Logging AWS Account Management API calls using AWS CloudTrail - AWS Account Management
Account Management information in CloudTrailUnderstanding the Account Management log entries

Logging AWS Account Management API calls using AWS CloudTrail

The AWS Account Management APIs are integrated with AWS CloudTrail, a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or an AWS service that calls an Account Management operation. CloudTrail captures all Account Management API calls as events. The calls captured include all calls to the Account Management operations. If you create a trail, you can turn on continuous delivery of CloudTrail events to an Amazon S3 bucket, including events for Account Management operations. If you don't configure a trail, you can still view the most recent events in the CloudTrail console in Event history. Using the information collected by CloudTrail, you can determine the request that called an Account Management operation, the IP address used to make the request, who made the request and when, and additional details.

To learn more about CloudTrail, see the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.

Account Management information in CloudTrail

CloudTrail is turned on in your AWS account when you create the account. When activity occurs with an Account Management operation, CloudTrail records that activity in a CloudTrail event along with other AWS service events in Event history. You can view, search, and download recent events in your AWS account. For more information, see Viewing Events with CloudTrail Event History.

For an ongoing record of events in your AWS account, including events for Account Management operations, create a trail. A trail enables CloudTrail to deliver log files to an Amazon S3 bucket. By default, when you create a trail in the AWS Management Console, the trail applies to all AWS Regions. The trail logs events from all Regions in the AWS partition and delivers the log files to the Amazon S3 bucket that you specify. You can configure other AWS services to further analyze and act upon the event data collected in CloudTrail logs. For more information, see the following:

AWS CloudTrail logs all Account Management API operations found in the API Reference section of this guide. For example, calls to the CreateAccount, DeleteAlternateContact, and PutAlternateContact operations generate entries in the CloudTrail log files.

Every event or log entry contains information about who generated the request. The identity information helps you determine the following:

  • Whether the request was made with root user or AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user credentials

  • Whether the request was made with temporary security credentials for an IAM role or federated user

  • Whether the request was made by another AWS service

For more information, see the CloudTrail userIdentity element.

Understanding the Account Management log entries

A trail is a configuration that enables delivery of events as log files to an Amazon S3 bucket that you specify. CloudTrail log files contain one or more log entries. An event represents a single request from any source and includes information about the requested operation, the date and time of the operation, request parameters, and so on. CloudTrail log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, so they don't appear in any specific order.

Example 1: The following example shows a CloudTrail log entry for a call to the GetAlternateContact operation to retrieve the current OPERATIONS alternate contact for an account. The values returned by the operation aren't included in the logged information.

Example 1
{
  "eventVersion": "1.08",
  "userIdentity": {
    "type": "AssumedRole",
    "principalId": "AROA1234567890EXAMPLE:AccountAPITests",
    "arn":"arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/ServiceTestRole/AccountAPITests",
    "accountId": "123456789012",
    "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
    "sessionContext": {
      "sessionIssuer": {
        "type": "Role",
        "principalId": "AROA1234567890EXAMPLE",
        "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ServiceTestRole",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "userName": "ServiceTestRole"
      },
      "webIdFederationData": {},
      "attributes": {
        "mfaAuthenticated": "false",
        "creationDate": "2021-04-30T19:25:53Z"
      }
    }
  },
  "eventTime": "2021-04-30T19:26:15Z",
  "eventSource": "account.amazonaws.com",
  "eventName": "GetAlternateContact",
  "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
  "sourceIPAddress": "10.24.34.250",
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0",
  "requestParameters": {
    "alternateContactType": "SECURITY"
  },
  "responseElements": null,
  "requestID": "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-1234-abcd-111111111111",
  "eventID": "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-1234-abcd-222222222222",
  "readOnly": true,
  "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
  "managementEvent": true,
  "eventCategory": "Management",
  "recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}

Example 2: The following example shows a CloudTrail log entry for a call to the PutAlternateContact operation to add a new BILLING alternate contact to an account.

{
  "eventVersion": "1.08",
  "userIdentity": {
    "type": "AssumedRole",
    "principalId": "AROA1234567890EXAMPLE:AccountAPITests",
    "arn": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/ServiceTestRole/AccountAPITests",
    "accountId": "123456789012",
    "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
    "sessionContext": {
      "sessionIssuer": {
        "type": "Role",
        "principalId": "AROA1234567890EXAMPLE",
        "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ServiceTestRole",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "userName": "ServiceTestRole"
      },
      "webIdFederationData": {},
      "attributes": {
        "mfaAuthenticated": "false",
        "creationDate": "2021-04-30T18:33:00Z"
      }
    }
  },
  "eventTime": "2021-04-30T18:33:08Z",
  "eventSource": "account.amazonaws.com",
  "eventName": "PutAlternateContact",
  "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
  "sourceIPAddress": "10.24.34.250",
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0",
  "requestParameters": {
    "name": "*Alejandro Rosalez*",
    "emailAddress": "alrosalez@example.com",
    "title": "CFO",
    "alternateContactType": "BILLING"
  },
  "responseElements": null,
  "requestID": "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-1234-abcd-333333333333",
  "eventID": "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-1234-abcd-444444444444",
  "readOnly": false,
  "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
  "managementEvent": true,
  "eventCategory": "Management",
  "recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}

Example 3: The following example shows a CloudTrail log entry for a call to the DeleteAlternateContact operation to delete the current OPERATIONS alternate contact.

{
  "eventVersion": "1.08",
  "userIdentity": {
    "type": "AssumedRole",
    "principalId": "AROA1234567890EXAMPLE:AccountAPITests",
    "arn":"arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/ServiceTestRole/AccountAPITests",
    "accountId": "123456789012",
    "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
    "sessionContext": {
      "sessionIssuer": {
        "type": "Role",
        "principalId": "AROA1234567890EXAMPLE",
        "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/ServiceTestRole",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "userName": "ServiceTestRole"
      },
      "webIdFederationData": {},
      "attributes": {
        "mfaAuthenticated": "false",
        "creationDate": "2021-04-30T18:33:00Z"
      }
    }
  },
  "eventTime": "2021-04-30T18:33:16Z",
  "eventSource": "account.amazonaws.com",
  "eventName": "DeleteAlternateContact",
  "awsRegion": "us-east-1",
  "sourceIPAddress": "10.24.34.250",
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0",
  "requestParameters": {
    "alternateContactType": "OPERATIONS"
  },
  "responseElements": null,
  "requestID": "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-1234-abcd-555555555555",
  "eventID": "1a2b3c4d-5e6f-1234-abcd-666666666666",
  "readOnly": false,
  "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
  "managementEvent": true,
  "eventCategory": "Management",
  "recipientAccountId": "123456789012"
}