Splunk® Enterprise

Securing Splunk Enterprise

Splunk Enterprise version 7.1 is no longer supported as of October 31, 2020. See the Splunk Software Support Policy for details. For information about upgrading to a supported version, see How to upgrade Splunk Enterprise.
This documentation does not apply to the most recent version of Splunk® Enterprise. For documentation on the most recent version, go to the latest release.

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
Use Splunk Enterprise to audit your system activity   Use audit events to secure Splunk Enterprise

This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Enterprise: 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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