ntopng

Cybersecurity

Can ntopng be considered an IDS (Intrusion Detection System) ?

ntopng is not typically classified as an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) in the traditional sense, but it does have some features that overlap with IDS functionalities. Let me explain the differences and how ntopng might serve a similar role: What is ntopng? ntopng is an open-source network traffic monitoring tool that provides visibility into network traffic and performance. It is primarily used for: Network Monitoring: Tracking traffic flows, bandwidth usage, and the behaviour of network devices. Traffic Analysis: Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) based on nDPI to analyse protocols, applications, and …
nProbe

HowTo Configure Flow Collection in nProbe and ntopng

In flow (sFlow/NetFlow/IPFIX) collection, nProbe acts as a “flow processor” for ntopng . nProbe is responsible for sending ntopng flows after they have been processed that includes Probe mode. nProbe captures network packets that are converted into flows that are then exported to ntopng. Collection mode. nProbe collects flows produced by a probe such as a router. Flow normalization that is the process of converting flows on a format that ntopng can understand. This happens if flow exporter devices (e.g. a router) use custom information elements. In addition nProbe takes care …
ntopng

How Historical Flows Replay Works

ntop users who have enabled ClickHouse, know that they can search/aggregate/export historical flows and create customized reports. However, in the past months some of our users were uncomfortable of this approach as they preferred to seamlessly analyze historical as live data with the full power of ntopng. In the latest ntopng version we have added a new “play” button shown in the picture below. In order to use this new feature, you need to: Select the time span you are interested in (e.g. the last hour) Optionally you can set …
ntopng

Say Hello to ntopng 6.2: Mitre Att&ck, -60% Memory Usage, Historical Flows Replay, Revamped UI, Remediations, Cloud

We’re happy to announce ntopng 6.2, a 10 months long development cycle. We have changed a few things in the UI and under the hood. Many pages as the flow page have been rewritten from scratch for responsiveness and usability Mitre Att&ck has been integrated in alerts, flow risks and  dashboards.As you can see we now have implemented a remediation column that shows you some remediation actions to avoid specific issues to appear again in the future. ntopng 6.2 uses -60% of memory woth respect to 6.0 as already discussed …
ntopng

HowTo Extend ntopng with new Host/Flow Checks and Alerts

ntopng can be easily extended with new host/flow checks and alerts. They are developed in C++ with a few Lua files used by the UI to configure the check and format the emitted alerts. In order to introduce you to thir development, we have written a short guide that shows you step-by-step how to develop a simple check and alert. If you want you can see a code example of host check that rtiggers an alert when a server contacted a new port after a learning period. If you have …
ntopng

HowTo Export ntopng Alarms to Checkmk Event Console

Checkmk is a popular platform for monitoring IT infrastructure. ntopng has been integrated in Checkmk some time ago, enabling users to provide traffic visibility in additional to classic bytes/packets metrics. As ntopng is able to produce traffic alerts that, we have decided to extend ntopng in order to export alert information towards Checkmk event console where alerts are received.This guide will walk you through configuring ntopng and Checkmk to enable this functionality. In order to do so, within ntopng, it’s necessary to configure a new Endpoints as well as a …
ntopng

Extended Multilanguage Support in ntopng: Korean, Spanish and French

This is to announce that ntopng now enables users to use a new languages: Korean, Spanish and French.  We have also improved translations of German and Italian. The translation is done using an automatic tool so, we cannot guarantee that the translation is completely correct. Error or typos are accepted as a GitHub issue: please open a ticket if you find problems. To change language click on the top right icon in ntopng and enter in the admin page A popup will open, select language and a list of available …
ntop

InfluxDB v2 support in ntopng is Now (partially) Available

It’s been 3 years since InfluxDB v.2 was released and until a couple of months ago we didn’t plan to add the support to the InfluxDB v.2 due to many reasons: migration from SQL to Flux query language, v2 performance not better than v1. The in the meantime InfluxData release InfluxDB v3 that is currently only supported on their cloud and not yet packaged as on-prem product. However due to the more pressing requests and suggestions from our customers we finally decided to add the support as follows: as InfluxDB …
nProbe

HowTo Use Cloud Licenses

As discussed in our spring webinar, it is now possible to use (in beta) cloud licenses with ntopng and nProbe. Contrary to standard licenses that are bound to a physical system (based on the systemId), cloud licenses are “floating” as the same license file can be used on multiple hosts, of course not simultaneously (i.e. only one system at time can use the license). This is good news for those who use containers or VMs as they do no have to pay attention to the systemId anymore. If you want …
Announce

Using ClickHouse Cloud with ntopng

We are happy to announce that from the latest ntopng dev (6.1) version, ntopng supports exporting data (flows & alerts) to ClickHouse Cloud. Below you can find a step-by-step guide. Quick Start First of all let’s start by creating our account and service on the ClickHouse Cloud (you can find the official guide here); remember to save the ClickHouse username and password used for accessing your database. After that we have to jump to the ‘Connect’ section: Then, we have to select MySQL, turn on “Enable the MySQL protocol” and …
ntopng

How Historical Traffic Behaviour Analysis Works

In ntopng we have implemented various techniques for analysing historical traffic. This post shows you the options available: In timeseries you can see the current traffic rate (line) or the traffic rate of the previous period of time (dotted). This allows you to visually analyse when traffic deviates from previous period of time (see for instance in the chart below the traffic drop happened at 10 AM). 2. You can trigger interface alerts based on statistical traffic analysis (exponential smoothing) when traffic exceeds (up/down) its baseline. Note that when this …
ntopng

DoS Detection Using ntopng and NetFlow/IPFIX

Recently ntopng has been used in academia for detecting DoS (Denial of Service) attacks using NetFlow flows. In this thesis (note that the document it is written in Italian) it is shown how ntopng has been successfully used collect flow and use them to detect DoS attacks. Enjoy ! …