Services Config View - Feeds Tab

Feeds and parsers are Lua programs loaded and compiled when either processing capture files in NetWitness Investigate or capturing data with Decoders. Most commonly, they are used for static meta extraction and service identification.

Note: Pre-11.0 versions of NetWitness used FLEXPARSE programs in addition to Lua programs; Flexparsers are deprecated in NetWitness 11.0. Unless otherwise stated, any reference to Decoders applies to Log Decoders as well.

NetWitness uses feeds to create metadata based on externally defined meta values. A feed is a list of data that is compared to sessions as they are captured or processed. For each match, additional metadata is created. This data can identify and classify malicious IPs or incorporate additional information such as department and location based on internal network assignments. Some examples of feeds include threat feeds to identify BOTNets, DHCP mappings, or even active directory information such as physical location or logical department.

Feeds can be added, removed, and updated while a Decoder is running without affecting capture. The Feeds tab ( netwitness_adminicon_25x22.png (Admin) > Services > select a Decoder or Log Decoder service and click netwitness_actiondd.png > View > Config > Feeds tab) provides a user interface for managing feeds on Decoders.

What do you want to do?

User Role I want to... Documentation
Administrator configure feeds Configure Parsers and Feeds
Administrator enable and disable parsers Enable and Disable Parsers and Log Parsers

Related Topics

Quick Look

This is an example of the Feeds tab.

netwitness_12.1_cfgvwfdtb-d_1122_750x470.png

1 Feeds Tab Toolbar - Provides options to work with feeds in the grid
2 Feed List - Lists all feeds that are currently deployed on the Decoder

Feeds Tab Toolbar

Feature Description
netwitness_iconfeedupload.png Displays the Upload Feeds dialog.
netwitness_delete.png Deletes the selected feeds.

Feeds List

The Feeds list provides a listing of all currently deployed feeds for the Decoder.

Column Description
Name The name of the feed or the feed file.
Live Indicates if the feed originated from Live. Possible values are Yes, No, or N/A.
  • Yes = Installed through Live
  • No = Installed through NetWitness
  • N/A = The feed has no attributes file created by NetWitness to track the installation date. The feed may have been installed manually, not through NetWitness or Live Services. Manually installed feeds still function properly.
Date Installed The date the feed was pushed to the service.