IAM audit not properly configured

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Metadata

Id: 89fe890f-b480-460c-8b6b-7d8b1468adb4

Cloud Provider: GCP

Platform: Terraform

Severity: Low

Category: Observability

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Description

A defective audit logging configuration in Terraform, as defined by the google_project_iam_audit_config resource, can lead to incomplete or incorrect logging of critical activities within your cloud environment. For example, omitting required log_type values or specifying exempted members, as shown below, allows certain user actions to go unrecorded, potentially bypassing audit trails and hampering incident investigations:

resource "google_project_iam_audit_config" "example" {
  project = "your-project-id"
  service = "allServices"
  audit_log_config {
    log_type = "DATA_READ"
    exempted_members = ["user:joebloggs@hashicorp.com"]
  }
}

Without comprehensive audit logs, organizations may be unable to detect or investigate unauthorized access or changes, increasing the risk of undetected misuse or data breaches. A secure configuration should ensure that all required log types (such as ADMIN_READ and DATA_READ) are enabled and that no users or accounts are unnecessarily exempted from logging.

Compliant Code Examples

resource "google_project_iam_audit_config" "negative1" {
  project = "your-project-id"
  service = "allServices"
  audit_log_config {
    log_type = "ADMIN_READ"
  }
  audit_log_config {
    log_type = "DATA_READ"
  }
}

Non-Compliant Code Examples

resource "google_project_iam_audit_config" "positive1" {
  project = "your-project-id"
  service = "some_specific_service"
  audit_log_config {
    log_type = "ADMIN_READ"
  }
  audit_log_config {
    log_type = "DATA_READ"
    exempted_members = [
      "user:joebloggs@hashicorp.com"
    ]
  }
}

resource "google_project_iam_audit_config" "positive2" {
  project = "your-project-id"
  service = "allServices"
  audit_log_config {
    log_type = "INVALID_TYPE"
  }
  audit_log_config {
    log_type = "DATA_READ"
    exempted_members = [
        "user:joebloggs@hashicorp.com"
    ]
  }
}