Activity Audit
Note
From Sysdig Secure 3.0 (with Sysdig Agent 0.93.0+), the Commands Audit feature has been replaced by the more powerful and intuitive Activity Audit module.
Contact Sysdig Support to have Activity Audit enabled for your SaaS Sysdig Secure environment.
To track kubectl exec
and other Kubernetes commands, you must enable Kubernetes audit logging.
If you are running on a GKE cluster, review the GKE Limitations.
Activity Audit takes the high-value data from captures and makes it always-on, searchable, and indexed against your cloud-native assets. This stream includes executed commands, network activity, file activity, and kube exec
requests to the Kubernetes API.

Understanding How Activity Audit is Used
Activity Audit allows users to view different data sources in-depth for monitoring, troubleshooting, diagnostics, or to meet regulatory controls.
Troubleshooting
A system investigation may be triggered by an event generated by Sysdig, or by an alert from another tool or person.
Find contextualized, relevant data Activity Audit allows easy access to the underlying data to help trace the event, evaluate its impact, and resolve the issue.
From Policy Events in Sysdig Secure, jump directly to the relevant Activity Audit to investigate details.
∫Trace commands and connections back to users Activity Audit can correlate the interactive requests from a Kubernetes user with the commands and network connections performed inside the container, allowing an operator to trace this activity back to a user identity.
Regulatory
The Activity Audit can also provide data about the infrastructure to help prove to auditors that proper data visibility and security measures are in place
Activity Audit is a critical requisite for many compliance standards:
Navigate the Audit Interface
Activity Audit displays a continuously updated list of activities. Use the UI features to find and filter the information you need.

Groupings
Filter activities by pre-defined groupings from the drop-down menu.
Note that each element in a group shows a summary of the activity entries for that entity. You can use this number to discover areas of high activity; filtering changes the number.
Data Sources
Use the top-right drop-down to filter information from one particular data set. Current data sources are:
User commands
Network connections
File activities
Kube exec commands
Note
Activity audit feature captures only interactive commands and the network connections and file modifications related to those commands. Kube exec
commands, on the other hand, are extracted from the Kubernetes/OpenShift audit log.
Frequency Graph
The graph shows the activity frequency for each data source, allowing users easily to zero-in on anomalies.

The image above shows a spike in network activity (orange line) between 7:00 - 8:00 pm.
Drag the mouse over the peak to auto-zoom on the time frame and see more detail.

Time Navigation Buttons
Use the time window navigation bar to show only activities run within that window. (For more information, see also Time Windows.)
Note
Sysdig Secure does not currently provide the functionality to configure a custom time window.
Detail View
Select an activity row to see its details, including the attributes by which you can filter (whitelist/blacklist).
See Review Activity Details for the attributes of each data source.
You can also use the whitelist (+)/blacklist (-) attribute filters from the detail view.

Whitelist (+) and Blacklist (-) Attribute Options
Next to attributes in the Detail View are +/- signs used for filtering.
Click + to include an attribute; click - to exclude an attribute from a filter.
Trace Button (kube exec activity) 
Beside each kube exec
item is a Trace button .
Using this feature you can correlate container activity to the original Kubernetes user and IP. See Follow a kubectl exec Trace.
Note
This button does not appear if you are running on a GKE cluster.
Filter
Filtering is the heart of Activity Audit's power. Filters allow you to search, sort, parse, and surface meaningful data and connections as they are needed.
Note
Filters are used instead of free text search in Activity Audit.
Ways to filter Activity Data:
Data Source: Choose a data source from the drop-down:
network activity
,commands
,kubectl exec
, orfile
activity.Attribute (+/-): Choose + or - next to an attribute to include/exclude that attribute from the filter
Attribute (manual): If you know the attribute, you can type it into the filter box manually, with the following syntax:
Include an attribute
attribute_name="attribute_value"
e.g.comm="grep"
Exclude an attribute
attribute_name!="attribute_value"
e.g.comm!="grep"
Trace Trace
kube exec
entries to see all relevant activity in that session from that userTime graph: Select a section of the graph to zoom in on a time frame and see detailed activity
Combine: These methods can be combined as needed.
For example, the filter below surfaces activity on a particular pod, while excluding activity from one IP address that is known to be normal.
resource="pods" name="woocommerce-6877958" sourceaddresses!="172.20.41.2
Review Activity Details
Command Details
Name | Description |
---|---|
When | The date and time the command was executed. |
Command | The command executed. |
Full Command Line | The complete command, including all variables/options. |
Working Directory | The directory the command was executed in. |
Scope | The entities within the infrastructure impacted by the command. |
Host | The hostname and MAC address of the host the command was executed on. |
Container | The container ID, container name, and image that the command was executed on. |
Additional Details | Detailed user/host information:
|
Network Connection Details
Name | Description |
---|---|
Time | The date and time of the network connection |
Connection Direction | Incoming or outgoing connection |
Connection Details | Including:
|
Scope | The entities impacted by the network connection |
Host | The host name and MAC address of the host where the connection was made |
Additional Details | The process name and ID (Parent Process ID/PID) that launched or received the network connection |
Kubectl Exec Details
Name | Description |
---|---|
Time | The date and time of the kubectl command |
Kubernetes resource | Including:
|
Kubernetes user and group | Including:
|
Sources addresses | External IP address that initiated the connection |
Scope | Including
|
Host | Host name and MAC address of the host where the kubectl exec was made |
File Activity Details
Name | Description |
---|---|
When | Date and time the file was modified |
File access details | - File name - File directory - Command used to access the file - Access mode |
Scope | Entities impacted by the file activity |
Host | The host name and MAC address of the host where the file activity occurred |
Sample Use Cases
Blacklist: Commands
I have a noisy command happening every 0.2s, which I know is totally normal in my environment. There are other commands that look more suspicious to me:
Foo Foo Foo Foo Foo Suspicious command - curl Foo Foo Foo … 200 Foo Suspicious command - dpkg …. 500 Foo Suspicious command - shred
This is a clear case for blacklisting "Foo" and concentrating on the rest.
Filtering for Incident Response
A Policy Event reports a dangerous peak in network connections coming from a specific pod. This example describes one way to search for the root cause.
What user and what activity triggered this issue?
Use the Activity Audit button next to the policy event to jump directly to the relevant audit trail.
Here one can determine at a glance:
The pod/namespace on which the heightened activity is occurring (where the 3396 network entries are)
The process related to the activity (in this case,
ab
, or the Apache Benchmark tool)Related activities in the graph (
cmd
andkube exec
lines)Repetitive entries that can be screened out
Refine the view through filtering:
Switch from
network
data source tocmd
andkube exe
.Filter out noisy, repetitive entries (e.g.
comm!="bash"
)Investigate details of a kube exec item for user information.
After filtering, you have a focused incident report detailing:
The Kubernetes user "johndoe"
The external IP he used to connect
The set of commands he used to install and launch the Apache Benchmark stress-testing tool.
Follow a kubectl exec Trace
In a production environment, kubectl exec
commands are typically suspicious. Also, because such commands are interactive sessions, it can be difficult to pinpoint which individual has issued the command(s) and what other activities the individual performed. This is where Sysdig's Trace functionality comes in, correlating kubectl exec commands with a specific user and the network and command activities performed in that user's session.
In this example, suspicious activity has been detected and you want to determine whether someone has downloaded and executed a Trojan horse.
Use the Groups to display your Kubernetes hierarchy by namespace and deployment. Focus on the pod displaying unexpected high levels of activity (based on the number in parentheses).
Checking the corresponding activity graph, you zero in on a time frame and see
kube exec
activity among the hundreds of commands and network events.Select the
kube exec
item and click the Trace button on left.This session trace will display a formatted report of any container activity (network, commands) that the user performed inside the container.
Note
This button does not appear if you are running on a GKE cluster.