• Overview
    • Automated PKI Infrastructure
    • Data Encryption & Tokenization
    • Database Credential Rotation
    • Dynamic Secrets
    • Identity-based Access
    • Key Management
    • Kubernetes Secrets
    • Secrets Management
  • Enterprise
  • Tutorials
  • Docs
  • API
  • Community
GitHubTry Cloud
Download
    • v1.11.x (latest)
    • v1.10.x
    • v1.9.x
    • v1.8.x
    • v1.7.x
    • v1.6.x
    • v1.5.x
    • v1.4.x
  • What is Vault?
  • Use Cases
    • CLI Quick Start
    • HCP Quick Start
    • Developer Quick Start

  • Browser Support
  • Installing Vault
    • Overview
    • Architecture
    • High Availability
    • Integrated Storage
    • Security Model
    • Telemetry
    • Token Authentication
    • Key Rotation
    • Replication
    • Limits and Maximums
    • Overview
    • 'Dev' Server
    • Seal/Unseal
    • Namespace API Lock
    • Lease, Renew, and Revoke
    • Authentication
    • Tokens
    • Identity
    • OIDC Provider
    • Response Wrapping
    • Policies
    • Password Policies
    • Username Templating
    • High Availability
    • Storage
      • Overview
      • Autopilot
    • PGP, GnuPG, and Keybase
    • Recovery Mode
    • Resource Quotas
      • Overview
      • FAQ
    • Transform
    • Mount Migration
    • Overview
      • Overview
      • TCP
    • replication
      • Overview
      • AliCloud KMS
      • AWS KMS
      • Azure Key Vault
      • GCP Cloud KMS
      • OCI KMS
      • HSM PKCS11 ENT
      • Vault Transit
    • sentinel
      • Overview
      • Consul
      • Kubernetes
      • Overview
      • Aerospike
      • Alicloud OSS
      • Azure
      • Cassandra
      • CockroachDB
      • Consul
      • CouchDB
      • DynamoDB
      • Etcd
      • Filesystem
      • FoundationDB
      • Google Cloud Spanner
      • Google Cloud Storage
      • In-Memory
      • Manta
      • MSSQL
      • MySQL
      • OCI Object Storage
      • PostgreSQL
      • Integrated Storage (Raft)
      • S3
      • Swift
      • Zookeeper
    • telemetry
    • ui
    • Log Completed Requests
    • Entropy Augmentation ENT
    • kms_library ENT
    • Overview
    • agent
      • Overview
      • disable
      • enable
      • list
      • Overview
      • disable
      • enable
      • help
      • list
      • move
      • tune
    • debug
    • delete
      • Overview
      • delete
      • destroy
      • enable-versioning
      • get
      • list
      • metadata
      • patch
      • put
      • rollback
      • undelete
      • Overview
      • lookup
      • renew
      • revoke
      • Overview
      • get
      • inspect
    • list
    • login
    • monitor
    • namespace
      • Overview
      • diagnose
      • generate-root
      • init
      • key-status
      • members
      • migrate
      • raft
      • rekey
      • rotate
      • seal
      • step-down
      • unseal
      • usage
    • path-help
      • Overview
      • deregister
      • info
      • list
      • register
      • reload
      • Overview
      • delete
      • fmt
      • list
      • read
      • write
    • read
      • Overview
      • disable
      • enable
      • list
      • move
      • tune
    • server
    • ssh
    • status
      • Overview
      • capabilities
      • create
      • lookup
      • renew
      • revoke
    • unwrap
    • version
    • version-history
    • write
    • Token Helpers
    • Overview
      • Overview
        • Overview
        • AliCloud
        • AppRole
        • AWS
        • Azure
        • Cert
        • CF
        • GCP
        • JWT
        • Kerberos
        • Kubernetes
        • Overview
        • File
      • Overview
        • Overview
        • Kubernetes
    • Templates
    • Windows service

    • Overview
    • Active Directory
    • AliCloud
    • AWS
    • Azure
    • Consul
    • Cubbyhole
      • Overview
      • Cassandra
      • Couchbase
      • Elasticsearch
      • HanaDB
      • IBM Db2
      • InfluxDB
      • MongoDB
      • MongoDB Atlas
      • MSSQL
      • MySQL/MariaDB
      • Oracle
      • PostgreSQL
      • Redshift
      • Snowflake
      • Custom
    • Google Cloud
    • Google Cloud KMS
      • Overview
      • Identity Tokens
      • OIDC Identity Provider
      • Overview
      • Azure Key Vault
      • AWS KMS
      • GCP Cloud KMS
      • Overview
      • K/V Version 1
      • K/V Version 2
    • KMIP ENTERPRISE
    • Kubernetes
    • MongoDB Atlas
    • Nomad
    • OpenLDAP
      • Overview
      • Setup and Usage
      • Quick Start - Root CA Setup
      • Quick Start - Intermediate CA Setup
      • Considerations
      • Rotation Primitives
    • RabbitMQ
      • Overview
      • Signed Certificates
      • SSH OTP
      • Dynamic Key
    • Terraform Cloud
    • TOTP
      • Overview
      • FF3-1 Tweak Usage
      • Tokenization Transform ENTERPRISE
    • Transit
    • Venafi (Certificates)
    • Overview
    • AppRole
    • AliCloud
    • AWS
    • Azure
    • Cloud Foundry
    • GitHub
    • Google Cloud
      • Overview
      • OIDC Providers
    • Kerberos
    • Kubernetes
    • LDAP
      • Overview
      • FAQ
    • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
    • Okta
    • RADIUS
    • TLS Certificates
    • Tokens
    • Username & Password

    • App ID DEPRECATED
    • Overview
    • File
    • Syslog
    • Socket
    • Overview
    • Plugin Architecture
    • Plugin Development
    • Plugin Management
    • Plugin Portal
  • Vault Integration Program
  • Troubleshoot

    • Overview
      • Overview
      • Agent Injector vs. Vault CSI Provider
        • Overview
        • Running Vault
        • Enterprise Licensing
        • Running Vault on OpenShift
        • Configuration
          • Overview
          • Development
          • Standalone with Load Balanced UI
          • Standalone with TLS
          • Standalone with Audit Storage
          • External Vault
          • Using Kubernetes Auth Method
          • HA Cluster with Consul
          • HA Cluster with Raft
          • HA Enterprise Cluster with Raft
          • HA Enterprise DR Clusters with Raft
          • HA Enterprise Performance Clusters with Raft
          • Vault Agent Injector TLS Configuration
          • Vault Agent Injector TLS with Cert-Manager
        • Overview
        • Annotations
        • Installation
        • Examples
        • Overview
        • Installation
        • Configurations
        • Examples
      • Overview
      • Vault Lambda Extension
      • Running Vault
      • Overview
      • Installation
      • Configuration
      • Troubleshooting
      • Overview
      • Installation
      • Configuration
      • Upgrading
      • Troubleshooting

    • Overview
    • Upgrade Plugins
    • Upgrade to 1.11.x
    • Upgrade to 1.10.x
    • Upgrade to 1.9.x
    • Upgrade to 1.8.x
    • Upgrade to 1.7.x
    • Upgrade to 1.6.3
    • Upgrade to 1.6.2
    • Upgrade to 1.6.1
    • Upgrade to 1.6.0
    • Upgrade to 1.5.3
    • Upgrade to 1.5.2
    • Upgrade to 1.5.1
    • Upgrade to 1.5.0
    • Upgrade to 1.4.6
    • Upgrade to 1.4.5
    • Upgrade to 1.4.4
    • Upgrade to 1.4.1
    • Upgrade to 1.4.0
    • Upgrade to 1.3.10
    • Upgrade to 1.3.9
    • Upgrade to 1.3.8
    • Upgrade to 1.3.5
    • Upgrade to 1.3.4
    • Upgrade to 1.3.3
    • Upgrade to 1.3.2
    • Upgrade to 1.3.0
    • Upgrade to 1.2.7
    • Upgrade to 1.2.6
    • Upgrade to 1.2.5
    • Upgrade to 1.2.4
    • Upgrade to 1.2.1
    • Upgrade to 1.2.0
    • Upgrade to 1.1.2
    • Upgrade to 1.1.1
    • Upgrade to 1.1.0
    • Upgrade to 1.0.0
    • Upgrade to 0.11.6
    • Upgrade to 0.11.2
    • Upgrade to 0.11.0
    • Upgrade to 0.10.4
    • Upgrade to 0.10.2
    • Upgrade to 0.10.0
    • Upgrade to 0.9.6
    • Upgrade to 0.9.3
    • Upgrade to 0.9.2
    • Upgrade to 0.9.1
    • Upgrade to 0.9.0
    • Upgrade to 0.8.0
    • Upgrade to 0.7.0
    • Upgrade to 0.6.4
    • Upgrade to 0.6.3
    • Upgrade to 0.6.2
    • Upgrade to 0.6.1
    • Upgrade to 0.6.0
    • Upgrade to 0.5.1
    • Upgrade to 0.5.0

    • Overview
    • 1.11.0
    • 1.10.0
    • 1.9.0
    • 1.8.0
    • 1.7.0
    • 1.6.0
    • 1.5.0

    • Overview
    • FAQ

    • Overview
    • Feature Deprecation Notice and Plans
    • License
    • Client Count
    • Login MFA
    • Server Side Consistent Token

  • Glossary

    • Overview
      • Overview
      • Autoloading
      • FAQ
    • Replication
      • Overview
      • Behavioral Changes
      • Security
    • Automated Integrated Storage Snapshots
    • Automated Upgrades
    • Redundancy Zones
    • Lease Count Quotas
    • Entropy Augmentation
      • Overview
      • FIPS 140-2 Inside Vault
      • Seal Wrap for FIPS 140-2
    • Seal Wrap
    • Namespaces
    • Performance Standbys
    • Eventual Consistency
    • Control Groups
    • Managed Keys
      • Overview
      • Duo MFA
      • Okta MFA
      • PingID MFA
      • TOTP MFA
      • Overview
      • Examples
      • Properties
    • HCP Vault

The Vault website is being redesigned to help you find what you are looking for more effectively.

Type '/' to Search

»Audit Devices

Audit devices are the components in Vault that collectively keep a detailed log of all requests and response to Vault. Because every operation with Vault is an API request/response, when using a single audit device, the audit log contains every authenticated interaction with Vault, including errors.

Multiple audit devices can be enabled and Vault will attempt to send the audit logs to all of them. This allows you to not only have redundant copies, but also a way to check for data tampering in the logs themselves.

Note: When using multiple audit devices, Vault considers a request to be successful if it can log to at least one configured audit device (see: Blocked Audit Devices section below). Therefore in order to build a complete picture of all audited actions, use the aggregate/union of the logs from each audit device.

»Format

Each line in the audit log is a JSON object. The type field specifies what type of object it is. Currently, only two types exist: request and response. The line contains all of the information for any given request and response. By default, all the sensitive information is first hashed before logging in the audit logs.

»Sensitive Information

The audit logs contain the full request and response objects for every interaction with Vault. The request and response can be matched utilizing a unique identifier assigned to each request.

Most strings contained within requests and responses are hashed with a salt using HMAC-SHA256. The purpose of the hash is so that secrets aren't in plaintext within your audit logs. However, you're still able to check the value of secrets by generating HMACs yourself; this can be done with the audit device's hash function and salt by using the /sys/audit-hash API endpoint (see the documentation for more details).

Note that currently only strings coming from JSON or being returned in JSON are HMAC'd. Other data types, like integers, booleans, and so on, are passed through in plaintext.

While most strings are hashed, Vault does make some exceptions, such as auth and secrets, and users can enable additional exceptions using the secrets enable command, and then tune it afterward.

see also:

secrets tune

auth enable

auth tune

»Enabling/Disabling Audit Devices

When a Vault server is first initialized, no auditing is enabled. Audit devices must be enabled by a root user using vault audit enable.

When enabling an audit device, options can be passed to it to configure it. For example, the command below enables the file audit device:

$ vault audit enable file file_path=/var/log/vault_audit.log
$ vault audit enable file file_path=/var/log/vault_audit.log

In the command above, we passed the "file_path" parameter to specify the path where the audit log will be written to. Each audit device has its own set of parameters. See the documentation to the left for more details.

Note: Audit device configuration is replicated to all nodes within a cluster by default, and to performance/DR secondaries for Vault Enterprise clusters. Before enabling an audit device, ensure that all nodes within the cluster(s) will be able to successfully log to the audit device to avoid Vault being blocked from serving requests. An audit device can be limited to only within the node's cluster with the local parameter.

When an audit device is disabled, it will stop receiving logs immediately. The existing logs that it did store are untouched.

»Blocked Audit Devices

If there are any audit devices enabled, Vault requires that at least one be able to persist the log before completing a Vault request.

If you have only one audit device enabled, and it is blocking (network block, etc.), then Vault will be unresponsive. Vault will not complete any requests until the audit device can write.

If you have more than one audit device, then Vault will complete the request as long as one audit device persists the log.

Vault will not respond to requests if audit devices are blocked because audit logs are critically important and ignoring blocked requests opens an avenue for attack. Be absolutely certain that your audit devices cannot block.

»API

Audit devices also have a full HTTP API. Please see the Audit device API docs for more details.

github logoEdit this page
DocsAPILearnCommunityPrivacySecurityPress KitConsent Manager