The names Snort and Suricata are known to all who work in the field of network security. WAF and IDS are two classes of security systems that analyze network traffic, parse top-level protocols, and signal the presence of malicious or unwanted network activity. Whereas WAF helps web servers detect and avoid attacks targeted only at them, IDS detects attacks in all network traffic.
Many companies install an IDS to control traffic inside the corporate network. The DPI mechanism lets them collect traffic streams, peer inside packets at the IP, HTTP, DCE/RPC, and other levels, and identify both the exploitation of vulnerabilities and network activity by malware.
At the heart of both systems are signature sets used for detecting known attacks, developed by network security experts and companies worldwide.
We at the @attackdetection team also develop signatures to detect network attacks and malicious activity. Later on in the article, we'll discuss a new approach we discovered that disrupts the operation of Suricata IDS systems, and then hides all trace of such activity.