Ravi Chunduru wrote:
Am I right in saying that block rate is low, but detection rate could
be lot higher.
Yes. If you were putting in a UTM firewall to be used as an IDS, then you
certainly might say that the detection rate should be much higher. However, I
was testing ONLY with the devices set in "sane IPS mode." In other words, I
configured them as I believe a sane IPS manager would do. I also have numbers
for what are "insane" configurations (i.e., turn every signature on). You'll
see dramatic differences. For example, SonicWALL and Juniper ISG-1000 more than
doubled their catch rates.
Now, I am fairly opposed to putting an IDS inside your firewall---I think that
this is asking for trouble performance-wise---but certainly there are very
different catch rates when you configure the devices as an IDS.
BUT, there is a big issue here, which is that many of these devices were not
engineered to be IDSes. In other words, they have a signature set configured
specifically for IPS blocking capabilities, and the "IDS-ish" signatures and
behaviors aren't even there. My conclusion is that GENERALLY you will not want
to use a UTM firewall as an IDS, because of performance and because of the
specific design. That being said, since Cisco & Juniper are sticking their
off-the-shelf IDS/IPS in their boxes, of course either of those might work well
as an IDS. They also have coprocessing for the IDS stuff, which makes the
performance less of a problem.
> Are there any results on vulnerability detection rate
by these devices? I don't find this kind of result in the report.
No, and I honestly don't think that this is the right place to put your IDS.
Yes, you may want to tap off the lead from the firewall towards the internal
and/or lobby/DMZ networks, but I am not seeing a major architectural or design
benefit, at least in my mind, for most networks in sticking the IDS in the firewall.
I
think another important factor in IPS is its false positive rate. Was
this testing also done? I don't seem to find results on this item in
the report.
I agree and I really wanted to put in false positive testing, but this is
exceedingly difficult to do. For one thing, there are no automated tools to do
this, which means that we'd have to develop and deploy such a tool. For
another, it's difficult to say what is a false positive and what is not,
especially as you get to some of the more esoteric attacks. I am going to try
and get a little more in-depth in IPS testing this year, so I'm going to think
about this harder. But if anyone out there on focus-IDS has ideas on how you
would false positive test an IPS in a laboratory, that'd be a great thread to
launch.
Any comments on low performance of these devices. It appears that
some of these devices are suitable for Enterprise Edge and are not
suitable for Enterprise-Core.
I think you're stating the obvious here (and I don't mean to be
insulting---you're just restating my own conclusion), but I will point out one
important issue: we specifically asked for 1Gbit boxes, and not faster than
that. In fact, we told the vendors NOT to overpower us because they would
appear too expensive. So it is possible that many of these boxes have a higher
performance brother/sister (e.g., Juniper ISG-2000 to the ISG-1000 we tested;
Fortinet 3800 to the 3600 we tested) that is more enterprise-core.
On the other hand, if you're saying "I need 1Gbps clear channel after IPS," then
obviously there are some issues here with the boxes we tested. I am not going
to argue with you that any of these boxes that does 250 Mbps is good enough for
a 1Gbps core. Once you get to that speed, you need a faster box than we
tested, and whether that means you need to have multiple CPUs (i.e., stacked
boxes, one firewall and one IPS) or a big-ass box faster than any we tested is
probably up to you as security architect.
jms
Ravi
On Dec 3, 2007 8:30 AM, Joel M Snyder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I wouldn't necessarily say that catch rates are disappointing. With IPS, it is
very difficult to say what a good catch rate is. Clearly, the ISS box "caught"
more things than all of the other guys, but remember that the purpose of an IPS
is to handle that narrow window between problem and patch--if you are relying on
your IPS to block SQL Slammer, you've got some major architectural conceptual
errors in your network that IPS won't help you with.
I was pretty careful NOT to make any pejorative statement about the catch rate
(except to say that relative catch rates give you relatively 'better' IPS), and
I think that we ALL have to be careful in that area.
I don't believe that anyone can credibly put a stake in the ground and say "an
IPS must block these specific attacks" and then defend that position. This is
very different from, say, A/V or firewall, where there's a much clearer
black-and-white line about what you need to support.
Clearly there are some pathological environments where an IPS somehow
substitutes for a firewall and where 6000 signatures is the "right number" to
have. But in enterprise deployments, it's very unclear to me how to adequately
test an IPS for coverage. I can do performance easily enough, but checking
coverage (which is what the Mu-4000 does) just seems quite dangerous.
Anyway, I think that it is useful to see the comparative values on IPS catch
rate, but I would not go so far as to say that having an average catch rate in
the 30% to 40% range is "bad" or "good" for these products.
I want to distance any testing we do from the bogus premise that you see in
tests like the ICSA certifications where they pick specific attacks and say that
you must block these. To me, that's not supportable. It may be in an IDS, but
IDS and IPS are entirely different beasts, and we were testing these products as
IPSes, not IDSes.
jms
Ravi Chunduru wrote:
this is really a great report and i am sure lot of effort has gone
into this. catch rates and perforamance is really caught my eye.
Catch rates are really disappointing across the board except for ISS.
i do understand that client attack detection is new, but even the
server side catch rates are awfully low. i understand that these are
expensive boxes. i did not see any vendor responses on low catch rate
and performace.
is this due to technology limitation or is it that devices tested are
not up to mark?
Ravi
On 14 Nov 2007 15:28:18 -0000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
After months and months and months in the lab, a huge UTM test I did for
Network World is now available (for free, folks, for free) on their web site.
I apologize in advance if you have to click 800 times to read the whole 19,000
words, but here goes:
Main story starting point:
http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2007/111207-utm-firewall-test.html
Just the discussion of IPS in the UTM firewall/enterprise space:
http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2007/111207-utm-firewall-test-ips.html
Chart on catch rates based on Mu-4000 testing:
http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2007/111207ips.html
If you're not sure that enterprise should even be running IPS in their
firewalls, you can click on the link below for a header page which has further
links with some discussion on the pros and cons of that issue:
http://www.networkworld.com/buyersguides/guide.php?cat=865480
Enjoy or not, as you see fit.
jms
--
Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719
Senior Partner, Opus One Phone: +1 520 324 0494
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opus1.com/jms
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test Your IDS
Is your IDS deployed correctly?
Find out quickly and easily by testing it
with real-world attacks from CORE IMPACT.
Go to
http://www.coresecurity.com/index.php5?module=Form&action=impact&campaign=intro_sfw
to learn more.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719
Senior Partner, Opus One Phone: +1 520 324 0494
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opus1.com/jms
--
Joel M Snyder, 1404 East Lind Road, Tucson, AZ, 85719
Senior Partner, Opus One Phone: +1 520 324 0494
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opus1.com/jms
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test Your IDS
Is your IDS deployed correctly?
Find out quickly and easily by testing it
with real-world attacks from CORE IMPACT.
Go to http://www.coresecurity.com/index.php5?module=Form&action=impact&campaign=intro_sfw
to learn more.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
