What you can secure with Splunk
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Contents
What you can secure with Splunk
Splunk includes several options for securing your data. Authentication options allow you to secure your Splunk Server. Audit configurations enable data security, including cryptographic signing and event hashing.
Authentication
Authentication includes SSL and HTTPS, user-based access controls (known as roles) and LDAP.
SSL
You can configure SSL for three main types of communication:
- Browser to Splunk Web communication via HTTPS. (SSL off by default.)
- Intra-Splunk communication over the management port. (SSL on by default.) The main scenarios for this are:
- Distributed search: communicating between indexers and search heads.
- Deployment server: communicating between deployment servers and clients.
- Splunk Web: communicating between Splunk Web and indexers or search heads (Splunk Web to splunkd).
- Splunk CLI: communicating between the CLI and a Splunk instance.
- Forwarder to receiver communication. (SSL off by default.) A receiver is an indexer or another forwarder.
Each type of SSL communication has its own set-up requirements. Follow the links in the list above to learn more about using SSL in these scenarios.
Configure roles
You no longer have to use Splunk's default roles of Admin, Power or User. While these roles remain built into Splunk, you can now define your own roles out of a list of capabilities. Create flexible roles for Splunk users either in Manager or by editing authorize.conf.
Learn more about configuring roles (in the "Add and manage users" section of this manual).
LDAP
Splunk supports authentication via its internal authentication services or your existing LDAP server.
Learn more about configuring LDAP (in the "Add and manage users" section of this manual).
Scripted authentication
Use scripted authentication to tie Splunk's authentication into an external authentication system, such as RADIUS or PAM.
Learn more about scripted authentication (in the "Add and manage users" section of this manual).
Audit
Splunk includes audit features to allow you to track the reliability of your data. Watch files and directories with the file system change monitor, monitor activities within Splunk (such as searches or configuration changes) with audit events, cryptographically sign audit events events with audit event signing, and block sign any data entering your Splunk index with IT data signing.
File system change monitor
You can use the file system change monitor in Splunk Preview to watch any directory or file. Splunk indexes an event any time the file system undergoes any sort of change or someone edits the watched files. The file system change monitor's behavior is completely configurable through inputs.conf.
Learn more about how to configure the file system change monitor.
Audit events
Watch your Splunk instance by monitoring audit events. Audit events are generated whenever anyone accesses any of your Splunk instances -- including any searches, configuration changes or administrative activities. Each audit event contains information that shows you what changed where and when and who implemented the change. Audit events are especially useful in distributed Splunk configurations for detecting configuration and access control changes across many Splunk Servers.
Learn more about how audit events work.
Audit event signing
If you are using Splunk with an Enterprise license, you can configure audit events to be cryptographically signed. Audit event signing adds a sequential number (for detecting gaps in data to reveal tampering), and appends an encrypted hash signature to each audit event.
Configure auditing by setting stanzas in audit.conf, and inputs.conf.
Learn more about audit event signing.
IT data signing
If you are using Splunk with an Enterprise license, you can configure Splunk to verify the integrity of IT data as it is indexed. If IT data signing is enabled, Splunk creates a signature for blocks of data as it is indexed. Signatures allow you to detect gaps in data or tampered data.
Learn more about IT data signing.
This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk: 4.2 , 4.2.1 , 4.2.2 , 4.2.3 , 4.2.4 , 4.2.5 , 4.3 , 4.3.1 , 4.3.2 , 4.3.3 , 4.3.4 , 4.3.5 , 4.3.6 View the Article History for its revisions.