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NOVEMBER 1999
Acquiring And
Deploying Intrusion Detection Systems
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Intrusion detection is a topic
extensively discussed in the popular press, IT trade articles, scholarly
journals, and security newsletters. Intrusion detection systems (IDSs)
hold great promise for deterring or mitigating the damage caused by "hacking"
or breaking into sensitive IT systems. Thus, IDSs are at the forefront
of many organizations’ attention and now their checkbooks. Careful planning,
phased deployments, and specialized training are among the steps that
can be taken to minimize the potential for costly deployments, poor returns
on investment, or high maintenance costs while maximizing the security
benefit to an organization. This ITL Bulletin provides basic information
about IDSs to help organizations avoid common pitfalls in acquiring, deploying,
and maintaining IDSs. The topics covered are:
- A definition of intrusion
detection,
- Reasons to acquire IDSs,
- Types of IDSs,
- IDS monitoring approaches,
- IDS event analysis approaches,
- IDSs that automatically
respond to attacks,
- Tools that complement IDSs,
- Limitations of IDSs,
- Deployment of IDSs, and
- The future of IDSs.
A Definition of Intrusion
Detection
Intrusion detection is the process of detecting unauthorized use of, or
attack upon, a computer or network. IDSs are software or hardware systems
that detect such misuse. IDSs can detect attempts to compromise the confidentiality,
integrity, and availability of a computer or network. The attacks can
come from attackers on the Internet, authorized insiders who misuse
the privileges given them, and unauthorized insiders who attempt
to gain unauthorized privileges.
Reasons to Acquire IDSs
Intrusion detection capabilities are rapidly becoming necessary additions
to every large organization’s security infrastructure. The question for
security professionals should not be whether to use intrusion detection,
but which features and capabilities to use. However, one must still justify
the purchase of an IDS. There are at least three good reasons to justify
the acquisition of IDSs: to detect attacks and other security violations
that cannot be prevented, to prevent attackers from probing a network,
and to document the intrusion threat to an organization.
Detecting attacks that
cannot be prevented
Attackers, using well-known techniques, can penetrate many networks. This
often happens when known vulnerabilities in the network cannot be fixed.
For instance, in many legacy systems, the operating systems cannot be
updated. In updateable systems, administrators may not have or take the
time to install all the necessary patches in a large number of hosts.
In addition, it is usually not possible to perfectly map an organization's
computer use policy to its access control mechanisms and thus authorized
users often can perform unauthorized actions. Users may also demand
network services and protocols that are known to be flawed and subject
to attack. Although, ideally, we would fix all vulnerabilities, this is
seldom possible. Therefore, an excellent approach for protecting a network
may be to use an IDS to detect when an attacker has penetrated a system
using an uncorrectable flaw. It is better at least to know that a system
has been penetrated so that administrators can perform damage control
and recovery than not to know that the system has been penetrated.
Preventing attackers from
probing a network
A computer or network without an IDS may allow attackers to leisurely
and without retribution explore its weaknesses. If a single, known vulnerability
exists in such a network, a determined attacker will eventually find and
exploit it. The same network with an IDS installed is a much more formidable
challenge to an attacker. Although the attacker may continue to probe
the network for weaknesses, the IDS should detect these attempts, may
block these attempts, and can alert security personnel who can take appropriate
action.
Documenting the threat
It is important to verify that a network is under attack or likely to
be attacked to justify spending money for securing the network. Furthermore,
it is important to understand the frequency and characteristics of attacks
in order to understand what security measures are appropriate for the
network. IDSs can itemize, characterize, and verify the threat from both
outside and inside attacks, thereby providing a sound foundation for computer
security expenditures. Using IDSs in this manner is important, since many
people mistakenly believe that no one (outsiders or insiders) would be
interested in breaking into their networks.
Types of IDSs
There are several types of IDSs available today, characterized by different
monitoring and analysis approaches. Each has distinct uses, advantages,
and disadvantages. IDSs can monitor events at three different levels:
network, host, and application. IDSs can analyze these events using two
techniques: signature detection and anomaly detection. Some IDSs also
have the ability to automatically respond to the detected attacks. These
variations are discussed in the following sections.
IDS Monitoring Approaches
One way to delineate IDSs is to look at what they monitor. Some IDSs listen
on network backbones and analyze network packets to find attackers. Other
IDSs reside on the hosts that they are defending and monitor the operating
system for signs of intrusion. Still others monitor individual applications.
Network-Based IDSs
Network-based IDSs, currently the most common type of commercial product
offering, detect attacks by capturing and analyzing network packets. Listening
on a network backbone, a single network-based IDS can monitor a large
amount of information. Network-based IDSs usually consist of a set of
single-purpose hosts that "sniff" or capture network traffic in various
parts of a network and report attacks to a single management console.
Since no other applications run on the hosts used by a network-based IDS,
they can be secured against attack. Many of them even have "stealth" modes,
which make it extremely difficult for an attacker to detect their presence
and locate them.
Advantages:
- A few well-placed network-based
IDSs can monitor a large network.
- The deployment of network-based
IDSs has little impact upon an existing network. The network-based IDSs
are usually passive devices that listen on a network wire without interfering
with the normal operation of a network. Thus, it is usually easy to
retrofit a network to include network-based IDSs with a minimal installation
effort.
- Network-based IDSs can be
made very secure against attack and even made invisible to many attackers.
Disadvantages:
- Network-based IDSs may have
difficulty processing all packets in a large or busy network and, therefore,
may fail to recognize an attack launched during periods of high traffic.
Some vendors are attempting to solve this problem by implementing IDSs
completely in hardware, which is much faster. The need to analyze packets
quickly also forces vendors to try and detect attacks with as little
computing resources as possible, which may reduce detection effectiveness.
- Many of the advantages of
network-based IDSs do not always apply to more modern switch-based networks.
Switches can subdivide networks into many small segments (usually one
fast Ethernet wire per host) and can provide dedicated links between
hosts serviced by the same switch. Most switches do not provide universal
monitoring ports and this reduces the monitoring range of a network-based
IDS sensor to a single host. In switches that do provide such monitoring
ports, often the single port cannot mirror all traffic traversing the
switch.
- Network-based IDSs cannot
analyze encrypted information. This increasingly will become a problem
as use of encryption becomes more popular both by organizations and
by attackers.
- Most network-based IDSs
do not report whether or not an attack was successful, they only report
that an attack was initiated. After a detected attack, administrators
must manually investigate each attacked host to determine whether or
not the hosts were penetrated.
Host-Based IDSs
Host-based IDSs operate by analyzing the activity on a particular computer.
As such, they must collect information from the host they are monitoring.
This allows an IDS to analyze activities on the host at a very fine granularity
and to determine exactly which processes and users are performing malicious
activities on the operating system. Some host-based IDSs simplify the management
of a set of hosts by having management functions and attack reports centralized
at a single security console. Others generate messages that are compatible
with network management systems.
Advantages:
- Host-based IDSs can detect
attacks that are not detectable by a network-based IDS since they have
a view of events local to a host.
- Host-based IDSs can operate
in a network that is using encryption when the encrypted information
is decrypted on, or before reaching, the monitored host.
- Host-based IDSs can operate
in switched networks.
Disadvantages:
- The collection mechanisms
must usually be installed and maintained on every host to be monitored.
- Since portions of these
systems reside on the host being attacked, host-based IDSs may be attacked
and disabled by a clever attacker.
- Host-based IDSs are not
well suited for detecting network scans of all hosts in a network since
the IDS at each host only sees the network packets that the host receives.
- Host-based IDSs often have
difficulty detecting and operating in the face of denial-of-service
attacks.
- Host-based IDSs use the
computing resources of the hosts they are monitoring.
Application-Based IDSs
Application-based IDSs monitor the events transpiring within an application.
Often application-based IDSs detect attacks by analyzing the application’s
log files. By interfacing with an application directly and having significant
domain or application knowledge, application-based IDSs are more likely
to have a more discerning or fine-grained view of suspicious activity
in the application.
Advantages:
- Application-based IDSs can
monitor activity at a very fine granularity, which often allows them
to track unauthorized activity to individual users.
- Application-based IDSs can
often work in encrypted environments, since they interface with the
application that may be performing encryption.
Disadvantages:
- Application-based IDSs may
be more vulnerable than host-based IDSs to being attacked and disabled
since they run as an application on the host they are monitoring.
The distinction between an
application-based IDS and a host-based IDS is not always clear, so for
the remainder of this bulletin, we will refer to both as host-based IDSs.
IDS Event Analysis Approaches
There are two primary approaches to analyzing events to detect attacks:
signature detection and anomaly detection. Signature detection is the
primary technique used by most commercial systems; however, anomaly detection
is the subject of much research and is used in a limited form by a number
of IDSs.
Signature-Based IDSs
Signature-based detection looks for activity that matches a predefined
set of events that uniquely describe a known attack. Signature-based IDSs
thus must be specifically programmed to detect each known attack. This
technique is extremely effective and is the primary method used in commercial
products for detecting attacks.
Advantages:
- Signature-based IDSs are
very effective at detecting attacks without generating an overwhelming
number of false alarms.
Disadvantages:
- Signature-based IDSs must
be programmed to detect each attack and thus must be constantly updated
with signatures of new attacks.
- Many signature-based IDSs
have narrowly defined signatures that prevent them from detecting variants
of common attacks.
Anomaly-Based IDSs
Anomaly-based IDSs find attacks by identifying unusual behavior (anomalies)
on a host or network. They function on the observation that some attackers
behave differently than "normal" users and thus can be detected by systems
that identify these differences. Anomaly-based IDSs establish a baseline
of normal behavior by profiling particular users or network connections
and then statistically measure when monitored activity deviates from the
norm. Unfortunately, these IDSs often produce a large number of false alarms,
since normal user and network behavior can vary wildly. Despite this weakness,
researchers assert that anomaly-based IDSs are able to detect never-before-seen
attacks, unlike signature-based IDSs that rely on analysis of past attacks.
Although some commercial IDSs include restricted forms of anomaly detection,
few, if any, rely solely on this technology. However, anomaly detection
remains an active intrusion detection research area.
Advantages:
- Anomaly-based IDSs detect
unusual behavior and thus have the ability to detect attacks without
having to be specifically programmed to detect them.
Disadvantages:
- Anomaly detection approaches
usually produce a large number of false alarms due to the unpredictable
nature of users and networks.
- Anomaly detection approaches
often require extensive "training sets" of system event records in order
to characterize normal behavior patterns.
IDSs that Automatically
Respond to Attacks
Since human administrators are not always available when an attack occurs,
some IDSs can be configured to automatically respond to attacks. The simplest
form of automated response is active notification. Upon detection of an
attack, an IDS may e-mail or page an administrator. A more active response
is to stop an attack in progress and then block future accesses by the
attacker. Typically, IDSs do not have the ability to block a particular
person, but instead block Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from which
an attacker is operating. It is very difficult to automatically stop a
determined and knowledgeable attacker, but IDSs often can deter expert
attackers or stop novice hackers by using the following capabilities:
- Cutting TCP connections
by injecting reset packets into the attacker’s connections to the target
of the attack,
- Reconfiguring routers and
firewalls to block packets from the attacker’s location (IP address
or site),
- Reconfiguring routers and
firewalls to block the protocols being used by an attacker, and
- In extreme situations, reconfiguring
routers and firewalls to sever all connections using particular network
interfaces.
A more aggressive way to respond
to an attacker is to launch attacks against or attempt to actively gain
information about the attacker’s host or site. However, this response
can be extremely dangerous for an organization since it may be illegal
and cause damage to innocent Internet users. It is even more dangerous
to allow IDSs to automatically launch these attacks, but limited automated
"strike-back" strategies are sometimes used for critical systems. Obtain
legal advice before pursuing any of these options.
Tools that Complement IDSs
Several tools exist that complement IDSs and are often labeled as IDSs
by vendors since they perform similar functions. This section discusses
these tools and how they can enhance an organization’s intrusion detection
capability.
Honey Pot and Padded Cell
Systems
Several novel additions to the intrusion detection product line recently
hit the market and it is important to understand how these products differ
from traditional IDSs.Honey pots are decoy systems that attempt
to lure an attacker away from critical systems. These systems are filled
with information that is seemingly valuable but which has actually been
fabricated and which would not be accessed by an honest user. Thus, when
access to the honey pot is detected, there is a high likelihood that it
is an attacker. Monitors and event loggers on the honey pot detect these
unauthorized accesses and collect information about an attacker’s activities.
The purpose of the honey pot is to divert an attacker from accessing critical
systems, collect information about the attacker’s activity, and encourage
the attacker to stay on the system long enough for administrators to respond.
Padded cells take a
different approach. Instead of trying to attract attackers with tempting
data, a padded cell waits for a traditional IDS to detect an attacker.
The attacker is then seamlessly transferred to a special padded cell host.
The attacker may not realize anything has happened, but the attacker is
now in a simulated environment where no harm can be caused. Like the honey
pot, this simulated environment can be filled with interesting data to
convince an attacker that the attack is going according to plan. Padded
cells offer unique opportunities to monitor the actions of an attacker.
IDS researchers have used padded cell and honey pot systems since the
late 1980s, but until recently no commercial products have been available.
Advantages:
- Attackers can be diverted
to system targets that they cannot damage.
- Administrators can be given
time to decide how to respond to an attacker.
- Attackers’ actions can be
more easily monitored, with results used to improve system protections.
- Honey pots may be effective
at catching insiders who are snooping around a network.
Disadvantages:
- Honey pots and padded cells
have not yet been shown to be widely useful security technologies.
- An expert attacker, once
diverted into a decoy system, may become angry and launch a more hostile
attack against an organization’s systems.
- A high level of expertise
is needed for administrators and security managers in order to use these
systems.
- The legal implications of
using such devices are not well defined.
Vulnerability Assessment
Tools
Vulnerability assessment tools determine when a network or host is vulnerable
to known attacks. Since this activity is related to actually detecting
attacks, these tools are sometimes referred to as intrusion detection
tools. They come in two varieties: passive and active. Passive vulnerability
assessment tools scan the host on which they reside for insecure configurations,
software versions known to contain exploitable flaws, and weak passwords.
Active assessment tools reside on a single host and scan a network looking
for vulnerable hosts. The tool sends a variety of network packets at target
hosts, and from the responses, the tool can determine the server and operating
system software on each host. In addition, it can identify specific versions
of software and determine the presence or absence of security-related
patches. The active assessment tool compares this information with a library
of software version numbers known to be insecure and determines if the
hosts are vulnerable to known attacks.
Limitations of IDSs
Current intrusion detection products have limitations that one must be
aware of before undertaking an IDS deployment.
- Despite vendor claims, most
IDSs do not scale well as enterprise-wide solutions. The problems include
the lack of sufficient integration with other security tools and sophisticated
network management systems, the inability of IDSs to assess and visualize
enterprise-level threats, and the inability of organizations to investigate
the large number of alarms generated by hundreds or thousands of IDS
sensors.
- Many IDSs create a large
number of false positives that waste administrators' time and may even
initiate damaging automated responses.
- While almost all IDSs are
marketed as "real time" systems, during heavy network or host activity,
an IDS may take several minutes before reporting and automatically responding
to an attack.
- IDSs usually cannot detect
newly published attacks or variants of existing attacks. This can be
a serious problem as 30-40 new computer attacks are posted on the Web
every month. An attacker may simply wait for a new attack to be posted
and then quickly penetrate a target network.
- IDSs’ automated responses
are often ineffective against sophisticated attackers. They usually
stop novice hackers but, improperly configured, can hurt a network by
interrupting legitimate network traffic.
- IDSs must be monitored by
skilled computer security personnel in order to achieve maximum benefits
and to understand the significance of what the IDS detects.
- IDS maintenance and monitoring
can use a substantial amount of personnel resources.
- Many IDSs are not failsafe;
that is, they are not well protected from attack or subversion.
- Many IDSs do not have user
interfaces that allow users to spot cooperative or coordinated attacks.
- IDSs cannot be used in isolation,
but must be part of a framework of computer security measures. For a
list of such measures, see the May 1999 ITL Bulletin entitled
"Computer Attacks: What They Are and How to Defend Against Them." (See
below.)
Deployment of IDSs
Intrusion detection technology is a necessary addition to every large
organization’s computer security framework. However, given the weaknesses
found in some of today’s products, and the relatively limited security
skill level of most system administrators, careful planning, preparation,
prototyping, testing, and specialized training are critical steps for
an effective IDS deployment.
NIST suggests performing a
thorough requirements analysis, carefully selecting the intrusion detection
strategy and solution that is compatible with the organization’s network
infrastructure, policies, and resource level. Organizations should consider
a staged deployment of IDSs to gain experience and to ascertain how many
monitoring and maintenance resources they will require. There is a large
variance in the resource requirements for each type of IDS. IDSs require
significant preparation and ongoing human interaction. Organizations must
have appropriate security policies, plans, and procedures in place so
that personnel will know how to react to the many and varied alarms IDSs
will produce.
We recommend consideration
of a combination of network-based IDSs and host-based IDSs to protect
an enterprise-wide network. First deploy network-based IDSs since they
are usually the simplest to install and maintain; then follow up by defending
critical servers with host-based IDSs. Honey pots should be used judiciously
and only by organizations with a highly skilled technical staff that are
willing to experiment with leading-edge technology. Padded cells are currently
unavailable except as research prototypes.
Deploying Network-Based
IDSs
There are many options for placing a network-based IDS and different advantages
for each location:
Location: Behind
each external firewall
Advantage: Sees attacks that are penetrating the network’s perimeter
defenses from the outside world.
Location: In front of an external firewall
Advantage: Proves that attacks from the Internet are regularly launched
against the network.
Location: On major network backbones
Advantage: Detects unauthorized activity by those within a network
and monitors a large amount of a network’s traffic.
Location: On critical subnets
Advantage: Detects attacks on critical resources.
Deploying Host-Based IDSs
Once an organization has deployed network-based IDSs, host-based IDSs
can offer an additional level of protection. However, it can be time-consuming
to install host-based IDSs on every host in an enterprise. Therefore,
it is often preferable to begin by installing host-based IDSs only on
critical servers. This placement will decrease the overall deployment
costs and allow limited personnel to focus on alarms generated from the
most important hosts. Once the operation and maintenance of host-based
IDSs is routine, more security-conscious organizations may consider installing
host-based IDSs on the majority of their hosts. In this case, purchase
host-based systems that have an easy-to-use centralized management and
reporting function since the management of alerts from a large set of
hosts can be daunting.
The Future of IDSs
The IDS research field has been active since around 1985, but the wide-scale
commercial use of IDSs did not start until about 1996. In 1998, sales
of IDS tools reached $100 million. By all estimates, the market for IDS
tools should continue to grow strongly. From this history, it is apparent
that while the IDS research field is maturing, commercial IDSs are still
in their formative years. Some commercial IDSs have received negative
publicity due to their large number of false positives, overwhelming numbers
of attack reports, lack of scalability, and lack of integration with enterprise
management systems. However, given that commercial IDSs are still evolving
rapidly, we believe that these issues will be addressed quickly. The development
of IDS products is likely to parallel that of anti-virus software. Early
anti-virus software created false alarms on many normal user actions and
did not catch all known viruses. However, over time, anti-virus software
progressed to its current state, in which few users notice that it is
running and they have confidence that it detects all known viruses.
For More Information
Acquiring, deploying, and maintaining an IDS is a complex task. Fortunately,
many excellent resources in the form of books and seminars exist to guide
the public on IDS technology. Several free IDS resources are available:
For an overview of IDSs and
their capabilities, read the white paper "An Introduction to Intrusion
Detection Assessment for System and Network Security Management" at http://www.icsa.net/html/communities/ids/White%20paper/index.shtml.
For a survey of commercially
available IDSs that allows one to easily compare features, read the "Intrusion
Detection System Product Survey" published by the Los Alamos National
Laboratory and found at http://lib-www.lanl.gov/la-pubs/00416750.pdf
Information on the computer
attacks that IDSs detect can be found in the May 1999 ITL Bulletin entitled "Computer Attacks:
What They Are and How to Defend Against Them," available at http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistbul
NOTE: Any mention of commercial
products is for information only; it does not imply recommendation or
endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology nor
does it imply that the products mentioned are necessarily the best available
for the purpose.
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