Combine Splunk and ​Akamai​ to gain insights into attacks. Watch the Analytics-driven Cloud Security at Scale with Splunk and ​Akamai​ video to learn more.

The sample Splunk connector is a Splunk add-on that captures security events from the ​Akamai​ Security Events Collector, which exposes a RESTful API that lets the connector pull events in JSON format. Akamai's Splunk add-on converts security event data from JSON into CIM format. The resulting data can then be imported into and analyzed by Splunk.

Install the Splunk connector

System requirements

• Akamai Splunk Connector requires Java 8 (JRE 1.8) or above. To verify the installed version, run java -version.
• Java is already installed on the host running Splunk Enterprise.
• KVStore is already installed on the host machine where you want to install your connector.
• Verify that Splunk forwarder is not installed on your Splunk Enterprise host machine.

Hardware requirements

This application has been tested with the following operating systems:

• CentOS 7
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Mac OS X El Capitan Version 10.11.6

Some additional hardware requirements:

• 4 CPU cores
• 16 GB RAM
• 2GB Free Disk Space

Proxy server

To access the SIEM API from behind a proxy server, ensure that your proxy:

• Allows the domains *.cloudsecurity.akamaiapis.net and *.luna.akamaiapis.net.
• Doesn't interfere with HTTP request headers for those domains. If, due to a strict enterprise security policy, your proxy changes these headers, make sure that, at a minimum, you allow and don't change the Host and Authorization headers.

Install

📘

These installation instructions are for the enterprise version of Splunk. File a support case with Splunk to install the connector for the cloud version. Splunk handles the installation of the app for their cloud platform.

1. Go to https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/4310/ and download the connector.

   Tip: On Splunkbase, subscribe to this connector to be notified of future updates.

2. In Splunk, in the upper left of the screen, click the Splunk icon.

3. Next to Apps at the top of the navigation bar, click the gear icon.

4. Click Install app from file.

5. Click Choose File.

6. Browse to and select akamai-siem-integration_x.tgz (x being the latest version available) and then click Open.

7. Click Upload.

8. Restart Splunk.
   You see ​Akamai​ SIEM API (Security Information and Event Management):
   
   

9. From the menu, click Settings > Data Inputs.

10. Click the ​Akamai​ Security Incident Event Manager API.

11. Click New and complete the following fields:

    • Name. Enter any name you want for the input.
    • Hostname. Enter the host URL copied when you provisioned the SIEM API.
    • Security Configuration(s). Enter the Configuration ID copied when you enabled SIEM in ​Akamai Control Center​
    • Client Token, Client Secret, and Access Token. Enter the values copied when you provisioned the SIEM API.
    • proxy_host. Enter the proxy host name of your proxy server.
    • proxy_port. Enter the port number you use to connect to your proxy server.
    • Initial Epoch Time and Final Epoch Time. Leave these fields blank. If you encounter an issue with your events, you can later use these fields to retrieve security event data for a specific time period.
    • Limit. To limit the number of security events pulled with each API call, enter an integer value here. If not specified, the API retrieves a maximum of 150,000 records per call.
    • log level. Specifies the message types that are logged. By default, the log level is set to INFO, but you can change it to WARN, ERROR, FATAL, or DEBUG to get more data for certain situations. For example, if you have a problem with the connector, use DEBUG to get more detailed messages that will help you troubleshoot.
    • Interval. Number of seconds between fetch requests. Enter 60 unless you have entered values in both the Initial Epoch Time and Final Epoch Time fields to retrieve security events for a specified time period. In that case, leave the Interval field blank. If it takes more than 60 seconds to fetch the data, increase the interval value to the amount of seconds you need to complete the task.
    • disable_splunk_cert_check. Check this box to disable splunk server certificate validation. Do so only if you are not able to import splunk server certificate to your local java keystore. This provides a temporary workaround until splunk-sdk-java maintainers fix this issue: https://github.com/splunk/splunk-sdk-java/issues/213

12. Return to the Splunk homepage and click ​Akamai​ SIEM.
    If you see data then setup was successful:
    
    

13. If you don't see data, go to the menu and click Debug > Akamai Logging dashboard.
    You see ​Akamai​ SIEM Errors on the right:
    
    
    
    In the event of a fatal error that prevents data collection, review the logs and take corrective action. This log is also available in /{splunk_home}/var/log/splunk. Read how to retrieve past security events.

14. To search for SIEM data in Splunk, use the search app. To use this app, fom the Splunk homepage click Search and Reporting app and enter the query sourcetype="akamaisiem".

👍

We strongly recommend installing the Splunk add-on app Lookup File Editor from within Splunk Apps. You need this add-on to switch retrieval mode .

After a data input has been enabled, you can't edit that input and then run it again. Instead, you must disable the input, clone it, make changes to the clone, then run the new, cloned input.

SIEM API data format for Splunk

CIM mapping list

Attack data

HTTP message data

Geo data

userRiskData object

User information included in an event if: 1) you are using Account Protector and 2) the event occurs on a protected endpoint. If a client request is denied, user risk information might not be calculated and included in the event, depending on when that denial took place.

clientData object

This data is included only if you are running Botman Premier and the request is matched as a resource purpose with bot protection enabled.

botData object

​Akamai​ Bot Manager information associated with the event. This data is included only if you are running Botman Premier and the request is matched as a resource purpose with bot protection enabled.

Custom data

Environment variables

Splunk connector v1.4.14 introduced a feature where customers have the choice to provide connection and socket timeouts. The customer can provide timeout values of their choice by making use of the environment variables AKAMAI_SIEM_HTTP_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT and AKAMAI_SIEM_HTTP_SOCKET_TIMEOUT. Both these variables expect respective timeouts to be provided in seconds. Note that you'll need to restart Splunk for these changes to take effect.

Retrieve past security events using the Splunk connector

The ​Akamai​ Splunk connector offers two modes of operation:

• Offset-based. The most commonly used mode: the connector automatically logs security events as they’re collected. The connector operates in offset mode when the Initial Epoch Time and Final Epoch Time fields are blank.
• Time-based. Enables you to retrieve only the events that occurred with a specified time period (requires the use of the Initial Epoch Time field and, optionally, the Final Epoch Time field). For example, if your SIEM connection is disrupted you can retrieve any (or all) security events that occurred within the last 12 hours.

To retrieve missing/past security events, switch from an offset-based to a time-based feed:

1. Open your Splunk connector’s configuration and, in the Initial Epoch Time field, enter the start time (in epoch format) of the period for which you want to review security event data.
2. (Optional) In the Final Epoch Time enter the end time for that period (in epoch format). The time window you set can be any interval within the 12 hours preceding the present moment. If this field is left blank, the connector pulls events up to the present and continues to log events as they’re collected.
3. To return the connector to offset mode, clear the Initial Epoch Time and Final Epoch Time fields and save your changes.

If regular offset event collection occurred within the time window, you may see duplicate data in Splunk.

Don't see the data you expected? When you set the Initial Epoch Time and Final Epoch Time fields to retrieve security events for a specific time period, the connector makes only one call to the API. If the number of events in the specified time window exceeds the value in the Limit field (or the default limit of 150,000) the connector won't retrieve data. As a workaround, decrease the time period for retrieving events; for example, you might need to make one API call to retrieve events that occurred in the first 6 hours of your time period, and a second API call to retrieve events that occurred in the final 6 hours of your time period.

Update the sample Splunk connector

To be notified when a new version of the connector is released, go to the Splunkbase page for the SIEM connector app, and click Subscribe. When there's new release, Splunkbase notifies you via email. You can then upgrade directly from within your Splunk server web admin page by doing the following:

1. Open Splunk.
2. Next to Apps at the top of the navigation bar, click the gear icon.
3. On the apps page, you see that the ​Akamai​ SIEM Integration app has a new release. Click Update.
4. Accept the license agreement.
5. Download and install. You may need to restart Splunk following the installation.