AlienVault Integration with Security Validation

This integration validates that security tools are writing log events to AlienVault to ensure compliance with security policies and regulations, and collects events generated by security tools that write to AlienVault to test the efficacy and configuration of security controls using Security Validation jobs.

Use this document to configure the integration using one of the following methods:

• MSI (Supported and recommended for new integration configurations)
• Legacy (Supported for existing integration configurations)

Configure MSI Integration

API calls

Supported Versions

• AlienVault 5.3.x

Before You Begin

To configure this integration, you need the following:

• The hostname or IP address of your AlienVault instance
• The SSH port of your AlienVault instance

Adding SSH Key to AlienVault Instance

The Public SSH Key for Mandiant Advantage must be added to home/avapi/.ssh/authorized_keys

Configure Security Validation

1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
2. From the Integrations table, click Add Integration > Alien Vault.
   You can add this as either a Direct or Remote Integration.
3. Enter a meaningful Integration Name.
4. Optional: From the Proxy drop-down, choose a proxy profile if one is available. If one isn't available and all outbound connections go through a proxy, first, set up a Proxy Rule.
5. Enter the Host for the AlienVault instance. 
6. Enter a Port value. The default is 22.
7. Enter the Username. The default is avapi.
8. Enter the Password for authentication.
9. Optional: Modify Queries, as needed. A default IP query is provided.
10. Optional: Modify the FieldMapModel values, as necessary.
    • Each field map box can hold a JSON-formatted comma-separated list of columns returned by the API to be considered for each field when translating into the normalized event object format. Example: description could be configured to be 'msg_s' or 'SyslogMessage' in some environments. The field map tries both if set to: ['msg_s','SyslogMessage'] and whichever matches first is the column that is used.
    • When configuring an integration in Security Validation, you can assign additional host values in the Field Map settings. If none of the assigned fields return a valid host name, Network Actions may miss matched events from the third-party technology. Additional hosts values helps ensure the likelihood of a match between the two environments.

11. Optional: Expand Advanced options and update the information as necessary.

    1. Update Query Time and Delay Time.
       The Query time is the amount of time (minutes) before and after the query runs that the platform looks for events, while the Delay time is the amount of time (minutes) that the platform waits to run the first query after a Job Action starts. For example, you configure your integration with the following values: Query time = 5, Query interval = 30 seconds, and Delay time = 0. When a Job Actions starts at 12:00:00, the first time the query runs, the platform looks for events from 11:55:00 to 12:00:00. Then 30 seconds later, it looks for events from 11:55:30 to 12:00:30. This interval continues, with the last query looking from 12:00:00 to 12:05:00. If you instead configured the Delay time to equal 10, it would run the same query, but it wouldn't start that query until 12:10:00.
       If your monitors are set to run more frequently than the query time, this configuration impacts the pass/fail results for AEDA monitors.
    2. Update Query Interval (seconds).
    3. If supported by your integration, configure correlation queries:
       1. Select Correlation Query Enabled and fill in the Correlation Query.
       2. Modify the Correlation Query Interval, if necessary (minutes).
    4. Select Discover network devices automatically, the default and recommended option.
       If unselected, reported events won't include product information for any matching network security technology.
    5. Select Save Suspicious Events.
    6. Modify the Event Time Adjustment (seconds). The default is 0.

    7. Modify the Limit value if you need to prevent a flood of results. This value is set to 10000 by default. This limit applies to both events and alerts individually, so if you set it to 10, you can still see a maximum of 10 events and 10 alerts.

12. Click Save.

Verify connectivity

1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
2. From the Direct Integrations table, click  > Test to verify that:
   • The Director can communicate with the integration host on the port and protocol specified.
   • The integration credentials are valid and working.

For more information on setting up queries, see Manage Integrations.

Configure Legacy Integration

Update AlienVault

To update AlienVault

Insert the Validation Platform Director public key in the file home/avapi/.ssh/authorized_keys.

This allows the Director to run queries using the avapi user.

Update the Validation Platform

Prerequisites

Information to gather before you start:

• IP address used to access AlienVault.
• Port for AlienVault-related SSH communications (default is 22).

Configuration

To add the AlienVault integration

1. Go to Settings > Integrations.

2. Click Add Integration > AlienVault.
3. Enter the Host.
4. If necessary, update the Port.

5. Expand Advanced options.

6. If necessary, adjust any additional fields (such as Query and Correlation query) that were pre-populated for you.

7. Click Submit.

AlienVault Integration

Verify connectivity

To verify connectivity to AlienVault

Click Test to verify that the Director can:

• Communicate with AlienVault IP address on the port specified.
• SSH to the AlienVault host using the avapi user without providing a password (using RSA/DSA keys).