I am on f26 x86_64, fully updated. I wanted to find which process keeps my server very busy for about 10 minutes every few days so decided to use the audit facility to log every launched program. After some searching I found that I could do $ sudo auditctl -a always,task then later I can see what happened with $ sudo ausearch -i -sc execve|less and finally remove the rule with $ sudo auditctl -d always,task No records were reported by ausearch and no records were added to /var/log/audit/audit.log. I then noted that this log file is old, the last entry is from 17/Jan $ sudo ls -l /var/log/audit/audit.log -rw-------. 1 root root 6789409 Jan 16 14:59 /var/log/audit/audit.log $ sudo tail -n 1 /var/log/audit/audit.log type=DAEMON_END msg=audit(1516075173.204:8779): op=terminate auid=0 pid=1 subj= res=success I then checked another machine and it was similar. However /var/log/messages regularly includes audit messages. I saw that the audit packages were updated around that time the logging stopped: $ sudo grep audit /var/log/dnf.log 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit.x86_64 2.8.1-1.fc26 will be upgraded 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit.x86_64 2.8.2-1.fc26 will be an upgrade 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs.x86_64 2.8.1-1.fc26 will be upgraded 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs.x86_64 2.8.2-1.fc26 will be an upgrade 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs-python3.x86_64 2.8.1-1.fc26 will be upgraded 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs-python3.x86_64 2.8.2-1.fc26 will be an upgrade 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs-python.x86_64 2.8.1-1.fc26 will be upgraded 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs-python.x86_64 2.8.2-1.fc26 will be an upgrade 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs-devel.x86_64 2.8.1-1.fc26 will be upgraded 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs-devel.x86_64 2.8.2-1.fc26 will be an upgrade 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs.i686 2.8.1-1.fc26 will be upgraded 2018-01-16T03:33:00Z DEBUG ---> Package audit-libs.i686 2.8.2-1.fc26 will be an upgrade ... checking the service status I see: $ systemctl status auditd * auditd.service - Security Auditing Service Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/auditd.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: inactive (dead) Docs: man:auditd(8) https://github.com/linux-audit/audit-documentation Was it disabled intentionally? I thought starting the service will do the trick - but no. The system became non responsive and after a minute I could not even ping it. I switched to a text console and rebooted (CtlAltDel) which took some time but did eventually reboot. Feb 13 11:16:02 e7 systemd-journald[521]: Journal stopped Feb 13 22:16:50 e7 kernel: microcode: microcode updated early to revision 0x1c, date = 2015-02-26 ... The log file (audit.log) was full of repetitions of type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1518480718.009:8330567): arch=c000003e syscall=232 success=yes exit=1 a0=b a1=56069a5e0660 a2=40 a3=e95f items=0 ppid=1 pid=26480 auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=(none) ses=4294967295 comm="auditd" exe="/usr/sbin/auditd" key=(null) type=PROCTITLE msg=audit(1518480718.009:8330567): proctitle="/sbin/auditd" type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1518480718.009:8330568): arch=c000003e syscall=45 success=yes exit=47 a0=3 a1=56069a5e3850 a2=231c a3=40 items=0 ppid=1 pid=26480 auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=(none) ses=4294967295 comm="auditd" exe="/usr/sbin/auditd" key=(null) type=SOCKADDR msg=audit(1518480718.009:8330568): saddr=100000000000000000000000 type=SYSCALL msg=audit(1518480718.009:8330585): arch=c000003e syscall=20 success=no exit=-11 a0=7 a1=7ffcb38e90c0 a2=2 a3=56069a5e3860 items=0 ppid=1 pid=26480 auid=4294967295 uid=0 gid=0 euid=0 suid=0 fsuid=0 egid=0 sgid=0 fsgid=0 tty=(none) ses=4294967295 comm="auditd" exe="/usr/sbin/auditd" key=(null) type=PROCTITLE msg=audit(1518480718.009:8330585): proctitle="/sbin/auditd" ... many repeats of the last two lines... The system logged many messages like: kernel: kauditd_printk_skb: 31527 callbacks suppressed systemd-journald[521]: Missed 1146 kernel messages kernel: Out of memory: Kill process 1847 (/usr/sbin/httpd) score 1 or sacrifice child The system was clearly in trouble. I now wonder if the audit system was replaced by another facility which conflicts with this service. Maybe the installed packages are leftovers from an old upgrade? I see a kernel audit thread, running since the last reboot. $ ps aux|grep audit root 78 0.3 0.0 0 0 ? S 11:27 0:21 [kauditd] My questions are: 1) do I need to remove or install any audit packages? 2) how do I set up the audit system properly? 3) How do I log every started program if 'auditctl -a' is not correct? Maybe 'auditctl -a' is correct, but I need to look at 'messages' and *not* start the service? TIA -- Eyal Lebedinsky (fedora@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx