News and blog
NXLog main page
  • Products
    NXLog Platform
    Log collection
    Log management and analytics
    Log storage
    NXLog Community Edition
    Integrations
    Professional Services
  • Solutions
    Use cases
    Specific OS support
    SCADA/ICS
    Windows event log
    DNS logging
    MacOS logging
    Solutions by industry
    Financial Services
    Government & Education
    Entertainment & Gambling
    Telecommunications
    Medical & Healthcare
    Military & Defense
    Law Firms & Legal Counsel
    Industrial & Manufacturing
  • Plans
  • Partners
    Find a Reseller
    Partner Program
  • Resources
    Documentation
    Blog
    White papers
    Videos
    Webinars
    Case Studies
    Community Program
    Community Forum
  • About
    Company
    Careers
  • Support
    Support portals
    Contact us

NXLog Platform
Log collection
Log management and analytics
Log storage
NXLog Community Edition
Integrations
Professional Services

Use Cases
Specific OS support
SCADA/ICS
Windows event log
DNS logging
MacOS logging
Solutions by industry
Financial Services
Government & Education
Entertainment & Gambling
Telecommunications
Medical & Healthcare
Military & Defense
Law Firms & Legal Counsel
Industrial & Manufacturing


Find a Reseller
Partner Program

Documentation
Blog
White papers
Videos
Webinars
Case Studies
Community Program
Community Forum

Company
Careers

Support portals
Contact us
Let's Talk Start free
NXLog search
  • Loading...
Let's Talk Start free
October 11, 2021 windowsoslog collectionsecurity

Collecting DHCP server logs on Windows

By John Kirch

Share
ALL SIEM STRATEGY SECURITY ANNOUNCEMENT DEPLOYMENT COMPLIANCE COMPARISON RSS

DHCP server log collection made simple

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a network management protocol that dynamically assigns IP addresses to each client machine on your network. However, its importance does not stop there. DHCP can even generate numerous critical events that indicate your network’s security has been compromised.

You might then wonder how you can use these events to safeguard your organization from intrusion. Well, these event logs store valuable information that contain the ID and IP address associated with each client. This means that closely monitoring and correlating these logs can reveal when unknown devices have joined your network. This helps to make detection and response time practically immediate in combating any masquerading attackers. Not to mention, it significantly minimizes the impact of an attack.

It is therefore true, that these logs are extremely important. However, now that we have established the importance of DHCP logs, let’s also consider the challenges they pose to most log collection tools. First of all, Windows provides three main sources of DHCP logs: Audit log files, Windows Event Log, and Event Tracing for Windows (ETW). Secondly, because different logs sources usually store data in different formats and use different schemas, the log collection tool should be able to natively collect from these sources and normalize the data to a single format and schema that your SIEM can understand. Finally, we need to ensure that any sensitive data is encrypted when it is forwarded to your SIEM. Fortunately, NXLog is more than capable of meeting all of these challenges.

dhcp server

Now we will take a detailed look at the three main DHCP log sources.

Audit log files

Once enabled, DHCP Server events can be written to DHCP audit log files. These logs are stored in Comma Separated Values (CSV) format. NXLog can easily read and write CSV files using its xm_csv module. Each event logged in the file provides a wealth of network information, such as the MAC address, hostname, and IP address (both IPv4 and IPv6, if available) of the DHCP client.

Event Logging

Formerly known as Windows Event Log (which now refers to its API), Event Logging is a Windows service that allows applications and operating sytem processes to record events in a standard, centralized collection called an event log. NXLog’s versatile im_msvistalog module speaks the XML query language native to Windows Event Log which means you can query any specific channel (or channels) and write multiple queries for complex filtering and aggregation of events from multiple channels. In the following im_msvistalog configuration, DHCP server logs are collected from its three event channels.

nxlog.conf
<Input dhcp_server_events>
    Module  im_msvistalog
    <QueryXML>
        <QueryList>
            <Query Id="0">
                <Select Path="DhcpAdminEvents">*</Select>
                <Select Path="Microsoft-Windows-Dhcp-Server/FilterNotifications">
                        *</Select>
                <Select Path="Microsoft-Windows-Dhcp-Server/Operational">*</Select>
            </Query>
        </QueryList>
    </QueryXML>
</Input>
ETW

Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) is a mechanism in Windows designed for efficient logging of both kernel and user-mode applications. These events are logged in the Admin channel of your DHCP server. They contain information such as the current and previous states of your server, as well as the server hostname and IP address. And yes, just as you may have guessed, NXLog has an im_etw module that can natively read these events directly from the Microsoft-Windows-DHCP-Server provider.

With this wide variety of approaches that NXLog provides for collecting DHCP server events, you can rest assured that any logs you will need can be collect easily and efficiently. You will also have the benefit of being able to collect other security-related events for Windows servers like DNS Server once you have deployed NXLog in your enterpise.

GET STARTED TODAY

CONTACT US Our experts are happy to help REQUEST A FREE TRIAL Give NXLog Enterprise Edition a try GET PRICING Request a quote
  • log collection
  • dhcp server
  • audit log
  • windows event log
  • etw
Share

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit Mail
Related Posts

Making the most of Windows Event Forwarding for centralized log collection
6 minutes | December 17, 2018
DNS Log Collection on Windows
8 minutes | May 28, 2020
Windows Event Log collection in a nutshell
3 minutes | June 14, 2021

Stay connected:

Sign up

Keep up to date with our monthly digest of articles.

By clicking singing up, I agree to the use of my personal data in accordance with NXLog Privacy Policy.

Featured posts

Announcing NXLog Platform 1.6
April 22, 2025
Announcing NXLog Platform 1.5
February 27, 2025
Announcing NXLog Platform 1.4
December 20, 2024
NXLog redefines log management for the digital age
December 19, 2024
2024 and NXLog - a review
December 19, 2024
Announcing NXLog Platform 1.3
October 25, 2024
NXLog redefines the market with the launch of NXLog Platform: a new centralized log management solution
September 24, 2024
Welcome to the future of log management with NXLog Platform
August 28, 2024
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.11
June 20, 2024
Raijin announces release of version 2.1
May 31, 2024
Ingesting log data from Debian UFW to Loki and Grafana
May 21, 2024
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 6.3
May 13, 2024
Raijin announces release of version 2.0
March 14, 2024
NXLog Enterprise Edition on Submarines
March 11, 2024
The evolution of event logging: from clay tablets to Taylor Swift
February 6, 2024
Migrate to NXLog Enterprise Edition 6 for our best ever log collection experience
February 2, 2024
Raijin announces release of version 1.5
January 26, 2024
2023 and NXLog - a review
December 22, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.10
December 21, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.4
December 12, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 6.2
December 4, 2023
Announcing NXLog Manager 5.7
November 3, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 6.1
October 20, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.3
October 6, 2023
Upgrading from NXLog Enterprise Edition 5 to NXLog Enterprise Edition 6
September 11, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 6.0
September 11, 2023
The cybersecurity challenges of modern aviation systems
September 8, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.2
August 11, 2023
The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act and security observability
August 9, 2023
Log Management and PCI DSS 4.0 compliance
August 2, 2023
Detect threats using NXLog and Sigma
July 27, 2023
HIPAA compliance logging requirements
July 19, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.9
June 20, 2023
Industrial cybersecurity - The facts
June 8, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.1
May 30, 2023
CISO starter pack - Security Policy
May 2, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.8
April 24, 2023
CISO starter pack - Log collection fundamentals
April 3, 2023
Raijin announces release of version 1.0
March 9, 2023
Avoid vendor lock-in and declare SIEM independence
February 13, 2023
Announcing NXLog Enterprise Edition 5.7
January 20, 2023
NXLog - 2022 in review
December 22, 2022
Need to replace syslog-ng? Changing to NXLog is easier than you think
November 23, 2022
The EU's response to cyberwarfare
November 22, 2022
Looking beyond Cybersecurity Awareness Month
November 8, 2022
GDPR compliance and log data
September 23, 2022
NXLog in an industrial control security context
August 10, 2022
Raijin vs Elasticsearch
August 9, 2022
NXLog provides native support for Google Chronicle
May 11, 2022
Aggregating macOS logs for SIEM systems
February 17, 2022
How a centralized log collection tool can help your SIEM solutions
April 1, 2020

Categories

  • SIEM
  • STRATEGY
  • SECURITY
  • ANNOUNCEMENT
  • DEPLOYMENT
  • COMPLIANCE
  • COMPARISON
logo

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates, news, and products releases. 

© Copyright 2024 NXLog FZE.

Privacy Policy. General Terms of Use

Follow us

  • Product
  • NXLog Platform 
  • Log collection
  • Log management and analysis
  • Log storage
  • Integration
  • Professional Services
  • Plans
  • Resources
  • Documentation
  • Blog
  • White papers
  • Videos
  • Webinars
  • Case studies
  • Community Program
  • Community forum
  • Support
  • Getting started guide
  • Support portals
  • About NXLog
  • About us
  • Careers
  • Find a reseller
  • Partner program
  • Contact us