Connect Windows Hosts to Azure Sentinel

By Ashwin Venugopal -

 



Plan for Windows Hosts Security Events Connector

The Security Events connector lets you stream all security events from your Windows systems to your Azure Sentinel workspace. You can select which event to stream from among the following sets:
  • All events- All Windows security and AppLocker events.

  • Common- A standard set of events for auditing purposes. A full user audit trail is included in this set. There are also auditing actions such as security group changes, key domain controller Kerberos operations, and other types of events in line with accepted best practices. 

  • The Common event set may contain some types of events that aren't so common. This is because the main point of the Common set is to reduce the volume of events to a more manageable level while still maintaining full audit trail capability.

  • Minimal- A small set of events that might indicate potential threat. This set does not contain a full audit trail. It covers only the events that might indicate a successful breach and other significant events with low rates of occurrence.    

Connect Azure Windows Virtual Machines

To view the connector page:
  1. Select Data Connectors page
  2. Select Security Events
  3. Then select the Open Connector page on the preview pane
  4. Verify that you have the appropriate permissions 
  5. Select Install agent on Azure Windows Virtual Machine, and then on the link that appears below
  6. For each VM that you want to connect, select its name in the list that appears on the right, and then select Connect
  7. Select which event set (All, Common, or Minimal) you want to stream
  8. Select Update 

Connect Non-Azure Windows Machines

To view the connector page:

  1. Select Data Connectors page
  2. Select Security Events
  3. Then select the Open Connector page on the preview pane
  4. Verify that you have the appropriate permissions
  5. Select Install agent on non-Azure Windows Machine, and then on the link that appears below
  6. Select the appropriate download links that appear on the right, under Windows computers
  7. Using the download executable file, install the agent on the Windows systems of your choice, and configure it using the Workspace ID as well as Keys that appear below the download links mentioned above
  8. Select which event set (All, Common, or Minimal) you want to stream
  9. Select Update

Collect Sysmon Event Logs

System Monitor (Sysmon) is a Windows system service, and device driver that remains resident across system reboots to monitor as well as log system activity to the Windows event log once installed on a system. By collecting the events it generates using Windows Event Collection or SIEM agents and then analyzing them, you can identify malicious or anomalous activity as well as understand how intruders and malware operate on your network. 

As Sysmon is a telemetry tool that many organization use, it is essential to know how to configure the Log Analytics Agent and Workspace to collect the Sysmon events. After connecting the agent to the Windows machine:

  1. Select the Settings page
  2. Select Workspace Settings
  3. In Log Analytics Workspace Settings area, select Advanced Settings
  4. Select Data
  5. Make sure Windows Event Logs is selected
  6. In the "Collect events from the following log events", textbox, enter: Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational
  7. Then select the +
  8.  Select save in the command bar

Once configured, the Sysmon events will be available in the Event table. 






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