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Start with System > Audit Logs and System > Sessions, then compare anything unexpected with Zammad’s application, host, proxy, identity-provider, and network logs. An unfamiliar IP address, location, or browser is a lead—not proof of a compromise. Conversely, no visible anomaly in Zammad does not rule out access: its records cover specific events and have retention limits.

1. Review Zammad’s audit log for unexpected changes

In the Zammad interface, open System > Audit Logs. The read-only audit log records security-relevant administrative changes and selected account events. For each entry that looks unusual, record the acting user, action, object, source IP address, and timestamp, and inspect any before-and-after values. Compare the event with approved changes and expected administrator activity.

  • Check changes to roles, permissions, groups, settings, channels, webhooks, integrations, packages, and other administrative objects.
  • Look for agent or administrator account activation changes, password changes, two-factor authentication changes, and “View from user’s perspective” session-takeover events.
  • Review ticket history separately for routine ticket changes. As Zammad’s Audit Logs documentation puts it: “The audit log is read-only. It does not record day-to-day ticket updates. For those, see the ticket history.”
  • Account for coverage gaps: customer password changes are recorded only when another user or an administrator makes them; customer self-service password resets are not recorded.

Zammad automatically removes audit entries older than 12 months once a day; current documentation says this retention period is not configurable. A missing old entry may therefore reflect retention rather than the absence of an event.

2. Check active sessions, but treat location as a clue

Open System > Sessions and look for sessions that do not fit expected staff activity. Compare account, browser agent, IP address, estimated location, session age, and concurrent sessions with what you know about the user and the organization’s normal sign-in patterns.

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  • Several sessions can be legitimate. Browser information can change, and single sign-on users may not sign out of Zammad directly.
  • IP-based locations are estimates and can be wrong. VPNs and mobile networks can make a familiar user appear elsewhere; internal IPs or disabled GeoIP may cause Zammad to display the IP instead of a location.
  • The displayed “Update” value is not a complete activity record: it may change on reload but not during ordinary ticket work.

Before deleting a suspicious session, record the details needed for investigation. Zammad says session information is purged on logout; administrators can view or manually delete known sessions in System > Sessions. Session information can include the IP address, browser, original login time, and last visit. See Zammad’s Sessions documentation.

3. Compare the events with account and authentication changes

Check whether unusual audit or session activity lines up with expected staff changes, identity-provider sign-ins, password-reset workflows, two-factor settings, or approved role and permission changes. A Zammad audit entry can show a recorded change, but it does not establish who controlled an account in every circumstance. Treat a geographic mismatch, by itself, cautiously.

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4. Correlate Zammad with logs outside the application

Zammad application logs are typically written under /opt/zammad/log/. On package installations, a separate logrotate utility rotates logs nightly and removes old logs after 14 days. Source installations need logrotate or an equivalent configured because Zammad does not purge old logs itself. Check the actual deployment and its retention configuration before relying on these defaults. See the Zammad logging documentation.

For the suspicious time window, compare account names, source IPs, timestamps, and actions across the records available in your deployment:

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  • Reverse-proxy or web-server access and error logs
  • Identity-provider or SSO sign-in records
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  • Relevant application and database service logs

These sources capture different parts of an event. A web request may show an attempt; a Zammad audit entry may show a recorded administrative change. Matching timestamps and account or IP details across sources can help distinguish an unsuccessful login attempt from a successful authenticated action. NIST treats incident response and log management as related areas; its current incident-response publications include SP 800-61 Rev. 3.

Use the audit-log API when you need to search or export entries

The Zammad audit-log API can help when the interface is unsuitable for searching or exporting records. It requires the admin.audit_log permission; listings are paginated, and descending ID order returns the newest entries first. The documented search indexes fields such as object name or type and user name, but not the before-and-after payload fields value_from and value_to. A search miss is therefore not evidence that no value changed. Check the API documentation for the Zammad release actually installed: the referenced API page is pre-release documentation.

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Use webhook logs only for what they capture

If the instance uses webhooks, review each webhook’s Recent Logs for unexpected destinations, request statuses, payloads, and timestamps. These records concern outbound requests and responses; they are not a general log of inbound authentication. Treat displayed request data as potentially sensitive. See Zammad’s webhook documentation.

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5. Preserve evidence and follow incident procedures if indicators are credible

If several records support a credible concern, follow your organization’s incident-response plan and notify the appropriate security or infrastructure responders. Before routine rotation or cleanup removes evidence, preserve relevant Zammad, host, identity-provider, proxy, and network logs. Record timestamps with time zones and document who collected or handled exported records. Decide on containment with the incident lead, weighing the risk of continued access, the system’s role, evidence needs, and the effects of isolation.

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NIST lists SP 800-61 Rev. 3 as its current final revision; published in April 2025, it addresses integrating incident-response recommendations into cybersecurity risk management. NIST’s incident-response publications page lists SP 800-92 Rev. 1 as a draft; SP 800-92’s final edition is dated 2006.

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