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MarinaM
Silver ⭐️⭐️
June 15, 2026
Solved

ListenNetFlow processor does not decode Cisco ASA enterprise IPFIX fields (PEN 9)**

 

**Environment**

- Cloudera CFM 2.1.7 / Apache NiFi 1.26.0

- Cloudera CDP 7.3.1

- Flow source: Cisco ASA Firewall (IPFIX export)

 

**Issue**

 

The `ListenNetFlow` processor successfully decodes standard IPFIX/NetFlow v9 fields but produces a WARN for every packet that contains Cisco ASA enterprise fields:

 

```

WARN com.cloudera.nifi.netflow.ListenNetFlow: Sender [/x.x.x.x] Field Type [33002] Length [2] Field Decoder not found

WARN com.cloudera.nifi.netflow.ListenNetFlow: Sender [/x.x.x.x] Field Type [33001] Length [12] Field Decoder not found

WARN com.cloudera.nifi.netflow.ListenNetFlow: Sender [/x.x.x.x] Field Type [33000] Length [12] Field Decoder not found

WARN com.cloudera.nifi.netflow.ListenNetFlow: Sender [/x.x.x.x] Field Type [40000] Length [12] Field Decoder not found

 

```

 

At production NetFlow volume, this generates thousands of WARN lines per second, making `nifi-app.log` effectively unusable for monitoring other issues.

 

More critically, the data in these fields is silently dropped:

 

| Field ID | Cisco Name | Description |

|---|---|---|

| 33000 | INGRESS_ACL_ID | ACL that matched the flow on ingress |

| 33001 | EGRESS_ACL_ID | ACL that matched the flow on egress |

| 33002 | FW_EVENT | Firewall event type (allow / deny / teardown) |

 

These are Cisco Private Enterprise Number (PEN 9) fields. They are documented in Cisco's IPFIX implementation guide and are present in every flow exported by Cisco ASA firewalls. For security operations use cases, `FW_EVENT` (33002) in particular is essential — it identifies whether a connection was permitted or denied.

 

**Expected behavior**

 

  1. `ListenNetFlow` should support registering enterprise IPFIX field decoders via configuration (PEN + field ID mapping), so operators can define custom fields without modifying processor source code.
  2. As a baseline, well-known Cisco PEN 9 fields (33000, 33001, 33002) should be included in the default field registry.
  3. Unknown enterprise fields should be logged at DEBUG, not WARN, since encountering undefined vendor fields is expected behavior in production IPFIX environments.

 

**Impact**

 

- Log files roll too fast to monitor other issues

- ACL and firewall event data is lost from every flow record

- Security teams lose visibility into deny/allow decisions at the firewall level

 

 

Happy to provide packet captures or field mapping documentation if useful.

MattWho
MattWhoAnswer
Titanium ⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 15, 2026

@MarinaM 

You can suppress those WARN messages by setting a custom log level just that processor class in the logback.xml

<logger name="com.cloudera.nifi.netflow.ListenNetFlow" level="ERROR"/>

You can also reach out to your Cloudera account manager with your enhancement/new feature request(s) for the ListenNetFlow processor.

Thank you,
Matt

3 replies

ckumar
Platinum ⭐️
Platinum ⭐️
June 15, 2026

Error message tells that NetFlow instance which is emitting packets with fields unknown to the implementation which is used in ListenNetFlow . Processor uses  this schema to process the message

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MattWho
Titanium ⭐️⭐️⭐️
MattWhoAnswer
Titanium ⭐️⭐️⭐️
June 15, 2026

@MarinaM 

You can suppress those WARN messages by setting a custom log level just that processor class in the logback.xml

<logger name="com.cloudera.nifi.netflow.ListenNetFlow" level="ERROR"/>

You can also reach out to your Cloudera account manager with your enhancement/new feature request(s) for the ListenNetFlow processor.

Thank you,
Matt

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VidyaSargur
Community Manager
Community Manager
June 22, 2026

@MarinaM, Did the response assist in resolving your query? If it did, kindly mark the relevant reply as the solution to help others find the answer more easily in the future. 

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Regards, Vidya Sargur, Community Manager Was your question answered? Make sure to mark the answer as the accepted solution. If you find a reply useful, say thanks by clicking on the thumbs up button.