Auditing DNS Server Changes on Windows 2012 R2 and later with EventSentry

Auditing changes on Microsoft Windows DNS server is a common requirement and question, but it’s not immediately obvious which versions of Windows support DNS Auditing, how it’s enabled, and where the audit data (and what data) is available. Fortunately Microsoft has greatly simplified DNS Server auditing with the release of Windows Server 2012 R2.

In this post we’ll show how to enable DNS Auditing on 2012 R2 and later, and how to configure EventSentry to collect those audit events. In a future post we’ll also show how to do the same with older versions of Windows – 2008, 2008 R2 & 2012.

When configuration is finished you are going to be able to see when a zone/record is created/modified/deleted as well as by whom. The audit data will be available (and searchable) in the EventSentry Web Reports, and you’ll also be able to setup email alerts when some or all DNS entries are changed.

Prerequisites

Since native DNS auditing was only introduced with Windows 2012 R2 or later you’ll need to run at least Windows Server 2012 R2 in order to follow this guide. The table below shows the types of DNS auditing available on Windows Server Operating Systems:

Windows OS Auditing Type Comments
Windows 2008 Active Directory – based auditing only
Windows 2008 R2 Active Directory – based auditing only
Windows 2012 Active Directory – based auditing only
Windows 2012 R2 Native DNS Auditing Available with hotfix 2956577
(automatically applied via windows update!)
Windows 2016 Native DNS Auditing enabled by default
Windows 2019 Native DNS Auditing enabled by default
Windows 2022 Native DNS Auditing enabled by default

Configuration

Enhanced DNS logging and diagnostics are enabled by default in supported versions of Windows Server when the “DNS Server” role has been added to Windows, so there are no additional configuration steps that need to be done.

1. Package Creation

On the EventSentry machine we are going to add a package under Packages/Event Logs by right-clicking “Event Logs” and selecting “Add Package”. In this example we are going to call the package “Windows Server 2016”:

Package Creation
Package Creation

2. Adding a Filter

The next step is to add a filter to the previously created package “Windows Server 2016”. Right click the package and then select “Add Filter”.

Adding a DNS Audit filter
Adding the DNS Audit filter

Note: For a short tutorial on how to create a filter click here.

3. Filter Configuration

There are several ways to approach the filter configuration depending on your needs. As a reminder, a filter is a rule in EventSentry that determines to where an event is forwarded to, or how it is processed.

  1. Collect all or select (e.g. creation only) DNS audit data in the database
  2. Email alert on select audit data (e.g. email all deletions)
  3. Email alert on all activity from a specific user

In this guide we will show how to accomplish (1) and (2) as a bonus.

On the right pane of the management console after the creation of the filter you will see the General tab of the new filter. We decided to configure it to log to the Primary Database, but the events can be sent to any action (Email, Syslog, …).

Under “Event Severity” we check all boxes since we want to log everything (it’s important to check “Information” since most of the creation/deletions/etc are logged at this level of severity).

Editing the DNS Audit filter
Editing the DNS Audit filter

4. Adding a custom event log

In the “Log” section click on “more” to jump to the “Custom Event Logs” tab (or, just click on that tab). Now we need to add the Microsoft-Windows-DNSServer/Audit event log to the list of custom event logs so that this filter picks up events from the DNS Audit event log. Click the save button in EventSentry Management Console title bar to save the changes we’ve made so far.

Adding an Application & Services event log
Adding an Application & Services event log

5a. Assigning the package (method A – manual assignment)

To assign the package, select the server you would like to assign it to and select “Assign Packages”. In the resulting dialog simply check the box next to the package we created in step 1. Alternatively you can also select the package and click “Assign” from the ribbon (or context menu) and select a group or host(s) to assign the package to.

Assigning a package
Assigning a package

5b. Assign the package (method B – dynamic activation)

Instead of assigning the package manually, the package can be assigned dynamically so that any host monitored by EventSentry running Windows Server 2012 R2 or later will automatically have this package assigned. To dynamically assign a package do the following:

  • Click the package and select “Properties” from the ribbon, or right-click.
  • In the “Dynamic Activation” section, check “Automatically activate …”
  • In the “Installed Services” field enter “DNS”
  • For the “Operating System”, select “at least” and “Windows 2012 R2”
  • Click the “Global” icon in the ribbon to make sure the package gets assigned to all hosts. Don’t worry, it will still only be activated on 2012 R2 or later hosts that have the DNS server running

6. Saving

After assigning the package and saving the configuration click “Save & Deploy” or push the configuration to all remote hosts. Please note that only new events generated in the DNS Audit Log will be processed, pre-existing log entries will be ignored.

Testing the Configuration

To test the configuration we will create a domain called “testzone.com” and add an A record called www on the monitored DNS server. We’ll then check if those modifications are visible in the EventSentry Web Reports. The screenshot below shows the new A record in the DNS console:

testzone.com with the new A record "www"
testzone.com with the new A record “www”

First, lets take a look to see what the actual DNS Audit entries look like (using the Windows Event Viewer: Applications and Services Logs/Microsoft/Windows/DNS-Server/Audit):

DNS Server Audit Event Log
DNS Server Audit Event Log

In the EventSentry Web Reports, navigate to Logs/Event Log and filter by the log “Microsoft-Windows-DNSServer” and then select “Detailed”. You should see all the modifications that were performed:

Detailed audit log in the web reports
Detailed audit log in the web reports

Bonus Track: Configuring alerts for a specific change

The first part of this post was purposely generic in order to understand the basics of monitoring your DNS Server. But as a bonus we’ll show how to monitor a specific change (in this case a creation) and trigger an email alert for that.

The process is the same as explained in the beginning:

  1. Create a new filter and add it to the same package. The filter should be configured exactly the same way. To make things easier, you can also copy & paste the filter with the familiar Copy/Paste buttons in the ribbon or context menu.
  2. This time however we specify the “Default Email” action in “General” tab so that we receive an email alert when the filter criteria matches an event.
  3. In the “Details” area specify event id 515 in the “Event ID” field, which is the event id corresponding to the creation of a new record. This is how the filter would look like:
Filter for receiving an alert on record creation

Filters can of course be more specific as well, it’s possible to filter based on the user or event content of the actual event. Below is a list of all audit events logged by the DNS Server:

Event ID Type Event ID Type
512 Zone added 551 Clear statistics
513 Zone delete 552 Start scavenging
514 Zone updated 553 Enlist directory partition
515 Record create 554 Abort scavenging
516 Record delete 555 Prepare for demotion
517 RRSET delete 556 Write root hints
518 Node delete 557 Listen address
519 Record create – dynamic update 558 Active refresh trust points
520 Record delete – dynamic update 559 Pause zone
521 Record scavenge 560 Resume zone
522 Zone scope create 561 Reload zone
523 Zone scope delete 562 Refresh zone
525 Zone sign 563 Expire zone
526 Zone unsign 564 Update from DS
527 Zone re-sign 565 Write and notify
528 Key rollover start 566 Force aging
529 Key rollover end 567 Scavenge servers
530 Key retire 568 Transfer key master
531 Key rollover triggered 569 Add SKD
533 Key poke rollover 570 Modify SKD
534 Export DNSSEC 571 Delete SKD
535 Import DNSSEC 572 Modify SKD state
536 Cache purge 573 Add delegation
537 Forwarder reset 574 Create client subnet record
540 Root hints 575 Delete client subnet record
541 Server setting 576 Update client subnet record
542 Server scope create 577 Create server level policy
543 Server scope delete 578 Create zone level policy
544 Add trust point DNSKEY 579 Create forwarding policy
545 Add trust point DS 580 Delete server level policy
546 Remove trust point 581 delete zone level policy
547 Add trust point root 582 Delete forwarding policy
548 Restart server
549 Clear debug logs
550 Write dirty zones

We hope that DNS changes will never remain a mystery after activating DNS auditing. Don’t fear if you’re running 2012 or earlier, the next post is on its way.

Mariano + Ingmar.