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Asked: 2026-05-16T06:20:21+00:00

Having a problem with parsing Snort logs using the pyparsing module. The problem is

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Having a problem with parsing Snort logs using the pyparsing module.

The problem is with separating the Snort log (which has multiline entries, separated by a blank line) and getting pyparsing to parse each entry as a whole chunk, rather than read in line by line and expecting the grammar to work with each line (obviously, it does not.)

I have tried converting each chunk to a temporary string, stripping out the newlines inside each chunk, but it refuses to process correctly. I may be wholly on the wrong track, but I don’t think so (a similar form works perfectly for syslog-type logs, but those are one-line entries and so lend themselves to your basic file iterator / line processing)

Here’s a sample of the log and the code I have so far:

[**] [1:486:4] ICMP Destination Unreachable Communication with Destination Host is Administratively Prohibited [**]
[Classification: Misc activity] [Priority: 3] 
08/03-07:30:02.233350 172.143.241.86 -> 63.44.2.33
ICMP TTL:61 TOS:0xC0 ID:49461 IpLen:20 DgmLen:88
Type:3  Code:10  DESTINATION UNREACHABLE: ADMINISTRATIVELY PROHIBITED HOST FILTERED
** ORIGINAL DATAGRAM DUMP:
63.44.2.33:41235 -> 172.143.241.86:4949
TCP TTL:61 TOS:0x0 ID:36212 IpLen:20 DgmLen:60 DF
Seq: 0xF74E606
(32 more bytes of original packet)
** END OF DUMP

[**] ...more like this [**]

And the updated code:

def snort_parse(logfile):
    header = Suppress("[**] [") + Combine(integer + ":" + integer + ":" + integer) + Suppress("]") + Regex(".*") + Suppress("[**]")
    cls = Optional(Suppress("[Classification:") + Regex(".*") + Suppress("]"))
    pri = Suppress("[Priority:") + integer + Suppress("]")
    date = integer + "/" + integer + "-" + integer + ":" + integer + "." + Suppress(integer)
    src_ip = ip_addr + Suppress("->")
    dest_ip = ip_addr
    extra = Regex(".*")

    bnf = header + cls + pri + date + src_ip + dest_ip + extra

    def logreader(logfile):
        chunk = []
        with open(logfile) as snort_logfile:
            for line in snort_logfile:
                if line !='\n':
                    line = line[:-1]
                    chunk.append(line)
                    continue
                else:
                    print chunk
                    yield " ".join(chunk)
                    chunk = []

    string_to_parse = "".join(logreader(logfile).next())
    fields = bnf.parseString(string_to_parse)
    print fields

Any help, pointers, RTFMs, You’re Doing It Wrongs, etc., greatly appreciated.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team
    import pyparsing as pyp
import itertools

integer = pyp.Word(pyp.nums)
ip_addr = pyp.Combine(integer+'.'+integer+'.'+integer+'.'+integer)

def snort_parse(logfile):
    header = (pyp.Suppress("[**] [")
              + pyp.Combine(integer + ":" + integer + ":" + integer)
              + pyp.Suppress(pyp.SkipTo("[**]", include = True)))
    cls = (
        pyp.Suppress(pyp.Optional(pyp.Literal("[Classification:")))
        + pyp.Regex("[^]]*") + pyp.Suppress(']'))

    pri = pyp.Suppress("[Priority:") + integer + pyp.Suppress("]")
    date = pyp.Combine(
        integer+"/"+integer+'-'+integer+':'+integer+':'+integer+'.'+integer)
    src_ip = ip_addr + pyp.Suppress("->")
    dest_ip = ip_addr

    bnf = header+cls+pri+date+src_ip+dest_ip

    with open(logfile) as snort_logfile:
        for has_content, grp in itertools.groupby(
                snort_logfile, key = lambda x: bool(x.strip())):
            if has_content:
                tmpStr = ''.join(grp)
                fields = bnf.searchString(tmpStr)
                print(fields)

snort_parse('snort_file')

    yields

    [['1:486:4', 'Misc activity', '3', '08/03-07:30:02.233350', '172.143.241.86', '63.44.2.33']]
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