Document level security

Document level security restricts the documents that users have read access to. In particular, it restricts which documents can be accessed from document-based read APIs.

To enable document level security, you use a query to specify the documents that each role can access. The document query is associated with a particular index or index pattern and operates in conjunction with the privileges specified for the indices.

The following role definition grants read access only to documents that belong to the click category within all the events-* indices:

POST /_xpack/security/role/click_role
{
  "indices": [
    {
      "names": [ "events-*" ],
      "privileges": [ "read" ],
      "query": "{\"match\": {\"category\": \"click\"}}"
    }
  ]
}

The specified query expects the same format as if it was defined in the search request and supports the full Elasticsearch Query DSL.

For example, the following role grants read access only to the documents whose department_id equals 12:

POST /_xpack/security/role/dept_role
{
  "indices" : [
    {
      "names" : [ "*" ],
      "privileges" : [ "read" ],
      "query" : {
        "term" : { "department_id" : 12 }
      }
    }
  ]
}

For more information, see Setting up field and document level security.