Glossary
A group of
Series 3 FirePOWER
managed devices. The devices in this series include the 70xx Family (the 3D7010, 3D7020, 3D7030, 3D7050 models) and the 71xx Family (the 3D7110, 3D7115, 3D7120, 3D7125, AMP7150 models).
A group of
Series 3 FirePOWER
managed devices. The devices in this series include the 81xx Family (the 3D8120, 3D8130, 3D8140, AMP8150 models), the 82xx Family (the 3D8250, 3D8260, 3D8270, 3D8290 models), and the 83xx Family (the 3D8350, 3D8360, 3D8370, 3D8390 models). 8000 Series devices are generally more powerful than the
7000 Series devices.
A
policy that you
apply to managed
devices to perform
access control on the network traffic monitored by those devices. An access control policy may include multiple
access control rules; it also specifies a
default action, which determines the handling and logging of traffic that does not meet the criteria of any of those rules. An access control policy can also specify HTTP response page,
Security Intelligence, and other advanced settings.
A set of conditions the FireSIGHT System uses to examine your monitored network traffic and which allows you to achieve granular
access control. Access control rules, which populate an
access control policy, may perform simple IP address matching, or may characterize complex
connections involving different users,
applications, ports, and URLs. The access control rule action determines how the system handles traffic that meets the rule’s conditions. Other rule settings determine how (and whether) the connection is logged, and whether an
intrusion policy or
file policy inspects matching traffic.
A list of IP addresses, configured in the
system policy, that represents the
hosts that can access an
appliance. By default, anyone can access the web interface of an appliance using port 443 (HTTPS), as well as the command line using port 22 (SSH). You can also add SNMP access using port 161.
advanced malware protection
A
preprocessor or other
intrusion policy feature that requires specific expertise to configure. Advanced settings typically require little or no modification and are not common to every deployment.
A notification that the system has generated a specific
event. You can alert based on
intrusion events (including their impact flags), discovery events,
malware events, correlation policy violations, health status changes, and
connections logged by specific
access control rules. In most cases, you can alert via email, syslog, or SNMP trap.
A type of
application that represents application protocol traffic detected during communications between server and
client applications on hosts; for example, SSH or HTTP.
The action you take to have a
policy, or changes to that policy, take effect. You apply most policies from the
Defense Center to its managed
devices; however, you activate and deactivate
correlation policies because they do not involve changes to the configuration of managed devices.
Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services
A group of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA)
managed devices. The devices in this series include the ASA5512-X, ASA5515-X, ASA5525-X, ASA5545-X, ASA5555-X, ASA5585-X-SSP-10, ASA5585-X-SSP-20, ASA5585-X-SSP-40, and ASA5585-X-SSP-60 models.
A collection of regularly updated lists of IP addresses determined by the
Cisco VRT to have a poor reputation. Each list in the feed represents a specific category: open relays, known attackers, bogus IP addresses (bogon), and so on. In an
access control policy, you can blacklist any or all of the categories using
Security Intelligence. Because the intelligence feed is regularly updated, using it ensures that the system uses up-to-date information to filter your network traffic.
Cisco’s Vulnerability Research Team.
Also called a client application, an
application that runs on one
host and relies on another host (a
server) to perform some operation. For example, email clients allow you to send and receive email. When the system detects that a user on a host is using a specific client to access another host, it reports that information in the host profile and
network map, including the name and version (if available) of the client.
A feature that allows you to achieve redundancy of networking functionality and configuration data between two peer Series 3
devices or stacks. Clustering provides a single logical system for
policy applies, system updates, and registration. Compare with
high availability, which allows you to configure redundant
Defense Centers.
A restricted text-based interface on Series 3 and virtual
devices. The commands that CLI users can run depend on the users’ assigned level of access.
A page that displays detailed, interactive graphical information about your monitored network, using
intrusion,
connection, file,
geolocation, malware, and
discovery policy. Distinct sections present information in the form of vivid line, bar, pie, and donut graphs, accompanied by detailed lists. You can easily create and apply custom filters to fine-tune your analysis, and you can examine data sections in more detail by clicking or hovering your cursor over graph areas. Compared with a
dashboard, which is highly customizable, compartmentalized, and updates in real time, the Context Explorer is manually updated, designed to provide broader context for its data, and has a single, consistent layout designed for active user exploration.
A pop-up menu, available on many of the pages in the web interface, that you can use as a shortcut for accessing other features in the FireSIGHT System. The contents of the menu depend on several factors, including the page you are viewing, the specific data you are investigating, and your
user role. Context menu options include links to
intrusion rule,
event, and host information; various intrusion rule settings, quick links to the Context Explorer; options to add a host to the Security Intelligence global blacklist or global whitelist by its IP address; and options to add a file to the global whitelist by its SHA-256 hash value.
A feature you can use to build a correlation policy that responds in real time to threats on your network. The
remediation component of correlation provides a flexible API that allows you to create and upload your own custom remediation modules to respond to
policy violations.
A
user role with specialized access privileges. Custom user roles may have any set of menu-based and system permissions, and may be completely original or based on a predefined user role.
A display that provides at-a-glance views of current system status, including data about the
events collected and generated by the system. To augment the dashboards delivered with the system, you can create multiple custom dashboards, populated with the
dashboard widgets you choose. Compare with the Context Explorer, which offers a broad, brief, and colorful picture of how your monitored network looks and acts.
A small, self-contained
dashboard component that provides insight into an aspect of the FireSIGHT System.
A feature that allows read-only access to the
Defense Center database by a third-party client.
A central management point that allows you to manage
devices and automatically aggregate and correlate the
events they generate.
A component of the FireSIGHT System that uses managed
devices to monitor your network and provide you with a complete, persistent view of your network. Network discovery determines the number and types of
hosts (including
network devices and
mobile devices) on your network, as well as information about the operating systems, active
applications, and open ports on those hosts. You can also configure Cisco managed devices to monitor
user activity on your network, which allows you to identify the source of policy breaches, attacks, or network vulnerabilities.
A collection of details about a specific occurrence that you can view in the event viewer, using workflows. Events may represent attacks on your network, changes in your detected network assets, violations of your organization’s security and network use policies, and so on. The system also generates events that contain information about the changing health status of
appliances, your use of the web interface,
rule updates, and launched
remediations. Finally, the system presents certain other information as events, even though these “events” do not represent particular occurrences. For example, you can use the event viewer to view detailed information about detected
hosts,
applications, and their vulnerabilities.
A component of the system that allows you to view and manipulate
events. The event viewer uses workflows to present a broad, then a more focused event view that contains only the events of interest to you. You can constrain the events in an event view by drilling down through the workflow, or by using a search.
A
rule that you configure at a
device’s hardware level, using a limited set of criteria, to allow traffic that does not need to be analyzed to bypass processing.
A feature that, as part of
access control, allows you to specify and log the types of files that can traverse your network.
A specific type of file format, such as PDF, EXE, or MP3.
Cisco’s enterprise-class,
endpoint-based, advanced malware analysis and protection solution that discovers, understands, and blocks malware outbreaks, persistent threats, and targeted attacks. If your organization has a
FireAMP subscription, individual users install lightweight
FireAMP Connectors on endpoints (computers, mobile devices), which then communicate with the
Cisco cloud. This allows you to quickly identify and quarantine malware, as well as identify outbreaks when they occur, track their trajectory, understand their effects, and learn how to successfully recover. You can also use the FireAMP portal to create custom protections, block execution of certain applications, and create custom whitelists. Compare with network-based
advanced malware protection.
A lightweight agent that users in a subscription-based
FireAMP deployment install on
endpoints, such as computers and mobile devices. Connectors communicate with the
Cisco cloud, exchanging information that allow you to quickly identify and quarantine malware throughout your organization.
A feature that provides data on the geographical source of routable IP addresses detected in traffic on your monitored network including connection type, internet service provider, and so on. You can see geolocation information which is stored in the geolocation database, in connection events,
intrusion events, file events, and
malware events, as well as in host profiles.
Also called the GeoDB, a regularly updated database of known geolocation data associated with routable IP addresses.
A test of a particular performance aspect, such as CPU usage or available disk space, of the
appliances in your deployment. Health modules, which you enable in a
health policy, generate health events when the performance aspects they monitor reach a certain level.
A feature that continuously monitors the performance of the
appliances in your deployment. The health monitor uses
health modules within an applied
health policy to test the appliances.
The criteria used when checking the health of an
appliance in your deployment. Health policies use
health modules to indicate whether your FireSIGHT System hardware and software are working correctly. You can use the default health policy or create your own.
A feature that allows you to configure redundant physical
Defense Centers to manage groups of
devices. Event data streams from managed devices to both Defense Centers and most configuration elements are maintained on both Defense Centers. If your primary Defense Center fails, you can monitor your network without interruption using the secondary Defense Center. Compare with
clustering, which allows you to designate redundant devices.
A device that is connected to a network and has a unique IP address. To the FireSIGHT System, a host is any identified host that is not categorized as a
mobile device, bridge,
router,
NAT device, or
logical interface.
A feature that allows you to
import data from third-party sources using scripts or command-line files to augment the information in the
network map. The web interface also provides some host input functionality; you can modify operating system or
application protocol identities, validate or invalidate vulnerabilities, and delete various items from the network map, including
clients and
server ports.
A method that you can use to transfer various configurations from
appliance to appliance. You can import configurations that you previously exported from another appliance of the same type.
A security breach, attack, or exploit that occurs on your network.
intrusion detection and prevention
The monitoring of your network traffic for
security policy violations, and, in
inline deployments, the ability to block or alter malicious traffic. In the FireSIGHT System, you perform intrusion detection and prevention when you associate an intrusion policy with an access control rule or default action.
An
event that records an
intrusion policy violation. Intrusion event data includes the date, time, and the type of exploit, as well as other contextual information about the attack and its target.
A variety of components that you can configure to inspect your network traffic for
intrusions and
security policy violations. These components include
intrusion rules that inspect the protocol header values, payload content, and certain packet size characteristics; variables commonly used in intrusion rules; a FireSIGHT recommended rules configuration;
advanced settings such as
preprocessors and other detection and performance features; and
preprocessor rules that allow you to generate events for associated preprocessor options. When your network traffic meets the conditions in an
access control rule, you can inspect that traffic with an intrusion policy; you can also associate an intrusion policy with the
default action.
A set of keywords and arguments that, when applied to monitored network traffic, identify potential
intrusions,
security policy violations, and security breaches. The system compares packets against rule conditions. If the packet data matches the conditions, the rule triggers and generates an
intrusion event. Intrusion rules include drop rules and pass rules.
A form of external authentication that verifies user credentials by comparing them to a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory stored on an LDAP directory server.
Lights-Out-Management (LOM)
A Series 3 feature that allows you to use an out-of-band Serial over LAN (SOL) management connection to remotely monitor or manage
appliances without logging into the web interface of the appliance. You can perform limited tasks, such as viewing the chassis serial number or monitoring such conditions as fan speed and temperature.
An option for
inline sets in bypass mode that automatically brings down the second interface in a pair when one of the interfaces in an inline set goes down. When the downed interface comes back up, the second interface automatically comes back up also. In other words, if the link state of a paired interface changes, the link state of the other interface changes automatically to match it.
A virtual subinterface that you define to handle traffic with specific
VLAN tags as the tagged traffic passes through a
physical interface.
A process by which the
Defense Center communicates with the
Cisco cloud to determine the malware disposition of a file detected in network traffic, based on the file’s SHA-256 hash value.
A component of Cisco’s network-based
advanced malware protection (AMP) solution. File policies applied to managed
devices as part of your overall
access control configuration inspect network traffic. The Defense Center then performs
malware cloud lookups for specific detected
file types, and generates events that alert you to the files’ malware dispositions. AMP malware blocking follows and either blocks the file or allows its upload or download. Compare this functionality with
FireAMP, Cisco’s endpoint-based AMP tool that requires a
FireAMP subscription.
An
event generated by one of Cisco’s
advanced malware protection solutions. Network-based malware events are generated when the
Cisco cloud returns a malware disposition for a file detected in network traffic; retrospective malware events are generated when that disposition changes. Compare with
endpoint-based malware events, which are generated when a deployed
FireAMP Connector detects a threat, blocks malware execution, or quarantines or fails to quarantine malware.
management traffic channel
In the FireSIGHT System, a
host identified by the
discovery feature as a mobile, handheld device (such as a mobile phone or tablet). The system can often detect whether a mobile device is jailbroken.
In an
access control policy, a way to log traffic that matches a Security Intelligence blacklist or
access control rule, but allows the system to continue to evaluate the traffic rather than immediately allowing or blocking it.
multiple management interfaces
Additional management interfaces on Series 3 appliances that you can configure to either separate traffic into traffic channels to improve performance, or to create a route to an additional network to allow your Defense Center to isolate traffic on different networks. You can also route traffic channels to separate networks to increase throughput capacity. See
management interface.
Network address translation, a feature most commonly used to share a single internet connection among multiple
hosts on a private network. Using
discovery, the system can identify
network devices as
logical interfaces. In addition, in a Layer 3 deployment of the FireSIGHT System, you can configure routing with
NAT using a
NAT policy.
A policy that uses
NAT rules to perform routing with
NAT.
A
policy that specifies the kinds of
discovery policy (including
host, user, and
application data) the system collects for specific network segments, including networks monitored by
NetMod-enabled devices. The network discovery policy also manages
import resolution preferences and active detection source priorities.
A visual representation of a file’s path as
hosts transfer it across your network. For any file with an associated SHA-256 hash value, the trajectory map displays the IP addresses of all hosts that have transferred the file, the time the file was detected, the file’s malware disposition, associated file events and
malware events, and so on.
A detailed representation of your network. The network map allows you to view your network topology in terms of the
hosts,
mobile devices, and
network devices running on your network, as well as their associated host attributes,
application protocols, and vulnerabilities.
The collection of
discovery policy through analysis of traffic passively collected by managed
devices. Compare with active detection.
An interface that represents a physical port on a
NetMod.
A feature that normalizes traffic inspected by an
intrusion policy and that helps identify network layer and transport layer protocol anomalies by identifying inappropriate header options, defragmenting IP datagrams, providing TCP stateful inspection and stream reassembly, and validating checksums. Preprocessors can also render specific types of packet data in a format that the system can analyze; these preprocessors are called data normalization preprocessors, or application layer protocol preprocessors. Normalizing application layer protocol encoding allows the system to effectively apply the same content-related intrusion rules to packets whose data is represented differently and obtain meaningful results. Preprocessors generate
preprocessor rules whenever packets trigger preprocessor options that you configure.
An
intrusion rule associated with a
preprocessor or with the portscan flow detector. You must enable preprocessor rules if you want them to generate
events. Preprocessor rules have a preprocessor-specific GID (generator ID).
Your organization’s internal network that is protected from users of other networks by a device such as a firewall. Many of the
intrusion rules delivered with the FireSIGHT System use variables to define the protected network and the unprotected (or outside) network.
Remote Authentication Dial In User Service, a service used to authenticate, authorize, and account for user access to network resources. You can create an external authentication object to allow FireSIGHT System users to authenticate through a RADIUS server.
An action that mitigates potential attacks on your system. You can configure remediations and, within a correlation policy, associate them with correlation rules and compliance white lists so that when they trigger, the
Defense Center launches the remediation. This can not only automatically mitigate attacks when you are not immediately available to address them, but can also ensure that your system remains compliant with your organization’s
security policy. The Defense Center ships with predefined remediation modules, and you also can use a flexible API to create custom remediations.
An interface that routes traffic in a Layer 3 deployment. You can set up physical routed interfaces for handling untagged
VLAN traffic, and logical routed interfaces for handling traffic with designated VLAN tags. You can also add static Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) entries to routed interfaces.
A construct, usually within a
policy, that provides criteria against which network traffic is examined.
A setting that determines how the system handles network traffic that meets the conditions of a rule. See access control rule and file rule action.
Whether an
intrusion rule is enabled (set to Generate Events or Drop and Generate Events), or disabled (set to Disable) within an
intrusion policy. If you enable a rule, it is used to evaluate your network traffic; if you disable a rule, it is not used.
An as-needed
intrusion rule update that contains new and updated standard text rules, shared object rules, and preprocessor rules. A rule update may also delete rules, modify default intrusion policy settings, and add or delete system variables and rule categories.
An administrative task that you can schedule to run once or at recurring intervals.
A feature that allows you to specify the traffic that can traverse your network, per
access control policy, based on the source or destination IP address. This is especially useful if you want to blacklist—deny traffic to and from—specific IP addresses, before the traffic is subjected to analysis by
access control rules. Optionally, you can use a
monitor setting for Security Intelligence filtering, which allows the system to analyze connections that would have been blacklisted, but also logs the match to the blacklist.
Security Intelligence feed
One of the types of Security Intelligence objects, a dynamic collection of IP addresses that the system downloads on a regular basis, at an interval you configure. Because feeds are regularly updated, using them ensures that the system uses up-to-date information to filter your network traffic using the
Security Intelligence feature. See also
Cisco Intelligence Feed.
Security Intelligence list
A simple static collection of IP addresses that you manually upload to the Defense Center as a Security Intelligence object. Use lists to augment and fine-tune
Security Intelligence feeds as well as the global blacklist and global whitelist.
An organization's guidelines for protecting its network. For example, your
security policy might forbid the use of wireless access points. A security policy may also include an acceptable use policy (AUP), which provides employees with guidelines of how they may use their organization’s systems.
security policy violation
A security breach, attack, exploit, or other misuse of your network.
A grouping of one or more inline, passive, switched, or
routed interfaces that you can use to manage and classify traffic flow in various policies and configurations. The interfaces in a single zone may span multiple
devices; you can also configure multiple security zones on a single device. You must assign each interface you configure to a security zone before it can handle traffic, and each interface can belong to only one security zone.
The second series of Cisco
appliance models. Because of resource, architecture, and licensing limitations, Series 2 appliances support a restricted set of FireSIGHT System features. Series 2 devices include the 3D500, 3D1000, 3D2000, 3D2100, 3D2500, 3D3500, 3D4500, 3D6500, and 3D9900. Series 2
Defense Centers include the DC500, DC1000, and DC3000.
A small form-factor pluggable transceiver that is inserted into a network module on a 71xx Family device. Sensing interfaces on SFP modules do not allow
configurable bypass.
Two to four connected
devices that share detection resources.
A feature that allows you to increase the amount of traffic inspected on a network segment by connecting two to four physical
devices in a stacked configuration. When you establish a stacked configuration, you combine the resources of each stacked device into a single, shared configuration.
An interface that you want to use to switch traffic in a Layer 2 deployment. You can set up physical switched interfaces for handling untagged
VLAN traffic, and logical switched interfaces for handling traffic with designated VLAN tags.
Settings that are likely to be similar for multiple
appliances in a deployment, such as mail relay host preferences and time synchronization settings. Use the
Defense Center to
apply a system policy to itself and its managed
devices.
A type of workflow page that displays
event information, with one column for each of the fields in the database table. When performing event analysis, you can use drill-down pages to constrain the events you want to investigate before moving to the table view that shows you the details about the events you are interested in. The table view is often the next-to-last page in workflows delivered with the system.
An advanced
inline set option available on 3D9900 and Series 3 devices where a copy of each packet is analyzed and the network traffic flow is undisturbed instead of passing through the
device. Because you are working with copies of packets rather than the packets themselves, the device cannot affect the packet stream even if you configure access control and intrusion policies to drop, modify, or block traffic.
A queue of jobs that the
appliance needs to perform. When you
apply a
policy, install software updates, and perform other long-running jobs, the jobs are queued and their status reported on the Task Status page. The Task Status page provides a detailed list of jobs and refreshes every ten seconds to update their status.
A connection you can configure on the management interface of a Series 3 appliance or virtual Defense Center to carry either management or event traffic. The event traffic channel carries only externally generated traffic (such as web browsers and so on) and the management traffic channel carries only internally generated traffic (that is, management traffic between the Defense Center and the device). See
multiple management interfaces.
An advanced
inline set option that allows a
device to act as a “bump in the wire” and to forward all the network traffic it sees, regardless of its source and destination.
A general classification for a URL, such as malware or social networking.
A feature that allows you to write
access control rules that determine the traffic that can traverse your network based on URLs requested by monitored hosts, correlated with
URL category and URL reputation information about those URLs, which is obtained from the
Cisco cloud by the
Defense Center. You can also achieve more granular, custom control over web traffic by specifying individual URLs or groups of URLs to allow or block.
A license that allows you to perform
URL filtering based on
URL category and URL reputation information. URL Filtering licenses may expire.
A user whose network activity has been detected by a managed
device or
User Agent.
An
event generated when the system detects a user login (optionally, including some failed login attempts) or the addition or deletion of a user record from the
Defense Center database.
An agent you install on a
server to monitor users as they log into the network or when they authenticate against Active Directory credentials for any other reason. User activity for access-controlled users is used for
access control only when reported by a User Agent.
A feature that allows your organization to correlate threat, endpoint, and network intelligence with user identity information, and that allows you to perform
user control.
A feature that, as part of
access control, allows you to specify and log the user-associated traffic that can enter your network, exit it, or cross from within without leaving it.
The level of access granted to a user of the FireSIGHT System. For example, you can grant different access privileges to the web interface for
event analysts, the administrator managing the FireSIGHT System, users accessing the
Defense Center database using third-party tools, and so on. You can also create custom roles with specialized access privileges.
Coordinated Universal Time. Also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), UTC is the standard time common to every place in the world. The FireSIGHT System uses UTC, although you can set the local time using the Time Zone feature.
A
Defense Center that you can deploy on your own equipment in a virtual hosting environment.
A group of
routed interfaces that route Layer 3 traffic. In a Layer 3 deployment, you can configure virtual routers to route packets by making packet forwarding decisions according to the destination IP address. You can define static routes, configure Routing Information Protocol (RIP) and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) dynamic routing protocols, as well as implement Network Address Translation (
NAT).
A group of
switched interfaces that process inbound and outbound traffic through your network. In a Layer 2 deployment, you can configure virtual switches on managed
devices to operate as standalone broadcast domains, dividing your network into logical segments. A virtual
switch uses the media access and control (MAC) address from a host to determine where to send packets.
Virtual local area network. VLANs map hosts not by geographic location, but by some other criterion, such as by department or primary use. A monitored host’s host profile shows any VLAN information associated with the host. VLAN information is also included in
intrusion events, as the innermost VLAN tag in the packet that triggered the event. You can filter intrusion policies by VLAN and target compliance white lists by VLAN. In Layer 2 and Layer 3 deployments, you can configure
virtual switches and
virtual routers on managed
devices to appropriately handle VLAN-tagged traffic.
A description of a specific compromise to which a
host is susceptible. The
Defense Center provides information on the vulnerabilities to which each of your hosts is vulnerable in the hosts’ host profiles. In addition, you can use the vulnerabilities
network map to obtain an overall view of the vulnerabilities that the system has detected on your entire monitored network. If you deem a
host or hosts no longer vulnerable to a specific compromise, you can deactivate, or mark as invalid, a specific vulnerability.
Also called the VDB, a database of known vulnerabilities to which
hosts may be susceptible. The system correlates the operating system,
application protocols, and
clients detected on each host with the VDB to help you determine whether a particular host increases your risk of network compromise. VDB updates may contain new and updated vulnerabilities, as well as new and updated application detectors.
A type of
application that represents the content of, or requested URL for, HTTP traffic.
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