---
title: About the auditd Resource
platform: linux
---

# auditd

Use the `auditd` InSpec audit resource to test the rules for logging that exist on the system. The audit.rules file is typically located under /etc/audit/ and contains the list of rules that define what is captured in log files. These rules are output using the auditctl -l command. This resource supports versions of `audit` >= 2.3.

<br>

## Syntax

An `auditd` resource block declares one (or more) rules to be tested, and then what that rule should do:

    describe auditd do
      its('lines') { should include %r(-w /etc/ssh/sshd_config) }
    end

or test that multiple individual rules are defined:

    describe auditd do
      its('lines') { should include %r(-a always,exit -F arch=.* -S init_module,delete_module -F key=modules) }
      its('lines') { should include %r(-a always,exit -F arch=.* -S chmod,fchmod,fchmodat -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=-1 -F key=.+) }
    end

where each test must declare one (or more) rules to be tested.

<br>

## Examples

The following examples show how to use this InSpec audit resource.

### Test if a rule contains a matching element that is identified by a regular expression

For `audit` >= 2.3:

    describe auditd do
      its('lines') { should include %r(-a always,exit -F arch=.* -S chown.* -F auid>=1000 -F auid!=-1 -F key=perm_mod) }
    end

### Query the audit daemon status

    describe auditd.status('backlog') do
      it { should cmp 0 }
    end

### Query properties of rules targeting specific syscalls or files - uniq is used to handle multiple rules for the same syscall with redundant field values

    describe auditd.syscall('open') do
      its('action.uniq') { should eq ['always'] }
      its('list.uniq') { should eq ['exit'] }
    end

    describe auditd.file('/etc/sudoers') do
      its('permissions') { should include ['x'] }
    end

The where accessor can be used to filter on fields. For example:

    describe auditd.syscall('chown').where { arch == "b32" } do
      its('action') { should eq ['always'] }
      its('list') { should eq ['exit'] }
      its('exit') { should include ['-EACCES'] }
      its('exit') { should include ['-EPERM'] }
    end

The key filter may be useful in evaluating rules with particular key values:

    describe auditd.where { key == "privileged" } do
      its('permissions') { should include ['x'] }
    end

<br>

## Matchers

For a full list of available matchers, please visit our [matchers page](https://www.inspec.io/docs/reference/matchers/).