Anonymize data samples to send to Support

Splunk Enterprise has a few methods to anonymize data in files you send to Support. This lets Splunk Enterprise users share log data without revealing confidential or personal information from their networks.

Diag by default removes some types of sensitive information from search strings in diag files. Read about configuring search string redaction in server.conf.spec.

The anonymize function combs through sample log files or event files to replace identifying data - like usernames, IP addresses, domain names - with fictional values that maintain the same word length and event type. For example, it might turn the string user=carol@adalberto.com into user=plums@wonderful.com.

The anonymized file is written to the same directory as the source file, with ANON- prepended to its filename. For example, /tmp/messages will be anonymized as /tmp/ANON-messages. In Windows, a file \temp\messages becomes \temp\ANON-messages.

Anonymize is controlled from the Splunk Enterprise CLI. See About the CLI for instructions on accessing the Splunk Enterprise CLI.

Simple method

The easiest way to anonymize a file is with the anonymizer tool's defaults, as shown in the session below.

From the CLI while you are in $SPLUNK_HOME/bin or %SPLUNK_HOME%\bin, type the following:

Unix/Linux	Windows
./splunk anonymize file -source </path/to/filename>	.\splunk anonymize file -source <\path\to\filename>

It is good practice to copy the file somewhere safe (like /tmp or \temp) before performing this command.

Unix/Linux example:

> cp -p /var/log/messages /tmp
> cd $SPLUNK_HOME/bin
> ./splunk anonymize file -source /tmp/messages
Processing files: ['/tmp/messages']
Getting named entities
        Processing /tmp/messages
Adding named entities to list of public terms: Set(['secErrStr', 'MD_SB_DISKS', 'TTY', 'target', 'precision ', 'lpj', 'ip', 'pci', 'hard', 'last bus', 'override with idebus', 'SecKeychainFindGenericPassword err', 'vector', 'USER', 'irq ', 'com  user', 'uid'])
        Processing /tmp/messages for terms.
        Calculating replacements for 4672 terms.
===================================================
Wrote dictionary scrubbed terms with replacements to "/tmp/INFO-mapping.txt"
Wrote suggestions for dictionary to "/tmp/INFO-suggestions.txt"
===================================================
Writing out /tmp/ANON-messages
Done.

Windows example:

C:\>xcopy c:\apache\apache.error.log c:\temp
C:\apache\apache.error.log
1 File(s) copied
C:\>cd \program files\Splunk\bin
C:\Program Files\Splunk\bin>.\splunk anonymize file -source c:\temp\apache.error.log
Processing files: ['c:\\temp\\apache.error.log']
Getting named entities
        Processing c:\temp\apache.error.log
Adding named entities to list of public terms: set([])
        Processing c:\temp\apache.error.log for terms.
        Calculating replacements for 44 terms.
===================================================
Wrote dictionary scrubbed terms with replacements to "c:\temp\INFO-mapping.txt"
Wrote suggestions for dictionary to "c:\temp\INFO-suggestions.txt"
===================================================
Writing out c:\temp\ANON-apache.error.log
Done.

Advanced method

You can customize the anonymizer by telling it what terms to anonymize, what terms to leave alone, and what terms to use as replacements.

On *nix:

./splunk anonymize file -source <filename> [-public_terms <file>] [-private_terms <file>] [-name_terms <file>] [-dictionary <file>] [-timestamp_config <file>]

On Windows:

.\splunk anonymize file -source <filename> [-public_terms <file>] [-private_terms <file>] [-name_terms <file>] [-dictionary <file>] [-timestamp_config <file>]

On both Windows and *nix, the optional parameters are defined as follows:

• filename
  • Default: None
  • Path and name of the file to anonymize.
• public_terms
  • Default: $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/anonymizer/public-terms.txt or %SPLUNK_HOME%\etc\anonymizer\public-terms.txt
  • A list of locally used words that will not be anonymized if they are in the file. It serves as an appendix to the dictionary file.
  • Here is a sample entry:

2003 2004 2005 2006 abort aborted am apr april aug august auth
authorize authorized authorizing bea certificate class com complete

• private_terms
  • Default: $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/anonymizer/private-terms.txt or %SPLUNK_HOME%\etc\anonymizer\private-terms.txt
  • A list of words that will be anonymized if found in the file, because they may denote confidential information.
  • Here is a sample entry:

401-51-6244
passw0rd

• name_terms
  • Default: $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/anonymizer/names.txt or %SPLUNK_HOME%\etc\anonymizer\names.txt
  • A global list of common English personal names that Splunk software uses to replace anonymized words.
  • Anonymize always replaces a word with a name of the exact same length, to keep each event's data pattern the same.
  • Anonymize uses each name in name_terms once to replace a character string of equal length throughout the file. After it runs out of names, it begins using randomized character strings, but still mapping each replaced pattern to one anonymized string.
  • Here is a sample entry:

charlie
claire
desmond
jack

• dictionary
  • Default: $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/anonymizer/dictionary.txt or %SPLUNK_HOME%\etc\anonymizer\dictionary.txt
  • A global list of common words that will not be anonymized, unless overridden by entries in the private_terms file.
  • Here is a sample entry:

algol
ansi
arco
arpa
arpanet
ascii

• timestamp_config
  • Default: $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/anonymizer/anonymizer-time.ini or %SPLUNK_HOME%\etc\anonymizer\anonymizer-time.ini
  • File built into Splunk software that determines how timestamps are parsed.

Output Files

Splunk's anonymizer function will create three new files in the same directory as the source file.

• ANON-filename
  • The anonymized version of the source file.
• INFO-mapping.txt
  • This file contains a list of which terms were anonymized into which strings.
  • Here is a sample entry:

Replacement Mappings
--------------------
kb900485 --> LO200231
1718 --> 1608
transitions --> tstymnbkxno
reboot --> SPLUNK
cdrom --> pqyvi

• INFO-suggestions.txt
  • A report of terms found in the file that, based on their appearance and frequency, you may want to add to public_terms.txt or to private-terms.txt or to public-terms.txt for more accurate anonymization of your local data.
  • Here is a sample entry:

Terms to consider making private (currently not scrubbed):
['uid', 'pci', 'lpj', 'hard']
Terms to consider making public (currently scrubbed):
['jun', 'security', 'user', 'ariel', 'name', 'logon', 'for', 'process', 'domain', 'audit']

Linux tip: Anonymize all log files from a diag at once

Here are the steps to generate a diagnostic (diag file) and then anonymize the logs of that diag.

1. Generate the diag: For example:

cd $SPLUNK_HOME/bin
./splunk diag --exclude "*/passwd"

2. Uncompress the diag. For example:

cd <path_to_uncompressed_diag>/
tar xfz  my-diag-hostname.tar.gz

3. Run anonymize on each file of the diag. If you run this command for all *.log, then make note of the log files that now have a prefix of ANON*.log. For example:

find <absolute_path_to_uncompressed_diag>/ -name \*.log* | xargs -I{} ./splunk anonymize file -source '{}'

4. Keep all the files that now have a prefix of ANON*.log while deleting the non-anonymized versions in the diag directory.

5. Compress the diag.

tar cfz my-diag-hostname.tar.gz <path_to_uncompressed_diag>

6. Upload the diag, adding it to the Support case, with the ADD FILE button in the case.