Preprocessor Documentation

README.event_queue

Snort Multi-Event Logging (Event Queue)

Author: Daniel Roelker

Snort supports logging multiple events per packet/stream that are prioritized with different insertion methods, such as max content length or event ordering. This document explains how to configure the event queue that facilitates logging multiple events.

The general configuration of the event queue is as follows:

config event_queue: [max_queue [size]] [log [size]] [order_events [TYPE]]

Event Queue Configuration Options

There are three configuration options to the configuration parameter ‘event_queue’.

max_queue

This determines the maximum size of the event queue. For example, if the event queue has a max size of 8, only 8 events will be stored for a single packet or stream.

The default value is 8.

log

This determines the number of events to log for a given packet or stream. You can’t log more than the max_event number that was specified.

The default value is 3.

order_events

This argument determines the way that the incoming events are ordered. We currently have two different methods:

  • priority - The highest priority (1 being the highest) events are ordered first.

  • content_length - Rules are ordered before decode or preprocessor alerts, and rules that have a longer content are ordered before rules with shorter contents.

The method in which events are ordered does not affect rule types such as pass, alert, log, etc.

The default value is content_length.

Examples

this is the default value configuration

config event_queue: max_queue 8 log 3 order_events content_length

reconfigure the entire event queue

config event_queue: max_queue 10 log 3 order_events content_length

leave defaults but change the way events are ordered

config event_queue: order_events priority

change the number of events logged

config event_queue: log 2