PostgreSQL must generate audit records when unsuccessful attempts to access categories of information (e.g., classification levels/security levels) occur.

Changes in categories of information must be tracked. Without an audit trail, unauthorized access to protected data could go undetected.

To aid in diagnosis, it is necessary to keep track of failed attempts in addition to the successful ones.

For detailed information on categorizing information, refer to FIPS Publication 199, Standards for Security Categorization of federal information and information systems, and FIPS Publication 200, Minimum Security Requirements for federal information and information systems.

As the database administrator (shown here as "postgres"), run the following SQL:

$ sudo su - postgres
$ psql -c "SHOW pgaudit.log"

If pgaudit.log does not contain, "ddl, write, role", this is a finding.

Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA and PGVER environment variables. Refer to APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA and APPENDIX-H for PGVER.

Configure PostgreSQL to produce audit records when unsuccessful attempts to access categories of information occur.

All denials are logged if logging is enabled. To ensure logging is enabled, see the instructions in the supplementary content APPENDIX-C.

With pgaudit installed the following configurations can be made:

$ sudo su - postgres
$ vi ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf

Add the following parameters (or edit existing parameters):

pgaudit.log = 'ddl, write, role'

As the system administrator, reload the server with the new configuration:

$ sudo systemctl reload postgresql-${PGVER?}