Ubuntu iptables logs not going to any log file

I am trying to put logs in iptables but I can not find any log in any file. Although when I run dmesg command, I can see the iptables entries. But the same entry doesn't go to any log file. Here is my iptables rule :

/sbin/iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp  -j LOG --log-level info --log-prefix " [ IPTABLES " --log-uid 

Here is the syslog.conf file :

#  /etc/syslog.conf Configuration file for syslogd.
#
#           For more information see syslog.conf(5)
#           manpage.

#
# First some standard logfiles.  Log by facility.
#

auth,authpriv.*      -/var/log/auth.log
*.*;auth,authpriv.none      -/var/log/syslog
#cron.*          -/var/log/cron.log
daemon.*            -/var/log/daemon.log
kern.*              -/var/log/kern.log
lpr.*               -/var/log/lpr.log
mail.*              -/var/log/mail.log
user.*              -/var/log/user.log

#
# Logging for the mail system.  Split it up so that
# it is easy to write scripts to parse these files.
#
mail.info           -/var/log/mail.info
mail.warn           -/var/log/mail.warn
mail.err         -/var/log/mail.err

# Logging for INN news system
#
news.crit        -/var/log/news/news.crit
news.err         -/var/log/news/news.err
news.notice         -/var/log/news/news.notice

#
# Some `catch-all' logfiles.
#
*.=debug;\
    auth,authpriv.none;\
    news.none;mail.none -/var/log/debug
*.=info;*.=notice;*.=warn;\
    auth,authpriv.none;\
    cron,daemon.none;\
    mail,news.none      -/var/log/messages

#
# Emergencies are sent to everybody logged in.
#
*.emerg             *

#
# I like to have messages displayed on the console, but only on a virtual
# console I usually leave idle.
#
#daemon,mail.*;\
#   news.=crit;news.=err;news.=notice;\
#   *.=debug;*.=info;\
#   *.=notice;*.=warn   /dev/tty8

# The named pipe /dev/xconsole is for the `xconsole' utility.  To use it,
# you must invoke `xconsole' with the `-file' option:
#
#    $ xconsole -file /dev/xconsole [...]
#
# NOTE: adjust the list below, or you'll go crazy if you have a reasonably
#      busy site..
#
daemon.*;mail.*;\
    news.err;\
    *.=debug;*.=info;\
    *.=notice;*.=warn   -/var/log/xconsole.log

Here are some more details :

root@us4839:~# ps ax | grep syslog
11336 pts/1    S+     0:00 grep syslog
17910 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/syslogd
root@us4839:~#
root@us4839:~#
root@us4839:~# lsof /var/log/syslog
COMMAND   PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE     NODE NAME
syslogd 17910 root    2w   REG   0,42 5508 57114744 /var/log/syslog
root@us4839:~#

Am I doing anything wrong in this rule or there is something wrong somewhere else ?

Solution 1:

I've had a similar problem a long time ago and it is (in part) related to the OpenVZ architecture.

Can you please confirm that:

• the iptables rule syntax is correct
• syslog & klogd are running (as far as I can remember klogd is required for openVZ to log kernel messages properly)

Does dmesg output contain the iptables log lines? If yes, then this is likely a syslog config issue. You could try to add a directive that's placing kernel.warn in a separate iptables.log file.

Edit Did you check the logfiles manually? If yes I'd grep for it e.g. with

grep -rl "MAC" /var/log/*   # should match, else use the interface name or IPTABLES as pattern

just to make sure...