# falcodump(1) Manual Page

## NAME

falcodump - Dump log data to a file using a Falco source plugin.

## SYNOPSIS

Common options

falcodump [ --help ] [ --version ] [ --plugin-api-version ] [ --extcap-interfaces ] [ --extcap-dlts ] [ --extcap-interface=<interface> ] [ --extcap-config ] [ --extcap-capture-filter=<capture filter> ] [ --capture ] [ --fifo=<path to file or pipe> ] [ --plugin-source=<source path or URL> ] [ --log-level=<log level> ] [ --log-file=<path to file> ]

System call options

[ *--include-capture-processes=<TRUE or FALSE> ] [ *--include-switch-calls=<TRUE or FALSE> ]

CloudTrail plugin options

[ --cloudtrail-s3downloadconcurrency=<number of concurrent downloads> ] [ --cloudtrail-s3interval=<timeframe> ] [ --cloudtrail-s3accountlist=<comma separated account IDs> ] [ --cloudtrail-sqsdelete=<true or false> ] [ --cloudtrail-useasync=<true or false> ] [ --cloudtrail-uses3sns=<true or false> ] [ --cloudtrail-aws-region=<AWS region> ] [ --cloudtrail-aws-profile=<AWS profile> ] [ --cloudtrail-aws-config=<path> ] [ --cloudtrail-aws-credentials=<path to file> ]

## DESCRIPTION

falcodump is an extcap tool that allows one to capture log messages from cloud providers.

Each plugin is listed as a separate interface. For example, the AWS CloudTrail plugin is listed as “cloudtrail”.

## OPTIONS

--help

  Print program arguments. This will also list the configuration arguments for each plugin.

--version

  Print the program version.

--plugin-api-version

  Print the Falco plugin API version.

--extcap-interfaces

  List the available interfaces.

--extcap-interface=<interface>

  Use the specified interface.

--extcap-dlts

  List the DLTs of the specified interface.

--extcap-config

  List the configuration options of specified interface.

--extcap-capture-filter=<capture filter>

  The capture filter. Must be a valid Sysdig / Falco filter.

--capture

  Start capturing from the source specified by --plugin-source via the specified interface and write raw packet data to the location specified by --fifo.

--fifo=<path to file or pipe>

  Save captured packet to file or send it through pipe.

--plugin-source=<source path or URL>

  Capture from the specified location.

--log-level

  Set the log level

--log-file

  Set a log file to log messages in addition to the console

## SYSTEM CALL OPTIONS

--include-capture-processes

  Include system calls for capture processes (falcodump, dumpcap, and Stratoshark) if TRUE. Defaults to FALSE.

--include-switch-calls

  Include "switch" calls if TRUE. Defaults to FALSE.

## PLUGINS

### cloudtrail (AWS CloudTrail)

--cloudtrail-s3downloadconcurrency

  Controls the number of background goroutines used to download S3 files (Default: 32)

--cloudtrail-s3interval

  Download log files over the specified interval (Default: no interval)

--cloudtrail-s3accountlist

  If source is an organization CloudTrail S3 bucket download log files for all specified account IDs (Default: no account IDs)

--cloudtrail-sqsdelete

  If true then the plugin will delete SQS messages from the queue immediately after receiving them (Default: true)

--cloudtrail-useasync

  If true then async extraction optimization is enabled (Default: true)

--cloudtrail-uses3sns

  If true then the plugin will expect SNS messages to originate from S3 instead of directly from Cloudtrail (Default: false)

--cloudtrail-aws-profile

  If non-empty overrides the AWS shared configuration profile (e.g. 'default') and environment variables such as AWS_PROFILE (Default: empty)

--cloudtrail-aws-region

  If non-empty overrides the AWS region specified in the profile (e.g. 'us-east-1') and environment variables such as AWS_REGION (Default: empty)

--cloudtrail-aws-config

  If non-empty overrides the AWS shared configuration filepath (e.g. ~/.aws/config) and env variables such as AWS_CONFIG_FILE (Default: empty)

--cloudtrail-aws-credentials

  If non-empty overrides the AWS shared credentials filepath (e.g. ~/.aws/credentials) and env variables such as AWS_SHARED_CREDENTIALS_FILE (Default: empty)

CloudTrail sources can be S3 buckets or SQS queue URLs. S3 bucket URLs have the form

's3://bucket_name/prefix/AWSLogs/account-id/CloudTrail/region/year/month/day'

For organization CloudTrail the S3 bucket URL can be

's3://bucket_name/prefix/AWSLogs/org-id/account-id/CloudTrail/region/year/month/day'

The region, year, month, and day components can be omitted in order to fetch more or less data. For example, the source 's3://mybucket/AWSLogs/012345678/CloudTrail/us-west-2/2023' will fetch all CloudWatch logs for the year 2023.

If the URL ends with 'account-id/' or 'account-id/CloudTrail/' (for example 's3://mybucket/AWSLOGS/012345678912/') the option '--cloudtrail-s3interval' can be used to define the time frame. A s3interval of '1d' for example would get all events of the last 24 hours from all available regions. A s3interval of '2w-1w' would get all events from all regions from two weeks ago up to one week ago. The s3invterval can also be defined as a RFC 3339-style timestamp like '2024-02-29T18:07:17Z' or '2024-02-29T00:00:00Z-2024-03-01T23:59:59Z'.

If the URL ends with 'AWSLogs/org-id' option '--cloudtrail-s3accountlist' can be used to specify account IDs. This can be combined with '--cloudtrail-s3interval'. A source like 's3://my-org-bucket/AWSLogs/o-123abc/' with '--cloudstrail-s3accountlist' set to '123456789012,987654321098' and '--cloudtrail-s3interval' set to '30m' would get all events of the last 30min from all regions for accounts 123456789012 and 987654321098.

If source URL is the organization CloudTrail bucket (like 's3://my-org-bucket/AWSLogs/o-123abc') and '--s3accountlist' is not set the plugin iterates over all accounts (limited by '--s3interval' if set). Attention: Depending on the size of the organization and the time interval, this can take a long time.

The cloudtrail plugin uses the AWS SDK for Go, which can obtain profile, region, and credential settings from a set of standard environment variables and configuration files. Falcodump will show a list of locally configured profiles and the current regions, and will let you supply a custom value as well.

More information is available in the README of the CloudTrail plugin.

## EXAMPLES

To see program arguments:

    falcodump --help

To see program version:

    falcodump --version

To see interfaces:

    falcodump --extcap-interfaces

Only one interface (falcodump) is supported.

Example output

    interface {value=cloudtrail}{display=Falco plugin}

To see interface DLTs:

    falcodump --extcap-interface=cloudtrail --extcap-dlts

Example output

    dlt {number=147}{name=cloudtrail}{display=USER0}

To see interface configuration options:

    falcodump --extcap-interface=cloudtrail --extcap-config

Example output

    arg {number=0}{call=--plugin-source}{display=Plugin source}{type=string}{tooltip=The plugin data source. This us usually a URL.}{placeholder=Enter a source URL…}{required=true}{group=Capture}
    arg {number=1}{call=cloudtrail-s3downloadconcurrency}{display=s3DownloadConcurrency}{type=integer}{default=1}{tooltip=Controls the number of background goroutines used to download S3 files (Default: 1)}{group=Capture}
    arg {number=2}{call=cloudtrail-sqsdelete}{display=sqsDelete}{type=boolean}{default=true}{tooltip=If true then the plugin will delete sqs messages from the queue immediately after receiving them (Default: true)}{group=Capture}
    arg {number=3}{call=cloudtrail-useasync}{display=useAsync}{type=boolean}{default=true}{tooltip=If true then async extraction optimization is enabled (Default: true)}{group=Capture}

To capture AWS CloudTrail events from an S3 bucket:

    falcodump --extcap-interface=cloudtrail --fifo=/tmp/cloudtrail.pcap --plugin-source=s3://aws-cloudtrail-logs.../CloudTrail/us-east-2/... --capture

or:

    falcodump --capture --extcap-interface cloudtrail --fifo ~/cloudtrail.pcap --plugin-source s3://my-cloudtrail-bucket/AWSLogs/o-abc12345/123456789012/ --cloudtrail-s3downloadconcurrency 32 --cloudtrail-s3interval 5d-2d --cloudtrail-aws-region eu-west-1

Note | `CTRL`+`C` should be used to stop the capture in order to ensure clean termination.

## SEE ALSO

stratoshark(1), strato(1), dumpcap(1), extcap(4)

## NOTES

falcodump is part of the Stratoshark distribution. The latest version of Stratoshark can be found at https://www.wireshark.org.

HTML versions of the Wireshark project man pages are available at https://www.wireshark.org/docs/man-pages.

## AUTHORS

Original Author

Gerald Combs <gerald[AT]wireshark.org>