Log File Monitors
The simplest of IDSs, log file monitors, attempt to detect intrusions by parsing system event logs. For example, a basic log file monitor might grep (search) an Apache access.log file for characteristic /cgi-bin/ requests. This technology is limited in that it only detects logged events, which attackers can easily alter. In addition, such a system will miss low-level system events, because event logging is a relatively high-level operation.
Log file monitors are a prime example of host-based IDSs, because they primarily lend themselves to monitoring only one machine. In contrast, network-based IDSs typically scan the network at the packet level, directly off the wire like a sniffer. Network IDSs can coordinate data across multiple ...
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