What is Snort and How It Works in Network Security

In the digitalised world, it is evident that each one of you is striving hard to protect your files and data from hidden security threats. You are not alone in this journey. The whole world itself is revolving with protection plans or ideas to secure their data. What if there is a convincing solution available to put your worries aside? Sounds relieving, right?

Yes, the solution exists. It is an open-source system named Snort. Install this to protect and guard your network and data. Before that, it is time for you to know what is Snort and how does it work to get it installed. Let's get into this blog with no further delay!

Table of Contents

1) What is Snort?

2) How Does Snort Work?

3) Key Features of Snort

4) Snort Operating Modes

5) Uses of Snort Rules

6) Benefits of Using Snort in Your Network

7) Snort Installation and Setup on Linux

8) Conclusion

What is Snort?

Snort monitors and analyses your network traffic with its powerful Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention System (IPS). With the help of IDS and IPS, it identifies if there are any malicious activities on your network. It is often referred to as a Network Intrusion Prevention and Detection System (NIPDS). From the term itself, it is evident that the primary role of Snort is to detect and prevent any suspicious intruders from corrupting your network.

Being an open-source system, Snort is available for everyone to use and setup for their network. It is capable of detecting any kind of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, distributed DoS (DDoS) attacks, port scans, buffer overflows and Common Gateway Interface (CGI) attacks.

How Does Snort Work?

Snort basically does real-time monitoring for your network and uses rule-based language to detect intruders or cyber attacks. The rule-based language is a collaboration of anomaly, protocol and signature inspections associated with suspicious attacks.

It employs a network traffic capturing interface called Packet Library capture (Libpcap). With the help of this, Snort will capture the network traffic and compare them with its language to detect if there are any attacks or intruders. If there are any attacks, it will alert the network in real-time.

Key Features of Snort

There are certain key features of Snort which will make it the best system for your network. Here is the list of its key features for you to choose it:

1) Easy-to-apply Rules

To detect any suspicious activities, Snort should know what might come under those categories of suspicion. To differentiate these activities, Snort uses a language rule which allows it to read the regular network activity from suspicious one. The rule language setup is very flexible and easy, so that anyone can write their own regular network activity.

2) OS Fingerprinting

In general, all platforms will have their own Internet Protocol (IP) or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) stack. With Snort, you’ll be able to identify the OS platform which tries to attack your network. This process is referred to as OS fingerprinting.

3) Open-source and Free

Snort is an open-source and free software; accessible to all the people who wish to implement IDS and IPS to secure their network. The ultimate goal is to be available for everyone, and cost should not be a barrier from installing it for your network.

4) Packet Capture and Logging

Packet capture and logging is also known as packet sniffing or network sniffing. Snort acts as a packet sniffer to collect, intercept and store the network traffic to the disk. It even logs the network’s IP addresses in a hierarchical manner.

5) Protocol Analysis Capabilities

Snort performs the role of a protocol analyser for a network. It means, it will inspect the packet captures of a network traffic for any suspicious activities. The data of several protocol layers of a network is captured for analysis.

6) Cross-platform Compatibility

The one thing that makes Snort fit in your choice is its compatible nature. This is because it could be installed on all networks and operating systems, including Linux and Windows. No matter in which network or system you installed initially, it is flexible if you’re changing from one system to another.

7) Real-time Traffic Monitoring

Snort is a real-time attack indicating system. It continuously supervises the traffic that goes in and out of a network. If it detects any suspicious attack, it will intimate you in real-time as well.

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8) Content Inspection and Matching

When it comes to the language of Snort, it not only uses protocols or signatures, but it also includes contents. Content inspection involves multi-pattern matcher which will look out for the match in content. It takes the help of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to do this work.

The above are the key features of Snort, aimed at providing a robust detecting support system and security protection.

Snort Operating Modes

There are three different modes that a Snort can operate depending on the flag command it has. Let's have a short gist of those modes:

1) Packet Sniffing Mode

Snort’s packet sniffing mode monitors the TCP or IP packets that come in and out of a network and stores the collected details on a console. It has a (-v flag) coding.

2) Packet Logging Mode

The packet logger mode of Snort will document the TCP or IP packets that visit your network. It helps you to understand who is visiting your network, including their protocols and OS. It works on (-l flag) coding.

3) Network Intrusion Prevention and Detection System (NIPDS) Mode

The NIPDS mode detects network traffic for any malicious packets and logs them. The language that has been set earlier will assist them in determining what is malicious traffic. It has (-c flag) coding.

Uses of Snort Rules

The Snort rules are set up to do certain actions. Depending on the rules, Snort knows exactly what needs to be done. Here are some of the actions carried out with Snort rules:

1) Alert Generation

Snort is coded in a way to alert when there are suspicious attacks or intrusions. The criteria of suspicious attacks will be determined by coding what the actual or normal packets of a network are. If a packet doesn’t match the coding, then Snort will alert you in real-time about the suspicion.

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2) Custom Rule Creation

With Snort, you can create a new rule that suits your network. You can also change the rules by adding any new rules whenever you require. This makes the rule section customisable as per the nature of your network and preference.

3) Packet Sniffing Capabilities

With packet sniffing, Snort will collect and store the network traffic details and also the data that travels in and out of a network. With those details, you can check how traffic is transmitted in your network.

4) Network Traffic Debugging

The next step after storing or logging the network traffic involves analysis of those data to check for any intrusion. If any suspicious activity is found, Snort works to eliminate those packets with debugging techniques.

Benefits of Using Snort in Your Network

Apart from monitoring and detecting the network traffic for suspicious actions, Snort has other benefits too. Here are some other benefits of it:

1) Flexible Usage

Being an open-source system, Snort is available to anyone. Even with its structure and functionality, it is simple and convenient to code it for your network. It is easy to access and modify, which makes it more flexible in its usage.

2) High Detection Accuracy

Since Snort works on language based detection, it is high in accuracy about the suspicious activities with your network. It will show you all the activities which deviate from your language. Sometimes, a non-suspicious activity might also be found since it is deviated from the rule language.

3) Fast and Efficient Threat Response

Snort provides real-time data on suspicious attacks with the help of language detection. It is quick in finding varied traffic in your network, thereby immediately altering and blocking the attack. Due to this feature, it ensures robust screening and security.

Snort Installation and Setup on Linux

Installing and setting up Snort on Linux involves certain steps to follow. Let’s check what those steps are:

1) Install Snort: The primary step is to install Snort on Linux. Sometimes, it might require its dependencies like its own libraries to be installed along with it.

2) Decide the Network Interface: Once the installation is done, you will be asked to select a convenient type of interface for your Snort. Then you can configure the interface in the required area.

3) Snort Configuration: In this section, you can code what action your Snort should perform, like which traffic it should alert.

4) Understanding Language Rules: The language rules have certain specifications. The header of it contains its actions, protocol, IP address’ source and so on. With these details, the rules are designed.

5) Testing: Once the rules are set, it is important to test and check if it is working as expected. For that you can run fake traffic to your network.

6) Service Creation: After completing all the steps, your Snort is now ready to launch as software, and you will be provided with a service file for automatic and continuous running systems.

By following the above steps, you can successfully install and run Snort on your Linux.

Conclusion

Network building requires a lot of effort and maintenance. In the same way, it could be easily lost if it is not built with a robust security system and detection software. Prevention is indeed better than rectification of an issue. Therefore, no matter how big or small your network is, running a system like Snort will always let you work in peace with a strong alliance!

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