redteam-elk-stack

Automated ELK Stack Deployment

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 used to either recreate the entire deployment pictured above. Alternatively, select portions of the my-playbook.yml file may be used to install only certain pieces of it, such as Filebeat.

Link to my-playbook.yml

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 the application will be highly redundant, in addition to restricting access to the network.

• Load Balancers protect the network from DDoS Attacks by distributing the incoming traffic. A jump box focuses the network connections to one point making it easier to monitor. Also adds the ability to install/deploy containers to virtual machines connected in the network.

Integrating an ELK server allows users to easily monitor the vulnerable VMs for changes to the Network and system files.

• Filebeat monitors and collects log files on your network system.
• Metricbeat monitors metrics of the operating system and services running on the servers.

The configuration details of each machine may be found below.

Name	Function	IP Address	Operating System
Jump Box	Gateway	10.0.0.4	Linux
Web-1	Webserver	10.0.0.5	Linux
Web-2	Webserver	10.0.0.6	Linux
Web-3	Webserver	10.0.0.7	Linux

Access Policies

The machines on the internal network are not exposed to the public Internet.

Only the Jump-box machine can accept connections from the Internet. Access to this machine is only allowed from the following IP addresses:

• 92.119.18.218

Machines within the network can only be accessed by SSH.

• The RedTeam-ELKmachine virtual machine is only accessible from the Jump-box virtual machine at IP address: 10.1.0.4

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

Name	Publicly Accessible	Allowed IP Addresses
Jump Box	Yes	10.0.0.4, 92.119.18.218, 92.119.18.42
Web-1	No	10.0.0.4
Web-2	No	10.0.0.4
Web-3	No	10.0.0.4
RedTeam-ELKmachine	Yes	92.119.18.218

Elk Configuration

Ansible was used to automate configuration of the ELK machine. No configuration was performed manually, which is advantageous because with ansible you can deploy and configure a system quickly and effectiently. Ansible automation can be deployed on one or countless other machines at the same time.

The playbook implements the following tasks:

• Installs Docker.io, Python3, and the docker module
• Increases virtual memory
• Downloads and Installs the ELK Stack container
• Sets the ports the ELK Stack runs on

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:

• Web-1 IP: 10.0.0.5, Web-2 IP: 10.0.0.6, Web-3 IP: 10.0.0.7

We have installed the following Beats on these machines:

• Filebeats and Metricbeats

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

• Filebeat collects logs from the 3 virtual machines and can track various activity for each. Metricbeat collects status info for each virtual machine, so we can monitor the state of each machine.

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 install-elk.yml file to /etc/ansible/hosts
• Update the hosts file to include private IPs of all the virtual machines and user name of each.
• Run the playbook, and navigate to 92.119.18.218 :5601/app/kibana to check that the installation worked as expected.

Setup walk through

Installing docker in the terminal

run each command in the terminal in the order posted

sudo apt update sudo apt install docker.io sudo systemctl status docker sudo docker pull cyberxsecurity/ansible docker run -ti cyberxsecurity/ansible:latest