---
name: security-audit-logging
description: >
  Implement comprehensive security audit logging for compliance, forensics, and
  SIEM integration. Use when building audit trails, compliance logging, or
  security monitoring systems.
---

# Security Audit Logging

## Table of Contents

- [Overview](#overview)
- [When to Use](#when-to-use)
- [Quick Start](#quick-start)
- [Reference Guides](#reference-guides)
- [Best Practices](#best-practices)

## Overview

Implement comprehensive audit logging for security events, user actions, and system changes with structured logging, retention policies, and SIEM integration.

## When to Use

- Compliance requirements (SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS)
- Security monitoring
- Forensic investigations
- User activity tracking
- System change auditing
- Breach detection

## Quick Start

Minimal working example:

```javascript
// audit-logger.js
const winston = require("winston");
const { ElasticsearchTransport } = require("winston-elasticsearch");

class AuditLogger {
  constructor() {
    this.logger = winston.createLogger({
      level: "info",
      format: winston.format.combine(
        winston.format.timestamp(),
        winston.format.json(),
      ),
      transports: [
        // File transport
        new winston.transports.File({
          filename: "logs/audit.log",
          maxsize: 10485760, // 10MB
          maxFiles: 30,
          tailable: true,
        }),

        // Elasticsearch transport for SIEM
        new ElasticsearchTransport({
          level: "info",
          clientOpts: {
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)
```

## Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the `references/` directory:

| Guide | Contents |
|---|---|
| [Node.js Audit Logger](references/nodejs-audit-logger.md) | Node.js Audit Logger |
| [Python Audit Logging System](references/python-audit-logging-system.md) | Python Audit Logging System |
| [Java Audit Logging](references/java-audit-logging.md) | Java Audit Logging |

## Best Practices

### ✅ DO

- Log all security events
- Use structured logging
- Include timestamps (UTC)
- Log user context
- Implement log retention
- Encrypt sensitive logs
- Monitor log integrity
- Send to SIEM
- Include request IDs

### ❌ DON'T

- Log passwords/secrets
- Log sensitive PII unnecessarily
- Skip failed attempts
- Allow log tampering
- Store logs insecurely
- Ignore log analysis


---
Source attribution: aj-geddes
Original project: https://github.com/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/blob/3f5182cfd739fc113f4af5244a1cf342ad7f7911/skills/security-audit-logging/SKILL.md
License: MIT
License information: https://opensource.org/license/mit
Original upstream instructions; downloaded from Mega AI Hub.

## Upstream license notice

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 AJ Geddes

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.


# Mega AI Hub resource metadata

Creator / publisher: aj-geddes
Original project: https://github.com/aj-geddes/useful-ai-prompts/blob/3f5182cfd739fc113f4af5244a1cf342ad7f7911/skills/security-audit-logging/SKILL.md
Attribution basis: Source repository record

Fields of work: Development & Engineering, Legal, Operations
Roles: Compliance Officer, IT Operations, Security Engineer
Specialties: Backend
Tools: Elasticsearch
Country applicability: Country not specified
Classification basis: Source catalog labels
Instruction SHA-256: 2a9fadd6a6925940999c50152a3fdc62862fa54629fccfb1ccc80c8044570ecc