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fluent-plugin-windows-eventlog

Component

fluentd Input plugin for the Windows Event Log

Fluentd plugin to read the Windows Event Log.

This repository contains 2 Fluentd plugins:

  • in_windows_eventlog
  • in_windows_eventlog2

The former one is obsolete, please don't use in newly deployment.

This document describes about the later one. If you want to know about the obsolete one, please see in_windows_eventlog(old).md

Installation

ridk exec gem install fluent-plugin-windows-eventlog

in_windows_eventlog2

Fluentd Input plugin for the Windows Event Log using newer Windows Event Logging API. This is successor to in_windows_eventlog. See also this slide for the details of in_windows_eventlog2 plugin.

Configuration

<source>
  @type windows_eventlog2
  @id windows_eventlog2
  channels application,system # Also be able to use `<subscribe>` directive.
  read_existing_events false
  read_interval 2
  tag winevt.raw
  render_as_xml false       # default is false.
  rate_limit 200            # default is -1(Winevt::EventLog::Subscribe::RATE_INFINITE).
  # preserve_qualifiers_on_hash true # default is false.
  # preserve_sid_on_hash false # default is true.
  # read_all_channels false # default is false.
  # description_locale en_US # default is nil. It means that system locale is used for obtaining description.
  # refresh_subscription_interval 10m # default is nil. It specifies refresh interval for channel subscriptions.
  # event_query "Event/System[EventID!=1001]" # default is "*".
  <storage>
    @type local             # @type local is the default.
    persistent true         # default is true. Set to false to use in-memory storage.
    path ./tmp/storage.json # This is required when persistent is true. If migrating from eventlog v1 please ensure that you remove the old .pos folder
                            # Or, please consider using <system> section's `root_dir` parameter.
  </storage>
  # <parse> # Note: parsing is only available when render_as_xml true
  #  @type winevt_xml # @type winevt_xml is the default. winevt_xml and none parsers are supported for now.
    # When set up it as true, this plugin preserves "Qualifiers" and "EventID" keys.
    # When set up it as false, this plugin calculates actual "EventID" from "Qualifiers" and removing "Qualifiers".
    # With the following equation:
    # (EventID & 0xffff) | (Qualifiers & 0xffff) << 16
    # preserve_qualifiers true # preserve_qualifiers_on_hash can be used as a setting outside <parse> if render_as_xml is false
  # </parse>
  # <subscribe>
  #   channles application, system
  #   read_existing_events false # read_existing_events should be applied each of subscribe directive(s)
  #   remote_server 127.0.0.1 # Remote server ip/fqdn
  #   remote_domain WORKGROUP # Domain name
  #   remote_username fluentd # Remoting access account name
  #   remote_password changeme! # Remoting access account password
  # </subscribe>
</source>

NOTE: in_windows_eventlog2 always handles EventLog records as UTF-8 characters. Users don't have to specify encoding related parameters and they are not provided.

NOTE: When Description contains error message such as The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table., eventlog's resource file (.mui) related to error generating event is something wrong. This issue is also occurred in built-in Windows Event Viewer which is the part of Windows management tool.

NOTE: When render_as_xml as true, fluent-plugin-parser-winevt_xml plugin should be needed to parse XML rendered Windows EventLog string.

NOTE: If you encountered CPU or memory spike due to massively huge EventLog channel, rate_limit parameter may help you. This paramter can handle the multiples of 10 or -1(Winevt::EventLog::Subscribe::RATE_INFINITE).

parameters

name description
channels (option) No default value just empty array, but 'application' is used as default due to backward compatibility. One or more of {'application', 'system', 'setup', 'security'} and other evtx, which is the brand new Windows XML Event Log (EVTX) format since Windows Vista, formatted channels. Theoritically, in_windows_ventlog2 may read all of channels except for debug and analytical typed channels. If you want to read 'setup' or 'security' logs or some privileged channels, you must launch fluentd with administrator privileges.
keys (option) A subset of keys to read. Defaults to all keys.
read_interval (option) Read interval in seconds. 2 seconds as default.
<storage> Setting for storage plugin for recording read position like in_tail's pos_file.
<parse> Setting for parser plugin for parsing raw XML EventLog records.
parse_description (option) parse description field and set parsed result into the record. Description and EventData fields are removed
description_key_delimiter (option) (Only applicable if parse_description is true) Change the character placed between the parent_key and key. Set the value to "" for no delimiter. Defaults to . .
description_word_delimiter (option) (Only applicable if parse_description is true) Change the character placed between each word of the key. Set the value to "" for no delimiter. Defaults to _ .
downcase_description_keys (option) (Only applicable if parse_description is true) Specify whether to downcase the keys that are parsed from the Description. Defaults to true.
read_from_head Deprecated (option) Start to read the entries from the oldest, not from when fluentd is started. Defaults to false.
read_existing_events (option) Read the entries which already exist before fluentd is started. Defaults to false.
render_as_xml (option) Render Windows EventLog as XML or Ruby Hash object directly. Defaults to false.
rate_limit (option) Specify rate limit to consume EventLog. This is the approximate maximum number of records read per second. If more than this value is read in a second, this stops reading and waits until the next read_interval. This value must be a multiple of 10. Default is -1(Winevt::EventLog::Subscribe::RATE_INFINITE) and this means there is no upper limit. The log flow rate for setting this is approximately as follows: rate_limit / read_interval [logs/second]
preserve_qualifiers_on_hash (option) When set up it as true, this plugin preserves "Qualifiers" and "EventID" keys. When set up it as false, this plugin calculates actual "EventID" from "Qualifiers" and removing "Qualifiers". Default is false.
preserve_sid_on_hash (option) When set up it as true, this plugin preserves "UserID" key which includes SID of users. When set up it as false, this plugin just eliminates "UserID". This option is only effective for hash format (render_as_xml false) . Default is true.
read_all_channels (option) Read from all channels. Default is false
description_locale (option) Specify description locale. Default is nil. See also: Supported locales
refresh_subscription_interval (option) It specifies refresh interval for channel subscriptions. Default is nil.
event_query (option) It specifies query for deny/allow/filter events with XPath 1.0 or structured XML query. Default is "*" (retrieving all events).
<subscribe> Setting for subscribe channels.

subscribe section

name description
channels One or more of {'application', 'system', 'setup', 'security'}. If you want to read 'setup' or 'security' logs, you must launch fluentd with administrator privileges.
read_existing_events (option) Read the entries which already exist before fluentd is started. Defaults to false.
remote_server (option) Remoting access server ip address/fqdn. Defaults to nil.
remote_domain (option) Remoting access server joining domain name. Defaults to nil.
remote_username (option) Remoting access access account's username. Defaults to nil.
remote_password (option) Remoting access access account's password. Defaults to nil.

Motivation: subscribe directive is designed for applying read_existing_events each of channels which is specified in subscribe section(s).

e.g) The previous configuration can handle read_existing_events but this parameter only specifies read_existing_events or not for channels which are specified in channels.

channels ["Application", "Security", "HardwareEvents"]
read_existing_events true

is interpreted as "Application", "Security", and "HardwareEvents" should be read existing events.

But some users want to configure to:

  • "Application" and "Security" channels just tailing
  • "HardwareEvent" channel read existing events before launching Fluentd

With <subscribe> directive, this requirements can be represendted as:

<subscribe>
  channels ["Application", "Security"]
  # read_existing_events false
</subscribe>
<subscribe>
  channels ["HardwareEvent"]
  read_existing_events true
</subscribe>

This configuration can be handled as:

  • "Application" and "Security" channels just tailing
  • "HardwareEvent" channel read existing events before launching Fluentd
Remoting access

<subscribe> section supports remoting access parameters:

  • remote_server
  • remote_domain
  • remote_username
  • remote_password

These parameters are only in <subscribe> directive.

Note that before using this feature, remoting access users should belong to "Event Log Readers" group:

> net localgroup "Event Log Readers" <domain\username> /add

And then, users also should set up their remote box's Firewall configuration:

> netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group="Remote Event Log Management" new enable=yes

As a security best practices, remoting access account should not be administrator account.

For graphical instructions, please refer to Preconfigure a Machine to Collect Remote Windows Events | Sumo Logic document for example.

Available keys

This plugin reads the following fields from Windows Event Log entries. Use the keys configuration option to select a subset. No other customization is allowed for now.

key
ProviderName
ProviderGuid
EventID
Qualifiers
Level
Task
Opcode
Keywords
TimeCreated
EventRecordId
ActivityID
RelatedActivityID
ProcessID
ThreadID
Channel
Computer
UserID
Version
Description
EventData

parse_description details

Here is an example with parse_description true.

{
  "ProviderName": "Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing",
  "ProviderGUID": "{D441060A-9695-472B-90BC-24DCA9D503A4}",
  "EventID": "4798",
  "Qualifiers": "",
  "Level": "0",
  "Task": "13824",
  "Opcode": "0",
  "Keywords": "0x8020000000000000",
  "TimeCreated": "2019-06-19T03:10:01.982940200Z",
  "EventRecordID": "87028",
  "ActivityID": "",
  "RelatedActivityID": "{2599DE71-2F70-44AD-9DC8-C5FF2AE8D1EF}",
  "ThreadID": "16888",
  "Channel": "Security",
  "Computer": "DESKTOP-TEST",
  "UserID": "",
  "Version": "0",
  "Description": "A user's local group membership was enumerated.\r\n\r\nSubject:\r\n\tSecurity ID:\t\tS-X-Y-Z\r\n\tAccount Name:\t\tDESKTOP-TEST$\r\n\tAccount Domain:\t\tWORKGROUP\r\n\tLogon ID:\t\t0x3e7\r\n\r\nUser:\r\n\tSecurity ID:\t\tS-XXX-YYY-ZZZ0\r\n\tAccount Name:\t\tAdministrator\r\n\tAccount Domain:\t\tDESKTOP-TEST\r\n\r\nProcess Information:\r\n\tProcess ID:\t\t0xbac\r\n\tProcess Name:\t\tC:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe\r\n",
  "EventData": [
    "Administrator",
    "DESKTOP-TEST",
    "S-XXX-YYY-ZZZ",
    "S-X-Y-Z",
    "DESKTOP-TEST$",
    "WORKGROUP",
    "0x3e7",
    "0xbac",
    "C:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe"
  ]
}

This record is transformed to

{
  "ProviderName": "Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing",
  "ProviderGUID": "{D441060A-9695-472B-90BC-24DCA9D503A4}",
  "EventID": "4798",
  "Qualifiers": "",
  "Level": "0",
  "Task": "13824",
  "Opcode": "0",
  "Keywords": "0x8020000000000000",
  "TimeCreated": "2019-06-19T03:10:01.982940200Z",
  "EventRecordID": "87028",
  "ActivityID": "",
  "RelatedActivityID": "{2599DE71-2F70-44AD-9DC8-C5FF2AE8D1EF}",
  "ThreadID": "16888",
  "Channel": "Security",
  "Computer": "DESKTOP-TEST",
  "UserID": "",
  "Version": "0",
  "DescriptionTitle": "A user's local group membership was enumerated.",
  "subject.security_id": "S-X-Y-Z",
  "subject.account_name": "DESKTOP-TEST$",
  "subject.account_domain": "WORKGROUP",
  "subject.logon_id": "0x3e7",
  "user.security_id": "S-XXX-YYY-ZZZ",
  "user.account_name": "Administrator",
  "user.account_domain": "DESKTOP-TEST",
  "process_information.process_id": "0xbac",
  "process_information.process_name": "C:\\Windows\\System32\\svchost.exe"
}

NOTE: This feature assumes description field has following formats:

  • group delimiter: \r\n\r\n
  • record delimiter: \r\n\t
  • field delimiter: \t\t

If your description doesn't follow this format, the parsed result is only description_title field with same description content.

Copyright

Copyright

Copyright(C) 2014- @okahashi117

License

Apache License, Version 2.0

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Fluentd plugin to collect windows event logs

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