Raccoons and the Importance of Logging...In Our Applications!
- Jen C
- Dec 16, 2025
- 4 min read
I wrote an article titled “Vulnerability Highlight: Beavers, Insufficient Logging and Monitoring,” and we learned about Insufficient Logging and Monitoring at a high level... and beavers. I also wrote an article titled “Breach Please! Use of proper logging and monitoring to avoid security breaches!”
In this article, we’ll take a deeper look into the importance of comprehensive application logging for detecting malicious activity and how it can help investigate security incidents...and raccoons. Both raccoons and attackers look for weak entry points and always test boundaries.
Logging, in the context of both cybersecurity and software development, is crucial for identifying issues, understanding system behavior and ensuring compliance. Logging provides a detailed record of events, insight into the timeline of events, and information about actions and errors that help with troubleshooting and investigations. But y tho? Here is a more detailed explanation of the whys of the importance of application logging.
Logging helps to identify errors.
With logging, we can capture errors, warnings, and unexpected events, allowing developers to identify the root cause of a problem and fix it quickly. They can also provide a clear record of events leading to the error, which can help recreate the issue and determine whether the error was accidental or intentional.
Logging helps to identify slowdowns.
They can reveal performance bottlenecks
and show where things can be optimized. With these logs and performance monitoring tools, they can also help provide insights into system
behavior, which can identify anomalies and reveal security weaknesses. Real-Time Threat Detection is a form of log monitoring that detects potential threats and vulnerabilities in real time, enabling us to respond quickly to incidents. Can a performance log help with security? It absolutely can! A DDoS attack, for example, can significantly affect application performance.
Logging helps detect malicious activity. Hackers and raccoons are both resourceful and clever, getting into places they shouldn’t. When set up correctly, they can capture security-related events. They can track events such as login attempts (especially unauthorized attempts), access control changes, and system alerts. They can be pivotal in helping detect potential security breaches. They also help demonstrate compliance with regulations. It’s essential to log successful and failed login attempts to help us detect unauthorized access. We must also have logs on when sensitive data is accessed or actions taken. Monitoring logs can reveal unauthorized or suspicious changes to system configurations or files, which could indicate a vulnerability in the code.
It’s not just about having the logs; it's about taking the time to analyze them for suspicious patterns or one-offs. Through threat monitoring, logs can tip off security teams to a security incident, enabling quicker detection and response. With forensic analysis, the logs serve as evidence for investigating incidents and determining the root cause of security breaches, as well as the tools used. Security logs can be used to detect “indicators of compromise” (IoCs). This is a characteristic that can indicate an application/system/network has been compromised. Security logs are also used to determine the scope of the breach and the actions taken by the attacker.
There are three main types of logs used for application security. Change logs are essential because they provide a chronological list of changes to the application or its files. They record application modifications and are crucial for application security because they enable the identification of unauthorized changes, tracking user actions, and assisting in incident investigation and root cause analysis. Availability logs track system performance, uptime, and availability. They enable security teams to monitor for anomalies, detect threats, and respond to incidents (remember the DDoS attack?). Lastly, resource logs provide a deeper look at connectivity issues and capacity limits.
Know your data. You may not need to log everything. Or you might because of compliance requirements. When in doubt, ask! Be sure to encrypt sensitive data logs. Create redundancy with log files. Cybercriminals love to delete their tracks by deleting evidence of system activity. Keep the logs locally and in a remote location.
For specific best practices on logging, I highly recommend reading the article on
Application security logging is essential to identify malicious activity. There are several types of attacks that logging can help with.
Brute force attacks. Logging can track the number of login attempts and if they’re failed attempts, which can indicate an attacker is trying to guess passwords. It can also try to crack encryption keys and credentials.
SQL injection: Logging can track attempts to inject SQL code into web applications via form fields. Through this, they can gain access to the system by injecting malicious code or stealing sensitive data.
Cross-site scripting (XSS): Logging can track unusual script execution or changes to HTML content. Watch for that suspicious activity! This allows an attacker to impersonate a user if they inadvertently activate the script/HTML.
Unauthorized access: Logging access successes and failures for access controls and user privileges can help identify unauthorized access. Attackers gaining access can disrupt operations, steal data, and the list goes on...
Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks: Logging can show unusual patterns in traffic,
which can indicate a DoS attack, taking down an entire system. This can be
particularly detrimental to financial institutions.
Malware infections: Logging can detect applications that crash repeatedly, unauthorized software installations, and even abnormal system resource utilization.
Insider threats: Logging can detect attempts by insiders to access sensitive data when they shouldn’t, changes to user privileges, and other suspicious activity.
Reconnaissance: Logging can detect attempts to gather information about our application environment. They can do this by seeking additional information about our network and even our vulnerabilities. I read a great example that I’ll put in here: a burglar scoping out a property before making the grand robbery attempt. Think "Home Alone"?
Weaponization: Logging can detect when a vulnerability in our application is exploited, and an attacker gains access to our system.
Command and control: Logging can show when an attacker has taken over an application remotely to control the compromised system.
Data breaches: Logging can identify attempts by an attacker to steal sensitive data, such as from a foreign location or by making changes to data files.
So, to wrap up, yes! Application logging is crucial not only for software development but also for application security. Protect your application against raccoons with proper logging, and weigh down your trash can lids.
Comments