Configure anonymous authentication
editConfigure anonymous authentication
editElastic APM agents can send unauthenticated (anonymous) events to the APM Server. An event is considered to be anonymous if no authentication token can be extracted from the incoming request. This is useful for agents that run on clients, like the Real User Monitoring (RUM) agent running in a browser, or the Android or iOS/Swift agent running in a user application.
Enable anonymous authentication in the APM Server to allow the ingestion of unauthenticated client-side APM data while still requiring authentication for server-side services.
Example configuration:
apm-server.auth.anonymous.enabled: true apm-server.auth.anonymous.allow_agent: [rum-js] apm-server.auth.anonymous.allow_service: [my_service_name] apm-server.auth.anonymous.rate_limit.event_limit: 300 apm-server.auth.anonymous.rate_limit.ip_limit: 1000
Configure and customize Fleet-managed APM settings directly in Kibana:
- Open Kibana and navigate to Fleet.
- Under the Agent policies tab, select the policy you would like to configure.
- Find the Elastic APM integration and select Actions > Edit integration.
- Look for these settings under Agent authorization.
All anonymous access configuration is ignored if authenticated communication is disabled.
Real User Monitoring (RUM)
editIf an API key or secret token is configured,
then anonymous authentication must be enabled to collect RUM data.
For this reason, anonymous auth will be enabled automatically if Enable RUM
is set to true
, and Anonymous Agent access is not explicitly defined.
See Real User Monitoring (RUM) for additional RUM configuration options.
Mitigating malicious requests
editThere are a few configuration variables that can mitigate the impact of malicious requests to an unauthenticated APM Server endpoint.
Use the Allowed anonymous agents and Allowed services configs to ensure that the
agent.name
and service.name
of each incoming request match a specified list.
Additionally, the APM Server can rate-limit unauthenticated requests based on the client IP address
(client.ip
) of the request with Event limit.
This allows you to specify the maximum number of requests allowed per unique IP address, per second.
Deriving an incoming request’s client.ip
address
editThe remote IP address of an incoming request might be different from the end-user’s actual IP address, for example, because of a proxy. For this reason, the APM Server attempts to derive the IP address of an incoming request from HTTP headers. The supported headers are parsed in the following order:
-
Forwarded
-
X-Real-Ip
-
X-Forwarded-For
If none of these headers are present, the remote address for the incoming request is used.
Using a reverse proxy or load balancer
editHTTP headers are easily modified;
it’s possible for anyone to spoof the derived client.ip
value by changing or setting,
for example, the value of the X-Forwarded-For
header.
For this reason, if any of your clients are not trusted,
we recommend setting up a reverse proxy or load balancer in front of the APM Server.
Using a proxy allows you to clear any existing IP-forwarding HTTP headers, and replace them with one set by the proxy. This prevents malicious users from cycling spoofed IP addresses to bypass the APM Server’s rate limiting feature.
Configuration reference
editAnonymous Agent access
editEnable or disable anonymous authentication.
Default: false
(disabled). (bool)
APM Server binary |
|
Fleet-managed |
|
Allowed anonymous agents
editA list of permitted APM agent names for anonymous authentication.
Names in this list must match the agent’s agent.name
.
Default: [rum-js, js-base]
(only RUM agent events are accepted). (array)
APM Server binary |
|
Fleet-managed |
|
Allowed services
editA list of permitted service names for anonymous authentication.
Names in this list must match the agent’s service.name
.
This can be used to limit the number of service-specific indices or data streams created.
Default: Not set (any service name is accepted). (array)
APM Server binary |
|
Fleet-managed |
|
IP limit
editThe number of unique IP addresses to track in an LRU cache.
IP addresses in the cache will be rate limited according to the Event limit setting.
Consider increasing this default if your application has many concurrent clients.
Default: 1000
. (int)
APM Server binary |
|
Fleet-managed |
|
Event limit
editThe maximum number of events allowed per second, per agent IP address.
Default: 300
. (int)
APM Server binary |
|
Fleet-managed |
|