title: snort 2.9.7.0 unable to load rule from local.conf while in test mode
body: <p>I am following the 'Snort 2.9.6.2 on Ubuntu 12 LTS and 14 LTS' guide to run snort in NIDS mode on my ubuntu 12.04.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/snort-org-site/production/document_files/files/000/000/050/original/Snort_2.9.6.2_on_Ubuntu.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIXACIED2SPMSC7GA&amp;Expires=1415002618&amp;Signature=IfheMZWyL%2BB1PULrNDHCb7dkGTk%3D" rel="nofollow">https://s3.amazonaws.com/snort-org-site/production/document_files/files/000/000/050/original/Snort_2.9.6.2_on_Ubuntu.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIXACIED2SPMSC7GA&amp;Expires=1415002618&amp;Signature=IfheMZWyL%2BB1PULrNDHCb7dkGTk%3D</a></p>
  
  <p>To test Snort, I created a simple rule that will cause Snort to generate an alert whenever Snort sees an ICMP \Echo request" or \Echo reply" messages.
  Wrote the following line into the empty /etc/snort/rules/local.conf:</p>
  
  <p>alert icmp any any -> $HOME_NET any (msg:"ICMP test"; sid:10000001; rev:001;)</p>
  
  <p>Now I tested the configuration file again but it has not loaded the rule from local.conf. Typed the following command:</p>
  
  <p>sudo snort -T -c /etc/snort/snort.conf</p>
  
  <p>I should have got the following output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>+-------------------[Rule Port Counts]---------------------------------------
  |             tcp     udp    icmp      ip
  |     src       0       0       0       0
  |     dst       0       0       0       0
  |     any       0       0       1       0
  |      nc       0       0       1       0
  |     s+d       0       0       0       0
  +----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But instead I got the following output on terminal.Both fields are still 0.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <pre><code>Running in Test mode
  
          --== Initializing Snort ==--
  Initializing Output Plugins!
  Initializing Preprocessors!
  Initializing Plug-ins!
  Parsing Rules file "/etc/snort/snort.conf"
  PortVar 'HTTP_PORTS' defined :  [ 80:81 311 383 591 593 901 1220 1414 1741 1830 2301 2381 2809 3037 3128 3702 4343 4848 5250 6988 7000:7001 7144:7145 7510 7777 7779 8000 8008 8014 8028 8080 8085 8088 8090 8118 8123 8180:8181 8243 8280 8300 8800 8888 8899 9000 9060 9080 9090:9091 9443 9999 11371 34443:34444 41080 50002 55555 ]
  PortVar 'SHELLCODE_PORTS' defined :  [ 0:79 81:65535 ]
  PortVar 'ORACLE_PORTS' defined :  [ 1024:65535 ]
  PortVar 'SSH_PORTS' defined :  [ 22 ]
  PortVar 'FTP_PORTS' defined :  [ 21 2100 3535 ]
  PortVar 'SIP_PORTS' defined :  [ 5060:5061 5600 ]
  PortVar 'FILE_DATA_PORTS' defined :  [ 80:81 110 143 311 383 591 593 901 1220 1414 1741 1830 2301 2381 2809 3037 3128 3702 4343 4848 5250 6988 7000:7001 7144:7145 7510 7777 7779 8000 8008 8014 8028 8080 8085 8088 8090 8118 8123 8180:8181 8243 8280 8300 8800 8888 8899 9000 9060 9080 9090:9091 9443 9999 11371 34443:34444 41080 50002 55555 ]
  PortVar 'GTP_PORTS' defined :  [ 2123 2152 3386 ]
  Detection:
     Search-Method = AC-Full-Q
      Split Any/Any group = enabled
      Search-Method-Optimizations = enabled
      Maximum pattern length = 20
  Tagged Packet Limit: 256
  Loading dynamic engine /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicengine/libsf_engine.so... done
  Loading all dynamic detection libs from /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicrules...
  WARNING: No dynamic libraries found in directory /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicrules.
    Finished Loading all dynamic detection libs from /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicrules
  Loading all dynamic preprocessor libs from /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor/...
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_modbus_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_dce2_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_ssh_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_dns_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_gtp_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_ssl_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_smtp_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_dnp3_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_sdf_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_reputation_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_pop_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_imap_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_sip_preproc.so... done
    Loading dynamic preprocessor library /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor//libsf_ftptelnet_preproc.so... done
    Finished Loading all dynamic preprocessor libs from /usr/local/lib/snort_dynamicpreprocessor/
  Log directory = /var/log/snort
  WARNING: ip4 normalizations disabled because not inline.
  WARNING: tcp normalizations disabled because not inline.
  WARNING: icmp4 normalizations disabled because not inline.
  WARNING: ip6 normalizations disabled because not inline.
  WARNING: icmp6 normalizations disabled because not inline.
  Frag3 global config:
      Max frags: 65536
      Fragment memory cap: 4194304 bytes
  Frag3 engine config:
      Bound Address: default
      Target-based policy: WINDOWS
      Fragment timeout: 180 seconds
      Fragment min_ttl:   1
      Fragment Anomalies: Alert
      Overlap Limit:     10
      Min fragment Length:     100
        Max Expected Streams: 768
  Stream global config:
      Track TCP sessions: ACTIVE
      Max TCP sessions: 262144
      TCP cache pruning timeout: 30 seconds
      TCP cache nominal timeout: 3600 seconds
      Memcap (for reassembly packet storage): 8388608
      Track UDP sessions: ACTIVE
      Max UDP sessions: 131072
      UDP cache pruning timeout: 30 seconds
      UDP cache nominal timeout: 180 seconds
      Track ICMP sessions: INACTIVE
      Track IP sessions: INACTIVE
      Log info if session memory consumption exceeds 1048576
      Send up to 2 active responses
      Wait at least 5 seconds between responses
      Protocol Aware Flushing: ACTIVE
          Maximum Flush Point: 16000
  Stream TCP Policy config:
      Bound Address: default
      Reassembly Policy: WINDOWS
      Timeout: 180 seconds
      Limit on TCP Overlaps: 10
      Maximum number of bytes to queue per session: 1048576
      Maximum number of segs to queue per session: 2621
      Options:
          Require 3-Way Handshake: YES
          3-Way Handshake Timeout: 180
          Detect Anomalies: YES
      Reassembly Ports:
        21 client (Footprint) 
        22 client (Footprint) 
        23 client (Footprint) 
        25 client (Footprint) 
        42 client (Footprint) 
        53 client (Footprint) 
        79 client (Footprint) 
        80 client (Footprint) server (Footprint)
        81 client (Footprint) server (Footprint)
        109 client (Footprint) 
        110 client (Footprint) 
        111 client (Footprint) 
        113 client (Footprint) 
        119 client (Footprint) 
        135 client (Footprint) 
        136 client (Footprint) 
        137 client (Footprint) 
        139 client (Footprint) 
        143 client (Footprint) 
        161 client (Footprint) 
        additional ports configured but not printed.
  Stream UDP Policy config:
      Timeout: 180 seconds
  HttpInspect Config:
      GLOBAL CONFIG
        Detect Proxy Usage:       NO
        IIS Unicode Map Filename: /etc/snort/unicode.map
        IIS Unicode Map Codepage: 1252
        Memcap used for logging URI and Hostname: 150994944
        Max Gzip Memory: 838860
        Max Gzip Sessions: 2723
        Gzip Compress Depth: 65535
        Gzip Decompress Depth: 65535
      DEFAULT SERVER CONFIG:
        Server profile: All
        Ports (PAF): 80 81 311 383 591 593 901 1220 1414 1741 1830 2301 2381 2809 3037 3128 3702 4343 4848 5250 6988 7000 7001 7144 7145 7510 7777 7779 8000 8008 8014 8028 8080 8085 8088 8090 8118 8123 8180 8181 8243 8280 8300 8800 8888 8899 9000 9060 9080 9090 9091 9443 9999 11371 34443 34444 41080 50002 55555 
        Server Flow Depth: 0
        Client Flow Depth: 0
        Max Chunk Length: 500000
        Small Chunk Length Evasion: chunk size &lt;= 10, threshold &gt;= 5 times
        Max Header Field Length: 750
        Max Number Header Fields: 100
        Max Number of WhiteSpaces allowed with header folding: 200
        Inspect Pipeline Requests: YES
        URI Discovery Strict Mode: NO
        Allow Proxy Usage: NO
        Disable Alerting: NO
        Oversize Dir Length: 500
        Only inspect URI: NO
        Normalize HTTP Headers: NO
        Inspect HTTP Cookies: YES
        Inspect HTTP Responses: YES
        Extract Gzip from responses: YES
        Decompress response files:   
        Unlimited decompression of gzip data from responses: YES
        Normalize Javascripts in HTTP Responses: YES
        Max Number of WhiteSpaces allowed with Javascript Obfuscation in HTTP responses: 200
        Normalize HTTP Cookies: NO
        Enable XFF and True Client IP: NO
        Log HTTP URI data: NO
        Log HTTP Hostname data: NO
        Extended ASCII code support in URI: NO
        Ascii: YES alert: NO
        Double Decoding: YES alert: NO
        %U Encoding: YES alert: YES
        Bare Byte: YES alert: NO
        UTF 8: YES alert: NO
        IIS Unicode: YES alert: NO
        Multiple Slash: YES alert: NO
        IIS Backslash: YES alert: NO
        Directory Traversal: YES alert: NO
        Web Root Traversal: YES alert: NO
        Apache WhiteSpace: YES alert: NO
        IIS Delimiter: YES alert: NO
        IIS Unicode Map: GLOBAL IIS UNICODE MAP CONFIG
        Non-RFC Compliant Characters: 0x00 0x01 0x02 0x03 0x04 0x05 0x06 0x07 
        Whitespace Characters: 0x09 0x0b 0x0c 0x0d 
  rpc_decode arguments:
      Ports to decode RPC on: 111 32770 32771 32772 32773 32774 32775 32776 32777 32778 32779 
      alert_fragments: INACTIVE
      alert_large_fragments: INACTIVE
      alert_incomplete: INACTIVE
      alert_multiple_requests: INACTIVE
  FTPTelnet Config:
      GLOBAL CONFIG
        Inspection Type: stateful
        Check for Encrypted Traffic: YES alert: NO
        Continue to check encrypted data: YES
      TELNET CONFIG:
        Ports: 23 
        Are You There Threshold: 20
        Normalize: YES
        Detect Anomalies: YES
      FTP CONFIG:
        FTP Server: default
          Ports (PAF): 21 2100 3535 
          Check for Telnet Cmds: YES alert: YES
          Ignore Telnet Cmd Operations: YES alert: YES
          Ignore open data channels: NO
        FTP Client: default
          Check for Bounce Attacks: YES alert: YES
          Check for Telnet Cmds: YES alert: YES
          Ignore Telnet Cmd Operations: YES alert: YES
          Max Response Length: 256
  SMTP Config:
      Ports: 25 465 587 691 
      Inspection Type: Stateful
      Normalize: ATRN AUTH BDAT DATA DEBUG EHLO EMAL ESAM ESND ESOM ETRN EVFY EXPN HELO HELP IDENT MAIL NOOP ONEX QUEU QUIT RCPT RSET SAML SEND STARTTLS SOML TICK TIME TURN TURNME VERB VRFY X-EXPS XADR XAUTH XCIR XEXCH50 XGEN XLICENSE X-LINK2STATE XQUE XSTA XTRN XUSR CHUNKING X-ADAT X-DRCP X-ERCP X-EXCH50 
      Ignore Data: No
      Ignore TLS Data: No
      Ignore SMTP Alerts: No
      Max Command Line Length: 512
      Max Specific Command Line Length: 
         ATRN:255 AUTH:246 BDAT:255 DATA:246 DEBUG:255 
         EHLO:500 EMAL:255 ESAM:255 ESND:255 ESOM:255 
         ETRN:246 EVFY:255 EXPN:255 HELO:500 HELP:500 
         IDENT:255 MAIL:260 NOOP:255 ONEX:246 QUEU:246 
         QUIT:246 RCPT:300 RSET:246 SAML:246 SEND:246 
         SIZE:255 STARTTLS:246 SOML:246 TICK:246 TIME:246 
         TURN:246 TURNME:246 VERB:246 VRFY:255 X-EXPS:246 
         XADR:246 XAUTH:246 XCIR:246 XEXCH50:246 XGEN:246 
         XLICENSE:246 X-LINK2STATE:246 XQUE:246 XSTA:246 XTRN:246 
         XUSR:246 
      Max Header Line Length: 1000
      Max Response Line Length: 512
      X-Link2State Alert: Yes
      Drop on X-Link2State Alert: No
      Alert on commands: None
      Alert on unknown commands: No
      SMTP Memcap: 838860
      MIME Max Mem: 838860
      Base64 Decoding: Enabled
      Base64 Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Quoted-Printable Decoding: Enabled
      Quoted-Printable Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Unix-to-Unix Decoding: Enabled
      Unix-to-Unix Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Non-Encoded MIME attachment Extraction: Enabled
      Non-Encoded MIME attachment Extraction Depth: Unlimited
      Log Attachment filename: Enabled
      Log MAIL FROM Address: Enabled
      Log RCPT TO Addresses: Enabled
      Log Email Headers: Enabled
      Email Hdrs Log Depth: 1464
  SSH config: 
      Autodetection: ENABLED
      Challenge-Response Overflow Alert: ENABLED
      SSH1 CRC32 Alert: ENABLED
      Server Version String Overflow Alert: ENABLED
      Protocol Mismatch Alert: ENABLED
      Bad Message Direction Alert: DISABLED
      Bad Payload Size Alert: DISABLED
      Unrecognized Version Alert: DISABLED
      Max Encrypted Packets: 20  
      Max Server Version String Length: 100  
      MaxClientBytes: 19600 (Default) 
      Ports:
      22
  DCE/RPC 2 Preprocessor Configuration
    Global Configuration
      DCE/RPC Defragmentation: Enabled
      Memcap: 102400 KB
      Events: co 
      SMB Fingerprint policy: Disabled
    Server Default Configuration
      Policy: WinXP
      Detect ports (PAF)
        SMB: 139 445 
        TCP: 135 
        UDP: 135 
        RPC over HTTP server: 593 
        RPC over HTTP proxy: None
      Autodetect ports (PAF)
        SMB: None
        TCP: 1025-65535 
        UDP: 1025-65535 
        RPC over HTTP server: 1025-65535 
        RPC over HTTP proxy: None
      Invalid SMB shares: C$ D$ ADMIN$ 
      Maximum SMB command chaining: 3 commands
      SMB file inspection: Disabled
  DNS config: 
      DNS Client rdata txt Overflow Alert: ACTIVE
      Obsolete DNS RR Types Alert: INACTIVE
      Experimental DNS RR Types Alert: INACTIVE
      Ports: 53
  SSLPP config:
      Encrypted packets: not inspected
      Ports:
        443      465      563      636      989
        992      993      994      995     7801
       7802     7900     7901     7902     7903
       7904     7905     7906     7907     7908
       7909     7910     7911     7912     7913
       7914     7915     7916     7917     7918
       7919     7920
      Server side data is trusted
      Maximum SSL Heartbeat length: 0
  Sensitive Data preprocessor config: 
      Global Alert Threshold: 25
      Masked Output: DISABLED
  SIP config: 
      Max number of sessions: 40000  
      Max number of dialogs in a session: 4 (Default) 
      Status: ENABLED
      Ignore media channel: DISABLED
      Max URI length: 512  
      Max Call ID length: 80  
      Max Request name length: 20 (Default) 
      Max From length: 256 (Default) 
      Max To length: 256 (Default) 
      Max Via length: 1024 (Default) 
      Max Contact length: 512  
      Max Content length: 2048  
      Ports:
      5060    5061    5600
      Methods:
        invite cancel ack bye register options refer subscribe update join info message notify benotify do qauth sprack publish service unsubscribe prack
  IMAP Config:
      Ports: 143 
      IMAP Memcap: 838860
      MIME Max Mem: 838860
      Base64 Decoding: Enabled
      Base64 Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Quoted-Printable Decoding: Enabled
      Quoted-Printable Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Unix-to-Unix Decoding: Enabled
      Unix-to-Unix Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Non-Encoded MIME attachment Extraction: Enabled
      Non-Encoded MIME attachment Extraction Depth: Unlimited
  POP Config:
      Ports: 110 
      POP Memcap: 838860
      MIME Max Mem: 838860
      Base64 Decoding: Enabled
      Base64 Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Quoted-Printable Decoding: Enabled
      Quoted-Printable Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Unix-to-Unix Decoding: Enabled
      Unix-to-Unix Decoding Depth: Unlimited
      Non-Encoded MIME attachment Extraction: Enabled
      Non-Encoded MIME attachment Extraction Depth: Unlimited
  Modbus config: 
      Ports:
      502
  DNP3 config: 
      Memcap: 262144
      Check Link-Layer CRCs: ENABLED
      Ports:
      20000
  Reputation config: 
  WARNING: Can't find any whitelist/blacklist entries. Reputation Preprocessor disabled.
  
  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  Initializing rule chains...
  0 Snort rules read
      0 detection rules
      0 decoder rules
      0 preprocessor rules
  0 Option Chains linked into 0 Chain Headers
  0 Dynamic rules
  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  
  +-------------------[Rule Port Counts]---------------------------------------
  |             tcp     udp    icmp      ip
  |     src       0       0       0       0
  |     dst       0       0       0       0
  |     any       0       0       0       0
  |      nc       0       0       0       0
  |     s+d       0       0       0       0
  +----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  +-----------------------[detection-filter-config]------------------------------
  | memory-cap : 1048576 bytes
  +-----------------------[detection-filter-rules]-------------------------------
  | none
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  +-----------------------[rate-filter-config]-----------------------------------
  | memory-cap : 1048576 bytes
  +-----------------------[rate-filter-rules]------------------------------------
  | none
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  +-----------------------[event-filter-config]----------------------------------
  | memory-cap : 1048576 bytes
  +-----------------------[event-filter-global]----------------------------------
  +-----------------------[event-filter-local]-----------------------------------
  | none
  +-----------------------[suppression]------------------------------------------
  | none
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Rule application order: activation-&gt;dynamic-&gt;pass-&gt;drop-&gt;sdrop-&gt;reject-&gt;alert-&gt;log
  Verifying Preprocessor Configurations!
  
          --== Initialization Complete ==--
  
     ,,_     -*&gt; Snort! &lt;*-
    o"  )~   Version 2.9.7.0 GRE (Build 149) 
     ''''    By Martin Roesch &amp; The Snort Team: http://www.snort.org/contact#team
             Copyright (C) 2014 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
             Copyright (C) 1998-2013 Sourcefire, Inc., et al.
             Using libpcap version 1.1.1
             Using PCRE version: 8.12 2011-01-15
             Using ZLIB version: 1.2.3.4
  
             Rules Engine: SF_SNORT_DETECTION_ENGINE  Version 2.4  &lt;Build 1&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_FTPTELNET  Version 1.2  &lt;Build 13&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_SIP  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 1&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_IMAP  Version 1.0  &lt;Build 1&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_POP  Version 1.0  &lt;Build 1&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_REPUTATION  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 1&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_SDF  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 1&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_DNP3  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 1&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_SMTP  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 9&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_SSLPP  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 4&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_GTP  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 1&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_DNS  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 4&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_SSH  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 3&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_DCERPC2  Version 1.0  &lt;Build 3&gt;
             Preprocessor Object: SF_MODBUS  Version 1.1  &lt;Build 1&gt;
  
  Snort successfully validated the configuration!
  Snort exiting
  </code></pre>