Knowledge Base

Are you Prepared to Defend your Critical Assets?

At Network Perception, we have combined our vast expertise of critical asset protection with next-gen technology to guide our customers on a path to cyber resiliency.

• The journey starts with establishing a clear baseline and verifying that internal risk mitigation controls are followed.
• The next step consists of gaining an accurate visibility of network architecture and cybersecurity posture.
• Finally, developing a continuous monitoring approach to gain velocity and adapt quickly to disruptions.

Compliance Verification

Verify configurations and network segmentation

1. Policy Review

• Easily review firewall access policies and object groups
• Identify configuration risks automatically
• Establish configuration change review process

2. Audit Assistance

• Verify compliance with cybersecurity regulations and best practices
• Seamlessly store evidence for compliance review
• Easily prepare compliance reports

Cybersecurity Visibility

Visualize vulnerability and risk exposure

3. Architecture Review

• Visualize an accurate topology of the network architecture
• Identify and label critical cyber assets and critical network zones
• Easily review which devices are protecting which network zones

4. Network Risk Assessment

• Assess accuracy of network segmentation
• Identify risky network connectivity paths
• Understand exposure of vulnerable assets

Operational Velocity

Accelerate risk mitigation and recover faster

5. Continuous Configuration Monitoring

• Transition from point-in-time to 24/7 risk assessment with automated notification
• Automate change review process using ticketing system integration and sandboxing
• Leverage a time machine to navigate through the network evolution

6. Incident Response Preparation

• Align network architecture understanding and break silos through a single pane of glass
• Train first responders and harden defense via realistic attack scenario simulation
• Prioritize vulnerability mitigation faster

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NP-View is designed to run on a Windows 10 or Windows 11 with a recommended configuration of a 10th Gen Quad Core Processor and 16GB of RAM.  This configuration should be sufficient for processing large data files up to 500,000 lines.  Simultaneously loading and analyzing multiple devices with larger configuration files will maximize the use of available system resources and additional RAM may be required.

Installation Process

• Sign up on the Portal website to download the latest version of NP-View Desktop and to download a license key.  A SHA256 checksum is supplied with each download.  You can calculate the checksum on the files you download to verify the integrity of the files:
  • Windows Powershell: Get-FileHash /the/full/path/to/your/filename.exe | Format-List
  • Linux: sha256sum /the/full/path/to/your/filename.Appimage
  • macOS 11: shasum -a 256 /full/path/to/your/filename.app
• Windows 10/11:
  • Launch the Windows installer with a double click.
    • User may need to adjust UAC (User Access Controls) depending on security settings.
  • The only dependency required on Windows is .NET framework 4
  • Once installed, NP-View will automatically launch.
  • Allow ports for private/public network if prompted.

NP-View has been designed to run offline, which means that the network connections attempted towards a public NTP server, the local DNS server, and the Network Perception update server are optional and do not affect the system if the internet is unavailable. More information on configuring NP-View can be found here.

System Performance

NP-View Desktop is a resource intensive application.  For best performance, please ensure your system’s Power plan is set to High performance.

If you have administrator access, you can enable Ultimate Performance by opening the command prompt as administrator and copy paste: powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61 and press enter.

Windows control panel:

First Login

• Upon first login, NP-View Desktop will require you to create an administrator account. Fill in the required information and click the “Create the NP-View administrator account” button. The password can be as simple or as complex as the user desires but needs to be at least 8 characters.
  • Local authentication is for users who wish to add an additional layer of protection. With this, the user can use whatever e-mail address and password they choose. If the user logs out of the system, the user id and password will be required upon subsequent application launches.  Otherwise, the session remains open and authentication is not required.

• Read and accept the user agreement.
• Next, you will need to enter your license key.  Once input, click the “Add license key” button.
• Select your preferences for checking for automatic updates (requires internet access) and participation in our voluntary improvement program. Both selections use a slider that is default to off. To opt in, click the button and it will slide to the right. Click the save preferences button to complete.
• Next click the get started button

User Menu

Access to the Help Center, License Manager, Update Manager and other administrative functions can be found on the User Menu located in the top-right corner of the Workspaces page.

Getting Started

On the Workspaces Page,  NP-View provides a demo workspace as well as the ability to start creating your own workspaces.  Click here to learn more about using workspaces.

Software Version

If you contact technical support, they will ask you for the software edition and version you are running. It can be found on the bottom left corner of the home screen.

Software Uninstall

To uninstall NP-View Desktop,

• Windows 10/11: use the add or remove programs feature to remove the software
  • Use the add or remove programs feature to remove the software
  • Delete folder: ~AppData/Roaming/NP-View
  • Delete folder: ~AppData/Local/Programs/NP-View
  • Delete folder: ~AppData/Local/np-view-updater

Password Reset

Remove the file at the location listed below and restart the application to input your credentials.

• Windows: Delete the file ~AppData/Roaming/NP-View/db/auth_provider.cfg and then restart NP-View.

License Changes / Upgrades

If you input a new license key from network perception, the user must log out and log back in for the changes to take effect. Note that the license key function is only available from the home screen (not from within a workspace).

Upload File Size Limit

NP-View enforces a maximum file size of 200MB by default. To change it, the config.ini file must be edited and the following row added:  MAX_IMPORT_SIZE=<size in bytes>. For example:  MAX_IMPORT_SIZE=209715200 which corresponds to 200MB.

• Windows: the config.ini file can be found at:  ~AppData/Roaming/NP-View/config.ini

Windows Path/File Name Length Limit

Microsoft Windows has a MAX_PATH limit of 256 characters.  If the path and filename exceed 256 characters, the file import will fail.

For example:  C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\NP-View\db\workspace\<np-view-user>@<workspace>\devices\<filename>

NP-View Server has been designed to be easily installed by a single person who has moderate Linux skills. This article provides step-by-step instructions on the installation process, which includes:

1. Provisioning a server
2. Downloading NP-View server
3. Installing NP-View server
4. Installing a SSL Certificate

NP-View is accessed through a web browser (Edge, Chrome, Firefox) running on a modern operating system (Windows 10 or later, macOS 11 Big Sur or later, Ubuntu 20 or later) with a recommended configuration of a 10th Gen Quad Core Processor and 16GB of RAM.

Provisioning a Server

The following table documents the CPU, memory, and disk requirements based on the number of network device configuration files monitored by NP-View server:

Greater than 1,000 devices please contact support to discuss requirements.

Recommended as the minimum for most Professional Server users.

Note: loading and analyzing devices utilizes the majority of the CPU and Memory capacity.  The higher the server capacity and the faster the CPU, the faster devices will load and be analyzed.

Network ports used by NP-View server

The following ports are used by NP-View server.  Please ensure these ports are open on your firewall for proper communication.

Required ports:

• TCP/22: SSH server to provide secure console access to the NP-Live server
• TCP/443: access to NP-View Web UI through HTTPS
• TCP/8443: access to NP-View connectors Web UI through HTTPS

Optional ports:

• TCP/80: access to NP-View Web UI through HTTP
• TCP/389: access to Active Directory / LDAP for LDAPv3 TLS
• TCP/445: access to NP-View SMB Connector
• TCP/636: access to Active Directory / LDAPS for TLS/SSL
• TCP/8080: access to NP-View connectors Web UI through HTTP

Firewall Rules

The source IP should be the client workstation that will access NP-View and the destination IP should be the NP-View Linux server.

Downloading NP-View Server

Sign up on the Portal website to download the latest version of NP-View server and the license key.  A SHA256 checksum is supplied with each download by clicking on the “show checksum” link.  You can calculate the checksum on the files you download to verify their integrity:

• Windows 10/11 using Powershell: Get-FileHash /the/full/path/to/your/file/name/extension | Format-List
• Linux: sha256sum /the/full/path/to/your/file/name/extension
• MACOS: shasum -a 256 /full/path/to/your/file/name/extension

Installing NP-View Server

NP-View server is a Linux application. It can be installed on a virtual machine or physical hardware. There are 2 package formats available:

• NP-View Virtual appliance (~2GB OVF) that works on all major hypervisor with support for the .vmdk disk format (e.g., VMWare ESXi).
• NP-View Linux installer (~600MB) that works on all major Linux distributions on which Docker can be installed

The NP-View OVF uses Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS or later. Root access is provided (see the text file provided with the .OVF) so the operating system can be periodically updated. This option should be used for new installations. The NP-View Linux installer is used to update NP-View on an existing system or for a new install on a Linux server.

Note: Network Perception does not recommend running NP-View in a double virtualized environment (Linux VM encapsulated within a Windows VM) as the operation of connectors, notifications and external interfaces can be unpredictable.

Option 1: Using the NP-View Linux Installer

Once downloaded from the portal, follow the steps below to complete the install:

1. Move installer to server – This may require ssh or other user account permissions
   
   1. Place the file in a location you can access from the terminal
   2. /tmp – this is a temp folder available at the root directory
   3. /opt/np-live – this is the default NP View server root directory
2. You can use the “ls” command to see what is in your current directory
3. Log into the terminal or use SSH (Putty, PowerShell, etc.) into the Linux server
4. Set root level permission with the command (this will allow you type commands without adding “sudo” to each command)
   • sudo -I
5. Navigate to the directory in which the NP-View Server Linux installer was placed
   
   • Use the ls command to verify file is in this directory
6. Run the installer with the command (Docker must be installed before this step)
   
   • Example: sh NP-View_Full_Filename.sh (example: NP-View_Server_Linux_4.0.5-add6)
7. The installer will begin by checking for a running instance of Docker and internet connection
   
   • If Docker is not installed and running the installer will stop and you will have to manually install the latest version of Docker before continuing
   • If an internet connection is available and Docker isn’t installed, the installer will automatically download and install the latest version of Docker
   • If an internet connection isn’t available but Docker is installed, the installer will continue offline (Most Common Scenario)
   • If you are installing NP-View Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, use the following commands to install docker:
     
     • yum update
     • dnf config-manager –add-repo=https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo
     • dnf install –nobest docker-ce
     • systemctl disable firewalld
     • systemctl enable –now docker
8. Follow the prompts during installation
   
   • Prompt to continue with offline installation
   • Prompt for default directory (/opt/np-live) We recommend keeping the default directory but it can be changed if preferred
     • Note: If the default directory is changed, then it will need to be edited for each new release during the installation
9. There will be a message once the installation is complete
10. Launch a browser to navigate to the NP-View User InterfaceExample of transfer with WinSCP:
    • Load WinSCP – It should default to this screen:
      

1. • Default “File Protocol:” to SFTP
   • Fill in Host name, User name, and Password.
     • Host name would be the same as your NP-View Server IP Address
     • User name and Password are the same as the sudo credentials you use to log into the NP-View Server terminal.
   • Find the NP-View Linux Server Installer file in the left window. Then in the right window from the “root” select the “tmp” folder. Once you have completed both steps then click “Upload”.
     

1. • Click Ok to complete the transfer.

Option 2: Using the NP-View Virtual Appliance

Once the Virtual Appliance OVF file has been downloaded from the portal, follow the steps below to complete set up:

1. Extract the .zip archive (right click on folder and choose extract all)
2. Import OVF into hypervisor
3. Update CPU/Memory/Disk Space to meet requirements stated in KB in the hypervisor settings
4. Open README.txt from extracted folder for credentials
5. Launch the appliance and log into terminal using credentials in README.txt
6. NP-View Server shell script will guide you through updating the NP-Live password, the root password, and to reset encryption keys
7. Once complete the NP menu will appear indicating the server is ready to use.
8. Launch a browser to navigate to the NP-View User Interface

Note: A static IP may need to be configured before utilizing the user interface.

Installing a SSL Certificate

NP-View listens on both port TCP/80 (HTTP) and TCP/443 (HTTPS). For HTTPS, it uses a self-signed SSL certificate by default. Users can also provide their own SSL certificate by simply copying a valid .pem file into the NP-View db folder.  If using HTTPS, the best practice is to disable HTTP or forward HTTP to HTTPS.

The following command can be used to generate a valid .pem file:

openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -out cert.pem -keyout cert.pem

To learn more about generating your own SSL certificate, please visit python documentation.

Please note that .pem file should include both the private key and the full certificate. If you received the private key and the certificate as two or more separate files, you can concatenate them into a single .pem file.

Setting the Virtual Appliance Time Zone

By default, the Virtual Appliance install creates the file `/opt/np-live/local-settings.yml`, set to America/Chicago.  This file needs to be updated to reflect your local time zone.  To change to a different time zone, log into the server using SSH and become root with the command sudo -i. You can then perform the following updates.

Update TZ= to a value from timedatectl list-timezones

version: '3.4'

x-environment-tz: &timezone    

     TZ=America/Chicago

services:  

      manager:    

           environment:        

                 - *timezone  

      report:      

           environment:        

                 - *timezone  

     webserver:      

           environment:        

                 - *timezone  

      redis:      

            environment:        

                 - *timezone  

     monitor:      

           environment:        

                 - *timezone

Once you have set the new time zone, you can restart NP-Live with the command /opt/np-live/stop_NP-Live.sh  and then /opt/np-live/start_NP-Live.sh

Additional Installation Information

Improving NP-View Server Performance

Please reference minimum requirements, the higher the resources the better the performance.

Troubleshooting Disk Space

If a server upgrade or restart fails due to lack of disk space, please perform the following clean-up procedure:

1. sudo rm -f /opt/np-live/db/log/system/nplive.log.*
2. sudo docker system prune –volumes
3. sudo rm /opt/np-live/docker-compose.yml.backup

NP-View does not automatically delete log files, the Linux system admin may wish to schedule the above commands in a periodic CRON job to maintain optimal performance.

If server upgrade or restart issues continue to occur, please reach out to the Tech Support team.

Default Disk Encryption

As the NP-View OVF is typically installed within a secure environment, the disk is not encrypted by default for data at rest.  The Linux Admin can encrypt the system drive for increased security knowing that system performance will be slightly degraded to accommodate the data decryption and encryption.

Personalize the Login Page

To add a custom message to the login page, a NP-View administrator can edit the file /opt/np-live/docker-compose.yml with the following entry in the webserver environment section: “- banner=Welcome to NP-view”

For NP-View, the file ~/Documents/np-live/config.ini can be edited to add: “banner=Welcome to NP-View”

Upload File Size Limit

When users upload a file through the Web user interface, NP-View will enforce a maximum file size which is 200MB by default. To change it, a NP-View Linux administrator can edit the file /opt/np-live/docker-compose.yml with the following entry in the webserver environment section: “- MAX_IMPORT_SIZE=209715200”.  The value is in bytes, so 209715200 corresponds to 200MB.

Backing up the NP-View Server Database

1. Stop the NP-View Server (you can use the script /opt/np-live/stop_nplive.sh)
2. From the NP-View Server folder (by default: /opt/np-live/, run the command: tar -zcf db_backup_$(date '+%Y_%m_%d').tgz db (this command may take few minutes to complete)
3. Run the new release installer, which will update the containers and then launch NP-View Server

Complete Removal of NP-View

If you wish to completely remove NP-View from you server to start with a fresh install, perform the following steps:

• Stop NP-View using the script /opt/np-live/stop_NP-Live.sh
• Remove Docker containers using the command docker system prune -a as root (WARNING: this will completely reset Docker, so if non NP-View containers have been added they will be deleted as well)
• Remove the NP-View folder with the command rm -rf /opt/np-live as root (WARNING: the NP-View database will be permanently deleted)

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Network mapping provides the Networking Team (Network Engineer, Network Security) with capabilities that allow users to:

• Visualize an accurate topology of the network architecture
• Identify and label critical cyber assets and critical network zones
• Easily review which devices are protecting which network zones

Visualize Topology

NP-View can be used to discover your network topology and the underlying control plane, including layer-2 and layer-3 configurations. Without leaving the topology map, you can review many aspects of the network’s design including Firewalls, Routers, Switches, Gateways, Networks, VPNs, Hosts and more.

Critical Assets and Zones

Each asset can be tagged with categories and criticalities as well as grouped into zones making it easy to review which devices are protecting which network zones.

Details On-demand

Selecting a node in the topology map will interactively display an information panel with detailed data about that node.

Firewall ruleset review provides Network Engineers, Network Security, and Compliance Analysts with functionality for:

• Easy review of firewall access rules and object groups using the Access Rules and Object Groups reports.
• Automatic identification of configuration risks using the Risks and Warnings report.
• Validating recent policy modifications as part of a configuration change review process using the Change Tracking report.

How to Review Access Rules

An independent review of firewall policies has to be periodically conducted to ensure that network access rules are correctly implemented and documented. It is important because lack of access rule review leads to unexpected network access vulnerabilities.

• Frequency: each time firewall policies are changed, and at least once a quarter
• How to do it:
  • Step 1: given a workspace populated with network device configurations, open the Access Rule table from the main menu (top left)
  • Step 2: leverage the “Column Search” feature or the “Compare” feature to show the rules in scope of your verification
    • For instance, filter the “Device” column to only show rules for a specific device, or filter the “Binding (ACL)” column to only show rules bound to a specific interface, or use the “Compare” feature to only show rules added or removed recently
  • Step 3: review values for the source, destination, service, binding, risk, and description of each rule in scope
    • The “Description” column captures comment, description, or justification from the device configuration
    • The “Risk” and “Risk Criticality” columns are populated by NP-View during the automated risk analysis
  • Step 4: to identify rules that are not justified, sort the table by “Description”. Empty values will be shown at the bottom.
  • Step 5: to document your review process, double click on the “Comment” or “Comment Status” cells to add your own comment. The comment status can be either “Verified” or “To Review” or “To Revise”
  • Step 6: to save an evidence of your review process, export the table to Excel using the export options in the top right corner of the table

Access Rules Table

The Access Rules report provides the users with complete details on each Access Rule with the ability to add justifications and actions.

Object Groups

The Object Groups report provides the users with complete details on each Object Group with the ability to add justifications and actions.

Risks and Warnings

As modifications are made to the network, the Network Perception default Policies and Requirements identify potential risks.  The Risks and Warnings report provides the users with a summary of the potential risks and their criticality with the ability to add actions and comments.

Change Tracking

As modifications are made to the network and the updated configuration files are imported, the changes are logged in the Change Tracking table.

Segmentation verification provides the Networking Team and Audit Team with capabilities that allows users to:

• Assess correctness of network segmentation
• Identify risky network connectivity paths
• Understand exposure of vulnerable assets

Network Segmentation Accuracy

NP-View be used to verify the accuracy of your network segmentation.

The connectivity matrix which is available from the device info panel can be used to verify open ports between devices.

Inbound and outbound connections can be verified for each network using the highlight paths function.

Identifying Risky Connectivity Paths

Using industry best practices, Network Perception automatically identifies potential risks related to network configurations. Using the Network Perception  Connectivity Path analysis, the user can review each of the highlighted risks and make a judgment on action.

Exposure of Vulnerable Assets – Vulnerability Analytics

NP-View provides your security team with a single pane of glass for reviewing network vulnerability exposure. With the addition of scanner data or data from a vulnerability data service, vulnerabilities can be tracked across your network.

Topology Display of Vulnerabilities

When scanned data has been added to a workspace, and a topology view is built that also includes that scan data, nodes on the topology of that view will be marked with a shield indicating the presence of vulnerabilities.

These shields can be toggled on and off using the topology settings menu.

Device Panel Display of Vulnerabilities

Firewalls, Gateways, and Hosts may contain vulnerability and service information imported from scans. Clicking on any of these nodes in a View that contains vulnerability information, will display it in the info panel that opens over the main menu.

Clicking on the Vulnerabilities link will present a pop out with the vulnerability details.

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Performing a regular review of your compliance metrics is important for your organization.  Performing the review manually is time consuming and tedious. Audit assistance provides the Compliance Team (Auditor, Compliance Officer, Compliance Analyst, and Consultants) with capabilities that allow users to:

• Verify compliance with cybersecurity regulations and best practices through Policy Review.
• Seamlessly store evidence for compliance review with Change Tracking.
• Easily prepare compliance reports using the Audit Assistants listed below:

Workspace Report (Standard)

The Workspace Report assistant is available within each workspace and will generate a report for a specific view that includes detailed information about configuration files that were imported and parsed including:

• Configuration assessment report including risk alerts
• Ports and Interfaces
• Access rules
• Object groups
• Path analysis

Industry Best Practice (Premium)

The Best Practice assistant requires a license to activate. This report is available within each workspace to generate a report for a specific view that includes the following topics:

• Parser Warnings and potential misconfigurations
• Unused Object Groups
• Access Rules missing a justification
• Unnamed nodes
• NP Best Practice Policies on access rules and CiS Benchmarks that have identified potential risks
• ACL’s with no explicit deny by default rule

NERC CIP Compliance (Premium)

The NERC CIP assistant requires a license to activate this function and guides the user through the steps required to create a report covering CIP-005 requirements. The NERC CIP audit assistant is only available within a NERC-CIP workspace and allows audit teams to classify BES cyber assets as High, Medium, and Low based on the standards. We have added a category for untrusted (Internet, Corp, etc.) to tag non BES assets. NP-View allows compliance teams to collect and report evidence related to the following requirements:

• CIP-002 – BES Cyber System Categorization; impact rating and 15-month review
• CIP-003 – Security Management Control; cyber security policy
• CIP-005 – Electronic Security Perimeter; remote access management
• CIP-007 – System Security Management; ports and services
• CIP-010 – Change Management and Vulnerability; configuration change management, configuration monitoring, vulnerability assessment

A demo workspace for the NERC CIP audit assistant is included with the software.  To see the audit assistant in action, follow these steps:

1. Click on the demo workspace to build the topology.
2. Create a custom view by selecting all of the firewalls, right click, Create View from Selection and give it a name.
3. Once the view is generated, select Manage Zones from the left manu and click on the Auto Generate Zones button.
   • Red zones represent your high criticality assets.
   • Orange zones represent your medium criticality assets.
   • Yellow zones represent your low criticality assets.
   • Gray zones represent your untrusted assets.
4. On the left menu, select Summary Reports and the NERC-CIP Compliance Report
5. Click through the wizard, the defaults will represent the selections suggested by the auto group function.
6. Click Generate Report to view the report in a new tab.

This section describes extended support for Layer 2 devices in NP-View. This support was added in V6.0.

Layer 2 derived from layer 3 devices

This feature adds baseline support for Layer 2 visibility derived from Layer 3 devices.

Supported devices:

• Cisco IOS
• Cisco ASA

Layer 2 information is inferred from configuration, ARP, MAC, and Route data files. This data is automatically collected by the supported device connectors. Route data is loaded with the configuration file, while the ARP and MAC data can be added independently to views as auxiliary data.

If loading data manually, load only one configuration file at a time and include all Layer 2 data on the same import for proper file association.

Layer 2 Capabilities:

• Control the map from Topology Settings to display or hide Layer 2 Nodes / Links.
• Control the map to expand or collapse Layer 2 Networks and attached hosts.
• Search function to locate, highlight, and open the info panel of a Layer 2 node.
• View VLAN information on the node info panel.
• View Layer 2 / VLAN data in the interface table.

Layer 2 connections identified from Layer 3 devices are represented by a blue dotted line to a gateway.

To see the Layer 2 details, enable the 'Show Layer 2 Connections' from the topology settings.

Once enabled, Layer 2 networks will be displayed as teal clouds. Hosts / endpoints will be displayed as classic hosts.

Endpoints defined from Layer 2 communications will display the MAC Address where Layer 3 hosts will display a hostname or IP address. Only Layer 2 endpoints

with and IP address will be considered verified.

Clicking on the endpoint will display the info panel with the addition of the new VLAN section.

Note that Layer 2 topologies can get very complex very quickly.

Limitations:

• Duplicate L2 and L3 networks and endpoint may occur if there is no data tying them together.
• Layer 2 from Layer 3 can add a lot of data to the topology making navigation and topology save slower than usual.
• Path analysis does not apply to Layer 2.

Layer 2 from manually-populated, user-generated spreadsheet

There are cases where not all devices have a configuration file. This is common in Layer 2 switches. This feature adds baseline support for Layer 2 visibility from Layer 2 devices using a manually generated file.

A manually created excel data file called the common model is used to define a layer 2 switch and contains the following required fields:

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If the device name is of an existing firewall or router, the switch will be added to the firewall and the layer 2 connections.

If the device name is of a new switch, the switch will be added as a new switch with the layer 2 connections.

In both cases a license will be allocated to the L2 device.

Limitations:

• If the user makes input errors, the system will display what they typed.
• Users need to verify that the topology represents the data as they expect it. There is no way for NP-View to know the data is incorrect.
• This function allocated licenses to Layer 2 devices, if the user mistypes the device name licenses will still be used.
• Duplicate L2 and L3 networks and endpoint may occur if there is no data tying them together.
• No rules, objects or paths will exist for L2 switches.

Notification manager is used to configure services and rules for generating and sending system notifications about Workspaces. Select the system menu (top right corner) and then “Notification manager”

to display the Notifications menu:

Configure Services

Before rules can be configured in notification manger, the administrator is required to configure at least one notification service.  Services include: e-mail, STIX/TAXII, SIEM (Syslog), and select ticketing systems.

• SMTP configuration requires a server IP address, communication port, user id and password.  Note that a firewall port may need to be opened for NP-View to communicate with your SMTP server.
• Syslog configuration requires a server IP address and a communication port.
  • Information on configuring SPLUNK can be found here.
• ServiceNow configuration requires a server address, user name and password.
• TAXII configuration requires a server address, server port, data path and a destination collection name.

Service configuration can be found under “Notification manager -> Configure Services” tab.

Additional Email Configuration Details for LDAP/AD

When connected to LDAP or Active Directory, the user’s email addresses are extracted from the authentication server. They are typically stored within the LDAP/AD email field. The test button will pull the LDAP/AD information for inspection. If a field other than email is used, the field name should be added to the LDAP setup page replacing the default “email”. If the email field is missing, please contact your system administrator to have the email field added and populated for each user who wishes to receive automated notifications.

If your email server requires authentication to send emails, we recommend using a service account with a non-expiring password or notifications will stop sending when the password expires.

Add/Edit Rules

NP-View can automatically send information to the configured services for changes and activities impacting your workspaces. Select the system menu and then “Notification manager -> Add/Edit Rule” to setup rules.

Rules can be set to choose which activities and events are included in notifications.  When configuring the notification rule, the user will select a service to deliver the notification to, the workspace(s) to be monitored and frequency the report should be delivered.

Notification frequencies are:

• Instant
• Hourly
• Daily
• Weekly
• Monthly

After that, the criterion for generating the report is selected. Activity types include:

For each Activity type, one or more activity status or  activity severity can be selected and the notification rule can be filtered by keywords.

Finally, the output can be sanitize to remove IP addresses and saved in the database for future viewing.

Note: If the save in database box is not checked, the report will not be viewable on the Your Reports tab.

Click Save Rule to save your configuration.

Your Rules

Once rules are created, they appear on the “Your Rules” tab. This tab shows each rule created.  Workspace Admins can only see their rules and Administrators can see all users rules.  From this tab. users can edit, delete or copy a rule.

Your Reports

Once rules triggered and the the “save for future viewing” function is active, a summary of each report generated will be displayed on the  reports tab.  The Workspace Admin can see and delete their own reports and the Administrator can see and delete all users reports.

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This article will focus on the Object Groups Report.

NP-View uses reports to present network information related to the open workspace.  These reports are available to all users and can be accessed from the main menu. For more information visit the Workspace Reports Overview article.

Object Groups – Defined

• Object Groups classify users, devices, or protocols into “groups” and apply those groups to Access Control Lists (ACLs), to create access control policies for those groups.
• The Object Groups report provides a summary of Network ACL Object Groups.
• These object groups may include: Host IP addresses, network address of group members, and nested object groups.
• Objects consist of several types including Address, Service, Binding, Interface, and Zone.

The Object Groups Report can be accessed in two ways. Each way presents a different data set.

1. From the main menu, the table will populate the table with all objects for all devices in the workspace, including globals.
2. From the topology, when clicking a Firewall/ Router/ Switch – its info panel will open – and the user can select Object Groups from the Data for this Device section. Only the objects for the selected device will be displayed in this case.

*main menu

       *info panel

Network Management System:

When data is loaded from a firewall vs Network Management system, the listing of object groups for addresses may vary.

• When viewing data from a network management system, globally defined groups may be available.
• When the data is loaded from the firewall, the global addresses may be presented as local addresses.

What Data is Present?

The list below the image details the data types available in the Object Groups Report.

Table Actions

There are a number of actions that can be taken in the Object Groups report, some are specific to Object Groups, others are universal to all Reports.

• Overflow Data: When there is more data in a Cell than can be presented in a column, the overflow data can be accessed by clicking the + icon in the cell.
• Object Group Details: The name column will show related object data details within the + popup.
• Columns can be displayed or hidden using the hamburger menu in the upper right corner of the report.
• Changes to the menu are automatically saved.
• Additionally, the table can be exported as displayed, with comment history or with object groups.
• Only visible columns will be displayed.
• Columns can be sorted, rearranged or resized and changes will be automatically saved.
• Column filters can be displayed.
• Filters applied to the table or column will automatically be saved.
• Filters can be reset from the hamburger menu.

*the Object Groups Report Menu

Comments

NP-View provides a simple and easy way for users to add comments to Object Groups, and to track the historical lineage of these comments in a workspace. Comments can be added, or viewed, but for for integrity purposes they cannot be edited or deleted by users.  If an Object Group is changed or removed from the system, the group and associated comments will be removed from the Object Group table.

Adding a Comment: Comments can be added to a row by double-clicking on the cell in the column “Comment”.  Comment text and status can be added and then saved with the save button. Once the comment is saved, the author and time stamp are automatically inserted.

*applying comment

*applying comment – closeup

Comment History: Additional comments can be added to a row to begin creating a lineage or history of comments. This history will be automatically available when more than one comment exists on a row and can be expanded by clicking the blue clock icon on the leftmost column of the table. If there is no history the icon will be disabled.

When viewing history, changes between lines are highlighted in blue.

Example: If Comment 1 is: “Check This” – ‘medium’ and Comment 2 is “Check This” – ‘low’ the criticality cell would be highlighted because there was a change – the comment text would not be highlighted because it remained the same.

*Viewing comment history

*Viewing comment history – closeup

Object Groups Hash

Object groups are uniquely tagged (Object ID) within NP-View for linkage to comments. More info in the expanded section below.

Additional Features

• The Compare button invokes a time series comparison function for the report.   Additional details on this function can be found here.
• Comments can be imported from an Excel file.  Additional details on this function can be found here.
• Conditional formatting can be applied to this table report.  Additional details on this function can be found here.

Comparison Report

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Access Rules and Object Groups have a Compare function to show historical differences in data that has been added or removed. The function can be engaged by clicking the “Compare” button located at the top of the page. This function is used to display changes over a period of days.

The user can select a time frame (7, 30, 90 or 356 days or a custom date range). The user can select one or more devices to include in the report and then show the history over the range. Once the parameters are selected, the “Show Comparison” button should be selected.

The comparison function will display all changes (Rule Adds, Rule Removal and Unchanged Rules) for the selected days. The data will be displayed using the column format of the selected table. The user can filter on added, removed or unchanged rules by clicking the jelly bean. Added rules will be highlighted in green, removed rules will be highlighted in red and unchanged rules will be highlighted in light blue.

Clicking the “Compare” button will revert to the normal table but will not clear the selections.

Clicking the “Reset” button will clear the selections and reset the table.

Expanded Object Groups

In the Access Rules table, Source, Destination and Service groups can be expanded to see the group details.  By clicking on the + icon within a cell, the expanded group information can be made visible.

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Through network access modeling, NP-View analyzes all possible connectivity paths in a network based on the firewall, router, and switch configuration files imported. The results are presented in:

• the Connectivity Paths table,
• the Compare Path History,
• the Connectivity Matrix for each device, and
• the Inbound Connectivity and Outbound Connectivity sections of the info panel for hosts, gateways, and networks.

Path analysis is only available in custom views that have been manually created using the “Manage Views” menu. This can be found in the default Home view in which only devices are shown (no network, no end points) does not include a path analysis.

NP-View provides two options for analysis; Internal and Internal + External. Internal analysis computes paths for all the devices and end points within the view. Internal + External analysis include devices and end points within the view and adds external end points that are listed as unmapped.

By default, new views are created using internal analysis. To include external hosts, select Internal + External from the dropdown.

Please note that the external path analysis will take more time to complete and will return a larger number of paths.

Why are there zero paths identified after analysis

In some workspaces customers are seeing zero paths after analysis.  To understand why, each ‘allow’ rule must be investigated.  In these cases, we found various reasons for not seeing any paths.  Some of these reasons are:

1. IP addresses of the firewall’s interfaces and of access rules’ sources and destinations do not overlap. Firewall’s interface addresses are in 124.x.y.z IP ranges. However, the source and destination objects for access rules are in 10.x.y.z IP ranges. Therefore, the traffic is dropped at the ingress of the firewall. This could be caused by (1) incorrect config export, (2) incorrect sanitization, or (3) incomplete config.
2. A zone contains two interfaces (tunnel.1 and tunnel.3), and it is anticipated that the intrazone paths would show up (due to default allow as well as specifically defined access rules). However, those tunnels are destined to gateways that are connected via layer-2 links (in the config). Therefore, our processing of layer-3 paths does not include those cases.

Why are there paths with no rule sequences

In some situations, the path sequence field may not be populated due to implied rules from tunnels or security levels. In these situations, the path sequence will be populated with text: ‘Access implied by tunnel or security level’

Why does Path Analysis not create paths for FWs where there are 2 defined default static routes

We use default gateways to route traffic to and from external addresses. In this context, we handle multiple default gateways differently depending on whether the paths are inbound or outbound.

For inbound paths, i.e., from external sources to the internal network, we process all default gateways. We process traffic through every default gateway and generate all paths as the access rules allow.

For outbound paths, i.e., from internal network to external sources, we select only one default gateway. We have implemented a set of rules grounded in routing principles that prioritize one route over others. However, if those rules find no clear winner, we break the tie by picking the route through the interface appearing first in alphabetical order. In any case, we end up picking one default route and generating a warning  message.

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NP-View can import auxiliary data from third party systems to enrich and augment analysis.  The data files listed below are supported and can be manually imported using drag and drop or through a shared network drive connector. We recommend importing configuration files first or at the same time as the auxiliary data files or a system error may occur. If auxiliary data is input after configuration files are processed, the auxiliary data will need to be added to a new or existing custom view(s) to be displayed

Host Files

Hosts can be identified from multiple sources including configuration files, network scan files, ARP tables, and hostname files. Once network device configuration files have been imported, one can import additional files to add metadata to the workspace. A hostname file is a simple text file with two columns: IP address and hostname separate by a tab.

Aux Data Loading Example

Note: This example applies to the loading of any Aux data file but is specific to creating and loading a host file.

First, load a firewall into a workspace and create a custom view with the firewall.

Notice that four hosts are not named.  To fix this, create a host file, named hosts.txt, to enrich the information.

The host file will add a name tied to each of the hosts and also includes hosts not currently displayed.

Let's use
172.30.90.50 Alice
172.30.90.51 Bob
172.30.90.42 Wendy
172.30.91.80 Sam
172.30.91.81 Carl
Note: Make sure any hosts added to the file do not conflict with firewall interfaces or they will be merged into the firewall.

Save the host file, and import it into the workspace.

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Once processed, proceed to the “Manage Views” menu and select a new or existing view to add Auxiliary data to.

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Below the Select Devices box, is the Auxiliary Data box.

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Choose any of the Auxiliary Data files you've added previously. (This image is not reflective of the example but to illustrate that users may select several Aux files).

For our example a user would see a single file called hosts.txt that would contain the names we've added.

Once the the view is created the updated assets will be displayed on the topology and in the Asset Inventory (on the main menu).

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To see how the previous example can be used as a repeatable process let's update those names again, with corrections.

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First, update the Host file again. In this scenario, we rename “Carl” to “Carly” and “Sam” to “Sammy”. The updated file is as follows:

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172.30.90.50 Alice
172.30.90.51 Bob
172.30.90.42 Wendy
172.30.91.80 Sammy
172.30.91.81 Carly

Load the file into the workspace and the custom views where auxiliary data has been applied. This will update the workspace.

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Note: Host data can come from multiple sources, also hosts can appear and disappear from the network. Host data is treated as replacement data for adding and deleting hosts over time.

Note: If for some reason a device has multiple names retrieved from multiple different file types, the additional names will be displayed in the Alias column of the Asset Inventory.

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Network and Vulnerability Scanner Files

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The output from network and vulnerability scanners can be imported into a workspace to add CVE information, hosts, attributes, and port information to the topology map. We support version 1.0 <?xml version=”1.0″ ?> of the below scanners:

• Nmap – Use command nmap -oX
• Rapid 7 Nexpose,
• Tenable Nessus – Export the .nessus scan in XML format.

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When exporting the report, it should be saved using the XML format to properly import into NP-View. The data extracted and imported depends on the scanner used and the data available on the network.  Below is a list of data NP-View attempts to import.

• hostnames
• addresses
• interfaces
• local interface IP’s
• local interface names
• mac
• domains
• parent
• operating systems
• vlan

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Multi-Home Host Files

Multi-Home hosts are endpoints that have multiple network interfaces. If NP-View identifies hosts with multiple interfaces, the host will be duplicated on the topology with each IP address. For example, the host called 'dual-homed' can be seen three times on the map below.

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To resolve this, a 'multi_home_host.txt' file can be manually generated and loaded into NP-View as auxiliary data.

The file must be named 'multi_home_host.txt' and be of the following format:

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192.168.135.115 dual-homed

192.168.135.114 dual-homed

192.168.135.113 dual-homed

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Where the first field is the IP address and the second field is the name of the host.

When importing the 'multi_home_host.txt' and adding it to a view, the hosts will be connected as follows:

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Note: The file can be named as *_multi_home_host.txt -where- *_ is anything preceding multi_home_host.txt.

For example:

tuesday_multi_home_host.txt

web_server_multi_home_host.txt

the_big_kahuna_multi_home_host.txt

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Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

ARP files can be used to add hosts as well as MAC addresses for the hosts.  The following formats are supported:

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Cisco

Use commashow arp to export the ARP table.  The file format will be as follows:

<hostname># show arp  

outside 10.0.0.100 d867.da11.00c1 2  

inside 192.168.1.10 000c.295b.5aa2 21  

inside 192.168.1.12 000c.2933.561c 36  

inside 192.168.1.14 000c.2ee0.2b81 97

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Cisco ARP Example

Using the data set from the Hosts example, a simple ARP table has been created in the Cisco format.

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Distribution# show arp    

inside 172.30.90.50 d867.da11.00c1 2    

inside 172.30.90.51 000c.295b.5aa2 21    

inside 172.30.90.42 000c.2933.561c 36    

inside 172.30.91.80 000c.2ee0.2b81 97  

inside 172.30.91.81 000c.2ecc.2b82 95

Distribution#

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Loading this data into NP-View will add the MAC addresses to each host which is visible in Asset inventory.

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Windows

Use arp -a > arp_table.txt to export the ARP table.  The file format will be:

Interface: 192.168.86.29 --- 0x6  

Internet Address      Physical Address      Type  

192.168.86.1          88-3d-24-76-49-f2     dynamic    

192.168.86.25         50-dc-e7-4b-13-40     dynamic    

192.168.86.31         1c-fe-2b-30-78-e5     dynamic    

192.168.86.33         8c-04-ba-8c-dc-4d     dynamic

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Linux

Use arp -a > arp_table.txt to export the ARP table.  The file format will be:

? (172.18.0.3) at 02:42:ac:12:00:03 [ether] on br-d497989bc64d

? (192.168.135.200) at 00:0c:29:f6:47:bb [ether] on ens160

? (172.17.0.2) at <incomplete> on docker0

? (192.168.135.178) at 00:0c:29:f3:e2:6b [ether] on ens160

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Palo Alto

Use show arp all to export the ARP table.  The file format will be:

maximum of entries supported : 2500

default timeout: 1800 seconds

total ARP entries in table : 3

total ARP entries shown : 3

status: s - static, c - complete, e - expiring, i - incomplete

interface ip address hw address port status ttl

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ethernet1/1 192.0.2.10 00:0c:29:ac:30:19 ethernet1/1 c 295

ethernet1/2 198.51.100.10 00:0c:29:d7:67:09 ethernet1/2 c 1776

ethernet1/3 203.0.113.10 00:0c:29:b9:19:c9 ethernet1/3 c 1791

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Route Tables

Route files are a special case in that they provide ruleset-specific enrichment data whereas the other auxiliary files listed above provide topology-specific enrichment data.

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Route table – Cisco

The output of the command show route on Cisco devices can be imported into NP-View with associated configuration files.  For VRF’s, use the command show ip route vrf *. Cisco route files are handled a bit differently than the rest of the aux data as they are integrated upon import and are not considered as aux data when creating a view. Naming of the route files are not important as long as they are unique. The first row of the route file contains the <device name># command to link the route table with the correct device.

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PCAP

IN V6.0 and later, PCAP and PCAPng files can be used to enrich the topology map. NP-View will add endpoints with IP's, MAC addresses and services to the topology map within a view. The max PCAP size is 200 MB per file.

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NP-View releases are divided into two groups:

• Release Candidates introduce new features and go through the full QA process once a quarter.  The rollout of release candidates is staged to ensure product quality.
• General Releases are release candidates that have gone through field testing and any critical issues resolved before releasing to the general population. General releases typically lag release candidates by a month or more.

Release candidates generally following the below schedule:

• January for the Winter release
• April for the Spring release
• July for the Summer release
• October for the Fall release

General releases do not follow a fixed schedule since they are driven by field testing and support requests.

Below is the list of releases and the features / fixes in each release. Only the most current release available to a customer will be posted on the portal.  

If you have any question, please contact us at support@network-perception.com.

The release notes are also available from within the NP-View application. By clicking the version number in the lower left hand corner of the workspace screen,

the release notes can be viewed.

NP-View Desktop and Server – 2024

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NP-View Desktop and Server – 2023

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NP-View Desktop and Server – 2022

For customers who have installed the Ubuntu version of the NP-View OVF, this package is designed to update Docker and Ubuntu to the following versions:

- Docker version 27.1.2, build d01f264

- Kernel version 5.15.0-118-generic

- Ubuntu version Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS

To see the complete package details, click here:

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Download the update package, click here

Verify the checksum: 7D510280D6901502B7210EADC284B351F49C0AE6F40D9030A99C5A6A17B6444F

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Have all users log out of NP-View Server as the update will disrupt their system use.

SSH into the NP-View server

sudo su -

cd /root/

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Make an updates folder at the path of your choice.

mkdir updates

cd updates

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Copy update-packages-08-14-24.zip to the updates folder on the np-view server

unzip update-packages-08-14-24.zip

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Install all packages

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive && dpkg -i *.deb

reboot

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.zip and .deb files can be removed after reboot.

sudo su -

cd /root/

cd updates

rm *.deb *.zip

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When we improve a data or analysis feature or fix an issue, the improvement may not be visible until new data is ingested, or another action is taken.

New Data or Warnings identified during file parsing

When we improve a parser, upon next import, we will apply the new rules and import the new or corrected data. Only the workspace where the new file(s) are imported (manual or connector) will receive the new data. All views, in that workspace, that contain the imported device(s), will be updated with the new data.
No other workspaces will be impacted.

The impact of this is that some workspaces will have the new data, some will not, resulting in data discrepancies across workspaces. Additionally, only the devices being imported will contain the new or updated data within a view.

To ensure the entire workspace is current, users can manually re-import data into their existing workspace. Alternatively the user can clone an existing connector to pull data into the workspace (Note: connectors perform a checksum to see if a file has already been imported and ignore it if we have imported it already.)

Data created during Merge / Analyze

When we improve merge (topology generation) or analyze (path creation), upon next import or the creation of a new view, we will apply the new rules. Only the views, in that workspace, that contain the new file(s), will be merged and analyzed.  All other views will not be impacted.

The impact is that some workspaces and views will have new analysis results, some will not, resulting in data discrepancies across views and workspaces.

To ensure the entire workspace is current, users can manually re-import data into their existing views or create new views.

Risks and Warnings

When we improve risk alerts, upon next import, we will apply the new policies and requirements. Only the workspace where the new file(s) are imported (manual or connector) will receive updated risks. Upon import and after the views are updated, the risk alerts will be updated. No other workspaces will be impacted.

The impact is that some workspaces will have new risk alerts, some will not, resulting in data discrepancies across workspaces.

To ensure the entire workspace is current, users can manually re-import data into their existing views or users can reset the risks for any workspace in the Policy manager which will remove all current risks and rerun the risks for that workspace.

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Overview

This section provides a primer on how to review firewall rulesets from three vendors: Cisco,  Check Point, and Palo Alto.

Cisco Ruleset Overview

An access control list (ACL) is used to filter network traffic. For an ACL to take effect, it must be bound to an interface on the device. Packets are then matched against the ACLs bound to that interface to determine whether to forward or drop a packet. A MAC, IPv4 and IPv6 ACL can be bound to each interface. Multiple ACL of the same protocol cannot be bound to the same interface, they must be combined to accomplish the desired effect.

Object Groups for ACLs lets you classify users, devices, or protocols into groups and apply those groups to access control lists (ACLs) to create access control policies for those groups. This lets you use object groups instead of individual IP addresses, protocols, and ports, which are used in conventional ACLs.

The image below helps depict the interaction between Object Groups, Access Groups, Rules and Interfaces.

The Object Groups, Access Groups, Rules and Interfaces. are combined into a configuration file as shown below:

NP-View reads device configuration files and can be used to review and verify the ruleset configuration using the Access Rules feature.  An example is below:

Check Point Ruleset Overview

Check Point segments security management into multiple virtual domains. Security policies can be created and privately maintained per Domain. The image below helps depict the high level interaction between domains and the domain server.

Some security rules can be enforced for all Domains. Global policies can serve as security templates with rules that are applied to many Domains, and their individualized security policies. The Security Gateway is the engine that enforces the organization\’s security policy, is an entry point to the LAN, and is managed by the Security Management Server.

The interaction between domain policies, global policies and the security gateway is depicted below. Note that Global Domain rules can be run before the local Domain rules or after the local Domain rules as cleanup.

NP-View reads device configuration files and can be used to review and verify the ruleset configuration using the Access Rules feature.  An example is below:

Palo Alto Ruleset Overview

Device groups enables grouping based on network segmentation, geographic location, organizational function, or any other common aspect of firewalls that require similar policy configurations. Using device groups, the user can configure policy rules and the objects they reference. Devices can be organized hierarchically, with shared rules and objects at the top, and device group-specific rules and objects at subsequent levels. This enables the creation of a hierarchy of rules that enforce how firewalls handle traffic. The image below depicts the high level interaction between device groups, subgroups and firewalls.

This can be further broken down into the virtual system. A virtual system is an independent (virtual) firewall instance that can be separately managed within a physical firewall with its own Security policy, interfaces, and administrators.

Device Groups on Panorama allow you to centrally manage firewall policies. You create policies on Panorama either as Pre Rules or Post Rules; Pre Rules and Post Rules allow you to create a layered approach for implementing policy. You can define Pre rules and Post rules in a shared context, as shared policies for all managed firewalls, or in a device group context, to make the rules specific to a device group. Because you define Pre rules and Post Rules on Panorama and then push them from Panorama to the managed firewalls, you are able to view the rules on the managed firewalls but you can edit the Pre Rules and Post Rules only in Panorama.

• Pre Rules—Rules that are added to the top of the rule order and are evaluated first. You can use pre-rules to enforce the Acceptable Use Policy for an organization.
• Post Rules—Rules that are added at the bottom of the rule order and are evaluated after the pre-rules and rules that are locally defined on the firewall. Post-rules typically include rules to deny access to traffic based on the App-ID™, User-ID™, or Service.
• Default Rules—Rules that specify how the firewall handles traffic that does not match any Pre Rules, Post Rules, or local firewall rules.

NP-View reads device configuration files and can be used to review and verify the ruleset configuration using the Access Rules feature.  An example is below:

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