Suricata Docker Image

Usage

You will most likely want to run Suricata on a network interface on your host machine rather than the network interfaces normally provided inside a container:

docker run --rm -it --net=host \
    --cap-add=net_admin --cap-add=sys_nice \
    jasonish/suricata:latest -i <interface>

But you will probably want to see what Suricata logs, so you may want to start it like:

docker run --rm -it --net=host \
    --cap-add=net_admin --cap-add=sys_nice \
    -v $(pwd)/logs:/var/log/suricata \
	jasonish/suricata:latest -i <interface>

which will map the logs directory (in your current directory) to the Suricata log directory in the container so you can view the Suricata logs from outside the container.

Capabilities

This container will attempt to run Suricata as a non-root user provided the containers has the capabilities to do so. In order to monitor a network interface, and drop root privileges the container must have the sys_nice and net_admin capabilities. If the container detects that it does not have these capabilities, Suricata will be run as root.

Docker example:

docker run --rm -it --net=host \
    --cap-add=net_admin --cap-add=sys_nice \
    jasonish/suricata:latest -i eth0

Podman example:

sudo podman run --rm -it --net=host \
    --cap-add=net_admin --cap-add=sys_nice \
    jasonish/suricata:latest -i eth0

Docker Tags (Suricata Versions)

• master: The latest code from the git master branch.
• latest: The latest release version.
• 5.0: The latest 5.0 patch release.
• 4.1: The latest 4.1 patch release.

Specific version tags also exist for versions 4.1.5 and newer.

Examples:

docker pull jasonish/suricata:latest
docker pull jasonish/suricata:4.1
docker pull jasonish/suricata:5.0.0

The images are rebuilt and pushed to Docker Hub daily to ensure they are using the most up to date packages of the base OS, and in the case of the master tag, to use the latest Suricata code for the git master branch.

Logging

The directory /var/log/suricata is exposed as a volume. Another container can attach it by using the --volumes-from Docker option. For example:

• Start the Suricata container with a name:

    docker run -it --net=host --name=suricata jasonish/suricata -i enp3s0
  

• Start a second container with --volumes-from:

    docker run -it --net=host --volumes-from=suricata logstash /bin/bash
  

This will expose /var/log/suricata from the Suricata container as /var/log/suricata in the Logstash container.

Volumes

The Suricata container exposes the following volumes:

• /var/log/suricata - The Suricata log directory.
• /var/lib/suricata - Rules, Suricata-Update cache and other runtime data that may be useful to retain between runs.
• /etc/suricata - The configuration directory.

Note: If /etc/suricata is a volume, it will be populated with a default configuration from the container.

If doing bind mounts you may want to have the Suricata user within the container match the UID and GID of a user on the host system. This can be done by setting the PUID and PGID environment variables. For example:

docker run -e PUID=$(id -u) -e PGID=$(id-u)

which will result in the bind mounts being owned by the user starting the Docker container.

Configuration

The easiest way to provide Suricata a custom configuration is to use a host bind mount for the configuration directory, /etc/suricata. It will be populated on the first run of the container. For example:

mkdir ./etc
docker run --rm -it -v $(pwd)/etc:/etc/suricata jasonish/suricata:latest -V

When the container exits, ./etc will be populated with the default configuration files normally found in /etc/suricata.

Note: The files created in this directory will likely not be owned by the same uid as your host user, so you may need to use sudo to edit this files, or change their permissions.

Hopefully this can be fixed.

In this directory the Suricata configuration can be modified, and Suricata-Update files may be placed. It just needs to be provided as a volume in subsequent runs of Suricata. For example:

docker run --rm -it --net=host \
    -v $(pwd)/etc:/etc/suricata \
    --cap-add=net_admin --cap-add=sys_nice \
    jasonish/suricata:latest -i eth0

Environment Variables

SURICATA_OPTIONS

The SURICATA_OPTIONS environment variable can be used to pass command line options to Suricata. For example:

docker run --net=host -e SURICATA_OPTIONS="-i eno1 -vvv" jasonish/suricata:latest

Suricata-Update

The easiest way to run Suricata-Update is to run it while the container is running. For example:

In one terminal, start Suricata:

docker run --name=suricata --rm -it --net=host \
    --cap-add=net_admin --cap-add=sys_nice \
    jasonish/suricata:latest -i eth0

Then in another terminal:

docker exec -it --user suricata suricata suricata-update -f

The will execute suricata-update in the same container that is running Suricata (note --name=suricata), then signal Suricata to reload its rules with suricatasc -c reload-rules.

Tools

./wrapper.py

wrapper.py is a script that wraps Suricata-in-Docker for use on the command line as if it was installed locally.

wrapper.py has its own arguments that can be seen by running wrapper.py -h. Arguments that occur after -- are Suricata arguments and are passed directly to Suricata (most of the time). The Suricata arguments are preprocessed to setup any required volumes to provide the appearance that Suricata is running directly.

Example: Run Suricata on a pcap file

./wrapper.py -- -r /path/to/filename.pcap

Example: Run Suricata 5.0.4 on network interface and log to current directory

./wrapper.py --tag 5.0.4 -- -i eno1 -l .

Note that this tool is a work in process and may change, including a change of name.