Installing Snort on CentOS 8

Snort is a powerful open-source intrusion detection and prevention system. It is capable of performing real-time traffic analysis and packet logging on IP networks, detecting and preventing various types of network attacks. Snort uses rules to identify and alert on suspicious network activity.

To install Snort on CentOS 8, follow the steps below:

sudo wget https://www.snort.org/downloads/snort/snort-2.9.17.tar.gz

sudo mkdir /etc/snort
sudo mkdir /etc/snort/rules
sudo mkdir /var/log/snort
sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicrules

sudo chown snort:snort /etc/snort
sudo chown snort:snort /var/log/snort
sudo chown snort:snort /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicrules

sudo cp -r etc/* /etc/snort/
sudo cp -r rules/* /etc/snort/rules/
sudo cp -r dynamicrules/* /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicrules/

sudo vi /etc/snort/snort.conf

1. Login to your CentOS 8 server via SSH or open a terminal.
2. Update the system by running the command: sudo dnf update -y
3. Install the necessary dependencies by running the command: sudo dnf install -y gcc libpcap-devel pcre-devel libdnet-devel zlib-devel
4. Download the latest stable version of Snort from the official website. For example, you can use wget to download version 2.9.17:
5. Extract the downloaded tarball by running the command: sudo tar -xvzf snort-2.9.17.tar.gz
6. Change to the snort directory: cd snort-2.9.17
7. Configure the source code by running the command: sudo ./configure --enable-sourcefire --disable-open-appid
8. Compile and install Snort by executing: sudo make && sudo make install
9. Create the Snort user and group by running the command: sudo useradd snort && sudo groupadd snort -r && sudo usermod -G snort snort
10. Create the necessary directories for Snort:
11. Set the appropriate permissions on the directories:
12. Copy the configuration files and rulesets to the appropriate directories:
13. Edit the Snort configuration file (/etc/snort/snort.conf) to customize the settings based on your requirements. You can also enable specific rulesets or add custom rules to improve detection:
14. Start Snort by running the command: sudo snort -A console -c /etc/snort/snort.conf -i INTERFACE. Replace INTERFACE with the network interface you want Snort to monitor, such as eth0.
15. You can monitor the Snort alerts in real-time or check the logs in /var/log/snort. Additionally, you can configure Snort to send alerts to a centralized logging server or generate alerts in various output formats.

By following the above steps, you will have successfully installed and configured Snort on CentOS 8. Snort is a versatile tool that can greatly enhance the security of your network by detecting and preventing malicious activities.