Configure ServiceNow Webhook Connector

You can configure a webhook connector in the Alert Logic console to send notifications to ServiceNow in near real time. When you set up a notification and subscribe a webhook connector, the connector sends the event to the target URL you configured and generates a service ticket in ServiceNow automatically.

Alert Logic notifications alert you to threats, changes, and scheduled events in your environment so you can respond quickly. From the Alert Logic console, you can subscribe your ServiceNow webhook to receive:

• Incident notifications—Generate a service ticket when incidents occur that meet specific criteria, such as escalated incidents.
• Log correlation notifications—Generate a service ticket when your log correlation rules trigger an incident or observation.
• Scheduled report notifications—Generate a service ticket when Alert Logic generates a scheduled report that is available for download.

Complete the following steps to successfully generate service tickets in ServiceNow:

1. Identify your ServiceNow target URL
2. Generate an Authorization header
3. (Optional) Customize the sample payload template
4. Create the ServiceNow webhook connector from the Alert Logic console
5. Subscribe your webhook to receive notifications

Identify your ServiceNow target URL

Before you create the webhook connector in the Alert Logic console, identify your ServiceNow instance name and make a note of it. In the Target URL field, you must replace "<myinstance>" with the ServiceNow instance to which you want to send Alert Logic security notifications.

Generate an Authorization header

ServiceNow requires an HTTP Authorization request header. You can use the following instructions for your operating system to generate the header.

The command requires a valid ServiceNow user name and password, and it encodes the credentials with base64. To construct the header, you enter the word "Basic" (which is the Authorization header type), a space, and then the base64-encoded credentials.

Alert Logic stores your Authorization header securely when you save the connector.

To generate the header on Linux and Mac OS X:

1. In the command line, type the following command, including the single quotation marks:

   echo -n '<user_name>:<password>' | base64

   where you must replace <user_name> and <password> with a valid user name and password for ServiceNow.

2. Copy the following string, which you must enter in the Authorization Header field when you create the connector:

   Basic <resulting_base64_encoded_string>

To generate the header in Windows PowerShell:

1. In the command line, type the following commands, including the quotation marks:

   PS c:\Temp>$auth = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes("<user_name>:<password")

   where you must replace <user_name> and <password> with a valid user name and password for ServiceNow.

   PS c:\Temp>[System.Convert]::ToBase64String($auth)

2. Copy the following string, which you must enter in the Authorization Header field when you create the connector:

   Basic <resulting_base64_encoded_string>

(Optional) Customize the payload template

Decide which type of security information that you want Alert Logic to send to ServiceNow: Incident, Observation (of a log correlation), or a Scheduled Report Notification payload.

Alert Logic provides a payload template for an incident and an observation using JQ transformation. A payload template converts the Alert Logic security information to the format expected by ServiceNow. You can add or remove lines in the sample template to meet your workflow requirements and security goals. If you want to create a ServiceNow connector for scheduled report notifications, you will need to configure the payload template.

For definitions of the Alert Logic variables in the templates and the full JSON that you can use to configure your payload template in JQ or JSON format, see:

• Incident Schema
• Observation Schema
• Scheduled Report Notification Schema

Incident payload template

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
{
    "short_description": (.incident.summary + ". Incident ID: " + .humanFriendlyId),
    "description": ("Customer: " + .customer + "\n" + "Deployment: " + .assets.al__deployment + "\n\n" + .incident.description + "\nIncident Link: " + .extra.incidentUrl),
    "state": (if .customer_status.status == "open" then "1" elif .customer_status.status == "snoozed" then "3" elif .customer_status.status == "closed" then "7" else "8" end),
    "severity": (if .incident_threat_rating == "Critical" then "1" elif .incident_threat_rating == "High" then "1" elif .incident_threat_rating == "Medium" then "2" else "3" end),
    "urgency": (if .incident_threat_rating == "Critical" then "1" elif .incident_threat_rating == "High" then "1" elif .incident_threat_rating == "Medium" then "2" else "3" end)
}

Observation payload template

1
2
3
4
5
{
    "short_description": (.fields.summary + ". Observation ID: " + .fields.id),
    "description": ("Recommendations:\n\n" + .fields.recommendations + "\n\nMessage:\n\n" + .fields.keys.message),
    "severity": (if .fields.severity == "critical" then "1" elif .fields.severity == "high" then "1" elif .fields.severity == "medium" then "2" else "3" end)
}

Create the ServiceNow webhook connector from the Alert Logic console

After you note your ServiceNow instance name, generate the Authorization header, and optionally customize the payload template, the next step is to create the webhook in the Alert Logic console and test the payload.

To create a ServiceNow webhook connector:

1. In the Alert Logic console, click the Settings icon (), and then click Connectors.
2. On the Connectors page, click the add icon (), and then click ServiceNow.
3. On the Create a ServiceNow Connector page, type a descriptive name for the webhook connector—for example, "ServiceNow Webhook Connector for Incidents."
4. In the prepopulated Target URL https://<myinstance>.service-now.com/api/now/table/incident, replace "<myinstance>" with the ServiceNow instance name that you noted earlier.
5. In Custom Header(s), leave the information as is. The field is prepopulated with the custom headers that ServiceNow requires.
6. In Authorization Header, paste the Authorization header you generated earlier.
7. Choose the Payload Type, which is the type of Alert Logic security information that you want to send: Incident, Observation (of a log correlation), or Scheduled Report Notification.
8. Choose the format of the payload template you customized earlier: JSON or JQ.
9. Enter the payload template that you customized.
A red bar next to a line indicates a syntax error. Code with errors is underlined with a jagged red line. You can hover your pointer over the underlined code to view a tip about the error.
10. Click TEST to send a test webhook request to the target URL provided. For more information, see Connector test results.
11. If your webhook connector sent the test event to the target URL successfully, click SAVE.

Connector test results

If you receive a message that the connector was successfully tested, Alert Logic sends the payload template you configured and populates a service ticket in ServiceNow with sample data. Check ServiceNow to ensure the results are expected, and adjust the payload template if necessary.

If the test is unsuccessful, Alert Logic displays an error message. For server response errors, you can use the error code and message that Alert Logic passes through to troubleshoot the issue. Alert Logic also informs you if your JSON or JQ payload template contains syntax errors.

Subscribe your webhook to receive notifications

After you test and save the connector configuration, the last step is to set up your notification criteria and subscribe the webhook.

You can set up and manage a notification of any type directly from the Notifications page. For more information, see Manage Notifications. You can create notifications from other pages according to notification type:

• For incidents, you can also create a notification from the Incidents page. For more information, see Incident Notifications.
• For observations, you can also create a notification from the Search page (Log Search tab or Correlations tab) during the process of creating the correlation or by editing an existing correlation listed on the Correlations tab. For more information, see Correlations and Notifications and Observation Notifications.
• For scheduled reports, you can also schedule the report and subscribe notification recipients from the Reports page. For more information, see Scheduled Reports and Notifications.

Manage your connectors

You can view the list of connectors and edit or delete an existing one. For more information, see Manage Connectors.