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SQL Server Audit action groups and actions

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Applies to: SQL Server

The SQL Server Audit feature enables you to audit server-level and database-level groups of events and individual events. For more information, see SQL Server Audit (Database Engine).

SQL Server audits consist of zero or more audit action items. These audit action items can be either a group of actions, such as SERVER_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP, or individual actions such as SELECT operations on a table.

Note

SERVER_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP includes CREATE, ALTER, and DROP for any server object (Database or Endpoint).

Audits can have the following categories of actions:

  • Server-level. These actions include server operations, such as management changes and logon and logoff operations.

  • Database-level. These actions encompass data manipulation languages (DML) and data definition language (DDL) operations.

  • Audit-level. These actions include actions in the auditing process.

Some actions performed on SQL Server auditing components are intrinsically audited in a specific audit, and in these cases audit events occur automatically because the event occurred on the parent object.

The following actions are intrinsically audited:

  • Server Audit state change (setting state to ON or OFF)

The following events aren't intrinsically audited:

  • CREATE SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION
  • ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION
  • DROP SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION
  • CREATE DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION
  • ALTER DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION
  • DROP DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION

All audits are disabled when initially created.

Server-level audit action groups

Server-level audit action groups are actions similar to SQL Server security audit event classes. For more information, see SQL Server Event Class Reference.

The following table describes the server-level audit action groups and provides the equivalent SQL Server Event Class where applicable.

Action group name Description
APPLICATION_ROLE_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP This event is raised whenever a password is changed for an application role. Equivalent to the Audit App Role Change Password Event Class.
AUDIT_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever any audit is created, modified, or deleted. This event is raised whenever any audit specification is created, modified, or deleted. Any change to an audit is audited in that audit. Equivalent to the Audit Change Audit Event Class.
BACKUP_RESTORE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a backup or restore command is issued. Equivalent to the Audit Backup and Restore Event Class.
BATCH_COMPLETED_GROUP This event is raised whenever any batch text, stored procedure, or transaction management operation completes executing. It's raised after the batch completes and audits the entire batch or stored procedure text, as sent from the client, including the result. Equivalent to the SQL:BatchCompleted Event Class.

Applies to: SQL Server 2022 (16.x) and later versions.
BATCH_STARTED_GROUP This event is raised whenever any batch text, stored procedure, or transaction management operation starts to execute. It's raised before execution and audits the entire batch or stored procedure text, as sent from the client. Equivalent to the SQL:BatchStarting Event Class.

Applies to: SQL Server 2022 (16.x) and later versions.
BROKER_LOGIN_GROUP This event is raised to report audit messages related to Service Broker transport security. Equivalent to the Audit Broker Login Event Class.
DATABASE_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a database is created, altered, or dropped. This event is raised whenever any database is created, altered, or dropped. Equivalent to the Audit Database Management Event Class.
DATABASE_LOGOUT_GROUP This event is raised when a contained database user signs out of a database. Equivalent to the Audit Logout Event Class.
DATABASE_MIRRORING_LOGIN_GROUP This event is raised to report audit messages related to database mirroring transport security. Equivalent to the Audit Database Mirroring Login Event Class.
DATABASE_OBJECT_ACCESS_GROUP This event is raised whenever database objects such as message type, assembly, contract are accessed. This event is raised for any access to any database. Note: This could potentially lead to large audit records.

Equivalent to the Audit Database Object Access Event Class.
DATABASE_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a CREATE, ALTER, or DROP statement is executed on database objects, such as schemas. This event is raised whenever any database object is created, altered, or dropped. Note: This could lead to large quantities of audit records.

Equivalent to the Audit Database Object Management Event Class.
DATABASE_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a change of owner for objects within database scope. This event is raised for any object ownership change in any database on the server. Equivalent to the Audit Database Object Take Ownership Event Class.
DATABASE_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY is issued for database objects, such as assemblies and schemas. This event is raised for any object permission change for any database on the server. Equivalent to the Audit Database Object GDR Event Class.
DATABASE_OPERATION_GROUP This event is raised when operations in a database, such as checkpoint or subscribe query notification, occur. This event is raised on any database operation on any database. Equivalent to the Audit Database Operation Event Class.
DATABASE_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when you use the ALTER AUTHORIZATION statement to change the owner of a database, and the permissions that are required to do that are checked. This event is raised for any database ownership change on any database on the server. Equivalent to the Audit Change Database Owner Event Class.
DATABASE_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY is issued for a statement permission by any principal in SQL Server (This applies to database-only events, such as granting permissions on a database).

This event is raised for any database permission change (GDR) for any database in the server. Equivalent to the Audit Database Scope GDR Event Class.
DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when principals, such as users, are created, altered, or dropped from a database. Equivalent to the Audit Database Principal Management Event Class. (Also equivalent to the Audit Add DB Principal Event Class, which occurs on the deprecated sp_grantdbaccess, sp_revokedbaccess, sp_addPrincipal, and sp_dropPrincipal stored procedures.)

This event is raised whenever a database role is added to or removed by using the sp_addrole, sp_droprole stored procedures. This event is raised whenever any database principals are created, altered, or dropped from any database. Equivalent to the Audit Add Role Event Class.
DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP This event is raised when there's an impersonation operation in the database scope such as EXECUTE AS <principal> or SETPRINCIPAL. This event is raised for impersonations done in any database. Equivalent to the Audit Database Principal Impersonation Event Class.
DATABASE_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a login is added to or removed from a database role. This event class is raised for the sp_addrolemember, sp_changegroup, and sp_droprolemember stored procedures. This event is raised on any Database role member change in any database. Equivalent to the Audit Add Member to DB Role Event Class.
DBCC_GROUP This event is raised whenever a principal issues any DBCC command. Equivalent to the Audit DBCC Event Class.
EXTGOV_OPERATION_GROUP This event is raised on external governance feature enablement, external governance feature disablement, external governance policies synchronization, and external governance policies based permissions enforcement.
FAILED_DATABASE_AUTHENTICATION_GROUP Indicates that a principal tried to log on to a contained database and failed. Events in this class are raised by new connections or by connections that are reused from a connection pool. Equivalent to the Audit Login Failed Event Class.
FAILED_LOGIN_GROUP Indicates that a principal tried to log on to SQL Server and failed. Events in this class are raised by new connections or by connections that are reused from a connection pool. Equivalent to the Audit Login Failed Event Class. This audit doesn't apply to Azure SQL Database.
FULLTEXT_GROUP Indicates fulltext event occurred. Equivalent to the Audit Fulltext Event Class.
LOGIN_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP This event is raised whenever a login password is changed by way of ALTER LOGIN statement or sp_password stored procedure. Equivalent to the Audit Login Change Password Event Class.
LOGOUT_GROUP Indicates that a principal has logged out of SQL Server. Events in this class are raised by new connections or by connections that are reused from a connection pool. Equivalent to the Audit Logout Event Class.
SCHEMA_OBJECT_ACCESS_GROUP This event is raised whenever an object permission has been used in the schema. Equivalent to the Audit Schema Object Access Event Class.
SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a CREATE, ALTER, or DROP operation is performed on a schema. Equivalent to the Audit Schema Object Management Event Class.

This event is raised on schema objects. Equivalent to the Audit Object Derived Permission Event Class.

This event is raised whenever any schema of any database changes. Equivalent to the Audit Statement Permission Event Class.
SCHEMA_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when the permissions to change the owner of schema object (such as a table, procedure, or function) is checked. This occurs when the ALTER AUTHORIZATION statement is used to assign an owner to an object. This event is raised for any schema ownership change for any database on the server. Equivalent to the Audit Schema Object Take Ownership Event Class.
SCHEMA_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a grant, deny, revoke is performed against a schema object. Equivalent to the Audit Schema Object GDR Event Class.
SERVER_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised for CREATE, ALTER, or DROP operations on server objects. Equivalent to the Audit Server Object Management Event Class.
SERVER_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when the owner is changed for objects in server scope. Equivalent to the Audit Server Object Take Ownership Event Class.
SERVER_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY is issued for a server object permission by any principal in SQL Server. Equivalent to the Audit Server Object GDR Event Class.
SERVER_OPERATION_GROUP This event is raised when Security Audit operations such as altering settings, resources, external access, or authorization are used, or a statement requiring the VIEW SERVER STATE permission is run. Equivalent to the Audit Server Operation Event Class.
SERVER_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY is issued for permissions in the server scope. Equivalent to the Audit Server Scope GDR Event Class.
SERVER_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when server principals are created, altered, or dropped. Equivalent to the Audit Server Principal Management Event Class.

This event is raised when a principal issues the sp_defaultdb or sp_defaultlanguage stored procedures or ALTER LOGIN statements. Equivalent to the Audit Addlogin Event Class.

This event is raised on the sp_addlogin and sp_droplogin stored procedures. Also equivalent to the Audit Login Change Property Event Class.

This event is raised for the sp_grantlogin or sp_revokelogin stored procedures. Equivalent to the Audit Login GDR Event Class.
SERVER_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP This event is raised when there's an impersonation within server scope, such as EXECUTE AS <login>. Equivalent to the Audit Server Principal Impersonation Event Class.
SERVER_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a login is added or removed from a fixed server role. This event is raised for the sp_addsrvrolemember and sp_dropsrvrolemember stored procedures. Equivalent to the Audit Add Login to Server Role Event Class.
SERVER_STATE_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when the SQL Server service state is modified. Equivalent to the Audit Server Starts and Stops Event Class.
SUCCESSFUL_DATABASE_AUTHENTICATION_GROUP Indicates that a principal successfully logged in to a contained database.
SUCCESSFUL_LOGIN_GROUP Indicates that a principal has successfully logged in to SQL Server. Events in this class are raised by new connections or by connections that are reused from a connection pool. Equivalent to the Audit Login Event Class.
TRACE_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised for all statements that check for the ALTER TRACE permission. Equivalent to the Audit Server Alter Trace Event Class.
TRANSACTION_GROUP This event is raised for BEGIN TRANSACTION, ROLLBACK TRANSACTION, and COMMIT TRANSACTION operations, both for explicit calls to those statements and implicit transaction operations. This event is also raised for UNDO operations for individual statements caused by the rollback of a transaction.
USER_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP This event is raised whenever the password of a contained database user is changed by using the ALTER USER statement.
USER_DEFINED_AUDIT_GROUP This group monitors events raised by using sp_audit_write. Typically triggers or stored procedures include calls to sp_audit_write to enable auditing of important events.
LEDGER_OPERATION_GROUP This event is raised for following actions:

GENERATE LEDGER DIGEST - When you generate a ledger digest

VERIFY LEDGER - When you verify a ledger digest.

Applies to: Azure SQL Database

Considerations

Server-level action groups cover actions across a SQL Server instance. For example, any schema object access check in any database is recorded if the appropriate action group is added to a server audit specification. In a database audit specification, only schema object accesses in that database are recorded.

Server-level actions don't allow for detailed filtering on database-level actions. A database-level audit, such as audit of SELECT actions on the Customers table for logins in the Employee group is required to implement detailed action filtering. Don't include server-scoped objects, such as the system views, in a user database audit specification.

Note

Because of the overhead involved in enabling transaction-level auditing, starting with SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP 2 CU 3 and SQL Server 2017 (14.x) CU 4, transaction-level auditing is disabled by default unless you have Common Criteria Compliance enabled. If Common Criteria Compliance is disabled, you'll still be able to add an action from TRANSACTION_GROUP to an audit specification, but it doesn't actually collect any transaction actions. If you intend to configure any auditing actions from TRANSACTION_GROUP, be sure that the transaction-level auditing infrastructure is enabled by enabling Common Criteria Compliance starting with SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP 2 CU 3 and SQL Server 2017 (14.x) CU 4 and later versions. Transaction-level auditing can also be disabled with Trace Flag 3427 in SQL Server 2016 (13.x) with SP 1 CU 2 and later versions.

Database-level audit action groups

Database-level audit action groups are actions similar to SQL Server Security Audit Event classes. For more information about event classes, see SQL Server Event Class Reference.

The following table describes the database-level audit action groups and provides their equivalent SQL Server Event Class where applicable.

Action group name Description
APPLICATION_ROLE_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP This event is raised whenever a password is changed for an application role. Equivalent to the Audit App Role Change Password Event Class.
AUDIT_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever any audit is created, modified, or deleted. This event is raised whenever any audit specification is created, modified, or deleted. Any change to an audit is audited in that audit. Equivalent to the Audit Change Audit Event Class.
BACKUP_RESTORE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a backup or restore command is issued. Equivalent to the Audit Backup and Restore Event Class.
BATCH_COMPLETED_GROUP This event is raised whenever any batch text, stored procedure, or transaction management operation completes executing. It's raised after the batch completes and audits the entire batch or stored procedure text, as sent from the client, including the result.

Applies to: SQL Server 2019 (15.x) and later versions.
BATCH_STARTED_GROUP This event is raised whenever any batch text, stored procedure, or transaction management operation starts to execute. It's raised before execution and audits the entire batch or stored procedure text, as sent from the client.

Applies to: SQL Server 2019 (15.x) and later versions.
DATABASE_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a database is created, altered, or dropped. Equivalent to the Audit Database Management Event Class.
DATABASE_LOGOUT_GROUP This event is raised when a contained database user signs out from a database.
DATABASE_OBJECT_ACCESS_GROUP This event is raised whenever database objects such as certificates and asymmetric keys are accessed. Equivalent to the Audit Database Object Access Event Class.
DATABASE_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a CREATE, ALTER, or DROP statement is executed on database objects, such as schemas. Equivalent to the Audit Database Object Management Event Class.
DATABASE_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a change of owner for objects within database scope occurs. Equivalent to the Audit Database Object Take Ownership Event Class.
DATABASE_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY is issued for database objects, such as assemblies and schemas. Equivalent to the Audit Database Object GDR Event Class.
DATABASE_OPERATION_GROUP This event is raised when operations in a database, such as checkpoint or subscribe query notification, occur. Equivalent to the Audit Database Operation Event Class.
DATABASE_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when you use the ALTER AUTHORIZATION statement to change the owner of a database, and the permissions that are required to do that are checked. Equivalent to the Audit Change Database Owner Event Class.
DATABASE_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a GRANT, REVOKE, or DENY is issued for a statement permission by any user in SQL Server for database-only events such as granting permissions on a database. Equivalent to the Audit Database Scope GDR Event Class.
DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when principals, such as users, are created, altered, or dropped from a database. Equivalent to the Audit Database Principal Management Event Class. Also equivalent to the Audit Add DB User Event Class, which occurs on deprecated sp_grantdbaccess, sp_revokedbaccess, sp_adduser, and sp_dropuser stored procedures.

This event is raised whenever a database role is added to or removed using deprecated sp_addrole and sp_droprole stored procedures. Equivalent to the Audit Add Role Event Class.
DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_IMPERSONATION_GROUP This event is raised when there's an impersonation within database scope such as EXECUTE AS <user>. Equivalent to the Audit Database Principal Impersonation Event Class.
DATABASE_ROLE_MEMBER_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a login is added to or removed from a database role. This event class is used with the sp_addrolemember, sp_changegroup, and sp_droprolemember stored procedures. Equivalent to the Audit Add Member to DB Role Event Class
DBCC_GROUP This event is raised whenever a principal issues any DBCC command. Equivalent to the Audit DBCC Event Class.
FAILED_DATABASE_AUTHENTICATION_GROUP Indicates that a principal tried to log on to a contained database and failed. Events in this class are raised by new connections or by connections that are reused from a connection pool. This event is raised.
SCHEMA_OBJECT_ACCESS_GROUP This event is raised whenever an object permission has been used in the schema. Equivalent to the Audit Schema Object Access Event Class.
SCHEMA_OBJECT_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when a CREATE, ALTER, or DROP operation is performed on a schema. Equivalent to the Audit Schema Object Management Event Class.

This event is raised on schema objects. Equivalent to the Audit Object Derived Permission Event Class. Also equivalent to the Audit Statement Permission Event Class.
SCHEMA_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised when the permissions to change the owner of schema object such as a table, procedure, or function is checked. This occurs when the ALTER AUTHORIZATION statement is used to assign an owner to an object. Equivalent to the Audit Schema Object Take Ownership Event Class.
SCHEMA_OBJECT_PERMISSION_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever a grant, deny, or revoke is issued for a schema object. Equivalent to the Audit Schema Object GDR Event Class.
SUCCESSFUL_DATABASE_AUTHENTICATION_GROUP Indicates that a principal successfully logged in to a contained database.
USER_CHANGE_PASSWORD_GROUP This event is raised whenever the password of a contained database user is changed by using the ALTER USER statement.
USER_DEFINED_AUDIT_GROUP This group monitors events raised by using sp_audit_write.
LEDGER_OPERATION_GROUP This event is raised for following actions:

ENABLE LEDGER - When you create a new ledger table

ALTER LEDGER - When you drop a ledger table

ALTER LEDGER CONFIGURATION.

Applies to: Azure SQL Database.

Database-level audit actions

Database-level actions support the auditing of specific actions directly on database schema and schema objects, such as tables, views, stored procedures, functions, extended stored procedures, queues, synonyms. Types, XML schema collection, database, and schema aren't audited. The audit of schema objects might be configured on schema and database, which means that events on all schema objects contained by the specified schema or database are audited. The following table describes database-level audit actions.

Action Description
SELECT This event is raised whenever a SELECT is issued.
UPDATE This event is raised whenever an UPDATE is issued.
INSERT This event is raised whenever an INSERT is issued.
DELETE This event is raised whenever a DELETE is issued.
EXECUTE This event is raised whenever an EXECUTE is issued.
RECEIVE This event is raised whenever a RECEIVE is issued.
REFERENCES This event is raised whenever a REFERENCES permission is checked.

Considerations

Database-level audit actions don't apply to columns.

When the query processor parameterizes the query, the parameter can appear in the audit event log instead of the column values of the query.

Audit-level audit action groups

You can also audit the actions in the auditing process. This can be in the server scope or the database scope. In the database scope, it only occurs for database audit specifications. The following table describes audit-level audit action groups.

Action group name Description
AUDIT_CHANGE_GROUP This event is raised whenever one of the following commands is issued:

CREATE SERVER AUDIT
ALTER SERVER AUDIT
DROP SERVER AUDIT
CREATE SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION
ALTER SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION
DROP SERVER AUDIT SPECIFICATION
CREATE DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION
ALTER DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION
DROP DATABASE AUDIT SPECIFICATION

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