[role="xpack"]
[[auditing-settings]]
=== Auditing Security Settings
++++
<titleabbrev>Auditing Settings</titleabbrev>
++++

All of these settings can be added to the `elasticsearch.yml` configuration
file. For more information, see
{xpack-ref}/auditing.html[Auditing Security Events].

[[general-audit-settings]]
==== General Auditing Settings

`xpack.security.audit.enabled`::
Set to `true` to enable auditing on the node. The default value is `false`.

`xpack.security.audit.outputs`::
Specifies where audit logs are output. For example: `[ index, logfile ]`. The
default value is `logfile`, which puts the auditing events in a dedicated
file named `<clustername>_audit.log` on each node.
You can also specify `index`, which puts the auditing events in an {es} index
that is prefixed with `.security_audit_log`. The index can reside on the same
cluster or a separate cluster.
+
For backwards compatibility reasons, if you use the logfile output type, a
`<clustername>_access.log` file is also created. It contains the same
information, but it uses the older (pre-6.5.0) formatting style.
If the backwards compatible format is not required, it should be disabled.
To do that, change its logger level to `off` in the `log4j2.properties` file.
For more information, see <<configuring-logging-levels>>.
+
--
TIP: If the index is unavailable, it is possible for auditing events to
be lost. The `index` output type should therefore be used in conjunction with
the `logfile` output type and the latter should be the official record of events.

--

[[event-audit-settings]]
==== Audited Event Settings

The events and some other information about what gets logged can be
controlled by using the following settings:

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.events.include`::
Specifies which events to include in the auditing output. The default value is:
`access_denied, access_granted, anonymous_access_denied, authentication_failed, connection_denied, tampered_request, run_as_denied, run_as_granted`.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.events.exclude`::
Excludes the specified events from the output. By default, no events are
excluded.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.events.emit_request_body`::
Specifies whether to include the request body from REST requests on certain
event types such as `authentication_failed`. The default value is `false`.
+
--
IMPORTANT: No filtering is performed when auditing, so sensitive data may be
audited in plain text when including the request body in audit events.
--

[[node-audit-settings]]
==== Local Node Info Settings

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.emit_node_name`::
Specifies whether to include the <<node.name,node name>> as a field in
each audit event.
The default value is `true`.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.emit_node_host_address`::
Specifies whether to include the node's IP address as a field in each audit event.
The default value is `false`.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.emit_node_host_name`::
Specifies whether to include the node's host name as a field in each audit event.
The default value is `false`.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.emit_node_id`::
Specifies whether to include the node id as a field in each audit event.
This is available for the new format only. That is to say, this information
does not exist in the `<clustername>_access.log` file.
Unlike <<node.name,node name>>, whose value might change if the administrator
changes the setting in the config file, the node id will persist across cluster
restarts and the administrator cannot change it.
The default value is `true`.

[[audit-event-ignore-policies]]
==== Audit Logfile Event Ignore Policies

These settings affect the {stack-ov}/audit-log-output.html#audit-log-ignore-policy[ignore policies]
that enable fine-grained control over which audit events are printed to the log file.
All of the settings with the same policy name combine to form a single policy.
If an event matches all of the conditions for a specific policy, it is ignored 
and not printed.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.events.ignore_filters.<policy_name>.users`::
A list of user names or wildcards. The specified policy will
not print audit events for users matching these values.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.events.ignore_filters.<policy_name>.realms`::
A list of authentication realm names or wildcards. The specified policy will
not print audit events for users in these realms.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.events.ignore_filters.<policy_name>.roles`::
A list of role names or wildcards. The specified policy will
not print audit events for users that have these roles. If the user has several
roles, some of which are *not* covered by the policy, the policy will
*not* cover this event.

`xpack.security.audit.logfile.events.ignore_filters.<policy_name>.indices`::
A list of index names or wildcards. The specified policy will
not print audit events when all the indices in the event match
these values. If the event concerns several indices, some of which are
*not* covered by the policy, the policy will *not* cover this event.

[[index-audit-settings]]
==== Audit Log Indexing Configuration Settings

`xpack.security.audit.index.bulk_size`::
Controls how many audit events are batched into a single write. The default
value is `1000`.

`xpack.security.audit.index.flush_interval`::
Controls how often buffered events are flushed to the index. The default value
is `1s`.

`xpack.security.audit.index.rollover`::
Controls how often to roll over to a new index: `hourly`, `daily`, `weekly`, or
`monthly`. The default value is `daily`.

`xpack.security.audit.index.events.include`::
Specifies the audit events to be indexed. The default value is
`anonymous_access_denied, authentication_failed, realm_authentication_failed, access_granted, access_denied, tampered_request, connection_granted, connection_denied, run_as_granted, run_as_denied`.
See {xpack-ref}/audit-event-types.html[Audit Entry Types] for the
complete list.

`xpack.security.audit.index.events.exclude`::
Excludes the specified auditing events from indexing. By default, no events are
excluded.

`xpack.security.audit.index.events.emit_request_body`::
Specifies whether to include the request body from REST requests on certain
event types such as `authentication_failed`. The default value is `false`.

`xpack.security.audit.index.settings`::
Specifies settings for the indices that the events are stored in. For example,
the following configuration sets the number of shards and replicas to 1 for the
audit indices:
+
--
[source,yaml]
----------------------------
xpack.security.audit.index.settings:
  index:
    number_of_shards: 1
    number_of_replicas: 1
----------------------------
--
+
--
NOTE: These settings apply to the local audit indices, as well as to the
<<remote-audit-settings, remote audit indices>>, but only if the remote cluster
does *not* have {security-features} enabled or the {es} versions are different.
If the remote cluster has {security-features} enabled and the versions coincide,
the settings for the audit indices there will take precedence,
even if they are unspecified (i.e. left to defaults).
--

[[remote-audit-settings]]
==== Remote Audit Log Indexing Configuration Settings

To index audit events to a remote {es} cluster, you configure the following
`xpack.security.audit.index.client` settings:

`xpack.security.audit.index.client.hosts`::
Specifies a comma-separated list of `host:port` pairs. These hosts should be
nodes in the remote cluster. If you are using default values for the 
<<common-network-settings,`transport.port`>> setting, you can omit the
`port` value. Otherwise, it must match the `transport.port` setting.

`xpack.security.audit.index.client.cluster.name`::
Specifies the name of the remote cluster.

`xpack.security.audit.index.client.xpack.security.user`::
Specifies the `username:password` pair that is used to authenticate with the
remote cluster. This user must have authority to create the `.security-audit` 
index on the remote cluster. 

If the remote {es} cluster has Transport Layer Security (TLS/SSL) enabled, you 
must set the following setting to `true`:

`xpack.security.audit.index.client.xpack.security.transport.ssl.enabled`::
Used to enable or disable TLS/SSL for the transport client that forwards audit 
logs to the remote cluster. The default is `false`. 

You must also specify the information necessary to access certificates. See 
<<auditing-tls-ssl-settings>>. 

You can pass additional settings to the remote client by specifying them in the
`xpack.security.audit.index.client` namespace. For example, you can add 
<<modules-transport,transport settings>> and 
<<tcp-settings,advanced TCP settings>> in that namespace. To allow the remote
client to discover all of the nodes in the remote cluster you can specify the
`client.transport.sniff` setting:

[source,yaml]
----------------------------
xpack.security.audit.index.client.transport.sniff: true
----------------------------
