okabi2 / cloud-security-architecture-and-configuration

Cloud Security Comprehensive List

CLOUD SECURITY ARCHITECTURE AND CONFIGURATION

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Automated ELK Stack Deployment

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The files in this repository were used to configure the network depicted below.

These files have been tested and used to generate a live ELK deployment on Azure. They can be also be used to recreate the entire deployment pictured above. Alternatively, select portions of the Install-elk.yml file may be used to install only certain pieces of it, such as Filebeat.

This document contains the following details:

• Description of the Topology
• Access Policies
• ELK Configuration
• Beats in Use
• Machines Being Monitored
• How to Use the Ansible Build

Description of the Topology

The main purpose of this network is to expose a load-balanced and monitored instance of DVWA, the D*mn Vulnerable Web Application. Load balancing ensures that applications will be highly available, in addition to restricting access to the network. Integrating an ELK server allows users to easily monitor the vulnerable VMs for changes to the syslog and system metrics.

The configuration details of each machine may be found below.

Name	Function	IP address	Operating System
Jump Box	Gateway	10.0.0.5	Linux
DVWA-VM1	Server	10.0.0.6	Linux
DVWA-VM2	Server	10.0.0.x	Linux
ELK-VM	Server	10.0.0.7	Linux
LOAD BALANCER	Load Balancer	52.188.33.23	LB

Access Policies

The machines on the internal network are not exposed to the public Internet. Only the Load Balancer, ELK-VM and Jump Box machines can accept connections from the Internet. Access to this machine is only allowed from the following IP addresses:

• 52.188.33.23 Load Balancer
• 40.121.139.76 ELK VM
• 52.149.183.107 Jump Box

Machines within the network can only be accessed by the Jump Box IP 10.0.0.5.

A summary of the access policies in place can be found in the table below.

Name	Publicly Accessible	Allowed IP Addresses
Jump Box	Yes	216.164.236.207
DVWA-VM1	No	10.0.0.5
DVWA-VM2	No	10.0.0.5
ELK-VM	Yes	216.164.236.207
LOAD BALANCER	yes	0.0.0.0

Elk Configuration

Ansible was used to automate configuration of the ELK machine. No configuration was performed manually, which is advantageous because automatic configuration drastically reduces the potential for human error & multiple VM’s can be configured identically all at once.

The playbook implements the following tasks:

• Name: docker.io: the docker engine, used for running containers.
• Name: python-pip: the package used to install Python software.
• Name: docker: Install docker python module:
• Command: sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144: configures the ELK VM to use more memory.
• Image: sebp/elk: downloads and launch a docker container on ELK VM.
• Published_ports: 5601:5601 9200:9200 5044:5044: publishes ports on ELK VM.

The following screenshot displays the result of running docker ps after successfully configuring the ELK instance.

Target Machines & Beats

This ELK server is configured to monitor the following machines:

• DVWA-VM1: 10.0.0.6
• DVWA-VM2: 10.0.0.x

We have installed the following Beats on these machines:

• Filebeat and Metricbeat

These Beats allow us to collect the following information from each machine:

• Filebeat monitors the log files or locations specified, collects log events, and forwards them either to Elasticsearh or Logstash for indexing. E.g. System log
• Metricbeat is a lightweight shipper that can be installed on servers to periodically collect metrics from the operating system and from services running on the server. E.g. Apache, MySQL, Redis, CPU, RAM, MEMORY.

Using the Playbook

In order to use the playbook, you will need to have an Ansible control node already configured. Assuming you have such a control node provisioned: SSH into the control node and follow the steps below:

• Copy the /etc/ansible/files/filebeat-configuration file to ELK VM.
• Update the /etc/ansible/hosts file to include [webservers] 10.0.0.6 10.0.0.x and [elkserver] 10.0.0.7
• Run the playbook and navigate to http://[ELK-VM.IP]:5601 to check that the installation worked as expected.

As a Bonus, provide the specific commands the user will need to run to download the playbook, update the files, etc.

• Command: curl -L -O https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats/filebeat/filebeat-7.6.1-amd64.deb: downloads the .deb file from [artifacts.elastic.co]

• Command: dpkg -i filebeat-7.6.1-amd64.deb: installs the .deb file.

• Copy:

     `src: /etc/ansible/files/filebeat-configuration.yml`
  
     `dest: /etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml`: copies the filbeat-configuration file from ansible container to ELK-VM.
  

• Command: filebeat modules enable system: starts processing common log formats.

• Command: filebeat setup: creates index pattern and loads the dashboards into Kibana.

• Command: service filebeat start: makes filebeat ready to send files to defined output.

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© 2020 Zewdu Gurmu, ELK Stack Cloud Network Configuration and Deployement Project.