What is the Difference Between Zeek and Suricata Metadata?

Deciding between open-source network security tools can be a difficult task, but once you’ve decided what your organization is looking for narrowing down the options becomes a lot more manageable. In the decision between Suricata vs Zeek, choosing a network security tool will come down to what type of data you are hoping to get and what you want to do with that data. This blog post will highlight the differences between Suricata and Zeek metadata to help you make a decision. First, let’s review both options.

What is Suricata used for?

Suricata is used to provide network security support by identifying or blocking malicious traffic entering the network. Whether it is used in IDS or IPS mode, Suricata’s purpose is to provide a layer of defense using:

• Threat Detection: Suricata constantly examines network traffic for malicious patterns. It compares this traffic to a vast database of known attack signatures and pre-defined Suricata rules. These signatures are like the fingerprints of specific threats, allowing Suricata to identify malware, exploit attempts, and suspicious network activity.
• Deep Packet Inspection: Suricata inspects data packets, analyzing not just the source and destination, but also the content itself. This allows it to detect hidden threats within encrypted traffic or files being transferred.
• Protocol Analysis: Suricata can analyze a wide range of network protocols, understanding how different types of communication work. This lets it identify suspicious behavior within specific protocols, like unusual data transfers or attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in certain communication methods.
• Network Traffic Baselining: Suricata can be used to establish a baseline of what "normal" traffic looks like on your network. By monitoring activity over time, a machine learning engine can use the data produced by Suricata to learn the typical patterns and identify significant deviations that might indicate a potential attack.
• Threat Hunting: Suricata's detailed logs and analysis capabilities are valuable for security professionals. They can use Suricata's data to investigate suspicious activity, identify trends, and proactively hunt for hidden threats within the network.

What can you do with Zeek?

Zeek functions as a passive network traffic analyzer or network security monitoring (NSM) tool, so any Zeek alternatives must also accomplish these functions. It is important to note that while Zeek is commonly included in lists of open-source intrusion detection tools, technically there is no Zeek IDS. Unlike other Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) that can be configured to actively block threats, Zeek takes a more investigative approach. Here are some of its key functionalities:

• Deep Traffic Capture and Inspection: Zeek captures and records logs of all network traffic flowing through your network. This includes an in-depth inspection of application layer data, providing a richer picture of network activity beyond just basic headers.
• Security Monitoring and Forensics: The logs generated by Zeek are valuable to security professionals. These logs can be analyzed to investigate suspicious activity, identify potential threats, and reconstruct security incidents for forensic purposes.
• Network Performance Analysis: Zeek's capabilities extend beyond security. It can be used to analyze network performance by monitoring traffic patterns, identifying bottlenecks, and troubleshooting network issues.
• Customization and Extensibility: As an open-source tool, Zeek offers a high degree of customization through scripting. Security teams can tailor Zeek's behavior to their specific needs and threat landscape.

What is the difference between Zeek and Suricata?

Both Suricata and Zeek are open-source network security tools, but understanding the differences of Suicata vs Zeek requires understanding their different approaches:

• Suricata: Acts as a real-time Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and can optionally function as an Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) by blocking malicious traffic. Suricata prioritizes threat detection and prevention, but the data gathered by Suricata is comparative to that of dedicated network security monitoring (NSM) tools.

• Zeek: Functions primarily as a passive network traffic analyzer. It captures and analyzes all traffic for later investigation, focusing on providing data for network security monitoring and forensics.

• Suricata: Natively multi-threaded, making it faster at processing network traffic compared to Zeek's multi-process architecture. This allows Suricata to handle high-volume networks more efficiently.

• Zeek: Offers deep inspection capabilities but relies on scripting for complex analysis. This can be powerful for experienced users but requires more effort to set up and maintain.

• Suricata: Can be deployed inline to directly block suspicious traffic on your network, functioning as an IPS or firewall alongside detection capabilities.

• Zeek: Operates passively, capturing traffic for later analysis. It does not directly block threats.

• Suricata: Generally considered easier to learn for beginners due to its focus on pre-defined rules and signature matching.

• Zeek: Requires scripting knowledge for advanced analysis, making it less beginner-friendly but offering customization potential.

To put it simply, Suricata excels at real-time threat detection and prevention with a focus on ease of use. Zeek provides a comprehensive view of network activity through deep analysis and historical data, but requires more technical expertise to leverage its full potential. Suricata is capable of producing the same depth of data as Zeek when configured properly, though Zeek is fundamentally unable to perform several of Suricata’s core functionalities.

Is there a GUI for Suricata?

No, like many other network security monitoring tools, Suricata itself does not have a graphical user interface (GUI). It's primarily a command-line tool with configuration files for customization. However, those desiring a web-based management experience with a dedicated user interface to see Suricata dashboards should consider downloading SELKS by Stamus Networks.

SELKS is a turn-key Suricata-based IDS/NSM and threat-hunting system. It is available as either a live and installable Debian-based ISO or via Docker compose on any Linux operating system.

SELKS is comprised of the following major components:

• Suricata - Ready to use Suricata
• Elasticsearch - Search engine
• Logstash - Log injection
• Kibana - Custom dashboards and event exploration
• Stamus Community Edition (CE) - Suricata ruleset management and Suricata threat hunting interface

In addition, SELKS also includes Arkime, EveBox, and CyberChef.

SELKS is an incredibly powerful and effective way to begin learning Suricata, and for many small-to-medium sized organizations, hobbyists, and educational settings SELKS functions as a production-grade NSM and IDS solution.

To download SELKS or learn more, please visit www.stamus-networks.com/selks

Learn More About Suricata

To begin learning more about Suricata, we recommend downloading the open-source book published by Stamus Networks titled “The Security Analyst’s Guide to Suricata” — the first practical guide to threat detection and hunting using Suricata, the world’s most popular open-source network security engine.

Written for security operations center (SOC) analysts and threat hunters who use Suricata to gain insights into what is taking place on their networks, the book provides vital information on entry points and an in-depth analysis of the most important Suricata features.

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