Check if MySQL audit is configured and enabled. The my.cnf file will set the variable audit_file. To further check, execute the following query: SELECT PLUGIN_NAME, PLUGIN_STATUS FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PLUGINS WHERE PLUGIN_NAME LIKE 'audit%'; The status of the audit_log plugin must be "active". If it is not "active", this is a finding. Review audit filters and associated users by running the following queries: SELECT `audit_log_filter`.`NAME`, `audit_log_filter`.`FILTER` FROM `mysql`.`audit_log_filter`; SELECT `audit_log_user`.`USER`, `audit_log_user`.`HOST`, `audit_log_user`.`FILTERNAME` FROM `mysql`.`audit_log_user`; All currently defined audits for the MySQL server instance will be listed. If no audits are returned, this is a finding. To check if the audit filters that are in place are generating records when successful logons or connections occur, log in to MySQL and then log out. Below is an example using MySQL Shell: % mysqlsh —sql MySQL SQL > \connect newuser@localhost Creating a session to 'newuser@localhost' MySQL localhost:33060+ ssl SQL > \quit Bye! Review the audit log by running the Linux command: "status": 0 for each indicates successful. "connection_id": 19 is the same as the connections process id and there will be matching disconnect event with the same connection_id number. This can be used to differentiate multiple connections using the same login. Each connect and disconnect has a timestamp tag with the time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). sudo cat <directory where audit log files are located>/audit.log | egrep "\"event\": \”connect\"" For example if the values returned by - "select @@datadir, @@audit_log_file; " are /usr/local/mysql/data/, audit.log sudo cat /usr/local/mysql/data/audit.log |egrep "\"event\": \”connect\"" The audit data will look similar to the example below: Logging in - connecting { "timestamp": "2020-08-21 17:47:09", "id": 0, "class": "connection", "event": "connect", "connection_id": 19, "account": { "user": "newuser", "host": "localhost" }, "login": { "user": "newuser", "os": "", "ip": "::1", "proxy": "" }, "connection_data": { "connection_type": "plugin", "status": 0, "db": "" } }, Logging out - disconnection sudo cat <directory where audit log files are located>/audit.log | egrep "\"event\": \"disconnect\”" { "timestamp": "2020-08-21 17:47:11", "id": 1, "class": "connection", "event": "disconnect", "connection_id": 19, "account": { "user": "newuser", "host": "localhost" }, "login": { "user": "newuser", "os": "", "ip": "::1", "proxy": "" }, "connection_data": { "connection_type": "plugin" } },