Notifying administrators of floods

Notifying administrators of floods

You can configure alert notifications for message floods by selecting the Alert Notification message flood action. The FortiOS Carrier unit sends alert notifications to administrators using the MM1, MM3, MM4, or MM7 content interface. To send an alert notification you must configure addresses and other settings required for the content interface.

For example, to send notifications using the MM1 content interface you must configure a source MSISDN, hostname, URL, and port to which to send the notification. You can also configure schedules for when to send the notifications.

Finally you can add multiple MSISDN numbers to the MMS protection profile and set which flood thresholds to send to each MSISDN.

 

Example — three flood threshold levels with different actions for each threshold

You can set up to three threshold levels to take different actions at different levels of activity.

The first example threshold records log messages when a subscriber’s handset displays erratic behavior by sending multiple messages using MM1 at a relatively low threshold. The erratic behavior could indicate a problem with the subscriber’s handset. For example, you may have determined for your network that if a subscriber sends more the 45 messages in 30 minutes that you want to record log messages as a possible indication or erratic behavior.

From the web-based manager in an MMS profile set message Flood Threshold 1 to:

Enable                                        Selected

Message Flood Window          30 minutes

Message Flood Limit               45

Message Flood Action             Log

From the CLI:

config firewall mms-profile edit profile_name

config flood mm1

set status1 enable set window1 30

set limit1 45 set action1 log

end end

 

Set a second higher threshold to take additional actions when a subscriber sends more that 100 messages in 30 minutes. Set the actions for this threshold to log the flood, archive the message that triggered the second threshold, and block the sender for 15 minutes.

From the web-based manager in an MMS profile set message Flood Threshold 2 to:

 

Enable                                        Selected

Message Flood Window          30 minutes

Message Flood Limit               100

Message Block Time                15 minutes

Message Flood Action             Log, DLP archive First message only, Block

 

From the CLI:

config firewall mms-profile edit profile_name

config flood mm1

set status2 enable set window2 30

set limit2 100

set action2 block log archive-first set block-time2 15

end end

 

Set the third and highest threshold to block the subscriber for an extended period and sand an administrator alert if the subscriber sends more than 200 messages in 30 minutes. Set the actions for this threshold to block the sender for four hours (240 minutes), log the flood, archive the message that triggered the third threshold, and send an alert to the administrator.

From the web-based manager in an MMS profile set message Flood Threshold 3 to:

Enable                                        Selected

Message Flood Window          30 minutes

Message Flood Limit               200

Message Block Time                240 minutes

Message Flood Action             Log, Block, Alert Notification

Because you have selected the Alert Notification action you must also configure alert notification settings. For this example, the source MSISDN is 5551234—telephone number 555-1234. When administrators receive MMS messages from this MSIDSN they can assume a message flood has been detected.

In this example, alert notifications are sent by the FortiOS Carrier unit to the MMSC using MM1. The host name of the MMSC is mmscexample, the MMSC URL is /, and the port used by the MMSC is 80. In this example, the alert notification window starts at 8:00am and extends for eight hours on weekdays (Monday-Friday) and the minimum interval between message flood notifications is two hours.

Source MSISDN                         5551234

Message Protocol                     MM1

Hostname                                   mmscexample

URL                                             /

Port                                             80

Notifications Per Second         0

Limit

Window Start Time                   8:00

Window Duration                      8:00

Day of Week                               Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat

Interval                                       2 hours

From the CLI:

config firewall mms-profile edit profile_name

config notification alert-flood-1 set alert-src-msisdn 5551234 set set msg-protocol mm1

set mmsc-hostname mmscexample set mmsc-url /

set mmsc-port 80 set rate-limit 0

set tod-window-start 8:00

set tod-window-duration 8:00

set days-allowed monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday set alert-int 2

set alert-int-mode hours

end

You must also add the MSISDNs of the administrators to be notified of the message flood. In this example, the administrator flood threshold 3 alert notifications are sent to one administrator with MSISDN 5554321.

To add administrator’s MSISDNs for flood threshold 3 from the web-based manager when configuring a protection profile, select MMS Bulk Email Filtering Detection > Recipient MSISDN > Create New.

MSISDN                     5554321

Flood Level 3           Select

 

From the CLI:

config firewall mms-profile edit profile_name

config notif-msisdn edit 5554321

set threshold flood-thresh-3

end

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