# auditd

## NAME



           auditd - The Linux Audit daemon
    


## SYNOPSIS



           **auditd**
           [**-f**] [**-l**] [**-n**] [**-s disable|enable|nochange**] [**-c <config_dir>**]
    


## DESCRIPTION



           **auditd** is the userspace component to the Linux Auditing System.
           It's responsible for writing audit records to the disk. Viewing
           the logs is done with the **ausearch** or **aureport** utilities.
           Configuring the audit system or loading rules is done with the
           **auditctl** utility. During startup, the rules in
           _/etc/audit/audit.rules_ are read by **auditctl** and loaded into the
           kernel. Alternately, there is also an **augenrules** program that
           reads rules located in _/etc/audit/rules.d/_ and compiles them into
           an audit.rules file. The audit daemon itself has some
           configuration options that the admin may wish to customize. They
           are found in the **auditd.conf** file.
    


## OPTIONS



           **-f** leave the audit daemon in the foreground for debugging.
                  Messages also go to stderr rather than the audit log.
    
           **-l** allow the audit daemon to follow symlinks for config files.
    
           **-n** no fork. This is useful for running off of inittab or
                  systemd.
    
           **-s=**_ENABLE_STATE_
                  specify when starting if auditd should change the current
                  value for the kernel enabled flag. Valid values for
                  ENABLE_STATE are "disable", "enable" or "nochange". The
                  default is to enable (and disable when auditd terminates).
                  The value of the enabled flag may be changed during the
                  lifetime of auditd using 'auditctl -e'.
    
           **-c** Specify alternate config file directory. Note that this
                  same directory will be passed to the dispatcher. (default:
                  /etc/audit/)
    


## SIGNALS



           **SIGHUP** causes auditd to reconfigure. This means that auditd re-
                  reads the configuration file. If there are no syntax
                  errors, it will proceed to implement the requested changes.
                  If the reconfigure is successful, a DAEMON_CONFIG event is
                  recorded in the logs. If not successful, error handling is
                  controlled by space_left_action, admin_space_left_action,
                  disk_full_action, and disk_error_action parameters in
                  auditd.conf.
    
           **SIGTERM**
                  caused auditd to discontinue processing audit events, write
                  a shutdown audit event, and exit.
    
           **SIGUSR1**
                  causes auditd to immediately rotate the logs. It will
                  consult the max_log_file_action to see if it should keep
                  the logs or not.
    
           **SIGUSR2**
                  causes auditd to attempt to resume logging and passing
                  events to plugins. This is usually needed after logging has
                  been suspended or the internal queue is overflowed. Either
                  of these conditions depends on the applicable configuration
                  settings.
    
           **SIGCONT**
                  causes auditd to dump a report of internal state to
                  /run/audit/auditd.state.
    


## EXIT CODES



           **1** Cannot adjust priority, daemonize, open audit netlink,
                  write the pid file, start up plugins, resolve the machine
                  name, set audit pid, or other initialization tasks.
    
           **2** Invalid or excessive command line arguments
    
           **4** The audit daemon doesn't have sufficient privilege
    
           **6** There is an error in the configuration file
    


## FILES



           **/etc/audit/auditd.conf** - configuration file for audit daemon
    
           **/etc/audit/audit.rules** - audit rules to be loaded at startup
    
           **/etc/audit/rules.d/** - directory holding individual sets of rules
           to be compiled into one file by augenrules.
    
           **/etc/audit/plugins.d/** - directory holding individual plugin
           configuration files.
    
           **/etc/audit/audit-stop.rules** - These rules are loaded when the
           audit daemon stops.
    
           **/run/audit/auditd.state** - report about internal state.
    


## NOTES



           A boot param of audit=1 should be added to ensure that all
           processes that run before the audit daemon starts is marked as
           auditable by the kernel. Not doing that will make a few processes
           impossible to properly audit.
    
           The audit daemon can receive audit events from other audit daemons
           via the audisp-remote plugin. The audit daemon may be linked with
           tcp_wrappers to control which machines can connect. If this is the
           case, you can add an entry to hosts.allow and deny.
    


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