Collect Sophos Central logs

Supported in:

This document explains how to collect Sophos Central logs by using Bindplane. The parser transforms JSON logs into a unified data model (UDM). It extracts fields from nested JSON structures, maps them to UDM fields, and performs event categorization based on the type field, enriching the data with specific details and actions for different Sophos Central event types.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that you have a Google Security Operations instance.
  • Ensure that you are using Windows 2016 or later, or a Linux host with systemd.
  • Ensure that you have an additional Windows or Linux machine, capable of continuously running Python.
  • If running behind a proxy, ensure firewall ports are open.
  • Ensure that you have privileged access to Sophos XG Firewall.

Get Google SecOps ingestion authentication file

  1. Sign in to the Google SecOps console.
  2. Go to SIEM Settings > Collection Agents.
  3. Download the Ingestion Authentication File. Save the file securely on the system where Bindplane will be installed.

Get Google SecOps customer ID

  1. Sign in to the Google SecOps console.
  2. Go to SIEM Settings > Profile.
  3. Copy and save the Customer ID from the Organization Details section.

Install the Bindplane agent

Windows installation

  1. Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell as an administrator.

  2. Run the following command:

    msiexec /i "https://github.com/observIQ/bindplane-agent/releases/latest/download/observiq-otel-collector.msi" /quiet

Linux installation

  1. Open a terminal with root or sudo privileges.

  2. Run the following command:

    sudo sh -c "$(curl -fsSlL https://github.com/observiq/bindplane-agent/releases/latest/download/install_unix.sh)" install_unix.sh

Additional installation resources

Configure the Bindplane agent to ingest Syslog and send to Google SecOps

  1. Access the configuration file:

    1. Locate the config.yaml file. Typically, it's in the /etc/bindplane-agent/ directory on Linux or in the installation directory on Windows.
    2. Open the file using a text editor (for example, nano, vi, or Notepad).

  2. Edit the config.yaml file as follows:

    receivers:
    udplog:
        # Replace the port and IP address as required
        listen_address: "0.0.0.0:514"

exporters:
    chronicle/chronicle_w_labels:
        compression: gzip
        # Adjust the path to the credentials file you downloaded in Step 1
        creds: '/path/to/ingestion-authentication-file.json'
        # Replace with your actual customer ID from Step 2
        customer_id: <customer_id>
        endpoint: malachiteingestion-pa.googleapis.com
        # Add optional ingestion labels for better organization
        ingestion_labels:
            log_type: SYSLOG
            namespace: sophos_central
            raw_log_field: body

service:
    pipelines:
        logs/source0__chronicle_w_labels-0:
            receivers:
                - udplog
            exporters:
                - chronicle/chronicle_w_labels

  3. Replace the port and IP address as required in your infrastructure.

  4. Replace <customer_id> with the actual customer ID.

  5. Update /path/to/ingestion-authentication-file.json to the path where the authentication file was saved in the Get Google SecOps ingestion authentication file section.

Restart the Bindplane agent to apply the changes

  • To restart the Bindplane agent in Linux, run the following command:

    sudo systemctl restart bindplane-agent

  • To restart the Bindplane agent in Windows, you can either use the Services console or enter the following command:

    net stop BindPlaneAgent && net start BindPlaneAgent

Configure Sophos Central API access

  1. Sign in to Sophos Central Admin.
  2. Select Global Settings > API Token Management.
  3. Click Add Token to create a new token.
  4. Enter a token name and click Save. The API Token Summary for the provided token is displayed.
  5. In the API Token Summary section, click Copy to copy the API access URL and headers.

Install Python on the additional machine

  1. Open the web browser and go to the Python website.
  2. Click Download Python for your operating system (Windows or Mac).

  3. Install Python.

    • On Windows:
      1. Run the installer.
      2. Check the box that says Add Python to PATH.
      3. Click Install Now.

    • On Mac:

      1. Python may already be installed, if not you can install the latest version using the terminal.

      2. Open Terminal and type the following command:

        python --version

Download the Sophos integration script

  1. Go to the GitHub page for Sophos Central SIEM Integration GitHub Repository.
  2. Click the green Code button > Download ZIP.
  3. Extract the ZIP file.

Set up the script configuration

  1. Find and Open the config.ini file with a text editor.
  2. Edit the configuration file:
    • API Token: enter the API Key copied earlier from Sophos Central.
    • Syslog Server Details: enter the details of your syslog server.
    • Host: enter the Bindplane IP address.
    • Port: enter the Bindplane port number.
    • Protocol: enter UDP (you can also use TCP or TLS depending on your setup).
  3. Save the file.

Run the script

  1. Go to the script folder.

    • On Windows:

      1. Press the Windows key and type cmd.
      2. Click Command Prompt.

      3. Go to the script folder:

        cd C:\Users\YourName\Downloads\Sophos-Central-SIEM-Integration

    • On macOS:

      1. Go to Applications > Utilities.
      2. Open Terminal.

      3. Go to the script folder:

        cd /Users/YourName/Downloads/Sophos-Central-SIEM-Integration

  2. Run the script:

    • Type the following command to start the script:

      python siem.py

Automate the script to run continuously on Windows (using Task Scheduler):

  1. Open the Task Scheduler by typing Task Scheduler in the Start menu.
  2. Click Create Task.
  3. In the General tab:
    • Name your task; for example, Sophos Central Log Export.
  4. In the Triggers tab:
    • Click New and set the task to run Daily or At startup (depending on your preference).
  5. In the Actions tab:
    • Click New and select Start a program.
    • Browse for the python.exe executable (usually found at C:\PythonXX\python.exe).
    • In the Add arguments field, type the path to the script; for example, C:\Users\YourName\Downloads\Sophos-Central-SIEM-Integration\siem.py.
  6. Click OK to save the task.

Automate the script to run continuously on Mac (using Cron Jobs):

  1. Open the Terminal.
  2. Type crontab -e and press Enter.

  3. Add a new line at the end of the file:

    * * * * * /usr/bin/python /Users/YourName/Downloads/Sophos-Central-SIEM-Integration/siem.py

  4. Save and exit the editor.

UDM Mapping Table

Log Field UDM Mapping Logic
customer_id target.resource.id Directly mapped from the customer_id field.
data.core_remedy_items.items.0.descriptor target.process.file.full_path Directly mapped from the data.core_remedy_items.items.0.descriptor field.
data.source_info.ip principal.ip
principal.asset.ip		 Directly mapped from the data.source_info.ip field.
description metadata.description Directly mapped from the description field when metadata.event_type is GENERIC_EVENT.
dhost principal.hostname
principal.asset.hostname		 Directly mapped from the dhost field.
duid security_result.detection_fields.value Directly mapped from the duid field.
end metadata.event_timestamp Parsed to RFC 3339 format and mapped to the event_timestamp field.
endpoint_id target.asset_id Mapped as Device endpoint Id: {endpoint_id}.
endpoint_type security_result.about.labels.value Directly mapped from the endpoint_type field.
group security_result.category_details Directly mapped from the group field.
name security_result.description
security_result.summary		 Directly mapped from the name field.
metadata.event_type Determined based on the type field and additional logic within the parser. Possible values include: FILE_OPEN, SCAN_HOST, SETTING_MODIFICATION, STATUS_HEARTBEAT, SETTING_CREATION, NETWORK_CONNECTION, SCAN_PROCESS, SCAN_UNCATEGORIZED, USER_CREATION, USER_UNCATEGORIZED, STATUS_UPDATE.
metadata.log_type Set to SOPHOS_CENTRAL.
metadata.product_event_type Directly mapped from the type field.
metadata.product_name Set to Sophos Central.
metadata.vendor_name Set to Sophos.
network.direction Set to OUTBOUND for specific type values indicating outbound network connections.
network.ip_protocol Set to TCP for specific type values indicating TCP network connections.
security_result.action Determined based on the action field extracted from the name field using grok patterns. Possible values include: ALLOW, BLOCK, ALLOW_WITH_MODIFICATION, UNKNOWN_ACTION.
security_result.detection_fields.key Set to duid when the duid field is present.
security_result.rule_name Extracted from the name field using grok patterns for specific type values.
security_result.severity Mapped from the severity field with the following mapping: low -> LOW, medium -> MEDIUM, high/critical -> HIGH.
target.application Extracted from the name field using grok patterns for specific type values.
target.asset.hostname Mapped from the dhost field for specific type values.
target.file.full_path Extracted from the name field using grok patterns for specific type values, or directly mapped from data.core_remedy_items.items.0.descriptor or core_remedy_items.items.0.descriptor.
target.file.size Extracted from the name field using grok patterns and converted to uinteger for specific type values.
target.hostname Mapped from the dhost field for specific type values.
target.resource.name Set to specific values based on the type field, or extracted from the name field using grok patterns.
target.resource.type Set to specific values based on the type field.
target.user.userid Mapped from the suser field after extracting the username using grok patterns.
target.url Extracted from the name field using grok patterns for specific type values.
source_info.ip principal.ip
principal.asset.ip		 Directly mapped from the source_info.ip field.
suser principal.user.userid
target.user.userid		 Extracted from the suser field using grok patterns to remove hostname prefixes.
type metadata.product_event_type Directly mapped from the type field.

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