Analysis Tools for Firewall Logfiles

For the Record

Article from Issue 50/2005
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Netfilter firewalls create highly detailed logfiles that nobody really wants to inspectmanually. Logfile analysis tools like IPtables Log Analyzer,Wallfire Wflogs,and FWlogwatch help administrators keep track of developments and filter for importantmessages.

In a firewall-protected environment, the administrator must keep track of developments by logging as many transactions as possible. At the same time, admins want to avoid wading through megabytes of logfiles just because they are worried about missing a clue. Logfile Helpers Protocal analysis tools provide a solution to this dilemma. Linux users have many options for firewall analysis programs. In this article, we’ll look at three alterna-tives: IPtables Log Analyzer [1], WFlogs from the Wallfire project [2], and FWlogwatch [3]. All three programs support a wide range of protocol formats and serve up the results as neatly formatted HTML pages; WFlogs and FWlogwatch additionally have realtime modes. IPtables Log Analyzer is the only tool to use a database for message storage.

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