Installing Snort++ in Ubuntu (Version 3.0 Alpha 4 build 237)

NOTE: this article is out of date and has been replaced with a newer article: Installing Snort++ (Snort 3 Alpha 4 build 240) in Ubuntu

The instructions below show how to install Snort 3 alpha 4 build 237 on Ubuntu. This install has been tested on Ubuntu 14 and 16, for both the x86 and x64 architectures. For an outdated Ubuntu 12 version of these instructions, please go here. Note that Snort 3 is Alpha software, and therefore has bugs and issues, and should be installed for testing purposes only (not on production systems).

Snort 3 Alpha 4 Build 237 was released on July 13, 2017, and this guide has been tested with that version (releases after this specific release may not follow the same steps). Generic build instructions, prerequisites, and detailed notes are available in the manual.

If you want a more in-depth explanation of the install steps, which are very similar to the 2.9.9.x version of Snort, as well as instructions on how to configure and enhance Snort’s functionality, see my series on installing Snort 2.9.9.x on Ubuntu.

So let’s get started. First we need to install all the Snort pre-requisites from the Ubuntu repositories:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential autotools-dev libdumbnet-dev libluajit-5.1-dev libpcap-dev libpcre3-dev zlib1g-dev pkg-config libhwloc-dev cmake

Install the optional (recommended) software:

sudo apt-get install -y liblzma-dev openssl libssl-dev cpputest cmake libsqlite3-dev

Install tools required for compiling the source from github:

sudo apt-get install -y libtool git autoconf

Install the DAQ pre-requisites:

sudo apt-get install -y bison flex

If you want to build the documentation as well (not really needed, unless you want it, usually about 700 MB of libraries):

sudo apt-get install -y asciidoc dblatex source-highlight

Next we will create a directory to save the downloaded tarball files:

mkdir ~/snort_src
cd ~/snort_src

First and install safec for runtime bounds checks on certain legacy C-library calls (this is optional but recommended):

cd ~/snort_src
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/safeclib/libsafec-10052013.tar.gz
tar -xzvf libsafec-10052013.tar.gz
cd libsafec-10052013
./configure
make
sudo make install

One of the Snort recommended prerequisites is Hyperscan 4.4.0. From their webpage: “Hyperscan is a regular expression engine designed to offer high performance, the ability to match multiple expressions simultaneously and flexibility in scanning operation.” Hyperscan needs Ragel 6.9 and the Boost header libraries.

Install Ragel 6.10 from source:

cd ~/snort_src
wget http://www.colm.net/files/ragel/ragel-6.10.tar.gz
tar -xzvf ragel-6.10.tar.gz
cd ragel-6.10
./configure
make
sudo make install

Download the Boost 1.64 libraries, but do not install:

cd ~/snort_src
wget https://dl.bintray.com/boostorg/release/1.64.0/source/boost_1_64_0.tar.gz
tar -xvzf boost_1_64_0.tar.gz

Install Hyperscan 4.5.1 from source, referencing the location of the Boost source directory:

cd ~/snort_src
wget https://github.com/01org/hyperscan/archive/v4.5.1.tar.gz
tar -xvzf v4.5.1.tar.gz
mkdir ~/snort_src/hyperscan-4.5.1-build
cd hyperscan-4.5.1-build/

cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DBOOST_ROOT=~/snort_src/boost_1_64_0/ ../hyperscan-4.5.1

make
sudo make install

If you want to test that Hyperscan works, from the build directory, run:

cd ~/snort_src/hyperscan-4.5.1-build/
./bin/unit-hyperscan

The unit tests will run (this takes a few minutes).

Download and install Data AcQuisition library (DAQ) from the Snort website (note that DAQ for Snort 3 is a different DAQ than for the 2.9.9.x series of Snort):

cd ~/snort_src
wget https://www.snort.org/downloads/snortplus/daq-2.2.1.tar.gz
tar -xvzf daq-2.2.1.tar.gz
cd daq-2.2.1
./configure
make
sudo make install

Run the following command to update shared libraries:

sudo ldconfig

Now we are ready to install Snort from source. This command downloads and installs the latest version of Snort 3 (currently 3.0.0 Alpha 4, build 237, but as the codebase is updated, you’ll get a newer version). If you want to specifically download the version used in this guide, use this URL instead with wget below: https://github.com/snortadmin/snort3/archive/3376324350b3ef6228c4e30799a22779413789c2.tar.gz.

If you want to install all the snort directories under a single directory, see the section at the bottom of this document titled Changing the install location of Snort. Here we choose to install the entire Snort directory structure to a single folder under /opt/:

cd ~/snort_src
wget https://github.com/snortadmin/snort3/archive/master.tar.gz
tar -xvzf master.tar.gz
cd snort3-master/
autoreconf -isvf

./configure --prefix=/opt/snort
make
sudo make install

Since the Snort installation places the Snort binary at /opt/snort/bin/snort, it is common to create a symlink to /usr/sbin/snort:

sudo ln -s /opt/snort/bin/snort /usr/sbin/snort

Snort 3 requires a few environmental variables, we store them temporarily in the current session so we can continue working, and save them permanently to the ~/.bashrc file (you’ll need to do this for every user profile):

export LUA_PATH=/opt/snort/include/snort/lua/\?.lua\;\;
export SNORT_LUA_PATH=/opt/snort/etc/snort
 
sh -c "echo 'export LUA_PATH=/opt/snort/include/snort/lua/\?.lua\;\;' >> ~/.bashrc"
sh -c "echo 'export SNORT_LUA_PATH=/opt/snort/etc/snort' >> ~/.bashrc"

to ensure that these two environmental variables are available when using sudo, we need to add them to the /etc/sudoers file:

sudo visudo

in the editor, add the following to to the bottom of the file:

Defaults env_keep += "LUA_PATH SNORT_LUA_PATH"

use ctrl-x to exit, save when prompted by pressing y, then press enter to save the file to /etc/sudoers.tmp (which will get copied automatically to /etc/sudoers).

The last step of our Snort installation is to test that the Snort Binary runs. Execute Snort with the -V flag, which causes Snort to print the current version. You should see output similar to the following:

user@snort3:~$ snort -V

   ,,_     -*> Snort++ <*-
  o"  )~   Version 3.0.0-a4 (Build 237) from 2.9.8-383
   ''''    By Martin Roesch & The Snort Team
           http://snort.org/contact#team
           Copyright (C) 2014-2017 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
           Copyright (C) 1998-2013 Sourcefire, Inc., et al.
           Using DAQ version 2.2.1
           Using libpcap version 1.7.4
           Using LuaJIT version 2.0.4
           Using PCRE version 8.38 2015-11-23
           Using ZLIB version 1.2.8
           Using LZMA version 5.1.0alpha
           Using OpenSSL 1.0.2g  1 Mar 2016
           Using Hyperscan version 4.5.1 2017-07-18

user@snort3:~$

Now let’s test snort with the default configuration file and ruleset:

user@snort3:~$ /opt/snort/bin/snort -c /opt/snort/etc/snort/snort.lua -R /opt/snort/etc/snort/sample.rules
--------------------------------------------------
o")~   Snort++ 3.0.0-a4-237
--------------------------------------------------
Loading /opt/snort/etc/snort/snort.lua:
	ssh
	pop
	stream_tcp
	gtp_inspect
	stream_icmp
	ftp_server
	stream_udp
	ips
	http_inspect
	wizard
	file_id
	ftp_data
	smtp
	back_orifice
	port_scan
	telnet
	ssl
	sip
	rpc_decode
	reputation
	classifications
	arp_spoof
	appid
	stream_user
	stream_ip
	stream
	dnp3
	ftp_client
	references
	dns
	imap
	stream_file
Finished /opt/snort/etc/snort/snort.lua.
Loading rules:
Loading /opt/snort/etc/snort/sample.rules:
Finished /opt/snort/etc/snort/sample.rules.
Finished rules.
--------------------------------------------------
rule counts
       total rules loaded: 3974
               text rules: 3974
            option chains: 3974
            chain headers: 187
--------------------------------------------------
port rule counts
             tcp     udp    icmp      ip
     any     119      31      29      26
     src    1685       4       0       0
     dst    1927     232       0       0
    both       0       1       0       0
   total    3731     268      29      26
--------------------------------------------------
flowbits
                  defined: 124
              not checked: 9
                  not set: 2
--------------------------------------------------
service rule counts - tcp    to-srv  to-cli
                   dcerpc:        3       0
                     drda:        3       0
                      ftp:        8       2
                     http:     1161    1553
                    ident:        1       0
                     imap:       29    1044
                     ircd:        1       1
                     ldap:        5       0
                    mysql:       29       1
               netbios-ns:        4       0
              netbios-ssn:       25       7
                     pop3:       12    1043
                     rtsp:        2       0
                     smtp:      550       3
                      ssl:        5       1
                   sunrpc:        9       0
                   telnet:        5       1
               vnc-server:        1       3
                    total:     1853    3659
--------------------------------------------------
service rule counts - udp    to-srv  to-cli
                   dcerpc:        2       0
                      dns:      170       2
                 kerberos:        4       4
              netbios-dgm:        7       7
               netbios-ns:        1       1
              netbios-ssn:        1       1
                      ntp:        1       0
                     snmp:        1       1
                     ssdp:        8       0
                   sunrpc:        7       3
                     tftp:        1       0
                    total:      203      19
--------------------------------------------------
fast pattern port groups        src     dst     any
                   packet:       27     125       4
                      key:       23     107       1
                   header:       23     107       1
                     body:        0       2       0
                     file:       23     107       1
--------------------------------------------------
fast pattern service groups  to-srv  to-cli
                   packet:       29      17
                      key:        3       0
                   header:        1       3
                     body:        1       0
                     file:        1       4
--------------------------------------------------
search engine
                instances: 565
                 patterns: 24659
            pattern chars: 515569
               num states: 409078
         num match states: 23799
             memory scale: MB
             total memory: 10.6222
           pattern memory: 1.43181
        match list memory: 3.91914
        transition memory: 5.20227
--------------------------------------------------
pcap DAQ configured to passive.

Snort successfully validated the configuration.
o")~   Snort exiting

user@snort3:~$ 

If you have output similar to the above, then Snort 3.0.0 Alpha 4 is installed and works.

A note on install locations:

When you install snort to /opt/snort, you get the following folder structure:

user@snort3x86:/opt/snort$ tree /opt/snort -L 3
/opt/snort
├── bin
│   ├── snort
│   ├── snort2lua
│   ├── u2boat
│   └── u2spewfoo
├── etc
│   └── snort
│       ├── file_magic.lua
│       ├── sample.rules
│       ├── snort_defaults.lua
│       └── snort.lua
├── include
│   └── snort
│       ├── actions
│       ├── codecs
│       ├── daqs
│       ├── decompress
│       ├── detection
│       ├── events
│       ├── file_api
│       ├── flow
│       ├── framework
│       ├── hash
│       ├── log
│       ├── lua
│       ├── main
│       ├── managers
│       ├── mime
│       ├── packet_io
│       ├── profiler
│       ├── protocols
│       ├── search_engines
│       ├── sfip
│       ├── stream
│       ├── time
│       └── utils
├── lib
│   ├── pkgconfig
│   │   └── snort.pc
│   └── snort
│       └── daqs
└── share
    └── doc
        └── snort

35 directories, 9 files

The /opt/snort/bin folder contains the following Snort binaries:

  • snort : The Snort binary.
  • snort2lua : Tool to convert a Snort 2.9.8.x configuration file into a 3.x configuration file. More notes here.
  • u2boat : U2boat is a tool for converting unified2 files into different formats.
  • u2spewfoo: U2SpewFoo is a lightweight tool for dumping the contents of unified2 files to stdout.

Additionally, the following folders are created / used:

  • /opt/snort/bin : Binaries for Snort and supporting software.
  • /opt/snort/etc/snort : The configuration files for Snort.
  • /opt/snort/include/snort : All include files for Snort.
  • /opt/snort/lib/pkgconfig : The pkgconfig file for Snort (compilation details for Snort).
  • /opt/snort/share/doc/snort : The documentation for the installed version of Snort.

Changing the install location of Snort

If you would rather have all these folders install to a more normal location (/usr/local) , add ‑‑prefix=/usr/local/ to the ./configure command when preparing to build Snort. This will install all these folders under the path you choose. You also need to modify some of the other paths detailed above, so if you decide to install in that manner, you should follow the install instructions detailed in the Snort blog.

Where to go from here

If you want to learn more about how to run the 2.9.9.x version of Snort, and how to install additional software to enhance a Snort system, see my series on installing Snort on Ubuntu. If you want to work with protocol (layer 7) detection, please see my article on OpenAppID.

I would love to get feedback from you about this guide. Recommendations, issues, or ideas, please contact me here.

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