Encrypting security audit data

We can use wsadmin.sh to configure the security auditing system to encrypt security audit records. Security auditing provides tracking and archiving of auditable events.

Before configuring encryption, set up the security auditing subsystem. We can enable security auditing before or after completing the steps in this topic.

Verify that we have the appropriate administrative role. To complete this topic, you must have the auditor administrative role. If we are importing a certificate from a keystore that exists in security.xml, you must have the auditor and administrator administrative roles.

When configuring encryption, the auditor can select one of the following choices:

• Allow the application server to automatically generate a certificate or use an existing self-signed certificate generated by the auditor.

• Use an existing keystore to store this certificate, or create a new keystore to store this certificate.

Avoid trouble: To ensure that there is a separation of privileges between the administrator role and the auditor role, the auditor can create a self-signed certificate outside of the application server process and maintain the private key of that certificate.gotcha

Use the following task steps to encrypt security audit data:

1. Launch the wsadmin scripting tool using the Jython scripting language. See the Starting the wsadmin scripting client article for more information.

2. Configure encryption settings for security audit data.

   Use the createAuditEncryptionConfig command and the following parameters to create the audit encryption model to encrypt the audit records. Specify the -enableAuditEncryption, -certAlias, and -encryptionKeyStoreRef parameters, and either the -autogenCert or -importCert parameters.

   parameters. This table describes the createAuditEncryptionConfig

   Parameter	Description	Data Type	Required
   -enableAuditEncryption	Whether to encrypt audit records. This parameter modifies the audit policy configuration.	Boolean	Yes
   -certAlias	Alias name identifying generated or imported certificate.	String	Yes
   -encryptionKeyStoreRef	Reference ID of the keystore to import the certificate to.	String	Yes
   -autogenCert	Whether to automatically generate the certificate used to encrypt the audit records. Specify either this parameter or the -importCert parameter, but we cannot specify both.	Boolean	No
   -importCert	Whether to import an existing certificate to encrypt the audit records. Specify either this parameter or the -autogenCert parameter, but we cannot specify both.	Boolean	No
   -certKeyFileName	Unique name of the key file from which the certificate is imported.	String	No
   -certKeyFilePath	Key file location from which the certificate is imported.	String	No
   -certKeyFileType	Key file type from which the certificate is imported.	String	No
   -certKeyFilePassword	Key file password from which the certificate is imported.	String	No
   -certAliasToImport	Alias from which the certificate is imported.	String	No

   The following command example configures encryption and supports the system to automatically generate the certificate:

   AdminTask.createAuditEncryptionConfig('-enableAuditEncryption true -certAlias auditCertificate -autogenCert true -encryptionKeyStoreRef auditKeyStore')

   The following command example configures encryption and imports a certificate:

   AdminTask.createAuditEncryptionConfig('-enableAuditEncryption true -certAlias auditCertificate -importCert true -certKeyFileName MyServerKeyFile.p12 -certKeyFilePath install_root/etc/MyServerKeyFile.p12 -certKeyFileType PKCS12 -certKeyFilePassword password4key -certAliasToImport defaultCertificate -encryptionKeyStoreRef auditKeyStore')

3. We must restart the server to apply configuration changes.

Results

Encryption is configured for security audit data. If we set the -enableAuditEncryption parameter to true, then your security auditing system encrypts security audit data when security auditing is enabled.

What to do next

After you configure the encryption model for the first time, then you may use the enableAuditEncryption and disableAuditEncryption commands to turn encryption on and off.

The following example uses the enableAuditEncryption command to turn on encryption:

AdminTask.enableAuditEncryption()

The following example uses the disableAuditEncryption command to turn off encryption:

AdminTask.disableAuditEncryption()

Related tasks

Configure auditable events

Enable security auditing

Signing security audit data

Configure security audit notifications

Configure security auditing

Start the wsadmin scripting client

AuditKeyStoreCommands (AdminTask)

AuditEmitterCommands (AdminTask)

AuditSigningCommands (AdminTask)

AuditEncryptionCommands (AdminTask)

AuditEventFactoryCommands (AdminTask)

AuditFilterCommands (AdminTask)

AuditNotificationCommands (AdminTask)

AuditPolicyCommands (AdminTask)

AuditEventFormatterCommands (AdminTask)