Cisco Asa

LogZilla App Store application: Cisco Asa

Overview

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) is a network security device that combines firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, and virtual private network (VPN) capabilities. ASA devices provide security services for networks of all sizes, from small offices to large enterprise data centers. Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) devices are also supported.

App Function

  • Parse Cisco ASA and FTD syslog messages and extract network security metadata
  • Map security events to MITRE ATT&CK techniques for threat intelligence
  • Create user tags for source and destination IP addresses, ports, and interfaces
  • Extract firewall action (Allow/Deny/Drop) for traffic disposition analysis
  • Process connection buildup and teardown events for network monitoring
  • Extract user authentication and authorization details
  • Generate mapped IP address information for NAT translations

Vendor Documentation

Device Configuration

Configure the Cisco ASA or FTD device to send syslog messages to LogZilla:

  1. Log into the ASA via CLI or ASDM

  2. Configure the logging destination:

    text
    logging enable
    logging host inside <logzilla-ip> udp/514
    logging trap informational
    logging device-id hostname
    
  3. Save the configuration:

    text
    write memory
    

Verification

Generate test traffic or trigger a configuration change, then verify events appear in LogZilla by selecting the User Tags menu for Vendor -> Cisco and Product -> ASA or FTD.

Incoming Log Format

Cisco ASA logs use standard syslog format with Cisco mnemonic identifiers. Messages follow the pattern:

text
%ASA-[severity]-[message_id]: [message_text]

The message text contains structured information about security events, connection states, authentication attempts, and network translations.

Parsed Metadata Fields

The Cisco ASA app extracts the following user tags from log messages:

Tag NameExampleDescription
VendorCiscoVendor name (always Cisco)
ProductASAProduct name (ASA or FTD)
Event ClasssecurityEvent classification (network, security, auth, ha, system)
Event Typeaccess_deniedSpecific event type (login_failure, intrusion, scan_detected, attack, access_denied)
ActionDenyFirewall action (Allow, Deny, Drop)
MitreIdT1498MITRE ATT&CK technique ID (enables UI lookup)
MITRE TacticImpactMITRE ATT&CK tactic name
SrcIP192.168.1.100Source IP address
DstIP10.0.0.50Destination IP address
SrcNAT203.0.113.10NAT translated source IP
DstNAT198.51.100.20NAT translated destination IP
SrcIntinsideSource interface name
DstIntoutsideDestination interface name
DstPort443Destination port number
ProtocolTCPNetwork protocol
Userjohn.doeUsername for authentication events

Supported Message Types

The app processes all ASA/FTD syslog messages and categorizes them by prefix:

PrefixEvent ClassDescription
105xxxhaFailover and HA events
106xxxsecurityDenied connections, ACL hits
111xxxconfigConfiguration changes
113xxxauthAAA authentication events
302xxxnetworkConnection build/teardown
305xxxnetworkNAT translations
605xxxauthLogin events
722xxxauthVPN session events
733xxxsecurityThreat detection (DDoS, scanning)

MITRE ATT&CK Mappings

Security-relevant messages are mapped to MITRE ATT&CK techniques:

Message IDTechniqueTactic
733100-733105T1498Impact (DDoS)
733101-733103T1046Discovery (Scanning)
106016, 106021T1557Credential Access (Spoofing)
106xxx (denied)T1071Command and Control
113005-113015T1110Credential Access (Brute Force)
722051T1133Initial Access (VPN)

Log Examples

Dynamic NAT Translation

text
%ASA-6-305009: Built dynamic translation from inside:192.168.1.100 to outside:203.0.113.10

Connection Buildup

text
%ASA-6-302013: Built inbound TCP connection 12345 for outside:203.0.113.50/443 (203.0.113.50/443) to inside:192.168.1.100/54321 (192.168.1.100/54321)

Access Denied

text
%ASA-4-106023: Deny tcp src outside:203.0.113.100/12345 dst inside:192.168.1.50/80 by access-group "outside_access_in" [0x0, 0x0]

Authentication Event

text
%ASA-6-113009: AAA retrieved default group policy (VPN_Policy) for user = john.doe

Threat Detection

text
%ASA-4-733100: [Scanning] drop rate 1 exceeded. Current burst rate is 10 per second

Triggers

The app includes the following triggers:

Trigger NameDescriptionActionable
Cisco ASA: DDoS Attack DetectedThreat detection rate exceeded (T1498)Yes
Cisco ASA: Network Scanning DetectedScanning activity detected (T1046)Yes
Cisco ASA: IP Spoofing AttackIP spoofing attempt (T1557)Yes
Cisco ASA: Blocked C2 CommunicationDenied traffic with C2 indicators (T1071)Yes
Cisco ASA: Brute Force AttemptAuthentication failures (T1110)Yes
Cisco ASA: External Remote AccessVPN session events (T1133)Yes
Cisco ASA: Failover EventHA/Failover state changesYes
Cisco ASA: MITRE ATT&CK DetectionAny event with MITRE mappingYes
Cisco Asa | LogZilla Documentation