Snort offloader: a reconfigurable hardware NIDS filter

Abstract

Software-based network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) often fail to keep up with high-speed network links. In this paper an FPGA-based pre-filter is presented that reduces the amount of traffic sent to a software-based NIDS for inspection. Simulations using real network traces and the Snort rule set show that a pre-filter can reduce up to 90% of network traffic that would have otherwise been processed by Snort software. The projected performance enables a computer to perform real-time intrusion detection of malicious content passing over a 10 Gbps network using FPGA hardware that operates with 10 Gbps of throughput and software that needs only to operate with 1 Gbps of throughput.