Logback VS Apache Log4j 2

Logback we will use mostly with Ktor, this dependency is not required, but it is nice to see logs of requests + it will get rid of some annoying warnings while running the project

Java -> Logback, Log4j2, JDK (Java Util Logging), Slf4j, e.t.c.

This is a GitHub link to my demo app. It’s simple Spring Boot web app used to debugging various stuff. There are many ways to configure JSON logging in Spring Boot. I decided to use Logback because it is easy to configure and one of the most widely used logging library in the Java Community. To enable JSON logging we need to add below dependencies.

Logback(https://logback.qos.ch/) is another non-commercial Java logging framework. It labels itself as a successor to the previously discussed Log4j framework.

> Then apache decides to put new people on log4j, do a backward incompatible v2 design that nevertheless is worse than slf4j. Why?

slf4j itself isn't a logging framework. It's a facade to logging frameworks.

Simple Logging Facade for Java ( https://www.slf4j.org )

It needs a logging framework behind it - log4j, log4j2, logback, commons, JUL.

The question is "why do log4j2?"

Logback went from the log4j1.x path ( https://logback.qos.ch )

Log4j2 has a lot of features that weren't present when the project started ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4j#Apache_Log4j_2 ).

There is a licensing difference between Logback (LGPL) and Log4jx (Apache Commons).

Also, I'd like you to pay attention to the log consumer. You see, when the E2E scenario fails, it's not always obvious why. Sometimes to understand the source of the problem you have to dig into containers' logs. Thankfully the log consumer allows us to forward a container's logs to any SLF4J logger instance. In this project, containers' logs are forwarded to regular text files (you can find the Logback configuration in the repository). Though it's much better to transfer logs to external logging facility (e.g. Kibana).

This shows that the MariaDB JDBC driver uses Logback as a logging framework. Although Logback is not affected by Log4Shell, it has a related vulnerability (of much lesser severity, no need to panic) fixed in version 1.2.8 and 1.3.0-alpha11. I checked the version used by the connector and found that it used 1.3.0-alpha10. Even though Logback is included as a test dependency in the MariaDB driver, I sent a pull request on GitHub to update it. I encourage you to do the same in any open-source project you find and that includes a vulnerable dependency.

I don't think that's a good example. While Apache devs are volunteers and Microsoft devs are employees, they were criticized for their slow response time and seeming lack of urgency until it was far too late.

https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/pull/608#issuecomme...

The official website. The vulnerability was introduced in 2.0-beta7 which was released in 2013.

However, there are many open source projects that are widely used but not well-known, including cURL, ImageMagick, MyCLI, Homebrew, Apache Log4j, and OpenSSL. This article will take a closer look at these unsung heroes of the open source world. I do not want to give them a business model or financial advice in this article. This largely depends on the author's personal experience and values. I just want to raise more awareness about these open source projects.

What you need is log4j-core, what you downloaded is some kind of connector between log4j and JUL. Tbh I don't know what JUL is, but that's not important. You can get log4j-core on from the official website - https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/ or in maven repo. In case you're not using maven, I highly, highly recommend you using it for managing your dependencies.

> When it was first revealed in early December 2021, the Log4Shell bug was described as one of the most severe security vulnerabilities ever.

> The Apache Software Foundation, which maintains the open-source tool, quickly released a patch...

Apache horribly mismanaged this and did not release a patch until it was already widely known and being exploited in the wild. They also messed up and had to release several subsequent patches to actually fix the vulnerability.

Remember: this vulnerability was disclosed to them in November.

https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2/pull/608#issuecomme...

Think back to the Log4J event, were you affected? (https://github.com/apache/logging-log4j2)