Network Monitoring and Measurement and its application in security field
Miao Luo, Wei Jiang
Definition
network traffic measurement
is the process of measuring the amount and type of traffic on a particular network. This is especially important with regard to effective bandwidth management.
network monitoring
describes the use of a system that constantly monitors a computer network for slow or failing systems and that notifies the network administrator in case of outages via email, pager or other alarms. It is a subset of the functions involved in network management.
Motivation
Needs of service providers:
-Understand the behavior of their networks -Provide fast, high-quality, reliable service to satisfy customers and thus reduce churn rate -Plan for network deployment and expansion -SLA monitoring, Network security -Usage-based billing for network users (like telephone calls) -Marketing using CRM data
Needs of Customers:
-Want to get their moneys worth -Fast, reliable, high-quality, secure, virus-free Internet access
Application
Network Problem Determination and Analysis Traffic Report Generation Intrusion & Hacking Attack (e.g., DoS, DDoS) Detection Service Level Monitoring (SLM) Network Planning Usage-based Billing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Marketing
The General Traffic Flow Measurement Process
Sampling
packets packets
Analysis
Filtering
Packet Capturing
PAYLOAD HEAD PAYLOAD HEAD PAYLOAD HEAD PAYLOAD HEAD
by applications (TE, attack detect., QoS monitoring, accounting, )
packets
Visualize
Classification & Flow Recording
flow records
(FlowScan)
Store
flow records
Observation Point
(TCPdump)
Sampling
flow records
Display
(Ethereal)
Filtering
flow records
other
Problems
Capturing Packets:
High-speed networks (Mbps ? Gbps ? Tbps) High-volume traffic Streaming media (Windows Media, Real Media, Quicktime) P2P traffic Network Security Attacks
Flow Generation & Storage:
What packet information to save to perform various analysis? How to minimize storage requirements?
Analysis:
How to analyze and generate data needed quickly? What kinds of info needs to be generated? -- Depends on applications
Goals
Capture all packets Generate flows Store flows efficiently Analyze data efficiently Generate various reports or information that are suitable for various application areas
Develop a flexible, scalable traffic monitoring and analysis system for high-speed, high-volume, rich media IP networks
Network Monitoring Metrics
CAIDA Metrics Working Group (www.caida.org)
-Latency -Packet Loss -Throughput -Link Utilization -Availability
IETFs IP Performance Metrics (IPPM) Working Group
-Connectivity (RFC 2687) -One-Way Delay (RFC 2679) -One-Way Packet Loss (RFC 2680) -Round Trip Delay (RFC 2681) -Delay Variation -Bulk transfer capacity
Connectivity
Availability
Functionality One way loss
Loss
RT loss
Network Monitoring Metrics Delay
One way delay RT delay Delay variance Capacity
Utilization
Bandwidth Throughput
Availability: The percentage of a specified time interval during which the system was available for normal use.
-Connectivity: the physical connectivity of network elements. -Functionality: whether the associated system works well or not.
Latency: The time taken for a packet to travel from a host to another.
-Round Trip Delay = Forward transport delay + server delay + backward transport delay -Ping is still the most commonly used to measure latency.
Link Utilization over a specified interval is simply the throughput for the link expressed as a percentage of the access rate.
Monitoring Method
Active Monitoring Passive Monitoring
Active Monitoring
Performed by sending test traffic into network
-Generate test packets periodically or on-demand -Measure performance of test packets or responses -Take the statistics
Impose extra traffic on network and distort its behavior in the process
Test packet can be blocked by firewall or processed at low priority by routers Mainly used to monitor network performance
Passive Monitoring
Carried out by observing network traffic
-Collect packets from a link or network flow from a router -Perform analysis on captured packets for various purposes -Network device performance degrades by mirroring or flow export
Used to perform various traffic usage/characterization analysis/intrusion detection
Comparison of Monitoring Approaches
Active monitoring Configuration Data size Network overhead Purpose Multi-point Small Additional traffic Passive monitoring Single or multi-point Large - Device overhead - No overhead if splitter is used Throughput, traffic pattern, trend, & detection High
Delay, packet loss, availability
CPU Requirement Low to Moderate
Software in Network Monitoring and Management
EPM The ping program SNMP servers IBM AURORA Network Performance Profiling System Intellipool Network Monitor Jumpnode Microsoft Network Monitor 3 MRTG Nagios (formerly Netsaint) Netdisco NetQoS NetXMS Scalable network and application monitoring system
Software in Network Monitoring and Management
Opennms PRTG Pandora (Free Monitoring System) - Network and Application Monitoring System PIKT RANCID - monitors router/switch configuration changes RRDtool siNMs by Siemens SysOrb Server & Network Monitoring System Sentinet3 - Network and Systems Monitoring Appliance ServersCheck Monitoring Software Cacti network graphing solution Zabbix - Network and Application Monitoring System Zenoss - Network and Systems Monitoring Platform Level Platforms - Software support for network monitoring
Security Monitoring and Management
Attack detection and analysis -detecting (high volume) traffic patterns -investigation of origin of attacks Intrusion detection -detecting unexpected or illegal packets
Intrusion detection system
An intrusion detection system (IDS)
generally detects unwanted manipulations of computer systems, mainly through the Internet. The manipulations may take the form of attacks by crackers.
network intrusion detection system protocol-based intrusion detection system application protocol-based intrusion detection system host-based intrusion detection system hybrid intrusion detection system
Protection, Detection and Response
Real-world security includes prevention, detection, and response. No prevention mechanism is perfect. Detection and response are not only more cost effective but also more effective than piling on more prevention.
Our problem
The three parts of network security is comparably isolated from each other. Can there be a closer combination of them? A dynamic scheme between detection and prevention
detection: NIDS based on pattern recognition, neutral networks, Honeypots.
prevention: Filters Reponse: traceback.
Our idea
An alert-level system. Example: As results from NIDS became more similar to some attack pattern, the alert level of the networks will gradually increase, prevention will be strengthen.
