Learn how to - How To Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04

Felix Williams How to Security Ubuntu January 1, 2023

Learn how to – How To Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04.

This article will cover how to install Wazuh server on Ubuntu 20.04. Wazuh server is a free, open-source security monitoring tool that uses Elastic stack (ELK) . It is used to monitor security events at an application and OS level. You can therefore be able to get information about threat detection, incident response and integrity monitoring. In this tutorial, we shall be deploy Wazuh on a single-node Ubuntu 20.04|18.04 host, with ELK installed on the same host.

You can use Wazuh for the following applications:

Security analysis
Log analysis
Vulnerability detection
Container security
Cloud security

Setup Pre-requisites

The minimum hardware requirements are as below:

4 GB of RAM
2 CPU cores

Recommended specs are:

16 GB of RAM
8 CPU cores

Install the packages below needed for the running of Wazuh Manager.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install vim curl apt-transport-https unzip wget libcap2-bin software-properties-common lsb-release gnupg2

Option 1: Automated install of Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04 using script

The fastest way to install Wazuh on a single host is by using a script that automatically detects OS type and performs a health check to verify that the available system resources meet the minimal requirements.

Download the script to your Ubuntu system where Wazuh server is installed

curl -sO https://packages.wazuh.com/4.3/wazuh-install.sh

Once the script is downloaded run it:

sudo bash ./wazuh-install.sh -a

Installation process should take few minutes to complete:

23/05/2022 11:36:11 INFO: Starting Wazuh installation assistant. Wazuh version: 4.3.1
23/05/2022 11:36:11 INFO: Verbose logging redirected to /var/log/wazuh-install.log
23/05/2022 11:36:13 ERROR: Wazuh manager already installed.
23/05/2022 11:36:13 ERROR: Wazuh indexer already installed.
23/05/2022 11:36:14 ERROR: Wazuh dashboard already installed.
23/05/2022 11:36:14 ERROR: Filebeat already installed.
23/05/2022 11:36:14 INFO: If you want to overwrite the current installation, run this script adding the option -o/--overwrite. This will erase all the existing configuration and data.
root@ubuntu-01:~# sudo bash ./wazuh-install.sh -a -o
23/05/2022 11:36:21 INFO: Starting Wazuh installation assistant. Wazuh version: 4.3.1
23/05/2022 11:36:21 INFO: Verbose logging redirected to /var/log/wazuh-install.log
23/05/2022 11:36:23 INFO: --- Removing existing Wazuh installation ---
23/05/2022 11:36:23 INFO: Removing Wazuh manager.
23/05/2022 11:36:37 INFO: Wazuh manager removed.
23/05/2022 11:36:37 INFO: Removing Wazuh indexer.
23/05/2022 11:36:45 INFO: Wazuh indexer removed.
23/05/2022 11:36:45 INFO: Removing Filebeat.
23/05/2022 11:36:51 INFO: Filebeat removed.
23/05/2022 11:36:51 INFO: Removing Wazuh dashboard.
23/05/2022 11:37:07 INFO: Wazuh dashboard removed.
23/05/2022 11:37:07 INFO: Installation cleaned.
23/05/2022 11:37:19 INFO: Wazuh repository added.
23/05/2022 11:37:19 INFO: --- Configuration files ---
23/05/2022 11:37:19 INFO: Generating configuration files.
23/05/2022 11:37:20 INFO: Created wazuh-install-files.tar. It contains the Wazuh cluster key, certificates, and passwords necessary for installation.
23/05/2022 11:37:20 INFO: --- Wazuh indexer ---
23/05/2022 11:37:20 INFO: Starting Wazuh indexer installation.
23/05/2022 11:38:23 INFO: Wazuh indexer installation finished.
23/05/2022 11:38:24 INFO: Wazuh indexer post-install configuration finished.
23/05/2022 11:38:24 INFO: Starting service wazuh-indexer.
23/05/2022 11:38:45 INFO: wazuh-indexer service started.
23/05/2022 11:38:45 INFO: Initializing Wazuh indexer cluster security settings.
23/05/2022 11:38:58 INFO: Wazuh indexer cluster initialized.
23/05/2022 11:38:58 INFO: --- Wazuh server ---
23/05/2022 11:38:58 INFO: Starting the Wazuh manager installation.
23/05/2022 11:40:18 INFO: Wazuh manager installation finished.
23/05/2022 11:40:18 INFO: Starting service wazuh-manager.
23/05/2022 11:40:38 INFO: wazuh-manager service started.
23/05/2022 11:40:38 INFO: Starting Filebeat installation.
23/05/2022 11:40:47 INFO: Filebeat installation finished.
23/05/2022 11:40:47 INFO: Filebeat post-install configuration finished.
23/05/2022 11:40:47 INFO: Starting service filebeat.
23/05/2022 11:40:49 INFO: filebeat service started.
23/05/2022 11:40:49 INFO: --- Wazuh dashboard ---
23/05/2022 11:40:49 INFO: Starting Wazuh dashboard installation.
23/05/2022 11:41:39 INFO: Wazuh dashboard installation finished.
23/05/2022 11:41:39 INFO: Wazuh dashboard post-install configuration finished.
23/05/2022 11:41:39 INFO: Starting service wazuh-dashboard.
23/05/2022 11:41:40 INFO: wazuh-dashboard service started.
23/05/2022 11:42:08 INFO: Initializing Wazuh dashboard web application.
23/05/2022 11:42:19 INFO: Wazuh dashboard web application initialized.
23/05/2022 11:42:19 INFO: --- Summary ---
23/05/2022 11:42:19 INFO: You can access the web interface https://<wazuh-dashboard-ip>
    User: admin
    Password: PRPdOq0eQ23v5huwAdkB1ukBBqfGeCfu
23/05/2022 11:42:19 INFO: Installation finished.

Take note of access credentials:

23/05/2022 11:42:19 INFO: You can access the web interface https://<wazuh-dashboard-ip>
    User: admin
    Password: PRPdOq0eQ23v5huwAdkB1ukBBqfGeCfu

Access the portal at https://<serverip> on your web browser and login

How To Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04 1

Input username and password

How To Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04 2

You should now get access to Wazuh Web dashboard.

How To Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04 3

Option 2: Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04 using manual steps

The steps below will guide us on how to setup Wazuh server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04.

Add GPG key

curl -fsSL https://packages.wazuh.com/key/GPG-KEY-WAZUH|sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/wazuh.gpg

2. Add Wazuh repository

echo "deb https://packages.wazuh.com/4.x/apt/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wazuh.list

3. Update system

sudo apt update

4. Install Wazuh Manager

sudo apt install wazuh-manager

5. Start and enable service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now wazuh-manager

Check status for Wazuh manager and confirm if it is up and running

systemctl status wazuh-manager

Check service status:

$ systemctl status wazuh-manager
● wazuh-manager.service - Wazuh manager
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/wazuh-manager.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-04-26 09:13:56 UTC; 22s ago
    Process: 252739 ExecStart=/usr/bin/env ${DIRECTORY}/bin/ossec-control start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Tasks: 121 (limit: 4580)
     Memory: 472.5M
     CGroup: /system.slice/wazuh-manager.service
             ├─252805 /var/ossec/framework/python/bin/python3 /var/ossec/api/scripts/wazuh-apid.py
             ├─252844 /var/ossec/bin/ossec-authd
             ├─252860 /var/ossec/bin/wazuh-db
             ├─252883 /var/ossec/bin/ossec-execd
             ├─252897 /var/ossec/bin/ossec-analysisd
             ├─252958 /var/ossec/bin/ossec-syscheckd
             ├─252975 /var/ossec/bin/ossec-remoted
             ├─253006 /var/ossec/bin/ossec-logcollector
             ├─253024 /var/ossec/bin/ossec-monitord
             └─253047 /var/ossec/bin/wazuh-modulesd

Apr 26 09:13:47 node3 env[252739]: Started wazuh-db...
Apr 26 09:13:48 node3 env[252739]: Started ossec-execd...
Apr 26 09:13:49 node3 env[252739]: Started ossec-analysisd...
Apr 26 09:13:50 node3 env[252739]: Started ossec-syscheckd...
Apr 26 09:13:51 node3 env[252739]: Started ossec-remoted...
Apr 26 09:13:52 node3 env[252739]: Started ossec-logcollector...
Apr 26 09:13:53 node3 env[252739]: Started ossec-monitord...
Apr 26 09:13:54 node3 env[252739]: Started wazuh-modulesd...
Apr 26 09:13:56 node3 env[252739]: Completed.
Apr 26 09:13:56 node3 systemd[1]: Started Wazuh manager.

Install ELK Stack on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04

Install Elasticsearch from Open Distro, a highly scalable full-text search engine. This package offers advanced security, alerting, deep performance analysis, index management and many more features.

sudo apt install elasticsearch-oss opendistroforelasticsearch

Download a custom configuration file for /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml as shown below:

sudo curl -so /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml https://packages.wazuh.com/resources/4.2/open-distro/elasticsearch/7.x/elasticsearch_all_in_one.yml

Configure Kibana roles and users with the templates below:

sudo curl -so /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/roles.yml https://packages.wazuh.com/resources/4.2/open-distro/elasticsearch/roles/roles.yml

sudo curl -so /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/roles_mapping.yml https://packages.wazuh.com/resources/4.2/open-distro/elasticsearch/roles/roles_mapping.yml

sudo curl -so /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/internal_users.yml https://packages.wazuh.com/resources/4.2/open-distro/elasticsearch/roles/internal_users.yml

The commands above adds the following users for Kibana:

Wazuh_user – Will be used for users who need read-only access to the Wazuh Kibana plugin.
Wazuh_admin – For users who need administrative privileges

Two additional roles are also created to give the users appropriate permissions.

wazuh_ui_user – provides wazuh_user permissions to read the Wazuh’s indices.
wazuh_ui_admin – allows wazuh_admins to perform read/write, management and indexing on wazuh indices.

Install Certificates

We can setup certificates to be used for TLS communication between Elasticsearch and Wazuh.

1. Remove demo certs

sudo rm -f /etc/elasticsearch/{esnode-key.pem,esnode.pem,kirk-key.pem,kirk.pem,root-ca.pem}

2. Download the wazuh-cert-tool.sh:

sudo su -
curl -so ~/wazuh-cert-tool.sh https://packages.wazuh.com/resources/4.2/open-distro/tools/certificate-utility/wazuh-cert-tool.sh
curl -so ~/instances.yml https://packages.wazuh.com/resources/4.2/open-distro/tools/certificate-utility/instances_aio.yml

3. Run the wazuh-cert-tool.sh to create the certificates:

# bash ~/wazuh-cert-tool.sh
02/28/2022 22:43:19 INFO: Configuration file found. Creating certificates...
02/28/2022 22:43:20 INFO: Creating the Elasticsearch certificates...
02/28/2022 22:43:20 INFO: Creating Wazuh server certificates...
02/28/2022 22:43:20 INFO: Creating Kibana certificate...
02/28/2022 22:43:20 INFO: Certificates creation finished. They can be found in ~/certs.

4. Move the Elasticsearch certificates to their corresponding location:

mkdir /etc/elasticsearch/certs/
mv ~/certs/elasticsearch* /etc/elasticsearch/certs/
mv ~/certs/admin* /etc/elasticsearch/certs/
cp ~/certs/root-ca* /etc/elasticsearch/certs/

5. Mitigate Apache Log4j2 Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability

Add the following configuration to mitigate Apache Log4j2 Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability – CVE-2021-44228 – ESA-2021-31.

mkdir -p /etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options.d
echo '-Dlog4j2.formatMsgNoLookups=true' > /etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options.d/disabledlog4j.options
chmod 2750 /etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options.d/disabledlog4j.options
chown root:elasticsearch /etc/elasticsearch/jvm.options.d/disabledlog4j.options

6. Enable and start the Elasticsearch service:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable elasticsearch
systemctl start elasticsearch

Check Elasticsearch service status:

# systemctl status elasticsearch
● elasticsearch.service - Elasticsearch
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/elasticsearch.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2022-02-28 22:46:22 UTC; 1min 29s ago
       Docs: https://www.elastic.co
   Main PID: 56511 (java)
      Tasks: 47 (limit: 4682)
     Memory: 1.2G
     CGroup: /system.slice/elasticsearch.service
             └─56511 /usr/share/elasticsearch/jdk/bin/java -Xshare:auto -Des.networkaddress.cache.ttl=60 -Des.networkaddress.cache.negative.ttl=10 -XX:+AlwaysPreTouch -Xss1m -Djava.awt.headless=tru>

Feb 28 22:46:11 ubuntu-20-04-02 systemd[1]: Starting Elasticsearch...
Feb 28 22:46:22 ubuntu-20-04-02 systemd-entrypoint[56511]: WARNING: An illegal reflective access operation has occurred
Feb 28 22:46:22 ubuntu-20-04-02 systemd-entrypoint[56511]: WARNING: Illegal reflective access by com.amazon.opendistro.elasticsearch.performanceanalyzer.collectors.MasterServiceEventMetrics (file:/>
Feb 28 22:46:22 ubuntu-20-04-02 systemd-entrypoint[56511]: WARNING: Please consider reporting this to the maintainers of com.amazon.opendistro.elasticsearch.performanceanalyzer.collectors.MasterSer>
Feb 28 22:46:22 ubuntu-20-04-02 systemd-entrypoint[56511]: WARNING: Use --illegal-access=warn to enable warnings of further illegal reflective access operations
Feb 28 22:46:22 ubuntu-20-04-02 systemd-entrypoint[56511]: WARNING: All illegal access operations will be denied in a future release
Feb 28 22:46:22 ubuntu-20-04-02 systemd[1]: Started Elasticsearch.

Run the Elasticsearch securityadmin script to load the new certificates information and start the cluster:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/share/elasticsearch/jdk/ && /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/tools/securityadmin.sh -cd /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/ -nhnv -cacert /etc/elasticsearch/certs/root-ca.pem -cert /etc/elasticsearch/certs/admin.pem -key /etc/elasticsearch/certs/admin-key.pem

Command execution output:

Open Distro Security Admin v7
Will connect to localhost:9300 ... done
Connected as CN=admin,OU=Docu,O=Wazuh,L=California,C=US
Elasticsearch Version: 7.10.2
Open Distro Security Version: 1.13.1.0
Contacting elasticsearch cluster 'elasticsearch' and wait for YELLOW clusterstate ...
Clustername: elasticsearch
Clusterstate: GREEN
Number of nodes: 1
Number of data nodes: 1
.opendistro_security index does not exists, attempt to create it ... done (0-all replicas)
Populate config from /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/
Will update '_doc/config' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/config.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'config' created or updated
Will update '_doc/roles' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/roles.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'roles' created or updated
Will update '_doc/rolesmapping' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/roles_mapping.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'rolesmapping' created or updated
Will update '_doc/internalusers' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/internal_users.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'internalusers' created or updated
Will update '_doc/actiongroups' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/action_groups.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'actiongroups' created or updated
Will update '_doc/tenants' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/tenants.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'tenants' created or updated
Will update '_doc/nodesdn' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/nodes_dn.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'nodesdn' created or updated
Will update '_doc/whitelist' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/whitelist.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'whitelist' created or updated
Will update '_doc/audit' with /usr/share/elasticsearch/plugins/opendistro_security/securityconfig/audit.yml
   SUCC: Configuration for 'audit' created or updated
Done with success

Run the command below to confirm that the installation was successful:

curl -XGET https://localhost:9200 -u admin:admin -k

The response should be as follows:

{
  "name" : "node-1",
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
  "cluster_uuid" : "42mc1BAjQaOpVo4p3Xz5lA",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "7.10.2",
    "build_flavor" : "oss",
    "build_type" : "deb",
    "build_hash" : "747e1cc71def077253878a59143c1f785afa92b9",
    "build_date" : "2021-01-13T00:42:12.435326Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "8.7.0",
    "minimum_wire_compatibility_version" : "6.8.0",
    "minimum_index_compatibility_version" : "6.0.0-beta1"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

Install Filebeat on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04

Filebeat is used to ship alerts and events from Wazuh server to Elasticsearch.

sudo apt install filebeat

Download the the filebeat configuration file below that will be used to forward wazuh alerts to Elasticsearch

curl -so /etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml https://packages.wazuh.com/resources/4.2/open-distro/filebeat/7.x/filebeat_all_in_one.yml

Download the alerts template with the command below for Elasticsearch:

curl -so /etc/filebeat/wazuh-template.json https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wazuh/wazuh/4.2/extensions/elasticsearch/7.x/wazuh-template.json
chmod go+r /etc/filebeat/wazuh-template.json

Download the Wazuh FIlebeat module:

curl -s https://packages.wazuh.com/4.x/filebeat/wazuh-filebeat-0.1.tar.gz | tar -xvz -C /usr/share/filebeat/module

Copy the Elasticsearch certificates to /etc/filebeat/certs

mkdir /etc/filebeat/certs
cp ~/certs/root-ca.pem /etc/filebeat/certs/
mv ~/certs/filebeat* /etc/filebeat/certs/

Start and enable Filebeat service

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now filebeat

Confirm Filebeat configuration by the command below:

# filebeat test output
elasticsearch: https://127.0.0.1:9200...
  parse url... OK
  connection...
    parse host... OK
    dns lookup... OK
    addresses: 127.0.0.1
    dial up... OK
  TLS...
    security: server's certificate chain verification is enabled
    handshake... OK
    TLS version: TLSv1.3
    dial up... OK
  talk to server... OK
  version: 7.10.2

Install Kibana on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04

Kibana is the web interface that helps us visualize and analyze the events stored in Elasticsearch.

Use the command below to install Kibana on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04

apt install opendistroforelasticsearch-kibana

Download the Configuration file for Kibana

curl -so /etc/kibana/kibana.yml https://packages.wazuh.com/resources/4.2/open-distro/kibana/7.x/kibana_all_in_one.yml

Create data directory for Kibana

mkdir /usr/share/kibana/data
chown -R kibana:kibana /usr/share/kibana/data

Install the Wazuh Kibana plugin.

cd /usr/share/kibana
sudo -u kibana /usr/share/kibana/bin/kibana-plugin install https://packages.wazuh.com/4.x/ui/kibana/wazuh_kibana-4.2.5_7.10.2-1.zip

Sample execution output:

Attempting to transfer from https://packages.wazuh.com/4.x/ui/kibana/wazuh_kibana-4.2.5_7.10.2-1.zip
Transferring 33111704 bytes....................
Transfer complete
Retrieving metadata from plugin archive
Extracting plugin archive
Extraction complete
Plugin installation complete

Copy the Elasticsearch certificates to /etc/kibana/certs:

mkdir /etc/kibana/certs
cp ~/certs/root-ca.pem /etc/kibana/certs/
mv ~/certs/kibana* /etc/kibana/certs/
chown kibana:kibana /etc/kibana/certs/*

Bind Kibana’s socket to priviledged port 443:

setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' /usr/share/kibana/node/bin/node

Start and enable Kibana service

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now kibana

Allow Kibana through the firewall

sudo ufw allow 443/tcp

You can now access your wazuh kibana interface via

URL: https://<wazuh_server_ip>
user: admin
password: admin

How To Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04 4

You can login and proceed to see the available metrics from Wazuh:

How To Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04 5

With the above steps, we have successfully setup Wazuh server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04. Cheers and please check out other interesting articles on the site.

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Learn how to – How To Install Wazuh Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04