Control: 2.6 Ensure that the log metric filter and alerts exist for Custom Role changes

Description

It is recommended that a metric filter and alarm be established for changes to Identity and Access Management (IAM) role creation, deletion and updating activities.

Google Cloud IAM provides predefined roles that give granular access to specific Google Cloud Platform resources and prevent unwanted access to other resources. However, to cater to organization-specific needs, IAM also provides the ability to create custom roles.

Project owners and administrators with the Organization Role Administrator role or the IAM Role Administrator role can create custom roles. Monitoring role creation, deletion and updating activities will help in identifying any over-privileged role at early stages.

Remediation

From Console

Create a required log metric:

1. Login to GCP console and navigate to Logs-based Metrics.
2. Click CREATE METRIC.
3. Select Metric Type as Counter, enter Log metric name and Units to 1.
4. Clear any text in the Build filter field and add below text

resource.type="iam_role"
AND protoPayload.methodName = "google.iam.admin.v1.CreateRole" OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.DeleteRole"
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.UpdateRole"

5. Click CREATE METRIC. The logs display based on the filter text entered by the user.

Create a required alert policy for the log metric::

1. Identify the newly created metric under the section User-defined Metrics.
2. Click the 3-dot icon in the right most column for the desired metric and select Create alert from metric. A new page opens.
3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a threshold of zero(0) for the most recent value will ensure that a notification is triggered for every owner change in the project.
4. Configure the desired notifications channels in the section Notifications.
5. Enter Alert name and click Save.

From Command Line

Create a required log metric:

• Use the command: gcloud beta logging metrics create.
• Reference for Command Usage.

Create a alert policy for the log metric:

• Use the command: gcloud alpha monitoring policies create.
• Reference for Command Usage.