From Linux Man Pages
ausearch - a tool to query audit daemon logs
ausearch [ options ]
DESCRIPTION
ausearch is a tool that can query the audit daemon logs based for events based on different search criteria. Each
commandline option given forms an "and" statement. For example, searching with -m and -ui means return events
that have both the requested type and match the user id given.
It should also be noted that each syscall excursion from user space into the kernel and back into user space has
one event ID that is unique. Any auditable event that is triggered during this trip share this ID so that they
may be correlated.
Different parts of the kernel may add supplemental records. For example, an audit event on the syscall "open"
will also cause the kernel to emit a PATH record with the file name. The ausearch utility will present all
records that make up one event together. This could mean that even though you search for a specific kind of
record, the resulting events may contain SYSCALL records.
Also be aware that not all record types have the requested information. For example, a PATH record does not have
a hostname or a loginuid.
OPTIONS
-a <audit event id>
Search for an event based on the given event ID. Messages always start with something like
msg=audit(1116360555.329:2401771). The event ID is the number after the ':'. All audit events that are
recorded from one application's syscall have the same audit event ID. A second syscall made by the same
application will have a different event ID. This way they are unique.
-c <comm name>
Search for an event based on the given comm name. The comm name is the executable's name from the task
structure.
-f <file name>
Search for an event based on the given filename.
-ga <all group id>
Search for an event with either effective group ID or group ID matching the given group ID.
-ge <effective group id>
Search for an event with the given effective group ID or group name.
-gi <group id>
Search for an event with the given group ID or group name.
-h Help
-hn <host name>
Search for an event with the given host name. The hostname can be either a hostname, fully qualified
domain name, or numeric IP address. No attempt is made to resolve numeric addresses to domain names or
aliases.
-i Interpret numeric entities into text. For example, uid is converted to account name. The conversion is
done using the current resources of the machine where the search is being run. If you have renamed the
accounts, or don't have the same accounts on your machine, you could get misleading results.
-if <file name>
Use the given file instead if the logs. This is to aid analysis where the logs have been moved to another
machine or only part of a log was saved.
-k <key string>
Search for an event based on the given key string.
-m <message type> | <comma sep message type list>
Search for an event matching the given message type. You may also enter a comma separated list of message
types. There is an ALL message type that doesn't exist in the actual logs. It allows you to get all mes-
sages in the system. The list of valid messages types is long. The program will display the list whenever
no message type is passed with this parameter. The message type can be either text or numeric. If you
enter a list, there can be only commas and no spaces separating the list.
-o <SE Linux context string>
Search for event with tcontext (object) matching the string.
-p <process id>
Search for an event matching the given process ID.
-sc <syscall name or value>
Search for an event matching the given syscall. You may either give the numeric syscall value or the
syscall name. If you give the syscall name, it will use the syscall table for the machine that you are
using.
-se <SE Linux context string>
Search for event with either scontext/subject or tcontext/object matching the string.
-su <SE Linux context string>
Search for event with scontext (subject) matching the string.
-sv <success value>
Search for an event matching the given success value. Legal values are yes and no.
-te [end date] [end time]
Search for events with time stamps equal to or before the given end time. The format of end time depends
on your locale. If the date is omitted, today is assumed. If the time is omitted, now is assumed. Use 24
hour clock time rather than AM or PM to specify time. An example date is 10/24/2005. An example of time is
18:00:00. You may also use the word: now, today, and yesterday. Today means starting at 1 second after
midnight. Yesterday is 1 second after midnight the previous day.
-ts [start date] [start time]
Search for events with time stamps equal to or after the given end time. The format of end time depends on
your locale. If the date is omitted, today is assumed. If the time is omitted, midnight is assumed. Use 24
hour clock time rather than AM or PM to specify time. An example date is 10/24/2005. An example of time is
18:00:00. You may also use the word: now, today, and yesterday. Today means starting at 1 second after
midnight. Yesterday is 1 second after midnight the previous day.
-tm <terminal>
Search for an event matching the given terminal value. Some daemons such as cron and atd use the daemon
name for the terminal.
-ua <all user id>
Search for an event with either user ID, effective user ID, or login user ID (auid) matching the given
user ID.
-ue <effective user id>
Search for an event with the given effective user ID.
-ui <user id>
Search for an event with the given user ID.
-ul <login id>
Search for an event with the given login user ID. All entry point programs that are pamified need to be
configured with pam_loginuid required for the session for searching on loginuid (auid) to be accurate.
-v Print the version and exit
-w String based matches must match the whole word. This category of matches include: filename, hostname, ter-
minal, and SE Linux context.
-x <executable>
Search for an event matching the given executable name.
RELATED
auditd(8), pam_loginuid(8)
CATEGORY