Which of the following can perform protocol analysis content searching matching and can be used to detect a variety of attacks and probes?

What is Snort?

Snort is an open source network intrusion detection system created Sourcefire founder and former CTO Martin Roesch. Cisco now develops and maintains Snort.

Snort is referred to as a packet sniffer that monitors network traffic, scrutinizing each packet closely to detect a dangerous payload or suspicious anomalies. Long a leader among enterprise intrusion prevention and detection tools, users can compile Snort on most Linux operating systems (OSes) or Unix. A version is also available for Windows.

How does Snort work?

Snort is based on library packet capture (libpcap). Libpcap is a tool that is widely used in Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol address traffic sniffers, content searching and analyzers for packet logging, real-time traffic analysis, protocol analysis and content matching.

Users can configure Snort as a sniffer, packet logger -- like TCPdump or Wireshark -- or network intrusion prevention method.

Which of the following can perform protocol analysis content searching matching and can be used to detect a variety of attacks and probes?

Intrusion prevention system mode

As an open source network intrusion prevention system, Snort will monitor network traffic and compare it against a user-defined Snort rule set -- the file would be labeled snort.conf. This is Snort's most important function.

Snort applies rules to monitored traffic and issues alerts when it detects certain kinds of questionable activity on the network.

It can identify cybersecurity attack methods, including OS fingerprinting, denial of service, buffer overflow, common gateway interface attacks, stealth port scans and Server Message Block probes.

When Snort detects suspicious behavior, it acts as a firewall and sends a real-time alert to Syslog, to a separate alerts file or through a pop-up window.

Packet logger and sniffer mode

If a subscriber configures Snort to operate as a sniffer, it will scan network packets and identify them. Snort can also log those packets to a disk file.

To use Snort as a packet sniffer, users set the host's network interface to promiscuous mode to monitor all network traffic on the local network interface. It then writes the monitored traffic to its console.

By writing desired network traffic to a disk file, Snort logs packets.

This was last updated in July 2021

Continue Reading About Snort

  • Snort Tutorial: How to use Snort intrusion detection resources
  • 2019's top 5 free enterprise network intrusion detection tools
  • Installing Snort: Packet logger mode
  • Installing Snort: Sniffer mode
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OpenVAS. OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment System) is a software framework for several services and tools that offer vulnerability scanning and vulnerability management techniques.

What are the two main types of intrusion detection system based on detection methodology?

Signature-based and anomaly-based are the two main methods of detecting threats that intrusion detection systems use to alert network administrators of signs of a threat. Signature-based detection is typically best used for identifying known threats.

Which threat mitigation systems can monitor and analyze network traffic to detect abnormalities?

What is an intrusion detection system (IDS) An IDS is either a hardware device or software application that uses known intrusion signatures to detect and analyze both inbound and outbound network traffic for abnormal activities.

Which of the following network security controls can alert an administrator if it finds unusual traffic in the network?

An IDS is designed to monitor a network and to send alerts to administrators if a threat is found. However, an IPS is designed to control network access and to protect a network from harm. Like an IDS, an IPS will monitor network traffic.