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In 2021, the number of individuals accessing the network has reached billions, encompassing customers, vendors, and remote users. Among them, there are potential threats, including lone hackers seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in our network. To distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent connections amid this vast user base, a robust system is essential—one with the capability to handle billions of logs simultaneously. This is where the collaboration of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and Intrusion Protection System (IPS) becomes invaluable. When IDS and IPS are integrated, the network security is fortified, enabling the detection and prevention of unauthorized access by hackers attempting to compromise sensitive data. An Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPR) is formed when IPS operates in inline mode, serving as both IDS and IPS. IDS and IPS play vital roles in safeguarding the network by working collaboratively to monitor traffic and report potential attacks. A comprehensive security strategy involves the simultaneous operation of both systems.
What is IDS?
An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) identifies and signals potential attack attempts in their initial phases. Any suspicious activity is promptly reported to an administrator.
What is IPS?
An intrusion prevention system (IPS), also commonly referred to as "intrusion detection and prevention systems" or IPDS, is a technology designed to identify, report, and potentially prevent suspected malware.

IDS/IPS Detection Techniques:
Different approaches for detecting suspected intrusions are:
1. Pattern matching
2. Statistical anomaly detection
3. Policy-Based Detection
4. Stateful Protocol Analysis Detection
1. Pattern Matching (signature-based Detection):
A signature-based sensor in an IDS or IPS scans network traffic for particular, pre-defined patterns known as signatures. It evaluates the network traffic against a database of known attacks and raises an alarm or inhibits communication upon detecting a match. The signature may be derived from a single packet or a sequence of packets. The primary drawback of pattern matching lies in its inability to detect new attacks for which there is no specified signature in the software's database. The effectiveness hinges on the currency of the signature database, which requires regular updating.
Advantage:
  • Very effective at detecting known threats.
Disadvantage:
  • They are unable to detect novel attacks.
  • There will be more false alarms in the future.
  • Every new pattern that is discovered requires reprogramming.

2. Statistical anomaly detection
Anomaly-based or profile-based signatures typically identify network traffic that deviates from the established norm. They scrutinize deviations from regular usage patterns, necessitating the initial creation of a baseline profile to define what is considered normal. The system then monitors for actions that fall outside these established normal parameters. However, a challenge with these systems lies in ensuring the accurate classification of abnormal behavior without misidentifying it as normal.
There are several different anomaly detection methods, including:
  • Metric model
  • Neural network
  • Machine learning classification

Advantage:
  • This enables you to detect novel intrusions or attacks that haven’t yet been identified.

Disadvantage:
  • A significant drawback to this approach is the necessity to initially establish a definition for what is considered normal. If our network experiences an attack during the learning phase, and it goes unnoticed, anomaly-based IPS systems may misinterpret the malicious traffic as normal. Consequently, no alarm will be triggered when the same attack recurs.
  • Alerts will be flooded with false positives because odd behavior will be detected as a possible attack even if it isn’t.
  • Assumes that intrusions will be accompanied by manifestations that are sufficiently unusual to permit detection.

3. Policy-Based Detection:
In policy-based systems, the IDS or IPS sensor is configured in accordance with the predefined network security policy. Users are required to create the policies in a policy-based IDS or IPS. If the traffic is detected outside the specified policy, an alarm will be activated, or the traffic will be discarded. Policy-based signatures employ an algorithm to assess whether an alarm should be triggered.
Advantage:
  • Policy-based signature algorithms are statistical evaluations of the traffic flow.
  • Polices can be used to search for extremely complicated relationships.

Disadvantage:
  • Creating a security policy necessitates a thorough understanding of network traffic and is a time-consuming process.
  • Only certain sorts of packets can be analyzed using policy-based signature techniques. For example, SYN packets have the SYN bit set during the handshaking process at the start of the session.
  • The policy itself may need to be tweaked. You may need to alter the threshold level for particular types of traffic, for example, so that the policy corresponds to the network use patterns it is monitoring.

4.Stateful Protocol Analysis Detection:
  • Intrusion detection based on protocol analysis is akin to signature-based intrusion detection, but it conducts a more thorough examination of the protocols outlined in the packets. This comprehensive analysis delves into the payloads within TCP and UDP packets, which encompass additional protocols. For instance, a protocol like DNS is encompassed within TCP or UDP, which, in turn, is nested within IP.
  • The first step of protocol analysis is to decode the packet IP header information and determine whether the payload contains TCP, UDP, or another protocol. For example, if the payload is TCP, some of the TCP header information within the IP payload is processed before the TCP payload is accessed (for example, DNS data). Similar actions are mapped for other protocols.
  • Protocol analysis requires that the IPS sensor knows how various protocols work so that it can more closely analyze the traffic of those protocols to look for suspicious or abnormal activity. For each protocol, the analysis is based not only on protocol standards, particularly the RFCs, but also on how things are implemented in the real world.

The Different Types of IPS and IDS:
There are two types of Intrusion Detection Systems(ID'S):
Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS): The system is part of the network infrastructure and monitors packets as they flow through the network. NIDS usually co-resides with devices that have span, tap, or mirroring capability, such as switches.
Host-Based Intrusion Detection Systems (HIDS): This software resides on the client, computer, or server devices, and monitors events and files on the device.
There are multiple types of Intrusion Protection Systems:
Network-based Intrusion Prevention System (NIPS): This system is deployed inline in the network infrastructure and examines all traffic in the entire network.
Wireless Intrusion Prevention System (WIPS): This system is part of the wireless network infrastructure and examines all wireless traffic.
Host-based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS): This software resides on the client, computer, or server devices, and monitors events and files on the device.
Behavior IPS: This system is part of the network infrastructure and examines all traffic for unusual patterns and behavior in the entire network.
Passive versus Inline mode:
A sensor can be deployed in either Passive mode or inline mode. In Passive mode, the sensor receives a copy of the data for analysis, allowing the original traffic to proceed to its final destination. On the other hand, a sensor operating in inline mode analyzes the traffic in real-time and has the capability to actively block packets before reaching their destination. Some IPS devices can function in both passive mode and inline mode. For instance, the Cisco ASA AIP SSM. IPS can be set in inline mode, serving as both IDS and IPS, collectively referred to as an Intrusion Detection & Prevention System (IDPR).

1. The Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Passive Mode to Deploy an IDS:

Benefits Drawbacks
Deploying the IDS sensor does not have any impact on the network. IDS sensor response actions cannot stop the trigger packet and are not guaranteed to stop a connection. IDS response actions are typically better at stopping an attacker more than a specific attack itself.
The IDS sensor is not inline and, therefore, a sensor failure cannot affect network functionality. IDS sensor response actions are less helpful in stopping email viruses and automated attackers such as worms.
Overrunning the IDS sensor with data does not affect network traffic; however, it does affect the capability of the IDS to analyze the data. Users deploying IDS sensor response actions must have a well-thought-out security policy combined with a good operational understanding of their IDS deployments. Users must spend time to correctly tune IDS sensors to achieve expected levels of intrusion detection.
Being out of band (OOB), IDS sensors are more vulnerable to network evasion techniques, which are the process of totally concealing an attack.


2. The Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Inline Mode to Deploy an IPS:

Benefits Drawbacks
You can configure an IPS sensor to perform a packet drop that can stop the trigger packet, the packets in a connection, or packets from a source IP address. An IPS sensor must be inline and, therefore, IPS sensor errors or failure can have a negative effect on network traffic. Overrunning IPS sensor capabilities with too much traffic does negatively affect the performance of the network.
Being inline, an IPS sensor can use stream normalization techniques to reduce or eliminate many of the network evasion capabilities that exist. Users deploying IPS sensor response actions must have a well-thought-out security policy combined with a good operational understanding of their IPS deployments.
An IPS sensor will affect network timing because of latency,jitter, and so on. An IPS sensor must be appropriately sized and implemented so that time-sensitive applications, such as VoIP, are not negatively affected.

IPS actions:
The action specifies how the IPS responds to a threat event. Every threat or virus signature that is defined by IPS includes a default action.
1. PaloAlto actions list:
When an IPS sensor detects malicious activity, it can choose from any or all the following actions:
  • Default: Takes the default action that is specified internally for each threat signature. For antivirus profiles, it takes the default action for the virus signature.

  • Allow: Permits the application traffic. The allow action does not generate logs related to the signatures or profiles.

  • Alert: Generates an alert for each application traffic flow. The alert is saved in the threat log. Generates an alert when attack volume (cps) reaches the Alarm threshold set in the profile.

  • Drop: Drops the application traffic.

  • Reset Client: For TCP, resets the client-side connection. For UDP, the connection is dropped.

  • Reset Server: For TCP, resets the server-side connection. For UDP, the connection is dropped.

  • Reset Both: For TCP, resets the connection on both client and server ends. For UDP, the connection is dropped.

  • Block IP: Blocks traffic from either a source or a source-destination pair; Configurable for a specified time.

  • Sinkhole: This action directs DNS queries for malicious domains to a sinkhole IP address.

  • Random Early Drop: This Causes the firewall to randomly drop packets when connections per second reach the Activate Rate threshold in a DoS Protection profile applied to a DoS Protection rule.

  • SYN Cookies: This Causes the firewall to generate SYN cookies to authenticate an SYN from a client when connections per second reach the Activate Rate Threshold in a DoS Protection profile applied to a DoS Protection rule.


2. Cisco Actions list:
When an IPS sensor detects malicious activity, it can choose from any or all the following actions:
  • Deny attacker inline: This action terminates the current packet and future packets from this attacker address for a specified time. The sensor maintains a list of the attackers currently being denied by the system. You can remove entries from the list or wait for the timer to expire. The timer is a sliding timer for each entry. Therefore, if attacker A is currently being denied, but issues another attack, the timer for attacker A is reset, and attacker A remains on the denied attacker list until the timer expires. If the denied attacker list is at capacity and cannot add a new entry, the packet is still denied.

  • Deny connection inline: This action terminates the current packet and future packets on this TCP flow. This is also referred to as deny flow.

  • Deny packet inline: This action terminates the packet.

  • Log attacker packets: This action starts IP logging on packets that contain the attacker’s address and sends an alert. This action causes an alert to be written to the event store, which is local to the IOS router, even if the produce-alert action is not selected. Produce alert is discussed later in a bullet.

  • Log pair packets: This action starts IP logging on packets that contain the attacker and victim address pair. This action causes an alert to be written to the event store, even if the produce-alert action is not selected.

  • Log victim packets: This action starts IP logging on packets that contain the victim address and sends an alert. This action causes an alert to be written to the event store, even if the produce-alert action is not selected.

  • Produce alert: This action writes the event to the event store as an alert.

  • Produce verbose alert: This action includes an encoded dump of the offending packet in the alert. This action causes an alert to be written to the event store, even if the produce-alert action is not selected.

  • Request block connection: This action sends a request to a blocking device to block this connection.

  • Request block host: This action sends a request to a blocking device to block this attacker host.

  • Request SNMP trap: This action sends a request to the notification application component of the sensor to perform a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) notification. This action causes an alert to be written to the event store, even if the produce-alert action is not selected.

  • Reset TCP connection: This action sends TCP resets to hijack and terminate the TCP flow.


Where does the IDPS fit into our security strategy?
  • Our network’s edge or front-end firewall is the first line of protection against attackers, and it will almost certainly have its intrusion detection capacity, however, it will likely only detect and prevent a small number of known attacks/intrusions.

  • The organization will be always confused about whether the IPS/IDS should be kept after or before the firewall. Sometimes, the IDS/IPS will be placed after the firewall, so only legitimate traffic will be inspected which will further reduce the load on IDS as well. However, to prevent the firewall from attacks, IPS is installed in front of the firewall.

  • One can make an argument either way in certain use cases. But, generally accepted practice is to put an IDS/IPS after the firewall (from the point of view of incoming traffic – i.e. closer to the interior or private network).

  • Firewalls are generally designed to be on the network perimeter and can handle dropping a lot of the non-legitimate traffic (attacks, scans, etc.) very quickly at the ingress interface, often in hardware.

  • An IDS/IPS is doing more deep packet inspections and that is a much more computationally expensive undertaking. For that reason, we prefer to filter what gets to it with the firewall line of defense before engaging the IDS/IPS to analyze the traffic flow.

  • In an even more protected environment, we would also put the first line of defense in ACLs on an edge router between the firewall and the public network(s).

  • The IPS sits directly in the communication path between the source and the destination, it analyzes traffic and takes actions like sending alerts, dropping malicious packets, blocking traffic, and resetting connections. Because of this IPS can degrade our network performance if it hasn’t been configured correctly. Our IPS will generally be placed at an edge of the network, such as immediately after a firewall/router, or in front of a server farm. Position the IPS where it will see the bare minimum of traffic it needs to, to keep performance issues under tight control.

  • The IDS is a passive system that scans internal network traffic and reports back about potential threats. The most obvious location is at the network perimeter, just inside the firewall.

      • IDS monitors all network packets right from OSI Layer 2 (Data) to Layer 7 (Application), and stores this vast amount of information in its database.
      An IPS monitors traffic at Layer 3 (Network) and Layer 4 (Transport) to ensure that their headers, states, and so on are those specified in the protocol suite.
      Why does SOC need IDS/IPS?
      SOC analyst work is to analyze the alerts which we used to get from IDS/IPS to keep the environment safe. To know attacks and to dig them more, the IDS and IPS logs are more important. Since it catches the alerts based on the signature, it is very important to implement an Intrusion system in the organization.
      IDS freeware:
      There are many IDS solutions on the market today, as well as free/open-source IDS tools that you can download. The best solution for our organization depends on our network’s size, security needs, existing security infrastructure, budget and IT department structure, and workload.
      One of the most popular freeware or open-source IDS products is SNORT:
      • Snort is an open-source network intrusion prevention and detection system.

      • It uses a rule-based language combining signature, protocol, and anomaly inspection methods.

      • Snort does real-time analysis of IP packets and can search content and perform pattern matching to detect common attacks such as buffer overflows, SMB probes, port scans, and CGI attacks. There are versions available for both Linux and Windows. There are plug-ins available that extend its detection and reporting capabilities.

      • Snort is often thought of as a protocol analyzer, and the line between such “sniffers” and IDS can be thin. Other protocol analyzers and monitors, such as Sunbelt Software’s LanHound, can also perform some IDS functions.



      Snort Rule:
      Rules are created by known intrusion signatures. These are usually present in snort.conf configuration file.

      Here,
      • “Log” is an action.

      • “TCP” is a protocol.

      • “193.168.0/24” is the source IP address.

      • “any” is the source port.

      • “193.168.0.45” is Destination IP.

      • “any” is Destination port.

      • “msg” is an option keyword.

      • “outside finger attempt” is an option argument.

      • “:” is an options separator.


      Signature explanation:
      Rule Name: POLICY DNS Query to DynDNS Domain *.ddns .net
      Description: This rule will alert a DNS query to a NOIP Dynamic DNS domain, sometimes used by malware and other unwanted services.
      Raw Rule:
      alert udp $HOME_NET any -> any 53 (msg:”ET POLICY DNS Query to DynDNS Domain *.ddns .net”; content:”|01|”; offset:2; depth:1; content:”|00 01 00 00 00 00 00|”; distance:1; within:7; content:”|04|ddns|03|net|00|”; nocase; distance:0; fast_pattern; reference:url,www.noip.com/support/faq/free-dynamic-dns-domains; classtype:bad-unknown; sid:2028675; rev:2; metadata:affected_product Any, attack_target Client_Endpoint, created_at 2019_10_11, deployment Perimeter, former_category POLICY, performance_impact Low, signature_severity Informational, updated_at 2019_10_11;)
      Formatted log:
      Action: alert
      Network Match: alert udp $HOME_NET any -> any 53
      Here,
      • “Log” is an alert.

      • “UDP” is a protocol.

      • ” HOME_NET” is the source IP address.

      • “any” is the source port.

      • “any” is Destination IP.

      • “53” is Destination port.


      Here the alert will be triggered if any UDP query is initiated from a home network and from any port towards any IP and if the destination port is 53.
      Msg: ET POLICY DNS Query to DynDNS Domain *.ddns .net
      SID: 2028675
      Rule Body:
      reference: url,www.noip.com/support/faq/free-dynamic-dns-domains; within: 7; fast_pattern; nocase; offset: 2; content: |01|; content: |00 01 00 00 00 00 00|; content: |04|ddns|03|net|00|; metadata: affected_product Any, attack_target Client_Endpoint, created_at 2019_10_11, deployment Perimeter, former_category POLICY, performance_impact Low, signature_severity Informational, updated_at 2019_10_11; depth: 1; distance: 1; distance: 0;
      Conclusion:
      You can equalize the battleground against threat actors and their attack tactics by implementing a layered security solution that incorporates both signature and behavior-based technologies along with additional tools. It's crucial to note that internet security risks are becoming increasingly stealthy and severe. The integrated capabilities of the Intrusion Detection & Prevention System, whether network or host-based, stand out as a tool worth considering.