Problem with structure of authlog in regard to an external log Auditing system.


 
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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Problem with structure of authlog in regard to an external log Auditing system.
# 1  
Old 09-09-2013
Tools Problem with structure of authlog in regard to an external log Auditing system.

Hello everyone,

I hope I'm posting my question in the right section as it is not too easy to find the ideal spot for this one, especially for a brandspankingnew user of this forum. As this might be something simple I chose the Dummy section. By all means, feel free to move the post if not at the right place here.

The ArcSight auditing system deployed by my Security department has some troubles interpreting specific records in my managed system's auth_log. When a successful login is done you will see the next (anonimized) record logged in the auth_log:

Sep 9 13:49:49 SYSTEMNAME sshd[1613]: [ID 800047 auth.notice] Failed none for USERNAME from XX.XX.XX.XX port XXXX ssh2

I have marked the problematic piece of the sentence by making it bold. The specific part of the sentence "Failed none" unfortunately starts with "Failed" which makes our auditing system think it is a failed login, while it is a successful login.

Unfortunately a change on ArcSight side is out of the question as my system is apparently the only one using this odd phrasing according to support on that side. Switching off auth.notice is also out of the question because they need to be able to see successful logins, which would be gone if I'd disable auth.notice.

I have been looking into how i can manipulate the message logged in the auth_log, but I have been unable to find a befitting way to tackle this problem.

Systeminfo:
PAM seems to be installed and used
SunOS SYSTEMNAME 5.10 Generic_142900-10 sun4v sparc SUNW,Netra-T5440

The question now of course is, does someone know a way of manipulating this sentence structure without having to hack into the syslogger? I've found references to authentication order changing the logged message, but I have been unable to locate a guide that tells me how to do this.

Thanks in advance for your help guys!

Best regards,

Sjleegketting
The Netherlands

Last edited by Sjleegketting; 09-09-2013 at 09:15 AM.. Reason: forgot a quite important part of the problem.
# 2  
Old 09-09-2013
Can you ask auditing to look for a different file name?

Assume they are looking for: auth.log create -> auth.log1

Simpleminded exmple:
Code:
tail -f auth.log | sed 's/Failed none/Login okay/' >> auth.log.1

Otherwise if they cannot change the file they look at, you will have to hack into configuration files:

Code:
auth.info;auth.debug  /var/log/foo

Then play the sed game above
This User Gave Thanks to jim mcnamara For This Post:
# 3  
Old 09-09-2013
Regarding the "Failed none", I think you should turn to the sshd vendor i.e. Oracle, to get a patch/update for sshd.
Furthermore, the correct log level for sshd is auth.info (little more verbose than auth.notice).
This User Gave Thanks to MadeInGermany For This Post:
# 4  
Old 09-10-2013
Hello guys,

Thanks for the replies!

Unfortunately I cannot deploy your file edit suggestions. The syslog daemon is set to send the logging directly to ArcSight besides writing it to file. Manipulating the written syslogs is therefore not a valid solution besides the fact this would break security policy because editing a system file before submission will not be accepted, even via (cron)script. They don't really trust us root admins ;-)

I essentially thus really need to be able to change the output of the syslog daemon.

I will check what log level I have set and if your suggested change is something I can test. I will also revert to the OS supplier for checking version and update possibility.

But. Does anyone know about the ssh authentication order and the way that influences the logged message? I found some suggestions online that changing the order would change logged messages?

Best regards,
Sjleegketting.
# 5  
Old 09-16-2013
bump, any suggestions?
 
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