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A valid <if_sid> reference does not mean a Wazuh rule will fire: it means the child rule can be considered only after the referenced rule matches the event. The child’s other conditions must also pass, and a match does not guarantee that an alert will be created or shown. Use wazuh-logtest to find where the chain stops, then check the effective rule settings and alert threshold.
What <if_sid> proves—and what it does not
Wazuh uses <if_sid> to make a rule depend on a previously matched rule ID. The reference must be valid, but its existence does not establish that the parent rule matches a particular event. Nor does it make the child rule match automatically: the child’s own configured conditions must pass too. Wazuh’s rule syntax documentation demonstrates this with parent IDs plus an additional requirement for the log to contain Error.
Trace the event through the rules
Test the exact event that you expect to trigger the rule. Wazuh recommends /var/ossec/bin/wazuh-logtest for rule testing in its custom rules guidance.
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/var/ossec/bin/wazuh-logtestand provide the exact sample event. - Check the parent: inspect the test output to see whether the rule ID named by
<if_sid>matched. If it did not, the child dependency is not satisfied for that event. - Check the child’s conditions: compare its text or decoded-field requirements with the event and decoded fields shown by the test. A parent match alone is insufficient.
- Check the effective rule: confirm the child’s actual level and alert-related settings. If you use an overwrite rule, do not assume it replaces
if_sidor related labels: Wazuh says those labels are not replaced by an overwrite rule. - Separate matching from visibility: if the rule matched, check whether it can generate an alert and whether the alert is being filtered or is absent from the destination you are viewing.
Distinguish <if_sid> from <if_matched_sid>
These conditions serve different purposes. Wazuh documents <if_matched_sid> for checking whether an alert for a specified rule ID occurred within a time period. It is used with frequency and timeframe for correlation across events, rather than as an ordinary same-event parent dependency. See the Wazuh rule syntax reference.
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| Condition | What it checks | Typical role |
|---|---|---|
<if_sid> |
Whether the specified rule matched previously for the event | Make a child rule depend on a parent match |
<if_matched_sid> |
Whether an alert for the specified rule occurred within a time period | Time-window correlation, typically configured with frequency and timeframe |
If the rule matches but no alert appears
Rule matching, alert creation, and alert visibility are separate stages. Wazuh’s alert-management documentation says the manager’s default alert threshold is level 3 or higher, and that the threshold is configurable. Check the threshold configured on your manager rather than assuming the default applies.
- Rule level: confirm the effective level. Wazuh classifies level 0 rules as ignored and not shown in the security event dashboard; see its rule classification guidance.
noalert: the rule syntax supportsnoalert=1, which suppresses an alert while allowing analysis to continue. See the rule syntax reference.- Threshold and destination: compare the rule’s effective level with the manager’s configured threshold, then check the alert destination you expect to contain it.
About the 4,052-reference claim
The figure in the headline should not be read as a release-specific verification. The official Wazuh ruleset repository is mutable, and the cited documentation does not establish that exactly 4,052 <if_sid> references resolve for a particular release or commit. To make that count independently verifiable, it would need to be checked against a pinned ruleset snapshot and identified by version or commit. Regardless of the count, a resolving reference only establishes the dependency’s validity; it does not explain whether an event matches the parent and child rules or whether an alert becomes visible.
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