Logging Amazon Inspector Classic API calls with AWS CloudTrail

Amazon Inspector Classic is integrated with AWS CloudTrail, a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an AWS service in Amazon Inspector Classic. CloudTrail captures all API calls for Amazon Inspector Classic as events, including calls from the Amazon Inspector Classic console and code calls to the Amazon Inspector Classic API operations. If you create a trail, you can enable continuous delivery of CloudTrail events to an Amazon S3 bucket, including events for Amazon Inspector Classic. If you don't configure a trail, you can still view the most recent events on the CloudTrail console in Event history. Using the information collected by CloudTrail, you can determine the request that was made to Amazon Inspector Classic, the IP address the request was made from, who made the request, when it was made, and more.

To learn more about CloudTrail, see the AWS CloudTrail User Guide. For a full list of Amazon Inspector Classic API operations, see Actions in the Amazon Inspector Classic API Reference.

Amazon Inspector Classic information in CloudTrail

CloudTrail is enabled on your AWS account when you create the account. When activity occurs in Amazon Inspector Classic, that activity is recorded in a CloudTrail event along with other AWS service events in Event history. You can view, search, and download recent events in your AWS account. For more information, see Viewing Events with CloudTrail Event History.

For an ongoing record of events in your AWS account, including events for Amazon Inspector Classic, create a trail. A trail enables CloudTrail to deliver log files to an Amazon S3 bucket. By default, when you create a trail on the console, the trail applies to all AWS Regions. The trail logs events from all Regions in the AWS partition and delivers the log files to the Amazon S3 bucket that you specify. Additionally, you can configure other AWS services to further analyze and act upon the event data collected in CloudTrail logs. For more information, see the following:

• Overview for Creating a Trail

• CloudTrail Supported Services and Integrations

• Configuring Amazon SNS Notifications for CloudTrail

• Receiving CloudTrail Log Files from Multiple Regions and Receiving CloudTrail Log Files from Multiple Accounts

CloudTrail logs all Amazon Inspector Classic operations, including read-only operations, such as ListAssessmentRuns and DescribeAssessmentTargets, and management operations, such as AddAttributesToFindings and CreateAssessmentTemplate.

Note

CloudTrail logs only the request information of Amazon Inspector Classic read-only operations. Both request and response information is logged for all other Amazon Inspector Classic operations.

Every event or log entry contains information about who generated the request. The identity information helps you determine the following:

• Whether the request was made with root or AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user credentials

• Whether the request was made with temporary security credentials for a role or federated user

• Whether the request was made by another AWS service

For more information, see CloudTrail userIdentity Element.

Understanding Amazon Inspector Classic log file entries

A trail is a configuration that enables delivery of events as log files to an Amazon S3 bucket that you specify. CloudTrail log files contain one or more log entries. An event represents a single request from any source and includes information about the requested action, the date and time of the action, and other request parameters. CloudTrail log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, so they don't appear in any specific order.

The following example shows a CloudTrail log entry that demonstrates the Amazon Inspector Classic CreateResourceGroup operation:

{
    "eventVersion": "1.03",
    "userIdentity": {
        "type": "AssumedRole",
        "principalId": "AIDACKCEVSQ6C2EXAMPLE",
        "arn": "arn:aws:iam::444455556666:user/Alice",
        "accountId": "444455556666",
        "accessKeyId": "AKIAI44QH8DHBEXAMPLE",
        "sessionContext": {
            "attributes": {
                "mfaAuthenticated": "false",
                "creationDate": "2016-04-14T17:05:54Z"
            },
            "sessionIssuer": {
                "type": "Role",
                "principalId": "AIDACKCEVSQ6C2EXAMPLE",
                "arn": "arn:aws:iam::444455556666:user/Alice",
                "accountId": "444455556666",
                "userName": "Alice"
            }
        }
    },
    "eventTime": "2016-04-14T17:12:34Z",
    "eventSource": "inspector.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "CreateResourceGroup",
    "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "205.251.233.179",
    "userAgent": "console.amazonaws.com",
    "requestParameters": {
        "resourceGroupTags": [
            {
                "key": "Name",
                "value": "ExampleEC2Instance"
            }
        ]
    },
    "responseElements": {
        "resourceGroupArn": "arn:aws:inspector:us-west-2:444455556666:resourcegroup/0-oclRMp8B"
    },
    "requestID": "148256d2-0264-11e6-a9b5-b98a7d3b840f",
    "eventID": "e5ea533e-eede-46cc-94f6-0d08e6306ff0",
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "apiVersion": "v20160216",
    "recipientAccountId": "444455556666"
}