Suricata and Elasticsearch Integration

Powerful performance with an easy integration, powered by Telegraf, the open source data connector built by InfluxData.

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This is not the recommended configuration for real-time query at scale. For query and compression optimization, high-speed ingest, and high availability, you may want to consider Suricata and InfluxDB.

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Powerful Performance, Limitless Scale

Collect, organize, and act on massive volumes of high-velocity data. Any data is more valuable when you think of it as time series data. with InfluxDB, the #1 time series platform built to scale with Telegraf.

See Ways to Get Started

Input and output integration overview

This plugin reports internal performance counters of the Suricata IDS/IPS engine and processes the incoming data to fit Telegraf’s format.

The Telegraf Elasticsearch Plugin seamlessly sends metrics to an Elasticsearch server. The plugin handles template creation and dynamic index management, and supports various Elasticsearch-specific features to ensure data is formatted correctly for storage and retrieval.

Integration details

Suricata

The Suricata plugin captures and reports internal performance metrics from the Suricata IDS/IPS engine, which includes a wide range of statistics such as traffic volume, memory usage, uptime, and counters for flows and alerts. This plugin listens for JSON-formatted log outputs from Suricata, allowing it to parse and format the data for integration with Telegraf. It operates as a service input plugin, meaning it actively waits for metrics or events from Suricata rather than collecting metrics at predefined intervals. The plugin supports configurations for different metrics versions allowing for enhanced flexibility and detailed data gathering.

Elasticsearch

This plugin writes metrics to Elasticsearch, a distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine capable of storing large amounts of data in near real-time. It is designed to handle Elasticsearch versions 5.x through 7.x and utilizes its dynamic template features to manage data type mapping properly. The plugin supports advanced features such as template management, dynamic index naming, and integration with OpenSearch. It also allows configurations for authentication and health monitoring of the Elasticsearch nodes.

Configuration

Suricata

[[inputs.suricata]]
  ## Source
  ## Data sink for Suricata stats log. This is expected to be a filename of a
  ## unix socket to be created for listening.
  # source = "/var/run/suricata-stats.sock"

  ## Delimiter
  ## Used for flattening field keys, e.g. subitem "alert" of "detect" becomes
  ## "detect_alert" when delimiter is "_".
  # delimiter = "_"

  ## Metric version
  ## Version 1 only collects stats and optionally will look for alerts if
  ## the configuration setting alerts is set to true.
  ## Version 2 parses any event type message by default and produced metrics
  ## under a single metric name using a tag to differentiate between event
  ## types. The timestamp for the message is applied to the generated metric.
  ## Additional tags and fields are included as well.
  # version = "1"

  ## Alerts
  ## In metric version 1, only status is captured by default, alerts must be
  ## turned on with this configuration option. This option does not apply for
  ## metric version 2.
  # alerts = false

Elasticsearch


[[outputs.elasticsearch]]
  ## The full HTTP endpoint URL for your Elasticsearch instance
  ## Multiple urls can be specified as part of the same cluster,
  ## this means that only ONE of the urls will be written to each interval
  urls = [ "http://node1.es.example.com:9200" ] # required.
  ## Elasticsearch client timeout, defaults to "5s" if not set.
  timeout = "5s"
  ## Set to true to ask Elasticsearch a list of all cluster nodes,
  ## thus it is not necessary to list all nodes in the urls config option
  enable_sniffer = false
  ## Set to true to enable gzip compression
  enable_gzip = false
  ## Set the interval to check if the Elasticsearch nodes are available
  ## Setting to "0s" will disable the health check (not recommended in production)
  health_check_interval = "10s"
  ## Set the timeout for periodic health checks.
  # health_check_timeout = "1s"
  ## HTTP basic authentication details.
  ## HTTP basic authentication details
  # username = "telegraf"
  # password = "mypassword"
  ## HTTP bearer token authentication details
  # auth_bearer_token = "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9"

  ## Index Config
  ## The target index for metrics (Elasticsearch will create if it not exists).
  ## You can use the date specifiers below to create indexes per time frame.
  ## The metric timestamp will be used to decide the destination index name
  # %Y - year (2016)
  # %y - last two digits of year (00..99)
  # %m - month (01..12)
  # %d - day of month (e.g., 01)
  # %H - hour (00..23)
  # %V - week of the year (ISO week) (01..53)
  ## Additionally, you can specify a tag name using the notation {{tag_name}}
  ## which will be used as part of the index name. If the tag does not exist,
  ## the default tag value will be used.
  # index_name = "telegraf-{{host}}-%Y.%m.%d"
  # default_tag_value = "none"
  index_name = "telegraf-%Y.%m.%d" # required.

  ## Optional Index Config
  ## Set to true if Telegraf should use the "create" OpType while indexing
  # use_optype_create = false

  ## Optional TLS Config
  # tls_ca = "/etc/telegraf/ca.pem"
  # tls_cert = "/etc/telegraf/cert.pem"
  # tls_key = "/etc/telegraf/key.pem"
  ## Use TLS but skip chain & host verification
  # insecure_skip_verify = false

  ## Template Config
  ## Set to true if you want telegraf to manage its index template.
  ## If enabled it will create a recommended index template for telegraf indexes
  manage_template = true
  ## The template name used for telegraf indexes
  template_name = "telegraf"
  ## Set to true if you want telegraf to overwrite an existing template
  overwrite_template = false
  ## If set to true a unique ID hash will be sent as sha256(concat(timestamp,measurement,series-hash)) string
  ## it will enable data resend and update metric points avoiding duplicated metrics with different id's
  force_document_id = false

  ## Specifies the handling of NaN and Inf values.
  ## This option can have the following values:
  ##    none    -- do not modify field-values (default); will produce an error if NaNs or infs are encountered
  ##    drop    -- drop fields containing NaNs or infs
  ##    replace -- replace with the value in "float_replacement_value" (default: 0.0)
  ##               NaNs and inf will be replaced with the given number, -inf with the negative of that number
  # float_handling = "none"
  # float_replacement_value = 0.0

  ## Pipeline Config
  ## To use a ingest pipeline, set this to the name of the pipeline you want to use.
  # use_pipeline = "my_pipeline"
  ## Additionally, you can specify a tag name using the notation {{tag_name}}
  ## which will be used as part of the pipeline name. If the tag does not exist,
  ## the default pipeline will be used as the pipeline. If no default pipeline is set,
  ## no pipeline is used for the metric.
  # use_pipeline = "{{es_pipeline}}"
  # default_pipeline = "my_pipeline"
  #
  # Custom HTTP headers
  # To pass custom HTTP headers please define it in a given below section
  # [outputs.elasticsearch.headers]
  #    "X-Custom-Header" = "custom-value"

  ## Template Index Settings
  ## Overrides the template settings.index section with any provided options.
  ## Defaults provided here in the config
  # template_index_settings = {
  #   refresh_interval = "10s",
  #   mapping.total_fields.limit = 5000,
  #   auto_expand_replicas = "0-1",
  #   codec = "best_compression"
  # }

Input and output integration examples

Suricata

  1. Network Traffic Analysis: Utilize the Suricata plugin to track detailed metrics about network intrusion attempts and performance, aiding in real-time threat detection and response. By visualizing captured alerts and flow statistics, security teams can quickly pinpoint vulnerabilities and mitigate risks.

  2. Performance Monitoring Dashboard: Create a dashboard using the Suricata Telegraf plugin metrics to monitor the health and performance of the IDS/IPS engine. This use case provides an overview of memory usage, captured packets, and alert statistics, allowing teams to maintain optimal operating conditions.

  3. Automated Security Reporting: Leverage the plugin to generate regular reports on alert statistics and traffic patterns, helping security analysts to identify long-term trends and prepare strategic defense initiatives. Automated reports also ensure that the security posture of the network is continually assessed.

  4. Real-time Alert Handling: Integrate Suricata’s alert metrics within a broader incident response automation framework. By incorporating the inputs from the Suricata plugin, organizations can develop smart triggers for alerting and automated response workflows that enhance reaction times to potential threats.

Elasticsearch

  1. Time-based Indexing: Use this plugin to store metrics in Elasticsearch to index each metric based on the time collected. For example, CPU metrics can be stored in a daily index namedtelegraf-2023.01.01, allowing easy time-based queries and retention policies.

  2. Dynamic Templates Management: Utilize the template management feature to automatically create a custom template tailored to your metrics. This allows you to define how different fields are indexed and analyzed without manually configuring Elasticsearch, ensuring an optimal data structure for querying.

  3. OpenSearch Compatibility: If you are using AWS OpenSearch, you can configure this plugin to work seamlessly by activating compatibility mode, ensuring your existing Elasticsearch clients remain functional and compatible with newer cluster setups.

Feedback

Thank you for being part of our community! If you have any general feedback or found any bugs on these pages, we welcome and encourage your input. Please submit your feedback in the InfluxDB community Slack.

Powerful Performance, Limitless Scale

Collect, organize, and act on massive volumes of high-velocity data. Any data is more valuable when you think of it as time series data. with InfluxDB, the #1 time series platform built to scale with Telegraf.

See Ways to Get Started

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