Subject: [Syslog-sec] OIF Liaison on syslog-protocol

From: Chris Lonvick <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 14:59:01 -0500 (CDT)

Hi Folks,

We received a liaison letter from the OIF along with comments about the
current syslog-protocol and syslog-transport-udp IDs.  I've sent the
liaison letter to the IETF Liaison repository and the markups to the
authors.  The liaison letter can also be found here:
  http://www.employees.org/~lonvick/attachments/liaison2_IETF.pdf

Below is the markup from the IOF for the syslog-protocol ID.  I'm adding 
it here so it can be in the email archive.

Thanks,
Chris

----

syslog Working Group                                         R. Gerhards
Internet-Draft                                              Adiscon GmbH
Expires: August 22, 2005                               February 18, 2005

                          The syslog Protocol
                   draft-ietf-syslog-protocol-10.txt

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions
   of Section 3 of RFC 3667.  By submitting this Internet-Draft, each
   author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of
   which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of
   which he or she become aware will be disclosed, in accordance with
* s/become/&s/
   RFC 3668.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as
   Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 22, 2005.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

Abstract

   This document describes the syslog protocol which is used to convey
*s/protocol/&,/
   event notification messages.  This protocol utilizes a layered
   architecture, which enables use of any number of transport protocols
*s/enables/allows the/
   for transmission of syslog messages.  It also provides a message
   format which allows vendor-specific extensions to be provided in a
*s/which/that/
   structured way.
*Comment: It would be good to point out, right away, why RFC 3164 is
*being changed. A lot of code has been written for the "old syslog," and
*people need an incentive to adopt this change.

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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Conventions Used in This Document  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.  Definitions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   4.  Basic Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     4.1   Example Deployment Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   5.  Transport Layer Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     5.1   Minimum Required Transport Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   6.  Required syslog Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     6.1   Message Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     6.2   HEADER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       6.2.1   VERSION  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       6.2.2   FACILITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
       6.2.3   SEVERITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       6.2.4   TIMESTAMP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
       6.2.5   HOSTNAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       6.2.6   SENDER-NAME  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       6.2.7   SENDER-INST  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
       6.2.8   MSGID  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
     6.3   STRUCTURED-DATA  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       6.3.1   SD-ELEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       6.3.2   SD-ID  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       6.3.3   SD-PARAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       6.3.4   Change Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
       6.3.5   Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     6.4   MSG  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     6.5   Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   7.  Structured Data IDs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
     7.1   timeQuality  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       7.1.1   tzKnown  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       7.1.2   isSynced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       7.1.3   syncAccuracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
       7.1.4   Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     7.2   origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       7.2.1   ip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
       7.2.2   enterpriseID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
       7.2.3   software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
       7.2.4   swVersion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
       7.2.5   Example  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
   8.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     8.1   Diagnostic Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     8.2   Control Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
     8.3   More than Maximum Message Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     8.4   Message Truncation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     8.5   Single Source to a Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
     8.6   Multiple Sources to a Destination  . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     8.7   Multiple Sources to Multiple Destinations  . . . . . . . . 25

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     8.8   Replaying  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     8.9   Reliable Delivery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     8.10  Message Integrity  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     8.11  Message Observation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
     8.12  Misconfiguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     8.13  Forwarding Loop  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     8.14  Load Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
     8.15  Denial of Service  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   9.  Notice to RFC Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
   10.   IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     10.1  Version  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
     10.2  SD-IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
   11.   Authors and Working Group Chair  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
   12.   Acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
   13.   References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
     13.1  Normative  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
     13.2  Informative  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
       Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
   A.  Implementor Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
     A.1   Relationship with BSD Syslog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
     A.2   Message Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
     A.3   HEADER Parsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
     A.4   SEVERITY Values  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
     A.5   TIME-SECFRAC Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
     A.6   Case Convention for Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
     A.7   Leap Seconds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
     A.8   Syslog Senders Without Knowledge of Time . . . . . . . . . 39
     A.9   Additional Information on SENDER-INST  . . . . . . . . . . 39
     A.10  Notes on the time SD-ID  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
     A.11  Recommendation for Diagnostic Logging  . . . . . . . . . . 40
       Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . 42

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1.  Introduction

   This document describes a layered architecture for syslog.  The goal
   of this architecture is to separate message content from message
   transport while enabling easy extensibility for each layer.

   This document describes the standard format for syslog messages and
   outlines the concept of transport mappings.  It also describes
   structured data elements, which can be used to transmit easy
*s/easy/easily/
   parsable, structured information and allows for vendor extensions.

   This document does not describe any storage format for syslog
   messages.  This is beyond of its scope and not necessary for system
*s/beyond of its scope/out of scope here/
   interoperability.
*Comment: Same comment as in the Abstract. I need to be motivated to 
*write code based on this.

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2.  Conventions Used in This Document

   The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT",
   and "MAY" that appear in this document are to be interpreted as
   described in RFC2119 [5].
*s/RFC/& /

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3.  Definitions

   The following definitions will be used in this document:
*s/will be/are/
   o  An application that can generate a syslog message will be called a
*s/will be/is/
      "sender".
   o  An application that can receive a syslog message will be called a
*s/will be/is/
      "receiver".
   o  An application that can receive syslog messages and forward them
      to another receiver will be called a relay.
*s/will be/is/
*s/relay/"&"/
   o  An application that receives messages and does not relay them to
      any other receiver will be called a collector.
*s/will be/is/
*s/collector/"&"/

   A single application can have multiple roles at the same time.

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4.  Basic Principles

   The following principles apply to syslog communication:
   o  Syslog protocol does not provide for any mechanism of
*s/Syslog/The &/
      acknowledgement of message delivery.  Though some transports may
      provide status information, conceptionally syslog is pure simplex
*s/conceptionally syslog is/conceptionally, syslog is a/
      communication.
*s/communication/communications protocol/
   o  Senders send messages to receivers with no knowledge of whether
      they are collectors or relays.
   o  Senders may be configured to send the same message to multiple
      receivers.
   o  Relays may send all or some of the messages that they receive to a
      subsequent relay or collector.  They may also store - or otherwise
*s/ - /--/
      locally process - some or all messages without forwarding.  In
*s/ - /--/
      those cases, they are acting as both a collector and a relay.
   o  Relays may also generate their own messages and send them on to
      subsequent relays or collectors.  In that case it is acting as a
*s/it is/they are/
*s/as a/as/
      sender and a relay.
*s/.*/senders and relays./
   o  Sender and receiver may reside on the same or different system.
*s/Sender/The sender/
*s/system/&s/

4.1  Example Deployment Scenarios

   Sample deployment scenarios are shown in Diagram 1.  Other
   arrangements of these examples are also acceptable.  As noted, in the
   following diagram relays may pass along all or some of the messages
*s/diagram/&,/
   that they receive along with passing along messages that they
*s/along with passing/and also pass/
   internally generate.  The boxes represent syslog-enabled
   applications.

            +------+         +---------+
            |Sender|---->----|Collector|
            +------+         +---------+

            +------+         +-----+         +---------+
            |Sender|---->----|Relay|---->----|Collector|
            +------+         +-----+         +---------+

            +------+     +-----+            +-----+     +---------+
            |Sender|-->--|Relay|-->--..-->--|Relay|-->--|Collector|
            +------+     +-----+            +-----+     +---------+

            +------+         +-----+         +---------+
            |Sender|---->----|Relay|---->----|Collector|
            |      |-+       +-----+         +---------+
            +------+  \
                       \     +-----+         +---------+
                        +->--|Relay|---->----|Collector|
                             +-----+         +---------+

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            +------+         +---------+
            |Sender|---->----|Collector|
            |      |-+       +---------+
            +------+  \
                       \     +-----+         +---------+
                        +->--|Relay|---->----|Collector|
                             +-----+         +---------+

            +------+         +-----+            +---------+
            |Sender|---->----|Relay|---->-------|Collector|
            |      |-+       +-----+        +---|         |
            +------+  \                    /    +---------+
                       \     +-----+      /
                        +->--|Relay|-->--/
                             +-----+

            +------+         +-----+               +---------+
            |Sender|---->----|Relay|---->----------|Collector|
            |      |-+       +-----+            +--|         |
            +------+  \                        /   +---------+
                       \     +--------+       /
                        \    |+------+|      /
                         +->-||Relay ||->---/
                             |+------||    /
                             ||Sender||->-/
                             |+------+|
                             +--------+

   Diagram 1.  Some possible syslog deployment scenarios.

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5.  Transport Layer Protocol

   This document does not specify any transport layer protocol.
   Instead, it describes the format of a syslog message in a transport
   layer independent way.  This requires that syslog transports be
   defined in other documents.  The first transport is defined in [11]
   and is consistent with the traditional UDP transport.

   Any syslog transport protocol MUST NOT deliberately alter the syslog
   message.  If the transport protocol needs to perform temporary
   transformations, these transformations MUST be reversed by the
   transport protocol at the receiver, so that the upper layer will see
   an exact copy of the message sent from the originator.  Otherwise
   cryptographic verifiers (like signatures) will be broken.  Of course,
   message alteration might occur due to transmission or similar errors.
   Guarding against such alterations is not the scope of this
*s/the scope/within the scope/
   requirement.

5.1  Minimum Required Transport Mapping

   All syslog implementations MUST support a UDP-based transport as
   described in [11].  This requirement ensures interoperability between
   all systems implementing the protocol described in this document.

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6.  Required syslog Format

   The syslog message has the following ABNF [7] definition:

      SYSLOG-MSG      = HEADER SP STRUCTURED-DATA SP MSG

      HEADER          = VERSION SP FACILITY SP SEVERITY SP
                        TIMESTAMP SP HOSTNAME SP SENDER-NAME SP
                        SENDER-INST SP MSGID
      VERSION         = NONZERO-DIGIT 0*2DIGIT
      FACILITY        = "0" / (NONZERO-DIGIT 0*9DIGIT)
                        ; range 0..2147483647
      SEVERITY        = "0" / "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" /
                        "6" / "7"
      HOSTNAME        = 1*255PRINTUSASCII  ; a FQDN

      SENDER-NAME     = 1*48PRINTUSASCII
      SENDER-INST     = "-" / 1*16PRINTUSASCII
      MSGID           = "-" / 1*32PRINTUSASCII

      TIMESTAMP       = FULL-DATE "T" FULL-TIME
      FULL-DATE       = DATE-FULLYEAR "-" DATE-MONTH "-" DATE-MDAY
      DATE-FULLYEAR   = 4DIGIT
      DATE-MONTH      = 2DIGIT  ; 01-12
      DATE-MDAY       = 2DIGIT  ; 01-28, 01-29, 01-30, 01-31 based on
                                ; month/year
      FULL-TIME       = PARTIAL-TIME TIME-OFFSET
      PARTIAL-TIME    = TIME-HOUR ":" TIME-MINUTE ":" TIME-SECOND
                        [TIME-SECFRAC]
      TIME-HOUR       = 2DIGIT  ; 00-23
      TIME-MINUTE     = 2DIGIT  ; 00-59
      TIME-SECOND     = 2DIGIT  ; 00-58, 00-59, 00-60 based on leap
                                ; second rules
      TIME-SECFRAC    = "." 1*6DIGIT
      TIME-OFFSET     = "Z" / TIME-NUMOFFSET
      TIME-NUMOFFSET  = ("+" / "-") TIME-HOUR ":" TIME-MINUTE

      STRUCTURED-DATA = *SD-ELEMENT
      SD-ELEMENT      = "[" SD-ID 0*(1*SP SD-PARAM) "]"
      SD-PARAM        = PARAM-NAME "=" %d34 PARAM-VALUE %d34
      SD-ID           = SD-NAME
      PARAM-NAME      = SD-NAME
      PARAM-VALUE     = UTF-8-STRING ; characters '"', '\' and
                                     ; ']' MUST be escaped.
      SD-NAME         = 1*32OCTET ; VALID UTF-8 String
                        ; except '=', SP, ']', %d34 (")

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      MSG             = UTF-8-STRING
      UTF-8-STRING    = *OCTET ; Any VALID UTF-8 String

      OCTET           = %d00..255
      SP              = %d32
      PRINTUSASCII    = %d33-126
      NONZERO-DIGIT   = "1" / "2" / "3" / "4" / "5" /
                        "6" / "7" / "8" / "9"
      DIGIT           = "0" / NONZERO-DIGIT

6.1  Message Length

   A receiver MUST be able to accept messages up to and including 480
   octets in length.  For interoperability reasons, all receiver
   implementations SHOULD be able to accept messages up to and including
   2,048 octets in length.

   If a receiver receives a message with a length larger than 2,048
   octets, or larger than it supports, the receiver MAY discard the
   message or truncate the payload.

6.2  HEADER

   The character set used in the HEADER MUST be seven-bit ASCII in an
   eight-bit field as described in RFC 2234 [7].  These are the ASCII
   codes as defined in "USA Standard Code for Information Interchange"
   ANSI.X3-4.1968 [1].

   The header format is designed to provide some interoperability with
   older BSD-based syslog.  For details on this, see Appendix A.1.

6.2.1  VERSION

   The VERSION field denotes the version of the syslog protocol
   specification.  The version number MUST be incremented for any new
   syslog protocol specification that changes any part of the HEADER
   format.  This document uses a VERSION value of "1".  The VERSION
   values are IANA-assigned (Section 10.1).  VERSION "1" does only and
*s/VERSION "1" does only and/VERSION "1" and only VERSION "1"/
   exactly support the HEADER as described in this format.  No
*s/exactly support/supports exactly/
   modifications to HEADER syntax or semantics can be made if VERSION 1
   is used.  If this is done, a new VERSION value MUST be assigned.

6.2.2  FACILITY

   FACILITY is an integer in the range from 0 to 2,147,483,647.  It can
   be used for filtering by the receiver.  It is RECOMMENDED that the
   facility reflects a type of subsystem, something that a number of
*s/that/from which/

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   different messages might be issued from.  So it is a kind of corase
*s/ from//
*s/corase/coarse/
   group.  There exist some traditional FACILITY code semantics for the
*s/group/grouping/
   codes in the range from 0 to 23.  These semantics are not closely
   followed by all senders, and practice has shown that common semantics
   for message categories are hard to establish.  Therefore, no specific
   semantics for FACILITY codes are specified or implied in this
   document.

6.2.3  SEVERITY

   The SEVERITY field is used to indicate the severity that the sender
   of a message assigned to it.  It contains one of these values:

           Numerical         Severity
             Code

              0       Emergency: system is unusable
              1       Alert: action must be taken immediately
              2       Critical: critical conditions
              3       Error: error conditions
              4       Warning: warning conditions
              5       Notice: normal but significant condition
*s/condition/&s/
              6       Informational: informational messages
              7       Debug: debug-level messages

6.2.4  TIMESTAMP

   The TIMESTAMP field is a formalized timestamp derived from RFC 3339
   [10].

   While RFC 3339 [10] makes allowances for multiple syntaxes, this
*s/While/Whereas/
   document places further restrictions.  The TIMESTAMP MUST follow
*s/places/imposes/
   these restrictions:
   o  The "T" and "Z" characters in this syntax MUST be upper case.
   o  Usage of the "T" character is REQUIRED.

   The sender SHOULD include TIME-SECFRAC if its clock accuracy and
   performance permit.  The "time" SD-ID described in Section 7.1 allows
*s/SD-ID/SD-ID (Structured Data Identifier)/
   to specify accuracy and trustworthyness of the timestamp.
*s/to specify/one to specify/
*s/trustworthyness/trustworthiness/

6.2.4.1  Syslog Senders Without Knowledge of Time

   A syslog sender being incapable of obtaining system time MUST use the
*s/being //
   following TIMESTAMP:

   2000-01-01T00:00:60Z

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   This TIMESTAMP is in the past and it shows a time that never existed,
   because 1 January 2000 had no leap second.  So it can never occur in
   a valid syslog message of a time-aware sender.  A receiver receiving
   this TIMESTAMP MUST treat this value as an undefined date and time.

6.2.4.2  Examples

   Example 1

        1985-04-12T23:20:50.52Z

   This represents 20 minutes and 50.52 seconds after the 23rd hour of
   12 April 1985 in UTC.

   Example 2

        1985-04-12T19:20:50.52-04:00

   This represents the same time as in example 1, but expressed in the
   eastern US time zone (daylight savings time being observed).
*s/eastern/Eastern/

   Example 3

        2003-10-11T22:14:15.003Z

   This represents 11 October 2003 at 10:14:15pm, 3 milliseconds into
   the next second.  The timestamp is in UTC.  The timestamp provides
   millisecond resolution.  The creator may have actually had a better
   resolution, but by providing just three digits for the fractional
   settings, it does not tell us.
*s/settings/part of a second/

   Example 4

         2003-08-24T05:14:15.000003-07:00

   This represents 24 August 2003 at 05:14:15am, 3 microseconds into the
   next second.  The microsecond resolution is indicated by the
   additional digits in TIME-SECFRAC.  The timestamp indicates that its
   local time is -7 hours from UTC.  This timestamp might be created in
   the US Pacific time zone during daylight savings time.

   Example 5 - An Invalid TIMESTAMP

         2003-08-24T05:14:15.000000003-07:00

   This example is nearly the same as Example 4, but it is specifying
   TIME-SECFRAC in nanoseconds.  This will result in TIME-SECFRAC to be
*s/will result/results/
*s/to be/being/
   longer than the allowed 6 digits, which invalidates it.

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6.2.5  HOSTNAME

   The HOSTNAME field identifies the machine that originally sent the
   syslog message.

   The HOSTNAME field SHOULD contain the host name and the domain name
   of the originator in the format specified in STD 13 [3].  This format
   will be referred to in this document as a Fully Qualified Domain Name
*s/will be referred to in this document as/is called/
*s/Name/Name (FQDN) in this document./
   (FQDN).
*d

   In practice, not all senders are able to provide the FQDN.  As such,
*s/the FQDN/a FQDN/
   other values MAY also be present in HOSTNAME.  This protocol makes
   provisions for using other values in such situations.  A sender
   SHOULD provide the most specific available value first.  The order of
   preference for the contents of the HOSTNAME field is as follows:

   1.  FQDN
   2.  Static IP address
   3.  Hostname
   4.  Dynamic IP address
   5.  "0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0"

   If an IPv4 address is used, it MUST be in the format of the dotted
   decimal notation as used in STD 13 [4].  If an IPv6 address is used,
   a valid textual representation described in RFC 2373 [8], Section 2
*s/Section 2/&,/
*Note that RFC 2373 in obsoleted by RFC 3513.
   MUST be used.

   If a sender has multiple IP addresses, it SHOULD consistently use the
   same value in the HOSTNAME field for as long as possible.  This value
*Perhaps, no "if" is needed: Senders SHOULD consistently ...
   SHOULD be one of its actual IP addresses.  If a sender is running on
   a machine which has both statically and dynamically assigned
*s/which/that/
   addresses, then that value SHOULD be from the statically assigned
   addresses.  As an alternative, the sender MAY use the IP address of
   the interface that is used to send the message.

6.2.6  SENDER-NAME

   The SENDER-NAME SHOULD identify the device or application that
   generated the message.  It is a string without further semantics.  It
   is intended for filtering messages on the receiver.

6.2.7  SENDER-INST

   The SENDER-INST field SHOULD identify a specific instance of the
   sender.  It is RECOMMENDED that SENDER-INST contains the operating
   system process ID, if that exists and is obtainable.  No specific
   format is REQUIRED.
*s/REQUIRED/required/

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   The dash ("-") is a reserved SENDER-INST field value that MUST only
   be used to indicate an unidentified instance.
*s/only be used/be used only/

6.2.8  MSGID

   The MSGID SHOULD identify the type of message.  For example, a
   Firewall might use the MSGID "TCPIN" for incoming TCP traffic and the
   MSGID "TCPOUT" for outgoing TCP traffic.  Messages with the same
   MSGID should reflect events of the same semantics.  The MSGID itself
   is a string without further semantics.  It is intended for filtering
   messages on the receiver.

   The dash ("-") is a reserved MSGID field value that MUST only be used
*s/only be used/be used only/
   to indicate that the message has no specific ID.

6.3  STRUCTURED-DATA

   STRUCTURED-DATA transports data in a well defined, easily parsable
   and interpretable format.  There are multiple usage scenarios.  For
   example, it may transport meta-information about the syslog message
   or application-specific information such as traffic counters or IP
   addresses.

   STRUCTURED-DATA can contain zero, one, or multiple structured data
   elements, which are referred to as "SD-ELEMENT" in this document.

   The character set used in STRUCTURED-DATA MUST be UNICODE, encoded
   using UTF-8 as specified in RFC 3629 [6].  A sender MAY issue any
   valid UTF-8 sequence.  A receiver MUST accept any valid UTF-8
   sequence.  It MUST NOT fail if control characters are present in the
   STRUCTURED-DATA part.

   If STRUCTURED-DATA is malformed, a diagnostic entry SHOULD be logged.
   A receiver MAY ignore malformed STRUCTURED-DATA elements.

6.3.1  SD-ELEMENT

   A SD-ELEMENT consists of a name and parameter name-value pairs.  The
   name is referred to as SD-ID.  The name-value pairs are referred to
   as "SD-PARAM".

6.3.2  SD-ID

   IANA controls ALL SD-IDs without a hyphen ('-') in the second
   character position.  SD-IDs are case-sensitive and uniquely identify
   the type and purpose of the SD-ELEMENT.  Experimental or
   vendor-specific SD-ID MUST start with "x-".  Anything that doesn't is
   managed by IANA.  The same SD-ID MUST NOT exist more than once in a

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   message.

6.3.3  SD-PARAM

   Each SD-PARAM consist of a name, referred to as PARAM-NAME, and a
   value, referred to as PARAM-VALUE.

   PARAM-NAME is case-sensitive.

   Inside PARAM-VALUE, the characters '"', '\' and ']' MUST be escaped.
   This is necessary to avoid parsing errors.  Escaping ']' would not
   strictly be necessary but is REQUIRED by this specification to avoid
   parser implementation errors.  Each of these three characters MUST be
   escaped as '\"', '\\' and '\]' respectively.

   A backslash ('\') followed by none of the three described characters
   is considered an invalid escape sequence.  Upon reception of such an
   invalid escape sequence, the receiver SHOULD replace the
   two-character sequence with only the second character received.  It
   is RECOMMENDED that the receiver logs a diagnostic in this case.

   A SD-PARAM MAY be repeated multiple times inside a SD-ELEMENT.

6.3.4  Change Control

   Once SD-IDs and PARAM-NAMEs are defined in a specification and their
   IANA assignment has been done, syntax and semantics of these objects
*s/done/made/
   MUST NOT be altered.  So they begin to exist with their initial
   definition and are never allowed to change.  Should a change to an
   existing object be needed, a new one MUST be created.  It is advised
   to use a name the reflects the close relationship between the two
   objects.  For example, if the semantics of the "tzKnown" PARAM-NAME
   were to be changed, a good name for the new element would be
   "tzKnown2".

6.3.5  Examples

   All examples in this section only show the structured data part of
*s/only show/show only/
   the message.  Examples should be considered to be on one line.  They
   are wrapped on multiple lines for readability purposes only.  A
   description is given after each example.

   Example 1 - Valid

           [x-exampleSDID iut="3" eventSource="Application"
           eventID="1011"]

   This example is a structured data element with an experimental SD-ID

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   of type "x-exampleSDID" which has three parameters.

   Example 2 - Valid

           [x-exampleSDID iut="3" eventSource="Application"
           eventID="1011"][x-examplePriority class="high"]

   This is the same example as in 1, but with a second structured data
   element.  Please note that the structured data element immediately
   follows the first one (there is no SP between them).

   Example 3 - Invalid

           [x-exampleSDID iut="3" eventSource="Application"
           eventID="1011"] [x-examplePriority class="high"]

   This is nearly the same example as 2, but it has a subtle error.
   Please note that there is a SP character between the two structured
   data elements ("]SP[").  This is invalid.  It will cause the
   STRUCTURED-DATA field to end after the first element.  The second
   element will be interpreted as part of the MSG field.

   Example 4 - Invalid

           [ x-exampleSDID iut="3" eventSource="Application"
           eventID="1011"][x-examplePriority class="high"]

   This example again is nearly the same as 2.  It has another subtle
   error.  Please note the SP character after the initial bracket.  A
   structured data element SD-ID MUST immediately follow the beginning
   bracket, so the SP character invalidates the STRUCTURED-DATA.  Thus,
   the receiver MAY discard this message.

   Example 5 - Valid

           [sigSig ver="1" rsID="1234" ... signature="......"]
*Comment: Both here and above in Figure 1, it is usual to write exactly three
*dots ... to indicate any amount of missing content. The three dots may
*be called "ellipses," plural of "ellipsis."

   Example 5 is a valid example.  It shows a hypothetical IANA assigned
*s/IANA assigned/IANA-assigned/
   SD-ID.  Please note that the dots denote missing content, which has
   been left out for brevity.

6.4  MSG

   The MSG part contains a free-form message that provides information
   about the event.

   The character set used in MSG MUST be UNICODE, encoded using UTF-8 as
   specified in RFC 3629 [6].  A sender MAY issue any valid UTF-8

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   sequence.  A receiver MUST accept any valid UTF-8 sequence.  It MUST
   NOT fail if control characters are present in the MSG part.

6.5  Examples

   The following are examples of valid syslog messages.  A description
   of each example can be found below it.  The examples are based on
   similar examples from RFC 3164 [12] and may be familiar to readers.

   Example 1

        1 888 4 2003-10-11T22:14:15.003Z mymachine.example.com
        su - ID47  'su root' failed for lonvick on /dev/pts/8

   In this example, the VERSION is 1 and the FACILITY has the value of
   888.  The severity is 4 ("Warning" semantics).  The message was
   created on October, 11th 2003 at 10:14:15pm UTC,  3 milliseconds into
*s/October, 11th/11 October/
   the next second.  The message originated from a host that identifies
   itself as "mymachine.example.com".  The SENDER-NAME is "su" and the
   SENDER-INST is unknown.  The MSGID is "ID47".  Note the two SP
   characters following MSGID.  The second SP character is the
   STRUCTURED-DATA delimiter.  It tells that no STRUCTURED-DATA is
   present in this message.  The MSG is "'su root' failed for
   lonvick...".

   Example 2

         1 20 6 2003-08-24T05:14:15.000003-07:00 192.0.2.1
         myproc 10 -  %% It's time to make the do-nuts.

   In this example, the VERSION is again 1.  The FACILITY is within the
   legacy syslog range (20).  The severity is 6 ("Notice" semantics).
   It was created on 24 August 2003 at 5:14:15am, with a -7 hour offset
   from UTC, 3 microseconds into the next second.  The HOSTNAME is
   "192.0.2.1", so the sender did not know its FQDN and used the IPv4
*s/the IPv4/an IPv4/
* or
*s/the IPv4 address/one of its IPv4 addresses/
   address instead.  The SENDER-NAME is "myproc" and the SENDER-INST is
   "10" (for example this could be the UNIX PID).  There is no specific
   MSGID and this is indicated by the "-" in the MSGID field.  The
   message is "%% It's time to make the do-nuts.".

   Example 3 - with STRUCTURED-DATA

           1 888 4 2003-10-11T22:14:15.003Z mymachine.example.com
           evntslog - ID47 [x-exampleSDID iut="3" eventSource="Application"
           eventID="1011"] An application event log entry...

   This example is modeled after example 1.  However, this time it
   contains STRUCTURED-DATA, a single element with the value

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   "[x-exampleSDID iut="3" eventSource="Application" eventID="1011"]".
   The MSG itself is "An application event log entry..."

   Example 4 - STRUCTURED-DATA Only

           1 888 4 2003-10-11T22:14:15.003Z mymachine.example.com
           evntslog - ID47 [x-exampleSDID iut="3" eventSource="Application"
           eventID="1011"][x-examplePriority class="high"]

   This example shows a message with only STRUCTURED-DATA and no MSG
   part.  This is a valid message.
*One could be picky and point out that according to the ABNF, this example MUST have 
*a space at the end.

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7.  Structured Data IDs

   This section defines the initial IANA-registered SD-IDs.  See
   Section 6.3 for a definition of structured data elements.  All SD-IDs
   are optional.

7.1  timeQuality

   The SD-ID "timeQuality" MAY be used by the original sender to
   describe its notion of system time.  This SD-ID SHOULD be written if
   the sender is not properly synchronized with a reliable external time
   source or if it does not know whether or not its time zone
   information is correct.  The main use of this structured data element
   is to provide some information on the level of trust of the TIMESTAMP
*s/trust of/trust it has in/
   described in Section 6.2.4.

*It may be helpful to say which parameters are mandatory or optional.
7.1.1  tzKnown

   The "tzKnown" parameter indicates if the original sender knows its
*s/if/whether/
   time zone.  If it does so, the value "1" SHOULD be used.  If the time
   zone information is in doubt, the value "0" SHOULD be used.  If the
   sender knows its time zone but decides to emit time in UTC, the value
   "1" SHOULD be used (because the time zone is known).

7.1.2  isSynced

   The "isSynced" parameter indicates if the original sender is
*s/if/whether/
   synchronized to a reliable external time source, e.g.  via NTP.  If
*s/e.g./&,/
   the original sender is time synchronized, the value "1" SHOULD be
   used.  If not, the value "0" SHOULD be used.

7.1.3  syncAccuracy

   The "syncAccuracy" parameter indicates how accurate the original
   sender thinks the time synchronization it participates in is.  It is
*s/the/its/
*s/it participates in //
   an integer describing the maximum number of microseconds that the
*s/that the/that its/
   clock may be off between synchronization intervals.

   If the value "0" is used for "isSynced", this parameter SHOULD NOT be
   specified.  If the value "1" is used for "isSynced" but the
   "syncAccuracy" parameter is absent, a receiver SHOULD assume that the
   time information provided is accurate enough to be considered
   correct.  The "syncAccuracy" parameter SHOULD ONLY be written if the
s/ONLY be written/be written only/
   original sender actually has knowledge of the reliability of the
   external time source.  In practice, in most cases, it will gain this
   in-depth knowledge through operator configuration.

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7.1.4  Examples

   The following is an example of a system that knows that it does
*s/ does//
   neither know its time zone nor if it is being synchronized:
*s/neither know its time zone nor if/knows neither its time zone nor whether/

   [timeQuality tzKnown="0" isSynced="0"]

   With this information, the sender indicates that its time information
   cannot be trusted.  This may be a hint for the receiver to use its
*s/cannot be trusted/is unreliable/
   local time instead of the message-provided TIMESTAMP for correlation
   of multiple messages from different senders.

   The following is an example of a system that knows its time zone and
   knows that it is properly synchronized to a reliable external source:

   [timeQuality tzKnown="1" isSynced="1"]

   The following is an example of a system that knows both its time zone
   and that it is externally synchronized.  It also knows the accuracy
   of the external synchronization:

   [timeQuality tzKnown="1" isSynced="1" syncAccuracy="60000000"]

   The difference between this and the previous example is that the
   sender expects that its clock will be kept within 60 seconds of the
   official time.  So if the sender reports it is 9:00:00, it is no
   earlier than 8:59:00 and no later then 9:01:00.

7.2  origin

   The SD-ID "origin" MAY be used to indicate the origin of a syslog
   message.  The following parameters can be used.  All parameters are
   optional.

   Specifying any of these parameter is primarily an aid to log
*s/parameter/&s/
   analyzers and similar applications.

7.2.1  ip

   The "ip" parameter denotes the IP address that the sender knows it
*s/the IP/an IP/
   had at the time of sending the message.  It MUST contain the textual
   representation of an IP address as outlined in Section 6.2.5.

   This parameter can be used to provide additional identifying
   information to what is present in the HOSTNAME field.  It might be
   especially useful if the host's IP address shall be included in the
*s/shall be/is/
   message while the HOSTNAME field still shall contain the FQDN.  It is
*s/while/and/
*s/shall contain/contains/
   also useful to describe all IP addresses of a multihomed host.
*s/to describe/for describing/

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   If a sender has multiple IP addresses, it MAY either use a single of
*s/use a single/list one/
   its IP addresses in the "ip" parameter or it MAY include multiple
   "ip" parameters in a single "origin" structured data element.

7.2.2  enterpriseID

   The "enterpriseID" parameter MUST be an 'SMI Network Management
*s/an/a/
   Private Enterprise Code', maintained by IANA, whose prefix is
   iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprise (1.3.6.1.4.1).  The number
   which follows is unique and may be registered by an on-line form at
*s/which/that/
   <http://www.iana.org/>.  Only that number MUST be specified in the
   "enterpriseID" parameter.  The complete up-to-date list of Enterprise
   Numbers is maintained by IANA at
   <http://www.iana.org/assignments/enterprise-numbers>.

   By specifying an enterpriseID, the vendor allows more specific
   parsing of the message.

7.2.3  software

   The "software" parameter uniquely identifies the software that
   generated the message.  If it is used, "enterpriseID" SHOULD also be
   specified, so that a specific vendor's software can be identified.
   The "software" parameter is not the same as the SENDER-NAME header
   field.  It always contains the name of the generating software while
*s/software while/software, whereas/
   SENDER-NAME can contain anything else, including an
   operator-configured value.

   The "software" parameter is a string.  It MUST NOT be longer than 48
   characters.

7.2.4  swVersion

   The "swVersion" parameter uniquely identifies the version of the
   software that generated the message.  If it is used, the "software"
   and "enterpriseID" parameters SHOULD be provided, too.

   The "swVersion" parameter is a string.  It MUST NOT be longer than 32
   characters.

7.2.5  Example

   The following is an example with multiple IP addresses:

   [origin ip="192.0.2.1" ip="192.0.2.129"]

   In this example, the sender indicates that it has two ip addresses,
   one being 192.0.2.1 and the other one being 192.0.2.129.

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8.  Security Considerations

8.1  Diagnostic Logging

   This document recommends that an implementation writes a diagnostic
   message to indicate unusual situations or other things noteworthy.
   Diagnostic messages are a useful tool in finding configuration issues
*s/finding/discovering/
   as well as a system penetration.
*s/ a / instances of /

   Unfortunately, diagnostic logging can cause issues by itself, for
   example if an attacker tries to create a denial of service condition
*s/example/&,/
   by willingly sending malformed messages that will lead to the
   creation of diagnostic log entries.  Due to sheer volume, the
   resulting diagnostic log entries may exhaust system resources, e.g.
   processing power, I/O capability or simply storage space.  For
*s/capability/&,/
   example, an attacker could flood a system with messages generating
   diagnostic log entries after he has compromised a system.  If the log
   entries are stored in a circular buffer, the flood of diagnostic log
   entries would eventually overwrite useful previous diagnostics.

   Besides this risk, diagnostic message, if they occur too frequently,
*s/message/&s/
   can become meaningless.  Common practice is to turn off diagnostic
   logging if it is too verbose.  This potentially removes important
*s/removes/& a source of/
   diagnostic information which could aid the operator.

8.2  Control Characters

   This document does not impose any restrictions on the MSG or
   STRUCTURED-DATA content.  As such, they MAY contain control
   characters, including the NUL character.

   In some programming languages (most notably C and C++), the NUL
   (0x00) character traditionally has a special significance as string
   terminator.  Most, if not all, implementations of these languages
   assume that a string will not extend beyond the first NUL character.
   This is primarily a restriction of the supporting run-time libraries.
   Please note that this restriction is often carried over to programs
   and script languages written in those languages.  As such, NUL
   characters must be considered with great care and be properly
   handled.  An attacker may deliberately include NUL characters to hide
   information after them.  Incorrect handling of the NUL character may
   also invalidate cryptographic checksums that are transmitted inside
   the message.

   Many popular text editors are also written in languages with this
   restriction.  This means that NUL characters should not be written to
   a file in an unencoded way - otherwise it would potentially render
*s/ - otherwise it/.  Otherwise they/
   the file unreadable.

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   The same is true for other control characters.  For example,
   deliberately included backspace characters may be used by an attacker
*s/.*/an attacker may deliberately include backspace characters/
   to render parts of the log message unreadable.  Similar approaches
*s/approaches/issues/
   exist for almost all control characters.

   Finally, invalid UTF-8 sequences may be used by an attacker to inject
   ASCII control characters.

8.3  More than Maximum Message Length

   The message length MAY exceed the RECOMMENDED maximum value specified
   in Section 6.  Various problems may result if a sender sends messages
   with a greater length.  Also, an attacker might deliberately
   introduce very large messages.  As such, it is vital that each
   receiver performs the necessary sanity checks to ensure that it will
   gracefully discard or truncate messages of larger sizes than it
   supports.

8.4  Message Truncation

   Messages over the minimum to be supported size may be discarded or
*s/to be //
   truncated by the receiver or interim systems.  As such, vital log
   information may be lost.  Even messages within that size may be lost
   if a non-reliable transport mapping is used.

   In order to prevent information loss, messages should be less then
*s/should be less then/should not be longer than/
   the minimum supported size outlined in Section 6.1.  For best
*s/minimum supported //
*s/outlined in/required by/
   performance and reliability, messages SHOULD be as small as possible.
   Important information SHOULD be placed as early in the message as
   possible because information at the begin of the message is less
*s/begin/beginning/
   likely to be discarded by a size-limited receiver.

   In case a sender includes user-supplied data within a syslog message,
   it should limit the size of that data.  Otherwise, an attacker may
   provide large data in the hope to exploit this potential weakness.

8.5  Single Source to a Destination

   The syslog messages are usually presented (placed in a file,
   displayed on the console, etc) in the order in which they are
*s/etc/etc./
   received.  This is not always in accordance with the sequence in
   which they were generated.  As they are transmitted across an IP
   network, some out of order receipt should be expected.  This may lead
   to some confusion as messages may be received that would indicate
   that a process has stopped before it was started.  This is somewhat
   rectified by the TIMESTAMP.  However, the accuracy of the TIMESTAMP
   may not always be sufficiently enough.
*s/sufficiently enough/sufficient/

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   It is desirable to use a transport with guaranteed delivery, if one
   is available.
*Comment: This may be controversial, especially if the transport with guaranteed
*delivery imposes even more overhead. Suggest saying "may be desirable".

8.6  Multiple Sources to a Destination

   In syslog, there is no concept of unified event numbering.  Single
   senders are free to include a sequence number within the structured
   data, but that can hardly be coordinated between multiple senders.
   In such cases, multiple senders may report that each one is sending
   message number one.  Again, this may be rectified somewhat by the
   TIMESTAMP.  As has been noted, however, even messages from a single
   sender to a single collector may be received out of order.  This
   situation is compounded when there are several senders configured to
   send their syslog messages to a single collector.  Messages from one
   sender may be delayed so the collector receives messages from another
   sender first even though the messages from the first sender were
   generated before the messages from the second.  If there is no
   sufficiently-precise timestamp or coordinated sequence number, then
*s/sufficiently-precise/sufficiently precise/
   the messages may be presented in the order in which they were
   received which may give an inaccurate view of the sequence of actual
   events.
*Comment: There is no mention here of sorting out message streams according to 
*HOSTNAME, SENDER-NAME, or SENDER-INST. 

8.7  Multiple Sources to Multiple Destinations

   The plethora of configuration options available to the network
   administrators may further skew the perception of the order of
   events.  It is possible to configure a group of senders to send
   status messages -or other informative messages- to one collector,
*s/ -/--/
*s/- /--/
   while sending messages of relatively higher importance to another
   collector.  Additionally, the messages may be sent to different files
   on the same collector.  If the messages do not contain
   sufficiently-precise timestamps from the source, it may be difficult
*s/sufficiently-precise/sufficiently precise/
   to order the messages if they are kept in different places.  An
*s/the //
*s/if they are /
   administrator may not be able to determine if a record in one file
*s/if/whether/
   occurred before or after a record in a different file.  This may be
*s/occurred/was generated/
   somewhat alleviated by placing marking messages with a timestamp into
   all destination files.  If these have coordinated timestamps, then
   there will be some indication of the time of receipt of the
   individual messages.  As such, it is highly recommended to use the
   best available precision in the TIMESTAMP and use automatic time
*s/use/to use/
   synchronization on each systems (as, for example, can be done via
*s/systems/such system/
   NTP).

8.8  Replaying

   Messages may be recorded and replayed at a later time.  An attacker
   may record a set of messages that indicate normal activity of a
   machine.  At a later time, that attacker may remove that machine from

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   the network and replay the syslog messages to the collector.  Even
   with a TIMESTAMP field in the HEADER part, an attacker may record the
   packets and could simply modify them to reflect the current time
   before retransmitting them.  The administrators may find nothing
   unusual in the received messages and their receipt would falsely
*s/messages/&,/
   indicate normal activity of the machine.

   Cryptographically signing messages could prevent the alteration of
   TIMESTAMPs and thus the replay attack.

8.9  Reliable Delivery

   As there is no mechanism described within this document to ensure
*s/As/Because/
   delivery, and since the underlying transport may be lossey (e.g.
*s/since //
*s/e.g./e.g.,/
*s/lossey/lossy/
*Comment: There really isn't any such word as lossey or lossy, but we can drop
*the "e" if we use the rule: rhymes with "glossy"
   UDP), some messages may be lost.  They may either be dropped through
   network congestion, or they may be maliciously intercepted and
   discarded.  The consequences of the drop of one or more syslog
*s/the drop of/dropping/
   messages cannot be determined.  If the messages are simple status
   updates, then their non-receipt may either not be noticed, or it may
   cause an annoyance for the system operators.  On the other hand, if
   the messages are more critical, then the administrators may not
   become aware of a developing and potentially serious problem.
   Messages may also be intercepted and discarded by an attacker as a
   way to hide unauthorized activities.

   It is RECOMMENDED to use a reliable transport mapping to prevent this
   problem.
*Comment: As far as congestion is concerned, see the comment above. As far as
*malicious dropping, reliable transport does not help.

8.10  Message Integrity

   Besides being discarded, syslog messages may be damaged in transit,
   or an attacker may maliciously modify them.  In such cases, the
   original contents of the message will not be delivered to the
   collector.  Additionally, if an attacker is positioned between the
   sender and collector of syslog messages, they may be able to
   intercept and modify those messages while in-transit to hide
   unauthorized activities.

8.11  Message Observation

   While there are no strict guidelines pertaining to the MSG format,
   most syslog messages are generated in human readable form with the
   assumption that capable administrators should be able to read them
   and understand their meaning.  Neither the syslog protocol nor the
   syslog application have mechanisms to provide confidentiality of the
*s/of/for/
   messages in transit.  In most cases passing clear-text messages is a
   benefit to the operations staff if they are sniffing the packets off
   of the wire.  The operations staff may be able to read the messages

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   and associate them with other events seen from other packets crossing
   the wire to track down and correct problems.  Unfortunately, an
   attacker may also be able to observe the human-readable contents of
   syslog messages.  The attacker may then use the knowledge gained from
   those messages to compromise a machine or do other damage.
*Comment: The fact that the messages are in human-readable form is only
*loosely connected with the need for confidentiality. Many if not most
*operators would consider it a problem if unauthorized parties were reading
*their log messages, in human-readable form or otherwise.

8.12  Misconfiguration

   Since there is no control information distributed about any messages
*s/Since/Because/
   or configurations, it is wholly the responsibility of the network
   administrator to ensure that the messages are actually going to the
   intended recipient.  Cases have been noted where senders were
*s/recipient/&s/
   inadvertently configured to send syslog messages to the wrong
   receiver.  In many cases, the inadvertent receiver may not be
*s/receiver/&s/
   configured to receive syslog messages and it will probably discard
   them.  In certain other cases, the receipt of syslog messages has
   been known to cause problems for the unintended recipient.  If
   messages are not going to the intended recipient, then they cannot be
   reviewed or processed.

   Using a reliable transport mapping can guard against these problems.
*s/guard against/help identify/

8.13  Forwarding Loop

   As it is shown in Figure 1, machines may be configured to relay
*s/it is //
   syslog messages to subsequent relays before reaching a collector.  In
   one particular case, an administrator found that he had mistakenly
   configured two relays to forward messages with certain SEVERITY
   values to each other.  When either of these machines either received
   or generated that type of message, it would forward it to the other
   relay.  That relay would, in turn, forward it back.  This cycle did
   cause degradation to the intervening network as well as to the
   processing availability on the two devices.  Network administrators
   must take care to not cause such a death spiral.
*s/to not/not to/

8.14  Load Considerations

   Network administrators must take the time to estimate the appropriate
   size of the syslog receivers.  An attacker may perform a Denial of
*s/size/capacity/
   Service attack by filling the disk of the collector with false
   messages.  Placing the records in a circular file may alleviate this
   but that has the consequence of not ensuring that an administrator
   will be able to review the records in the future.  Along this line, a
   receiver or collector must have a network interface capable of
   receiving all messages sent to it.

   Administrators and network planners must also critically review the
   network paths between the devices, the relays, and the collectors.

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   Generated syslog messages should not overwhelm any of the network
   links.

   In order to reduce the impact of this issue, it is recommended to use
*s/it is recommended to use/using/
   transports with guaranteed delivery.
*s/delivery/delivery is recommended

8.15  Denial of Service

   As with any system, an attacker may just overwhelm a receiver by
   sending more messages to it than can be handled by the infrastructure
   or the device itself.  Implementors should attempt to provide
   features that minimize this threat.  Such as only receiving syslog
*s/.  Such/, such/
*s/receiving/accepting/
   messages from known IP addresses.

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9.  Notice to RFC Editor

   This is a note to the RFC editor.  This ID is submitted along with ID
   draft-ietf-syslog-transport-udp and they cross-reference each other.
   When RFC numbers are determined for each of these IDs, these
   references will be updated to use the RFC numbers.  This section will
   be removed at that time.

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10.  IANA Considerations

10.1  Version

   IANA must maintain a registry of VERSION values as described in
   Section 6.2.1.

   For this document, IANA must register the VERSION "1".  New VERSION
   numbers must monotonically increment (the next VERSION will be "2")
*s/increment/be incremented/
   and will be registered via the Specification Required method as
   described in RFC 2434 [9].

10.2  SD-IDs

   IANA must maintain a registry of Structured Data ID (SD-ID) values as
   described in Section 7.  These are the SD-IDs which do NOT have a
*s/which/that/
   hyphen ("-") in the second character position.

   New SD-ID values may be registered through the Specification Required
   method as described in RFC 2434 [9].

   For this document, IANA must register the SD-IDs "time" and "origin".
*s/time/timeQuality/

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11.  Authors and Working Group Chair

   The working group can be contacted via the mailing list:

         [email-masked]

   The current Chair of the Working Group may be contacted at:

         Chris Lonvick
         Cisco Systems
         Email: [email-masked]

   The author of this draft is:

         Rainer Gerhards
         Email: [email-masked]

         Phone: +49-9349-92880
         Fax: +49-9349-928820

         Adiscon GmbH
         Mozartstrasse 21
         97950 Grossrinderfeld
         Germany

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12.  Acknowledgments

   The authors wish to thank Chris Lonvick, Jon Callas, Andrew Ross,
   Albert Mietus, Anton Okmianski, Tina Bird, Devin Kowatch, David
   Harrington, Sharon Chisholm and all other people who commented on
*s/Chisholm/&,/
   various versions of this proposal.

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13.  References

13.1  Normative

   [1]   American National Standards Institute, "USA Code for
         Information Interchange", ANSI X3.4, 1968.

   [2]   Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", STD 5, RFC 791, September
         1981.

   [3]   Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - concepts and facilities",
         STD 13, RFC 1034, November 1987.

   [4]   Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
         specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.

   [5]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
         Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [6]   Yergeau, F., "UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646",
         RFC 3629, November 2003.

   [7]   Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
         Specifications: ABNF", RFC 2234, November 1997.

   [8]   Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
         Architecture", RFC 2373, July 1998.
*See note in text. This is now obsolete.

   [9]   Narten, T. and H. Alvestrand, "Guidelines for Writing an IANA
         Considerations Section in RFCs", BCP 26, RFC 2434, October
         1998.

   [10]  Klyne, G. and C. Newman, "Date and Time on the Internet:
         Timestamps", RFC 3339, July 2002.

   [11]  Okmianski, A., "Transmission of syslog messages over UDP",
         RFC 9999, August 2004.

13.2  Informative

   [12]  Lonvick, C., "The BSD Syslog Protocol", RFC 3164, August 2001.

   [13]  Malkin, G., "Internet Users' Glossary", RFC 1983, August 1996.

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Author's Address

   Rainer Gerhards
   Adiscon GmbH
   Mozartstrasse 21
   Grossrinderfeld, BW  97950
   Germany

   Email: [email-masked]

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Appendix A.  Implementor Guidelines

   Information in this section is given as an aid to implementors.
   While this information is considered to be helpful, it is not
   normative.  As such, an implementation is NOT REQUIRED to implement
*s/to implement/to follow/
   it in order to claim compliance to this specification.

A.1  Relationship with BSD Syslog

   While BSD syslog is in widespread use, its format has never been
   formally standardized.  In RFC 3164 [12] observed formats were
   specified.  However, RFC 3164 is an informal document and practice
*s/document/document,/
   shows that there are many different implementations.

   Consequently, RFC 3164 mandates no specific elements inside a syslog
   message.  It defines that any message format destined to the syslog
*s/defines/states/
*s/format//
   UDP port must be treated as a syslog message - no matter what its
*s/ - /, /
   content is.  However, in almost all cases observed in practice, a BSD
*s/content/format or content/
   syslog message starts with a priority value, which is a number
   between brackets.  An example is "<133>".  This document uses that
   known convention to provide some minimal version detection.  It has
   deliberately changed the syslog message header so that it will never
   contain a less-than sign as the first character of the message.  This
   has two advantages:

   If an older receiver receives a message that does not start with a
   less-than sign, it still assumes this is a valid syslog message.
   However, it does not try to parse any header fields, at least if it
   obeys to the rule outlined in RFC 3164.  This prevents the receiver
   from parsing the message invalidly.  It should be noted, however,
   that at least some of the older implementations will experience
   problems if the message received is larger than 1024 octets.  Most of
   the implementations will truncate a message after the first 1024
   octets.  So it is wise to not send messages larger than 1024 octets
*s/to not/not to/
   to receivers which are known to be older.
*s/which are//

   If a receiver compliant to this document receives a message generated
*s/to/with/
   by a non-compliant, older, sender, it notices that the message does
*s/older,/older/
   not have a proper header and thus is not formatted according to this
   document.  This enables the receiver to take appropriate action.
   Please also see the description on header parsing in Appendix A.3 for
   more information on this scenario.

   RFC 3164 mandates UDP as transport protocol for syslog.  This
   document places no restrictions on the transport.

   RFC 3164 specifies relay behaviour.  This document does not specify
*s/behaviour/behavior/
   relay behaviour.  This might be done in a separate document.
*s/behaviour/behavior/

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   The PRI part in RFC 3164 is split into two fields - FACILITY and
*s/ - /--/
   SEVERITY - in this document.  These new fields support the RFC 3164
*s/ - /--/
   values but also allow additional values.

   The TIMESTAMP in RFC 3164 offers less precision and lacks the year
   and timezone information.  If a message formatted according to this
   document needs to be reformatted to be RFC 3164 compliant, it is
   suggested that the senders local time zone is used, and the time zone
*s/senders/sender's/
*s/is/be/
   information and the year being dropped.  If a RFC 3164 formatted
*s/being/be/
   message is received and must be transformed to be compliant to this
   document, the current year should be added and the receivers time
*s/receivers/receiver's/
   zone be assumed.

   The HOSTNAME in RFC 3164 is less specific, but this format is still
   supported in this document as one of the alternate HOSTNAME
   representations.

   The MSG part of the message is defined as TAG and CONTENT in RFC
   3164.  In this document, MSG is what was called CONTENT in RFC 3164.
   The TAG is now part of the header, but not as a single field.  The
   TAG has been split into SENDER-NAME, SENDER-INST and MSGID.  This
*s/SENDER-INST/&,/
   does not totally resemble the usage of TAG, but provides the same
   functionality for most of the cases.

   In RFC 3164, STRUCTURED-DATA was not defined.  If a message compliant
   to this document contains STRUCTURED-DATA and must be reformatted
*s/to/with/
   compliant to RFC 3164, the STRUCTURED-DATA simply becomes part of the
*s/compliant to/to be compliant with/
   RFC 3164 CONTENT freeform text.
*s/freeform/free-form/

   In general, this document tries to provide an easily parsable header
   with clear field separations whereas traditional BSD syslog suffers
   from some historically developed, hard to parse field seperation
   rules.

A.2  Message Length

   Implementors should note the message size limitations outlined in
   Section 6.1 and try to keep the most important parts early in the
   message (within the minimum guaranteed length).  This ensures they
   will be seen by the receiver even if it (or a relay on the message
   path) truncates the message.

   The reason syslog receivers must only support receiving up to and
   including 480 octets has, among others, to do with difficult delivery
*s/others/other things/
   problems in a broken network.  Syslog messages may use an UDP
*s/an UDP/a UDP/
   transport mapping and have this 480 restriction to avoid session
   overhead and message fragmentation.  In a network being
   troubleshooted, the likelihood of getting one single-packet message

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   delivered successfully is higher than getting two message fragments
   delivered successfully.  So using a larger size may prevent the
   operator from getting some critical information about the problem,
   whereas keeping with that limit might get that information to the
*s/with/within/
   operator.  As such, messages intended for troubleshooting purposes
   should not be larger than 480 octets.  To further strengthen this
   point, it has also been observed that some UDP implementations
   generally do not support message sizes of more then 480 octets.

   iChar = szVarName[2] - 'a'; There are other use cases where syslog
*What does "iChar = szVarName[2] - 'a'; " mean? 
   messages are used to transmit inherently lengthy information, e.g.
   audit data.  By not enforcing any upper limit on the message size,
   syslog senders and receivers can be implemented with any size needed
   and still be compliant to this document.  In such cases, it is the
*s/to/with/
   operator's responsibility to ensure that all components in a syslog
   infrastructure support the required message sizes.  Transport
   mappings may recommend specific message size limits that must be
   enforced.

   Implementors are reminded that the message length is specified in
   octets.  There is a potentially large difference between the length
   in characters and the length in octets for UTF-8 strings.

*Comment: It should also be pointed out that the IPv6 MTU is about 2.5 
*times 480.

A.3  HEADER Parsing

   The section recommends a message header parsing method based on the
*s/The/This/
   VERSION field described in Section 6.2.1.

   The receiver should check the VERSION.  If the VERSION is within the
   set of versions supported by the receiver, it should parse the
   message according to the correct syslog protocol specification.

   If the receiver does not support the specified VERSION, it should log
   a diagnostic message.  It should not parse beyond the VERSION field.
   This is because the header format may have changed in a newer
   version.  The receiver should not try to process the message, but it
   MAY try this if the administrator has configured the receiver to do
*s/MAY/may/
   so.  In the latter case, the results may be undefined.  If the
   administrator has configured the receiver to parse a non-supported
   version, it should assume that these messages are legacy syslog
   messages and parse and process them with respect to RFC 3164 [12].
   To be precise, a receiver receiving an unknown VERSION number, or a
   message without a valid VERSION, should discard the message by
   default.  However, the administrator may configure it to not discard
   these messages.  If that happens, the receiver may parse it according
   to RFC 3164 [12].  The administrator may again override this setting
   and configure the receiver to parse the messages in any way.

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   The spirit behind these guidelines is that the administrator may
   sometime need the power to allow overriding of version-specific
*s/sometime/sometimes/
   parsing, but this should be done in the most secure and reliable way.
   Therefore, the receiver should use the appropriate defaults specified
   above.  This document is specific on this point because it is common
   experience that parsing unknown formats often leads to security
   issues.

A.4  SEVERITY Values

   This section describes guidelines for using SEVERITY as outlined in
   Section 6.2.3.

   All implementations should try to assign the most appropriate
   severity to their message.  Most importantly, messages designed to
   enable debugging or testing of software should be assigned severity
   7.  Severity 0 should be reserved for messages of very high
   importance (like serious hardware failures or imminent power
   failure).  An implementation may use severities 0 and 7 for other
   purposes if this is configured by the administrator.

   Since severities are very subjective, the receiver should not assume
*s/Since/Because/
*s/the/a/
   that all senders have the same definition of severity.

A.5  TIME-SECFRAC Precision

   The TIMESTAMP described in Section 6.2.4 supports fractional seconds.
   This provides ground for a very common coding error, where leading
   zeros are removed from the fractional seconds.  For example, the
   TIMESTAMP "2003-10-11T22:13:14.003" may be erroneously written as
   "2003-10-11T22:13:14.3".  This would indicate 300 milliseconds
   instead of the 3 milliseconds actually meant.

A.6  Case Convention for Names

   Names are used at various places in this document, for example for
   SD-IDs and PARAM-NAME.  This document uses "camel case" consistently.
*s/PARAM-NAME/PARAM-NAMEs/
   With that, each name begins with a lower case letter and each new
   word starts with an upper case letter, but no hyphen or other
   delimiter.  An example of this is "timeQuality".

   While an implementation is free to use any other case convention for
   experimental names, but it is suggested that the case convention
*s/but //
   outlined above is followed.

   There is one exception from this convention in this document itself.
   That is that experimental SD-IDs start with "x-", so they are
   hyphenated.  While this looks like an inconsistency, it was done

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   because it is common practice (e.g.  in SMTP) to prefix experimental
*s/e.g. /e.g.,/
   headers with "x-".

A.7  Leap Seconds

   The TIMESTAMP described in Section 6.2.4 permits leap seconds, as
   described in RFC 3339 [10].

   The value "60" in the TIME-SECOND field is used to indicate a leap
   second.  This must not be misinterpreted.  Implementors are advised
   to replace the value "60" if seen in the header, with the value "59"
   if it otherwise can not be processed, e.g.  stored to a database.  It
*s/e.g.  stored to/e.g., stored in/
   should not be converted to the first second of the next minute.
   Please note that such a conversion, if done on the message text
   itself, will cause cryptographic signatures to become invalid.  As
   such, it is suggested that the adjustment is not performed when the
   plain message text is to be stored (e.g.  for later verification of
*s/e.g. /e.g.,/
   signatures).

A.8  Syslog Senders Without Knowledge of Time

   In Section 6.2.4.1, a specific TIMESTAMP for usage by senders without
   knowledge of time is defined.  This is done to support a special case
   when a sender is not aware of time at all.  It can be argued if such
*s/if/whether/
   a sender can actually be found in today's IT infrastructure.
   However, discussion has indicated that those things may exist in
   practice and as such there should be a guideline established for this
   case.

   However, an implementation SHOULD emit a valid TIMESTAMP if the
   underlying operating system, programming system and hardware supports
*s/programming system/&,/
   the clock function.  A proper TIMESTAMP should be emitted even if it
*s/the/a/
   is difficult, but doable, to obtain the system time.  The TIMESTAMP
   described in Section 6.2.4.1 should only be used when it is actually
   impossible to obtain time information.  This rule should not be used
   as an excuse for lazy implementations.

   If a receiver receives that special TIMESTAMP, it should know that
   the sender had no idea of what the time actually is and act
*s/had/has/
   accordingly.

A.9  Additional Information on SENDER-INST

   The objective behind SENDER-INST (Section 6.2.7) is to provide a
   quick way to detect a new instance of the same sender.  It must be
   noted that this is not reliable as a second incarnation of a
   SENDER-INST may actually be able to use the same SENDER-INST value as
   the prior one.  Properly used, the SENDER-INST can be helpful for

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   analysis purposes.

A.10  Notes on the time SD-ID
*s/time/timeQuality/

   It is recommended that the value of "0" be the default for the
   "tzKnown" (Section 7.1.1) parameter.  It should only be changed to
   "1" after the administrator has specifically configured the time
   zone.  The value "1" may be used as the default if the underlying
   operating system provides accurate time zone information.  It is
   still advised that the administrator explicitly acknowledges the
*s/acknowledges/acknowledge/
   correctness of the time zone information.

   It is important not to create a false impression of accuracy with the
   time SD-ID (Section 7.1).  A sender should only indicate a given
*s/time/timeQuality/
   accuracy if it actually knows it is within these bounds.  It is
   generally assumed that the sender gains this in-depth knowledge
   through operator configuration.  As such, by default, an accuracy
   should not be provided.

A.11  Recommendation for Diagnostic Logging

   In Section 8.1, this document describes the need as well as potential
*s/need/need for/
   problems of diagnostic logging.  In this section, a real-world
*s/of/with/
   approach to useful diagnostic logging is recommended.

   While this document recommends to write meaningful diagnostic logs,
*s/to write/writing/
   it also recommends to allow an operator to limit the amount of
*s/to allow/allowing/
   diagnostic logging.  At least, an implementation should differentiate
   between critical, informational and debugging diagnostic message.
*s/informational/informational,/
*/debugging diagnostic message/debugging or diagnostic messages/
   Critical messages should only be issued in real critical states, e.g.
*s/only be issued in real/be issued only in really/
*s/e.g./&,/
   expected or happening malfunction of the application or parts of it.
*s/happening/occuring/
   A strong indication of an ongoing attack may also be considered
   critical.  As a guideline, there should be very few critical
   messages.  Informational messages should indicate all conditions not
*s/indicate all conditions/be used to indicate that all conditions are/
   fully correct, but still within the bounds of normal processing.  A
   diagnostic message logging the fact that a malformed message has been
   received is a good example of this category.  A debug diagnostic
   message should not be needed during normal operation, but merely as a
   tool for setting up or testing a system (which includes the process
   of an operator configuring multiple syslog applications in a complex
   environment).  An application may decide to not provide any debugging
*s/to not/not to/
   diagnostic messages.

   An administrator should be able to configure the level for which
   diagnostic messages will be written.  Non-configured diagnostic
*s/diagnostic/diagnostic messages/
   should not be written but discarded.  An implementor may create as
   many different levels of diagnostic messages as he see useful - the
*s/he see useful - /useful--/
   above recommendation is just based on real-world experience of what

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   is considered useful.  Please note that experience shows that too
   many levels of diagnostics typically do no good, because the typical
   administrator may no longer be able to understand what each level
   means.

   Even with this categorization, a single diagnostic (or a set of them)
   may frequently be generated when a specific condition exists (or a
   system is being attacked).  It will lead to the security issues
   outlined at the beginning of Section 8.1.  To solve this, it is
   recommended that an implementation be allowed to set a limit of how
   many duplicate diagnostic messages will be generated within a limited
   amount of time.  For example, an administrator should be able to
   configure that groups of 50 identical messages are logged within a
   specified time period with only a single diagnostic message.  All
   subsequent identical messages will be discarded until the next time
   interval.  It is usually considered good form to generate a
   subsequent message identifying the number of duplicate messages that
   were discarded.  While this causes some information loss, it is
   considered a good compromise between avoiding overruns and providing
   most in-depth diagnostic information.  An implementation offering
*s/most/the most/
   this feature should allow the administrator to configure the number
   of duplicate messages as well as the time interval to whatever the
   administrator thinks to be reasonable for his needs.  It is up to the
*s/to be reasonable for his needs/is reasonable/
   implementor of what the term "duplicate" means.  Some may decide that
*s/of //
   only totally identical (in byte-to-byte comparison) messages are
   actually duplicate, some other may say that a message which is of
*s/duplicate, some other/duplicates, whereas others/
*s/which/that/
   identical type but with just some changed parameter (e.g.  changed
*s/e.g. /e.g.,/
   remote host address) is also considered to be a duplicate.  Both
   approaches have their advantages and disadvantages.  Probably, it is
   best to also leave this configurable and allow the administrator to
   set the parameters.

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---

From: Clément MATHIEU <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 22:20:43 +0200

> *One could be picky and point out that according to the ABNF, this

That's wrong :-)

      SYSLOG-MSG      = HEADER SP STRUCTURED-DATA [SP MSG]

Clément MATHIEU