path: root/docs/auditlog.rst

=========
Audit log
=========

.. contents::

Introduction
------------

A number of the libvirt virtualization drivers (QEMU/KVM and LXC)
include support for logging details of important operations to the
host's audit subsystem. This provides administrators / auditors with a
canonical historical record of changes to virtual machines' /
containers' lifecycle states and their configuration. On hosts which are
running the Linux audit daemon, the logs will usually end up in
``/var/log/audit/audit.log``

Configuration
-------------

The libvirt audit integration is enabled by default on any host which
has the Linux audit subsystem active, and disabled otherwise. It is
possible to alter this behaviour in the ``/etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf``
configuration file, via the ``audit_level`` parameter

-  ``audit_level=0`` - libvirt auditing is disabled regardless of host
   audit subsystem enablement.
-  ``audit_level=1`` - libvirt auditing is enabled if the host audit
   subsystem is enabled, otherwise it is disabled. This is the default
   behaviour.
-  ``audit_level=2`` - libvirt auditing is enabled regardless of host
   audit subsystem enablement. If the host audit subsystem is disabled,
   then libvirtd will refuse to complete startup and exit with an error.

In addition to have formal messages sent to the audit subsystem it is
possible to tell libvirt to inject messages into its own logging layer.
This will result in messages ending up in the systemd journal or
``/var/log/libvirt/libvirtd.log`` on non-systemd hosts. This is disabled
by default, but can be requested by setting the ``audit_logging=1``
configuration parameter in the same file mentioned above.

Message types
-------------

Libvirt defines three core audit message types each of which will be
described below. There are a number of common fields that will be
reported for all message types.

``pid``
   Process ID of the libvirtd daemon generating the audit record.
``uid``
   User ID of the libvirtd daemon process generating the audit record.
``subj``
   Security context of the libvirtd daemon process generating the audit
   record.
``msg``
   String containing a list of key=value pairs specific to the type of
   audit record being reported.

Some fields in the ``msg`` string are common to audit records

``virt``
   Type of virtualization driver used. One of ``qemu`` or ``lxc``
``vm``
   Host driver unique name of the guest
``uuid``
   Globally unique identifier for the guest
``exe``
   Path of the libvirtd daemon
``hostname``
   Currently unused
``addr``
   Currently unused
``terminal``
   Currently unused
``res``
   Result of the action, either ``success`` or ``failed``

VIRT_CONTROL
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reports change in the lifecycle state of a virtual machine. The ``msg``
field will include the following sub-fields

``op``
   Type of operation performed. One of ``start``, ``stop`` or ``init``
``reason``
   The reason which caused the operation to happen
``vm-pid``
   ID of the primary/leading process associated with the guest
``init-pid``
   ID of the ``init`` process in a container. Only if ``op=init`` and
   ``virt=lxc``
``pid-ns``
   Namespace ID of the ``init`` process in a container. Only if
   ``op=init`` and ``virt=lxc``

VIRT_MACHINE_ID
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reports the association of a security context with a guest. The ``msg``
field will include the following sub-fields

``model``
   The security driver type. One of ``selinux`` or ``apparmor``
``vm-ctx``
   Security context for the guest process
``img-ctx``
   Security context for the guest disk images and other assigned host
   resources

VIRT_RESOURCE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reports the usage of a host resource by a guest. The fields include will
vary according to the type of device being reported. When the guest is
initially booted records will be generated for all assigned resources.
If any changes are made to the running guest configuration, for example
hotplug devices, or adjust resources allocation, further records will be
generated.

Virtual CPU
^^^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``vcpu``
``old-vcpu``
   Original vCPU count, or 0
``new-vcpu``
   Updated vCPU count

Memory
^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``mem``
``old-mem``
   Original memory size in bytes, or 0
``new-mem``
   Updated memory size in bytes

Disk
^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``disk``
``old-disk``
   Original host file or device path acting as the disk backing file
``new-disk``
   Updated host file or device path acting as the disk backing file

Network interface
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``net``
``old-net``
   Original MAC address of the guest network interface
``new-net``
   Updated MAC address of the guest network interface

If there is a host network interface associated with the guest NIC then
further records may be generated

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``net``
``net``
   MAC address of the host network interface
``rdev``
   Name of the host network interface

Filesystem
^^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``fs``
``old-fs``
   Original host directory, file or device path backing the filesystem
``new-fs``
   Updated host directory, file or device path backing the filesystem

Host device
^^^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``hostdev`` or ``dev``
``dev``
   The unique bus identifier of the USB, PCI or SCSI device, if
   ``resrc=dev``
``disk``
   The path of the block device assigned to the guest, if
   ``resrc=hostdev``
``chardev``
   The path of the character device assigned to the guest, if
   ``resrc=hostdev``

TPM
^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``tpm`` or ``tpm-emulator``
``device``
   The path of the host TPM device assigned to the guest

RNG
^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``rng``
``old-rng``
   Original path of the host entropy source for the RNG
``new-rng``
   Updated path of the host entropy source for the RNG

console/serial/parallel/channel
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``chardev``
``old-chardev``
   Original path of the backing character device for given emulated
   device
``new-chardev``
   Updated path of the backing character device for given emulated
   device

smartcard
^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``smartcard``
``old-smartcard``
   Original path of the backing character device, certificate store or
   "nss-smartcard-device" for host smartcard passthrough.
``new-smartcard``
   Updated path of the backing character device, certificate store or
   "nss-smartcard-device" for host smartcard passthrough.

Redirected device
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``redir``
``bus``
   The bus type, only ``usb`` allowed
``device``
   The device type, only ``USB redir`` allowed

Control group
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``cgroup``
``cgroup``
   The name of the cgroup controller

Shared memory
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The ``msg`` field will include the following sub-fields

``resrc``
   The type of resource assigned. Set to ``shmem``
``reason``
   The reason which caused the resource to be assigned to happen
``size``
   The size of the shared memory region
``shmem``
   Name of the shared memory region
``source``
   Path of the backing character device for given emulated device