Monitoring Cisco Network Devices with Wazuh: A Complete Guide

Network infrastructure is the backbone of any modern organization. To secure and monitor that infrastructure, centralized log collection is essential. In this guide, we’ll show you how to collect and analyze syslog messages from Cisco switches or routers using Wazuh, an open-source security platform.

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Before you deploy Wazuh, get to know how it works. This deep-dive explains Wazuh’s internal architecture, key use cases, and how to apply it in real-world scenarios.
📚 Understanding Wazuh: Architecture, Use Cases, and Real-World Applications

Whether you're monitoring link status, configuration changes, or login attempts, Wazuh offers a scalable and powerful way to turn raw logs into actionable alerts.

🚀 Why Use Wazuh for Cisco Syslog?

✅ Centralized logging for all your switches and routers
🔍 Real-time monitoring of network events (e.g., interface status, login attempts)
⚠️ Alerting and correlation with other data sources
📊 Visualization through the Wazuh dashboard (Kibana)

🛠️ System Architecture

+--------------------+               +------------------------+               +---------------------+
|  Cisco Switches    +-------------> |  Wazuh Manager         +-------------> |  Wazuh Rules Engine |
|  (IOS/ASA/NX-OS)   | (UDP/TCP 514) |  (Logcollector active) |               |  (alerts triggered) |
+--------------------+               +-----------+------------+               +---------------------+
                                                  |
                                                  | Writes
                                                  v
                                     +----------------------------+
                                     | /var/ossec/logs/archives/ |
                                     | /var/ossec/logs/alerts/   |
                                     +-------------+--------------+
                                                   |
                                        Parses/Forwards to (optional)
                                                   v
                                    +------------------------------+
                                    |     Wazuh Dashboard (Kibana) |
                                    |   Visualization & Searching  |
                                    +------------------------------+

⚙️ Step-by-Step Setup

1. Configure Cisco Switch to Send Syslog

conf t
logging host <WAZUH_IP> transport udp port 514
logging trap informational
service timestamps log datetime msec
exit

Adjust the transport protocol (udp or tcp) and port as needed.

2. Configure Wazuh to Accept Syslog

Edit the Wazuh Manager configuration file:

<!-- /var/ossec/etc/ossec.conf -->
<remote>
  <connection>syslog</connection>
  <port>514</port>
  <protocol>udp</protocol>
  <allowed-ips>192.168.10.0/24</allowed-ips>
  <local_ip>192.168.10.10</local_ip> <!-- your Wazuh interface IP -->
</remote>

Restart the Wazuh Manager:

sudo systemctl restart wazuh-manager

3. Sample Cisco Syslog Messages

<189>Jun 10 14:22:10 switch01 33953: %LINK-3-UPDOWN: Interface GigabitEthernet1/0/24, changed state to up
<189>Jun 10 14:23:45 switch01 33954: %SEC_LOGIN-5-LOGIN_SUCCESS: Login Success [user: admin] [Source: 192.168.1.50]
<190>Jun 10 14:24:30 switch01 33955: %SYS-5-CONFIG_I: Configured from console by admin on vty0 (192.168.1.50)

Wazuh parses and categorizes these using built-in decoders for Cisco devices.

4. Visualizing Logs in Wazuh Dashboard

Once syslog messages are processed:

Open Wazuh Dashboard (based on Kibana)
Filter logs by source IP, severity, or keyword
Create alerts or dashboards for:
- Interface up/down events
- Failed login attempts
- Unauthorized config changes

🔒 Security Tip: Use `<allowed-ips>`

The <allowed-ips> tag ensures that only trusted IPs (your Cisco devices) can send syslog messages:

<allowed-ips>192.168.10.0/24</allowed-ips>

This prevents abuse or noise from unknown sources.

✅ Final Thoughts

Integrating Cisco switches with Wazuh provides a robust and scalable approach to infrastructure monitoring and threat detection. From compliance to performance to security, you gain real-time visibility into your network’s heartbeat.

Need help writing custom rules or dashboards for your Cisco logs? Contact us or drop a comment below!