How to Enable and Manage AWS WAF Logging with CloudWatch Logs – Source: socprime.com

AWS WAF allows you to log traffic of your web ACLs, providing detailed insights such as the request details, matched rules, and timestamps. Here’s a concise guide to enable and manage logging using Amazon CloudWatch Logs.

1. Configuring Logging

To log web ACL traffic:

• Navigate to the AWS WAF console.
• Select the desired web ACL.
• Click Logging and Metrics and choose to enable logging.
• Set the destination as an Amazon CloudWatch Logs log group, or other supported destinations such as Amazon S3 or Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose.

2. Log Management Options

• Field Redaction: Protect sensitive data by redacting fields like URI paths, query strings, or headers. Redacted fields appear as REDACTED in logs.
• Log Filtering: Apply filters to log only specific web requests based on criteria like rule action or labels.

3. Analyzing Logs

Logs provide insights into:

• Incoming web requests.
• Matched rules and their actions.
• Details like IP address, HTTP method, and headers.

These logs can be used for performance monitoring, troubleshooting, and compliance auditing.

4. Monitoring and Alerts

Use Amazon CloudWatch to:

• Set alarms based on specific metrics.
• Create dashboards for visualizing traffic patterns in real-time.

By leveraging AWS WAF logging with CloudWatch, you can gain comprehensive visibility into your application’s security posture.

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