NOTE: You are looking at documentation for an older release. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.
Configuring an LDAP realm
editConfiguring an LDAP realm
editYou can configure Elasticsearch to authenticate users by communicating with a Lightweight
Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server. To integrate with LDAP, you configure
an ldap
realm and map LDAP groups to user roles.
For more information about LDAP realms, see LDAP user authentication.
-
Determine which mode you want to use. The
ldap
realm supports two modes of operation, a user search mode and a mode with specific templates for user DNs.LDAP user search is the most common mode of operation. In this mode, a specific user with permission to search the LDAP directory is used to search for the DN of the authenticating user based on the provided username and an LDAP attribute. Once found, the user is authenticated by attempting to bind to the LDAP server using the found DN and the provided password.
If your LDAP environment uses a few specific standard naming conditions for users, you can use user DN templates to configure the realm. The advantage of this method is that a search does not have to be performed to find the user DN. However, multiple bind operations might be needed to find the correct user DN.
-
To configure an
ldap
realm with user search:-
Add a realm configuration of type
ldap
toelasticsearch.yml
under thexpack.security.authc.realms
namespace. At a minimum, you must set the realmtype
toldap
, specify theurl
of the LDAP server, and setuser_search.base_dn
to the container DN where the users are searched for. If you are configuring multiple realms, you should also explicitly set theorder
attribute to control the order in which the realms are consulted during authentication. See LDAP realm settings for all of the options you can set for anldap
realm.For example, the following snippet shows an LDAP realm configured with a user search:
xpack: security: authc: realms: ldap1: type: ldap order: 0 url: "ldaps://ldap.example.com:636" bind_dn: "cn=ldapuser, ou=users, o=services, dc=example, dc=com" user_search: base_dn: "dc=example,dc=com" filter: "(cn={0})" group_search: base_dn: "dc=example,dc=com" files: role_mapping: "ES_PATH_CONF/role_mapping.yml" unmapped_groups_as_roles: false
The password for the
bind_dn
user should be configured by adding the appropriatesecure_bind_password
setting to the Elasticsearch keystore. For example, the following command adds the password for the example realm above:bin/elasticsearch-keystore add \ xpack.security.authc.realms.ldap1.secure_bind_password
When you configure realms in
elasticsearch.yml
, only the realms you specify are used for authentication. If you also want to use thenative
orfile
realms, you must include them in the realm chain.
-
-
To configure an
ldap
realm with user DN templates:-
Add a realm configuration of type
ldap
toelasticsearch.yml
in thexpack.security.authc.realms
namespace. At a minimum, you must set the realmtype
toldap
, specify theurl
of the LDAP server, and specify at least one template with theuser_dn_templates
option. If you are configuring multiple realms, you should also explicitly set theorder
attribute to control the order in which the realms are consulted during authentication. See LDAP realm settings for all of the options you can set for anldap
realm.For example, the following snippet shows an LDAP realm configured with user DN templates:
xpack: security: authc: realms: ldap1: type: ldap order: 0 url: "ldaps://ldap.example.com:636" user_dn_templates: - "cn={0}, ou=users, o=marketing, dc=example, dc=com" - "cn={0}, ou=users, o=engineering, dc=example, dc=com" group_search: base_dn: "dc=example,dc=com" files: role_mapping: "/mnt/elasticsearch/group_to_role_mapping.yml" unmapped_groups_as_roles: false
The
bind_dn
setting is not used in template mode. All LDAP operations run as the authenticating user.
-
-
(Optional) Configure how the security features interact with multiple LDAP servers.
The
load_balance.type
setting can be used at the realm level. The Elasticsearch security features support both failover and load balancing modes of operation. See LDAP realm settings. - (Optional) To protect passwords, encrypt communications between Elasticsearch and the LDAP server.
- Restart Elasticsearch.
-
Map LDAP groups to roles.
The
ldap
realm enables you to map LDAP users to roles via their LDAP groups, or other metadata. This role mapping can be configured via the add role mapping API or by using a file stored on each node. When a user authenticates with LDAP, the privileges for that user are the union of all privileges defined by the roles to which the user is mapped.Within a mapping definition, you specify groups using their distinguished names. For example, the following mapping configuration maps the LDAP
admins
group to both themonitoring
anduser
roles, and maps theusers
group to theuser
role.Configured via the role-mapping API:
PUT _xpack/security/role_mapping/admins { "roles" : [ "monitoring" , "user" ], "rules" : { "field" : { "groups" : "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com" } }, "enabled": true }
PUT _xpack/security/role_mapping/basic_users { "roles" : [ "user" ], "rules" : { "field" : { "groups" : "cn=users,dc=example,dc=com" } }, "enabled": true }
Or, alternatively, configured via the role-mapping file:
monitoring: - "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com" user: - "cn=users,dc=example,dc=com" - "cn=admins,dc=example,dc=com"
The name of the mapped role.
The LDAP distinguished name (DN) of the
admins
group.The LDAP distinguished name (DN) of the
users
group.For more information, see Mapping LDAP groups to roles and Mapping users and groups to roles.
The LDAP realm supports authorization realms as an alternative to role mapping.
-
(Optional) Configure the
metadata
setting on the LDAP realm to include extra fields in the user’s metadata.By default,
ldap_dn
andldap_groups
are populated in the user’s metadata. For more information, see User metadata in LDAP realms.The example below includes the user’s common name (
cn
) as an additional field in their metadata.xpack: security: authc: realms: ldap1: type: ldap metadata: cn