Week 39: Who's afraid of auditing? Understanding other Unix logs

When
Ideally daily, but at least weekly, depending on your audit policy.

Why
Understanding what's in other logs helps administrators recognize what's happening on their system.

Strategy
The kernel, accounting system and add-on utilities all log info that is recorded somewhere, often in /usr/local, /var, /etc and /opt if you have a database on the system, for example. To find your log files, read your systems' startup scripts (/etc/rc*, /etc/rc.d/* or /etc/init.d/*). If you run reports using specific tools, these often put the results in the tool's subdirectory, like ASET does. Most programs handle logging via syslog, so check the configuration file, /etc/syslog.conf, to find out where messages go. Consider using logadm to manage endlessly growing log files.

Unix can be mysterious, but don't mess with these logs, no matter how curious you are because it will further confuse the system and consume space:

Keep an eye on these two files, for they will often get large, but don't do anything. If they seem to be a problem, call the help/service desk or your system rep.

Other files that can grow quickly include those under /var/audit, where you'll find files that hav

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Because logs frequently provide the only indication of an intrusion, trespassers often attempt to erase evidence of their activities by altering log files. For this reason, it's critical your log files be protected to make it as difficult as possible for intruders to change or remove them. Also, messages repeated many times require attention -- diagnosing the reason for them will tell what your system is doing or not doing.

More information
Solaris 8+ info is at: http://docs.sun.com; you may have to read man pages for individual daemons to see where log data is actually put.

About the author
Shelley Bard, CISSP, CISM, is a senior security network engineer with Verizon Federal Network Systems (FNS). An information security professional for 17 years, Bard has briefed and written infosecurity assessments and technical reports for the White House and Department of Defense, special interest groups, industry and academia. Please e-mail any comments to securityplanner@infosecuritymag.com.

Opinions expressed in this column are those of Shelley Bard and don't necessarily reflect those of Verizon FNS.

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