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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Overview

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is an intelligent security policy enforcement platform that reduces security risks by providing visibility of connections between all users and devices across all network infrastructure. This product provides exceptional control over the information and locations to which users have access on the network. This solution, and all its components, have been approved and rigorously tested as an integrated system.

  • Vendor: Cisco
  • Plan: Defend Core & Defend Prime
  • Supported environment: On Premise
  • Version compatibility: 3.1
  • Detection based on: Telemetry
  • Supported application or feature: Authentication, Network device configuration, Web logs

High-Level Architecture Diagram

  • Type of integration: Outbound (PUSH to Sekoia.io)
  • Schema

cisco_identity_services_engine_architecture

Specification

Prerequisites

  • Resource:
    • Self-managed syslog forwarder
  • Network:
    • Outbound traffic allowed
  • Permissions:
    • Administrator or Root access to the Cisco ISE device
    • Root access to the Linux server with the syslog forwarder

Transport Protocol/Method

  • Indirect Syslog

Logs details

  • Supported functionalities: See section Overview
  • Supported type(s) of structure: Plain text
  • Supported verbosity level: Warning, Informational

Note

Log levels are based on the taxonomy of RFC5424. Adapt according to the terminology used by the editor.

Step-by-Step Configuration Procedure

Instructions on the 3rd Party Solution

This setup guide will show you how to provide an integration between Cisco Identity Services Engine events and Sekoia.io.

Enable Syslog Forwarding

  • Log on your ISE Administration Interface.
  • Follow this guide.

Instruction on Sekoia

Configure Your Intake

This section will guide you through creating the intake object in Sekoia, which provides a unique identifier called the "Intake key." The Intake key is essential for later configuration, as it references the Community, Entity, and Parser (Intake Format) used when receiving raw events on Sekoia.

  1. Go to the Sekoia Intake page.
  2. Click on the + New Intake button at the top right of the page.
  3. Search for your Intake by the product name in the search bar.
  4. Give it a Name and associate it with an Entity (and a Community if using multi-tenant mode).
  5. Click on Create.
  6. You will be redirected to the Intake listing page, where you will find a new line with the name you gave to the Intake.

Note

For more details on how to use the Intake page and to find the Intake key you just created, refer to this documentation.

Configure a forwarder

To forward events using syslog to Sekoia.io, you need to update the syslog header with the intake key you previously created. Here is an example of your message before the forwarder 

<%pri%>1 %timestamp:::date-rfc3339% %hostname% %app-name% %procid% LOG RAW_MESSAGE
and after 
<%pri%>1 %timestamp:::date-rfc3339% %hostname% %app-name% %procid% LOG [SEKOIA@53288 intake_key=\"YOUR_INTAKE_KEY\"] RAW_MESSAGE

To achieve this you can:

  • Use the Sekoia.io forwarder which is the official supported way to collect data using the syslog protocol in Sekoia.io. In charge of centralizing data coming from many equipments/sources and forwarding them to Sekoia.io with the apporpriated format, it is a prepackaged option. You only have to provide your intake key as parameter.
  • Use your own Syslog service instance. Maybe you already have an intance of one of these components on your side and want to reuse it in order to centralize data before forwarding them to Sekoia.io. When using this mode, you have to configure and maintain your component in order to respect the expected Sekoia.io format.

Warning

Only the Sekoia.io forwarder is officially supported. Other options are documented for reference purposes but do not have official support.

Raw Events Samples

In this section, you will find examples of raw logs as generated natively by the source. These examples are provided to help integrators understand the data format before ingestion into Sekoia.io. It is crucial for setting up the correct parsing stages and ensuring that all relevant information is captured.

INFO: Configuration Changed: Admin=john.doe; Object Type=EPPurgeScheduler; Object Name=f36afcff-e3af-4a70-99c0-5e5304c1c336

INFO: 5 endpoint(s) purged successfully

2023-06-07 04:26:17.306 +0200 60198 INFO null: MnT purge event occurred, MESSAGE=completed successfully,

WARN: AcsSyslogContentAaaDiagnostics:: ACTIVE_DIRECTORY_DIAGNOSTIC_TOOL_ISSUES_FOUND need to complete

INFO: EAP Connection Timeout : Server=servername; NAS IP Address=1.2.3.4; NAS Identifier=A4:57:00:64:47:C0:test1

WARN: Dynamic Authorization Failed for Device : Server=servername; Calling Station Id=N/A; Network device IP=1.2.3.4; Network Device

WARN: Profiler SNMP Request Failure : Server= servername; NAD Address=1.2.3.4; Error Message=Request timed out.

WARN: TrustSec deploy verification failed to reach NAD.: Device Name=device005.internal.example.org; Device Ip=1.2.3.4; Device login username=admin

Detection section

The following section provides information for those who wish to learn more about the detection capabilities enabled by collecting this intake. It includes details about the built-in rule catalog, event categories, and ECS fields extracted from raw events. This is essential for users aiming to create custom detection rules, perform hunting activities, or pivot in the events page.

The following Sekoia.io built-in rules match the intake Cisco ISE. This documentation is updated automatically and is based solely on the fields used by the intake which are checked against our rules. This means that some rules will be listed but might not be relevant with the intake.

SEKOIA.IO x Cisco ISE on ATT&CK Navigator

Cisco Identity Services Engine Configuration Changed

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) has detected a device configuration changed (Added, Changed or Deleted). This should be reviewed in order to check if this an expected admin action.

  • Effort: master
Cryptomining

Detection of domain names potentially related to cryptomining activities.

  • Effort: master
Dynamic DNS Contacted

Detect communication with dynamic dns domain. This kind of domain is often used by attackers. This rule can trigger false positive in non-controlled environment because dynamic dns is not always malicious.

  • Effort: master
Exfiltration Domain

Detects traffic toward a domain flagged as a possible exfiltration vector.

  • Effort: master
RSA SecurID Failed Authentification

Detects many failed attempts to authenticate followed by a successfull login for a super admin account.

  • Effort: advanced
Remote Access Tool Domain

Detects traffic toward a domain flagged as a Remote Administration Tool (RAT).

  • Effort: master
SEKOIA.IO Intelligence Feed

Detect threats based on indicators of compromise (IOCs) collected by SEKOIA's Threat and Detection Research team.

  • Effort: elementary
Sekoia.io EICAR Detection

Detects observables in Sekoia.io CTI tagged as EICAR, which are fake samples meant to test detection.

  • Effort: master
TOR Usage Generic Rule

Detects TOR usage globally, whether the IP is a destination or source. TOR is short for The Onion Router, and it gets its name from how it works. TOR intercepts the network traffic from one or more apps on user’s computer, usually the user web browser, and shuffles it through a number of randomly-chosen computers before passing it on to its destination. This disguises user location, and makes it harder for servers to pick him/her out on repeat visits, or to tie together separate visits to different sites, this making tracking and surveillance more difficult. Before a network packet starts its journey, user’s computer chooses a random list of relays and repeatedly encrypts the data in multiple layers, like an onion. Each relay knows only enough to strip off the outermost layer of encryption, before passing what’s left on to the next relay in the list.

  • Effort: master

Event Categories

The following table lists the data source offered by this integration.

Data Source Description
Authentication logs There's an authentification audit, control and diagnostic
Network device configuration Changing conf of devices usually by the admin
Web logs Cisco ISE logs provide information about the connected client and the requested resource

In details, the following table denotes the type of events produced by this integration.

Name Values
Kind ``
Category configuration, network
Type change, info

Transformed Events Samples after Ingestion

This section demonstrates how the raw logs will be transformed by our parsers. It shows the extracted fields that will be available for use in the built-in detection rules and hunting activities in the events page. Understanding these transformations is essential for analysts to create effective detection mechanisms with custom detection rules and to leverage the full potential of the collected data.

{
    "message": "INFO: Configuration Changed: Admin=john.doe; Object Type=EPPurgeScheduler; Object Name=f36afcff-e3af-4a70-99c0-5e5304c1c336",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "configuration"
        ],
        "type": [
            "change"
        ]
    },
    "cisco": {
        "ise": {
            "config_action": "Changed",
            "config_object": {
                "name": "f36afcff-e3af-4a70-99c0-5e5304c1c336",
                "type": "EPPurgeScheduler"
            }
        }
    },
    "observer": {
        "product": "Cisco ISE",
        "vendor": "Cisco"
    },
    "related": {
        "user": [
            "john.doe"
        ]
    },
    "user": {
        "name": "john.doe"
    }
}

{
    "message": "INFO: 5 endpoint(s) purged successfully",
    "event": {
        "reason": " 5 endpoint(s) purged successfully",
        "type": [
            "info"
        ]
    },
    "observer": {
        "product": "Cisco ISE",
        "vendor": "Cisco"
    }
}

{
    "message": "2023-06-07 04:26:17.306 +0200 60198 INFO null: MnT purge event occurred, MESSAGE=completed successfully,",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "network"
        ],
        "reason": "MnT purge event occurred",
        "type": [
            "info"
        ]
    },
    "cisco": {
        "ise": {
            "event": {
                "outcome": "success"
            }
        }
    },
    "observer": {
        "product": "Cisco ISE",
        "vendor": "Cisco"
    }
}

{
    "message": "WARN: AcsSyslogContentAaaDiagnostics:: ACTIVE_DIRECTORY_DIAGNOSTIC_TOOL_ISSUES_FOUND need to complete",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "network"
        ],
        "reason": ": ACTIVE_DIRECTORY_DIAGNOSTIC_TOOL_ISSUES_FOUND need to complete",
        "type": [
            "info"
        ]
    },
    "observer": {
        "product": "Cisco ISE",
        "vendor": "Cisco"
    }
}

{
    "message": "INFO: EAP Connection Timeout : Server=servername; NAS IP Address=1.2.3.4; NAS Identifier=A4:57:00:64:47:C0:test1",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "network"
        ],
        "type": [
            "info"
        ]
    },
    "observer": {
        "product": "Cisco ISE",
        "vendor": "Cisco"
    },
    "related": {
        "hosts": [
            "servername"
        ],
        "ip": [
            "1.2.3.4"
        ]
    },
    "source": {
        "address": "servername",
        "domain": "servername",
        "ip": "1.2.3.4",
        "mac": "A4:57:00:64:47:C0"
    }
}

{
    "message": "WARN: Dynamic Authorization Failed for Device : Server=servername; Calling Station Id=N/A; Network device IP=1.2.3.4; Network Device",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "network"
        ],
        "type": [
            "info"
        ]
    },
    "observer": {
        "product": "Cisco ISE",
        "vendor": "Cisco"
    },
    "related": {
        "hosts": [
            "servername"
        ],
        "ip": [
            "1.2.3.4"
        ],
        "user": [
            "N/A"
        ]
    },
    "source": {
        "address": "servername",
        "domain": "servername",
        "ip": "1.2.3.4"
    },
    "user": {
        "name": "N/A"
    }
}

{
    "message": "WARN: Profiler SNMP Request Failure : Server= servername; NAD Address=1.2.3.4; Error Message=Request timed out.",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "network"
        ],
        "reason": "Request timed out.",
        "type": [
            "info"
        ]
    },
    "cisco": {
        "ise": {
            "network_calling_station": {
                "id": "Request timed out."
            }
        }
    },
    "observer": {
        "product": "Cisco ISE",
        "vendor": "Cisco"
    },
    "related": {
        "hosts": [
            "servername"
        ],
        "ip": [
            "1.2.3.4"
        ]
    },
    "source": {
        "address": "servername",
        "domain": "servername",
        "ip": "1.2.3.4"
    }
}

{
    "message": "WARN: TrustSec deploy verification failed to reach NAD.: Device Name=device005.internal.example.org; Device Ip=1.2.3.4; Device login username=admin",
    "event": {
        "category": [
            "network"
        ],
        "type": [
            "info"
        ]
    },
    "observer": {
        "product": "Cisco ISE",
        "vendor": "Cisco"
    },
    "related": {
        "hosts": [
            "device005.internal.example.org"
        ],
        "ip": [
            "1.2.3.4"
        ],
        "user": [
            "admin"
        ]
    },
    "source": {
        "address": "device005.internal.example.org",
        "domain": "device005.internal.example.org",
        "ip": "1.2.3.4",
        "registered_domain": "example.org",
        "subdomain": "device005.internal",
        "top_level_domain": "org"
    },
    "user": {
        "name": "admin"
    }
}

Extracted Fields

The following table lists the fields that are extracted, normalized under the ECS format, analyzed and indexed by the parser. It should be noted that infered fields are not listed.

Name Type Description
cisco.ise.config_action keyword The action in a configuration events. (Added, Changed, Deleted)
cisco.ise.config_object.name keyword The name of the object in the conf events
cisco.ise.config_object.type keyword The type of the objection in the conf events
cisco.ise.event.outcome keyword The outcome of the event
cisco.ise.network_calling_station.id keyword the calling station id
event.category keyword Event category. The second categorization field in the hierarchy.
event.reason keyword Reason why this event happened, according to the source
event.type keyword Event type. The third categorization field in the hierarchy.
observer.product keyword The product name of the observer.
observer.vendor keyword Vendor name of the observer.
source.domain keyword The domain name of the source.
source.ip ip IP address of the source.
source.mac keyword MAC address of the source.
user.name keyword Short name or login of the user.

For more information on the Intake Format, please find the code of the Parser, Smart Descriptions, and Supported Events here.

Further readings