Built-in users
editBuilt-in users
editThe Elastic Stack security features provide 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.
On Elastic Cloud, operator privileges are enabled. These privileges restrict some infrastructure functionality, even if a role would otherwise permit a user to complete an administrative task.
-
elastic
-
A built-in superuser.
Anyone who can log in as the
elastic
user has direct read-only access to restricted indices, such as.security
. This user also has the ability to manage security and create roles with unlimited privileges. -
kibana_system
- 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.
-
apm_system
- The user the APM server uses when storing monitoring information in Elasticsearch.
-
remote_monitoring_user
-
The user Metricbeat uses when collecting and
storing monitoring information in Elasticsearch. It has the
remote_monitoring_agent
andremote_monitoring_collector
built-in roles.
How the built-in users work
editThese built-in users are stored in a special .security
index, which is managed
by Elasticsearch. If a built-in user is disabled or its password
changes, the change is automatically reflected on each node in the cluster. If
your .security
index is deleted or restored from a snapshot, however, any
changes you have applied are 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_system
, logstash_system
, beats_system
, apm_system
,
and remote_monitoring_user
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 in to 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 in to 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
editAfter the kibana_system
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
See Configuring security in Kibana.
Adding built-in user passwords to Logstash
editThe 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 _security/user/logstash_system/_enable
See Configuring credentials for Logstash monitoring.
Adding built-in user passwords to Beats
editThe 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
For example, see Monitoring Metricbeat.
The remote_monitoring_user
is used when Metricbeat collects and stores
monitoring data for the Elastic Stack. See Monitoring in a production environment.
If you have upgraded from an older version of Elasticsearch, then you may not have set a
password for the beats_system
or remote_monitoring_user
users. 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 these users.
Adding built-in user passwords to APM
editThe apm_system
user is used internally within APM when monitoring is enabled.
To enable this feature in APM, you need to update the
apm-server.yml
configuration file to
reference the correct username and password. For example:
xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.username: apm_system xpack.monitoring.elasticsearch.password: apmserverpassword
If you have upgraded from an older version of Elasticsearch, then you may not have set a
password for the apm_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 these users.
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.