Title

The web server must produce log records that contain sufficient information to establish the outcome (success or failure) of events. (Cat II impact)

Discussion

Web server logging capability is critical for accurate forensic analysis. Without sufficient and accurate information, a correct replay of the events cannot be determined. Ascertaining the success or failure of an event is important during forensic analysis. Correctly determining the outcome will add information to the overall reconstruction of the logable event. By determining the success or failure of the event correctly, analysis of the enterprise can be undertaken to determine if events tied to the event occurred in other areas within the enterprise. Without sufficient information establishing the success or failure of the logged event, investigation into the cause of event is severely hindered. The success or failure also provides a means to measure the impact of an event and help authorized personnel to determine the appropriate response. Log record content that may be necessary to satisfy the requirement of this control includes, but is not limited to, time stamps, source and destination IP addresses, user/process identifiers, event descriptions, application-specific events, success/fail indications, file names involved, access control, or flow control rules invoked.

Check Content

Review the web server documentation and deployment configuration to determine if the web server is configured to generate the outcome (success or failure) of the event. Request a user access the hosted application and generate logable events, and then review the logs to determine if the outcome of the event can be established. If the outcome of the event cannot be determined, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the web server to generate the outcome, success or failure, as part of each logable event.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-206364r960903_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-206364

Group Title: SRG-APP-000099

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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