Ruby agent v9.12.0

v9.12.0

Version 9.12.0 adds support for the newrelic_security agent, introduces instrumentation for the LogStasher gem, improves instrumentation for the redis-clustering gem, and updates the Elasticsearch instrumentation to only attempt to get the cluster name once per client, even if it fails.

• Feature: Add support for the newrelic_security agent

  New Relic Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) can help you prevent cyberattacks and breaches on your applications by probing your running code for exploitable vulnerabilities.

  The newrelic_security gem provides this feature for Ruby. It depends on newrelic_rpm. This is the first version of newrelic_rpm compatible with newrelic_security.

  At this time, the security agent is intended for use only within a dedicated security testing environment with data that can tolerate modification or deletion. The security agent is available as a separate Ruby gem, newrelic_security. It is recommended that this separate gem only be introduced to a security testing environment by leveraging Bundler grouping like so:

  # Gemfile
    gem 'newrelic_rpm'               # New Relic APM observability agent
    gem 'newrelic-infinite_tracing'  # New Relic Infinite Tracing
  
    group :security do
      gem 'newrelic_security', require: false        # New Relic security agent
    end

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  In order to run the security agent, you need to update your configuration. At a minimum, security.agent.enabled and security.enabled must be set to true. They are false by default. Similar to the gem installation, we recommend you set these configurations for a special security testing environment only.

  Here's an example using newrelic.yml:

  common: &default_settings
      license_key: <%= ENV['NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY'] %>
      app_name: "Example app"
  
    development:
      <<: *default_settings
      app_name: <%= app_name %> (Development)
  
    security:
      <<: *default_settings
      security.enabled: true
      security.agent.enabled: true
  
    production:
      <<: *default_settings

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  The following configuration relate to the newrelic_security gem:

  Configuration name	Default	Behavior
  security.agent.enabled	false	If true, the security agent is loaded (a Ruby 'require' is performed)
  security.enabled	false	If true, the security agent is started (the agent runs in its event loop)
  security.mode	'IAST'	Defines the mode for the security agent to operate in. Currently only 'IAST' is supported
  security.validator_service_url	'wss://csec.nr-data.net'	Defines the endpoint URL for posting security related data
  security.detection.rci.enabled	true	If true, enables RCI (remote code injection) detection
  security.detection.rxss.enabled	true	If true, enables RXSS (reflected cross-site scripting) detection
  security.detection.deserialization.enabled	true	If true, enables deserialization detection
  security.application_info.port	nil	An Integer representing the port the application is listening on. This setting is mandatory for Passenger servers. Other servers should be detected by default.

• Feature: Add instrumentation for LogStasher

  The agent will now record logs generated by LogStasher. Versions 1.0.0 and above of the LogStasher gem are supported. PR#2559

• Feature: Add instrumentation for redis-clustering

  Version 5.x of the redis gem moved cluster behavior into a different gem, redis-clustering. This gem can access instrumentation registered through RedisClient::Middleware. Previously, the agent only instrumented the call_pipelined method through this approach, but now users of the redis-clustering gem will also have instrumentation registered for connect and call methods. In addition, the way the database_name attribute is set for Redis datastore spans is now compatible with all versions of Redis supported by the New Relic Ruby agent. Thank you, @praveen-ks for bringing this to our attention. Issue#2444 PR#2720

• Bugfix: Update Elasticsearch instrumentation to only attempt to get the cluster name once per client

  Previously, the agent would attempt to get the cluster name every time a call was made if it was not already captured. This could lead to a large number of failures if the cluster name could not be retrieved. Now, the agent will only attempt to get the cluster name once per client, even if it fails. Thank you, @ascoppa for bringing this to our attention. Issue#2730 PR#2743

• Feature: Produce metrics for 4 additional Action Controller Rails notifications

  Four additional Action Controller related Rails notifications are now subscribed to by the agent to produce telemetry. These 4 are exist_fragment?, expire_fragment, read_fragment, and write_fragment. As with instrumentation for Action Controller itself, these notifications are enabled by default and can be disabled by setting :disable_action_controller to true in the agent's newrelic.yml configuration file. PR#2745