GKE audit logging information

Autopilot Standard

This document describes the audit logs created by Google Kubernetes Engine as part of Cloud Audit Logs.

Overview

Google Cloud services write audit logs to help you answer the questions, "Who did what, where, and when?" within your Google Cloud resources.

Your Google Cloud projects contain only the audit logs for resources that are directly within the Cloud project. Other Google Cloud resources, such as folders, organizations, and billing accounts, contain the audit logs for the entity itself.

For a general overview of Cloud Audit Logs, see Cloud Audit Logs overview. For a deeper understanding of the audit log format, see Understand audit logs.

Available audit logs

The following types of audit logs are available for GKE:

Admin Activity audit logs

Includes "admin write" operations that write metadata or configuration information.

You can't disable Admin Activity audit logs.
Data Access audit logs

Includes "admin read" operations that read metadata or configuration information. Also includes "data read" and "data write" operations that read or write user-provided data.

To receive Data Access audit logs, you must explicitly enable them.

For fuller descriptions of the audit log types, see Types of audit logs.

Audited operations

The following summarizes which API operations correspond to each audit log type in GKE:

Audit logs category	GKE operations
Admin Activity audit logs	`io.k8s.authorization.rbac.v1` `io.k8s.authorization.rbac.v1.roles` `google.container.v1.ProjectClusterService.ListUsableSubnetworks` Any GKE API method that starts with Create, Update, Set, or Delete, such as `google.container.v1.ClusterManager.CreateCluster`.
Data Access	`google.cloud.containersecurity.v1beta.ContainerSecurity.SearchClusterFindingSummaries` `google.cloud.containersecurity.v1beta.ContainerSecurity.ListFindings`

Audit log format

Audit log entries include the following objects:

The log entry itself, which is an object of type LogEntry. Useful fields include the following:
- The logName contains the resource ID and audit log type.
- The resource contains the target of the audited operation.
- The timeStamp contains the time of the audited operation.
- The protoPayload contains the audited information.
The audit logging data, which is an AuditLog object held in the protoPayload field of the log entry.
Optional service-specific audit information, which is a service-specific object. For earlier integrations, this object is held in the serviceData field of the AuditLog object; later integrations use the metadata field.

For other fields in these objects, and how to interpret them, review Understand audit logs.

Log name

Cloud Audit Logs log names include resource identifiers indicating the Cloud project or other Google Cloud entity that owns the audit logs, and whether the log contains Admin Activity, Data Access, Policy Denied, or System Event audit logging data.

The following are the audit log names, including variables for the resource identifiers:

   projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity
   projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access
   projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fsystem_event
   projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy

   folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity
   folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access
   folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fsystem_event
   folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy

   billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity
   billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access
   billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fsystem_event
   billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy

   organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity
   organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access
   organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fsystem_event
   organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy

Service name

GKE audit logs use one of the following service names:

Service name	Display name	Description
`k8s.io`	Kubernetes	The `k8s.io` service is used for Kubernetes audit logs. These logs are generated by the Kubernetes API Server component and they contain information about actions performed using the Kubernetes API. For example, any changes you make on a Kubernetes resource by using the `kubectl` command are recorded by the `k8s.io` service. Kubernetes audit log entries are useful for investigating suspicious API requests, for collecting statistics, or for creating monitoring alerts for unwanted API calls.
`container.googleapis.com`	Kubernetes Engine	The `container.googleapis.com` service is used for GKE control plane audit logs. These logs are generated by GKE and contain information about actions performed using the GKE API. For example, any changes you perform on a GKE cluster configuration using a `gcloud CLI` are recorded by the `container.googleapis.com` service.
`containersecurity.googleapis.com`	Container Security API (GKE Security Posture)	The `containersecurity.googleapis.com` service is used for GKE Security Posture audit logs. These logs are generated by GKE security posture dashboard activity and contain information about data retrieved using the dashboard.

For a list of all the Cloud Logging API service names and their corresponding monitored resource type, see Map services to resources.

Resource types

GKE audit logs use the following resource types:

Resource type	Display name	Description
k8s_cluster	Kubernetes Cluster	Log entries written by the Kubernetes API server apply to the `k8s_cluster` resource type. These log entries describe operations on Kubernetes resources in your cluster, for example, Pods, Deployments, and Secrets.
gke_cluster	GKE Cluster Operations	Log entries written by the Kubernetes Engine API server apply to the `gke_cluster` resource. These log entries describe operations like cluster creation and deletion.
audited_resource	GKE Security Posture	Log entries written by the Kubernetes Engine API Security Posture API apply to the Finding resources for a given project & location. These log entries describe list and search operations on Security Posture findings.

For a list of all the Cloud Logging monitored resource types and descriptive information, see Monitored resource types.

Enable audit logging

Admin Activity audit logs are always enabled; you can't disable them.

Data Access audit logs are disabled by default and aren't written unless explicitly enabled (the exception is Data Access audit logs for BigQuery, which can't be disabled).

For information about enabling some or all of your Data Access audit logs, see Enable Data Access audit logs.

Permissions and roles

IAM permissions and roles determine your ability to access audit logs data in Google Cloud resources.

When deciding which Logging-specific permissions and roles apply to your use case, consider the following:

The Logs Viewer role (roles/logging.viewer) gives you read-only access to Admin Activity, Policy Denied, and System Event audit logs. If you have just this role, you cannot view Data Access audit logs that are in the _Default bucket.
The Private Logs Viewer role(roles/logging.privateLogViewer) includes the permissions contained in roles/logging.viewer, plus the ability to read Data Access audit logs in the _Default bucket.

Note that if these private logs are stored in user-defined buckets, then any user who has permissions to read logs in those buckets can read the private logs. For more information about log buckets, see Routing and storage overview.

For more information about the IAM permissions and roles that apply to audit logs data, see Access control with IAM.

View logs

To query for audit logs, you need to know the audit log name, which includes the resource identifier of the Cloud project, folder, billing account, or organization for which you want to view audit logging information. In your query, you can further specify other indexed LogEntry fields, such as resource.type. For more information on querying, see Build queries in the Logs Explorer.

You can view audit logs in Cloud Logging by using the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI, or the Logging API.

Console

In the Google Cloud console, you can use the Logs Explorer to retrieve your audit log entries for your Cloud project, folder, or organization:

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Logging> Logs Explorer page.

Go to Logs Explorer
Select an existing Cloud project, folder, or organization.
In the Query builder pane, do the following:
- In Resource type, select the Google Cloud resource whose audit logs you want to see.
- In Log name, select the audit log type that you want to see:
  - For Admin Activity audit logs, select activity.
  - For Data Access audit logs, select data_access.
  - For System Event audit logs, select system_event.
  - For Policy Denied audit logs, select policy.
If you don't see these options, then there aren't any audit logs of that type available in the Cloud project, folder, or organization.

If you're experiencing issues when trying to view logs in the Logs Explorer, see the troubleshooting information.

For more information about querying by using the Logs Explorer, see Build queries in the Logs Explorer.

gcloud

The Google Cloud CLI provides a command-line interface to the Logging API. Supply a valid resource identifier in each of the log names. For example, if your query includes a PROJECT_ID, then the project identifier you supply must refer to the currently selected Cloud project.

To read your Cloud project-level audit log entries, run the following command:

gcloud logging read "logName : projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com" \
    --project=PROJECT_ID

To read your folder-level audit log entries, run the following command:

gcloud logging read "logName : folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com" \
    --folder=FOLDER_ID

To read your organization-level audit log entries, run the following command:

gcloud logging read "logName : organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com" \
    --organization=ORGANIZATION_ID

To read your Cloud Billing account-level audit log entries, run the following command:

gcloud logging read "logName : billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com" \
    --billing-account=BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID

Add the --freshness flag to your command to read logs that are more than 1 day old.

For more information about using the gcloud CLI, see gcloud logging read.

API

When building your queries, supply a valid resource identifier in each of the log names. For example, if your query includes a PROJECT_ID, then the project identifier you supply must refer to the currently selected Cloud project.

For example, to use the Logging API to view your project-level audit log entries, do the following:

Go to the Try this API section in the documentation for the entries.list method.
Put the following into the Request body part of the Try this API form. Clicking this prepopulated form automatically fills the request body, but you need to supply a valid PROJECT_ID in each of the log names.
```
{
  "resourceNames": [
    "projects/PROJECT_ID"
  ],
  "pageSize": 5,
  "filter": "logName : projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com"
}
```
Click Execute.

Sample queries

To find audit logs for GKE, use the following queries in the Logs Explorer:

Query/filter name	Expression
Cluster created	resource.type="gke_cluster" (log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/data_access") OR log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity")) protoPayload.methodName:"CreateCluster" resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`"
Cluster deleted	resource.type="gke_cluster" log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") protoPayload.methodName:"DeleteCluster" severity=(NOTICE OR ERROR OR WARNING) resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`"
Node pool created	resource.type="gke_nodepool" (log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/data_access") OR log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity")) protoPayload.methodName:"ClusterManager.CreateNodePool" resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`" resource.labels.nodepool_name="`NODE_POOL_NAME`"
Node pool deleted	resource.type="gke_nodepool" log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") protoPayload.methodName:"ClusterManager.DeleteNodePool" resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`" resource.labels.nodepool_name="`NODE_POOL_NAME`"
Node pool manually resized	resource.type="gke_nodepool" log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") protoPayload.methodName:"ClusterManager.SetNodePoolSize" resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`" resource.labels.nodepool_name="`NODE_POOL_NAME`"
Cluster config updated	resource.type="gke_cluster" log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") protoPayload.methodName:"UpdateCluster" protoPayload.request.update:* resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`"
Node pool config updated	resource.type="gke_nodepool" log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") protoPayload.methodName:"UpdateNodePool" protoPayload.request.upgradeSettings:* resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`" resource.labels.nodepool_name="`NODE_POOL_NAME`"
Control plane upgraded	resource.type="gke_cluster" log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") protoPayload.methodName:("UpdateCluster" OR "UpdateClusterInternal") (protoPayload.metadata.operationType="UPGRADE_MASTER" OR protoPayload.response.operationType="UPGRADE_MASTER") resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`"
Node pool upgraded	resource.type="gke_nodepool" log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") protoPayload.methodName:("UpdateNodePool" OR "UpdateClusterInternal") protoPayload.metadata.operationType="UPGRADE_NODES" resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`" resource.labels.nodepool_name="`NODE_POOL_NAME`"
Workload audit logs	log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") resource.type="k8s_cluster" resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`" protoPayload.request.metadata.name="`WORKLOAD_NAME`"
Node metadata update for node object	resource.type="k8s_cluster" log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/activity") protoPayload.methodName="io.k8s.core.v1.nodes.update" resource.labels.cluster_name="`CLUSTER_NAME`" resource.labels.location="`LOCATION_NAME`"
Changes to Role-Based Access Control, excluding automated system changes	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.methodName:"io.k8s.authorization.rbac.v1" NOT protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail:"system"
Changes to Role-Based Access Control roles, excluding automated system changes	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.methodName:"io.k8s.authorization.rbac.v1.roles" NOT protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail:"system"
Changes to Role-Based Access Control role bindings, excluding automated system changes	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.methodName:"io.k8s.authorization.rbac.v1.rolebindings" NOT protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail:"system"
Certificate signing requests	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.resourceName:"certificates.k8s.io/v1beta1/certificatesigningrequests"
Unauthenticated web requests	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail:"system:anonymous"
kubelet bootstrap identity calls	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail:"kubelet"
Node authenticated requests	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail:"system:node"
Calls outside an IP address range	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.requestMetadata.callerIp!="127.0.0.1" protoPayload.requestMetadata.callerIp!="::1" NOT protoPayload.requestMetadata.callerIp:"`IP_ADDRESS_PREFIX`"
Admin Activity audit log entries that apply to the `k8s_cluster` resource type and describe creating a Deployment	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.methodName:"deployments.create"
Admin Activity audit log entries that apply to the `k8s_cluster` resource type and have a `principalEmail` value of `system:anonymous`. These entries probably represent failed attempts to authenticate.	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail="system:anonymous"
Admin Activity audit log entries that apply to the `gke_cluster` resource type and describe cluster creation.	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="gke_cluster" protoPayload.methodName="google.container.v1.ClusterManager.CreateCluster" OR protoPayload.methodName="google.container.v1beta1.ClusterManager.CreateCluster"
Admin Activity audit log entries that apply to the `gke_cluster` resource type and have a `severity` value of `ERROR`.	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="gke_cluster" severity="ERROR"
Admin Activity audit log entries that apply to the `k8s_cluster` resource type and describe a write request to a Secret.	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.methodName:"io.k8s.core.v1.secrets" NOT protoPayload.methodName:"get" NOT protoPayload.methodName:"list" NOT protoPayload.methodName:"watch"
Admin Activity audit log entries that apply to the `k8s_cluster` resource type and describe a Pod request from a particular user.	logName="projects/`PROJECT_ID`/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity" resource.type="k8s_cluster" protoPayload.methodName:"io.k8s.core.v1.pods" protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail="dev@example.com"

To use the sample queries, do the following:

Replace the variables with your own project information, then copy the expression using the clipboard icon .
In the Google Cloud console, select Logging from the navigation menu, then click Logs Explorer:

Go to the Logs Explorer
Enable Show query to open the query-editor field, then paste the expression into the query-editor field:
Click Run query. Logs that match your query are listed in the Query results pane.

Route audit logs

You can route audit logs to supported destinations in the same way that you can route other kinds of logs. Here are some reasons you might want to route your audit logs:

To keep audit logs for a longer period of time or to use more powerful search capabilities, you can route copies of your audit logs to Cloud Storage, BigQuery, or Pub/Sub. Using Pub/Sub, you can route to other applications, other repositories, and to third parties.
To manage your audit logs across an entire organization, you can create aggregated sinks that can route logs from any or all Cloud projects in the organization.

If your enabled Data Access audit logs are pushing your Cloud projects over your log allotments, you can create sinks that exclude the Data Access audit logs from Logging.

For instructions about routing logs, see Route logs to supported destinations.

Pricing

For information about Cloud Logging pricing, see Google Cloud's operations suite pricing: Cloud Logging.

Setting up metrics and alerts

To set up metrics based on your log entries, you can use Cloud Monitoring. To set up charts and alerts, you can use log-based metrics.

Audit policy

The Kubernetes audit policy determines which log entries are exported by the Kubernetes API server. The Kubernetes Engine audit policy determines which entries go to your Admin Activity audit log and which entries go to your Data Access audit log.

For more information about audit policies in Kubernetes Engine, see Kubernetes Engine Audit Policy.