Snort mailing list archives

Re: Depth vs. offset in rules


From: "Joel Esler (jesler)" <jesler () cisco com>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2015 16:54:42 +0000

Offset tells Snort how far into the data portion of the packet to start the search.


Depth tells Snort how far from the offset to stop searching.  (Offset being one specified, or in case one is not 
specified, from the beginning of the packet payload)


--
Joel Esler
Open Source Manager
Threat Intelligence Team Lead
Talos Group


On Mar 3, 2015, at 11:39 AM, Research <research () nativemethods com<mailto:research () nativemethods com>> wrote:

Hi,

In reading chapter 3 of the Snort 2.9.7.0 manual, I have a clarification question for the use of “depth” vs. “offset”.

Depth appears to specify where to start a content match in the packet payload, so if I understand correctly:

depth:5;

…would mean begin content matching 5 bytes into the packet payload.

When compared to offset, does that mean offset relative to the depth ?  So:

depth:5; offset:10; …

…means start at byte 5 in the packet payload and an offset from the depth as a starting location of another 10 bytes ?  
I am thinking that is correct because I note that offset can have negative values and a negative starting point for a 
packet payload would not make sense, but as an offset it would.

Thanks
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dive into the World of Parallel Programming The Go Parallel Website, sponsored
by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your hub for all
things parallel software development, from weekly thought leadership blogs to
news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a look and join the
conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net/
_______________________________________________
Snort-users mailing list
Snort-users () lists sourceforge net<mailto:Snort-users () lists sourceforge net>
Go to this URL to change user options or unsubscribe:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/snort-users
Snort-users list archive:
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=snort-users

Please visit http://blog.snort.org to stay current on all the latest Snort news!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dive into the World of Parallel Programming The Go Parallel Website, sponsored
by Intel and developed in partnership with Slashdot Media, is your hub for all
things parallel software development, from weekly thought leadership blogs to
news, videos, case studies, tutorials and more. Take a look and join the 
conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net/
_______________________________________________
Snort-users mailing list
Snort-users () lists sourceforge net
Go to this URL to change user options or unsubscribe:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/snort-users
Snort-users list archive:
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=snort-users

Please visit http://blog.snort.org to stay current on all the latest Snort news!

Current thread: