SAML log events

Depending on your Google Workspace edition, you might have access to the security investigation tool, which has more advanced features. For example, super admins can identify, triage, and take action on security and privacy issues. Learn more

As your organization's administrator, you can run searches and take action on SAML log events. For example, you can view a record of actions to track your users' successful and unsuccessful sign-ins to SAML applications. Entries usually appear within an hour of the user action.

Forward log event data to Google Cloud

You can opt in to share log event data with Google Cloud. If you turn on sharing, data is forwarded to Cloud Logging where you can query and view your logs and control how you route and store your logs.

The type of log event data you can share with Google Cloud depends on your Google Workspace, Cloud Identity, or Essentials account.

Run a search for log events

Your ability to run a search depends on your Google edition, your administrative privileges, and the data source. You can run a search on all users, regardless of their Google Workspace edition.

Audit and investigation tool

To run a search for log events, first choose a data source. Then, choose one or more filters for your search.

1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Reporting > Audit and investigation > SAML log events.

   Requires having the Reports administrator privilege.

3. Click Add a filterselect an attribute.
4. Select an operatorselect a valueclick Apply.
   • (Optional) To create multiple filters for your search, repeat this step.
   • (Optional) To add a search operator, above Add a filter, select AND or OR.
5. Click Search.

   Note: Using the Filter tab, you can include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results. You can also use the Condition builder tab, where the filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators.

Security investigation tool

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

To run a search in the security investigation tool, first choose a data source. Then, choose one or more conditions for your search. For each condition, choose an attribute, an operator, and a value. 

1. Sign in with an administrator account to the Google Admin console.

   If you aren’t using an administrator account, you can’t access the Admin console.

2. Go to Menu  Security > Security center > Investigation tool.

   Requires having the Security center administrator privilege.

3. Click Data source and select SAML log events.
4. Click Add Condition.
   Tip: You can include one or more conditions in your search or customize your search with nested queries. For details, go to Customize your search with nested queries.
5. Click Attributeselect an option.
   For a complete list of attributes, go to the Attribute descriptions section.
6. Select an operator.
7. Enter a value or select a value from the list.
8. (Optional) To add more search conditions, repeat steps 4–7.
9. Click Search.
   You can review the search results from the investigation tool in a table at the bottom of the page.
10. (Optional) To save your investigation, click Save enter a title and descriptionclick Save.

Notes

• In the Condition builder tab, filters are represented as conditions with AND/OR operators. You can also use the Filter tab to include simple parameter and value pairs to filter the search results.
• If you give a user a new name, you will not see query results with the user's old name. For example, if you rename [e-mail] to [e-mail], you will not see results for events related to [e-mail].

Attribute descriptions

For this data source, you can use the following attributes when searching log event data:

Attribute	Description
Actor	Email address of the user who performed the action
Actor group name	The group name of the actor. For more information, go to Filtering results by Google Group. To add a group to your filtering groups allowlist: Select Actor group name. Click Filtering groups. The Filtering groups page appears. Click Add Groups. Search for a group by entering the first few characters of its name or email address. When you see the group you want, select it. (Optional) To add another group, search for and select the group. When you finish selecting groups, click Add. (Optional) To remove a group, click Remove group . Click Save.
Actor organizational unit	Organizational unit of the actor
Application name	The SAML application that initiated the event
Date	The date and time the event occurred (displayed in your browser's default time zone)
Event	Two types of events are logged: Successful and failed sign-in attempts
Failure type	For failed sign-in attempts, a failure type is displayed. Go to Failure types and solutions below for details.
Initiated by	The provider who initiated the event. Can be the identity provider or the service provider.
IP address	The internet protocol (IP) address used by the user to sign in to the SAML application. This might reflect the user's physical location, but not necessarily. For example, it could instead be a proxy server or a virtual private network (VPN) address.
Response second level status	Status information about the success or failure of the SAML request. For details on status codes, go to SAML v2.0 Core, Section 3.2.2.2.
Response status	Status information about the success or failure of the SAML request. For details on status codes, go to SAML v2.0 Core, Section 3.2.2.2.

Filter data by failure type

1. Open the log events as described above.
2. Click Add a filterFailure type as described above in Run a search for log events.
3. From the drop down list, select an option.
4. Click Apply.

Failure types and solutions

The following failure types are recorded in the log events:

Failure type	Solution
Application not configured	Verify that the service provider settings (including the Entity ID) are configured correctly in the Admin console
Application not enabled for user	In the User access section of the the app's settings page in Admin console, verify that the application is ON for the organization that contains the user
Bad request	The request was malformed, or the ACS URL in the request does not match the one configured in Admin console. Check that the ACS URL configured for the service provider is correct.
Invalid name ID mapping	There is a mismatch between the NAMEID parameter in the application and the one configured in the app's settings in the Admin console. Check that the schema still exists and reconfigure the NAMEID mapping for the application.
Invalid service provider ID	Check that the configuration on the service provider side matches the app-id field configured in Admin console. Ensure that the SP ID being passed in the request URL is the same as the app-id.
Name ID mapping unavailable	The mapped attribute for NAMEID mapping could not be found. As administrator, check that the schema still exists and reconfigure the NAMEID mapping for the application.
Passive authentication failed	The user could not be logged into the identity provider (IdP). Sign back in to the IdP from your browser.
Unknown	Login failed for an unknown reason
User is unauthorized	Verify that the application is ON for the organization or group that contains the user

Manage log event data

Manage search results column data

You can control which data columns appear in your search results.

1. At the top-right of the search results table, click Manage columns .
2. (Optional) To remove current columns, click Remove .
3. (Optional) To add columns, next to Add new column, click the Down arrow  and select the data column.
   Repeat as needed.
4. (Optional) To change the order of the columns, drag the data column names.
5. Click Save.

Export search result data

You can export search results to Sheets or to a CSV file.

1. At the top of the search results table, click Export all.
2. Enter a name  click Export.
   The export displays below the search results table under Export action results.
3. To view the data, click the name of your export.
   The export opens in Sheets.

Export limits vary:

• The total results of the export are limited to 100,000 rows.
• Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

  If you have the security investigation tool, the total results of the export are limited to 30 million rows.

For more information, go to Export search results.

When and how long is data available?

Go to Data retention and lag times.

Take action based on search results

Create activity rules & set up alerts

• You can set up alerts based on log event data using reporting rules. For instructions, go to Create and manage reporting rules.
• Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

  To help prevent, detect, and remediate security issues efficiently, you can automate actions in the security investigation tool and set up alerts by creating activity rules. To set up a rule, set up conditions for the rule, and then specify the actions to perform when the conditions are met. For more details, go to Create and manage activity rules.

Take action based on search results

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

After you run a search in the security investigation tool, you can act on your search results. For example, you can run a search based on Gmail log events, and then use the tool to delete specific messages, send messages to quarantine, or send messages to users' inboxes. For more details, go to Take action based on search results.

Manage your investigations

Supported editions for this feature: Frontline Standard and Frontline Plus; Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus; Education Standard and Education Plus; Enterprise Essentials Plus; Cloud Identity Premium. Compare your edition

View your list of investigations

To view a list of the investigations that you own and that were shared with you, click View investigations . The investigation list includes the names, descriptions, and owners of the investigations, and the date last modified. 

From this list, you can take action on any investigations that you own, for example, to delete an investigation. Check the box for an investigation and then click Actions.

Note: You can view your saved investigations under Quick access, directly above your list of investigations.

Configure settings for your investigations

As a super administrator, click Settings  to:

• Change the time zone for your investigations. The time zone applies to search conditions and results.
• Turn on or off Require reviewer. For more details, go to Require reviewers for bulk actions.
• Turn on or off View content. This setting allows admins with the appropriate privileges to view content.
• Turn on or off Enable action justification.

For more details, go to Configure settings for your investigations.

Save, share, delete & duplicate investigations

To save your search criteria or share it with others, you can create and save an investigation, and then share, duplicate, or delete it.

For details, go to Save, share, delete, and duplicate investigations.

Related topics

• Start an investigation based on a dashboard chart
• Create a custom chart based on an investigation
• Start an investigation from the alert center
• Investigate reports of malicious emails
• Investigate file sharing
• Investigate users across data sources