How To Check Firewall Logs Windows 7

In the procedure of filtering Cyberspace traffic, all firewalls accept some type of logging characteristic that documents how the firewall handled diverse types of traffic. These logs can provide valuable data similar source and destination IP addresses, port numbers, and protocols. You can besides use the Windows Firewall log file to monitor TCP and UDP connections and packets that are blocked past the firewall.

Why and When Firewall Logging is Useful

1. To verify if newly added firewall rules work properly or to debug them if they do not work as expected.
2. To determine if Windows Firewall is the crusade of application failures — With the Firewall logging feature yous can cheque for disabled port openings, dynamic port openings, analyze dropped packets with push and urgent flags and analyze dropped packets on the ship path.
3. To help and identify malicious activity — With the Firewall logging feature you can check if any malicious action is occurring within your network or not, although you must remember it does not provide the data needed to track down the source of the activeness.
4. If you notice repeated unsuccessful attempts to access your firewall and/or other loftier profile systems from one IP address (or group of IP addresses), then y'all might want to write a rule to drop all connections from that IP space (making sure that the IP address isn't being spoofed).
5. Outgoing connections coming from internal servers such as Web servers could be an indication that someone is using your organisation to launch attacks against computers located on other networks.

How to Generate the Log File

By default, the log file is disabled, which ways that no data is written to the log file. To create a log file printing "Win key + R" to open the Run box. Type "wf.msc" and press Enter. The "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" screen appears. On the correct side of the screen, click "Properties."

A new dialog box appears. Now click the "Private Profile" tab and select "Customize" in the "Logging Section."

A new window opens and from that screen choose your maximum log size, location, and whether to log only dropped packets, successful connection or both. A dropped packet is a packet that Windows Firewall has blocked. A successful connection refers both to incoming connections as well equally any connection you have made over the Internet, merely it doesn't e'er hateful that an intruder has successfully connected to your computer.

By default, Windows Firewall writes log entries to %SystemRoot%\System32\LogFiles\Firewall\Pfirewall.log and stores merely the last four MB of data. In virtually product environments, this log volition constantly write to your hd, and if yous modify the size limit of the log file (to log activeness over a long menses of fourth dimension) then it may cause a performance impact. For this reason, you should enable logging only when actively troubleshooting a problem and then immediately disable logging when you're finished.

Next, click the "Public Profile" tab and repeat the same steps you did for "Private Contour" tab. You've now turned on the log for both individual and public network connections. The log file volition exist created in a W3C extended log format (.log) that you can examine with a text editor of your choice or import them into a spreadsheet. A single log file can contain thousands of text entries, so if you are reading them through Notepad then disable give-and-take wrapping to preserve the cavalcade formatting. If y'all are viewing the log file in a spreadsheet then all the fields will be logically displayed in columns for easier assay.

On the primary "Windows Firewall with Advanced Security" screen, scroll down until y'all see the "Monitoring" link. In the Details pane, under "Logging Settings", click the file path next to "File Name." The log opens in Notepad.

Interpreting the Windows Firewall log

The Windows Firewall security log contains two sections. The header provides static, descriptive information well-nigh the version of the log, and the fields available. The trunk of the log is the compiled information that is entered as a event of traffic that tries to cantankerous the firewall. It is a dynamic list, and new entries proceed appearing at the bottom of the log. The fields are written from left to correct across the page. The (-) is used when in that location is no entry available for the field.

According to the Microsoft Technet documentation the header of the log file contains:

Version — Displays which version of the Windows Firewall security log is installed.
Software — Displays the name of the software creating the log.
Time — Indicates that all the timestamp data in the log are in local time.
Fields — Displays a list of fields that are available for security log entries, if information is available.

While the body of the log file contains:

date — The date field identifies the date in the format YYYY-MM-DD.
time — The local time is displayed in the log file using the format HH:MM:SS. The hours are referenced in 24-hour format.
action — As the firewall processes traffic, certain actions are recorded. The logged deportment are Driblet for dropping a connection, Open for opening a connection, CLOSE for closing a connectedness, Open-Inbound for an inbound session opened to the local computer, and INFO-EVENTS-LOST for events candy by the Windows Firewall, but were not recorded in the security log.
protocol — The protocol used such as TCP, UDP, or ICMP.
src-ip — Displays the source IP address (the IP accost of the estimator attempting to establish advice).
dst-ip — Displays the destination IP address of a connection attempt.
src-port — The port number on the sending computer from which the connection was attempted.
dst-port — The port to which the sending computer was trying to brand a connection.
size — Displays the packet size in bytes.
tcpflags — Information nigh TCP control flags in TCP headers.
tcpsyn — Displays the TCP sequence number in the packet.
tcpack — Displays the TCP acknowledgement number in the packet.
tcpwin — Displays the TCP window size, in bytes, in the packet.
icmptype — Information virtually the ICMP letters.
icmpcode — Data nigh the ICMP messages.
info — Displays an entry that depends on the type of activeness that occurred.
path — Displays the direction of the communication. The options available are SEND, RECEIVE, FORWARD, and UNKNOWN.

As yous notice, the log entry is indeed big and may accept up to 17 pieces of information associated with each result. Nevertheless, only the first viii pieces of information are important for general analysis. With the details in your paw now yous can clarify the data for malicious activeness or debug awarding failures.

If you suspect any malicious activity, and so open the log file in Notepad and filter all the log entries with DROP in the action field and note whether the destination IP address ends with a number other than 255. If you find many such entries, then take a note of the destination IP addresses of the packets. One time you take finished troubleshooting the problem, you lot can disable the firewall logging.

Troubleshooting network problems can exist quite daunting at times and a recommended skilful practice when troubleshooting Windows Firewall is to enable the native logs. Although the Windows Firewall log file is non useful for analyzing the overall security of your network, information technology still remains a good practice if you desire to monitor what is happening behind the scenes.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/220204/how-to-track-firewall-activity-with-the-windows-firewall-log/

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