Security Onion: April 2022

Many folks have asked for a printed version of our official online documentation and we're excited to provide that! Whether you work on airgap networks or simply want a portable reference that doesn't require an Internet connection or batteries, this is what you've been asking for.

Thanks to Richard Bejtlich for writing the inspiring foreword!

Proceeds go to the Rural Technology Fund!

This 20220422 edition has been updated for Security Onion 2.3.120 and includes a 20% discount code for our on-demand training!

This book covers the following Security Onion topics:

First Time Users
Getting Started
Security Onion Console (SOC)
Analyst VM
Network Visibility
Host Visibility
Logs
Updating
Accounts
Services
Customizing for Your Environment
Tuning
Tricks and Tips
Utilities

Q&A

What is the difference between this book and the online documentation?

This book is the online documentation formatted specifically for print. It also includes an inspiring foreword by Richard Bejtlich that is not available anywhere else! Proceeds go to the Rural Technology Fund! Finally, the printed book includes a 20% discount code for our on-demand training.

Who should get this book?

You should get this book if you work on airgap networks or simply want a portable reference that doesn't require an Internet connection or batteries! Also anyone who wants to donate to a worthy cause like Rural Technology Fund!

What is the difference between this edition and the previous edition?

This edition has been updated for Security Onion 2.3.120!

Where do we get it?

https://securityonion.net/book

Security Onion 2.3.120 is now available! It includes new features and resolves a few issues:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/release-notes.html#changes

Highlights

Security Onion 2.3.120 will now automatically translate Cases user IDs to human readable email addresses. You can read more about Cases at:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/cases.html

This release fully removes TheHive and its components which freed up space for additional Analyst desktop components. This means that there are now a few different ways to install our Analyst desktop:

Our Security Onion ISO image includes a new boot menu option for Analyst installs that will partition your disk appropriately and immediately perform an Analyst installation.
In our normal Setup wizard, you can choose OTHER and then choose ANALYST.
You can still run so-analyst-install as in previous versions.

Security Onion 2.3.120 allows you to optionally join your Analyst installation to your grid. This allows it to pull updates from the grid and automatically trust the grid’s HTTPS certificate. It also updates the manager’s firewall to allow the Analyst installation to connect.

This release also improves our new Intrusion Detection Honeypot (IDH) node! The IDH node can now support multiple interfaces. Additionally, our ISO image has a new boot option for IDH nodes that allows for lower hardware requirements.

Another improvement in this release is for Zeek file extraction. You may start to see some files extracted from some non-HTTP cleartext protocols. For more information, please see:
https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/securityonion/issues/7829

This release also includes support for RITA logs:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/other-supported-logs.html

Finally, this release also updates many components including:

CyberChef 9.37.3
Elastic 7.17.3
FleetDM 4.12.1
Suricata 6.0.5
Zeek 4.0.6
nginx 1.20.2

Custom Elasticsearch Templates

If you have custom Elasticsearch templates, please see:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/elasticsearch.html#custom-templates

TheHive

As a reminder, we have fully transitioned from TheHive to Cases. TheHive is no longer included or supported.

Documentation

You can find our documentation here:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/

Documentation is always a work in progress and some documentation may be missing or incorrect. Please let us know if you notice any issues.

New Installations

If you want to perform a new installation, please review the documentation and then you can find instructions here:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/download.html

Existing 2.3 Installations

If you have an existing Security Onion 2.3 installation, please be aware that custom settings in Kibana may be overwritten during upgrade. If possible, we recommend that you test the upgrade process on a test deployment before deploying to production. If you have a distributed deployment, then we recommend monitoring SOC Grid while your update is running to verify that all nodes update properly. If there are issues, you can review logs, services, and containers for any additional clues. If you need help, please see our support information below.

For more information about the update process, please see:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/soup.html

AWS Marketplace

For new Security Onion 2 installations on AWS, Security Onion 2.3.120 will soon be available on AWS Marketplace via the official Security Onion 2 AMI:
https://securityonion.net/aws/?ref=_ptnr_soc_blog_220425

AMI Documentation:
https://securityonion.net/docs/cloud-ami

Existing Security Onion 2 AMI users should use the "soup" command to upgrade:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/soup.html

Azure Marketplace

For new Security Onion 2 installations on Azure, Security Onion 2.3.120 will soon be available on the Azure Marketplace!
https://securityonion.net/azure

Azure Documentation:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/cloud-azure.html

Existing Security Onion 2 users on Azure should use the "soup" command to upgrade:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/soup.html

Security Onion 16.04 EOL

As a reminder, Security Onion 16.04 has reached End Of Life (EOL):
https://blog.securityonion.net/2021/04/security-onion-1604-has-reached-end-of.html

If you're still running Security Onion 16.04, please see the following for upgrade options:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/appendix.html

Questions or Problems

If you have questions or problems, please see our community support forum guidelines:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/community-support.html

You can then find the community support forum at:
https://securityonion.net/discuss

Thanks

Lots of love went into this release!

Special thanks to all our folks working so hard to make this release happen!

Josh Brower
Jason Ertel
Wes Lambert
Josh Patterson
Mike Reeves

Training

Need training? Start with our free Security Onion Essentials training and then take a look at some of our other official Security Onion training!

https://securityonion.net/training

Hardware Appliances

We know Security Onion's hardware needs, and our appliances are the perfect match for the platform. Leave the hardware research, testing, and support to us, so you can focus on what's important for your organization. Not only will you have confidence that your Security Onion deployment is running on the best-suited hardware, you will also be supporting future development and maintenance of the Security Onion project!

https://securityonionsolutions.com/hardware

Screenshot Tour

If you want the quickest and easiest way to try out Security Onion 2, just follow the screenshots below to install an Import node and then optionally enable the Analyst Workstation. This can be done in a minimal VM with only 4GB RAM! For more information, please see:

https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/first-time-users.html