

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Snort 2.0 Detection
Engine Comparison – V
2.0
alert tcp

Sip: 1.1.1.1

Dip: 10.1.1.0/24

Dip: 2.2.2.2 content: “”foo”;

Dp: 80 Flags: A+; content: “bar”;

content: “baz”;

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Acquisition Plugins
• Libpcap allows us to be very cross platform
but is also a bottleneck
• Acquisition plugins allow arbitrary data input
sources
• Interesting applications
– Netfilter/divert socket input stream
– Gateway IDS…
– Host-based IDS…
• High speed platform specific acquistion
capability

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Decoder Plugins
• Arbitrary protocol support in Snort
• Snort is currently limited to…
– Ethernet, FDDI, T/R, SLIP, PPP, ISDN, Raw
– IP, ARP
– TCP, UDP, ICMP
• With plug-ins, new decoders can be
painlessly dropped into Snort, automatically
making Snort “aware” of that protocol and
capable of performing traffic analysis on it
• Additional support for “unknown” protocols
will have to be added to the detection engine

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

Pluggable Detection
Engines
• Current signature based engine isn’t
necessarily the only way to do NID
• The current primary detection engine in Snort
is really just a very involved preprocessor
• Other possibilities
– Snort + Netfilter (or Divert Sockets) = Gateway
IDS (or “packet scrubber”)
– Snort + NMAP = Target-based IDS
– Snort + SAS = Statistical Anomaly IDS (ok, just
kidding)
Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved
Learning More
• www.snort.org
– Writing Snort Rules
• www.snort.org/snort_rules.html
– FAQ, USAGE file, README file, man page
– Snort mailing lists
• Books
– Intrusion Detection: An Analysts Handbook by Northcutt
– Intrusion Signatures and Analysis by Northcutt
– The Practical Intrusion Detection Handbook by Paul Proctor

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved

 FIN
• Martin Roesch • Commercial Snort Network
– roesch@sourcefire.com Security Appliances
• Get Snort – www.sourcefire.com
– www.snort.org
– Win32 version
• Security Info
• www.datanerds.net/~mike – www.securityfocus.com
• Get Snort Rules – packetstorm.securify.com
– www.whitehats.com – www.linuxsecurity.com
• Commercial Snort Tech – www.technotronic.com
Support and Info – Many more
– www.silicondefense.com

Copyright 2001 Martin Roesch, All Rights Reserved