NetworkConfiguration

Disabling the graphical Network Manager and configuring networking from the command line

If you're running Security Onion 14.04/16.04, all of this configuration will happen automatically if you choose "Yes, configure /etc/network/interfaces" in the Setup wizard.

NOTE! You may lose network connectivity during this process! Have a backup plan if attempting over SSH!

Stop Network Manager:

sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager stop

Prevent Network Manager from starting at next boot:

sudo mv /etc/init/network-manager.conf /etc/init/network-manager.conf.DISABLED

Next, configure your network interfaces in /etc/network/interfaces.

Management interface

You'll want a management interface (preferably connected to a dedicated management network) using either DHCP OR preferably static IP.

Sniffing interface(s)

You'll want one or more interfaces dedicated to sniffing (no IP address). NIC offloading functions such as tso, gso, and gro should be disabled to ensure that Snort/Suricata get an accurate view of the traffic (see http://blog.securityonion.net/2011/10/when-is-full-packet-capture-not-full.html).

Sample /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback



# Management interface using DHCP (not recommended due to Bro issue described above)

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet dhcp



# OR 



# Management interface using STATIC IP (instead of DHCP)

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet static

  address 192.168.1.14

  gateway 192.168.1.1

  netmask 255.255.255.0

  network 192.168.1.0

  broadcast 192.168.1.255

  # If running Security Onion 14.04, you'll need to configure DNS here

  dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2



# AND one or more of the following



# Connected to TAP or SPAN port for traffic monitoring

auto eth1

iface eth1 inet manual

  up ifconfig $IFACE -arp up

  up ip link set $IFACE promisc on

  down ip link set $IFACE promisc off

  down ifconfig $IFACE down

  post-up for i in rx tx sg tso ufo gso gro lro; do ethtool -K $IFACE $i off; done

  # If running Security Onion 14.04, you should also disable IPv6 as follows:

  post-up echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/$IFACE/disable_ipv6

You may also want to set the RX buffer size in the post-up command like this:

post-up ethtool -G $IFACE rx 4096; for i in rx tx sg tso ufo gso gro lro; do ethtool -K $IFACE $i off; done

Note that 4096 is just an example and your NIC may have a different maximum rx size. To determine the maximum rx setting for your NIC:

ethtool -g ethX

If necessary, configure DNS in /etc/resolv.conf:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolv.conf
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/howto-ubuntu-linux-convert-dhcp-network-configuration-to-static-ip-configuration.html
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/lucid/man5/resolver.5.html

Restart networking:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

If you already had sensors running on these interfaces, you should restart them:

sudo so-sensor-restart

For more information on network configuration in Ubuntu, please see:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkConfigurationCommandLine/Automatic