Start-up offers tool for security analysis

Start-up Remnant Labs has announced a system-log analysis tool that aggregates log data from firewalls, intrusion-detection systems and other sources to alert managers about network security lapses.

The Universal Log Profiler runs on a PC or workstation and is intended as an alarm system to notify managers of violations in security policy, the company says.

“Log files contain valuable information about the configuration of networks,” says Eric Lin, CTO and co-founder of Remnant Labs.

He says the purpose of the Universal Log Profiler is to immediately notify network managers of security violations, such as unauthorized open ports, IP addresses from banned sites or use of a machine in off hours.

Before starting Remnant Labs, Lin was the technical sales and development manager at Niksun, which makes the NetDetector analysis tool. He says the Universal Log Profiler can receive log-analysis data from firewalls, IDSs and other gear through manual or automated transfer on a scheduled basis.

The Universal Log Profiler can accept and analyze log data from firewalls made by Cisco, NetScreen, Check Point, Secure Computing and Nortel, as well as wireless routers from Linksys, Netgear and D-Link.

IDSs supported by Remnant Labs’ product include open source Snort as well as commercial products from Cisco, Internet Security Systems, the Niksun NetDetector and the Nortel IDS.

Servers supported include Windows 2000 and XP, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and the HP Unix system logs.

Intrusion prevention on the way

The Universal Log Profiler doesn’t support any type of intrusion-prevention system but that is planned for future versions of the product, says Les Hribar, Remnant Labs CEO and co-founder, who worked at Niksun as senior vice president of sales.

Remnant Labs says it has about a dozen customers, including shipping and warehouse firm Rapid Freightways, in Santa Fe Springs, Calif. Hribar and Lin say their log-analysis product ships with policy templates to analyze about 40 types of security violations, and new ones can be added to reflect corporate requirements.

The Universal Log Profiler costs $8,500 with support for 10 devices.