Introduction

This chapter provide a brief description of the Cisco Threat Grid Appliance, the intended audience and how to access relevant product documentation. It includes the following:

About Cisco Threat Grid Appliance

The Cisco Threat Grid appliance provides safe and highly secure on-premises advanced malware analysis, with deep threat analytics and content. A Threat Grid Appliance provides the complete Threat Grid malware analysis platform, installed on a single UCS server: Cisco UCS C220-M3 (TG5000) or Cisco UCS C220 M4 (TG5400). It empowers organizations operating under various compliance and policy restrictions, to submit malware samples to the appliance.

Many organizations that handle sensitive data, such as banks and health services, must follow various regulatory rules and guidelines that do not allow certain types of files, such as malware artifacts, to be sent outside of the network for malware analysis. By maintaining a Cisco Threat Grid Appliance on-premises, organizations are able to send suspicious documents and files to it to be analyzed without leaving the network.

With a Threat Grid Appliance, security teams can analyze all samples using proprietary and highly secure static and dynamic analysis techniques. The appliance correlates the analysis results with hundreds of millions of previously analyzed malware artifacts, to provide a global view of malware attacks and campaigns, and their distributions. A single sample of observed activity and characteristics can quickly be correlated against millions of other samples to fully understand its behaviors within an historical and global context. This ability helps security teams to effectively defend the organization against threats and attacks from advanced malware.

What's New In This Release

The following changes have been implemented in this guide in Version 2.7:

Table 1. Changes in Version 2.7.2

Feature or Update

Section

Background Elasticsearch index migration to ES6-native indexes enabled.

Database Schema Updates

Database base backups are only retained until a new base backup has been successfully created.

Backup Data Retention

Table 2. Changes in Version 2.7.1

Feature or Update

Section

Simulated Only option for Network Exit Mode

Configure Network Exit

Network Simulation option for sample analysis.

See note in Configure Network Exit

Table 3. Changes in Version 2.7

Feature or Update

Section

Network configuration in recovery mode now mirrow the full system.

Configure Networking in Recovery Mode

Threat Grid Appliance serial number is now used as hostname.

Configuration Using OpAdmin Portal

Configuring SSH public key for access to the Threat Grid Appliance disables password-based authentication via SSH.

Configure SSH Keys

TLS v1.0 and v1.1 disabled in Admin interface.

About SSL Certificates and Threat Grid Appliance

XFS is primary file system.

File System

Enhanced data reset process.

Data Reset Process

Sample deletion now includes artifacts, which matches the behavior of the cloud product.

Sample Deletion

Audience

This guide is intended to be used by the Threat Grid Appliance administrator after the appliance has been set up and configured, and an initial test malware sample has been successfully submitted and analyzed. It describes how to manage organizations and users for the Threat Grid malware analysis tool, appliance updates, backups, and other server administration tasks.

This guide also provides information for administrators who are integrating the Threat Grid Appliance with other Cisco products and services, such as Cisco Email Security Appliance, Cisco Web Security Appliance, and AMP for Endpoints Private Cloud devices.


Note

For information about Threat Grid Appliance setup and configuration, see the Cisco Threat Grid Appliance Setup and Configuration Guide.


Product Documentation

The latest versions of Cisco Threat Grid Appliance product documentation can be found on Cisco.com:

Prior version of Cisco Threat Grid Appliance product documentation can be found on the Threat Grid Install and Upgrade page.

Threat Grid Portal UI Online Help

Threat Grid Portal user documentation, including Release Notes, Using Threat Grid Online Help, API documentation, and other information is available from the Help menu located in the navigation bar at the top of the user interface.

Email Security Appliance and Web Security Appliance Documentation

For information on connecting an Email Security Appliance or Web Security Appliance, see Connecting ESA/WSA Appliances to a Threat Grid Appliance in this guide.

See the instructions for Enabling and Configuring File Reputation and Analysis Services in the online help or user guide for your ESA/WSA:

Threat Grid Support

There are several ways to request support from a Threat Grid engineer:

  • Email. Send email to support@threatgrid.com with your query.

  • Open a Support Case. You will need your Cisco.com ID (or to generate one) to open a support case. You will also need your service contract number, which was included on the order invoice. Enter your support case with the Cisco Support Case Manager.

  • Call. For Cisco phone numbers and contact information see the Cisco Contact page.

When requesting support from Threat Grid, please send the following information with your request:

  • Appliance version (OpAdmin > Operations > Update Appliance)

  • Full service status (service status from the shell)

  • Network diagram or description (if applicable)

  • Support Mode (Shell or Web interface)

  • Support Request Details

Enable Support Mode

If you require support from a Threat Grid engineer, they may ask you to enable Support Mode, which is a live support session that gives Threat Grid support engineers remote access to the appliance. Normal operations of the appliance will not be affected.

You can enable Support Mode from the OpAdmin portal Support menu. You can also enable it from the TGSH Dialog, the legacy Face Portal UI, and when booting up in Recovery Mode.

Procedure


Step 1

In the OpAdmin portal, click the Support menu and choose Live Support Session.

Figure 1. OpAdmin Start a Live Support Session
Step 2

Click Start Support Session.

Note 

You can exit the OpAdmin configuration wizard to enable Support Mode prior to licensing.


Support Snapshots

A support snapshot is basically a snapshot of the running system, which contains logs, psoutput, etc., to help Support staff troubleshoot any issues.

Procedure


Step 1

Verify that SSH is specified for Support Snapshot services.

Step 2

From the Support menu, choose Support Snapshots.

Step 3

Take the snapshot.

Step 4

Once you take the snapshot, download it as a .tar or .gz file, or click Submit, to automatically upload the snapshot to the Threat Grid snapshot server.