1. Installing Snort
2. Configuring Snort to Run as a NIDS
3. Writing and Testing a Single Rule With Snort
4. Installing Barnyard2
5. Installing PulledPork
6. Creating Upstart Scripts for Snort on Ubuntu 14
7. Creating systemD Scripts for Snort on Ubuntu 16
8. Installing BASE
9. Conclusion

Overview

Creating the Upstart Scripts for Ubuntu 14

In the previous articles in this series, we have created a complete Snort NIDS with a web interface and rulesets that automatically update.  In this article, we will finalize the configuration of our Snort service by creating Upstart scripts for the Snort and Barnyard2 daemons. If you are running Ubuntu 16, you should go see my systemD article instead of this article.

First create the Snort Upstart script:

sudo vi /etc/init/snort.conf

We will insert the below content into this Upstart script.  Note that we are using the same flags that we used in earlier articles, so if Snort ran correctly for you earlier, then you shouldn’t need to change any of these flags:

description "Snort NIDS service"
stop on runlevel [!2345]
start on runlevel [2345]
script
    exec /usr/sbin/snort -q -u snort -g snort -c /etc/snort/snort.conf -i eth0 -D
end script

Now make the script executable, and tell Upstart that the script exists:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init/snort.conf
initctl list | grep snort
	snort stop/waiting

do the same for our Barnyard2 script:

sudo vi /etc/init/barnyard2.conf

with the following content:

description "barnyard2 service"
stop on runlevel [!2345]
start on runlevel [2345]
script
    exec /usr/local/bin/barnyard2 -c /etc/snort/barnyard2.conf -d /var/log/snort -f snort.u2 -w /var/log/snort/barnyard2.waldo -g snort -u snort -D -a /var/log/snort/archived_logs
end script

Note that we have added a new flag here that we didn’t use before: -a /var/log/snort/archived_logs, this will move logs that Barnyard2 has processed to the /var/log/snort/archived_logs/ folder.

Now make the script executable, and tell Upstart that the script exists:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init/barnyard2.conf
initctl list | grep barnyard
	barnyard2 stop/waiting

Reboot the computer and check that both services are started:

user@snortserver:~$ service snort status
snort start/running, process 1116
user@snortserver:~$ service barnyard2 status
barnyard2 start/running, process 1109
user@snortserver:~$

If both services are running, you are ready to move to the next section, where you will install BASE, a web-based GUI to view and profile alert data: Installing BASE