Rule: Log Group Retention Period
This rule ensures log group retention for a minimum of 365 days
| Rule | Log group retention period should be at least 365 days |
| Framework | NIST 800-53 Revision 5 |
| Severity | ✔ High |
Log Group Retention Period for NIST 800-53 Revision 5
Rule Description
The log group retention period is a crucial aspect of maintaining a secure and compliant environment, particularly for organizations adhering to the NIST 800-53 Revision 5 framework. This rule enforces a minimum log group retention period of 365 days, ensuring that log data remains accessible for a specified duration for security analysis, compliance audits, and incident response activities.
Potential Impact
Failure to comply with this rule may result in the following consequences:
- Inability to conduct effective security analysis: With a shorter log group retention period, critical events and anomalies may not be identified, leading to potential security breaches going undetected.
- Compliance violations: Organizations may fail to meet the requirements of NIST 800-53 Revision 5, which could lead to non-compliance penalties, loss of contracts, or legal implications.
- Hindered incident response: Extended log retention allows for forensic investigations and analysis during incident response efforts. Inadequate retention may hinder proper root cause analysis and limit an organization's ability to effectively remediate incidents, increasing the risk of recurrent issues.
Troubleshooting
In the event of non-compliance with the log group retention period requirement, the following troubleshooting steps can be taken:
- 1.Review log group retention policies: Ensure that the current log group retention settings comply with the NIST 800-53 Revision 5 requirement of 365 days.
- 2.Check retention period configuration: Verify the log group retention period configuration and compare it with the defined requirement.
- 3.Investigate any changes or misconfigurations: Determine if there have been any recent changes or misconfigurations that may have caused the non-compliance.
- 4.Analyze associated resource policies: Check if any associated resource policies, such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies, are affecting the log group retention setting.
- 5.Review documented procedures: Cross-reference the documented procedures with the current configuration to identify any gaps or deviations.
Remediation
To remediate non-compliance with the log group retention period requirement, follow these step-by-step guidelines:
- 1.Identify the log group(s) requiring retention period adjustment by referring to the associated compliance reports or audit findings.
- 2.Log in to the AWS Management Console and navigate to the CloudWatch service.
- 3.In the CloudWatch console, click on "Log Groups" in the left sidebar to access the list of log groups.
- 4.Locate the log group(s) identified in step 1 and select the appropriate log group.
- 5.Click on the "Actions" dropdown menu and choose "Modify retention".
- 6.In the retention period field, specify the minimum required retention period of 365 days.
- 7.Validate the settings and click on the "Save changes" button to apply the new retention period configuration.
- 8.Verify the updated log group retention period to ensure compliance with NIST 800-53 Revision 5.
Conclusion
Adhering to the log group retention period requirement outlined in NIST 800-53 Revision 5 is a crucial aspect of maintaining a secure and compliant environment. By ensuring log data is retained for at least 365 days, organizations can meet regulatory guidelines, facilitate effective security analysis, enable thorough incident response processes, and mitigate potential compliance violations.