PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs

The Sumo Logic App for Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs App offers dashboards to monitor systems, account and users activity to ensure that login activity and privileged users are within the expected ranges. The PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs App covers PCI requirements 01, 02, and 04.

For more information on Amazon VPC Flow Logs, see here.

Sample log messages

2 123456789012 eni-abc123de 10.0.1.5 203.0.113.12 49152 3306 6 15 12000 1620077460 1620077520 ACCEPT OK

Sample queries

Possible Vertical Port Scan - Allowed

_sourceCategory=vpc_flow_logs ACCEPT
| where Action="ACCEPT"
| count_distinct(dest_port) as UniqueDestinationPorts by dest_ip
| where UniqueDestinationPorts > 4
| sort by UniqueDestinationPorts

Collect Logs for the PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs App

VPC Flow Logs can be published to Amazon CloudWatch Logs and Amazon S3. Each method has advantages. Using an Amazon S3 source is more reliable, while using a CloudFormation template allows you to customize your logs by adding more information and filtering unwanted data.

You can use either of the following methods to collect Amazon VPC Flow Logs:

• Collect Amazon VPC Flow Logs using an Amazon S3 source
• Collect Amazon VPC Flow Logs using a CloudFormation template

Installing the PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs app

Now that you have set up collection, install the Sumo Logic app for PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow to use the preconfigured searches and dashboards that provide insight into your data.

To install the app, do the following:

note

Next-Gen App: To install or update the app, you must be an account administrator or a user with Manage Apps, Manage Monitors, Manage Fields, Manage Metric Rules, and Manage Collectors capabilities depending upon the different content types part of the app.

1. Select App Catalog.
2. In the 🔎 Search Apps field, run a search for your desired app, then select it.
3. Click Install App.
   note

   Sometimes this button says Add Integration.

4. Click Next in the Setup Data section.
5. In the Configure section of your respective app, complete the following fields.
   1. Field Name. If you already have collectors and sources set up, select the configured metadata field name (eg _sourcecategory) or specify other custom metadata (eg: _collector) along with its metadata Field Value.
6. Click Next. You will be redirected to the Preview & Done section.

Post-installation

Once your app is installed, it will appear in your Installed Apps folder, and dashboard panels will start to fill automatically.

Each panel slowly fills with data matching the time range query received since the panel was created. Results will not immediately be available but will be updated with full graphs and charts over time.

As part of the app installation process, the following content will be created by default along with dashboards and monitor template:

Field Extraction Rule(s)

The FER PciComplianceForAmazonVpcFlowFER to extract fields logStream, logGroup, msg, direction, version, accountID, interfaceID, src_ip, dest_ip, src_port, dest_port, Protocol, Packets, bytes, StartSample, EndSample, Action, and status will be created as a part of app installation.

note

As a best practice, do not delete or modify any fields, Field Extraction Rules (FERs), or Metric Rules created during the app installation. If you need to make updates, contact the Sumo Logic Support team.

Viewing the PCI VPC dashboards

All dashboards have a set of filters that you can apply to the entire dashboard. Use these filters to drill down and examine the data to a granular level.

• You can change the time range for a dashboard or panel by selecting a predefined interval from a drop-down list, choosing a recently used time range, or specifying custom dates and times. Learn more.
• You can use template variables to drill down and examine the data on a granular level. For more information, see Filtering Dashboards with Template Variables.
• Most Next-Gen apps allow you to provide the scope at the installation time and are comprised of a key (_sourceCategory by default) and a default value for this key. Based on your input, the app dashboards will be parameterized with a dashboard variable, allowing you to change the dataset queried by all panels. This eliminates the need to create multiple copies of the same dashboard with different queries.

note

The PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow App covers PCI requirements 01, 02, and 04.

PCI Req 01 - Accepted and Rejected Traffic

Monitor accepted and rejected traffic, drill down on accepted network traffic, or drill down on rejected network traffic.

• Allowed Network Activity by Direction. View a comparison between inbound and outbound traffic over the last 60 minutes, timesliced by 1 minute intervals.
• Denied Network Activity by Direction. View a comparison between inbound and outbound traffic over the last 60 minutes, timesliced by 1 minute intervals.
• Allowed Traffic Over Time. View a count of accepted traffic for the last 60 minutes.
• Denied Traffic Over Time. View a count of denied traffic for the last 60 minutes.
• Allowed Network Activity by Transport and Internet Layer Protocol. View a comparison between transport layers (IPV4, IPV6, TCP, SCTP, ICMP, UDP) over the last 60 minutes, timesliced by 1 minute intervals.
• Network Traffic Accepted vs Rejected. View a comparison between accepted and rejected network traffic over the last 60 minutes, timesliced by 1 minute intervals.
• Network Traffic Accepted (Success) Top SrcIP. View a count of the top 10 source IP addresses for accepted network traffic.
• Network Traffic Accepted (Success) Top DestIP. View a count of the top 10 destination IP addresses for accepted network traffic.
• Network Traffic Rejected (Failure) Top SrcIP. View a count of the top 10 source IP addresses for rejected network traffic.
• Network Traffic Rejected (Failure) Top DestIP. View a count of the top 10 destination IP addresses for rejected network traffic.

PCI Req 01 - Traffic Direction Monitoring

Monitor inbound and outbound traffic.

• Traffic to Cardholder Environment. View traffic to cardholder environments by time, destination IP address, destination port, source IP, account ID, interface ID, event count, message, and severity for the last 60 minutes.
• Outbound Network Activity. View the overall outbound network activity by source host IP address for the last 60 minutes.
• Top 10 Host - Sending Outbound Traffic. View sending network activity by the top 10 source host IP addresses for the last 60 minutes.
• Inbound Network Activity. View the overall inbound network activity by source host IP address for the last 60 minutes.
• Top 10 Host - Receiving Inbound Traffic. View the top 10 hosts receiving inbound network traffic by destination host and megabytes received for the last 60 minutes.

PCI Req 01, 02 - Data Access Monitoring

Monitor data access.

• Traffic By Application Over Time. View a bar chart of accepted network traffic by application for the last 60 minutes, timesliced by every 5 minutes.
• Top TCP Dest Ports. View an aggregation table of the top TCP 10 destination ports and a count of how often they were accessed over the last 60 minutes.
• Multi-service Detected on Same Host. View the an aggregation table of the destination IP address, time, message, and severity when multi-services are detected on the same host during the last 60 minutes.
• Possible Port Scan Attack - Rejected. View destination IPs with more than 4 unique destination ports rejected, indicating a possible vertical port scan that was blocked by security groups.
• Possible Horizontal Port Scan Attack - Allowed. View destination ports that were accepted on more than 4 distinct destination hosts, indicating a successful horizontal port scan where an attacker is discovering services across multiple hosts.
• Possible Vertical Port Scan Attack - Allowed. View destination IPs with more than 4 distinct accepted destination ports, indicating a successful vertical port scan where an attacker is mapping open services on a specific host.
• Top UDP Dest Ports. View an aggregation table of the top UDP 10 destination ports and a count of how often they were accessed over the last 60 minutes.

PCI Req 02, 04 - Insecure Data In Transit

Monitor cardholder data in transit.

• Insecure Transport Protocol to or from CDE. View an aggregation table of high severity insecure network port activity with the message “Insecure Transport Protocol to or from CDE” during the last 60 minutes. Table includes time, account ID, destination IP, destination port, interface ID, protocol, source IP, source count, event count, severity, and message.
• Insecure Allowed Traffic by Application and Involved Host. See a bar chart of the types of insecure network allowed traffic by each host IP address during the last 60 minutes.
• Insecure Allowed Traffic by Target Port and Involved Host. View the insecure allowed traffic by target port and involved host during the last 60 minutes.
• Insecure Allowed Traffic by Protocol. View the insecure allowed traffic by network protocol as a bar chart timesliced by every 5 minutes for the last 60 minutes.
• Insecure Denied Traffic by Protocol. View the insecure denied traffic by network protocol as a bar chart timesliced by every 5 minutes for the last 60 minutes.
• Network Activity - Unencrypted Default Port. View network activity by unencrypted default port as a bar chart timesliced by every 5 minutes for the last 60 minutes.

Create monitors for the PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs app

From your App Catalog:

1. From the Sumo Logic navigation, select App Catalog.
2. In the Search Apps field, search for and then select your app.
3. Make sure the app is installed.
4. Navigate to What's Included tab and scroll down to the Monitors section.
5. Click Create next to the pre-configured monitors. In the create monitors window, adjust the trigger conditions and notifications settings based on your requirements.
6. Scroll down to Monitor Details.
7. Under Location click on New Folder.
   note

   By default, monitor will be saved in the root folder. So to make the maintenance easier, create a new folder in the location of your choice.

8. Enter Folder Name. Folder Description is optional.
   tip

   Using app version in the folder name will be helpful to determine the versioning for future updates.

9. Click Create. Once the folder is created, click on Save.

PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs alerts

Name	Description	Alert Condition	Recover Condition
PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow Logs - External Direct Access to Database Ports	This alert is triggered when an external (non-private) IP address successfully connects to a database port on an internal host. This is a direct PCI Req 01 violation indicating that database services in the cardholder data environment are accessible from the internet.	Count > 0	Count < = 0
PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow Logs - Insecure Transport Protocol to or from CDE	This alert is triggered when insecure transport protocols (FTP, Telnet, rlogin, or TFTP) are accepted to or from the cardholder data environment. This is a direct PCI Req 02, 04 violation as these protocols transmit data in clear text.	Count > 0	Count < = 0
PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow Logs - Rejected Traffic Burst from Single Source	This alert is triggered when a single source IP generates more than 100 rejected flows within a 5 minute window, indicating a targeted attack or brute-force scanning attempt against the network perimeter.	Count > 0	Count < = 0
PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow Logs - Possible Horizontal Port Scan - Allowed	This alert is triggered when a single destination port is accepted on more than 4 distinct destination hosts, indicating a successful horizontal port scan where an attacker is discovering services across multiple hosts.	Count > 0	Count < = 0
PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow Logs - Possible Vertical Port Scan - Allowed	This alert is triggered when a single destination IP has more than 4 distinct destination ports accepted, indicating a successful vertical port scan where an attacker is mapping open services on a specific host.	Count > 0	Count < = 0
PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow Logs - Multi-Service Detected on Same Host	This alert is triggered when a host is detected accepting both web traffic (ports 80, 8008, 8080, 443) and database traffic (MySQL, Redshift, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, etc.) simultaneously. This violates PCI DSS Req 2.2.1 which requires single primary function per server and indicates a network segmentation failure.	Count > 0	Count < = 0
PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow Logs - Unencrypted HTTP Traffic to or from CDE	This alert is triggered when unencrypted HTTP traffic (ports 80, 8008, 8080) is accepted to or from the cardholder data environment. PCI Req 04 requires all cardholder data to be encrypted during transmission over open, public networks.	Count > 0	Count < = 0
PCI Compliance For Amazon VPC Flow Logs - Large Outbound Data Transfer	This alert is triggered when an internal host sends more than 100MB of data outbound in a 5 minute window. This is a potential data exfiltration indicator relevant to PCI Req 10.6 (review logs for anomalies) and Req 12.10 (incident response).	Count > 0	Count < = 0

Upgrade/Downgrade the PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs app (Optional)

To update the app, do the following:

note

Next-Gen App: To install or update the app, you must be an account administrator or a user with Manage Apps, Manage Monitors, Manage Fields, Manage Metric Rules, and Manage Collectors capabilities depending upon the different content types part of the app.

1. Select App Catalog.
2. In the Search Apps field, search for and then select your app.
   Optionally, you can identify apps that can be upgraded in the Upgrade available section.
3. To upgrade the app, select Upgrade from the Manage dropdown.
   1. If the upgrade does not have any configuration or property changes, you will be redirected to the Preview & Done section.
   2. If the upgrade has any configuration or property changes, you will be redirected to the Setup Data page.
   3. In the Configure section of your respective app, complete the following fields.
      1. Field Name. If you already have collectors and sources set up, select the configured metadata field name (eg _sourcecategory) or specify other custom metadata (eg: _collector) along with its metadata Field Value.
   4. Click Next. You will be redirected to the Preview & Done section.

Post-update

Your upgraded app will be installed in the Installed Apps folder and dashboard panels will start to fill automatically.

note

See our Release Notes changelog for new updates in the app.

To revert the app to a previous version, do the following:

1. Select App Catalog.
2. In the Search Apps field, search for and then select your app.
3. To version down the app, select Revert to < previous version of your app > from the Manage dropdown.

Uninstalling the PCI Compliance for Amazon VPC Flow Logs app (Optional)

To uninstall the app, do the following:

1. Select App Catalog.
2. In the 🔎 Search Apps field, run a search for your desired app, then select it.
3. Click Uninstall.