Audit Plugin Log Format

Understand the structure of audit log entries. This guide breaks down the fields in the log records, including timestamps, server IDs, user details, and the specific operations performed.

The audit plugin logs user access to MariaDB and its objects. The audit trail (that is, the audit log) is a set of records, written as a list of fields to a file in a plain‐text format. The fields in the log are separated by commas. The format used for the plugin's own log file is slightly different from the format used if it logs to the system log because it has its own standard format. The general format for the logging to the plugin's own file is defined like the following:

[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],
[queryid],[operation],[database],[object],[retcode]

If the server_audit_output_type variable is set to syslog instead of the default, file, the audit log file format is as follows:

[timestamp][syslog_host][syslog_ident]:[syslog_info][serverhost],[username],[host],
[connectionid],[queryid],[operation],[database],[object],[retcode]

Item logged	Description
timestamp	Time at which the event occurred. If syslog is used, the format is defined by syslogd.
syslog_host	Host from which the syslog entry was received.
syslog_ident	For identifying a system log entry, including the MariaDB server.
syslog_info	For providing information for identifying a system log entry.
serverhost	The MariaDB server host name.
username	Connected user.
host	Host from which the user connected.
connectionid	Connection ID number for the related operation.
queryid	Query ID number, which can be used for finding the relational table events and related queries. For TABLE events, multiple lines will be added.
operation	Recorded action type: CONNECT, QUERY, READ, WRITE, CREATE, ALTER, RENAME, DROP.
database	Active database (as set by USE).
object	Executed query for QUERY events, or the table name in the case of TABLE events. From MariaDB 12.0, CONNECTION events also contain the tls version used, for example TLSv1.3.
retcode	Return code of the logged operation.

Various events result in different audit records. Some events do not return a value for some fields (for instance, when the active database is not set when connecting to the server).

Below is a generic example of the output for connect events, with placeholders representing data. These are events in which a user connected, disconnected, or tried unsuccessfully to connect to the server.

[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],0,CONNECT,[database],,0 
[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],0,DISCONNECT,,,0 
[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],0,FAILED_CONNECT,,,[retcode]

Here is the one audit record generated for each query event:

[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],[queryid],QUERY,[database],[object], [retcode]

Below are generic examples of records that are entered in the audit log for each type of table event:

[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],[queryid],CREATE,[database],[object], 
[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],[queryid],READ,[database],[object], 
[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],[queryid],WRITE,[database],[object], 
[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],[queryid],ALTER,[database],[object], 
[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],[queryid],RENAME,[database], 
[object_old]|[database_new].[object_new], 
[timestamp],[serverhost],[username],[host],[connectionid],[queryid],DROP,[database],[object],

Passwords are hidden in the log for certain types of queries. They are replaced with asterisks for GRANT, CREATE USER, CREATE MASTER, CREATE SERVER, and ALTER SERVER statements. Passwords, however, are not replaced for the PASSWORD() and OLD_PASSWORD() functions when they are used inside other SQL statements (i.e., SET PASSWORD).

Current

For Galera Cluster replication applier operations, audit log plugin logs events with a generic name of <wsrep_applier> .

This addresses an issue where the user was logged on the primary node, but stripped from other cluster nodes. See MDEV-35511 for details.

< 10.11.16

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