---
title: Running an Auditor with immuclient
---
# Use immuclient as Auditor
The Auditor is a component for checking if immudb was tampered, it's a good practice to run the auditor as a separate and independent component. immuclient can act as Auditor by running the following command:
Start interactive:
```bash
$ ./immuclient audit-mode
1m0s
immuclientd 2022/05/22 12:34:11 INFO: starting auditor with a 1m0s interval ...
immuclientd 2022/05/22 12:34:11 INFO: auditor monitoring HTTP server starting on 0.0.0.0:9477 ...
immuclientd 2022/05/22 12:34:11 INFO: audit #1 started @ 2022-05-22 12:34:11.543823286 +0200 CEST m=+0.153679785
immuclientd 2022/05/22 12:34:11 INFO: audit #1 - list of databases to audit has been (re)loaded - 2 database(s) found: [defaultdb mydatabase]
immuclientd 2022/05/22 12:34:11 INFO: audit #1 - auditing database defaultdb
immuclientd 2022/05/22 12:34:11 INFO: audit #1 finished in 55.295777ms @ 2022-05-22T12:34:11.599119184+02:00
```
immuclient is now running on the following address: 0.0.0.0:9477/metrics
example output:
```bash
# HELP immuclient_audit_curr_root_per_server Current root index used for the latest audit.
# TYPE immuclient_audit_curr_root_per_server gauge
immuclient_audit_curr_root_per_server{server_address="127.0.0.1:3322",server_id="br8eugq036tfln0ct6o0"} 2
# HELP immuclient_audit_prev_root_per_server Previous root index used for the latest audit.
# TYPE immuclient_audit_prev_root_per_server gauge
immuclient_audit_prev_root_per_server{server_address="127.0.0.1:3322",server_id="br8eugq036tfln0ct6o0"} -1
# HELP immuclient_audit_result_per_server Latest audit result (1 = ok, 0 = tampered).
# TYPE immuclient_audit_result_per_server gauge
immuclient_audit_result_per_server{server_address="127.0.0.1:3322",server_id="br8eugq036tfln0ct6o0"} -1
# HELP immuclient_audit_run_at_per_server Timestamp in unix seconds at which latest audit run.
# TYPE immuclient_audit_run_at_per_server gauge
immuclient_audit_run_at_per_server{server_address="127.0.0.1:3322",server_id="br8eugq036tfln0ct6o0"} 1.5907565337454605e+09
```
immuclient looks for immudb at 127.0.0.1:3322 by default with the default username and password. Nevertheless a number of parameters can be defined:
```
immuclient audit-mode - Run a foreground auditor
immuclient audit-mode install - Install and runs daemon
immuclient audit-mode stop - Stops the daemon
immuclient audit-mode start - Starts initialized daemon
immuclient audit-mode restart - Restarts daemon
immuclient audit-mode uninstall - Removes daemon and its setup
Flags:
-h, --help help for audit-mode
Global Flags:
--audit-databases string Optional comma-separated list of databases (names) to be audited. Can be full name(s) or just name prefix(es).
--audit-monitoring-host string Host for the monitoring HTTP server when running in audit mode (serves endpoints like metrics, health and version). (default "0.0.0.0")
--audit-monitoring-port int Port for the monitoring HTTP server when running in audit mode (serves endpoints like metrics, health and version). (default 9477)
--audit-notification-password string Password used to authenticate when publishing audit result to 'audit-notification-url'.
--audit-notification-url string If set, auditor will send a POST request at this URL with audit result details.
--audit-notification-username string Username used to authenticate when publishing audit result to 'audit-notification-url'.
--audit-password string immudb password used to login during audit; can be plain-text or base64 encoded (must be prefixed with 'enc:' if it is encoded)
--audit-username string immudb username used to login during audit
--certificate string server certificate file path (default "./tools/mtls/4_client/certs/localhost.cert.pem")
--clientcas string clients certificates list. Aka certificate authority (default "./tools/mtls/2_intermediate/certs/ca-chain.cert.pem")
--config string config file (default path are configs or $HOME. Default filename is immuclient.toml)
--database string immudb database to be used
--dir string Main directory for audit process tool to initialize (default "/var/folders/0z/wk6v4sjd31qbvt7l75t_z_v00000gn/T/")
-a, --immudb-address string immudb host address (default "127.0.0.1")
-p, --immudb-port int immudb port number (default 3322)
--max-recv-msg-size int max message size in bytes the client can receive (default 4194304)
-m, --mtls enable mutual tls
--password string immudb password used to login; can be plain-text or base64 encoded (must be prefixed with 'enc:' if it is encoded)
--pkey string server private key path (default "./tools/mtls/4_client/private/localhost.key.pem")
--roots-filepath string Filepath for storing root hashes after every successful audit loop. Default is tempdir of every OS. (default "/tmp/")
--server-signing-pub-key string Path to the public key to verify signatures when presents
--servername string used to verify the hostname on the returned certificates (default "localhost")
--tokenfile string authentication token file (default path is $HOME or binary location; default filename is )
--username string immudb username used to login
--value-only returning only values for get operations
```
## Running immuclient Auditor as a service
immuclient as Auditor can be installed in the system with the following command:
Install service:
```bash
immuclient audit-mode install
```
In this case, all parameters are written into the `immuclient` configuration file:
* Linux: `/etc/immudb/immuclient.toml`
* Windows: `C:\ProgramData\ImmuClient\config\immuclient.toml`
## Running immuclient Auditor with docker
We also provide a docker image starting immuclient as Auditor:
```bash
docker pull codenotary/auditor
```
Then it's possible to run the command with:
```bash
docker run -it -e IMMUCLIENT_IMMUDB_ADDRESS="ip" -e IMMUCLIENT_AUDIT_USERNAME="immudb" -e IMMUCLIENT_AUDIT_PASSWORD="immudb" codenotary/auditor
```
## Auditor best practices
### How can I be notified if my immudb instance was tampered?
It's possible to provide an external url that will be triggered in case a tamper is detected.
By configuring `IMMUCLIENT_AUDIT_NOTIFICATION_URL`, a POST request will be sent with the following body:
```
{
"current_state": {
"hash": "string",
"signature": {
"public_key": "string",
"signature": "string"
},
"tx": 0
},
"db": "string",
"password": "string",
"previous_state": {
"hash": "string",
"signature": {
"public_key": "string",
"signature": "string"
},
"tx": 0
},
"run_at": "2020-11-13T00:53:42+01:00",
"tampered": true,
"username": "string"
}
```
NOTE: it's not possible to know at which transaction the database was tampered. The Auditor checks every second if the data was tampered - so it's only possible to know at which time frame the tampering was detected.
### How many Auditors should I run to secure my immudb instance?
A proper setup of one immuclient instance can fit most of cases, but there are ways to increase the security on detecting tampering. A single instance can go offline for any reason: network problems, hardware failures or attacks. Therefore a good practice can be to have multiple Auditor instances running in different zones.