How did this software come about:- Well one day when reading through the Smoothwall Usenet posting I came across a posting about monitoring the error log from the apache web server which is used to drive the control interface for the Smoothwall firewall. If someone is trying to break into the control part of the web interface then the bad passwords entries would be posted here. The world would move on and no one would be any the wiser as this error log is not monitored or reviewed by anything. In fact our potential malefactor could carry on until he got lucky with his passwords or something else happened to draw attention to his efforts. A slurp at the coffee stimulated the little gray cells and it dawned on me that there were other logs in my set up that had the same characteristics, i.e. they were not monitored. Hence this simple script which I hope you will find useful.

How to use this code:-

• Download the latest version by CLICKING RIGHT HERE to any suitable location. The code is supplied in compressed format so use 'tar -zxvf log2syslog.tar.gz' to uncompress the file into your current directory.
• Move it to somewhere suitable such as /usr/local/bin/.
• Make sure the code is executable. If not do a 'chmod +x log2syslog.pl'
• Run it with the help option to see the parameters. E.g. /usr/local/bin/log2syslog.pl --help.
• Try it. E.g. /usr/local/bin/log2syslog.pl --log-file /var/log/httpd/error_log --daemon. The --daemon option puts the code into the background. To check its running try a ps -auxwww | grep log2syslog.
• Send me any sensible suggestions. Remember this is just a simple piece of code. Or a virtual beer would be nice.