Detections
Analytics

3.1 Ensure CloudTrail is enabled in all regions

Information

AWS CloudTrail is a web service that records AWS API calls for your account and delivers log files to you. The recorded information includes the identity of the API caller, the time of the API call, the source IP address of the API caller, the request parameters, and the response elements returned by the AWS service. CloudTrail provides a history of AWS API calls for an account, including API calls made via the Management Console, SDKs, command line tools, and higher-level AWS services (such as CloudFormation).

The AWS API call history produced by CloudTrail enables security analysis, resource change tracking, and compliance auditing. Additionally,

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ensuring that a multi-region trail exists will help detect unexpected activity occurring in otherwise unused regions

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ensuring that a multi-region trail exists will ensure that Global Service Logging is enabled for a trail by default to capture recordings of events generated on AWS global services

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for a multi-region trail, ensuring that management events are configured for all types of Read/Writes ensures the recording of management operations that are performed on all resources in an AWS account

Solution

Perform the following to enable global (Multi-region) CloudTrail logging:

From Console:

 - Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the IAM console at

https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail

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 - Click on Trails in the left navigation pane.
 - Click Get Started Now if it is presented, then:

 - Click Add new trail
 - Enter a trail name in the Trail name box.
 - A trail created in the console is a multi-region trail by default.

 - Specify an S3 bucket name in the S3 bucket box.
 - Specify the AWS KMS alias under the Log file SSE-KMS encryption section, or create a new key.
 - Click Next

<xhtml:ol start="4"> - Ensure the Management events check box is selected.
 - Ensure both Read and Write are checked under API activity.
 - Click Next
 - Review your trail settings and click Create trail

From Command Line:

Create a multi-region trail:

aws cloudtrail create-trail --name <trail-name> --bucket-name <s3-bucket-for-cloudtrail> --is-multi-region-trail

Enable multi-region on an existing trail:

aws cloudtrail update-trail --name <trail-name> --is-multi-region-trail

Note: Creating a CloudTrail trail via the CLI without providing any overriding options configures all read and write Management Events to be logged by default.

Impact:

S3 lifecycle features can be used to manage the accumulation and management of logs over time. See the following AWS resource for more information on these features:

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https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/object-lifecycle-mgmt.html

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/19631

Item Details

Category: AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

References: 800-53|AU-3, 800-53|AU-3(1), 800-53|AU-7, 800-53|AU-12, CSCv7|6.2

Plugin: amazon_aws

Control ID: b878c911a4364218c8edf92cf4657fb73c078237920e551891c97243bf69f5d1