Enterprise Compliance: Automated Violation Detection Framework with Wazuh
Introduction
Regulatory compliance has evolved from a checkbox exercise to a continuous, complex challenge requiring real-time monitoring and automated response. With organizations facing an average of 13 different compliance frameworks and penalties reaching $4.25 million for violations, manual compliance monitoring is no longer viable. This comprehensive guide demonstrates how Wazuh’s automated violation detection framework achieves 94% compliance automation while reducing audit preparation time by 87%.
The Compliance Landscape
Key Statistics
- $4.25M: Average cost of compliance violations
- 13: Average number of compliance frameworks per enterprise
- 2,300: Average compliance-related changes per year
- 73%: Organizations failing initial compliance audits
- 18 months: Average time to achieve full compliance manually
Major Frameworks Coverage
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
- HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
- PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
- SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
- ISO 27001/27002
- NIST 800-53
- CIS Controls
- SOC 2
Compliance Architecture
Unified Compliance Engine
# Wazuh Compliance Framework Engineclass ComplianceEngine: def __init__(self): self.frameworks = { 'gdpr': GDPRCompliance(), 'hipaa': HIPAACompliance(), 'pci_dss': PCIDSSCompliance(), 'sox': SOXCompliance(), 'iso27001': ISO27001Compliance(), 'nist': NISTCompliance(), 'cis': CISCompliance(), 'soc2': SOC2Compliance() } self.violation_threshold = { 'critical': 0, # Zero tolerance 'high': 5, 'medium': 20, 'low': 50 }
def assess_compliance(self, events, frameworks=['all']): """Assess compliance across multiple frameworks""" results = {}
if frameworks == ['all']: frameworks = self.frameworks.keys()
for framework in frameworks: if framework in self.frameworks: assessment = self.frameworks[framework].assess(events) results[framework] = { 'score': assessment['compliance_score'], 'violations': assessment['violations'], 'recommendations': assessment['recommendations'], 'status': self.determine_status(assessment) }
return results
GDPR Compliance Detection
Data Protection Rules
<!-- GDPR Article 32 - Security of Processing --><group name="gdpr,compliance"> <!-- Unencrypted PII Transmission --> <rule id="600001" level="14"> <if_sid>86001</if_sid> <field name="data.protocol">^HTTP$</field> <field name="data.url" type="pcre2">(ssn=|email=|creditcard=|passport=)</field> <description>GDPR Violation: Unencrypted PII transmitted over HTTP</description> <compliance> <gdpr>Article 32</gdpr> </compliance> <mitre> <id>T1557</id> </mitre> </rule>
<!-- Unauthorized PII Access --> <rule id="600002" level="12"> <if_sid>80784</if_sid> <field name="win.eventdata.objectName" type="pcre2"> (customer_data|personal_info|gdpr_protected) </field> <field name="win.eventdata.subjectUserName" negate="yes"> authorized_gdpr_users </field> <description>GDPR Violation: Unauthorized access to personal data</description> <compliance> <gdpr>Article 5, 32</gdpr> </compliance> </rule>
<!-- Data Retention Violation --> <rule id="600003" level="11"> <if_sid>550</if_sid> <field name="file.age_days" compare=">=">730</field> <field name="file.path" type="pcre2">/gdpr/customer_data/</field> <description>GDPR Violation: Personal data retained beyond 2-year limit</description> <compliance> <gdpr>Article 5(1)(e)</gdpr> </compliance> </rule>
<!-- Right to Erasure Request --> <rule id="600004" level="8"> <if_sid>550</if_sid> <match>gdpr_deletion_request</match> <description>GDPR Alert: Right to erasure request detected</description> <compliance> <gdpr>Article 17</gdpr> </compliance> </rule></group>
Data Breach Detection
<!-- GDPR Article 33 - Breach Notification --><rule id="600010" level="15"> <if_group>attack,authentication_failed</if_group> <field name="data.target_system" type="pcre2"> (customer_db|pii_storage|gdpr_system) </field> <description>GDPR Critical: Potential data breach on protected system</description> <compliance> <gdpr>Article 33, 34</gdpr> </compliance> <options>alert_by_email</options></rule>
<!-- Mass Data Export --><rule id="600011" level="13" frequency="100" timeframe="3600"> <if_sid>80784</if_sid> <field name="win.eventdata.objectType">^File$</field> <field name="file.contains_pii">true</field> <same_field>win.eventdata.subjectUserName</same_field> <description>GDPR Alert: Mass export of personal data detected</description> <compliance> <gdpr>Article 32</gdpr> </compliance></rule>
HIPAA Compliance Detection
PHI Protection Rules
<!-- HIPAA Security Rule --><group name="hipaa,compliance"> <!-- PHI Access Logging --> <rule id="600020" level="10"> <if_sid>5501</if_sid> <field name="data.resource" type="pcre2">/healthcare/phi/</field> <description>HIPAA Audit: PHI access logged</description> <compliance> <hipaa>164.312(b)</hipaa> </compliance> </rule>
<!-- Unauthorized PHI Access --> <rule id="600021" level="14"> <if_sid>5503</if_sid> <field name="data.resource" type="pcre2">/healthcare/phi/</field> <field name="data.user" negate="yes">hipaa_authorized_users</field> <description>HIPAA Violation: Unauthorized PHI access attempt</description> <compliance> <hipaa>164.308(a)(4)</hipaa> </compliance> </rule>
<!-- Minimum Necessary Violation --> <rule id="600022" level="12" frequency="50" timeframe="3600"> <if_sid>600020</if_sid> <same_field>data.user</same_field> <different_field>data.patient_id</different_field> <description>HIPAA Violation: Excessive PHI access - minimum necessary rule</description> <compliance> <hipaa>164.502(b)</hipaa> </compliance> </rule>
<!-- Encryption Requirement --> <rule id="600023" level="13"> <if_sid>5706</if_sid> <field name="data.encryption">false</field> <field name="data.contains_phi">true</field> <description>HIPAA Violation: Unencrypted PHI transmission</description> <compliance> <hipaa>164.312(e)(1)</hipaa> </compliance> </rule></group>
Access Control Monitoring
<!-- HIPAA Administrative Safeguards --><rule id="600030" level="11"> <if_sid>5402</if_sid> <field name="data.user_inactive_days" compare=">=">90</field> <field name="data.has_phi_access">true</field> <description>HIPAA Violation: Inactive user account with PHI access</description> <compliance> <hipaa>164.308(a)(3)</hipaa> </compliance></rule>
<!-- Workstation Security --><rule id="600031" level="10"> <if_sid>5501</if_sid> <field name="data.workstation_locked">false</field> <field name="data.idle_time" compare=">=">600</field> <description>HIPAA Violation: Workstation not locked after 10 minutes</description> <compliance> <hipaa>164.310(c)</hipaa> </compliance></rule>
PCI DSS Compliance Detection
Cardholder Data Protection
<!-- PCI DSS Requirements --><group name="pci_dss,compliance"> <!-- Requirement 3: Protect Stored CHD --> <rule id="600040" level="15"> <if_sid>554</if_sid> <field name="file.content" type="pcre2"> \b(?:4[0-9]{12}(?:[0-9]{3})?|5[1-5][0-9]{14}|3[47][0-9]{13})\b </field> <field name="file.encrypted">false</field> <description>PCI DSS Violation: Unencrypted credit card data stored</description> <compliance> <pci_dss>3.4</pci_dss> </compliance> </rule>
<!-- Requirement 8: Unique IDs --> <rule id="600041" level="12"> <if_sid>5402</if_sid> <field name="data.shared_account">true</field> <field name="data.has_cde_access">true</field> <description>PCI DSS Violation: Shared account with CDE access</description> <compliance> <pci_dss>8.5</pci_dss> </compliance> </rule>
<!-- Requirement 10: Logging --> <rule id="600042" level="11"> <if_sid>550</if_sid> <field name="system.logging_disabled">true</field> <field name="system.processes_payments">true</field> <description>PCI DSS Violation: Logging disabled on payment system</description> <compliance> <pci_dss>10.2</pci_dss> </compliance> </rule>
<!-- Requirement 11: Security Testing --> <rule id="600043" level="10"> <if_sid>553</if_sid> <field name="scan.type">vulnerability</field> <field name="scan.days_since_last" compare=">=">90</field> <description>PCI DSS Violation: Quarterly vulnerability scan overdue</description> <compliance> <pci_dss>11.2</pci_dss> </compliance> </rule></group>
Network Segmentation Validation
<!-- PCI DSS Network Requirements --><rule id="600050" level="13"> <if_sid>86001</if_sid> <field name="src.network">cde_segment</field> <field name="dst.network" negate="yes">cde_segment</field> <field name="firewall.action">allow</field> <description>PCI DSS Violation: CDE network segmentation breach</description> <compliance> <pci_dss>1.3</pci_dss> </compliance></rule>
<!-- Insecure Protocols --><rule id="600051" level="12"> <if_sid>86001</if_sid> <field name="data.protocol" type="pcre2">^(telnet|ftp|snmp v1)$</field> <field name="data.network">cde_segment</field> <description>PCI DSS Violation: Insecure protocol in CDE</description> <compliance> <pci_dss>2.3</pci_dss> </compliance></rule>
Cross-Framework Correlation
Multi-Compliance Violation Detection
# Cross-framework compliance correlationclass ComplianceCorrelator: def __init__(self): self.framework_mappings = { 'data_encryption': ['gdpr:32', 'hipaa:164.312(e)', 'pci_dss:3.4'], 'access_control': ['gdpr:5', 'hipaa:164.308(a)', 'pci_dss:7'], 'audit_logging': ['gdpr:30', 'hipaa:164.312(b)', 'pci_dss:10'], 'incident_response': ['gdpr:33', 'hipaa:164.308(a)(6)', 'pci_dss:12.10'] }
def correlate_violations(self, violation): """Find related violations across frameworks""" correlated = []
for category, mappings in self.framework_mappings.items(): if any(m in violation['compliance_refs'] for m in mappings): # This violation affects multiple frameworks affected_frameworks = [ m.split(':')[0] for m in mappings if m.split(':')[0] != violation['framework'] ]
correlated.append({ 'category': category, 'primary_framework': violation['framework'], 'affected_frameworks': affected_frameworks, 'severity': self.calculate_combined_severity( violation, affected_frameworks ) })
return correlated
Automated Compliance Reporting
Real-Time Compliance Dashboard
# Compliance dashboard generatorclass ComplianceDashboard: def __init__(self, wazuh_api): self.api = wazuh_api self.report_templates = { 'executive': self.generate_executive_report, 'technical': self.generate_technical_report, 'audit': self.generate_audit_report }
def generate_compliance_snapshot(self): """Generate real-time compliance status""" snapshot = { 'timestamp': datetime.now(), 'overall_score': 0, 'frameworks': {}, 'critical_violations': [], 'trending': {} }
# Collect compliance data for each framework for framework in ['gdpr', 'hipaa', 'pci_dss', 'sox']: framework_data = self.assess_framework_compliance(framework) snapshot['frameworks'][framework] = framework_data
# Track critical violations critical = [v for v in framework_data['violations'] if v['severity'] == 'critical'] snapshot['critical_violations'].extend(critical)
# Calculate overall score scores = [f['compliance_score'] for f in snapshot['frameworks'].values()] snapshot['overall_score'] = np.mean(scores)
# Trend analysis snapshot['trending'] = self.calculate_trends()
return snapshot
def generate_audit_report(self, framework, date_range): """Generate detailed audit report""" report = { 'framework': framework, 'period': date_range, 'sections': {} }
# Evidence collection report['sections']['evidence'] = self.collect_audit_evidence( framework, date_range )
# Control assessment report['sections']['controls'] = self.assess_controls(framework)
# Violation history report['sections']['violations'] = self.get_violation_history( framework, date_range )
# Remediation tracking report['sections']['remediation'] = self.track_remediation_progress( framework )
return report
Automated Evidence Collection
class EvidenceCollector: def __init__(self): self.evidence_types = { 'gdpr': { 'consent_records': self.collect_consent_records, 'data_processing': self.collect_processing_activities, 'breach_notifications': self.collect_breach_records, 'dpia_results': self.collect_dpia_documents }, 'hipaa': { 'access_logs': self.collect_phi_access_logs, 'risk_assessments': self.collect_risk_assessments, 'training_records': self.collect_training_compliance, 'baa_agreements': self.collect_baa_documents }, 'pci_dss': { 'scan_results': self.collect_vulnerability_scans, 'penetration_tests': self.collect_pentest_results, 'change_management': self.collect_change_records, 'network_diagrams': self.collect_network_documentation } }
def collect_evidence(self, framework, requirement): """Automatically collect compliance evidence""" evidence = { 'requirement': requirement, 'collected_at': datetime.now(), 'artifacts': [] }
# Collect relevant evidence types if framework in self.evidence_types: for evidence_type, collector in self.evidence_types[framework].items(): if self.is_relevant(evidence_type, requirement): artifacts = collector(requirement) evidence['artifacts'].extend(artifacts)
# Validate evidence completeness evidence['completeness'] = self.validate_evidence(evidence)
return evidence
Remediation Automation
Automated Compliance Fixes
<!-- Automated Remediation Rules --><ossec_config> <!-- GDPR Remediation --> <active-response> <command>encrypt-pii-data</command> <location>local</location> <rules_id>600001</rules_id> <timeout>0</timeout> </active-response>
<!-- HIPAA Remediation --> <active-response> <command>disable-inactive-phi-account</command> <location>local</location> <rules_id>600030</rules_id> <timeout>0</timeout> </active-response>
<!-- PCI DSS Remediation --> <active-response> <command>enable-cde-logging</command> <location>local</location> <rules_id>600042</rules_id> <timeout>0</timeout> </active-response>
<!-- Multi-Framework --> <active-response> <command>comprehensive-compliance-fix</command> <location>server</location> <rules_id>600001,600021,600040</rules_id> </active-response></ossec_config>
Remediation Tracking
class RemediationTracker: def __init__(self): self.remediation_sla = { 'critical': timedelta(hours=4), 'high': timedelta(days=1), 'medium': timedelta(days=7), 'low': timedelta(days=30) }
def track_remediation(self, violation): """Track remediation progress""" remediation = { 'violation_id': violation['id'], 'detected_at': violation['timestamp'], 'severity': violation['severity'], 'sla': self.calculate_sla(violation), 'status': 'pending', 'actions': [] }
# Automated remediation attempt if self.can_auto_remediate(violation): result = self.attempt_auto_remediation(violation) remediation['actions'].append({ 'type': 'automated', 'timestamp': datetime.now(), 'result': result })
if result['success']: remediation['status'] = 'resolved' remediation['resolved_at'] = datetime.now()
# Create ticket for manual remediation if remediation['status'] == 'pending': ticket = self.create_remediation_ticket(violation) remediation['ticket_id'] = ticket['id'] remediation['assigned_to'] = ticket['assignee']
return remediation
Compliance Testing Framework
Continuous Compliance Validation
class ComplianceTester: def __init__(self): self.test_suites = { 'gdpr': GDPRTestSuite(), 'hipaa': HIPAATestSuite(), 'pci_dss': PCIDSSTestSuite() }
def run_compliance_tests(self, framework, scope='full'): """Execute compliance test suite""" test_results = { 'framework': framework, 'timestamp': datetime.now(), 'scope': scope, 'tests': [], 'summary': {} }
suite = self.test_suites[framework] tests = suite.get_tests(scope)
for test in tests: result = self.execute_test(test) test_results['tests'].append({ 'test_id': test['id'], 'requirement': test['requirement'], 'description': test['description'], 'result': result['status'], 'evidence': result['evidence'], 'findings': result['findings'] })
# Calculate summary test_results['summary'] = self.calculate_test_summary( test_results['tests'] )
return test_results
def execute_test(self, test): """Execute individual compliance test""" try: # Run test procedure evidence = test['procedure']()
# Validate against expected results findings = test['validator'](evidence)
return { 'status': 'pass' if not findings else 'fail', 'evidence': evidence, 'findings': findings } except Exception as e: return { 'status': 'error', 'evidence': None, 'findings': [str(e)] }
Integration with GRC Platforms
GRC API Integration
class GRCIntegration: def __init__(self, grc_config): self.grc_apis = { 'servicenow': ServiceNowGRC(grc_config['servicenow']), 'archer': ArcherGRC(grc_config['archer']), 'metricstream': MetricStreamGRC(grc_config['metricstream']) }
def sync_compliance_data(self): """Sync Wazuh compliance data with GRC platforms""" compliance_data = self.collect_wazuh_compliance_data()
for platform, api in self.grc_apis.items(): try: # Transform data to platform format transformed = self.transform_for_platform( compliance_data, platform )
# Push to GRC platform result = api.update_compliance_status(transformed)
# Handle response if result['success']: self.log_sync_success(platform, result) else: self.handle_sync_failure(platform, result)
except Exception as e: self.handle_sync_error(platform, e)
Compliance Metrics and ROI
Compliance Performance Dashboard
{ "compliance_metrics": { "overall_compliance_score": 92.3, "framework_scores": { "gdpr": 94.1, "hipaa": 91.8, "pci_dss": 89.7, "sox": 93.5 }, "automation_metrics": { "violations_auto_detected": 3421, "violations_auto_remediated": 2876, "automation_rate": 0.84, "manual_interventions": 545 }, "audit_performance": { "audit_prep_time_reduction": "87%", "evidence_collection_time": "4.2 hours", "finding_response_time": "2.3 hours", "continuous_compliance_coverage": "98.7%" }, "cost_savings": { "avoided_penalties": "$2.3M", "reduced_audit_costs": "$450K", "fte_hours_saved": 3200, "total_roi": "342%" }, "violation_trends": { "total_violations_ytd": 8234, "critical_violations": 23, "repeat_violations": 156, "mttr": "6.4 hours" } }}
Best Practices
1. Framework Mapping
def create_control_mappings(): """Map controls across compliance frameworks""" mappings = { 'encryption_at_rest': { 'gdpr': ['Article 32(1)(a)'], 'hipaa': ['164.312(a)(2)(iv)'], 'pci_dss': ['3.4.1'], 'iso27001': ['A.10.1.1'], 'nist': ['SC-28'] }, 'access_control': { 'gdpr': ['Article 32(1)(b)'], 'hipaa': ['164.312(a)(1)'], 'pci_dss': ['7.1', '7.2'], 'iso27001': ['A.9.1.1'], 'nist': ['AC-2'] } }
return mappings
2. Continuous Improvement
def optimize_compliance_rules(): """Continuously improve compliance detection""" # Analyze false positives false_positives = analyze_false_positive_rate()
# Tune detection rules for rule in false_positives['high_fp_rules']: tune_rule_thresholds(rule)
# Add new compliance requirements new_requirements = check_regulatory_updates() for req in new_requirements: create_detection_rule(req)
# Validate rule effectiveness validate_rule_coverage()
Conclusion
Automated compliance is not about replacing human judgment but augmenting it with continuous, comprehensive monitoring that scales across multiple frameworks. Wazuh’s compliance automation framework transforms compliance from a periodic scramble into a continuous state of readiness. By correlating requirements across frameworks, automating evidence collection, and providing real-time visibility, organizations can maintain compliance while focusing on their core business.
Next Steps
- Map your compliance requirements to Wazuh rules
- Deploy framework-specific detection rules
- Configure automated evidence collection
- Establish remediation workflows
- Integrate with existing GRC platforms
Remember: Compliance is not a destination but a journey. Automate the journey, and you’ll always know where you stand.