Control: 6.2.8 Ensure That 'cloudsql.enable_pgaudit' Database Flag for each Cloud Sql Postgresql Instance Is Set to 'on' For Centralized Logging

Description

Ensure cloudsql.enable_pgaudit database flag for Cloud SQL PostgreSQL instance is set to on to allow for centralized logging.

As numerous other recommendations in this section consist of turning on flags for logging purposes, your organization will need a way to manage these logs. You may have a solution already in place. If you do not, consider installing and enabling the open source pgaudit extension within PostgreSQL and enabling its corresponding flag of cloudsql.enable_pgaudit. This flag and installing the extension enables database auditing in PostgreSQL through the open-source pgAudit extension. This extension provides detailed session and object logging to comply with government, financial, & ISO standards and provides auditing capabilities to mitigate threats by monitoring security events on the instance. Enabling the flag and settings later in this recommendation will send these logs to Google Logs Explorer so that you can access them in a central location. to This recommendation is applicable only to PostgreSQL database instances.

Remediation

Initialize the pgAudit flag

From Console

1. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Overview page.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down and expand Flags.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item.
6. Enter cloudsql.enable_pgaudit for the flag name and set the flag to on.
7. Click Done.
8. Click Save to update the configuration.
9. Confirm your changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

1. Run the below command by providing <INSTANCE_NAME> to enable cloudsql.enable_pgaudit flag.

gcloud sql instances patch <INSTANCE_NAME> --database-flags=cloudsql.enable_pgaudit=on

Note: RESTART is required to get this configuration in effect.

Creating the extension

1. Connect to the the server running PostgreSQL or through a SQL client of your choice.
2. If SSHing to the server in the command line open the PostgreSQL shell by typing psql
3. Run the following command as a superuser.

CREATE EXTENSION pgaudit;

Updating the previously created pgaudit.log flag for your Logging Needs

From Console

Note: there are multiple options here. This command will enable logging for all databases on a server. Please see the customizing database audit logging reference for more flag options.

1. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/sql/instances.
2. Select the instance to open its Overview page.
3. Click Edit.
4. Scroll down and expand Flags.
5. To set a flag that has not been set on the instance before, click Add item.
6. Enter pgaudit.log=all for the flag name and set the flag to on.
7. Click Done.
8. Click Save to update the configuration.
9. Confirm your changes under Flags on the Overview page.

From Command Line:

Run the command

gcloud sql instances patch <INSTANCE_NAME> --database-flags cloudsql.enable_pgaudit=on,pgaudit.log=all

Determine if logs are being sent to Logs Explorer

1. From the Google Console home page, open the hamburger menu in the top left.
2. In the menu that pops open, scroll down to Logs Explorer under Operations.
3. In the query box, paste the following and search

resource.type="cloudsql_database" logName="projects//logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access" protoPayload.request.@type="type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.sql.audit.v1.PgAuditEntry"

If it returns any log sources, they are correctly setup.

Default Value

By default cloudsql.enable_pgaudit database flag is set to off and the extension is not enabled.