Using OSSEC to monitor ModSecurity and Wordpress

As the October ISSA Journal begins to make the rounds, readers will note OSSEC as the topic of my toolsmith column.
The topic was chosen by Doug Burks of Security Onion as part of the Pick a Toolsmith Topic contest (we'll do it again).
As a result Doug won Zero Day Threat: The Shocking Truth of How Banks and Credit Bureaus Help Cyber Crooks Steal Your Money and Identity. Thanks again, Doug.
The article is available for all readers here.

While I discussed OSSEC as it pertains to Snort logs, PCI compliance, application (misuse) monitoring and auditing, as well as malware behavioral analysis, I spent very little time discussing the use of OSSEC with ModSecurity or Wordpress.
So here's where I magically tie it all together. ;-)
Given the title of the book Doug won, what's one way we might help prevent cyber crooks from stealing our money and identity?
Monitor our web applications, of course! With OSSEC. See how I did that?

OSSEC and mod_security

As an example, on an Ubuntu server running Apache generating mod_security audit logs, include the following in ossec.conf (var/ossec/etc):



OSSEC will then alert on mod_security events.
You'll need to tune and filter; you may receive quite a few alerts, but once optimized the results will be quite useful.



OSSEC and Wordpress

Using OSSEC HIDS with Wordpress is already nicely documented.

Highlights from OSSEC pages:
WPsyslog2 is a global log plugin for Wordpress that keeps track of all system events and writes them to syslog. It tracks events such as new posts, new profiles, new users, failed logins, logins, logouts, etc.
It also tracks the latest vulnerabilities and alerts if any of them are triggered, becoming very useful when integrated with a log analysis tool, such as OSSEC HIDS.



No matter what you wish to monitor, even if it's simple server well being, you'll find OSSEC indispensable. Making use of it as part of your web application security arsenal is a giant step in the right direction.

Feedback welcome, as always, via comments or email.
Cheers.

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