OpenNetaudit – Frida 2020  

23/05/2022

By Guilherme Ladvocat

It is in the day to day of network, security and IT teams, tasks like configuring network devices in a reliable and secure manner. Generally, each organization or team has its own templates to use when configuring new devices. As technicians think differently and have differences in skills and knowledge, many times these templates have gaps in terms of security best practices.

There are many tools that resolve parts of the problem or require coding. Many networks and organizations deal with this situation with specific scripts or playbooks, but generally not in a broader perspective. In the open-source community as well, there was no choice for a tool that can be generic and flexible to audit network devices searching for vulnerabilities.

So, in 2019 the RNP Network Operations team started developing a software to do security auditing in network devices, recommending configuration fixes and verifying if the operational system is up to date. Some challenges were encountered such as dealing with multiple vendors, a high density of devices in the network and different support to automation between them. In the beginning it took form in a minimum viable product (MVP).

In the process, many improvements were identified, which were also necessary to resolve the issues in a more reliable and flexible way. So, we submitted a proposal of a roadmap to the Frida Program, and it was accepted. The team developed the software and validated it in practice. At the end of the cycle, the version 1.0 was released and made available to the community. It is an useful tool for any ISP or network operator to use and verify vulnerabilities in their network devices.

The Frida program was very helpful in many aspects, from a financial and visibility perspective. So projects with impact in the Internet can benefit from this program to support initiatives that can resolve real day to day problems.