libvirt: Audit log
Description: libvirt, virtualization, virtualization API

# Audit log

- Introduction
- Configuration
- Message types
  - VIRT_CONTROL
  - VIRT_MACHINE_ID
  - VIRT_RESOURCE
    - Virtual CPU
    - Memory
    - Disk
    - Network interface
    - Filesystem
    - Host device
    - TPM
    - RNG
    - console/serial/parallel/channel
    - smartcard
    - Redirected device
    - Control group

## 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/libivrtd.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`
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