computer science

Octopussy (software)

Octopussy (software) is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Octopussy (software) rather than just read about it. In short: Octopussy, also known as 8Pussy, is a free and open-source computer-software which monitors systems, by constantly analyzing the syslog data they generate and transmit to such a central Octopussy server (thus often called a SIEM solution). Therefore, software like Octopussy plays an important role in maintaining an information security management system within ISO/IEC 27001-compliant environments.

Key takeaways

Octopussy (software) belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Octopussy (software) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Octopussy (software) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Octopussy, also known as 8Pussy, is a free and open-source computer-software which monitors systems, by constantly analyzing the syslog data they generate and transmit to such a central Octopussy server (thus often called a SIEM solution). Therefore, software like Octopussy plays an important role in maintaining an information security management system within ISO/IEC 27001-compliant environments. Octopussy has the ability to monitor any device that supports the syslog protocol, such as servers, routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, and its important applications and services. The main purpose of the software is to alert its administrators and users to different kinds of events, like system outages, attacks on systems or errors in applications. However, unlike Nagios or Icinga, Octopussy is not a state-checker and therefore problems cannot be resolved within the application. The software also makes no prescription whatsoever on which messages must be/must not be analyzed. As such, Octopussy can be seen as less powerful than other popular commercial software in the same category (event monitoring and log analysis). Octopussy is compatible with many Linux system distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, CentOS, RHEL and even meta-distributions as Gentoo or Arch Linux. Although Octopussy was originally designed to run on Linux, it could be ported to other Unix variants like FreeBSD with minimal effort. Octopussy has extensive report generating features and also various interfaces to other software, like e.g. NSCA (Nagios), Jabber/XMPP and Zabbix. With the help of software like Snare even Windows EventLogs can be processed. Octopussy is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Characteristics Although Octopussy is free and open-source software it has a variety of characteristics also found in some professional enterprise applications like Splunk, SAWMILL or Kiwi Syslog.

Octopussy features At the time of writing, Octopussy comes with the following set of features:

Basic LDAP support (v1.0+) for Octopussy users and contacts with filter mechanism Alert sending by email, IM (Jabber), NSCA (Nagios) and Zabbix Map functionality to show the system infrastructure known to Octopussy Exportable reports by email, FTP and SCP Input & output plugins for manual and automatic reports Report scheduling and automated report generation based on parameters A log viewer to search for syslog messages received by Octopussy An RRDtool to provide data graphing of syslog activity for enabled services Comprehensive service definitions (Apache 2, BIND, BSD Kernel ...) A wizard to easily create new services and/or message patterns for existing services An option to enable or disable services and alerts for every system under surveillance Online updates for services, tables and l18n (language support) Multi-language support: English French German Italian Spanish Portuguese Russian A web-interface for viewing current devices status, alerts, log messages, etc. A themable interface and report documents Manageability of Octopussy core services from the operating system shell Flat-text formatted configuration files (integrates with many configuration editors) An option to timely rotate and store received syslog messages in various locations User management with the ability of granular permission configuration Simple outline of styles and GUI components in ASP for easy modification

Supported services Some of the (meta-)services supported by/known by Octopussy are: Apache 2, BIND, BSD Kernel, BSD PAM, BSD System, Cisco Routers (ASR), Cisco Switches, ClamAV, DenyAll Reverse Proxy, DRBD, F5 BigIP, Fortinet FW, HP-Tools, Ironport MailServer, Juniper Netscreen FW, Juniper Netscreen NSM, LDAP, Linux AppArmor, Linux Auditd, Linux IPTables, Linux Kernel, Linux PAM, Linux System, Monit, MySQL, Nagios, Neoteris/Juniper FW, NetApp NetCache, Postfix, PostgreSQL, Samba, Samhain, SNMPd, Squid, SSHd, Syslog-ng, TACACS, VMware ESX(i), Windows Snare Agent, Windows System, Xen ...

Processible events Events receivable from services and thus processible by Octopussy include:

Failed and/or successful logins, especially of higher privileged users Violation of access permissions or policies in applications and operating systems Write and/or read access in critical environments, e.g. with AppArmor or SELinux Established or terminated VPN tunnels in systems, like e.g. Juniper Netscreen Objects like processes or files which security context or configuration changed Started or stopped processes on an operating system level Critical system states like (unrecoverable) hardware or software failure Change in operating system state due to boot, reboot or shutdown Information regarding network connections/traffic, including ICMP messages, etc. Detection or otherwise handling of malware (i.e. worms, viruses, trojans)

Dependencies The software requires RSYSLOG installed on the syslog-server and expects systems that are monitored to run one of the numerous available syslog services, like e.g. syslogd/klogd, RSYSLOG or syslog-ng. The software further depends on the Apache 2 HTTP Server installed, with Apache::ASP, Mod_Perl and Mod_SSL. Octopussy also requires a MySQL DBMS (actual database is installed/copied during Octopussy setup) as well as a recent Perl interpreter installed on the operating system, with a variety of Perl modules from CPAN (e.g. Crypt::PasswdMD5, DBD::mysql, JSON, Unix::Syslog, XML::Simple). A comprehensive list of those modules can be found within the software packages/archives README.txt file. In addition to that NSCD and RRDtool are a requirement. RRDtool aids in the creation of graphs that will be displayed on the Octopussy dashboard or shown on a per-device/per-service level.

Architecture

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Octopussy (software)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Octopussy (software) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Octopussy (software) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Octopussy (software) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Octopussy (software)

In research: Octopussy (software) appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Octopussy (software) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Octopussy (software) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computer logging, Free network management software, Internet Protocol based network software, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Octopussy (software) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Octopussy (software) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Octopussy (software) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Octopussy (software) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Octopussy (software) in simple terms?

Why does Octopussy (software) matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Octopussy (software)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Octopussy (software).