Logging AWS AppSync API calls using AWS CloudTrail - AWS AppSync GraphQL
AWS AppSync information in CloudTrailAWS AppSync data events in CloudTrailUnderstanding AWS AppSync log file entries

Logging AWS AppSync API calls using AWS CloudTrail

AWS AppSync is integrated with AWS CloudTrail, a service that provides a record of actions taken by a user, role, or AWS service in AWS AppSync. CloudTrail captures all API calls for AWS AppSync as events. The calls captured include calls from the AWS AppSync console and from code calls to the AWS AppSync APIs. You can use the information collected by CloudTrail to determine the request that was made to AWS AppSync, the IP address of the requester, who made the request, when the request was made, and additional details.

You can create a trail to enable continuous delivery of CloudTrail events to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket, including events for AWS AppSync. If you don't configure a trail, you can still view the most recent events in the CloudTrail console.

For more information about CloudTrail, see the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.

AWS AppSync information in CloudTrail

CloudTrail is enabled on your AWS account when you create the account. In the CloudTrail console 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 in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.

For an ongoing record of events in your AWS account, including events for AWS AppSync, create a trail. By default, when you create a trail in the 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. Additionally, 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 in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide:

CloudTrail logs all AWS AppSync API operations. For example, calls to the CreateGraphqlApi, CreateDataSource, and ListResolvers APIs generate entries in the CloudTrail log files. These and other operations are documented in the AWS AppSync API Reference.

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

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

  • Whether the request was made with temporary security credentials for a role or federated user.

  • Whether the request was made by another AWS service.

For more information, see CloudTrail userIdentity Element in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.

AWS AppSync data events in CloudTrail

Data events provide information about the resource operations performed on or in a resource (for example, reading or writing to an Amazon S3 object). These are also known as data plane operations. Data events are often high-volume activities. By default, CloudTrail doesn’t log data events. The CloudTrail Event history doesn't record data events.

Additional charges apply for data events. For more information about CloudTrail pricing, see AWS CloudTrail Pricing.

You can log data events for the AWS::AppSync::GraphQL resource type by using the CloudTrail console, AWS CLI, or CloudTrail API operations (these include query, mutation, and subscription operations, connect operations to your real-time WebSocket endpoint, but not messages sent over your real-time WebSocket endpoint.) For more information about how to log data events, see Logging data events with the AWS Management Console and Logging data events with the AWS Command Line Interface in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide.

The following table lists the AWS AppSync resource type for which you can log data events. The Data event type (console) column shows the value to choose from the Data event type list in the CloudTrail console. The resources.type value column shows the resources.type value, which you would specify when configuring advanced event selectors using the AWS CLI or CloudTrail APIs. The Data APIs logged to CloudTrail column shows the API calls logged to CloudTrail for the resource type.

Data event type (console) resources.type value Data APIs logged to CloudTrail
AppSync GraphQL AWS::AppSync::GraphQL

GraphQL

You can configure advanced event selectors to filter on the eventName, readOnly, and resources.ARN fields to log only those events that are important to you. For more information about these fields, see AdvancedFieldSelector in the AWS CloudTrail API Reference.

[
  {
    "name": "Only 1 AppSync API",
    "fieldSelectors": [
      {
        "field": "eventCategory",
        "equals": [
          "Data"
        ]
      },
      {
        "field": "resources.type",
        "equals": [
          "AWS::AppSync::GraphQL"
        ]
      },
      {
        "field": "resources.ARN",
        "equals": [
          "arn:aws:appsync:us-east-1:111122223333:apis/YourGraphQLApiId"
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
]

Understanding AWS AppSync log file entries

CloudTrail delivers events as log files that 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, the request parameters, and so on. Because these log files aren't an ordered stack trace of the public API calls, they don't appear in any specific order.

The following example CloudTrail log entry demonstrates the CreateApiKey operation.

{
  "Records": [{
    "eventVersion": "1.05",
    "userIdentity": {
      "type": "IAMUser",
      "principalId": "A1B2C3D4E5F6G7EXAMPLE",
      "arn": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:user/Alice",
      "accountId": "111122223333",
      "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
      "userName": "diego_ramirez"
    },
    "eventTime": "2018-01-31T21:49:09Z",
    "eventSource": "appsync.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "CreateApiKey",
    "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "192.2.0.1",
    "userAgent": "aws-cli/1.11.72 Python/2.7.11 Darwin/16.7.0 botocore/1.5.35",
    "requestParameters": {
      "apiId": "a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9jexample"
    },
    "responseElements": {
      "apiKey": {
      "id": "***",
      "expires": 1518037200000
      }
    },
    "requestID": "99999999-9999-9999-9999-999999999999",
    "eventID": "99999999-9999-9999-9999-999999999999",
    "readOnly": false,
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "recipientAccountId": "111122223333"
    }
  ]
}

The following example CloudTrail log entry demonstrates the ListApiKeys operation.

{
  "Records": [{
    "eventVersion": "1.05",
    "userIdentity": {
      "type": "IAMUser",
      "principalId": "A1B2C3D4E5F6G7EXAMPLE",
      "arn": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:user/diego_ramirez",
      "accountId": "111122223333",
      "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
      "userName": "diego_ramirez"
    },
    "eventTime": "2018-01-31T21:49:09Z",
    "eventSource": "appsync.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "ListApiKeys",
    "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "192.2.0.1",
    "userAgent": "aws-cli/1.11.72 Python/2.7.11 Darwin/16.7.0 botocore/1.5.35",
    "requestParameters": {
      "apiId": "a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9jexample"
    },
    "responseElements": {
      "apiKeys": [
              {
                    "id": "***",
                    "expires": 1517954400000
              },
              {
                    "id": "***",
                    "expires": 1518037200000
              },
            ]
    },
    "requestID": "99999999-9999-9999-9999-999999999999",
    "eventID": "99999999-9999-9999-9999-999999999999",
    "readOnly": false,
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "recipientAccountId": "111122223333"
    }
  ]
}

The following example CloudTrail log entry demonstrates the DeleteApiKey operation.

{
  "Records": [{
    "eventVersion": "1.05",
    "userIdentity": {
      "type": "IAMUser",
      "principalId": "A1B2C3D4E5F6G7EXAMPLE",
      "arn": "arn:aws:iam::111122223333:user/diego_ramirez",
      "accountId": "111122223333",
      "accessKeyId": "AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE",
      "userName": "diego_ramirez"
    },
    "eventTime": "2018-01-31T21:49:09Z",
    "eventSource": "appsync.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "DeleteApiKey",
    "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "192.2.0.1",
    "userAgent": "aws-cli/1.11.72 Python/2.7.11 Darwin/16.7.0 botocore/1.5.35",
    "requestParameters": {
      "id": "***",
      "apiId": "a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9jexample"
    },
    "responseElements": null,
    "requestID": "99999999-9999-9999-9999-999999999999",
    "eventID": "99999999-9999-9999-9999-999999999999",
    "readOnly": false,
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "recipientAccountId": "111122223333"
    }
  ]
}

The following example CloudTrail log entry demonstrates a successful GraphQL mutation authorized with a custom Lambda function authorizer.

{
  "eventVersion": "1.10",
    "userIdentity": {
      "type": "Unknown"
    },
    "eventTime": "2024-11-06T15:42:30Z",
    "eventSource": "appsync.amazonaws.com",
    "eventName": "GraphQL",
    "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
    "sourceIPAddress": "15.248.1.214",
    "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:131.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/131.0",
    "requestParameters": null,
    "responseElements": null,
    "additionalEventData": {
      "operationName": "MyMutation",
      "authType": [
        "AWS_LAMBDA"
      ],
      "fieldAuthorizationResults": {
        "deniedFields": []
      }
    },
    "requestID": "c2d3768b-3446-40a1-bd95-8399fe776f96",
    "eventID": "21568be1-a1a8-4f43-b978-63cb4cc02a96",
    "readOnly": false,
    "resources": [
    {
      "accountId": "123456789012",
      "type": "AWS::AppSync::GraphQLApi",
      "ARN": "arn:aws:appsync:us-west-2:123456789012:apis/rxfqcxzi3nbvza2hsq4njqqq6u"
    }
    ],
    "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
    "managementEvent": false,
    "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",
    "eventCategory": "Data"
}

The following example CloudTrail log entry demonstrates a partially successful GraphQL operation authorized with a custom Lambda function authorizer. Note the fieldAuthorizationResults.deniedFields property that specifies the denied fields.

{
  "eventVersion": "1.10",
  "userIdentity": {
    "type": "Unknown"
  },
  "eventTime": "2024-11-06T16:11:49Z",
  "eventSource": "appsync.amazonaws.com",
  "eventName": "GraphQL",
  "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
  "sourceIPAddress": "15.248.1.214",
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:131.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/131.0",
  "requestParameters": null,
  "responseElements": null,
  "additionalEventData": {
    "operationName": "MyMutation",
    "authType": [
      "AWS_LAMBDA"
    ],
    "fieldAuthorizationResults": {
      "deniedFields": [
        "arn:aws:appsync:us-west-2:123456789012:apis/rxfqcxzi3nbvza2hsq4njqqq6u/types/Mutation/fields/createPost",
        "arn:aws:appsync:us-west-2:123456789012:apis/rxfqcxzi3nbvza2hsq4njqqq6u/types/Subscription/fields/onCreatePost",
        "arn:aws:appsync:us-west-2:123456789012:apis/rxfqcxzi3nbvza2hsq4njqqq6u/types/Post/fields/status"
      ]
    }
  },
  "requestID": "ae817c4c-66ba-4f64-92a5-ba9c9c341dcd",
  "eventID": "30109698-7605-476a-9dff-b7ed78d134dc",
  "readOnly": false,
  "resources": [
    {
      "accountId": "123456789012",
      "type": "AWS::AppSync::GraphQLApi",
      "ARN": "arn:aws:appsync:us-west-2:123456789012:apis/rxfqcxzi3nbvza2hsq4njqqq6u"
    }
  ],
  "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
  "managementEvent": false,
  "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",
  "eventCategory": "Data"
}

The following example CloudTrail log entry demonstrates a failed GraphQL operation.

{
  "eventVersion": "1.10",
  "userIdentity": {
    "type": "Unknown"
  },
  "eventTime": "2024-11-06T15:51:11Z",
  "eventSource": "appsync.amazonaws.com",
  "eventName": "GraphQL",
  "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
  "sourceIPAddress": "15.248.1.214",
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:131.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/131.0",
  "errorCode": "AccessDenied",
  "errorMessage": "{\n \"errors\" : [ {\n \"errorType\" : \"UnauthorizedException\",\n \"message\" : \"You are not authorized to make this call.\"\n } ]\n}",
  "requestParameters": null,
  "responseElements": null,
  "additionalEventData": {
    "operationName": "MyFullyDeniedLambdaMutation"
  },
  "requestID": "0bef3cf3-a48b-4de9-8b1f-038afb563516",
  "eventID": "b738651f-4ec0-4548-8fec-200c6b42842b",
  "readOnly": false,
  "resources": [
    {
      "accountId": "123456789012",
      "type": "AWS::AppSync::GraphQLApi",
      "ARN": "arn:aws:appsync:us-west-2:123456789012:apis/rxfqcxzi3nbvza2hsq4njqqq6u"
    }
  ],
  "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
  "managementEvent": false,
  "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",
  "eventCategory": "Data"
}

The following example demonstrates a successful GraphQL request.

{
  "eventVersion": "1.10",
  "userIdentity": {
    "type": "AssumedRole",
    "principalId": "AIDACKCEVSQ6C2EXAMPLE:jane_doe",
    "arn": "arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/admin/jane_doe",
    "accountId": "123456789012",
    "sessionContext": {
      "sessionIssuer": {
        "type": "Role",
        "principalId": "AIDACKCEVSQ6C2EXAMPLE",
        "arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/admin",
        "accountId": "123456789012",
        "userName": "jane_doe"
      },
      "attributes": {
        "creationDate": "2024-11-06T15:40:09Z",
        "mfaAuthenticated": "false"
      }
    }
  },
  "eventTime": "2024-11-06T16:03:43Z",
  "eventSource": "appsync.amazonaws.com",
  "eventName": "GraphQL",
  "awsRegion": "us-west-2",
  "sourceIPAddress": "15.248.1.214",
  "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:131.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/131.0",
  "requestParameters": null,
  "responseElements": null,
  "additionalEventData": {
    "operationName": "IamFullSuccess",
    "authType": [
      "AWS_IAM"
    ],
    "fieldAuthorizationResults": {
      "allowedFields": [
        "arn:aws:appsync:us-west-2:123456789012:apis/rxfqcxzi3nbvza2hsq4njqqq6u/types/Mutation/fields/createSecondPostAllowed"
      ],
      "deniedFields": []
    }
  },
  "requestID": "edc6bbbf-6bf2-40f5-820f-ef444f12e0c1",
  "eventID": "524656a5-0925-4370-9e7e-08888e9c299f",
  "readOnly": false,
  "resources": [
    {
      "accountId": "123456789012",
      "type": "AWS::AppSync::GraphQLApi",
      "ARN": "arn:aws:appsync:us-west-2:123456789012:apis/rxfqcxzi3nbvza2hsq4njqqq6u"
    }
  ],
  "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
  "managementEvent": false,
  "recipientAccountId": "123456789012",
  "eventCategory": "Data"
}