MariaDB must off-load audit data to a separate log management facility; this must be continuous and in near real time for systems with a network connection to the storage facility and weekly or more often for stand-alone systems.

Information stored in one location is vulnerable to accidental or incidental deletion or alteration.

Off-loading is a common process in information systems with limited audit storage capacity.

MariaDB writes audit records to files in the file system, to other kinds of local repository, or directly to a centralized log management system. Whatever the method used, it must be compatible with off-loading the records to the centralized system.

Check if the variable server_audit_output_type is set to syslog, and verify the operating system is using a centralized syslog utility such as rsyslogd.

MariaDB> SHOW GLOBAL VARIABLES LIKE 'server_audit_output_type';

If not, this is a finding.

To set up the audit logs to write to sylog:

Edit the mariadb-enterprise.cnf file. Add the following under the [mariadb] section:

server_audit_output_type = 'syslog'

After the .cnf file is updated and saved, the mariadb database service must be restarted.