RE: Reports from Cisco IDS

["Alan Shimel" <alan () latis com>]

Many of the potential customers we talk to have the same comments on the
Cisco IDS reporting features.  This along with upgrades, rule updates,
etc. are a prime reason they are looking elsewhere for IDS/IPS.  If you
like the flexibility of SNORT but want it in a easy to use and powerful
package with great custom reporting have a look at border guard at
http://www.stillsecure.com .   I don't think you should have to run 2
extra programs to get decent reporting from your IDS or pay extra.
Reporting is such an integral part of the IDS system that if it is not
built in you have to question what is important to the desingers

Alan Shimel
VP of Sales & Business Development
Latis Networks, Inc.

303-642-4515 Direct
516-857-7409 Mobile
303-642-4501 Fax

www.stillsecure.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Mark L. Evans [mailto:MEvans () CO SLC UT US] 
Sent: Sunday, December 08, 2002 9:19 PM
To: focus-ids () securityfocus com
Subject: RE: Reports from Cisco IDS

I use a combination of KIWI, and Ciscoworks VMS to produce IDS activity
reports for the management. 

The KIWI software is excellent, and very affordable. I believe it cost
$39
per license. I feed SNMP traps, and SYSLOG messages from all of our
network
equipment (especially ACL violations) to a central KIWI server. KIWI
will
allow me to filter the syslog/trap messages into 10 separate screen
displays. KIWI can also record the filtered events into 10 separate text
files. KIWI allows for the usual notification facilities. Excellent
product
at a great price!

The Ciscoworks VMS plugin is very new. We were actually one of the first
customers to use it. It's a HUGE improvement over the older CSPM based
product. VMS produces HTML, and text based reports that can be sent to
your
managers as web links. VMS has a very good "live" IDS event viewer built
in
as well. The last VMS component worth mentioning is the web based IDS
management interface. This interface allows you to group your IDS
sensors.
You can then manage the sensors as a group from one central interface,
The
common configuration can be pushed out to the sensors in the group. VMS
also
reports on the HIDS (Entracept)product that Cisco sells. 

I don't believe the IDS sensor can write to SYSLOG. The sensor does
build a
log of IP activity (a little like tcpdump format) but I don't think the
data
in its raw format will be very useful. 

The VMS product is not cheap but I feel it has been a good tool in our
environment. Its not a customizable as SNORT but it's much easier to get
up
and running. 

Mark

> On the network at work, we use a Cisco PIX (which comes with 
> IDS), which
> allows me to send a log to another server.  On that server I 
> use something
> called Kiwi Syslog Daemon 
> (http://www.kiwisyslog.com/info_syslog.htm).  From
> there, I use ReportGen 
> (http://www.reportgen.com/downloads.htm) which turns
> into stuff my boss can read.  Not sure if this solution will 
> work with the
> Cisco IDS, but should.  I have seen this run on several 
> platforms.  They
> have trial versions, to see if it fits your bill.  Also, 
> their prices are
> reasonable, if you like it.
> Pete.
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a Cisco IDS (switch module) with the HPOV plug-in. I 
> would like to
> know how can I get reports from it. Any kind of report, like 
> by source IP,
> top signatures...is this possible? If not, how can I get 
> reports from Cisco
> IDS?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Peter
> sr. security analyst