Audit rules use of flags.

Steve Grubb sgrubb at redhat.com
Mon Feb 26 16:04:27 UTC 2007


On Wednesday 21 February 2007 21:48, Walt Powell wrote:
> I have a requirement to audit/log all failed attempts to access files.

If you are on x86_64, I think you'll need a new kernel. There was a problem in 
exit codes and sign extention during promotion.

> I entered the following line in audit.rules:
>
> -w exit,always -S open -F success!=0
>
> and audit flags all file exits regardless of success.

See below. I think you can get this with 2 rules until you can update your 
kernel.

> When I try: 
>
> -w exit,possible -S open -F success!=0
>
> it does NOT flag any file openings, including failure. 

Possible only collects information so that if another rule actually triggers 
an event, it has everything on hand to give a full context dump. Generally, 
you do not need "possible" rules.

> I am curious if: 
>
> -w exit,never -S open -F success=0
>
> but I suspect that the 'first hit takes it' nature of audit-1.0.12 will
> make the flag at the end useless.

Yes, but you should be able to follow that rule with:

-w exit,always -S open

which means the success !=0 case hits the second rule.

> So I suppose the question is - do I need to put the -F flag before the -w
> portion of the entry, or is there some other way to meet the requirement?

No, you have to use syscall auditing for this and not watches.

-Steve




More information about the Linux-audit mailing list