VPC Service Controls audit logging

This document describes the audit logs created by VPC Service Controls as part of Cloud Audit Logs.

Overview

Google Cloud services write audit logs to help you answer the questions, "Who did what, where, and when?" within your Google Cloud resources.

Your Google Cloud projects contain only the audit logs for resources that are directly within the Google Cloud project. Other Google Cloud resources, such as folders, organizations, and billing accounts, contain the audit logs for the entity itself.

For a general overview of Cloud Audit Logs, see Cloud Audit Logs overview. For a deeper understanding of the audit log format, see Understand audit logs.

Available audit logs

The following types of audit logs are available for VPC Service Controls:

  • Policy Denied audit logs

    Identifies when a user or service account is denied access because of a security policy violation. The service name and method name in Policy Denied audit logs indicate the names of the resource that the user or service account was denied access to.

    You can't disable Policy Denied audit logs. However, you can add the following to the exclusion filter on your _Default sink to exclude Policy Denied audit logs: LOG_ID("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/policy"). You can also disable the _Default sink for Cloud Logging, which prevents logs from being routed to the _Default bucket.

For fuller descriptions of the audit log types, see Types of audit logs.

Audited operations

The following table summarizes which API operations correspond to each audit log type in VPC Service Controls:

Audit logs category VPC Service Controls methods
Policy Denied audit logs The methods of the services that integrate with VPC Service Controls are supported.

Audit log record content

Each audit log record contains information which can be divided into two major categories: the information about the original call, and information about security policy violations. It is filled by VPC Service Controls API as follows:

Audit log field Description
serviceName The service to which access is restricted by a service perimeter. The request to this service has violated a VPC Service Controls check and resulted in the creation of this audit log.
methodName The name of the method call that resulted in the security policy violation described in the record. Often, methodName is the method associated with the Google Cloud service specified in the serviceName field.
authenticationInfo.principalEmail The email address of the user or service account that issued the request.
Some email addresses might be redacted. For more information, see Caller identities in audit logs.
resourceName The Google Cloud resource specified in the original request from client. The resourceName can be a project, folder, organization, or a resource like a Google Cloud bucket.
requestMetadata.callerIp

The IP address of the caller.

If the call originated from the internet, then requestMetadata.callerIp is a public IPv4 or IPv6 address.

If the call originated from a Compute Engine VM, then requestMetadata.callerIp is a VM IP address. The VM IP address can be an internal IP address or an external IP address.

If the call originated from within Google's internal production network, then the value in this field is private. This case occurs when the call is sent from one Google Cloud service to another.

request_metadata.caller_network The name of the network of the caller. This value is set only if the network host project belongs to the same Google Cloud organization or project that the accessed resource belongs to. For more information, see VPC networks.
status The overall status of handling an operation described in the record.
metadata The information about the security policy violation.
metadata.resourceNames The names of resources involved in the security policy violation described in the record.
metadata.dryRun A boolean value that is True if the audit log is for a dry run policy check.
metadata.vpcServiceControlsUniqueId The Unique Identifier of the VPC Service Controls violation described in the record.
metadata.violationReason The reason for the violation. For example, RESOURCE_NOT_IN_SAME_SERVICE_PERIMETER means that the resources being accessed don't belong to the same service perimeter.
metadata.securityPolicyInfo The name of the service perimeter for which the violation occurred and the unique identifier of the organization to which the perimeter belongs.
metadata.egressViolations An egress violation usually occurs when a request fails because the source is protected by a service perimeter and the target resource is outside the perimeter. The source can be a project or a VPC network.
metadata.ingressViolations The violation type. Often, this violation occurs if the request is trying to access a target resource that is protected by a service perimeter. The source can be either a project or a VPC network. This field contains a structure that explains the ingress violation.
metadata.accessLevels All matching access levels under the organization that belongs to the same access policy. These access levels might not be specified in the violated perimeter and thus can cause NO_MATCHING_ACCESS_LEVEL violation.
metadata.intermediateServices The list of the services involved in the request chain. This field is empty for user-initiated requests.
metadata.deviceState The state of the device that creates the request when the device policy is enabled. The default value for this field is Unknown.

Audit log format

Audit log entries include the following objects:

  • The log entry itself, which is an object of type LogEntry. Useful fields include the following:

    • The logName contains the resource ID and audit log type.
    • The resource contains the target of the audited operation.
    • The timeStamp contains the time of the audited operation.
    • The protoPayload contains the audited information.

  • The audit logging data, which is an AuditLog object held in the protoPayload field of the log entry.

  • Optional service-specific audit information, which is a service-specific object. For earlier integrations, this object is held in the serviceData field of the AuditLog object; later integrations use the metadata field.

For other fields in these objects, and how to interpret them, review Understand audit logs.

Log name

Cloud Audit Logs log names include resource identifiers indicating the Google Cloud project or other Google Cloud entity that owns the audit logs, and whether the log contains Admin Activity, Data Access, Policy Denied, or System Event audit logging data.

The following are the audit log names, including variables for the resource identifiers:

   projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity
   projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access
   projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fsystem_event
   projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy

   folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity
   folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access
   folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fsystem_event
   folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy

   billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity
   billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access
   billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fsystem_event
   billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy

   organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity
   organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access
   organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fsystem_event
   organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fpolicy

Service name

VPC Service Controls audit logs use the service names of the services that integrate with VPC Service Controls.

For a list of all the Cloud Logging API service names and their corresponding monitored resource type, see Map services to resources.

Resource types

VPC Service Controls audit logs use the resource types supported by the services that integrate with VPC Service Controls.

For a list of all the Cloud Logging monitored resource types and descriptive information, see Monitored resource types.

Caller identities

The IP address of the caller is held in the RequestMetadata.caller_ip field of the AuditLog object. Logging might redact certain caller identities and IP addresses.

For information about what information is redacted in audit logs, see Caller identities in audit logs.

Enable audit logging

Admin Activity audit logs are always enabled; you can't disable them.

Permissions and roles

IAM permissions and roles determine your ability to access audit logs data in Google Cloud resources.

When deciding which Logging-specific permissions and roles apply to your use case, consider the following:

  • The Logs Viewer role (roles/logging.viewer) gives you read-only access to Admin Activity, Policy Denied, and System Event audit logs. If you have just this role, you cannot view Data Access audit logs that are in the _Default bucket.

  • The Private Logs Viewer role(roles/logging.privateLogViewer) includes the permissions contained in roles/logging.viewer, plus the ability to read Data Access audit logs in the _Default bucket.

    Note that if these private logs are stored in user-defined buckets, then any user who has permissions to read logs in those buckets can read the private logs. For more information about log buckets, see Routing and storage overview.

For more information about the IAM permissions and roles that apply to audit logs data, see Access control with IAM.

View logs

You can query for all audit logs or you can query for logs by their audit log name. The audit log name includes the resource identifier of the Google Cloud project, folder, billing account, or organization for which you want to view audit logging information. Your queries can specify indexed LogEntry fields, and if you use the Log Analytics page, which supports SQL queries, then you can view your query results as a chart.

For more information about querying your logs, see the following pages:

You can view audit logs in Cloud Logging by using the Google Cloud console, the Google Cloud CLI, or the Logging API.

Console

In the Google Cloud console, you can use the Logs Explorer to retrieve your audit log entries for your Google Cloud project, folder, or organization:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Logs Explorer page:

    Go to Logs Explorer

    If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Logging.

  2. Select an existing Google Cloud project, folder, or organization.

  3. To display all audit logs, enter either of the following queries into the query-editor field, and then click Run query:

    logName:"cloudaudit.googleapis.com"

    protoPayload."@type"="type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.AuditLog"

  4. To display the audit logs for a specific resource and audit log type, in the Query builder pane, do the following:

    • In Resource type, select the Google Cloud resource whose audit logs you want to see.

    • In Log name, select the audit log type that you want to see:

      • For Admin Activity audit logs, select activity.
      • For Data Access audit logs, select data_access.
      • For System Event audit logs, select system_event.
      • For Policy Denied audit logs, select policy.

    • Click Run query.

    If you don't see these options, then there aren't any audit logs of that type available in the Google Cloud project, folder, or organization.

    If you're experiencing issues when trying to view logs in the Logs Explorer, see the troubleshooting information.

    For more information about querying by using the Logs Explorer, see Build queries in the Logs Explorer. For information about summarizing log entries in the Logs Explorer by using Gemini, see Summarize log entries with Gemini assistance.

gcloud

The Google Cloud CLI provides a command-line interface to the Logging API. Supply a valid resource identifier in each of the log names. For example, if your query includes a PROJECT_ID, then the project identifier you supply must refer to the currently selected Google Cloud project.

To read your Google Cloud project-level audit log entries, run the following command:

gcloud logging read "logName : projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com" \
    --project=PROJECT_ID

To read your folder-level audit log entries, run the following command:

gcloud logging read "logName : folders/FOLDER_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com" \
    --folder=FOLDER_ID

To read your organization-level audit log entries, run the following command:

gcloud logging read "logName : organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com" \
    --organization=ORGANIZATION_ID

To read your Cloud Billing account-level audit log entries, run the following command:

gcloud logging read "logName : billingAccounts/BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com" \
    --billing-account=BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID

Add the --freshness flag to your command to read logs that are more than 1 day old.

For more information about using the gcloud CLI, see gcloud logging read.

API

When building your queries, supply a valid resource identifier in each of the log names. For example, if your query includes a PROJECT_ID, then the project identifier you supply must refer to the currently selected Google Cloud project.

For example, to use the Logging API to view your project-level audit log entries, do the following:

  1. Go to the Try this API section in the documentation for the entries.list method.

  2. Put the following into the Request body part of the Try this API form. Clicking this prepopulated form automatically fills the request body, but you need to supply a valid PROJECT_ID in each of the log names.

    {
  "resourceNames": [
    "projects/PROJECT_ID"
  ],
  "pageSize": 5,
  "filter": "logName : projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com"
}

  3. Click Execute.

Sample queries

To use the sample queries in the following table, complete these steps:

  1. Replace the variables in the query expression with your own project information, then copy the expression using the clipboard icon .

  2. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Logs Explorer page:

    Go to Logs Explorer

    If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Logging.

  3. Enable Show query to open the query-editor field, then paste the expression into the query-editor field:

    The query editor where you enter sample queries.

  4. Click Run query. Logs that match your query are listed in the Query results pane.

To find audit logs for VPC Service Controls, use the following queries in the Logs Explorer:

Query description Expression
Violation details based on a denial ID 
log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/policy") severity=ERROR
resource.type="audited_resource"
protoPayload.metadata."@type"="type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
protoPayload.metadata.vpcServiceControlsUniqueId="UNIQUE_ID"

Replace UNIQUE_ID with the unique ID of the denial.
Violations for an IP address 
log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/policy")
severity=ERROR
resource.type="audited_resource"
protoPayload.metadata."@type"="type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
protoPayload.requestMetadata.callerIp="IP_ADDRESS"

Replace IP_ADDRESS with the IP address of the caller.
Violations for a service 
log_id("cloudaudit.googleapis.com/policy")
severity=ERROR
resource.type="audited_resource"
protoPayload.metadata."@type"="type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.audit.VpcServiceControlAuditMetadata"
protoPayload.serviceName="SERVICE_NAME"

Replace SERVICE_NAME with the name of the restricted service.
Access level change made to a perimeter 
logName="organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity"
severity=NOTICE
protoPayload.serviceName="accesscontextmanager.googleapis.com"
protoPayload.methodName="google.identity.accesscontextmanager.v1.AccessContextManager.UpdateServicePerimeter"
-protoPayload.metadata.previousState:"ACCESS_LEVEL"
protoPayload.request.servicePerimeter.status.accessLevels:"ACCESS_LEVEL"

Replace ORGANIZATION_ID with the numeric ID of your organization and ACCESS_LEVEL with the unique name of the access level.
Perimeter CRUD operations 
logName="organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity"
severity=NOTICE
protoPayload.serviceName="accesscontextmanager.googleapis.com"
protoPayload.methodName=~"google.identity.accesscontextmanager.v1.AccessContextManager.ServicePerimeter"
protoPayload.request.servicePerimeter.name=~".PERIMETER_NAME$"
Replace PERIMETER_NAME with the name of the perimeter.
Access level CRUD operations 
logName="organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity"
severity=NOTICE
protoPayload.serviceName="accesscontextmanager.googleapis.com"
protoPayload.methodName=~"google.identity.accesscontextmanager.v1.AccessContextManager.AccessLevel"
protoPayload.request.accessLevel.name=~".ACCESS_LEVEL$"
Create and update operations for ingress rules 
logName="organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity"
protoPayload.serviceName="accesscontextmanager.googleapis.com"
protoPayload.methodName=~"google.identity.accesscontextmanager.v1.AccessContextManager.ServicePerimeter"
protoPayload.request.servicePerimeter.status.ingressPolicies:""
Create and update operations for egress rules 
logName="organizations/ORGANIZATION_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity"
protoPayload.serviceName="accesscontextmanager.googleapis.com"
protoPayload.methodName=~"google.identity.accesscontextmanager.v1.AccessContextManager.ServicePerimeter"
protoPayload.request.servicePerimeter.status.egressPolicies:""

Route audit logs

You can route audit logs to supported destinations in the same way that you can route other kinds of logs. Here are some reasons you might want to route your audit logs:

  • To keep audit logs for a longer period of time or to use more powerful search capabilities, you can route copies of your audit logs to Cloud Storage, BigQuery, or Pub/Sub. Using Pub/Sub, you can route to other applications, other repositories, and to third parties.

  • To manage your audit logs across an entire organization, you can create aggregated sinks that can route logs from any or all Google Cloud projects in the organization.

For instructions about routing logs, see Route logs to supported destinations.

Pricing

For more information about pricing, see Cloud Logging pricing summary.