Hosts¶
Hosts is a dropdown menu always reachable from the top toolbar that contains a bunch of links to host- related information pages. The dropdown is as follows:
The Hosts Dropdown Menu
Host-related information pages available have the following content
- Hosts page shows all hosts seen
- Networks page lists all networks — both local and remote — any seen host belongs to
- Host Pools page has the list of the defined Host Pools
- Autonomous Systems page presents all Autonomous Systems (AS) any seen host belongs to
- Countries page shows hosts countries based on the information provided by MaxMind databases
- Operating Systems page lists all host operating systems that have been detected. Detection is done using passive fingerprinting techniques
- HTTP Servers (Local) page shows monitored HTTP servers, limited to local hosts only
- Server Ports Analysis page shows Local Hosts filtered by selected protocol and port.
Hosts¶
All hosts that have been seen monitoring network interfaces are show here. Column headers can be clicked to sort results in descending (ascending) order of the clicked header (Additional sort options, if available, can be found in the top right corner of the table).
The All Hosts Page
Any host can be clicked to be redirected to its page, which is discussed below.
There are two kinds of Hosts page, Active and Inactive.
Inactive Hosts¶
The Inactive Hosts Page
Here instead, only the currently inactive local hosts can be found.
The table shown has several columns, including:
- IP address, clicking here jumps to the inactive host details page
- MAC address, with the possibility to jump directly to the MAC address if it’s active on the network
- Network, with the possibility to jump to the network info if available
- First seen, with the amount of time it has lapsed since the first packet sent/received by the host has been observed
- Last seen, with the amount of time it has lapsed since the last packet sent/received by the host has been observed
- Name, having the resolved hostname (or a custom name, if set in any Host Details page)
By clicking on the ip address here the user is going to be redirected to a page similare to the Host Details Home page but with just the most important informations.
Inactive Host Details¶
The host details pages provides just the most important information for an host, like the MAC address, IP address, Manufacturer, ecc.
The Home View of the Host Details Page
Active Hosts¶
The Active Hosts Page
Here all currently active hosts can be found, both local and remote.
The table shown has several columns, including
- IP address, with optional country flag and OS logo (if detected)
- Location, either Local (the host belongs to a local network) or Remote (the host belongs to a remote network) — please note that this is not a geographical location
- Alerts, with the number of alerts associated to the host
- Name, having the resolved hostname (or a custom name, if set in any Host Details page)
- Seen Since, with the amount of time it has lapsed since the first packet sent/received by the host has been observed
- ASN, with the AS number (if available)
- Breakdown, showing a bar that gives visual insights in the use of both traffic directions
- Throughput, with the overall actual throughput of the host
- Traffic, with the total traffic exchanged by the host
Host Details¶
The host details pages provide many insights on the information collected for an host.
The navigation bar entries are discussed below. Since the entries are contextual, some of them may be hidden.
Home¶
Home is the default view of the Host Details page and provides detailed information including host MAC Address (or the last router MAC address if the host is remote), IP Address (with network mask if detected), a toggle to activate/deactivate alerts for the host, a checkbox to enable packet dump for the specific host, symbolic hostname (or IP address), location (local or remote), date and time of first and last packet seen for the host, traffic breakdown, amount of traffic packets received/sent, number of flows as client/server host. All of this information is also available in JSON format by clicking on the ‘Download’ link. The heat map provides the Activity Map for each host. Each box represents one minute of traffic. By default, Activity Map shows the last six hours, but it is possible to set a different timeframe using the controls.
The Home View of the Host Details Page
Traffic¶
The Traffic Page provides Layer-4 protocol statistics for the host. A pie chart showing L-4 protocol breakdown is show at the top of page. A table with detailed statistics is shown below the chart.
The Traffic View of the Host Details Page
Packets¶
Packets page provides pie charts with packet size distribution, both for sent and received packets.
The Packets View of the Host Details
Ports¶
Ports page provides pie charts with traffic statistics grouped by port. A chart is available for client ports and another one is available for server ports.
The Ports View of the Host Details Page
Peers¶
Peers page presents a graphical overview of top contacted peers and top protocols used. In the following screenshot some hosts are struck-through intentionally for privacy reasons. A table with top application per peer is shown below the graphical overview. Every information is clickable to allow the user to drill down and find insights.
The Peers View of the Host Details Page
Applications¶
Using the DPI information, this page provides in pie chart and tabular format the amount of traffic divided by application. An additional pie chart provides a statistics about protocol type. A click on the protocol name redirects the user to the page with detailed statistics about the selected protocol.
The Protocols View of the Host Details Page
DNS¶
The chart and the table displayed on this page report DNS statistics, such as the number of queries, their type (e.g., A, AAAA, PTR, and so on), and possible errors.
The DNS View of the Host Details Page
TLS¶
The TLS View of the Host Details Page
ntopng registers the JA3 TLS fingerprints of an host (either when the host is a client or a server) along with their the number of uses. As explained in the Flows section, this information is very important in order to uncover possible threats on the encrypted traffic. By clicking on the signature it is possible to manually check if the JA3 signature corresponds to a known malware into the abuse.ch database.
By taking a snapshot of the signatures registered on an host it is possible to know, for example, if the host has installed a new program or has updated an existing one. This may be very important on environments where the programs installed into an host are not supposed to change.
By enabling the nProbe Agent integration, this view can be further augmented with the name of the process which initiated or received the TLS connection.
SSH¶
ntopng registers the HASSH fingerprints of an host, either when the host initiates or receives an SSH connection, along with their the number of uses. As explained in the related Flows section, this information can be used to identify malicious applications or vulnerable SSH versions.
HTTP¶
This page provides information about the HTTP protocol in terms of requests done and responses received for each HTTP method, together with response codes. Counters are provided both as tables and pie charts. In the case of virtual host being detected, a badge with the number of virtual hosts detected for the same IP address is displayed in the host bar and an entry for each virtual server is displayed in a virtual server table.
The HTTP View of the Host Details Page with Virtual Hosts
Sites¶
Note
This page is only available at lieast with a Pro License.
ntopng can keep track of top visited sites for any monitored local host. Enabling the tracking of top visited sites requires preference “Top HTTP Sites” to be set using the ntopng preferences page.
The Preferences Page to Enable Visited Sites
Once the preference has been enabled, this page will start showing visited websites, which are shown over the two most recent 5-minute intervals. Newly visited sites are placed under the “Current Sites”. Every 5 minutes ntopng moves the “Current Sites” under “Last 5 Minute Sites”, and starts over with a clean “Current Sites”.
The Sites View of the Host Details Page
Column “Contacts” count the number of time a particular website has been visited. Every time the host visit a site, the corresponding “Contacts” counter is increased by one.
Note
This page is only available in the Host Details page menu when there is at least one visited website.
Flows¶
Flows page lists all active flows that have the selected host as an endpoint. A section of this manual discuss in greater detail the statistics shown for flows.
The Flows View of the Host Details Page
SMNP¶
SMNP page provides SNMP information for the selected host with all the standard SNMP traffic metrics.
The SMNP View of the Host Details Page
Talkers¶
Talkers page provides top talkers having active flows with selected host. Similarly to the Community edition dashboard, top talkers are laid out in a Sankey Diagram.
Host Flows¶
Note
This page is only available with an Enterprise License.
The Host Flows page provides an interactive map that shows the currently active flows of the interested host, its peers and protocols.
The Talks page of the Host Details Page
Geomap¶
Geomap page provides an interactive map that shows the selected hosts, its flows, and its peers.
The Geomap View of the Host Details Page
Alerts Configuration¶
Alerts Configuration page enables the user to set custom thresholds on multiple metrics, and to trigger alerts based on those thresholds. Alerts can be armed, among other metrics, per total bytes, DNS traffic, P2P traffic or packets, in a fixed time interval. Available time intervals are 1 and 5 minutes, 60 minutes, and 1 day. Two columns are available for configuration. The first affects only the selected local host, whereas the second affects all local hosts. Alerts can be configured from the host WebUIUserScripts.
Asset Map¶
Note
This page is only available with an Enterprise L License.
The Asset Map link on the Host Details Page
The Asset Map is used to understand the assets in a network (DNS, NTP,… servers) and which ‘Assets’ a specific host uses. More information can be found at Asset Map.
Statistics¶
Statistics page provides historical traffic statistics for the selected host. The user can choose to filter statistics on a protocol basis and display data in several formats (e.g., bytes, packets, flows, and so on).
The Statistics View of the Host Details Page
The Dropdown menu in The Statistics View of the Host Details Page
Periodicity Map¶
Note
This page is only available with an Enterprise L License.
The Periodicity Map link on the Host Details Page
The Periodicity Map is used to understand the local communication between hosts in a network. More information can be found at Periodicity Map.
Service Map¶
Note
This page is only available with an Enterprise L License.
The Service Map link on the Host Details Page
The Service Map is used to understand the local communication between hosts in a network. More information can be found at Service Map.
Historical Flow¶
Note
This page is only available with an Enterprise License and only if ClickHouse is enabled
The Historical Flow link on the Host Details Page
The Historical Flow is used to understand the local communication between hosts in a network. More information can be found at Historical Flow Explorer.
Host Configuration¶
The Host Configuration on the Host Details Page
In this page a user is able to give an Alias to an Host (an alternative name for an host that’s going to be used in all ntopng), give a description to an host, assign this host to an host pool or hide this host from the Top Talkers computation.
Host Pools¶
Host Pools are logical groups of hosts that are described in detail in the “Network Interfaces” section of this document. This page show the list of defined and currently active Host Pools.
The Host Pools List Hosts Page
Each row of the table shows, for each pool, the following information:
- The Pool Name as defined by the user during Host Pool creation
- A Chart icon to access historical pool traffic timeseries. Historical pool traffic charts must be enabled from the preferences page and are a feature that is only supported in the Professional version.
- The number of active hosts in the pool
- The number of alerts detected as the sum of host alerts for each host in the pool
- Seen Since, with the amount of time it has lapsed since the first packet sent/received by any of the hosts in the pool has been observed
- Breakdown, showing a bar that gives visual insights in the use of both pool traffic directions
- Throughput, with the overall actual throughput of the pool
- Traffic, with the total traffic exchanged by the pool
Host pools can be configured from the network interface page.
Pools can be created or managed from the System interface, Pools menu. It is possible to add new pools using the “plus” button in the same page.
The Pools Page
Once an Host Pool is created, it is possible to add members to it. Host Pool members can be added from the Pools > Host Pool Members page, using the “plus” button.
The Host Pool Page
The Host Pools configuration, which includes the definition of host pools along with the pools members, can be easily exported to JSON and imported into another ntopng instance from the Settings > Manage Configuration page. Imported host pools will replace the existing ones.
An “Alias” can be associated to each pool member to ease the its identification. Typically, one would assign a mnemonic label as member alias (e.g., “John’s iPhone” or “Smart TV”).
A view of host pool statistics is accessible from the actual interface, Hosts > Host Pools menu, as discussed in the relevant section. The view shows live pool information (e.g., overall pool throughput) and provides access to the historical pool traffic timeseries (Professional version) as well as to the currently active pool members.
Traffic Policies¶
Host pools can also be used to enforce traffic policies (e.g, block YouTube traffic for the “John” pool and limit Facebook traffic at 1 Mbps for the “Guests” pool). This feature is available in nEdge (when ntopng is used inline as described in the “Advanced Features” section of this document), or when ntopng is used in combination with nProbe in IPS mode (see Using ntopng with nProbe IPS).
Networks¶
Networks shows all networks discovered by ntopng.
The Networks Summary Page
For each network discovered ntopng provides the number of hosts, alerts triggered, date of discovery, breakdown, throughput and traffic. Network names can be clicked to display the hosts lists inside the network selected.
Autonomous Systems¶
Autonomous Systems shows all autonomous systems discovered by ntopng. Autonomous Systems require Geolocation enabled.
The Hosts Autonomous Systems Summary Page
Ntopng uses a Maxmind database to gather information about Autonomous Systems (AS) and based on this it groups hosts belonging to the same AS. AS number 0 contains all hosts having private IP addresses.
Countries¶
Countries page provides all countries discovered by ntopng. Any country can be clicked to be redirected to a page containing the full list of hosts localised in that country. Countries require Geolocation enabled.
The Hosts Countries Summary Page
Operating Systems¶
Operating Systems page shows a list of all OS detected by ntopng. OSes can be clicked to see the detailed list of hosts.
The Hosts Operating Systems Summary Page
HTTP Servers (Local)¶
HTTP Servers page lists all local HTTP Servers. Multiple distinct virtual hosts may refer to the same HTTP server IP, which is specified in the second column. Additional information such as bytes sent and received are available for each HTTP virtual host. By clicking on the magnifying lens icon near to the HTTP virtual host, it is possible to display all active flows involving it.
The Local HTTP Servers Summary Page
Server Ports Analysis¶
The Server Local Hosts Ports Live Analysis page provides live details of hosts filtered by the selected port and L4 protocol. The page displays host information such as IP, Host Name, MAC Address, number of Total Flows, Total Score, and Total Traffic. By clicking on the IP hyperlink, the user can be redirected to the live flows page filtered by the selected server IP and server port. By clicking on the Host Name hyperlink, the user can be redirected to the host details page. By clicking on the MAC Address hyperlink, the user can be redirected to the MAC details page.
Server Ports Analysis Page