RFC (make up a number not in use) - Blueprint for setting up snort + pfblocker

Ramosel

@jflsakfja:

A quick re-read of the entire thread will show that there are persons that think this topic is the absolute best way to set up snort on the entire internet. It might even give the hint to a certain group of people that want to build a statue of me, thinking I'm the messiah or something. A quick search around the forums will show others even going out of their way and lying that an i3 is faster than a p4 for a regular home connection while running snort.

I guess I am one of those people who sing your praise here… on my home system using your methodology and cookbook to get there, I cut my memory usage by more than half and CPU usage rarely comes off idle (AMD athlon 64 x2 with 4GB). I'm retired now but I spent enough years in the IT community (I was around before IT was IT) both as a worker bee and GOD that I can spot those who get it... vs. those who really understand it, live it, breathe it. I also learned not to argue with success until the next bright boy comes up with something better - and I've been on both sides of that coin. So yeah, I'd chip in a few coins towards your statue....BUT, considering you are still holding out on some of the rules that would be pretty helpful to us home users… we're talking "Winged Victory" here, not "David" (hint, one is missing their head) <wink>Rick</wink>

The upcoming suricata topic will include a long section dedicated to creating suricata rules specific to a network gateway. There is no need to release my custom rules, since it will be explained how to create those rules on your own.

If most of the stuff I've written so far is considered short by me, then you'll realize what long means when you see the topic ;)

I'm actually putting the finishing touches (writing entire paragraphs here and there) on the first part, the firewalling part right now.

Mr. Jingles

@jflsakfja:

that want to build a statue of me, thinking I'm the messiah or something.

;D ;D ;D

Soloam

Hello all, I tried Suricata, but it's not yet compatible with my system, so back again to Snort. Just a quick question that I can't seem to find the answer in the topic. What should we do with the rules that are disabled by default? In the Suricata guide I see that it's recommended to activate all first and then disable the unwanted rules. Should we take the same approach in snort?

I tried once this and Snort would not boot on the interface, probably some rule that should not be set on. I looked on the system log and no error. I uninstalled all and started from scratch.

Thank you
Best Regards

Yes, the recommended way to set snort/suricata is to enable all then disable the rules suggested in the topics/list.

Soloam

Thank you!

Any one had problems with rule "ET POLICY SSLv3 outbound connection from client vulnerable to POODLE attack
suppress" 1:2019416? I looked at both this tutorial and the suricata version, and both have this rule enabled! The problem is that if I leave this rule several google ip's are blocked, including play store and hangouts!

Best regards
soloam

The rule is valid, you just need to completely disable SSLv3 (and v2 and v1). See your browser's documentation on how to do it.

Wepee

Sorry if I ask a silly question here, as I very new to SNORT.

I have been reading a lot, some I do understand but most I don't here.

Ok, here I begin the silly question ;D

Let take an example here, let's look the ET rules shown below:


emerging-botcc > all

emerging-chat > all except:
2010784 ET CHAT Facebook Chat (send message)
2010785 ET CHAT Facebook Chat (buddy list)
2010786 ET CHAT Facebook Chat (settings)
2010819 ET CHAT Facebook Chat using XMPP
2002327 ET CHAT Google Talk (Jabber) Client Login
2002334 ET CHAT Google IM traffic Jabber client sign-on
2001241 ET CHAT MSN file transfer request
2001242 ET CHAT MSN file transfer accept
2001243 ET CHAT MSN file transfer reject
2001682 ET CHAT MSN IM Poll via HTTP
2002192 ET CHAT MSN status change
2008289 ET CHAT Possible MSN Messenger File Transfer
2009375 ET CHAT General MSN Chat Activity
2009376 ET CHAT MSN User-Agent Activity

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question here is the exception rules that I need to disable,
for example: 2010784 ET CHAT Facebook Chat (send message)

For the above rule if I need to do the exception, I need search the Signature ID
which shown above = 2010784, I need to a search on this rule and disable it

As you know this is a PAINSTAKING task of finding each and every Signature ID
2009376, 2009375…...etc and disable each and every one.

Question:

1) Is there a short-cut method of doing this mundane task faster? :(

2) This process of disabling each exception will start all over again since,
whenever there a new updated Snort package is released, and if updated,
then snort is completely unassigned to the WAN interface, and I have to
manually reassign snort to run on my WAN interface, and hence I need
to do the exception rules ALL over again, right? :(

Thank you.

there is a new guide coming (work in progress) which should greatly simplify initial setup. For now I'm afraid that it's the clickety-click process :-)
That's not expected behavior. Did you contact bmeeks about it? I've never had to redo a setup, even after removing the package (keep settings on removal MUST be ticked) and reinstalling

bmeeks

@Wepee:

Sorry if I ask a silly question here, as I very new to SNORT.

I have been reading a lot, some I do understand but most I don't here.

Ok, here I begin the silly question ;D

Let take an example here, let's look the ET rules shown below:


emerging-botcc > all

emerging-chat > all except:
2010784 ET CHAT Facebook Chat (send message)
2010785 ET CHAT Facebook Chat (buddy list)
2010786 ET CHAT Facebook Chat (settings)
2010819 ET CHAT Facebook Chat using XMPP
2002327 ET CHAT Google Talk (Jabber) Client Login
2002334 ET CHAT Google IM traffic Jabber client sign-on
2001241 ET CHAT MSN file transfer request
2001242 ET CHAT MSN file transfer accept
2001243 ET CHAT MSN file transfer reject
2001682 ET CHAT MSN IM Poll via HTTP
2002192 ET CHAT MSN status change
2008289 ET CHAT Possible MSN Messenger File Transfer
2009375 ET CHAT General MSN Chat Activity
2009376 ET CHAT MSN User-Agent Activity

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Question here is the exception rules that I need to disable,
for example: 2010784 ET CHAT Facebook Chat (send message)

For the above rule if I need to do the exception, I need search the Signature ID
which shown above = 2010784, I need to a search on this rule and disable it

As you know this is a PAINSTAKING task of finding each and every Signature ID
2009376, 2009375…...etc and disable each and every one.

Question:

1) Is there a short-cut method of doing this mundane task faster? :(

2) This process of disabling each exception will start all over again since,
whenever there a new updated Snort package is released, and if updated,
then snort is completely unassigned to the WAN interface, and I have to
manually reassign snort to run on my WAN interface, and hence I need
to do the exception rules ALL over again, right? :(

Thank you.

Snort should never lose settings on an update if you have checked the "keep settings on uninstall" checkbox on the GLOBAL SETTINGS tab. If that is checked and you are still losing settings, then something extremely weird is happening, like maybe some older config.xml file getting auto-restored or something (just a wild guess).

If you want to "mass enable/disable" rule SIDS, the new SID MGMT tab is tailor-made for this. It uses the same syntax as PulledPork or Oinkmaster conf files. There are examples described within the included sample files installed with the Snort package now.

Bill

Wepee

@jflsakfja:

there is a new guide coming (work in progress) which should greatly simplify initial setup. For now I'm afraid that it's the clickety-click process :-)

That's not expected behavior. Did you contact bmeeks about it? I've never had to redo a setup, even after removing the package (keep settings on removal MUST be ticked) and reinstalling

jflsakfja and bmeeks, first of all, you all have done a commendable contribution to the community.
WELL DONE & KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!! :)
many people like me need your volunteered advice and written guide in getting things working!!!

Great!!! :)I hope the guide will be finished soon, that will assist in me / anyone for that matter, in doing the job of
disabling exception rules faster. Otherwise is a real tedious boring job ;D
I have enabled the setting: Keep Snort Setting after deinstallation,
the pic attached. I must have disabled it previously, I think? ::)

Keep_Snort_Settings_After_Deinstallation(After_upgraded_package).jpg

That should take care of keeping the settings. If they are still lost, then report it to bmeeks.

You forgot to thank BBcan177 ;)

Wepee

Hi

BBcan177 :)

Thank for everything! Cheers! :D

Keep up the good effort! ;D

eliteassassin07

I just started using Snort and have found the information in this section to be very helpful, thank you jflsakfja!!!

I noticed that this post is no longer being updated by jflsakfja he indicated that he moved to another section of the forum however I am having some difficulty locating the updated section, could someone post the link to that section?

Thank you

I didn't move to any other section, this is the latest version publicly available. I'm working on the next version, and planning on how to properly keep it updated instead of endlessly posting on the forums, together with other author contributions, it's going to take a while. I understand everybody is eagerly awaiting for it, but it's not ready yet. Sit tight, relax and we'll get there :-)

eliteassassin07

Ok, that is great news!

Must have misread one of your other posts… explains why I couldn't find this "other topic" lol.

Thank You

Wepee

Hi jflsakfja

Just for your information…...

I updated my pfSense from version 2.1.5 to 2.2.
The result was rather discouraging, I wish I have never updated it. :-[ :-[

1st problem happened, after rebooting my pfSense….......
WAN interface which being assigned on my Atheros NIC (on-board) refuse to connect the internet.
Reason unknown, it was working fine under pfSense v2.1.5.
The fix for it was to reassigned the WAN interface to another NIC - realtek PCI-E adapter,
then I get back my internet connection up and running.
Otherwise, I just couldn't get my old Atheros NIC to be the WAN interface and get my internet online.
Very weird problem?????

2nd problem happened, was rather a disaster to me to accept..... :'( :'(
All the snort rules, eg. Emerging Threat, and Snort GPLv2 community rules...etc have went back to [b]DEFAULT!!!!!.
Which unless defaulting rules are disabled, there will be a lot of false positive generated from running Snort.
I have to disable it one by one, rule by rule…..Sigh........

Keep Snort Setting after deinstallation option is only working in Snort setting itself only,
but not Rules…....can someone confirm that????

Is there a way to back up the disable rules permanently to a file?
Or something so that if the rules go back to DEFAULT
I can always restore the file and return to the desired configuration. ::)

I'm still picking up fragments of systems that were perfectly fine on 2.1.5, but have mysteriously blown up on 2.2.

Settings in my case have always been preserved going through pfsense upgrades, including the rules. Dunno what happened there.

bmeeks

@Wepee:

Hi jflsakfja

Just for your information…...

I updated my pfSense from version 2.1.5 to 2.2.
The result was rather discouraging, I wish I have never updated it. :-[ :-[

1st problem happened, after rebooting my pfSense….......
WAN interface which being assigned on my Atheros NIC (on-board) refuse to connect the internet.
Reason unknown, it was working fine under pfSense v2.1.5.
The fix for it was to reassigned the WAN interface to another NIC - realtek PCI-E adapter,
then I get back my internet connection up and running.
Otherwise, I just couldn't get my old Atheros NIC to be the WAN interface and get my internet online.
Very weird problem?????

2nd problem happened, was rather a disaster to me to accept..... :'( :'(
All the snort rules, eg. Emerging Threat, and Snort GPLv2 community rules...etc have went back to [b]DEFAULT!!!!!.
Which unless defaulting rules are disabled, there will be a lot of false positive generated from running Snort.
I have to disable it one by one, rule by rule…..Sigh........

Keep Snort Setting after deinstallation option is only working in Snort setting itself only,
but not Rules…....can someone confirm that????

Is there a way to back up the disable rules permanently to a file?
Or something so that if the rules go back to DEFAULT
I can always restore the file and return to the desired configuration. ::)

If your interfaces changed names (you mentioned having to move WAN from one network card type to another one), then Snort will get confused with the rules since they are saved per interface. pfSense 2.2 is based on FreeBSD 10.1 while 2.1.x was based on FreeBSD 8.3. That means network card hardware drivers are likely changed or updated, and that can cause problems with some types of cards. That would be my guess in your case.

Bill

Wepee

@bmeeks:

@Wepee:

Hi jflsakfja

Just for your information…...

I updated my pfSense from version 2.1.5 to 2.2.
The result was rather discouraging, I wish I have never updated it. :-[ :-[

1st problem happened, after rebooting my pfSense….......
WAN interface which being assigned on my Atheros NIC (on-board) refuse to connect the internet.
Reason unknown, it was working fine under pfSense v2.1.5.
The fix for it was to reassigned the WAN interface to another NIC - realtek PCI-E adapter,
then I get back my internet connection up and running.
Otherwise, I just couldn't get my old Atheros NIC to be the WAN interface and get my internet online.
Very weird problem?????

2nd problem happened, was rather a disaster to me to accept..... :'( :'(
All the snort rules, eg. Emerging Threat, and Snort GPLv2 community rules...etc have went back to [b]DEFAULT!!!!!.
Which unless defaulting rules are disabled, there will be a lot of false positive generated from running Snort.
I have to disable it one by one, rule by rule…..Sigh........

Keep Snort Setting after deinstallation option is only working in Snort setting itself only,
but not Rules…....can someone confirm that????

Is there a way to back up the disable rules permanently to a file?
Or something so that if the rules go back to DEFAULT
I can always restore the file and return to the desired configuration. ::)

If your interfaces changed names (you mentioned having to move WAN from one network card type to another one), then Snort will get confused with the rules since they are saved per interface. pfSense 2.2 is based on FreeBSD 10.1 while 2.1.x was based on FreeBSD 8.3. That means network card hardware drivers are likely changed or updated, and that can cause problems with some types of cards. That would be my guess in your case.

Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks for replying.

Did I miss something really important from reading the upgrade guide: https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Upgrade_Guide?

The only drivers mentioned in the guide was DISK drivers as far as I know, but correct me if I am wrong.

The guide did not mentioned anything about NETWORK drivers, or is it something
that every FreeBSD users should expect to know that switching from FreeBSD v8.x to v10, the network drivers will be
affected. If so, I am not a FreeBSD user here!

If I am wrong, I accept my mistake that I miss out a chunk of information stating that NETWORK drivers will be affected

But if I am right, I am really not HAPPY the way pfSense developing team doing this MAJOR upgrade.
At least forewarn us, the non-FreeBSD user about this issue.

Sigh…...what I can do? Not much I suppose, that is the difference between an Open-source and Close source Firewall. :-[