Configuring security logging

Configure comprehensive security logging in logback.xml that records user activity within OpsCenter.

Configure comprehensive security logging in logback.xml that records user activity within OpsCenter, such as:
  • Creating or deleting users and roles
  • Adding or deleting users from roles
  • Changing permissions for a role, including the specific details about all permission changes
  • Resetting user passwords
  • Logging in attempts both successful and unsuccessful

All login attempts that are anonymous or admin binds with regard to LDAP authentication are also logged. Comparisons between the OpsCenter authentication logging and LDAP logs should match exactly.

For more information, see OpsCenter logback.xml configuration.

logback.xml

The location of the logback.xml file depends on the type of installation:

Package installations
Installer-Services installations

 /etc/dse/cassandra/logback.xml

Tarball installations
Installer-No Services installations

 installation_location/resources/cassandra/conf/logback.xml
  • The logback.xml file is located in the installation_location/conf directory.

Procedure

  1. Open logback.xml for editing.
  2. Ensure the Security Audit logger is included in logback.xml: 
    <!-- Security Audit logger -->
    <logger name="opscenterd.security-audit" additivity="false">
      <appender-ref ref="security" />
    </logger>
  3. Add the following section: 
    <appender name="security" class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.RollingFileAppender">
    <file>./log/security.log</file>
    <encoder>
        <pattern>%date{ISO8601, UTC} [%X{cluster_id}] %msg \(%thread\)%n%exception{20}</pattern>
    </encoder>
    <rollingPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.FixedWindowRollingPolicy">
        <fileNamePattern>./log/security.%i.log</fileNamePattern>
        <minIndex>1</minIndex>
        <maxIndex>10</maxIndex>
    </rollingPolicy>
    <triggeringPolicy class="ch.qos.logback.core.rolling.SizeBasedTriggeringPolicy">
        <maxFileSize>10MB</maxFileSize>
    </triggeringPolicy>
    <filter class="ch.qos.logback.classic.filter.ThresholdFilter">
        <level>INFO</level>
    </filter>
    <logger name="opscenterd.security-audit" additivity="false">
        <appender-ref ref="security" />
    </logger>
</appender>
  4. Optional: To get JSON-encoded details of the audit event, include ==%X{structured}== in the <pattern>: 
    <pattern>%date{ISO8601, UTC} [%X{cluster_id}] %msg ==%X{structured}== \(%thread\)%n%exception{20}</pattern>
    Note: === is a delimiter to separate the plain text from the JSON string.
  5. Restart OpsCenter.

Example

Log output:

2016-04-07 21:42:16,664 [] Login failure user: foo (MainThread)

Structured log output:

2016-04-07 21:42:16,664 [] Login failure user: foo =={"event": "login-failure", "user": "foo", "opsc-initiated": false, "ip": "0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1"}== (MainThread)