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Elastic Docs ›Elasticsearch Guide [7.11] ›Secure a cluster ›Enabling audit logging

Audit event types

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Audit event types

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When you are auditing security events, a single client request might generate multiple audit events, across multiple cluster nodes. The common request.id attribute can be used to correlate the associated events.

Event action Description Example

access_denied

Logged when an authenticated user attempts to execute an action they do not have the necessary privilege to perform.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:30:06,949+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"transport", "event.action":"access_denied", "authentication.type":"REALM", "user.name":"user1", "user.realm":"default_native", "user.roles":["test_role"], "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"[::1]:52434", "request.id":"yKOgWn2CRQCKYgZRz3phJw", "action":"indices:admin/auto_create", "request.name":"CreateIndexRequest", "indices":["<index-{now/d+1d}>"]}

access_granted

Logged when an authenticated user attempts to execute an action they have the necessary privilege to perform. When the system_access_granted event is included, all system (internal) actions are also logged. The default setting does not log system actions to avoid cluttering the logs.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:30:06,947+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"transport", "event.action":"access_granted", "authentication.type":"REALM", "user.name":"user1", "user.realm":"default_native", "user.roles":["test_role"], "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"[::1]:52434", "request.id":"yKOgWn2CRQCKYgZRz3phJw", "action":"indices:data/write/bulk", "request.name":"BulkRequest"}

anonymous_access_denied

Logged when a request is denied due to missing authentication credentials.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T21:56:43,608+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"rest", "event.action":"anonymous_access_denied", "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"[::1]:50543", "url.path":"/twitter/_async_search", "url.query":"pretty", "request.method":"POST", "request.id":"TqA9OisyQ8WTl1ivJUV1AA"}

authentication_failed

Logged when the authentication credentials cannot be matched to a known user.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:10:15,510+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"rest", "event.action":"authentication_failed", "user.name":"elastic", "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"[::1]:51504", "url.path":"/_security/user/user1", "url.query":"pretty", "request.method":"POST", "request.id":"POv8p_qeTl2tb5xoFl0HIg"}

authentication_success

Logged when a user successfully authenticates.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:03:35,018+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"rest", "event.action":"authentication_success", "authentication.type":"REALM", "user.name":"elastic", "user.realm":"reserved", "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"[::1]:51014", "realm":"reserved", "url.path":"/twitter/_search", "url.query":"pretty", "request.method":"POST", "request.id":"nHV3UMOoSiu-TaSPWCfxGg"}

change_disable_user

Logged when the enable user API is invoked to disable a native or a built-in user.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T23:17:28,308+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"change_disable_user", "request.id":"qvLIgw_eTvyK3cgV-GaLVg", "change":{"disable":{"user":{"name":"user1"}}}}

change_enable_user

Logged when the enable user API is invoked to enable a native or a built-in user.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T23:17:34,843+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"change_enable_user", "request.id":"BO3QU3qeTb-Ei0G0rUOalQ", "change":{"enable":{"user":{"name":"user1"}}}}

change_password

Logged when the change password API is invoked to change the password of a native or built-in user.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2019-12-30T22:19:41,345+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"change_password", "request.id":"bz5a1Cc3RrebDMitMGGNCw", "change":{"password":{"user":{"name":"user1"}}}}

connection_denied

Logged when an incoming TCP connection does not pass the IP filter for a specific profile.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T21:47:31,526+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"ip_filter", "event.action":"connection_denied", "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"10.10.0.20", "transport.profile":".http", "rule":"deny 10.10.0.0/16"}

connection_granted

Logged when an incoming TCP connection passes the IP filter for a specific profile.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T21:47:31,526+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"ip_filter", "event.action":"connection_granted", "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"::1", "transport.profile":".http", "rule":"allow ::1,127.0.0.1"}

create_apikey

Logged when the create API key or the grant API key APIs are invoked to create a new API key.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:33:52,521+0200", "node.id":"9clhpgjJRR-iKzOw20xBNQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"create_apikey", "request.id":"9FteCmovTzWHVI-9Gpa_vQ", "create":{"apikey":{"name":"test-api-key-1","expiration":"10d","role_descriptors":[{"cluster":["monitor","manage_ilm"],"indices":[{"names":["index-a*"],"privileges":["read","maintenance"]},{"names":["in*","alias*"],"privileges":["read"],"field_security":{"grant":["field1*","@timestamp"],"except":["field11"]}}],"applications":[],"run_as":[]},{"cluster":["all"],"indices":[{"names":["index-b*"],"privileges":["all"]}],"applications":[],"run_as":[]}]}}}

delete_privileges

Logged when the delete application privileges API is invoked to remove one or more application privileges.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:39:30,246+0200", "node.id":"9clhpgjJRR-iKzOw20xBNQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"delete_privileges", "request.id":"7wRWVxxqTzCKEspeSP7J8g", "delete":{"privileges":{"application":"myapp","privileges":["read"]}}}

delete_role

Logged when the delete role API is invoked to delete a role.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:08:11,678+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"delete_role", "request.id":"155IKq3zQdWq-12dgKZRnw", "delete":{"role":{"name":"my_admin_role"}}}

delete_role_mapping

Logged when the delete role mapping API is invoked to delete a role mapping.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:12:09,349+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"delete_role_mapping", "request.id":"Stim-DuoSTCWom0S_xhf8g", "delete":{"role_mapping":{"name":"mapping1"}}}

delete_user

Logged when the delete user API is invoked to delete a specific native user.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:19:41,345+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"delete_user", "request.id":"au5a1Cc3RrebDMitMGGNCw", "delete":{"user":{"name":"jacknich"}}}

invalidate_apikeys

Logged when the invalidate API key API is invoked to invalidate one or more API keys.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:36:30,247+0200", "node.id":"9clhpgjJRR-iKzOw20xBNQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"invalidate_apikeys", "request.id":"7lyIQU9QTFqSrTxD0CqnTQ", "invalidate":{"apikeys":{"owned_by_authenticated_user":false,"user":{"name":"myuser","realm":"native1"}}}}

put_privileges

Logged when the create or update privileges API is invoked to add or update one or more application privileges.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:39:07,779+0200", "node.id":"9clhpgjJRR-iKzOw20xBNQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"put_privileges", "request.id":"1X2VVtNgRYO7FmE0nR_BGA", "put":{"privileges":[{"application":"myapp","name":"read","actions":["data:read/*","action:login"],"metadata":{"description":"Read access to myapp"}}]}}

put_role

Logged when the create or update role API is invoked to create or update a role.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:27:01,978+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"put_role", "request.id":"tDYQhv5CRMWM4Sc5Zkk2cQ", "put":{"role":{"name":"test_role","role_descriptor":{"cluster":["all"],"indices":[{"names":["apm*"],"privileges":["all"],"field_security":{"grant":["granted"]},"query":"{\"term\": {\"service.name\": \"bar\"}}"},{"names":["apm-all*"],"privileges":["all"],"query":"{\"term\": {\"service.name\": \"bar2\"}}"}],"applications":[],"run_as":[]}}}}

put_role_mapping

Logged when the create or update role mapping API is invoked to create or update a role mapping.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:11:13,932+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"put_role_mapping", "request.id":"kg4h1l_kTDegnLC-0A-XxA", "put":{"role_mapping":{"name":"mapping1","roles":["user"],"rules":{"field":{"username":"*"}},"enabled":true,"metadata":{"version":1}}}}

put_user

Logged when the create or update user API is invoked to create or update a native user. Note that user updates can also change the user’s password.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:10:09,749+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":"put_user", "request.id":"VIiSvhp4Riim_tpkQCVSQA", "put":{"user":{"name":"user1","enabled":false,"roles":["admin","other_role1"],"full_name":"Jack Sparrow","email":"[email protected]","has_password":true,"metadata":{"cunning":10}}}}

realm_authentication_failed

Logged for every realm that fails to present a valid authentication token.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:10:15,510+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"rest", "event.action":"realm_authentication_failed", "user.name":"elastic", "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"[::1]:51504", "realm":"myTestRealm1", "url.path":"/_security/user/user1", "url.query":"pretty", "request.method":"POST", "request.id":"POv8p_qeTl2tb5xoFl0HIg"}

run_as_denied

Logged when an authenticated user attempts to run as another user that they do not have the necessary privileges to do so.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:49:34,859+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"transport", "event.action":"run_as_denied", "user.name":"user1", "user.run_as.name":"user1", "user.realm":"default_native", "user.run_as.realm":"default_native", "user.roles":["test_role"], "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"[::1]:52662", "request.id":"RcaSt872RG-R_WJBEGfYXA", "action":"indices:data/read/search", "request.name":"SearchRequest", "indices":["alias1"]}

run_as_granted

Logged when an authenticated user attempts to run as another user that they have the necessary privileges to do so.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-30T22:44:42,068+0200", "node.id":"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"transport", "event.action":"run_as_granted", "user.name":"elastic", "user.run_as.name":"user1", "user.realm":"reserved", "user.run_as.realm":"default_native", "user.roles":["superuser"], "origin.type":"rest", "origin.address":"[::1]:52623", "request.id":"dGqPTdEQSX2TAPS3cvc1qA", "action":"indices:data/read/search", "request.name":"SearchRequest", "indices":["alias1"]}

tampered_request

Logged when the security features detect that the request has been tampered with. Typically relates to search/scroll requests when the scroll ID is believed to have been tampered with.

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2019-11-27T22:00:00,947+0200", "node.id": "0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type": "rest", "event.action": "tampered_request", "origin.address":"[::1]:50543", "url.path":"/twitter/_async_search", "url.query":"pretty", "request.method":"POST", "request.id":"TqA9OisyQ8WTl1ivJUV1AA"}

Audit event attributes

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The audit events are formatted as JSON documents, and each event is printed on a separate line in the audit log. The entries themselves do not contain an end-of-line delimiter. For more details, see Log entry format.

The following list shows attributes that are common to all audit event types:

@timestamp
The time, in ISO9601 format, when the event occurred.
node.name
The name of the node. This can be changed in the elasticsearch.yml config file.
node.id
The node id. This is automatically generated and is persistent across full cluster restarts.
host.ip
The bound IP address of the node, with which the node can be communicated with.
host.name
The unresolved node’s hostname.
event.type
The internal processing layer that generated the event: rest, transport, ip_filter or security_config_change. This is different from origin.type because a request originating from the REST API is translated to a number of transport messages, generating audit events with origin.type: rest and event.type: transport.
event.action
The type of event that occurred: anonymous_access_denied, authentication_failed, authentication_success, realm_authentication_failed, access_denied, access_granted, connection_denied, connection_granted, tampered_request, run_as_denied, or run_as_granted. In addition, if event.type equals security_config_change, the event.action attribute takes one of the following values: put_user, change_password, put_role, put_role_mapping, change_enable_user, change_disable_user, put_privileges, create_apikey, delete_user, delete_role, delete_role_mapping, invalidate_apikeys or delete_privileges.
request.id
A synthetic identifier that can be used to correlate the events associated with a particular REST request.

In addition, all the events of types rest, transport and ip_filter (but not security_config_change) have the following extra attributes, which show more details about the requesting client:

origin.address
The source IP address of the request associated with this event. This could be the address of the remote client, the address of another cluster node, or the local node’s bound address, if the request originated locally. Unless the remote client connects directly to the cluster, the client address will actually be the address of the first OSI layer 3 proxy in front of the cluster.
origin.type
The origin type of the request associated with this event: rest (request originated from a REST API request), transport (request was received on the transport channel), or local_node (the local node issued the request).
opaque_id
The value of the X-Opaque-Id HTTP header (if present) of the request associated with this event. This header can be used freely by the client to mark API calls, as it has no semantics in Elasticsearch.
x_forwarded_for
The verbatim value of the X-Forwarded-For HTTP request header (if present) of the request associated with the audit event. This header is commonly added by proxies when they forward requests and the value is the address of the proxied client. When a request crosses multiple proxies the header is a comma delimited list with the last value being the address of the second to last proxy server (the address of the last proxy server is designated by the origin.address field).

Audit event attributes of the REST event type

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The events with event.type equal to rest have one of the following event.action attribute values: authentication_success, anonymous_access_denied, authentication_failed, realm_authentication_failed, tampered_request or run_as_denied. These events also have the following extra attributes (in addition to the common ones):

url.path
The path part of the URL (between the port and the query string) of the REST request associated with this event. This is URL encoded.
url.query
The query part of the URL (after "?", if present) of the REST request associated with this event. This is URL encoded.
request.method
The HTTP method of the REST request associated with this event. It is one of GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, HEAD, PATCH, TRACE and CONNECT.
request.body
The full content of the REST request associated with this event, if enabled. This contains the HTTP request body. The body is escaped as a string value according to the JSON RFC 4627.

Audit event attributes of the transport event type

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The events with event.type equal to transport have one of the following event.action attribute values: authentication_success, anonymous_access_denied, authentication_failed, realm_authentication_failed, access_granted, access_denied, run_as_granted, run_as_denied, or tampered_request. These events also have the following extra attributes (in addition to the common ones):

action
The name of the transport action that was executed. This is like the URL for a REST request.
indices
The indices names array that the request associated with this event pertains to (when applicable).
request.name
The name of the request handler that was executed.

Audit event attributes of the ip_filter event type

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The events with event.type equal to ip_filter have one of the following event.action attribute values: connection_granted or connection_denied. These events also have the following extra attributes (in addition to the common ones):

transport_profile
The transport profile the request targeted.
rule
The IP filtering rule that denied the request.

Audit event attributes of the security_config_change event type

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The events with the event.type attribute equal to security_config_change have one of the following event.action attribute values: put_user, change_password, put_role, put_role_mapping, change_enable_user, change_disable_user, put_privileges, create_apikey, delete_user, delete_role, delete_role_mapping, invalidate_apikeys, or delete_privileges. These events also have one of the following extra attributes (in addition to the common ones). The attribute’s value is a nested JSON object:

put
The object representation of the security config that is being created, or the overwrite of an existing config. It contains the config for a user, role, role_mapping, or for application privileges.
delete
The object representation of the security config that is being deleted. It can be the config for a user, role, role_mapping or for application privileges.
change
The object representation of the security config that is being changed. It can be the password, enable or disable, config object for native or built-in users.
create
The object representation of the new security config that is being created. This is currently only used for API keys auditing. If the API key is created using the create API key API it only contains an apikey config object. If the API key is created using the grant API key API it also contains a grant config object.
invalidate
The object representation of the security configuration that is being invalidated. The only config that currently supports invalidation is apikeys, through the invalidate API key API.

The schemas of the security config objects mentioned above are as follows. They are very similar to the request bodies of the corresponding security APIs.

user
An object like {"name": <string>, "enabled": <boolean>, "roles": <string_list>, "full_name": <string>, "email": <string>, "has_password": <boolean>, "metadata": <object>}. The full_name, email and metadata fields are omitted if empty.
role
An object like {"name": <string>, "role_descriptor": {"cluster": <string_list>, "global": {"application":{"manage":{<string>:<string_list>}}}, "indices": [ {"names": <string_list>, "privileges": <string_list>, "field_security": {"grant": <string_list>, "except": <string_list>}, "query": <string>, "allow_restricted_indices": <boolean>}], "applications":[{"application": <string>, "privileges": <string_list>, "resources": <string_list>}], "run_as": <string_list>, "metadata": <object>}}. The global, field_security, except, query, allow_restricted_indices and metadata fields are omitted if empty.
role_mapping
An object like {"name": <string>, "roles": <string_list>, "role_templates": [{"template": <string>, "format": <string>}], "rules": <object>, "enabled": <boolean>, "metadata": <object>}. The roles and role_templates fields are omitted if empty. The rules object has a recursively nested schema, identical to what is passed in the API request for mapping roles.
privileges
An array of objects like {"application": <string>, "name": <string>, "actions": <string_list>, "metadata": <object>}.
password
A simple object like {"user":{"name": <string>}}.
enable
A simple object like {"user":{"name": <string>}}.
disable
A simple object like {"user":{"name": <string>}}.
apikey
An object like {"name": <string>, "expiration": <string>, "role_descriptors" [<object>]}. The role_descriptors objects have the same schema as the role_descriptor object that is part of the above role config object.
grant
An object like {"type": <string>, "user": {"name": <string>, "has_password": <boolean>}, "has_access_token": <boolean>}
apikeys
An object like {"ids": <string_list>, "name": <string>, "owned_by_authenticated_user": <boolean>, "user":{"name": <string>, "realm": <string>}}.

Extra audit event attributes for specific events

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There are a few events that have some more attributes in addition to those that have been previously described:

  • authentication_success:

    realm
    The name of the realm that successfully authenticated the user. If authenticated using an API key, this is the special value of _es_api_key. This is a shorthand attribute for the same information that is described by the user.realm, user.run_by.realm and authentication.type attributes.
    user.name
    The name of the effective user. This is usually the same as the authenticated user, but if using the run as authorization functionality this instead denotes the name of the impersonated user. If authenticated using an API key, this is the name of the API key owner.
    user.realm
    Name of the realm to which the effective user belongs. If authenticated using an API key, this is the name of the realm to which the API key owner belongs.
    user.run_by.name
    This attribute is present only if the request is using the run as authorization functionality and denotes the name of the authenticated user, which is also known as the impersonator.
    user.run_by.realm
    Name of the realm to which the authenticated (impersonator) user belongs. This attribute is provided only if the request uses the run as authorization functionality.
    authentication.type
    Method used to authenticate the user. Possible values are REALM, API_KEY, TOKEN, ANONYMOUS or INTERNAL.
    api_key.id
    API key ID returned by the create API key request. This attribute is only provided for authentication using an API key.
    api_key.name
    API key name provided in the create API key request. This attribute is only provided for authentication using an API key.

  • authentication_failed:

    user.name
    The name of the user that failed authentication. If the request authentication token is invalid or unparsable, this information might be missing.

  • realm_authentication_failed:

    user.name
    The name of the user that failed authentication.
    realm
    The name of the realm that rejected this authentication. This event is generated for each consulted realm in the chain.

  • run_as_denied and run_as_granted:

    user.roles
    The role names of the user as an array.
    user.name
    The name of the authenticated user which is being granted or denied the impersonation action.
    user.realm
    The realm name that the authenticated user belongs to.
    user.run_as.name
    The name of the user as which the impersonation action is granted or denied.
    user.run_as.realm
    The realm name of that the impersonated user belongs to.

  • access_granted and access_denied:

    user.roles
    The role names of the user as an array. If authenticated using an API key, this contains the role names of the API key owner.
    user.name
    The name of the effective user. This is usually the same as the authenticated user, but if using the run as authorization functionality this instead denotes the name of the impersonated user. If authenticated using an API key, this is the name of the API key owner.
    user.realm
    Name of the realm to which the effective user belongs. If authenticated using an API key, this is the name of the realm to which the API key owner belongs.
    user.run_by.name
    This attribute is present only if the request is using the run as authorization functionality and denoted the name of the authenticated user, which is also known as the impersonator.
    user.run_by.realm
    This attribute is present only if the request is using the run as authorization functionality and denotes the name of the realm that the authenticated (impersonator) user belongs to.
    authentication.type
    Method used to authenticate the user. Possible values are REALM, API_KEY, TOKEN, ANONYMOUS or INTERNAL.
    api_key.id
    API key ID returned by the create API key request. This attribute is only provided for authentication using an API key.
    api_key.name
    API key name provided in the create API key request. This attribute is only provided for authentication using an API key.
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