Rapid and Efficient Security Log Integration with Azure Sentinel Using Logic Apps

In cybersecurity, the speed and efficiency of integrating information are crucial. Especially with the increasing complexity of threats, organizations must have seamless and swift ways to gather, process, and act on security data.
Best solution in this context is Azure Sentinel, it is a great, scalable, and cloud-native security information event management (SIEM) solution.

However, the true potential of Azure Sentinel can be unlocked by leveraging Logic Apps for quick and easy integration of security logs.

What is Logic Apps?

Azure Logic Apps is a cloud-based service that automates tasks, workflows, and business processes. With its visual designer, users can build workflows that integrate and manage data across different services and systems without needing extensive coding knowledge. This makes Logic Apps an excellent tool for rapid application development (RAD) and integration scenarios.

Key Components of Logic Apps

Let’s break down the key components of Logic Apps in a more conversational manner:

• Triggers: Think of triggers as the starting point for your workflow. They are like the ignition switch in your car. When a specific event happens or a condition is met, the trigger kicks off the workflow. For example, in our scenario, the workflow starts when an HTTP request is received.
• Actions: Actions are the steps that the workflow takes after it’s been triggered. Imagine you’re baking a cake; each action is like adding an ingredient or performing a step in the recipe. In Logic Apps, actions can range from sending an email to processing data.
• Connectors: These are pre-built integrations with various services and systems. Think of them as the bridges that connect your Logic App to external services like databases, APIs, or other cloud services. They make it easy to pull in or send out data without writing a lot of code.
• Run After: This setting controls the sequence of actions. It’s like telling someone, “Do step B only after step A is complete.” It ensures that actions happen in the right order and handle dependencies correctly.
• Parameters: Parameters store configuration settings and connection details, similar to how you’d store important addresses in your phone. They make your workflow adaptable and easier to manage, allowing you to change settings without modifying the entire workflow.

Integrating Security Logs with Azure Sentinel

In this example, we demonstrate a Logic Apps workflow that exposes an API endpoint to receive a JSON payload containing security event data and then sends this data to Azure Sentinel.

Trigger: HTTP Request Received

This is where the workflow starts. When an HTTP request with a JSON payload is received, it triggers the workflow to begin processing.

Action: Parse JSON

Once the workflow is triggered, the first action is to parse the incoming JSON data. This means breaking down the JSON payload into understandable pieces, like reading the ingredients list of a recipe before you start cooking. We need to understand the structure of the data to work with it effectively.

Action: For Each

After parsing the JSON data, the workflow needs to handle each item in the parsed array individually. The “For Each” action is like a loop that goes through each ingredient in the recipe one by one, ensuring every piece of data is processed.

Action: Send Data

Within the “For Each” loop, the workflow sends each piece of data to Azure Sentinel. This is like baking each layer of a cake before stacking them together. The data is sent via an API connection to the Azure Log Analytics Data Collector, ensuring it reaches its destination in the correct format.

Workflow Components Explained

Step-by-Step Process

• Trigger Workflow: The HTTP request with security event data in JSON format triggers the workflow.
• Parse JSON Data: The Parse_JSON_1 action parses the incoming JSON to extract individual event details.

• Iterate Events: The For_each_1 action iterates over each event in the parsed JSON.

• Send to Sentinel: Within the For_each_1 loop, the Send_Data action sends each event to Azure Sentinel by posting it to the designated API endpoint.

Benefits of Using Logic Apps for Security Log Integration

• Speed: Rapid integration and deployment without extensive development effort.
• Simplicity: Visual designer and pre-built connectors make it accessible even for those with minimal coding knowledge.
• Scalability: Handles large volumes of data efficiently, with concurrency controls for optimal performance.
• Flexibility: Easily integrates with various data sources and destinations, adapting to diverse security environments.

The power of RAD development provided by Logic Apps ensures that organizations can stay ahead of threats by swiftly incorporating and acting on security data.
This approach not only enhances security posture but also optimizes resource utilization, making it an essential tool in the modern cybersecurity arsenal.

Leveraging Azure Logic Apps for integrating security logs into Azure Sentinel offers a fantastic solution for rapid and straightforward data integration. The simplicity and speed of this approach make it an excellent choice for quickly ingesting information into Sentinel, even for those with minimal development knowledge.

Logic Apps is not limited to simple integrations; it also supports the creation of more complex workflows that require specific and elaborate data processing before ingestion.

There are also many scenarios where highly complex data normalization is required. In these cases, integrating information effectively is the key to true success, both in terms of efficiency and cost.

This article focuses on quick and easy integrations, exploring the intricacies of complex data normalization and integration can be a topic for a future discussion.
Whether you need a quick win for straightforward scenarios or a robust solution for intricate data integration, Logic Apps provides the capability to enhance your security posture efficiently and effectively.