IPS Attack Protection Configuration Example Keywords: IPS Abstract: This document presents a configuration example for the attack protection feature of the IPS devices. Acronyms: Acronym Full spelling IPS Intrusion Prevention Systems Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 1/12
Table of Contents Feature Overview 3 Application Scenarios 3 Configuration Guidelines 3 Configuration Example 3 Network Requirements 3 Configuration Considerations 4 Configuration Procedures 4 Logging In to the Web Interface 4 Creating a Security Zone 5 Adding a Segment 7 Configuring an IPS Segment Policy 8 Modifying Rules of the Policy 9 Activating Configurations 10 Saving Configurations 11 Verifying the Configurations 11 Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 2/12
Feature Overview The Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) devices are deployed at the network backbone in inline mode. The attack protection module is a very important module of the IPS devices. With this module, the IPS devices can monitor and analyze traffic in real time, block abnormal packets automatically, protecting hosts against suspicious programs. You can configure IPS policies to monitor and analyze traffic in real time, and take corresponding actions accordingly, and you can view the attack reports to get an idea of the attack trend. Thousands of common attack signatures have been defined on the IPS devices, and the attack signatures definition can be updated automatically, so that the intrusion protection system can always use the up-to-date attack signatures definition. Application Scenarios With the popularity of network technologies and the development of attack tools, network attacks are more likely to happen. An IPS device is usually deployed in inline mode, so that it can identify and block attacks from the Internet to the internal users, such as attacks targeting the system vulnerabilities and attacks using worms and spyware. All traffic from the Internet to the internal network has to pass the IPS device. Once detecting an attack behavior, such as worm, backdoor, Trojan horse, spyware, suspicious program, or Phishing, the IPS module will immediately block the attack, quarantine the attack source, log the event, and notify the network administrator of the event. Configuration Guidelines None. Configuration Example Network Requirements As shown in Figure 1, the IPS device is deployed in inline mode at the egress link of the enterprise network. It is required that traffic from the Internet to the internal network first be processed by the attack protection module of the IPS device, which then blocks traffic containing worms, backdoors, and the like, if any, and then forwards the normal traffic to the switch. Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 3/12
Figure 1 Network diagram for IPS configuration Configuration Considerations 1) To configure the attack protection feature, you need to configure an IPS policy and then the rules to be used to detect and block the attacks. 2) After configuring the attack protection feature, you need to activate the configuration. Then, once detecting attack traffic on the link, the IPS device will block the attack, and you can view the corresponding record in the attack logs and view the attack trend in a period in the attack report. Configuration Procedures Logging In to the Web Interface The IPS devices support web-based management and are configured with Web login information by default. The following are the default Web login information: Username: admin Password: admin IP address of the management interface: 192.168.1.1/24 If the Web login information of an IPS device has been changed, you need to use the up-to-date login information to log in to the device; otherwise, you can use the default Web login information. To use the default Web login information to log in to the IPS device, follow these steps: 1) Connect the PC to the IPS device Use a crossover Ethernet cable to connect the network interface of the PC to the management interface of the IPS device. 2) Configure an IP address for the network interface of the PC Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 4/12
Configure an IP address on subnet 192.168.1.0/24 (except for 192.168.1.1) for the network interface of the PC, for example, 192.168.1.2. This is to ensure that the PC can communicate with the IPS device. 3) Launch the Web browser and enter the login information On the PC, launch the IE browser (it is recommended to use Internet Explorer 6.0 SP2 or later), and then type https://192.168.1.1 in the address bar and press the Enter key. The Web interface login page of the IPS device appears, as shown in Figure 2. Click the language link on the page to select a language for the Web interface, type the username (admin), password (admin), and verification code, and then click Login to log in to the web interface. Figure 2 Log in to the Web interface Creating a Security Zone Select System Management > Network Management > Security Zone from the navigation tree to enter the security zone management page, as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3 Security zone management page Click Add to enter the page for adding a security zone, as shown in Figure 4. Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 5/12
Figure 4 Add a security zone Create internal zone in and add port g-ethernet0/0/0 to the zone, as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5 Assign interface g-ethernet0/0/0 to the internal zone Create external zone out and add port g-ethernet0/0/1 to the zone, as shown in Figure 6. Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 6/12
Figure 6 Assign interface g-ethernet0/0/1 to the external zone IPS Attack Protection Configuration Example Figure 7 Security zones created Adding a Segment Select System Management > Network Management > Segment Configuration from the navigation tree to enter the segment management page, as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8 Segment management page Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 7/12
Click Add Segment to enter the page for adding a segment and add a segment (segment 0 in this example) to connect the internal network and the external network, as shown in Figure 9. Figure 10 shows the newly added segment on the segment list. Figure 9 Add a segment Figure 10 Segment management page with the newly added segment Configuring an IPS Segment Policy Select IPS > Fast Application from the navigation tree to enter the IPS policy fast application page, as shown in Figure 11. Enter a name and description for the IPS policy to be created, select the segment and direction, and then click Apply. Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 8/12
Figure 11 Configure an IPS segment policy After the above configuration, select IPS > Segment Policies from the navigation tree to enter the segment policy management page, as shown in Figure 12. You can see that the newly added policy ips is on the list. Figure 12 Newly added segment policy on the policy list Modifying Rules of the Policy Click the name link of policy ips to enter the policy s rule management page, as shown in Figure 13. You will see thousands of rules. You can detect and block attacks of one category or all categories. For example, to detect and block backdoor attacks, select Backdoor from the Category drop-down list and click Query. All backdoor attacks that can be detected by the system will be displayed. Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 9/12
Figure 13 Modify IPS rules Select Modify all matched rules at the bottom of the page and click Enable Rule. All the rules will be enabled. Select Modify all matched rules, select Block+Notify from the Action Set drop-down list, and then click Modify Action Set. All backdoor attacks will be blocked and logged. To detect and block all categories of attacks, select -- (means all categories) from the Category dropdown list and click Query. All rules of the policy will be displayed. Modify the rules as needed. Activating Configurations Click Activate to activate the above configurations. Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 10/12
Figure 14 Confirm the operation Saving Configurations To ensure that the above configurations can survive reboots, select System Management > Device Management > Configuration Maintenance from the navigation tree and then in the Save Current Configuration area, click Save to save the current configurations. Figure 15 Save configurations Verifying the Configurations When there are backdoor attacks from the external network to PCs in the internal network, the IPS device can block and log the attacks. You can see attack prevention information like those in Figure 16 on the page you enter by selecting Log Management > Attack Logs > Recent Logs. Figure 16 Blocked attacks Select Reports > Attack Report > Attack Report from the navigation to enter the page shown as Figure 17. Select the report type, attack ID, severity level, action, time range, and segment and click Query. You can see the attack information recorded in the specified period of time, as shown in Figure 18. Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 11/12
Figure 17 Query the attacks Figure 18 View the attack report Copyright 2010 Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent of Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. The information in this document is subject to change without notice. Hangzhou H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. www.h3c.com 12/12