flow-nfilter(1)

NAME
flow-nfilter — Filter flows.

SYNOPSIS

flow-nfilter [-hk] [-b big|little] [-C comment] [-d debug_level] [-f filter_fname] [-F filter_definition] [-v variable binding] [-z z_level]

DESCRIPTION

The flow-nfilter utility will filter flows based on user selectable criteria. Filters are defined in a configuration file and are composed of primitives and a definition. Definitions contain match lines grouped to form logical AND and OR operations on the flow using the selected primitives. A definition may contain the invert command which will invert the result of the evaluation.

Words in the configuration file of the form @VAR or @{VAR:default} will be expanded at run-time by setting variable names with the -v option.

Filter primitives begin with the filter-primitive keyword followed by a symbolic name. Each primitive has a type defined below. A list of permit and or deny keywords followed by an argument are later evaulated to determine if the flow is permitted or denied. The default action for a primitive is to deny which may be changed with the default keyword. Symbolic substitutions are done where appropriate.

The match keyword in a definition selects the criteria to match a primitive. A match type may allow more than one type of primitive, for example the src-ip-addr match type will accept any of {ip-address, ip-address-mask, ip-address-prefix} primitive types.

 Primitive type          Type       Description/Example
-------------------------------------------------------------------
as                      Bucket     Autonomous System Number.
                                   600,159,3112
ip-address-prefix-len   Numeric    Integer from 0 to 32.
                                   16-31
ip-protocol             Bucket     Integer from 0 to 255.
                                   6,17,1
ip-tos                  Bucket     Integer from 0 to 255 with mask.
                                   0xA0/0xE0
ip-tcp-flags            Bucket     Integer from 0 to 255 with mask.
                                   0x2/0x2
ifindex                 Bucket     Integer from 0 to 65535
                                   0,5,10
engine                  Bucket     Integer from 0 to 255.
                                   0
ip-port                 Bucket     Integer from 0 to 65535.
                                   80,8080,23,22
ip-address              Hash       List of IP Addresses.
                                   10.0.0.1
ip-address-mask         List       List of IP address/mask pairs.
                                   10.1.0.0 255.255.0.0
ip-address-prefix       Trie       List of IP address/mask pairs.
                                   10.1/16
tag                     Hash       List of tags.
                                   0xFF00
tag-mask                List       List of tags.
                                   0xF000/0xFF00
counter                 List       List of Integers with qualifier.
                                   lt 32
time                    List       List of relative time specifiers.
                                   gt 5:00
time-date               List       List of absolute time specifiers.
                                   gt December 12, 2002 5:13:21
double                  List       List of doubles with qualifier.
                                   lt 32.0
rate                    Element    Rate is calculated as 1/rate.
                                   permit 100
Match type              Description             Primitives accepted
-------------------------------------------------------------------
source-as               Source AS               as
destination-as          Destination AS          as
ip-source-address       Source IP Address       ip-address,
                                                ip-address-mask,
                                                ip-address-prefix
ip-destination-address  Destination IP Address  ip-address,
                                                ip-address-mask,
                                                ip-address-prefix
ip-exporter-address     Exporter IP Address     ip-address,
                                                ip-address-mask,
                                                ip-address-prefix
ip-nexthop-address      NextHop IP Address      ip-address,
                                                ip-address-mask,
                                                ip-address-prefix
ip-shortcut-address     Shortcut IP Address     ip-address,
                                                ip-address-mask,
                                                ip-address-prefix
ip-protocol             IP Protocol             ip-protocol
ip-source-address-prefix-len
                        Source IP address       ip-address-prefix-len
                        prefix length
ip-destination-address-prefix-len
                        Destination IP address  ip-address-prefix-len
                        prefix length

ip-tos                  IP Type Of Service      ip-tos
ip-marked-tos           IP Type Of Service      ip-tos
ip-tcp-flags            IP/TCP Flags            ip-tcp-flags
ip-source-port          Source IP Port          ip-port
                        eg TCP/UDP
ip-destination-port     Destination IP Port     ip-port
                        eg TCP/UDP
input-interface         Source ifIndex          ifindex
                        eg Input Interface
output-interface        Destination ifIndex     ifindex
                        eg Output Interface
start-time              Start Time of flow      time, time-date
end-time                End Time of Flow        time, time-date
flows                   Number of flows         counter
octets                  Number of octets        counter
packets                 Number of packets       counter
duration                Duration of flow in ms  counter
engine-id               Engine ID               engine
engine-type             Engine Type             engine
source-tag              Source Tag              tag, tag-mask
destination-tag         Destination Tag         tag, tag-mask
pps                     Packets Per Second      double
bps                     Bits Per Second         double
random-sample           Random Sample           rate

OPTIONS

-b big|little
    Byte order of output.

-C Comment
    Add a comment.

-d debug_level
    Enable debugging.

-f filter_fname
    Filter list filename. Defaults to @localstatedir@/cfg/filter.

-F filter_definition
    Select the active definition. Defaults to default.

-h  Display help.

-k  Keep time from input.

-v variable binding
    Set a variable FOO=bar.

-z z_level
    Configure compression level to z_level. 0 is disabled (no compression), 9 is highest compression.

TIME/DATE parsing

time-date parsing is implemented with getdate.y, a commonly used function to process free-form time date specifications. Example usage borrowed from cvs:
    1 month ago
    2 hours ago
    400000 seconds ago
    last year
    last Monday
    yesterday
    a fortnight ago
    3/31/92 10:00:07 PST
    January 23, 1987 10:05pm
    22:00 GMT

EXAMPLES

An example of filter configuration file.

 filter-primitive srate
  type rate
  permit 100
filter-primitive test-as
  type as
  permit 600,159
filter-primitive test-prefix-len
  type ip-address-prefix-len
  permit 32
filter-primitive test-protocol
  type ip-protocol
  permit tcp
filter-primitive test-tos
  type ip-tos
  mask 0xA0
  permit 0xE0
filter-primitive test-tcp-flags
  type ip-tcp-flags
  mask 0x2
  permit 0x2
filter-primitive test-ifindex
  type ifindex
  permit 0,5,10
filter-primitive test-engine
  type engine
  permit 0
filter-primitive test-port
  type ip-port
  permit https
  permit 80
  default deny
filter-primitive test-address
  type ip-address
  permit 0.0.0.1
  permit 0.0.0.2
  default deny
filter-primitive test-address-mask
  type ip-address-mask
  permit 128.146.197.1 255.255.255.255
  permit 128.146.197.2 255.255.255.255
filter-primitive test-prefix
  type ip-address-prefix
  permit 128.146.0.0/16
  default deny
filter-primitive test-tag
  type tag
  permit 0x00
  permit 0x01
  permit 0xFF
filter-primitive test-tag-mask
  type tag-mask
  permit OSU 0xFF
  permit 0xFF 0xFF
  default deny
filter-primitive test-counter
  type counter
  permit lt 5
  permit gt 10
  default deny
filter-primitive test-time-date
  type time-date
  permit gt December 12, 2002 5:13:21
filter-primitive test-time
  type time-date
  permit gt 12:15:00
filter-definition sample-1-in-100
  match random-sample srate
filter-definition t1
  match engine-type test-engine
  or
  match destination-tag test-tag-mask

Display all flows with a destination port of 80 or source port of 25 (smtp) starting after Dec 12, 2001. The file test is populated with the following:

filter-primitive port80
  type ip-port
  permit 80
filter-primitive port25
  type ip-port
  permit smtp
filter-primitive dec12
  type time-date
  permit gt Dec 12, 2001
filter-definition foo
  match ip-source-port port80
  match start-time dec12
  or
  match ip-destination-port port25
  match start-time dec12

flow-cat flows | flow-nfilter -ftest -Ffoo | flow-print

FILES

  Configuration files:
    Symbols - @localstatedir@/sym/*.
    Tag - @localstatedir@/cfg/tag.cfg.
    Filter - @localstatedir@/cfg/filter.cfg.

BUGS

None known.

AUTHOR

Mark Fullmer maf@splintered.net

SEE ALSO

flow-tools(1)