Design Custom Logging for the Listed Events

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Design Custom Logging for the Listed Events

This lab is related to logs. We need to create a custom logging solution to monitor for a set of specific system calls of a process listed in the lab specifications. All of this should be logged under `/log/var` and the name of the file is arbitrary. We need to monitor and log all attempts to write a given file (also provided in the lab specifications). We also need to monitor and log all attempts by a user to access a domain.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 06, 2025

Duration

1h 0m

Challenge

Log System Calls of a Process - sysCalls.py

Get Process ID

ps aux | grep sysCalls

sudo auditctl -a always,exit -S all -F pid=[PID] -k [your key]

Challenge

Log Attempts to Access a File - /home/cloud_user/test_file.txt

sudo auditctl -a always,exit -F path=/home/cloud_user/test_file.txt -F perm=wa -k [your key]

Challenge

Log Open Files by cloud_user

sudo auditctl -a always,exit -S openat -F auid=[UID] -k [your key]

Challenge

Make Sure the Rules Will Survive a Reboot

Get the path of the `auditd systemd` file - it will be at the top of the output

sudo systemctl cat auditd.service

sudo cp /usr/lib/systemd/system/auditd.service /etc/systemd/system/auditd.service

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/auditd.service

Comment out `ExecStartPost=-/sbin/augenrules --load`

Uncomment `ExecStartPost=-/sbin/auditctl -R /etc/audit/audit.rules`

ESC
:wq
ENTER

Make the rules permanent

sudo vim /etc/audit/audit.rules

-a always,exit -S all -F pid=[PID] -k [your key]
-a always,exit -F path=/home/cloud_user/test_file.txt -F perm=wa -k [your key]
-a always,exit -S openat -F auid=[UID] -k [your key]

ESC
:wq
ENTER

Find the log entries in the log files with the key we've used

sudo ausearch -k [your key]

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