Getting Data In

How to prevent a Splunk forwarder from passing passwords from auditd?

gregcain
Explorer

I've got a Splunk forwarder installed on a server. This server is also logging its commands via auditd.

When I do something like sudo su -, auditd captures the output, but doesn't expose passwords. An example:

type=USER_AUTH msg=audit(1469642237.076:4664554): user pid=29165 uid=565 auid=565 ses=225532 msg='op=PAM:authentication acct="ME" exe="/usr/bin/sudo" hostname=? addr=? terminal=/dev/pts/14 res=failed'

However, the Splunk forwarder gives much more information, including the password you type on the command line. This is a pretty straight forward install of the forwarder - no fancy stuff going on. How can I use the Splunk forwarder without exposing users' passwords, like auditd does?

Thanks in advance.

1 Solution

martin_mueller
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

The forwarder likely isn't collecting the password itself, instead it's reading log files. I'd check what log files the forwarder is configured to read, and manually check for passwords in those. Then configure whatever's writing those log files to not log passwords.

View solution in original post

gregcain
Explorer

That's the behavior I expected, but the audits logs have the sensitive information removed, whereas the splunk logs have it. I couldn't find a log file on the server that had the sensitive information.

0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Persistent Queue at TcpOut — One of Splunk's Most Practical Features

Splunk introduced persistent queueing at the tcpout layer as one of the most practical resilience features in ...

Catalog Is Now Generally Available on Splunk Cloud Platform

A Unified View of Your Data  Security logs, application events, business data, and historical telemetry often ...

Your Path to AgenticOps: AI Experiences for Every Splunk Practitioner

Your Path to AgenticOps: AI Experiences for Every Splunk Practitioner   Watch on demand us for a demo-driven ...