Date post: | 08-Jul-2018 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | ablaaroussi |
View: | 230 times |
Download: | 0 times |
of 26
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
1/60
Best Practices GuideRevision E
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
2/60
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2015 McAfee, Inc., 2821 Mission College Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA 95054, 1.888.847.8766, www.intelsecurity.com
TRADEMARK ATTRIBUTIONSIntel and the Intel logo are registered trademarks of the Intel Corporation in the US and/or other countries. McAfee and the McAfee logo, McAfee Active
Protection, McAfee DeepSAFE, ePolicy Orchestrator, McAfee ePO, McAfee EMM, McAfee Evader, Foundscore, Foundstone, Global Threat Intelligence,
McAfee LiveSafe, Policy Lab, McAfee QuickClean, Safe Eyes, McAfee SECURE, McAfee Shredder, SiteAdvisor, McAfee Stinger, McAfee TechMaster, McAfee
Total Protection, TrustedSource, VirusScan are registered trademarks or trademarks of McAfee, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the US and other countries.Other marks and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
LICENSE INFORMATION
License AgreementNOTICE TO ALL USERS: CAREFULLY READ THE APPROPRIATE LEGAL AGREEMENT CORRESPONDING TO THE LICENSE YOU PURCHASED, WHICH SETS
FORTH THE GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR THE USE OF THE LICENSED SOFTWARE. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHICH TYPE OF LICENSE YOU
HAVE ACQUIRED, PLEASE CONSULT THE SALES AND OTHER RELATED LICENSE GRANT OR PURCHASE ORDER DOCUMENTS THAT ACCOMPANY YOUR
SOFTWARE PACKAGING OR THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED SEPARATELY AS PART OF THE PURCHASE (AS A BOOKLET, A FILE ON THE PRODUCT CD, OR A
FILE AVAILABLE ON THE WEBSITE FROM WHICH YOU DOWNLOADED THE SOFTWARE PACKAGE). IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS SET
FORTH IN THE AGREEMENT, DO NOT INSTALL THE SOFTWARE. IF APPLICABLE, YOU MAY RETURN THE PRODUCT TO MCAFEE OR THE PLACE OF
PURCHASE FOR A FULL REFUND.
2 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
http://www.intelsecurity.com/
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
3/60
Contents
Preface 5
About this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Find product documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1 Introduction 7
Pre-installation checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Cabling best practices 9
3 Hardening the Manager Server for Windows platform 11
Pre-installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Post-installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Disable non-required services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Set system policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Set user policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Set the desktop firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Configure audit events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4 Large Sensor deployments 15Staging Sensors prior to deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Recommendations for large Sensor deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
5 Using active fail-open kits 17
Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
6 Ef fective policy tuning practices 19
Analyzing high-volume attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Managing exception objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Learning profiles in DoS attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7 Response management 21
Sensor response actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8 How to create rule sets 23
Best methods for rule set creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
9 Working with firewall policies 25
10 How to handle asymmetric networks 27
11 SSL best practices 29
SSL only traffic - throughput: NS-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 3
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
4/60
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: NS-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
SSL only traffic — throughput: M-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: M-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
SSL only traffic — throughput: I-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: I-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
12 Sensor HTTP response processing deployment 35
Tests for enabling HTTP response traffic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
HTTP response processing results for NS-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
HTTP response processing results for Virtual IPS Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
HTTP response processing results for M-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
HTTP response processing results for I-series Sensors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
13 Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection 39
14 I-series Sensor capacity by model number 45
15 M-series Sensor capacity by model number 47
16 NS-series Sensor capacity by model number 51
17 Virtual IPS Sensor capacity by model number 55
18 Comparison between I-1200/I-1400 and M-1250/M-1450 FE ports 57
Index 59
Contents
4 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
5/60
Preface
This guide provides the information you need to configure, use, and maintain your McAfee product.
Contents
About this guide
Find product documentation
About this guideThis information describes the guide's target audience, the typographical conventions and icons used
in this guide, and how the guide is organized.
AudienceMcAfee documentation is carefully researched and written for the target audience.
The information in this guide is intended primarily for:
• Administrators — People who implement and enforce the company's security program.
• Users — People who use the computer where the software is running and can access some or all of
its features.
ConventionsThis guide uses these typographical conventions and icons.
Book title, term,emphasis
Title of a book, chapter, or topic; a new term; emphasis.
Bold Text that is strongly emphasized.
User input, code,
messageCommands and other text that the user types; a code sample; a displayedmessage.
Interface text Words from the product interface like options, menus, buttons, and dialogboxes.
Hypertext blue A link to a topic or to an external website.Note: Additional information, like an alternate method of accessing anoption.
Tip: Suggestions and recommendations.
Important/Caution: Valuable advice to protect your computer system,software installation, network, business, or data.
Warning: Critical advice to prevent bodily harm when using a hardwareproduct.
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 5
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
6/60
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
7/60
1 Introduction
McAfee® Network Security Platform [formerly McAfee® IntruShield®
] is a combination of network
appliances and software, built for the accurate detection and prevention of intrusions and network
misuse.
We recommend that you follow some of the best techniques and tips to use McAfee Network Security
Platform most effectively. This can save considerable time during the installation and tuning process of
the system.
Following chapters outline the best practices for Network Security Platform.
Pre-installation checklist
There are some important tasks that you should consider before McAfee® Network Security Manager
[formerly McAfee® IntruShield®
Security Manager] software installation. For more information, see
Planning for installation, McAfee Network Security Platform Troubleshooting Guide.
1
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 7
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
8/60
1IntroductionPre-installation checklist
8 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
9/60
2 Cabling best practices
It is a common practice to physically cable the monitoring ports, only after the McAfee® Network
Security Sensor (Sensor) has been fully configured.
In other words, most administrators cable the console and management ports, use those connections
to configure the solution, and only physically introduce the Sensor into the scanning process once the
proper scanning policies are in place, the monitoring ports have been configured, the latest signature
set has been downloaded, and so on.
Also, in the most security-conscious environments, or those with congestion problems, a privatenetwork is often used to connect the Sensor management ports to the McAfee® Network Security
Manager (Manager). This is another best practice in terms of cabling the Sensors.
2
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 9
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
10/60
2Cabling best practices
10 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
11/60
3 Hardening the Manager Server forWindows platform
Implementation of Manager varies from environment to environment. The Manager's physical and
logical position in the network influences specific remote access and firewall configuration
requirements. The following best practices on managing configurable features on Manager impacts the
security of Manager.
These steps are applicable to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012 editions.
Contents
Pre-installation
Installation
Post-installation
Pre-installation
Use a dedicated machine for the Manager server and then install Manager and the embedded MySQL
database. Other than the host-based firewall, no other software should be installed on the server.
Before installation of Manager do the following:
• Ensure that the server is located in a physically secure environment.
• Connect the server on a protected or isolated network.
• If the hard disk is old, use fdisk (a command line utility) to remove all partitions and create new
partitions.
Installation
Installation of Manager should be performed as follows:
• Install the US version of Windows Server.
• Use NTFS on all partitions.
3
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 11
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
12/60
Post-installation
After installation of Manager perform the following installations:
• Install the latest Windows Server patches, service packs, and hot fixes from Microsoft.
• Install a Virus Scanner and update the signatures.
Exclude "McAfee® Network Security Manager (Manager)" and "MySQL" directories from being
scanned.
Also keep a check on the following:
• Minimize the number of Windows roles and features that are installed.
• Uninstall applications that are not necessary.
Disable non-required servicesDisable the following services:
• DHCP Client
• FTP
• Print spooler
• Remote access auto connection manager
• Remote procedure call locator
• Remote registry
• Server
• TCP/IP NetBIOS helper service
• Telephony service.
Enable these services only if it is absolutely required.
Set system policiesEnsure to set the following system policies:
• Implement the System key and strong encryption of the password database by running
SYSKEY.EXE
• Use Microsoft security compliance toolkit or set local security policy
• Display legal notice at during interactive logon window.
• Do not display username that was earlier used to login.
• Disable Posix
• Clear virtual memory page file during shutdown
• Disable autorun
• Disable LMHOSTS lookup while setting the advanced TCP/IP settings.
3Hardening the Manager Server for Windows platformPost-installation
12 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
13/60
Set user policiesMake sure to set the following user policies:
• Rename the administrator account.
• Disable guest account.
• Passwords should be at least 8 ASCII characters.
• Enable locking of screensaver.
Set the desktop firewall
It is recommended that a desktop firewall operates on the Manager server. The following ports are
required for Manager-Sensor communication.
Ensure that there are no other open ports using a scanning tool such as McAfee Vulnerability Manager.
Port Description Communication
80 HTTP port Client to Manager
443 HTTPS Client to Manager
3306 MySQL database Open only while using external SQL database
8500 Command channel(UDP) Manager to Sensor
8501 Install channel (TCP) (1024-bit) Sensor to Manager
8502 Alert channel (TCP) (1024-bit) Sensor to Manager
8503 Packet log channel (TCP) (1024-bit) Sensor to Manager
8504 File transfer channel (TCP) Sensor to Manager
8506 Install channel (TCP) (2048-bit) Sensor to Manager
8507 Alert channel (TCP) (2048-bit) Sensor to Manager
8508 Packet log channel (TCP) (2048-bit) Sensor to Manager
8509 Bulk file transfer channel for 2048-bitcertificates.
Sensor to Manager
8510 Bulk file transfer channel for 1024-bitcertificates.
Sensor to Manager
8555 Alert viewer (TC) Client to Manager
When email notification or SNMP forwarding is configured on Manager and there is firewall between
Manager and SNMP Server, ensure that the following ports are allowed through firewall.
Port Description Communication
25 SMTP port Manager to SMTP server
162 SNMP forwarding Manager to SNMP server
If you have McAfee ePO™ integration configured on Manager, and there is firewall between Manager
and the McAfee ePO™ Server, ensure the following port is also allowed through firewall.
Port Description Communication
8443 McAfee ePO™ communication port Manager to McAfee ePO™ server
Hardening the Manager Server for Windows platformPost-installation 3
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 13
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
14/60
Configure audit eventsSet the following events to be audited:
• Audit account logon events • Audit policy change (Success)
• Audit account management • Audit privilege use (Failure)
• Audit logon events • Audit system events (Success)
• Audit object access (Failure)
3Hardening the Manager Server for Windows platformPost-installation
14 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
15/60
4 Large Sensor deployments
When you consider large McAfee® Network Security Sensor (Sensor) deployments, (where the number
of Sensors deployed range from 36 to 100) there are some important tasks which should be
considered, before deployment.
McAfee recommends that you have a good understanding on the best techniques required to
accomplish these tasks in your deployment scenario, prior to the deployment.
• Concurrent Signature Set and Sensor Software downloads — In 6.0.7.x and above, the
Manager provides an option for parallel processing of Sensor software and signature set updates.
In earlier releases of 6.0, when multiple Sensors are configured to your Manager, any software
update on the Sensors had to be performed individually. If you are using 5.1, then note that this
option is available on Manager version 5.1.17.2 and above.
This enhancement is applicable only for Sensor updates in the parent domain. The Sensor updates
in the child admin domain is performed in the same method as the earlier releases.
• Sensor Software Updates— All Sensor software updates do require a reboot. A reboot can take
up to 5 minutes. You can schedule this process though you can't reboot the Sensor automatically.
But any update from the Manager Server causes the process to take place sequentially, one Sensor
at-a-time. You can instead use the TFTP method for updating the Sensor image, which helps you to
load concurrent images on the Sensor via the Sensor's CLI, at a much faster rate.
For more information, see Upgrading Sensor software via a TFTP server, McAfee Network Security
Platform CLI Guide.
• Central Manager deployment — If you have a large Sensor deployment of 200 Sensors for
example, which are deployed across various geographic locations, then consider using a Central
Manager at your organization's headquarters and deploy a dedicated Manager for each region. Each
Manager will then handle the daily device operations for all Sensors configured to it. Note that
when you use a Central Manager, your regional/local Managers can add their own region-specific
rules, but cannot modify any configuration established by the Central Manager. Configuration
updates to the Sensors must be applied through the local Managers. See McAfee Network Security
Platform Manager Administration Guide for details.
• Usability — Depending on the number of VIDS and Admin Domains defined in your deployment,
the Manager Resource Tree can become very crowded, which makes it difficult to locate the
resource you require at any point of time. It can also lead to confusion if you have not provided
unique, recognizable names for your Sensors and any VIDS you create. Note that the resourcenames appear both in the Resource Tree of the Manager as well as in Alert data and Reports. Your
VIDS names should also be clear and easy for everyone maintaining the network to recognize at a
glance. For example, compare a worldwide deployment where Sensors are named "4010-1"
through "4010-25" as opposed to "UK-London-sens1," "India-Bangalore-sens1," and so on.
• Alert Traffic — Take note of the volume of alerting in your Sensors. Depending on the policies
deployed on your system, there is potential to starve Manager resources since the resulting alerts
are passed to the Manager. As the volume of alerting increases, more data is passed into the
Manager. The Manager can handle short bursts of high alert volume but on an average, the
Manager can handle a total of 1500 alerts per minute from all the Sensors configured to it.
4
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 15
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
16/60
• Start-up load on the Manager— When the Manager starts, establishing connections with all
Sensors can be time consuming as Sensors continue to collect alerts. If the communication with
the Manager is lost, each Sensor must pass its alert data to the Manager when connectivity is
re-established. So, it is required to account for the start-up load on the Manager.
• Concurrent processes— Be aware of the time periods in which your scheduled processes (such
as database backup or report generation) occur, and try not to attempt other tasks during that time
period, as this can lead to process locking. This includes having many users logged into the systemsimultaneously.
Contents
Staging Sensors prior to deployment
Recommendations for large Sensor deployment
Staging Sensors prior to deployment
With large or very large deployments, and/or if you are planning to release Sensors to various
geographical regions or remote locations, you will have to consider staging your Sensors before you
release them to their final destination.
For example, use the McAfee® Network Security Manager in a lab environment to push Sensor
software to the Sensor, make sure that the Sensor is working as expected, and then box the
configured Sensor and send it to its final destination. For more information, see Updating the
configuration of a Sensor, McAfee Network Security Platform IPS Administration Guide.
Or you might use the TFTP feature to load the Sensor image at one location, before shipping the
Sensor to another. For more information, see Upgrading Sensor software via a TFTP server, McAfee
Network Security Platform Installation Guide.
Very large Sensor deployments mean that the number of Sensors deployed is more than 100. Large
Sensor deployments have Sensors numbering between 36 and 100+.
Recommendations for large Sensor deployment
Most McAfee Network Security Platform customers begin their deployment in their lab environment.
Here they test the Sensor functionality, familiarize themselves with the Manager, and create an initial
policy. Once they are comfortable with the product, they deploy the Sensor in a live environment.
McAfee provides a few recommendations for this process:
• Spend time creating effective policies before actual deployment. Availability of more information
makes the tuning process easier. But policies like the McAfee Network Security Platform provided
All-Inclusive policy can overwhelm you with data, if every Sensor in a large deployment is running
it without any customization.
• Stagger your Sensor deployment in phases. As each new batch of Sensors provides you with more
data points, you can tune your policies more effectively, and become more aggressive in the
number of Sensors you deploy in the next phase.
4Large Sensor deploymentsStaging Sensors prior to deployment
16 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
17/60
5 Using active fail-open kits
McAfee supports the following types of passive and active fail-open kits:
• 10/100/1000 Gigabit Copper Passive Fail-Open Bypass Kit
• 1 Gigabit Optical Passive Fail-Open Bypass Kit
• 10 Gigabit Optical Passive Fail-Open Bypass Kit
• 10/100/1000 Copper Active Fail-Open Bypass Kit
• 10/100/1000 Copper Active Fail-Open Bypass Kit with SNMP monitoring
• 1 Gigabit Optical Active Fail-Open Bypass Kit
• 10 Gigabit Optical Active Fail-Open Bypass Kit
Fail-open kits can be deployed in production networks for the following reasons:
• Reduce the network downtime to seconds during any Sensor reboot or Sensor failure
• Protect your network during link failure on the Sensor
• Bypass the traffic when troubleshooting network issues. This will help you identify or eliminate the
Sensor as the cause of network issues
In the passive fail-open kit, if the Sensor goes down, the link has to be renegotiated again betweenthe peer devices and this causes the link to go down for some time. In case of an active fail-open kit,
a physical link will be established between the active fail-open kit and the two peer devices even when
the Sensor is active. There would not be any link flap even when the Sensor goes down. McAfee
recommends deploying active fail-open kits for protection of mission critical networks.
For Virtual IPS Sensors, only 10/100/1000 Copper Active Fail-Open Bypass Kit and 10/100/1000
Copper Active Fail-Open Bypass Kit with SNMP monitoring are supported. For more information, see
Virtual IPS Sensor deployment section in the IPS Administration Guide.
Passive Fail-open
In passive fail-open kits, during normal Sensor in-line, fail-open operation, the Fail-Open Controller or
built-in Control port (depending on which controls the Bypass Switch) supplies power and a heartbeat
signal to the Bypass Switch.
If this signal is not presented within its programmed interval, the Fail-Open Bypass Switch removes
the Sensor from the data path, and moves into bypass mode, providing continuous data flow with little
network interruption. While the Sensor is in bypass mode, traffic passes directly through the switch,
bypassing the Sensor. When normal Sensor operation resumes, you may or may not need to manually
re-enable the monitoring ports from the Manager interface, depending on the activity leading up to the
Sensor's failure.
Active Fail-open
5
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 17
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
18/60
In case of active fail-open kits, during normal Sensor in-line fail-open operation, the built-in
monitoring sends a heartbeat signal (1 every second) to the Bypass Switch. If the Sensor does not
receive 3 heart beat signals within its programmed interval, the Fail-Open Bypass Switch removes the
Sensor from the data path, and moves it into the bypass mode, providing continuous data flow.
When the Bypass Switch loses power, traffic continues to flow through the network link, but is no
longer routed through the Bypass Switch. This allows network devices to be removed and replaced
without network downtime. Once power is restored to the Bypass Switch, network traffic is seamlessly
diverted to the monitoring device, allowing it to resume its critical functions.
Considerations
This section discusses the generic requirements and notes that you need to consider with respect to
active fail-open kits:
• The currently supported active fail-open kits are not plug and play devices. Initial configuration/
setup is required before you begin.
• The following default options are fixed in McAfee active fail-open kits and cannot be changed:
• LFD is set to On
• Bypass Detection is set to Off
Even if you change the configuration for these options using the NetOptics Web Manager or System
Manager, the settings of these options on the McAfee active fail-open kit hardware cannot be changed.
• The management port on the active fail-open bypass kits cannot be configured.
• The parameters for the monitoring port must be set to Auto-Negotiate based on the speed, that is,
10/100/1000 Mbps. McAfee recommends that you set the Speed to 100 Mbps full Duplex with
Auto-Negotiate enabled to improve performance.
• Unlike passive fail-open kits, an active fail-open kit moves into the bypass mode only when it doesnot receive the heart beat signals within its programmed interval. When the Sensor monitoring port
is manually disabled or the cable is pulled out for example, the Manager displays the port status as
AUK (Active Unknown) under Device List / Sensor_Name > Physical Sensor > Port Settings page.
• If you are planning to use the 10/100/1000 copper active fail-open kit with SNMP monitoring, then
note that
• Network Security Platform currently supports only SNMP v1 on active fail-open kits.
• You can configure only a single SNMP Manager. The option to configure a secondary SNMP Manager
is currently not available.
• The active fail-open kits do not provide any CLI option to view the serial and model numbers of the
kits.
• If your network architecture is such that it requires you to remotely manage the active fail-open
kits in your deployment, then you can consider one of the following options:
• Use a terminal server to connect to the system console and then connect using a remote login
[interoperability issues might be seen while using UPLOGIX Terminal Server]
• Pre-configure the kit with the required settings before shipping.
5Using active fail-open kitsConsiderations
18 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
19/60
6 Effective policy tuning practices
All Network Security Sensors (Sensors) on initial deployment, have the 'Default Inline IPS' policy
loaded on all interfaces. McAfee recommends that you use the default inline IPS policy as a starting
point, then customize the policies based on your organization's requirements. The customized policies
can be either cloned versions of the default pre-configured policies or custom-built policies that
employ custom rule sets. An appropriately tuned policy will reduce false positives.
Though each network environment has unique characteristics, the following best practices can make
tuning more efficient and effective.
As you interact with Network Security Platform policies, you encounter the term "attack", not
"signature." Network Security Platform defines an attack as being comprised of one or more signatures,
thresholds, anomaly profiles, or correlation rules, where each method is used to detect an attempt to
exploit a particular vulnerability in a system. These signatures and checks may contain very specific
means for identifying a specific known exploit of the vulnerability, or more generic detection methods
that aid in detecting unknown exploits for the vulnerability.
Contents
Analyzing high-volume attacks
Managing exception objects
Learning profiles in DoS attacks
Analyzing high-volume attacks
Take attacks that are generating the most alerts (use Consolidated View in Threat Analyzer ) and investigate
their legitimacy. For more information, see Consolidated View, McAfee Network Security Platform
Manager Administration Guide.
Many of the top alerts seen on the initial deployment of a Sensor will be common false positives seen
in many environments. Typically, at the beginning of the tuning process, it will be evident that your
network or security policy will affect the overall level of alerts. If, for instance, AOL IM is allowed traffic
on the network, then there might not be a need to alert on AOL IM setup flows.
Managing exception objects
When a particular alert is declared as a false positive, the next decision is whether to disable the
corresponding attack altogether OR apply a particular exception object to that attack that will disable
alerting for a particular IP address or range of IP addresses. In almost all cases, it is a best practice to
implement the latter.
6
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 19
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
20/60
For instance, an SMS server may be generating the alert Netbios: Copy Executable file attempt during the
legitimate transfer of login scripts. Rather than disable the alert altogether, and cancel the possibility
of finding a real attack of this nature, we recommend that you create an exception object for the SMS
server and apply it to the attack.
Every exception object created is globally stored, so that the filter can be applied to any Exploit or
Reconnaissance attack.
It is also a best practice to document all your tuning activities. The Report section can be used to
assist the documentation process. The IPS Sensor configuration report will deliver reports that list
exception objects that have been applied and attacks that have been otherwise customized.
For more information, see Managing Exception Objects and Attack Responses, McAfee Network Security
Platform IPS Administration Guide.
Learning profiles in DoS attacks
It is a best practice to let the Sensors learn the profiles of the particular segments they are
monitoring, before tuning DoS attacks. This is Learning Mode operation. The learning process takes
two days. During this period it is not unusual to see DoS alerts associated with normal traffic flows (fo
example, DoS SYN flood alerts reported outbound on a firewall interface to the Internet). After a
profile has been learned, the particulars of the profile (number of SYNS, ACKS, and so on) can be
viewed per Sensor.
DoS detection can also be implemented using the Threshold Mode. This involves setting thresholds
manually for the type of segment characteristics that are learned in Learning Mode. Implementing this
mode successfully is critically dependent on detailed knowledge of the segments that the particular
Sensors are monitoring.
It is a best practice to have the Sensor re-learn the profile when there is a network change (that is,
you move the Sensor from a lab or staging environment to a production environment) or a
configuration change (that is, you change the CIDR block of a sub-interface) that causes a significantsudden traffic change on an interface. If the Sensor does not re-learn the new environment, it may
issue false alarms or fail to detect actual attacks during a time period when it is adapting to the new
network traffic conditions. There is no need to re-learn a profile when network traffic increases or
decreases naturally over time (for example, an e-Commerce site that is getting more and more
customers; thus its Web traffic increases in parallel), since the Sensor can automatically adapt to it.
For more information, see Managing DoS Learning Mode profiles on a Sensor, McAfee Network Security
Platform IPS Administration Guide.
6Effective policy tuning practicesLearning profiles in DoS attacks
20 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
21/60
7 Response management
When McAfee® Network Security Sensor (Sensor) detects an activity which violates a configured
security policy, a preset response from the Sensor is integral to the protection or prevention process.
Proper configuration of responses is crucial to maintaining effective protection. Critical attacks like
buffer overflows and DoS attacks require responses in real time, while scans and probes can be logged
and researched to determine compromise potential and the source of the attack.
Developing a system of actions, alerts, and logs based on specific attacks or attack parameters (such
as severity) is recommended for effective network security. For example, since McAfee® Network
Security Platform can be customized to protect any zone in a network, knowing what needs to beprotected can help to determine the response type.
If the Sensor is monitoring the network outside of the firewall in inline mode, preventing DoS attacks
and attacks against the firewall is crucial. Other suspicious traffic intended for the internal network,
such as scans and low-impact well-known exploits, are best logged and analyzed as the impact is not
immediate. In this case, a better understanding of the potential attack purpose can be determined.
Thus, if you are monitoring outside of a firewall in in-line mode, it is important not to set the policies
and responses so fine that they disrupt the flow of traffic and slow down the system.
Remember that response actions are decoupled from alerting. Pay particular attention to this with the
Recommended For Blocking (RFB) category of attacks, lest you enable blocking for an attack, but
disable alerting, causing the attack to be blocked without your knowledge.
When there are multiple attempts to login to a specific web server from a client, the Sensor detects a
reconnaissance Brute force attack (Attack ID 0x40256b00) and raises an alert. Brute force attacks are
used by programs, such as password crackers, to try many different passwords in order to guess the
correct one. The alerts raised are threshold based. The Sensor may generate an alert even in
scenarios, where a legitimate user keeps on retrying to login to the web server simply because he has
forgotten his password. Instances of someone mistyping a password or username on the login are also
common. In such cases, valid traffic flow would be blocked or subject to unnecessary responses from
the Sensor, leading to a false positive. Consequently, the traffic might be dropped.
When such alerts are seen in high volume, there may be multiple reasons for it, like, a dictionary
attack against the web server, or network monitoring systems (like WebSense) not updated with a
user password change, and so on.
McAfee® Network Security Platform recommends that while configuring a Reconnaissance policy, you
to edit and set optimum threshold values to suit your particular environment. This avoids unnecessary
responses from the Sensor and hindrance to the traffic flow.
For example, if you have a web-server farm behind the Sensor so there are more HTTP logins seen on
this segment, in such a scenario you require to set higher thresholds. The default values are good for
most environments.
7
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 21
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
22/60
Sensor response actions
There are multiple Sensor actions that are available for configuration per attack. These include:
• Dropping Alert Packets— Only works in in-line mode. Will drop a detected attack packet and all
subsequent packets in the same flow.
• Quarantine— Sensor will quarantine or remediate a host as per the configurations in McAfee® NetworkSecurity Manager and the Sensor monitoring ports. Quarantine can be enabled per attack in the
Policy Editors.
For more information, see McAfee Network Security Platform IPS Administration Guide.
7Response managementSensor response actions
22 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
23/60
8 How to create rule sets
A rule set is configured based on attack category, operating system, protocol, application, severity,
and benign trigger probability options. Each rule in a set is either an include rule or an exclude rule.
An include rule (which should always start a rule set) is a set of parameters that encompass a broad
range of well-known attacks for detection. An exclude rule removes elements from the include rule in
order to focus the policy's rule set.
Proper creation of rule sets is essential for eliminating false positives and ensuring maximum
protection on your network. These best practices can assist while creating rules sets in the McAfee®
Network Security Manager.
Best methods for rule set creation
There are two best practice methods employed for creating rule sets.
• General-to-specific rule creation — The first method is general-to-specific. Start with an include
rule that covers a broad range of operating systems, applications and protocols. After this, create
one or more exclude rules to strip away specific operating systems, protocols, et cetera, thus
focusing the rule set on the environment where it will be enforced. For example, start with an
include rule for all Exploit category attacks. Follow this with multiple exclusion rules that strip away
protocols, applications, severities, et cetera, that are rarely or never seen in a zone of your
network.
• Collaborative rule creation — The second method is collaboration: Create multiple include rules
within one rule set for each category, operating systems, et cetera, combination that needs to be
detected. Each criterion must be matched in order for an alert to be triggered. For example, create
the first rule in the set with the Exploit category, Unix as the OS, Sendmail as the application, and
SMTP as the protocol. Next, create another include rule for Exploit, Windows 2000, WindMail, and
so forth in the same manner. Each include rule added, broadens the scope of the detection.
For more information, see Managing Rule Sets, McAfee Network Security Platform IPS
Administration Guide.
8
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 23
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
24/60
8How to create rule setsBest methods for rule set creation
24 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
25/60
9 Working with firewall policies
Review the following points while working with Firewall policies:
• You cannot set explicit access rules for protocols that negotiate ports dynamically, with the
exception of FTP, TFTP, and RPC services. Protocols such as H.323 and Netmeeting, which negotiate
the data channel separately from the control channel, or negotiate ports that do not follow a
standard, are not supported. However, you can explicitly deny these protocol instances by denying
the fixed control port. However, you can configure access rules to explicitly deny these protocol
instances by denying the fixed control port.
• For RPC services, you can configure explicit permit and deny rules for RPC as a whole, but not its
constituents, such as statd and mountd.
• Protocols or services, such as instant messaging and peer-to-peer communication, that use
dynamic ports, are not supported.
• An alternative option for denying protocols that use dynamic ports is to configure IDS policies to
drop the attacks that are detected in such transmissions. Network Security Platform detects use of
and attacks in such programs as Yahoo Messenger, KaZaA, IRC, and so on.
• There is a limit on the number of access rules that can be supported by various Sensor models.
For more information, see McAfee Network Security Platform IPS Administration Guide
9
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 25
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
26/60
9Working with firewall policies
26 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
27/60
10 How to handle asymmetric networks
Traffic that uses a different path for the request vs. response is termed as asymmetric traffic. There
are chances of having asymmetric traffic within a network, when networks increase in size.
If there are chances of asymmetric traffic in your network, consider the following options:
• Install IPS Sensors at a location where the traffic is symmetric.
• Implement a port clustering configuration for asymmetric traffic. Port clustering [referred to as
Interface groups in the Manager] enables multiple ports on a single Sensor to be grouped together
for effective traffic monitoring. Asymmetric networks are common in load balancing and active/passive configurations, and a complete transmission may be received on one segment, but depart
on another. Thus keeping state of asymmetric transmissions is essential for successfully monitoring
the traffic. Interface groups normalize the impact of traffic flows split across multiple interfaces,
thus maintaining state to avoid information loss.
• Place an IPS Sensor each on the request and the response path of the asymmetric traffic and
create a failover pair to sync up the traffic flow between the two Sensors.
• If you are using a failover pair to monitor asymmetric traffic where the TCP traffic is going through
two geographically different data centers, connect the Sensors using dark fiber. In this option, both
the Sensors will have full state.
• When the distance between the two IPS Sensors is such that a failover pair cannot be created,
consider enabling Stateless Inspection. In Stateless Inspection, the Sensor detects attacks withoutrequiring a valid TCP state. This option should be used only when Sensors are placed in a network
where the Sensors do not see all packets of a TCP flow like in an asymmetric network
configuration.
When Stateless Inspection is enabled: - ACLs and syn cookie protection cannot be enabled. - HTTP
redirection to the Remediation Portal may or may not work depending on your network deployment
scenario for example, in a setup where SYN+ACK packets cannot be sent from the Sensor to the
client
The diagram below explains about HTTP traffic flow in an asymmetric network between User A and the
University Admin server. The outgoing connection flow from User A is through Switch 1, Switch 2,
Network Security Sensor 1, Router 1, Internet Service Provider 1, to the Internet connection. The
return path for the packet however, is through Internet Service Provider 2, Router 2 etc. If traffic flows
by the Sensor in an asymmetric manner as described above, all packets of a TCP flow are not visibleto a single Sensor.
In such a scenario, if Stateless Inspection is enabled, the Sensor will inspect packets without having
the valid state for the TCP connection. Consequently, it might generate false positives that is, when a
single communication flow is divided across paths, each interface will receive and analyze part of the
conversation and therefore be susceptible to false positives and false negatives.
10
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 27
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
28/60
When you enable Stateless Inspection, there are chances of false positives, and the detection accuracy
will be lower compared to when the Sensor sees all traffic. McAfee recommends that you use this
feature only when network configuration does not allow the Sensor to be placed in locations where it
could see all traffic.
10How to handle asymmetric networks
28 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
29/60
11 SSL best practices
Note that there is a performance impact when using the SSL decryption feature. If there is a lot of
outbound SSL traffic from the client to the internet as well, it consumes SSL flows. Therefore, to
enable the Sensor to effectively utilize the SSL decryption feature, it is recommended to bypass these
outbound SSL traffic using ACL Exception Objects.
Refer to the following sections for the SSL throughput measurements and test methodologies.
SSL decryption feature is not supported on IPS-VM600 and IPS-VM100.
Contents
SSL only traffic - throughput: NS-series Sensors
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: NS-series Sensors
SSL only traffic — throughput: M-series Sensors
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: M-series Sensors
SSL only traffic — throughput: I-series Sensors
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: I-series Sensors
SSL only traffic - throughput: NS-series Sensors
• Session resumption for 4 out of 5 TCP connections
• 5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 10K response each
• 128-bit ARC4
NS9300
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 44000 30800
SSL Throughput 20 Gbps 12 Gbps
NS9200
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 22000 15400
SSL Throughput 10 Gbps 6 Gbps
NS9100
11
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 29
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
30/60
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 17000 13600
SSL Throughput 8 Gbps 5.5 Gbps
NS7300
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 12000 12000
SSL Throughput 5 Gbps 5 Gbps
NS7200
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 6900 6900
SSL Throughput 3 Gbps 3 Gbps
NS7100
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key lengthMax. SSL Connections / Sec. 3500 3500
SSL Throughput 1.5 Gbps 1.5 Gbps
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: NS-series Sensors
• Session resumption for 4 out of 5 TCP connections
• 5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 10K response each
• 128-bit ARC4
NS9300
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 9200 9200
SSL Throughput 4 Gbps 4 Gbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 36 Gbps 36 Gbps
Total Throughput 40 Gbps 40 Gbps
NS9200
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 4600 4600
SSL Throughput 2 Gbps 2 Gbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 18 Gbps 18 Gbps
Total Throughput 20 Gbps 20 Gbps
NS9100
11SSL best practicesSSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: NS-series Sensors
30 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
31/60
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 2300 2300
SSL Throughput 1 Gbps 1 Gbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 9 Gbps 9 Gbps
Total Throughput 10 Gbps 10 Gbps
NS7300
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 2500 2500
SSL Throughput 1 Gbps 1 Gbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 4 Gbps 4 Gbps
Total Throughput 5 Gbps 5 Gbps
NS7200
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 2500 2500
SSL Throughput 1 Gbps 1 Gbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 2 Gbps 2 Gbps
Total Throughput 3 Gbps 3 Gbps
NS7100
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 2500 2500
SSL Throughput 1 Gbps 1 Gbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 0.5 Gbps 0.5 Gbps
Total Throughput 1.5 Gbps 1.5 Gbps
SSL only traffic — throughput: M-series Sensors
• Session resumption for 4 out of 5 TCP connections
• 5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 10K response each
• 128-bit ARC4
M-8000 M-6050 M-4050 M-3050 M-2950 M-2850
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 8500 4500 2700 1300 750 550
Throughput (Mbps) - 1024 bit keylength
3.8 Gbps 2 Gbps 1200 Mbps 600 Mbps 400 Mbps 250 Mbps
Throughput (Mbps) - 2048 bit keylength
1.2 Gbps 600 Mbps 550 Mbps 320 Mbps 320 Mbps 200 Mbps
SSL best practicesSSL only traffic — throughput: M-series Sensors 11
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 31
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
32/60
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: M-series Sensors
• Session resumption for 4 out of 5 TCP connections
• 5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 5K response each
• 128-bit ARC4
M-8000
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 1750 1750
SSL Throughput 800 Mbps 700 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 8 Gbps 7.9 Gbps
Total Throughput 8.8 Gbps 8.6 Gbps
M-6050
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 880 880
SSL Throughput 440 Mbps 400 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 4 Gbps 3.9 Gbps
Total Throughput 4.4 Gbps 4.3 Gbps
M-4050
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 440 440
SSL Throughput 200 Mbps 150 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 2.5 Gbps 2.5 GbpsTotal Throughput 2.7 Gbps 2.6 Gbps
M-3050
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 220 220
SSL Throughput 100 Mbps 90 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 1.2 Gbps 1.2 Gbps
Total Throughput 1.3 Gbps 1.1 Gbps
M-2950
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 180 180
SSL Throughput 80 Mbps 60 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 900 Mbps 900 Mbps
Total Throughput 980 Mbps 960 Mbps
M-2850
11SSL best practicesSSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: M-series Sensors
32 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
33/60
1024 bit key length 2048 bit key length
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 110 110
SSL Throughput 50 Mbps 40Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 500 Mbps 500 Mbps
Total Throughput 550 Mbps 540 Mbps
SSL only traffic — throughput: I-series Sensors
• Session resumption for 4 out of 5 TCP connections
• 128-bit ARC4
• 5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 5K response each
I-2700 I-3000 I-4000 I-4010
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 325 600 800 1200
Throughput (Mbps) - 1024 bit key length 85 Mbps 155 Mbps 200 Mbps 310 Mbps
Throughput (Mbps) - 2048 bit key length 65 Mbps 115 Mbps 125 Mbps 250 Mbps
5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 10K response each
I-2700 I-3000 I-4000 I-4010
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 300 400 800 800
Throughput (Mbps) - 1024 bit key length 150 Mbps 200 Mbps 400 Mbps 400 Mbps
SSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: I-series Sensors• Session resumption for 4 out of 5 TCP connections
• 5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 5K response each
• 1024-bit RSA
• 128-bit ARC4
I-2700
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 100 200
SSL Throughput 25 Mbps 50 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 475 Mbps 350 Mbps
Total Throughput 500 Mbps 400 Mbps
I-3000
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 200 400
SSL Throughput 50 Mbps 105 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 860 Mbps 475 Mbps
Total Throughput 910 Mbps 580 Mbps
SSL best practicesSSL only traffic — throughput: I-series Sensors 11
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 33
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
34/60
I-4000
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 400 800
SSL Throughput 100 Mbps 200 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 1550 Mbps 780 Mbps
Total Throughput 1650 Mbps 980 Mbps
I-4010
Max. SSL Connections / Sec. 400 800
SSL Throughput 100 Mbps 200 Mbps
HTTP 1.1 Throughput 1740 Mbps 860 Mbps
Total Throughput 1840 Mbps 1060 Mbps
11SSL best practicesSSL traffic mixed with HTTP 1.1 traffic: I-series Sensors
34 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
35/60
12 Sensor HTTP response processingdeployment
HTTP response processing is disabled by default. You can enable it for each traffic direction on an
interface pair. To minimize the potential performance impact on the McAfee® Network Security Sensor
(Sensor), we recommend that you enable HTTP response processing on the minimum number of ports
and in only the required directions to achieve your protection goals.
Some examples of HTTP response processing deployment:
• You want to protect a bunch of clients on your internal network - enable HTTP response processing
for inbound traffic only.
• You are serving Web content to external clients, and do not wish to serve attacks embedded in
HTTP response traffic - enable HTTP response processing for outbound traffic only.
• You want to protect both internal clients as well as the Web content you are serving to external
clients- enable HTTP response processing in both directions.
Tests for enabling HTTP response traffic
The test results provided in the next two sections illustrate potential impact of enabling responseprocessing traffic.
The things to note about the test are given below.
• The test involves only HTTP traffic. Changing the HTTP response processing setting does not
change the Sensor performance for any other protocol. Therefore, changes in aggregate Sensor
performance will depend on the proportion of HTTP traffic to other traffic on the link being
monitored.
• The test sends equal HTTP request and response loads in both directions through the Sensor.
Typical real-world deployments do not have equal amounts of HTTP request traffic and response
traffic in both directions through the Sensor. Usually, there is significant amount of request traffic in
one direction and response traffic in the opposite direction. Since HTTP requests are typically
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
36/60
• The test sends HTTP request continuously at maximum load. Real-world networks are typically
loaded, occasionally peaking at maximum capacity, but typically running at significantly lower
throughput. The test results reflect performance at sustained load. When not running at maximum
load, the Sensor can absorb larger bursts without significant impact.
• The test environment was created to illustrate the likely worst-case performance impact, expected
to occur in deployments protecting large Web server farms. In these deployments, HTTP response
processing typically provides little value because all HTTP response traffic is sourced from trustedservers, which do not usually transmit hostile content due to the security measures taken. In these
environments, customers can consider selectively enabling HTTP response processing to better
optimize their network.
The net result of all of these factors is that in typical networks, the impact of enabling HTTP response
processing is not noticed. The exact impact is, of course, dependent on the traffic being inspected and
some environments could see a reduction in performance as significant as the test results indicate.
The factors to take into account include:
• proportion of HTTP traffic to other protocols
• relative amount of HTTP requests and responses in each direction and,
• size of a response page sent to the client by the sites or applications that are typically accessed.
For Sensor performance numbers under the following conditions:
• HTTP response processing enabled/disabled and
• 5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 10K response each sent in one direction,
HTTP response processing results for NS-series Sensors
Refer to the following table for NS-series Sensor performance numbers with HTTP response
processing:
Model No. HTTP Response Scanning Enabled for outbound direction
5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 10K response each
NS9300 40 Gbps
NS9200 20 Gbps
NS9100 10 Gbps
NS7300 5 Gbps
NS7200 3 Gbps
NS7100 1.5 Gbps
The NS-series performance numbers when HTTP response is disabled will be higher. For example, the
NS9100 performance with HTTP response scanning disabled will be higher than 10 Gbps.
12Sensor HTTP response processing deploymentTests for enabling HTTP response traffic
36 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
37/60
HTTP response processing results for Virtual IPS Sensor
Refer to the following table for Virtual IPS Sensor performance numbers with HTTP response
processing:
Model No. HTTP Response Scanning Disabled HTTP Response Scanning Enabled foroutbound direction
5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCPconnection with a 10K response each
5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCPconnection with a 10K response each
IPS-VM600 600 Mbps 600 Mbps
IPS-VM100 100 Mbps 100 Mbps
HTTP response processing results for M-series Sensors
Refer to the following table for M-series Sensor performance numbers with HTTP response processing:
Model No. HTTP Response Scanning Disabled HTTP Response Scanning Enabled foroutbound direction
5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCPconnection with a 10K response each
5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCPconnection with a 10K response each
M-8000 10 Gbps 5.4 Gbps
M-6050 5 Gbps 2.8 Gbps
M-4050 3 Gbps 2 Gbps
M-3050 1.5Gbps 1 Gbps
M-2950 1.0 Gbps 850 Mbps
M-2850 600 Mbps 500 Mbps
M-2750 600 Mbps 500 Mbps
M-1450 200 Mbps 200 Mbps
M-1250 100 Mbps 100 Mbps
HTTP response processing results for I-series Sensors
Refer to the following table for I-series Sensor performance numbers with HTTP response processing:
Model No. HTTP Response Scanning Disabled HTTP Response Scanning Enabled foroutbound direction
5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCPconnection with a 10K response each
5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCPconnection with a 10K response each
I-4010 2 Gbps 1 Gbps
I-4000 1.78 Gbps 1 Gbps
I-3000 1 Gbps 680 Mbps
I-2700 550 Mbps 430 Mbps
I-1400 195 Mbps 160 Mbps
I-1200 97 Mbps 75 Mbps
Sensor HTTP response processing deploymentTests for enabling HTTP response traffic 12
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 37
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
38/60
12Sensor HTTP response processing deploymentTests for enabling HTTP response traffic
38 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
39/60
13 Sensor performance with Layer 7 DataCollection
Turning on the Layer 7 Data Collection feature reduces Sensor performance.
• HTTP Response Scanning setting
• Proportion of HTTP traffic to other protocols
• Relative number of HTTP requests and responses in each direction
• Size of a response page sent to the client by the sites or applications that are typically accessed
The following table provides the performance details in a test environment.
• The test environment used 5 HTTP 1.1 get page requests per TCP connection with a 10 K response,
each sent in one direction.
• When Advanced Traffic Inspection is enabled, in a deployment with 90 percent of traffic without
evasions and 10 percent of traffic with evasions, the overall Sensor throughput would further drop
by an additional five percent approximately. For example , if you get 1 Gbps throughput with Layer
7 Data Collection enabled, you would see 950 Mbps if Advanced Traffic Inspection is also enabled.
NS-series Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection
Table 13-1 NS9x00 performance details with respect to Layer 7 Data Collection
Sensor Model Layer 7 Data Collection setting HTTP ResponseScanning setting
Observed throughput
NS9300 Disabled Disabled 40 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
40 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 5
Disabled 40 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
40 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 100
Disabled 40 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection 40 Gbps
NS9200 Disabled Disabled 20 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
20 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 5
Disabled 20 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
20 Gbps
13
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 39
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
40/60
Table 13-1 NS9x00 performance details with respect to Layer 7 Data Collection (continued)
Sensor Model Layer 7 Data Collection setting HTTP ResponseScanning setting
Observed throughput
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 100
Disabled 20 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
20 Gbps
NS9100 Disabled Disabled 10 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
10 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 5
Disabled 10 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
10 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 100
Disabled 10 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
10 Gbps
Table 13-2 NS7x00 performance details with respect to Layer 7 Data Collection
Sensor Model Layer 7 Data Collection setting HTTP ResponseScanning setting
Observed throughput
NS7300 Disabled Disabled 7 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
5 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 5
Disabled 7 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
5 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 100
Disabled 7 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
5 Gbps
NS7200 Disabled Disabled 6 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
3 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 5
Disabled 6 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
3 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 100
Disabled 6 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
3 Gbps
NS7100 Disabled Disabled 2 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection 1.5 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 5
Disabled 2 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
1.5 Gbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 100
Disabled 2 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
1.5 Gbps
13Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection
40 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
41/60
Virtual IPS Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection
Table 13-3 Sensor performance details with respect to Layer 7 Data Collection
Sensor model Layer 7 Data Collection setting HTTP ResponseScanning setting
Observed throughput
IPS-VM600 Disabled Disabled 600 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
500 Mbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 5
Disabled 600 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
400 Mbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 100
Disabled 600 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
350 Mbps
IPS-VM100 Disabled Disabled 100 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
100 Mbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 5
Disabled 100 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
90 Mbps
Percentage of flows that captureL7 data: 100
Disabled 100 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
85 Mbps
M-series Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection
Table 13-4 Sensor performance details with respect to Layer 7 Data Collection
Sensormodel
Layer 7 Data Collection setting HTTP ResponseScanning setting
Observedthroughput
M-8000 Disabled Disabled 10 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
5.4 Gbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 5
Disabled 9 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
4.4 Gbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 100
Disabled 8.7 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
4.2 Gbps
M-6050 Disabled Disabled 5 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
2.8 Gbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 5
Disabled 4.5 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
2.2 Gbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 100
Disabled 4.4 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
2.1 Gbps
M-4050 Disabled Disabled 3 Gbps
Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection13
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 41
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
42/60
Table 13-4 Sensor performance details with respect to Layer 7 Data Collection (continued)
Sensormodel
Layer 7 Data Collection setting HTTP ResponseScanning setting
Observedthroughput
Enabled for outbounddirection
2 Gbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 5
Disabled 2.7 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
1.3 Gbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 100
Disabled 2.6 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
1.2 Gbps
M-3050 Disabled Disabled 1.5 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
1 Gbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 5
Disabled 1.4 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
0.7 Gbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 100
Disabled 1.3 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
0.6 Gbps
M-2950 Disabled Disabled 1 Gbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
850 Mbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 5
Disabled 921 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
446 Mbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7
data: 100
Disabled 891 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
431 Mbps
M-2850 Disabled Disabled 600 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
500 Mbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 5
Disabled 540 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
261 Mbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 100
Disabled 522 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
253 Mbps
M-1450 Disabled Disabled 200 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
200 Mbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 5
Disabled 180 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
180 Mbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 100
Disabled 174 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
174 Mbps
13Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection
42 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
43/60
Table 13-4 Sensor performance details with respect to Layer 7 Data Collection (continued)
Sensormodel
Layer 7 Data Collection setting HTTP ResponseScanning setting
Observedthroughput
M-1250 Disabled Disabled 100 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
100 Mbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 5
Disabled 90 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
90 Mbps
Percentage of flows that capture L7data: 100
Disabled 87 Mbps
Enabled for outbounddirection
87 Mbps
Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection13
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 43
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
44/60
13Sensor performance with Layer 7 Data Collection
44 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
45/60
14 I-series Sensor capacity by modelnumber
The following table lists McAfee® Network Security Sensor (Sensor) limitations by category and by
Sensor model.
Maximum Type I-4010 I-4000 I-3000 I-2700 I-1400 I-1200
Aggregate Performance 2 Gbps 2 Gbps 1 Gbps 600 Mbps 200 Mbps 100 Mbps
Concurrent connections 1,000,000 1,000,000 500,000 250,000 80,000 40,000
Connections established per sec. 25,000 25,000 10,000 6,250 2,000 1,000
Concurrent SSL Flows 100,000 100,000 50,000 25,000 NA NA
Number of SSL keys that can bestored on the Sensor
64 64 64 64 NA NA
Virtual Interfaces (VIDS) perSensor
1,000 1,000 1,000 100 32 16
VLAN / CIDR Blocks per Sensor 3,000 3,000 3,000 300 64 32
VLAN / CIDR Blocks per Interface 254 254 254 254 64 32
Customized attacks
See the note below on how thenumber of customized attacks isaffected.
100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 40,000 20,000
Exception objects 131,072 131,072 131,072 65,535 32,000 20,000
Number of attacks with exceptionobjects
128,000 128,000 128,000 64,000 20,000 16,000
Default number of supported UDPFlows
100,000 100,000 50,000 25,000 10,000 5,000
Supported UDP Flows 750,000 750,000 375,000 187,500 60,000 30,000
DoS Profiles 5,000 5,000 5,000 300 120 100
SYN rate (64-byte packets persecond)
1,000,000 1,000,000 500,000 250,000 64,000 83,000
Effective (Firewall) Access Rules(refer to note below)
1,000 1,000 1,000 400 100 50
For more information on computing Effective Access Rules, see IPS Administration Guide.
Note for customized attacks
14
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 45
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
46/60
Customized attacks are not to be confused with custom attacks. A custom attack is a user-defined
attack definition either in the McAfee's format or the Snort rules language. Whereas a customized
attack is an attack definition (as part of the signature set), for which you modified its default settings
For example, if the default severity of an attack is 5 and you change it to 7, it is a customized attack.
The signature set push from the Manager to a Sensor fails if the number of customized attacks on the
Sensor exceeds the customized attack limit.
The number of customized attacks can increase due to:
• Modifications done to attacks on a policy by users.
• Recommended for blocking (RFB) attacks.
• User created asymmetric policies.
Example: How numerous customized attacks are created in asymmetric policies.
1 Create a policy.
2 Set the Inbound rule set to "File Server rule set".
3 Set the Outbound rule set to "All-inclusive with Audit rule set".
You see that:
• The File Server rule set has 166 exploit attacks.
• The All-inclusive with Audit rule set has 2204 exploit attacks.
The total number of customized attacks for this policy is 2204 – 116 = 2038 customized attacks.
14I-series Sensor capacity by model number
46 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
47/60
15 M-series Sensor capacity by modelnumber
MaximumType
M-8000 M-6050 M-4050 M-3050 M-2950 M-2850 M-1450 M-1250
AggregatePerformance
10 Gbps 5 Gbps 3 Gbps 1.5 Gbps 1 Gbps 600Mbps
200Mbps
100Mbps
Maximum
throughputwith testequipmentsending UDPpacket size of 1518 bytes
Up to 20
Gbps
Up to 10
Gbps
Up to 4
Gbps
Up to 2.5
Gbps
Up to
1.5Gbps
Up to 1
Gbps
Up to
300Mbps
Up to
150Mbps
Concurrentconnections
5,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,000,000 750,000 750,000 80,000 40,000
Connectionsestablished persec.
120,000 60,000 36,000 18,000 15,000 10,000 4,000 2,000
Default numberof supportedUDP Flows
100,000 100,000 100,000 50,000 50,000 25,000 10,000 5,000
Supported UDPFlows
3,000,000 1,500,000 750,000 375,000 375,000 187,500 60,000 30,000
Latency
(Average UDPper packetLatency)
< 100microseconds
< 100microseconds
< 100microseconds
< 100microseconds
< 100microseconds
< 100microseconds
< 100microseconds
< 100microseconds
SSL Flow count 400,000 200,000 150,000 75,000 25,000 25,000 NA NA
Number of SSLcertificates thatcan beimported intothe Sensor
256 256 256 256 256 256 NA NA
Quarantinerules perSensor- IPv4
1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
Quarantinerules perSensor- IPv6
500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500
QuarantineZones perSensor
50 50 50 50 50 50 50 50
15
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 47
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
48/60
MaximumType
M-8000 M-6050 M-4050 M-3050 M-2950 M-2850 M-1450 M-1250
QuarantineZone ACLs perSensor
1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
Virtual
Interfaces(VIDS) perSensor
1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 100 32 32
VLAN / CIDRBlocks perSensor
3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 300 300 64 32
VLAN / CIDRBlocks perInterface
254 254 254 254 254 254 64 32
Customizedattacks
See the notebelow on how
the number of customizedattacks isaffected.
100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 40,000 20,000
Exceptionobjects
262,144 262,144 262,144 262,144 131,072 131,072 65,536 32,768
Number of attacks withexceptionobjects
128,000 128,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 40,000 20,000
DoS Profiles 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 300 120 100
SYN cookie rate(64-bytepackets persecond)
5,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 800,000 600,000 250,000 200,000
Effective(Firewall)accessrules
10,000 5,000 3,000 3,000 2,000 2,000 1,000 1,000
Firewall ruleobjects
70,000 35,000 21,000 21,000 14,000 14,000 7,000 7,000
Firewall DNSrule objects
2,500 1,250 1,000 1,000 750 750 500 500
Firewall ruleobject groups
500 400 300 300 200 200 100 100
Application onCustom Portrule objects
1,000 500 500 500 250 250 150 150
Firewalluser-based ruleobjects
2,500 1,250 1,000 1,000 750 750 500 500
Firewall usergroups inaccess rules
10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000
15M-series Sensor capacity by model number
48 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
49/60
MaximumType
M-8000 M-6050 M-4050 M-3050 M-2950 M-2850 M-1450 M-1250
Number of whitelist entriespermitted for IPReputation
128 128 128 128 64 64 32 32
Maximum hostentriessupported forConnectionLimiting policies
256,000 256,000 256,000 256,000 256,000 256,000 128,000 128,000
Maximum filesize duringpacket capture
100 MB 100 MB 100 MB 100 MB 58 MB 58 MB 40 MB 40 MB
Passive deviceprofile limits
100,000 100,000 50,000 25,000 15,000 15,000 10,000 5,000
AdvancedMalware -Maximum
simultaneousfile scancapacity withfile save
50 50 50 50 32 32 16 16
AdvancedMalware -Maximumsimultaneousfile scancapacitywithout filesave
1,024 1,024 1,024 1,024 1,024 1,024 255 255
SSL decryption is not supported on M-1450 and M-1250 Sensors.
The number of supported SSL flows on a Sensor directly impacts the number of TCP flows that can be
processed simultaneously.
Note for customized attacks
Customized attacks are not to be confused with custom attacks. A custom attack is a user-defined
attack definition either in the McAfee's format or the Snort rules language. Whereas a customized
attack is an attack definition (as part of the signature set), for which you modified its default settings
For example, if the default severity of an attack is 5 and you change it to 7, it is a customized attack.
The signature set push from the Manager to a Sensor fails if the number of customized attacks on the
Sensor exceeds the customized attack limit.
The number of customized attacks can increase due to:
• Modifications done to attacks on a policy by users.
• Recommended for blocking (RFB) attacks.
• User created asymmetric policies.
M-series Sensor capacity by model number15
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 49
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
50/60
Example: How numerous customized attacks are created in asymmetric policies.
1 Create a policy.
2 Set the Inbound rule set to "File Server rule set".
3 Set the Outbound rule set to "All-inclusive with Audit rule set".
You see that:
• The File Server rule set has 166 exploit attacks.
• The All-inclusive with Audit rule set has 2204 exploit attacks.
The total number of customized attacks for this policy is 2204 – 116 = 2038 customized attacks.
15M-series Sensor capacity by model number
50 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
51/60
16 NS-series Sensor capacity by modelnumber
The following table describes the supported NS-series Sensor capacity.
Maximum Type NS9300 NS9200 NS9100 NS7300 NS7200 NS7100
AggregatePerformance
40 Gbps 20 Gbps 10 Gbps 5 Gbps 3 Gbps 1.5 Gbps
Max Throughputwith testequipmentsending UDPpacket size of 1512 Bytes
up to 70Gbps
up to 35Gbps
up to 30Gbps
up to 15Gbps
up to 10Gbps
up to 5Gbps
ConcurrentConnections
32,000,000 16,000,000 13,000,000 10,000,000 5,000,000 3,000,000
Connectionsestablished persecond
1,000,000 575,000 450,000 225,000 200,000 135,000
Default number of supported UDPFlows
800,000 400,000 300,000 150,000 150,000 150,000
Supported UDPFlows maximum
12,000,000 6,000,000 6,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000 3,000,000
Supported UDPFlows minimum
1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
Latency
(Average UDP perpacket Latency)
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
52/60
Maximum Type NS9300 NS9200 NS9100 NS7300 NS7200 NS7100
Quarantine Zonesper Sensor
50 50 50 50 50 50
Quarantine ZoneACLs per Sensor
1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
Virtual Interfaces(VIDS) per Sensor(Number of Virtual IPSSystems)
1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000 1,000
VLAN / CIDRBlocks per Sensor
3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000
VLAN / CIDRBlocks perInterface
254 254 254 254 254 254
Customizedattacks
See the note
below on how thenumber of customizedattacks isaffected.
100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000 100,000
Exception objects 262,144 262,144 262,144 262,144 262,144 262,144
Number of attackswith exceptionobjects
128,000 128,000 128,000 128,000 128,000 128,000
DoS Profiles 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000 5,000
SYN cookie rate(64 ‑ byte packetsper second)
13,500,000 9,000,000 5,000,000 3,300,000 1,800,000 1,400,000
Effective(Firewall) accessrules
20,000 20,000 10,000 5,000 3,000 3,000
Firewall ruleobjects
140,000 140,000 70,000 35,000 21,000 21,000
Firewall DNS ruleobjects
5,000 5,000 2,500 1,250 1,000 1,000
Firewall ruleobject groups
1,000 1,000 500 400 300 300
Application onCustom Port ruleobjects
2,000 2,000 1,000 500 500 500
Firewalluser-based ruleobjects
5,000 5,000 2,500 1,250 1,000 1,000
Firewall usergroups in accessrules
10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 10,000
Number of whitelist entriespermitted for IPReputation
128 128 128 128 128 128
16NS-series Sensor capacity by model number
52 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
53/60
Maximum Type NS9300 NS9200 NS9100 NS7300 NS7200 NS7100
Maximum hostentries supportedfor ConnectionLimiting policies
256,000 256,000 256,000 256,000 256,000 256,000
Maximum file size
during packetcapture
100 MB 100 MB 100 MB 100 MB 100 MB 100 MB
Passive deviceprofile limits
100,000 100,000 50,000 100,000 50,000 25,000
AdvancedMalware -Maximumsimultaneous filescan capacity withfile save
50 50 50 50 50 50
AdvancedMalware -Maximum
simultaneous filescan capacitywithout file save
4,094 4,094 4,094 4,094 4,094 4,094
New HTTPconnections persecond(using 1GET with 5000HTTP response)
700,000 375,000 260,000 135,000 128,000 115,000
Note for customized attacks
Customized attacks are not to be confused with custom attacks. A custom attack is a user-defined
attack definition either in the McAfee's format or the Snort rules language. Whereas a customized
attack is an attack definition (as part of the signature set), for which you modified its default settings
For example, if the default severity of an attack is 5 and you change it to 7, it is a customized attack.
The signature set push from the Manager to a Sensor fails if the number of customized attacks on the
Sensor exceeds the customized attack limit.
The number of customized attacks can increase due to:
• Modifications done to attacks on a policy by users.
• Recommended for blocking (RFB) attacks.
• User created asymmetric policies.
Example: How numerous customized attacks are created in asymmetric policies.
1 Create a policy.
2 Set the Inbound rule set to "File Server rule set".
3 Set the Outbound rule set to "All-inclusive with Audit rule set".
You see that:
• The File Server rule set has 166 exploit attacks.
• The All-inclusive with Audit rule set has 2204 exploit attacks.
The total number of customized attacks for this policy is 2204 – 116 = 2038 customized attacks.
NS-series Sensor capacity by model number16
McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide 53
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
54/60
16NS-series Sensor capacity by model number
54 McAfee Network Security Platform 8.1 Best Practices Guide
8/19/2019 NSP 81 Best Practices Guide RevE en-us
55/60
17 Virtual IPS Sensor capacity by modelnumber
The following table describes the supported Virtual IPS Sensor capacity.
Table 17-1 Virtual IPS Sensor capacity by model number
Maximum Type IPS-VM600 IPS-VM100
Aggregate Performance 600 Mbps 100 Mbps
Maximum throughput with test equipment sending UDPpacket size of 1518 bytes
Up to 1 Gbps Up to 150 Mbps
Concurrent connections 600,000 200,000
Connections established per second 20,000 6,000
Default number of supported UDP Flows 25,000 10,000
Su