Packet processing software for security appliances

A packet buffer exhaustion vulnerability affects multiple versions of cisco asa software when a security appliance is configured to operate in the transparent firewall mode. A vulnerability in the internal packetprocessing functionality of cisco firepower threat defense ftd software for cisco firepower 2100 series security appliances could allow an unauthenticated, remote. Cisco adaptive security appliance software and firepower. Packet processing engine a modular and flexible packet processing engine delivers consistent, highperformance application traffic analysis within product families and across product lines. Unified solutions to manage, optimize, and secure your hybrid network with scalable platforms, offering complete visibility into your universe.

A vulnerability in the packet processing functions of cisco firepower system software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected system to stop inspecting and. To use cisco firepower management center, navigate to devices device management in the user interface, and then doubleclick the name of the device. A packet buffer acts as a central onchip packet switch that delivers packets from the network interfaces to the p4programmable packet processing data plane and viceversa. Operating system software will contain certain standard network stacks that will operate in both single and multicore environments. These software libraries, coupled with the hardware acceleration capabilities of the nps400, enable deep packet inspection processing for application recognition at record breaking processing rates of. The packet processing explained here is valid as well for r80. Marvell octeon iii cn78xx multicore mips64 processors. Mellanox enables stateful packet processing at 400gbs. Nov 09, 2014 cisco pix 500 series security appliances are affected by the transparent firewall packet buffer exhaustion vulnerability and the sccp inspection denial of service vulnerability. This greatly improved packet processing software, massively. The companys 6windgate packet processing software is optimized for costeffective hardware running linux with a choice of multicore processors to deliver a wide variety of networking and. Exploit code is publicly available for the cisco asa and cisco pix security appliances tcp packet processing denial of service vulnerability. You will understand how securexl, corexl and multiqueue handle packet.

Cybermapper security load balancer software defined networking. In addition, intel platforms will offer two key security features for network service providers. Multiple vulnerabilities in the application layer protocol inspection feature of cisco adaptive security appliance asa software and cisco firepower threat defense ftd software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to trigger a reload of an affected device, resulting in a denial of service dos condition. Anatomy of a network appliance todaysmb 110 gbps data center 80gbps 10 gbe 10 gbe gbe gbe pcie x1. Now packet processing speed, scale, efficiency, and software defined flexibility for networking and security functions can be performed fast, good and cheap across bare metal, vm, and container deployments. The service processing offloads are specialized hardware modules purposely optimized to handle specific tasks at wire speed, such as cryptographic functions and compression. Highhighperformance packet performance packet processing. A vulnerability in the packet processing functions of cisco firepower system software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected system to stop inspecting and processing packets, resulting in a denial of service dos condition. The programmable packet engine ppe, is advanced software sensor. Apr 01, 2010 in many network and security appliances, the need for regular expression matching regex is an essential requirement, specifically for deep packet inspection dpi applications such as intrusion detection and prevention systems idsips, content firewalls, virus scanning, data loss prevention dlp, and lawful intercept applications.

The vulnerability is due to incorrect processing of certain ospf packets. Accelerated firewall software on dpdkready x86 hardware. In addition to dpi, this solution enables unrestricted concurrent connections offering users ultimate scalability. May 04, 2016 a vulnerability in the packet processing functions of cisco firepower system software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected system to stop inspecting and processing packets, resulting in a denial of service dos condition. Hardwarebased flow shunting for network security appliances. This is an excellent environment for the security analytics engines, but the x86 architecture is a very inefficient platform for handling packet processing tasks. A vulnerability in the arp packet processing of cisco adaptive security appliance asa software and cisco firepower threat defense ftd software for cisco firepower 2100 series security appliances could allow an unauthenticated, adjacent attacker to cause an affected device to reload, resulting in a denial of service dos condition on an affected device. Cisco adaptive security device manager asdm administrative access. They perform key flow management functions, such as speed conversion, aggregation, and load balancing, as well as protect your network in the event of power loss or tool failure. The cisco flow processor takes networkprocessor technology to the next. Cisco advanced malware protection amp for networks running on cisco firepower 8000 series appliances.

In recent years, the global deep packet inspection and processing market has witnessed a tremendous growth rate, mainly due to the increasing demand for detection of malicious. Deep packet inspection and processing market global. These software libraries, coupled with the hardware acceleration capabilities of the nps400, enable deep packet inspection processing for application recognition at record processing rates of up to 400gbs, in. Cisco asa 5500 series adaptive security appliance software. Network sensor appliance software programmable packet engine. Highperformance packet performance packet processing solutions. Deep packet inspection an overview sciencedirect topics. In digital communications networks, packet processing refers to the wide variety of algorithms.

Use multicore flow processing to boost network router. Step up the packet processing workload by adding firewall pf packet filter enabled, and tnsr takes a 1. Deployable extreme packet capture software and appliances. This system is designed for applications that demand highspeed data recording and extensive storage, such as cyber forensics, cyber security, and big data analytics. Cisco firepower system software packet processing denial of. This video explains the packet processing architecture enforcing the infinity gen v prevention functionalities ngtx. Intel omnipath architecture opa software defined networking. It consolidates 40 customized packet processor cores 900 mhz to 1. The octeon tx2 cn92xx, cn96xx and cn98xx utilizes the. The vulnerability is due to improper packet handling by the affected software when packets are passed through the sensing interfaces of an. With optional 3u cluster nodes, packet processing may be distributed to a cluster network of rackmount nodes with massive highspeed storage.

Since packet processing is naturally an simd application, a gpubased router is a promising candidate. The impact of optimized packet processing software on multicore platformsfor dpi and network security. Because cisco pix 500 series security appliances reached the end of software maintenance releases milestone on july 28, 2009, no further software releases will be. Multiple vulnerabilities in cisco asa 5500 series adaptive. Direct the right network traffic to the right places. They perform key flow management functions, such as speed conversion. All these hardware features are able to offload the software packet processing. Software defined networking and softwarebased services. A vulnerability in the internal packetprocessing functionality of cisco firepower threat defense ftd software for cisco firepower 2100 series security appliances could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to stop processing traffic, resulting in a denial of service dos condition. The ibm security qradar network packet capture mtm 4412f2c provides more storage capacity to enable users to store more packet data for a longer period of time, and improved performance.

The qradar network packet capture appliance also provides more capture ports and extra configuration flexibility to support a wide range of deployment options. To be able to implement operating system bypass fast path architectures requires the use of specialized packet processing software such as 6winds 6windgate. There is everincreasing pressure on networks to perform and manage greater workloads with the uptick in cloud, mobility, and now the internet of things. Software defined networking and softwarebased services with. A vulnerability in the packet processing functions of cisco firepower system software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected system to stop inspecting and processing.

Building blocks for resilient network architectures. Intel scalable system framework intel ssf storage systems. This system is designed for applications that demand high. With the faster data processing, faster availability of data for searching and analysis, and the capacity to support more ipenabled devices, of the qradar xx48, you use fewer appliances, saving rack space. Cisco asa security appliances that are configured for the following features are at risk. Sonicwalls nsa appliances utilize a reassemblyfree deep packet inspection rfdpi engine to eliminate threats over unlimited file sizes without affecting processing time. Packet processing an overview sciencedirect topics. Jan 22, 2019 most often, packetfiltering firewalls are employed at the very periphery of an organizations security networks. A vulnerability in the open shortest path first ospf implementation in cisco adaptive security appliance asa software and cisco firepower threat defense ftd software could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a memory leak on an affected device. Cisco asa and cisco pix security appliances tcp packet. Unified solutions to manage, optimize, and secure your hybrid network with. The vulnerability is due to an error when the software processes malicious tcp packets. Deep packet inspection comprehensive ecosystem support popular thirdparty operating systems and toolchains broad range of thirdparty application software vendors appliances, amc, atca cards from marvell ecosystem high performance processing for software dened networking sdn and network functions virtualization nfv.

To address the inefficient processing of large packet capture files with traditional packet analyzers running on a single host with limited computing and storage resources, lee et al. Cisco asa adaptive security appliance software contains a vulnerability that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service dos condition. An unauthenticated, remote attacker could exploit the vulnerability by sending a series of malicious packets to the targeted device. Ip packet filtering firewalls all share this same basic mechanism. Applications must be able to dynamically manage packet processing and adjust to constantly changing security algorithms, and thats where fpgas are ideal. Enter opensource, highperformance packet processing software from the linux foundations fast data plane project, fd. Based on the same custombuilt layer 7 technology featured in cisco meraki wireless aps and security appliances, ms switches use a variety of techniques to. These software libraries, coupled with the hardware acceleration capabilities of the nps400, enable deep packet inspection processing for application recognition at record breaking processing rates of up to 400gbs, in conjunction with handling of 100 million flows with an average packet size of 400 bytes. Jun 21, 2019 step up the packet processing workload by adding firewall pf packet filter enabled, and tnsr takes a 1.

For example, packetfiltering firewalls are highly effective in protecting against denialofservice dos attacks that aim to take down sensitive systems on internal networks. Deep packet inspection comprehensive ecosystem support popular thirdparty operating systems and toolchains broad range of thirdparty application software vendors appliances, amc, atca cards. Servlytics has solved the filtering of data utilizing fpga hardware with our patented process of compiling ips rules combined with deep packet inspection. You will understand how securexl, corexl and multiqueue handle packet streams and how the ngtx engine applies security. Part of this newfound attention for software routers has been an exploration of various hardware architectures that might be best suited for supporting softwarebased packet processing. As an ip packet traverses the firewall, the headers are parsed, and the results are compared to a rule set defined by a system administrator. Fpga network security appliances fpga cybersecurity. Opencl support greatly simplifies fpga development 100gige, 40gige, and. Optimized packet processing software for networking and security.

Appliance manufacturers are developing network and security appliances requiring 5 to 10 gbps of security processing today. As network packet processing npp applications demand greater and greater data bandwidths, especially with the advent of 100gige, packet switching can become too complex for software alone to. This vulnerability affects cisco asa software and cisco firepower threat defense ftd software that is running on the following cisco products. Packet processing software is used in the data plane of the router to. Cisco meraki devices are designed to operate even when disconnected from the cisco meraki cloud, providing continued enduser lan connectivity and security. Nps400 enables worldleading intrusion detection and prevention and other security systems, utilizing embedded deep packet inspection and stateful packet processing software libraries sunnyvale, calif. It consolidates 40 customized packetprocessor cores 900 mhz to 1. Cisco adaptive security appliance software versions 8. In digital communications networks, packet processing refers to the wide variety of algorithms that are applied to a packet of data or information as it moves through the various network elements of a. Mellanox announces record breaking performance enabling. The vulnerability is due to improper handling of ipv6 packets. Cisco firepower system software packet processing denial. A vulnerability in the internal packet processing functionality of cisco firepower threat defense ftd software for cisco firepower 2100 series security appliances could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause an affected device to stop processing traffic, resulting in a denial of service dos condition. Cisco adaptive security appliance software version 9.

Determining the cisco firepower system software release. Security incident and event monitoring siem analytics. The packet processing project contains an important collection of tools to accelerate development of network transformation software, as outlined by software defined networking sdn and a complementary initiative, network functions. Apcon network visibility and monitoring physical, virtual. In recent years, the global deep packet inspection and processing market has witnessed a tremendous growth rate, mainly due to the increasing demand for detection of malicious software and improved internet security standards, better management of the growing data traffic. System design for software packet processing berkeley eecs. In addition, the new packet processing engine delivers a higher throughput with header processing, qos, and traffic shaping. Any network appliance with our proprietary process. In many network and security appliances, the need for regular expression matching regex is an essential requirement, specifically for deep packet inspection dpi applications such as. With optional 2u cluster nodes, packet processing may be distributed to a cluster network of rackmount nodes with massive highspeed storage. Cisco firepower 2100 series security appliances ip. This is an excellent environment for the security analytics engines, but the x86 architecture is a very inefficient platform for handling packetprocessing tasks.

Shallow packet inspection, in contrast to deep packet inspection, inspects only a few header fields in order to make processing decisions. While a physical router uses a dedicated packet processor in hardware to forward. Consequently, software based mitigation filtering provides limited throughput, does not scale economically, and is often limited by hard upper limits for solution throughput. Pensando announces p4programmable platform and joins p4. A vulnerability in the web proxy framework of the cisco web security appliance wsa could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker with the ability to negotiate a secure connection from within the trusted network to cause a denial of service dos condition on the affected device. Appliance manufacturers are developing network and security appliances requiring 5 to 10 gbps of security processing today, with rates rapidly moving to 40 and 100 gbps. Network packet processing npp bittware fpga acceleration. To determine which release of cisco firepower system software is running on a device, administrators can use cisco firepower management center or the commandline interface cli. The primary job of a router is to decide, based on a. The ppe thread runs through a feature chain in software, which processes the packet. The global header contains the magic number to identify the file format version and byte order, the gmt offset, the timestamp precision, the maximum length of captured packets in octets, and the data link. Cisco asa and cisco pix software contains a vulnerability that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a denial of service condition. These requirements would typically convince appliance manufacturers of the need for specialized.