Examine contents of System Logs for Significant Events
Examine contents of System Logs for Significant Events
Before you begin looking through logfiles for significant events, you must know the format of logfiles. Most Linux logfiles have a common, fixed format that has four elements
The date and time of the message
The hostname from where the message came, which is important when you have enabled centralized system logging
The name of the application or subsystem from where the message came--for example, kernel, ftpd, and so on
The actual message,>which is the remainder of the line following the colon
The following diagram below shows typical entries from a /var/log/messages logfile.
Log Message Main
Examining the system logs is an important part of system administration. To ensure that problems are caught and resolved in a timely fashion, you should check your system's logs for significant events.
View the table below to see how to identify commonly logged, significant events
If you have built a monolithic kernel for your firewall (strongly suggested), check for module insertion activity with grep insmod /var/log/messages.
A monolithic kernel should not have any modules inserted into it; if someone tried, it might be a sign of security compromise.