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Enable Linux auditd logs on GKE nodes | GKE Documentation

Enable Linux auditd logs on GKE nodes

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This page explains how to enable verbose operating system audit logs on Google Kubernetes Engine nodes running Container-Optimized OS. This page also explains how to configure a fluent-bit logging agent to send logs to Cloud Logging. Enabling verbose logs can provide valuable information about the state of your cluster and workloads, such as error messages, login attempts, and binary executions. You can use this information to debug problems or investigate security incidents.

Enabling Linux auditd logging is not supported in GKE Autopilot clusters, because Google manages the nodes and underlying virtual machines (VMs).

This page is for Security specialists who review and analyze security logs. Use this information to understand the requirements and limitations of verbose OS logs and guide your implementation when enabling them on your GKE nodes. To learn more about common roles and example tasks that we reference in Google Cloud content, see Common GKE user roles and tasks.

Before reading this page, ensure that you're familiar with Linux operating system audit logs.

Operating system audit logging is distinct from Cloud Audit Logs and Kubernetes Audit Logs.

Overview

To collect logs from each node in a cluster, use a DaemonSet which runs exactly one Pod on each cluster node where the DaemonSet is eligible to be scheduled. This Pod configures the auditd logging daemon on the host and configures the logging agent to send the logs to Logging or any other log-ingestion service.

By definition, auditing occurs after an event and is a retrospective security measure. auditd logs alone are probably not sufficient for conducting forensics on your cluster. Consider how to best use auditd logging as part of your overall security strategy.

Note: Increased logging activity on a node increases resource usage on that node, which may affect the performance of your workload and may incur additional resource costs. Audit logs sent to Logging consume log quota from the project. You might need to increase your log quota and storage to accommodate the additional logs. Limitations

The logging mechanisms described on this page work only on nodes running Container-Optimized OS in GKE Standard clusters.

How the logging DaemonSet works

This section describes how the example logging DaemonSet works so that you can configure it to suit your needs. The next section explains how to deploy the DaemonSet.

The example manifest defines a DaemonSet, a ConfigMap, and a Namespace to contain them.

The DaemonSet deploys a Pod to each node in the cluster. The Pod contains two containers. The first is an init container that starts the cloud-audit-setup systemd service available on Container-Optimized OS nodes. The second container, cos-auditd-fluent-bit, contains an instance of fluent-bit which is configured to collect the Linux audit logs from the node journal and export them to Cloud Logging.

The example logging DaemonSet logs the following events:

auditd system configuration modifications
AppArmor permission checks
execve(), socket(), setsockopt(), and mmap() executions
network connections
user logins
SSH session and all other TTYs (including kubectl exec -t sessions)

Note: We recommend you create the DaemonSet immediately after creating your cluster. Logs are only generated for events that occur after the DaemonSet is deployed. The DaemonSet automatically configures auditd logging on all new nodes that are added to the cluster. Configure the logging DaemonSet

You configure the logging DaemonSet using a ConfigMap, cos-auditd-fluent-bit-config. The example provided sends audit logs to Logging, but you can configure it to send logs to other destinations.

The volume of logs produced by auditd can be very large and may incur additional costs because it consumes system resources and sends more logs than the default logging configuration. You can set up filters to manage the logging volume:

You can set up filters in the cos-auditd-fluent-bit-config ConfigMap so that certain data isn't logged. Refer to the fluent-bit documentation for the Grep, Modify, Record Modifier, and other filters.
You can also configure Logging to filter incoming logs. For more details, see Configure and manage sinks.

Deploy the logging DaemonSet

You can use an existing cluster or create a new one.

Download the example manifests:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/k8s-node-tools/master/os-audit/cos-auditd-logging.yaml > cos-auditd-logging.yaml

Edit the example manifests to suit your needs. Refer to the previous section for details about how the DaemonSet works. Note that the fluent-bit image used in this sample manifest is for demonstration purposes only. As a best practice, replace the image with an image from a controlled source with SHA-256 digest.
Initialize common variables:
```
export CLUSTER_NAME=CLUSTER_NAME
export CLUSTER_LOCATION=COMPUTE_REGION
```
Replace the following:
- CLUSTER_NAME: the name of your cluster.
- COMPUTE_REGION: the Compute Engine region for your cluster. For zonal clusters, use the zone instead.

Deploy the logging Namespace, DaemonSet, and ConfigMap:

envsubst '$CLUSTER_NAME,$CLUSTER_LOCATION' < cos-auditd-logging.yaml \
| kubectl apply -f -

Verify that the logging Pods have started. If you defined a different Namespace in your manifests, replace cos-auditd with the name of the namespace you're using.

kubectl get pods --namespace=cos-auditd

If the Pods are running, the output looks like this:

NAME                                             READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
cos-auditd-logging-g5sbq                         1/1     Running   0          27s
cos-auditd-logging-l5p8m                         1/1     Running   0          27s
cos-auditd-logging-tgwz6                         1/1     Running   0          27s

One Pod is deployed on each node in the cluster, in this case the cluster has three nodes.

You can now access the audit logs in Logging. In the Logs Explorer, filter the results using the following query:
```
LOG_ID("linux-auditd")
resource.labels.cluster_name = "CLUSTER_NAME"
resource.labels.location = "COMPUTE_REGION"
```
Note: The LOG_ID("linux-auditd") is part of the resource.type="k8s_node". Ensure that the resource.type="k8s_node" is not excluded in your LogSink configuration if you want LOG_ID("linux-auditd") logs to be shipped to the Cloud Logging.
Alternatively, you can use gcloud CLI (use --limit because the result set can be very large):
```
gcloud logging read --limit=100 "LOG_ID("linux-auditd") AND resource.labels.cluster_name = "${CLUSTER_NAME}" AND resource.labels.location = "${CLUSTER_LOCATION}""
```

Export logs

To learn how to route your logs to supported destinations, see Configure and manage sinks.

Disable logs

To disable auditd logging, delete the logging DaemonSet and reboot the nodes. The audit configuration is locked once enabled and can only be changed by recreating the node.

Delete the DaemonSet, ConfigMap, and their Namespace from the cluster:
```
kubectl delete -f cos-auditd-logging.yaml
```

Reboot your cluster's nodes. First, get the instance group they belong to:

instance_group=$(gcloud compute instance-groups managed list \
                    --format="value(name)" \
                    --filter=${CLUSTER_NAME})

Then get the instances themselves:

instances=$(gcloud compute instance-groups managed list-instances ${instance_group} \
               --format="csv(instance)[no-heading][terminator=',']")

Note: If the command fails to select the correct region or zone for your instances, set the default Compute Engine region or zone. For a list of available zones and regions, refer to Available regions and zones.

Finally, recreate the instances:

gcloud compute instance-groups managed recreate-instances ${instance_group} \
   --instances=${instances}

What's next

Watch Cloud Forensics 101 to get started with cloud forensics.
Learn about Kubernetes Audit Logging and audit policy.
Read the Kubernetes Engine Security Overview.
Learn about Cloud Audit Logs.

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2025-08-12 UTC.

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