Common Event Format (CEF)
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| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Connector ID | CEF |
| Publisher | Any |
| Used in Solutions | Common Event Format |
| Collection Method | MMA |
| Connector Definition Files | CEF.JSON |
Common Event Format (CEF) is an industry standard format on top of Syslog messages, used by many security vendors to allow event interoperability among different platforms. By connecting your CEF logs to Microsoft Sentinel, you can take advantage of search & correlation, alerting, and threat intelligence enrichment for each log. For more information, see the Microsoft Sentinel documentation.
Additional Information
📖 Related Documentation: CEF and CommonSecurityLog field mapping - Maps CEF field names to CommonSecurityLog column names
Tables Ingested
This connector ingests data into the following tables:
| Table | Selection Criteria | Transformations | Ingestion API | Lake-Only |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CommonSecurityLog |
DeviceVendor !in "Cisco,Check Point,Palo Alto Networks,Fortinet,F5,Barracuda,ExtraHop,OneIdentity,Zscaler,ForgeRock Inc,Cyber-Ark,illusive,Vectra Networks,Citrix,Darktrace,Akamai,Aruba Networks,CrowdStrike,Symantec,Claroty,Contrast Security,Delinea Software,Thycotic Software,FireEye,Forcepoint CSG,Forcepoint,Forcepoint CASB,iboss,Illumio,Imperva Inc.,Infoblox,Morphisec,Netwrix,Nozomi,Onapsis,OSSEC,PingFederate,RidgeSecurity,SonicWall,Trend Micro,vArmour"DeviceVendor !in "Cisco,Check Point,Palo Alto Networks,Fortinet,F5,Barracuda,ExtraHop,OneIdentity,Zscaler,ForgeRock Inc,Cyber-Ark,illusive,Vectra Networks,Citrix,Darktrace,Akamai,Aruba Networks,CrowdStrike,Symantec,Claroty,Contrast Security,Delinea Software,Thycotic Software,FireEye,Forcepoint CSG,Forcepoint,Forcepoint CASB,iboss,Illumio,Imperva Inc.,Infoblox,Morphisec,Netwrix,Nozomi,Onapsis,OSSEC,PingFederate,RidgeSecurity,SonicWall,Trend Micro,vArmour,Votiro" |
✓ | ✓ | ? |
💡 Tip: Tables with Ingestion API support allow data ingestion via the Azure Monitor Data Collector API, which also enables custom transformations during ingestion.
Permissions
Resource Provider Permissions: - Workspace (Workspace): read and write permissions. - Keys (Workspace): read permissions to shared keys for the workspace. See the documentation to learn more about workspace keys.
Setup Instructions
⚠️ Note: These instructions were automatically generated from the connector's user interface definition file using AI and may not be fully accurate. Please verify all configuration steps in the Microsoft Sentinel portal.
1. Linux Syslog agent configuration
Install and configure the Linux agent to collect your Common Event Format (CEF) Syslog messages and forward them to Microsoft Sentinel.
Notice that the data from all regions will be stored in the selected workspace 1.1 Select or create a Linux machine
Select or create a Linux machine that Microsoft Sentinel will use as the proxy between your security solution and Microsoft Sentinel this machine can be on your on-prem environment, Azure or other clouds.
1.2 Install the CEF collector on the Linux machine
Install the Microsoft Monitoring Agent on your Linux machine and configure the machine to listen on the necessary port and forward messages to your Microsoft Sentinel workspace. The CEF collector collects CEF messages on port 514 TCP.
Make sure that you have Python on your machine using the following command: python --version.
You must have elevated permissions (sudo) on your machine. - Run the following command to install and apply the CEF collector::
sudo wget -O cef_installer.py https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/master/DataConnectors/CEF/cef_installer.py&&sudo python cef_installer.py {0} {1}2. Forward Common Event Format (CEF) logs to Syslog agent
Set your security solution to send Syslog messages in CEF format to the proxy machine. Make sure you to send the logs to port 514 TCP on the machine’s IP address.
3. Validate connection
Follow the instructions to validate your connectivity:
Open Log Analytics to check if the logs are received using the CommonSecurityLog schema.
It may take about 20 minutes until the connection streams data to your workspace.
If the logs are not received, run the following connectivity validation script:
Make sure that you have Python on your machine using the following command: python --version
You must have elevated permissions (sudo) on your machine - Run the following command to validate your connectivity::
sudo wget -O cef_troubleshoot.py https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/Azure-Sentinel/master/DataConnectors/CEF/cef_troubleshoot.py&&sudo python cef_troubleshoot.py {0}
4. Secure your machine
Make sure to configure the machine's security according to your organization's security policy
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