Making sense out of Alerts
==========================

When an alert happens it's important to figure out what it means. Is it
serious? Relevant? A false positive?

To find out more about the rule that fired, it's always a good idea to
look at the actual rule.

The first thing to look at in a rule is the description that follows
the ``msg`` keyword. Let's consider an example: ::

  msg:"ET SCAN sipscan probe";

The "ET" indicates the rule came from the Emerging Threats (Proofpoint)
project. "SCAN" indicates the purpose of the rule is to match on some
form of scanning. Following that, a more or less detailed description
is given.

Most rules contain some pointers to more information in the form of
the "reference" keyword.

Consider the following example rule: ::

  alert tcp $HOME_NET any -> $EXTERNAL_NET $HTTP_PORTS \
    (msg:"ET CURRENT_EVENTS Adobe 0day Shovelware"; \
    flow:established,to_server; content:"GET "; nocase; depth:4; \
    content:!"|0d 0a|Referer\:"; nocase; \
    uricontent:"/ppp/listdir.php?dir="; \
    pcre:"/\/[a-z]{2}\/[a-z]{4}01\/ppp\/listdir\.php\?dir=/U"; \
    classtype:trojan-activity; \
    reference:url,isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=7747; \
    reference:url,doc.emergingthreats.net/2010496; \
    reference:url,www.emergingthreats.net/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/sigs/CURRENT_EVENTS/CURRENT_Adobe; \
    sid:2010496; rev:2;)

In this rule, the reference keyword indicates 3 urls to visit for more
information: ::

  isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=7747
  doc.emergingthreats.net/2010496
  www.emergingthreats.net/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/sigs/CURRENT_EVENTS/CURRENT_Adobe

Some rules contain a reference like: ``"reference:cve,2009-3958;"`` should
allow you to find info about the specific CVE using your favorite
search engine.

It's not always straight forward and sometimes not all of that
information is available publicly. Usually asking about it on the
signature support channel can be helpful.

In :doc:`../rule-management/suricata-update` more information on the rule
sources and their documentation and support methods can be found.

In many cases, looking at just the alert and the packet that triggered
it won't be enough to be conclusive. When using the default Eve settings
a lot of metadata will be added to the alert.

For example, if a rule fired that indicates your web application is
attacked, looking at the metadata might reveal that the web
application replied with ``404 not found``. This will usually mean the
attack failed but not always.

Not every protocol leads to metadata generation, so when running an
IDS engine like Suricata, it's often recommended to combine it with
full packet capture. Using tools like Evebox, Sguil or Snorby, the
full TCP session or UDP flow can be inspected.

Obviously there is a lot more to Incidence Response, but this should
get you started.
