The Shibboleth IdP V4 software will leave support on September 1, 2024.

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File(s): conf/audit.xml, conf/errors.xml, conf/logback.xml
Format: Native Spring, Logback

Overview

The audit logging feature provides a detailed record of every transaction handled by the IdP to allow tracing of user activity, statistical analysis of usage, legal record keeping, etc. It is highly extensible, allowing the format to be customized, selection of fields to log on a per-profile basis, and the addition of custom audit fields using additional Java code or scriptlets without modifying core code in most cases. Unlike the diagnostic logs, the audit log is meant to be machine-readable.

Note that the audit log does not log individual authentication success/failure information because that can happen repeatedly in the course of a single “transaction” from the IdP’s perspective. There are diagnostic log messages produced for those events, but not audit events. It is presumed that the true “audit” log of an authentication service is produced by that service itself, while the IdP’s log would only be used in the rare case that something needs to be correlated to a client address or similar information.

There are initially two audit logs provided, and there might be more added later if other use cases emerge. The core audit log is used for general request/response auditing, and is routed by default through a logger named "Shibboleth-Audit" to a file called idp-audit.log. A second log is used for logging decisions made by users regarding attribute release and terms of use acceptance, and is routed by default through a logger named "Shibboleth-Consent-Audit" to a file called idp-consent-audit.log.

It's possible through additional configuration to send audit records configured in multiple formats to different logging categories; for example you might have custom tools that want particular formats and the IdP can produce those formats for you in real time while still generating other formats at the same time.

General Configuration

As with the diagnostic logs, the actual logging is handled by the Logback implementation and so the portion of configuration that deals with how the logs are written and managed is in the conf/logback.xml file through the manipulation of the two <logger> elements and related content for the "Shibboleth-Audit" and "Shibboleth-Consent-Audit" categories.

However, there is minimal formatting applied there, just direct output of the audit message. The configuration of the audit format(s) to use for particular transactions is handled separately, in conf/audit.xml, to allow customizing of the audit fields themselves, using formatting tokens that are themselves configured within the IdP and are extensible. You can think of it like a second logging abstraction on top of the underlying one to avoid reliance on Logback-specific extensions.

There are really two halves to the auditing system: field extraction and log output. While suitable defaults are provided, both halves can be changed using conf/audit.xml (or conf/intercept/consent-intercept-config.xml for the Shibboleth-Consent-Audit category). Extending field extraction typically requires additional Java code or scripts to pull new data out of the request state and make it available to the log output stage, but there are a lot of built-in fields.

 Field Extraction

Field extraction is the process of populating a labeled field in an AuditContext object that is built up over the life of a transaction. The context is just a map of field names to collections of values and the field names are just conventions built-in to the software to provide a standard set of useful fields to audit.

Fields are extracted at various points through the life of a transaction so that adequate detail can be exposed about the request, the processing of the request, and the response. These extraction points are associated with collections of field extraction beans that do the actual work to pull data out of the state of the transaction and store it for output.

The built-in extraction points and beans are as follows (empty beans are not provided to reduce clutter, but you can add them, per the example below):

  1. shibboleth.FlowStartAuditExtractors

    • Extractors that run immediately after the flow starts operating and the ability to add fields is possible

  2. shibboleth.PostDecodeAuditExtractors

    • Extractors focused on the input message, runs after decoding the input message

  3. shibboleth.PostLookupAuditExtractors

    • Runs after establishing the sender's identity, supplements the input side with information about the relying party

  4. shibboleth.PostAssertionAuditExtractors

    • Extractors focused on authentication, session, and attribute information, runs after those processes and after the initial creation of the outgoing assertion (if relevant to the request)

  5. shibboleth.PostResponseAuditExtractors

    • Extractors focused on the outgoing message, runs after construction of the message

  6. shibboleth.LogoutRequestAuditExtractors

    • Extractors focused on information specific to a SAML LogoutRequest message, runs after decoding of the message

  7. shibboleth.LogoutAuditExtractors

    • Extractors focused on information in a non-SAML logout

  8. shibboleth.ErrorViewAuditExtractors

    • Extracts subject, session, and attribute information, runs in the event that a local error is generated

  9. shibboleth.consent.PreConsentAuditExtractors

    • Extracts basic information about the consent step, runs before a decision is made

    • Empty map beans are declared in conf/intercept/consent-intercept-config.xml

  10. shibboleth.consent.ConsentAuditExtractors

    • Extracts information about the decision, runs after a decision is made

    • Empty map beans are declared in conf/intercept/consent-intercept-config.xml

  11. shibboleth.PostRequestAuditExtractors

    • Extractors for an AuthnRequest built for proxied SAML SSO

  12. shibboleth.PostInboundResponseAuditExtractors

    • Extractors for a Response from proxied SAML SSO

  13. shibboleth.PostInboundAssertionAuditExtractors

    • Extractors for Assertions from proxied SAML SSO

Each entry in these maps is a key containing the string label to associate (the name of the field), and a value containing a Function<ProfileRequestContext,Object> instance. Functions can return either single objects that get converted to a string for logging, or a Collection of objects that are converted to strings and separated by commas within the logged field.

In this manner, you can add your own fields by implementing a function (or writing a script) to return any data you can find in the context tree and associating it with a custom field label by adding it to one of the maps named above.

 Custom Field Examples

A skeletal example follows to demonstrate how to create a map to contain a custom field extraction rule:

Adding custom fields to the audit log via audit.xml
<!-- Adds a function to extract a custom field called MYFIELD after the final response has been generated. -->
<bean id="shibboleth.PostResponseAuditExtractors" parent="shibboleth.DefaultPostResponseAuditExtractors">
	<property name="sourceMap">
		<map merge="true">
            <entry key="MYFIELD" value-ref="MyExtractionFunctionBean" /> 
		</map>
	</property>
</bean>

A real world example: if you're logging fields containing a URL, you may need to escape characters in a URL because of the delimiter you choose to use in the log format. You can do this using a script:

Encoding 'pipe' character appearing in CAS service URLs
     <bean id="shibboleth.CASValidationAuditExtractors" parent="shibboleth.DefaultCASValidationAuditExtractors" lazy-init="true">
         <property name="sourceMap">
             <map merge="true">
                 <entry>
                     <key>
                         <util:constant static-field="net.shibboleth.idp.cas.protocol.CASAuditFields.SERVICE_URL"/>
                     </key>
                     <bean parent="shibboleth.ContextFunctions.Scripted" factory-method="inlineScript">
                         <constructor-arg>
                             <value>
                             <![CDATA[
                                 var serviceLookupFunctionClass = Java.type("net.shibboleth.idp.cas.audit.impl.ServiceLookupFunction");
                                 var serviceLookupFunction = new serviceLookupFunctionClass();
                                 var service = serviceLookupFunction.apply(input);
                                 if (service != null) {
                                     var serviceNew = service.replace(/\|/g, '%7C');
                                 }
                                 else {
                                     var serviceNew = null;
                                 }
                                 serviceNew;
                             ]]>
                             </value>
                         </constructor-arg>
                     </bean>
                 </entry>
             </map>
         </property>
     </bean>

A rather more convoluted example is to dump the values or arbitrary attributes into the log.  To do this we define an abstract bean to emit the attribute values (in an arbitrary format) for any attribute (most of this is really error and null handling):

Output Attribute Values
	<bean id="AttributeValueExtraction" parent="shibboleth.ContextFunctions.Scripted" factory-method="inlineScript" abstract="true">
		<constructor-arg>
	        <value>
	        <![CDATA[ 
	        var getinfo = function() {
	        	var rpContext = input.getSubcontext("net.shibboleth.idp.profile.context.RelyingPartyContext");
		        if (null === rpContext) {
		            return null;
		        }
	        	
		        var attrContext = rpContext.getSubcontext("net.shibboleth.idp.attribute.context.AttributeContext");
		        if (null === attrContext) {
		            return null;
		        }
		        var attributes = null
		        attributes = attrContext.getUnfilteredIdPAttributes();
		        if (null === attributes) {
		            return null;
		         }
	            attribute = attributes.get(custom);
	            if (null === attribute || attribute.getValues().isEmpty()) {
	                return null;
	            }
	            var iter = attribute.getValues().iterator();
	            var result = "";
	            while (iter.hasNext()) {
	               result = result + " " + iter.next().toString();
	            }
	            return result;
		     }
		     getinfo();
	         ]]>
	        </value>
	    </constructor-arg>
	</bean>

Then a bean to emit a specific attribute can be easily created:

<bean id="EmailExtraction" parent="AttributeValueExtraction" p:customObject="mail" />
 Built-in Generic Fields

The generic fields that are supported out of the box are as follows (note that not every field is always populated; that depends on the timing of errors and the specific transaction being audited):

Field

Description

ST

Timestamp for start of flow

T

Timestamp event is recorded

e

WebFlow Event

URL

URL

URI

URI

DEST

Destination URL of outgoing msg

s

IdP session ID

HASHEDs 4.1

Hashed IdP session ID

AF

Authentication flow ID

SSO

SSO flag

a

Client address

UA

User agent string

P

Profile ID

u

Username

HASHEDu

Hashed username

uu

Impersonating username

attr

Attribute(s)

ROP

Requested authentication operator

RPRIN

Requested authentication principals

 Built-in SAML Fields

The more SAML-oriented fields that are supported out of the box are as follows (note that not every field is always populated; that depends on the timing of errors and the specific transaction being audited):

Field

Description

SP

Service provider name

IDP

Identity provider name

p

Protocol

b

Inbound binding

bb

Outbound binding

RS 4.1

RelayState

n

NameID value

f

NameID format

SPQ

NameID SPNameQualifier

pf

NameIDPolicy required format

PSPQ

NameIDPolicy required SPNameQualifier

i

Assertion ID

d

Assertion timestamp

I

Inbound message ID

D

Inbound message timestamp

II

InResponseTo

III

Outbound message ID

DD

Outbound message timestamp

t

AuthenticationInstant

x

SessionIndex

ac

AuthenticationContext

S

Status code

SS

Sub-status code

SM

Status message

pasv

IsPassive

fauth

ForceAuthn

SCC 4.2

Scoping ProxyCount from an AuthnRequest

SCI 4.2

Scoping IdP list from an AuthnRequest

SCR 4.2

Scoping Requester ID(s) from an AuthnRequest

XX

Signed inbound messages

X

Encrypted assertions

XA

Encryption algorithm

 Audit Log Output

In the output stage, a bean named shibboleth.AuditFormattingMap is used to write any number of log records containing any fields you configure to the logging API, at which point the Logback configuration takes over and decides how to send that data to particular log files or other log sinks. The bean is a map between logging categories and formatting strings.

The consent audit log relies on its own properties and beans to provide an audit format, so refer to that documentation for those specifics.

Formatting strings contain fields denoted with a '%' character followed by a field label, and any whitespace or punctuation terminates a field label and is included in the record directly.  Using '%%' will output a single percent character.

An additional bean, shibboleth.AuditSuppressedProfiles, contains a list of profile identifiers that should not result in audit log records. The default list is used to exempt the "status" handler from being logged. A partial list of profile IDs can be found in the MetadataDrivenConfiguration topic.

Finally, when errors are handled "locally" (see ErrorHandlingConfiguration), the IdP can be told whether to output an audit log record or not when the error event occurs. This is useful to suppress logging noise when common errors occur that would lead to a lot of useless auditing. The flag controlling this is inside the shibboleth.LocalEventMap bean in conf/errors.xml (the value of each map entry is the flag indicating whether to log).

Reference

 Beans

General beans defined in audit.xmlerrors.xml, and related system configuration are:

Bean ID

Type

Function

shibboleth.AuditFormattingMap

Map<String,String>

Map of logging categories to audit formatting strings for general audit logging

shibboleth.AuditDateTimeFormat

String

DateTimeFormat string to apply to DateTime fields (but does not apply to the logback-generated field at the beginning of the log line)

shibboleth.AuditDefaultTimeZone

Boolean

Whether to convert DateTime fields into the machine's default time zone (UTC is used otherwise)

shibboleth.AuditFieldReplacementMap

Map<String,String>

Map of replacement strings to substitute in when populating audit fields (simple way to shrink long constants down to size)

shibboleth.AuditSuppressedProfiles

List<String>

List of profiles to skip auditing

shibboleth.LocalEventMap

Map<String,Boolean>

Map of local error events to flags indicating whether to output an audit log record

shibboleth.SuppressedEvents

List<String>

List of events that should not be logged as "errors" by the process log (generally leaving them to the audit log)

shibboleth.DefaultSuppressedEvents

List<String>

Default list of events used in place of shibboleth.SuppressedEvents bean

In addition, there are a set of standard beans containing the map of field extractors for all of the various "interception points" of the processing of the IdP. A pair of beans are reserved for each point, a default set that comes out of the box, and a defined bean ID to override or add to those defaults. Each of these beans is of type Map<String,Function<ProfileRequestContext,Object>>

  • shibboleth.FlowStartAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultFlowStartAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.PostDecodeAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultPostDecodeAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.PostLookupAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultPostLookupAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.PostAssertionAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultPostAssertionAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.PostResponseAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultPostResponseAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.PostRequestAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultPostRequestAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.PostInboundResponseAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultPostInboundResponseAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.PostInboundAssertionAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultPostInboundAssertionAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.LogoutRequestAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultLogoutRequestAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.LogoutAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultLogoutAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.ErrorViewAuditExtractors / shibboleth.DefaultErrorViewAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.consent.PreConsentAuditExtractors / shibboleth.consent.DefaultPreConsentAuditExtractors

  • shibboleth.consent.ConsentAuditExtractors / shibboleth.consent.DefaultConsentAuditExtractors

 Properties

Properties are defined in services.properties to customize various aspects of audit logging:

Property

Type

Default

Function

idp.service.logging.saml1sso

String

SSO





Suffix added to audit logging category when various profiles/flows are audited, you can use this to route different kinds of audit records to different destinations based on general function

idp.service.logging.saml1attrquery

String

AttributeQuery

idp.service.logging.saml1artifact

String

ArtifactResolution

idp.service.logging.saml2sso

String

SSO

idp.service.logging.saml2attrquery

String

AttributeQuery

idp.service.logging.saml2artifact

String

ArtifactResolution

idp.service.logging.saml2slo

String

Logout

idp.service.logging.logout

String

Logout

idp.service.logging.cas

String

SSO

idp.service.logging.status

String

Status

idp.service.logging.resolvertest

String

ResolverTest

idp.service.logging.serviceReload

String

Reload

idp.audit.shortenBindings

Boolean

false

Allows simpler "short names" of SAML bindings and other (configurable) constants to appear in the audit log, instead of full URIs

idp.audit.hashAlgorithm 4.1

String

SHA-256

Hash algorithm to apply to various hashed fields

idp.audit.salt 4.1

String

Salt to apply to hashed fields, must be set to use those fields

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