Splunk® Enterprise

Securing the Splunk Platform

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Splunk Enterprise version 6.x is no longer supported as of October 23, 2019. See the Splunk Software Support Policy for details. For information about upgrading to a supported version, see How to upgrade Splunk Enterprise.
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Audit Splunk activity

With auditing enabled, Splunk logs distinct events to the audit index (index=_audit). Interactions with Splunk such as searches and configuration changes generate audit events.

What's in an audit event?

  • Timestamp:
    • date and time of the event.
  • User information:
    • the user who generated the event.
    • If the event contains no user information, Splunk sets the user to whoever is currently logged in.
  • Additional information:
    • available event details -- what file, success/denial, etc.

Activities that generate audit events

Audit events are generated from:

  • all files in Splunk's configuration directory $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/*
  • system start and stop.
  • users logging in and out.
  • adding / removing a new user.
  • changing a user's information (password, role, etc).
  • execution of any capability in the system.

Audit event storage

Splunk stores audit events locally in the audit index (index=_audit). Audit events are logged in the log file: $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/splunk/audit.log.

If you have configured Splunk as a forwarder in a distributed setting, audit events are forwarded like any other event.

Last modified on 13 May, 2020
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This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Enterprise: 6.3.0, 6.3.1, 6.3.2, 6.3.3, 6.3.4, 6.3.5, 6.3.6, 6.3.7, 6.3.8, 6.3.9, 6.3.10, 6.3.11, 6.3.12, 6.3.13, 6.3.14, 6.4.0, 6.4.1, 6.4.2, 6.4.3, 6.4.4, 6.4.5, 6.4.6, 6.4.7, 6.4.8, 6.4.9, 6.4.10, 6.4.11, 6.5.0, 6.5.1, 6.5.2, 6.5.3, 6.5.4, 6.5.5, 6.5.6, 6.5.7, 6.5.8, 6.5.9, 6.5.10, 6.6.0, 6.6.1, 6.6.2, 6.6.3, 6.6.4, 6.6.5, 6.6.6, 6.6.7, 6.6.8, 6.6.9, 6.6.10, 6.6.11, 6.6.12, 7.0.0, 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.0.3, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, 7.0.6, 7.0.7, 7.0.8, 7.0.9, 7.0.10, 7.0.11, 7.0.13, 7.1.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.3, 7.1.4, 7.1.5, 7.1.6, 7.1.7, 7.1.8, 7.1.9, 7.1.10, 7.2.0, 7.2.1, 7.2.2, 7.2.3, 7.2.4, 7.2.5, 7.2.6, 7.2.7, 7.2.8, 7.2.9, 7.2.10, 7.3.0, 7.3.1, 7.3.2, 7.3.3, 7.3.4, 7.3.5, 7.3.6, 7.3.7, 7.3.8, 7.3.9, 8.0.0, 8.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.0.3, 8.0.4, 8.0.5, 8.0.6, 8.0.7, 8.0.8, 8.0.9, 8.0.10

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