3 ms·

how are people performing intrusion detection on home iot devices?

andrewnicolalde 5y ago
I currently rely pretty much exclusively on my Unifi gateway’s not-great IPS/IDS system, which allegedly receives updated threat intelligence feeds periodically. Outside of actual intrusion detection, I prevent my IoT devices (which are located in their own VLAN) from contacting the internet wherever possible, and entirely block any inter-VLAN traffic other than responses to connections initiated from devices residing on a “trusted clients network”, which hosts my phone, laptop etc.
- nanidin 5y ago
  > their own VLAN) from contacting the internet wherever possible, and entirely block any inter-VLAN traffic other than responses to connections initiated from devices residing on a “trusted clients network”, which hosts my phone, laptop etc. I am interested in this kind of setup but lack relevant experience. Is this stuff you set up in the stock Unifi admin pages?
  - n0on3 5y ago
    many sort-of-recent home network equipment support this stuff or equivalent (i.e., multiple networks) just as a configuration from their admin UI. You don't really need relevant experience to set this up, just very basic networking knowledge and will to occasionally shake your head at the web-based-admin-user-experience of the box.
  - andrewnicolalde 5y ago
    Rest assured it is not that difficult :). Correct, I've configured several firewall rules on the UniFi web UI, since I have a UniFi router/firewall (in my case a USG). If you'd like some help, feel free to reach out to me on keybase! I'm andrewnicolalde on there.
teitoklien 5y ago
If you’re running your custom homebuilt router, you can use IDS systems like snort[0] or suricata[1] It’s pretty fun to setup !, you can take any old desktop/laptop at your home and make them into your own custom router by running a linux or bsd instance on it. If you go this route, I would recommend suricata ids as you can setup more complex and sophisticated system easily, compared to snort. [0](https://www.snort.org/ https://www.snort.org/) [1](https://suricata.io/ https://suricata.io/)
- tonymet 5y ago
  Thanks this is a great idea. One compromise would be to add an extra hop (like a raspberry pi ) to the IOT vlan, and install snort there. That way I could retain my primary router (currently Ubnt ERX). Great tip!
  - teitoklien 5y ago
    Yush, that works great too :D, Happy tinkering ^^ and merry christmas
  - Elora 5y ago
    Are you running stock firmware on the ERX and are you happy with it? Looking into potentially setting one up as well, any resources you could recommend for making best use of one?
    - tonymet 5y ago
      Yep I use the stock /latest 2.x firmware. It includes a wizard to set up the lans, nat and firewall . I recommend the 2 vlan setup and disable switch0 for the best performance . It's a step up from consumer routers with more powerful firewall, qos, and configuration . Ubiquitis docs are great https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002531728-EdgeRouter-Beginners-Guide-to-EdgeRouter https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002531728-EdgeRoute...
      - Elora 5y ago

I currently rely pretty much exclusively on my Unifi gateway’s not-great IPS/IDS system, which allegedly receives updated threat intelligence feeds periodically. Outside of actual intrusion detection, I prevent my IoT devices (which are located in their own VLAN) from contacting the internet wherever possible, and entirely block any inter-VLAN traffic other than responses to connections initiated from devices residing on a “trusted clients network”, which hosts my phone, laptop etc.

nanidin 5y ago
> their own VLAN) from contacting the internet wherever possible, and entirely block any inter-VLAN traffic other than responses to connections initiated from devices residing on a “trusted clients network”, which hosts my phone, laptop etc. I am interested in this kind of setup but lack relevant experience. Is this stuff you set up in the stock Unifi admin pages?
- n0on3 5y ago
  many sort-of-recent home network equipment support this stuff or equivalent (i.e., multiple networks) just as a configuration from their admin UI. You don't really need relevant experience to set this up, just very basic networking knowledge and will to occasionally shake your head at the web-based-admin-user-experience of the box.
- andrewnicolalde 5y ago
  Rest assured it is not that difficult :). Correct, I've configured several firewall rules on the UniFi web UI, since I have a UniFi router/firewall (in my case a USG). If you'd like some help, feel free to reach out to me on keybase! I'm andrewnicolalde on there.

teitoklien 5y ago

If you’re running your custom homebuilt router, you can use IDS systems like snort[0] or suricata[1] It’s pretty fun to setup !, you can take any old desktop/laptop at your home and make them into your own custom router by running a linux or bsd instance on it. If you go this route, I would recommend suricata ids as you can setup more complex and sophisticated system easily, compared to snort. [0](https://www.snort.org/ https://www.snort.org/) [1](https://suricata.io/ https://suricata.io/)

tonymet 5y ago
Thanks this is a great idea. One compromise would be to add an extra hop (like a raspberry pi ) to the IOT vlan, and install snort there. That way I could retain my primary router (currently Ubnt ERX). Great tip!
- teitoklien 5y ago
  Yush, that works great too :D, Happy tinkering ^^ and merry christmas
- Elora 5y ago
  Are you running stock firmware on the ERX and are you happy with it? Looking into potentially setting one up as well, any resources you could recommend for making best use of one?
  - tonymet 5y ago
    Yep I use the stock /latest 2.x firmware. It includes a wizard to set up the lans, nat and firewall . I recommend the 2 vlan setup and disable switch0 for the best performance . It's a step up from consumer routers with more powerful firewall, qos, and configuration . Ubiquitis docs are great https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002531728-EdgeRouter-Beginners-Guide-to-EdgeRouter https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002531728-EdgeRoute...
    - Elora 5y ago