Seed three events into an audit database, then reach past the application and change one row by hand: $ sqlite3 audit.db "UPDATE audit_log SET principal='attacker' WHERE id=2" $ trelix audit verify --db audit.db Audit chain TAMPERED — first divergent entry id: 2 $ echo $? 1 Delete the newest row instead and it still catches it, naming id 3, even though the surviving rows form a perfectly valid chain. Point it at something SQLite cannot open and it exits ...