Configuring email alerts

Wazuh can be configured to send email alerts to one or more email addresses when certain rules are triggered or for daily event reports.

Sample email:

From: Wazuh <you@example.com>               5:03 PM (2 minutes ago)
to: me
-----------------------------
Wazuh Notification.
2017 Mar 08 17:03:05

Received From: localhost->/var/log/secure
Rule: 5503 fired (level 5) -> "PAM: User login failed."
Src IP: 192.168.1.37
Portion of the log(s):

Mar  8 17:03:04 localhost sshd[67231]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=192.168.1.37
uid: 0
euid: 0
tty: ssh

 --END OF NOTIFICATION

Generic email options

In order to configure Wazuh to send email alerts, the email settings must be configured in the <global> section of the ossec.conf file:

<ossec_config>
    <global>
        <email_notification>yes</email_notification>
        <email_to>me@test.com</email_to>
        <smtp_server>mail.test.com..</smtp_server>
        <email_from>wazuh@test.com</email_from>
    </global>
    ...
</ossec_config>

To see all of the available email configuration options, go to the global section.

Once the above has been configured, the email_alert_level needs to be set to the minimum alert level that will trigger an email. By default, this level is set to 7.

<ossec_config>
  <alerts>
      <email_alert_level>10</email_alert_level>
  </alerts>
  ...
</ossec_config>

This example will set the minimum level to 10. For more information, see the alerts section.

After the alert_level has been configured, Wazuh needs to be restarted for the change to take effect.

  1. For Systemd:

# systemctl status wazuh-manager

  1. For SysV Init:

# service wazuh-manager status

Warning

Wazuh doesn't handle SMTP authentication. If your email service uses this, you will need to configure a server relay.

Granular email options

Wazuh also allows granular configuration options for email alerts. Below are some sample granular configurations. For more information, see the email_alerts section.

Warning

The minimum level configured in the alerts section will also apply to and override these configurations. For example, if you configure your system to send an email when the rule 526 is triggered, but the rule has a level lower than the minimum level specified, the alert will not be sent.

Email alert based on level

This is configured as follows:

<email_alerts>
  <email_to>you@example.com</email_to>
  <level>4</level>
  <do_not_delay />
</email_alerts>

This will send an email to you@example.com when any rule with a level greater than or equal to 4 is triggered.

Note

Remember, if the level here is less than the email_alert_level configured in the previous section, this will not be sent.

Email alert based on level and agent

This is configured as follows:

<email_alerts>
  <email_to>you@example.com</email_to>
  <event_location>server1</event_location>
  <do_not_delay />
</email_alerts>

This will send an email to you@example.com when the rules trigger on the server1.

The event_location field can be configured to monitor a specific log, hostname or network (IP).

Email based on rules ID

<email_alerts>
  <email_to>you@example.com</email_to>
  <rule_id>515, 516</rule_id>
  <do_not_delay />
</email_alerts>

This will send an email when the rules 515 or 516 are triggered on any agent.

Email based on the group

Email alerts can be configured to send an email based on one or more rule groups:

<email_alerts>
  <email_to>you@example.com</email_to>
  <group>pci_dss_10.6.1</group>
</email_alerts>

This will send an alert when any rule that is part of the pci_dss_10.6.1 group is triggered on any Wazuh monitored device.

Multiples options and multiples email

This example shows capability of email alerts can be. Email alerts can be to be sent to multiple email addresses, each with it's own unique criteria:

<ossec_config>
  <email_alerts>
      <email_to>alice@test.com</email_to>
      <event_location>server1|server2</event_location>
  </email_alerts>
  <email_alerts>
      <email_to>is@test.com</email_to>
      <event_location>/log/secure$</event_location>
  </email_alerts>
  <email_alerts>
      <email_to>bob@test.com</email_to>
      <event_location>192.168.</event_location>
  </email_alerts>
  <email_alerts>
      <email_to>david@test.com</email_to>
      <level>12</level>
  </email_alerts>
 </ossec_config>

This configuration will send:

  • An email to alice@test.com if any alert on server1 or server2 is triggered,

  • An email to is@test.com if the alerts came from /log/secure/,

  • An email to bob@test.com if the alerts came from any machine on the 192.168.0.0/24 network, and

  • An email to david@test.com if the alerts have a level equal to or higher than 12.

Force forwarding an alert by email

It's also possible to force an email alert on rule declaration that is below the configured minimum level. In order to do so, you need to use one of the below options.

The possible values for this option are:

  • alert_by_email: Always alert by email.

  • no_email_alert: Never alert by email.

  • no_log: Do not log this alert.

For example:

<rule id="502" level="3">
  <if_sid>500</if_sid>
  <options>alert_by_email</options>
  <match>Ossec started</match>
  <description>Ossec server started.</description>
</rule>

This configuration will send an email every time rule 502 is triggered regardless of what the minimum level is set to.