This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
The checklist names the source, the owner, and the time you will keep it. A sample line is redacted. You do not collect a mailbox or a host you do not administer.
The browser tool drafts a list. It does not connect to the SIEM.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. A sample password is replaced. It is not a password you keep.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the system named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the system, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the record, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the source.
- Read the checklist.
- Redact the sample.
- Write the retention.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the statement
Log Analysis for Security goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A secret in the sample.
- A source you do not administer.
- Retention left blank.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Log Analysis for Security: The source is yours. The sample is redacted. And retention is written.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The source is written. The owner is named. The sample is redacted. Nothing was connected. And the source is yours. If one of those fails, stop.
# One log source. Redact secrets.
# 192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. A sample password is replaced. It is not a password you keep.Before you leave the system
Log Analysis for Security ends when the system in the note is the system in the ticket. If it is not, stop.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log in, does not scan, and does not send mail.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you publish because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save. A sample password is replaced. It is not a password you keep.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the scope aloud. If they cannot find it in the ticket, the note is not done.
This page is a planning guide. It is not legal advice, not an audit opinion, not a vendor manual, and not the text of a standard. You do not disable a security control to make a check pass. You do not use the page against a system you do not administer.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.
- Pillar: Detection Engineering Guide
- How-To: How to Size a SIEM
- Reference: Log Retention Requirements by Regulation
- How-To: KQL for Security Analysts
Companion: System: Linux Logging Guide.