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Last updated: Mar 20th, 2023

AWS CloudTrail

Collect AWS CloudTrail logs with Elastic Agent

What is an Elastic integration?

This integration is powered by Elastic Agent. Elastic Agent is a single, unified way to add monitoring for logs, metrics, and other types of data to a host. It can also protect hosts from security threats, query data from operating systems, forward data from remote services or hardware, and more. Refer to our documentation for a detailed comparison between Beats and Elastic Agent.

Prefer to use Beats for this use case? See Filebeat modules for logs or Metricbeat modules for metrics.

Get started with integrations

See the integrations quick start guides to get started:

The AWS CloudTrail integration allows you to monitor AWS CloudTrail.

Use the AWS CloudTrail integration to collect and parse logs related to account activity across your AWS infrastructure. Then visualize that data in Kibana, create alerts to notify you if something goes wrong, and reference logs when troubleshooting an issue.

For example, you could use the data from this integration to spot unusual activity in your AWS accounts—like excessive failed AWS console sign in attempts.

IMPORTANT: Extra AWS charges on AWS API requests will be generated by this integration. Please refer to the AWS integration for more details.

Data streams

The AWS CloudTrail integration collects one type of data: logs.

Logs help you keep a record of every event that CloudTrail receives. These logs are useful for many scenarios, including security and access audits. See more details in the Logs reference.

Requirements

You need Elasticsearch for storing and searching your data and Kibana for visualizing and managing it. You can use our hosted Elasticsearch Service on Elastic Cloud, which is recommended, or self-manage the Elastic Stack on your own hardware.

Before using any AWS integration you will need:

AWS Credentials to connect with your AWS account.
AWS Permissions to make sure the user you're using to connect has permission to share the relevant data.

For more details about these requirements, see the AWS integration documentation.

Setup

Use this integration if you only need to collect data from the AWS CloudTrail service.

If you want to collect data from two or more AWS services, consider using the AWS integration. When you configure the AWS integration, you can collect data from as many AWS services as you'd like.

For step-by-step instructions on how to set up an integration, see the Getting started guide.

Logs reference

The cloudtrail data stream collects AWS CloudTrail logs. CloudTrail monitors events like user activity and API usage in AWS services. If a user creates a trail, it delivers those events as log files to a specific Amazon S3 bucket.

Note: Use the CloudTrail Digest Logs regex setting to define regex to match the path of the CloudTrail Digest S3 Objects you'd like to read. If blank, CloudTrail Digest logs will be skipped.

Exported fields

Field	Description	Type
@timestamp	Event timestamp.	date
aws.cloudtrail.additional_eventdata	Additional data about the event that was not part of the request or response.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.additional_eventdata.text	Multi-field of `aws.cloudtrail.additional_eventdata`.	text
aws.cloudtrail.api_version	Identifies the API version associated with the AwsApiCall eventType value.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.console_login.additional_eventdata.login_to	URL for ConsoleLogin	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.console_login.additional_eventdata.mfa_used	Identifies whether multi factor authentication was used during ConsoleLogin	boolean
aws.cloudtrail.console_login.additional_eventdata.mobile_version	Identifies whether ConsoleLogin was from mobile version	boolean
aws.cloudtrail.error_code	The AWS service error if the request returns an error.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.error_message	If the request returns an error, the description of the error.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.event_category	The CloudTrail event category.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.event_type	Identifies the type of event that generated the event record.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.event_version	The CloudTrail version of the log event format.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.flattened.additional_eventdata	Additional data about the event that was not part of the request or response.	flattened
aws.cloudtrail.flattened.digest	Additional digest information.	flattened
aws.cloudtrail.flattened.insight_details	Additional insight details.	flattened
aws.cloudtrail.flattened.request_parameters	The parameters, if any, that were sent with the request.	flattened
aws.cloudtrail.flattened.response_elements	The response element for actions that make changes (create, update, or delete actions).	flattened
aws.cloudtrail.flattened.service_event_details	Identifies the service event, including what triggered the event and the result.	flattened
aws.cloudtrail.management_event	A Boolean value that identifies whether the event is a management event.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.read_only	Identifies whether this operation is a read-only operation.	boolean
aws.cloudtrail.recipient_account_id	Represents the account ID that received this event.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.request_id	The value that identifies the request. The service being called generates this value.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.request_parameters	The parameters, if any, that were sent with the request.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.request_parameters.text	Multi-field of `aws.cloudtrail.request_parameters`.	text
aws.cloudtrail.resources.account_id	Account ID of the resource owner	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.resources.arn	Resource ARNs	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.resources.type	Resource type identifier in the format: AWS::aws-service-name::data-type-name	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.response_elements	The response element for actions that make changes (create, update, or delete actions).	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.response_elements.text	Multi-field of `aws.cloudtrail.response_elements`.	text
aws.cloudtrail.service_event_details	Identifies the service event, including what triggered the event and the result.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.service_event_details.text	Multi-field of `aws.cloudtrail.service_event_details`.	text
aws.cloudtrail.shared_event_id	GUID generated by CloudTrail to uniquely identify CloudTrail events from the same AWS action that is sent to different AWS accounts.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.access_key_id	The access key ID that was used to sign the request.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.arn	The Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the principal that made the call.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.invoked_by	The name of the AWS service that made the request, such as Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling or AWS Elastic Beanstalk.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.session_context.creation_date	The date and time when the temporary security credentials were issued.	date
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.session_context.mfa_authenticated	The value is true if the root user or IAM user whose credentials were used for the request also was authenticated with an MFA device; otherwise, false.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.session_context.session_issuer.account_id	The account that owns the entity that was used to get credentials.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.session_context.session_issuer.arn	The ARN of the source (account, IAM user, or role) that was used to get temporary security credentials.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.session_context.session_issuer.principal_id	The internal ID of the entity that was used to get credentials.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.session_context.session_issuer.type	The source of the temporary security credentials, such as Root, IAMUser, or Role.	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.user_identity.type	The type of the identity	keyword
aws.cloudtrail.vpc_endpoint_id	Identifies the VPC endpoint in which requests were made from a VPC to another AWS service, such as Amazon S3.	keyword
cloud.account.id	The cloud account or organization id used to identify different entities in a multi-tenant environment. Examples: AWS account id, Google Cloud ORG Id, or other unique identifier.	keyword
cloud.availability_zone	Availability zone in which this host, resource, or service is located.	keyword
cloud.image.id	Image ID for the cloud instance.	keyword
cloud.instance.id	Instance ID of the host machine.	keyword
cloud.instance.name	Instance name of the host machine.	keyword
cloud.machine.type	Machine type of the host machine.	keyword
cloud.project.id	The cloud project identifier. Examples: Google Cloud Project id, Azure Project id.	keyword
cloud.provider	Name of the cloud provider. Example values are aws, azure, gcp, or digitalocean.	keyword
cloud.region	Region in which this host, resource, or service is located.	keyword
container.id	Unique container id.	keyword
container.image.name	Name of the image the container was built on.	keyword
container.labels	Image labels.	object
container.name	Container name.	keyword
data_stream.dataset	Data stream dataset.	constant_keyword
data_stream.namespace	Data stream namespace.	constant_keyword
data_stream.type	Data stream type.	constant_keyword
ecs.version	ECS version this event conforms to. `ecs.version` is a required field and must exist in all events. When querying across multiple indices -- which may conform to slightly different ECS versions -- this field lets integrations adjust to the schema version of the events.	keyword
error.message	Error message.	match_only_text
event.action	The action captured by the event. This describes the information in the event. It is more specific than `event.category`. Examples are `group-add`, `process-started`, `file-created`. The value is normally defined by the implementer.	keyword
event.created	event.created contains the date/time when the event was first read by an agent, or by your pipeline. This field is distinct from @timestamp in that @timestamp typically contain the time extracted from the original event. In most situations, these two timestamps will be slightly different. The difference can be used to calculate the delay between your source generating an event, and the time when your agent first processed it. This can be used to monitor your agent's or pipeline's ability to keep up with your event source. In case the two timestamps are identical, @timestamp should be used.	date
event.dataset	Event dataset	constant_keyword
event.ingested	Timestamp when an event arrived in the central data store. This is different from `@timestamp`, which is when the event originally occurred. It's also different from `event.created`, which is meant to capture the first time an agent saw the event. In normal conditions, assuming no tampering, the timestamps should chronologically look like this: `@timestamp` < `event.created` < `event.ingested`.	date
event.kind	This is one of four ECS Categorization Fields, and indicates the highest level in the ECS category hierarchy. `event.kind` gives high-level information about what type of information the event contains, without being specific to the contents of the event. For example, values of this field distinguish alert events from metric events. The value of this field can be used to inform how these kinds of events should be handled. They may warrant different retention, different access control, it may also help understand whether the data coming in at a regular interval or not.	keyword
event.module	Event module	constant_keyword
event.original	Raw text message of entire event. Used to demonstrate log integrity or where the full log message (before splitting it up in multiple parts) may be required, e.g. for reindex. This field is not indexed and doc_values are disabled. It cannot be searched, but it can be retrieved from `_source`. If users wish to override this and index this field, please see `Field data types` in the `Elasticsearch Reference`.	keyword
event.provider	Source of the event. Event transports such as Syslog or the Windows Event Log typically mention the source of an event. It can be the name of the software that generated the event (e.g. Sysmon, httpd), or of a subsystem of the operating system (kernel, Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing).	keyword
event.type	This is one of four ECS Categorization Fields, and indicates the third level in the ECS category hierarchy. `event.type` represents a categorization "sub-bucket" that, when used along with the `event.category` field values, enables filtering events down to a level appropriate for single visualization. This field is an array. This will allow proper categorization of some events that fall in multiple event types.	keyword
file.hash.md5	MD5 hash.	keyword
file.hash.sha1	SHA1 hash.	keyword
file.hash.sha256	SHA256 hash.	keyword
file.hash.sha512	SHA512 hash.	keyword
file.path	Full path to the file, including the file name. It should include the drive letter, when appropriate.	keyword
file.path.text	Multi-field of `file.path`.	match_only_text
group.id	Unique identifier for the group on the system/platform.	keyword
group.name	Name of the group.	keyword
host.architecture	Operating system architecture.	keyword
host.containerized	If the host is a container.	boolean
host.domain	Name of the domain of which the host is a member. For example, on Windows this could be the host's Active Directory domain or NetBIOS domain name. For Linux this could be the domain of the host's LDAP provider.	keyword
host.hostname	Hostname of the host. It normally contains what the `hostname` command returns on the host machine.	keyword
host.id	Unique host id. As hostname is not always unique, use values that are meaningful in your environment. Example: The current usage of `beat.name`.	keyword
host.ip	Host ip addresses.	ip
host.mac	Host MAC addresses. The notation format from RFC 7042 is suggested: Each octet (that is, 8-bit byte) is represented by two [uppercase] hexadecimal digits giving the value of the octet as an unsigned integer. Successive octets are separated by a hyphen.	keyword
host.name	Name of the host. It can contain what `hostname` returns on Unix systems, the fully qualified domain name, or a name specified by the user. The sender decides which value to use.	keyword
host.os.build	OS build information.	keyword
host.os.codename	OS codename, if any.	keyword
host.os.family	OS family (such as redhat, debian, freebsd, windows).	keyword
host.os.kernel	Operating system kernel version as a raw string.	keyword
host.os.name	Operating system name, without the version.	keyword
host.os.name.text	Multi-field of `host.os.name`.	match_only_text
host.os.platform	Operating system platform (such centos, ubuntu, windows).	keyword
host.os.version	Operating system version as a raw string.	keyword
host.type	Type of host. For Cloud providers this can be the machine type like `t2.medium`. If vm, this could be the container, for example, or other information meaningful in your environment.	keyword
related.hash	All the hashes seen on your event. Populating this field, then using it to search for hashes can help in situations where you're unsure what the hash algorithm is (and therefore which key name to search).	keyword
related.user	All the user names or other user identifiers seen on the event.	keyword
source.address	Some event source addresses are defined ambiguously. The event will sometimes list an IP, a domain or a unix socket. You should always store the raw address in the `.address` field. Then it should be duplicated to `.ip` or `.domain`, depending on which one it is.	keyword
source.as.number	Unique number allocated to the autonomous system. The autonomous system number (ASN) uniquely identifies each network on the Internet.	long
source.as.organization.name	Organization name.	keyword
source.as.organization.name.text	Multi-field of `source.as.organization.name`.	match_only_text
source.geo.city_name	City name.	keyword
source.geo.continent_name	Name of the continent.	keyword
source.geo.country_iso_code	Country ISO code.	keyword
source.geo.country_name	Country name.	keyword
source.geo.location	Longitude and latitude.	geo_point
source.geo.region_iso_code	Region ISO code.	keyword
source.geo.region_name	Region name.	keyword
source.ip	IP address of the source (IPv4 or IPv6).	ip
tags	List of keywords used to tag each event.	keyword
user.changes.name	Short name or login of the user.	keyword
user.changes.name.text	Multi-field of `user.changes.name`.	match_only_text
user.id	Unique identifier of the user.	keyword
user.name	Short name or login of the user.	keyword
user.name.text	Multi-field of `user.name`.	match_only_text
user.target.id	Unique identifier of the user.	keyword
user.target.name	Short name or login of the user.	keyword
user.target.name.text	Multi-field of `user.target.name`.	match_only_text
user_agent.device.name	Name of the device.	keyword
user_agent.name	Name of the user agent.	keyword
user_agent.original	Unparsed user_agent string.	keyword
user_agent.original.text	Multi-field of `user_agent.original`.	match_only_text
user_agent.os.full	Operating system name, including the version or code name.	keyword
user_agent.os.full.text	Multi-field of `user_agent.os.full`.	match_only_text
user_agent.os.name	Operating system name, without the version.	keyword
user_agent.os.name.text	Multi-field of `user_agent.os.name`.	match_only_text
user_agent.os.version	Operating system version as a raw string.	keyword
user_agent.version	Version of the user agent.	keyword

An example event for cloudtrail looks as following:

{
    "data_stream": {
        "namespace": "default",
        "type": "logs",
        "dataset": "aws.cloudtrail"
    },
    "source": {
        "address": "127.0.0.1",
        "ip": "127.0.0.1"
    },
    "tags": [
        "preserve_original_event"
    ],
    "cloud": {
        "region": "us-east-1",
        "account": {
            "id": "123456789012"
        }
    },
    "@timestamp": "2020-01-08T20:53:12.000Z",
    "ecs": {
        "version": "8.0.0"
    },
    "related": {
        "user": [
            "Alice",
            "Bob",
            "Robert"
        ]
    },
    "event": {
        "ingested": "2021-10-05T23:06:12.229540200Z",
        "original": "{\"eventVersion\":\"1.05\",\"userIdentity\":{\"type\":\"IAMUser\",\"principalId\":\"EX_PRINCIPAL_ID\",\"arn\":\"arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Alice\",\"accountId\":\"123456789012\",\"accessKeyId\":\"EXAMPLE_KEY_ID\",\"userName\":\"Alice\"},\"eventTime\":\"2020-01-08T20:53:12Z\",\"eventSource\":\"iam.amazonaws.com\",\"eventName\":\"UpdateUser\",\"awsRegion\":\"us-east-1\",\"sourceIPAddress\":\"127.0.0.1\",\"userAgent\":\"aws-cli/1.16.310 Python/3.8.1 Darwin/18.7.0 botocore/1.13.46\",\"requestParameters\":{\"userName\":\"Bob\",\"newUserName\":\"Robert\"},\"responseElements\":null,\"requestID\":\"3a6b3260-739d-465e-9406-bcEXAMPLE\",\"eventID\":\"9150d546-3564-4262-8e62-110EXAMPLE\",\"eventType\":\"AwsApiCall\",\"recipientAccountId\":\"123456789012\"}",
        "provider": "iam.amazonaws.com",
        "created": "2020-01-08T20:53:12.000Z",
        "kind": "event",
        "action": "UpdateUser",
        "id": "9150d546-3564-4262-8e62-110EXAMPLE",
        "type": [
            "user",
            "change"
        ],
        "category": [
            "iam"
        ],
        "outcome": "success"
    },
    "aws": {
        "cloudtrail": {
            "event_version": "1.05",
            "flattened": {
                "request_parameters": {
                    "userName": "Bob",
                    "newUserName": "Robert"
                }
            },
            "user_identity": {
                "access_key_id": "EXAMPLE_KEY_ID",
                "type": "IAMUser",
                "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/Alice"
            },
            "event_type": "AwsApiCall",
            "recipient_account_id": "123456789012",
            "request_parameters": "{newUserName=Robert, userName=Bob}"
        }
    },
    "user": {
        "name": "Alice",
        "changes": {
            "name": "Robert"
        },
        "id": "EX_PRINCIPAL_ID",
        "target": {
            "name": "Bob"
        }
    },
    "user_agent": {
        "name": "aws-cli",
        "original": "aws-cli/1.16.310 Python/3.8.1 Darwin/18.7.0 botocore/1.13.46",
        "device": {
            "name": "Spider"
        },
        "version": "1.16.310"
    }
}