AWS CloudWatch Integration with Security Validation

This integration tests the efficacy and configuration of AWS security controls using Security Validation jobs. The integration returns events written to AWS CloudWatch for correlation with a Security Validation job.

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

This document covers the the MSI method of creating an integration. This method is the recommended approach for configuring new integrations in Security Validation.

To configure an integration, this document walks you through the following high-level steps:

  1. Configure the third-party technology
  2. Configure Security Validation
  3. Verify connectivity

Configure AWS CloudWatch

API Calls

The integration uses the AWS Python client

Supported Versions

AWS Python client (boto3 version 1.16.63)

Information to gather before you start:

  • Add the AWS account to your Allow list.

  • Know your Amazon region.

    The following regions are supported:

    • ap-northeast-1
    • ap-northeast-2
    • ap-northeast-3
    • ap-southeast-1
    • ap-southeast-2
    • ap-south1
    • ca-central-1
    • eu-central-1
    • eu-west-1
    • eu-west-2
    • eu-west-3
    • sa-east-1
    • us-east-1
    • us-east-2
    • us-west-1
    • us-west-2
    • us-gov-east-1
    • us-gov-west-1
      See the AWS documentation for information on the different regions and their full names.
  • The AWS region of your CloudWatch service
  • An AWS Access Key ID and Secret Access Key

Create an Access Key for another IAM user

  1. Log in to the AWS Management Console and open the IAM console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/iam/.
  2. In the navigation pane, click Users.
  3. Select the name of the user whose access keys you want to manage, and then click the Security credentials tab.
  4. In the Access keys section:
    1. Click Create access key.
    2. Click Download .csv file to save the access key ID and secret access key to your computer. You will use these values in the integration configuration.
    3. Store the file in a secure location. Note: you will not have access to the secret access key again after closing this dialog box.
    4. Click Close.
  5. Ensure that the IAM user associated with this key has sufficient permission to read CloudWatch events.

Configure Security Validation

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations.
  2. From the Integrations table, click Add Integration > AWS CloudWatch.
    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. From the AwsRegions dropdown, choose the AWS DataCenter Region for your AWS deployment.
  6. Enter the Access Key Id and Secret Access Key.
  7. Optional: Enter the AWS Session Token.
  8. Optional: Change the Timeout value if you want a different frequency of requests to an upstream server. The default is 30 (seconds).
  9. Optional: Check Verify Ssl if you want this verification done for requests to an upstream server.
  10. Optional: Change the values for Page Size (default 100) or Max Page (default 5), if needed. 
  11. Optional: Enter Event Sensor Uuids and Alarm Sensor Uuids if you want to filter events and alarms to specific sensors.
  12. Enter any Log Group Name values. This setting specify where to retrieve the events when executing the query.
    • A log group is a group of log streams that share the same retention, monitoring, and access control settings. You can define log groups and specify which streams to put into each group. There is no limit on the number of log streams that can belong to one log group.
    • A log stream is a sequence of log events that share the same source. Each separate source of logs in CloudWatch Logs makes up a separate log stream.
  13. Optional: Modify the Field Map 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.

  14. 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.

  15. 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

This document applies to Classic/Legacy Integrations. You may continue to use these integration configurations. While no active development is happening for these integrations, we continue to provide Classic/Legacy Integrations in the product. You do not have to move to MSI Integrations. If your support engineer or TSC recommends or you choose to move to MSI Integrations, you can take advantage of the latest features and functionality. For more information, see the MSI Integration documentation in the Integrations Overview.

This requires the Cloud Validation license.

Update AWS CloudWatch

Identify or create credentials to access CloudWatch with read access and CloudWatchLogsFullAccess permission, at minimum.

API Calls

The following API calls are used by the Validation Platform.

Purpose Call
Create query Ruby Aws::CloudWatchLogs::Client.start_query
Get query results Ruby Aws::CloudWatchLogs::Client. get_query_results

Update the Security Validation Platform

Prerequisites

Information to gather before you start:

  • CloudWatch Access Key ID

    An AWS admin can generate this for you.

  • CloudWatch Secret Access Key

  • The Amazon region associated with your account.

    The following regions are supported:

    • ap-northeast-1
    • ap-northeast-2
    • ap-northeast-3
    • ap-southeast-1
    • ap-southeast-2
    • ap-south1
    • ca-central-1
    • eu-central-1
    • eu-west-1
    • eu-west-2
    • eu-west-3
    • sa-east-1
    • us-east-1
    • us-east-2
    • us-west-1
    • us-west-2
    • us-gov-east-1
    • us-gov-west-1
      See the AWS documentation for information on the different regions and their full names.

Configuration

To add the AWS CloudWatch integration

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations.

  2. Click Add Integration > CloudWatch.
    You can add this as either a Local or Remote Inetgration.
  3. Enter the Access key Id and the Secret Access Key.
  4. Select an Amazon Region.
  5. Enter the Log Groups from CloudWatch.
  6. (Optional) Configure the Query.

    AWS Cloudwatch Integration


  7. Expand Advanced options.

  8. (Optional) Update Query time and Delay time.

    The Query time is the amount of time (minutes) before and after the query runs that looks for events, while the Delay time is the amount of time (minutes) that the platform waits to run the query after a Job Action. 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, it will impact the pass/fail results for AEDA monitors.

  9. (Optional) Select Enable query for Malicious DNS Actions, then

    1. Enter the Log Groups to use with Malicious DNS Actions

    2. Configure the Query.

This query will only be used when you run Malicious DNS Actions or Captive DNS Actions.

  1. (Optional) Select Enable query for Email Actions, then

    1. Enter the Log Groups to use with Email Actions.

    2. Configure the Query.

This query will only be used when you run Malicious DNS Actions or Captive DNS Actions.

  1. (Optional) Select Enable query for Host CLIActions and:

    1. Enter the Log Groups to use with Host CLI Actions

    2. Configure the Query.

This query will only be used when you run Malicious DNS Actions or Captive DNS Actions.

  1. Identify the field name mappings for the following (there could be multiple of each, depending on log sources and configuration): Verify full list and order in UI

    • Source IP
    • Destination IP
    • Source Port
    • Destination Port
    • Event Source Host
    • Event Start Time (timestamp)
    • Unique ID
    • Event Signature ID
    • Event Description
    • Email Sender
    • Email Recipient
    • Email Subject
    • URL
    • Username

  2. Modify the Query Interval and Event Time Adjustment, if necessary.

  3. (Optional) Assign a Name.

  4. (Optional) Choose Yes to save suspicious events.

  5. Click Submit.

AWS CloudWatch Integration (Advanced Options)

Set up Proxy Assignment

If all outbound connections go through a proxy, you may want to set up a proxy definition and assignment for your integration. For information on setting up your proxy rules, see Proxy Rules.

Verify connectivity

To verify connectivity to AWS CloudWatch

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.
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  • First Published: February 26, 2024
  • Last updated: June 6, 2025
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