WoO Day 7 : Tidbits

And so a week of fun comes to an end. But before we part company, there are a few more items to discuss. There are portions of OSSEC that are often overlooked because they require little or no configuration, and they “just work.” Other features are either more involved, or require external products. Let’s take a look at a few of these.

Rootkit Detection

First up, rootkit detection. OSSEC ships with a set of rules and “signatures” designed to detect common rootkits. The default OSSEC installation uses two files, rootkit_files.txt and rootkit_trojans.txt, as the base of the rootkit detection.

The rootkit_files.txt file contains a list of files commonly found with rootkit infections. Using various system calls, OSSEC tries to detect if any of these files are installed on the machine and sends an alert if they are found. Multiple system calls are used because some rootkits hide themselves by altering system binaries and sometimes by altering system calls.

The rootkit_trojans.txt file contains a list of commonly trojaned files as well as patterns found in those files when they have been compromised. OSSEC will scan each file and compare it to the list of patterns. If a match is found, an alert is sent to the administrator.

There are also additional rootkit files shipped with OSSEC. For Windows clients there are three files containing signatures for common malware, signatures to detect commonly banned software packages, and signatures for checking windows policy settings. On the Linux side are a number of files for auditing system security and adhering to CIS policy. CIS policy auditing will be covered later.

Rootkit detection also goes beyond these signature-based methods. Other detection methods include scanning /dev for unusual entries, searching for hidden processes, and searching for hidden ports. Rootkit scanning is pretty in-depth and more information can be found in the OSSEC Manual.

CIS Auditing

CIS, the Center for Internet Security, publishes a benchmark tool for auditing system security on various operating systems. OSSEC can assist with compliance to the CIS guidelines by monitoring systems for non-conformity and alerting as necessary. Shipped by default with OSSEC are three cis-based signature sets for Redhat Linux and Debian. Creating new tests is fairly straightforward and the existing tests can be adapted as needed.

OSSEC Splunk

One thing that OSSEC lacks is an easy way to pour through the OSSEC logs, get visual information on alerts, etc. There was a project, the OSSEC-WUI, that aimed to resolve this, but that project has mostly died. Last I heard, there were no plans to revive this project.

There is an alternative, however. A commercial product, Splunk, can handle the heavy lifting for you. Yes, yes, Splunk is commercial. But, good news! They have a free version that can do the same thing on a smaller scale, without all of the extra shiny. There is a plugin for Splunk, specifically designed to handle OSSEC as well. It’s worth checking out, you can find it over at splunkbase.

Alert Logging

And finally, alert logging. Because OSSEC is tightly secured, it can sometimes be a challenge to deal with alert logs. For instance, what if you want to put the logs in an alternate location outside of /var/ossec? There are alternatives, though. For non-application specific output you can use syslog or database output. OSSEC also supports output to Prelude and beta support exists for PicViz. I believe you can use multiple output methods if you desire, though I’d have to test that out to be sure.

The configuration for syslog output is very straightforward. You can define both the destination syslog server as well as the level of the alerts to send. Syslog output is typically what you would use in conjunction with Splunk.

Database configuration is a bit more in-depth and requires that OSSEC be compiled with certain options enabled. Both MySQL and PostgreSQL are supported. The database configuration block in the ossec.conf ile contains all of the options you would expect, database name, username and password, and hostname of the database server. Additionally you need to specify the database type, MySQL or PostgreSQL.

Prelude and PicViz support have their own specific configuration parameters. More information on this support can be found in the OSSEC Manual.

Final Thoughts

OSSEC is an incredible security product. I still haven’t reached the limits of what it can do and I’ve been learning new techniques for using it all week. Hopefully the information provided here over the last 7 days proves to be helpful to you. There’s a lot more information out there, though and an excellent place to start is the OSSEC home page. There’s also the OSSEC mailing list where you can find a great deal of information as well as a number of very knowledgeable, helpful users.

The best way to get started is to get a copy of OSSEC installed and start playing. Dive right in, the water’s fine.