Audit logs

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Audit logging is a subscription feature that you can enable to keep track of security-related events, such as authorization success and failures. Logging these events enables you to monitor Kibana for suspicious activity and provides evidence in the event of an attack.

Use the Kibana audit logs in conjunction with Elasticsearch audit logging to get a holistic view of all security related events. Kibana defers to the Elasticsearch security model for authentication, data index authorization, and features that are driven by cluster-wide privileges. For more information on enabling audit logging in Elasticsearch, refer to Auditing security events.

Audit logs are disabled by default. To enable this functionality, you must set xpack.security.audit.enabled to true in kibana.yml.

You can optionally configure audit logs location, file/rolling file appenders and ignore filters using Audit logging settings.

Audit events

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Refer to the table of events that can be logged for auditing purposes.

Each event is broken down into category, type, action and outcome fields to make it easy to filter, query and aggregate the resulting logs. The trace.id field can be used to correlate multiple events that originate from the same request.

Refer to Audit schema for a table of fields that get logged with audit event.

To ensure that a record of every operation is persisted even in case of an unexpected error, asynchronous write operations are logged immediately after all authorization checks have passed, but before the response from Elasticsearch is received. Refer to the corresponding Elasticsearch logs for potential write errors.

Category: authentication

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Action

Outcome

Description

user_login

success

User has logged in successfully.

failure

Failed login attempt (e.g. due to invalid credentials).

user_logout

unknown

User is logging out.

session_cleanup

unknown

Removing invalid or expired session.

access_agreement_acknowledged

n/a

User has acknowledged the access agreement.

Category: database

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Type: creation
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Action

Outcome

Description

saved_object_create

unknown

User is creating a saved object.

failure

User is not authorized to create a saved object.

saved_object_open_point_in_time

unknown

User is creating a Point In Time to use when querying saved objects.

failure

User is not authorized to create a Point In Time for the provided saved object types.

connector_create

unknown

User is creating a connector.

failure

User is not authorized to create a connector.

rule_create

unknown

User is creating a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to create a rule.

space_create

unknown

User is creating a space.

failure

User is not authorized to create a space.

case_create

unknown

User is creating a case.

failure

User is not authorized to create a case.

case_configuration_create

unknown

User is creating a case configuration.

failure

User is not authorized to create a case configuration.

case_comment_create

unknown

User is creating a case comment.

failure

User is not authorized to create a case comment.

case_comment_bulk_create

unknown

User is creating multiple case comments.

failure

User is not authorized to create multiple case comments.

case_user_action_create_comment

success

User has created a case comment.

case_user_action_create_case

success

User has created a case.

Type: change
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Action

Outcome

Description

saved_object_update

unknown

User is updating a saved object.

failure

User is not authorized to update a saved object.

saved_object_update_objects_spaces

unknown

User is adding and/or removing a saved object to/from other spaces.

failure

User is not authorized to add or remove a saved object to or from other spaces.

saved_object_remove_references

unknown

User is removing references to a saved object.

failure

User is not authorized to remove references to a saved object.

saved_object_collect_multinamespace_references

success

User has accessed references to a multi-space saved object.

failure

User is not authorized to access references to a multi-space saved object.

connector_update

unknown

User is updating a connector.

failure

User is not authorized to update a connector.

rule_update

unknown

User is updating a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to update a rule.

rule_update_api_key

unknown

User is updating the API key of a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to update the API key of a rule.

rule_enable

unknown

User is enabling a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to enable a rule.

rule_disable

unknown

User is disabling a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to disable a rule.

rule_mute

unknown

User is muting a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to mute a rule.

rule_unmute

unknown

User is unmuting a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to unmute a rule.

rule_alert_mute

unknown

User is muting an alert.

failure

User is not authorized to mute an alert.

rule_alert_unmute

unknown

User is unmuting an alert.

failure

User is not authorized to unmute an alert.

space_update

unknown

User is updating a space.

failure

User is not authorized to update a space.

alert_update

unknown

User is updating an alert.

failure

User is not authorized to update an alert.

rule_snooze

unknown

User is snoozing a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to snooze a rule.

rule_unsnooze

unknown

User is unsnoozing a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to unsnooze a rule.

case_update

unknown

User is updating a case.

failure

User is not authorized to update a case.

case_push

unknown

User is pushing a case to an external service.

failure

User is not authorized to push a case to an external service.

case_configuration_update

unknown

User is updating a case configuration.

failure

User is not authorized to update a case configuration.

case_comment_update

unknown

User is updating a case comment.

failure

User is not authorized to update a case comment.

case_user_action_add_case_assignees

success

User has added a case assignee.

case_user_action_update_case_connector

success

User has updated a case connector.

case_user_action_update_case_description

success

User has updated a case description.

case_user_action_update_case_settings

success

User has updated the case settings.

case_user_action_update_case_severity

success

User has updated the case severity.

case_user_action_update_case_status

success

User has updated the case status.

case_user_action_pushed_case

success

User has pushed a case to an external service.

case_user_action_add_case_tags

success

User has added tags to a case.

case_user_action_update_case_title

success

User has updated the case title.

Type: deletion
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Action

Outcome

Description

saved_object_delete

unknown

User is deleting a saved object.

failure

User is not authorized to delete a saved object.

saved_object_close_point_in_time

unknown

User is deleting a Point In Time that was used to query saved objects.

failure

User is not authorized to delete a Point In Time.

connector_delete

unknown

User is deleting a connector.

failure

User is not authorized to delete a connector.

rule_delete

unknown

User is deleting a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to delete a rule.

space_delete

unknown

User is deleting a space.

failure

User is not authorized to delete a space.

case_delete

unknown

User is deleting a case.

failure

User is not authorized to delete a case.

case_comment_delete_all

unknown

User is deleting all comments associated with a case.

failure

User is not authorized to delete all comments associated with a case.

case_comment_delete

unknown

User is deleting a case comment.

failure

User is not authorized to delete a case comment.

case_user_action_delete_case_assignees

success

User has removed a case assignee.

case_user_action_delete_comment

success

User has deleted a case comment.

case_user_action_delete_case

success

User has deleted a case.

case_user_action_delete_case_tags

success

User has removed tags from a case.

Type: access
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Action

Outcome

Description

saved_object_get

success

User has accessed a saved object.

failure

User is not authorized to access a saved object.

saved_object_resolve

success

User has accessed a saved object.

failure

User is not authorized to access a saved object.

saved_object_find

success

User has accessed a saved object as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to search for saved objects.

connector_get

success

User has accessed a connector.

failure

User is not authorized to access a connector.

connector_find

success

User has accessed a connector as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to search for connectors.

rule_get

success

User has accessed a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to access a rule.

rule_get_execution_log

success

User has accessed execution log for a rule.

failure

User is not authorized to access execution log for a rule.

rule_find

success

User has accessed a rule as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to search for rules.

space_get

success

User has accessed a space.

failure

User is not authorized to access a space.

space_find

success

User has accessed a space as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to search for spaces.

alert_get

success

User has accessed an alert.

failure

User is not authorized to access an alert.

alert_find

success

User has accessed an alert as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to access alerts.

case_get

success

User has accessed a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access a case.

case_bulk_get

success

User has accessed multiple cases.

failure

User is not authorized to access multiple cases.

case_resolve

success

User has accessed a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access a case.

case_find

success

User has accessed a case as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to search for cases.

case_ids_by_alert_id_get

success

User has accessed cases.

failure

User is not authorized to access cases.

case_get_metrics

success

User has accessed metrics for a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access metrics for a case.

cases_get_metrics

success

User has accessed metrics for cases.

failure

User is not authorized to access metrics for cases.

case_configuration_find

success

User has accessed a case configuration as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to search for case configurations.

case_comment_get_metrics

success

User has accessed metrics for case comments.

failure

User is not authorized to access metrics for case comments.

case_comment_alerts_attach_to_case

success

User has accessed case alerts.

failure

User is not authorized to access case alerts.

case_comment_get

success

User has accessed a case comment.

failure

User is not authorized to access a case comment.

case_comment_bulk_get

success

User has accessed multiple case comments.

failure

User is not authorized to access multiple case comments.

case_comment_get_all

success

User has accessed case comments.

failure

User is not authorized to access case comments.

case_comment_find

success

User has accessed a case comment as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to search for case comments.

case_categories_get

success

User has accessed a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access a case.

case_tags_get

success

User has accessed a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access a case.

case_reporters_get

success

User has accessed a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access a case.

case_find_statuses

success

User has accessed a case as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to search for cases.

case_user_actions_get

success

User has accessed the user activity of a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access the user activity of a case.

case_user_actions_find

success

User has accessed the user activity of a case as part of a search operation.

failure

User is not authorized to access the user activity of a case.

case_user_action_get_metrics

success

User has accessed metrics for the user activity of a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access metrics for the user activity of a case.

case_user_action_get_users

success

User has accessed the users associated with a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access the users associated with a case.

case_connectors_get

success

User has accessed the connectors of a case.

failure

User is not authorized to access the connectors of a case.

Category: web

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Action

Outcome

Description

http_request

unknown

User is making an HTTP request.

Audit schema

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Audit logs are written in JSON using Elastic Common Schema (ECS) specification.

Base Fields

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Field

Description

@timestamp

Time when the event was generated.

Example: 2016-05-23T08:05:34.853Z

message

Human readable description of the event.

Event Fields

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Field

Description

event.action

The action captured by the event.

Refer to Audit events for a table of possible actions.

event.category

High level category associated with the event.

This field is closely related to event.type, which is used as a subcategory.

Possible values: database, web, authentication

event.type

Subcategory associated with the event.

This field can be used along with the event.category field to enable filtering events down to a level appropriate for single visualization.

Possible values: creation, access, change, deletion

event.outcome

Denotes whether the event represents a success or failure:

  • Any actions that the user is not authorized to perform are logged with outcome: failure
  • Authorized read operations are only logged after successfully fetching the data from Elasticsearch with outcome: success
  • Authorized create, update, or delete operations are logged before attempting the operation in Elasticsearch with outcome: unknown

Possible values: success, failure, unknown

User Fields

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Field

Description

user.id

Unique identifier of the user across sessions (See user profiles).

user.name

Login name of the user.

Example: jdoe

user.roles[]

Set of user roles at the time of the event.

Example: [kibana_admin, reporting_user]

Kibana Fields

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Field

Description

kibana.space_id

ID of the space associated with the event.

Example: default

kibana.session_id

ID of the user session associated with the event.

Each login attempt results in a unique session id.

kibana.saved_object.type

Type of saved object associated with the event.

Example: dashboard

kibana.saved_object.id

ID of the saved object associated with the event.

kibana.authentication_provider

Name of the authentication provider associated with the event.

Example: my-saml-provider

kibana.authentication_type

Type of the authentication provider associated with the event.

Example: saml

kibana.authentication_realm

Name of the Elasticsearch realm that has authenticated the user.

Example: native

kibana.lookup_realm

Name of the Elasticsearch realm where the user details were retrieved from.

Example: native

kibana.add_to_spaces[]

Set of space IDs that a saved object is being shared to as part of the event.

Example: [default, marketing]

kibana.delete_from_spaces[]

Set of space IDs that a saved object is being removed from as part of the event.

Example: [marketing]

Error Fields

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Field

Description

error.code

Error code describing the error.

error.message

Error message.

HTTP and URL Fields

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Field

Description

client.ip

Client IP address.

http.request.method

HTTP request method.

Example: get, post, put, delete

http.request.headers.x-forwarded-for

X-Forwarded-For request header used to identify the originating client IP address when connecting through proxy servers.

Example: 161.66.20.177, 236.198.214.101

url.domain

Domain of the URL.

Example: www.elastic.co

url.path

Path of the request.

Example: /search

url.port

Port of the request.

Example: 443

url.query

The query field describes the query string of the request.

Example: q=elasticsearch

url.scheme

Scheme of the request.

Example: https

Tracing Fields

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Field

Description

trace.id

Unique identifier allowing events of the same transaction from Kibana and Elasticsearch to be correlated.

Correlating audit events

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Audit events can be correlated in two ways:

  1. Multiple Kibana audit events that resulted from the same request can be correlated together.
  2. If Elasticsearch audit logging is enabled, Kibana audit events from one request can be correlated with backend calls that create Elasticsearch audit events.

The examples below are simplified, many fields have been omitted and values have been shortened for clarity.

Example 1: correlating multiple Kibana audit events

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When "thom" creates a new alerting rule, five audit events are written:

{"event":{"action":"http_request","category":["web"],"outcome":"unknown"},"http":{"request":{"method":"post"}},"url":{"domain":"localhost","path":"/api/alerting/rule","port":5601,"scheme":"https"},"user":{"name":"thom","roles":["superuser"]},"kibana":{"space_id":"default","session_id":"3dHCZRB..."},"@timestamp":"2022-01-25T13:05:34.449-05:00","message":"User is requesting [/api/alerting/rule] endpoint","trace":{"id":"e300e06..."}}
{"event":{"action":"space_get","category":["database"],"type":["access"],"outcome":"success"},"kibana":{"space_id":"default","session_id":"3dHCZRB...","saved_object":{"type":"space","id":"default"}},"user":{"name":"thom","roles":["superuser"]},"@timestamp":"2022-01-25T13:05:34.454-05:00","message":"User has accessed space [id=default]","trace":{"id":"e300e06..."}}
{"event":{"action":"connector_get","category":["database"],"type":["access"],"outcome":"success"},"kibana":{"space_id":"default","session_id":"3dHCZRB...","saved_object":{"type":"action","id":"5e3b1ae..."}},"user":{"name":"thom","roles":["superuser"]},"@timestamp":"2022-01-25T13:05:34.948-05:00","message":"User has accessed connector [id=5e3b1ae...]","trace":{"id":"e300e06..."}}
{"event":{"action":"connector_get","category":["database"],"type":["access"],"outcome":"success"},"kibana":{"space_id":"default","session_id":"3dHCZRB...","saved_object":{"type":"action","id":"5e3b1ae..."}},"user":{"name":"thom","roles":["superuser"]},"@timestamp":"2022-01-25T13:05:34.956-05:00","message":"User has accessed connector [id=5e3b1ae...]","trace":{"id":"e300e06..."}}
{"event":{"action":"rule_create","category":["database"],"type":["creation"],"outcome":"unknown"},"kibana":{"space_id":"default","session_id":"3dHCZRB...","saved_object":{"type":"alert","id":"64517c3..."}},"user":{"name":"thom","roles":["superuser"]},"@timestamp":"2022-01-25T13:05:34.956-05:00","message":"User is creating rule [id=64517c3...]","trace":{"id":"e300e06..."}}

All of these audit events can be correlated together by the same trace.id value "e300e06...". The first event is the HTTP API call, the next audit events are checks to validate the space and the connectors, and the last audit event is the actual rule creation.

Example 2: correlating a Kibana audit event with Elasticsearch audit events

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When "thom" logs in, a "user_login" Kibana audit event is written:

{"event":{"action":"user_login","category":["authentication"],"outcome":"success"},"kibana":{"session_id":"ab93zdA..."},"user":{"name":"thom","roles":["superuser"]},"@timestamp":"2022-01-25T09:40:39.267-05:00","message":"User [thom] has logged in using basic provider [name=basic]","trace":{"id":"818cbf3..."}}

The trace.id value "818cbf3..." in the Kibana audit event can be correlated with the opaque_id value in these six Elasticsearch audit events:

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2022-01-25T09:40:38,604-0500", "event.action":"access_granted", "user.name":"thom", "user.roles":["superuser"], "request.id":"YCx8wxs...", "action":"cluster:admin/xpack/security/user/authenticate", "request.name":"AuthenticateRequest", "opaque_id":"818cbf3..."}
{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2022-01-25T09:40:38,613-0500", "event.action":"access_granted", "user.name":"kibana_system", "user.roles":["kibana_system"], "request.id":"Ksx73Ad...", "action":"indices:data/write/index", "request.name":"IndexRequest", "indices":[".kibana_security_session_1"], "opaque_id":"818cbf3..."}
{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2022-01-25T09:40:38,613-0500", "event.action":"access_granted", "user.name":"kibana_system", "user.roles":["kibana_system"], "request.id":"Ksx73Ad...", "action":"indices:data/write/bulk", "request.name":"BulkRequest", "opaque_id":"818cbf3..."}
{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2022-01-25T09:40:38,613-0500", "event.action":"access_granted", "user.name":"kibana_system", "user.roles":["kibana_system"], "request.id":"Ksx73Ad...", "action":"indices:data/write/bulk[s]", "request.name":"BulkShardRequest", "indices":[".kibana_security_session_1"], "opaque_id":"818cbf3..."}
{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2022-01-25T09:40:38,613-0500", "event.action":"access_granted", "user.name":"kibana_system", "user.roles":["kibana_system"], "request.id":"Ksx73Ad...", "action":"indices:data/write/index:op_type/create", "request.name":"BulkItemRequest", "indices":[".kibana_security_session_1"], "opaque_id":"818cbf3..."}
{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2022-01-25T09:40:38,613-0500", "event.action":"access_granted", "user.name":"kibana_system", "user.roles":["kibana_system"], "request.id":"Ksx73Ad...", "action":"indices:data/write/bulk[s][p]", "request.name":"BulkShardRequest", "indices":[".kibana_security_session_1"], "opaque_id":"818cbf3..."}

The Elasticsearch audit events show that "thom" authenticated, then subsequently "kibana_system" created a session for that user.