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In this lesson, you’ll explore the AWS CloudTrail console to audit API calls by inspecting event history. By the end, you’ll know how to navigate events, read their details, and extract key metadata.

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Viewing Event History

  1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open CloudTrail.
  2. In the left navigation pane, select Event history.
You’ll see a searchable list of API events with the following details:
ColumnDescription
Event nameThe API action (for example, RunInstances)
TimeTimestamp when the action occurred
UsernameIAM user or role that made the request
Event sourceAWS service endpoint (e.g., ec2.amazonaws.com)
ResourcesAffected resource types and identifiers
Select an event (for example, RunInstances) to view its full record.

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Event Summary

The Summary pane displays metadata for the selected event:
  • Timestamp: When the API call occurred
  • User identity: IAM user or role and access key
  • Service: The AWS service that received the call
  • Source IP: Originating IP address
  • Region: AWS region of the operation
  • Resources count: Number of resources referenced by the event
Below is a truncated JSON snippet of a RunInstances event: 
{
  "eventVersion": "1.08",
  "userIdentity": {
    "type": "IAMUser",
    "principalId": "AIDAZFDZ2ZUTSWJCHYKF",
    "arn": "arn:aws:iam::629470242021:user/kodekloud",
    "accountId": "629470242021",
    "accessKeyId": "ASIAZFDZ2ZUTSYABGGX",
    "userName": "kodekloud",
    "sessionContext": {
      "sessionIssuer": {},
      "webIdFederationData": {},
      "attributes": {
        "creationDate": "2023-10-08T17:21:45Z",
        "mfaAuthenticated": "false"
      }
    }
  },
  "eventTime": "2023-10-08T17:50:24Z",
  "eventSource": "ec2.amazonaws.com",
  "eventName": "RunInstances"
}
The console shows the last 90 days of event history by default. For long-term retention, create a CloudTrail trail to deliver logs to an S3 bucket.

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Request Parameters and Response Elements

Scrolling down shows the inputs you passed to the API and AWS’s response. The example below illustrates:
  • AMI ID and instance configuration
  • Key pair, security group, and tags
  • Network interfaces and instance state
{
  "awsRegion": "us-east-2",
  "sourceIPAddress": "70.175.135.47",
  "userAgent": "AWS Internal",
  "requestParameters": {
    "instancesSet": {
      "items": [
        {
          "imageId": "ami-036f5574583e16426",
          "minCount": 1,
          "maxCount": 1,
          "keyName": "Ohio-Key"
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "responseElements": {
    "instancesSet": {
      "items": [
        {
          "instanceId": "i-0123456789abcdef0",
          "instanceType": "t3.micro",
          "placement": {
            "availabilityZone": "us-east-2b"
          },
          "state": {
            "code": 0,
            "name": "pending"
          },
          "privateIpAddress": "172.31.29.166",
          "dnsName": "ip-172-31-29-166.us-east-2.compute.internal",
          "keyName": "Ohio-Key",
          "groupSet": {
            "items": [
              {
                "groupId": "sg-00ca240f71292feb2",
                "groupName": "Webserver_SG"
              }
            ]
          },
          "tagSet": {
            "items": [
              {
                "key": "Name",
                "value": "Server1"
              }
            ]
          },
          "networkInterfaceSet": {
            "items": [
              {
                "networkInterfaceId": "eni-0892be3483f983663",
                "subnetId": "subnet-d07cb873ce0ee06",
                "vpcId": "vpc-0fd1744d0f9c0fe7a",
                "attachment": {
                  "attachmentId": "eni-attach-07bbe98b3bf06adea",
                  "status": "attaching",
                  "attachTime": 1696787423000,
                  "deleteOnTermination": true,
                  "deviceIndex": 0,
                  "networkCardIndex": 0
                },
                "privateIpAddressesSet": {
                  "items": [
                    {
                      "privateIpAddress": "172.31.29.166",
                      "privateDnsName": "ip-172-31-29-166.us-east-2.compute.internal",
                      "primary": true
                    }
                  ]
                },
                "ipv6AddressesSet": {},
                "sourceDestCheck": true
              }
            ]
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

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Additional CloudTrail Metadata

At the bottom of each event record, CloudTrail provides management-level details that aid traceability: 
{
  "maintenanceOptions": {
    "autoRecovery": "default"
  },
  "privateDnsNameOptions": {
    "hostnameType": "ip-name",
    "enableResourceNameDnsARecord": true,
    "enableResourceNameDnsAAAARecord": false
  },
  "requestID": "b3116925-dea3-43fd-9b10-19932ce1925",
  "eventID": "e2f69382-7637-4deb-83ed-e6ee31cac1c4",
  "readOnly": false,
  "eventType": "AwsApiCall",
  "managementEvent": true,
  "recipientAccountId": "629470242021",
  "eventCategory": "Management",
  "sessionCredentialFromConsole": "true"
}
Make sure your IAM policy includes the cloudtrail:LookupEvents permission to view this data.

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Next Steps

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