Tip

How to decipher the Oinkcode for Snort's VRT rules

Sourcefire has changed the licensing and distribution of Snort rules, and created the VRT Certified rules, which are tested and certified by the Sourcefire Vulnerability Research Team.

As an end user, you can get these rules in one of three ways:

  • Pay a subscription fee to Sourcefire and get the rules as soon as they are released
  • Register for free and get the rules five days after they are released to paid subscribers
  • Get whatever is current with each release of the Snort engine (in other words, no updates between engine updates, which is not recommended)

There are special considerations if you are a "Snort Integrator." In any case, you need to read the FAQ at Snort.org.

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Learn more about Sourcefire's changes

Find out how you can get certified in Snort
If your organization is a Snort end user, you will almost certainly want to register for free and generate an Oinkcode, which will allow you to download the VRT rules. Once you have read and understood the FAQ, create an account at Snort.org and log in. At the bottom of the Account Settings page you will find a button to generate an Oinkcode, along with instructions for configuring your oinkmaster.conf, if you are using Oinkmaster. But even if you are not, the URL you construct (such as http://www.snort.org/pub-bin/oinkmaster.cgi/5a081649c06a277e1022e1284bdc8fabda70e2a4/snortrules-snapshot-2.3.tar.gz) may be bookmarked in a browser or used with wget or some other download tool to download the rules.

Your Oinkcode for VRT Certified rules will look like this:
http://www.snort.org/pub-bin/oinkmaster.cgi//

Example for snort 2.3:
http://www.snort.org/pub-bin/oinkmaster.cgi/5a081649c06a277e1022e1284bdc8fabda70e2a4/snortrules-snapshot-2.3.tar.gz

You can also get GPL community rules (free, no registration or Oinkcode required, very limited) from Snort.org


SNORT INTRUSION DETECTION AND PREVENTION GUIDE

  Introduction
  Why Snort makes IDS worth the time and effort
  How to identify and monitor network ports after intrusion detection
  How to handle network design with switches and segments
  Where to place IDS network sensors
  Finding an OS for Snort IDS sensors
  How to determine network interface cards for IDS sensors
  Modifying and writing custom Snort IDS rules
  How to configure Snort variables
  Where to find Snort IDS rules
  How to automatically update Snort rules
  How to decipher the Oinkcode for Snort's VRT rules
  Using IDS rules to test Snort

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
JP Vossen, CISSP, is a Senior Security Engineer for Counterpane Internet Security. He is involved with various open source projects including Snort, and has previously worked as an information security consultant and systems engineer.

This was first published in May 2005

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