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AUSEARCH:(8)                               System Administration Utilities                               AUSEARCH:(8)



NAME
       ausearch - a tool to query audit daemon logs

SYNOPSIS
       ausearch [options]

DESCRIPTION
       ausearch  is  a tool that can query the audit daemon logs based for events based on different search criteria.
       The ausearch utility can also take input from stdin as long as the input is the raw log data. Each commandline
       option  given  forms  an "and" statement. For example, searching with -m and -ui means return events that have
       both the requested type and match the user id given. An exception is the -n option; multiple nodes are allowed
       in a search which will return any matching node.

       It  should  also be noted that each syscall excursion from user space into the kernel and back into user space
       has one event ID that is unique. Any auditable event that is triggered during this trip share this ID so  that
       they may be correlated.

       Different  parts of the kernel may add supplemental records. For example, an audit event on the syscall "open"
       will also cause the kernel to emit a PATH record with the file name. The ausearch  utility  will  present  all
       records  that  make  up one event together. This could mean that even though you search for a specific kind of
       record, the resulting events may contain SYSCALL records.

       Also be aware that not all record types have the requested information. For example, a PATH  record  does  not
       have a hostname or a loginuid.


OPTIONS
       -a, --event audit-event-id
              Search  for  an  event  based  on  the  given  event  ID.  Messages  always  start  with something like
              msg=audit(1116360555.329:2401771). The event ID is the number after the ':'. All audit events that  are
              recorded from one application's syscall have the same audit event ID. A second syscall made by the same
              application will have a different event ID. This way they are unique.

       --arch CPU
              Search for events based on a specific CPU architecture.  If you do not know the arch  of  your  machine
              but  you  want  to use the 32 bit syscall table and your machine supports 32 bits, you can also use b32
              for the arch. The same applies to the 64 bit syscall table, you can use b64.  The arch of your  machine
              can be found by doing 'uname -m'.

       -c, --comm comm-name
              Search  for an event based on the given comm name. The comm name is the executable's name from the task
              structure.

       --debug
              Write malformed events that are skipped to stderr.

       --checkpoint checkpoint-file
              Checkpoint the output between successive invocations of ausearch such that only events  not  previously
              output will print in subsequent invocations.

              An  auditd  event is made up of one or more records. When processing events, ausearch defines events as
              either complete or in-complete.  A complete event is either a single record event or  one  whose  event
              time occurred 2 seconds in the past compared to the event being currently processed.

              A  checkpoint is achieved by recording the last completed event output along with the device number and
              inode of the file the last completed event appeared in checkpoint-file.  On  a  subsequent  invocation,
              af_unix sockets.

       -ga, --gid-all all-group-id
              Search for an event with either effective group ID or group ID matching the given group ID.

       -ge, --gid-effective effective-group-id
              Search for an event with the given effective group ID or group name.

       -gi, --gid group-id
              Search for an event with the given group ID or group name.

       -h, --help
              Help

       -hn, --host host-name
              Search for an event with the given host name. The hostname can be either a  hostname,  fully  qualified
              domain  name,  or  numeric  network  address. No attempt is made to resolve numeric addresses to domain
              names or aliases.

       -i, --interpret
              Interpret numeric entities into text. For example, uid is converted to account name. The conversion  is
              done  using the current resources of the machine where the search is being run. If you have renamed the
              accounts, or don't have the same accounts on your machine, you could get misleading results.

       -if, --input file-name | directory
              Use the given file or directory instead of the logs. This is to aid analysis where the logs  have  been
              moved to another machine or only part of a log was saved.

       --input-logs
              Use  the  log  file  location  from auditd.conf as input for searching. This is needed if you are using
              ausearch from a cron job.

       --just-one
              Stop after emitting the first event that matches the search criteria.

       -k, --key key-string
              Search for an event based on the given key string.

       -l, --line-buffered
              Flush output on every line. Most useful when stdout is connected  to  a  pipe  and  the  default  block
              buffering strategy is undesirable. May impose a performance penalty.

       -m, --message message-type | comma-sep-message-type-list
              Search  for an event matching the given message type. You may also enter a comma separated list of mes‐
              sage types. There is an ALL message type that doesn't exist in the actual logs. It allows  you  to  get
              all messages in the system. The list of valid messages types is long. The program will display the list
              whenever no message type is passed with this parameter. The message type can be either text or numeric.
              If you enter a list, there can be only commas and no spaces separating the list.

       -n, --node node-name
              Search  for  events  originating  from  node  name string. Multiple nodes are allowed, and if any nodes
              match, the event is matched.

       -o, --object SE-Linux-context-string
       -sc, --syscall syscall-name-or-value
              Search  for  an  event matching the given syscall. You may either give the numeric syscall value or the
              syscall name. If you give the syscall name, it will use the syscall table for the machine that you  are
              using.

       -se, --context SE-Linux-context-string
              Search for event with either scontext/subject or tcontext/object matching the string.

       --session Login-Session-ID
              Search  for  events matching the given Login Session ID. This process attribute is set when a user logs
              in and can tie any process to a particular user login.

       -su, --subject SE-Linux-context-string
              Search for event with scontext (subject) matching the string.

       -sv, --success success-value
              Search for an event matching the given success value. Legal values are yes and no.

       -te, --end [end-date] [end-time]
              Search for events with time stamps equal to or before the given  end  time.  The  format  of  end  time
              depends  on  your  locale.  If  the  date  is omitted, today is assumed. If the time is omitted, now is
              assumed. Use 24 hour clock time rather than AM or PM  to  specify  time.  An  example  date  using  the
              en_US.utf8 locale is 09/03/2009. An example of time is 18:00:00. The date format accepted is influenced
              by the LC_TIME environmental variable.

              You may also use  the  word:  now,  recent,  today,  yesterday,  this-week,  week-ago,  this-month,  or
              this-year. Today means starting now. Recent is 10 minutes ago. Yesterday is 1 second after midnight the
              previous day. This-week means starting 1 second after midnight on day 0 of the week determined by  your
              locale  (see  localtime). Week-ago means 1 second after midnight exactly 7 days ago. This-month means 1
              second after midnight on day 1 of the month. This-year means the 1 second after midnight on  the  first
              day of the first month.

       -ts, --start [start-date] [start-time]
              Search  for  events  with  time stamps equal to or after the given start time. The format of start time
              depends on your locale. If the date is omitted, today is assumed. If the time is omitted,  midnight  is
              assumed.  Use  24  hour  clock  time  rather  than  AM or PM to specify time. An example date using the
              en_US.utf8 locale is 09/03/2009. An example of time is 18:00:00. The date format accepted is influenced
              by the LC_TIME environmental variable.

              You  may  also use the word: now, recent, today, yesterday, this-week, week-ago, this-month, this-year,
              or checkpoint. Today means starting at 1 second after midnight. Recent is 10 minutes ago. Yesterday  is
              1  second after midnight the previous day. This-week means starting 1 second after midnight on day 0 of
              the week determined by your locale (see localtime). Week-ago means starting  1  second  after  midnight
              exactly 7 days ago. This-month means 1 second after midnight on day 1 of the month. This-year means the
              1 second after midnight on the first day of the first month.

              checkpoint means ausearch will use the timestamp found within a  valid  checkpoint  file  ignoring  the
              recorded  inode,  device, serial, node and event type also found within a checkpoint file. Essentially,
              this is the recovery action should an invocation of ausearch with a checkpoint option fail with an exit
              status of 10, 11 or 12. It could be used in a shell script something like:

                   ausearch --checkpoint /etc/audit/auditd_checkpoint.txt -i
                   _au_status=$?
                   if test ${_au_status} eq 10 -o ${_au_status} eq 11 -o ${_au_status} eq 12

       -ue, --uid-effective effective-user-id
              Search for an event with the given effective user ID.

       -ui, --uid user-id
              Search for an event with the given user ID.

       -ul, --loginuid login-id
              Search for an event with the given login user ID. All entry point programs that are pamified need to be
              configured with pam_loginuid required for the session for searching on loginuid (auid) to be accurate.

       -uu, --uuid guest-uuid
              Search for an event with the given guest UUID.

       -v, --version
              Print the version and exit

       -vm, --vm-name guest-name
              Search for an event with the given guest name.

       -w, --word
              String based matches must match the whole word. This category of matches include:  filename,  hostname,
              terminal, and SE Linux context.

       -x, --executable executable
              Search for an event matching the given executable name.


EXIT STATUS
       0    if OK,

       1    if nothing found, or argument errors or minor file acces/read errors,

       10   invalid checkpoint data found in checkpoint file,

       11   checkpoint processing error

       12   checkpoint event not found in matching log file

SEE ALSO
       auditd(8), pam_loginuid(8).



Red Hat                                               July 2016                                          AUSEARCH:(8)