dxaudit(8X) dxaudit(8X)
NAME
dxaudit - Motif Interface for the Audit Subsystem
SYNOPSIS
/usr/tcb/bin/dxaudit
DESCRIPTION
The dxaudit application is a Motif graphical user interface which can be used to administer the audit subsystem. Three major areas com-
prise the audit subsystem: Control, Collection, and Reporting. Currently, dxaudit supports Collection and Reporting only. See the
auditd(8) reference page for details on administering the Control function.
In order to invoke dxaudit, you must be the root user.
Audit Event Overview
Audit events are comprised of the following types: System calls include all entry points into the UNIX kernel including habitat events
which are denoted by the <habitat name>/<system call>, like `SystemV/open'. Trusted events are application-defined events which represent
higher level activity. For example, login is a trusted event. To audit a user login at the system call level would produce many audit
events, whereas to audit the login event would capture essentially the same information in a very concise way. Site events provide a mech-
anism for a site to extend the audit subsystem's list of audit events. Site events can be defined in /etc/sec/site_events. A site event
can contain subevents which are finer-grained audit events within a site event.
In addition to these events, the administrator can also combine any of the above events into an event alias. An alias can also reference
other aliases. Aliases are stored in /etc/sec/event_aliases.
For each event, the administrator can specify whether successful occurrences, failed occurrences or both are audited or used in a selection
against a particular audit log.
dxaudit presents audit events in specialized Motif widgets that are designed to manage audit events. Alias events are presented in one
list and system calls, trusted events, and site events are presented in a list called Base/Site Events. Once an event is selected, the
auditing of Successful or Failed occurrences can be set. The lists can be managed in a global fashion such that by clicking one button the
entire list is changed -- either by selecting or unselecting the list of events or by switching the settings of the Success or Failure tog-
gle buttons. In addition, dxaudit provides interaction between aliases and base/site events according to the following rules: When an
alias is selected, all of the events in that alias are also selected. By default, the per-event Success/Failure setting will be to use
what is contained in the alias file. Whenever the Success/Failure setting is changed on an alias, all Success/Failure settings for the
events in that alias will change to the same setting. When a Base/Site event is unselected such that a Selected Alias is no longer a true
representation, the alias will be unselected.
dxaudit also allows the saving and restoring of event masks in files so that frequently used event masks can be easily recalled.
By default, dxaudit presents the list of security relevant events as presented in /etc/sec/audit_events on system installation. The admin-
istrator can configure dxaudit to use the entire list of audit events by using the auditUseSecEvents X resource. See the X RESOURCES sec-
tion below for details. If during execution, dxaudit encounters an unrecognized event from querying some event mask, the user will be
asked if dxaudit should use full event mode or security relevant event mode.
Collection Functions
The Current System Mask is the system-wide event mask and style settings currently in effect. A system event mask can contain all event
types except sub-events to site events. This screen allows the administrator to query and change the current system mask, and auditing
styles (see auditmask(8) reference page). dxaudit also provides a screen via Edit->Object Selection/Deselection to access the capability
to select or deselect audit records regarding file activity before they are stored in the audit trail.
The Default System Mask is the value of the AUDITMASK_FLAG variable as stored in the /etc/rc.config file. This is essentially the
default value of the system mask each time the system is booted. The event mask and audit styles can be queried and saved from this
screen. If dxaudit detects that an event mask is exactly represented by a loaded/saved file on the system, then it will ask the
administrator if the default system mask should reference the file name in the AUDITMASK_FLAG variable or supply the contents of the
file in the AUDITMASK_FLAG variable. The former method provides a level of indirection so that the administrator could maintain the
default mask by editing a file. This screen presents a list of the current active processes on the system. The administrator can
choose a process or a group of processes running as the same login user (same AUID), query its current event mask and audit control
flags, and change them as necessary. For active processes, the event mask cannot contain habitat events or site events; however, a
global option to audit habitat events can be set. Also, system call event auditing can be globally turned off.
Reporting Functions
This screen allows the administrator to create, modify, or delete selection files. Selection files contain parameters which indicate how
audit records will be selected from the raw audit trail during report generation. The selection parameters include things like time inter-
val, audit events, user id. Any audit record matching the selection criteria will be displayed. All types of audit events can be used in
a selection file. This screen allows the administrator to create, modify, or delete deselection files. A deselection file consists of
tuples. The tuple is comprised of a host, audit ID, real UID, event, file pathname, and access mode. A deselection file can be used to
further reduce audit records when generating reports. It can be used in combination with a selection file. Any audit record matching the
deselection criteria will be filtered out from the report stream. This screen allows the administrator to view an audit report. A selec-
tion file, a deselection file, and an audit log can be selected to generate a report. Output options include generating a report to a
file, to a series of files sorted by audit ID, to a window on the screen, or if audit is currently enabled, to follow the current activity.
Report records can be in brief format or long format. If in brief format, the administrator can double click on the record and get a pop-
up of the long format.
X RESOURCES
This resource changes the list of events loaded into all list boxes with the Base/Site Events heading. Setting the value to True will use
only security relevant audit events (the set found in /etc/sec/audit_events). Setting the value to False will make dxaudit use all events
on the system. This includes all system calls, non-system events, etc. It will slightly impact performance on screen mapping of those
screens containing the event list boxes. It is recommended that security relevant events be used. The default value of this resource is
true. This resource changes the display of the Active Process List from the Modify Active Process Mask screen. Refer to the ps(1) refer-
ence page for additional information. This resource changes the sorted order of the ps(1) output in the Modify Active Process Mask screen.
Valid options are: for ps(1) native order for alphabetic ordering by user name. This is the default value. This resource tells dxaudit how
many 256K chunks of memory it can allocate when receiving audit report data from audit_tool. When the length of the report exceeds this
amount of memory, the oldest 256K chunk of data is discarded as long as the user is not viewing it at the moment. This discarded chunk
cannot be accessed again unless the report is regenerated. The default setting for this resource is 20.
FILES
System-wide X Resource file. Security relevant audit events Site specific audit events. Audit event alias specification file. Directory
containing the audit selection files. Directory containing the audit deselection files.
SEE ALSO
auditd(8), auditmask(8), audit_tool(8), audit_setup(8)
dxaudit(8X)