Security Onion 2.4 Beta 2 Release Now Available!

We recently released the first Beta version of Security Onion 2.4:
https://blog.securityonion.net/2023/03/security-onion-24-beta-release-now.html

Today, we are excited to release the second Beta version of Security Onion 2.4!

Release Notes

Please review the Release Notes for changes in this release:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.4/release-notes.html#beta-2-20230424-changes

Known Issues

Here are some known issues that should be resolved in later releases:

• You cannot do an in-place upgrade from 2.3 to 2.4. We are still investigating data migration.
• You must perform a new installation of Rocky Linux 9 Minimal and have full Internet access. We hope to have a 2.4 ISO image in a future release.
• Upgrades from this 2.4 Beta release to anything else will not be supported. Starting in RC2 we will support soup to upgrade 2.4 grids.
• Airgap mode is not supported at this time. This is due to a 3rd party dependency but will be supported in RC1. 
• Ubuntu 20.04 support is not available until RC1. This has to do with a 3rd party dependency. 
• ATT&CK Navigator doesn’t work correctly yet.
• so-import-evtx imports logs but they don't get parsed correctly.
• The following installation modes are NOT supported at this time:
• Heavy Node
• Receiver Node
• Analyst Workstation

Transition from 2.3 to 2.4

When we release the final version of Security Onion 2.4, we will announce an End Of Life (EOL) date for Security Onion 2.3. Security Onion 2.3 will continue to receive security patches and priority bug fixes until it reaches EOL.

Documentation

You can find 2.4 documentation at:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.4/

Documentation is always a work in progress. If you find documentation that needs to be updated, please let us know as described in the Feedback section below.

Warnings and Disclaimers

• This is Beta software. It is not a finished product.
• Beta software is not officially supported for production usage.
• Ask your doctor if Beta software is right for you.
• Using Beta software can cause a disruption in the space time continuum.
• If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces!

Enough warnings and disclaimers? Let’s go!

Installation

Our Security Onion 2.4 ISO image is not quite ready yet so for now you'll need to download Rocky Linux 9 Minimal:
https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/9/isos/x86_64/Rocky-9.1-x86_64-minimal.iso

Then check the checksum:
https://download.rockylinux.org/pub/rocky/9/isos/x86_64/CHECKSUM

Next, install Rocky Linux 9 and start our Security Onion installation as shown here:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.4/installation.html#installation-on-rocky-linux-or-ubuntu

Once you've installed Rocky Linux 9 Minimal and started our Setup wizard, we highly recommend that you start with a simple IMPORT installation as shown here:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.4/first-time-users.html

Once you have verified proper IMPORT installation, you can then try EVAL, STANDALONE, and DISTRIBUTED deployments as described here:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.4/configuration.html

Questions, Problems, and Feedback

If you have any questions or problems relating to Security Onion 2.4, please use the new 2.4 category at our Discussions site:
https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/securityonion/discussions/categories/2-4

We welcome your detailed feedback!

Screenshot Tour

Security Onion 2.3.230 now available including CyberChef 10.2.0, Grafana 9.2.15, nginx 1.22.1, Redis 6.2.11, Suricata 6.0.11, Zeek 5.0.8, and more!

Security Onion 2.3.230 is now available! It includes CyberChef 10.2.0, Grafana 9.2.15, nginx 1.22.1, Redis 6.2.11, Suricata 6.0.11, Zeek 5.0.8, and more:
https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/release-notes.html#changes

Documentation

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

You can also purchase a printed copy of our documentation from Amazon:
https://securityonion.net/book

The printed book will be updated for 2.3.230 in the next few days and includes an inspiring foreword by Richard Bejtlich that is not available anywhere else! Proceeds go to the Rural Technology Fund and the printed book also includes a 20% discount code for our on-demand training and certification.

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

WARNING! If you have an existing Security Onion 2.3 installation that hasn't yet been updated to version 2.3.140 or higher, then you should be aware that the Elastic components will undergo a major version upgrade to version 8. Please review and follow the steps at the link below. Failure to do so could result in loss of access to all data stored inside of Elastic and a non-functioning Security Onion installation.

https://docs.securityonion.net/en/2.3/soup.html#elastic-8

Please be aware that custom settings in Kibana may be overwritten during upgrade. 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.

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

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 2.3.230 will soon be available on AWS Marketplace via the official Security Onion 2 AMI:
https://securityonion.net/aws/?ref=_ptnr_soc_blog_230417

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 2.3.230 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