Re: Occasional delayed output of events

[Steve Grubb <sgrubb@redhat.com>]

On Tuesday, January 26, 2021 6:53:31 AM EST Burn Alting wrote:
> On Tue, 2021-01-26 at 11:29 +1100, Burn Alting wrote:
> > On Mon, 2021-01-25 at 19:20 -0500, Steve Grubb wrote:
> > > On Monday, January 25, 2021 7:11:45 PM EST Burn Alting wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 2021-01-25 at 18:53 -0500, Steve Grubb wrote:
> > > > > On Saturday, January 23, 2021 5:55:44 PM EST Burn Alting wrote:
> > > > > > > > How is the following for a way forward.a. I will author a
> > > > > > > > patch to the
> > > > > > > > user space code to correctly parsethiscondition and submit it
> > > > > > > > on the
> > > > > > > > weekend. It will be via a newconfiguration item to
> > > > > > > > auditd.conf just in
> > > > > > > > case placing a fixedextended timeout (15-20 secs) affects
> > > > > > > > memory usage
> > > > > > > > for users of theauparse library. This solves the initial
> > > > > > > > problem
> > > > > > > > ofausearch/auparsefailing to parse generated audit.b. I am
> > > > > > > > happy to
> > > > > > > > instrument whateveris recommended on my hosts at home (vm's
> > > > > > > > and bare
> > > > > > > > metal) to providemore information, should we want to
> > > > > > > > 'explain' the
> > > > > > > > occurrence, givenIsee this every week or two and report back.
> > > > > > > 
> > > > > > > Seems reasonable to me.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I can implement the 'end_of_event_timeout' change either asi. a
> > > > > > command
> > > > > > line argument to ausearch/aureport (say --eoetmo secs) andanew
> > > > > > pair of
> > > > > > library functions within the  auparse() stable
> > > > > > (sayauparse_set_eoe_timeout() and auparse_get_eoe_timeout())orii.
> > > > > > a
> > > > > > configuration item in /etc/audit/auditd.conf, or
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Which is your preference? Mine is i. as this is a user space
> > > > > > processingchange, not a demon change.
> > > > > 
> > > > > To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what we're seeing. I run some
> > > > > teststoday on my system. It's seeing issues also. I'd still like
> > > > > to treat theroot cause of this. But we do need to change the
> > > > > default. That I whatI'm trying to figure out.
> > > > > Back to your question, I'm wondering if we should do both? A
> > > > > changeabledefault in auditd.conf and an override on the command
> > > > > line.
> > > > 
> > > > So far, all items in /etc/audit/auditd.conf appear to only affect
> > > > thedaemon. Is this the right location to start adding
> > > > non-daemonconfiguration items? (I accept there is no other place).
> > > 
> > > ausearch/report/auparse all read the auditd.conf to find the canonical
> > > location for where the logs are supposed to be. So, they already read
> > > this file. I'd rather keep it there than make yet another config. The
> > > only drawback it that it might again confuse people that auditd really
> > > doesn't do anything with the records but just some light processing.
> > 
> > OK. I will put it in /etc/audit/auditd.conf
> 
> One question with this solution. If the user does not have read permission
> to /etc/audit/auditd.conf, then any change cannot take effect. The default
> mode for this file is 640 to root, so a non-root user could never change
> the timeout.

Right, but since they cannot access the logs, it's not a problem in general.  
But if they so happen to have a local copy of logs, then the command line 
override should allow them to correct this. I am also reviewing things to see 
if a better default can be picked.

> Should I also add - a command line argument to ausearch/aureport (say --
> eoetmo secs) and, - a pair of new auparse() functions -
> auparse_set_eoe_timeout() and  auparse_get_eoe_timeout()
> so that non root users can make use of the new configuration item.

Yes, that is what I meant by doing both. We have default in auditd.conf that 
works for everyone with direct audit access. We have a commandline option for 
overriding the auditd.conf value.

Although, I don't know why we would want to get the eoe_timeout value? I 
can't imagine a use for it right now. 

As for ausearch/report, let's just make a long option --eoe-timeout

-Steve

> Also, do you want the default timeout to be 2 seconds or should I make it
> higher.

I'm likely to adjust it, but I'm still looking to see what is happening. Just 
go with the 2 second default for now.

Thanks,
-Steve


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