Sandfly 2.3.2 – Linux Packet Sniffer Detection and Faster Process Forensics

Product Update

Date
November 11, 2019
Author
The Sandfly Security Team

Sandfly 2.3.2 has been released. It includes new capabilities to detect a variety of Linux network packet sniffers, plus has internal optimizations that have improved process forensic performance up to 600%.

Linux Network Packet Sniffer Detection

Packet sniffers on Linux can be legitimate, but also can be very bad news depending on who is using them. A packet sniffer operated maliciously can result in credential theft, or reveal internal network operations that allow an attacker to spread further.

Earlier versions of Sandfly included sniffer detection methods, but this version improves on them dramatically by targeting several critical areas discussed below. We are able to detect many kinds of sniffing activity on Linux now in some way or another.

Linux Network Packet Sniffer Operating

We now look directly at processes for signs they are using packet capture resources of the host. We will discuss this more below, but these methods allow us to find sniffers even when they are trying to hide.

Packet Sniffer Hiding Under Benign Name

Network Packet Sniffer Library Detection Expanded

This version of Sandfly includes a wider set of libraries to flag a system process as likely sniffing traffic.

Common Network Packet Sniffer Process Running

We are now flagging any process with a known name that indicates it is a sniffer. This will catch simple usage of tools like tcpdump and other common sniffer names. These can be legitimate for development and network debugging purposes, but depending on what system you see them it could warrant a closer look into who or what started them.

Linux tcpdump Process Running

Network Packet Sniffer Process with Hidden Name

Any process with a hidden name and has any indications of being a sniffer will be flagged. Processes with hidden filenames are suspicious enough, but one sniffing traffic is a serious problem.

Network Sniffer with Hidden Name

Network Packet Sniffer Process Masquerading

We have built out the list of ways to spot packet sniffers that are masquerading under different names. We had this already with tcpdump, but now include other common sniffer programs found on Linux.

ngrep Sniffer Masquerading as Another Linux Process

Incident Response Checks for Network Sniffer of Any Kind

New sandfly checks will flag any process using packet capture sockets or libraries. These checks are for incident response as it can flag legitimate programs that are watching for certain network traffic (such as dhclient). However, it can be tuned to ignore these alerts with the custom sandfly feature and is extremely reliable at finding network sniffers that are unknown. See below for how to do this.

Create Your Own Network Packet Sniffer Detection

Select sandfly process running sniffer operating from the Incident Response tab and run it against your hosts knowing you will see false alarms.

Going through the list of alerts will show obvious legitimate system daemons quickly and you can add them to the ignore list as needed. For instance, dhclient will almost certainly show up along with some systemd services. These are all perfectly normal processes that will be watching network traffic to operate.

Next, clone this check and give it a unique name. In the example below we called it sandfly_process_running_sniffer_operating_tuned.

Go under the name_ignore key under the process section. This is an array of REGEX patterns of process names we should not alarm on if seen. Here you can add an exact match REGEX (such as ^dhclient$). Or you can use a wildcard if you see false alarms from certain categories of system processes and you want to ignore variants (such as ^systemd.*).

You can add as many patterns as you need, just be sure you keep them between brackets [] and use a comma between the entries. You can check your REGEX using an online REGEX testing tool.

Finally, be sure you change the type key from “incident” to “process.” This will let Sandfly know this is a process checking sandfly and should be run in the normal automated schedule (incident response sandflies can only be run manually).

Click the Add button. Your new check will now be active during random scheduled scans hunting for unknown sniffers that are running.

Below is a screenshot that shows you what to modify to add your own sniffer detection rule. Follow the arrows.

Custom Sandfly Linux Packet Sniffer Detection

If you need help setting this up as a general use sniffer detector, please contact us and we are happy to assist. This is a great check to run in your automatic rotation and can find unknown or malicious packet sniffers quickly.

File Descriptor Socket Decoders

As part of the sniffer detection, we have added the ability to decode Linux file descriptor sockets a process has open. These values can be used in generic search just like any other sandfly search parameter. You can search for socket types that include packet, unix, netfilter, tcp, udp, icmp, raw, tcpv6, udpv6, icmpv6 and rawv6 types.

For example, running sandfly process network port operating shows all system processes with network sockets operating and you can view all open file descriptors and what they are in the listing. Below is a dump of a system Apache server which gives you an idea of some of the data. We show files open and provide a file type also if we can determine what it is. We will also display system named pipes and other devices.

Apache Open File Descriptors on Linux

All of these keys can be turned into REGEX searchable signatures depending on what you are looking to do. You can look under the Incident Response tab to clone sandflies that look for particular file descriptors such as TCP ports, raw ports, etc. You can combine it with other keys to get very specific. Again, customers can contact us for assistance and we will help them get a quick solution.

Processes Masquerading as Kernel Threads

We have expanded the number and types of process masquerading attacks we can find that are trying to look like Linux kernel threads. We have had this ability for some time, but now we have even more methods with different techniques to make it much harder for this tactic to go unnoticed.

Below is a screenshot of a piece of malware trying to do kernel thread masquerading after infecting a website. The website was running standard security tools but it still managed to bypass and execute. Sandfly was able to spot the activity regardless and give a fast alert. Sandfly works very well at finding things that slipped by your other defenses.

Linux Kernel Thread Process Masquerading Intrusion Detection

Checks for Commonly Brute Forced Account Names

We have added in new incident response sandflies to help flag default users with valid login shells and commonly targeted usernames for brute force attacks. These checks are for incident response use due to false alarm potential, but can be cloned and edited to spot usernames that should not be logging in under any circumstances and may have been cracked. For example, logins from accounts named jira, oracle, mysql, admin, etc.

For incident responders, these checks help you investigate potentially compromised hosts where a commonly compromised account name might have been used. For normal system operations, you can create a list of accounts you should never see logged in interactively and get an alert generated immediately.

Process Forensic Engines 600% Faster

We have gone through the process forensic engines and optimized them resulting in around a 600% performance boost. Not only are they faster, but use even less CPU and RAM than before.

Other Improvements

We have improved the ability for Sandfly to terminate checks that have taken too long and report the timeout condition. Small fixes in logging have also been made to make details about system operation more specific. We also have fixed false alarms on processes accessing files in hidden directories.

How to Upgrade Sandfly

Sandfly is easy to upgrade. Please follow the instructions here:

Upgrading Sandfly

675 Sandfly Checks and Growing

Sandfly 2.3.2 has now brought the number of compromise and incident response checks we do on Linux up to 675. We can spot a tremendous amount of Linux malware, rootkits and intruder activity without loading any agents on your endpoints. Thank you for using our product.


Let Sandfly keep your Linux systems secure.

Learn More