Netflow Collection with AlienVault

Alienvault 2013

CONFIGURE

Configuring NetFlow
NetFlow Capture of TCP/IP Traffic
from an AlienVault Sensor or Remote Hardware

Level: Beginner to Intermediate

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Contents
Netflow Collection with AlienVault .................................................................................................. 1
Alienvault 2013 .............................................................................................................................. 1
Introduction................................................................................................................................. 3
The NetFlow Specification ....................................................................................................... 3
NetFlow as a Security Tool ...................................................................................................... 4
Prerequisites................................................................................................................................ 5
Installation ................................................................................................................................... 5
Configuration............................................................................................................................... 6
Enabling Netflow Collection from an AlienVault Sensor ......................................................... 6
Collecting Netflow Data from an External Source ................................................................... 8
Configuring the External Device to send NetFlow/sFlow data to Alienvault ........................ 12
Validation .................................................................................................................................. 13
Troubleshooting ........................................................................................................................ 15

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Introduction
The NetFlow Specification
NetFlow is a protocol designed and published by Cisco Systems that has become the accepted
industry standard for recording and transmitting information about network flows (connections
between hosts via the TCP/IP protocols) on a network.
Flows are unidirectional a standard TCP session will create two flows one of the traffic from
host A to host B, a second of the traffic from Host B to Host A.
A flow record (using netflow v5, the most commonly adopted version), will contain the
following information about the traffic session:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Network Interface
Source IP Address
Destination IP Address
IP Protocol
Source port (for UDP or TCP flows, 0 for other protocols_
Destination port (for UDP or TCP, type and code for ICMP, or 0 for other protocols)
IP Type-Of-Service flags

This is the bare minimum information contained in a flow, however versions 7 and 9 of the
netflow standard include many additional supported fields. Of these additional fields, the ones
most relevant to Netflow in the content of AlienVault USM or OSSIM are:
8. TCP Flags
9. Total Packets in Flow
10. Total Bytes in Flow
11. Packets Per Second (PPS)
12. Bits Per Second (BPS)
13. Average Bits Per Packet (BPP)
14. Duration (milliseconds)

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NetFlow as a Security Tool

Although designed to assist network adminstrators generate metrics for performance and
utilization of their networks, NetFlow has garnered increasing utility in recent years as a vital
tool for security analysis, detection and forensic investigation. With many standard security
controls placed around the perimeter of the network, netflow has proven to be vital when
investigating intrusions that pass the hard outer shell and start migrating throughout the soft
underbelly of an organization.
Operating Systems and applications are rarely configured to log every last action they perform (unless placed into debug mode, an option rarely used since it carries an accompanying
performance cost ) and all too often, this can leave a critical gap in the forensic reconstruction
of an event.
Services may log who connected to them, but not from where, or when a session was started,
yet not when it was closed. Cross-referencing application and service logs against the records of
network traffic to that host, can allow analysts to infer the missing information needed to trace
the path of a successful intruder across the network.

17:28 Connection from

External Host

Host A

21:28 Connection from

Host A

Host B

Was our attacker still connected to Host A when it connected to Host B ?

17.28 Connection from External Host (to Host A)
Flow: src: extern
dst:host A duration
21.28 Connection from Host A to Host B
18501291
milliseconds

YES!
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Prerequisites
Netflow is entirely dependent upon having visibility to traffic traversing the network which
means the routers and switches that traffic flows over. There are two ways to acquire this:

The Router or Switch is configured to accrue netflow data directly, and transmit it to a
collector.
The Switch is configured with a SPAN/Mirror port to clone all traffic to a single port,
attached to a system that will generate netflow data from the observed packets.

AlienVault supports both of these scenarios:

Netflow data can be sent to an AlienVault sensor, and incorporated into SIEM Data
The Sensor (which should be connected to a SPAN port for normal functionality) can
generate its own netflow data from observed traffic.

These options are not mutually exclusive and many practical deployments will incorporate both
methods of collection.

Installation
Netflow Collection and Analysis is included with AlienVault by default and no additional
installation is necessary.
External Netflow sources (switches, etc) have their netflow capabilities defined in their
operating firmware and usually require only some minimal configuration to enable it

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Configuration
Enabling Netflow Collection from an AlienVault Sensor
After a default installation, Netflow defaults to being disabled on an AlienVault Sensor, and
must be activated and configured before collection will begin.
NetFlow Collection is configured on a per-sensor basis, in the sensor configuration screen:
access this through the sidebar menu at Deployment -> AlienVault Components

Select the Sensors tab at the top:

And click the IP Address of the sensor to be configured:

The main sensor configuration screen will load: at the very bottom of the configuration
page is the Flow configuration section.

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There are three primary configuration options, all of which may safely be left with their default
values:
PORT: This is the port that the sensor will transmit netflow data back to the AlienVault server
via. Each sensor must transmit on a unique port number. A suitable default will appear in this
text box and is recommended to leave it as this default unless there is a specific operational
reason to (perhaps a specific port range your network has assigned for administrative traffic
ACLs).
TYPE: This is the type of netflow data that the sensor will receive from external sources. If you
are only using the Sensor to generate netflow data, this value can be ignored.
COLOR: A color value to visually identify flows collected from this sensor in the Flows analysis
section of the AlienVault User Interface.

Once you have chosen appropriate values (or left them as their defaults), click the Configure
and Run button to activate Netflow Collection/Generation from this Sensor
You will receive confirmation that the sensor is now generating netflow data this message
assumes you are configuring an external collector however the firewall exception for an
AlienVault sensor will be automatically created.

The configuration section will update to indicate that flow collection is now working.

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Collecting Netflow Data

Data from an External Source
Third party devices that support the collection and transmission of NetFlow (or the variant
sFlow) data, may also be configured as a source of traffic accounting information within
AlienVault.
The process to add an additional Flow source is:

Create a new Sensor record for the transmitting device

Configure the device to transmit NetFlow or sFlow information to the AlienVault
Server

Preparing the Sensor Entry

To register Netflows from external devices with their own unique identify and color in flow
listings, a Dummy Sensor entry must be created within the AlienVault UI
This Sensor entry will appear to be an AlienVault Sensor, but will permanently appear as
disconnected in the Sensor listing UI screen.

Add a New Sensor Entry

Return to the Sensor Listing screen at Deployment -> AlienVault

Components

Select the Sensors tab at the top:

Select New

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You will get the Sensor configuration screen but with no information
populated. Fill it out with information about the NetFlow device you are
adding.

Click Update, you will receive confirmation of the sensor record being
created

Re-open the sensor configuration window (click the IP address of the newly
created sensor record)

Scroll down the sensor config screen, down to the Services section, disable
all services. This is not necessary, but will prevent this dummy sensor from
showing up as an available sensor in the parts of the AlienVault UI that refer
to these services.

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At the bottom of the screen is the Netflow section.

o Select a port that the AlienVault Server will receive NetFlow data
over.
o Select NetFlow or sFlow as appropriate for what the device will be
sending to AlienVault.
o Choose a color to display flows in the Flow Analysis UI.
o Configure and Run

You will receive a message stating that a new firewall exception must be
added to added to the AlienVault Servers firewall settings.

As of version 4.2 this is no longer necessary

Select Back

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Firewall Exception
Despite the message box, as of version 4.2 the firewall exception can be automatically created,
by disabling and re-enabling the AlienVault Servers Firewall.

This must be done from the AlienVault Physical Console, or remotely via
Secure Shell.
You will need the root account credentials to perform this
The root user account is only for console access, and is different from the
admin credentials used in the Web User Interface.
root credentials are created during installation of AlienVault.

Log Into
Into the Console
The next step involves forcing a global rebuild of the AlienVault core configuration. This must by
done at the AlienVault Console (Either by opening the physical console, or using Secure Shell
(SSH) log into the AlienVault Server with the root account)
Access the AlienVault Console, you will be presented with the Alienvault-Setup console tool.
Select the Jailbreak option to access the administrative command line.

Select Jailbreak this Appliance to access the command line

Accept the Disclaimer

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Run the command ossim-reconfig

The reconfiguration tool will run (may take a few minutes)

The Server should now be reachable over UDP, on the port configured for the new
netflow source.

Configuring the External Device to send NetFlow/sFlow data to Alienvault

The final step is to configure the device itself to transmit flow data to the AlienVault Server. This
process is dependent upon the third party device itself. We have made efforts to assemble
configuration instructions for major device types into accompanying documents, but be aware
that these are third party devices and the information presented here may be outdated
because of more recent updates to these devices by their manufacturer.
Always consult your device documentation and support channels before carrying out any of the
configurations listed on the following pages.

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Validation
With the Server, Sensor and any appropriate devices now configured, all that remains is to
validate the successful collection of Netflow.
Since this process is dependent upon witnessing live data being collected by the system, it is
advisable to wait a short, appropriate length of time before validation (thirty minutes at the
most, should provide a good sampling size window)

Open the Netflow Analysis UI

Located under Situational Awareness -> Network:

The primary screen should give quick visual confirmation of Netflow data being captured:

The colors used to plot the flow graphs, are the colors assigned to each sensor during the
configuration stage.
If you see graph data with the color assigned to your new flow collector, this is the first
indicator of successful configuration.

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View Individual Flows

Scroll to the bottom of this UI section and locate the Netflow Processing section of the UI

Select and highlight only the sensor you have just configured, then click List last 500 Sessions;
After a few seconds a new panel should display beneath the Netflow Processing panel:

Data appearing in this panel, is absolute confirmation of successful Netflow Configuration on

this new collector.

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Troubleshooting
If flow data does not appear after a reasonable amount of time, validate that flow data is
successfully being transmitted and received by the AlienVault server.

Validate that Netflow packets

packets are being generated by the Sensor

If you are collecting netflow packets from a third party device, skip this section and do
whatever troubleshooting is appropriate to determine that netflow collection is
functioning correctly on that device
Log in to the physical console of the Alienvault Sensor.
Acquire commandline access via the jailbreak this appliance option
Validate that the fprobe system is running, and that it is listening to the correct
interface, and sending packets on the correct port to the server
# ps ax|grep fprobe

The output should appear similar to the following:

Confirm that iethX is the correct interface number for the sensor interface connected
to the switch SPAN port.
Confirm that the IP address is the IP address of you AlienVault Server
Confirm that the port number (the number after the colon in the address) is the same
number you configured in the Netflow UI.

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Validate that Netflow packets

packets are being received by the Server

Log in to the physical console of the Alienvault Server.

Acquire commandline access via the jailbreak this appliance option
Validate that nfcapd is running, and listening on the port assigned for the appropriate
sensor
# ps ax|grep fprobe

The output should appear similar to this:

There will be multiple instances of nfcapd, one for each netflow source
The number after the p argument should match the port assigned to a particular
netflow source.
Use tcpdump to validate that packets are being transmitted to the Server.

# tcpdump I <interface> port <netflow port>

If packets are being received from the netflow source, you should see output similar to
the following

Use ctrl-C to exit tcpdump.

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Validate that Netflow packets

packets are accepted by the Server Firewall

Log in to the physical console of the Alienvault Server.

Acquire commandline access via the jailbreak this appliance option
Validate that the firewall configuration has an exception to allow incoming netflow
packets over the appropriate UDP port
# iptables L n v |grep <configured port>

The output should resemble the following:

The udp dpt (destination port) is the important part here, indicating that traffic will be
ACCEPTed by the firewall configuration. The number in the left column indicates the
number of packets that have previously matched this ACCEPT rule.

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