Activate the Syslog Collector - Administrator Guide - Cortex XDR - Cortex - Security Operations

Cortex XDR Pro Administrator Guide
Product
Cortex XDR
License
Pro
Creation date
2023-03-22
Last date published
2023-09-25
Category
Administrator Guide

Note

Ingesting Logs and Data from external sources requires a Cortex XDR Pro per GB license.

To receive Syslog data from an external source, you must first set up the Syslog Collector applet on a Broker VM within your network. The Syslog Collector supports a log ingestion rate of 90,000 logs per second (lps) with the recommended Broker VM setup.

To increase the log ingestion rate, you can add additional CPUs to the Broker VM. The Syslog Collector listens for logs on specific ports and from any or specific IP addresses.

  1. Configure the Broker VM.

  2. Select Settings → Configurations → Data Broker → Broker VMs.

  3. In either the Brokers tab or the Clusters tab, locate your Broker VM.

  4. You can either right-click the Broker VM and select Add App → Syslog Collector, or hover in the APPS column, and select Add → Syslog Collector.

  5. Configure your Syslog Collector:

    Cortex XDR supports multiple sources over a single port on a single Syslog Collector. The following options are available.

    • Edit the Optional Settings of the default PORT/PROTOCOL: 514/UDP. See Step 5.

      Note

      Once configured, you cannot change the Port/PROTOCOL. If you don’t want to use a data source, ensure to remove the data source from the list as explained in Step 7.

    • Add a new Syslog Collector data source. See Step 6.

  6. Edit the default 514/UDP Syslog Collector data source:

    1. Right-click the 514/UDP PORT/PROTOCOL, and select Edit.

    2. Configure these Optional Settings:

      • Format—Select the Syslog format you want to send to the UDP 514 protocol and port on the Syslog Collector: Auto-Detect (default), CEF, LEEF, CISCO, CORELIGHT, or RAW

        Note

        • The Vendor and Product defaults to Auto-Detect when the Log Format is set to CEF or LEEF.

        • For a Log Format set to CEF or LEEF, Cortex XDR reads events row by row to look for the Vendor and Product configured in the logs. When the values are populated in the event log row, Cortex XDR uses these values even if you specified a value in the Vendor and Product fields in the Syslog Collector settings. Yet, when the values are blank in the event log row, Cortex XDR uses the Vendor and Product that you specified in the Syslog Collector settings. If you did not specify a Vendor or Product in the Syslog Collector settings and the values are blank in the event log row, the values for both fields are set to unknown.

      • Vendor—Specify a particular vendor for the Syslog format defined or leave the default Auto-Detect setting.

      • Product—Specify a particular product for the Syslog format defined or leave the default Auto-Detect setting.

      • Source Network—Specify the IP address or Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). If you leave this blank, Cortex XDR will allow receipt of logs from any source IP address or CIDR that transmits over the specified protocol and port. When you specify overlapping addresses in the Source Network field in multiple rows, such as 10.0.0.10 in the first row and 10.0.0.0/24 in the second row, the order of the addresses matter. In this example, the IP address 10.0.0.10 is only captured from the first row definition. For more information on prioritizing the order of the syslog formats, see Step #7.

      After each configuration, select blue-arrow.png to save the changes and then Done to update the Syslog Collector with your settings.

  7. Add a new Syslog Collector data source:

    1. Select Add New.

    2. Configure these mandatory General settings:

      • Protocol—Choose a protocol over which the Syslog will be sent: UDP, TCP, or Secure TCP

      • Port—Choose a port on which the Syslog Collector will listen for logs.

        Note

        Because some port numbers are reserved by Cortex XDR , you must choose a port number that is not:

        -In the range of 0-1024 (except for 514)

        -In the range of 63000-65000

        -Values of 4369, 5671, 5672, 5986, 6379, 8000, 8888, 9100, 15672, or 28672

      • When configuring the Protocol as Secure TCP, these additional General Settings are available:

        • Server Certificate—Browse to your server certificate to configure server authentication.

        • Private Key—Browse to your private key for the server certificate.

        • Optional CA Certificate—(Optional) Browse to your CA certificate for mutual authentication.

        • Minimal TLS Version—Select either 1.0 or 1.2 (default) as the minimum TLS version allowed.

        Note

        Cortex XDR will notify you when your certificates are about to expire.

    3. Configure these Optional Settings:

      • Format—Select the Syslog format you want to send to the UDP/514 protocol and port on the Syslog Collector: Auto-Detect (default), CEF, LEEF, CISCO, CORELIGHT, or RAW

      • Vendor—Enter a particular vendor for the Syslog format defined or leave the default Auto-Detect setting.

      • Product—Enter a particular product for the Syslog format defined or leave the default Auto-Detect setting.

      • Source Network—Specify the IP address or Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). If you leave this blank, Cortex XDR will allow receipt of logs from any source IP address or CIDR that transmits over the specified protocol and port. When you specify overlapping addresses in the Source Network field in multiple rows, such as 10.0.0.10 in the first row and 10.0.0.0/24 in the second row, the order of the addresses matter. In this example, the IP address 10.0.0.10 is only captured from the first row definition. For more information on prioritizing the order of the syslog formats, see Step #7.

      After each configuration, select blue-arrow.png to save the changes and then Done to update the Syslog Collector with your settings.

  8. Make additional changes to the Syslog Collector data sources configured.

    • To remove a Syslog Collector data source, right-click the row after the Port/Protocol entry, and select Remove.

    • To prioritize the order of the Syslog formats listed for the protocols and ports configured, drag and drop the rows to the order you require.

  9. Save the Syslog Collector settings.

    After a successful activation, the APPS field displays Syslog with a green dot indicating a successful connection.

  10. (Optional) To view metrics about the Syslog Collector, hover over the Syslog connection in the APPS field for your Broker VM.

    Cortex XDR displays the following information.

    • Connectivity Status—Whether the applet is connected to Cortex XDR .

    • Logs Received and Logs Sent—Number of logs received and sent by the applet per second over the last 24 hours. If the number of incoming logs received is larger than the number of logs sent, it could indicate a connectivity issue.

    • Resources—Displays the amount of CPU, Memory, and Disk space the applet is using.

  11. Manage the Syslog Collector.

    After the Syslog Collector has been activated, you can make additional changes to your configuration if needed. To modify a configuration, hover over the Syslog connection in the APPS column to display the Syslog Collector settings, and select:

    • Configure to redefine the Syslog configurations.

    • Deactivate to disable the Syslog Collector.