Logging Amazon Detective API calls with AWS CloudTrail

Detective is integrated with AWS CloudTrail, a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an AWS service in Detective. CloudTrail captures all API calls for Detective as events. The calls captured include calls from the Detective console and code calls to the Detective API operations.

• If you create a trail, you can enable continuous delivery of CloudTrail events to an Amazon S3 bucket, including events for Detective.

• If you don't configure a trail, you can still view the most recent events in the CloudTrail console in Event history.

Using the information collected by CloudTrail, you can determine the following:

• The request that was made to Detective

• The IP address from which the request was made

• Who made the request

• When it was made

• Additional details about the request

To learn more about CloudTrail, see the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.

Detective information in CloudTrail

CloudTrail is enabled on your AWS account when you create the account. When activity occurs in Detective, 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 Detective, create a trail. A trail enables CloudTrail to deliver log files to an Amazon S3 bucket.

By default, when you create a trail in 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. You also 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 Detective operations, which are documented in the Detective API Reference.

For example, calls to the CreateMembers, AcceptInvitation, and DeleteMembers operations generate entries in the CloudTrail log files.

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 a federated user

• Whether the request was made by another AWS service

For more information, see the CloudTrail userIdentity Element.

Understanding Detective 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. Events include information about the requested action, the date and time of the action, request parameters, and so on. CloudTrail log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, so the entries don't appear in any specific order.

The following example shows a CloudTrail log entry that demonstrates the AcceptInvitation action.

      {
            "EventId": "f2545ee3-170f-4340-8af4-a983c669ce37",
            "Username": "JaneRoe",
            "EventTime": 1571956406.0,
            "CloudTrailEvent": "{\"eventVersion\":\"1.05\",\"userIdentity\":{\"type\":\"AssumedRole\",\"principalId\":\"AROAJZARKEP6WKJ5JHSUS:JaneRoe\",\"arn\":\"arn:aws:sts::111122223333:assumed-role/1A4R5SKSPGG9V/JaneRoe\",\"accountId\":\"111122223333\",\"accessKeyId\":\"AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE\",\"sessionContext\":{\"attributes\":{\"mfaAuthenticated\":\"false\",\"creationDate\":\"2019-10-24T21:54:56Z\"},\"sessionIssuer\":{\"type\":\"Role\",\"principalId\":\"AROAJZARKEP6WKJ5JHSUS\",\"arn\":\"arn:aws:iam::111122223333:role/1A4R5SKSPGG9V\",\"accountId\":\"111122223333\",\"userName\":\"JaneRoe\"}}},\"eventTime\":\"2019-10-24T22:33:26Z\",\"eventSource\":\"detective.amazonaws.com\",\"eventName\":\"AcceptInvitation\",\"awsRegion\":\"us-east-2\",\"sourceIPAddress\":\"192.0.2.123\",\"userAgent\":\"aws /3 aws-sdk-java/1.11.648 Linux/4.14.133-97.112.amzn2.x86_64 OpenJDK_64-Bit_Server_VM/25.201-b09 java/1.8.0_201 vendor/Oracle_Corporation exec-env/AWS_Lambda_java8\",\"errorCode\":\"ValidationException\",\"requestParameters\":{\"masterAccount\":\"111111111111\"},\"responseElements\":{\"message\":\"Invalid request body\"},\"requestID\":\"8437ff99-5ec4-4b1a-8353-173be984301f\",\"eventID\":\"f2545ee3-170f-4340-8af4-a983c669ce37\",\"readOnly\":false,\"eventType\":\"AwsApiCall\",\"recipientAccountId\":\"111122223333\"}",
            "EventName": "AcceptInvitation",
            "EventSource": "detective.amazonaws.com",
            "Resources": []
        },