On Vulnerability and Security Log analysis: A Systematic Literature Review on Recent Trends

Abstract

Log analysis is a technique of deriving knowledge from log files containing records of events in a computer system. A common application of log analysis is to derive critical information about a system's security issues and intrusions, which subsequently leads to being able to identify and potentially stop intruders attacking the system. However, many systems produce a high volume of log data with high frequency, posing serious challenges in analysis. This paper contributes with a systematic literature review and discusses current trends, advancements, and future directions in log security analysis within the past decade. We summarized current research strategies with respect to technology approaches from 34 current publications. We identified limitations that poses challenges to future research and opened discussion on issues towards logging mechanism in the software systems. Findings of this study are relevant for software systems as well as software parts of the Internet of Things (IoT) systems.