Elasticsearch audit events

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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.

This document provides a reference for all types of audit events and their associated attributes in Elasticsearch. Use audit event settings options to control what gets logged.

For more information and options about tuning audit logs, refer to Configuring audit logs.

access_denied

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

Example

{"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":[""]}

access_granted

Logged when an authenticated user attempts to execute an action they have the necessary privilege to perform. These events will be logged only for non-system users.

If you want to include access_granted events for all users (including internal users such as _xpack), add system_access_granted to the list of event types in addition to access_granted. The system_access_granted privilege is not included by default to avoid cluttering the logs.

Example

{"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.

Example

{"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.

Example

{"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.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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"}}}}

create_service_token

Logged when the create service account token API is invoked to create a new index-based token for a service account.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2021-04-30T23:17:42,952+0200", "node.id":
"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.
action":"create_service_token", "request.id":"az9a1Db5QrebDMacQ8yGKc",
"create":{"service_token":{"namespace":"elastic","service":"fleet-server","name":"token1"}}}`

connection_denied

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

Example

{"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":"10.10.0.20:52314",
"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.

Example

{"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]:52314",
"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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":[]}],
"metadata":{"application":"my-application","environment":{"level": 1,
"tags":["dev","staging"]}}}}}

change_apikey

Logged when the update API key API is invoked to update the attributes of an existing API key.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:33:52,521+0200", "node.id":
"9clhpgjJRR-iKzOw20xBNQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.action":
"change_apikey", "request.id":"9FteCmovTzWHVI-9Gpa_vQ", "change":{"apikey":
{"id":"zcwN3YEBBmnjw-K-hW5_","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":[]}],
"metadata":{"application":"my-application","environment":{"level": 1,
"tags":["dev","staging"]}},"expiration":"10d"}}}

change_apikeys

Logged when the bulk update API keys API is invoked to update the attributes of multiple existing API keys.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"type":"audit","timestamp":"2020-12-31T00:33:52,521+0200","node.id":
"9clhpgjJRR-iKzOw20xBNQ","event.type":"security_config_change",
"event.action":"change_apikeys","request.id":"9FteCmovTzWHVI-9Gpa_vQ",
"change":{"apikeys":
{"ids":["zcwN3YEBBmnjw-K-hW5_","j7c0WYIBqecB5CbVR6Oq"],"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":[]}],
"metadata":{"application":"my-application","environment":{"level":1,
"tags":["dev","staging"]}},"expiration":"10d"}}}

delete_privileges

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

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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_service_token

Logged when the delete service account token API is invoked to delete an index-based token for a service account.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"type":"audit", "timestamp":"2021-04-30T23:17:42,952+0200", "node.id":
"0RMNyghkQYCc_gVd1G6tZQ", "event.type":"security_config_change", "event.
action":"delete_service_token", "request.id":"az9a1Db5QrebDMacQ8yGKc",
"delete":{"service_token":{"namespace":"elastic","service":"fleet-server","name":"token1"}}}

delete_user

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

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

You must include the security_config_change event type to audit the related event action.

Example

{"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.

Example

{"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.

Example

{"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.

Example

{"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"]}

system_access_granted

Logs access_granted events only for internal users, such as _xpack. If you include this setting in addition to access_granted, then access_granted events are logged for all users.

Note

This event type is disabled by default to avoid cluttering the logs.

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.

Example

{"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"}

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, delete_privileges, change_apikey, or change_apikeys.

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. See more: X-Opaque-Id HTTP header - API conventions

trace_id

The identifier extracted from the traceparent HTTP header (if present) of the request associated with this event. It allows to surface audit logs into the Trace Logs feature of Elastic APM.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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, delete_privileges, change_apikey, or change_apikeys.

These events also have one of the following extra attributes (in addition to the common ones), which is specific to the event.type attribute. 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. If an API key is updated, the config object will be an apikey.

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": , "enabled": , "roles": ,
"full_name": , "email": , "has_password": ,
"metadata":