networksage-tools 0.9.0

Functionality to support usage and development on top of the NetworkSage platform.

networksage-tools

This repository contains publicly-released tools that will be helpful when interacting with the NetworkSage platform. Note that to upload anything to NetworkSage, you will require either a free or paid API key. To request an API key, please register for an account at https://networksage.seclarity.io/register.

What is NetworkSage?

The NetworkSage platform, first and foremost, acts as a lightweight, privacy-maintaining enrichment layer for your network traffic. It takes network flows (which we call Secflows), categorizes them with one of a couple dozen labels (see our Glossary for details), and compares them with the global dataset of known activity. For every Secflow, it returns:

• how common it is globally
• which categorization it has
• any metadata the security community has provided

To visually illustrate, refer to the following (taken from a public sample we found while creating our first Threat Report).

When this sample was uploaded to NetworkSage, all Secflows were automatically categorized and their global commonality was identified:

In addition, many of those Destinations (an IP or Domain name plus its port) had additional metadata provided by the security community. That information was made available inline:

Some of the categories associated with certain Secflows also indicated specific Behavior was happening. That information (also provided by the community) was shared for more in-depth knowledge:

Finally, some of the Behaviors (when seen in a particular order within some period of time) actually identified more complex interactions that we call Events:

Installation

Note that this package requires libpcap-dev to be installed on your system. Please use your system's package manager (such as apt on Ubuntu) to install libpcap-dev:

sudo apt-get install libpcap-dev

While Windows isn't yet supported due to issues with underlying libraries (specifically pcapy), we'd welcome anyone who wants to document the steps to make it work. At the very minimum, you will need the following:

A C++ compiler. Microsoft Visual Studio Build Tools is known to work.
Npcap's SDK, which is a replacement for the WinPCAP developer's kit.

To install the networksage-tools package, simply type the following:

pip install networksage-tools

Available Modules

There are multiple modules available within this package. Details about each are below.

A. Streaming Secflow Collector

module name: streaming

This module allows you to directly capture network traffic as unenriched Secflows (Secflows without flow category labels). This is beneficial for a number of reasons:

• Secflows are extremely lightweight, so you can actually do this continuously in the background without affecting system performance (i.e. you can collect network telemetry continuously on your endpoints)!
• Secflows have no identifying data, so you can avoid worrying about accidentally leaking information (URIs, passwords, keys, etc...)

To import this module into your project, type the following:

from networksage_tools.streaming import streaming

Usage

To capture Secflows continuously using this module from your project, enter the following (note that you'll need to be root to capture packets):

streaming.start(<interface_name>, <duration_in_seconds>) 

Note that the above will run in perpetuity, capturing packets from the interface you specified (such as "enp0s3" on Ubuntu systems). Every time the specified duration you provided is reached (if you provide no value, it defaults to 300 seconds), a sample will be created and uploaded to your NetworkSage account.

B. Standalone Converter

module name: converter

This module allows you to convert captured network traffic from any of our supported formats (currently PCAP, PCAPNG, and Zeek) into unenriched Secflows (Secflows without flow category labels). This is useful if you already have network telemetry that you'd like to upload to NetworkSage, but you don't want to upload the original file (for privacy, size, or other reasons).

To import this module into your project, type the following:

from networksage_tools.converter import converter

Usage

To convert a PCAP or PCAPNG file into an unenriched Secflow file, simply enter the following:

converter.convert_pcap(<path_to_pcap_file>) 

To convert a Zeek Conn log into an unenriched Secflow file, simply enter the following:

converter.convert_zeek(<path_to_conn_log>, <optional_path_to_dns_log>) 

If you have (and would like to include) DNS information that was captured by Zeek, provide the dns.log in addition to the conn.log. Naming will be much enhanced by doing so.

Supported File Formats

NetworkSage currently supports uploading the following files (which will be converted into our Secflow format):

• PCAP
• PCAPNG
• Zeek (conn.log and dns.log)
• Secflow

If you have a format that you'd like us to support, please review our FAQs and contact support at seclarity [.] io.

Getting Involved

We have a lot of plans to change the face of security. If you want to be involved as a contributor or to be a part of the community we're building, we highly encourage you to join our Slack!

License

This software is provided under the Apache Software License. See the accompanying LICENSE file for more information.