Title

The web server must produce log records containing sufficient information to establish when (date and time) events occurred. (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 correct order of the events that occurred is important during forensic analysis. Events that appear harmless by themselves might be flagged as a potential threat when properly viewed in sequence. By also establishing the event date and time, an event can be properly viewed with an enterprise tool to fully see a possible threat in its entirety. Without sufficient information establishing when the log event occurred, investigation into the cause of event is severely hindered. 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 a date and time for each logged event. Request a user access the hosted application and generate logable events, and then review the logs to determine if the date and time are included in the log event data. If the date and time are not included, this is a finding.

Fix Text

Configure the web server to log date and time with the event.

Additional Identifiers

Rule ID: SV-206360r960894_rule

Vulnerability ID: V-206360

Group Title: SRG-APP-000096

Expert Comments

CCIs tied to check.

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