The default FlowTraq user interface is browser based and can be accessed by any Internet enabled device with a web browser. By default FlowTraq can be accessed through the /flowtraq subdirectory on the server. For details on FlowTraq server installation, refer to the Installation Manual.

In FlowTraq the Dashboard is the first page that loads upon login. A Dashboard is a customizable collection of widgets which automatically update their contents in real time. Each user can have several dashboards, each adapted to various purposes. For example:

You can customize your Dashboards in various ways.

To create a new Dashboard, remove an existing Dashboard, or switch the currently-active Dashboard, use the dropdown menu at the top of the page:

To rename a Dashboard, click the name of the Dashboard at the top:

And enter a new name.

Use "Change Layout" button in the upper right corner to select from a menu of page layouts:

Use the "Add Widget" button in the upper right corner to add a Widget. Doing so will add a "generic" widget; select it the widget type to create it.

The following widget types are available.

Some widgets can be further configured. Click the "wrench" icon in the widget's title bar to configure it.

Some widgets can be renamed, which is indicated by a "pencil" displayed next to the widget title when it is hovered. Click the pencil or the title text to change the widget's title:

In FlowTraq the Workspace is your interactive analysis window into the traffic on your network. The Workspace features a powerful filtering interface that enables the analyst to select precisely the traffic of interest. Combined with hundreds of possible viewing combinations, the analyst can observe events on the network from any viewing angle, identifying patterns that remain hidden in traditional network analysis tools. By selecting objects the analyst can quickly pivot, zoom, and focus on suspicious activity, data breaches, and performance issues.

FlowTraq redefines traffic reporting by featuring a full-fidelity database that retains all flow records indefinitely. This means you can generate any view of your network, using any arbitrary filter, for any desired timeframe, whenever you need. With FlowTraq it is not necessary to define today what you want to analyze tomorrow, as all reports can be generated on the fly, post-hoc. Since all workspaces are defined in the URL, you can save interesting views of your traffic by bookmarking the URL. Additionally, since each view is generated dynamically, FlowTraq offers arbitrary zoom-in capability with full precision at any timescale.


The FlowTraq workspace has three components:

  1. An interactive graph showing the selected view of the selected traffic in the selected time window.

  2. A table detailing each of the elements shown in the graph.

  3. A full set of navigation tools for time selection, filtering, and viewing.

The table in the workspace view will display the first 10 top items. Additional pages with further ranking are available by simply navigating to the next page with the buttons at the bottom right of each table. As the analyst moves through the various pages the graph will change to indicate which data the table is displaying. The workspace displays a top-N style ranking, so each additional data page will have a subsequently smaller contribution to the overall total.

The number and type of table columns varies in part by the selected view, but the following types will always be shown:

Rank

The numerical rank of the current row according to the viewing criteria. The top row, #1, represents the largest-count entity in the list.

Color

Each page is shown in the workspace graph by a band of colors with gray bands above and below. Each row shown on the current page of the table is represented in the graph by the color in this column.

Entity (name varies)

Depending on the rank criteria, this column may be IP address, port/protocol, autonomous system number, or other element or groups of elements. Many of these groupings have their own names, such as Service Enpoint, denoting an IP address and server port/protocol combination.

Partition (main partition only)

When viewing multiple partitions' worth of data, FlowTraq optional breaks down each item according to the partition to which it belongs. This may result in multiple entries for the same entity: for example, ranking top countries by bytes and separating by partition may result in two or three entries for the United States, each with its own separate totals.

Total Count and Percent

The ranking portion of the view is a countable number, such as bytes, packets, or unique IPs. These columns show the count for this entity over the entire time frame and the percent of the total count represented by this entity.

Peak Rate

This column is paired with the total count, showing the highest estimated rate during the time frame shown. Rate estimates may vary by window width, especially for very short-duration sessions.

Average Rate

Along with Total Count and Peak Rate, Average Rate depends on the counting criteria. It is the average non-zero rate observed during the time frame shown: periods in which no communication from the given host are observed are not included in the averaging calculation.

Bytes, Packets, and Session counts

Regardless of the selected count, volume estimates are shown for each entity for the time frame selected. Usually, these are total volume sent and received, but depending on view parameters may be broken down by sent and received

95th Percentile

This column shows an estimate of the non-zero 95th percentile count for the entity shown. This measure is useful in comparison to peak and average to get a sense of how sustained the maximum rates are, and is calculated by selecting the 95th-highest non-zero count in the shown window.

Each entity shown in blue type (typically the ranked entity, but also the Partition number where shown and derived fields such as autonomous system number and country for IP address entities) has its own context menu. The menu, which can be customized, contains further actions specific to the entity clicked, including tagging ranked items with userfriendly names, adding ranked items to the filter to quickly pivot the view, and further customizations.

FlowTraq traffic navigation is defined by 3 key elements:

Thanks to the full fidelity nature of the FlowTraq database every field of the session record can be filtered on. This includes derived fields such as country and autonomous system number, which are not found in the flow export records, and added by FlowTraq. Since FlowTraq re-assembles uni-directional flows back into bi-directional sessions, many filter options have both a client and a server side, such as ports, traffic groups, and byte/packet counts. FlowTraq also tracks the sender and receiver of data, in order to differentiate direction of data flow.

[Note]Note

The differentiation between clients, server, senders, and receivers can be subtle. As an example, when host A connects to host B and requests a download of data, then host A is the client and receiver, and host B is the server and sender. If host A connects to host B and initiates an upload of data to B, however, host A is still the client and B the server, but A is now the sender and B the receiver. In most connections each host will both send and receive some data; filtering on sender or receiver will focus on the data flow when returning results.

A filter selects which session records will be used to perform the ranking. This means that the filter is applied to each session record in the selected timeframe to decide if the record should be returned and included.

[Important]Important

Complex filters can be constructed by entering multiple values in a filter line, or by combining multiple filter lines:

When entering multiple values in a single filter line they are combined through a logical 'OR' operation, meaning they will use a match any approach.

Multiple filter lines can be combined through a match all (logical 'AND') or match any (logical 'OR') approach.

FlowTraq supports matching specifically the 'client' or the 'server' side of a session for entities such as IP addresses, ports, autonomous systems, or interface index numbers. For example, this means the analyst can specifically choose to only select sessions where a particular address acts as a server (receiving the connection). When choosing 'either address', all sessions where either the server or the client address match the selected block will be included.

[Important]Important

When filtering on 'either' only matching entities are ranked.

Example: either ASN==32934 will only show FaceBook in the ASN-view, and FaceBook peers in the ASNPAIR-view.

When filtering on 'client' or 'server' side entities, all entities in the record are ranked.

Example: SRVIP==10.0.1.10 will only any IP that communicated with 10.0.1.10 (including the server itself) in an IP-view

There are many cases where the directionality of data flow is concern; questions of "who is sending data to my network" and "who outside my network is consuming my data" require knowing not only which host is initiating a connection but also which host is consuming data. Sometimes this can be discerned from protocol: the client initiates a connection and then always downloads data, or always uploads data. UDP streams, for example, are highly directional in this way, and identifying the client and server is sufficient to determine the flow of data. A filter on Server IP, then, identifies the consumer of NetFlow data.

However, many common protocols vary from session to session. SSH in particular can be either a pure upload, pure download, or an interactive session with meaningful data going both ways. Filtering on Sending IP identifies and then ranks sessions according to the data they transmit, regardless of whether that host (or VLAN, ASN, or Country) initiated the connection.

In combination with the INT filter element (marking all IP addresses that are internal to the partition), this type of filtering can be a fast and effective way to identify the top external consumers of your data.

[Important]Important

Remember that in most protocols, some data is sent each way: providing passwords before a download, for example, or a connection keep-alive. Very long downloads can result in the appearance of modest-sized uploads in the opposite direction. When investigating potential data exfiltration, always check the other half of the traffic to get a clear picture.

IP Address
Exporter
Interface Number
Port
Protocol
Application
Country of Origin
Session Volume
Sent Bytes

Filter sessions according to bytes sent -- best match according to either client or server half of conversation; used in conjunction with "Sending IP" and "Sending Port" filters. (Note that there is no corresponding "Received Bytes") Includes greater than/less than and range operators.

Client Bytes

Filter sessions according to bytes sent by the Client (initiator). Includes greater than/less than and range operators.

Server Bytes

Filter sessions according to bytes sent by the Server (to the initiator). Includes greater than/less than operators.

Any Bytes

Filter sessions according to bytes sent -- best match according to either client or server half of conversation; ignores "Sending IP" and "Sending Port" filters. Includes greater than/less than and range operators.

Total Bytes

Filter sessions according to the total bytes sent by either host. Includes greater than/less than and range operators.

Sent Packets

Filter sessions according to number of packets sent -- best match according to either client or server half of conversation; used in conjunction with "Sending IP" and "Sending Port" filters. (Note that there is no corresponding "Received Packets") Includes greater than/less than and range operators.

Client Packets

Filter sessions according to number of packets sent by the Client (initiator). Includes greater than/less than and range operators.

Server Packets

Filter sessions according to packets sent by the Server (to the initiator). Includes greater than/less than operators.

Any Packets

Filter sessions according to packets sent by either host -- best match according to either client or server half of conversation; ignores "Sending IP" and "Sending Port" filters. Includes greater than/less than and range operators.

Total Packets

Filter sessions according to the total packets sent by either host. Includes greater than/less than and range operators.

TCP
IP
Timing
MAC Address
Traffic Group
VLAN Number
AS Number
ASA Firewall Event
Partition

FlowTraq supports a system where the analyst can create arbitrary top-N rankings for any entity found in the session record. A view is created by selecting which entity (such as IP address, netblock, ASN, ...) should be ranked based on what quantity (packets, bytes, connections, ...). Some selections allow the analyst to specify whether only sent, or only received quantities should be included. This example shows a workspace with IP addresses ranked by bits sent. The graph displays the progression of bits sent over time by each of the top IP addresses by color code:

The first column of the table shows the top IP addresses with their reverse-resolved name (if available), and the autonomous system in which the IP address resides. The ranking was performed on bits sent by each IP address. The percentage column displays the contribution of each entity for the total selected traffic based on the filter and current timeframe. The additional columns are auxilary information and cannot be used for sorting.

Ranking of entities can be further controlled to only include bits/bytes/packets/sessions sent, or received. By default both sent and received counts are added into the ranking. By selecting 'sent' or 'received' the analyst is able to control the behavior of the ranking to include include the selected count to or from each entity.

[Important]Important

Sent/Received differentiation is only available for entities that CAN be viewed in a pairwise fashion, although a pairwise view does not need to be selected. In other words, only entities that are present at each side of a communication (such as IP addresses, autonomous systems, traffic groups, ...) have a meaningful differentiation between bytes/bits/packets sent or received. When viewing accumulated TCP flags, for example, the directionality is meaninless as TCP flags are a property of the communication, and are not tied to either side of the communication.

FlowTraq is able to offer arbitrary time navigation because data is never aggregated. A history of the most recently received records is kept in RAM for quick query processing. Historical queries are serviced from the disk database, and may take longer to complete.