Parsers format

Understanding parsers¶

A parser is a YAML configuration file that describes how a string is being parsed. Said string can be a log line, or a field extracted from a previous parser. While a lot of parsers rely on the GROK approach (a.k.a regular expression named capture groups), parsers can as well reference enrichment modules to allow specific data processing, or use specific expr feature to perform parsing on specific data, such as JSON.

Parsers are organized into stages to allow pipelines and branching in parsing.

See the Crowdsec Hub to explore parsers, or see below some examples :

Stages¶

Stages concept is central to data parsing in Crowdsec, as it allows to have various "steps" of parsing. All parsers belong to a given stage. While users can add or modify the stages order, the following stages exist :

s00-raw : low level parser, such as syslog
s01-parse : most of the services parsers (ssh, nginx etc.)
s02-enrich : enrichment that requires parsed events (ie. geoip-enrichment) or generic parsers that apply on parsed logs (ie. second stage http parser)

Every event starts in the first stage, and will move to the next stage once it has been successfully processed by a parser that has the onsuccess directive set to next_stage, and so on until it reaches the last stage, when it's going to start to be matched against scenarios. Thus a sshd log might follow this pipeline :

s00-raw : be parsed by crowdsecurity/syslog-logs (will move event to the next stage)
s01-raw : be parsed by crowdsecurity/sshd-logs (will move event to the next stage)
s02-enrich : will be parsed by crowdsecurity/geoip-enrich and crowdsecurity/dateparse-enrich

Parser configuration format¶

A parser node might look like :

#if 'onsuccess' is 'next_stage', the event will make it to next stage if this node succeed
onsuccess: next_stage
#a 'debug' (bool) flag allow to enable node level debug  in any node to enable local debug
debug: true
#a filter to decide if the Event is elligible for this parser node
filter: "evt.Parsed.program == 'kernel'"
#a unique name to allow easy debug & logging
name: crowdsecurity/demo-iptables
#this is for humans
description: "Parse iptables drop logs"
#we can define named capture groups (a-la-grok)
pattern_syntax:
  MYCAP: ".*"
#an actual grok pattern (regular expression with named capture groupe)
grok:
  pattern: ^xxheader %{MYCAP:extracted_value} trailing stuff$
  #we define on which field the regular expression must be applied
  apply_on: evt.Parsed.some_field
#statics are transformations that are applied on the event if the node is considered "successfull"
statics:
  - parsed: something
    expression: JsonExtract(evt.Event.extracted_value, "nested.an_array[0]")
  #to which field the value will be written (here -> evt.Meta.log_type)
  - meta: log_type
    #and here a static value
    value: parsed_testlog
  #another one
  - meta: source_ip
    #here the value stored is the result of a dynamic expression
    expression: "evt.Parsed.src_ip"

The parser nodes are processed sequentially based on the alphabetical order of stage and subsequent files. If the node is considered successful (grok is present and returned data or no grok is present) and "onsuccess" equals to next_stage, then the event is moved to the next stage.

Parser trees¶

A parser node can contain sub-nodes, to provide proper branching (on top of stages). It can be useful when you want to apply different parsing based on different criterias, or when you have a set of candidates parsers that you want to apply to an event :

#This first node will capture/extract some value
filter: "evt.Line.Labels.type == 'type1'"
name: tests/base-grok-root
pattern_syntax:
  MYCAP: ".*"
grok:
  pattern: ^... %{MYCAP:extracted_value} ...$
  apply_on: Line.Raw
statics:
  - meta: state
    value: root-done
  - meta: state_sub
    expression: evt.Parsed.extracted_value
---
#and this node will apply different patterns to it
filter: "evt.Line.Labels.type == 'type1' && evt.Meta.state == 'root-done'"
name: tests/base-grok-leafs
onsuccess: next_stage
#the sub-nodes will process the result of the master node
nodes:
  - filter: "evt.Parsed.extracted_value == 'VALUE1'"
    debug: true
    statics:
      - meta: final_state
        value: leaf1
  - filter: "evt.Parsed.extracted_value == 'VALUE2'"
    debug: true
    statics:
      - meta: final_state
        value: leaf2

The logic is that the tests/base-grok-root node will be processed first and will alter the event (here mostly by extracting some text from the Line.Raw field into Parsed thanks to the grok pattern and the statics directive).

The event will then continue its life and be parsed by the the following tests/base-grok-leafs node. This node has onsuccess set to next_stage which means that if the node is successful, the event will be moved to the next stage.

This node consists actually of two sub-nodes that have different conditions (branching) to allow differential treatment of said event.

A real-life example can be seen when it comes to parsing HTTP logs. HTTP ACCESS and ERROR logs often have different formats, and thus our "nginx" parser needs to handle both formats

filter: "evt.Parsed.program == 'nginx'"
onsuccess: next_stage
name: crowdsecurity/nginx-logs
nodes:
  - grok:
      #this is the access log
      name: NGINXACCESS
      apply_on: message
      statics:
        - meta: log_type
          value: http_access-log
        - target: evt.StrTime
          expression: evt.Parsed.time_local
  - grok:
        # and this one the error log
        name: NGINXERROR
        apply_on: message
        statics:
          - meta: log_type
            value: http_error-log
          - target: evt.StrTime
            expression: evt.Parsed.time
# these ones apply for both grok patterns
statics:
  - meta: service
    value: http
  - meta: source_ip
    expression: "evt.Parsed.remote_addr"
  - meta: http_status
    expression: "evt.Parsed.status"
  - meta: http_path
    expression: "evt.Parsed.request"

Parser directives¶

debug¶

debug: true|false

default: false

If set to to true, enabled node level debugging. It is meant to help understanding parser node behavior by providing contextual logging :

assignments made by statics

DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28] + Processing 4 statics                        id=withered-rain name=crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28] .Meta[service] = 'http'                       id=withered-rain name=crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28] .Meta[source_ip] = '127.0.0.1'                id=withered-rain name=crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28] .Meta[http_status] = '200'                    id=withered-rain name=crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28] .Meta[http_path] = '/'                        id=withered-rain name=crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse

assignments made by grok pattern

DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28] + Grok 'NGINXACCESS' returned 10 entries to merge in Parsed  id=dark-glitter name=child-crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28]   .Parsed['time_local'] = '21/Jul/2020:16:13:05 +0200'  id=dark-glitter name=child-crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28]   .Parsed['method'] = 'GET'                    id=dark-glitter name=child-crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28]   .Parsed['request'] = '/'                     id=dark-glitter name=child-crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28]   .Parsed['http_user_agent'] = 'curl/7.58.0'   id=dark-glitter name=child-crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28]   .Parsed['remote_addr'] = '127.0.0.1'         id=dark-glitter name=child-crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse

debug of filters and expression results

DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28] eval(evt.Parsed.program == 'nginx') = TRUE    id=withered-rain name=crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28] eval variables:                               id=withered-rain name=crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse
DEBU[31-07-2020 16:36:28]        evt.Parsed.program = 'nginx'           id=withered-rain name=crowdsecurity/nginx-logs stage=s01-parse

filter¶

filter: expression

filter must be a valid expr expression that will be evaluated against the event.

If filter evaluation returns true or is absent, node will be processed.

If filter returns false or a non-boolean, node won't be processed.

Here is the expr documentation.

Examples :

filter: "evt.Meta.foo == 'test'"
filter: "evt.Meta.bar == 'test' && evt.Meta.foo == 'test2'

grok¶

grok:
  name: NAMED_EXISTING_PATTERN
  apply_on: source_field

grok:
  pattern: ^a valid RE2 expression with %{CAPTURE:field}$
  apply_on: source_field

The grok structure in a node represent a regular expression with capture group (grok pattern) that must be applied on a field of event.

The pattern can :

be imported by name (if present within the core of Crowdsec)
defined in place

In both case, the pattern must be a valid RE2 expression. The field(s) returned by the regular expression are going to be merged into the Parsed associative array of the Event.

name¶

name: explicit_string

The mandatory name of the node. If not present, node will be skipped at runtime. It is used for example in debug log to help you track things.

nodes¶

nodes:
 - filter: ...
   grok: ...

nodes is a list of parser nodes, allowing you to build trees. Each subnode must be valid, and if any of the subnodes succeed, the whole node is considered successful.

onsuccess¶

onsuccess: next_stage|continue

default: continue

if set to next_stage and the node is considered successful, the event will be moved directly to next stage without processing other nodes in the current stage.

pattern_syntax¶

pattern_syntax:
  CAPTURE_NAME: VALID_RE2_EXPRESSION

pattern_syntax allows user to define named capture group expressions for future use in grok patterns. Regexp must be a valid RE2 expression.

pattern_syntax:
  MYCAP: ".*"
grok:
  pattern: ^xxheader %{MYCAP:extracted_value} trailing stuff$
  apply_on: Line.Raw

statics¶

statics:
 - target: evt.Meta.target_field
   value: static_value
 - meta: target_field
   expression: evt.Meta.target_field + ' this_is' + ' a dynamic expression'
 - enriched: target_field
   value: static_value

statics is a list of directives that will be executed when the node is considered successful. Each entry of the list is composed of a target (where to write) and a source (what data to write).

Target

The target aims at being any part of the event object, and can be expressed in different ways :

- `meta: <target_field>`
- `parsed: <target_field>`
- `enriched: <target_field>`
- a dynamic target (please note that the **current** event is accessible via the `evt.` variable) :
     - `target: evt.Meta.foobar`
     - `target: Meta.foobar`
     - `target: evt.StrTime`

Source

The source itself can be either a static value, or an expr result :

statics:
  - meta: target_field
    value: static_value
  - meta: target_field
    expression: evt.Meta.another_field
  - meta: target_field
    expression: evt.Meta.target_field + ' this_is' + ' a dynamic expression'

data¶

data:
  - source_url: https://URL/TO/FILE
    dest_file: LOCAL_FILENAME
    [type: (regexp|string)]

data allows user to specify an external source of data. This section is only relevant when cscli is used to install parser from hub, as it will download the source_url and store it to dest_file. When the parser is not installed from the hub, Crowdsec won't download the URL, but the file must exist for the parser to be loaded correctly.

The type is mandatory if you want to evaluate the data in the file, and should be regex for valid (re2) regular expression per line or string for string per line. The regexps will be compiled, the strings will be loaded into a list and both will be kept in memory. Without specifying a type, the file will be downloaded and stored as file and not in memory.

name: crowdsecurity/cdn-whitelist
...
data:
  - source_url: https://www.cloudflare.com/ips-v4
    dest_file: cloudflare_ips.txt
    type: string

Parser concepts¶

Success and failure¶

A parser is considered "successful" if :

A grok pattern was present and successfully matched
No grok pattern was present