A powerful, easily deployable network traffic analysis tool suite
Malcolm’s runtime settings are stored (with a few exceptions) as environment variables in configuration files ending with a .env
suffix in the ./config
directory. The ./scripts/configure
script can help users configure and tune these settings.
Run ./scripts/configure
and answer the questions to configure Malcolm. For an in-depth treatment of these configuration questions, see the Configuration section in End-to-end Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ISO Installation.
Although the configuration script automates many of the following configuration and tuning parameters, some environment variables of particular interest are listed here for reference.
arkime.env
and arkime-secret.env
- settings for Arkime
ARKIME_ANALYZE_PCAP_THREADS
– the number of threads available to Arkime for analyzing PCAP files (default 1
)ARKIME_PASSWORD_SECRET
- the password hash secret for the Arkime viewer cluster (see passwordSecret
in Arkime INI Settings) used to secure the connection used when Arkime viewer retrieves a PCAP payload for display in its user interfaceMANAGE_PCAP_FILES
– if set to true
, all PCAP files imported into Malcolm will be marked as available for deletion by Arkime if available storage space becomes too low (default false
)MAXMIND_GEOIP_DB_LICENSE_KEY
- Malcolm uses MaxMind’s free GeoLite2 databases for GeoIP lookups. As of December 30, 2019, these databases are no longer available for download via a public URL. Instead, they must be downloaded using a MaxMind license key (available without charge from MaxMind). The license key can be specified here for GeoIP database downloads during build- and run-time.auth-common.env
- authentication-related settings
NGINX_BASIC_AUTH
- if set to true
, use TLS-encrypted HTTP basic authentication (default); if set to false
, use Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) authenticationauth.env
- stores the Malcolm administrator’s username and password hash for its nginx reverse proxybeats-common.env
- settings for interactions between Logstash and Filebeat
BEATS_SSL
– if set to true
, Logstash will use require encrypted communications for any external Beats-based forwarders from which it will accept logs (default true
)LOGSTASH_HOST
– the host and port at which Beats-based forwarders will connect to Logstash (default logstash:5044
); see MALCOLM_PROFILE
belowdashboards.env
and dashboards-helper.env
- settings for the containers that configure and maintain OpenSearch and OpenSearch Dashboards
DASHBOARDS_URL
- used primarily when OPENSEARCH_PRIMARY
is set to elasticsearch-remote
(see OpenSearch and Elasticsearch instances), this variable stores the URL for the Kibana instance into which Malcolm’s dashboard’s and index templates will be importedDASHBOARDS_DARKMODE
– if set to true
, OpenSearch Dashboards will be set to dark mode upon initialization (default true
)filebeat.env
- settings specific to Filebeat, particularly for how Filebeat watches for new log files to parse and how it receives and stores third-Party logslogstash.env
- settings specific to Logstash
LOGSTASH_OUI_LOOKUP
– if set to true
, Logstash will map MAC addresses to vendors for all source and destination MAC addresses when analyzing Zeek logs (default true
)LOGSTASH_REVERSE_DNS
– if set to true
, Logstash will perform a reverse DNS lookup for all external source and destination IP address values when analyzing Zeek logs (default false
)LOGSTASH_SEVERITY_SCORING
- if set to true
, Logstash will perform severity scoring when analyzing Zeek logs (default true
)LOGSTASH_NETBOX_ENRICHMENT
- if set to true
, Logstash will enrich network traffic metadata via NetBox API callsLOGSTASH_NETBOX_AUTO_POPULATE
- if set to true
, Logstash will populate the NetBox inventory based on observed network trafficLS_JAVA_OPTS
- part of LogStash’s JVM settings, the -Xms
and -Xmx
values set the size of LogStash’s Java heap (we recommend somewhere between 1500m
and 4g
)pipeline.workers
, pipeline.batch.size
and pipeline.batch.delay
- these settings are used to tune the performance and resource utilization of the the logstash
container; see Tuning and Profiling Logstash Performance, logstash.yml
and Multiple Pipelineslookup-common.env
- settings for enrichment lookups, including those used for customizing event severity scoring
CONNECTION_SECONDS_SEVERITY_THRESHOLD
- when severity scoring is enabled, this variable indicates the duration threshold (in seconds) for assigning severity to long connections (default 3600
)FREQ_LOOKUP
- if set to true
, domain names (from DNS queries and SSL server names) will be assigned entropy scores as calculated by freq
(default false
)FREQ_SEVERITY_THRESHOLD
- when severity scoring is enabled, this variable indicates the entropy threshold for assigning severity to events with entropy scores calculated by freq
; a lower value will only assign severity scores to fewer domain names with higher entropy (e.g., 2.0
for NQZHTFHRMYMTVBQJE.COM
), while a higher value will assign severity scores to more domain names with lower entropy (e.g., 7.5
for naturallanguagedomain.example.org
) (default 2.0
)SENSITIVE_COUNTRY_CODES
- when severity scoring is enabled, this variable defines a comma-separated list of sensitive countries (using ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes) (default 'AM,AZ,BY,CN,CU,DZ,GE,HK,IL,IN,IQ,IR,KG,KP,KZ,LY,MD,MO, PK,RU,SD,SS,SY,TJ,TM,TW,UA,UZ'
, taken from the U.S. Department of Energy Sensitive Country List)TOTAL_MEGABYTES_SEVERITY_THRESHOLD
- when severity scoring is enabled, this variable indicates the size threshold (in megabytes) for assigning severity to large connections or file transfers (default 1000
)netbox-common.env
, netbox.env
, netbox-secret.env
, netbox-postgres.env
, netbox-redis-cache.env
and netbox-redis.env
- settings related to NetBox and Asset Interaction Analysis
NETBOX_DISABLED
- if set to true
, Malcolm will not start and manage a NetBox instance (default true
)nginx.env
- settings specific to Malcolm’s nginx reverse proxy
NGINX_LOG_ACCESS_AND_ERRORS
- if set to true
, all access to Malcolm via its web interfaces will be logged to OpenSearch (default false
)NGINX_SSL
- if set to true
, require HTTPS connections to Malcolm’s nginx-proxy
container (default); if set to false
, use unencrypted HTTP connections (using unsecured HTTP connections is NOT recommended unless you are running Malcolm behind another reverse proxy such as Traefik, Caddy, etc.)opensearch.env
- settings specific to OpenSearch
OPENSEARCH_JAVA_OPTS
- one of OpenSearch’s most important settings, the -Xms
and -Xmx
values set the size of OpenSearch’s Java heap (we recommend setting this value to half of system RAM, up to 32 gigabytes)OPENSEARCH_PRIMARY
- one of opensearch-local
, opensearch-remote
, or elasticsearch-remote
, to determine the OpenSearch or Elasticsearch instance Malcolm will use (default opensearch-local
)OPENSEARCH_URL
- when using Malcolm’s internal OpenSearch instance (i.e., OPENSEARCH_PRIMARY
is opensearch-local
) this should be http://opensearch:9200
, otherwise this value specifies the primary remote instance URL in the format protocol://host:port
(default http://opensearch:9200
)OPENSEARCH_SSL_CERTIFICATE_VERIFICATION
- if set to true
, connections to the primary remote OpenSearch instance will require full TLS certificate validation (this may fail if using self-signed certificates) (default false
)OPENSEARCH_SECONDARY
- one of opensearch-local
, opensearch-remote
, elasticsearch-remote
, or blank (unset) to indicate that Malcolm should forward logs to a secondary remote OpenSearch instance in addition to the primary OpenSearch instance (default is unset)OPENSEARCH_SECONDARY_URL
- when forwarding to a secondary remote OpenSearch instance (i.e., OPENSEARCH_SECONDARY
is set) this value specifies the secondary remote instance URL in the format protocol://host:port
OPENSEARCH_SECONDARY_SSL_CERTIFICATE_VERIFICATION
- if set to true
, connections to the secondary remote OpenSearch instance will require full TLS certificate validation (this may fail if using self-signed certificates) (default false
)pcap-capture.env
- settings specific to capturing traffic for live traffic analysis
PCAP_ENABLE_NETSNIFF
– if set to true
, Malcolm will capture network traffic on the local network interface(s) indicated in PCAP_IFACE
using netsniff-ngPCAP_ENABLE_TCPDUMP
– if set to true
, Malcolm will capture network traffic on the local network interface(s) indicated in PCAP_IFACE
using tcpdump; there is no reason to enable both PCAP_ENABLE_NETSNIFF
and PCAP_ENABLE_TCPDUMP
PCAP_FILTER
– specifies a tcpdump-style filter expression for local packet capture; leave blank to capture all trafficPCAP_IFACE
– used to specify the network interface(s) for local packet capture if PCAP_ENABLE_NETSNIFF
, PCAP_ENABLE_TCPDUMP
, ZEEK_LIVE_CAPTURE
or SURICATA_LIVE_CAPTURE
are enabled; for multiple interfaces, separate the interface names with a comma (e.g., 'enp0s25'
or 'enp10s0,enp11s0'
)PCAP_IFACE_TWEAK
- if set to true
, Malcolm will use ethtool
to disable NIC hardware offloading features and adjust ring buffer sizes for capture interface(s); this should be true
if the interface(s) are being used for capture only, false
if they are being used for management/communicationPCAP_ROTATE_MEGABYTES
– used to specify how large a locally captured PCAP file can become (in megabytes) before it is closed for processing and a new PCAP file createdPCAP_ROTATE_MINUTES
– used to specify a time interval (in minutes) after which a locally-captured PCAP file will be closed for processing and a new PCAP file createdprocess.env
- settings for how the processes running inside Malcolm containers are executed
PUID
and PGID
- Docker runs all its containers as the privileged root
user by default. For better security, Malcolm immediately drops to non-privileged user accounts for executing internal processes wherever possible. The PUID
(process user ID) and PGID
(process group ID) environment variables allow Malcolm to map internal non-privileged user accounts to a corresponding user account on the host. Note a few (including the logstash
and netbox
containers) may take a few extra minutes during startup if PUID
and PGID
are set to values other than the default 1000
. This is expected and should not affect operation after the initial startup.MALCOLM_PROFILE
- Specifies the profile which determines the Malcolm containers to run (malcolm
to run all containers, hedgehog
to run only capture-related containers)ssl.env
- TLS-related settings used by many containerssuricata.env
, suricata-live.env
and suricata-offline.env
- settings for Suricata
SURICATA_AUTO_ANALYZE_PCAP_FILES
– if set to true
, all PCAP files imported into Malcolm will automatically be analyzed by Suricata, and the resulting logs will also be imported (default false
)SURICATA_AUTO_ANALYZE_PCAP_THREADS
– the number of threads available to Malcolm for analyzing Suricata logs (default 1
)SURICATA_CUSTOM_RULES_ONLY
– if set to true
, Malcolm will bypass the default Suricata ruleset and use only user-defined rules (./suricata/rules/*.rules
).SURICATA_UPDATE_RULES
– if set to true
, Suricata signatures will periodically be updated (default false
)SURICATA_LIVE_CAPTURE
- if set to true
, Suricata will monitor live traffic on the local interface(s) defined by PCAP_FILTER
SURICATA_ROTATED_PCAP
- if set to true
, Suricata can analyze PCAP files captured by netsniff-ng
or tcpdump
(see PCAP_ENABLE_NETSNIFF
and PCAP_ENABLE_TCPDUMP
, as well as SURICATA_AUTO_ANALYZE_PCAP_FILES
); if SURICATA_LIVE_CAPTURE
is true
, this should be false
; otherwise Suricata will see duplicate trafficSURICATA_…
- the suricata
container entrypoint script can use many more environment variables to tweak suricata.yaml; in that script, DEFAULT_VARS
defines those variables (albeit without the SURICATA_
prefix you must add to each for use) Note that for some variables (e.g., something with a sequence like HOME_NET
) Suricata wants values to be quoted. To accomplish that in the suricata.env
file, use outer single quotes with inner double quotes, like this:
SURICATA_HOME_NET='"[192.168.0.0/16,10.0.0.0/8,172.16.0.0/12]"'
upload-common.env
- settings for dealing with PCAP files uploaded to Malcolm for analysis
AUTO_TAG
– if set to true
, Malcolm will automatically create Arkime sessions and Zeek logs with tags based on the filename, as described in Tagging (default true
)PCAP_NODE_NAME
- specifies the node name to associate with network traffic metadataPCAP_NODE_HOST
- specifies the node host or IP address to associate with network traffic metadata (optional, defaults to the value of PCAP_NODE_NAME
; generally this value does not need to be specified)zeek.env
, zeek-secret.env
, zeek-live.env
and zeek-offline.env
- settings for Zeek and for scanning extracted files Zeek observes in network traffic
EXTRACTED_FILE_CAPA_VERBOSE
– if set to true
, all Capa rule hits will be logged; otherwise (false
) only MITRE ATT&CK® technique classifications will be loggedEXTRACTED_FILE_ENABLE_CAPA
– if set to true
, Zeek-extracted files determined to be PE (portable executable) files will be scanned with CapaEXTRACTED_FILE_ENABLE_CLAMAV
– if set to true
, Zeek-extracted files will be scanned with ClamAVEXTRACTED_FILE_ENABLE_YARA
– if set to true
, Zeek-extracted files will be scanned with YaraEXTRACTED_FILE_HTTP_SERVER_ENABLE
– if set to true
, the directory containing Zeek-extracted files will be served over HTTP at ./extracted-files/
(e.g., https://localhost/extracted-files/ if connecting locally)EXTRACTED_FILE_HTTP_SERVER_ENCRYPT
– if to true
, the Zeek-extracted files will be AES-256-CBC-encrypted in an openssl enc
-compatible format (e.g., openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -d -in example.exe.encrypted -out example.exe
)EXTRACTED_FILE_HTTP_SERVER_KEY
– specifies the AES-256-CBC decryption password for encrypted Zeek-extracted files; used in conjunction with EXTRACTED_FILE_HTTP_SERVER_ENCRYPT
EXTRACTED_FILE_IGNORE_EXISTING
– if set to true
, files extant in ./zeek-logs/extract_files/
directory will be ignored on startup rather than scannedEXTRACTED_FILE_PRESERVATION
– determines behavior for preservation of Zeek-extracted filesEXTRACTED_FILE_UPDATE_RULES
– if set to true
, file scanner engines (e.g., ClamAV, Capa, Yara) will periodically update their rule definitions (default false
)EXTRACTED_FILE_YARA_CUSTOM_ONLY
– if set to true
, Malcolm will bypass the default Yara rulesets (Neo23x0/signature-base and bartblaze/Yara-rules) and use only user-defined rules in ./yara/rules
VTOT_API2_KEY
– used to specify a VirusTotal Public API v.20 key, which, if specified, will be used to submit hashes of Zeek-extracted files to VirusTotalZEEK_AUTO_ANALYZE_PCAP_FILES
– if set to true
, all PCAP files imported into Malcolm will automatically be analyzed by Zeek, and the resulting logs will also be imported (default false
)ZEEK_AUTO_ANALYZE_PCAP_THREADS
– the number of threads available to Malcolm for analyzing Zeek logs (default 1
)ZEEK_DISABLE_…
- if set to any non-blank value, each of these variables can be used to disable a certain Zeek function when it analyzes PCAP files (for example, setting ZEEK_DISABLE_LOG_PASSWORDS
to true
to disable logging of cleartext passwords)ZEEK_…_PORTS
- used to specify non-default ports to register certain Zeek analyzers (e.g., ZEEK_SYNCHROPHASOR_PORTS
for the ICSNPP-Synchrophasor analyzer, ZEEK_GENISYS_PORTS
for the ICSNPP-Genisys analyzer, and ZEEK_ENIP_PORTS
for the ICSNPP-Ethernet/IP analyzer) formatted as a comma-separated list of Zeek ports (e.g., 12345/tcp
or 4041/tcp,4042/udp
)ZEEK_DISABLE_ICS_ALL
and ZEEK_DISABLE_ICS_…
- if set to any non-blank value, these variables can be used to disable Zeek’s protocol analyzers for Operational Technology/Industrial Control Systems (OT/ICS) protocolsZEEK_DISABLE_BEST_GUESS_ICS
- see “Best Guess” Fingerprinting for ICS ProtocolsZEEK_EXTRACTOR_MODE
– determines the file extraction behavior for file transfers detected by Zeek; see Automatic file extraction and scanning for more detailsZEEK_INTEL_FEED_SINCE
- when querying a TAXII or MISP feed, only process threat indicators created or modified since the time represented by this value; it may be either a fixed date/time (01/01/2021
) or relative interval (30 days ago
)ZEEK_INTEL_ITEM_EXPIRATION
- specifies the value for Zeek’s Intel::item_expiration
timeout as used by the Zeek Intelligence Framework (default -1min
, which disables item expiration)ZEEK_INTEL_REFRESH_CRON_EXPRESSION
- specifies a cron expression indicating the refresh interval for generating the Zeek Intelligence Framework files (defaults to empty, which disables automatic refresh)ZEEK_LIVE_CAPTURE
- if set to true
, Zeek will monitor live traffic on the local interface(s) defined by PCAP_FILTER
ZEEK_ROTATED_PCAP
- if set to true
, Zeek can analyze captured PCAP files captured by netsniff-ng
or tcpdump
(see PCAP_ENABLE_NETSNIFF
and PCAP_ENABLE_TCPDUMP
, as well as ZEEK_AUTO_ANALYZE_PCAP_FILES
); if ZEEK_LIVE_CAPTURE
is true
, this should be false
; otherwise Zeek will see duplicate trafficThe ./scripts/configure
script can also be run noninteractively which can be useful for scripting Malcolm setup. This behavior can be selected by supplying the -d
or --defaults
option on the command line. Running with the --help
option will list the arguments accepted by the script:
$ ./scripts/configure --help
usage: configure <arguments>
Malcolm install script
options:
-v [true|false], --verbose [true|false]
Verbose output
-d [true|false], --defaults [true|false]
Accept defaults to prompts without user interaction
-c [true|false], --configure [true|false]
Only do configuration (not installation)
…
Note that the value for any argument not specified on the command line will be reset to its default (as if for a new Malcolm installation) regardless of the setting’s current value in the corresponding .env
file. In other words, users who want to use the --defaults
option should carefully review all available command-line options and choose all that apply.
Similarly, authentication-related settings can also be set noninteractively by using the command-line arguments for ./scripts/auth_setup
.