Elasticsearch Authz

Elasticsearch Authorization

Manage Elasticsearch role-based access control: native users, roles, role assignment, and role mappings for external realms.

For authentication methods and API key management, see the elasticsearch-authn skill.

For detailed API endpoints, see references/api-reference.md.

Jobs to Be Done

• Create a native user with a specific set of privileges
• Define a custom role with least-privilege index and cluster access
• Assign one or more roles to an existing user
• Create a role with Kibana feature or space privileges
• Configure a role mapping for external realm users (SAML, LDAP, PKI)
• Derive role assignments dynamically from user attributes (Mustache templates)
• Restrict document visibility per user or department (document-level security)
• Hide sensitive fields like PII from certain roles (field-level security)
• Implement attribute-based access control (ABAC) using templated role queries
• Translate a natural-language access request into user, role, and role mapping tasks

Prerequisites

Manage Native Users

Create a user

curl -X POST "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/user/${USERNAME}" \
  <auth_flags> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "password": "'"${PASSWORD}"'",
    "roles": ["'"${ROLE_NAME}"'"],
    "full_name": "'"${FULL_NAME}"'",
    "email": "'"${EMAIL}"'",
    "enabled": true
  }'

Update a user

Use PUT /_security/user/${USERNAME} with the fields to change. Omit password to keep the existing one.

Other user operations

curl -X POST "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/user/${USERNAME}/_password" \
  <auth_flags> -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"password": "'"${NEW_PASSWORD}"'"}'
curl -X PUT "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/user/${USERNAME}/_disable" <auth_flags>
curl -X PUT "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/user/${USERNAME}/_enable" <auth_flags>
curl "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/user/${USERNAME}" <auth_flags>
curl -X DELETE "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/user/${USERNAME}" <auth_flags>

Manage Roles

Choosing the right API

Use the Elasticsearch API (PUT /_security/role/{name}) when the role only needs cluster and indices privileges. Use the Kibana role API (PUT /api/security/role/{name}) when the role includes any Kibana feature or space privileges.

Create or update a role (Elasticsearch API)

curl -X PUT "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role/${ROLE_NAME}" \
  <auth_flags> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "description": "'"${ROLE_DISPLAY_NAME}"'",
    "cluster": [],
    "indices": [
      {
        "names": ["'"${INDEX_PATTERN}"'"],
        "privileges": ["read", "view_index_metadata"]
      }
    ]
  }'

Create or update a role (Kibana API)

curl -X PUT "${KIBANA_URL}/api/security/role/${ROLE_NAME}" \
  <auth_flags> \
  -H "kbn-xsrf: true" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "description": "'"${ROLE_DISPLAY_NAME}"'",
    "elasticsearch": {
      "cluster": [],
      "indices": [
        {
          "names": ["'"${INDEX_PATTERN}"'"],
          "privileges": ["read", "view_index_metadata"]
        }
      ]
    },
    "kibana": [
      {
        "base": [],
        "feature": {
          "discover": ["read"],
          "dashboard": ["read"]
        },
        "spaces": ["*"]
      }
    ]
  }'

Document-Level and Field-Level Security

Field-level security (FLS)

Restrict which fields a role can see:

curl -X PUT "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role/pii-redacted-reader" \
  <auth_flags> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "description": "PII Redacted Reader",
    "indices": [
      {
        "names": ["customers-*"],
        "privileges": ["read"],
        "field_security": {
          "grant": ["*"],
          "except": ["ssn", "credit_card", "date_of_birth"]
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

Document-level security (DLS)

Restrict which documents a role can see by attaching a query filter:

curl -X PUT "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role/emea-logs-reader" \
  <auth_flags> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "description": "EMEA Logs Reader",
    "indices": [
      {
        "names": ["logs-*"],
        "privileges": ["read"],
        "query": "{\"term\": {\"region\": \"emea\"}}"
      }
    ]
  }'

Assign Roles to Users

curl -X PUT "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/user/${USERNAME}" \
  <auth_flags> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "roles": ["role-a", "role-b"]
  }'

The roles array is replaced entirely — include all roles the user should have. Fetch the user first to see current roles before updating.

Manage Role Mappings

Static role mapping

curl -X PUT "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role_mapping/saml-default-access" \
  <auth_flags> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "roles": ["viewer"],
    "enabled": true,
    "rules": {
      "field": { "realm.name": "saml1" }
    }
  }'

LDAP group-based mapping

curl -X PUT "${ELASTICSEARCH_URL}/_security/role_mapping/ldap-admins" \
  <auth_flags> \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "roles": ["superuser"],
    "enabled": true,
    "rules": {
      "all": [
        { "field": { "realm.name": "ldap1" } },
        { "field": { "groups": "cn=admins,ou=groups,dc=example,dc=com" } }
      ]
    }
  }'

Guidelines

Least-privilege principles

• Never use the elastic superuser for day-to-day operations. Create dedicated minimum-privilege roles.
• Use read and view_index_metadata for read-only data access. Leave cluster empty unless explicitly required.
• Use DLS (query) and FLS (field_security) to restrict access within an index.

Named privileges only

Never use internal action names (e.g. indices:data/read/search). Always use officially documented named privileges.

Role naming conventions

• Use short lowercase names with hyphens: logs-reader, apm-data-viewer, metrics-writer.
• Set description to a short, human-readable display name.