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Labs

Working with the Audit Log

Understanding the popular Linux auditing system Auditd is important for being able to efficiently and effectively monitor IT systems. The Auditd package allows fine-tuned monitoring that is crucially important for security applications such as host intrusion detection. In this hands-on lab, we will create and use custom audit rules to monitor sensitive configuration files.

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Labs

Path Info

Level
Clock icon Intermediate
Duration
Clock icon 1h 0m
Published
Clock icon Nov 05, 2018

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Table of Contents

  1. Challenge

    Create audit rules to watch `/etc/passwd` for reads, `/etc/sudoers/` for reads and writes, and `/sbin/visudo` for executions.

    Run the following commands:

    • auditctl -w /etc/passwd -p w -k userwatch
    • auditctl -w /sbin/visudo -p x -k sudowatch
    • auditctl -w /etc/sudoers -p rw -k sudowatch
  2. Challenge

    Generate an audit rule list in `/home/cloud_user/rules.txt`.

    Run the command: auditctl -l > /home/cloud_user/rules.txt

  3. Challenge

    Generate logs by creating a new user and running the `visudo` command.

    Run the following commands:

    • useradd bob
    • visudo
  4. Challenge

    Generate the `userwatch.txt` and `sudowatch.txt` reports in `/home/cloud_user` by using the established audit keys `userwatch` and `sudowatch`, respectively.

    Run the following commands:

    • ausearch -k userwatch > /home/cloud_user/userwatch.txt
    • ausearch -k sudowatch > /home/cloud_user/sudowatch.txt

The Cloud Content team comprises subject matter experts hyper focused on services offered by the leading cloud vendors (AWS, GCP, and Azure), as well as cloud-related technologies such as Linux and DevOps. The team is thrilled to share their knowledge to help you build modern tech solutions from the ground up, secure and optimize your environments, and so much more!

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