What is an Intrusion Prevention System?

28 Oct.,2024

 

What is an Intrusion Prevention System?

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Largely automated, IPS solutions help filter out malicious activity before it reaches other security devices or controls. This reduces the manual effort of security teams and allows other security products to perform more efficiently.

IPS solutions are also very effective at detecting and preventing vulnerability exploits. When a vulnerability is discovered, there is typically a window of opportunity for exploitation before a security patch can be applied. An intrusion prevention system is used here to quickly block these types of attacks.

IPS appliances were originally built and released as stand-alone devices in the mid-s. This functionality has been integrated into unified threat management (UTM) solutions as well as Next-Generation Firewalls. Next-generation IPS solutions are now connected to cloud-based computing and network services.

How Intrusion Prevention Systems Work

The IPS is placed inline, directly in the flow of network traffic between the source and destination. This is what differentiates IPS from its predecessor, the intrusion detection system (IDS). Conversely, IDS is a passive system that scans traffic and reports back on threats.

Usually sitting right behind the firewall, the solution analyzes all traffic flows that enter the network and takes automated actions when necessary.

These actions can include:

  • Sending an alarm to the administrator (as would be seen in an IDS)
  • Dropping the malicious packets
  • Blocking traffic from the source address
  • Resetting the connection
  • Configuring firewalls to prevent future attacks


As an inline security component, the IPS must be able to:

  • Work efficiently to avoid degrading network performance
  • Work fast, because exploits can happen in near-real time
  • Detect and respond accurately to eliminate threats and false positives (i.e., legitimate packets misread as threats).

To do this successfully, there are several techniques used for finding exploits and protecting the network from unauthorized access. These include:

  • Signature-based detection is a detection method based on a dictionary of uniquely identifiable patterns (or signatures) in the code of each exploit. As an exploit is discovered, its signature is recorded and stored in a continuously growing dictionary of signatures. Signature detection for IPS breaks down into two types:
    • Exploit-facing signatures identify individual exploits by triggering on the unique patterns of a particular exploit attempt. The IPS can identify specific exploits by finding a match with an exploit-facing signature in the traffic stream.
    • Vulnerability-facing signatures are broader signatures that target the underlying vulnerability in the system that is being targeted. These signatures allow networks to be protected from unidentified. They also raise the risk of false positives.
  • Anomaly-based detection takes samples of network traffic at random and compares them to a pre-calculated baseline performance level. When the traffic activity is outside the parameters of baseline performance, the IPS takes action.
  • Policy-based detection requires system administrators to configure security policies based on an organization&#;s security policies and network infrastructure. If any activity occurs that breaks a defined security policy, an alert is triggered and sent to the admins.

Types of Intrusion Prevention Systems

There are several types of IPS solutions, which can be deployed for different purposes. These include:

  • Network based intrusion prevention system (NIPS), which is installed at strategic points to monitor all network traffic and scan for threats.
  • Host intrusion prevention system (HIPS), which is installed on an endpoint and looks at inbound/outbound traffic from that machine only. Often combined with NIPS, an HIPS serves as a last line of defense for threats.
  • Network behavior analysis (NBA) analyzes network traffic to detect unusual traffic flows and spot new malware or zero-day vulnerabilities.
  • Wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS) scans a Wi-Fi network for unauthorized access and removes any unauthorized devices.

The Benefits of Intrusion Prevention Systems

An intrusion prevention system comes with many security benefits:

  • Reduced business risks and additional security
  • Better visibility into attacks, and therefore better protection
  • Increased efficiency allows for Inspection of all traffic for threats
  • Less resources needed to manage vulnerabilities and patches

Critical Features of an IPS

An IPS is a critical tool for preventing some of the most threatening and advanced attacks. Look for the following capabilities in your chosen IPS:

  • IPS vulnerability protection
    Application vulnerabilities are a common initial step in the attack lifecycle for breaches, infections, and ransomware. While the number of vulnerabilities reported continues to increase every year, it only takes one vulnerability for adversaries to gain access to an organization.

    Critical vulnerabilities in applications, such as Apache Struts, Drupal, remote access, VPN, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SMB, OS,browsers, and IoT systems, continue to be the top attempted exploited vulnerabilities against organizations.

    Vulnerability exploitation and RDP compromise are two primary ways adversaries gain access to businesses and launch ransomware attacks. This makes vulnerability protection an essential part of security.

  • Antimalware protection
    A stream-based scanning engine detects known malware and its unknown variations, and then blocks them inline at high speeds. IPS and antimalware protection address multiple threat vectors with one service. This is a convenient alternative to purchasing and maintaining separate IPS products from legacy vendors.

  • Comprehensive command-and-control protection
    After initial infection, attackers communicate with the host machine through a covert C2 channel. The C2 channel is used to pull down additional malware, issue further instructions, and steal data.

    With the increasing use of tool sets like Cobalt Strike and encrypted or obfuscated traffic, it is easier for attackers to create completely customizable command-and-control channels. These channels cannot be stopped with traditional signature-based approaches.

    Therefore, it is essential that IPS solutions include capabilities to block and prevent unknown C2 inline. IPS solutions should also detect and stop outbound C2 communications from systems that may have been compromised by:
    • Known malware families
    • Web shells
    • Remote access Trojans

  • Automated security actions
    Security operations teams should be able to quickly act, quarantine, and effect policy to control potential infections. This includes stronger security policies and controls, such as automatic multi-factor authentication.

  • Broad visibility and granular control
    Incident response teams benefit from being able to immediately determine which systems are under attack and which users are potentially infected. This is far more efficient than guessing based on IP addresses. Giving policy control over applications and users to IT and security staff vastly simplifies network security policy creation and management.

  • Consistent, simplified policy management
    For comprehensive protection, modern distributed networks need consistent policies across the:
    • Corporate perimeter
    • Data center
    • Public and private clouds
    • SaaS applications
    • Remote users.

  • Automated threat intelligence
    Generating and consuming high-quality threat intelligence is important, but automatically turning that intelligence into protection is a necessity. Modern IPS must be able to automatically take advantage of threat intelligence to keep up with the speed of attacks.

Deep Learning for Evasive Threat Detection

To protect against the increase of sophisticated and evasive threats, intrusion prevention systems should deploy inline deep learning. Inline deep learning significantly enhances detections and accurately identifies never-before-seen malicious traffic without relying on signatures.

Deep-learning models go through several layers of analysis and process millions of data points in milliseconds. These sophisticated pattern recognition systems analyze network traffic activity with unparalleled accuracy. Such systems can also identifying unknown malicious traffic inline with few false positives. This additional layer of intelligent protection provides further protection of sensitive information and prevents attacks that can paralyze an organization.

To learn more about how IPS solutions work within a security infrastructure, check out this paper: Palo Alto Networks Approach to Intrusion Prevention.

Intrusion Prevention System FAQs

Intrusion Detection System (IDS)

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a security tool that monitors a computer network or systems for malicious activities or policy violations. It helps detect unauthorized access, potential threats, and abnormal activities by analyzing traffic and alerting administrators to take action. An IDS is crucial for maintaining network security and protecting sensitive data from cyber-attacks.

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) maintains network traffic looks for unusual activity and sends alerts when it occurs. The main duties of an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) are anomaly detection and reporting, however, certain Intrusion Detection Systems can take action when malicious activity or unusual traffic is discovered. In this article, we will discuss every point about the Intrusion Detection System.

What is an Intrusion Detection System?

A system called an intrusion detection system (IDS) observes network traffic for malicious transactions and sends immediate alerts when it is observed. It is software that checks a network or system for malicious activities or policy violations. Each illegal activity or violation is often recorded either centrally using an SIEM system or notified to an administration. IDS monitors a network or system for malicious activity and protects a computer network from unauthorized access from users, including perhaps insiders. The intrusion detector learning task is to build a predictive model (i.e. a classifier) capable of distinguishing between &#;bad connections&#; (intrusion/attacks) and &#;good (normal) connections&#;.

Working of Intrusion Detection System(IDS)

  • An IDS (Intrusion Detection System) monitors the traffic on a computer network to detect any suspicious activity.

  • It analyzes the data flowing through the network to look for patterns and signs of abnormal behavior.

  • The IDS compares the network activity to a set of predefined rules and patterns to identify any activity that might indicate an attack or intrusion.

  • If the IDS detects something that matches one of these rules or patterns, it sends an alert to the system administrator.

  • The system administrator can then investigate the alert and take action to prevent any damage or further intrusion.

 

Classification of Intrusion Detection System(IDS)

 Intrusion Detection System are classified into 5 types:

  • Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS):

    Network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) are set up at a planned point within the network to examine traffic from all devices on the network. It performs an observation of passing traffic on the entire subnet and matches the traffic that is passed on the subnets to the collection of known attacks. Once an attack is identified or abnormal behavior is observed, the alert can be sent to the administrator. An example of a NIDS is installing it on the subnet where

    firewalls

    are located in order to see if someone is trying to crack the

    firewall

    .

  • Host Intrusion Detection System (HIDS):

    Host intrusion detection systems (HIDS) run on independent hosts or devices on the network. A HIDS monitors the incoming and outgoing packets from the device only and will alert the administrator if suspicious or malicious activity is detected. It takes a snapshot of existing system files and compares it with the previous snapshot. If the analytical system files were edited or deleted, an alert is sent to the administrator to investigate. An example of HIDS usage can be seen on mission-critical machines, which are not expected to change their layout.

  • Protocol-Based Intrusion Detection System (PIDS):

    Protocol-based intrusion detection system (PIDS) comprises a system or agent that would consistently reside at the front end of a server, controlling and interpreting the protocol between a user/device and the server. It is trying to secure the web server by regularly monitoring the

    HTTPS protocol

    stream and accepting the related

    HTTP protocol

    . As HTTPS is unencrypted and before instantly entering its web presentation layer then this system would need to reside in this interface, between to use the HTTPS.

  • Application Protocol-Based Intrusion Detection System (APIDS):

    An application

    Protocol-based Intrusion Detection System

    (APIDS) is a system or agent that generally resides within a group of servers. It identifies the intrusions by monitoring and interpreting the communication on application-specific protocols. For example, this would monitor the SQL protocol explicitly to the middleware as it transacts with the database in the web server.

  • Hybrid Intrusion Detection System:

    Hybrid intrusion detection system is made by the combination of two or more approaches to the intrusion detection system. In the hybrid intrusion detection system, the host agent or system data is combined with network information to develop a complete view of the network system. The hybrid intrusion detection system is more effective in comparison to the other intrusion detection system. Prelude is an example of Hybrid IDS.

What is an Intrusion in Cybersecurity?

Understanding Intrusion Intrusion is when an attacker gets unauthorized access to a device, network, or system. Cyber criminals use advanced techniques to sneak into organizations without being detected. Common methods include:

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  • Address Spoofing:

    Hiding the source of an attack by using fake, misconfigured, or unsecured proxy servers, making it hard to identify the attacker.

  • Fragmentation

    : Sending data in small pieces to slip past detection systems.

  • Pattern Evasion:

    Changing attack methods to avoid detection by IDS systems that look for specific patterns.

  • Coordinated Attack:

    Using multiple attackers or ports to scan a network, confusing the IDS and making it hard to see what is happening.

Intrusion Detection System Evasion Techniques

  • Fragmentation:

    Dividing the packet into smaller packet called fragment and the process is known as

    fragmentation

    . This makes it impossible to identify an intrusion because there can&#;t be a malware signature.

  • Packet Encoding:

    Encoding packets using methods like Base64 or hexadecimal can hide malicious content from signature-based IDS.

  • Traffic Obfuscation:

    By making message more complicated to interpret, obfuscation can be utilised to hide an attack and avoid detection.

  • Encryption:

    Several security features, such as data integrity, confidentiality, and data privacy, are provided by

    encryption

    . Unfortunately, security features are used by malware developers to hide attacks and avoid detection.

Benefits of IDS

  • Detects Malicious Activity:

    IDS can detect any suspicious activities and alert the system administrator before any significant damage is done.

  • Improves Network Performance:

    IDS can identify any performance issues on the network, which can be addressed to improve network performance.

  • Compliance Requirements:

    IDS can help in meeting compliance requirements by monitoring network activity and generating reports.

  • Provides Insights:

    IDS generates valuable insights into network traffic, which can be used to identify any weaknesses and improve network security.

Detection Method of IDS

  • Signature-Based Method:

    Signature-based IDS detects the attacks on the basis of the specific patterns such as the number of bytes or a number of 1s or the number of 0s in the network traffic. It also detects on the basis of the already known malicious instruction sequence that is used by the malware. The detected patterns in the IDS are known as signatures. Signature-based IDS can easily detect the attacks whose pattern (signature) already exists in the system but it is quite difficult to detect new malware attacks as their pattern (signature) is not known.

  • Anomaly-Based Method:

    Anomaly-based IDS was introduced to detect unknown malware attacks as new malware is developed rapidly. In anomaly-based IDS there is the use of machine learning to create a trustful activity model and anything coming is compared with that model and it is declared suspicious if it is not found in the model. The machine learning-based method has a better-generalized property in comparison to signature-based IDS as these models can be trained according to the applications and hardware configurations.

Comparison of IDS with Firewalls

IDS and firewall both are related to network security but an IDS differs from a firewall as a firewall looks outwardly for intrusions in order to stop them from happening. Firewalls restrict access between networks to prevent intrusion and if an attack is from inside the network it doesn&#;t signal. An IDS describes a suspected intrusion once it has happened and then signals an alarm.

Why Are Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) Important?

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) adds extra protection to your cybersecurity setup, making it very important. It works with your other security tools to catch threats that get past your main defenses. So, if your main system misses something, the IDS will alert you to the threat.

Placement of IDS

  • The most optimal and common position for an IDS to be placed is behind the firewall. Although this position varies considering the network. The &#;behind-the-firewall&#; placement allows the IDS with high visibility of incoming network traffic and will not receive traffic between users and network. The edge of the network point provides the network the possibility of connecting to the extranet.

  • In cases, where the IDS is positioned beyond a network&#;s firewall, it would be to defend against noise from internet or defend against attacks such as port scans and network mapper.An IDS in this position would monitor layers 4 through 7 of the

    OSI model

    and would use Signature-based detection method. Showing the number of attemepted breacheds instead of actual breaches that made it through the firewall is better as it reduces the amount of false positives. It also takes less time to discover successful attacks against network.

  • An advanced IDS incorporated with a firewall can be used to intercept complex attacks entering the network. Features of advanced IDS include multiple security contexts in the routing level and bridging mode. All of this in turn potentially reduces cost and operational complexity.

  • Another choice for IDS placement is within the network. This choice reveals attacks or suspicious activity within the network. Not acknowledging security inside a network is detrimental as it may allow users to bring about security risk, or allow an attacker who has broken into the system to roam around freely.

Advantages

  • Early Threat Detection

    : IDS identifies potential threats early, allowing for quicker response to prevent damage.

  • Enhanced Security

    : It adds an extra layer of security, complementing other cybersecurity measures to provide comprehensive protection.

  • Network Monitoring

    : Continuously monitors network traffic for unusual activities, ensuring constant vigilance.

  • Detailed Alerts

    : Provides detailed alerts and logs about suspicious activities, helping IT teams investigate and respond effectively.

Disadvantages

  • False Alarms

    : IDS can generate false positives, alerting on harmless activities and causing unnecessary concern.

  • Resource Intensive

    : It can use a lot of system resources, potentially slowing down network performance.

  • Requires Maintenance

    : Regular updates and tuning are needed to keep the IDS effective, which can be time-consuming.

  • Doesn&#;t Prevent Attacks

    : IDS detects and alerts but doesn&#;t stop attacks, so additional measures are still needed.

  • Complex to Manage

    : Setting up and managing an IDS can be complex and may require specialized knowledge.

Conclusion

Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a powerful tool that can help businesses in detecting and prevent unauthorized access to their network. By analyzing network traffic patterns, IDS can identify any suspicious activities and alert the system administrator. IDS can be a valuable addition to any organization&#;s security infrastructure, providing insights and improving network performance.

Frequently Asked Questions on Intrusion Detection System &#; FAQs

Difference between IDS and IPS?

When IDS detects intrusion it only alerts network administration while Intrusion Prevention System(IPS) blocks the malicious packets before it reaches to destination.

What are the key challenges of IDS implementation?

False positives and False Negatives are IDSs&#; primary drawbacks. False positives add to the noise that can seriously impair an intrusion detection system&#;s (IDS) efficiency, while a false negative occurs when an IDS misses an intrusion and consider it valid.

Can IDS detect insider threats?

Yes Intrusion Detection System can detect threats.

What is the role of machine learning in IDS?

By using Machine Learning, one can achieve a high detection rate and a low false alarm rate.



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