Sycope supports REST-based External Destinations that can send alert information to third-party HTTP endpoints. Elasticsearch exposes REST APIs for indexing JSON documents, creating a straightforward integration path between the two systems.
This allows selected Sycope detections to be stored in Elasticsearch and searched together with other events and operational information, while detailed network analysis and historical traffic data remain available in Sycope.
Table of Contents
From a Sycope alert to an Elasticsearch index
When Sycope generates an alert, an External Action can send selected information to an external REST endpoint.
The action can be executed manually from an active alert or assigned to a Sycope rule so that it runs automatically when configured threshold conditions are met.
For Elasticsearch, the destination can point to the REST endpoint used to index documents. Sycope sends the alert information as a JSON payload, which Elasticsearch stores as a document in the selected index.
The payload can contain fields relevant to the receiving team, including information such as the alert name, severity, timestamp and the systems involved in the detected activity.
Once indexed, Sycope events become searchable together with other data maintained in Elasticsearch.
Complementary capabilities, clearly divided
Sycope and Elasticsearch remain independent systems and serve different roles in the workflow.
Sycope provides:
- Flow-based network analysis
- Host-to-host communication visibility
- Network performance monitoring
- Network anomaly and threat detection
- Predefined and custom alerting rules
- Historical network communication data
- Detailed network context for investigation
Elasticsearch provides:
- Storage and indexing of structured event data
- Search across large data sets
- Filtering and aggregation
- Centralized access to information from multiple sources
- A data foundation for further analysis and visualization within the Elastic Stack
Sycope remains responsible for detecting and analyzing network activity. Elasticsearch provides an additional place to retain and search selected Sycope events together with other operational data.
Sycope detections alongside other indexed data
The integration is particularly useful when Elasticsearch already serves as a central repository for logs, events or other machine-generated information.
Network events in a common data set
A Sycope alert can represent suspicious communication, scanning activity, unusual network behavior, performance degradation or another condition identified through flow analysis.
Once the event is indexed in Elasticsearch, it can be searched together with information from other systems covering the same hosts, addresses or time period.
This gives teams access to the network detection as another source of evidence within an existing Elasticsearch data set.
Structured fields for search and analysis
Sycope alert information can be sent as structured JSON rather than as an unstructured notification.
Relevant values can therefore be stored as individual fields and used in Elasticsearch queries, filters and aggregations.
For example, alert severity, Client IP, Server IP, rule information or timestamps can be retained separately, depending on the payload configured in Sycope.
A consistent field structure also makes it easier to build searches or downstream visualizations around Sycope events.
Control over which alerts are indexed
The integration does not require every alert generated by Sycope to be sent to Elasticsearch.
External Actions can be assigned to selected rules and threshold levels, allowing teams to determine which detections should be exported.
This makes it possible to maintain detailed network information in Sycope while sending only the events relevant to a broader analytics, logging or security workflow into Elasticsearch.
Historical event analysis
Once Sycope alerts are indexed, Elasticsearch can retain them according to the organization’s own index and data lifecycle configuration.
This provides a searchable history of selected detections that can be compared with other indexed events.
Detailed network communication history remains in Sycope, where analysts can continue an investigation when an Elasticsearch event requires additional traffic context.
REST-based integration
The integration uses standard HTTP mechanisms available in both products.
Sycope External Destinations support REST communication, HTTP POST requests and custom payloads. Dynamic placeholders and values from triggered alerts can be inserted into the payload when the action is executed.
Elasticsearch exposes REST APIs for indexing JSON documents. A request targeting an index can create a new document containing the fields supplied in the request body.
The target index, document structure and authentication method should be configured according to the organization’s Elasticsearch environment.
Because the public Sycope repository does not currently provide a dedicated Elasticsearch template, the payload and index mapping should be defined for the specific implementation.
How the integration works
The integration consists of three main elements.
Elasticsearch index
An Elasticsearch index or appropriate data structure is prepared for receiving Sycope events.
The field mapping can be defined according to the alert information that should be stored, such as timestamps, severity levels, IP addresses and rule-related attributes.
External Destination in Sycope
The Elasticsearch REST endpoint is configured in Sycope as an External Destination using the REST Client.
The destination defines the HTTP endpoint and custom JSON payload that Sycope should send when the action is executed.
Dynamic values from the active alert can be inserted into the payload so that every indexed document contains information from the event that triggered the action.
Manual or automatic event delivery
The configured REST action can be executed manually from an active alert or assigned directly to a Sycope rule.
For automatic delivery, selected threshold levels determine when an alert should be sent to Elasticsearch.
Once the action is triggered, Sycope submits the JSON document to the configured Elasticsearch endpoint and the event becomes available for indexing and search.
From network detection to indexed event data
Consider a Sycope rule that detects suspicious communication involving an internal host.
Sycope generates an alert containing information about the event, its severity and the systems involved. Because the rule is configured with the Elasticsearch REST action, the selected fields are sent as a structured JSON document to the defined index.
The event can then be searched together with other data stored in Elasticsearch for the same IP addresses or time period.
If the analysis requires information about the communication before or after the alert, the investigation can continue in Sycope using historical network traffic and the additional context available there.
The integration therefore makes selected network detections available within an existing Elasticsearch data environment without attempting to duplicate Sycope’s full flow data set.
Sycope and Elasticsearch integration
The REST-based integration provides a flexible way to store selected Sycope network and security alerts in Elasticsearch.
Organizations can define which alerts are exported, which fields are retained and how the resulting documents are indexed, while Sycope continues to provide the detailed network information used for further investigation.
To discuss integrating Sycope alerts with your Elasticsearch environment, contact our team.
