FortiNAC-F provides a robust engine for processing security notifications from third-party devices. For standard integrations, such as FortiGate or Check Point, the system comes pre-loaded with templates to interpret incoming data. However, when an administrator needs FortiNAC-F to process syslog messages from a vendor or device that is not supported by default, they must configure a Security Event Parser.
The Security Event Parser acts as the translation layer. It uses regular expressions (Regex) or specific field mappings to identify key data points within a raw syslog string, such as the source IP address, the threat type, and the severity. Without a parser, FortiNAC-F may receive the syslog message but will be unable to "understand" its contents, meaning it cannot generate the necessary Security Event required to trigger automated responses. Once a parser is created, the system can extract the host's IP address from the message, resolve it to a MAC address via L3 polling, and then apply the appropriate security rules. This allows for the integration of any security appliance capable of sending RFC-compliant syslog messages.
"FortiNAC parses the information based on pre-defined security event parsers stored in FortiNAC's database... If the incoming message format is not recognized, a new Security Event Parser must be created to define how the system should extract data fields from the raw syslog message. This enables FortiNAC to generate a security event and take action based on the alarm configuration." - FortiNAC-F Administration Guide: Security Event Parsers.