How to monitor firewall rule violations

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Problem statement

Firewall rule violations, whether caused by misconfigurations, insider actions, or external attacks, can open the door to unauthorized access, lateral movement, or data exfiltration . Continuous monitoring of rule changes is essential for preempting these threats and maintaining network integrity.

Solution

Log360 provides visibility into firewall rule violations across your environment. The SIEM solution comes with prebuilt alert rules and detailed reports that help detect suspicious changes and correlate them with user actions for further investigation.

Here’s how Log360 helps monitor rule violations:

  • Firewall configuration changes: Detects rule additions, deletions, or modifications—key indicators of attempted bypasses or misconfigurations that could expose unauthorized access points.
  • Windows firewall rule changes: Includes granular details like Rule ID, Device, Rule Name, and Profile Name to help assess if changes were legitimate or signs of compromise.
  • Real-time alerts for rule violations: Instantly notifies security teams when high-risk changes are detected, enabling timely response.

For deeper investigation, analysts can use Log360’s Incident Workbench to pivot into user activity timelines, validate whether the rule change was followed by suspicious behavior, and determine if it forms part of a broader attack sequence.

Relevant MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques:

Tactics:

Techniques:

Prerequisites

  • Enable auditing of firewall configuration changes on relevant devices.
  • Ensure endpoint and network firewall logs are ingested into Log360.
  • Activate predefined alert profiles related to firewall rule changes.

Next steps

  • Review and customize alert rules to fit your firewall policies.
  • Analyze historical firewall rule change trends for anomalies.
  • Integrate firewall violation alerts into your incident response workflows.

Why Log360?

With built-in support for rule violation detection and correlated user activity monitoring, Log360 ensures you never miss a critical configuration change. Real-time visibility, actionable alerts, and investigation tools help security teams take swift, informed action before risks escalate.