FileAudit Documentation
FileAudit Documentation

Historique (anciennes versions)

FileAudit 4.5 Released: February 16th, 2015

Added

  • FileAudit can audit the file attribute changes. A new switch has been added into the ‘Scan options’ section of the ‘Settings configuration’ view to enable this ability.
  • A view named ‘Warnings’ is available from FileAudit Hub to display all issues FileAudit detects when performing its audit monitoring.
  • The File Access Viewer, Alerts and Scheduled reports integrate a new criterion to filter on domain.
  • The ‘Audit configuration’ view now allows you to check and directly reconfigure a registered path if required.
  • It's now possible to reset the ‘File Access Viewer’ filter.
  • It's now possible to reset the layout of the ‘File Access Viewer’.

Improved

  • The ability to exclude a file extension from the audit available in the ‘Scan option’ section of the ‘Setting configuration’ view has been turned to a file pattern mask exclusion allowing wild characters ‘*’ (any string) and ‘?’ (any character).
  • The ‘Time’ settings of ‘Scheduled reports’ offer new predefined relative time period options to generate more easily dynamic contents according to the execution date as: Yesterday, the current week, the previous week, the current month, etc…
  • The audit configuration engine now checks when registering a path if the inheritance settings are enabled on subfolders and will also suggest to enable it for a path.
  • The audit configuration engine now checks when registering a path if there are any audit settings already existing on the path entered and will also suggest to overwrite then.
  • The ‘Path(s)’ field of the ‘File Access Viewer’ supports now ‘*’ (any string) and ‘?’ (any character) wild characters.

FileAudit 4.03 Released: October 7th, 2014

Improved

  • FileAudit is now compatible with the security option "Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing, and signing".
  • It is now possible to disable the flush to the database when displaying events in the File Access viewer in order to avoid a timeout when there is much activity.
  • File access events generated during backup operations with disk shadow copies are automatically discarded.
  • A backup of the configuration file is kept in case the file becomes corrupted.

Fixed

Discover the bugs fixed

  • In some cases displaying more than 50000 records generates an exception.
  • It was not possible to add the administrators group again in the access permissions once it was removed.
  • After removing the administrators group from the access permissions scheduled reports were no longer working (Access denied in ServiceLog.txt).
  • It was not possible to perform audit on a deleted file for which the parent folder was also removed.
  • Specifying an invalid E-mail address in the "From" field of the SMTP settings was making FileAudit crash when launching the E-mail test.
  • The NTFS audit was not correctly configured when selecting a single file to audit.
  • Some issues when auditing files on a dynamic drive or on a cluster (The path displayed in the File access viewer was corrupted).
  • It was possible to use invalid characters in the scheduled report names leading to an exception when saving the scheduled report.
  • A memory leak could happen in the FileAudit service.
  • It was not possible to delete a configured path when the concerned file/folder was deleted or moved somewhere else.
  • Accounts with a $ in the name were considered as computer accounts and their events ignored even if the $ was not at the end of the name.

FileAudit 4.02 Released: February 17th, 2014

Added

  • You can now filter events on several users (e.g. user1,user2,user3) and you can also exclude several users form the filter (e.g. *,-user1,-user2,-user3).
  • A button to test SMTP settings in the E-mail Settings view.
  • A diagnostic tool to troubleshoot problems. The tool can be launched thanks the F12 key.

Improved

  • If the TCP port defined in the remote connection configuration is already used by another application the FileAudit service will still be able to start but remote connections will be disabled.
  • Local folders/files are accessed by FileAudit with their local path instead of their UNC path.
  • Added routine to check credentials provided in impersonation accounts.
  • When the FileAudit service doesn't have administrative rights to a remote file server to audit, the GUI automatically switch to the impersonation accounts.
  • Configured paths are automatically added to recent audited paths in the File access viewer.

Fixed

Discover the bugs fixed

  • The schedule type (Weekly/Monthly) and the start hour where missing in the Database cleaner.
  • The Database wizard could not start the OLEDB wizard.
  • In Windows 2012/8 when a disk was considered as removable by Windows FileAudit was ignoring file access events on the concerned drive.
  • Problems in error management when configuring/checking/removing the NTFS audit.
  • FileAudit could not audit remote File Servers that disallow access to the Service control manager.
  • If the NTFS audit was configured manually for everyone all accesses and the access was denied to FileAudit in a specific audited folder a lot of failure events could fill up the security log and slow down the computer.

FileAudit 4.01 Released: July 11th, 2013

Added

  • Partial support of Windows cluster (Active/passive). The tool Drivename.exe needs to be executed on the active node each time the file system resource is switched to the other node and the FileAudit service needs to be restarted.

Improved

  • The display speed of the main hub if the database is big.
  • The number of events displayed by the File Access Viewer is automatically limited to avoid out of memory and communication exceptions.

Fixed

Discover the bugs fixed

  • The tool tip for the top 5 accessed files in statistics was truncated if the path was too long.
  • When a big scheduled report (More than 10 MB) was generated by the service, the GUI could hang and throw an exception.
  • The Event Cleaner was not working correctly when the execution was scheduled.
  • Exported CSV files with east asian characters were not correctly imported in MS Excel
  • File paths with more than 254 characters are truncated to avoid a database insertion error
  • When auditing a file server from a Windows XP/2003 computer some events may be lost in reason of an integer overflow
  • Permanent deletions done by Windows 8/2012 clients were not audited.

FileAudit 4.0 Released: February 11th, 2013

Added

  • Community page
  • French localization (except help file and getting started guide)
  • The service regularly saves its configuration instead of doing it only when the service stops
  • Ability to disable an alert
  • Ability to export file access events in a CSV file
  • Ability to send scheduled reports as raw data in a CSV file
  • Ability to test a scheduled report
  • FileAudit runs as a service to constantly monitor access events on file servers
  • The FileAudit service can be controlled remotely through a customizable TCP port
  • It is no longer needed to have administrative rights to use FileAudit. You can delegate audit tasks to non IT persons
  • Windows 2008/2008 R2/2012 servers can be monitored remotely in real time
  • For Windows 2008/2008 R2/2012 servers events of the security log are prefiltered on the server to avoid using much bandwidth
  • E-mail alerts can be triggered when specific access events occur (Access denied, file deletion,....)
  • Reports can be automatically generated at scheduled times and sent by E-mails.
  • New access events can be displayed in real time in the FileAudit console
  • New filter/group/sort/Search capabilities in the datagrid of the file access viewer
  • File access statistics can be displayed for a specific time frame
  • The event cleaner can display the size of the database if it is a MS Access database
  • New "Modern" interface (Windows 8)

Improved

  • Configuring the NTFS audit is done asynchroneously avoiding to make the interface hang when configuring the NTFS audit for a folder with a lot of subfolders and files in it
  • Each report has its own schedule.
  • The window is maximized if the screen resolution is less or equal than 1024*768
  • Performance when the access event rate is high

Fixed

Discover the bugs fixed

  • When editing an alert, removing/adding a recipient or modifying the mail template didn't enable the save button
  • When editing an alert or a scheduled report a red cross was displayed for the name
  • When all scheduled reports where deleted the scheduled task was not deleted
  • If and alert/scheduled report was already edited, adding a new alert/scheduled report was displaying settings of the previous alert/scheduled report
  • The SSL switch in the E-mail settings was not kept
  • The source filter was missing in the alert/scheduled reports settings
  • Applying a bad license key was making crash the application
  • The one shot cleaning was not working
  • Renaming a scheduled report was duplicating it
  • When the licensed is expired the FileAudit service was going to 100 % CPU and generating a big log file
  • If more than one recipient was specified in a scheduled report the mail could not be sent
  • A mouse wheel problem after displaying the event cleaner and going back to the main hub
  • FileAudit was unable to retrieve access events from servers for which more than 4 billions events have already been generated in the security log
  • Minor bugs in the interface

FileAudit 3.05 Date de sortie: March 20th, 2012

Amélioration

  • The error management when scanning the security log
  • Filter out access denied events to MS Office documents because the privilege SeSecurityPrivilege is not held (on Windows 2008 R2 only)

Résolu

Discover the bugs fixed

  • When using FileAudit remotely the scan of the remote security log was sometimes very slow
  • When trying to remove the NTFS audit from a deleted file, FileAudit was entering in an endless loop.
  • Unselecting in the options the warnings when the object audit was not enabled or configured was not working

FileAudit 3.04 Date de sortie: January 22nd, 2010

Résolu

  • FileAudit was crashing if a path with more than 255 characters was specified as filter.
  • The Database Cleaner was not working.
  • The export in PDF in command line mode may generate an error in reason of a font problem.

FileAudit 3.03 Date de sortie: December 8th, 2008

Ajout

  • Support of Windows Vista and Windows server 2008 object access events
  • Support of the Windows Vista and Windows server 2008 User Account Control
  • Ability to manage the NTFS audit configuration on file and folders directly from FileAudit (Tools menu)
  • Ability to filter out file accesses done by specific executables. You can exclude for example you backup program, or your anti-virus. Go in the Options to configure this.
  • Ability to filter out accesses to specific kind of files (e.g. temporary files with a TMP extension). Go in the Options to configure this.

Amélioration

  • FileAudit configure now the NTFS audit in order to minimize the number of events generated in the security log.

Résolu

Discover the bugs fixed

  • You could not invoke FileAudit from the explorer context menu in Windows Vista and Windows server 2008
  • A problem while exporting a report with wide characters in PDF
  • Exported xls files were unreadable by MS Excel

FileAudit 3.02 Date de sortie: June 19th, 2007

Ajout

  • Ability to change the logo in the report (tools menu-->Logo configuration).

Amélioration

  • The administrator is notified (warning event or messagebox) if events have been lost since the last security log scan.
  • The check of the object access audit
  • Clusters are now managed with their virtual name and not with the name of their active node
  • FileAudit only loads needed events from archives in order to display events faster and use less memory (a From time limit need to be set)

Résolu

Discover the bugs fixed

  • The revoke license button was not working when the license dialog box was displayed during the startup of FileAudit (evaluation period expired).
  • FileAudit was sometimes unable to check the NTFS audit configuration on files/folders
  • The path filter was not working for shares at the root of a disk

FileAudit 3.01 Date de sortie: October 23rd, 2006

Ajout

  • The database cleaner allows to regularly remove old access events from the database.

Amélioration

  • Error events are inserted in the event log if the scheduled scan fails for some computers.

Résolu

Discover the bugs fixed

  • FileAudit was not displaying denied accesses to folders.
  • The title of the option sheet or the file access property sheet was indecipherable in some cases.
  • FileAudit was not able to check the NTFS audit configuration on mapped network drives.
  • The required ActiveX component comdlg32.ocx was not installed with the product.

FileAudit 3.0 Date de sortie: September 1st, 2006

Ajout

  • The shell extension (FileAudit in the Windows explorer context menu) is now also available on x64 computers
  • The help file was updated. The online version is available here
  • The license system was added. Existing customers covered by the maintenance can now ask for their new FileAudit 3 license key. The evaluation version will allow you to audit files on two computers during a trial period.
  • Accesses can be displayed in a printable report
  • FileAudit can be used without the explorer but the explorer context menu still works.
  • All access events are kept in a database
  • The scan of security logs in order to automatically retrieve access events in the FileAudit database can be scheduled using the FileAudit options
  • Ability to apply an additional filter according to access type (read, write, delete...), the name of the user and a time range.
  • Reports can be generated automatically by saving a filter and by scheduling a batch using this filter.
  • If the NTFS audit is not configured on a file/folder to audit, FileAudit will propose to configure it automatically.

Amélioration

  • Removed: The ability to detect the difference between the file deletion and a file move or rename operation. The result was too random.
  • FileAudit can now detect the difference between a file deletion and a file move/rename operation.
  • Filter of useless access events (e.g for folders, only delete, permisions change and take ownership events are audited)
  • If the same access event occurs several times in the same second FileAudit keeps only one event
  • Better analysis of access events.

Résolu

Discover the bugs fixed

  • Line feeds were invalid in the CSV export
  • FileAudit didn't propose to configure the audit for local files and folders
  • A bug while configuring the NTFS audit on files or folders
  • During scheduled scans the NetBIOS name of the computer was not inserted in the database

Important! With this new version FileAudit will be licensed according to the number of servers on which you want to audit file accesses.

FileAudit 2.41 Date de sortie: January 12th, 2005

Amélioration

  • Removed: The "From/Where" button because this feature doesn't work anymore on Windows 2000/2003 servers.

Résolu

Discover the bugs fixed

  • FileAudit should now work for all kind of clusters or SAN disks
  • The event description was not correctly displayed on Windows 2003 servers
  • The FileAudit window was displayed in other cases that clicking FileAudit on the context menu. For example while opening a start menu folder.

In order to upgrade FileAudit you need to:- Uninstall the previous version- Logoff and logon again- Install the new version

FileAudit 2.4 Date de sortie: July 31st, 2003

Ajout

  • Support of Windows 2003 servers

Amélioration

  • A warning message if the audit is not enabled on the server
  • A warning message if the audit is not configured for the file or the folder
  • A warning message if the security log is full
  • A warning message if the user doesn't have administrative rights on the server
  • In the status bar FileAudit displays the number of audit accesses for the current file or directory/the total number of audited accesses on the server
  • If no object access audit events are found FileAudit displays a warning message in the status bar.

Résolu

Discover the bugs fixed

  • A bug when invoking FileAudit on the root of a disk or a share
  • A bug disallowing to display deleted files in some cases

FileAudit 2.3 Date de sortie: August 29th, 2002

Amélioration

  • Support of dynamic drives on Windows 2000/XP/.NET. For a remote monitoring on such computers you need first to execute the command line tools DriveName.exe locally (available in the FileAudit folder) or install FileAudit locally.
  • Probably support of cluster and SAN (not yet tested). We are waiting for your feedback.