CloudTrail examples using Amazon CLI - Amazon Command Line Interface
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CloudTrail examples using Amazon CLI

The following code examples show you how to perform actions and implement common scenarios by using the Amazon Command Line Interface with CloudTrail.

Actions are code excerpts from larger programs and must be run in context. While actions show you how to call individual service functions, you can see actions in context in their related scenarios and cross-service examples.

Scenarios are code examples that show you how to accomplish a specific task by calling multiple functions within the same service.

Each example includes a link to GitHub, where you can find instructions on how to set up and run the code in context.

Topics

Actions

The following code example shows how to use add-tags.

Amazon CLI

To add tags to trail

The following add-tags command adds tags for Trail1:

aws cloudtrail add-tags --resource-id arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1 --tags-list Key=name,Value=Alice Key=location,Value=us

  • For API details, see AddTags in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use create-subscription.

Amazon CLI

To create and configure Amazon resources for a trail

The following create-subscription command creates a new S3 bucket and SNS topic for Trail1:

aws cloudtrail create-subscription --name Trail1 --s3-new-bucket my-bucket --sns-new-topic my-topic

Output:

Setting up new S3 bucket my-bucket...
Setting up new SNS topic my-topic...
Creating/updating CloudTrail configuration...
CloudTrail configuration:
{
"trailList": [
  {
    "IncludeGlobalServiceEvents": true,
    "Name": "Trail1",
    "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1",
    "LogFileValidationEnabled": false,
    "IsMultiRegionTrail": false,
    "S3BucketName": "my-bucket",
    "SnsTopicName": "my-topic",
    "HomeRegion": "us-east-1"
  }
],
"ResponseMetadata": {
"HTTPStatusCode": 200,
"RequestId": "f39e51f6-c615-11e5-85bd-d35ca21ee3e2"
}
}
Starting CloudTrail service...
Logs will be delivered to my-bucket

The following code example shows how to use create-trail.

Amazon CLI

To create a trail

The following create-trail command creates a multi-region trail named Trail1 and specifies an S3 bucket:

aws cloudtrail create-trail --name Trail1 --s3-bucket-name my-bucket --is-multi-region-trail

Output:

{
  "IncludeGlobalServiceEvents": true,
  "Name": "Trail1",
  "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-west-2:123456789012:trail/Trail1",
  "LogFileValidationEnabled": false,
  "IsMultiRegionTrail": true,
  "S3BucketName": "my-bucket"
}

  • For API details, see CreateTrail in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use delete-trail.

Amazon CLI

To delete a trail

The following delete-trail command deletes a trail named Trail1:

aws cloudtrail delete-trail --name Trail1

  • For API details, see DeleteTrail in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use describe-trails.

Amazon CLI

To describe a trail

The following describe-trails command returns the settings for Trail1 and Trail2:

aws cloudtrail describe-trails --trail-name-list Trail1 Trail2

Output:

{
 "trailList": [
     {
         "IncludeGlobalServiceEvents": true,
         "Name": "Trail1",
         "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1",
         "LogFileValidationEnabled": false,
         "IsMultiRegionTrail": false,
         "S3BucketName": "my-bucket",
         "CloudWatchLogsRoleArn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/CloudTrail_CloudWatchLogs_Role",
         "CloudWatchLogsLogGroupArn": "arn:aws:logs:us-east-1:123456789012:log-group:CloudTrail:*",
         "SnsTopicName": "my-topic",
         "HomeRegion": "us-east-1"
     },
     {
         "IncludeGlobalServiceEvents": true,
         "Name": "Trail2",
         "S3KeyPrefix": "my-prefix",
         "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail2",
         "LogFileValidationEnabled": false,
         "IsMultiRegionTrail": false,
         "S3BucketName": "my-bucket",
         "KmsKeyId": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:123456789012:key/4c5ae5ac-3c13-421e-8335-c7868ef6a769",
         "HomeRegion": "us-east-1"
     }
  ]
}

  • For API details, see DescribeTrails in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use get-event-selectors.

Amazon CLI

To view the event selector settings for a trail

The following get-event-selectors command returns the settings for Trail1:

aws cloudtrail get-event-selectors --trail-name Trail1

Output:

{
  "EventSelectors": [
      {
          "IncludeManagementEvents": true,
          "DataResources": [],
          "ReadWriteType": "All"
      }
  ],
  "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1"
}

The following code example shows how to use get-trail-status.

Amazon CLI

To get the status of a trail

The following get-trail-status command returns the delivery and logging details for Trail1:

aws cloudtrail get-trail-status --name Trail1

Output:

{
  "LatestNotificationTime": 1454022144.869,
  "LatestNotificationAttemptSucceeded": "2016-01-28T23:02:24Z",
  "LatestDeliveryAttemptTime": "2016-01-28T23:02:24Z",
  "LatestDeliveryTime": 1454022144.869,
  "TimeLoggingStarted": "2015-11-06T18:36:38Z",
  "LatestDeliveryAttemptSucceeded": "2016-01-28T23:02:24Z",
  "IsLogging": true,
  "LatestCloudWatchLogsDeliveryTime": 1454022144.918,
  "StartLoggingTime": 1446834998.695,
  "StopLoggingTime": 1446834996.933,
  "LatestNotificationAttemptTime": "2016-01-28T23:02:24Z",
  "TimeLoggingStopped": "2015-11-06T18:36:36Z"
}

  • For API details, see GetTrailStatus in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use list-public-keys.

Amazon CLI

To list all public keys for a trail

The following list-public-keys command returns all public keys whose private keys were used to sign the digest files within the specified time range:

aws cloudtrail list-public-keys --start-time 2016-01-01T20:30:00.000Z

Output:

{
  "PublicKeyList": [
      {
         "ValidityStartTime": 1453076702.0,
         "ValidityEndTime": 1455668702.0,
         "Value": "MIIBCgKCAQEAlSS3cl92HDycr/MTj0moOhas8habjrraXw+KzlWF0axSI2tcF+3iJ9BKQAVSKxGwxwu3m0wG3J+kUl1xboEcEPHYoIYMbgfSw7KGnuDKwkLzsQWhUJ0cIbOHASox1vv/5fNXkrHhGbDCHeVXm804c83nvHUEFYThr1PfyP/8HwrCtR3FX5OANtQCP61C1nJtSSkC8JSQUOrIP4CuwJjc+4WGDk+BGH5m9iuiAKkipEHWmUl8/P7XpfpWQuk4h8g3pXZOrNXr08lbh4d39svj7UqdhvOXoBISp9t/EXYuePGEtBdrKD9Dz+VHwyUPtBQvYr9BnkF88qBnaPNhS44rzwIDAQAB",
         "Fingerprint": "7f3f401420072e50a65a141430817ab3"
     }
  ]
}

  • For API details, see ListPublicKeys in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use list-tags.

Amazon CLI

To list the tags for a trail

The following list-tags command lists the tags for Trail1 and Trail2:

aws cloudtrail list-tags --resource-id-list arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1 arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail2

Output:

{
 "ResourceTagList": [
     {
         "ResourceId": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1",
         "TagsList": [
             {
                 "Value": "Alice",
                 "Key": "name"
             },
             {
                 "Value": "us",
                 "Key": "location"
             }
         ]
     },
     {
         "ResourceId": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail2",
         "TagsList": [
             {
                 "Value": "Bob",
                 "Key": "name"
             }
         ]
     }
  ]
}

  • For API details, see ListTags in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use lookup-events.

Amazon CLI

To look up events for a trail

The following lookup-events command looks up API activity events by the attribute EventName:

aws cloudtrail lookup-events --lookup-attributes AttributeKey=EventName,AttributeValue=ConsoleLogin

Output:

{
  "Events": [
     {
         "EventId": "654ccbc0-ba0d-486a-9076-dbf7274677a7",
         "Username": "my-session-name",
         "EventTime": "2021-11-18T09:41:02-08:00",
         "CloudTrailEvent": "{\"eventVersion\":\"1.02\",\"userIdentity\":{\"type\":\"AssumedRole\",\"principalId\":\"AROAJIKPFTA72SWU4L7T4:my-session-name\",\"arn\":\"arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/my-role/my-session-name\",\"accountId\":\"123456789012\",\"sessionContext\":{\"attributes\":{\"mfaAuthenticated\":\"false\",\"creationDate\":\"2016-01-26T21:42:12Z\"},\"sessionIssuer\":{\"type\":\"Role\",\"principalId\":\"AROAJIKPFTA72SWU4L7T4\",\"arn\":\"arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/my-role\",\"accountId\":\"123456789012\",\"userName\":\"my-role\"}}},\"eventTime\":\"2016-01-26T21:42:12Z\",\"eventSource\":\"signin.amazonaws.com\",\"eventName\":\"ConsoleLogin\",\"awsRegion\":\"us-east-1\",\"sourceIPAddress\":\"72.21.198.70\",\"userAgent\":\"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_9_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/47.0.2526.111 Safari/537.36\",\"requestParameters\":null,\"responseElements\":{\"ConsoleLogin\":\"Success\"},\"additionalEventData\":{\"MobileVersion\":\"No\",\"MFAUsed\":\"No\"},\"eventID\":\"654ccbc0-ba0d-486a-9076-dbf7274677a7\",\"eventType\":\"AwsConsoleSignIn\",\"recipientAccountId\":\"123456789012\"}",
         "EventName": "ConsoleLogin",
         "Resources": []
     }
  ]
}

  • For API details, see LookupEvents in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use put-event-selectors.

Amazon CLI

Example 1: Configure a trail to log management events and data events by using advanced event selectors

You can add advanced event selectors, and conditions for your advanced event selectors, up to a maximum of 500 values for all conditions and selectors on a trail. You can use advanced event selectors to log all available data event types. You can use either advanced event selectors or basic event selectors, but not both. If you apply advanced event selectors to a trail, any existing basic event selectors are overwritten.

The following example creates an advanced event selector for a trail named myTrail to log all management events, log S3 PutObject and DeleteObject API calls for all but one S3 bucket, log data API calls for a Lambda function named myFunction, and log Publish API calls on an SNS topic named myTopic.

aws cloudtrail put-event-selectors \
    --trail-name myTrail \
    --advanced-event-selectors '[{"Name": "Log all management events", "FieldSelectors": [{ "Field": "eventCategory", "Equals": ["Management"] }] },{"Name": "Log PutObject and DeleteObject events for all but one bucket","FieldSelectors": [{ "Field": "eventCategory", "Equals": ["Data"] },{ "Field": "resources.type", "Equals": ["AWS::S3::Object"] },{ "Field": "eventName", "Equals": ["PutObject","DeleteObject"] },{ "Field": "resources.ARN", "NotStartsWith": ["arn:aws:s3:::sample_bucket_name/"] }]},{"Name": "Log data events for a specific Lambda function","FieldSelectors": [{ "Field": "eventCategory", "Equals": ["Data"] },{ "Field": "resources.type", "Equals": ["AWS::Lambda::Function"] },{ "Field": "resources.ARN", "Equals": ["arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:123456789012:function:myFunction"] }]},{"Name": "Log all Publish API calls on a specific SNS topic","FieldSelectors": [{ "Field": "eventCategory", "Equals": ["Data"] },{ "Field": "resources.type", "Equals": ["AWS::SNS::Topic"] },{ "Field": "eventName", "Equals": ["Publish"] },{ "Field": "resources.ARN", "Equals": ["arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:myTopic.fifo"] }]}]'

Output:

{
    "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/myTrail",
    "AdvancedEventSelectors": [
        {
            "Name": "Log all management events",
            "FieldSelectors": [
                {
                    "Field": "eventCategory",
                    "Equals": [
                        "Management"
                    ]
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "Name": "Log PutObject and DeleteObject events for all but one bucket",
            "FieldSelectors": [
                {
                    "Field": "eventCategory",
                    "Equals": [
                        "Data"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "Field": "resources.type",
                    "Equals": [
                        "AWS::S3::Object"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "Field": "eventName",
                    "Equals": [
                        "PutObject",
                        "DeleteObject"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "Field": "resources.ARN",
                    "NotStartsWith": [
                        "arn:aws:s3:::sample_bucket_name/"
                    ]
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "Name": "Log data events for a specific Lambda function",
            "FieldSelectors": [
                {
                    "Field": "eventCategory",
                    "Equals": [
                        "Data"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "Field": "resources.type",
                    "Equals": [
                        "AWS::Lambda::Function"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "Field": "resources.ARN",
                    "Equals": [
                        "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:123456789012:function:myFunction"
                    ]
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "Name": "Log all Publish API calls on a specific SNS topic",
            "FieldSelectors": [
                {
                    "Field": "eventCategory",
                    "Equals": [
                        "Data"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "Field": "resources.type",
                    "Equals": [
                        "AWS::SNS::Topic"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "Field": "eventName",
                    "Equals": [
                        "Publish"
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "Field": "resources.ARN",
                    "Equals": [
                        "arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:myTopic.fifo"
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

For more information, see Log events by using advanced event selectors in the Amazon CloudTrail User Guide.

Example 2: Configure event selectors for a trail to log all management events and data events

You can configure up to 5 event selectors for a trail and up to 250 data resources for a trail. Event selectors are also referred to as basic event selectors. You can use event selectors to log management events and data events for S3 objects, Lambda functions, and DynnamoDB tables. To log data events for other resource types, you must use advanced event selectors.

The following example creates an event selector for a trail named TrailName to include all management events, data events for two Amazon S3 bucket/prefix combinations, and data events for a single Amazon Lambda function named hello-world-python-function.

aws cloudtrail put-event-selectors \
    --trail-name TrailName \
    --event-selectors '[{"ReadWriteType": "All","IncludeManagementEvents": true,"DataResources": [{"Type":"AWS::S3::Object", "Values": ["arn:aws:s3:::mybucket/prefix","arn:aws:s3:::mybucket2/prefix2"]},{"Type": "AWS::Lambda::Function","Values": ["arn:aws:lambda:us-west-2:999999999999:function:hello-world-python-function"]}]}]'

Output:

{
    "EventSelectors": [
        {
            "IncludeManagementEvents": true,
            "DataResources": [
                {
                    "Values": [
                        "arn:aws:s3:::mybucket/prefix",
                        "arn:aws:s3:::mybucket2/prefix2"
                    ],
                    "Type": "AWS::S3::Object"
                },
                {
                    "Values": [
                        "arn:aws:lambda:us-west-2:123456789012:function:hello-world-python-function"
                    ],
                    "Type": "AWS::Lambda::Function"
                },
            ],
            "ReadWriteType": "All"
        }
    ],
    "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName"
}

For more information, see Log events by using basic event selectors in the Amazon CloudTrail User Guide.

Example 3: Configure event selectors for a trail to log management events, all S3 data events on S3 objects, and all Lambda data events on functions in your account

The following example creates an event selector for a trail named TrailName2 that includes all management events, and all data events for all Amazon S3 buckets and Amazon Lambda functions in the Amazon account.

aws cloudtrail put-event-selectors \
    --trail-name TrailName2 \
    --event-selectors '[{"ReadWriteType": "All","IncludeManagementEvents": true,"DataResources": [{"Type":"AWS::S3::Object", "Values": ["arn:aws:s3"]},{"Type": "AWS::Lambda::Function","Values": ["arn:aws:lambda"]}]}]'

Output:

{
    "EventSelectors": [
        {
            "IncludeManagementEvents": true,
            "DataResources": [
                {
                    "Values": [
                        "arn:aws:s3"
                    ],
                    "Type": "AWS::S3::Object"
                },
                {
                    "Values": [
                        "arn:aws:lambda"
                    ],
                    "Type": "AWS::Lambda::Function"
                },
            ],
            "ReadWriteType": "All"
        }
    ],
    "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-2:123456789012:trail/TrailName2"
}

For more information, see Log events by using basic event selectors in the Amazon CloudTrail User Guide.

The following code example shows how to use remove-tags.

Amazon CLI

To remove tags for a trail

The following remove-tags command removes the specified tags for Trail1:

aws cloudtrail remove-tags --resource-id arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1 --tags-list Key=name Key=location

  • For API details, see RemoveTags in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use start-logging.

Amazon CLI

To start logging for a trail

The following start-logging command turns on logging for Trail1:

aws cloudtrail start-logging --name Trail1

  • For API details, see StartLogging in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use stop-logging.

Amazon CLI

To stop logging a trail

The following stop-logging command turns off logging for Trail1:

aws cloudtrail stop-logging --name Trail1

  • For API details, see StopLogging in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use update-subscription.

Amazon CLI

To update the configuration settings for a trail

The following update-subscription command updates the trail to specify a new S3 bucket and SNS topic:

aws cloudtrail update-subscription --name Trail1 --s3-new-bucket my-bucket-new --sns-new-topic my-topic-new

Output:

Setting up new S3 bucket my-bucket-new...
Setting up new SNS topic my-topic-new...
Creating/updating CloudTrail configuration...
CloudTrail configuration:
{
"trailList": [
  {
    "IncludeGlobalServiceEvents": true,
    "Name": "Trail1",
    "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1",
    "LogFileValidationEnabled": false,
    "IsMultiRegionTrail": false,
    "S3BucketName": "my-bucket-new",
    "SnsTopicName": "my-topic-new",
    "HomeRegion": "us-east-1"
  }
],
"ResponseMetadata": {
"HTTPStatusCode": 200,
"RequestId": "31126f8a-c616-11e5-9cc6-2fd637936879"
}
}

The following code example shows how to use update-trail.

Amazon CLI

To update a trail

The following update-trail command updates a trail to use an existing bucket for log delivery:

aws cloudtrail update-trail --name Trail1 --s3-bucket-name my-bucket

Output:

{
  "IncludeGlobalServiceEvents": true,
  "Name": "Trail1",
  "TrailARN": "arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-west-2:123456789012:trail/Trail1",
  "LogFileValidationEnabled": false,
  "IsMultiRegionTrail": true,
  "S3BucketName": "my-bucket"
}

  • For API details, see UpdateTrail in Amazon CLI Command Reference.

The following code example shows how to use validate-logs.

Amazon CLI

To validate a log file

The following validate-logs command validates the logs for Trail1:

aws cloudtrail validate-logs --trail-arn arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1 --start-time 20160129T19:00:00Z

Output:

Validating log files for trail arn:aws:cloudtrail:us-east-1:123456789012:trail/Trail1 between 2016-01-29T19:00:00Z and 2016-01-29T22:15:43Z
Results requested for 2016-01-29T19:00:00Z to 2016-01-29T22:15:43Z
Results found for 2016-01-29T19:24:57Z to 2016-01-29T21:24:57Z:
3/3 digest files valid
15/15 log files valid

  • For API details, see ValidateLogs in Amazon CLI Command Reference.