Description:

  • See who did what where and when
  • Different from a typical logs
    • protoPayload field which contains an audit log object
    • has principalEmail

Admin activity audit logs:

  • Log entries for API calls or other administrative actions that modify the configuration or metadata of resources.
    • ex: create VM or change IAM role

System event audit logs:

  • Log entries for Google Cloud administrative actions that modify the configuration of resources.
  • Generated by Google Cloud systems, not user-driven
  • Retained for 400 days

Data access audit logs:

  • API calls that read the configuration or metadata of resources.
  • Also, user driven API calls that create, modify, or read user provided resource data.
  • Don’t record the data access operations on resources that:
    • are publicly shared.
    • can be accessed without logging into Google Cloud.
  • Disabled by default, enabled retention is 30 days
    • only bq is enabled by default?
  • Three types of data access audit log:
    • Admin read records operation that read metadata configuration information.
      • For example, you looked at the configuration (describe) for your bucket.
    • Data read records operations that read user provided data.
      • For example, you listed files, and then downloaded one from the Cloud storage.
    • Data write records operation that right user provided data.
      • For example, you created a new cloud storage file.
  • Can also exempt specific users
  • Quite expensive, 50 cents per gb of audit log

Policy denied access log:

  • Policy denied access log records when access to a user or service account is denied by Google Cloud Service.
  • Generated by default and your Google Cloud project is charged for the log storage.
  • Can’t disable policy denied audit logs.