AU-03 Content of Audit Records
Audit and Accountability
Description
Ensure that audit records contain information that establishes the following: a. What type of event occurred; b. When the event occurred; c. Where the event occurred; d. Source of the event; e. Outcome of the event; and f. Identity of any individuals, subjects, or objects/entities associated with the event.
Supplemental Guidance
Audit record content that may be necessary to support the auditing function includes event descriptions (item a), time stamps (item b), source and destination addresses (item c), user or process identifiers (items d and f), success or fail indications (item e), and filenames involved (items a, c, e, and f) . Event outcomes include indicators of event success or failure and event-specific results, such as the system security and privacy posture after the event occurred. Organizations consider how audit records can reveal information about individuals that may give rise to privacy risks and how best to mitigate such risks. For example, there is the potential to reveal personally identifiable information in the audit trail, especially if the trail records inputs or is based on patterns or time of usage.
Enhancements (2)
What NIST adds to this control. Select one to read its statement.
AU-03(01) Additional Audit Information ModerateHigh
Generate audit records containing the following additional information: [Assignment: organization-defined additional information].
AU-03(03) Limit Personally Identifiable Information Elements Privacy
Limit personally identifiable information contained in audit records to the following elements identified in the privacy risk assessment: [Assignment: organization-defined elements].
Withdrawn by NIST:
- AU-03(02) Centralized Management of Planned Audit Record Content, now in PL-09
Patterns that use this control (22)
Grouped by the emphasis each pattern gives it.
Critical (7)
Important (13)
- SP-001 Client Module
- SP-002 Server Module
- SP-008 Public Web Server Pattern
- SP-016 DMZ Module
- SP-022 Board of Directors Room
- SP-029 Zero Trust Architecture
- SP-030 API Security
- SP-032 Modern Authentication
- SP-033 Passkey Authentication
- SP-036 Incident Response
- SP-037 Privileged User Management
- SP-044 SaaS Identity Lifecycle Management
- SP-051 Tokenised Asset Security Architecture (draft)