Understand WBNP and SBNP
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Contents
Introduction
This document describes the backward pathway of telemetry data to Cisco and Talos.
Background Information
The Cisco Web and Email Content Security products can provide telemetry data back to Cisco and Talos to increase the efficacy of web categorization in the Web Security Appliance (WSA) and connecting IP reputation for the Email Security Appliance (ESA).
The telemetry data is provided for the WSA and ESA on an opt-in basis.
The data is transmitted via binary encoded SSL encrypted packets. The included attachments provide insight into the data, specific formatting and descriptions for the data that is being transmitted.
WebBase Network Participation (WBNP) and SenderBase Network Participation (SBNP) data is not viewable in a direct log or file format. This data is transmitted in encrypted form. At no time is this data 'at rest'.
WSA - WebBase Network Participation
Cisco recognizes the importance of maintaining your privacy, and does not collect or use personal or confidential information such as usernames and passphrases. Additionally, the file names and URL attributes included with the hostname are obfuscated to ensure confidentiality.
When it comes to decrypted HTTPS transactions, the SensorBase Network only receives the IP address, web reputation score, and URL category of the server name in the certificate.
For complete information, please review the WSA User Guide for the version of AsyncOS for Web Security currently running on your appliance.
Please see The Cisco SensorBase Network in the ESA User Guide.
ESA - SenderBase Network Participation
If you are participating in the SenderBase Network, you allow Cisco to collect aggregated email traffic statistics about your organization, increasing the utility of the service for all users. Participation is voluntary. Cisco only collects summary data on message attributes and information about how different types of messages were handled by Cisco appliances. For example, Cisco does not collect the message body or the message subject. Personally identifiable information and information that identifies your organization is kept confidential.
For complete information, please review the ESA User Guide for the version of AsyncOS for ESA Security currently running on your appliance.
Please see the SenderBase Network Participation chapter in the User Guide.
General Security Concerns FAQ
| Question: | Where is the data collected stored? |
| Answer: | Appliance telemetry is stored in Cisco US-based data centers. |
| Question: | Who has access to the data collected and stored? |
| Answer: | Access is limited to Cisco SBG personnel who analyze/use the data to create actionable intelligence. |
| Question: | What is the retention time of the data collected? |
| Answer: | There is no data retention/expiration policy regarding appliance telemetry. Data can be kept indefinitely or can be deleted for various reasons including but not limited to down-sampling/aggregation, storage management, age, relevance to current/future threats, and so on. |
| Question: | Are customer serial number(s) or public IP address(es) stored in the Talos categorization database? |
| Answer: | No, only URL and categories are retained. The WBNP packet does not contain source IP information. |
Operation
This section details operation, the type of data (by description), and a sample data to demonstrate the information that would be transmitted:
- SBNP - Specific data types (fields) and sample data related to Email Security
- WBNP - Specific data types (fields) and sample data related to Web Security
- Threat Detection Operation - General overview of Threat Detection from a operational perspective
SenderBase (Email) Network Participation
Statistics Shared per Email Appliance
| Item | Sample Data |
| MGA Identifier | MGA 10012 |
| Timestamp | Data from 8 AM to 8:05 AM on July 1, 2005 |
| Software Version Numbers | MGA Version 4.7.0 |
| Rule Set Version Numbers | Anti-Spam Rule Set 102 |
| Anti-virus Update Interval | Updates every 10 minutes |
| Quarantine Size | 500 MB |
| Quarantine Message Count | 50 messages currently in quarantine |
| Virus Score Threshold | Send messages to quarantine at threat level 3 or higher |
| Sum of Virus Scores for messages entering quarantine | 120 |
| Count of messages entering quarantine | 30 (yields average score of 4) |
| Maximum quarantine time | 12 hours |
| Count of Outbreak quarantine messages broken down by why they entered and exited quarantine, correlated with Anti-Virus result | 50 entering quarantine due to .exe rule 30 leaving quarantine due to manual release, and all 30 were virus positive |
| Count of Outbreak quarantine messages broken down by what action was taken upon leaving quarantine | 10 messages had attachments stripped after leaving quarantine |
| Sum of time messages were held in quarantine | 20 hours |
Statistics Shared per IP Address
| Item |
Sample Data |
Standard Participation |
Limited Participation |
| Message count at various stages within the appliance |
Seen by Anti-Virus engine: 100 |
||
| Sum of Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus scores and verdicts |
2,000 (sum of anti-spam scores for all messages seen) |
||
| Number of messages hitting different Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus rule combinations |
100 messages hit rules A and B |
||
| Number of Connections |
20 SMTP Connections |
||
| Number of Total and Invalid Recipients |
50 total recipients |
||
| Hashed Filename(s): (a) |
A file <one-way-hash>.pif was found inside an archive attachment called <one-way-hash>.zip. |
Unobfuscated Filename |
Hashed Filename |
| Obfuscated Filename(s): (b) |
A file aaaaaaa0.aaa.pif was found inside a file aaaaaaa.zip. |
Unobfuscated Filename |
Obfuscated Filename |
| URL Hostname (c) |
There was a link found inside a message to www.domain.com |
Unobfuscated URL Hostname |
Obfuscated URL Hostname |
| Obfuscated URL Path (d) |
There was a link found inside a message to hostname www.domain.com, and had path aaa000aa/aa00aaa. |
Unobfuscated URL Path |
Obfuscated URL Path |
| Number of Messages by Spam and Virus Scanning Results |
10 Spam Positive |
| Number of messages by different Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus verdicts |
500 spam, 300 ham |
||
| Count of Messages in Size Ranges |
125 in 30K-35K range |
||
| Count of different extension types |
300 “.exe” attachments |
||
| Correlation of attachment types, true file type, and container type |
100 attachments that have a “.doc” extension but are actually “.exe” |
||
| Correlation of extension and true file type with attachment size |
30 attachments were “.exe” within the 50-55K range |
||
| Number of messages by Stochastic Sampling results |
14 messages skipped sampling |
||
| Number of messages that have failed DMARC verification |
34 messages have failed DMARC verification |
Notes:
(a) Filenames are encoded in a 1-way hash (MD5).
(b) Filenames are sent in an obfuscated form, with all lowercase ASCII letters ([a-z]) replaced with “a,” all uppercase ASCII letters ([A-Z]) replaced with “A,” any multi-byte UTF-8 characters replaced with “x” (to provide privacy for other character sets), all ASCII digits ([0-9]) replaced.
(c) URL hostnames point to a web server providing content, much as an IP address does. No confidential information, such as usernames and passwords, are included.
(d) URL information included with the hostname is obfuscated to ensure that any personal information of the user is not revealed.
Statistics Shared per SDS Client
| Item |
Sample Data |
| TimeStamp |
|
| Client version |
|
| Number of requests made to the Client |
|
| Number of requests made from the SDS Client |
|
| Time results for DNS Lookups |
|
| Server response time results |
|
| Time to establish connection to server |
|
| Number of connections established |
|
| Number of concurrent open connections to server |
|
| Number of service requests to WBRS |
|
| Number of requests which hit local WBRS cache |
|
| Size of local WBRS cache |
|
| Response time results from remote WBRS |
AMP SBNP Telemetry Data
| Format |
Sample Data |
| amp_verdicts' : { ("verdict", "spyname", "score", "uploaded", "file_name"), |
|
| ("verdict", "spyname", "score", "uploaded", "file_name"), |
|
| ("verdict", "spyname", "score", "uploaded", "file_name"), |
|
| ………. |
|
| ("verdict", "spyname", "score", "uploaded", "file_name"), |
|
| } |
|
| Description |
|
| Verdict - of the AMP reputation query |
malicious/clean/unknown |
| Spyname- Name of the malware detected |
[Trojan-Test] |
| Score - AMP assigned reputation score |
[1-100] |
| Upload - AMP cloud indicated to upload the file |
1 |
| File Name - Name of the file attachment |
abcd.pdf |
WebBase (Web) Network Participation
Statistics Shared per Web Request
| Item |
Sample Data |
Standard Participation |
Limited Participation |
| Version |
coeus 7.7.0-608 |
||
| Serial Number |
|||
| SBNP sampling factor (Volume) |
|||
| SBNP sampling factor (Rate) |
1 |
||
| Destination IP & Port |
unobfuscated URL path segments |
hashed URL path segments |
|
| Anti-Spyware chosen malware category |
Skipped |
||
| WBRS Score |
4.7 |
||
| McAfee malware category verdict |
|||
| Referer URL |
unobfuscated URL path segments |
hashed URL path segments |
|
| Content Type ID |
|||
| ACL Decision Tag |
0 |
||
| Legacy Web Categorization |
|||
| CIWUC Web Category and decision source |
{'src': 'req', 'cat': '1026'} |
||
| AVC App Name |
Ads and Tracking |
||
| AVC App Type |
Ad Networks |
||
| AVC App Behavior |
Unsafe |
||
| Internal AVC Result Tracking |
[0,1,1,1] |
||
| User agent tracking via indexed data structure |
3 |
Advanced Malware Statistics per Web Request
| AMP Statistics |
|
| Verdict - of the AMP reputation query |
malicious/clean/unknown |
| Spyname- Name of the malware detected |
[Trojan-Test] |
| Score - AMP assigned reputation score |
[1-100] |
| Upload - AMP cloud indicated to upload the file |
1 |
| File Name - Name of the file attachment |
abcd.pdf |
End User Feedback Statistics Feed
| Statistics Shared per End User Miscategorization Feedback |
|
| Item |
Sample Data |
| Engine ID (numeric) |
0 |
| Legacy Web Categorization code |
|
| CIWUC Web Categorization Source |
‘resp’ / ‘req’ |
| CIWUC Web Category |
1026 |
Example Data Provided – Standard Participation
# categorized
"http://google.com/": { "wbrs": "5.8",
"fs": {
"src": "req",
"cat": "1020"
},
}
# uncategorized
"http://fake.example.com": { "fs": {
"cat": "-"
},
}
Example Data Provided – Limited Participation
- Original request from client: www.gunexams.com/Non-Restricted-FREE-Practice-Exams
- Message logged (in telemetry server): http://www.gunexams.com/76bd845388e0
Full WBNP Decode
Statistics Shared per Cisco Appliance:
| Item |
Sample Data |
| Version |
coeus 7.7.0-608 |
| Serial number |
0022190B6ED5-XYZ1YZ2 |
| Model |
S660 |
| Webroot enabled |
1 |
| AVC enabled |
1 |
| Sophos enabled |
0 |
| Response Side Categorization enabled |
1 |
| Anti-Spyware Engine enabled |
default-2001005008 |
| Anti-Spyware SSE version |
default-2001005008 |
| Anti-Spyware Spycat Definitions version |
default-8640 |
| Anti-Spyware URL Blocklist DAT version |
|
| Anti-Spyware URL Phishing DAT version |
|
| Anti-Spyware Cookies DAT version |
|
| Anti-Spyware Domain Blocking enabled |
0 |
| Anti-Spyware Threat Risk Threshold |
90 |
| McAfee enabled |
0 |
| McAfee Engine version |
|
| McAfee DAT version |
default-5688 |
| WBNP Detail Level |
2 |
| WBRS Engine version |
freebsd6-i386-300036 |
| WBRS component versions |
categories=v2-1337979188,ip=default-1379460997,keyword=v2-1312487822,prefixcat=v2-1379460670,rule=default-1358979215 |
| WBRS Blocklist Threshold |
-6 |
| WBRS Allowlist Threshold |
6 |
| WBRS enabled |
1 |
| Secure Mobility enabled |
0 |
| L4 Traffic Monitor enabled |
0 |
| L4 Traffic Monitor Blocklist version |
default-0 |
| L4 Traffic Monitor Admin Blocklist |
|
| L4 Traffic Monitor Admin Blocklist ports |
|
| L4 Traffic Monitor Allowlist |
|
| L4 Traffic Monitor Allowlist ports |
|
| SBNP sampling factor |
0.25 |
| SBNP sampling factor (Volume) |
0.1 |
| SurfControl SDK version (legacy) |
default-0 |
| SurfControl Full Database version (legacy) |
default-0 |
| SurfControl Local Incremental Accumulation file version (legacy) |
default-0 |
| Firestone Engine version |
default-210016 |
| Firestone DAT version |
v2-310003 |
| AVC Engine version |
default-110076 |
| AVC DAT version |
default-1377556980 |
| Sophos Engine version |
default-1310963572 |
| Sophos DAT version |
default-0 |
| Adaptive Scanning enabled |
0 |
| Adaptive Scanning Risk Score Threshold |
[10, 6, 3] |
| Adaptive Scanning Load Factor Threshold |
[5, 3, 2] |
| SOCKS enabled |
0 |
| Total Transactions |
| Total Transactions |
|
| Total Allowed Transactions |
|
| Total Malware Detected Transactions |
|
| Total Transactions blocked by Admin Policy |
|
| Total Transactions blocked by WBRS Score |
|
| Total High Risk Transactions |
|
| Total Transactions detected by Traffic Monitor |
|
| Total Transactions with IPv6 clients |
|
| Total Transactions with IPv6 servers |
|
| Total Transactions using SOCKS proxy |
|
| Total Transactions from remote users |
|
| Total Transactions from local users |
|
| Total Transactions allowed using SOCKS proxy |
|
| Total Transactions from local users allowed using SOCKS proxy |
|
| Total transactions from remote users allowed using SOCKS proxy |
|
| Total transactions blocked using SOCKS proxy |
|
| Total transactions from local users blocked using SOCKS proxy |
|
| Total transactions from remote users blocked using SOCKS proxy |
| Seconds since last restart |
2843349 |
| CPU Utilization (%) |
9.9 |
| RAM Utilization (%) |
55.6 |
| Hard Disk Utilization (%) |
57.5 |
| Bandwidth Utilization (/sec) |
15307 |
| Open TCP connections |
2721 |
| Transactions per second |
264 |
| Client Latency |
163 |
| Cache Hit Rate |
21 |
| Proxy CPU Utilization |
17 |
| WBRS WUC CPU Utilization |
2.5 |
| Logging CPU Utilization |
3.4 |
| Reporting CPU Utilization |
3.9 |
| Webroot CPU Utilization |
0 |
| Sophos CPU Utilization |
0 |
| McAfee CPU Utilization |
0 |
| vmstat utility output (vmstat –z, vmstat –m) |
|
| Number of access policies configured |
32 |
| Number of configured custom web categories |
32 |
| Authentication Provider |
Basic, NTLMSSP |
| Authentication Realms |
Authentication Provider Hostname, Protocol & other configuration elements |
Statistics Shared per Web Request
| Item |
Sample Data |
Standard Participation |
Limited Participation |
| Version |
coeus 7.7.0-608 |
||
| Serial Number |
|||
| SBNP sampling factor (Volume) |
|||
| SBNP sampling factor (Rate) |
1 |
||
| Destination IP & Port |
unobfuscated URL path segments |
hashed URL path segments |
|
| Anti-Spyware chosen malware category |
Skipped |
||
| WBRS Score |
4.7 |
||
| McAfee malware category verdict |
|||
| Referer URL |
unobfuscated URL path segments |
hashed URL path segments |
|
| Content Type ID |
|||
| ACL Decision Tag |
0 |
||
| Legacy Web Categorization |
|||
| CIWUC Web Category and decision source |
{'src': 'req', 'cat': '1026'} |
||
| AVC App Name |
Ads and Tracking |
||
| AVC App Type |
Ad Networks |
||
| AVC App Behavior |
Unsafe |
||
| Internal AVC Result Tracking |
[0,1,1,1] |
||
| User agent tracking via indexed data structure |
3 |
Advanced Malware Statistics per Web Request
| AMP Statistics |
|
| Verdict - of the AMP reputation query |
malicious/clean/unknown |
| Spyname- Name of the malware detected |
[Trojan-Test] |
| Score - AMP assigned reputation score |
[1-100] |
| Upload - AMP cloud indicated to upload the file |
1 |
| File Name - Name of the file attachment |
abcd.pdf |
End User Feedback Statistics Feed
| Statistics Shared per End User Miscategorization Feedback |
|
| Item |
Sample Data |
| Engine ID (numeric) |
0 |
| Legacy Web Categorization code |
|
| CIWUC Web Categorization Source |
‘resp’ / ‘req’ |
| CIWUC Web Category |
1026 |
Talos Detection Content
Threat Focused
Related Information
- Cisco Web Security Appliance - Product Page
- Cisco Email Security Appliance - Product Page
- Technical Support & Documentation - Cisco Systems
Revision History
| Revision | Publish Date | Comments |
|---|---|---|
3.0 |
11-Aug-2026
|
Updated links and text to align with Cisco publishing standards. |
1.0 |
22-Apr-2016
|
Initial Release |
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