IPS Alert Event Analysis

Skill Scope Notes:

• This skill is designed to use Aliyun CLI cloudfw commands as its primary data source.
• It does not depend on local log files, SIEM exports, or direct host access.
• It does not require SSH or direct connections to server IPs.
• For IP-focused investigations, prefer DescribeRiskEventGroup with --SrcIP or --DstIP.

Scenario Description

Query and analyze IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) security events and alerts detected by Alibaba Cloud Firewall, helping quickly locate threats and provide remediation recommendations.

Architecture: Cloud Firewall Service → IPS Engine → Event Detection + Attack Analysis + Protection Configuration

Capability Level: Query (read-only)

Data Source: All data is obtained exclusively through Aliyun CLI commands (aliyun cloudfw ...). No log files, no databases, no server access, no SIEM — just CLI commands. Do NOT search the workspace for files. Do NOT ask the user for anything. Just run the commands.

Core Capabilities:

1. Alert Overview — IPS alert statistics including attack counts, block counts, and severity distribution
2. Alert Event Details — Detailed list of IPS alert events with source/destination, attack type, and handling status
3. Top Attacked Assets — Ranking of most attacked assets
4. Attack Type Analysis — Distribution of attack types and applications
5. IPS Configuration Status — Current IPS run mode, rule switches, and rule library version
6. Remediation Recommendations — Prioritized security recommendations based on alert data

Prerequisites

Pre-check: Aliyun CLI >= 3.3.3 required Run aliyun version to verify >= 3.3.3. If not installed or version too low, run curl -fsSL https://aliyuncli.alicdn.com/setup.sh | bash to install/update, or see references/cli-installation-guide.md for installation instructions.

Pre-check: Aliyun CLI plugin update required [MUST] run aliyun configure set --auto-plugin-install true to enable automatic plugin installation. [MUST] run aliyun plugin update to ensure that any existing plugins are always up-to-date.

[MUST] CLI User-Agent — Every aliyun CLI command invocation must include: --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event

At the start of the Core Workflow (before any CLI invocation): [MUST] Enable AI-Mode — AI-mode is required for Agent Skill execution. Run the following commands before any CLI invocation:

aliyun configure ai-mode enable
aliyun configure ai-mode set-user-agent --user-agent "AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event"

[MUST] Disable AI-Mode at EVERY exit point — Before delivering the final response for ANY reason, always disable AI-mode first. This applies to ALL exit paths: workflow success, workflow failure, error/exception, user cancellation, session end, or any other scenario where no further CLI commands will be executed. AI-mode is only used for Agent Skill invocation scenarios and MUST NOT remain enabled after the skill stops running.

aliyun configure ai-mode disable

Authentication

Pre-check: Alibaba Cloud Credentials Required

Security Rules:

• NEVER read, echo, print, cat, or display AK/SK values under any circumstances
• NEVER ask the user to input AK/SK directly in the conversation or command line
• NEVER use aliyun configure set with literal credential values
• ONLY use aliyun configure list to check credential status

aliyun configure list

Copy

Check the output for a valid profile (AK, STS, or OAuth identity).

If no valid profile exists, STOP here.

1. Obtain credentials from Alibaba Cloud Console
2. Configure credentials outside of this session (via aliyun configure in terminal or environment variables in shell profile)
3. Return and re-run after aliyun configure list shows a valid profile

RAM Policy

[MUST] RAM Permission Pre-check: Before executing any commands, verify the current user has the required permissions.

1. Use ram-permission-diagnose skill to get current user's permissions
2. Compare against references/ram-policies.md
3. Abort and prompt user if any permission is missing

Minimum required permissions — see references/ram-policies.md for full policy JSON.

Alternatively, attach the system policy: AliyunYundunCloudFirewallReadOnlyAccess

Parameter Confirmation

IMPORTANT: Parameter Confirmation — Before executing any command or API call, check if the user has already provided necessary parameters in their request.

• If the user's request explicitly mentions a parameter value (e.g., "check IPS alerts for the last 7 days" means use 7-day time range), use that value directly without asking for confirmation.
• For optional parameters with sensible defaults (PageSize, CurrentPage, time ranges), use the defaults without asking unless the user indicates otherwise.
• Do NOT re-ask for parameters that the user has clearly stated.

Input Validation (MUST)

Treat all Agent-provided inputs as untrusted. Validate before building CLI commands.

Validation rules:

• RegionId: must be exactly one of cn-hangzhou or ap-southeast-1.
• StartTime / EndTime: must be 10-digit Unix seconds (^[0-9]{10}$), and StartTime < EndTime.
• CurrentPage: positive integer (>=1).
• PageSize: integer in range 1-100.
• SrcIP / DstIP: must be valid IPv4 format only (a.b.c.d, each octet 0-255).

Safe command construction rules:

• Never concatenate raw user text into shell commands.
• Only pass validated values into fixed CLI flag templates.
• If any validation fails, stop execution and return a clear validation error.

Error Handling and Workflow Resilience

CRITICAL: Continue on failure. If any individual API call fails, do NOT stop the entire workflow. Log the error for that step, then proceed to the next step. Present whatever data was successfully collected.

Retry Logic

For each API call:

1. If the call fails with a transient error (network timeout, throttling Throttling.User, ServiceUnavailable, HTTP 500/502/503), retry up to 2 times with a 3-second delay between retries.
2. If the call fails with a permanent error (e.g., InvalidParameter, Forbidden, InvalidAccessKeyId), do NOT retry. Record the error and move on.
3. After all retries are exhausted, record "[Step X] Failed: {error message}" and continue to the next step.

Timeout Policy (MUST)

Before any API call, explicitly set CLI timeouts:

export ALIBABA_CLOUD_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=10
export ALIBABA_CLOUD_READ_TIMEOUT=30

• ALIBABA_CLOUD_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=10: fast fail for connect timeout.
• ALIBABA_CLOUD_READ_TIMEOUT=30: prevent long-running hangs per request.
• Timeout errors are treated as transient errors and follow retry logic.

No Alert Events

If Step 1 (DescribeRiskEventStatistic) returns all zeros:

1. Inform the user: "No IPS alert events detected in the specified time range."
2. Still proceed with Step 6 and Step 7 to report IPS configuration status.

Step Independence

The workflow steps have these dependencies:

• Step 1 (Statistics) should run first to provide context.
• Steps 2-7 are independent of each other — failure in any one step should NOT prevent other steps from executing.

Partial Results

When presenting the final summary report:

• For steps that succeeded, show the collected data normally.
• For steps that failed, show "N/A (error: {brief error})" in the corresponding section.
• Always present the summary report even if some steps failed — partial data is better than no data.

Core Workflow

All API calls use the Aliyun CLI cloudfw plugin. Request/response schemas are maintained only in references/api-analysis.md. Do not duplicate field-by-field descriptions in this file.

User-Agent: All commands must include --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event Region: Specified via --region {RegionId} global flag

CRITICAL: This skill is read-only (query only). All commands below are safe, read-only queries that do not modify any cloud resources. Before executing, confirm the execution plan with the user: briefly list which steps will be executed and the target region. Proceed only after user confirmation. Do NOT ask the user which specific APIs to call or what data sources to use — those are determined by the workflow below. The intent routing table below is for optimization only — if the user's intent is unclear, plan to execute ALL steps (Step 1-7) by default.

Intent Routing (Auto-determined, Confirm Before Execution)

Automatically determine execution scope based on user wording. Present the execution plan to the user for confirmation before running commands:

Default behavior: If user intent cannot be clearly determined, plan to execute all Steps 1-7 and confirm with user before proceeding.

Time Parameters

Some APIs require StartTime and EndTime parameters (Unix timestamp in seconds).

How to get timestamps: Run date +%s to get the current timestamp, date -d '1 day ago' +%s for 24 hours ago, date -d '7 days ago' +%s for 7 days ago. Then use the returned numeric values directly in CLI commands.

IMPORTANT: Do NOT use bash variable substitution like $(date +%s) inside CLI commands — some execution environments block $(...). Instead, run date commands separately first, note the returned values, then use them as literal numbers in the --StartTime and --EndTime parameters.

Default time ranges:

• User says "today" → StartTime = 24 hours ago
• User says "recently"/"this week" → StartTime = 7 days ago
• No time range specified → default to 7 days ago
• EndTime → always current timestamp

Step 1: IPS Alert Statistics Overview

Retrieve overall alert statistics to understand the current security posture.

aliyun cloudfw describe-risk-event-statistic \
  --StartTime {StartTime} \
  --EndTime {EndTime} \
  --region {RegionId} \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event

Step 2: IPS Alert Event Details

Retrieve grouped alert event list. This is the core data for analysis.

aliyun cloudfw describe-risk-event-group \
  --CurrentPage 1 \
  --PageSize 50 \
  --StartTime {StartTime} \
  --EndTime {EndTime} \
  --DataType 1 \
  --region {RegionId} \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event

Optional filter parameters (auto-added based on user intent, no confirmation needed):

• By direction: --Direction in or --Direction out
• By source IP: --SrcIP x.x.x.x (query "attacks initiated by a specific IP")
• By target IP: --DstIP x.x.x.x (query "attacks on a specific server/IP", supports private IPs like 10.x.x.x)
• By vulnerability level: --VulLevel 3 (1=low, 2=medium, 3=high)

Key: When a user mentions a specific server or IP being attacked, use the --DstIP filter to query all attack records for that IP — no need to access the server itself.

Pagination: Check TotalCount. If it exceeds 50, increment CurrentPage.

Step 3: Top Attacked Assets Ranking

Identify which assets are attack hotspots.

aliyun cloudfw describe-risk-event-top-attack-asset \
  --StartTime {StartTime} \
  --EndTime {EndTime} \
  --region {RegionId} \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event

Step 4: Top Attack Types Ranking

Understand the main threat types being faced.

aliyun cloudfw describe-risk-event-top-attack-type \
  --StartTime {StartTime} \
  --EndTime {EndTime} \
  --Direction in \
  --region {RegionId} \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event

If outbound attack types are also needed, make another call with --Direction out.

Note: This API requires the Direction parameter, otherwise it will return an error.

Step 5: Top Attacked Applications Ranking

Understand which application-layer targets are being attacked.

aliyun cloudfw describe-risk-event-top-attack-app \
  --StartTime {StartTime} \
  --EndTime {EndTime} \
  --region {RegionId} \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event

Step 6: IPS Protection Configuration Status

Check the current IPS run mode and protection capabilities.

aliyun cloudfw describe-default-ipsconfig \
  --region {RegionId} \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event

Step 7: IPS Rule Library Version

aliyun cloudfw describe-signature-lib-version \
  --region {RegionId} \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-cfw-ips-event

Analysis & Report

After collecting data, generate a report in the following structure. Center the analysis around alert events, covering three dimensions: "who is attacking", "what is being attacked", and "how effective is the response". Only show sections with actual data; if an API call failed, note it and continue.

1. IPS Alert Posture Overview

Combine Step 1 statistics and Step 6 IPS configuration to display the current security posture:

Alert Statistics (Time Range: x):

IPS Configuration Status:

If IPS is in observe mode and there are high-severity events, prominently flag: "IPS is currently in observe mode — high-severity attacks are NOT being blocked".

2. High-Severity Alert Events (Immediate Action Required)

From Step 2, filter events with VulLevel=3 (high) or VulLevel=2 (medium with high event count), sorted by event count in descending order:

Handling status explanation:

• Observed (RuleResult=1): IPS detected but did not block — requires manual confirmation on whether blocking is needed
• Blocked (RuleResult=2): Automatically blocked by IPS

3. Attack Hotspot Analysis

Top Attacked Assets

Combine Step 3 data to display attack status by asset:

Focus on assets with low block rates — this means many attacks are only being observed, not blocked.

Attack Type Distribution

Combine Step 4 data:

Attack Application Distribution

Combine Step 5 data:

4. Attack Source Analysis

Summarize source IP dimensions from Step 2 event data:

Flag cases where the same source IP attacks multiple assets — this typically indicates organized scanning or attacks.

5. Remediation Recommendations

Generate specific recommendations based on actual data, sorted by priority. Each recommendation includes: Risk Description, Impact Scope, Recommended Action.

P0 — Critical (Immediate Action)

• High-severity events in "observe" mode, not blocked → Switch IPS to block mode, or manually block the attacking source IP
• Same source IP attacking multiple assets in volume → Add that IP to Cloud Firewall ACL blacklist
• IPS in observe mode with active high-severity attacks → Switch to block mode

P1 — High (Within 24 Hours)

• Medium-severity events recurring and not blocked → Check target asset vulnerabilities and remediate
• Basic protection/virtual patches not enabled → Recommend enabling to enhance protection
• Attacked assets with low block rate → Check IPS rule coverage

P2 — Medium (This Week)

• Multiple attack types targeting the same asset → Conduct security hardening review for that asset
• Threat intelligence/AI engine rules not enabled → Recommend enabling
• Rule library version outdated → Update to the latest version

P3 — Low (Periodic Review)

• Low-severity events persisting → Include in periodic review, assess whether they are false positives
• Optimize IPS whitelist to reduce business false positives

Note: For any step that failed, show "N/A (error: {brief error})" for that section's data fields, and list all errors in the bottom section.

Success Verification

See references/verification-method.md for detailed verification steps.

Quick verification: If all CLI commands return valid JSON responses without error codes, the skill executed successfully.

API and Command Tables

Use references/related-apis.md as the single source of truth for API tables and command mappings.

Best Practices

1. Query in order — Start with alert statistics (Step 1) to understand the overall security posture. If all values are zero, report that no alerts were detected in the time range.
2. Continue on failure — If any step (2-7) fails, log the error and continue with the remaining steps. Always produce a report with whatever data was collected.
3. Use pagination — For alert event lists (Step 2), use CurrentPage and PageSize. Default to PageSize=50. If TotalCount exceeds PageSize, iterate through all pages.
4. Time range selection — Default to last 24 hours for "today", last 7 days for "recently"/"this week". Use Unix timestamps in seconds. Calculate with: date +%s for current time, date -d '1 day ago' +%s for 24 hours ago, date -d '7 days ago' +%s for 7 days ago. Run these commands separately, then use the returned values as literal numbers in --StartTime and --EndTime. Do NOT use $(...) substitution inside CLI commands.
5. Region awareness — Cloud Firewall only has two regions: cn-hangzhou (mainland China) and ap-southeast-1 (Hong Kong/overseas). Default to cn-hangzhou unless user specifies otherwise.
6. Direction parameter — Step 4 (DescribeRiskEventTopAttackType) requires the Direction parameter. Default to in (inbound). Query out separately if needed.
7. Rate limiting — Space API calls to avoid throttling. If you receive a Throttling.User error, wait 3 seconds and retry.
8. Security — NEVER expose, log, echo, or display AK/SK values.
9. Retry on transient errors — For network timeouts or 5xx errors, retry up to 2 times with a 3-second delay.
10. Validate all inputs first — Reject invalid RegionId, timestamp, pagination, and IP values before command execution.
11. Set explicit timeout env vars — Always set ALIBABA_CLOUD_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=10 and ALIBABA_CLOUD_READ_TIMEOUT=30 before workflow commands.

Reference Links