Proof of concept and implementation
To demonstrate the key components and capabilities of NAC solutions, We implemented a Proof-of-Concept plateform in Lab, using PacketFence [8] a Free and Open Source network access control (NAC) solution with a features set including a captive-portal for registration and remediation, centralized wired and wireless management, 802.1X support, layer-2 isolation of problematic devices, and integration with the Snort IDS [9] and the Nessus vulnerability scanner [10].
As an introduction to this implementation phase find below a brief Snort technology description:
Snort is an open source IDS (Intrusion detection system) written by Martin Roesch; Like Tcpdump, Snort uses the libpcap library to capture packets, Snort can be runned in 4 modes:
1) Sniffer mode: snort will read the network traffic and print them to the screen.
2) Packet logger mode: snort will record the network traffic on a file.
3) IDS mode: network traffic matching security rules will be recorded (mode used in our tutorial).
4) IPS mode: also known as snortinline (IPS = Intrusion prevention system).