Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University How to Evaluate Network Intrusion Detection Systems?

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University Outline Published IDS evaluations IDS Comparisons  NSS IDS Group Test  Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute  Massachusetts Institute of Technology IDS Evaluation Methodologies  NFR Security  University of California, Davis Criteria for Evaluating Network Intrusion Detection Systems

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University Published IDS evaluations Evaluation:  Determination of the level to which a particular IDS meets specified performance targets. Comparison:  A process of 'comparing' two or more systems in order to differentiate between them. The majority of published documents claiming to evaluate IDSs are conducted as comparisons, rather than evaluations.

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University IDS Comparisons (1/3) The NSS Group. (2001). Intrusion Detection Systems Group Test (edition 2).  This is a comprehensive report on 15 commercial and open source Intrusion Detection Systems.  Background traffic: Smartbits SMB6000 and Adtech AX/4000 monitor system Advantage in background traffic: They are capable of generating sufficient traffic to saturate the network. Two disadvantage in background traffic: False positives being generated is reduced. The actual attacks would differ significantly to the background traffic.

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NSS Performance Testing (edition 3) Network IDS Testing Procedure Test 1 – Attack Recognition Test 2 – Performance Under Load Test 3 – IDS Evasion Techniques Test 4 – Stateful Operation Test

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NSS Test Environment Symantec Ghost Win2000 SP2 FreeBSD 4.5 RedHat 7.2 Solaris 8 Attacker DUT IDS Private Subnet IDS Console Switch Smartbit & WebAvalanche

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University Network Taps

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University WebAvalanche and WebReflector

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 1 – Attack Recognition Attack suite contains over 100 attacks covering the following areas:  Application bugs  Back Doors/Trojan/DDOS  Denial of Service  Finger  FTP  HTTP  ICMP  Mail (SMTP/POP3)  Malicious Data Input  Reconnaissance  SNMP  SANS Top 20

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 1 Result

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 2 – Performance Under Load Use boping / bosting tools. Small (64 byte UDP) packets with valid source/destination IP addresses and ports. 25 per cent network utilisation (37000pps) 50 per cent network utilisation (74000pps) 75 per cent network utilisation (111000pps) 100 per cent network utilisation (148000pps) “Real world” packet mix. 25 per cent network utilisation (10000pps - 60 conns/sec) 50 per cent network utilisation (20000pps conns/sec) 75 per cent network utilisation (30000pps conns/sec) 100 per cent network utilisation (40000pps conns/sec) Large (1514 byte) packets containing valid payload and address data. 25 per cent network utilisation (2044pps) 50 per cent network utilisation (4088pps) 75 per cent network utilisation (6132pps) 100 per cent network utilisation (8176pps)

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 2 Report Internet Security Systems RealSecure 7.0 Cisco Secure IDS 4230 Snort 1.8.6

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 3 – IDS Evasion Techniques (2/2) Using fragroute Ordered IP fragments of various sizes Out-of-order IP fragments of various sizes Duplicate fragments TCP segmentation overlap TCP and IP chaffing Whisker and Stealth Web Scanner URL encoding /./ directory insertion Premature URL ending Long URL Fake parameter TAB separation Case sensitivity Windows \ delimiter Session splicing

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 3 – IDS Evasion Techniques (2/2) Finally, we run several common exploits in their normal form, followed by the same exploits altered by various evasion techniques including:  RPC record fragging  Inserting spaces in command lines  Inserting non-text Telnet opcodes in data stream  Fragmentation  Polymorphic mutation (ADMmutate)

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 3 Report Internet Security Systems RealSecure 7.0 Cisco Secure IDS 4230 Snort 1.8.6

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 4 – Stateful Operation Test Test 1:  Use Stick and Snot to generate large numbers of false alerts on the protected subnet.  During the attack, we also launch a subset of our basic common exploits to determine whether the IDS sensor continues to detect and alert.  The effect on the overall sensor performance and logging capability is noted. Test 2:  Create FTP session.  Use the CAW WebAvalanche to open various numbers of TCP sessions from 10,000 to 1,000,000  If the IDS is still maintaining state on the first session established, the exploit will be recorded.  If the state tables have been exhausted, the exploit string will be seen as a non- stateful attack, and will thus be ignored.

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University NIDS Test 4 Report Internet Security Systems RealSecure 7.0 Cisco Secure IDS 4230 Snort 1.8.6

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University IDS Comparisons (2/3) Allen, J. Christie, A. William, F. McHugh, J. Pickel, J. Stoner, E. (2000) State of the Practice of Intrusion Detection Technologies. Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute.  This publication covers a wide range if issues facing Intrusion Detection Issues: Functionality Performance Implementation  This document provides useful insights to important weaknesses of IDSs and a plethora of links to further information.  This publication also includes a list of recommended IDS selection criteria as a appendix.

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University IDS Comparisons (3/3) Richard P. Lippmann, Robert K. Cunningham, David J. Fried, Issac Graf, Kris R. Kendall, Seth E. Webster, Marc A. Zissman(1999). Results of the DARPA 1998 Offline Intrusion Detection Evaluation, slides presented at RAID 1999 Conference, September 7-9, 1999, West Lafayette, Indiana. Haines, J, W. Lippmann, R, P. Fried, R, P. Korba, J. & Das, K. (1999) The 1999 DARPA Off-Line Intrusion Detection Evaluation. Haines, J, W. Lippmann, R, P. Fried, R, P. Zissman, M, A. Tran, E. & Bosswell, S, B. (1999) DARPA Intrusion Detection Evaluation: Design and Procedures. Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  This series of publications is a combined research effort from Lincoln Laboratory, DARPA and the American Air force.  These combined publications refer to two comprehensive evaluations of IDSs and IDS technologies.  These evaluations attempted to quantify specific performance measures of IDSs and test these against a background of realistic network traffic.

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University MIT Test Methodology A ratio of attack detection to False positive Ability of anomaly detection techniques to detect new attacks A comparison of host vs. network based systems to detect different types of attacks Ability to detect new and stealthy attacks

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University IDS Evaluation Methodologies (1/2) Ranum, M, J. (2001). Experiences Benchmarking Intrusion Detection Systems. NFR Security  This article discusses a number of issues relating to techniques used to benchmark IDSs.  Highly critical of many published IDS comparison for their lack of understanding of IDS techniques, and thus ability to design appropriate testing methodologies.  Discusses the various measures that can be and have been used measure the performance of IDSs. The importance of using real life traffic and attacks in the evaluation process, rather than simulated traffic and attacks.

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University IDS Evaluation Methodologies (2/2) Puketza, N. Chung, M. Olsson, R, A. & Mukherjee, B. (1996). Simulating Concurrent Intrusions for Testing Intrusion Detection Systems: Parallelizing Intrusions. University of California, Davis. Puketza, N. Zhang, K. Chung, M. Olsson, R, A. & Mukherjee, B. (1996). A Methodology for Testing Intrusion Detection Systems. University of California, Davis. Puketza, N. Chung, M. Olsson, R, A. & Mukherjee, B. (1997). A Software Platform for testing Intrusion Detection Systems. University of California, Davis.  Puketza have developed a application to simulate specific attacks against a target system. These attacks can be scripted to run concurrently or in a specific sequence.  The advantage of this methodology is that each test can easily be repeated for each device under test.  One disadvantage of this application is that it does target older vulnerabilities in UNIX systems, which should not apply to a current operating system.

Information Networking Security and Assurance Lab National Chung Cheng University Criteria for Evaluating Network Intrusion Detection Systems Ability to identify attacks  Known vulnerabilities and attacks  Unknown attacks  Relevance of attacks Stability, Reliability and Security Information provided to analyst  Severity, potential damage  Outcome of attack  Legal validity of data collected Manageability  Ease or complexity of configuration  Possible configuration options Scalability and interoperability Vendor support  Signature updates

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