File Integrity Monitoring Integration


Version	1.18.1 (View all)
Subscription level What's this?	Basic
Developed by What's this?	Elastic
Required permissions	Root privileges
Minimum Kibana version(s)	9.2.0

This integration sends events when a file is changed (created, updated, or deleted) on disk. The events contain file metadata and hashes.

The integration is implemented for Linux, macOS (Darwin), and Windows.

⚠️ This integration should not be used to monitor paths on network file systems.

How it works

This integration uses features of the operating system to monitor file changes in realtime. When the integration starts it creates a subscription with the OS to receive notifications of changes to the specified files or directories. Upon receiving notification of a change the integration will read the file’s metadata and then compute a hash of the file’s contents.

At startup this integration will perform an initial scan of the configured files and directories to generate baseline data for the monitored paths and detect changes since the last time it was run. It uses locally persisted data in order to only send events for new or modified files.

Compatibility

The operating system features that power this feature are as follows:

Linux - inotify is used, and therefore the kernel must have inotify support. Inotify was initially merged into the 2.6.13 Linux kernel.
macOS (Darwin) - Uses the FSEvents API, present since macOS 10.5. This API coalesces multiple changes to a file into a single event. Auditbeat translates this coalesced changes into a meaningful sequence of actions. However, in rare situations the reported events may have a different ordering than what actually happened.
Windows - ReadDirectoryChangesW is used.

Example

{
    "@timestamp": "2025-03-13T12:17:44.217Z",
    "agent": {
        "ephemeral_id": "a3670431-8505-4619-92b6-10c1ae66f027",
        "id": "09bea17f-617d-4342-8fa8-6021743dacc6",
        "name": "elastic-agent-67615",
        "type": "auditbeat",
        "version": "8.17.3"
    },
    "data_stream": {
        "dataset": "fim.event",
        "namespace": "55403",
        "type": "logs"
    },
    "ecs": {
        "version": "9.3.0"
    },
    "elastic_agent": {
        "id": "09bea17f-617d-4342-8fa8-6021743dacc6",
        "snapshot": false,
        "version": "8.17.3"
    },
    "event": {
        "action": [
            "created"
        ],
        "agent_id_status": "verified",
        "category": [
            "file"
        ],
        "dataset": "fim.event",
        "ingested": "2025-03-13T12:17:46Z",
        "kind": "event",
        "module": "file_integrity",
        "type": [
            "creation"
        ]
    },
    "file": {
        "ctime": "2025-03-13T12:17:44.208Z",
        "gid": "0",
        "group": "root",
        "hash": {
            "sha1": "22596363b3de40b06f981fb85d82312e8c0ed511"
        },
        "inode": "1096549",
        "mode": "0644",
        "mtime": "2025-03-13T12:17:44.208Z",
        "owner": "root",
        "path": "/tmp/service_logs/hello",
        "size": 12,
        "type": "file",
        "uid": "0"
    },
    "host": {
        "architecture": "x86_64",
        "containerized": true,
        "hostname": "elastic-agent-67615",
        "ip": [
            "172.20.0.2",
            "172.18.0.7"
        ],
        "mac": [
            "02-42-AC-12-00-07",
            "02-42-AC-14-00-02"
        ],
        "name": "elastic-agent-67615",
        "os": {
            "family": "",
            "kernel": "5.15.153.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2",
            "name": "Wolfi",
            "platform": "wolfi",
            "type": "linux",
            "version": "20230201"
        }
    },
    "service": {
        "type": "file_integrity"
    },
    "tags": [
        "fim-event"
    ]
}

Exported fields

Field	Description	Type
@timestamp	Event timestamp.	date
cloud.account.id	The cloud account or organization id used to identify different entities in a multi-tenant environment. Examples: AWS account id, Google Cloud ORG Id, or other unique identifier.	keyword
cloud.availability_zone	Availability zone in which this host is running.	keyword
cloud.image.id	Image ID for the cloud instance.	keyword
cloud.instance.id	Instance ID of the host machine.	keyword
cloud.instance.name	Instance name of the host machine.	keyword
cloud.machine.type	Machine type of the host machine.	keyword
cloud.project.id	Name of the project in Google Cloud.	keyword
cloud.provider	Name of the cloud provider. Example values are aws, azure, gcp, or digitalocean.	keyword
cloud.region	Region in which this host is running.	keyword
container.id	Unique container id.	keyword
container.image.name	Name of the image the container was built on.	keyword
container.labels	Image labels.	object
container.name	Container name.	keyword
container.runtime	Runtime managing this container.	keyword
data_stream.dataset	Data stream dataset.	constant_keyword
data_stream.namespace	Data stream namespace.	constant_keyword
data_stream.type	Data stream type.	constant_keyword
destination.address	Some event destination addresses are defined ambiguously. The event will sometimes list an IP, a domain or a unix socket. You should always store the raw address in the `.address` field. Then it should be duplicated to `.ip` or `.domain`, depending on which one it is.	keyword
ecs.version	ECS version this event conforms to. `ecs.version` is a required field and must exist in all events. When querying across multiple indices -- which may conform to slightly different ECS versions -- this field lets integrations adjust to the schema version of the events.	keyword
error.message	Error message.	match_only_text
event.action	The action captured by the event. This describes the information in the event. It is more specific than `event.category`. Examples are `group-add`, `process-started`, `file-created`. The value is normally defined by the implementer.	keyword
event.category	This is one of four ECS Categorization Fields, and indicates the second level in the ECS category hierarchy. `event.category` represents the "big buckets" of ECS categories. For example, filtering on `event.category:process` yields all events relating to process activity. This field is closely related to `event.type`, which is used as a subcategory. This field is an array. This will allow proper categorization of some events that fall in multiple categories.	keyword
event.dataset	Event dataset	constant_keyword
event.ingested	Timestamp when an event arrived in the central data store. This is different from `@timestamp`, which is when the event originally occurred. It's also different from `event.created`, which is meant to capture the first time an agent saw the event. In normal conditions, assuming no tampering, the timestamps should chronologically look like this: `@timestamp` < `event.created` < `event.ingested`.	date
event.kind	This is one of four ECS Categorization Fields, and indicates the highest level in the ECS category hierarchy. `event.kind` gives high-level information about what type of information the event contains, without being specific to the contents of the event. For example, values of this field distinguish alert events from metric events. The value of this field can be used to inform how these kinds of events should be handled. They may warrant different retention, different access control, it may also help understand whether the data is coming in at a regular interval or not.	keyword
event.module	Event module	constant_keyword
event.outcome	This is one of four ECS Categorization Fields, and indicates the lowest level in the ECS category hierarchy. `event.outcome` simply denotes whether the event represents a success or a failure from the perspective of the entity that produced the event. Note that when a single transaction is described in multiple events, each event may populate different values of `event.outcome`, according to their perspective. Also note that in the case of a compound event (a single event that contains multiple logical events), this field should be populated with the value that best captures the overall success or failure from the perspective of the event producer. Further note that not all events will have an associated outcome. For example, this field is generally not populated for metric events, events with `event.type:info`, or any events for which an outcome does not make logical sense.	keyword
event.type	This is one of four ECS Categorization Fields, and indicates the third level in the ECS category hierarchy. `event.type` represents a categorization "sub-bucket" that, when used along with the `event.category` field values, enables filtering events down to a level appropriate for single visualization. This field is an array. This will allow proper categorization of some events that fall in multiple event types.	keyword
file.accessed	Last time the file was accessed. Note that not all filesystems keep track of access time.	date
file.attributes	Array of file attributes. Attributes names will vary by platform. Here's a non-exhaustive list of values that are expected in this field: archive, compressed, directory, encrypted, execute, hidden, read, readonly, system, write.	keyword
file.created	File creation time. Note that not all filesystems store the creation time.	date
file.ctime	Last time the file attributes or metadata changed. Note that changes to the file content will update `mtime`. This implies `ctime` will be adjusted at the same time, since `mtime` is an attribute of the file.	date
file.drive_letter	Drive letter where the file is located. This field is only relevant on Windows. The value should be uppercase, and not include the colon.	keyword
file.extension	File extension, excluding the leading dot. Note that when the file name has multiple extensions (example.tar.gz), only the last one should be captured ("gz", not "tar.gz").	keyword
file.fork_name	A fork is additional data associated with a filesystem object. On Linux, a resource fork is used to store additional data with a filesystem object. A file always has at least one fork for the data portion, and additional forks may exist. On NTFS, this is analogous to an Alternate Data Stream (ADS), and the default data stream for a file is just called $DATA. Zone.Identifier is commonly used by Windows to track contents downloaded from the Internet. An ADS is typically of the form: `C:\path\to\filename.extension:some_fork_name`, and `some_fork_name` is the value that should populate `fork_name`. `filename.extension` should populate `file.name`, and `extension` should populate `file.extension`. The full path, `file.path`, will include the fork name.	keyword
file.gid	Primary group ID (GID) of the file.	keyword
file.group	Primary group name of the file.	keyword
file.hash.sha1	SHA1 hash.	keyword
file.inode	Inode representing the file in the filesystem.	keyword
file.mime_type	MIME type should identify the format of the file or stream of bytes using IANA official types: https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml, where possible. When more than one type is applicable, the most specific type should be used.	keyword
file.mode	Mode of the file in octal representation.	keyword
file.mtime	Last time the file content was modified.	date
file.name	Name of the file including the extension, without the directory.	keyword
file.origin	An array of strings describing a possible external origin for this file. For example, the URL it was downloaded from. Only supported in macOS, via the kMDItemWhereFroms attribute. Omitted if origin information is not available.	keyword
file.origin.text	Multi-field of `file.origin`.	text
file.owner	File owner's username.	keyword
file.path	Full path to the file, including the file name. It should include the drive letter, when appropriate.	keyword
file.path.text	Multi-field of `file.path`.	match_only_text
file.setgid	Set if the file has the `setgid` bit set. Omitted otherwise.	boolean
file.setuid	Set if the file has the `setuid` bit set. Omitted otherwise.	boolean
file.size	File size in bytes. Only relevant when `file.type` is "file".	long
file.target_path	Target path for symlinks.	keyword
file.target_path.text	Multi-field of `file.target_path`.	match_only_text
file.type	File type (file, dir, or symlink).	keyword
file.uid	The user ID (UID) or security identifier (SID) of the file owner.	keyword
group.id	Unique identifier for the group on the system/platform.	keyword
group.name	Name of the group.	keyword
host.architecture	Operating system architecture.	keyword
host.containerized	If the host is a container.	boolean
host.domain	Name of the domain of which the host is a member. For example, on Windows this could be the host's Active Directory domain or NetBIOS domain name. For Linux this could be the domain of the host's LDAP provider.	keyword
host.hostname	Hostname of the host. It normally contains what the `hostname` command returns on the host machine.	keyword
host.id	Unique host id. As hostname is not always unique, use values that are meaningful in your environment. Example: The current usage of `beat.name`.	keyword
host.ip	Host ip addresses.	ip
host.mac	Host mac addresses.	keyword
host.name	Name of the host. It can contain what `hostname` returns on Unix systems, the fully qualified domain name, or a name specified by the user. The sender decides which value to use.	keyword
host.os.build	OS build information.	keyword
host.os.codename	OS codename, if any.	keyword
host.os.family	OS family (such as redhat, debian, freebsd, windows).	keyword
host.os.kernel	Operating system kernel version as a raw string.	keyword
host.os.name	Operating system name, without the version.	keyword
host.os.name.text	Multi-field of `host.os.name`.	text
host.os.platform	Operating system platform (such centos, ubuntu, windows).	keyword
host.os.version	Operating system version as a raw string.	keyword
host.type	Type of host. For Cloud providers this can be the machine type like `t2.medium`. If vm, this could be the container, for example, or other information meaningful in your environment.	keyword
input.type	Input type	keyword
log.file.path	Full path to the log file this event came from, including the file name. It should include the drive letter, when appropriate. If the event wasn't read from a log file, do not populate this field.	keyword
log.offset	Log offset	long
message	For log events the message field contains the log message, optimized for viewing in a log viewer. For structured logs without an original message field, other fields can be concatenated to form a human-readable summary of the event. If multiple messages exist, they can be combined into one message.	match_only_text
network.direction	Direction of the network traffic. When mapping events from a host-based monitoring context, populate this field from the host's point of view, using the values "ingress" or "egress". When mapping events from a network or perimeter-based monitoring context, populate this field from the point of view of the network perimeter, using the values "inbound", "outbound", "internal" or "external". Note that "internal" is not crossing perimeter boundaries, and is meant to describe communication between two hosts within the perimeter. Note also that "external" is meant to describe traffic between two hosts that are external to the perimeter. This could for example be useful for ISPs or VPN service providers.	keyword
process.args	Array of process arguments, starting with the absolute path to the executable. May be filtered to protect sensitive information.	keyword
process.args_count	Length of the process.args array. This field can be useful for querying or performing bucket analysis on how many arguments were provided to start a process. More arguments may be an indication of suspicious activity.	long
process.executable	Absolute path to the process executable.	keyword
process.executable.text	Multi-field of `process.executable`.	match_only_text
process.exit_code	The exit code of the process, if this is a termination event. The field should be absent if there is no exit code for the event (e.g. process start).	long
process.name	Process name. Sometimes called program name or similar.	keyword
process.name.text	Multi-field of `process.name`.	match_only_text
process.parent.pid	Process id.	long
process.pid	Process id.	long
process.user.domain	Name of the directory the user is a member of (for example an LDAP or Active Directory domain).	keyword
process.user.id	Unique identifier of the user.	keyword
process.user.name	Short name or login of the user.	keyword
process.user.name.text	Multi-field of `process.user.name`.	match_only_text
process.working_directory	The working directory of the process.	keyword
process.working_directory.text	Multi-field of `process.working_directory`.	match_only_text
service.type	The type of the service data is collected from. The type can be used to group and correlate logs and metrics from one service type. Example: If logs or metrics are collected from Elasticsearch, `service.type` would be `elasticsearch`.	keyword
source.address	Some event source addresses are defined ambiguously. The event will sometimes list an IP, a domain or a unix socket. You should always store the raw address in the `.address` field. Then it should be duplicated to `.ip` or `.domain`, depending on which one it is.	keyword
source.as.number	Unique number allocated to the autonomous system. The autonomous system number (ASN) uniquely identifies each network on the Internet.	long
source.as.organization.name	Organization name.	keyword
source.as.organization.name.text	Multi-field of `source.as.organization.name`.	match_only_text
source.geo.city_name	City name.	keyword
source.geo.continent_name	Name of the continent.	keyword
source.geo.country_iso_code	Country ISO code.	keyword
source.geo.country_name	Country name.	keyword
source.geo.location	Longitude and latitude.	geo_point
source.geo.region_iso_code	Region ISO code.	keyword
source.geo.region_name	Region name.	keyword
source.ip	IP address of the source (IPv4 or IPv6).	ip
tags	List of keywords used to tag each event.	keyword
user.effective.group.id	Unique identifier for the group on the system/platform.	keyword
user.effective.group.name	Name of the group.	keyword
user.effective.id	Unique identifier of the user.	keyword
user.effective.name	Short name or login of the user.	keyword
user.effective.name.text	Multi-field of `user.effective.name`.	match_only_text
user.group.id	Unique identifier for the group on the system/platform.	keyword
user.id	Unique identifier of the user.	keyword
user.name	Short name or login of the user.	keyword
user.name.text	Multi-field of `user.name`.	match_only_text
user.target.group.id	Unique identifier for the group on the system/platform.	keyword
user.target.group.name	Name of the group.	keyword
user.target.id	Unique identifier of the user.	keyword
user.target.name	Short name or login of the user.	keyword
user.target.name.text	Multi-field of `user.target.name`.	match_only_text

Screenshots

This integration includes one or more Kibana dashboards that visualizes the data collected by the integration. The screenshots below illustrate how the ingested data is displayed.

Changelog

Version	Details	Minimum Kibana version
1.18.1	Enhancement (View pull request) Add dashboard-level data_stream.dataset filter.	9.2.0
1.18.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Use links panel in Dashboard.	9.2.0
1.17.1	Enhancement (View pull request) Transfer package ownership to elastic/security-service-integrations.	9.2.0
1.17.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Add 9.2.0 Kibana constraint for the `etw` backend; pin ECS definitions to 9.3.0 and set ingest `ecs.version` to 9.3.0.	9.2.0
1.16.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Add 9.0.0 constraint and update to ECS 8.17.0	9.0.0 8.7.1
1.15.1	Bug fix (View pull request) Fix default backend to auto	8.7.1
1.15.0	Enhancement (View pull request) New event sourcing backends added	8.7.1
1.14.2	Enhancement (View pull request) capture root requirement	8.7.1
1.14.1	Enhancement (View pull request) Changed owners	8.7.1
1.14.0	Enhancement (View pull request) ECS version updated to 8.11.0.	8.7.1
1.13.0	Enhancement (View pull request) ECS version updated to 8.10.0.	8.7.1
1.12.0	Enhancement (View pull request) The format_version in the package manifest changed from 2.11.0 to 3.0.0. Removed dotted YAML keys from package manifest. Added 'owner.type: elastic' to package manifest.	8.7.1
1.11.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Add tags.yml file so that integration's dashboards and saved searches are tagged with "Security Solution" and displayed in the Security Solution UI.	8.7.1
1.10.1	Bug fix (View pull request) Exclude files that are regularly updated.	8.7.1
1.10.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Added dashboard for FIM events overview.	8.7.1
1.9.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Update package to ECS 8.9.0.	8.2.0
1.8.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Ensure event.kind is correctly set for pipeline errors.	8.2.0
1.7.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Update package to ECS 8.8.0.	8.2.0
1.6.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Update package-spec version to 2.7.0.	8.2.0
1.5.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Update package to ECS 8.7.0.	8.2.0
1.4.3	Enhancement (View pull request) Added categories and/or subcategories.	8.2.0
1.4.2	Bug fix (View pull request) fixed duplicate key issue in processors.	8.2.0
1.4.1	Enhancement (View pull request) Add host metadata	8.2.0
1.4.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Update package to ECS 8.6.0.	8.2.0
1.3.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Update package to ECS 8.5.0.	8.2.0
1.2.3	Bug fix (View pull request) Fix path configuration documentation.	8.2.0
1.2.2	Bug fix (View pull request) Remove duplicate fields.	8.2.0
1.2.1	Enhancement (View pull request) Use ECS geo.location definition.	8.2.0
1.2.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Update package to ECS 8.4.0	8.2.0
1.1.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Update package to ECS 8.3.0.	8.2.0
1.0.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Make GA and compatible with 8.2	8.2.0
0.1.0	Enhancement (View pull request) Initial version	8.3.0