6.4.5.5 Audit Log Logging Configuration

To configure the audit log file name, set the audit_log_file system variable at server startup. By default, the name is audit.log in the server data directory. For security reasons, write the audit log file to a directory accessible only to the MySQL server and to users with a legitimate reason to view the log.

The plugin interprets the audit_log_file value as composed of a base name and an optional suffix. If compression or encryption are enabled, the effective file name (the name actually used to create the log file) differs from the configured file name because it has additional suffixes:

The effective audit log file name is the name resulting from the addition of applicable compression and encryption suffixes to the configured file name. For example, if the configured audit_log_file value is audit.log, the effective file name is one of the values shown in the following table.

pwd_id indicates the ID of the password used to encrypt or decrypt a file. pwd_id format is pwd_timestamp-seq, where:

Here are some example password ID values:

20190403T142359-1
20190403T142400-1
20190403T142400-2

The audit log plugin stores encryption passwords in the keyring (see Section 6.4.4, “The MySQL Keyring”). The IDs of audit log passwords in the keyring are based on pwd_id values, with a prefix of audit_log-. For the example password IDs just shown, the corresponding keyring IDs are:

audit_log-20190403T142359-1
audit_log-20190403T142400-1
audit_log-20190403T142400-2

The password currently used for encryption by the audit log plugin is the one having the largest pwd_timestamp value. If multiple passwords have the largest pwd_timestamp value, the current password is the one with the largest sequence number. For example, in the preceding set of password IDs, two of them have the largest timestamp, 20190403T142400, so the current password is the one with the largest sequence number (2).

The audit log plugin performs certain actions during initialization and termination based on the effective audit log file name:

To configure the audit log file format, set the audit_log_format system variable at server startup. By default, the format is NEW (new-style XML format). For details about each format, see Section 6.4.5.4, “Audit Log File Formats”.

If you change audit_log_format, it is recommended that you also change audit_log_file. Otherwise, there will be two sets of log files with the same base name but different formats.

Audit log file compression can be enabled for any logging format.

To configure audit log file compression, set the audit_log_compression system variable at server startup. Permitted values are NONE (no compression; the default) and GZIP (GNU Zip compression).

If both compression and encryption are enabled, compression occurs before encryption. To recover the original file manually, first decrypt it, then uncompress it. See Audit Log File Manual Uncompression and Decryption.

Audit log file encryption can be enabled for any logging format. Encryption is based on user-defined passwords (with the exception of the initial password that the audit log plugin generates). To use this feature, the MySQL keyring must be enabled because audit logging uses it for password storage. Any keyring plugin can be used; for instructions, see Section 6.4.4, “The MySQL Keyring”.

To configure audit log file encryption, set the audit_log_encryption system variable at server startup. Permitted values are NONE (no encryption; the default) and AES (AES-256-CBC cipher encryption).

To set or get an encryption password, use these user-defined functions (UDFs):

For additional information about audit log encryption functions, see Audit Log Functions.

When the audit log plugin initializes, if it finds that log file encryption is enabled, it checks whether the keyring contains an audit log encryption password. If not, the plugin automatically generates a random initial encryption password and stores it in the keyring. To discover this password, invoke audit_log_encryption_password_get().

If both compression and encryption are enabled, compression occurs before encryption. To recover the original file manually, first decrypt it, then uncompress it. See Audit Log File Manual Uncompression and Decryption.

Audit log files can be uncompressed and decrypted using standard tools. This should be done only for log files that have been closed (archived) and are no longer in use, not for the log file that the audit log plugin is currently writing. You can recognize archived log files because they have been renamed by the audit log plugin to include a timestamp in the file name just after the base name.

For this discussion, assume that audit_log_file is set to audit.log. In that case, an archived audit log file has one of the names shown in the following table.

As discussed in Audit Log File Name, pwd_id format is pwd_timestamp-seq. Thus, the names of archived encrypted log files actually contain two timestamps. The first indicates rotation time, and the second indicates when the password was created.

Consider the following set of archived encrypted log file names:

audit.20190410T205827.log.20190403T185337-1.enc
audit.20190410T210243.log.20190403T185337-1.enc
audit.20190415T145309.log.20190414T223342-1.enc
audit.20190415T151322.log.20190414T223342-2.enc

Each file name has a unique rotation-time timestamp. By contrast, the password timestamps are not unique:

To uncompress a compressed log file manually, use gunzip, gzip -d, or equivalent command. For example:

gunzip -c audit.timestamp.log.gz > audit.timestamp.log

To decrypt an encrypted log file manually, use the openssl command. For example:

openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -pass pass:password -md sha256
    -in audit.timestamp.log.pwd_id.enc
    -out audit.timestamp.log

If both compression and encryption are enabled for audit logging, compression occurs before encryption. In this case, the file name has .gz and .pwd_id.enc suffixes added, corresponding to the order in which those operations occur. To recover the original file manually, perform the operations in reverse. That is, first decrypt the file, then uncompress it:

openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -pass pass:password -md sha256
    -in audit.timestamp.log.gz.pwd_id.enc
    -out audit.timestamp.log.gz
gunzip -c audit.timestamp.log.gz > audit.timestamp.log

This section covers the differences in audit log file encryption capabilities prior to and as of MySQL 8.0.17, which is when password archiving and expiration were implemented. It also indicates how the audit log plugin handles upgrades to MySQL 8.0.17 or higher from versions lower than 8.0.17.

Prior to MySQL 8.0.17, there is no password history, so setting a new password makes the old password inaccessible, rendering MySQL Enterprise Audit unable to read log files encrypted with the old password. You must keep a record of the previous password should you need to decrypt those files manually.

If audit log file encryption is enabled when you upgrade to MySQL 8.0.17 or higher from a lower version, the audit log plugin performs these upgrade actions:

The audit log file has the potential to grow very large and consume a lot of disk space. To enable management of the space used by its log files, the audit log plugin provides for log file rotation, either manually or automatically. Rotation capabilities use the audit_log_flush and audit_log_rotate_on_size system variables:

The following discussion describes log file rotation methods in greater detail.

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Manual Audit Log File Rotation

If audit_log_rotate_on_size=0 (the default), no log rotation occurs unless performed manually. In this case, the audit log plugin closes and reopens the log file when the audit_log_flush value changes from disabled to enabled. Log file renaming must be done externally to the server. Suppose that the log file name is audit.log and you want to maintain the three most recent log files, cycling through the names audit.log.1 through audit.log.3. On Unix, perform rotation manually like this:

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Automatic Audit Log File Rotation

If audit_log_rotate_on_size is greater than 0, setting audit_log_flush has no effect. Instead, whenever a write to the current log file causes its size to exceed the audit_log_rotate_on_size value, the audit log plugin closes the file, renames it, and opens a new log file.

Automatic rotation also occurs under these conditions:

The plugin renames the original file by inserting a timestamp just after its base name. For example, if the file name is audit.log, the plugin renames it to a value such as audit.20180115T140633.log. The timestamp is a UTC value in YYYYMMDDThhmmss format. The timestamp indicates rotation time for XML logging, and the timestamp of the last event written to the file for JSON logging.

The audit log plugin can use any of several strategies for log writes. Regardless of strategy, logging occurs on a best-effort basis, with no guarantee of consistency.

To specify a write strategy, set the audit_log_strategy system variable at server startup. By default, the strategy value is ASYNCHRONOUS and the plugin logs asynchronously to a buffer, waiting if the buffer is full. It's possible to tell the plugin not to wait (PERFORMANCE) or to log synchronously, either using file system caching (SEMISYNCHRONOUS) or forcing output with a sync() call after each write request (SYNCHRONOUS).

For asynchronous write strategy, the audit_log_buffer_size system variable is the buffer size in bytes. Set this variable at server startup to change the buffer size. The plugin uses a single buffer, which it allocates when it initializes and removes when it terminates. The plugin does not allocate this buffer for nonasynchronous write strategies.

Asynchronous logging strategy has these characteristics:

With asynchronous logging, the integrity of the log file may be compromised if a problem occurs during a write to the file or if the plugin does not shut down cleanly (for example, in the event that the server host exits unexpectedly). To reduce this risk, set audit_log_strategy to use synchronous logging.

A disadvantage of PERFORMANCE strategy is that it drops events when the buffer is full. For a heavily loaded server, the audit log may have events missing.

The audit log plugin enables bookmarking and reading of JSON-format audit log files. (These capabilities do not apply to files written in other log formats.)

When the audit log plugin initializes and is configured for JSON logging, it uses the directory containing the audit log file (determined from the audit_log_file value) as the location to search for readable audit log files. To do this, it uses the value of audit_log_file to determine the file base name and suffix values, then looks for files with names that match the following pattern, where [...] indicates optional file name parts:

basename[.timestamp].suffix[.gz][[.pwd_id].enc]

A file is encrypted if its name ends with .enc. The plugin determines the keyring ID of the decryption password needed to read it as follows:

The plugin opens each file matching the pattern, checks that the file really contains JSON audit records, and sorts the files using the timestamps from the first record of each file to construct a list of files that are subject to use with the log-reading functions.

The plugin cannot include in the sequence files that were renamed manually and do not match the preceding pattern, or that were encrypted with a password no longer available in the keyring.

To read events from the audit log, use these user-defined functions (UDFs):

Example audit_log_read() invocation using the current bookmark:

Each event in the audit_log_read() return value is a JSON hash, except that the last array element may be a JSON null value to indicate no following events are available to read. For example:

[
  { "timestamp": "2018-01-15 22:08:08", "id": 10,
    "class": "general", "event": "status",
    ...
  },
  {
    "timestamp": "2018-01-15 22:08:08", "id": 11,
    "class": "connection", "event": "disconnect",
    ...
  },
  {
    "timestamp": "2018-01-15 13:39:33", "id": 0,
    "class": "connection", "event": "connect",
    ...
  },
  {
    "timestamp": "2018-01-15 13:39:33", "id": 1,
    "class": "general", "event": "status",
    ...
  },
  {
    "timestamp": "2018-01-15 13:39:33", "id": 2,
    "class": "connection", "event": "disconnect",
    ...
  },
  null
]

Use audit_log_read() like this:

A bookmark is a JSON hash that indicates where and how much to read. The following items are significant in the bookmark value (other items are ignored):

The result returned from either log-reading function is a binary string. To use the string with functions that require a nonbinary string (such as the functions that manipulate JSON values), convert it to utf8mb4. Suppose that a bookmark has this value:

Calling audit_log_read() with that bookmark can return multiple events. To set a limit on the number of events read by audit_log_read(), convert the bookmark to utf8mb4, then add to it a max_array_length item with a value of 1. For example, using the preceding bookmark, convert and modify it as follows:

The modified bookmark, when passed to audit_log_read(), produces a result of a single audit record.

To set a limit on the number of bytes that audit_log_read() reads, set the audit_log_read_buffer_size system variable. As of MySQL 8.0.12, this variable has a default of 32KB and can be set at runtime. Each client should set its session value of audit_log_read_buffer_size appropriately for its use of audit_log_read(). Prior to MySQL 8.0.12, audit_log_read_buffer_size has a default of 1MB, affects all clients, and can be changed only at server startup.

Each call to audit_log_read() returns as many available items as fit within the buffer size, skipping items that do not fit within the buffer size. Given this behavior, consider these factors when assessing the proper buffer size for an application:

For additional information about audit log-reading functions, see Audit Log Functions.