[Snort 2.9.5] Network intrusion prevention and detection system (IDS/IPS)


Snort® is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system (IDS/IPS) developed by Sourcefire. Combining the benefits of signature, protocol, and anomaly-based inspection, Snort is the most widely deployed IDS/IPS technology worldwide. With millions of downloads and nearly 400,000 registered users, Snort has become the de facto standard for IPS.


[*] New additions

* Added tracking of FTP data channel for file transfers as file_data for Snort rules.

* Add support for doing PAF based on services loaded thru the attribute table and hardened PAF code/removed --disable-paf

* Added decoding support for Cisco ERSPAN

* Added tracking of HTTP uploads as file_data for Snort rules.

* Added ability to use event filters with PPM rules

* Added a control channel command to reload the Snort configuration to give feedback on new configuration.  This improves on the older sigHUP which would just result in Snort exiting and restarting if the new configuration required a restart.

* Added a configuration option to perfmon to write flow-ip data to a file

* New decoding alert for IPv6 Routing type 0 header.

* Added the ability to sync basic session state from one Snort to another via a side channel communication between the two Snort instances.  NOTE:  This is currently experimental.

[*] Improvements

* Improved Stream's midstream pickup handling for TCP state processing,
  sequence validation, and reassembly.  Thanks to John Eure.

* Added a parse error for a rule if there is a relative content used after a content that is 'fast_pattern only'.

* Improved HTTP PAF reassembly capabilities to be better aligned on PDU boundaries, terminate if not actually HTTP, and to include all appropriate line feeds.

* Hardened the code related to dynamic modules.  Removed --disable- dynamicplugin configuration option since rule and preprocessor shared libraries are here to stay.

* Improved parsing of IP lists for reputation

* Update to Teredo processing and Snort rule evaluation when the inner IPv6 packet doesn't have payload.  Thanks to Yun Zheng Hu & L0rd Ch0de1m0rt for reporting the issue & crafting traffic to reproduce. 

* Improved logging of packets associated with alerts when a Stream reassembled packet triggers multiple Snort rules.

* Improvements to the Snort manual including documentation of specific rule options and configuration items.  Thanks to Nicholas Horton and many others.

* Removed a bunch of dead code paths, updated to use more current memory functions for easier code maintenance and portability.  Thanks to William Parker.

[*] Deletions

* Remove deprecated unified support, use unified2 for all of your logging needs.