Pfsense has 40 percent free ram and 10 percent swap usage
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I think what you said makes perfect sense. If it gets anywhere near 1.25gb its only for the tinyest split fraction of a second because I've never seen it exhaust memory.
So, it seems that whatever gets into that swap is very very very temporary. Thanks for the Hypothesis.
I'm going to keep running it this way unless I actually experience some ill effects.
The inline IPS is working very well by the way. I've had no hangs, drops or slow-downs.
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BTW - I have a lot of rules… I'm not worried about the fraction of a second pause that might occur every 12 or 24 hours, just as long as 99.99% of the time it is humming along fine. The only thing I don't like about inline mode so far is I can't tell easily what is dropped and what is just alerted.
I know that things that generate a drop should turn red in the alerts.
I also know that I told it to drop anything that generated an alert, so I'm wondering which of those two things it isn't doing / showing me.
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In general that also isn't anything to worry about. One of the common BSD mantras is "Free RAM is wasted RAM". The OS will swap things that are not in use so it can use RAM to speed up other processes, for caching, etc. It will reallocate things as needed when the requirements shift.
Now if you see no free RAM and your swap space is also nearly/completely full, then it's time to worry.
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Yep - Thats also my mantra. And free cycles are wasted cycles… I'm actually experimenting to see how small I can make it and have it work well. I think I'm there already.
Still wondering if those alerts are getting blocked since thats what I told it to do. No red in the alerts so far.
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Replying to myself - Bad form…
https://screenshots.firefoxusercontent.com/images/d15adb9d-55f0-4c0b-b14f-f42358ee1f76.png
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Mem: 156M Active, 386M Inact, 82M Laundry, 486M Wired, 77M Buf, 94M Free
Swap: 410M Total, 30M Used, 380M Free, 7% InusePID USERNAME THR PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND
77375 root 7 21 0 1000M 539M nanslp 0 8:20 1.86% suricataLooks like suricata is trying to use nearly 1GiB of memory. Your total memory usage may be low right now, but most OS's only page in data when the data is requested and only page out when there is not enough free space. If at any moment there was not enough memory, some of the data would get paged out, and assuming the data never got referenced again, it would forever live in swap.
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Yep - Saw that. But throughput seems fine and its definitely throwing all the alerts you would expect.
Still if anyone can enlighten me. Is the alerted traffic being dropped like it should be?
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Yep - Saw that. But throughput seems fine and its definitely throwing all the alerts you would expect.
Still if anyone can enlighten me. Is the alerted traffic being dropped like it should be?
If it's red on the ALERTS tab, then it was dropped. If you look at the Suricata alerts log for the interface you will see the word "[drop]" as the first word of the alert message. The Suricata binary does not log drops unless you enable the drop log in the EVE JSON output options. However, those options are for exporting to an external log collector and the Suricata GUI package does not use them for display.
Bill
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OK, I guess I'm a little slow.
So, when something like this appears in my lalerts ist:
Date Pri Proto Class Src SPort Dst DPort GID:SID Description
11/14/2017
22:19:57 2 TCP Misc Attack 46.17.46.77
57669 192.168.10.14
7777 1:2403325
ET CINS Active Threat Intelligence Poor Reputation IP group 26
11/14/2017
22:19:57 2 TCP Misc Attack 46.17.46.77
57669 192.168.10.14
7777 1:2402000
ET DROP Dshield Block Listed Source group 1
11/14/2017
22:01:53 2 TCP Misc Attack 109.248.9.241
58625 192.168.10.14
7777 1:2402000
ET DROP Dshield Block Listed Source group 1Its not dropped? Even Though its on the "Block List"?
And even though this block is check?
OK - I mean, if its not dropping packets under those conditions, what must one do to get a packet dropped?
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Now, the very instant I take it out of "Inline" mode, it starts dropping that very same traffic that was listed in my alerts previously, but not highlighted in red.
So I guess my question is now, in inline mode is it dropping the packets and simply not showing them in red?
Or
Is it not dropping the packets in inline mode because there is some difference between inline and legacy mode that makes legacy mode work better?
Basically, it seems that legacy mode is blocking and inline mode isn't. No crashes, no hangs, no weird symptoms. No stopped suricata services. I'm just not seeing the blocks in inline mode.
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I notice that when you are in legacy mode, you have a choice to drop source, destination or both.
In inline mode you don't have that choice apparently. Anyway. Am I missing something?
Clearly inline mode would be the way to go, but without seeing some indication of drops somewhere, how can I feel confident with it?
I expected crashes and hangs and stopped suricata process if there is a problem. Didn't expect it to just ignore the rules and settings.
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I'm assuming there is a way to get expected results in inline mode with suricada. That 1 check box is the only difference between a config that seems to block well and one that doesn't.
I've seen this work and I've seen this stop the suricata process on other physical machines.
This is a VM and detection seems fine. Just nothing is being blocked.
Could it be that in inline mode that the packet is only getting dropped if the rule specifically includes drop?
I see that "Block on Drop" option disappears when inline mode is enabled.
"Checking this option will insert blocks only when rule signatures having the DROP action are triggered."
Does this get automagically and invisibly applied in inline mode? If so, that would explain alot.
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I suspect you have a severe misconfiguration of your Suricata package when using Inline IPS Mode. I believe you have a misunderstanding of rule names versus rule actions and the steps you must take as an admin to properly configure Inline IPS Mode. If you have it configured like I think you do based on what you've posted, then you are in fact blocking nothing when using Inline IPS Mode. Let me explain below.
Rules have a particular syntax they are written in. The very first word of the rule text is the "action" keyword and it can have one of four possible values. Those four values are "pass, drop, reject or alert". The default value for all rules from the vendors is "alert". Here is an actual rule from the Emerging Threats rule set –
alert tcp $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET $HTTP_PORTS (msg:"ET MALWARE 180solutions (Zango) Spyware Local Stats Post"; flow:to_server,established; content:"/php/rpc_uci.php"; nocase; http_uri; reference:url,securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/pf/adware.180search.html; reference:url,doc.emergingthreats.net/bin/view/Main/2003060; classtype:trojan-activity; sid:2003060; rev:5; metadata:created_at 2010_07_30, updated_at 2010_07_30;)
Notice the very first word of the rule is "alert". This means this rule will generate alerts. When you use Inline IPS Mode and you want rules to drop or "block" traffic, you must change the action keyword from "alert" to "drop". You can do this manually, but most folks use the tools on the SID MGMT tab to accomplish that automatically in batches. You would put the rules (either by SID or category name) you want to drop traffic in the dropsid.conf file.
Legacy Mode is totally different. It is really a sort of kluge that leverages the pfSense firewall packet engine (pf) to block traffic. It uses a custom plugin I wrote to insert offending IP addresses into a special firewall table. More on that can be found here: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=135331.0. Review the section describing how Legacy Mode and Inline IPS Mode operate.
So in Legacy Mode, every single alert will always generate a block. Legacy Mode never looks at the rule action keyword. With Inline IPS Mode, only rules where you have changed the action keyword from "alert" to "drop" will actually block traffic. Decoder rules (the ones in your list of stream alerts) only generate alerts (by default). So using Inline IPS Mode they will alert but not block. However, using Legacy Mode, since every alert equals a block, those decoder rules generate blocks.
In your provided example you seem to imply that because you enabled the "ET DROP" rules category that those rules will generate drops. They default to "alert" from the vendor. You will need to put that category name in a dropsid.conf file on the SID MGMT tab, enable SID MGMT, and restart Suricata to have them actually drop traffic.
Bill
Edit: fixed some typos
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You are 100% correct that I believed I should be getting drops, but its because I was abit misled by the
"Checking this option will automatically block hosts that generate a Suricata alert"If I'm understanding you correctly, that only applies to legacy mode? If so, a note on the GUI would save lots of bewilderment.
I was sort of hoping to avoid changing all those actions. I knew they were there but thought it wouldn't matter because anything generating an alert was dropped.
I'm clear on that now. So, I'm going to head over to SIDS management and see if I can get this working inline. Thanks for the enlightment.
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Just for testing purposes, I'd love to know is there any short context I could enter in my drop file at sids management that would result in all rules causing dropped traffic?
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ok - I really wanted to achieve the same behavior with suricata inline as I got with legacy mode, but without the possibility of leaks.
bmeeks - Obviously a super expert. Thanks so much for the tips. Helped alot.
So, in my SID management drop file I just put:
pcre:"a"*
pcre:"A"*
pcre:"1"*all 26 lower case, then all 26 upper case, then all 10 digits…
Now, every active rule drops as expected. All 20k of them.
Not what Jesus would do, I know, but it is the behavior I was expecting to begin with.
I will disable any rules that cause unwanted drops.
Later, when I have time I will get rid of those wildcards, sit with it 15 hours a day for a month to tune it.
Today, I just needed blocking working about the same as it did in inline mode.
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ok - I really wanted to achieve the same behavior with suricata inline as I got with legacy mode, but without the possibility of leaks.
bmeeks - Obviously a super expert. Thanks so much for the tips. Helped alot.
So, in my SID management drop file I just put:
pcre:"a"*
pcre:"A"*
pcre:"1"*all 26 lower case, then all 26 upper case, then all 10 digits…
Now, every active rule drops as expected. All 20k of them.
Not what Jesus would do, I know, but it is the behavior I was expecting to begin with.
I will disable any rules that cause unwanted drops.
Later, when I have time I will get rid of those wildcards, sit with it 15 hours a day for a month to tune it.
Today, I just needed blocking working about the same as it did in inline mode.
This will work, abeit perhaps a little extreme … :). Glad to help. I will add some hints text to the GUI in the blocking configuration section to clarify the difference in behavior between Legacy Mode and Inline IPS Mode.
Bill
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It is working extremely well for a day now. Not much noise. With very minimal work in terms of suppressing a few alerts, seems to be great.
Now, as far as I can tell, every alert (There aren't many) and every drop is the result of someone doing something they shouldn't, so I like it.
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OK - I have another dumb question.
Under global settings for general settings, there is an option for remove blocked hosts. I set it at 15 minutes just for now.
My question is are IPs blocked for a length of time using inline mode? Does this setting apply to inline mode?
The reason I asked is because I kept noticing differences in behavior that makes me believe IPs don't get blocked for any length of time.
Not saying that is a bad thing. Suricata inline mode seems to block every instance of a rule violation. It just doesn't seem to ban the IP for any defined period of time.
So, just wondered if that setting will apply to inline mode.
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OK - I have another dumb question.
Under global settings for general settings, there is an option for remove blocked hosts. I set it at 15 minutes just for now.
My question is are IPs blocked for a length of time using inline mode? Does this setting apply to inline mode?
The reason I asked is because I kept noticing differences in behavior that makes me believe IPs don't get blocked for any length of time.
Not saying that is a bad thing. Suricata inline mode seems to block every instance of a rule violation. It just doesn't seem to ban the IP for any defined period of time.
So, just wondered if that setting will apply to inline mode.
A drop is not a block. Go back and read that post I gave a link to in one of my earlier posts in this thread. Your questions indicate you still do not understand how Inline IPS Mode works versus Legacy Mode. The two mechanisms are completely different in implementation and result. If you truly understood Inline IPS Mode, then the answer to this question would be self-evident –
The reason I asked is because I kept noticing differences in behavior that makes me believe IPs don't get blocked for any length of time.
Inline IPS Mode does not use the firewall engine at all, thus there is no "block" to remember. The packet is simply discarded on its way from the NIC driver to the kernel's network stack. This happens before the firewall engine has even seen the packet. Consequently, there are no blocks to clear. There is nothing to remember. The only thing Suricata tracks is the current TCP session (if we're talking TCP packets). Once a drop happens on a session, that session will continue to be dropped. If another session attempts to fire up later, the same rule will detect it and drop it again. With Inline IPS Mode, it is instructive to think of the drops as being like a little guy inside the RJ45 jack unplugging the network cable and stopping the packet from getting in when a drop rule fires. The cable is then immediately plugged back in to let the next packet come in for inspection.
Legacy Mode uses the packet filter firewall engine to do all the blocking. It puts IP addresses in the special snort2c table and then pf (the pfSense packet filter firewall) blocks them. When you look at IP addresses on the BLOCKED tab what you are really seeing is the contents of that snort2c table being displayed. When a Legacy Mode block is cleared, that simply means the IP address (or all of them, if clearing all blocks) is removed from the snort2c table maintained by the pf packet filter. To continue my "little guy" analogy from Inline IPS Mode above, in Legacy Mode the little guy calls up the Firewall Rules interface and inserts a new firewall rule to block the IP addresses pulled from the packet that caused a Suricata rule to fire. Technically he just puts the IP address or addresses in that snort2c table, but it's still instructive to think of a custom firewall rule being created. That rule will stay there in the firewall until either the next reboot of the box, the admin clears the block manually on the GUI tabs in Suricata, or the cron job runs (configured in GLOBAL SETTINGS) and automatically removes the rule (again, by actually removing the IP address from the snort2c table).
Bill