NAME¶
ausearch - a tool to query audit daemon logs
SYNOPSIS¶
ausearch [
options]
DESCRIPTION¶
ausearch is a tool that can query the audit daemon logs based for events
based on different search criteria. The ausearch utility can also take input
from stdin as long as the input is the raw log data. Each commandline option
given forms an "and" statement. For example, searching with
-m and
-ui means return events that have both the requested type
and match the user id given. An exception is the
-n option; multiple
nodes are allowed in a search which will return any matching node.
It should also be noted that each syscall excursion from user space into the
kernel and back into user space has one event ID that is unique. Any auditable
event that is triggered during this trip share this ID so that they may be
correlated.
Different parts of the kernel may add supplemental records. For example, an
audit event on the syscall "open" will also cause the kernel to emit
a PATH record with the file name. The ausearch utility will present all
records that make up one event together. This could mean that even though you
search for a specific kind of record, the resulting events may contain SYSCALL
records.
Also be aware that not all record types have the requested information. For
example, a PATH record does not have a hostname or a loginuid.
OPTIONS¶
- -a, --event audit-event-id
- Search for an event based on the given event ID. Messages always
start with something like msg=audit(1116360555.329:2401771). The event ID
is the number after the ':'. All audit events that are recorded from one
application's syscall have the same audit event ID. A second syscall made
by the same application will have a different event ID. This way they are
unique.
- --arch CPU
- Search for events based on a specific CPU architecture. If you do not know
the arch of your machine but you want to use the 32 bit syscall table and
your machine supports 32 bits, you can also use b32 for the arch.
The same applies to the 64 bit syscall table, you can use b64. The
arch of your machine can be found by doing 'uname -m'.
- -c, --comm comm-name
- Search for an event based on the given comm name. The comm name is
the executable's name from the task structure.
- --debug
- Write malformed events that are skipped to stderr.
- --checkpoint checkpoint-file
- Checkpoint the output between successive invocations of ausearch such that
only events not previously output will print in subsequent invocations.
An auditd event is made up of one or more records. When processing events,
ausearch defines events as either complete or in-complete. A complete
event is either a single record event or one whose event time occurred 2
seconds in the past compared to the event being currently processed.
A checkpoint is achieved by recording the last completed event output along
with the device number and inode of the file the last completed event
appeared in checkpoint-file. On a subsequent invocation, ausearch
will load this checkpoint data and as it processes the log files, it will
discard all complete events until it matches the checkpointed one. At this
point, it will start outputting complete events.
Should the file or the last checkpointed event not be found, one of a number
of errors will result and ausearch will terminate. See EXIT STATUS
for detail.
- -e, --exit exit-code-or-errno
- Search for an event based on the given syscall exit code or
errno.
- -f, --file file-name
- Search for an event based on the given filename.
- -ga, --gid-all all-group-id
- Search for an event with either effective group ID or group ID matching
the given group ID.
- -ge, --gid-effective effective-group-id
- Search for an event with the given effective group ID or group
name.
- -gi, --gid group-id
- Search for an event with the given group ID or group name.
- -h, --help
- Help
- -hn, --host host-name
- Search for an event with the given host name. The hostname can be
either a hostname, fully qualified domain name, or numeric network
address. No attempt is made to resolve numeric addresses to domain names
or aliases.
- -i, --interpret
- Interpret numeric entities into text. For example, uid is converted to
account name. The conversion is done using the current resources of the
machine where the search is being run. If you have renamed the accounts,
or don't have the same accounts on your machine, you could get misleading
results.
- -if, --input file-name | directory
- Use the given file or directory instead of the logs. This is
to aid analysis where the logs have been moved to another machine or only
part of a log was saved.
- --input-logs
- Use the log file location from auditd.conf as input for searching. This is
needed if you are using ausearch from a cron job.
- --just-one
- Stop after emitting the first event that matches the search criteria.
- -k, --key key-string
- Search for an event based on the given key string.
- -l, --line-buffered
- Flush output on every line. Most useful when stdout is connected to a pipe
and the default block buffering strategy is undesirable. May impose a
performance penalty.
- -m, --message message-type | comma-sep-message-type-list
- Search for an event matching the given message type. You may also
enter a comma separated list of message types. There is an
ALL message type that doesn't exist in the actual logs. It allows
you to get all messages in the system. The list of valid messages types is
long. The program will display the list whenever no message type is passed
with this parameter. The message type can be either text or numeric. If
you enter a list, there can be only commas and no spaces separating the
list.
- -n, --node node-name
- Search for events originating from node name string. Multiple nodes
are allowed, and if any nodes match, the event is matched.
- -o, --object SE-Linux-context-string
- Search for event with tcontext (object) matching the string.
- -p, --pid process-id
- Search for an event matching the given process ID.
- -pp, --ppid parent-process-id
- Search for an event matching the given parent process ID.
- -r, --raw
- Output is completely unformatted. This is useful for extracting records
that can still be interpreted by audit tools.
- -sc, --syscall syscall-name-or-value
- Search for an event matching the given syscall. You may either give
the numeric syscall value or the syscall name. If you give the syscall
name, it will use the syscall table for the machine that you are
using.
- -se, --context SE-Linux-context-string
- Search for event with either scontext/subject or
tcontext/object matching the string.
- --session Login-Session-ID
- Search for events matching the given Login Session ID. This process
attribute is set when a user logs in and can tie any process to a
particular user login.
- -su, --subject SE-Linux-context-string
- Search for event with scontext (subject) matching the string.
- -sv, --success success-value
- Search for an event matching the given success value. Legal values
are yes and no.
- -te, --end [end-date] [end-time]
- Search for events with time stamps equal to or before the given end time.
The format of end time depends on your locale. If the date is omitted,
today is assumed. If the time is omitted, now is assumed.
Use 24 hour clock time rather than AM or PM to specify time. An example
date using the en_US.utf8 locale is 09/03/2009. An example of time is
18:00:00. The date format accepted is influenced by the LC_TIME
environmental variable.
You may also use the word: now, recent, today,
yesterday, this-week, week-ago, this-month, or
this-year. Today means starting now. Recent is 10
minutes ago. Yesterday is 1 second after midnight the previous day.
This-week means starting 1 second after midnight on day 0 of the
week determined by your locale (see localtime). Week-ago
means 1 second after midnight exactly 7 days ago. This-month means
1 second after midnight on day 1 of the month. This-year means the
1 second after midnight on the first day of the first month.
- -ts, --start [start-date] [start-time]
- Search for events with time stamps equal to or after the given start time.
The format of start time depends on your locale. If the date is omitted,
today is assumed. If the time is omitted, midnight is
assumed. Use 24 hour clock time rather than AM or PM to specify time. An
example date using the en_US.utf8 locale is 09/03/2009. An example of time
is 18:00:00. The date format accepted is influenced by the LC_TIME
environmental variable.
You may also use the word: now, recent, today,
yesterday, this-week, week-ago, this-month,
this-year, or checkpoint. Today means starting at 1
second after midnight. Recent is 10 minutes ago. Yesterday
is 1 second after midnight the previous day. This-week means
starting 1 second after midnight on day 0 of the week determined by your
locale (see localtime). Week-ago means starting 1 second
after midnight exactly 7 days ago. This-month means 1 second after
midnight on day 1 of the month. This-year means the 1 second after
midnight on the first day of the first month.
checkpoint means ausearch will use the timestamp found within
a valid checkpoint file ignoring the recorded inode, device, serial, node
and event type also found within a checkpoint file. Essentially, this is
the recovery action should an invocation of ausearch with a
checkpoint option fail with an exit status of 10, 11 or 12. It could be
used in a shell script something like:
ausearch --checkpoint /etc/audit/auditd_checkpoint.txt -i
_au_status=$?
if test ${_au_status} eq 10 -o ${_au_status} eq 11 -o ${_au_status} eq 12
then
ausearch --checkpoint /etc/audit/auditd_checkpoint.txt --start checkpoint -i
fi
- -tm, --terminal terminal
- Search for an event matching the given terminal value. Some daemons
such as cron and atd use the daemon name for the terminal.
- -ua, --uid-all all-user-id
- Search for an event with either user ID, effective user ID, or login user
ID (auid) matching the given user ID.
- -ue, --uid-effective effective-user-id
- Search for an event with the given effective user ID.
- -ui, --uid user-id
- Search for an event with the given user ID.
- -ul, --loginuid login-id
- Search for an event with the given login user ID. All entry point
programs that are pamified need to be configured with pam_loginuid
required for the session for searching on loginuid (auid) to be
accurate.
- -uu, --uuid guest-uuid
- Search for an event with the given guest UUID.
- -v, --version
- Print the version and exit
- -vm, --vm-name guest-name
- Search for an event with the given guest name.
- -w, --word
- String based matches must match the whole word. This category of matches
include: filename, hostname, terminal, and SE Linux context.
- -x, --executable executable
- Search for an event matching the given executable name.
EXIT STATUS¶
- 0
- if OK,
- 1
- if nothing found, or argument errors or minor file acces/read errors,
- 10
- invalid checkpoint data found in checkpoint file,
- 11
- checkpoint processing error
- 12
- checkpoint event not found in matching log file
SEE ALSO¶
auditd(8),
pam_loginuid(8).