DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / laurel / laurel.8.en
laurel(8) System Administration Utilities laurel(8)

laurel(8) – transform, enrich Linux audit logs

laurel is an auditd(8) plug-in that parses Linux audit events, enriches them with local information, and transforms them into a JSONlines-based output format intended for consumption by log processing and SIEM software.

path to configuration file (default: unset)
Only parse configuration and exit
Print short help text and exit
Print version and exit

laurel is typically configured to be spawned by auditd(8) itself or by audispd(8) (for 2.x auditd versions). All audit events are fed to laurel via its standard input channel.

Sample configuration file /etc/audit/plugins.d/laurel.conf:

active = yes
direction = out
type = always
format = string
path = /usr/sbin/laurel
args = --config /etc/laurel/config.toml
    

Configuration of laurel itself is done through a single configuration file in TOML format.

This section contains basic operation parameters.

user: laurel is started as root by auditd, but it drops to a dedicated user as soon as possible. Default: unset
directory: The base directory into which all files are written. Default: . (current directory)
statusreport-period: How often stats are written to Syslog, in seconds. Default: unset

[auditlog] section

This section describes the main audit log file. laurel performs its own log file rotation, just like auditd(8).

file: Filename for the audit log file. Default: audit.log
size: Size in bytes after which the log file is rotated. Default: 10MiB
generations: Number of generations to keep after rotation. Default: 5
read-users: List of users that are granted read access to the log file using POSIX ACLs. Default: empty
line-prefix: A string that is prepended to every line. Default: unset

[transform] section

execve-argv: The list of EXECVE.a* fields are transformed to an ARGV list or ARGV_STR string. Set to array, string (or both). Default: array
execve-argv-limit-bytes: Arguments are cut out of the middle long argument lists in EXECVE.ARGV or EXECVE.ARGV_STR so that this limit is not exceeded. Default: unset

[translate] section

Options that can be configured here correspond to what auditd(8) does when configured with log_format=ENRICHED.

userdb: Add translations for uid and gid fields. Default: false
universal: Add translations for everything else: SYSCALL.arch, SYSCALL.syscall, SOCKADDR.saddr

[enrich] section

Options that can be configured here actually add information to events

execve-env: A list of environment variables to dump for exec events. Default: ["LD_PRELOAD", "LD_LIBRARY_PATH"]
container: Add container information for processes running within container runtimes. Default: true
pid: Add context information for process IDs. Default: true
script: If an exec syscall spawns a script (as opposed to a binary), add a SCRIPT entry to the SYSCALL record. A script is assumed if the first PATH entry does not correspond to file mentioned in SYSCALL.exe. Default: true
parent-info: Add PARENT_INFO record corresponding to SYSCALL.ppid. Deprecated, use pid instead in new setups. Default: false

[label-process] section

Labels can be attached to processes and are added to any event associated with those processes. These labels can be propagated from parent to child processes.

label-exe.<regexp> = <label-name>: Regular expressions/label mappings applied to binary executables (SYSCALL.exe) on exec calls. Default: none
label-script.<regexp> = <label-name>: Regular expressions/label mappings applied to scripts (SYSCALL.SCRIPT, see enrich.script description above) on exec calls. Default: none
label-keys: A list of keys that are applied as a process label, see auditctl(8)’s -k option. Default: none
unlabel-exe.<regexp> = <label-name>: Like label-exe, but for removing labels
unlabel-script.<regexp> = <label-name>: Like label-script, but for removing labels
propagate-labels: List of labels that are propagated to child processes. Default: empty

[filter] section

Filters make laurel drop entire events from the log file while still using them for internal processing such as process tracking.

filter-keys: A list of strings that are matched against SYSCALL.key to drop the event. Default: empty
filter-labels: A list of strings that are matched against process labels. Default: empty

Hilko Bengen <<bengen@hilluzination.de>>
Sergej Schmidt <<sergej@msgpeek.net>>
laurel 0.5.1