Jan 14 2014

What to Log for Authentication and Access Control

Category: Access Control,Log ManagementDISC @ 10:30 am

Authentication and access control plays a critical role in web application security.  Mostly for logging, all authentication and access control events should be logged which includes but not limited to successes and failures. If  we are logging only the successful events, someone may brute force attack the passwords without any detection or notice. On the contrary, let’s say only failures are logged, a legitimate or valid user may misuse, corrupt, harm or simply abuse the system without any detection. Besides that all other authentication and access control related events (such as account lockout) are important and must be logged.

  • Failed log in
  • Successful log in
  • Account locked /disable
  • Account unlocked / enabled
  • Account created
  • Password changed
  • Username changed
  • Logged out

Logs should include the resources involved in the web application (IP address, URL, user name, http method, protocol version, etc…) and document the reason why access was denied for the failed event. Some application provides much better logs than others. generally log entries should contain (user ID, timestamp, source IP, Description of the event, error code, priority).

All error conditions should be logged including simple stuff as sql query errors, which can help to detect sql injection attack. Some errors related to the availability of the application are important for early sign to trigger BCP. Availability is one of the main pillar of information security, so it should be logged and monitored. Log error conditions should include but not limited to (failed queries, file not found and cannot open error, unexpected state, connection failure and timeout)

Besides the inherent benefits of log management, a number of laws and regulations further compel organizations to store and review certain logs. The following is a listing of key regulations, standards, and guidelines that help define organizations’ needs for log management – ISO 27001, ISO 22301, FISMA, GLBA, HIPAA, SOX, and PCI-DSS.

Guide to Computer Security Log Management: Recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology: Special Publication 800-92

Security Log Management

 

Tags: Access Control, authentication, Log Analysis, logging, Security, Site Management

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