Configure log file encryption

The server supports the ability to encrypt log files as they are written.

The encrypt-log configuration property controls whether encryption will be enabled for the logger. Enabling encryption causes the log file to have an .encrypted extension (and if both encryption and compression are enabled, the extension will be .gz.encrypted). Any change that affects the name used for the log file could prevent older files from getting properly cleaned up.

Like compression, encryption can only be enabled when the logger is created. Encryption cannot be turned on or off after the logger has been configured. For any log file that is encrypted, enabling compression is also recommended to reduce the amount of data that needs to be encrypted. This will also reduce the overall size of the log file. The encrypt-file tool (or custom code, using the LDAP SDK’s com.unboundid.util.PassphraseEncryptedInputStream) is used to access the encrypted data.

To enable encryption, at least one encryption settings definition must be defined in the server. Use the one created during setup, or create a new one with the encryption-settings create command. By default, the encryption will be performed with the server’s preferred encryption settings definition. To explicitly specify which definition should be used for the encryption, the encryption-settings-definition-id property can be set with the ID of that definition. It is recommended that the encryption settings definition is created from a passphrase so that the file can be decrypted by providing that passphrase, even if the original encryption settings definition is no longer available. A randomly generated encryption settings definition can also be created, but the log file can only be decrypted using a server instance that has that encryption settings definition.

When using encrypted logging, a small amount of data might remain in an in-memory buffer until the log file is closed. The encryption is performed using a block cipher, and it cannot write an incomplete block of data until the file is closed. This is not an issue for any log file that is not being actively written. To examine the contents of a log file that is being actively written, use the rotate-log tool to force the file to be rotated before attempting to examine it.