auditctl prints "No rules" when auditd service is starting

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12

Situation

During server boot up, when auditd is starting, auditctl prints "No rules":

Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 systemd[1]: Starting Security Auditing Service...
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 auditd[2712]: Started dispatcher: /sbin/audispd pid: 2714
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 kernel: audit: type=1305 audit(1520449830.345:2): audit_pid=2712 old=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 res=1
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 audispd[2714]: priority_boost_parser called with: 4
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 audispd[2714]: max_restarts_parser called with: 10
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 audispd[2714]: No plugins found, exiting
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 auditd[2712]: Init complete, auditd 2.3.6 listening for events (startup state enable)
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 auditctl[2716]: No rules
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 auditctl[2716]: AUDIT_STATUS: enabled=1 flag=1 pid=2712 rate_limit=0 backlog_limit=320 lost=0 backlog=1
Mar 07 11:10:30 linux-t2o9 systemd[1]: Started Security Auditing Service.

The same "auditctl [ ] No rules" is shown when checking auditd service status information with: "systemctl status auditd.service", even though "auditctl -l" lists available rules.

Resolution

The "No rules" message is correct and expected. It's printed because auditctl was successful.

Cause

The "No rules" message is printed instead of a list of rules if the list is empty.
The default audit.rules file (/etc/audit/audit.rules) contains the following lines:

# First rule - delete all
  -D

The auditctl source code shows that auditctl lists rules after deleting them, so the message reports that '-D' was successful.

Additional Information

Disclaimer

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