System information
AuditVerify
1. About the AuditVerify Tool
The AuditVerify tool is used to verify that signed audit logs were signed with the private
signing key and that the audit logs have not been compromised.
Auditors can verify the authenticity of signed audit logs using the AuditVerify tool. This tool
uses the public key of the signed audit log signing certificate to verify the digital signatures
embedded in a signed audit log file. The tool response indicates either that the signed audit log
was successfully verified or that the signed audit log was not successfully verified. An
unsuccessful verification warns the auditor that the signature failed to verify, indicating the log
file may have been tampered with (compromised).
2. Setting up the Auditor's Database
AuditVerify needs access to a set of security databases containing the signed audit log
signing certificate and its chain of issuing certificates. One of the CA certificates in the issuance
chain must be marked as trusted in the database.
The auditor should import the audit signing certificate into certificate and key databases before
running AuditVerify. The auditor should not use the security databases of the Certificate
System instance that generated the signed audit log files. If there are no readily accessible
certificate and key database, the auditor must create a set of certificate and key databases and
import the signed audit log signing certificate chain.
To create the security databases and import the certificate chain, do the following:
1. Create the security database directory in the filesystem.
mkdir /var/lib/instance_ID/logs/signedAudit/dbdir
2. Use the certutil tool to create an empty set of certificate databases.
certutil -d /var/lib/instance_ID/logs/signedAudit/dbdir -N
3. Import the CA certificate and log signing certificate into the databases, marking the CA
certificate as trusted. The certificates can be obtained from the CA in ASCII format.
If the CA certificate is in a file called cacert.txt and the log signing certificate is in a file
called logsigncert.txt, both in the Certificate System alias/ directory, then the certutil
is used to set the trust for the new audit security database directory pointing to those files, as
follows:
Chapter 5.
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