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2.6 Ensure That the Log Metric Filter and Alerts Exist for Custom Role Changes (Automated)​

Profile Applicability​

• Level 1

Description​

It is recommended that a metric filter and alarm be established for changes to Identity and Access Management (IAM) role creation, deletion and updating activities.

Rationale​

Google Cloud IAM provides predefined roles that give granular access to specific Google Cloud Platform resources and prevent unwanted access to other resources. However, to cater to organization-specific needs, Cloud IAM also provides the ability to create custom roles. Project owners and administrators with the Organization Role Administrator role or the IAM Role Administrator role can create custom roles. Monitoring role creation, deletion and updating activities will help in identifying any over-privileged role at early stages.

Impact​

Enabling of logging may result in your project being charged for the additional logs usage.

Audit​

From Console:

Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

  1. Go to Logging/Logs-based Metrics by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.

  2. In the User-defined Metrics section, ensure that at least one metric <Log_Metric_Name> is present with filter text:

resource.type="iam_role" 
AND protoPayload.methodName = "google.iam.admin.v1.CreateRole" 
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.DeleteRole" 
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.UpdateRole"

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

  1. Go to Alerting by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerting.

  2. Under the Policies section, ensure that at least one alert policy exists for the log metric above. Clicking on the policy should show that it is configured with a condition. For example, Violates when: Any logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name> stream is above a threshold of zero(0) for greater than zero(0) seconds means that the alert will trigger for any new owner change. Verify that the chosen alerting thresholds make sense for the user's organization.

  3. Ensure that the appropriate notifications channels have been set up.

From Command Line:

Ensure that the prescribed log metric is present:

  1. List the log metrics:
gcloud beta logging metrics list --format json
  1. Ensure that the output contains at least one metric with the filter set to:
resource.type="iam_role" AND protoPayload.methodName = "google.iam.admin.v1.CreateRole" OR
 protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.DeleteRole" OR
 protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.UpdateRole"
  1. Note the value of the property metricDescriptor.type for the identified metric, in the format logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>.

Ensure that the prescribed alerting policy is present:

  1. List the alerting policies:
gcloud alpha monitoring policies list --format json
  1. Ensure that the output contains an least one alert policy where:
  • conditions.conditionThreshold.filter is set to metric.type=\"logging.googleapis.com/user/<Log Metric Name>\"
  • AND enabled is set to true.

Remediation​

From Console:

Create the prescribed log metric:

  1. Go to Logging/Logs-based Metrics by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics and click "CREATE METRIC".

  2. Click the down arrow symbol on the Filter Bar at the rightmost corner and select Convert to Advanced Filter.

  3. Clear any text and add: 

resource.type="iam_role" 
AND protoPayload.methodName = "google.iam.admin.v1.CreateRole" 
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.DeleteRole" 
OR protoPayload.methodName="google.iam.admin.v1.UpdateRole"

  1. Click Submit Filter. Display logs appear based on the filter text entered by the user.

  2. In the Metric Editor menu on the right, fill out the name field. Set Units to 1 (default) and Type to Counter. This ensures that the log metric counts the number of log entries matching the advanced logs query.

  3. Click Create Metric.

Create a prescribed Alert Policy:

  1. Identify the new metric that was just created under the section User-defined Metrics at https://console.cloud.google.com/logs/metrics.

  2. Click the 3-dot icon in the rightmost column for the metric and select Create alert from Metric. A new page displays.

  3. Fill out the alert policy configuration and click Save. Choose the alerting threshold and configuration that makes sense for the user's organization. For example, a threshold of zero(0) for the most recent value ensures that a notification is triggered for every owner change in the project:

Set `Aggregator` to `Count`

Set `Configuration`:

- Condition: above

- Threshold: 0

- For: most recent value

  1. Configure the desired notification channels in the section Notifications.

  2. Name the policy and click Save.

From Command Line:

Create the prescribed Log Metric:

Create the prescribed Alert Policy:

References​

https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/logs-based-metrics/
https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/custom-metrics/
https://cloud.google.com/monitoring/alerts/
https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/reference/tools/gcloud-logging
https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-custom-roles