- Finding Feature Information
- Contents
- Prerequisites for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
- Restrictions for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
- Information About Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
- How to Use Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
- Retiring All Signatures and Selecting a Category of Signatures
- Configuring Cisco IOS IPS on Your Router
- Loading a Signature File into Cisco IOS IPS
- Enabling IPS Regex Table Chaining
- Tuning Signature Parameters
- Enabling Signature Tunings Inheritance
- Setting an IPS Memory Threshold
- Setting the Target Value Rating
- Enabling Automatic Signature Updates
- Upgrading Signatures Directly from Cisco.com
- Monitoring Cisco IOS IPS Signatures through Syslog Messages or SDEE
Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
The Cisco IOS Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) acts as an in-line intrusion prevention sensor that scans packets and sessions as they flow through the router to match any Cisco IOS IPS 5.x signature. These signatures are defined in Extensible Markup Language (XML) format and provide the following functionality:
•
Automatic signature updates from local servers. Network administrators can either preserve the user's current configuration of signature actions or override the user's current configuration of signature actions with the current IPS configuration.
•Top-level signature categories to classify signatures for easy grouping and tuning. Group-wide parameters, such as signature event action, can be applied to a group through CLI, so the user does not have to modify each individual signature.
•Encrypted (NDA) signature support.
•Direct Download from CCO capability in IOS IPS feature allows an administrator to use the CLI to specify, download and upgrade to new signatures posted for the IOS directly from Cisco.com. An administrator can also configure the router through the CLI to receive future periodic signature downloads automatically to eliminate the manual maintenance efforts and costs of changing or tuning IPS signatures whenever a new update is posted.
Finding Feature Information
Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the "Feature Information for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements" section.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.
Contents
•Prerequisites for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
•Restrictions for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
•Information About Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
•How to Use Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
•Configuration Examples for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
•Feature Information for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
Prerequisites for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
System and Image Requirements for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x
•Cisco IOS IPS signatures.
•Cisco IOS IPS system requirements depend on the type of deployment, the bandwidth requirements, and security requirements. The larger the number of signatures, the larger the amount of memory consumed.
•You must generate a RSA crypto key and load the public signature on your router for signature decryption.
This following cisco public key configuration can be cut and pasted directly into your router configuration:
crypto key pubkey-chain rsa
named-key realm-cisco.pub signature
key-string 30820122 300D0609 2A864886 F70D0101 01050003 82010F00 3082010A 02820101 00C19E93 A8AF124A D6CC7A24 5097A975 206BE3A2 06FBA13F 6F12CB5B 4E441F16 17E630D5 C02AC252 912BE27F 37FDD9C8 11FC7AF7 DCDD81D9 43CDABC3 6007D128 B199ABCB D34ED0F9 085FADC1 359C189E F30AF10A C0EFB624 7E0764BF 3E53053E 5B2146A9 D7A5EDE3 0298AF03 DED7A5B8 9479039D 20F30663 9AC64B93 C0112A35 FE3F0C87 89BCB7BB 994AE74C FA9E481D F65875D6 85EAF974 6D9CC8E3 F0B08B85 50437722 FFBE85B9 5E4189FF CC189CB9 69C46F9C A84DFBA5 7A0AF99E AD768C36 006CF498 079F88F8 A3B3FB1F 9FB7B3CB 5539E1D1 9693CCBB 551F78D2 892356AE 2F56D826 8918EF3C 80CA4F4D 87BFCA3B BFF668E9 689782A5 CF31CB6E B4B094D3 F3020301 0001 quit
Note You can also access the public key configuration at the following URL: http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/ios-v5sigup. Ensure that you have your Cisco userid, and password to access this URL.
•You must load one of the following images on your router to install Cisco IOS IPS 5.x: adventerprisek9, advsecurityk9, and advipservicesk9.
Note To check the current system version, use the show subsys name ips command.
IPS 4.x uses a version format of 2.xxx.xxx; IPS 5.x uses a version format of 3.xxx.xxx.
Upgrading from Cisco IOS IPS 4.x to Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signatures
Cisco IOS IPS 5.x format signatures are not backward compatible with Cisco IOS IPS 4.x. You must reconfigure your Cisco IOS IPS features for use with the IPS 5.x signature format command-line interface (CLI) and features.
When reconfiguring Cisco IOS IPS on a router to convert to the 5.x signature format, you must have the following Cisco IOS IPS 4.x information:
•Cisco IOS IPS rule name (which was specified through the ip ips name ips-name command)
•Interfaces for which the Cisco IOS IPS rule has been applied
To gather this information, issue the show ip ips configuration command, which displays a copy of the existing output.
Router# show ip ips configuration
Configured SDF Locations:
disk2:my-signatures.sdf
Builtin signatures are enabled but not loaded
Last successful SDF load time: 05:31:54 MST Sep 20 2003
IPS fail closed is disabled
Fastpath ips is enabled
Quick run mode is enabled
Event notification through syslog is enabled
Event notification through SDEE is enabled
Total Active Signatures: 13
Total Inactive Signatures: 0
Signature 50000:0 disable
Signature 50000:1 disable
Signature 50000:2 disable
IPS Rule Configuration
IPS name MYIPS
Interface Configuration
Interface GigabitEthernet0/1
Inbound IPS rule is MYIPS
Outgoing IPS rule is not set
Direct Download from CCO capability in IOS IPS Support
The router must have access to Cisco.com in order for IPS signatures to be upgraded directly from Cisco.com. If the router does not have access to Cisco.com, then signature file updates can still be able to be retrieved from a local server.
Restrictions for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
Warning Do not enable all IPS signatures at once. The router may not be able to compile all of the signatures, resulting in high CPU and memory usage, degraded performance, or a system reload.
Backward Compatibility
Cisco IOS IPS 5.x format signatures are not backward compatible with Cisco IOS IPS 4.x SDFs.
Cisco 870 Series Platform Support
The 870 series platform with Cisco IOS IPS in Cisco IOS Release 12.4(11)T may experience lower performance relative to previous releases (CSCsg57228). The Cisco IOS IPS performance on the 870 series platform is enhanced in a later 12.4(11)T image rebuild.
On the 870 series platform, Cisco IOS IPS is supported only on the adv-ipservices and the adv-enterprise images. Cisco IOS IPS is the same on both images.
Information About Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
•Cisco IOS IPS Signature Scanning with Lightweight Signatures
•Signature Update Accessibility
•Upgrade IPS Signatures Directly from Cisco.com
•Preserving Configured Signature Tunings on the Local Router
Cisco IOS IPS Overview
The Cisco IOS IPS acts as an in-line intrusion prevention sensor, watching packets and sessions as they flow through the router and scanning each packet to match any of the Cisco IOS IPS signatures. When it detects suspicious activity, it responds before network security can be compromised and logs the event through Cisco IOS syslog messages or Security Device Event Exchange (SDEE). The network administrator can configure Cisco IOS IPS to choose the appropriate response to various threats. The Signature Event Action Processor (SEAP) can dynamically control actions that are to be taken by a signature event on the basis of parameters such as fidelity, severity, or target value rating. These parameters have default values but can also be configured through CLI. When packets in a session match a signature, Cisco IOS IPS can take any of the following actions, as appropriate:
•Send an alarm to a syslog server or a centralized management interface
•Drop the packet
•Reset the connection
•Deny traffic from the source IP address of the attacker for a specified amount of time
•Deny traffic on the connection for which the signature was seen for a specified amount of time
Cisco developed its Cisco IOS software-based intrusion-prevention capabilities and Cisco IOS Firewall with flexibility in mind, so that individual signatures could be disabled in case of false positives. Generally, it is preferable to enable both the firewall and Cisco IOS IPS to support network security policies. However, each of these features may be enabled independently and on different router interfaces.
Cisco IOS IPS Signature Scanning with Lightweight Signatures
The addition of Cisco IOS IPS signature scanning with lightweight signatures in Cisco IOS Release 15.0(1)M is an enhancement to Cisco IOS IPS that allows loading of larger signatures sets, without consuming significant additional memory or reducing the memory consumed by an existing signature set, by loading equivalent lighter-weight signatures. These signatures are referred to as lightweight signatures.
For the signatures made obsolete by new lightweight signatures from new signature scanning engines, Cisco IOS provides the ip ips inherit-obsolete-tunings command to apply common parameters the user may have changed (customized) in the old signature file (delta.xml), to the equivalent new signature file. For more information, see the "Enabling Signature Tunings Inheritance" section.
Signature Categories
Cisco IPS appliances and Cisco IOS IPS with Cisco 5.x format signatures operate with signature categories. All signatures are pregrouped into categories; the categories are hierarchical. An individual signature can belong to more than one category. Top-level categories help to define general types of signatures. Subcategories exist beneath each top-level signature category. (For a list of supported top-level categories, use your router CLI help (?).)
Router Configuration Files and Signature Event Action Processor (SEAP)
As of Cisco IOS Release 12.4(11)T, SDFs are no longer used by Cisco IOS IPS. Instead, routers access signature definition information through a directory that contains three configuration files—the default configuration, the delta configuration, and the SEAP configuration. Cisco IOS accesses this directory through the ip ips config location command.
Note You must issue the ip ips config location command; otherwise, the configuration files are not saved to any location.
SEAP is the control unit responsible for coordinating the data flow of a signature event. It allows for advanced filtering and signature overrides on the basis of the Event Risk Rating (ERR) feedback. ERR is used to control the level in which a user chooses to take actions in an effort to minimize false positives.
Signatures once stored in NVRAM, are now stored in the delta configuration file; thus, support for access control lists (ACLs) is no longer necessary.
Additional Risk Rating Algorithms
The ERR characterizes the risk of an attack and allows users to make decisions on the basis of the risk control signature event actions. To help further control signature event actions, the following additional rating categories are now supported:
•Attack Severity Rating (ASR)—Determines the severity of an attack. The attack-severity rating values are hard-coded in Cisco IOS IPS as follows: high, medium, low, and informational. The ASR can be changed through the alert-rating command. See the "Tuning Signature Parameters" section for more information on changing the ASF.
•Signature Fidelity Rating (SFR)—Determines the confidence level of detecting a true positive. The SFR can be changed through the fidelity-rating command. See the "Tuning Signature Parameters" section for more information on changing the SFR.
•Target Value Rating (TVR)—Allows users to develop security policies that can be more strict for some resources than others. The security policy is applied to a table of hosts that are protected by Cisco IOS IPS. A host can be a single IP address or a range of IP addresses with an associated target value rating. See the "Setting the Target Value Rating" section for more information.
Signature Update Accessibility
To help detect the latest vulnerabilities, Cisco provides the following signature update options:
•Download the latest signatures from Cisco.com at the following URL:
http://tools.cisco.com/support/downloads/go/Model.x?mdfid=281442967&mdfLevel=Software%20Family&treeName=Security&modelName=Cisco%20IOS%20Intrusion%20Prevention%20System%20Feature%20Software&treeMdfId=268438162. Ensure that you have your Cisco userid, and password to access this URL.
•Configure automatic signature updates through the ip ips auto-update command. Updates can be configured to run on the basis of a preset time. See the "Enabling Automatic Signature Updates" section" for more information.
•Issue the copy url idconf command to instruct the router where to load a signature file. (The file can be saved in a location specified through the ip ips config location command.)
Upgrade IPS Signatures Directly from Cisco.com
The Direct Download from CCO capability in IOS IPS feature allows administrator to configure the router to receive future periodic signature downloads automatically to eliminate the manual maintenance efforts and costs of changing or tuning IPS signatures whenever a new IPS signature update is posted. See the "Enabling Automatic Signature Updates" section for more information.
The Direct Download from CCO capability in IOS IPS feature also allows an administrator to use the CLI to specify, download and upgrade to a new signatures posted for the IOS directly from Cisco.com. See the "Upgrading Signatures Directly from Cisco.com" sectionfor more information.
Previously, the IPS signature file was downloaded and updated on the router either manually or through a management tool like Cisco Security Manager (CSM) or Security Device Manager (SDM), which both have access to the update area on Cisco.com.
Preserving Configured Signature Tunings on the Local Router
Most IPS devices and applications provide either a single default configuration or multiple default configurations. Using one of these default configurations is an ideal starting point for deploying IPS. When IOS IPS is deployed, parameters such as severity, active status or event actions of certain signatures need to be tuned to meet the requirements of an enterprise network traffic profile.
Once the ip ips enable-clidelta command is enabled, a local cli-delta.xmz file is generated containing the local tuning signatures configured through the CLI. The settings in the clidelta.xmz file take precedence when a globally administered delta signature update, contained in the iosips-sig-delta.xmz file, is sent from a central repository and applied to the configuration of the local router. See the "Tuning Signatures per Signature ID" section for more information about the configuration of this feature.
How to Use Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
•Retiring All Signatures and Selecting a Category of Signatures (Optional)
•Configuring Cisco IOS IPS on Your Router (Required)
•Loading a Signature File into Cisco IOS IPS (Required)
•Enabling IPS Regex Table Chaining (Optional)
•Tuning Signature Parameters (Optional)
•Enabling Signature Tunings Inheritance (Optional)
•Setting an IPS Memory Threshold (Optional)
•Setting the Target Value Rating (Optional)
•Enabling Automatic Signature Updates (Optional)
•Upgrading Signatures Directly from Cisco.com (Optional)
•Monitoring Cisco IOS IPS Signatures through Syslog Messages or SDEE (Optional)
Retiring All Signatures and Selecting a Category of Signatures
Router memory and resource constraints prevent a router from loading all Cisco IOS IPS signatures. Thus, it is recommended that you load only a selected set of signatures that are defined by the categories. Because the categories are applied in a "top-down" order, you should first retire all signatures, followed by "unretiring" specific categories. Retiring signatures enables the router to load information for all signatures, but the router does not build the parallel scanning data structure.
Retired signatures are not scanned by Cisco IOS IPS, so they do not fire alarms. If a signature is irrelevant to your network or if you want to save router memory, you should retire signatures, as appropriate.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips signature-category
4. category category [subcategory]
5. retired {true | false}
6. exit
7. category category [subcategory]
8. retired {true | false}
9. exit
What to Do Next
After you have configured the basic category, you should enable IPS on your router. See the "Configuring Cisco IOS IPS on Your Router" section for more information.
You can customize (or tune) either the entire category or individual signatures within a category to addresses the needs of your network. See the "Tuning Signature Parameters" section, for more information.
Configuring Cisco IOS IPS on Your Router
After you have set up a "load definition" for the signatures to be copied to the idconf, you must configure an IPS rule name. Use this task to configure an IPS rule name and start the IPS configuration.
You can also use this task to configure a Cisco IOS IPS signature location, which tells Cisco IOS IPS where to save signature information.
The configuration location is used to restore the IPS configuration in case the router reboots or IPS is disabled or reenabled. Files, such as signature definition, signature-type definitions, and signature category information, are written in XML format, compressed, and saved to the specified IPS signature location.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. mkdir flash:/ips5
3. configure terminal
4. ip ips name ips-name
5. ip ips config location url
6. interface type name
7. ip ips ips-name {in | out}
8. exit
9. show ip ips configuration
10. show ip ips signature count
DETAILED STEPS
Examples
The following sample output displays the number of signatures that have been loaded into each SME:
Router# show ip ips signature count
Cisco SDF release version S247.0
Trend SDF release version V1.2
Signature Micro-Engine: multi-string
Total Signatures: 7
Enabled: 7
Retired: 2
Compiled: 5
Signature Micro-Engine: service-http
Total Signatures: 541
Enabled: 284
Retired: 336
Compiled: 205
Signature Micro-Engine: string-tcp
Total Signatures: 487
Enabled: 332
Retired: 352
Compiled: 135
Signature Micro-Engine: string-udp
Total Signatures: 50
Enabled: 3
Retired: 23
Compiled: 27
Signature Micro-Engine: state
Total Signatures: 26
Enabled: 15
Retired: 23
Compiled: 3
Signature Micro-Engine: atomic-ip
Total Signatures: 140
Enabled: 87
Retired: 93
Compiled: 46
Inactive - invalid params: 1
Signature Micro-Engine: string-icmp
Total Signatures: 2
Enabled: 0
Retired: 1
Compiled: 1
Signature Micro-Engine: service-ftp
Total Signatures: 3
Enabled: 3
Compiled: 3
Signature Micro-Engine: service-rpc (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: service-dns
Total Signatures: 1
Enabled: 1
Retired: 1
Signature Micro-Engine: normalizer
Total Signatures: 9
Enabled: 9
Compiled: 9
Total Signatures: 1266
Total Enabled Signatures: 741
Total Retired Signatures: 831
Total Compiled Signatures: 434
Total Signatures with invalid parameters: 1
Loading a Signature File into Cisco IOS IPS
Use this task to load signatures into Cisco IOS IPS. You may wish to load new signatures into Cisco IOS IPS if a signature (or signatures) with the current signatures are not providing your network with adequate protection from security threats.
Prerequisites
You must enable Cisco IOS IPS. See the "Configuring Cisco IOS IPS on Your Router" section" before loading new signatures.
Flexible Signatures: Ordered and Incremental
Each signature is complied incrementally into the scanning tables at the same time. Thus, Cisco IOS IPS can deactivate signatures that fail to compile. (Prior to Cisco IOS Release 12.4(11)T, Cisco IOS IPS deactivated the entire signature microengine (SME) if a single signature failed to compile.)
Signatures are loaded into the scanning table on the basis of importance. Parameters such as signature severity, signature fidelity rating, and time lapsed since signatures were last released allow Cisco IOS IPS to compile the most important signatures first, followed by less important signatures, thereby, creating a load order and prioritizing which signatures are loaded first.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips config location url
4. interface type name
5. ip ips ips-name {in | out}
6. exit
7. copy url idconf
DETAILED STEPS
Enabling IPS Regex Table Chaining
Regex Table Chaining is an enhancement to Cisco IOS IPS in Cisco IOS Release 15.0(1)M, that allows the IPS to chain multiple regular (regex) tables together when signatures are being loaded. This functionality is enabled by the ip ips memory regex chaining command. Enabling regex table chaining allows three regex tables to be chained. There is a slight performance degradation in IPS scanning time due to the scanning of multiple tables.
When a user tries to load a specific set of signatures that does not fit using a single table, compilation errors result.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips memory regex chaining
DETAILED STEPS
Tuning Signature Parameters
You can tune signature parameters on the basis of a signature ID (for an individual signature), or you can tune signature parameters on the basis of a category (that is, all signatures that are within a specified category). To tune signature parameters, use the following tasks, as appropriate:
•Tuning Signatures per Signature ID
•Tuning Signatures per Category
Note Some changes to the signature definitions are not shown in the run time config because the changes are recorded in the sigdef-delta.xml file, which can be located through the ip ips config location command.
Tuning Signatures per Signature ID
Use this task to change default signature parameters for a specified signature ID.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips enable-clidelta (optional)
4. ip ips signature-definition
5. signature signature-id [subsignature-id]
6. engine (optional)
7. event-action action
8. exit
9. alert-severity {high | medium | low | informational} (optional)
10. fidelity-rating rating (optional)
11. status (optional)
12. enabled {true | false} (optional)
13. exit
14. show ip ips signature (optional)
15. show ip ips sig-clidelta (optional)
Tuning Signatures per Category
Use this task to change default signature parameters for a category of signatures. Categories such as operating systems; Layer 2, Layer 3, or Layer 4 protocols; or service-based categories can be configured to provide wider changes to a group of signatures.
Tip Category configuration information is processed in the order that it is entered. Thus, it is recommended that the process of retiring all signatures. See the "Retiring All Signatures and Selecting a Category of Signatures" section" before all other category tuning.
If a category is configured more than once, the parameters entered in the second configuration are added to or replace the previous configuration.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips signature-category
4. category category [subcategory]
5. event-action action
6. alert-severity {high | medium | low | informational}
7. fidelity-rating rating
8. enabled {true | false}
9. retired {true | false}
10. exit
11. show ip ips signature
DETAILED STEPS
Enabling Signature Tunings Inheritance
When new signatures are replacing older signatures, Cisco IOS IPS provides the ip ips inherit-obsolete-tunings command to enable new signatures to obsolete older signatures and inherit the event-action and enabled parameters of the obsolete tuning values, without the need to manually tune the new signatures. This functionality is called signature tuning inheritance. All other parameter changes including the "Retire" parameter is ignored.
After you enter the command, the screen displays a warning message asking you to clarify the intended usage and then asks whether you accept the configuration or not. By default, old signatures are not inherited by new signatures.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips inherit-obsolete-tunings
DETAILED STEPS
Setting an IPS Memory Threshold
When a router is powered up, 90 percent of the available memory is allocated to IPS-related activities. The remaining 10 percent is referred to as the IPS Memory Threshold—the amount of free memory unavailable to the IPS. Cisco IOS IPS allows the IPS memory threshold to be set to a different value using the ip ips memory threshold command.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips memory threshold megabytes
DETAILED STEPS
Setting the Target Value Rating
Use this task to set the target value rating, which allows users to develop security policies that can be more strict for some resources than others. The security policy is applied to a table of hosts that are protected by Cisco IOS IPS. A host can be a single IP address or a range of IP addresses with an associated target value rating.
Note Changes to the target value rating is not shown in the run time config because the changes are recorded in the seap-delta.xml file, which can be located through the ip ips config location command.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips event-action-rules
4. target-value {mission-critical | high | medium | low} target-address ip-address [/nn | to ip-address]
5. exit
Enabling Automatic Signature Updates
Automatic signature updates allow users to override the existing configuration and automatically keep signatures up to date on the basis of a preset time, which can be configured to a preferred setting.
Time can be updated through the hardware clock or the configurable software clock (which ever option is available on your system). Although Network Time Protocol (NTP) is typically used for automated time synchronization, Cisco IOS IPS updates use the local clock resources as a reference for update intervals. Thus, NTP should be configured to update the local time server of the router, as appropriate.
Perform this task to enable Cisco IOS IPS to automatically update the signature file on the router from the local server or receive future periodic signature downloads automatically from Cisco.com.
Automatic Signature Update Guidelines
When enabling automatic signature updates, it is recommended that you ensure the following configuration guidelines have been met:
•The router's clock is set up with the proper relative time.
•The frequency for Cisco IOS IPS to obtain updated signature information has been defined.
•If updates are being retrieved from a local server, obtain the URL from which the Cisco IOS IPS signature configuration files are retrieved.
•Optionally, the username and password for which to access the files from the server have been specified.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips auto-update
4. cisco
5. occur-at {[monthly | weekly] days minutes hours}
6. username name password password
7. url url
8. exit
9. show ip ips auto-update
Upgrading Signatures Directly from Cisco.com
Perform this task to specify, download and upgrade to a new IPS signature file posted for the IOS directly from Cisco.com.
This task eliminates the need for an administrator to download the latest signature file from CCO manually to a local HTTP, FTP, or TFTP server and next download this signature file to the router (from that local HTTP, FTP, or TFTP server).
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. ips signature update cisco
3. configure terminal
4. ida-client server url url
5. exit
6. show ip ips configuration
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
Step 1 |
enable Router> enable |
Enables privileged EXEC mode. • |
Step 2 |
ips signature update cisco {next | latest | signature} [username name password password] Router# ip ips update cisco IOS_reqSeq-dw.xml |
Initiates a one-time download of an IPS signatures from Cisco.com. The next keyword specifies the next signature file version from the current signature file on the router. The latest keyword specifies the IOS IPS to search for the latest signature file. The signature argument specifies a specific signature file on Cisco.com. (Optional) The username keyword and name argument and password keyword and password argument is for the automatic signature update function. Note |
Step 3 |
configure terminal Router# configure terminal |
Enters global configuration mode. |
Step 4 |
ida-client server url url Router(config)# ida-client server url https://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/front.x/ida/l ocator/locator.pl |
Specifies the IDA-server URL that the IDA client communicates with to download files from the Cisco.com server. Enter the following URL: https://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/front.x/ida/locator/locator.pl |
Step 5 |
password encryption aes Router(config)# password encryption aes |
Enables the encryption of the password with a type 6 encrypted preshared key. |
Step 6 |
key config-key password-encryption Router(config)# key config-key password-encryption |
Configures the encrypted preshared key that is used to encrypt all other keys in the router. |
Step 7 |
exit Router(config)# exit |
Exits global configuration mode. |
Step 8 |
show ip ips configuration Router# show ip ips configuration |
Verifies that Cisco IOS IPS is properly configured. |
Monitoring Cisco IOS IPS Signatures through Syslog Messages or SDEE
Cisco IOS IPS provides two methods to report IPS intrusion alerts—Cisco IOS logging (syslog) and SDEE. Perform this task to enable SDEE to report IPS intrusion alerts. See the "Troubleshooting and Fault Management" feature module for more information on configuring syslog messages.
SDEE Overview
SDEE is an application-level communication protocol that is used to exchange IPS messages between IPS clients and IPS servers. SDEE is always running, but it does not receive and process events from IPS unless SDEE notification is enabled. If SDEE notification is not enabled and a client sends a request, SDEE responds with a fault response message, indicating that notification is not enabled.
Storing SDEE Events in the Buffer
When SDEE notification is enabled (through the ip ips notify sdee command), 200 events can automatically be stored in the buffer. When SDEE notification is disabled, all stored events are lost. A new buffer is allocated when the notifications are reenabled.
When specifying the size of an events buffer, note the following functionality:
•It is circular. When the end of the buffer is reached, the buffer starts overwriting the earliest stored events. (If overwritten events have not yet been reported, a buffer overflow notice is received.)
•If a new, smaller buffer is requested, all events that are stored in the previous buffer is lost.
•If a new, larger buffer is requested, all existing events are saved.
Prerequisites
To use SDEE, the HTTP server must be enabled (through the ip http server command). If the HTTP server is not enabled, the router cannot respond to the SDEE clients because it cannot not "see" the requests.
SUMMARY STEPS
1. enable
2. configure terminal
3. ip ips notify sdee
4. ip sdee events events
5. ip sdee subscriptions subscriptions
6. ip sdee messages messages
7. ip sdee alerts alerts
8. exit
9. show ip sdee {[alerts] [all] [errors] [events] [configuration] [status] [subscriptions]}
Troubleshooting Tips
To print out new SDEE alerts on the router console, issue the debug ip sdee command.
To clear the event buffer or SDEE subscriptions from the router (which helps with error recovery), issue the clear ip sdee command.
Configuration Examples for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
•Cisco IOS IPS Configuration: Example
•Enabling Automatic Signature Updates: Example
•Configuring and Verifying SDEE on your Router: Example
Cisco IOS IPS Configuration: Example
The following example shows how to enable and verify Cisco IOS IPS on your router:
Router# mkdir flash:/ips5
Create directory filename [ips5]?
Created dir flash:/ips5
Router#
Router#
Router#
Router# configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Router(config)# ip ips name MYIPS
Router(config)# ip ips config location flash:/ips5
Router(config)# ip ips signature-category
Router(config-ips-category)# category all
Router(config-ips-category-action)# retired true
Router(config-ips-category-action)# exit
Router(config-ips-category)# category ios_ips advanced
Router(config-ips-category-action)# retired false
Router(config-ips-category-action)# exit
Router(config-ips-category)# exit
Do you want to accept these changes? [confirm]
Router(config)# d
*Nov 14 2006 17:16:42 MST: Applying Category configuration to signatures ..
Router(config)#
Router(config)# do show ip interface brief
Interface IP-Address OK? Method Status Protocol
GigabitEthernet0/0 10.0.20.120 YES NVRAM up up
GigabitEthernet0/1 10.12.100.120 YES NVRAM administratively down down
NVI0 unassigned NO unset up up
Router(config)#
Router(config)# interface gigabits 0/0
Router(config-if)# ip ips MYIPS in
Router(config-if)#
*Nov 14 2006 17:17:07 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDS_STARTED: 17:17:07 MST Nov 14 2006
*Nov 14 2006 17:17:07 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: atomic-ip - 3 signatures - 1 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:17:07 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: atomic-ip - build time 0 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:17:07 MST: %IPS-6-ALL_ENGINE_BUILDS_COMPLETE: elapsed time 0 ms
Router(config-if)#
Router(config-if)# ip ips MYIPS out
Router(config-if)#
Router(config-if)#
Router(config-if)#^Z
Router#
*Nov 14 2006 17:17:23 MST: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by cisco on console
Router# wr
Building configuration...
[OK]
Router#
Router# show ip ips signature count
Cisco SDF release version S0.0
Signature Micro-Engine: multi-string (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: service-http (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: string-tcp (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: string-udp (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: state (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: atomic-ip
Total Signatures: 3
Enabled: 0
Compiled: 3
Signature Micro-Engine: string-icmp (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: service-ftp (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: service-rpc (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: service-dns (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: normalizer (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: service-smb-advanced (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: service-msrpc (INACTIVE)
Total Signatures: 3
Total Enabled Signatures: 0
Total Retired Signatures: 0
Total Compiled Signatures: 3
Router#
Router# copy flash:IOS-S258-CLI-kd.pkg idconf
*Nov 14 2006 17:19:47 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDS_STARTED: 17:19:47 MST Nov 14 2006
*Nov 14 2006 17:19:47 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: multi-string - 3 signatures - 1 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:19:47 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: multi-string - build time 4 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:19:47 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: service-http - 611 signatures - 2 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:00 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: service-http - build time 12932 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:00 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: string-tcp - 864 signatures - 3 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:02 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: string-tcp - build time 2692 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:02 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: string-udp - 74 signatures - 4 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: string-udp - build time 316 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: state - 28 signatures - 5 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: state - build time 24 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: atomic-ip - 252 signatures - 6 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-4-META_ENGINE_UNSUPPORTED: atomic-ip 2154:0 - this signature is a component of the unsupported META engine
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: atomic-ip - build time 232 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: string-icmp - 3 signatures - 7 of 13 e
Router# engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: string-icmp - build time 12 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: service-ftp - 3 signatures - 8 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: service-ftp - build time 8 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: service-rpc - 75 signatures - 9 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: service-rpc - build time 80 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: service-dns - 38 signatures - 10 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: service-dns - build time 20 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: normalizer - 9 signatures - 11 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: normalizer - build time 0 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_BUILDING: service-msrpc - 22 signatures - 12 of 13 engines
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ENGINE_READY: service-msrpc - build time 8 ms - packets for this engine will be scanned
*Nov 14 2006 17:20:03 MST: %IPS-6-ALL_ENGINE_BUILDS_COMPLETE: elapsed time 16344 ms
Router#
Router#
Router# show ip ips signature count
Cisco SDF release version S258.0
Signature Micro-Engine: multi-string
Total Signatures: 3
Enabled: 3
Retired: 3
Signature Micro-Engine: service-http
Total Signatures: 611
Enabled: 159
Retired: 428
Compiled: 183
Signature Micro-Engine: string-tcp
Total Signatures: 864
Enabled: 414
Retired: 753
Compiled: 111
Signature Micro-Engine: string-udp
Total Signatures: 74
Enabled: 1
Retired: 44
Compiled: 30
Signature Micro-Engine: state
Total Signatures: 28
Enabled: 16
Retired: 25
Compiled: 3
Signature Micro-Engine: atomic-ip
Total Signatures: 252
Enabled: 56
Retired: 148
Compiled: 103
Inactive - invalid params: 1
Signature Micro-Engine: string-icmp
Total Signatures: 3
Enabled: 0
Retired: 2
Compiled: 1
Signature Micro-Engine: service-ftp
Total Signatures: 3
Enabled: 1
Compiled: 3
Signature Micro-Engine: service-rpc
Total Signatures: 75
Enabled: 44
Retired: 44
Compiled: 31
Signature Micro-Engine: service-dns
Total Signatures: 38
Enabled: 30
Retired: 5
Compiled: 33
Signature Micro-Engine: normalizer
Total Signatures: 9
Enabled: 8
Retired: 5
Compiled: 4
Signature Micro-Engine: service-smb-advanced (INACTIVE)
Signature Micro-Engine: service-msrpc
Total Signatures: 22
Enabled: 22
Retired: 22
Enabling Automatic Signature Updates: Example
The following example shows how to configure automatic signature updates and issue the show ip ips auto-update command to verify the configuration. In this example, the signatures are pulled from the TFTP server at the start of every hour or every day, Sunday through Thursday. (Note that adjustments are made for months without 31 days and daylight savings time.)
Router# clock set ?
hh:mm:ss Current Time
Router# clock set 10:38:00 20 apr 2006
Router#
*Apr 20 17:38:00.000: %SYS-6-CLOCKUPDATE: System clock has been updated from 10:37:55 MST Thu Apr 20 2006 to 10:38:00 MST Thu Apr 20 2006, configured from console by cisco on console.
Router(config)# ip ips auto-update
Router(config-ips-auto-update)# occur-at 0 0-23 1-31 1-5
Router(config-ips-auto-update)# $s-auto-update/IOS_reqSeq-dw.xml
Router(config-ips-auto-update)#^Z
Router#
*May 4 2006 15:50:28 MST: IPS Auto Update: setting update timer for next update: 0 hrs 10 min
*May 4 2006 15:50:28 MST: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by cisco on console
Router#
Router# show ip ips auto-update
IPS Auto Update Configuration
URL : tftp://192.168.0.2/jdoe/ips-auto-update/IOS_reqSeq-dw.xml
Username : not configured
Password : not configured
Auto Update Intervals
minutes (0-59) : 0
hours (0-23) : 0-23
days of month (1-31) : 1-31
days of week: (0-6) : 1-5
Configuring and Verifying SDEE on your Router: Example
The following example shows how to configure and verify SDEE on your router:
Router(config)# ip ips notify SDEE
Router(config)# ip sdee event 500
Router(config)# ip sdee subscriptions 1
Router(config)# ip sdee messages 500
Router(config)# ip sdee alerts 2000
router(config)# exit
*Nov 9 21:41:33.171: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by cisco on console
Router# show ip sdee all
Configured concurrent subscriptions: 1
No currently open subscriptions.
Alert storage: 2000 alerts using 560000 bytes of memory
Message storage: 500 messages using 212000 bytes of memory
SDEE Events
Time Type Description
Router#
Additional References
Related Documents
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Security commands |
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Loading images and file systems |
Loading and Managing System Images feature module. |
Cisco IOS commands |
Standards
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No new or modified standards are supported by this feature. |
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MIBs
RFCs
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No new or modified RFCs are supported by this feature. |
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Technical Assistance
Feature Information for Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format Support and Usability Enhancements
Table 1 lists the features in this module and provides links to specific configuration information.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and software image support. Cisco Feature Navigator enables you to determine which software images support a specific software release, feature set, or platform. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.
Note Table 1 lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.
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Cisco IOS IPS 5.x Signature Format and Usability Enhancements |
12.4(11)T |
This feature introduces support for Cisco IOS Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) version 5.0, which is a version-based signature definition XML format. Cisco IOS IPS 4.x format signatures are replaced by the 5.x format signatures that are used by all other Cisco IPS devices. The following commands were introduced or modified by this feature: alert-severity, category, copy idconf enabled (IPS), engine (IPS), event-action, fidelity-rating, ip ips auto-update, ip ips config location, ip ips event-action-rules, ip ips signature-category, ip ips signature-definition, occur-at (ips-auto-update), retired (IPS), show ip ips auto-update, signature, status, target-value, url (ips-auto-update), username (ips-autoupdate). |
Cisco IOS IPS with Lightweight Signatures |
15.0(1)M |
This feature extends support for lightweight signatures in Cisco IOS IPS. Lightweight signatures allow the loading of a larger number of signatures simultaneously, without consuming significant additional memory or reducing the memory consumed by an existing signature set. The following sections provides information about this feature: • • • • The following commands were introduced or modified by this feature: ip ips inherit-obsolete tunings, ip ips memory regex chaining, ip ips memory threshold. |
Direct Download from CCO capability in IOS IPS |
15.1(1)T |
This feature was introduced to allow an administrator to use the CLI to specify, download and upgrade new signatures posted for the IOS directly from Cisco.com. An administrator can also configure the router through the CLI to receive future periodic signature downloads automatically to eliminate the manual maintenance efforts and costs of changing or tuning IPS signatures whenever a new IPS signature update is posted. The following commands were introduced or modified by this feature: cisco, ida-client server url, ip ips auto-update, ip signature update cisco, occur-at. |
Capability to save local delta changes on IOS routers |
15.1(2)T |
This feature was introduced to generate a local cli-delta.xmz file on the router containing the signature tuning settings configured through the CLI. This local file takes precedence when a globally administered delta signature update, contained in the IPS iosips-sig-delta.xmz file, is sent from a central repository and applied to the configuration of the local router. The following sections provide information about this feature: • • The following commands were introduced or modified: ip ips enable-clidelta, show ip ips sig-clidelta. |
Cisco and the Cisco Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1005R)
Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.
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