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MikroTik MTCSE lab 6 of 10

Detecting attacks: firewall logging, remote syslog and netwatch

Harbourside's firewall drops attacks silently, so nobody knows they happen, and nobody noticed when the web server went down last week. Send the router's logs to the NOC's syslog server, log dropped and suspicious traffic with prefixes and rate limits, flag sources that probe the DNS service, and watch the web server with netwatch so an outage raises an alarm.

Run this lab

It needs Lite: its 4 nodes are set to 4 vCPU and 1,536 MB in total. That fits the free demo too.

In your workspace: Shared, then MikroTik MTCSE RouterOS v7 guided labs, then 06 - Detecting attacks - firewall logging remote syslog and netwatch

Try it free for 30 minutesRun it on Lite from £3 a day

The free demo needs no card and no email. Every lab plan includes every guided lab.

Level
Intermediate
Time
About 60 minutes
Nodes need
4 vCPU, 1,536 MB
Smallest plan
Lite

The scenario

Harbourside's router GW has a sound input firewall, but it drops attacks silently: nobody knows they happen. Last week the web server in the DMZ was down for an hour before a customer phoned. The NOC runs a syslog server (SYSLOG, 10.10.10.20). GW is also a DNS cache for the DMZ, a critical service that attackers love to abuse. Make GW report what it sees.

DeviceAddressRole
GWWAN 203.0.113.2/29 · DMZ 172.16.40.1/24 · NOC 10.10.10.1/24router
WEB172.16.40.10/24web server (WebFig stands in for the site)
SYSLOG (Linux)10.10.10.20/24collects syslog on UDP 514 into /root/router.log
ATT (Linux)203.0.113.6/29the Internet, including attackers

What you’ll practise

  • Choose log topics and actions, and send them to a remote syslog server
  • Log firewall matches with prefixes, and rate-limit logging with action=log and limit
  • Detect attacks on a critical service and record the offenders in an address list
  • Monitor a service with netwatch and run scripts when it goes down and comes back

The tasks

  1. Address the Linux hosts and start the syslog listener
  2. Send the logs to the NOC
  3. Log what the firewall drops, without flooding the log
  4. Detect abuse of a critical service
  5. Watch the web server with netwatch
  6. Attack and break things, then read the NOC's log

The Lab Tasks pane has the scenario, these tasks, the checks to run, hints and the full solution.

Topology and devices

The network as it opens in EVE-NG, drawn from the lab’s own canvas, and the image each node runs.

Topology of Detecting attacks - firewall logging remote syslog and netwatch4 nodes, 3 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.GWWEBSYSLOGATTether1eth0ether2ether1ether3eth0
4 nodes, with the interface names each link uses. On a narrow screen, scroll the diagram sideways.
Every link, as text
  • GW ether1 to ATT eth0
  • GW ether2 to WEB ether1
  • GW ether3 to SYSLOG eth0
Nodes in Detecting attacks: firewall logging, remote syslog and netwatch, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
GWMikroTik RouterOSmikrotik-7.14.21 vCPU, 256 MB
WEBMikroTik RouterOSmikrotik-7.14.21 vCPU, 256 MB
SYSLOGAlpine Linuxclbalpinebase-alpine-base-3-20-31 vCPU, 512 MB
ATTAlpine Linuxclbalpinebase-alpine-base-3-20-31 vCPU, 512 MB

How to open this lab

  1. Sign in to your workspace at lab.cloudlabbox.com.

  2. In File Manager, open Shared, then the folder MikroTik MTCSE RouterOS v7 guided labs.

  3. Open 06 - Detecting attacks - firewall logging remote syslog and netwatch and start its nodes, then open Lab Tasks for the scenario and the steps.

The lab is read-only. You can start the nodes and configure the devices, but changes to the topology can’t be saved. To change it, rebuild it in your own folder.

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CloudLabBox is independent of MikroTik. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.