Snort vs. Metasploit vs. Security Onion

If a colleague was looking to tighten down their network I can easily recommend Snort to them. It gives you some more peace of mind knowing that its always scanning traffic for malicious looking code. Even things your major firewalls and security hardware might miss, Snort has picked up. Its an easy recommendation for me.

Incentivized

It is easy to use with sufficient documentation on how to use the tools for end users or newbies. Experienced testers will find it easy to customise and configure the test cases. Just wished that I could have taken up a course on using this tool in my study days so that I could had explored more and improved my familiarity with the tool, unlike when working where access and time to explore the other features of the tool is limited

Incentivized

Security Onion works well for setting up within a Linux environment. This brings a new platform to run and maintain though. The application its self has helped to keep track of logs and vulnerabilities in the environment. Alert triage and case creation is simple to start and follow through to the end.

• IPS detection.
• DoS detection.
• Packet logging.

Incentivized

• Easy to use.
• Many exploits available.
• Multi-platform.

Incentivized

• GUI
• Support
• Easy of use

• At times can be unstable with Cisco bugs, require frequent upgrading.
• FTD images that are being pushed for ASAs are less efficient from an administration standpoint, no CLI.

Incentivized

• More robust menus
• Better plugin inter-operation

Incentivized

• Requires Linux
• Training

We don't use it.

Incentivized

For our organization, the Cisco defense in depth concept works the best. While Cisco can be made to work with other vendors, we have found the best in depth protection by integrating Cisco products for maximum visibility. We had a Barracuda Web Filter, but it was difficult to maintain when you had limited scope on what you could block, so we created a whitelist only setup which required a lot of additional manpower. This wouldn't have covered new threats with DNS spoofing and the like. Sourcefire also integrated with our anti-malware platform (Cisco AMP) for even better visibility on what may be happening on the end users workstation. We are planning on adding in Cisco ISE to complete the approach and possibly stealthwatch to cover our bases in the future. The Palo Alto gear was interesting, but it was priced far out of our range.

Incentivized

Metasploit is the most well-known tool in the average pen tester's toolkit. It's hard to compare to its neighbor's due to its size and following.

Incentivized

Other vendors may have a more robust solution but for our needs, Security Onion was the one to move forward with. We have tested some of the others but the cost of those platforms makes the ROI not as desirable. There is a learning curve with Security Onion but it is worth it for the value provided.

• Being open source, ROI on free is hard to beat for something that works.
• I believe it greatly enhances the security of my network.

• Positive: Improves efficiency of our network penetration testing operations.
• Positive: Allows for collaboration and information sharing during a penetration test.

Incentivized

• Makes Alert Triage easier to handle
• Analysis of threats simple