Collecting logs from Schneider Citect SCADA and sending them to Microsoft Azure Sentinel could be a complex task due to this unique selection of log sources and target SIEM. In this post we will take a look at how you can forward log data from Schneider Citect SCADA to Microsoft Azure Sentinel using NXLog.
Schneider Citect SCADA
Citect SCADA is a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition solution from Schneider Electric that is typically deployed in the manufacturing industry for monitoring and controlling production equipment and the delivery of utilities. Citect SCADA can monitor your operational systems in real time and retrieve important plant-related data since it is the primary user interface in your production environment. It is used in large manufacturing plants as well as smaller facilities for analyzing data using enhanced configuration capabilities.
Collecting Citect SCADA logs
Citect SCADA produces a wide variety of logs about its operation. Some of these logs are maintained in Windows Event Log, but most are available only as flat files.
Due to the critical nature and scope of the systems Citect SCADA controls, there is no room for error. Its stable, uninterrupted operation is crucial to plant safety. Although the logs Citect SCADA generates contain valuable information about the systems it controls, the relatively high level of log noise and the lack of a consistent log format present some challenges.
NXLog Enterprise Edition is a lightweight, modular log collection tool capable of tackling the most demanding cases log collection may pose. Its rich features allow it to read almost any log format and parse fields to produce structured data for further processing. It is the perfect tool for monitoring and collecting Citect SCADA logs.
- Collecting Citect SCADA logs from Windows Event Log
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Windows Event Log is the primary logging facility on the Windows platform. The logs Citect SCADA generates contain driver traffic, updates, and system-related information. Citect SCADA creates two separate Windows Event Log entries for Schneider Electric: SUT Service for Schneider Electric software updates and Runtime Manager logs. It can also read data directly from the Schneider Electric SUT Service source.
- Collecting Citect SCADA logs from file
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File-based Citect SCADA logs include changelog, syslog, tracelog, and software update logs. These logs are stored in the C:\ProgramData\Schneider Electric\Citect SCADA 2018\Logs directory and, in most cases, do not follow a consistent formatting scheme.
- Network Monitoring on Citect SCADA
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NXLog has a unique feature that enables it to collect events from the communication channels between Citect SCADA devices and other computers on the network. NXLog’s passive monitoring of network traffic along with its ability to monitor most network protocols commonly used by SCADA systems, and generate logs from such network activity, make it a valuable logging tool when used with Citect SCADA.
The easiest way to collect and normalize Citect SCADA log data is to use NXLog. With its unique capabilities, it can collect logs from literally any file in any format. Given the wide variation in format and structure of such log files, NXLog is ideally suited for these systems.
For more information on integrating NXLog with Citect SCADA, see the Schneider Electric Citect SCADA integration guide.
The above mentioned log sources and the features NXLog provides all play an important role when normalizing logs for Microsoft Azure Sentinel to successfully ingest.
Sending logs to Microsoft Azure Sentinel
Azure Sentinel is a SIEM solution offered as a scalable, cloud-native, service within Microsoft Azure. Its main features are security analytics, alert detection, threat intelligence, and threat response. With the comprehensive view of your enterprise’s network security environment that it provides, the response time needed to assess and respond to possible security threats can be greatly reduced.
- Log sources
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To forward logs to Azure Sentinel from NXLog you should already have a Microsoft Azure Sentinel subscription. Then, you can create a Log Analytics workspace for storing your log data, queries, and functions. By configuring NXLog with your Log Analytics workspace ID, your primary (or secondary) key, and a table name for storing the logs, it can connect to Azure Sentinel, convert any log source on the fly to the format Azure Monitor requires, and finally send the log data securely for ingestion as custom log events. Using the Azure Sentinel dashboard, you can view those ingested events by navigating to General > Overview > Logs. Under the Tables tab, your custom logs will appear with the same table name you chose while configuring NXLog.
Forwarding logs to Azure Sentinel is straightforward with NXLog. All it takes is following a few simple configuration steps.
