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AUDITD.CONF:(5)		System Administration Utilities	       AUDITD.CONF:(5)

NAME
       auditd.conf - audit daemon configuration file

DESCRIPTION
       The file /etc/audit/auditd.conf contains configuration information spe‐
       cific to the audit daemon.  It should contain one configuration keyword
       per line, an equal sign, and then followed by appropriate configuration
       information.  The  keywords  recognized	are:   log_file,   log_format,
       log_group,  priority_boost,  flush,  freq,  num_logs  , disp_qos , dis‐
       patcher,	 name_format  ,	  name,	  max_log_file,	  max_log_file_action,
       space_left,   action_mail_acct,	 space_left_action,  admin_space_left,
       admin_space_left_action, disk_full_action, disk_error_action,  tcp_lis‐
       ten_port,      tcp_listen_queue,	    tcp_max_per_addr,	  use_libwrap,
       tcp_client_ports, tcp_client_max_idle, enable_krb5, krb5_principal, and
       krb5_key_file.  These keywords are described below.

       log_file
	      This  keyword specifies the full path name to the log file where
	      audit records will be stored. It must be a regular file.

       log_format
	      The log format describes how the information should be stored on
	      disk.  There  are	 2 options: raw and nolog.  If set to RAW, the
	      audit records will be stored in a format exactly as  the	kernel
	      sends it. If this option is set to NOLOG then all audit informa‐
	      tion is discarded instead of writing to disk. This mode does not
	      affect data sent to the audit event dispatcher.

       log_group
	      This  keyword  specifies	the  group  that is applied to the log
	      file's permissions. The default is root. The group name  can  be
	      either numeric or spelled out.

       priority_boost
	      This  is	a  non-negative number that tells the audit daemon how
	      much of a priority boost it should take. The default  is	4.  No
	      change is 0.

       flush  Valid  values are none, incremental, data,  and sync.  If set to
	      none, no special effort is made to flush the  audit  records  to
	      disk.  If set to incremental, Then the freq parameter is used to
	      determine how often an explicit flush to disk  is	 issued.   The
	      data parameter tells the audit damon to keep the data portion of
	      the disk file sync'd at all times. The  sync  option  tells  the
	      audit  daemon  to	 keep both the data and meta-data fully sync'd
	      with every write to disk.

       freq   This is a non-negative number that tells	the  audit  damon  how
	      many  records  to write before issuing an explicit flush to disk
	      command. this value is only valid when the flush keyword is  set
	      to incremental.

       num_logs
	      This keyword specifies the number of log files to keep if rotate
	      is given as the max_log_file_action.  If the number is < 2, logs
	      are not rotated. This number must be 99 or less.	The default is
	      0 - which means no rotation. As you increase the number  of  log
	      files  being  rotated, you may need to adjust the kernel backlog
	      setting upwards since it takes more time to  rotate  the	files.
	      This is typically done in /etc/audit/audit.rules.

       disp_qos
	      This  option controls whether you want blocking/lossless or non-
	      blocking/lossy communication between the audit  daemon  and  the
	      dispatcher.  There is a 128k buffer between the audit daemon and
	      dispatcher. This is good enogh for most uses. If lossy  is  cho‐
	      sen,  incoming events going to the dispatcher are discarded when
	      this queue is  full.  (Events  are  still	 written  to  disk  if
	      log_format  is not nolog.) Otherwise the auditd daemon will wait
	      for the queue to have an empty spot before logging to disk.  The
	      risk  is	that  while  the  daemon is waiting for network IO, an
	      event is not being recorded to disk. Valid values are: lossy and
	      lossless. Lossy is the default value.

       dispatcher
	      The  dispatcher is a program that is started by the audit daemon
	      when it starts up. It will pass a copy of all  audit  events  to
	      that  application's  stdin.  Make sure you trust the application
	      that you add to this line since it runs with root privileges.

       name_format
	      This option controls how computer node names are	inserted  into
	      the  audit  event	 stream.  It  has the following choices: none,
	      hostname, fqd, numeric, and user.	 None means that  no  computer
	      name  is	inserted  into	the audit event.  hostname is the name
	      returned by the gethostname syscall. The fqd means that it takes
	      the  hostname  and  resolves  it	with dns for a fully qualified
	      domain name of that machine.  Numeric is similar to  fqd	except
	      it  resolves the IP address of the machine. In order to use this
	      option, you might want to test that 'hostname -i' or 'domainname
	      -i'  returns  a numeric address. Also, this option is not recom‐
	      mended  if  dhcp	is  used  because  you	could  have  different
	      addresses	 over  time  for  the  same machine.  User is an admin
	      defined string from the name option. The default value is none.

       name   This is the admin defined string that identifies the machine  if
	      user is given as the name_format option.

       max_log_file
	      This  keyword specifies the maximum file size in megabytes. When
	      this limit is reached, it will trigger  a	 configurable  action.
	      The value given must be numeric.

       max_log_file_action
	      This  parameter  tells  the  system what action to take when the
	      system has detected that	the  max  file	size  limit  has  been
	      reached.	Valid  values  are ignore, syslog, suspend, rotate and
	      keep_logs.  If set to ignore, the	 audit	daemon	does  nothing.
	      syslog  means  that  it will issue a warning to syslog.  suspend
	      will cause the audit daemon to stop writing records to the disk.
	      The daemon will still be alive. The rotate option will cause the
	      audit daemon to rotate the logs. It should be  noted  that  logs
	      with higher numbers are older than logs with lower numbers. This
	      is the same  convention  used  by	 the  logrotate	 utility.  The
	      keep_logs option is similar to rotate except it does not use the
	      num_logs setting. This prevents audit logs from being  overwrit‐
	      ten.

       action_mail_acct
	      This  option  should contain a valid email address or alias. The
	      default address is root. If the email address is	not  local  to
	      the  machine, you must make sure you have email properly config‐
	      ured on your machine and network.	 Also,	this  option  requires
	      that /usr/lib/sendmail exists on the machine.

       space_left
	      This is a numeric value in megabytes that tells the audit daemon
	      when to perform a configurable  action  because  the  system  is
	      starting to run low on disk space.

       space_left_action
	      This  parameter  tells  the  system what action to take when the
	      system has detected that it is  starting	to  get	 low  on  disk
	      space.   Valid  values are ignore, syslog, email, exec, suspend,
	      single, and halt.	 If set to ignore, the audit daemon does noth‐
	      ing.   syslog  means  that  it  will  issue a warning to syslog.
	      Email means that it will send a warning  to  the	email  account
	      specified	 in action_mail_acct as well as sending the message to
	      syslog.  exec /path-to-script will execute the script. You  can‐
	      not pass parameters to the script.  suspend will cause the audit
	      daemon to stop writing records to	 the  disk.  The  daemon  will
	      still be alive. The single option will cause the audit daemon to
	      put the computer system in single user mode.  halt  option  will
	      cause the audit daemon to shutdown the computer system.

       admin_space_left
	      This is a numeric value in megabytes that tells the audit daemon
	      when to perform a configurable action because the system is run‐
	      ning  low	 on  disk  space.  This	 should be considered the last
	      chance to do something before running out	 of  disk  space.  The
	      numeric value for this parameter should be lower than the number
	      for space_left.

       admin_space_left_action
	      This parameter tells the system what action  to  take  when  the
	      system  has detected that it is low on disk space.  Valid values
	      are ignore, syslog, email, exec, suspend, single, and halt.   If
	      set to ignore, the audit daemon does nothing.  Syslog means that
	      it will issue a warning to syslog.  Email	 means	that  it  will
	      send   a	 warning   to	the   email   account	specified   in
	      action_mail_acct as well as sending the message to syslog.  exec
	      /path-to-script will execute the script. You cannot pass parame‐
	      ters to the script.  Suspend will cause the audit daemon to stop
	      writing records to the disk. The daemon will still be alive. The
	      single option will cause the audit daemon to  put	 the  computer
	      system in single user mode.  halt

       disk_full_action
	      This  parameter  tells  the  system what action to take when the
	      system has detected that the partition to which  log  files  are
	      written  has become full. Valid values are ignore, syslog, exec,
	      suspend, single, and halt.  If set to ignore, the	 audit	daemon
	      will  issue a syslog message but no other action is taken.  Sys‐
	      log means that it will issue a warning to syslog.	  exec	/path-
	      to-script will execute the script. You cannot pass parameters to
	      the script.  Suspend will cause the audit daemon to stop writing
	      records  to the disk. The daemon will still be alive. The single
	      option will cause the audit daemon to put the computer system in
	      single  user  mode.   halt option will cause the audit daemon to
	      shutdown the computer system.

       disk_error_action
	      This parameter tells the system what  action  to	take  whenever
	      there  is an error detected when writing audit events to disk or
	      rotating logs. Valid values are ignore, syslog,  exec,  suspend,
	      single, and halt.	 If set to ignore, the audit daemon will issue
	      up to 5 syslog messages before suppressing  them	but  no	 other
	      action  is  taken.  Syslog means that it will issue a warning to
	      syslog.  exec /path-to-script will execute the script. You  can‐
	      not pass parameters to the script.  Suspend will cause the audit
	      daemon to stop writing records to	 the  disk.  The  daemon  will
	      still be alive. The single option will cause the audit daemon to
	      put the computer system in single user mode.  halt  option  will
	      cause the audit daemon to shutdown the computer system.

       tcp_listen_port
	      This  is	a numeric value in the range 1..65535 which, if speci‐
	      fied, causes auditd to listen on the corresponding TCP port  for
	      audit  records  from  remote  systems.  The  audit daemon may be
	      linked with tcp_wrappers. You may want to control access with an
	      entry in the hosts.allow and deny files.

       tcp_listen_queue
	      This  is	a  numeric  value  which  indicates  how  many pending
	      (requested but unaccepted) connections are allowed.  The default
	      is  5.   Setting	this  too  small  may  cause connections to be
	      rejected if too many hosts start up at exactly  the  same	 time,
	      such as after a power failure.

       tcp_max_per_addr
	      This is a numeric value which indicates how many concurrent con‐
	      nections from one IP address is allowed.	The default is	1  and
	      the maximum is 16. Setting this too large may allow for a Denial
	      of Service attack on the logging server. The default  should  be
	      adequate	in  most cases unless a custom written recovery script
	      runs to forward unsent events. In this case you  would  increase
	      the number only large enough to let it in too.

       use_libwrap
	      This  setting  determines	 whether or not to use tcp_wrappers to
	      discern connection attempts  that	 are  from  allowed  machines.
	      Legal values are either yes, or no The default value is yes.

       tcp_client_ports
	      This parameter may be a single numeric value or two values sepa‐
	      rated by a dash (no spaces allowed).  It indicates which	client
	      ports  are  allowed for incoming connections.  If not specified,
	      any port is allowed.  Allowed values are 1..65535.  For example,
	      to require the client use a priviledged port, specify 1-1023 for
	      this parameter. You will also need to set the local_port	option
	      in  the  audisp-remote.conf  file. Making sure that clients send
	      from a privileged port is a  security  feature  to  prevent  log
	      injection attacks by untrusted users.

       tcp_client_max_idle
	      This parameter indicates the number of seconds that a client may
	      be idle (i.e. no data from them at all) before auditd complains.
	      This is used to close inactive connections if the client machine
	      has a problem where it cannot shutdown the  connection  cleanly.
	      Note  that this is a global setting, and must be higher than any
	      individual client heartbeat_timeout  setting,  preferably	 by  a
	      factor of two.  The default is zero, which disables this check.

       enable_krb5
	      If  set to "yes", Kerberos 5 will be used for authentication and
	      encryption.  The default is "no".

       krb5_principal
	      This is the principal for this server.  The default is "auditd".
	      Given  this  default,  the server will look for a key named like
	      auditd/hostname@EXAMPLE.COM stored  in  /etc/audit/audit.key  to
	      authenticate  itself,  where  hostname is the canonical name for
	      the server's host, as  returned  by  a  DNS  lookup  of  its  IP
	      address.

       krb5_key_file
	      Location	of the key for this client's principal.	 Note that the
	      key file must be owned by root and mode 0400.   The  default  is
	      /etc/audit/audit.key

NOTES
       In  a CAPP environment, the audit trail is considered so important that
       access to system resources must be denied if an audit trail  cannot  be
       created. In this environment, it would be suggested that /var/log/audit
       be on its own partition. This is to  ensure  that  space	 detection  is
       accurate and that no other process comes along and consumes part of it.

       The flush parameter should be set to sync or data.

       Max_log_file  and num_logs need to be adjusted so that you get complete
       use of your partition. It should be noted that the more files that have
       to  be  rotated,	 the  longer  it  takes to get back to receiving audit
       events. Max_log_file_action should be set to keep_logs.

       Space_left should be set to a number that gives the admin  enough  time
       to  react  to any alert message and perform some maintenance to free up
       disk space. This would typically involve running the aureport -t report
       and  moving the oldest logs to an archive area. The value of space_left
       is site dependant since the rate at which events are  generated	varies
       with each deployment. The space_left_action is recommended to be set to
       email. If you need something like an snmp trap, you can	use  the  exec
       option to send one.

       Admin_space_left should be set to the amount of disk space on the audit
       partition    needed    for    admin    actions	 to    be    recorded.
       Admin_space_left_action	would  be  set	to  single  so that use of the
       machine is restricted to just the console.

       The disk_full_action is triggered when no more room exists on the  par‐
       tition.	All access should be terminated since no more audit capability
       exists. This can be set to either single or halt.

       The disk_error_action should be set to syslog, single, or halt  depend‐
       ing on your local policies regarding handling of hardware malfunctions.

       Specifying  a  single allowed client port may make it difficult for the
       client to restart their audit subsystem, as it will be unable to recre‐
       ate  a connection with the same host addresses and ports until the con‐
       nection closure TIME_WAIT state times out.

FILES
       /etc/audit/auditd.conf
	      Audit daemon configuration file

SEE ALSO
       auditd(8), audisp-remote.conf(5).

AUTHOR
       Steve Grubb

Red Hat				   Dec 2008		       AUDITD.CONF:(5)
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