Data Loss Prevention

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  • 1.  Unable to write to syslog: host=x.x.x.x, port=514

    Posted Sep 23, 2011 05:18 PM

    I'm getting an error into IncidentPersister_0.log about 'Unable to write to syslog: host=x.x.x.x, port=514'

    I configured a Response Rule 'All: Log to a Syslog Server' to my server x.x.x.x on port 514. I know the Syslog Server is receiving messages from others platforms and works fine

    according to the log, it is caused by: com.vontu.util.syslog.SyslogException: Syslog message to large size: 1596 MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE: 1460

    I'm afraid of losing some incidents messages while are sent to my syslog.

    I want to know whether is possible increase the MAX_MESSAGE_SIZE greater than 1460 in the configuration files or What should I do in order to avoid this kind of error when sending message to a syslog server?

    The Enforce Server is installed on Windows 2008 platform

    Greetings



  • 2.  RE: Unable to write to syslog: host=x.x.x.x, port=514

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Sep 23, 2011 09:47 PM

    Below is the content from the KB, for your information:


    Based on RFC 3195 & 3164 it is specified that BSD & RAW messages can't be longer than 1024 characters. Otherwise, the syslog servers & relays ignore the end of the message. It is to note that these RFCs are not fixed standards, but widely implemented.

    In this case we do fail when the message exceeds by far the guideline limit of 1024 and as a result you will see the error. Please keep in mind that syslog servers are designed to store system events and small notifications as a (short) text, they are not designed for large contextual data or as a remediation system. The current remediation systems take these short texts and context information to trigger workflow and store additional data within additional databases.

    The underlying reason may be the usage of custom attributes that can as a result create messages far larger then 1024 characters, since the standard email notification is not bound to any limit.

    As a best practice you would want to create Syslog notifications without custom attributes or fixed content, such as incident ID or violator as reference. If the remediator or whoever consumes the syslog entry requires more in-depth details they can log into the Vontu UI.

    Alternatively, the incident ID from the syslog notification can be used to access the incident directly through the use of the Reporting API to access and store the incident data into a secondary remediation system.

    Another approach is to trigger via email notification a workflow. Some customers then extract the contextual information including all custom attributes fro the email and store it within a secondary remediation system.