mitigations.md

Mitigation Strategies Analysis for rsyslog/liblognorm

Mitigation Strategy: Secure Rulebase Management: Principle of Least Privilege for Rule Access

• Mitigation Strategy: Principle of Least Privilege for Rule Access
• Description:
  1. Identify Roles and Responsibilities: Define roles that require access to liblognorm rulebases (e.g., security engineers, log management administrators).
  2. Restrict File System Permissions: Configure file system permissions on liblognorm rulebase files and directories to grant read access only to authorized users and processes. Prevent write access for unauthorized users.
  3. Control Access to Rule Management Tools: If using tools to manage rulebases (e.g., version control systems, deployment scripts), restrict access to these tools based on the principle of least privilege.
  4. Regularly Review Access: Periodically review and audit access permissions to rulebases and related tools to ensure they remain aligned with the principle of least privilege.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Unauthorized Rule Modification (High Severity): Prevents unauthorized individuals from modifying liblognorm rules, which could lead to bypassing security controls, misinterpreting logs, or introducing malicious rules.
• Impact:
  • Unauthorized Rule Modification (High): Significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized rule modifications.
• Currently Implemented: Implemented. Rulebase files are stored in a dedicated directory with restricted file system permissions. Only the log processing service user has read access.
• Missing Implementation: No missing implementation identified. Access control is consistently applied to rulebase files.

Mitigation Strategy: Secure Rulebase Management: Rulebase Validation and Testing

• Mitigation Strategy: Rulebase Validation and Testing
• Description:
  1. Develop Test Cases: Create a comprehensive set of test cases for each liblognorm rulebase. These test cases should include:
     • Valid Log Examples: Examples of legitimate log messages that the rulebase is intended to parse.
     • Edge Cases: Log messages that represent boundary conditions or unusual but valid scenarios.
     • Invalid Log Examples: Log messages that are intentionally malformed or contain potentially malicious patterns to test rule robustness.
  2. Automated Testing Framework: Implement an automated testing framework to execute test cases against rulebases. This framework should:
     • Load the rulebase.
     • Feed test log messages to liblognorm using the rulebase.
     • Verify the normalized output against expected results.
     • Report test failures.
  3. Pre-Deployment Testing: Run the automated test suite against any new or modified rulebase before deploying it to production.
  4. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) Integration: Integrate rulebase testing into the CI/CD pipeline to ensure that all rule changes are automatically tested.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Rule Misconfiguration (Medium Severity): Reduces the risk of deploying rulebases that are incorrectly configured, leading to misinterpretation of logs or parsing failures.
  • Vulnerability Introduction through Rules (Medium Severity): Helps identify rulebases that might inadvertently introduce vulnerabilities by incorrectly parsing or handling specific log patterns.
• Impact:
  • Rule Misconfiguration (Medium): Moderately reduces the risk by catching errors before production deployment.
  • Vulnerability Introduction through Rules (Medium): Moderately reduces the risk by testing with potentially malicious inputs.
• Currently Implemented: Partially implemented. Basic unit tests exist for some core rulebases, but coverage is not comprehensive. Testing is not fully automated in the CI/CD pipeline.
• Missing Implementation: Need to expand test case coverage significantly, especially for edge cases and potentially malicious inputs. Automate testing and integrate it into the CI/CD pipeline for every rulebase change.

Mitigation Strategy: Secure Rulebase Management: Version Control for Rulebases

• Mitigation Strategy: Version Control for Rulebases
• Description:
  1. Use Version Control System: Store all liblognorm rulebase files in a version control system like Git.
  2. Track Changes: Commit all changes to rulebases to version control, including commit messages describing the changes.
  3. Branching and Merging: Use branching and merging strategies for rulebase development and updates, allowing for collaboration and controlled changes.
  4. Tagging Releases: Tag specific versions of rulebases when they are deployed to production.
  5. Auditing and Rollback: Utilize version control history for auditing changes and easily rollback to previous versions of rulebases if necessary.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Accidental Rule Changes (Low Severity): Reduces the risk of accidental or unintended changes to rulebases that could disrupt log processing.
  • Difficulty in Auditing Changes (Low Severity): Mitigates the difficulty in tracking and auditing rulebase modifications.
  • Rollback Challenges (Low Severity): Addresses challenges in reverting to previous rulebase versions in case of issues.
• Impact:
  • Accidental Rule Changes (Low): Low impact, primarily improves operational stability and manageability.
  • Difficulty in Auditing Changes (Low): Low impact, improves auditability and accountability.
  • Rollback Challenges (Low): Low impact, improves incident response capabilities.
• Currently Implemented: Implemented. Rulebases are stored in a Git repository. Changes are tracked, and branching is used for development.
• Missing Implementation: No missing implementation identified. Version control is consistently used for rulebase management.

Mitigation Strategy: Secure Rulebase Management: Regular Rulebase Review

• Mitigation Strategy: Regular Rulebase Review
• Description:
  1. Establish Review Schedule: Define a regular schedule for reviewing liblognorm rulebases (e.g., quarterly, annually).
  2. Review Team: Assign a team or individual responsible for conducting rulebase reviews (e.g., security engineers, log management experts).
  3. Review Criteria: Define criteria for rulebase reviews, including:
     • Relevance: Ensure rules are still relevant to current log formats and application needs.
     • Effectiveness: Verify rules are still effectively normalizing logs as intended.
     • Security: Identify any potentially overly permissive or vulnerable rules.
     • Performance: Assess rule performance and identify potential optimizations.
  4. Documentation: Document the review process and findings, including any identified issues and remediation actions.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Rule Drift and Obsolescence (Low Severity): Prevents rulebases from becoming outdated or ineffective over time as log formats or application needs change.
  • Accumulation of Inefficient or Vulnerable Rules (Low Severity): Reduces the risk of accumulating inefficient or potentially vulnerable rules over time.
• Impact:
  • Rule Drift and Obsolescence (Low): Low impact, primarily improves long-term maintainability and effectiveness.
  • Accumulation of Inefficient or Vulnerable Rules (Low): Low impact, improves long-term security posture.
• Currently Implemented: Not implemented. Regular rulebase reviews are not currently performed on a scheduled basis.
• Missing Implementation: Need to establish a formal schedule and process for regular rulebase reviews, including defining review criteria and assigning responsibilities.

Mitigation Strategy: Configuration Hardening: Minimize Rule Complexity

• Mitigation Strategy: Minimize Rule Complexity
• Description:
  1. Rule Design Principles: When designing liblognorm rules, prioritize simplicity and specificity.
  2. Avoid Overly Generic Rules: Avoid creating overly generic rules that attempt to handle a wide range of log formats. Instead, create specific rules for each distinct log format.
  3. Break Down Complex Rules: If complex rules are necessary, break them down into smaller, more manageable, and easier-to-understand sub-rules.
  4. Regularly Review and Simplify: During rulebase reviews, identify overly complex rules and attempt to simplify them where possible.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Rule Misinterpretation (Low Severity): Reduces the risk of misinterpreting complex rules, which could lead to unexpected parsing behavior or vulnerabilities.
  • Maintenance Difficulty (Low Severity): Improves rule maintainability and reduces the likelihood of introducing errors during rule modifications.
• Impact:
  • Rule Misinterpretation (Low): Low impact, primarily improves rule clarity and reduces potential for errors.
  • Maintenance Difficulty (Low): Low impact, improves long-term maintainability.
• Currently Implemented: Partially implemented. Rule developers are encouraged to write simple rules, but there is no formal process or tooling to enforce rule simplicity.
• Missing Implementation: Need to incorporate rule complexity considerations into rule development guidelines and potentially develop tooling to analyze rule complexity and suggest simplifications.

Mitigation Strategy: Configuration Hardening: Disable Unnecessary Features

• Mitigation Strategy: Disable Unnecessary Features
• Description:
  1. Identify Required Features: Analyze the application's log normalization requirements and identify the essential features of liblognorm that are needed.
  2. Disable Optional Modules/Features: If liblognorm offers optional modules or features that are not required, disable them during compilation or configuration. Consult liblognorm documentation for available options.
  3. Minimize Dependencies: Ensure that only necessary dependencies are included when building or deploying liblognorm.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Reduced Attack Surface (Low Severity): Reduces the overall attack surface by disabling unused code and features, potentially eliminating vulnerabilities in those components.
• Impact:
  • Reduced Attack Surface (Low): Low impact, but a general security best practice to minimize unnecessary code.
• Currently Implemented: Partially implemented. The build process is configured to include only the core liblognorm library and necessary dependencies. Optional modules are not explicitly disabled beyond default build configurations.
• Missing Implementation: Need to explicitly review liblognorm build options and configuration to identify and disable any optional features that are definitively not required by the application.

Mitigation Strategy: Configuration Hardening: Secure Storage of Configuration Files

• Mitigation Strategy: Secure Storage of Configuration Files
• Description:
  1. Restrict File System Permissions: Ensure that liblognorm configuration files (including rulebases and any other configuration files) are stored with restrictive file system permissions. Only the user and group running the log processing service should have read access. Write access should be restricted to authorized administrators only.
  2. Avoid World-Readable Permissions: Never set world-readable or world-writable permissions on configuration files.
  3. Secure Storage Location: Store configuration files in a secure location on the file system, outside of publicly accessible directories.
  4. Encryption at Rest (Optional): For highly sensitive environments, consider encrypting configuration files at rest.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Unauthorized Configuration Modification (Medium Severity): Prevents unauthorized users from modifying liblognorm configuration, which could lead to bypassing security controls or disrupting log processing.
  • Information Disclosure (Low Severity): Reduces the risk of information disclosure if configuration files contain sensitive information (though rulebases ideally should not contain secrets).
• Impact:
  • Unauthorized Configuration Modification (Medium): Moderately reduces the risk of unauthorized configuration changes.
  • Information Disclosure (Low): Low impact, primarily protects against accidental information leakage.
• Currently Implemented: Implemented. Configuration files are stored in a secure directory with restricted file system permissions.
• Missing Implementation: No missing implementation identified. Secure storage of configuration files is consistently applied.

Mitigation Strategy: Library Updates and Patch Management: Regularly Update liblognorm

• Mitigation Strategy: Regularly Update liblognorm
• Description:
  1. Establish Update Schedule: Define a schedule for regularly checking for and applying updates to liblognorm (e.g., monthly, quarterly).
  2. Monitor Release Announcements: Subscribe to rsyslog and liblognorm release announcements or security mailing lists to be notified of new releases and security patches.
  3. Test Updates in Staging: Before deploying updates to production, thoroughly test them in a staging environment to ensure compatibility and stability.
  4. Automate Update Process: Automate the update process as much as possible, including downloading updates, testing, and deployment, to ensure timely patching.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Exploitation of Known Vulnerabilities (High Severity): Mitigates the risk of attackers exploiting known vulnerabilities in liblognorm that are addressed by security patches.
• Impact:
  • Exploitation of Known Vulnerabilities (High): Significantly reduces the risk of exploitation of known vulnerabilities.
• Currently Implemented: Partially implemented. There is a process for updating dependencies, including liblognorm, but it is not strictly scheduled and relies on manual checks for updates. Testing in staging is performed before production deployment.
• Missing Implementation: Need to establish a more proactive and scheduled update process, including automated checks for new releases and security advisories.

Mitigation Strategy: Library Updates and Patch Management: Monitor Security Advisories

• Mitigation Strategy: Monitor Security Advisories
• Description:
  1. Identify Relevant Sources: Identify official sources for security advisories related to rsyslog and liblognorm (e.g., project mailing lists, security websites, CVE databases).
  2. Subscribe to Notifications: Subscribe to mailing lists or configure alerts to receive notifications when new security advisories are published.
  3. Regularly Check Sources: Periodically check identified sources for new security advisories, even if no notifications are received.
  4. Assess Impact and Prioritize: When a security advisory is published, assess its impact on the application and prioritize patching based on severity and exploitability.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Exploitation of Newly Disclosed Vulnerabilities (High Severity): Enables timely response to newly disclosed vulnerabilities in liblognorm by providing early warning.
• Impact:
  • Exploitation of Newly Disclosed Vulnerabilities (High): Significantly reduces the window of opportunity for attackers to exploit newly disclosed vulnerabilities.
• Currently Implemented: Partially implemented. Security advisories are occasionally checked manually, but there is no automated monitoring or subscription to official advisory channels.
• Missing Implementation: Need to implement automated monitoring of security advisory sources and establish a process for responding to and prioritizing security advisories.

Mitigation Strategy: Library Updates and Patch Management: Dependency Scanning

• Mitigation Strategy: Dependency Scanning
• Description:
  1. Integrate Dependency Scanning Tool: Integrate a dependency scanning tool into the development and CI/CD pipeline. Tools can be open-source or commercial (e.g., OWASP Dependency-Check, Snyk, Black Duck).
  2. Scan Regularly: Configure the dependency scanning tool to scan the application's dependencies, including liblognorm, regularly (e.g., daily, on every commit).
  3. Identify Vulnerabilities: The tool should identify known vulnerabilities in dependencies and report them.
  4. Prioritize Remediation: Prioritize remediation of identified vulnerabilities based on severity and exploitability.
  5. Automate Remediation (Where Possible): Some tools offer automated remediation features, such as suggesting updated dependency versions.
• List of Threats Mitigated:
  • Exploitation of Known Vulnerabilities in Dependencies (High Severity): Proactively identifies known vulnerabilities in liblognorm and its dependencies, enabling timely patching.
• Impact:
  • Exploitation of Known Vulnerabilities in Dependencies (High): Significantly reduces the risk of exploitation of known vulnerabilities in dependencies.
• Currently Implemented: Not implemented. Dependency scanning is not currently integrated into the development or CI/CD pipeline.
• Missing Implementation: Need to select and integrate a dependency scanning tool into the development and CI/CD pipeline and establish a process for reviewing and remediating identified vulnerabilities.