Supported Products
Why Install This Module?
System Requirements
Installing This Module
Upgrading This Module
Configuring the Module
Configuring Snort
Contact Information
Legal Notice
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Log Manager for IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) collects Snort events from logs and stores them in secure repositories so you can archive this data, create reports for management or auditing purposes, and analyze critical events to research issues. Log Manager collects all intrusion and attack attempts logged by Snort.
Supported Products
This release supports the following products:
- Snort version 2.4 or later
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Why Install This Module?
Log Manager for IDS provides the following important new capabilities:
- Includes Snort preprocessor rules
- Stores unrecognized syslog events in the log archive under source Generic Syslog
- Improved usability of rules and reports by matching Snort rules more closely
Improvements are made in direct response to suggestions from our customers. We thank you for your time and valuable input. We hope you continue to help us ensure our products meet all your needs.
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System Requirements
The following table lists additional requirements for a Windows agent monitoring Snort. For more information about agent requirements, see the Installation Guide for NetIQ Security Manager.
Category
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Requirement
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Processor
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1.5 GHz Intel Pentium III or equivalent.
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Memory
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40 MB minimum. The amount of memory usage varies and depends on the environment, including event rate and other factors. Memory use for a Windows agent monitoring Snort could reach 256 MB or higher.
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Operating System
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All supported Windows agent platforms.
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Software
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- Ensure you have Security Manager 6.5 or later installed.
- A Windows agent can monitor one or more Snort devices. For more information about the number of instances one agent can support, see the NetIQ Security Manager Knowledge Base article NETIQKB51404 at www.netiq.com/support/sm/.
- Install each Windows agent and Snort device on a computer inside the firewall or ensure the firewall allows syslog event through.
- Install the Windows agent with Snort support on a separate computer from the database server or central computer.
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Installing This Module
Complete the following steps to install this module in a new Security Manager 6.5 installation.
To install this module:
- Open the Module Installer. Under Log Manager for IDS, the Module Installer lists both a Legacy and a non-Legacy version of the Snort module.
- Select only the non-Legacy version of the module and click Install.
- Configure the new module using the Configuration Wizard. For more information about accessing the Configuration Wizard, see the User Guide for NetIQ Security Manager. For more information about how to enter information, click the question mark in the bottom left of the Configuration Wizard to expand a Help window to the right.
- Configure the Windows agent. For more information, see the Installation Guide for NetIQ Security Manager.
- Configure the Snort device to communicate with the Windows agent. For more information, see Configuring Snort.
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Upgrading This Module
After you have upgraded your existing installation to Security Manager 6.5, complete either step 1 or step 2 in the following procedure to upgrade a previous version of this module.
To upgrade this module:
- If you have access to reconfigure the Snort devices and have an extra computer on which to install a new Security Manager 6.5 Windows agent, complete the following steps:
- Install and configure a new Security Manager 6.5 Windows agent to receive syslog messages. For more information, see the Installation Guide for NetIQ Security Manager.
- Open the Module Installer. Under Log Manager for IDS, the Module Installer lists both a Legacy and a non-Legacy version of the Snort module.
- Select both the Legacy and non-Legacy versions of this module and click Install. If you do not install the Legacy version of Snort, two instances of Configure the module for Snort will appear in the Support for IDS section of the Configuration Wizard. You will then have to open each instance to see which one is Legacy. When you install both versions, Security Manager renames Configuration Wizard links, existing rule groups, and documentation so you can easily distinguish between legacy items and new items, minimizing confusion.
- When the modules are installed, open the Configuration Wizard.
- In the left pane, click Support for IDS.
- Click Configure the module for Snort.
- In the left pane, click Agents that monitor Snort.
- Add the new Security Manager 6.5 Windows agent you just installed.
- In the left pane, click Snort Devices.
- Add the Snort devices from which you want the new Windows agent to receive data.
- Click Finish.
- Access the Snort devices and reconfigure them to send data to the new Windows agent. For more information, see Configuring Snort.
- Verify the new Snort computer groups are populated with data.
- Open the Configuration Wizard.
- In the left pane, click Support for IDS.
- Click Configure the module for Snort (Legacy).
- Remove all agents and devices, disabling the Legacy version of the module.
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Warning
Ensure you have already reconfigured the Snort devices to forward their syslog events to the new agent before you disable the Legacy version of the module, otherwise you will lose data.
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- Click Finish.
- In the Schedule Configuration Changes window, select both checkboxes and click OK.
- If you do not have easy access to reconfigure Snort devices or you do not have an extra computer on which to install a new Security Manager 6.5 Windows agent, complete the following steps:
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Note
If you do not complete the following steps in a timely manner, it is possible some data collected will be stored as unrecognized syslog events in the log archive under source Generic Syslog.
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- Open the Module Installer. Under Log Manager for IDS, the Module Installer lists both a Legacy and a non-Legacy version of the Snort module.
- Select both the Legacy and non-Legacy versions of this module and click Install. If you do not install the Legacy version of Snort, two instances of Configure the module for Snort will appear in the Support for IDS section of the Configuration Wizard. You will then have to open each instance to see which one is Legacy. When you install both versions, Security Manager renames Configuration Wizard links, existing rule groups, and documentation so you can easily distinguish between legacy items and new items, minimizing confusion.
- When the modules are installed, open the Configuration Wizard.
- In the left pane, click Support for IDS.
- Click Configure the module for Snort (Legacy).
- Take note of all settings:
- Agent domains and names
- Device names
- Monitoring settings
- Clear all entries, disabling the module.
- Click Finish.
- In the Schedule Configuration Changes window, ensure both checkboxes are cleared.
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Warning
Selecting these options will result in data loss as the agents you have removed will stop receiving data from your Snort devices.
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- Click OK.
- Click Configure the module for Snort.
- Configure the non-Legacy version of Snort with the settings you recorded earlier from the Legacy version.
- Click Finish.
- In the Schedule Configuration Changes window, select both checkboxes and click OK. Selecting both options forces the Legacy module to empty all of its computer groups, causing the version 6.5 module to fill up its computer groups with all of the newly dropped agents and devices.
- If you want to configure additional Snort devices in your installation, configure the Windows agent and then configure the Snort device. For more information, see Configuring Snort.
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Configuring the Module
You can configure the modules with the Configuration Wizard. Add operators to the Security
Specialists group to receive notifications from the associated rules. For more information
about using the Configuration Wizard, see the User Guide for NetIQ Security Manager.
Ensure the environment is configured such that the modules will be able to resolve the
hostname of the Snort device. If you cannot use a static IP address, the DNS must
automatically update and consistently resolve the name.
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Note
By default, agents collect syslog event data from all IP addresses. You can limit the IP
addresses from which an agent accepts syslog events by modifying the data provider
properties. For more information, see the Programming Guide for NetIQ Security
Manager.
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Configuring Snort
Snort devices must be properly configured before Event Manager and Log Manager can begin
monitoring or collecting logs from them. Intrusion detection systems use different default
settings and offer different ways of configuring Snort. The instructions listed in this section
include examples that will apply to many products. However, for information about how to
configure your Snort environment, see the Snort documentation.
To configure support for Snort:
- Add the name and IP address of the computer where Snort is installed to the Hosts file
on the Windows agent computer. For more information about the Hosts file, see the
Windows documentation.
- On the computer where Snort is installed, ensure the following:
- The snort.conf file allows alerts to be sent the local syslog daemon. For example,
your product might require you to enable the following entry:
output alert_syslog: log_auth log_alert |
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- Snort sends alerts to the local syslog daemon.
- Snort alerts use the Fast Alert format.
- All Snort rules are installed and enabled.
- The -s command line argument is enabled.
- Snort automatically uses the -s command line argument each time Snort starts.
- Snort sends events to the Windows agent. For example, your product might require
you to add the following entry to the syslog.conf file:
auth.* <@agent_IP_address> |
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Where agent_IP_address identifies the IP address of the Windows agent
computer. |
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- If you made changes to the syslog.conf file, restart the computer to ensure the syslog
daemon correctly applies the changes.
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Contact Information
Please contact us with your questions and comments. We look forward to hearing from you.
For detailed contact information, see the Support Contact Information Web site.
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Legal Notice
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This document could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information herein. These changes may be incorporated in new editions of this document. NetIQ Corporation may make improvements in or changes to the software described in this document at any time.
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