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Amazon Security Lake Source

Cribl Stream supports receiving data from Amazon Security Lake. Amazon Security Lake aggregates, normalizes, and stores security-related data from an AWS system. It outputs data using the Open Cybersecurity Schema Framework (OCSF). It’s important not to confuse it with Amazon Security Hub, which is a different product.

Type: Pull | TLS Support: YES (secure API) | Event Breaker Support: YES

Cribl Stream running on Linux (only) can use this Source to read Parquet files, identified by a .parquet, .parq, or .pqt filename extension.

You can use the Amazon Security Lake Source in Cribl Stream to:

  • Transform, trim, or shape incoming data from Amazon Security Lake and then send it to a downstream Destination, such as your preferred security analytics tool.
  • Collect security data from multiple AWS cloud environments, different regions, or different services in the Amazon ecosystem.

Relationship Between Amazon Security Lake and S3
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The Amazon Security Lake Source functions nearly identically to the Amazon S3 Source. If needed, you can refer to the Amazon S3 Source documentation for more in-depth coverage of additional best practices and troubleshooting workarounds.

Because they are similar, you can use both the Amazon S3 Source and the Amazon Security Lake Source interchangeably as needed. Consider using both Sources together if your organization uses these different tools for different purposes and it is easier to manage them as separate and distinct data flows.

Both the Amazon Security Lake Source and the Amazon S3 Source can receive data using either of these methods:

These two notifications use the same method of sending data objects to a queue, but the underlying data format from these two methods differ. Cribl Stream supports both data structures. However, the Amazon Security Lake Source does not currently support pulling data from HTTPS endpoints.

You can customize the data template by configuring the default input transformer associated with Amazon Security Lake. However, changing the way Amazon Security Lake represents data could cause issues with the ability for Cribl Stream to consume data from Amazon Security Lake. Only advanced AWS administrators should change the default input transformer.

How the Amazon Security Lake Source Handles Data
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When Amazon Security Lake collects security data, it pushes the data object (a parquet file) to a queue located in an S3 bucket. Amazon Security Lake then sends an event notification or a subscriber notification to Cribl Stream. The notification contains the object location data in the S3 bucket. Cribl Stream pulls the data object and deserializes it for further data processing.

Amazon Security Lake uses Amazon S3 as its backend service. For that reason, see the Amazon S3 Source documentation for additional information about how the Amazon Security Lake Source handles data, including SQS messages.

Configure an Amazon Security Lake Source
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In Cribl Stream, to set up an Amazon Security Lake Source:

  1. On the top bar, select Products, and then select Cribl Stream. Under Worker Groups, select a Worker Group. Next, you have two options:

    • To configure via QuickConnect, navigate to Routing > QuickConnect. Select Add Source and select the Source you want from the list, choosing either Select Existing or Add New.
    • To configure via the Routes, select Data > Sources. Select the Source you want. Next, select Add Source.

  2. In the New Source modal, configure the following under General Settings:

    • Input ID: Enter a unique name to identify this S3 Source definition. If you clone this Source, Cribl Stream will add -CLONE to the original Input ID.
    • Description: Optionally, enter a description.
    • Queue: The name, URL, or Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the SQS queue to read events from. When specifying a non-AWS URL, you must use the format: {url}/<queueName>. (For example: https://host:port/<queueName>.) This value must be a JavaScript expression (which can evaluate to a constant), enclosed in single quotes, double quotes, or backticks.

  3. Next, you can configure the following Optional Settings:

    • Filename filter: Regex matching file names to download and process. Defaults to .*, to match all characters. This regex will be evaluated against the S3 key’s full path.
    • Region: AWS Region where the S3 bucket and SQS queue are located. Required, unless the Queue entry is a URL or ARN that includes a Region.
    • Tags: Optionally, add tags that you can use to filter and group Sources in Cribl Stream’s UI. These tags aren’t added to processed events. Use a tab or hard return between (arbitrary) tag names.

  4. In the Authentication settings, select one of the following options from the menu:

    OptionDescription
    AutoThis default option uses the AWS SDK for JavaScript to check for credentials in a specific order by priority. It first checks for IAM Roles for Amazon EC2, then a shared credentials file, then environmental variables, and so forth. See Authentication Settings for more information.
    ManualIf not running on AWS, select this option to enter a static set of user-associated IAM credentials (your access key and secret key) directly or by reference. This is useful for Workers not in an AWS VPC, such as those running a private cloud. See Authentication Settings for more information.
    SecretIf not running on AWS, select this option to supply a stored secret that references an AWS access key and secret key. See Authentication Settings for more information.

  5. If needed, configure the AssumeRole settings. You can use these settings to access resources in a different region than Cribl Stream. You can target the AWS Security Token Service (STS) endpoint specific to that region by using the CRIBL_AWS_STS_REGION environment variable on your Worker Node. See Assume Role Settings for more information.

  6. Optionally, refer to the following sections for the remaining settings:

  7. Select Save, then Commit & Deploy.

  8. Verify that data is flowing correctly to Cribl Stream by viewing the Live Data feed from the Source.

Authentication Settings
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Use the Authentication method drop-down to select an AWS authentication method.

Auto: This default option uses the AWS SDK for JavaScript to automatically obtain credentials in the following order of attempts:

  1. IAM Roles for Amazon EC2: Loaded from AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles attached to an EC2 instance.
  2. Shared Credentials File: Loaded from the shared credentials file (~/.aws/credentials).
  3. Environment Variables: Loaded from environment variables AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY.
  4. JSON File on Disk: Loaded from a JSON file on disk.
  5. Other Credential-Provider Classes: Other credential-provider classes provided by the AWS SDK for JavaScript.

The Auto method works both when running on AWS and in other environments where the necessary credentials are available through one of the above methods.

SSO Providers
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When using the auto authentication method, you can leverage SSO providers like SAML and Okta to issue temporary credentials. These credentials should be set in the environment variables AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY. The AWS SDK will then use these environment variables to authenticate.

Manual: If not running on AWS, you can select this option to enter a static set of user-associated IAM credentials (your access key and secret key) directly or by reference. This is useful for Workers not in an AWS VPC, such as those running a private cloud. The Manual option exposes these corresponding additional fields:

  • Access key: Enter your AWS access key. If not present, will fall back to the env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID environment variable, or to the metadata endpoint for IAM role credentials.

  • Secret key: Enter your AWS secret key. If not present, will fall back to the env.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variable, or to the metadata endpoint for IAM credentials.

The values for Access key and Secret key can be a constant or a JavaScript expression (such as ${C.env.MY_VAR}). Enclose values containing special characters (like, /) or using environment variables in single quotes or backticks.

Secret: If not running on AWS, you can select this option to supply a stored secret that references an AWS access key and secret key. The Secret option exposes this additional field:

  • Secret key pair: Use the drop-down to select a secret key pair that you’ve configured in Cribl Stream’s internal secrets manager or (if enabled) an external KMS. Follow the Create link if you need to configure a key pair.

Assume Role Settings
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When using Assume Role to access resources in a different region than Cribl Stream, you can target the AWS Security Token Service (STS) endpoint specific to that region by using the CRIBL_AWS_STS_REGION environment variable on your Worker Node. Setting an invalid region results in a fallback to the global STS endpoint.

Enable for S3: Whether to use Assume Role credentials to access S3. Defaults to Yes.

Enable for SQS: Whether to use Assume Role credentials when accessing SQS. Defaults to No.

AWS account ID: SQS queue owner’s AWS account ID. Leave empty if the SQS queue is in the same AWS account.

AssumeRole ARN: Enter the ARN of the role to assume.

External ID: Enter the External ID to use when assuming role.

Duration (seconds): Duration of the Assumed Role’s session, in seconds. Minimum is 900 (15 minutes). Maximum is 43200 (12 hours). Defaults to 3600 (1 hour).

Processing Settings
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Custom Command
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In this section, you can pass the data from this input to an external command for processing, before the data continues downstream.

Enabled: Defaults to No. Toggle to Yes to enable the custom command.

Command: Enter the command that will consume the data (via stdin) and will process its output (via stdout).

Arguments: Click Add Argument to add each argument to the command. You can drag arguments vertically to resequence them.

Event Breakers
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This section defines event breaking rulesets that will be applied, in order.

Event Breaker Rulesets: A list of event breaking rulesets that will be applied to the input data stream before the data is sent through the Routes. Defaults to System Default Rule.

Event Breaker buffer timeout: How long (in milliseconds) the Event Breaker will wait for new data to be sent to a specific channel, before flushing out the data stream, as-is, to the Routes. Minimum 10 ms, default 10000 (10 sec), maximum 43200000 (12 hours).

Fields
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In this section, you can add Fields to each event, using Eval-like functionality.

Name: Field name.

Value: JavaScript expression to compute field’s value, enclosed in quotes or backticks. (Can evaluate to a constant.)

Pre-Processing
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In this section’s Pipeline drop-down list, you can select a single existing Pipeline to process data from this input before the data is sent through the Routes.

Advanced Settings
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Checkpoint Settings
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Enable checkpointing: When toggled to No (the default) Cribl Stream will always start processing a file from the beginning. Toggle to Yes if, after an error or restart occurs, you want Cribl Stream to resume processing a given file from the point where it was interrupted, as explained below. When turned on, the following additional setting becomes available:

  • Retries: The number of times you want Cribl Stream to retry processing a file after an error or restart occurs. If Skip file on error is enabled, this setting is ignored.

Other Settings
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Endpoint: S3 service endpoint. If empty, defaults to AWS’s region-specific endpoint. Otherwise, used to point to an S3-compatible endpoint. To access the AWS S3 endpoints, use the path-style URL format. You don’t need to specify the bucket name in the URL, because Cribl Stream will automatically add it to the URL path. For details, see AWS’ Path‑Style Requests topic.

Signature version: Signature version to use for signing SQS requests. Defaults to v4.

Max messages: The maximum number of messages that SQS should return in a poll request. Amazon SQS never returns more messages than this value. (However, fewer messages might be returned.) Acceptable values: 1 to 10. Defaults to 1.

Visibility timeout seconds: The duration (in seconds) that the received messages are hidden from subsequent retrieve requests, after being retrieved by a ReceiveMessage request. Defaults to 600.

Cribl Stream will automatically extend this timeout until the initial request’s files have been processed – notably, in the case of large files that require additional processing time.

Num receivers: The number of receiver processes to run. The higher the number, the better the throughput, at the expense of CPU overhead. Defaults to 1.

Poll timeout (secs): How long to wait for events before polling again. Minimum 1 second; default 10; maximum 20. Short durations increase the number ‑ and thus the cost – of requests sent to AWS. (The UI will show a warning for intervals shorter than 5 seconds.) Long durations increase the time the Source takes to react to configuration changes and system restarts.

Socket timeout: Socket inactivity timeout (in seconds). Increase this value if retrievals time out during backpressure. Defaults to 300 seconds.

Max Parquet chunk size (MB): Maximum size for each Parquet chunk. Defaults to 5 MB. Valid range is 1 to 100 MB. Cribl Stream stores chunks in the location specified by the CRIBL_TMP_DIR environment variable. It removes the chunks immediately after reading them.

Parquet chunk download timeout (seconds): The maximum time to wait for a Parquet file’s chunk to be downloaded. If a required chunk cannot be downloaded within this time limit, processing will end. Defaults to 600 seconds. Valid range is 1 second to 3600 seconds (1 hour).

Skip file on error: Toggle to Yes to skip files that trigger a processing error (for example, corrupted files). Defaults to No, which enables retries after a processing error.

Reuse connections: Whether to reuse connections between requests. The default setting (Yes) can improve performance.

Reject unauthorized certificates: Whether to accept certificates that cannot be verified against a valid Certificate Authority (for example, self-signed certificates). Defaults to Yes.

Encoding: Character encoding to use when parsing ingested data. If not set, Cribl Stream will default to UTF-8 but might incorrectly interpret multi-byte characters. This option is ignored for Parquet files. UTF-16LE and Latin-1 are also supported.

Environment: If you’re using GitOps, optionally use this field to specify a single Git branch on which to enable this configuration. If empty, the config will be enabled everywhere.

Checkpointing
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When Workers restart, checkpointing can prevent the Source from losing data or collecting duplicate events. Among the situations where this works well:

  • When Cribl Stream pushes a new configuration: the Leader pushes the configuration to the Workers, and restarts them.
  • When a Worker has gotten into a bad state, and you want to restart it.

Checkpointing allows Cribl Stream to resume processing a file at the point where an error or restart occurred, minimizing the number of duplicate events sent downstream in the event of an interruption. To accomplish this, Cribl Stream keeps track of how many events have been processed for a given file. Resuming processing after an interruption, the Source skips the first N events it has seen and starts processing from event N+1.

The Source manages checkpoint information in memory, but writes it out to disk periodically (once per second, and on Worker shutdown) so that the information can survive a Worker restart. Cribl Stream keeps checkpoint information at the Worker Process level and does not share it between Worker Processes or Worker Nodes.

Checkpointing is a feature to keep in mind when you do disaster recovery (DR) planning.

Caveats to using checkpointing include: Whenever Worker Node state is destroyed (that is, when a Worker ceases to exist), checkpoint information will be lost. In Cribl.Cloud deployments, this can happen during upgrades. Also, because checkpoints are not written to disk on every event, the checkpoints written to disk will lag behind those that the S3 Source manages in memory. If the Worker Process stops abruptly without a clean shutdown, checkpoints not yet written to disk will be lost. When processing resumes, the Source will start from just after the last checkpoint written to disk, producing duplicate events corresponding to the lost checkpoints.

Located in the UI at Advanced Settings > Checkpoint Settings > Enable checkpointing, this feature is turned off by default.

Connected Destinations
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Select Send to Routes to enable conditional routing, filtering, and cloning of this Source’s data via the Routing table.

Select QuickConnect to send this Source’s data to one or more Destinations via independent, direct connections.

Internal Fields
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Cribl Stream uses a set of internal fields to assist in handling of data. These “meta” fields are not part of an event, but they are accessible, and Functions can use them to make processing decisions.

Fields for this Source:

  • __final
  • __inputId
  • __source
  • _time

Troubleshooting
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Navigate to and open the Amazon Security Lake Source, then use the Source’s Job Inspector tab to see the results of recent collection runs.

The Source’s configuration modal has helpful tabs for troubleshooting:

Live Data: Try capturing live data to see real-time events as they are ingested. On the Live Data tab, click Start Capture to begin viewing real-time data.

Logs: Review and search the logs that provide detailed information about the ingestion process, including any errors or warnings that may have occurred.

You can also view the Monitoring page that provides a comprehensive overview of data volume and rate, helping you identify ingestion issues. Analyze the graphs showing events and bytes in/out over time.

For More Information
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The Amazon Security Lake Source functions nearly identically to the Amazon S3 Source. If needed, you can refer to the Amazon S3 Source documentation for information about: