Pages

Monday, April 26

New VRT Rulepack changes

There has been a lot of confusion between the rule update packs.  Some people would see the word "snortrules-snapshot-CURRENT_s.tar.gz" in the rulepack name, or the "snortrules-snapshot-2.8_s.tar.gz" name, and not know which ones to use, or which version of rulepack to use with which version of Snort, so hopefully with this change we've eliminated that confusion.  Now the Snort RulePacks are specific to "Version released".

What does that mean for you?

If you are using 2.8.5.3 and are updating to 2.8.6 (recommended)

You need to go into your oinkmaster / pulledpork / wget / any updater that you are using, and change the name of the rulepack you are grabbing to the version that is specific to your environment, so if you are changing to 2.8.6, you will not only need to update to 2.8.6, but you will also need to change your rulepack name to:

snortrules-snapshot-2860.tar.gz

If you are using 2.8.5.3, and are NOT planning to update to 2.8.6 at this time

You STILL need to go into your oinkmaster/pulledpork/wget/any updater that you are using and change the name of the rulepack you are pulling to the version that is specific to your environment.

In short, everyone that uses Snort will need to make this change.  For the next 30-days, the "snortrules-snapshot-CURRENT.tar.gz" and "snortrules-snapshot-2.8.tar.gz" links will symlink to the "snortrules-snapshot-2853.tar.gz".  So if you update to 2.8.6 you will need to change to the appropriate rulepack.

These symlinks will exist for the next 30-days.

If you are a Snort VRT rules subscriber (aka, you pay for it), the symlinks will be of use to you for 30-days, however, you are strongly encouraged to make the change now so that after the symlinks are removed, you won't get 404 errors.

If you are NOT a Snort VRT rules subscriber (aka, registered user, you don't pay for it, and you get the rulepack after the "30-day free window" is lifted) you need to make the change.  So for example, if snortrules-snapshot-CURRENT.tar.gz is in your rule download URL, you need to update it to snortrules-snapshot-2853.tar.gz (or snortrules-snapshot-2860.tar.gz if you update).  The Symlinks will NEVER apply to you, as the new packages won't be available to registered users for 30 days.

If you are running a version of Snort that is < 2.8.5.3.

You will need to modify oinkmaster / pulledpork / wget / whatever update system you are using to remove 2.8.5.3 version specific rule keywords or Snort will fail to load.  Please update to 2.8.5.3 at least, or move to 2.8.6.

Snort.conf

The Snort.conf file that is in each rulepack is ALSO version specific now.  (Yeah!)

The rulepacks will also be significantly smaller because of the fact that since the rulepacks are locked to the version of Snort they support, only the SO rules for the specific rulepack version are included.  For instance, the 2853 rulepack will only contain SO rules for 2.8.5.3.

Also be sure and read the VRT blog for further information: http://vrt-sourcefire.blogspot.com

4 comments:

Tweets that mention New VRT Rulepack changes -- Topsy.com said...

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by JoelEsler, Niels Groeneveld. Niels Groeneveld said: RT @JoelEsler: New VRT Rulepack changes http://goo.gl/fb/4VWBa [...]

PulledPork v0.4.1 released! | Finshake said...

[...] sure and read my other two posts in order to make sure you are fully up to date with everything going [...]

Snort 2.8.6 segfaults | Finshake said...

[...] Make sure you read this post too: http://blog.joelesler.net/2010/04/new-vrt-rulepack-changes.html [...]

Joel Esler said...

I assume that you *are* typing in your Oinkcode (instead of it being
*myoinkcode*). The reason you are getting a 404 is because the 2853
non-subscriber release is not available until after the 30 days. Read the
end of the post.