McAfee IDS
McAfee IPS/IDS, or McAfee Network Security Platform, McAfee monitors your network for intrusions and malicious activity.
Before You Begin
McAfee IDS will produce two types of logs: firewall events and IPS events. You must configure McAfee to send only its IPS events to InsightIDR as syslog.
To configure IPS events as syslog:
- Enable syslog on the appliance to forward IPS events and alerts. Learn how to do so here: https://docs.mcafee.com/bundle/network-security-platform-9.2.x-product-guide/page/GUID-E4A687B0-FAFB-4170-AC94-1D968A10380F.html
- Add a syslog server profile. Learn how to do so here: https://docs.mcafee.com/bundle/network-security-platform-9.2.x-product-guide/page/GUID-8C7F8174-1BFB-4455-B5DD-87921253C4B8.html
- Edit the syslog message to be in an acceptable format for InsightIDR. Learn how to do so here: https://docs.mcafee.com/bundle/network-security-platform-9.2.x-product-guide/page/GUID-496EC0F4-BE90-4401-A218-88FD9B72D040.html

The original IPS format looks like this:
1<162>Nov 9 13:01:03 SyslogAlertForwarder: FOW-DMZ-IPS1 detected Outbound attack SNMP: Microsoft V2 Bulk Request ValueList Overflow (severity = High). 10.251.33.35:N/A -> 192.168.83.1:N/A (result = Smart Blocked)
- Change the IPS format to look like the following:
1$IV_SENSOR_NAME$ detected $IV_DIRECTION$ attack $IV_ATTACK_NAME$ attack_id $IV_ATTACK_ID$ (severity = $IV_ATTACK_SEVERITY$). $IV_SOURCE_IP$:$IV_SOURCE_PORT$ -> $IV_DESTINATION_IP$:$IV_DESTINATION_PORT$ (result = $IV_RESULT_STATUS$)
- Click Save to finalize the customization of your syslog message.
How to Configure This Event Source in InsightIDR
- From your dashboard, select Data Collection on the left hand menu.
- When the Data Collection page appears, click the Setup Event Source dropdown and choose Add Event Source.
- From the “Security Data” section, click the IDS icon. The “Add Event Source” panel appears.
- Choose your collector and event source. You can also name your event source if you want.
- Choose the timezone that matches the location of your event source logs.
- Optionally choose to send unparsed logs.
- Select Listen on Network Port and specify a port and protocol. The default port is 514.
- Optionally choose to Encrypt the event source if choosing TCP by downloading the Rapid7 Certificate.
- Click Save.
Did this page help you?