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Sheriff CSMâ„¢

Microsoft IIS through NXLog

When you configure Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) to send log data to Sheriff CSM, you can use the Microsoft IIS NXLog plugin to translate raw log data into normalized events for analysis. The table below provides some basic information for the plugin:

Plugin Information

DeviceDetails
Vendor Microsoft
Device Type Web server
Connection Type Syslog
Data Source Name iis-nxlog
Data Source ID 1502

Integrating Microsoft IIS and NXLog

Before configuring NXLog in Sheriff CSM, you need to first configure logging on IIS.

Configure Logging in Microsoft IIS

To configure logging at the server level
  1. Open the IIS Manager.
  2. In the Connections tab, select the server and double-click the Logging icon.

  3. Under One log file per, select Site.
  4. Under Log File, click Select Fields to choose the information you want to log.

    Make sure to match the following screenshot because the Windows IIS plugin will look for these fields:

    Configure Logging at site level in IIS Manager

  5. Click Apply.

Configure NXLog on Windows

To send log data through NXLog to Sheriff CSM
  1. If not done already, download NXLog.conf, and then place it in the conf directory of your NXLog installation. Depending on which version you use, the directory can be C:\Program Files (x86)\!NXLog\conf for the 32-bit version or C:\Program Files\NXLog\conf for the 64-bit version.

    Note: This step overwrites the default NXLog.conf file. You may want to back up the original copy before placing the one provided by AT&T Cybersecurity.

  2. Open the NXLog.conf file in a text editor.
  3. Update the root path of your NXLog installation.

    1. Locate the following lines:

      #define ROOT C:\Program Files\!NXLog
      #define ROOT C:\Program Files (x86)\!NXLog
    2. Uncomment the path that matches the NXLog installation on your Windows machine.
  4. Enter the Sheriff CSM Sensor (Deputy) IP address.

    1. Locate the following line:

      define OUTPUT_DESTINATION_ADDRESS <Sheriff-CSM-Sensor-IP>
    2. Replace <Sheriff-CSM-Sensor-IP> with the IP address of the Sheriff CSM All-in-One or Sheriff CSM Sensor that will receive the Windows events.
  5. Uncomment the section between IIS-NXLog and /IIS-NXLog.

    Important: Only remove the first # symbol in each line when uncommenting the sections. The remaining # symbol indicates that the line is either a comment or optional.

  6. In addition, uncomment the following lines, above the DHCP-NXLog section:

    #<Extension json>
    # Module xm_json
    #</Extension>
  7. Save the file.

  8. Start or restart the NXLog service.

Plugin Enablement

For plugin enablement information, see Enable Plugins.

If enabling the plugin on assets, you will find it listed as Microsoft: IIS Internet Information Services:NXLog.

Enabling the iis-nxlog plugin from asset

Additional Resources and Troubleshooting

NXLog documentation on forwarding and storing logs

For troubleshooting, refer to the vendor documentation:

NXLog documentation on troubleshooting
Topic revision: r11 - 29 Jun 2022, SheriffCyberSecurity
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