Centralized configuration

Introduction

Agents can be configured remotely by using the agent.conf file. The following capabilities can be configured remotely:

• File Integrity monitoring (syscheck)

• Rootkit detection (rootcheck)

• Log data collection (localfile)

• Security policy monitoring (rootcheck, wodle name="open-scap")

• Anti-flooding mechanism (bucket options)

• Labels for agent alerts (labels)

Below, is the proper syntax of agent.conf and the process of pushing the configuration from the manager to the agent.

agent.conf

The agent.conf is only valid on server installations.

The agent.conf exists in /var/ossec/etc/shared. It should be readable by the ossec user.

Options

Examples

<agent_config name=”agent01”>
...
<agent_config os="Linux">
...
<agent_config profile="UnixHost">

Centralized configuration process

Here we are going to explain how a centralized configuration can be done.

1. Configuration

Edit the file /var/ossec/etc/shared/agent.conf. If the file does not exist, create it:

$ touch /var/ossec/etc/shared/agent.conf
$ chown ossec:ossec /var/ossec/etc/shared/agent.conf
$ chmod 640 /var/ossec/etc/shared/agent.conf

Several configurations may be created according to the name, OS or profile of an agent.

<agent_config name="agent_name">
    <localfile>
        <location>/var/log/my.log</location>
        <log_format>syslog</log_format>
    </localfile>
</agent_config>

<agent_config os="Linux">
    <localfile>
        <location>/var/log/linux.log</location>
        <log_format>syslog</log_format>
    </localfile>
</agent_config>

<agent_config profile="database">
    <localfile>
        <location>/var/log/database.log</location>
        <log_format>syslog</log_format>
    </localfile>
</agent_config>

2. Run /var/ossec/bin/verify-agent-conf and if any errors are reported, fix them and return to step one. Failure to perform this step may allow errors to be pushed to agents, preventing them from running. If that happens, you may be forced to visit each agent manually to recover them.

3. Push of the configuration to the agents

Each time agents check-in to the manager (10 minute default), they pull a fresh copy of agent.conf if a new version is available. However, the new agent.conf is not used by the agent until the next time the agent is restarted in step 5. Restarting the manager will speed up how quickly it makes the new agent.conf available to the agents.

4. Check if the agent received the configuration

Once an agent received the configuration, the "Client version" field will have the md5sum of the agent.conf file.

$ md5sum /var/ossec/etc/shared/agent.conf
078b0711a8b2ee8b18e839afdafe6be0  /var/ossec/etc/shared/agent.conf

$ /var/ossec/bin/agent_control -i 1032

Wazuh agent_control. Agent information:
   Agent ID:   1032
   Agent Name: vpc-agent-ubuntu
   IP address: 10.0.0.122
   Status:     Active

   Operating system:    Linux vpc-agent-ubuntu.wazuh.com 3.13.0-57-generic #95-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 19 09:28:15 UTC 2015 x86_64
   Client version:      OSSEC Wazuh v1.2 / 078b0711a8b2ee8b18e839afdafe6be0
   Last keep alive:     Wed Feb 15 15:35:15 2017

   Syscheck last started  at: Wed Feb 15 13:24:32 2017
   Rootcheck last started at: Wed Feb 15 13:37:11 2017

Also, the API returns the md5sum of agent.conf in the field sharedSum:

$ curl -u foo:bar -k http://127.0.0.1:55000/agents/1032?pretty

{
   "error": 0,
   "data": {
      "status": "Active",
      "name": "vpc-agent-ubuntu",
      "ip": "10.0.0.122",
      "dateAdd": "2016-12-22 11:59:08",
      "version": "OSSEC Wazuh v1.2",
      "sharedSum": "078b0711a8b2ee8b18e839afdafe6be0",
      "lastKeepAlive": "2017-02-15 15:44:57",
      "os": "Linux vpc-agent-ubuntu.wazuh.com 3.13.0-57-generic #95-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 19 09:28:15 UTC 2015 x86_64",
      "id": "1032"
   }
}

5. Restart the agent

In order to apply the changes, you must restart the agent which may be completed remotely:

$ /var/ossec/bin/agent_control -R -u 1032

Wazuh agent_control: Restarting agent: 1032

Precedence

It's important to know which is the precedence between ossec.conf and agent.conf. The local and the shared configuration are merged. ossec.conf is read before the shared agent.conf, the last definition of any setting will overwrite any previous appearance. Also, the settings that includes a path to file, will be concatenated.

For example:

Let's say we have this configuration on the ossec.conf file.

<rootcheck>
  <disabled>no</disabled>
  <check_unixaudit>no</check_unixaudit>
  <check_files>yes</check_files>
  <check_trojans>no</check_trojans>
  <check_dev>yes</check_dev>
  <check_sys>yes</check_sys>
  <check_pids>yes</check_pids>
  <check_ports>yes</check_ports>
  <check_if>yes</check_if>
  <system_audit>/var/ossec/etc/shared/system_audit_rcl.txt</system_audit>
</rootcheck>

and the agent.conf.

<rootcheck>
  <check_unixaudit>yes</check_unixaudit>
  <rootkit_files>/var/ossec/etc/shared/rootkit_files.txt</rootkit_files>
  <rootkit_trojans>/var/ossec/etc/shared/rootkit_trojans.txt</rootkit_trojans>
  <system_audit>/var/ossec/etc/shared/cis_debian_linux_rcl.txt</system_audit>
  <system_audit>/var/ossec/etc/shared/cis_rhel_linux_rcl.txt</system_audit>
  <system_audit>/var/ossec/etc/shared/cis_rhel5_linux_rcl.txt</system_audit>
</rootcheck>

The final configuration will overwrite check_unixaudit to "yes" because it appears on the agent.conf. The path listed with system_audit option will be concatenated, so system_audit_rcl.txt (on the ossec.conf) will be as valid as cis_debian_linux_rcl.txt (on the agent.conf).