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A powerful, easily deployable network traffic analysis tool suite for network security monitoring

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Hedgehog Linux

Contribution Guide

Deploying Malcolm with Kubernetes

This document assumes good working knowledge of Kubernetes (K8s). The comprehensive Kubernetes documentation is a good place to go for more information about Kubernetes.

System

Ingress Controllers

There exist a variety of ingress controllers for Kubernetes suitable for different Kubernetes providers and environments. A few sample manifests for ingress controllers can be found in Malcolm’s kubernetes directory, prefixed with 99-ingress-…:

Before running Malcolm, either copy one of the 99-ingress-… files to 99-ingress.yml as a starting point to define the ingress or define a custom manifest file and save it as 99-ingress.yml.

Ingress-NGINX Controller

Malcolm’s ingress controller manifest uses the Ingress-NGINX controller for Kubernetes. A few Malcolm features require some customization when installing and configuring the Ingress-NGINX controller. As well as being listed below, see kubernetes/vagrant/deploy_ingress_nginx.sh for an example of how to configure and apply the Ingress-NGINX controller for Kubernetes.

Kubernetes Provider Settings

OpenSearch has some important settings that must be present on its underlying Linux system. How these settings are configured depends largely on the underlying host(s) running Kubernetes, and how Kubernetes is installed or the cloud provider on which it is running. Consult the operating system or cloud provider documentation for how to configure these settings.

Settings that likely need to be changed in the underlying host running Kubernetes include:

Configuration

The steps to configure and tune Malcolm for a Kubernetes deployment are very similar to those for a Docker-based deployment. Both methods use environment variable files for Malcolm’s runtime configuration.

Malcolm’s configuration and runtime scripts (e.g., ./scripts/configure, ./scripts/auth_setup, ./scripts/start, etc.) are used for both Docker- and Kubernetes-based deployments. In order to indicate to these scripts that Kubernetes is being used rather than docker compose, users can provide the script with the kubeconfig file used to communicate with the API server of the Kubernetes cluster (e.g., ./scripts/configure -f k3s.yaml or ./scripts/start -f kubeconfig.yaml, etc.). The scripts will detect whether the YAML file specified is a kubeconfig file or a Docker compose file and act accordingly.

Run ./scripts/configure and answer the questions to configure Malcolm. For an in-depth treatment of these configuration questions, see the Configuration section in End-to-end Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ISO Installation. Users will need to run ./scripts/auth_setup to configure authentication.

OpenSearch and Elasticsearch Instances

While Malcolm can manage its own single-node OpenSearch instance as part of its Kubernetes deployment, users may want to use an existing multi-node OpenSearch or Elasticsearch cluster hosted on Kubernetes or some other provider (see, for example, “Setup OpenSearch multi-node cluster on Kubernetes using Helm Charts” on the OpenSearch blog and “OpenSearch Kubernetes Operator” in the OpenSearch documentation). Review Malcolm’s documentation on OpenSearch and Elasticsearch instances to configure a Malcolm deployment to use an OpenSearch or Elasticesarch cluster.

PersistentVolumeClaim Definitions

Malcolm requires persistent storage to be configured for its configuration and data files. There are various implementations for provisioning PersistentVolume resources using storage classes. Regardless of the types of storage underlying the PersistentVolumes, Malcolm requires the following PersistentVolumeClaims to be defined in the malcolm namespace:

An example of how these PersistentVolume and PersistentVolumeClaim objects could be defined using NFS can be found in the kubernetes/01-volumes-nfs.yml.example or kubernetes/01-volumes-vagrant-nfs-server.yml.example manifest files. The latter of the two manifest examples is used in conjunction with the NFS server Vagrantfile example: kubernetes/vagrant/Vagrantfile_NFS_Server.example . Before running Malcolm, copy either 01-volumes-vagrant-nfs-server.yml.example to 01-volumes.yml (for the Vagrant provided NFS server) or copy 01-volumes-nfs.yml.example to 01-volumes.yml and modify (or replace) its contents to define the PersistentVolumeClaim objects configured for your own NFS server IP address and exported paths.

Attempting to start Malcolm without these PersistentVolumeClaims defined in a YAML file in Malcolm’s ./kubernetes/ directory will result in an error like this:

$ ./scripts/start -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yml
Exception: Storage objects required by Malcolm are not defined in /home/user/Malcolm/kubernetes: {'PersistentVolumeClaim': ['pcap-claim', 'zeek-claim', 'suricata-claim', 'config-claim', 'runtime-logs-claim', 'opensearch-claim', 'opensearch-backup-claim']}

Running Malcolm

After configuring Malcolm, use the ./scripts/start script to create the Malcolm Kubernetes deployment, providing the kubeconfig file with the -f/--file argument:

$ ./scripts/start -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yml

The Kubernetes resources under the malcolm namespace (its pods, storage volumes, containers, etc.) will be initialized and started using the Kubernetes API, including:

After a few moments, users can check the status of the deployment:

$ ./scripts/status -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yml
Node Name | Hostname | IP            | Provider ID | Instance Type | Total CPU | CPU Usage | Percent CPU | Total Memory | Memory Usage | Total Storage | Current Pods |
server    | server   | 192.168.56.10 | server      | k3s           | 4000m     | 30.37m    | 0.76%       | 7.77Gi       | 1.2Gi        | 61.28Gi       | 7            |
agent2    | agent2   | 192.168.56.12 | agent2      | k3s           | 6000m     | 156.42m   | 2.61%       | 19.55Gi      | 14.47Gi      | 61.28Gi       | 13           |
agent1    | agent1   | 192.168.56.11 | agent1      | k3s           | 6000m     | 861.34m   | 14.36%      | 19.55Gi      | 9.29Gi       | 61.28Gi       | 11           |

Pod Name                                       | State   | Pod IP     | Pod Kind   | Worker Node | CPU Usage | Memory Usage | Container Name:Restarts        | Container Image              |
api-deployment-6f4686cf59-bn286                | Running | 10.42.2.14 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.11m     | 59.62Mi      | api-container:0                | api:24.11.0               |
file-monitor-deployment-855646bd75-vk7st       | Running | 10.42.2.16 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 8.47m     | 1.46Gi       | file-monitor-container:0       | file-monitor:24.11.0      |
zeek-live-deployment-64b69d4b6f-947vr          | Running | 10.42.2.17 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.02m     | 12.44Mi      | zeek-live-container:0          | zeek:24.11.0              |
dashboards-helper-deployment-69dc54f6b6-ln4sq  | Running | 10.42.2.15 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 10.77m    | 38.43Mi      | dashboards-helper-container:0  | dashboards-helper:24.11.0 |
upload-deployment-586568844b-4jnk9             | Running | 10.42.2.18 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.15m     | 29.78Mi      | upload-container:0             | file-upload:24.11.0       |
filebeat-deployment-6ff8bc444f-t7h49           | Running | 10.42.2.20 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 2.84m     | 70.71Mi      | filebeat-container:0           | filebeat-oss:24.11.0      |
zeek-offline-deployment-844f4865bd-g2sdm       | Running | 10.42.2.21 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.17m     | 41.92Mi      | zeek-offline-container:0       | zeek:24.11.0              |
logstash-deployment-6fbc9fdcd5-hwx8s           | Running | 10.42.2.22 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 85.55m    | 2.91Gi       | logstash-container:0           | logstash-oss:24.11.0      |
netbox-deployment-cdcff4977-hbbw5              | Running | 10.42.2.23 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 807.64m   | 702.86Mi     | netbox-container:0             | netbox:24.11.0            |
suricata-offline-deployment-6ccdb89478-z5696   | Running | 10.42.2.19 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.22m     | 34.88Mi      | suricata-offline-container:0   | suricata:24.11.0          |
dashboards-deployment-69b5465db-vz88g          | Running | 10.42.1.14 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.94m     | 100.12Mi     | dashboards-container:0         | dashboards:24.11.0        |
netbox-redis-cache-deployment-5f77d47b8b-z7t2z | Running | 10.42.1.15 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 3.57m     | 7.36Mi       | netbox-redis-cache-container:0 | redis:24.11.0             |
suricata-live-deployment-6494c77759-9rlnt      | Running | 10.42.1.16 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.02m     | 9.69Mi       | suricata-live-container:0      | suricata:24.11.0          |
freq-deployment-cfd84fd97-dnngf                | Running | 10.42.1.17 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.2m      | 26.36Mi      | freq-container:0               | freq:24.11.0              |
arkime-deployment-56999cdd66-s98pp             | Running | 10.42.1.18 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 4.15m     | 113.07Mi     | arkime-container:0             | arkime:24.11.0            |
pcap-monitor-deployment-594ff674c4-fsm7m       | Running | 10.42.1.19 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 1.24m     | 48.44Mi      | pcap-monitor-container:0       | pcap-monitor:24.11.0      |
pcap-capture-deployment-7c8bf6957-jzpzn        | Running | 10.42.1.20 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.02m     | 9.64Mi       | pcap-capture-container:0       | pcap-capture:24.11.0      |
netbox-postgres-deployment-5879b8dffc-kkt56    | Running | 10.42.1.21 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 70.91m    | 33.02Mi      | netbox-postgres-container:0    | postgresql:24.11.0        |
htadmin-deployment-6fc46888b9-sq6ln            | Running | 10.42.1.23 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.14m     | 30.53Mi      | htadmin-container:0            | htadmin:24.11.0           |
netbox-redis-deployment-5bcd8f6c96-j5xpf       | Running | 10.42.1.24 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 1.46m     | 7.34Mi       | netbox-redis-container:0       | redis:24.11.0             |
nginx-proxy-deployment-69fcc4968d-f68tq        | Running | 10.42.1.22 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.31m     | 22.63Mi      | nginx-proxy-container:0        | nginx-proxy:24.11.0       |
opensearch-deployment-75498799f6-4zmwd         | Running | 10.42.1.25 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 89.8m     | 11.03Gi      | opensearch-container:0         | opensearch:24.11.0        |

The other control scripts (stop, restart, logs, etc.) work in a similar manner as in a Docker-based deployment. One notable difference is the wipe script: data on PersistentVolume storage cannot be deleted by wipe. It must be deleted manually on the storage media underlying the PersistentVolumes.

Malcolm’s control scripts require the official Python 3 client library for Kubernetes to configure and run Malcolm with Kubernetes. It is also recommended to install stern, which is used by the ./scripts/logs script to tail Malcolm’s container logs.

Deployment Example

Here is a basic step-by-step example illustrating how to deploy Malcolm with Kubernetes. For the sake of simplicity, this example uses Vagrant: see kubernetes/vagrant/Vagrantfile to create a virtualized Kubernetes cluster with one control plane node and two worker nodes or see kubernetes/vagrant/Vagrantfile_NFS_Server.example to include an NFS server with the cluster described above. It assumes users have downloaded and extracted the release tarball or used ./scripts/malcolm_appliance_packager.sh to package up the files needed to run Malcolm.

$ ls -l
total 45,056
drwxr-xr-x 2 user user  4,096 Apr 24 14:35 config
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user     19 Apr 24 14:35 filebeat
drwxr-xr-x 2 user user      6 Apr 24 14:35 htadmin
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user  4,096 Apr 24 14:39 kubernetes
drwxr-xr-x 4 user user     31 Apr 24 14:35 logstash
drwxr-xr-x 6 user user     62 Apr 24 14:35 netbox
drwxr-xr-x 4 user user     35 Apr 24 14:35 nginx
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user     19 Apr 24 14:35 opensearch
drwxr-xr-x 2 user user      6 Apr 24 14:35 opensearch-backup
drwxr-xr-x 4 user user     37 Apr 24 14:35 pcap
drwxr-xr-x 2 user user  4,096 Apr 24 14:35 scripts
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user     19 Apr 24 14:35 suricata
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user     18 Apr 24 14:35 suricata-logs
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user     19 Apr 24 14:35 yara
drwxr-xr-x 3 user user     19 Apr 24 14:35 zeek
drwxr-xr-x 7 user user     85 Apr 24 14:35 zeek-logs
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 18,761 Apr 24 14:35 docker-compose.yml
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user  3,453 Apr 24 14:35 README.md

Even before starting Malcolm, the status script can verify communication with the Kubernetes cluster:

$ ./scripts/status -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yaml
Node Name | Hostname | IP            | Provider ID | Instance Type | Total CPU | CPU Usage | Percent CPU | Total Memory | Memory Usage | Total Storage | Current Pods |
agent2    | agent2   | 192.168.56.12 | agent2      | k3s           | 6000m     | 32.06m    | 0.53%       | 19.55Gi      | 346.3Mi      | 61.28Gi       | 1            |
agent1    | agent1   | 192.168.56.11 | agent1      | k3s           | 6000m     | 26.7m     | 0.45%       | 19.55Gi      | 353.2Mi      | 61.28Gi       | 1            |
server    | server   | 192.168.56.10 | server      | k3s           | 4000m     | 290.15m   | 7.25%       | 7.77Gi       | 1.04Gi       | 61.28Gi       | 7            |

Pod Name | State | Pod IP | Pod Kind | Worker Node | CPU Usage | Memory Usage | Container Name:Restarts | Container Image |

Run ./scripts/configure and answer the questions to configure Malcolm. For an in-depth treatment of these configuration questions, see the Configuration section in End-to-end Malcolm and Hedgehog Linux ISO Installation:

$ ./scripts/configure -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yaml

Malcolm processes will run as UID 1000 and GID 1000. Is this OK? (Y / n): y

Run with Malcolm (all containers) or Hedgehog (capture only) profile? (Y (Malcolm) / n (Hedgehog)): y

Should Malcolm use and maintain its own OpenSearch instance? (Y / n): y

Compress local OpenSearch index snapshots? (y / N): n

Forward Logstash logs to a secondary remote document store? (y / N): n

Setting 16g for OpenSearch and 3g for Logstash. Is this OK? (Y / n): y

Setting 6 workers for Logstash pipelines. Is this OK? (Y / n): y

Require encrypted HTTPS connections? (Y / n): y

1: Basic
2: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
3: None
Select authentication method (Basic): 1

Enable index management policies (ILM/ISM) in Arkime? (y / N): n

Should Malcolm delete the oldest database indices and capture artifacts based on available storage? (y / N): y

Delete the oldest indices when the database exceeds a certain size? (y / N): y

Enter index threshold (e.g., 250GB, 1TB, 60%, etc.): 250G

Determine oldest indices by name (instead of creation time)? (Y / n): y

Should Arkime delete uploaded PCAP files based on available storage (see https://arkime.com/faq#pcap-deletion)? (y / N): y

Enter PCAP deletion threshold in gigabytes or as a percentage (e.g., 500, 10%, etc.): 10%

Automatically analyze all PCAP files with Suricata? (Y / n): y

Download updated Suricata signatures periodically? (y / N): y

Automatically analyze all PCAP files with Zeek? (Y / n): y

Is Malcolm being used to monitor an Operational Technology/Industrial Control Systems (OT/ICS) network? (y / N): n

Perform reverse DNS lookup locally for source and destination IP addresses in logs? (y / N): n

Perform hardware vendor OUI lookups for MAC addresses? (Y / n): y

Perform string randomness scoring on some fields? (Y / n): y

Use default field values for Filebeat TCP listener? (Y / n): y

Enable file extraction with Zeek? (y / N): y
1: none
2: known
3: mapped
4: all
5: interesting
6: notcommtxt

Select file extraction behavior (none): 5
1: quarantined
2: all
3: none
Select file preservation behavior (quarantined): 1

Enter maximum allowed space for Zeek-extracted files (e.g., 250GB) or file system fill threshold (e.g., 90%): 100G

Expose web interface for downloading preserved files? (y / N): y

ZIP downloaded preserved files? (y / N): y

Enter ZIP archive password for downloaded preserved files (or leave blank for unprotected): infected

Scan extracted files with ClamAV? (Y / n): y

Scan extracted files with Yara? (Y / n): y

Scan extracted PE files with Capa? (Y / n): y

Lookup extracted file hashes with VirusTotal? (y / N): n

Download updated file scanner signatures periodically? (y / N): y

Should Malcolm run and maintain an instance of NetBox, an infrastructure resource modeling tool? (y / N): y

Should Malcolm enrich network traffic using NetBox? (Y / n): y

Should Malcolm automatically populate NetBox inventory based on observed network traffic? (y / N): n

Specify default NetBox site name: Malcolm

Should Malcolm automatically create missing NetBox subnet prefixes based on observed network traffic? (y / N): n

Enable dark mode for OpenSearch Dashboards? (Y / n): y

Malcolm has been installed to /home/user/Malcolm. See README.md for more information.

Scripts for starting and stopping Malcolm and changing authentication-related settings can be found in /home/user/Malcolm/scripts.

Run ./scripts/auth_setup and answer the questions to configure authentication:

$ ./scripts/auth_setup -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yaml

1: all - Configure all authentication-related settings
2: admin - Store administrator username/password for local Malcolm access
3: webcerts - (Re)generate self-signed certificates for HTTPS access
4: fwcerts - (Re)generate self-signed certificates for a remote log forwarder
5: remoteos - Configure remote primary or secondary OpenSearch/Elasticsearch instance
6: email - Store username/password for OpenSearch Alerting email sender account
7: netbox - (Re)generate internal passwords for NetBox
8: txfwcerts - Transfer self-signed client certificates to a remote log forwarder

Configure Authentication (all): 1

Store administrator username/password for local Malcolm access? (Y / n): y

Administrator username: analyst
analyst password:
analyst password (again):

Additional local accounts can be created at https://localhost/auth/ when Malcolm is running

(Re)generate self-signed certificates for HTTPS access? (Y / n): y

(Re)generate self-signed certificates for a remote log forwarder? (Y / n): y

Store username/password for primary remote OpenSearch/Elasticsearch instance? (y / N): n

Store username/password for email alert sender account? (y / N): n

(Re)generate internal passwords for NetBox? (Y / n): y

Transfer self-signed client certificates to a remote log forwarder? (y / N): n

Next, copy ./kubernetes/01-volumes-vagrant-nfs-server.yml.example to ./kubernetes/01-volumes.yml (when using the Vagrant provided NFS server) or copy ./kubernetes/01-volumes-nfs.yml.example to ./kubernetes/01-volumes.yml and edit that file to define the required PersistentVolumeClaims there.

$ cp -v ./kubernetes/01-volumes-nfs.yml.example ./kubernetes/01-volumes.yml
'./kubernetes/01-volumes-nfs.yml.example' -> './kubernetes/01-volumes.yml'

$ vi ./kubernetes/01-volumes.yml
…

$ grep -A 3 PersistentVolumeClaim ./kubernetes/01-volumes.yml
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: pcap-claim
  namespace: malcolm
--
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: zeek-claim
  namespace: malcolm
--
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: suricata-claim
  namespace: malcolm
--
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: config-claim
  namespace: malcolm
--
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: runtime-logs-claim
  namespace: malcolm
--
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: opensearch-claim
  namespace: malcolm
--
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: opensearch-backup-claim
  namespace: malcolm

Start Malcolm:

$ ./scripts/start -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yaml
…
logstash | [2023-04-24T21:00:34,470][INFO ][logstash.agent           ] Pipelines running {:count=>6, :running_pipelines=>[:"malcolm-input", :"malcolm-output", :"malcolm-suricata", :"malcolm-beats", :"malcolm-enrichment", :"malcolm-zeek"], :non_running_pipelines=>[]}

Started Malcolm

Malcolm services can be accessed at https://192.168.56.10/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check the status of the Malcolm deployment with ./scripts/status:

$ ./scripts/status -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yaml

Node Name | Hostname | IP            | Provider ID | Instance Type | Total CPU | CPU Usage | Percent CPU | Total Memory | Memory Usage | Total Storage | Current Pods |
server    | server   | 192.168.56.10 | server      | k3s           | 4000m     | 47.03m    | 1.18%       | 7.77Gi       | 1.14Gi       | 61.28Gi       | 7            |
agent1    | agent1   | 192.168.56.11 | agent1      | k3s           | 6000m     | 3677.42m  | 61.29%      | 19.55Gi      | 4.95Gi       | 61.28Gi       | 12           |
agent2    | agent2   | 192.168.56.12 | agent2      | k3s           | 6000m     | 552.71m   | 9.21%       | 19.55Gi      | 13.27Gi      | 61.28Gi       | 12           |

Pod Name                                       | State   | Pod IP     | Pod Kind   | Worker Node | CPU Usage | Memory Usage | Container Name:Restarts        | Container Image              |
netbox-redis-cache-deployment-5f77d47b8b-jr9nt | Running | 10.42.2.6  | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 1.89m     | 7.24Mi       | netbox-redis-cache-container:0 | redis:24.11.0             |
netbox-redis-deployment-5bcd8f6c96-bkzmh       | Running | 10.42.2.5  | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 1.62m     | 7.52Mi       | netbox-redis-container:0       | redis:24.11.0             |
dashboards-helper-deployment-69dc54f6b6-ks7ps  | Running | 10.42.2.4  | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 12.95m    | 40.75Mi      | dashboards-helper-container:0  | dashboards-helper:24.11.0 |
freq-deployment-cfd84fd97-5bwp6                | Running | 10.42.2.8  | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.11m     | 26.33Mi      | freq-container:0               | freq:24.11.0              |
pcap-capture-deployment-7c8bf6957-hkvkn        | Running | 10.42.2.12 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.02m     | 9.21Mi       | pcap-capture-container:0       | pcap-capture:24.11.0      |
nginx-proxy-deployment-69fcc4968d-m57rz        | Running | 10.42.2.10 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.91m     | 22.72Mi      | nginx-proxy-container:0        | nginx-proxy:24.11.0       |
htadmin-deployment-6fc46888b9-vpt7l            | Running | 10.42.2.7  | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.16m     | 30.21Mi      | htadmin-container:0            | htadmin:24.11.0           |
opensearch-deployment-75498799f6-5v92w         | Running | 10.42.2.13 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 139.2m    | 10.86Gi      | opensearch-container:0         | opensearch:24.11.0        |
zeek-live-deployment-64b69d4b6f-fcb6n          | Running | 10.42.2.9  | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 0.02m     | 109.55Mi     | zeek-live-container:0          | zeek:24.11.0              |
dashboards-deployment-69b5465db-kgsqk          | Running | 10.42.2.3  | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 14.98m    | 108.85Mi     | dashboards-container:0         | dashboards:24.11.0        |
arkime-deployment-56999cdd66-xxpw9             | Running | 10.42.2.11 | ReplicaSet | agent2      | 208.95m   | 78.42Mi      | arkime-container:0             | arkime:24.11.0            |
api-deployment-6f4686cf59-xt9md                | Running | 10.42.1.3  | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.14m     | 56.88Mi      | api-container:0                | api:24.11.0               |
netbox-postgres-deployment-5879b8dffc-lb4qm    | Running | 10.42.1.6  | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 141.2m    | 48.02Mi      | netbox-postgres-container:0    | postgresql:24.11.0        |
pcap-monitor-deployment-594ff674c4-fwq7g       | Running | 10.42.1.12 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 3.93m     | 46.44Mi      | pcap-monitor-container:0       | pcap-monitor:24.11.0      |
suricata-offline-deployment-6ccdb89478-j5fgj   | Running | 10.42.1.10 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 10.42m    | 35.12Mi      | suricata-offline-container:0   | suricata:24.11.0          |
suricata-live-deployment-6494c77759-rpt48      | Running | 10.42.1.8  | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.01m     | 9.62Mi       | suricata-live-container:0      | suricata:24.11.0          |
netbox-deployment-cdcff4977-7ns2q              | Running | 10.42.1.7  | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 830.47m   | 530.7Mi      | netbox-container:0             | netbox:24.11.0            |
zeek-offline-deployment-844f4865bd-7x68b       | Running | 10.42.1.9  | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 1.44m     | 43.66Mi      | zeek-offline-container:0       | zeek:24.11.0              |
filebeat-deployment-6ff8bc444f-pdgzj           | Running | 10.42.1.11 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.78m     | 75.25Mi      | filebeat-container:0           | filebeat-oss:24.11.0      |
file-monitor-deployment-855646bd75-nbngq       | Running | 10.42.1.4  | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 1.69m     | 1.46Gi       | file-monitor-container:0       | file-monitor:24.11.0      |
upload-deployment-586568844b-9s7f5             | Running | 10.42.1.13 | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 0.14m     | 29.62Mi      | upload-container:0             | file-upload:24.11.0       |
logstash-deployment-6fbc9fdcd5-2hhx8           | Running | 10.42.1.5  | ReplicaSet | agent1      | 3236.29m  | 357.36Mi     | logstash-container:0           | logstash-oss:24.11.0      |

View container logs for the Malcolm deployment with ./scripts/logs (if stern present in $PATH):

$ ./scripts/logs -f /path/to/kubeconfig.yaml
api | [2023-04-24 20:55:59 +0000] [7] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 7
dashboards |   log   [20:59:28.784] [info][server][OpenSearchDashboards][http] http server running at http://0.0.0.0:5601/dashboards
file-monitor | 2023-04-24 20:59:38 INFO: ۞  started [1]
freq | 2023-04-24 20:57:09,481 INFO success: freq entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 5 seconds (startsecs)
htadmin | 2023-04-24 20:58:04,724 INFO success: nginx entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 15 seconds (startsecs)
opensearch | [2023-04-24T21:00:18,442][WARN ][o.o.c.m.MetadataIndexTemplateService] [opensearch-deployment-75498799f6-5v92w] index template [malcolm_template] has index patterns [arkime_sessions3-*] matching patterns from existing older templates [arkime_sessions3_ecs_template,arkime_sessions3_template] with patterns (arkime_sessions3_ecs_template => [arkime_sessions3-*],arkime_sessions3_template => [arkime_sessions3-*]); this template [malcolm_template] will take precedence during new index creation
pcap-capture | 8:57PM INF Listening at http://0.0.0.0:80 /...
pcap-monitor | 2023-04-24 20:59:53 INFO: ۞  started [1]
upload | 2023-04-24 20:59:27,496 INFO success: nginx entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 15 seconds (startsecs)
zeek-live | 8:59PM INF Listening at http://0.0.0.0:80 /...
zeek-offline | 2023-04-24 20:58:16,072 INFO success: pcap-zeek entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 15 seconds (startsecs)
suricata-live | 8:57PM INF Listening at http://0.0.0.0:80 /...
logstash | [2023-04-24T21:00:34,470][INFO ][logstash.agent           ] Pipelines running {:count=>6, :running_pipelines=>[:"malcolm-input", :"malcolm-output", :"malcolm-suricata", :"malcolm-beats", :"malcolm-enrichment", :"malcolm-zeek"], :non_running_pipelines=>[]}
…

The Malcolm user interface should be accessible at the IP address or hostname of the Kubernetes ingress controller.

Future Enhancements

Deploying Malcolm with Kubernetes is a new (and still somewhat experimental) feature, and does not yet support the full range of Malcolm features. Development around these features is ongoing. Some of the notable features that are still a work in progress for Kubernetes deployment include:

Live Traffic Analysis

For now, network traffic artifacts for analysis are provided to a Malcolm deployment on Kubernetes via forwarding from a remote instance of Hedgehog Linux or via PCAP upload. Future work is needed to design and implement monitoring of network traffic in the cloud.

Horizontal Scaling

For now, the Malcolm services running in Kubernetes are configured with replicas: 1. There is more investigation and development needed to ensure Malcolm’s containers work correctly when horizontally scaled.

Helm Chart

For now, Malcolm’s Kubernetes deployment is managed via standard Kubernetes manifests. The Malcolm developers need to look into what a Malcolm Helm chart would look like and how it would fit in with the deployment scripts for configuring and running Malcolm, if at all.