Built-in users
editBuilt-in users
editX-Pack security provides built-in user credentials to help you get up and running.
These users have a fixed set of privileges and cannot be authenticated until their
passwords have been set. The elastic
user can be used to
set all of the built-in user passwords.
-
elastic
- A built-in superuser. See Built-in roles.
-
kibana
- The user Kibana uses to connect and communicate with Elasticsearch.
-
logstash_system
- The user Logstash uses when storing monitoring information in Elasticsearch.
-
beats_system
- The user the Beats use when storing monitoring information in Elasticsearch.
How the built-in users work
editThese built-in users are stored within a special .security
index managed by
X-Pack security.
This means that, if the password is changed, or a user is disabled, then that
change is automatically reflected on each node in the cluster. It also means
that if your .security
index is deleted, or restored from a snapshot, then
any changes you have applied will be lost.
Although they share the same API, the built-in users are separate and distinct from users managed by the native realm. Disabling the native realm will not have any effect on the built-in users. The built-in users can be disabled individually, using the disable users API.
The Elastic bootstrap password
editWhen you install Elasticsearch, if the elastic
user does not already have a password,
it uses a default bootstrap password. The bootstrap password is a transient
password that enables you to run the tools that set all the built-in user passwords.
By default, the bootstrap password is derived from a randomized keystore.seed
setting, which is added to the keystore during installation. You do not need
to know or change this bootstrap password. If you have defined a
bootstrap.password
setting in the keystore, however, that value is used instead.
For more information about interacting with the keystore, see
Secure Settings.
After you set passwords for the built-in users,
in particular for the elastic
user, there is no further use for the bootstrap
password.
Setting built-in user passwords
editYou must set the passwords for all built-in users.
The elasticsearch-setup-passwords
tool is the simplest method to set the
built-in users' passwords for the first time. It uses the elastic
user’s
bootstrap password to run user management API requests. For example, you can run
the command in an "interactive" mode, which prompts you to enter new passwords
for the elastic
, kibana
, logstash_system
, and beats_system
users:
bin/elasticsearch-setup-passwords interactive
For more information about the command options, see elasticsearch-setup-passwords.
After you set a password for the elastic
user, the bootstrap
password is no longer valid; you cannot run the elasticsearch-setup-passwords
command a second time.
Alternatively, you can set the initial passwords for the built-in users by using
the Management > Users page in Kibana or the
Change Password API. These methods are
more complex. You must supply the elastic
user and its bootstrap password to
log into Kibana or run the API. This requirement means that you cannot use the
default bootstrap password that is derived from the keystore.seed
setting.
Instead, you must explicitly set a bootstrap.password
setting in the keystore
before you start Elasticsearch. For example, the following command prompts you to enter a
new bootstrap password:
bin/elasticsearch-keystore add "bootstrap.password"
You can then start Elasticsearch and Kibana and use the elastic
user and bootstrap
password to log into Kibana and change the passwords. Alternatively, you can
submit Change Password API requests for each built-in user. These methods are
better suited for changing your passwords after the initial setup is complete,
since at that point the bootstrap password is no longer required.
Adding Built-in User Passwords To Kibana, Logstash, and Beats
editAfter the kibana
user password is set, you need to update the Kibana server
with the new password by setting elasticsearch.password
in the kibana.yml
configuration file:
elasticsearch.password: kibanapassword
The logstash_system
user is used internally within Logstash when
monitoring is enabled for Logstash.
To enable this feature in Logstash, you need to update the Logstash
configuration with the new password by setting xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password
in
the logstash.yml
configuration file:
xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password: logstashpassword
If you have upgraded from an older version of Elasticsearch,
the logstash_system
user may have defaulted to disabled for security reasons.
Once the password has been changed, you can enable the user via the following API call:
PUT _xpack/security/user/logstash_system/_enable
The beats_system
user is used internally within Beats when monitoring is
enabled for Beats.
To enable this feature in Beats, you need to update the configuration for each of your beats to reference the correct username and password. For example:
xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.username: beats_system xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password: beatspassword
If you have upgraded from an older version of Elasticsearch, then you may not have set a
password for the beats_system
user. If this is the case, then you should use
the Management > Users page in Kibana or the
Change Password API to set a password
for this user.
Disabling default password functionality
editThis setting is deprecated. The elastic user no longer has a default password. The password must be set before the user can be used. See The Elastic bootstrap password.