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The Authenticate API enables you to submit a request with a basic auth header to authenticate a user and retrieve information about the authenticated user.
A successful call returns a JSON structure that shows what roles are assigned to the user as well as any assigned metadata.
If the user cannot be authenticated, this API returns a 401 status code.
To authenticate a user, submit a GET request to the
_xpack/security/_authenticate endpoint:
GET _xpack/security/_authenticate
The following example output provides information about the "rdeniro" user:
{
"username": "rdeniro",
"roles": [
"admin",
"kibana4"
],
"metadata" : {
"employee_id": "8675309"
}
}