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Max Boella's avatar
Max Boella
Copper Contributor
Jan 07, 2019

Checkpoint firewall - automatic log collection - recommended method ?

Hi - is there a recommended/supported method to achieve automatic Checkpoint firewall log collection ?

 

On the Checkpoint side it seems there are 2 main log export mechanisms.

1. CPLOGTOSYSLOG tool.

2. Log Exporter - Check Point Log Export tool.

 

I am getting the impression that cplogtosyslog is the preferred supported method from Microsoft side. However from Checkpoint side Log Exporter tool is their preferred method going forward. Any guidance or advice on how to get this to work would be appreciated ?

 

Thanks...

Cloud App Security
Cloud Discovery

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  • Danny Kadyshevitch's avatar
    Danny Kadyshevitch
    Former Employee
    Jan 07, 2019

    Hi Max,

     

    Thanks for reaching out.

    Few comments on that:

    1. The general answer depends on the log format that each of these tools exports. While I'm not familiar with the format exported by "Log Exporter", MCAS do support formats exported from CPLOGTOSYSLOG.
    2. If possible, please share the format provided by the "Log Exporter", to see whether are also supported out of the box or by MCAS custom log parser.
    3. Can you elaborate some more on the meaning of "Checkpoint side Log Exporter tool is their preferred method going forward"?

     

    Thanks,

    Danny.

    • David Caddick's avatar
      David Caddick
      Iron Contributor
      Nov 25, 2019

      Hi Danny Kadyshevitch just wondering how this might play out?

       

      From what we can see this was raised some time ago as well?

      https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Cloud-App-Security/Cloud-App-Security-lack-of-integration-with-checkpoint-FW/m-p/113808

       

      We can see that just using the Snapshot tool we can take a "Smart Tracker" formatted download from the Checkpoint Firewall and then upload it into MCAS and it has plenty of detail, and yet looking thru the  details here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-app-security/set-up-cloud-discovery it appears that by using the AutoCollector method all we are going to see is Target and Origin IP Address only? How come there is such a disparity of the detail in the two different approaches?

       

      It looks like we can get a Graduate to maually do this process as a daily task and then end up getting a decent amount of worthwhile data ingested into MCAS, but if we automate it then the level of detail falls off considerably - it could be that we've misunderstood this - but this doesn't seem to make sense? Is there possibly another way of semi-automating the upload of the Samrt Tracker logs into MCAS for ingestation? It would not be ideal as it would keep having to reference the specific snapshot....

      Regards,
      Dave C

      • Danny Kadyshevitch's avatar
        Danny Kadyshevitch
        Former Employee
        Nov 25, 2019

        Hi David Caddick,

         

        I recently worked with CP team, to learn about their new flow for exporting traffic data over syslog.

        These will be reflected by new formats which will be supported by MCAS and that will include more details than the ones included in current supported formats.

         

        This is something so be pushed during Q1CY20.

         

        Thanks,

        Danny.

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