Key Network Questions

 


I wrote this on 7 December 2018 but never published it until today. The following are the "key network questions" which "would answer many key questions about [a] network, without having to access a third party log repository. This data is derived from mining Zeek log data as it is created, rather than storing and querying Zeek logs in a third party repository."

This is how I was thinking about Zeek data in the second half of 2018.

1. What networking technologies are in use, over user-specified intervals?
   1. Enumerate non-IP protocols (IPv6, unusual Ethertypes)
   2. Enumerate IPv4 and IPv6 protocols (TCP, UDP, ICMP, etc.)
   3. What is the local IP network topology/addressing scheme?

2. What systems are providing core services to the network, over user-specified intervals?
   1. DHCP
   2. DNS
   3. NTP
   4. Domain Controller
   5. File sharing
   6. Default gateway (via DHCP inspection, other?)
   7. Web and cloud services

3. What tunnel mechanisms are in use, over user-specified intervals?
   1. IPSec or other VPNs
   2. SOCKS proxy
   3. Web proxy (port 3128)
   4. Other proxy

4. What access services are in use, over user-specified intervals?
   1. SSH
   2. Telnet
   3. RDP
   4. VNC
   5. SMB
   6. Other

5. What file transfer services are in use, over user-specified intervals?
   1. SCP or other SSH-enabled file transfers
   2. FTP
   3. SMB
   4. NFS

6. Encryption measurement, over user-specified intervals
   1. What encryption methods are in use?
   2. What percentage of network traffic over a user-specified interval is encrypted, and by which method?

7. Bandwidth measurement, over user-specified intervals
   1. Aggregate
   2. By IP address
   3. By service

8. Conversation tracking, over user-specified intervals
   1. Top N connection pairs
   2. Bottom N connection pairs

9. Detection counts, over user-specified intervals
   1. Provide a counter of messages from Zeek weird.log
   2. Provide a counter of messages from other Zeek detection logs

10. For each IP address (or possibly IP-MAC address pairing), over user-specified intervals, build a profile with the following:
   1. First seen, last seen
   2. Observed names via DNS, SMB, other
   3. Core services accessed and provided
   4. Tunnel mechanisms used and provided
   5. Access services used and provided
   6. File transfer services used and provided
   7. Encryption methods
   8. Bandwidth measurements
   9. Top N and bottom N conversation tracking
   10. Detection counts

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