IDS mailing list archives
Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning
From: Adam Powers <apowers () lancope com>
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 08:17:52 -0400
If you're looking to the NIDS/NIPS to actually block, this "SIM proxy-tuning" approach simply won't work. By the time the alarm gets to the SIM and propagation delay is figured in, it's far too late to block or take automated action. The real value of an inline technology is its ability to block on a packet/socket/flow basis. As such, said inline system must be tuned directly to do so accurately. However if automated action isn't your style and your SIM is capable of sustaining the volume of data an untuned NIPS/NIPS will yield, perhaps tuning at the SIM and ignoring the sensor itself makes sense. I like the idea of having all the alarm data available and filtering at the SIM layer rather than turning the alarm/alert off altogether at the NIPS/NIPS. On 6/10/05 4:17 PM, "Gary Halleen" <ghalleen () cisco com> wrote:
I'm seeing many organizations now tuning not on the IDS, but on the SIM product they're using for monitoring them. Gary -----Original Message----- From: Drew Simonis [mailto:simonis () myself com] Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 6:02 AM To: Anton A. Chuvakin; focus-ids () securityfocus com Subject: Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuningAll, I was thinking about some issues with IDS alerts (their volume, etc) and realized I could use some help from the list. It might also be a fun discussion item. So, here it is: how many folks who buy/download a NIDS/NIPS actually tune it? Long time ago when I was asking this question the previous time, I was scared to learn that lots of people do not tune their NIDSs. Is it any better now?I know that, in my experience, many orgs don't tune at all. The fear is that they might do it wrong and thereby miss some important event. IMO, this is a stupid way of thinking, but I bet it isn't as rare as it should be. In other cases, people do not tune and rely on a correlation engine or MSS to filter the events. This is better, but really just moves the tuning to a different level. Personally, I tune sigs and also tailor the sig sets to the devices being monitored. For example, if there are no webservers on a segment, I might not be as inclined to use sigs that check for Apache exploits. I've never really measured the impact on the system vs. the administrative cost of doing this, however, so it is quite possible I am wasting time for a negligable benefit. On the tuning side, I believe that filters and exclusions should be part of the incident response lifecycle. If I am alerted to an event by an IDS, I investigate and discover that the event was benign or did not take place, a filter should result, and thus be properly documented. -Ds -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Test Your IDS Is your IDS deployed correctly? Find out quickly and easily by testing it with real-world attacks from CORE IMPACT. Go to http://www.securityfocus.com/sponsor/CoreSecurity_focus-ids_040708 to learn more. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Test Your IDS Is your IDS deployed correctly? Find out quickly and easily by testing it with real-world attacks from CORE IMPACT. Go to http://www.securityfocus.com/sponsor/CoreSecurity_focus-ids_040708 to learn more. --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Adam Powers Director of Technology Lancope, Inc. c. 678.725.1028 f. 770.225.6501 e. apowers () lancope com StealthWatch by Lancope - Security Through Network IntelligenceĀ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Test Your IDS Is your IDS deployed correctly? Find out quickly and easily by testing it with real-world attacks from CORE IMPACT. Go to http://www.securityfocus.com/sponsor/CoreSecurity_focus-ids_040708 to learn more. --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- on NIDS/NIPS tuning Anton A. Chuvakin (Jun 09)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Ramon Kagan (Jun 10)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Bob Huber (Jun 10)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Kevin Timm (Jun 10)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Darren Webb (Jun 12)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Joshua Berry (Jun 09)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Jason Falciola (Jun 10)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Martin Roesch (Jun 12)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Drew Simonis (Jun 10)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Gary Halleen (Jun 10)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Adam Powers (Jun 12)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Gary Halleen (Jun 10)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning M. Shirk (Jun 10)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Phil Hollows (Jun 10)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Brent Stackhouse (Jun 12)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Hazel, Scott A. (Jun 12)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Anton A. Chuvakin (Jun 14)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Kohlenberg, Toby (Jun 14)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning David Kee (Jun 14)
- Re: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Raffael Marty (Jun 15)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Anton A. Chuvakin (Jun 16)
- RE: on NIDS/NIPS tuning Kohlenberg, Toby (Jun 16)
(Thread continues...)