global

Global configuration generally applies to features that affect the system as a whole, rather than a specific component.

Options

alerts_log

This toggles the writing of alerts to /var/ossec/logs/alerts/alerts.log.

Default value

yes

Allowed values

yes, no

Warning

Disabling JSON and plain text formatted alerts simultaneously is not compatible with the integrator, syslog client or email features.

email_notification

This toggles the use of email alerting.

Default value

no

Allowed values

yes, no

email_to

This specifies the email recipient for alerts.

Note

A base configuration must be included in the section in order to use granular email configurations, .

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

Any valid email address

This section will only allow for one email address, but the section can be repeated for each email address you would wish include.

email_from

This specifies the “source” address contained in the email alerts.

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

Any valid email address

email_reply_to

This specifies the “reply-to” address contained in the email alerts.

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

Any valid email address

smtp_server

This option defines what SMTP server to use to deliver alerts.

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

  • Valid hostname or IP address.

  • Full path to a sendmail-like executable.

helo_server

This option defines how the ossec server will identify itself when sending mail.

Default value

notify.ossec.net

Allowed values

Any valid hostname.

email_maxperhour

This sets the maximum number of email alerts that can be sent per hour. All emails beyond this hourly threshold are then queued to be sent together in a single email at the end of the hour.

Note

At the end of the hour, the queued emails will be sent together in one email whether mail grouping is turned on or not.

Default value

12

Allowed values

Any number from 1 to 9999

email_idsname

The name will be added to the email headers with the specified value.

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

Any name

email_log_source

This selects the alert file to be read from.

Default value

alerts.json

Allowed values

alerts.log or alerts.json

custom_alert_output

The values below may be used with this option to specify the format of the alerts that are written to alerts.log:

Variable name

Description

$TIMESTAMP

The time the event was processed by OSSEC.

$FTELL

Unknown

$RULEALERT

Unknown

$HOSTNAME

Hostname of the system generating the event.

$LOCATION

The file the log messages were saved to.

$RULEID

The rule id of the alert.

$RULELEVEL

The rule level of the alert.

$RULECOMMENT

Unknown

$SRCIP

The source IP specified in the log message.

$DSTUSER

The destination user specified in the log message.

$FULLLOG

The original log message.

$RULEGROUP

The group containing the rule.

stats

This sets the severity level for events that are generated by statistical analysis.

Default value

8

Allowed values

Any level from 0 to 16

logall

This toggles whether to store events even when they do not trip a rule with results written to /var/ossec/logs/archives/archives.log.

Default value

no

Allowed values

yes, no

logall_json

This toggles whether to store events even when they do not trip a rule with results written to /var/ossec/logs/archives/archives.json.

Default value

no

Allowed values

yes, no

memory_size

This sets the memory size for the event correlation engine.

Default value

8192

Allowed values

Any integer, but values less than 2048 will be replaced by 2048.

white_list

This designates IP addresses that should never be blocked with an active response and, though only one IP address can be included in this section, you may repeat this as many times as needed to include additional IP addresses.

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

Any IP address or netblock

Note

This option is only valid in server and local installs.

host_information

This sets the severity level for events generated by the host change monitor.

Default value

8

Allowed values

Can be used any level from 0 to 16

jsonout_output

This toggles the writing of JSON-formatted alerts to /var/ossec/logs/alerts/alerts.json which would include the same events that would be sent to alerts.log, only in JSON format.

Default value

yes

Allowed values

yes, no

prelude_output

This toggles Prelude output.

Default value

no

Allowed values

yes, no

prelude_log_level

The minimum alert level required to trigger prelude output.

Default value

0

Allowed values

Any integer from 0 to 16 inclusive

prelude_profile

The prelude client analyzer name.

Default value

OSSEC

Allowed values

Any valid prelude client analyzer.

zeromq_output

This enables ZeroMQ output.

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

yes, no

zeromq_uri

This specifies the ZeroMQ URI for the publisher socket to bind to.

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

This URI format is defined by the ZeroMQ project.

For example:

This will listen for ZeroMQ subscribers on IP address 127.0.0.1:11111.

<zeromq_uri>tcp://localhost:11111/</zeromq_uri>

This will listen on port 21212 for ZeroMQ subscribers, binding to the IP address assigned to eth0.

<zeromq_uri>tcp://eth0:21212/</zeromq_uri>

This will listen for zeromq on the Unix Domain socket /alerts-zmq.

<zeromq_uri>ipc:///alerts-zmq</zeromq_uri>

geoipdb

This indicates the full path of the MaxMind GeoIP IPv4 database file.

Default value

n/a

Allowed values

Path to the GeoIP IPv4 database file location

For example:

<geoipdb>/etc/GeoLiteCity.dat</geoipdb>

rotate_interval

New in version 3.1.0.

This option sets the interval between file rotation. The range of possible values is from 10m (10 minutes) to 1d (1 day).

Default value

0 (disabled)

Allowed values

A positive number that should ends with character indicating a time unit, such as, s (seconds), m (minutes), h (hours), d (days).

Note

The default minimum value 10m is set in the analysisd.min_rotate_interval option found in the internal configuration file /var/ossec/etc/internal_options.conf.

Example:

<rotate_interval>10h</rotate_interval>

max_output_size

New in version 3.1.0.

This sets the size limit of alert files with a maximum allowed value of 1TiB and a minimum allowed value of 1MiB.

Default value

0 (disabled)

Allowed values

A positive number that should contain a suffix character indicating a size unit, such as M (mebibyte) and G (gibibyte).

Example:

<max_output_size>20M</max_output_size>

queue_size

New in version 3.3.0.

This sets the size of the message input buffer in Analysisd (number of events).

Default value

131072

Allowed values

A positive number. The minimum allowed is 1. The recommended range is [16384..262144]

Example:

<queue_size>16384</queue_size>

Default configuration

<global>
  <jsonout_output>yes</jsonout_output>
  <alerts_log>yes</alerts_log>
  <logall>no</logall>
  <logall_json>no</logall_json>
  <email_notification>yes</email_notification>
  <smtp_server>smtp.example.wazuh.com</smtp_server>
  <email_from>ossecm@example.wazuh.com</email_from>
  <email_to>recipient@example.wazuh.com</email_to>
  <email_maxperhour>12</email_maxperhour>
</global>