On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 11:08 PM, Steve Grubb <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wednesday, July 26, 2017 6:36:24 PM EDT Paul Moore wrote:
>> On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 10:51 PM, Richard Guy Briggs <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > On 2017-07-25 14:14, Paul Moore wrote:
>> >> On Mon, Jul 24, 2017 at 11:48 PM, Richard Guy Briggs <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>> >> > On 2017-07-24 11:52, Steve Grubb wrote:
>> >> >> On Monday, July 24, 2017 10:40:08 AM EDT Richard Guy Briggs wrote:
>> >> >> > Add a column to indicate the source of the message, including
>> >> >> > indicating
>> >> >> > whether or not it is related to syscalls.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Column name: SOURCE
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Key:
>> >> >> >         CTL     Control messages, usually initiated by audit daemon.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Most of these come from auditctl. Auditd only sends enable and setpid.
>> >> >
>> >> > I had considered auditctl as part of the audit daemon, as opposed to
>> >> > pam, systemd, vsftpd et al that supply user event messages, though I
>> >> > suppose even systemd wants to play audit controller too ...
>> >>
>> >> I think trying to chase down which application is trying to manage the
>> >> audit subsystem is a losing battle.  In fact, I honestly would
>> >> probably shrink this "source" list down to just a few possible values:
>> >> kernel, userspace, and control.  I'm not convinced that granularity
>> >> below this level is particularly useful, and could be confusing.
>> >
>> > So I'm guessing from this comment that you think one column is sufficient?
>>
>> To specify the source, yes.  If you want to classify the messages that
>> is best done in a second column, IMHO.
>>
>> > I'd really like to further break "kernel" down into "syscall" and
>> > "independent/autonomous".
>> Two thoughts:
>>
>> 1) Is this important?  I know this is front in your mind as you are
>> dealing with issues around this at the moment, but outside of your
>> recent experience I don't see a lot of value in this information, only
>> overhead in keeping it updated/correct.
>
> Origination information can be useful. I'd be happy to blog about it to show
> people how to use it.

I agree that origination/source is important, see my comments above.
I'm less convinced about differentiating between records that are
attached to a syscall event, and those that happen independent of
syscalls.

>> 2) Is this "source" information?  I would argue "no" as they all come
>> from the kernel.  *If* you feel this is truly important (see thought
>> #1) then I would rather see this in a separate column.
>
> They really don't all come from the kernel. They are serialized by the kernel.
> They go through the kernel. But the kernel is not always the _observer_ of an
> action that needs reporting.

Regardless of what triggers the event, if the audit record is
*created* by the kernel, I would consider the kernel to be the source.

-- 
paul moore
www.paul-moore.com

--
Linux-audit mailing list
[email protected]
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-audit

Reply via email to