Title

The Central Log Server must produce audit records containing information to establish the source of the events. (Cat III impact)

Discussion

Without establishing the source of the event, it is impossible to establish, correlate, and investigate the events leading up to an outage or attack. In addition to logging where events occur within the application, the application must also produce audit records that identify the application itself as the source of the event. In the case of centralized logging, the source would be the application name accompanied by the host or client name. In order to compile an accurate risk assessment, and provide forensic analysis, it is essential for security personnel to know the source of the event, particularly in the case of centralized logging. Associating information about the source of the event within the application provides a means of investigating an attack; recognizing resource utilization or capacity thresholds; or identifying an improperly configured application.

Check Content

Examine the configuration. Verify that the Central Log Server produces audit records containing information to establish the source of the events. If the Central Log Server is not configured to produce audit records containing information to establish the source of the events, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the Central Log Server to produce audit records containing information to establish the source of the events.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-221911r420077_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-221911

Group Title: SRG-APP-000098

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

Controls tied to check. These are derived from the CCIs shown above.