Re: [logs] tokens and layouts...

From: Tom Perrine (tepat_private)
Date: Tue Aug 27 2002 - 10:15:49 PDT

  • Next message: Chris Adams: "Re: [logs] tokens and layouts..."

    >>>>> On 27 Aug 2002 14:57:39 +1200, Russell Fulton <r.fultonat_private> said:
    
        RF> 1/ the one you mention, system is known to lie about the time (you have
        RF> a laptop that was used by a former employee and don't know root password
        RF> or the bios password and are too busy right now to do a complete
        RF> reinstall just to change the time).
    
        RF> 2/ Some machines are constantly sync'ed using NTP some sync'ed on boot,
        RF> some are not sync'ed at all.  Having that information included with the
        RF> log file could be useful if at some time in the future you need to do
        RF> correlations with other files.  If you don't know how accurate the
        RF> clocks are it is dam near impossible. 
    
    I think that this is a new category of "things to log":
    *characteristics of the data source*, which can include time, physical
    location, etc..
    
    I think that there is some "prior art" in IDMEF for this, but its been
    a while since I read any drafts.
    
    One way to do this is to include a periodic "I think my time is"
    message.  The difference between this and the time on the sink
    (assumed to be good!) is useful, and several of these messages with
    different offsets indicate either a bad clock or interesting network
    problems.  The message might also indicate the quality of the clock,
    how it is sync'ed (NTP stratum?), etc.
    
    Could we agree on some terminology from the RFCs:
    
    device or source - initial creator of a log record
    relay - relays log records
    sink - gathers and stores log records
    
    A host (or device) may act in any combination of these roles.
    
    --tep
    _______________________________________________
    LogAnalysis mailing list
    LogAnalysisat_private
    http://lists.shmoo.com/mailman/listinfo/loganalysis
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Aug 28 2002 - 10:25:57 PDT