Problem: Win32 v2.4.3 does not start as a Service

[Rich Adamson <radamson () routers com>]

Could not find any reference on the snort.org site relative to reporting
a problem, so posting to both the -users and -devel lists.

Implementation: Snort v2.4.3 on Win XP (all versions) with WinPcap v3.1

Experience Level: 
Been around snort since v1.8 days and have had it running just fine as 
a Service on most Win32 O/S's. I do not have an application development 
system (or development experience) to diagnose the problem.

Issue: 
Snort will not start as a Service (for example after a reboot), however 
it runs just fine if started manually. Happens on multiple XP systems and 
has been observed by others (see forums) as well. Viewing the Services 
list indicates the snort service is properly configured to start 
"automatically" and log on using the Local System account.

Indicators: 
Four event log entries are created following a system reboot.
1. Security Log: Event 592 & 593 (process tracking) are created for snort.
2. System Log: two events generated including:
   Event 7000: "The Snort service failed to start due to the following
   error: The service did not respond to the start or control request in
   a timely manner."
   Event 7009: "Timeout (30,000 milliseconds) waiting for the Snort service
   to connect."

I am not at all sure whether this is an issue with Snort service code or
some form of new requirement in Win XP service startup code. Several systems
seem to be restarting correctly on Win 2k Pro and Win 2k Server, however
these systems are also running pre-v2.4.3 snort code and cannot be upgrade
at this time.

Consistency: 
Snort v2.4.3 on any Win XP system will "always" fail to start following a 
reboot. A manual start via the Services control panel will "always" be 
successful, and, a "net start snort" from the command line will always be 
successful. All other services on these systems start normally.

References: 
Microsoft's site suggests: "Within a specified time period after a new 
service starts, it notifies Service Control Manager (SCM) that it is ready 
to connect. In this case, the service did not notify SCM within the time 
period." (Thus generating event 7009.)

Other Observations:
1. Typical Win32 system has 512 meg ram with WinPcap v3.1
2. After manually starting the snort service, task manager indicates
   over 150 meg of available memory.
3. After manually starting the snort service, all alerts and log entries
   occur properly.
4. The snort service was installed following the examples displayed when
   executing "snort -?" from the command line.
5. Executing "snort /service /show" indicates the service was properly
   installed with all appropriate startup parameters.

Best Guess:
The two events in the security log suggest the snort service was actually
starting, however the events in the system log indicate a timeout. Since
the "process events" (security log) do occur, presumably snort is starting
and suppose to pass a message or call the services control manager (or maybe 
return some value) indicating to the services control manager that it has 
started. It would appear this second step is not occurring.

Some possibility exists the snort code is using the name "snortsvc" in
some code and "snort" in other services code. Executing "sc query snortsvc"
from a command line indicates:
  State: 1 stopped
           (not-stoppable, not_pausable, ignores_shutdown)
with no other hints. The above _might_ be related to not registering the
snort service properly, differences in service names, incorrect parameters,
etc. Not sure.

If I can provide any other information regarding the problem/symptom,
please contact me.

If there is a better location to report this problem, please let me know.

Rich Adamson
radamson () routers com




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