🌟 From Audit Chaos to Clarity: Welcoming Audit Trail v2

[kuntald]

🗣 You Spoke, We Listened 

Audit Trail v2 wasn’t written in isolation—it was shaped by your voices. 

In the Ideas Portal, “Better Audit Logs” became one of the top-voted customer requests. Through surveys and Audit Beta sessions, you told us exactly where v1 fell short. 

One security lead told us: 

“Identity and access events aren’t optional—they’re the core of any compliance review. Without them, our auditors just shake their heads.” – Beta feedback, May 2025 

Another noted how CIM alignment was critical: 

“If it’s not CIM-compatible, we spend weeks normalizing data ourselves. That time is money.” – Audit Feedback Survey 

We heard you. And every one of those insights shaped what became Audit Trail v2. 

✨ The Breakthrough 

Audit Trail v2 is more than an upgrade. It’s a reset. 

For the first time, audit logs are structured JSON—clean, parseable, and CIM-compatible out of the box – available for both Splunk Enterprise and Splunk Cloud Platform. We’ve added around 20 new events across IAM, server settings, and knowledge objects. And we finally cut out the redundant “capability checks” that made up more than half your v1 storage volume. 

One admin summed it up in the beta: 

“Audit logs used to be a chore. Now, they actually tell a story we can use.” – Security Admin, Fortune 500 Retailer 

🔐 Why It Matters 

Audit Trail v2 transforms audit from a burden into a benefit. 

• Compliance Confidence: Aligned with ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS Requirement 10, SOC 2 CC7.2, and NIST 800-53 AU controls. 

• Security Visibility: Rich IAM and config logs reduce blind spots. 

• Faster Investigations: As NIST SP 800-92 stresses, strong log management accelerates incident detection and forensics. 

No more “logs for the sake of logs.” Now, your auditors and security teams both get what they need. 

🚀 Just the Beginning 

Audit Trail v2 is the foundation. All new audit events will use this format. Existing v1 logs will migrate over time, ensuring continuity while building toward the future. 

On the roadmap: long-term retention, process auditing, APIs, and side-by-side change visibility. 

👉 This is just the beginning. More to come. 

🛠 How to Get Started 

• Upgrade to Splunk v10.1. 

• Open the Audit_Trail app and enable v2 with a single checkbox (no restart needed). 

• Explore more in the: 
  • Audit Trail Documentation 
  • What’s New 

📑 References 

• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 – Security & Privacy Controls (PDF) 

• NIST SP 800-92 – Guide to Computer Security Log Management 

• ISO/IEC 27001 Logging Requirements – BluewolfCerts explainer 

• PCI DSS Requirement 10 – PCI SSC Document Library 

• SOC 2 Criteria – AICPA Trust Services Criteria 

✨ From the valley of despair to clarity—Audit Trail v2 is here. And it’s only the start of the story.