Cribl Use Cases and Their Benefits
Introduction
Cribl, which aims to optimize data pipelines, has proven effective in a variety of use cases. In this article, we will introduce the benefits of introducing Cribl through specific use cases.
Use Case Introduction ① Security Use Case
One of the benefits of using Cribl in the security field is the enhanced operation of the analysis platform through data processing and normalization. By processing logs using a GUI, adding fields and performing parsing, you can speed up and improve the investigation and response when transferring logs to the analysis platform. In addition, since typical SIEM platforms are billed based on the amount of logs imported, filtering, formatting, and routing logs can reduce the amount of data imported, thereby reducing license costs.
Another major benefit of introducing Cribl is the ability to seamlessly connect a variety of security products with the analysis infrastructure. In the next section, we will look at how Cribl demonstrated its value in actual security use cases.
Security Use Case 1: Analyzing Web Proxy Logs
In this case, the issue of spaces in multiple timestamps and field names was a challenge when analyzing Web Proxy logs. By implementing Cribl, the following benefits were achieved:
- Explicit timestamp recognition prevents false negatives
- Improved analysis accuracy by extracting fields using regular expressions
- Reduce storage costs and analysis load by deleting unnecessary fields and converting to JSON format
Before processing, the proxy logs contained a mixture of multiple timestamps and fields containing spaces, making them difficult to process with analysis tools. However, by introducing Cribl and properly structuring the logs, these issues were resolved and the overall log size was successfully reduced by approximately 45%.
Security Use Case 2: Analyzing CrowdStrike FDR Logs
In this case, when analyzing CrowdStrike FDR logs, all types of data were collected in a mixed state, which led to issues such as complicated routing processes and increased data processing load.By implementing Cribl, the following benefits were achieved:
- Recognizing log types and forwarding required logs
- Reduce storage costs and analysis load by deleting unnecessary fields and events with specific field values
After introducing Cribl, the overall log size was reduced by approximately 47% through automatic field extraction and deletion of unnecessary fields, significantly reducing the load on the analysis infrastructure.
Log drop image
① Log before processing
②Processed log
Comparing the logs before and after processing, you can see that log (1) is grayed out.
Use Case Introduction 2: Observability
Benefits of using Cribl in the Observability and IT Operations domain include product integration, centralization of data collection agents, security compliance, and reduced downtime by managing data correlation and normalization in Cribl.
Obserbavility
In this case, the challenge was balancing the processing of massive amounts of log data with compliance, and the risk of downtime was also increasing.
By introducing Cribl, the process from data collection to editing and visualization was integrated, resulting in the following benefits:
- Unifying the log collection and processing flow to reduce operational burden
- Safely manage sensitive data with masking
- Accelerate incident analysis through data correlation and normalization
- Reduced downtime and trouble occurrence
This enabled us to centrally manage logs from different sources, reducing the load on the analysis platform and ensuring security compliance.
Visualization of data flow
Summary
In this blog, we've introduced the actual benefits you can expect from implementing Cribl through specific examples. Optimizing your data pipeline with Cribl can improve the accuracy and reduce costs of your analysis infrastructure, including SIEM and SOC. If you're interested in learning more about the actual benefits of implementing it in your environment and how to create a specific pipeline, please contact us.
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Macnica Cribl, Inc.
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