January 9, 2012 at 11:17 am
Hello, I have enabled SQL Server Audit to write to the Application event log. Seems to be working fine but it is only logging success. How do I enable failure logging for things like select/insert/update/delete?
Thanks for reading.
Howard
January 9, 2012 at 11:43 am
There is no logging for insert/update/deletes. You can enable SQL Trace, but you are potentially asking for a ton of data.
What are you trying to accomplish? Typically there isn't a "failure" of a select/insert/update/delete on a regular basis.
January 9, 2012 at 11:58 am
SQL Server 2008 Audit allows auditing of a number of things including select/insert/update/delete. It is working properly for capturing these events to the Windows Application or event log but it is only capturing Audit Success. I have a requirement to capture audit failures too such as a select of a table that does not exist or where the user does not have access. I think it may be an option in the audit policy but not sure how to set it.
Here is an example entry:
Date1/9/2012 6:51:27 PM
LogAudit Collection (Audit-20120109-115026)
Event Time 18:51:27.9823720
Server Instance Name<name here>
Action IDSELECT
Class TypeTABLE
Sequence Number1
SucceededTrue
Permission Bit Mask0x0000000000000001
Column PermissionTrue
Session ID61
Server Principal ID259
Database Principal ID1
Target Server Principal ID0
Target Database Principal ID0
Object ID530100929
Session Server Principal Name<user name>
Server Principal Name<user name>
Server Principal SID<id>
Database Principal Namedbo
Target Server Principal Name
Target Server Principal SIDNULL
Target Database Principal Name
Database NameDBA_Maintenance
Schema Namedbo
Object Nametest
Statementselect * FROM [DBA_Maintenance].[dbo].[test]
Additional Information
File NameD:\dba\Audit-20120109-115026_xxx.sqlaudit
File Offset6144
User Defined Event ID0
User Defined Information
Message
January 9, 2012 at 12:29 pm
Sorry, was thinking of something else when I posted, not SQL Server Audit, as in the feature.
In terms of auditing the SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE, a database audit specification will do this, but it audits the execution of the statement. A "failure" isn't a failure of the statement. It's another error. If someone executes a SELECT against a non-existent table, that's not a SELECT failure, that could be seen as a syntax error, or an object reference error, but the SELECT hasn't failed. An insert that has a duplicate key value is an FK error, not an insert error.
If I understand it correctly from limited use, you will get all executions of the statement, which is defined per object, and you'd have to sort through them, maybe filtering on some keyword in the logs. I'm not sure you can limit it to just one particular type of execution.
Understanding Audit - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280386%28v=SQL.100%29.aspx
Create DB spec - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280404%28v=SQL.100%29.aspx
January 11, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Thanks for helping me to understand.
I see now that if I give a user read only permission and they attempt to update a table, it will log a failure. This is very good.
The confusion was when I was expecting a user who runs a bad query such as a select of a table that does not exist that it would record that as well. But technicly as you say, it is a successful select but of non existant data. These type of things are not logged by SQL Server Audit but would help us to detect anyone who was fishing for data.
Thanks again.
January 12, 2012 at 10:47 am
You could always go another route. That is to put a sniffer in front of the SQL Server that logs all incoming traffic. You do not need to log the Output. (It will be way too much data)
-Roy
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