Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System Review

The Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System (CIDS) is a network-based IDS that uses signatures to detect intrusive activity on your network. The CIDS systems rely on both a sensor platform to capture and analyze network traffic, and an Event Viewer that acts as a centralized alarm and event display platform for the distributed CIDS infrastructure. Communication between these two platforms is handled via the Cisco proprietary PostOffice protocol.

Two types of sensors are available with CIDS:

• 4200 Series Network Sensor Appliance

• 6000 Series Catalyst Intrusion Detection System Module (IDSM)

The 4200 series network sensor appliance consists of three different models. Each model is uniquely tuned for a specific network requirement. These three models and their associated performance features are

• 4210—Capable of monitoring and analyzing 45 Mbps

• 4235—Capable of monitoring and analyzing 200 Mbps

• 4250—Capable of monitoring and analyzing 500 Mbps

The IDSM is a integrated line card that can be inserted into any 6000 series Catalyst switch. The IDSM is capable of copying packets directly off the switch backplane and can monitor up to 100 Mbps. Because the IDSM monitors copies of packets off the switch backplane, it needn’t be in the forwarding path of network traffic and won’t affect switch throughput performance. Both the 4200 series network appliance and the IDSM can be configured and managed with either director platforms, but the Device Manager can’t be installed on an IDSM.

The director platforms allow for centralized configuration and management of the distributed sensor infrastructure. CIDS offers two director platforms, either of which can be used with any type of CIDS sensors. The two director platforms are as follows:

• Cisco Secure Policy Manager (CSPM)

• CIDS Director for UNIX

CSPM is for use on Windows NT 4.0, while CIDS Director for UNIX is an HP OpenView application that runs on Sun Solaris or HPUX. Both offer a GUI interface.

Communication between the sensor and director platforms is facilitated with the Cisco proprietary PostOffice protocol. The PostOffice protocol isn’t an e-mail protocol like SMTP, POP, or IMAP. Instead, it’s a protocol maintained by Cisco that brings reliability, redundancy, and fault tolerance to the CIDS communication architecture.

Each sensor contains a web application called Device Manager. The Device Manager Application can be used to configure and manage each sensor. The CIDS exam focuses on the use of Device Manager for the configuration of network sensors.