Category: Configuration & Optimization

If you ever wanted a bit more flexibility from the OSSEC rules, you can have it now with the C compiled rules.

Compiled rules are an extension to the normal (default) XML rules and should only be used when you need additional functionality not present in there.

**Note that you need at least the snapshot ossec-hids-081030.tar.gz or v1.7 (not yet available) for it to work.

How the compiled rules work?

Inside the OSSEC package you will find the directory src/analysisd/compiled_rules/ , with the default compiled rules.
To see a list of rules, run the command (inside that directory):

  $ pwd
  ../src/analysisd/compiled_rules
  $ ./register_rule.sh list
  *Available functions:
  check_id_size
  comp_mswin_targetuser_calleruser_diff
  comp_srcuser_dstuser

To use any of them inside a rule, just add the <compiled_rule> tag with the function you want to use. Ex:

 <rule id="100155" level="10">
   <if_sid>18111</if_sid>
   <compiled_rule>comp_mswin_targetuser_calleruser_diff</compiled_rule>
   <description>User changed someone else password.</description>
 </rule>

NOTE: To know what each function does you have to look at the source code.

How to write my own rule

To create your own rule, first open a new .c file (don’t use the generic one, since it is modified during upgrades).

  $ touch myownrules.c

And create your function inside of it. In this example here we added a function to check if the url field is longer than 1024:

void *myosrule_check_url_size1024(Eventinfo *lf)
{
    if(!lf->url)
    {
        return(NULL);
    }

    if(strlen(lf->url) >= 1024)
    {
        return(lf);
    }
    return(NULL);
}

Note 1: You must return ‘lf’ (the eventinfo structure) if the function matches or NULL otherwise.
Note 2: Give a good name to your function in a way to make sure it is not used anywhere else (eg: put your company name in it).
After that, register your function:

  $ ./register_rule.sh add myosrule_check_url_size1024

You can also save it (if you have ossec installed) so that during the next upgrade it will reuse them:

  $ ./register_rule.sh save
  *Save completed at /var/ossec/compiled_rules/

Recently I have been focused on trying to make OSSEC more friendly and easier to manage. Last version (1.5) we added the agent_control tool (to manage the agents remotely), and for the v1.6, one of the new features is the syscheck_control.

Basically, it allows you to manage the integrity checking database that is stored on the server (manager) side. You can list the modified files, get detailed information from each change and even ignore a specific file or zero its auto-ignore counter.

*To test it, you will need to get the latest development package (snapshot) available at: //www.ossec.net/files/snapshots/ossec-hids-080807.tar.gz

How to use it? Let’s look at some examples:

Example 1: Getting help and listing all available agents

Exactly like the agent_control, you can use the “-l” (or -lc) flag to list the agents and the “-h” flag to get the command line help.

# /var/ossec/bin/syscheck_control -h

OSSEC HIDS syscheck_control: Manages the integrity checking database.
Available options:
-h This help message.
-l List available (active or not) agents.
-lc List only active agents.
-u <id> Updates (clear) the database for the agent.
-u all Updates (clear) the database for all agents.
-i <id> List modified files for the agent.
-r -i <id> List modified registry entries for the agent (Windows only).
-f <file> Prints information about a modified file.
-z Used with the -f, zeroes the auto-ignore counter.
-d Used with the -f, ignores that file.
-s Changes the output to CSV (comma delimited).

# /var/ossec/bin/syscheck_control -lc

OSSEC HIDS syscheck_control. List of available agents:
ID: 000, Name: enigma.ossec.net (server), IP: 127.0.0.1, Active/Local
ID: 165, Name: esqueleto2, IP: 192.168.2.99, Active
ID: 174, Name: lili3win, IP: 192.168.2.0/24, Active
ID: 185, Name: winhome2, IP: 192.168.2.0/24, Active

Example 2: Getting a list of modified files

To get a list of the modified files, just run the command with the “-i” flag followed by the agent id you want:

# /var/ossec/bin/syscheck_control -i 165

Integrity changes for agent ‘esqueleto2 (165) – 192.168.2.190′:

Changes for 2007 Sep 12:
2007 Sep 12 21:54:37,0 – /var/ossec/etc/ossec.conf
2007 Sep 12 21:54:37,0 – /var/ossec/etc/internal_options.conf
2007 Sep 12 22:01:36,0 – /etc/group-
2007 Sep 12 22:01:40,0 – /etc/ld.so.cache
2007 Sep 12 22:01:47,0 – /etc/passwd-
2007 Sep 12 22:01:48,0 – /etc/syslog.conf

Changes for 2007 Sep 13:
2007 Sep 13 00:15:17,0 – /etc/postgresql/8.1/main/log

..

Changes for 2008 Jul 24:
2008 Jul 24 12:47:55,0 – /etc/syslog.conf
2008 Jul 24 12:47:57,0 – /etc/resolv.conf
2008 Jul 24 15:03:27,3 – /etc/ld.so.cache

Example 3: Getting more information about a file change

To get a more detailed view of the changes on a specific file, run the same command as above plus the “-f” flag. In the following example we are looking at the resolv.conf file changes:

# /var/ossec/bin/syscheck_control -i 165 -f resolv

Integrity changes for agent ‘esqueleto2 (165) – 192.168.2.190′:
Detailed information for entries matching: ‘resolv’

2007 Sep 12 22:01:48,0 – /etc/resolv.conf
File added to the database.
Integrity checking values:
Size: 53
Perm: rw-r–r–
Uid: 0
Gid: 0
Md5: 14f49f5a229b80d555100ddab80e42ab
Sha1: 0aa08a3fba0b0b8bb926cdb8ee5f2af27c947cbf

2008 Jul 24 12:47:57,0 – /etc/resolv.conf
File changed. – 1st time modified.
Integrity checking values:
Size: >54
Perm: rw-r–r–
Uid: 0
Gid: 0
Md5: >ba9ce771e9d760f58ffd30e4ecda669a
Sha1: >ce9dbec2368e8e35dea76df9b623824628045dcb

Example 4: Ignoring or clearing the auto-ignore flags

OSSEC by default will ignore files that change too often. You can disable this feature by setting <auto_ignore> to “no” in the main config, but sometimes you may want to keep this feature on and deal with each file separately.

In this example, the file squid.conf is being auto-ignored. To remote this flag, just run the same command as above with the “-z” flag:

# /var/ossec/bin/syscheck_control -i 165 -f “/squid.conf”

2008 Jun 26 22:48:26,4 – /etc/squid/squid.conf
File changed. – Being ignored (3 or more changes).
Integrity checking values:
Size: 120362
Perm: rw——-
Uid: 0
Gid: 0
Md5: >a0038eaf46f13cdbbc09c4c1e4994374
Sha1: >3e732bcee538f20f02a602b0aec36bbe2fd3617b

# /var/ossec/bin/syscheck_control -i 165 -f “/squid.conf” -z

Integrity changes for agent ‘esqueleto2 (165) – 192.168.2.190′:
Detailed information for entries matching: ‘/squid.conf’

**Counter updated for file ‘/etc/squid/squid.conf’

# /var/ossec/bin/syscheck_control -i 165 -f “/squid.conf”

2008 Jun 26 22:48:26,0 – /etc/squid/squid.conf
File changed. – 1st time modified.
Integrity checking values:
Size: 120362
Perm: rw——-
Uid: 0
Gid: 0
Md5: >a0038eaf46f13cdbbc09c4c1e4994374
Sha1: >3e732bcee538f20f02a602b0aec36bbe2fd3617b

If you are dealing with the registry files on Windows, make sure to add the “-r” flag to all these commands.

As always, suggestions, bug reports and comments are more than welcome!

Thanks,