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.

Rationale:

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.

Enabling the pgAudit extension can lead to increased data storage requirements and to ensure durability of pgAudit log records in the event of unexpected storage issues, it is recommended to enable the 'Enable automatic storage increases' setting on the instance. Enabling flags via the command line will also overwrite all existing flags, so you should apply all needed flags in the CLI command. Also flags may require a restart of the server to be implemented or will break existing functionality so update your servers at a time of low usage.

Initialize the pgAudit flag

From Google Cloud 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 Google Cloud CLI

Run the below command by providing '' to enable 'cloudsql.enable_pgaudit' flag.

gcloud sql instances patch --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 --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.