3.1.14 Ensure the correct messages are written to the server log

Information

The log_min_messages setting specifies the message levels that are written to the server log. Each level includes all the levels that follow it. The lower the level (vertically, below), the fewer messages are logged.

Valid values are:

DEBUG5 <-- exceedingly chatty

DEBUG4

DEBUG3

DEBUG2

DEBUG1

INFO

NOTICE

WARNING <-- default

ERROR

LOG

FATAL

PANIC <-- practically mute

WARNING is considered the best practice unless indicated otherwise by your organization's logging policy.

Rationale:

If this is not set to the correct value, too many or too few messages may be written to the server log.

Solution

Execute the following SQL statement(s) as superuser to remediate this setting (in this example, to set it to warning):

postgres=# alter system set log_min_messages = 'warning';
ALTER SYSTEM
postgres=# select pg_reload_conf();
pg_reload_conf
----------------
t
(1 row)

Default Value:

WARNING

See Also

https://workbench.cisecurity.org/benchmarks/11861

Item Details

Category: AUDIT AND ACCOUNTABILITY

References: 800-53|AU-4, CSCv7|6.4

Plugin: PostgreSQLDB

Control ID: e86a1e3bb948be6bb860dcb9582c59a2f2d81e6d7f93319c3c94f8716c7feb56