Crowdsec Tour
List installed configurations
sudo cscli hub list
This lists installed parsers, scenarios and/or collections.
They represent what your CrowdSec setup can parse (logs) and detect (scenarios).
Adding -a will list all the available configurations in the hub.
See more here.
Listing Hub example
sudo cscli hub list
INFO[0000] Loaded 13 collecs, 17 parsers, 21 scenarios, 3 post-overflow parsers
INFO[0000] unmanaged items : 23 local, 0 tainted
INFO[0000] PARSERS:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME 📦 STATUS VERSION LOCAL PATH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
crowdsecurity/mysql-logs ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/parsers/s01-parse/mysql-logs.yaml
crowdsecurity/sshd-logs ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/parsers/s01-parse/sshd-logs.yaml
crowdsecurity/dateparse-enrich ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/parsers/s02-enrich/dateparse-enrich.yaml
crowdsecurity/whitelists ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/parsers/s02-enrich/whitelists.yaml
crowdsecurity/geoip-enrich ✔️ enabled 0.2 /etc/crowdsec/parsers/s02-enrich/geoip-enrich.yaml
crowdsecurity/syslog-logs ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/parsers/s00-raw/syslog-logs.yaml
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INFO[0000] SCENARIOS:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME 📦 STATUS VERSION LOCAL PATH
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
crowdsecurity/mysql-bf ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/scenarios/mysql-bf.yaml
crowdsecurity/ssh-bf ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/scenarios/ssh-bf.yaml
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INFO[0000] COLLECTIONS:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME 📦 STATUS VERSION LOCAL PATH
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
crowdsecurity/mysql ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/collections/mysql.yaml
crowdsecurity/sshd ✔️ enabled 0.1 /etc/crowdsec/collections/sshd.yaml
crowdsecurity/linux ✔️ enabled 0.2 /etc/crowdsec/collections/linux.yaml
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INFO[0000] POSTOVERFLOWS:
--------------------------------------
NAME 📦 STATUS VERSION LOCAL PATH
--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Installing configurations
sudo cscli <configuration_type> install <item>
configuration_type can be collections, parsers, scenarios or postoverflows.
You are most likely to only install collections that contain the needed parsers and scenarios to cover a technical stack :
sudo cscli collections install crowdsecurity/nginx
They can be found and browsed on the Hub.
Upgrading configurations
sudo cscli hub update
sudo cscli hub upgrade
This will upgrade your existing parsers, scenarios and collections to the latest available version.
You can as well use a more granular approach like sudo cscli <configuration_type> upgrade <item>.
configuration_type can be parsers, scenarios, collections, hub or postoverflows.
They can be found and browsed on the Hub.
See more here.
List active decisions
sudo cscli decisions list
If you just deployed CrowdSec, the list might be empty, but don't worry, it simply means you haven't yet been attacked, congrats! Adding -a flag will as well list the decisions you received from the community blocklist.
Check decisions management for more !
Listing decisions example
sudo cscli decisions list
+-----+-----------+-------------+------------------------------------+--------+---------+----+--------+--------------------+----------+
| ID | SOURCE | SCOPE:VALUE | REASON | ACTION | COUNTRY | AS | EVENTS | EXPIRATION | ALERT ID |
+-----+-----------+-------------+------------------------------------+--------+---------+----+--------+--------------------+----------+
| 802 | cscli | Ip:1.2.3.5 | manual 'ban' from | ban | | | 1 | 3h50m58.10039043s | 802 |
| | | | 'b76cc7b1bbdc489e93909d2043031de8' | | | | | | |
| 801 | crowdsec | Ip:1.2.3.4 | crowdsecurity/ssh-bf | ban | | | 6 | 3h59m45.100387557s | 801 |
+-----+-----------+-------------+------------------------------------+--------+---------+----+--------+--------------------+----------+
There are different decisions SOURCE:
crowdsec: decisions triggered locally by the crowdsec agentCAPI: decisions fetched from the Crowdsec Central APIcsli: decisions added viasudo cscli decisions add
Add/Remove decisions
cscli decisions add -i 1.2.3.4
cscli decisions delete -i 1.2.3.4
Those commands will respectively add a manual decision for ip 1.2.3.4 (with default parameters such as duration and such), and remove all active decisions for ip 1.2.3.4.
List alerts
sudo cscli alerts list
While decisions won't be shown anymore once they expire (or are manually deleted), the alerts will stay visible, allowing you to keep track of past decisions. You will here see the alerts, even if the associated decisions expired.
Listing alerts example
sudo cscli alerts list --since 1h
+----+-------------+----------------------------+---------+----+-----------+---------------------------+
| ID | SCOPE:VALUE | REASON | COUNTRY | AS | DECISIONS | CREATED AT |
+----+-------------+----------------------------+---------+----+-----------+---------------------------+
| 5 | Ip:1.2.3.6 | crowdsecurity/ssh-bf (0.1) | US | | ban:1 | 2020-10-29T11:33:36+01:00 |
+----+-------------+----------------------------+---------+----+-----------+---------------------------+
Monitor on-going activity (prometheus)
sudo cscli metrics
The metrics displayed are extracted from CrowdSec prometheus. The indicators are grouped by scope :
- Buckets : Know which buckets are created and/or overflew (scenario efficiency)
- Acquisition : Know which file produce logs and if thy are parsed (or end up in bucket)
- Parser : Know how frequently the individual parsers are triggered and their success rate
- Local Api Metrics : Know how often each endpoint of crowdsec's local API has been used
Listing metrics example
sudo cscli metrics
INFO[0000] Buckets Metrics:
+--------------------------------------+---------------+-----------+--------------+--------+---------+
| BUCKET | CURRENT COUNT | OVERFLOWS | INSTANCIATED | POURED | EXPIRED |
+--------------------------------------+---------------+-----------+--------------+--------+---------+
| crowdsecurity/http-bad-user-agent | - | - | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| crowdsecurity/http-crawl-non_statics | - | - | 82 | 107 | 82 |
| crowdsecurity/http-probing | - | - | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| crowdsecurity/http-sensitive-files | - | - | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| crowdsecurity/ssh-bf | 16 | 5562 | 7788 | 41542 | 2210 |
| crowdsecurity/ssh-bf_user-enum | 8 | - | 6679 | 12571 | 6671 |
+--------------------------------------+---------------+-----------+--------------+--------+---------+
INFO[0000] Acquisition Metrics:
+---------------------------+------------+--------------+----------------+------------------------+
| SOURCE | LINES READ | LINES PARSED | LINES UNPARSED | LINES POURED TO BUCKET |
+---------------------------+------------+--------------+----------------+------------------------+
| /var/log/auth.log | 92978 | 41542 | 51436 | 54113 |
| /var/log/messages | 2 | - | 2 | - |
| /var/log/nginx/access.log | 124 | 99 | 25 | 88 |
| /var/log/nginx/error.log | 287 | 63 | 224 | 29 |
| /var/log/syslog | 27271 | - | 27271 | - |
+---------------------------+------------+--------------+----------------+------------------------+
INFO[0000] Parser Metrics:
+--------------------------------+--------+--------+----------+
| PARSERS | HITS | PARSED | UNPARSED |
+--------------------------------+--------+--------+----------+
| child-crowdsecurity/http-logs | 486 | 232 | 254 |
| child-crowdsecurity/nginx-logs | 723 | 162 | 561 |
| child-crowdsecurity/sshd-logs | 381792 | 41542 | 340250 |
| crowdsecurity/dateparse-enrich | 41704 | 41704 | - |
| crowdsecurity/geoip-enrich | 41641 | 41641 | - |
| crowdsecurity/http-logs | 162 | 59 | 103 |
| crowdsecurity/nginx-logs | 411 | 162 | 249 |
| crowdsecurity/non-syslog | 411 | 411 | - |
| crowdsecurity/sshd-logs | 92126 | 41542 | 50584 |
| crowdsecurity/syslog-logs | 120251 | 120249 | 2 |
| crowdsecurity/whitelists | 41704 | 41704 | - |
+--------------------------------+--------+--------+----------+
INFO[0000] Local Api Metrics:
+----------------------+--------+------+
| ROUTE | METHOD | HITS |
+----------------------+--------+------+
| /v1/alerts | GET | 3 |
| /v1/alerts | POST | 4673 |
| /v1/decisions/stream | GET | 6498 |
| /v1/watchers/login | POST | 23 |
+----------------------+--------+------+
INFO[0000] Local Api Machines Metrics:
+----------------------------------+------------+--------+------+
| MACHINE | ROUTE | METHOD | HITS |
+----------------------------------+------------+--------+------+
| 9b0656a34ee24343969bf2f30321ba2 | /v1/alerts | POST | 4673 |
| 9b0656a34ee24343969bf2f30321ba2 | /v1/alerts | GET | 3 |
+----------------------------------+------------+--------+------+
INFO[0000] Local Api Bouncers Metrics:
+------------------------------+----------------------+--------+------+
| BOUNCER | ROUTE | METHOD | HITS |
+------------------------------+----------------------+--------+------+
| cs-firewall-bouncer-n3W19Qua | /v1/decisions/stream | GET | 6498 |
+------------------------------+----------------------+--------+------+
Reading metrics
Those metrics are a great way to know if your configuration is correct:
The Acquisition Metrics is a great way to know if your parsers are setup correctly:
- If you have 0 LINES PARSED for a source : You are probably missing a parser, or you have a custom log format that prevents the parser from understanding your logs.
- However, it's perfectly OK to have a lot of LINES UNPARSED : Crowdsec is not a SIEM, and only parses the logs that are relevant to its scenarios. For example, ssh parser, only cares about failed authentication events (at the time of writting).
- LINES POURED TO BUCKET tell you that your scenarios are matching your log sources : it means that some events from this log source made all their way to an actual scenario
The Parser Metrics will let you troubleshoot eventual parser misconfigurations :
-
HITS is how many events where fed to this specific parser
-
PARSED and UNPARSED indicate how many events successfully come out of the parser
For example, if you have a custom log format in nginx that is not supported by the default parser, you will end up seeing a lot of UNPARSED for this specific parser, and 0 for PARSED.
For more advanced metrics understanding, take a look at the dedicated prometheus documentation.
Deploy dashboard
Running metabase (the dashboard deployed by cscli dashboard setup) requires 1-2Gb of RAM. Metabase container is only available for amd64.
sudo cscli dashboard setup --listen 0.0.0.0
A metabase docker container can be deployed with cscli dashboard.
It requires docker, installation instructions are available here.
Logs
sudo tail -f /var/log/crowdsec.log
/var/log/crowdsec.logis the main log, it shows ongoing decisions and acquisition/parsing/scenario errors./var/log/crowdsec_api.logis the access log of the local api (LAPI)
Scalability
CrowdSec uses go-routines for parsing and enriching logs, pouring events to buckets and manage outputs.
By default, one routine of each exists (should be enough to handle ~1K EP/s), and can be changed in crowdsec_service of the main configuration file via the parser_routines, buckets_routines and output_routines directives.
Please keep in mind that thanks to the http API, the workload of log parsing can be splitted amongst several agents pushing to a single LAPI.
