1 Event Logs Management Anthony LAI, CISSP, CISA Founder & Editor InfoSec Hong Kong

2 Why do I come up an idea to present this? First of all, I am not the event log expert but the one suffered from event log burden. Think of ideas to improve it in a bank. No budget and complicated approval process there, forcing me to seek for free software.

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4 InfoSec Hong Kong Goal Promote security awareness to public and education sectors. Our advantages We act as a bridge between security concepts and commercial solutions Members Over 370 registered members Enjoy discounted products from our sponsors Current Status Over 64,000 visit since Aug 2004 News, seminar, training, advertisement, consultancy service for SMEs. Future Reflect the voice to government from public and focus on more security education and provide solutions to public. It is a long term commitment Invitation for more commercial sponsorship

5 Author Profile Anthony Lai a speaker for the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. [(ISC) 2® ], the non-profit international leader in educating, qualifying and certifying information security professionals worldwide. (ISC) 2 issues the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP ) and Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP ) credentials and related concentrations to those meeting necessary competency requirements. Anthony is also a founder and editor of the InfoSec Hong Kong Website with over 300 registered public members. He currently is a chapter leader of OWASP (The Open Web Application Security Project- HK Chapter) and serves as a program committee member in PISA (Professional Information Security Association) and ISSA (HK Chapter). His major interest is in web application security, various penetration tests and forensics. He is a column writer on information security in Hong Kong local newspaper – Apple Daily. He has certified as CISSP and CISA.

6 What will I cover? Event Logs Monitoring Problems Solutions (You may most concern about it) Demonstration (You may most be interested in it ) Experience sharing among all of you.

7 Real-Case: Event Log Monitoring Problem in a Bank It have 50 systems, and 12 windows servers and other legacy systems. In the past, the one taking the information security officer just use his X-Ray Eyes to scan over all the Logs print-outs (over 400~600 papers) to detect errors every working day (Remark: I believe he is readily a superman, otherwise, he will be blind!) No filtering, No selection for critical events. Use half day to review the logs. No standard document about log review process. No solutions from other branches in other countries.

8 Real-Case: Event Log Monitoring Problem in a Bank Their current solutions: Print out the event logs with heaps of papers, and glance over it and then chop, chop chop with their signature. Package them up and put into the inventory Auditor has no comment on this kind of log review process.

9 The Challenges Bureaucratic approval process ( I cant count how many tiers I need to pass even I just want to get a few thousand dollars) Free and cost saving Efficient to solve the problem Shorten the log review time Automate the log download process Patch the log file with appropriate headers and format. Save our world, save papers! In addition, increase the opportunity to detect any critical events and suspicious activity. No one has knowledge in this area.

10 What did I suggest to bank? Long Term Security Operation Center (SOC) (but I think it is too early because I cannot find they have put some efforts in Incidence Response Planning and Implementation) Logs Filtering and Processing Server Short & Mid Term Commercial event log review software

11 Roadmap to building log processing standard Log Nature and Element Define the elements needs for a log records What are the critical events? Operation Log patching, download, process and retention as well as purging. Review What are we looking at? The procedure to report any suspicious events.

12 More challenges from my observation Various systems with various standard in logging -> Hard to integrate. Cultural problem and political problem No one thinks about the system infrastructure.

13 Log Wiping Risk and Attack

14 Event Logs Monitoring Tools Microsoft Log Parser /tools/logparser/default.mspx /tools/logparser/default.mspx Kiwi Syslog Products: Remstats - server.html server.html Set up a Linux log server /49/ /49/

15 Log Parser Search for Data - Search for the logons of a specific user among the events in the Windows Event Log: C:\>LogParser "SELECT TimeGenerated, SourceName, EventCategoryName, Message INTO report.txt FROM Security WHERE EventID = 528 AND SID LIKE '%TESTUSER%'" -resolveSIDs:ON

16 Log Parser (2) Create Reports - Create custom- formatted HTML reports.

17 Log Parser (3) Calculate Statistics -Calculate the distribution of the HTTP response status codes from your IIS log files: C:\>LogParser "SELECT sc-status, COUNT(*) AS Times INTO Chart.gif FROM GROUP BY sc-status ORDER BY Times DESC" – chartType:PieExploded3D - chartTitle:"Status Codes" And produce a chart formatted as desired:

18 Log Parser - Syntax Examples: LogParser "SELECT date, REVERSEDNS(c-ip) AS Client, COUNT(*) FROM file.log WHERE sc-status<>200 GROUP BY date, Client" -e:10 LogParser file:myQuery.sql?myInput=C:\temp\ex*.log+myOutput=results.c sv LogParser -c -i:BIN -o:W3C file1.log file2.log "ComputerName IS NOT NULL" Help: -h GRAMMAR : SQL Language Grammar -h FUNCTIONS [ ] : Functions Syntax -h EXAMPLES : Example queries and commands -h -i: : Help on -h -o: : Help on -h -c : Conversion help

19 Log Parser – Sample Output Server EventID Total HKGKABS HKGKABS HKGKABS HKGKABS HKGKABS HKGKABS HKGUATS HKGUATS HKGUATS HKGUATS …………. Statistics: Elements processed: 1130 Elements output: 10 Execution time: 0.19 seconds

20 From logs download to output reports (1a) Automatic Download strTarget = ""P:\SecurityLogs\log\t_Server1.txt""" Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set objExec = objShell.Exec("cmd.exe /C dumpel -f " & strTarget & " -s Server1 -d 1 -l security -c -format dtIucs") strPingResults = LCase(objExec.StdOut.ReadAll) dumpel is an executable to download logs

21 From logs download to output reports (1b) DUMPEL Usage: dumpel -f file [-s \\server] [-l log [-m source]] [-e n1 n2 n3..] [-r] [-t] [-d x] -d Filters for event last days (number larger than zero) -e nn Filters for event id nn (up to 10 may be specified) -f Output filename (default stdout) -l Dumps the specified log (system, application, security) -b Dumps a backup file (use -l to specify file name) -m Filters for events logged by name -r Filters out events logged by name (must use -m too) -s Remote to servername -t Use tab to separate strings (default is space) -c Use comma to separate fields -ns Do not output strings -format Specify output format. Default format is dtTCISucs where t - time d - date T - event type C - event category I - event ID S - event source u - user c - computer s - strings

22 From logs download to output reports (2a) strTarget1 = ""Q:\log\window\script\Daily\header.txt""" strTarget2 = ""P:\SecurityLogs\log\" & genmonth & genday & "t_Server1.txt""" Copy log files to target directory with appended header Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set objExec = objShell.Exec("cmd.exe /C copy " & strTarget1 & "+" & strTarget & " " & strTarget2) strPingResults = LCase(objExec.StdOut.ReadAll) `Invoke and run Log Parser, it outputs chart. Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set objExec = objShell.Exec("cmd.exe /C P:\SecurityLogs\Logparser.exe file:P:\SecurityLogs\EventIDDistrib_Overview.sql?sourcefile =P:\SecurityLogs\2005log\" & genmonth & genday & "t_Server1.txt+destfile=P:\SecurityLogs\BarChart\" & genmonth & genday & Overview_Server1.gif -i:csv -o:CHART - charttype:BarClustered -categories:ON -values:ON - charttitle:Event_Logs_Overview_Report_" & genmonth & genday & Server1 -legend:ON -groupsize:1024x700") strPingResults = LCase(objExec.StdOut.ReadAll)

23 From logs download to output reports (2b) Output CSV file with logs breakdown Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set objExec = objShell.Exec("cmd.exe /C P:\SecurityLogs\Logparser.exe file:P:\SecurityLogs\EventIDDistrib_with_select ed_event_ID.sql?sourcefile=P:\SecurityLogs\log\ " & genmonth & genday & "t_Server1.txt+destfile=P:\SecurityLogs\BarChar t\" & genmonth & genday & "Selected_Server1.csv -i:csv -o:csv") strPingResults = LCase(objExec.StdOut.ReadAll)

24 Event Logs Review Process (3) Add the header to the beginning of the file. Date,Time,EventID,SourceName,Dummy,Server, Description. They are used in the SQL query. SQL Query in the EventIDDistrib_with_selected event_ID.sql: SELECTStrCat(TO_STRING(EventID),Description) as EventID_And_Source,Count(*) as Total FROM %sourcefile% To %destfile% WHERE EventID in (529; 530; 531; 532; 535; 537; 539;608; 609; 612; 613; 614; 615; 616; 617; 620; 624; 625;626; 627; 628; 629; 630; 631; 632; 633; 634; 635; 636;637; 638; 639; 640; 641; 642; 643; 644; 645; 646; 647;648; 649; 650; 651; 652; 653; 654; 655; 656; 657; 658;659; 660; 661; 662; 663; 664; 665; 666; 667; 675; 676; 677) GROUP BY EventID_And_Source

25 Final Log Review Report Element Scope and Content Which servers do we monitor? Grand Total Figures: It shows no. of logs for each event for every server Group the events into different categories: Appendix with detailed event statistics Statistics with no breakdown. Detailed statistics breakdown with log description Appendix of selected critical events

26 Group the events for the management report Event GroupEventSuspicious Finding After Following Up (Yes/No/No Occurrence) Audit Log and Policy Access/Change 517, 612No Occurrence Account Lockout539,644No Failed Account Access , 537No Account Profile Change (Normal User/Administrator) 608, 609, , No User Role/Group Change/Addition , 641, No Domain Policy & User Database Change 640,643No

27 Critical Events Selection Windows Server Event Event ID Message Type DescriptionRisk (H/M/L) 512UserWindows NT is starting up 513UserWindows NT is shutting down 514UserAn authentication package loaded by Local Security Authority 515UserA trusted logon process registered with Local Security Authority 516UserInternal resources allocated for queuing of audit messages exhausted 517 *UserAudit log cleared 518UserA notification package loaded by Security A/C Mgr 528UserSuccessful Logon 529 *UserLogon Fail 530 *UserLogon Fail-A/C logon time restriction violation 531 *UserLogon Fail-A/C currently disabled 532 *UserLogon Fail-specified user A/C expired 533 *UserLogon Fail-User not allowed to logon at this computer 534 *UserLogon Fail-user not granted requested logon type at this machine 535 *UserLogon Fail-specified A/C's PWD expired Different parties will have different risk ranking on particular event.

28 Challenge again… How to justify the event is not suspicious? How to filter out those duplicated event logs further? We need to keep an eye on any new patch or/and updates, it may add some new event we have not captured.

29 Current weakness No co-relation could be drawn. No short-cut, all manual effort in investigation

30 Incidence Response or Ignorance Response? Again, log filtering and review is not a goal, we need to response any irregularities once it is discovered. One more mindset from CEO: We are doing XXXX business, not information security! If the IR is reviewed once a year due to the coming of HKMA, generally, the staff and management awareness is lacking, it is hard to go ahead, may be, people may response with ignorance.

31 Summary Logs are here, but not the one you desire. Logs are obtained but useless if you dont know how to review. Logs are reviewed but useless if there is no process to response. Shorten the Fault Detection Time. However, it needs management support. As an system architect, they may need to discuss with other architects and security officer about log facilities for better management and integration.

32 Resources An unofficial Log Parser support site Log Parser Toolkit (book) How to generate web-based report (I have discussed with others in search How to create a customized HTML report? in the forum. Understanding Windows Logging ows_Logging.html ows_Logging.html Tutorial and Tools g+Monitoring g+Monitoring

33 Any questions? Please feel free to share with me. You could reach me at or